Day vs. Night

[Wrathchild]

When does the game use the day ballpark image and when does it use the night image? I've been seeing it use the night image for games starting at 7:05, but in the opening PbP it states how it's a sunny day. That seems kind of odd when the image shows a nighttime sky.

[Le Grande Orange]

For what it's worth, MLB defines any game starting after 5 p.m. local time as a night game (it used to be 6 p.m. in earlier years).

[Wrathchild]

Ok, then there is a definite problem, as the game needs to make a decision one way or the other. It will use the night image, but still give PbP as if it's day time. It's still daylight even at 7:05, though, so why not just have one image for all games? What's the point of a night image? I think I'm going to change mine since none of the games ever seem to actually be played in the dark or under the lights.

[Kitsune]

I thought all games started at 7:05pm?

[Wrathchild]

I've seen games scheduled for 1:05 and I think some for 3:05. Regardless, what I'm seems to happen, as far as I can tell, though I could be wrong, is that OOTP considers games at 7:05 as night games and uses the night image for the ballpark. However, it usually introduces the game as the 'sun shining, etc.' I would like to see some consistency, as it appears there really are no 'night' games or need for a night ballpark image.

[DreamTeams]

After importing my league my schedule only had 7:05 night games. I use a custom schedule. So, I edited my schedule to include day games at 1:05, mostly on the weekends and a few during the week. Once edited it recycles from season to season so that the day games are always there, but on different days. I usually edit them each season to make a little more since. But, I do get the day image on day games and night images on night games. I love that as it adds a little variety and since of movement from game to game. Hadn't really noticed that the game usually starts with the 'sunny day' phrase. Hopefully that will be cleared up in a patch.

[SteveP]

Originally Posted by Wrathchild

Ok, then there is a definite problem, as the game needs to make a decision one way or the other. It will use the night image, but still give PbP as if it's day time. It's still daylight even at 7:05, though, so why not just have one image for all games? What's the point of a night image? I think I'm going to change mine since none of the games ever seem to actually be played in the dark or under the lights.

Need to get some clarification here.

The game does use night images for night games and day images for day games. That feature does work (assuming the correct images have been designated in the ballpark editor).

The PbP text might not always be in agreement with the image. The PbP text is really, really good now, but there are still some bugs -- many of which will be addressed in the patch.

The games start times that you see in the schedule are all standardized to East Coast Time. Not sure why it's done that way. So, a west coast game that is supposedly scheduled for 7:05, is really being played at 4:05. The game seems to make that adjustment when you go to play the game.

Hope that helps.

[DreamTeams]

Originally Posted by SteveP

The games start times that you see in the schedule are all standardized to East Coast Time. Not sure why it's done that way. So, a west coast game that is supposedly scheduled for 7:05, is really being played at 4:05. The game seems to make that adjustment when you go to play the game.

Hope that helps.

Hmmm. Actually, that's been the case for quite some time as I remember it being explained before. Had forgotten about that. I'm going to have take that into consideration as I edit my game start times from now on. Thanks.

[endgame]

This makes me miss Stickware Scheduler. Was that what it was called? I loved that.

[Wrathchild]

Well, as long as I'm not the only one that would like to see this fixed I'm ok with it! I, too, love the idea of night images versus day images, and it would seem to me to be a simple fix, i.e. if the night image is used then the PbP text (which definitely is awesome) should not make any references to the sun, etc. However, though, even at 7:05 Eastern Time the sun is still out during baseball season so I don't know when it would really be appropriate to use the night image. And assuming that you are playing a North American baseball league, and all games are stated in Eastern time, even if both teams are on the West Coast, you would never see a night image for West Coast games. Hm, not sure how much more anal retentive I can get.

[DreamTeams]

Originally Posted by Wrathchild

And assuming that you are playing a North American baseball league, and all games are stated in Eastern time, even if both teams are on the West Coast, you would never see a night image for West Coast games. Hm, not sure how much more anal retentive I can get.

If Eastern time is used looks like you'd have to set West Coast start times for 11:05 pm to get a night time image. What is the time zone based on, the city/nations file? If so, I must have set all my cities to eastern timezone because at 2:05 a.m. I get the day images and at 7:05 p.m. I get the night images. But, I know for sure that I have cities set as far away from each other as Houston is from New York. So is this still based on timezone or was that discarded at some point? Anyway, just wondering.

