Personnel all have the same last name

[shercot]

Problem Description
Version: 10.2.18
PC/MAC: Mac G4, OSX 10.4.11, 933 MHz
What were you doing? Viewing Available Personnel
What happened? All personnel have the same last name, which is the last name of the commissioner.
Reproducible? Yes
Problem occurs with other leagues? Yes

If I run off several seasons, a few personnel with different names creep in, but only a handful.

Thanks for any help.

[Tony M]

Has your names.txt file been edited at any point? I've created a few test leagues (though these are on a PC) and I haven't managed to get a common surname into the personnel.

[shercot]

Originally Posted by Tony M

Has your names.txt file been edited at any point? I've created a few test leagues (though these are on a PC) and I haven't managed to get a common surname into the personnel.

Yes, I've edited names.txt, but that particular name isn't in in names.txt. It's the name I entered on the commissioner page during league creation.

[Tony M]

Originally Posted by shercot

Yes, I've edited names.txt, but that particular name isn't in in names.txt. It's the name I entered on the commissioner page during league creation.

Adding a name to anybody in the game will add it to the names.dat file if it doesn't exist. If it's not too large could you attach the names.txt file you are using to a reply?

[Questdog]

Originally Posted by Tony M

Adding a name to anybody in the game will add it to the names.dat file if it doesn't exist. If it's not too large could you attach the names.txt file you are using to a reply?

This seems to be the bug that is festering in the names and ethnicity re-import function. I think it has little to do with the actual content of the names.txt file......

[shercot]

Well, one reason I re-imported names and ethnicities was that at first, everybody had that name -- including all the players.

I'm uploading the file, assuming I do it right....

[shercot]

Turns out the zip file is just a bit too big for the forum, and it won't take a StuffIt file, which would be 100K on the nose. Suggestions?

[shercot]

I started another test league. At first, everybody (players and personnel) had the same last name as the commissioner from the previous league. I released all players to free agency, then deleted them all, then filled the rosters. This time each player had one of three last names: previous commissioner, current commissioner, and Unknown. Again I released, deleted, and filled... and everybody was Smith. So I deleted this particular game and started another.

This time everybody had the last name of the new commissioner, so I released and deleted. I then re-imported the names and ethnicities, which I'd forgotten to do with the league above. Now all the players had names from the names.txt file (though personnel all still had the new commissioner's name).

I ran a few seasons, and after about the third one, some players with the commissioner's name started to creep in. After another season, this increased, along with some Unknowns. These both increased over the next few seasons, slowly taking over (especially in the leader boards), like the pod people in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, even though I re-imported almost every season.

Does this sound any easier to diagnose?

[Tony M]

I think I'll check to see what happens with the frequency in names.dat when you enter a name that isn't in there. If it's greater than 0 I'll add a BZ and see if we can stop that particular effect, and then try to work out why your names file isn't working.

[shercot]

Originally Posted by Tony M

I think I'll check to see what happens with the frequency in names.dat when you enter a name that isn't in there. If it's greater than 0 I'll add a BZ and see if we can stop that particular effect, and then try to work out why your names file isn't working.

Any news?

Thanks.

[shercot]

Has anybody else seen the problems I've described in this thread? In a nutshell:

• When I create a league and run a draft, everybody has the same last name: that of the commissioner (which, as it turns out, does not appear in my names.text file).
• After the initial draft, I release everybody to free agency, then delete all free agents. To avoid the same problem, I re-import the names and ethnicities databases. Then I fill the rosters with players. (Sometimes I release them all, then run another draft; it doesn't really matter.)
• Sometimes there's no further problem with the player names, but sometimes the commissioner name starts to creep in. So does "Unknown."
• Meanwhile, personnel will always have the commissioner's last name, and sometimes that of a commissioner from an earlier league.
• It's been suggested that I forward my names.txt file, but even the .zip file is too big for the forum.

So... what do you think? Should I split names.txt into two .zip files? Would you need to see my cities or nations (or any other) files? I'd really love for this problem to go away.

Thanks.

[shercot]

So I ran a few test leagues in which I gave the commissioner a name that I knew was in names.txt. In the first league, his name didn't appear among players or personnel, but the commissioner name for the *previous* league did. Everyone in the initial draft had that name, so I released, deleted, and filled: same problem. So I did it again: same thing. So I released and deleted, then reimported the name database, which went fine.

After the first season, only personnel bore the old-league commissioner's name; after Year 2, some had that name, others were Unknown. After 10 years and 1,970 players 108 had the old-league commissioner's name, 123 were named Unknown.

With the second test league, I reimported names before the initial draft. The names were fine, even among personnel. By Year 2, though, 10 Unknowns crept in.

Everything was the same with the third test league, except that I reimported names before each season. Before Year 3, 109 out of 803 players was named Unknown.

[shercot]

Okay, assuming I don't mess this up, I'm attaching a JPEG showing the very end of four different names.dat files, in reverse chronological order: The first one is from the league I'm currently experimenting with; the second is from one of the first leagues I tried after changing names.txt, cities.txt, etc.; the third is from shortly after I purchased OOTPX; and the fourth is from my longtime league that I began in OOTP8 and continued in OOTP9.

I don't know if the garbage characters will make sense to you, but you'll notice the differences among those that come after "Zoom Zoom" and at the of each sample. I wouldn't begin to know what that stuff means, but I'm hoping one of you nuts-and-bolts folks will notice something significant in there.

Sorry to keep harping on about this, but I really do want to put this problem behind me so I can start working on the league(s) I really want to do. As always, thanks for any help you can provide.