Expanding text (categories/conditions/tokens) for OOTP9

[blackrussian]

the text aspect of the game is something that has quite a bit of potential. theres a decent varied base of text already but it's an area that i would love to see grow because it really elevates the entire game over just a fancy engine that churns out piles of data. so i just wanted to suggest some additions to the categories/tokens/conditions that would expand the variety of news and text already available.

ive tried to include things that seem reasonable within the current structure of the game. im hoping that as the game increasing in sophistication, we will see suitably more complex interactions in the text engine. basically the game would have to be much smarter in terms of recognizing the significance of certain events and managing a more complicated set of variables. it would be great to see stories at the end of the season regarding a tight pennant race; a 5-star/1st round draft choice making his MLB debut, most expensive off season signing making his debut for a club, etc

ok, here are some categories, with any conditions that may be needed to make them work, along with an example story title (a _subject category as it were):

league news/team_consecutive_wins (condition: team wins consec) "braves streak to 10th consecutive win"
league news/team_consecutive_loss (condition: team loss consec) "orioles drop their 20th in a row"

thinking about the team consecutive wins/losses, it may be easier to generate a story based on the streak that *just ended* rather than an in-progress one ("Orioles end 21 game drought" - requires a teamconsecutiveloss token). i think theres a league news category like that somewhere? i know a message appears in the player history, once a hitting streak is broken (if not, there should be a league news category for hitting streaks.) in any case, apply the same logic to a team winning or losing streak. the streak is acknowledged once its ended. but a more sophisticated, and certainly more exciting way, would be to report about them as they are happening to help keep the level of suspense up. so one could essentially write a number of stories for each significant tier in the winning or losing streak. Say, every 10 games, perhaps for intervals at 10 games, 20 games, 30 games (to be on the safe side). Or every 5 games past the 10 win/loss mark? Stories for each of the intervals would be progressively more impressive as the streak mounted...

league news/demands_trade_losing "Smith demands trade"
league news/demands_trade_role
league news/complains_about_role "Smith unhappy in Detroit"
league news/wants_extension "Smith demands extension from Rays"

these last 4 appear as manager news categories only. i would like to see them as league news, since it is fairly common for players to gripe publicly. makes for interesting copy and as always, variety.

game news/triple_play - "red sox record triple play"
game news/unassisted_triple_play - "wambsganss pulls off unassisted triple play"
game news/extra_innings (condition: game_innings_min) - "cards and cubs in 18 inning marathon"
game news/walk_off_homerun - "Jackson wins it with a walk-off blast"; "Smith gives A's walk-off win" (game would need to understand significance of a walk-off)
game news/5plus_runs "Henderson scores 5" (condition: game_batter_runs_min)
game news/3plus_doubles "Buckner smacks 3 doubles" (condition: game_batter_doubles_min)
game news/3plus_triples "Wilson hits 3 triples" (condition: game_batter_triples_min)
game news/7plus_rbi "Fernandez drives in 7" (condition: game_batter_rbi_min)
game news/4plus_sb "Henderson swipes 4" (game_batter_sb_min)
game news/15plus_k "Clemens fans 16" (game_pitcher_k_min)

the last bunch are essentially special events. ive include conditions so one can have a custom set for whatever kind of league they are playing. but since stories about games appear so few times having more "special events" tagged for a story would bring more actual games into the stream of news. look at any regular source that report sports news, much of it will be game driven. imagine if espn.com only had stories about games where something unusual happens (like a cycle or a 3-homer game)...wouldnt be much of a source, would it? so these would at least add some depth to this neglected area. and these are just a few; i can easily see suggestions for other game stats like walks in a game, errors made, etc

game news/high_scoring_game (condition: game_team_runs_total_min) "Tigers and A's in 23 run slugfest"
game news/rout (condition: game_team_runs_diff) "Dodgers rout Astros"
league event/expansion (condition: team_is_expansion) "The MLB welcomes 2 new teams to the fold this year"
league news/player_suspension (at least, i hear we're going to have suspensions in the game this year)
league news/manager_contract_rumor "Uncertainty regarding Baker's return" (condition: staff_contract_length) this would be much like the contract/contract rumors category except applying to managers, essentially creating speculation about whether or not their services would be retained at the end of the year. the condition checks to see if they're in the last year of contract. this would be the simplest way to present these stories, but a league_news/manager_firing_rumor category could be good too. the AI would need to compare its (hidden) expectation of teams performance vs actual performance and if it met a criteria that would essentially indicate "disappointment" w/managers job, the story would be generated.

