Online league file clarification

[Wabner]

Following Stu's lead I deleted the appropriate files (including the logs inside news\txt\leagues ) and used WInRar to zip the league.

Using scouts, which really pumps that DAT file up, and also 2 week's worth of HTML box scores, my league zip is around 17 megs. Your initial zip might be bigger when you include team images, btw. Again, the scout.dat file is why it's as large as it is.

[battists]

For point of reference, how big were OOTP 6 files, on average?

Just curious.

17 MB isn't great, but neither is it awful. I mean, it's about the size of the Game Guide.

[Stu]

Originally Posted by battists

For point of reference, how big were OOTP 6 files, on average?

Just curious.

17 MB isn't great, but neither is it awful. I mean, it's about the size of the Game Guide.

The file from my current league is 2.1 MB in August of our 4th season. Obviously the Almanacs have been stripped out

[Wabner]

Originally Posted by battists

For point of reference, how big were OOTP 6 files, on average?

Just curious.

17 MB isn't great, but neither is it awful. I mean, it's about the size of the Game Guide.

My last 6.5 file was around 5 or 6 megs, but not fully stripped.

[rem]

Originally Posted by battists

For point of reference, how big were OOTP 6 files, on average?

Just curious.

17 MB isn't great, but neither is it awful. I mean, it's about the size of the Game Guide.

4-5 MB's on moderately altered files, low 3's when more aggressive modification occurred.

[rem]

I believe it takes about 40 minutes to download a 4-5 MB file on dialup.

[rem]

So I wonder how long it is going to take to download NEON Baseball's file.

[Wabner]

Originally Posted by remangiii

So I wonder how long it is going to take to download NEON Baseball's file.

*shudder*

[SC_Dawg]

Originally Posted by battists

What I'd like to see happen is this:

After we figure out what makes the most sense, someone should be able to write a simple batch file using WinZip's command line utility or some such, that just zips everything up.

Then, I can talk to Markus about potentially including this in future patches or releases, or even somehow building it into the game engine, like a "prepare league file for human GMs" button or something.

Just a FYI

I compressed all of the .dat files of my test league using powerarchiver, winrar and Windows XP's built in .ZIP function.

Here are the sizes

Before compression 63,235kb <---
.gz 12,686k
.zip 12,512k
.rar 10,010k

This does not include any of the non .dat files but for league files it appears that .rar is the best compression unless there is a way to compress even more that I am not aware of.

BTW before everybody freaks out this is the Major Leagues with every bell and whistle turned on.

[kq76]

Originally Posted by battists

What I'd like to see happen is this:

After we figure out what makes the most sense, someone should be able to write a simple batch file using WinZip's command line utility or some such, that just zips everything up.

Then, I can talk to Markus about potentially including this in future patches or releases, or even somehow building it into the game engine, like a "prepare league file for human GMs" button or something.

I don't understand why most everyone in this thread is talking about copying and deleting files when all you have to do is just archive what you need like battists says above. That's what I used to do and all it took was one click. For example, my old batch file:

del "C:\k\downloads\KBL1007.lg.zip"
"E:\Program Files\WinRAR\WinRar" a -r -ao -ac -ep1 -xp*.html "C:\k\downloads\KBL1007.lg.zip" "E:\Program Files\Out of the Park Developments\OOTP 6.5\KBL1007.lg"

Now of course it probably won't be as simple now with all the folders you can leave out, but the same idea should work just fine.

Originally Posted by SC_Dawg

Just a FYI

I compressed all of the .dat files of my test league using powerarchiver, winrar and Windows XP's built in .ZIP function.

Here are the sizes

Before compression 63,235kb <---
.gz 12,686k
.zip 12,512k
.rar 10,010k

This does not include any of the non .dat files but for league files it appears that .rar is the best compression unless there is a way to compress even more that I am not aware of.

BTW before everybody freaks out this is the Major Leagues with every bell and whistle turned on.

Try tar.gz and .7z. As I said in Fidel's tutorial thread, they decrease file sizes much more than even rars do. The only problem is your members will need a program that can decompress whatever format you choose.

[Long_Long_Name]

Originally Posted by remangiii

So I wonder how long it is going to take to download NEON Baseball's file.

I can tell you that it'll be hell to prepare the league file for download, anyway. Deleting all these files from the zip file every time will be a lot of work, unless someone creates a utility or something that fetches the essential data and zips it up. That would be great, and if I had any idea how to do it, I would .

