"no rating record found" bug - please advise

[stevebydac]

I've emailed support a couple of times but got no reply. Perhaps someone here can help me???

I bought this game 2 weeks ago and like it a lot. However, I've run into a big problem and don't know how to fix it. When I open up the game, I had set the game to ask me in a popup window what today's fight date is. Worked fine for about 10 days.

But now, I instead get a popup that says "No rating record found for (NAME OF FIGHTER)! An empty rating record will be created. OK?" If I click "yes", something (I don't know what) happens to the fighter asked about, and the next fighter's name appears with the same question. Apparently this just keeps going and going... If I say "cancel" I am booted out of the game. I have no other option. I am unable to play the game.

Can anyone help me? I don't want to lose my fighter records that I've built up.

[JCWeb]

This began occuring about 3-4 months ago and I did contact tech support once about the issue -- they informed me the message means your database is damaged or corrupted and you need to resort to a backup (or worse case, reinstall the program or at least insert that backup file that you aren't supposed to edit). What the message means is the ratings for all the fighters are wiped out but good news is the history files and records are probably still there. Bad news is that if you haven't made the backups, getting the ratings in the same files as your active fighters' histories is tricky and will probably take some time. (When I first experienced the problem, I had to re-enter just about all the fighters I had created by hand, at least for those active fighters -- others I subsequently imported from TBCB1 or other sources).

after a couple of frustrating time-consuming experience reconstructing rating records for various fighters, here is what I do:

any time I change the database by adding, deleting or editing a fighter's rating record, I then go to where the data is stored (in my case it's something like C drive, program files, then OOTP Developments and then TCBC2, and look for the file named "ratingrecords.dat" which should be under "data" for the active database ("my database" is the default name, I think). Then I click copy and paste the copy to the same folder (if you want to be extra careful, I guess you could copy it to another folder, too.)

Then if you experience this problem or a crash, then go to where you have the backup file (and you can see by the number of MB or whatever that the damaged file is alot less) and first delete the damaged file and then insert the backup with the same name -- ratingrecords.dat -- this has worked for me because what you are substituting is a copy of the uncorrupted file. (It took me awhile to figure this out mostly on my own without a great bit of tech support help). However, in the half dozen or so times I've had to do this it has resolved the problem fairly quickly.

If you are experiencing the problem now or in the future, I think the immediate thing to do is to hit CTL-ALT-DEL and then exit TBCB2 completely rather than click on the screen each time a boxer's name with the same message appears. Then go to the C drive where you game is installed and assess the damage by comparing the size of the ratingrecords.dat file to the backup file. If it's not alot, then you can switch over the backup. You still may have to enter some rating records by hand if the ratings have been zeroed out for your active fighters where you want to keep their history and stats, etc. For the inactive fighters, you can import them from the default backup database or some other source since you don't care about the stats or histories at that point.

I'm not sure what causes this problem -- I have only experienced it with TBCB2 and not the earlier version. I do not get any indication I am reaching the limits of my system's memory, but that's possible. Also it could be lingering effects of some computer virus issues from earlier in the year that just happened to corrupt the database. (One of the things I noticed is that the history file is located in a separate location from the rating records in TCBC2 and this is not the case I think for TCBC1.) It has happened about four or five times since but now I have the knowledge from bitter experience to just deal with the situation as calmly as possible -- Just the lesson to be learned is better to be safe than sorry. Wish the tech support here was a bit better, though.

For your additional edification, I have inserted a copy of the original response from Andreas at OOTP when I raised this issue:

"Probably your TB database is damaged! This can happen when the computer crashes or is switched off for any reason during playing.
> >
> > If you're having a backup of your data (which is always a good idea, especially when working with databases), just restore the content of the /data folder, which is inside the TB program directory.
> >
> > Otherwise you need to use a new database. There are two ways to do this:
> > <br><br>
> > - Re-Install the game. This is the easiest way, but you will loose all your TB data which you probably created meanwhile, and if the reason for the crash wasn't the database, you lost it for nothing.
> > <br><br>
> > - Create a new database: <br>
> > Locate the file config.ini in your Title Bout program folder.
> > <br>
> > Double click on it to open it and locate the line which starts with Database=
> > <br>
> > Change the name behind the = to any new name like this: <br>
> > Database=NEWDB1<br>
> > <br>
> > Save and close the file, and restart the game. The new database will be created based on the "Default" database, which is never used itself by the program.
> >
> > Please think about making backups in the future."


Hope this helps. Post here if your experience differs.

[stevebydac]

Thank you very much for your help! It's been really frustrating not getting an answer from the company, despite multiple emails, posts...

I'll give your suggestions a try and report my results back here. No matter what, I really appreciate your willingness to give me a hand!! Best of luck to you!

[stevebydac]

Well, nothing worked.

Three emails, plus two posts here, and no response from the company. This is from people who promised support within two days.

