Questions Re Creating/Using Name Files

Antonin · 07-21-2003, 06:40 PM

Is it possible to create a names.dat file from scratch? What do you create it with--notepad or word or what?

If you can create a names.dat file yourself, can you have a newly created fictional league associate only with that file and not the one that comes with the game? Can you then go back and play your career2003.lg that is associated with the old names.lg file without having to rename anything?

I hope I'm clear enough here. I'm playing a fun fictional solo league that uses the ordinary names.dat file. But I've also created an international fictional league, with franchises all over the world, and I would like to have that league use its own names.dat file. I have found a website that provides lots and lots of first names and surnames of lots of nationalities, and I would like to create a multi ethnic names file and have my international league draw upon it.

What I would like to do is something like what is allowed in the game Space Empires 4. In it, you can quickly and easily create ship name files in Notepad and then tell each empire that appears in your game to draw its ship names from that file only.

I did a search for names.dat topics, but most of them appear to be about modifying the files that come with the game.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

couriers · 07-21-2003, 08:16 PM

Yes it is possible to create these files from scratch using a simple text editor like Notepad or Word. However, you will need to make sure that the extra blank spaces and special characters at the end of the names.dat file are still present or else the game will crash. Best bet is to delete every name between the first and last option and then fill in the gaps.

There are several name files that you can edit:

afnames.dat (asian first names file)
anames.dat (asian last names file)
fnames.dat (american first names file)
names.dat (american last names file)
lafnames.dat (latin first names file)
lanames.dat (latin last names file)
wnames.dat (womens names file)
nicknames.dat

You can fill these files with whatever origin of names that you like but they should remain named as they currently are. All of these files are found in the DATA folder and must remain there. This means that all leagues will use whatever files are in that folder. If you want a particular league to use a particular file then you will need to manually change the active files in DATA folder accordingly each time that you play that league.

Note that all names that are already generated for a league will remain intact regardless of which name files are currently active in the DATA folder. The name files are only referenced when a new name is called for.

Also note that the frequency of a given name, if denoted in the file, is based on the number of names included in the file such that (the following was provided by Jamey in regards to his name files):

The most frequent last name is Smith, which makes up 1% of the population of the US. So, since there is about 100,000 names in my file, i made the frequency of Smith 1000, which is 1% of 100,000. So, hopefully, 1% of American players generated in the game will have the last name of Smith. I did that for the other more frequent last names, for the not-so common ones, i just made it 1.

Hope that helps.

ChipperJones10 · 07-21-2003, 08:47 PM

Is it possible to do it for british names, german names, scandinavian names, and etc. if you have an international league. I'm also guessing its not possible to generate a certain ethnicity names for a team based on its location (like a japanese team whose players mostly have japanese names?)

couriers · 07-21-2003, 09:30 PM

You could edit the above files to include those types of names however, the game will not generate according to the players origin. This is something that you would need to do manually in the game. Once all of the player names have been edited in the game for the first season of the league then it would just be a matter of editing the draft file at the beginning of every season after that.

Best advice is to ignore this aspect at the greater extents and realize that it has no affect on the game what so ever. Otherwise you would be creating a lot more work for yourself than the rewards gained for having made all of the changes manually.

Also remember that not everyone in a country has a specific type of names. There are many residents of the United States that have foreign names and vice versa for any country that you can think of. I am rather certain that the phone book in Japan has a few John Smiths within its pages.

cooper_gd · 07-22-2003, 07:21 AM

Couriers... helpful post of the week. Good stuff.

Antonin · 07-22-2003, 11:29 AM

Thanks for the replies. It looks like I won't be able to do what I wanted to do. The only way is to use "edit" and change names manually. Oh well.

84CubsFan · 07-22-2003, 12:56 PM

Antonin,

You will definitely have to change the player origins manually, but you can create different name files for use in your different leagues. I do that. Just backup your current Data folder and name it something else (I use data.bak). You should now have two identical data folders. Alter the name files to have all Euro names or whatever you want in one of them, leaving the other as is. When you want to play your Euro league, name the altered Data folder "Data", changing the original one to Data.bak. Likewise, when you want to play your other leagues, switch the names around.

Hope that was clear enough to understand. I don't know whether that was what you were originally asking, but it will work if you want separate name files for your different leagues.