CONDITIONS:
player_morale_max
player_morale_min
team_is_expansion (0=no 1=yes)
team_wins_consec_min (where wins/losses are understood to be consecutive)
team_loss_consec_min
game_team_runs_total_min (total runs scored by both teams in a game)
game_team_runs_diff_min (difference b/w winning team runs - losing team runs in a game)
game_innings_min (total # innings in game)
game_batter_rbi_min
game_batter_runs_min
game_batter_doubles_min
game_batter_triples_min
game_batter_sb_min
game_pitcher_k_min
game_year_max (calendar year in the game; this could be useful if one is writing some very time period specific stories)
game_year_min (calendar year in the game; this could be useful if one is writing some very time period specific stories)
staff_contract_length (0=expiring at the end of the year, 1=1 year remaining, etc)
game_pitcher_hits_allowed
game_pitcher_runs_allowed

the number of stories for the contract negotiation category can be increased simply by rewriting it from an agents perspective: "Steve Brown's agent reports that the contract offer is unacceptable. They are looking for a substantial increase in the amount of money offered" to prevent these reports appearing in years when players didnt have agents, we could have a condition called GAME_YEAR_MIN, where YEAR is calendar year in the game (i realize theres already a token like this, but this needs to be a condition for it to work)

finally, i wanted to suggest another simple component that could enrich the text: media sources. im talking about proper names, sporting news, espn.com, baseball america, etc. the names would be located in a .txt file, much like off-field injuries, and its format would be similar as well. the syntax would be "media name, minimum year". sample line - baseball america, 1970. this would require a new token called something like media or medianame that we could reference in news stories. eg, "[%medianame] reports that [%personlink] has asked to be traded from [%teamlink]."

[injury log]

Originally Posted by blackrussian

sample line - baseball america, 1970.

Only in OOTP can Baseball America exist in 1970!

Flippant comments aside, very well thought out suggestions. There were a number of requests in the Suggestions forum last year for expanded news stories, including some (but not all) of the ideas you mention above, so there is a lot of support for expanding the game in these directions.

[blackrussian]

Originally Posted by injury log

Only in OOTP can Baseball America exist in 1970!

Flippant comments aside, very well thought out suggestions. There were a number of requests in the Suggestions forum last year for expanded news stories, including some (but not all) of the ideas you mention above, so there is a lot of support for expanding the game in these directions.

im hopeful some of the beta team will see this or have recommended some improvements like this already. even as it stands now, you can still get creative in terms of adding your own text. ive written or modified some stories using conditions a bit creatively. even minor changes in the text helps add the illusion of variety; for example, with a player_quality condition attached to any of the league news stories you can include language that would distinguish the player as out of the ordinary, or an injury event story that has an age condition with it, so you can fashion something like "Given Johnson's age, his return to full health is very questionable at this point in his career", etc.

what im getting at is that even a small handful of new items can help us expand the text greatly. and yeah, those baseball america's from the 70s are great, just a bit hard to track down

[BruceM]

I like a lot of what you have there, but have to disagree with this one:

these last 4 appear as manager news categories only. i would like to see them as league news, since it is fairly common for players to gripe publicly. makes for interesting copy and as always, variety.

I have seen on several occasions in league news where a player is demanding a trade or is unhappy.


Realistically, I think it's often enough as it is now. Players rarely gripe publicly. Most common is there's a lot of back and forth going on between the player and management, and only if the player feels he's being slighted or unappreciated does he start griping to the media.