[Long_Long_Name]

Originally Posted by Stu

players - [/B]don't delete. Contains player histories. Technically you could delete these and make player histories only viewable in the html reports, but these files are so small when zipped that it doesn't matter.
teams - don't delete. contains team logs. (transactions, development, injuries, etc) The game uses these files to create the corresponding html pages. Like players, they could be deleted but are small enough zipped to include.

After five years, I have to say that these files get big - in a 10-league universe (170 teams), after five seasons, they are 7.3mb and 4mb respectively, zipped up.

[Cooleyvol]

Can't Winzip be configure to only put files with today's date in the zip file? If so, that would work for everything after the initial league file.

[Long_Long_Name]

Originally Posted by Cooleyvol

Can't Winzip be configure to only put files with today's date in the zip file? If so, that would work for everything after the initial league file.

Perhaps not if you generate html files?

[BleedingCubbyBlue]

Originally Posted by SC_Dawg

Have not tried this but on the Create Reports & FTP Upload screen there is a field called "Folder to copy file into (optional;PRESS ENTER). Is this what you are looking for Cooley?

I've tried this multiple times and it does not work. It's a bug and there's a ticket with SI for the next patch (hopefully).

[enuttage]

Originally Posted by Stu

Ok here's what I found. I'm going to go through directory by directory on what should be included, should be left out and stuff you have the option of leaving out.

This test was done with a 20 team league with 3 levels of minor leagues.

root:
.DAT files - obviously must be left in

import_export - delete files, contains export files from teams
messages - delete files, messages are re-created when the game is loaded
page_links - don't delete, contains bookmarks
news:
html
box scores - optional. Contains box score files. This grows very quickly (78mb by mid-season) I recommend deleting these files but it is important you keep a copy that contains all of them on your PC. Box scores will not be viewable in the game if you delete these, but will still be viewable on the league website if included in the html reports.
coaches - delete. I had coaches turned off but I assume this works like the players directory. See below.
game_logs - delete. Game creates these files as needed.
history - delete. Game creates these files as needed.
images - optional. I would include these as a seperate DL or in the first league file only but it was only 1MB for my league, so can be left in.
leagues - delete. Game creates these files as needed.
players - delete. Game creates these files as needed.
reports - I've never seen any files in this directory.
teams - delete. Game creates these files as needed.
temp - I've never seen any files in this directory.
txt
leagues - contains league news and transaction files which should not be deleted. Also contains game_logs which the game uses to create html game logs. I recommend deleting these because it grows very quickly. Game logs will not be viewable in the game if you delete these, but will still be viewable on the league website if included in the html reports. Another option I recommend is to go into Game Setup and select Only Save Game Logs from Human Teams, which will prevent it from saving game logs from minor league teams.
players - don't delete. Contains player histories. Technically you could delete these and make player histories only viewable in the html reports, but these files are so small when zipped that it doesn't matter.
teams - don't delete. contains team logs. (transactions, development, injuries, etc) The game uses these files to create the corresponding html pages. Like players, they could be deleted but are small enough zipped to include.

Notes:
- Zipped League file at start was 4.7 MB
- Zipped League file at season's end was 7.7 MB, without html box scores and game logs
- You should create and upload your html reports before deleting anything.
- You should keep a "master" copy of the league on your PC that contains all box scores and game logs. You can also divide these up by year.

EDIT - Battists, feel free to use anything here that is useful to the game guide

This is MOST helpful. Thank you Stu!

Now who do we talk to about having the game do this internally?

[arod23]

Originally Posted by enuttage

Now who do we talk to about having the game do this internally?

The new version (62) now does include an auto-file export function for online league files.

[enuttage]

Originally Posted by arod23

The new version (62) now does include an auto-file export function for online league files.

I now see that. It also appears that news items do not, in fact, re-populate in the game after opening it.

However, my online test league is so absolutely FUBARed at this point in time that there's no going back. I have to start over.

This game is truly maddening. Truly.

[Stu]

Originally Posted by enuttage

I now see that. It also appears that news items do not, in fact, re-populate in the game after opening it.

However, my online test league is so absolutely FUBARed at this point in time that there's no going back. I have to start over.

This game is truly maddening. Truly.

The only problem with using the in game league file creator is the owners are logged in as the commish when they first import it from the server. What I do is create the file and upload it in game then rename it on the server, which prevents it from being downloaded in the game. My owners then download the file and unzip it like we did previously.

[enuttage]

Originally Posted by Stu

The only problem with using the in game league file creator is the owners are logged in as the commish when they first import it from the server. What I do is create the file and upload it in game then rename it on the server, which prevents it from being downloaded in the game. My owners then download the file and unzip it like we did previously.

Thanks again, Stu.