[cbbl]

@#$%!

I experienced this issue before but no one had any solution - Please help me fix this name issue

That issue was in 2007. I'm now using 08.

Everything working just fine.

I've played out 6 years. It's now time to update my names files (names.txt, first_names.txt, and ethnicities.txt) to reflect the era I'm entering.

I didn't really change much in the two names files, and only modified ethnicities.txt very slightly.

I reimported using the reimport function under game setup.

I run the draft -- TONS of names that aren't in the .txt files and most of them the same freakin' last name. What gives? Why can you not re-import the names database??? (And if you can, what are are the exact requirements (what can you do/what can you not do)?

Can someone please help me?

Thanks

[The Wolf]

The names and ethnicity import function is broken. In fact, the entire names system is broken. Those bad names you get come from a names.dat file, and not your own set of name files.

Why the game won't use your own name files is beyond me. It's one of the things that desperately needs to be fixed in OOTP 9.

[Tony M]

I'm also of the opinion it's one of the dat files that claims to have an ID field but the actual ID is something to do with its position in the file. I was doing some fiddling with my program and changed my internal structure for names from a Generic.Dictionary to a Generic.SortedDictionary to try something, forgot to change it back, saved the names.dat file.

It was exactly the same size as before, but when I ran the game all the names had changed...

[Tony M]

Originally Posted by redsoxford

I'm also of the opinion it's one of the dat files that claims to have an ID field but the actual ID is something to do with its position in the file. I was doing some fiddling with my program and changed my internal structure for names from a Generic.Dictionary to a Generic.SortedDictionary to try something, forgot to change it back, saved the names.dat file.

It was exactly the same size as before, but when I ran the game all the names had changed...

For example, using Cubbys 08 set, this is the starting line-up for the Red Sox after I saved names.dat back without changing any of the data (just the order changed)

Josh Tristram
Curt Snoopy
Adrain Mongia
Julian Kishen
Tim Jesu

interesting that Beckett, Schilling, Tavarez and Wakefield all kept their first names but Dice-K became an Adrain...

Looking at the picture below you can see the names are in the same order in this small area, and after Pontifes in both cases you can see a3 ac 00 00 which is the ID of Pontifes (or at least it is if the ID numbers go up consecutively in the file).

Quite why you'd have a field that is unique per record and if cross compared to players or coaches gives the correct name (if saved in order) but actually isn't used because the real value it uses is the sequence number.

Either way, it's not right. If you have a unique identifier against a record then it should be used. If it's not being used (as is clearly demonstrated by my experiment) then what's the point in wasting 4 bytes per name on it?

Hopefully a lot of these database anomalies will be sorted out in OOTP9 - the name one is just as bad as the teams.dat issue where team_id is position in file, not the field called team_id...

[The Wolf]

Markus, if you're reading this, in OOTP 9 we want our own name files to be used for our leagues, even the imported ones, not some names.dat file that we have no control over.

Alternatively, give us a names.dat compiler.

[cbbl]

OK, well this is good, but it leaves me a bit puzzled. I have three distinct questions.

1. Before I attempted to re-import the names.txt file, it was working fine (meaning it was drawing names from the files I had modified when I created the universe). So, it wasn't that I only got names from some internal file -- they were coming from where I wanted them. But not now (issue only when reimport happened).

2. If the re-import doesn't work (or you can't), then what is the button there for?

3. Is there any way to fix the issue with my current league (or am I limited to restoring my last backup)?


And, while I'm at it ...

Even if the program for some strange reason was using its own names file rather than mine, why would it name 30 of the 130 newly created players Fedchenko, 34 of the 130 newly created players MacCaig, and 27 of 130 newly created players Alexandravisla??

So, where do I go from here?

Continued thanks...

[Tony M]

It would be nice if someone came on here and said whether this will be fixed in version 9

I'm quite happy to look into a way of re-importing the names files such that existing players keep their names and any new ones are based on the new files, but it will have to fit around work and upcoming baby.

[Muzamba]

Originally Posted by cbbl

And, while I'm at it ...

Even if the program for some strange reason was using its own names file rather than mine, why would it name 30 of the 130 newly created players Fedchenko, 34 of the 130 newly created players MacCaig, and 27 of 130 newly created players Alexandravisla??

I know this was posted over a year and a half ago, but I stumbled onto this thread while doing a search for the names in question. You see, I'm re-doing my names files and realized that when I sort the entire names.txt file by nationality, the names you listed above don't have a nationality associated with them. So while I don't have an exact answer for you, I'm assuming this has something to do with it. If you're still having this problem, try sorting all surnames by nationality, then either delete the names without a nation ID or give them one. I bet this keeps it from happening again.