OFG, I feel your pain

[knockahoma]

Well, I'm about to give up the ghost with OOTP.

I picked up the game again a few months ago and am really enjoying it. But, for some reason, I can't get past a season, or two, without a white, transparent screen coming up that reads: OOTP has stopped working....

I had it happen to my fictional league, which I may, or may not have saved, by removing the league file, then uninstalling OOTP. My historical league just bit the dust last night. I'm not sure if it's my computer, or the game. However, my computer is not in the habit of freezing up on other programs.

After many days of going in and out of OOTP, I'll start up the game (which often loads just fine) and then do something simple like click on lineup-- here comes the white screen.

Sometimes, OOTP will load the backup and all will be fine. Then, sometimes, the backup has the same problem, revealed as soon as I perform the same action (like going to the lineup, for example). It's driving me a little bit nuts and I can't even get thru three seasons.

But, is there anything that can be done besides backing up the game? Can one easily save the stats and ratings of a league, perhaps thru this import/export feature? I'm not very familiar with that tool. At least, then, I could re-import the players and stats into a brand new league and hopefully the bug would miss the bus to the new game.

The backup system ultimately has been useless for me, and hardly a guarantee beyond a few saves. I've even taken to saving leagues every few months as quickstart games. Last night's OOTP failure even infected the quickstart. In other words, the bug seems to hybernate for a period of time thru your saves and backups, and then freezes the game later.

Do others have this continual problem? Right now, I have no confidence I could get thru 3 seasons-- so there's hardly any incentive to keep playing this game. And it would really bug me to have OFG's situation, where he played out 25 seasons only to lose his dynasty to a bug that infiltrated all his backup attempts. Someone suggested OFG back up on CD, but I'm uncertain how this solves the issue of a hybernating bug.

[Markus Heinsohn]

OOTP Developments - Kayako eSupport Help Desk Software

I'll move this thread to the OOTP 10 forum where it belongs.

[knockahoma]

Thanks, Marcus.

I think this question may apply to XI as well if I keep having these issues. Perhaps my computer is the culprit-- though it rarely freezes up on other programs.

I would greatly appreciate it if someone could weigh in on my question: What's the easiest way to absolutely preserve your universe, beyond simple backup within the game, or even on CD?

My concern is the same that OFG had. The buggy stuff that makes my universes unplayable appear to be hybernating thru several saves. I hit save every few days and at the beginning of every new season I save the universe as a quick-start as an extra backup.

When the universe crashes, I've loaded the quickstart and found the bug suddenly there, as well. The quickstart was saved in January and the crash happened (for example) in June. So, I played 6 months with the bug before it affected the universe. Or... perhaps there's another diagnosis that makes sense to you.

If I could save the players ratings and dynasty stats, then I could reload-- or, worst case scenario, literally, recreate thru editing, the players of that universe without missing a beat. I'm just unsure of the most efficacious way of doing that.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. This issue is making a great game not worth the time invested into it.

[robc]

Originally Posted by knockahoma

Thanks, Marcus.

I think this question may apply to XI as well if I keep having these issues. Perhaps my computer is the culprit-- though it rarely freezes up on other programs.

I would greatly appreciate it if someone could weigh in on my question: What's the easiest way to absolutely preserve your universe, beyond simple backup within the game, or even on CD?

My concern is the same that OFG had. The buggy stuff that makes my universes unplayable appear to be hybernating thru several saves. I hit save every few days and at the beginning of every new season I save the universe as a quick-start as an extra backup.

When the universe crashes, I've loaded the quickstart and found the bug suddenly there, as well. The quickstart was saved in January and the crash happened (for example) in June. So, I played 6 months with the bug before it affected the universe. Or... perhaps there's another diagnosis that makes sense to you.

If I could save the players ratings and dynasty stats, then I could reload-- or, worst case scenario, literally, recreate thru editing, the players of that universe without missing a beat. I'm just unsure of the most efficacious way of doing that.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. This issue is making a great game not worth the time invested into it.

Did you also report this at the tech suport link Markus posted? That is the place for some official tech support.