I'm contacting VISA and taking this charge off my card. The game is worthless if I can't use it, and they don't want to help, so I'm getting my money back.

[David Ball]

I have been having a good deal of trouble with this lately. I got TB last summer, upgraded to the new version in the fall and have been playing happily since then. Two or three times I ran into the "no rating record found" and had to reinstall. I had been running universes from time to time but only experimenting in small ways with various formats, so I didn't mind starting from scratch and didn't bother with backups.

Then a couple of weeks ago the no rating records problem happened again, and since then it's been recurring frequently. When I try to put in a backup it doesn't seem to help matters, and if I wind up having to reinstall. When I do that, the problem goes away, but only until I've made a fair number of changes in the way of fighter downloads and group reorganizations. Then I get the "no rating record" problem again and have to start from scratch.

So I've got two questions. First of all, is there some way to deal with this problem more effectively than constantly putting in back ups?

The second question probably reveals the very narrow limits of my understanding of computers, but perhaps for that reason it will be all the easier for other people to help me with it. What exactly is it I'm supposed to be backing up? I got the idea it was just the ratingsrecords.dat file, but that doesn't seem to work. Should I be backing up the entire folder for the database I'm currently using, or even the entire TB2 folder?

I'd greatly appreciate any help I can get with this. As things stand, the game is going to be little use to me except to run occasional fights without the structire of a universe -- which would be a shame, since I've enjoyed it greatly.

[JCWeb]

At the end of every session where I make changes by adding or editing a fighter, I copy the ratingsrecord.dat file which makes a new file called "ratingrecords.dat"--making sure to replace any older version so I don't get confused as to which is the updated one. Then if I run into a problem such as you are experiencing, I shut down the program, go to the file and then take the copy, renaming it as "ratingrecords.dat" after deleting the what is now corrupted file. Then the program should restart without a problem--at least that is what has worked for me. I have recently being doing the same with the "fighters.dat" file as well as I have been changing career modes and other data and want to keep it up to date. This extra amount of time is well-worth it considering the alternative of having to manually reconfigure the ratings records of several hundred active boxers. (If you try to just copy them, then I find it wipes out the history file which of coutse won't do for your active fighters--less of an issue with retired or inactive fighters.)

Now, there is a file there called ratingrecords.bak that may be the automated backup, and it may do all this for you automatically, but I'm not sure how often it's updated so to be on the safe side, I do this manual backup process when I know significant changes have been made.

Hope this helps. I agree with the above poster that the tech support folks have not done enough to address this issue, which may well be a bug with TBCB2 since several have reported it now.

[sabotai]

Question to those having this problem (well, 2, maybe 3)

How many fighters do you have in your database?

Have you imported any fighters from Cornerwork.com or found in the forums, and if so, do you remember which ones (What downloads/threads)?

Does there seem to be any connection between the fighters that this error occurs for (Are they in the same group, wieght class)?

I too just started running into this problem and am trying to determine if there is a common factor involved.

Also, have you noticed if this happens after doing anything specific? Deleting/creating/importing a lot of fighters? Deleting/Adding groups?

[JohnnyBench]

My experience has been that this occurs when a fighter has been edited to be another fighter (Ie. In order to have a fictional fighter, I change Mike Tyson to say Billy Willis). I don't really do anything but change the name, hometown etc. nothing major.

I play a while with Billy Willis and he does great! Later I decide to import the real Mike Tyson or change Mike Tyson to another fictional character and import him. When I do, The above "no fighter record, etc." comes. If you import the real one you have real problems, both rating records get mixed up!

Basically, what I am saying is that if this is happening, you probably have a fighter that someone "created" by only changing a name. Confusing the game when the real fighter is either imported or after the game is closed and re-opened.

I don't know if you call this a damaged database or not. Because deleting the whole database and reloading the SAME database will not fix it, You will eventually run into the problem again since in essence the problem is having a duplicate fighter that will eventually surface again. I found that the only thing that works is to either delete or not use one of the duplicate fighters.

Not saying this is the only problem, just saying it has been my cause of this problem.

[David Ball]

It's a little hard to answer Sabotai's question, as it's "all of the above" to a greater or lesser degree. For example, when this problem started I had a great many fighters I had imported greedily from a couple of threads and a variety of files on Cornerworks. As it recurred, I was using fewer and fewer, and the last time it came up I probably only had a hundred imports or so.

However, what Johnny Bench says really rings a bell. I have been cloning fighters myself essentially in this way for a couple of reasons. I can't remember the timing very precisely, but I think I started doing it in a fairly large way probably just before the problem started the first time. I also cloned one just before the last bout of problems started. I will try doing without the copying and see how that goes.

Thanks to everyone for your help. I really regret these problems, because I've really enjoyed the game as long as it was working well; also have enjoyed lurking at this forum and learning so much from people who know more than I about TB and a lot more about boxing.

