The Unofficial Storyline XML Thread

[Syd Thrift]

So the beta team has promised to come out with a guide to editing the XML but 3 WHOLE DAYS IN and they haven't come out with it. So... I will go ahead and get an unofficial let's-figure-this-out sort of thing. Please feel free to add to this thread with your own discoveries.

The Format
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<STORYLINES> Everything in the file has to come in between this tag to work.

<STORYLINE id="Routine Absence - Missed Flight"> - Each individual storyline is contained in this tag. The id itself appears to be able to be just about anything; just don't repeat them. Settings you can put inside of it (meaning before the end bracket) include the following. It appears that you don't have to include all of the parameters but I don't know what the defaults are:

random_frequency="20" - How often the event occurs. The higher number means the more often but beyond that I have no idea how the game figures this out.
storyline_happens_only_once="0" - Obviously a boolean; a 1 means it happens just once, a 0 means it can happen over and over again.
min_usage_interval_days="30" - Likely the number of days that must go by before this event plays again.
in_spring="0"
in_season="1"
in_offseason="0" - More booleans. These explain themselves, I think.
league_year_min="1950" - The minimum year an event can occur. Is there a maximum year tag?
is_minor_league="0"

<REQUIRED_DATA> - This section includes the data objects that will be referenced in the upcoming stories. Objects you can have include:

<DATA_OBJECT type="PLAYER" /> - The first item on any list; this is the primary subject on the story. In the text section, you'll reference this person using [%personlink#1 f l] where f indicates the game will show the first name and l the last. The next two data objects can be similarly represented with [%personlink#2 f l] and [%personlink#3 f l].
<DATA_OBJECT type="TEAM_MATE" /> - A randomly generated(?) teammate.
<DATA_OBJECT type="MANAGER" />
<DATA_OBJECT type="TEAM" /> - Represented in the text portion by [%teamnickname].

In the initial xml, the data objects are always in this order. Are there more data objects available?

Some of the parameters that can be used to exclude players from getting some events are:

player_leadership_max="100"
player_work_ethic_min="100"
player_work_ethic_max="100"
person_greed_max="75"
player_leadership_min="180"
person_age_min="33"
person_age_max="25"
player_nationality_id="56" - In the xml, this is used to reference a foreign player. Is this a player from a specific country, or does "56" just reference "any foreigner"?

Note that, like the parameters in the opening storyline, you need to include these in the data object brackets. Can you select teammates and managers the same way you do for the player? In the opening XML, the subject player is the only person who has these parameters.

[RandyTiger]

Interesting. Thanks, Syd, that's most helpful!

[Cryomaniac]

Nation 56 is the Dominican Republic.

[NYY #23]

Interesting stuff. I didn't see this until now, but was going through the xml the other day. A couple more observations:

Morale can increase or decrease:
<ARTICLE id="3" previous_ids="1" wait_days_min="6" wait_days_max="10" morale_decrease="80">

Injury can be set:
<ARTICLE id="3" morale_increase="40" injury="1" injury_description="Personal leave" injury_length="2">

Suspensions can be set:
<ARTICLE id="1" player_work_ethic_max="80" suspension_days="2">

I don't see any other examples in the file of what can increase or decrease, but was thinking of creating a test file and league to see what I can come up with.

[Afino]

- there is a max year tag
- Data Objects also include Owner, Pitching_Coach, Hitting_Coach, League
- all of the Personalities along with Age have min and maxes
- Wait_days_min/max is the range of days in which the next story can appear
- I don't think anything but Morale can increase or decrease, but I can check.

I don't think we can select the teammate's attributes yet. I'll have to check with Andreas.

And we'll get around to that manual, our focus is (mainly) on getting a bigger file itself out for a patch.

[Cryomaniac]

Originally Posted by Afino

- I don't think anything but Morale can increase or decrease, but I can check.

A good one to add would be popularity, if it isn't there already.

[Afino]

Actually Popularity is in there as a condition, I believe.

Not sure about it increasing or decreasing though. I'll have to check on that too

[Cryomaniac]

Originally Posted by Afino

Not sure about it increasing or decreasing though. I'll have to check on that too

Yeah, it would be cool if we could increase or decrease it (maybe have the guy help a local charity or something and it helps his popularity).

[Syd Thrift]

I'd like to see some attribute increases and decreases as well. That could get rather old rather quickly but it'd still be nice to have spring training stories about a guy learning a new pitch or a hitter showing up in the best shape of his life and occasionally having it do more than a morale boost.

Thanks, Alfino, for the additional info.

[kingcharlesxii]

Any updates on the manual and/or new features in patches for the storyline engine? This is something that I'd really like to start playing around with but I've been waiting to get some more info. If it's going to be awhile, I'd like to know so that I could just get into it.

[ctorg]

Originally Posted by kingcharlesxii

Any updates on the manual and/or new features in patches for the storyline engine? This is something that I'd really like to start playing around with but I've been waiting to get some more info. If it's going to be awhile, I'd like to know so that I could just get into it.

Ditto. I was hoping we'd hear more about this by now.

[Syd Thrift]

Still waiting on updates on this. I've gone in and written a couple articles for a Spring Training Bingo storyline set but to be honest I'm a little stuck not knowing exactly what can and can't be added.

[Syt]

Originally Posted by kingcharlesxii

Any updates on the manual and/or new features in patches for the storyline engine? This is something that I'd really like to start playing around with but I've been waiting to get some more info. If it's going to be awhile, I'd like to know so that I could just get into it.

Same here. This could be a great way to breathe life into players who are currently an agglomeration of statistics and numbers but little personality. I want cases of "Manny being Manny", an uncooperative Milton Bradley type, or maybe the occasional celebrity scandal. Not too often, but enough so that some players have a life beyond their stats.

[kingcharlesxii]

I'm one that likes to test crazy edge cases so it would be really helpful if I knew exactly what I could and couldn't do with this. Can I affect multiple players with one event? An entire team? What attributes can I affect (just normal ratings or things like personality and happiness)? These are all things I'd like to know before I decide to spend a lot of hours on this.

[Cryomaniac]

Originally Posted by Syt

Same here. This could be a great way to breathe life into players who are currently an agglomeration of statistics and numbers but little personality. I want cases of "Manny being Manny", an uncooperative Milton Bradley type, or maybe the occasional celebrity scandal. Not too often, but enough so that some players have a life beyond their stats.

c.f. A-Rod supposedly sleeping with Madonna.

[Who Killed Kenny?]

Has anyone written new storylines? Is there official documentation out there yet?

[Syt]

Nope. Probably all busy working on the big update.

[ctorg]

I'm really disappointed we haven't heard much on this yet. I was hoping I could start making some custom ones and get a league started. I feel like I need to wait before starting a serious league because this feature is too cool not to include and I just know it won't be re-importable.

[RandyTiger]

Originally Posted by ctorg

i'm really disappointed we haven't heard much on this yet. I was hoping i could start making some custom ones and get a league started. I feel like i need to wait before starting a serious league because this feature is too cool not to include and i just know it won't be re-importable.

+1!

[ry1220]

Bump. Having not downloaded the patch yet, I'm curious to know if additional storylines have been added/an explanation of the XML files has been released.