Some players here may have suggestions for you too, so it doesn't hurt to post here in addition to the tech support area.

[knockahoma]

Thanks for the reply, ROBC.

I've saved both my fiction and historical league by removing their saved game files to desktop. Then, I deleted all other data files and uninstalled the game. Once reinstalled, I put the files back into the saved folder and the games came back up.

But, the experience has made me wonder how to save the ratings and stats. My idea is to have a backup if the game trashes after 25 years and can't be raised from the dead thru normal means. But, what is the easiest way to do that? I'm trying to search around. But, I think what I'm after is a type of database like Lahman's, but one based on my own universe. That way, even if the game crashes I can start with player history in tact and generate ratings off those stats.

I've exported a few rosters in the past just to take a look-see. Seems to be just ratings. I see this feature where you "dump" stuff, so I'll read up on it.

I'm just looking for the easiest way to accomplish my goal and was hoping someone might have an idea. I've asked about 5 times now, which makes me think either no one knows, or I'm asking a very stupid question.

As I write, I'm trying to "dump" and "export" data to CSV files (whatever those are). Just trying to figure it all out.

[knockahoma]

Okay. It looks like the CS dump is my answer? You just dump everything there and if a game file goes bad, you just create a new league and re-import that data? The reinstalled data into the new game would act sort of like the Lahman database does upon loading a new historical league?

[robc]

Originally Posted by knockahoma

Okay. It looks like the CS dump is my answer? You just dump everything there and if a game file goes bad, you just create a new league and re-import that data? The reinstalled data into the new game would act sort of like the Lahman database does upon loading a new historical league?

This seems reasonable. I haven't looked closely at the import / export funtionality so I don't know if it includes everything that is needed or not. I don't know if some of the history would be lost.

If you have the hard drive space, it may be easiest to have lots of backups on hand. If you have a problem, then restore the most recent one. If that has a problem, go to the next one, etc.

Fortunately I haven't had a problem with my leagues. I'm not a hardcore player, so I've never got a lot of seasons under my belt.

It does seem like if so many people have these issues that Markus or others on the team should investigate the source of the problem.

[RchW]

Originally Posted by robc

This seems reasonable. I haven't looked closely at the import / export funtionality so I don't know if it includes everything that is needed or not. I don't know if some of the history would be lost.

If you have the hard drive space, it may be easiest to have lots of backups on hand. If you have a problem, then restore the most recent one. If that has a problem, go to the next one, etc.

Fortunately I haven't had a problem with my leagues. I'm not a hardcore player, so I've never got a lot of seasons under my belt.

It does seem like if so many people have these issues that Markus or others on the team should investigate the source of the problem.

I think the problem is that very very few people have the problems described by knock and OFG. Unless I missed other threads with the same problem.

I had serious problems with Vista compatibility for OOTP 9 and X on one machine yet it never corrupted any leagues. Re-installing Vista seems to have corrected it. Considering I have another Vista machine that performs flawlessly (no crashes for over three years), I have to consider the fact that the computer is the culprit, not the program.

I've run one solo league through all iterations from v2007/8 to vX. My backups have actually been used maybe once or twice due to computer issues (ie trashed HD). Another solo league was started in vX and has never needed the backup (touch wood) yet.

I'm not suggesting that the problem isn't real, but the overwhelming evidence at hand points towards the computer or OS or a combination of both being the biggest culprit.

[bubba22plus]

*Laughs at Knockahoma and OFG*

*OOTP has stopped working*

**

[bailey]

I experience the white screen frequently, but since my league is online I just re-start the game. I know when the game is going to crash so I save when I see those signs.

The key sign is that one of the circled buttons is missing. Most often its the filter button that goes AWOL. Sometimes, I can keep playing and the filter button re-appears, other times the game will crash. The next time it happens, I'll edit this post and show you a screenshot of missing buttons.

[RchW]

Originally Posted by bubba22plus

*Laughs at Knockahoma and OFG*

*OOTP has stopped working*

**

I hope you're not suggesting that I was making fun of Knockahoma or OFG.