[Muzamba]

Here's an idea I suggested prior to OOTPX's release:

Since the game obviously keeps track of time during a game, I'd love to see the static ballpark images replaced by a dynamic layered background. There would be 3 "layers" to the field.

The front layer would be just the playing field, which would be automatically constructed according to the pre-defined field dimensions.

The second layer would be a static image of what lies beyond the warning track. This would include the outfield wall, the seats and stadium structure between the foul poles, and the skyline--buildings and landforms--beyond the stadium. (These could be designed by modders to replicate real stadiums.)

The third layer would be a dynamic representation of the sky. This could include maybe a dozen different images that would show varying stages of daytime and darkness, as well as different weather conditions. For instance, there could be 'sunny day', 'sunny twilight', 'clear night', 'cloudy day', 'cloudy twilight', 'cloudy night', etc. There could even be effects for rain, snow or fog that could be superimposed over all 3 layers.

And all of this would change during the course of the game. So as the time of day progresses and the weather conditions change, so does the sky!

What's practical about this concept is that it shouldn't require much in the way of graphical enhancements. The second and third layer would just be static images that get switched out over the course of a game.

Granted, this is mostly just a cosmetic improvement, but I believe anything that helps simulate the progression of time in the game adds significantly to the immersion factor.

[Curtis]

I can't believe it, but you've just suggested a graphic enhancement to the game that I could actually get behind.

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by SteveP

The games start times that you see in the schedule are all standardized to East Coast Time. Not sure why it's done that way.

An arbitrary choice, really.

For the current MLB schedule, Eastern time is used for all games since that's how MLB lists the games on its web site (and it's quicker to create the OOTP schedule file if one doesn't have to convert Eastern times into local times).

For fictional schedules, most of those use local start times so that when the schedule is reused the next year the start times will fit regardless of the particular team.

Some folks like having the feel of game start times being staggered thanks to time zones, especially if they play out their games. OOTP doesn't know about time zones (at least, not yet, but there are ways it could) so if you want the effect of times zones in your schedule it has to be done manually at the schedule creation stage.

[SteveP]

Originally Posted by Le Grande Orange

An arbitrary choice, really.

For the current MLB schedule, Eastern time is used for all games since that's how MLB lists the games on its web site (and it's quicker to create the OOTP schedule file if one doesn't have to convert Eastern times into local times).

For fictional schedules, most of those use local start times so that when the schedule is reused the next year the start times will fit regardless of the particular team.

Some folks like having the feel of game start times being staggered thanks to time zones, especially if they play out their games. OOTP doesn't know about time zones (at least, not yet, but there are ways it could) so if you want the effect of times zones in your schedule it has to be done manually at the schedule creation stage.

You may have provided a more authoritative answer but muddied the waters at the same time.

While I think the game "knows" when it is daylight out, I must admit that I will probably need to do a specific check to see if it is always true in the sense that us non-cybernetic types would recognize.

[Le Grande Orange]

Well, night game is just an arbitrary title anyway. Most MLB "night" games these days are started well before the sun has set. (This was less true in earlier years when night games were scheduled to start at 8:00 p.m. or 8:30 p.m. local time, and Daylight Saving time was not in use.)

[SteveP]

Originally Posted by Le Grande Orange

Well, night game is just an arbitrary title anyway. Most MLB "night" games these days are started well before the sun has set. (This was less true in earlier years when night games were scheduled to start at 8:00 p.m. or 8:30 p.m. local time, and Daylight Saving time was not in use.)

Somehow, this reminds me of how a lot of OOTP threads start to get pretty esoteric ...

Since we are dealing with a computer program here, there is obviously a simple switch which, when it clicks, causes the game to display the night image instead of the day image. I know it does this, because I have seen it, but I've never paid much attention to exactly when the switch is triggered. So, I guess the best thing is to propose it as an Easter egg hunt, and see who figures it out first.

Get ready ... set ... go ... May the most obsessed ... I mean the most resolute OOTPer win!

[ashantewarrier]

Originally Posted by endgame

This makes me miss Stickware Scheduler. Was that what it was called? I loved that.

Yeah I miss it too. Still have it but not compatible with OOTP6 and beyond!