Player Name Selection

[opieandy]

Where can I find a utility that will allow me to influence player name selection when creating fictional players? I'd love to be able to take, say, an Excel, csv, or txt file with the names I have and instruct OOTP how to use that list. For example, I have a list of names from the US Census, sorted by order of frequency, and I'd like to tell OOTP to use that list and define some parameters to weight the selections towards the top of the list. Alternatively, perhaps I could use Excel to create a list of the names I want to use, export it to an OOTP-compatible file format, and import the names into OOTP. Is this possible? BTW, I don't presently have OOTP but am buying OOTP6.

Thanks,

Chris

[kingcharlesxii]

Originally posted by opieandy
Where can I find a utility that will allow me to influence player name selection when creating fictional players? I'd love to be able to take, say, an Excel, csv, or txt file with the names I have and instruct OOTP how to use that list. For example, I have a list of names from the US Census, sorted by order of frequency, and I'd like to tell OOTP to use that list and define some parameters to weight the selections towards the top of the list. Alternatively, perhaps I could use Excel to create a list of the names I want to use, export it to an OOTP-compatible file format, and import the names into OOTP. Is this possible? BTW, I don't presently have OOTP but am buying OOTP6.

Thanks,

Chris

Well right now the names are drawn from 6 name files (one is NAMES.dat, the ones with f in the them are for first names). You can change the names and frequency pretty easily. For instance, you may see this:

SMITH 4
JONES 2
WILLIAMS 17
#

The number after the name reflects the frequency the name will be chosen (ie Williams will be chosen far more often than the other two). The # at the end of the file needs to stay there or else the file will fail (it signals the end of the file).

That should give you a start. You can download my Scandinavian name files for an example. I set the names in my file to all appear at the same frequency but most name files don't.

Of course, this might all change in OOTP6 so we'll have to see about it. What I said will work with OOTP5.

[opieandy]

Thanks, King Charles. Now a few questions.

Why are there 6 name files?

Will I need to look at all six files and make adjustments?

Does the Names.dat file contain all the last names that OOTP uses?

Can I open the file in a text editor, or an application like Notepad, and insert my own names, change frequencies, etc?

Thanks!

[kingcharlesxii]

Originally posted by opieandy
Thanks, King Charles. Now a few questions.

Why are there 6 name files?

Will I need to look at all six files and make adjustments?

Does the Names.dat file contain all the last names that OOTP uses?

Can I open the file in a text editor, or an application like Notepad, and insert my own names, change frequencies, etc?

Thanks!

Sorry was a bit unclear.

There are 3 sets of first name and last name files. There are Caucasian, Hispanic and Asian name files. Names.dat would contain the Caucasian last names, lnames.dt would contain the Hispanic last names, anames.dat would contain the Asian last names. If you put an 'f' in front of it, you get the first name files.

You can open it in Notepad or something just fine.

[opieandy]

Thanks, King. I assume one of the files also contains names for black players! Perhaps the 'caucasian' file is really an 'American' name file?

[satchel]

In America, blacks and whites generally share the same last names from the English-origin national pool.

[opieandy]

In America, blacks and whites generally share the same last names from the English-origin national pool.

I hear ya, Satchel. That just doesn't seem to be captured in a file called 'caucasian'!

[kingcharlesxii]

Originally posted by opieandy
I hear ya, Satchel. That just doesn't seem to be captured in a file called 'caucasian'!

I should have just said American. It's the file that doesn't have a prefix in front of it. I feel really dumb now, sorry.

[dow]

Is there a way to change the frequency that names in a specific file are used? For exapmle, if one wanted a higher percentage of Hispanic names to occur when players are created?

[kingcharlesxii]

Originally posted by dow
Is there a way to change the frequency that names in a specific file are used? For exapmle, if one wanted a higher percentage of Hispanic names to occur when players are created?

Sadly, no. It's a feature I really want though and I've tried to be pretty vocal about it. I'm hoping it is in OOTP6 but I'm not holding my breath.

[sixto]

Not only would that be nice, but the ability to have X name files, and choose the percentage of times the program accesses each name file, would be quite an enhancement. Names like Kyong Jo Takanashi just don't seem to quite achieve the realism we're setting out for.

I find it interesting that as I have simmed from 1885-1917, the game doesn't appear to access my Latino names file. I wonder when those names will start kicking in, or if I have encountered some odd bug.

[LivnLegend]

Originally posted by sixto
I find it interesting that as I have simmed from 1885-1917, the game doesn't appear to access my Latino names file. I wonder when those names will start kicking in, or if I have encountered some odd bug.

I found the same thing when I started my fictional leagues in the 1920's and even later such as the 1940's. What you are asking for in having a sliding percentage scale to fit the times exists. We just can't manipulate it.

[mgadfly]

I wish we could... I want to do a Pacific Rim league with an equal amount of American/Asian/Latin names.

[octones]

You could just back up your other name files and then put the hispanic or pacific or whatever name file in there 3 times.

Never tried it, but it seems logical that it would work.

[kingcharlesxii]

Originally posted by octones
You could just back up your other name files and then put the hispanic or pacific or whatever name file in there 3 times.

Never tried it, but it seems logical that it would work.

That's what I did for my Scandinavian file. However it isn't useful if you want to merely change the distribution of names (ie from 50% American, 25% Latin, 25% Asian to 10% American, 60% Latin, 30% Asian). This currently can't be done.