OOTP--The Rules to Live by

[Honorable_Pawn]

Welcome to OOTP


Over the last few versions of OOTP we have seen a very large influx of new players. Obviously they haven't participated in the many discussions that we have had over the years. Therefore, I thought it would be helpful to our new members and perhaps to some of our veterans to list the most-important topics related to OOTP.

Without further ado...


Rule #1 Back-up your game!! Every 3,000 miles no matter what.
Rule #2 Don't change settings unless you know exactly what they do.




Can we sticky this?

[Honorable_Pawn]

Discussion

Rule#1

Even if you never need a back-up you need a back-up. It only takes a minute or two. Even if you have a large league and an old rig...10 minutes tops. Even if you don't know how to restore a back-up or even what a back-up is you still need to back-up your game. If you ever need to restore a back-up and you were wise enough to follow the rules we can walk you through the process of a restore.

You need to back-up your game.

Personally, I back-up at the start of the regular season at the All-Star break and at the end of the season. I keep back-ups for about 2 seasons just incase I have to go waaay back. Some of our veterans people back-up more frequently and save them on discs forever. The rule of thumb is to back-up as much as you are willing to lose. Although losing 1/2 season would kill me I wouldn't die over it.


Rule #2

If you want to tweak settings it's ok. Just don't do it on your main-playing league. Take 2 minutes and 43 seconds and create a tester league with the same settings as your playing-league and see if you like the results on the tester before you make the change on your main league.

Even if you like the changes on your tester implement them gradually in your main playing-league.

I'm sure others vets around here will add to The Rules but these 2 are the most-important.

[battists]

I would add to the backup topic: please consider making sure your backup is on a different drive then the game. I have had several cases in my life as an OOTPer where a drive failed, and on at least one occasion, both my league and the backup were on the same drive, and I lost everything.

[Honorable_Pawn]

I am currently guilty of this. My most recent back-ups need to be moved.

Thanks for the reminder.

[The Game]

Lately i have been just keeping one backup on my X-Drive and I make 2-3 per season.I have not had to use them since OOTP 13 and since i got my new PC last May. I back up OD, just before the EBL World Series and again right after I edit my incoming rookies/amateur draft. Other leagues i tend to backup every January 1st.

[RchW]

I'll propose rule 3. Clean up your league file each Jan 1 (game date) after making a backup. Cleaning up means deleting box scores, gamelogs messages, replays and text logs. The backup file remains as your keeper if you want to review the past season. I use 7zip to archive several years in one file.

Cleaning up each year reduces file size improves loading and sim speed and I claim reduces crashing, though I have no direct evidence. This can be done with a very simple DOS batch file.

Edit:

Here is a text file example. Batch files are executable and dangerous so they can't be uploaded. Put the text file into your league folder and rename it with the extension .bat.

[Honorable_Pawn]

Yeah, for sure, it's a good idea to back-up a dynasty report league more often.

[Honorable_Pawn]

Originally Posted by RchW

I'll propose rule 3. Clean up your league file each Jan 1 (game date) after making a backup. Cleaning up means deleting box scores, gamelogs messages, replays and text logs. The backup file remains as your keeper if you want to review the past season. I use 7zip to archive several years in one file.

Cleaning up each year reduces file size improves loading and sim speed and I claim reduces crashing, though I have no direct evidence. This can be done with a very simple DOS batch file.

This is only if you don't check "keep 2 years" right?

[RchW]

Originally Posted by Honorable_Pawn

This is only if you don't check "keep 2 years" right?

That doesn't matter as you should keep the big file as your final backup. I'd guess that the bat file could be tweaked to delete specific logs. Not sure but I've not missed anything important AFAIK.

You could do this on a 2 year cycle. No rules really.

[Honorable_Pawn]

Ok, anybody second the motion?

[NoOne]

Backups:

have multiple backups. append the date or some description at the end of the league name. i also just have a general backup (a season-in-progress file) i use after each game session. also, you don't need a "full" bakcup. save some space.

so i might have-

<league name>-2015 start.lg
<league name>-2015 all-star game.lg
<league name>-2015 end of season.lg
<league name>-2015 XXXX settings changed.lg

and a file i copy over often:

<league name>-season in progress.lg
(usually a date, not "season in progress")

make one for every section of the year(Arbitration/FA/day before preseason etc), if you want. there have been times that i get to april and i realize i forgot to change ticket prices or some other SOP - not to do with failed trades or cheating, but each to their own. it is a game, not open heart surgery.

like others said, use a backup copy to test settings changes. even while being diligent about this, you may want to revert a change on occasion. it's good to use your actual league backup as a new league name, so that you better understand all ramifications of the change. turn 'do not disturb' on and try to not peek at drafts and team-related things to cheat :P

[NoOne]

Originally Posted by Honorable_Pawn

Ok, anybody second the motion?

if space is an issue, sure. i realize not all can spend frivously, but mechanical hdd are very cheap, nowadays..

some tips on mechanical HDD: do not rely on rpm to determine what to buy. aerial density is the other part of the equation. there are many 5400rpm drives that blow 7200rpm drives out of the water. also, they are quieter, more efficient, and generally produce less heat. it doesn't have to work as hard to cover the same amount of data.

high rpm drives are for people that aren't well versed in computers and insecure people who overcompensate for other things

[RchW]

Originally Posted by NoOne

if space is an issue, sure. i realize not all can spend frivously, but mechanical hdd are very cheap, nowadays..

some tips on mechanical HDD: do not rely on rpm to determine what to buy. aerial density is the other part of the equation. there are many 5400rpm drives that blow 7200rpm drives out of the water. also, they are quieter, more efficient, and generally produce less heat. it doesn't have to work as hard to cover the same amount of data.

high rpm drives are for people that aren't well versed in computers and insecure people who overcompensate for other things

Last Christmas I bought a Seagate 5Tb drive for $149CAD. No idea what rpm it is but added to my other network drives and computer drives I have about 10Tb space.

Backup heaven.