[JCWeb]

In response to the above inquiry, I first noticed these problems within about two weeks or so of transferring the database from TBCB1 to TBCB2. Never ran into these issues with TBCB1 in about four months or so with probably almost the same number of fighters. (Had some occasional crashes, but never lost or corrupted an entire database.) I think it may have something to do with the fact that the ratingsrecords.dat file has its own file folder in TBCB2 and it doesn't in TBCB1 (everything there is lumped into I think the "fighters.dat" file). For some reason (and I'm sure it was a good one) they broke out the ratingsrecord.dat file into a separate file/folder with TBCB2 and my own uneducated guess (I definitely am no computer whiz as those who know me can attest) is that this may have something to do with what causes these problems.

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by JCWeb

I think it may have something to do with the fact that the ratingsrecords.dat file has its own file folder in TBCB2 and it doesn't in TBCB1 (everything there is lumped into I think the "fighters.dat" file). For some reason (and I'm sure it was a good one) they broke out the ratingsrecord.dat file into a separate file/folder with TBCB2 and my own uneducated guess (I definitely am no computer whiz as those who know me can attest) is that this may have something to do with what causes these problems.

The reason they seperated it was so that each fighter can have more than one Ratings Record. If everything stayed in one file...it'd be a mess. The file would have to be completely recreated if one thing changed (An RR added/deleted). SO they had to seperate them.

Thanks for the responses guys. The importing of a fighter already in the database (and clicking No to create a new fighter) really sounds like the only plausable reason for this to happen. It makes the most sense. Something is going wrong when that new record is being created.

I'll post this in the beta forums as well and hopefully Andreas can take a look at it. I ask you to be patient since, unfortunately, he's spread pretty thin between TB2 and OOTP6. And since OOTP6 seems to be in sort of a crunch mode, he really doesn't have much time to spare for TB2 right now.

Thanks for the responses.

[JCWeb]

Just re-read my post #6 and realized I made a slight error (too late to the edit the post now). What I meant to say is that I copy the ratingrecords.dat file such that the copy is labeled "copy of ratingrecords.dat." If the problem occurs and the ratingrecords.dat file becomes corrupted, I then delete the ratingrecords.dat file and change the name of the copy to "ratingrecords.dat" and the problem is resolved. Of course, then I resume the process by copying the file again immediately. Hope this is clear -- if not, ask questions.

[Andreas Raht]

Gentlemen, please accept my apologies for not helping you earlier. Sabotai already described the reason. Sorry!
I'm currently building a new setup file, to be released today or tomorrow as a public beta. I will have a close look at the import routine now.

Please make backups. It's a database where TB2 stores the fighter data, stats, and history. And databases on computers might get inconsistent in case of hardware or software failure. Always back up the complete database folder. It is a folder inside the directory /data. The folder has the same name as your database, like for example /data/mydb. Right click on mydb, click on "Copy", then right click to another folder, and click on "Paste". You might even insert the copy into the /data folder, which will automatically create a new database for TB2 (each folder in /data is a TB2 database).

Please don't get me wrong - I believe the rating record problem is a bug. But even if we get it fixed, making backups is always important.

[JCWeb]

Just today, out of the blue, without warning, I was hit by the bug again. Have no idea the cause. Of course, because I had the backups in place, I was able to exit from the program and then delete the corrupted files, restore the key "ratingrecords.dat" file into place and also make new backups, and then in about 5-10 minutes the game was up and running as if nothing had happened. I thought I would describe the experience --this time while it is still fairly fresh in my mind -- so as to perhaps offer some assistance to others (in addition to the advice set forth in some prior posts) and hopefully maybe some guidance to Andreas or whomever at OOTP might look into actually fixing the darn thing. Keep in mind of course I do not profess to be a computer expert.

It's been some time since I added new boxers to the database (so I don't see that as the cause). I had exited the program the night before, shut down the computer, then started it up after shutting down internet traffic (something I also do when running TB because of concerns about computer virus attacks). The first indication something was wrong was a message that the program could not find the required "nations.dat" file. Then after loading stuff up a bit (it seemed to repeat the initialization process a second time) I got a message that it could not find the required file "fighters.dat"--this time a sign that something was really wrong. There was a message about needing to exit from the program and then I saw the dreaded message about not finding a rating record. I then started the process of exiting from the program (using Task Manager brought up by control-alt-delete as trying to exit the usual way would not work) and then, once exited, I went to the "My Computer" screen that had all my hard disk files and found all the data files intact except for the "ratingrecords.dat" file which was down to just 2 KB compared to something like 1348 KB for the backup copy. I then just deleted the 2 KB file, renamed the backup "ratingrecords.dat" and then copied it to a new backup file, and restarted the game with no problem.

Again, I hope the folks at OOTP will look into this as I still believe it's the most serious bug relating to the game, and one that I have experienced repeatedly -- I'd say at least once or twice a month on average, and which I have overcome only with a great deal of patience after some great initial frustration, and obviously from the post of others here it is probably not (as I had believed initially) related to something unique about my computer's setup or something like that.