BZ 1548: "Re-import Name and Ethnicity Database" is still broken
 

After extenstive tests it has become obvious that the "Re-import Name and Ethnicity Database" function in Game Setup is still broken. It works only temporarily and for one session at a time. It does not do what it is supposed to do, which is replace the name and ethnicity files in an existing league with the ones on your computer.

I have experimented with roster sets created by others, quickstarts created by others, and templates created by others. In no case was I able to make a permanent change to the name and ethnicity files by using the re-import function. It would work fine for one session, and the next session, if I failed to do an immediate re-import upon starting the league up again, names and ethnicities not in any database on my computer would appear. Last night a league, for example, was suddenly overrun with Swedes. There are no Swedish names anywhere on my computer.

This is the one thing I asked for in OOTP9. It didn't happen. The files are imported for one session only, and are not saved.

Markus, can you slay this dragon once and for all, please?

Wolf, I just ran a quick test. I put the same name in 500 times in both name files, and those came out correctly in the first amateur draft thereafter. It worked in the next two drafts as well. Then I changed the single names to another set, and those came up in the draft correctly too.

So I cannot lend support to the names portion of your complaint, as I thought I might. However, I remember from a year ago you were talking about setting up a Mexican League and your primary emphasis was on ethnicities. Here, I can lend you a hand with a simple observation.

You know how when you reload the names and ethnicities databases, it says "importing names database," etc.? Well, I commented on this in the previous version and nobody picked up on it, but I never see it say "importing ethnicities database" even though it goes by so fast in this version it's hard to tell. I ran it enough times to confirm that you don't see this message, however. It only mentions the names databases. That may be a clue.

Run this test.

1. Chop your first and last names files down to one ethnic set (Mexican is fine).

2. Chop your ethnicities down to just Mexican.

3. Start up the game. Use someone else's roster, QS, or template and start a league. Import your own Mexican-only name and ethnicity settings.

4. Quit the game.

5. Restart the game. Generate free agents. They will be mutli-ethnic, when they should all be Mexican. There will be player names among the free agents that aren't anywhere in your name files.

The import is supposed to be permnanent, but it is NOT permanent. It's one session only. This needs to be fixed.

Ahh. One "session"! I missed that. I read one "season". I will try your suggested test and post here later. I have to brush up on my ethnicity/name file interaction; haven't looked at that in a while.

Dola.

Well, that was easy. From what I can tell in my latest test, you are absolutely right, Wolf (btw, my original intention was not to question your conclusion but to lend support if I could, and now I can).

I started the game again, did my temporary hatchet job on both name files, producing one name in each 500 times, and the next amateur draft was perfect. However, when I ended the game and restarted, it was as if the names file and reverted back to what was stored in players.dat when the league was created. All my single name people survive, of course, but the next amateur draft looked quite normal. One session only, as you said.

So, I won't even bother testing the ethnicities angle. For one thing, as I mentioned, it does not even look like the game is addressing that database during reimportation. Plus, it's a good assumption that even if it were, the same thing would be happening to ethnicities as names; that is, reversion back to original values.

I suggest asking the moderators to post this in Tech Support or doing so yourself, Wolf. This should be interesting to follow.

Thanks guys for your look into this. I always read and appreciate both of your posts in regards to making sure things work as they should. Let's hope this gets addressed once and for all!

You're welcome, but I play a rather small role in that compared to Yankees' much larger one.

Hopefully Markus will sit down and fix this so it does what it's supposed to and saves properly.

I'm going to try that again with the one session. I got it to work by re-importing and simming 20 years and having a universe of all my name. My understanding is that names.dat should be saved on exit, so I'll check that out.

Trust us, Red, it's broken. Try my experiment to verify that fact, and please don't use your own method because it may not show the break - after all, you thought it already worked and it just doesn't.

Red, how did that test go?

Yep. It's kaput beyond a save...

You don't even need to exit the game, just go Save and then Load and it regresses to the old name file.

I can find the new name I used in the saved names.dat but all the other names have frequencies again...

I'll log this again.

BZ 1548

moved to Logged

Markus, this was the one thing I asked to have fixed in OOTP9. It's still broken.

PLEASE fix this once and for all. It really damages the ability to use other people's roster sets, quickstarts and templates.

We need to be able to import our own name and ethnicity files and then have them save with the game, overwriting all previous name and ethnicity files.

Thank you.

Fixed! You're right, it did not properly store the flag if the name is allowed to be used.

Markus, please let Tony M./Redsoxford test the fix. He knows how to test to see if it actually is fixed. I ask this because this bug has now been fixed three times that I know of (in 2007/8, in 9, and now) and it's kind of like the pitcher injury bug - scary and it keeps coming back.

Works in 9.1.0