[bubba22plus]

Originally Posted by RchW

I hope you're not suggesting that I was making fun of Knockahoma or OFG.

It was more of me making fun of them.

[knockahoma]

It was more of me making fun of them...*Laughs at Knockahoma and OFG*

I admit that I have yet to attain the glorified status of Dalai Lama of the OOTP. This is my shame, though I continue to study under the masters. Long live the Boog.

RichW:

I'm not suggesting that the problem isn't real, but the overwhelming evidence at hand points towards the computer or OS or a combination of both being the biggest culprit.

In my case, I think so. At first I thought the bug was following me thru several saves. But since I uninstalled the game and the saved universes came back, it appears the entire game and my computer are having their little spats.

As I mentioned earlier, my real question is how best to save the universe beyond the standard stuff. Sort of like creating a fictional Lahman's data base that I could load into a new game should my old one pass away. Seems like the "dump" option is what I want. Guess I'll have to explore that a bit.

I experience the white screen frequently, but since my league is online I just re-start the game. I know when the game is going to crash so I save when I see those signs.

The key sign is that one of the circled buttons is missing. Most often its the filter button that goes AWOL. Sometimes, I can keep playing and the filter button re-appears, other times the game will crash. The next time it happens, I'll edit this post and show you a screenshot of missing buttons.

Thanks Bailey, and everyone.

[OldFatGuy]

Oh man Knock, I don't get around here as much as I used to.

Really, really, sorry to hear about this.

The thing is for folks who don't play or don't understand, we (or at least I) get ATTACHED to a league, it's players, it's teams, it's history. I played out every game of every season of my team's games for almost 25 years in that league. Believe me, it was like MY own major leagues.

Knew who had thrown the only 2 perfect games. Had one pitcher of mine come within one lousy error by the third baseman from having my own perfect game (No, never had one myself).

Watched the first pitchers reach the 300 win mark. Had my own reach the 500 save mark.

You really do get attached, and this is the kind of thing that makes one think twice about getting re-attached only to have it yanked away.

Wish I knew the answer Knock. I thought I was doing a decent job of saving the darn thing, but I guess not. Maybe you're supposed to keep every old save, I dunno. Better have some storage space for that. I don't really get the benefit of that though if for example in my league I went back to find that the corruption had occurred back in 1904 (I was finishing up 1924). If I had found that, then I might as well have lost the whole league.

Hope you get an answer. I haven't given up. Game is just too good. Good luck, and if you figure out a reasonable save strategy that alleviates these concerns, let me know too.

[knockahoma]

Hey, OFG.

Well, luckily, I was able to revive my fictional team to the beginning of the 2nd season. So, better than nothin'.

I know exactly what you mean about getting attached to the characters of the story. That's how I see the whole thing. We all have certain books, or movies, that become "friends". They are in some way inspiring to us and I guess OOTP can fill that same role-- especially when you play out every game for 25 years!

In fact, it was your scenario that got me wondering how to save such a marvelous universe. I play in God mode and get familiar with pretty much every player ( I can do that with 16 major league teams and one AAA league). I'm already getting the strangest kick out of these guys.

I don't play out the games. But, I set the rosters and do all the trades. I have injuries set on low and still will get up to 6 or 7 players on DL. I tend to sim a day, or two, before an injury stops the sim. Then I move that player to DL and consider what's available to fill the roster-- a AAA guy, a recently released vet, or a trade. While at that stop-down, I can also peruse who's doing the job and who's not, re-arrange the lineups and starting rotations appropriately, etc.

By doing it that way, I get to know the players and their strengths and weaknesses surprisingly fast. Most were familiar to me by the end of the year-- even the AAAA guys who bounce up and down from the minors to the majors.

I love playing that way. A plethora of stories and tons and tons of roster decisions.

It looks like you can "dump" all stats and ratings, teams, etc, into CSV files? Problem is, I don't think I have microsoft's spread sheet program, so I'll have to get that.

Then, it appears to be a matter of saving often enough to these CSV files, and saving them off computer, as well. At least that's what I'm thinking. Don't know for sure and haven't had anyone chime in on these files.

Take care, bud.