These type of news items in league news should be rare, such as they are now.

[Eugene Church]

Thank you for taking the time to do this.

You have many good suggestions and ideas. Some are feasible, but some probably would require a lot programming and may not make the cut.

These are the ones that might get put in...I'm just guessing...knowing how Markus has worked on News and PBP the last two versions.

game news/5plus_runs "Henderson scores 5" (condition: game_batter_runs_min)
game news/3plus_doubles "Buckner smacks 3 doubles" (condition: game_batter_doubles_min)
game news/3plus_triples "Wilson hits 3 triples" (condition: game_batter_triples_min)
game news/7plus_rbi "Fernandez drives in 7" (condition: game_batter_rbi_min)
game news/4plus_sb "Henderson swipes 4" (game_batter_sb_min)
game news/15plus_k "Clemens fans 16" (game_pitcher_k_min)

It would be nice to have team winning streaks covered game-by-game, but this may be difficult to program. As you said they used to report a player's hitting streak in each game in OOTP 6.51.

It has been requested that a game score differential condition be put in the game, so that the story would indicate a close game or a runaway.

It has been requested that each playoff game be reported in the news or at least a wrapup of each series.

Right now all we have is a news story for the championship series, but it only gives the score of the deciding game and the series results.

Good suggestions. I hope some of it can be added.

[Corsairs]

I'd also love to see an expansion of the text in OOTP 9. What's there is a good start, but it's still fairly sparse. It's up to the individual to fill in the gaps. Nothing wrong with exercising your own creativity, but it'd be great to see the game assist you in this with a more robust news system.

[blackrussian]

eugene, thx for forwarding this to the beta team. i know there have been a few additions to the database the past few years but largely, the bulk of the text (in terms of the categories/conditions etc) has remained fairly static. i think its an area a bit overdue for some attention. its fairly disappointing to see that there are essentially 7 events that generate game news stories (cycle, shutout, no-hitter, perfect game, 3 HR game, 4 HR game and 5+ hit game), most of which you dont see much because they are relatively rare. so you end up reading about shutouts most of the time which gets boring quick. so im gonna continue lobbying for more options

[Eugene Church]

Originally Posted by blackrussian

eugene, thx for forwarding this to the beta team. i know there have been a few additions to the database the past few years but largely, the bulk of the text (in terms of the categories/conditions etc) has remained fairly static. i think its an area a bit overdue for some attention. its fairly disappointing to see that there are essentially 7 events that generate game news stories (cycle, shutout, no-hitter, perfect game, 3 HR game, 4 HR game and 5+ hit game), most of which you dont see much because they are relatively rare. so you end up reading about shutouts most of the time which gets boring quick. so im gonna continue lobbying for more options

I agree with your assessment. Basically all you read is shutout stories.

The game needs a lot of improvements in the News. We are very slowly getting there.

One of the best new features of recent vintage IMO is the Game Write-up feature.

What I do is write my own news stories after each game. I recap every one of them. That way I can cover team winning and losing streaks...players hitting streaks...new team and individual records...etc.

I will be able to cover each playoff game and the all-star game.

You can also create your own news stories, too.

[blackrussian]

Originally Posted by Eugene Church

I agree with your assessment. Basically all you read is shutout stories.

The game needs a lot of improvements in the News. We are very slowly getting there.

One of the best new features of recent vintage IMO is the Game Write-up feature.

What I do is write my own news stories after each game. I recap every one of them. That way I can cover team winning and losing streaks...players hitting streaks...new team and individual records...etc.

I will be able to cover each playoff game and the all-star game.

You can also create your own news stories, too.

yeah, i like those features a lot as well, esp. because it makes me slow down the sims a little to write things up, so i can get much more into following the details of the league. it just helps me maintain interest in the league that much more. i dont write every game up, but ive taken to picking a "game of the week" based on some rivalry or great pitching match up and giving that the newspaper treatment as it were.