07-21-2003, 06:40 PM	#1
Antonin Hall Of Famer Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Ohio Posts: 2,557	Questions Re Creating/Using Name Files Is it possible to create a names.dat file from scratch? What do you create it with--notepad or word or what? If you can create a names.dat file yourself, can you have a newly created fictional league associate only with that file and not the one that comes with the game? Can you then go back and play your career2003.lg that is associated with the old names.lg file without having to rename anything? I hope I'm clear enough here. I'm playing a fun fictional solo league that uses the ordinary names.dat file. But I've also created an international fictional league, with franchises all over the world, and I would like to have that league use its own names.dat file. I have found a website that provides lots and lots of first names and surnames of lots of nationalities, and I would like to create a multi ethnic names file and have my international league draw upon it. What I would like to do is something like what is allowed in the game Space Empires 4. In it, you can quickly and easily create ship name files in Notepad and then tell each empire that appears in your game to draw its ship names from that file only. I did a search for names.dat topics, but most of them appear to be about modifying the files that come with the game. Thanks in advance for any advice.

07-22-2003, 07:21 AM	#5
cooper_gd All Star Starter Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: PopBunker.net Posts: 1,011	Couriers... helpful post of the week. Good stuff. __________________

07-21-2003, 08:16 PM	#2
couriers All Star Reserve Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Fort Lauderdale Fla Posts: 932	Yes it is possible to create these files from scratch using a simple text editor like Notepad or Word. However, you will need to make sure that the extra blank spaces and special characters at the end of the names.dat file are still present or else the game will crash. Best bet is to delete every name between the first and last option and then fill in the gaps. There are several name files that you can edit: afnames.dat (asian first names file) anames.dat (asian last names file) fnames.dat (american first names file) names.dat (american last names file) lafnames.dat (latin first names file) lanames.dat (latin last names file) wnames.dat (womens names file) nicknames.dat You can fill these files with whatever origin of names that you like but they should remain named as they currently are. All of these files are found in the DATA folder and must remain there. This means that all leagues will use whatever files are in that folder. If you want a particular league to use a particular file then you will need to manually change the active files in DATA folder accordingly each time that you play that league. Note that all names that are already generated for a league will remain intact regardless of which name files are currently active in the DATA folder. The name files are only referenced when a new name is called for. Also note that the frequency of a given name, if denoted in the file, is based on the number of names included in the file such that (the following was provided by Jamey in regards to his name files): The most frequent last name is Smith, which makes up 1% of the population of the US. So, since there is about 100,000 names in my file, i made the frequency of Smith 1000, which is 1% of 100,000. So, hopefully, 1% of American players generated in the game will have the last name of Smith. I did that for the other more frequent last names, for the not-so common ones, i just made it 1. Hope that helps.

07-21-2003, 08:47 PM	#3
ChipperJones10 Minors (Rookie Ball) Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 32	Is it possible to do it for british names, german names, scandinavian names, and etc. if you have an international league. I'm also guessing its not possible to generate a certain ethnicity names for a team based on its location (like a japanese team whose players mostly have japanese names?)

07-21-2003, 09:30 PM	#4
couriers All Star Reserve Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Fort Lauderdale Fla Posts: 932	You could edit the above files to include those types of names however, the game will not generate according to the players origin. This is something that you would need to do manually in the game. Once all of the player names have been edited in the game for the first season of the league then it would just be a matter of editing the draft file at the beginning of every season after that. Best advice is to ignore this aspect at the greater extents and realize that it has no affect on the game what so ever. Otherwise you would be creating a lot more work for yourself than the rewards gained for having made all of the changes manually. Also remember that not everyone in a country has a specific type of names. There are many residents of the United States that have foreign names and vice versa for any country that you can think of. I am rather certain that the phone book in Japan has a few John Smiths within its pages.

07-22-2003, 11:29 AM	#6
Antonin Hall Of Famer Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Ohio Posts: 2,557	Thanks for the replies. It looks like I won't be able to do what I wanted to do. The only way is to use "edit" and change names manually. Oh well.

07-22-2003, 12:56 PM	#7
84CubsFan Major Leagues Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 376	Antonin, You will definitely have to change the player origins manually, but you can create different name files for use in your different leagues. I do that. Just backup your current Data folder and name it something else (I use data.bak). You should now have two identical data folders. Alter the name files to have all Euro names or whatever you want in one of them, leaving the other as is. When you want to play your Euro league, name the altered Data folder "Data", changing the original one to Data.bak. Likewise, when you want to play your other leagues, switch the names around. Hope that was clear enough to understand. I don't know whether that was what you were originally asking, but it will work if you want separate name files for your different leagues.