Unprotect 6/Unprotect-6.0.iso/update/fpsbb101/readme.101

Text File | 1994-12-01 | 21.0 KB | 470 lines

Front Page Sports: Baseball '94             Version 1.01 Patch

This file details the fixes and changes made to Baseball '94 version
1.00W by the 1.01 patch.

Table of Contents
   I  Installation Instructions
  II  Game Sounds and Free Conventional Memory
 III  Bugs Fixed in Version 1.01
  IV  New Features Added in Version 1.01

---------------------------------------------------------------------
   I  Installation Instructions

The Baseball '94 version 1.01 patch is distributed both on 3.5" diskette
and in a self-extracting file downloadable from the Sierra BBS,
Compuserve, and America On-Line.  Installation can be performed in one
of three ways, depending on where the patch and game files are located.

Before installing the patch, run CHKDSK on the drive that has Baseball
'94 installed to verify that you have at least 1,350,000 bytes of free
hard drive space needed to perform the patching process.  After the
patch has been installed, the game will occupy approximately 50k more
hard drive space than it previously occupied.

1.  If you have the patch on a 3.5" diskette in drive A: and you have
installed Baseball to the default \SIERRA\BASEBALL directory on drive
C:, you can install the patch by:

    a)  From any MS-DOS(r) prompt, type:  A: [enter]

    b)  Type:  UPDATE [enter]

    c)  Carefully read and follow the instructions as they appear
        on the screen.


2.  If you have the patch on a diskette in either drive A: or B:, or if
you have installed Baseball '94 to a drive and/or directory other than
C:\SIERRA\BASEBALL, you can install the patch by:

    a)  From any MS-DOS(r) prompt, log onto the floppy drive that
        contains the Baseball '94 ver. 101 patch by typing the
        drive designation letter with a colon and press [enter].

        For example, if the patch is in floppy drive B:, type:

            B: [enter]

    b)  Start the update by using the proper command-line syntax.
        The proper command syntax is:

        UPDATE [source] [destination] [game directory]

        where:
            [source] is the letter of the floppy drive that contains
            the ver. 1.01 patch files (with or without a colon)

            [destination] is the letter of the hard drive which
            has Baseball '94 ver. 1.00W installed (with or without a
            colon)

            [game directory] is the complete path to the Baseball '94
            ver. 1.00W installation (with or without the leading
            backslash, cannot have a trailing backslash)

        For example:

            UPDATE B D: \GAMES\BASEBALL  -or-
            UPDATE B: D GAMES\BASEBALL

        will install the patch from floppy drive B: to the game on the
        D: drive in the \GAMES\BASEBALL directory.

    c)  Carefully read and follow the instructions as they appear
        on the screen.


3.  You can copy the patch files to the Baseball '94 (be sure to copy
all the files, not just the ones that start with "patch").  You can then
install the patch by:

    a)  Change to the drive and directory that contains Baseball '94
        ver. 1.00W.

    b)  Type:  UPDATE [enter]

    c)  Carefully read and follow the instructions as they appear
        on the screen.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
  II  Game Sounds and Free Conventional Memory

Additional memory buffers were required to fix some of the problems
associated with sound generation.  Because of this, long sound samples
cannot be played on systems with only the minimum amount of conventional
memory available.  With the minimum memory available, only the bat
hitting ball, ball hitting glove, and short OUT calls are played.  As
conventional memory is increased, the longer samples will be loaded into
memory and played.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
 III  Bugs Fixed in Version 1.01

Following is a list of bugs fixed by the version 1.01 patch.  The bug
fixes are listed by area, i.e., shell or sim.

SHELL:

*  Pitchers can no longer be credited with both a Hold and a Win.

*  On the Association Statistics, the Qualifiers option has been
changed to provide more consistent filtering of players.  If Qualifiers
is selected, the statistics listing will filter out any player with
insufficient playing time for the period requested.

To qualify for weekly statistical displays batters must have at least
3.1 Plate Appearances (PA) and pitchers must have at least 1 inning
pitched (IP) for each game their team has played over the last seven
days (usually 6 or 7 games).

To qualify for seasonal statistical levels, batters must again have at
least 3.1 PA and pitchers must have at least 1 IP for each game their
team has played to that point in the season.  At the end of a standard
162 game season, batters must have 503 PA and pitchers must have 162 IP
to be qualified.

For career statistics, batters must have at least 3.1 PA and pitchers
must have at least 1 IP for each game in a full season schedule times
the number of years the association has been in existence (maximum of 8
years).  Therefore during the 2nd year of an association with a 162 game
schedule, batters must have at least 1005 PA to qualify, and during the
8th (and each subsequent season) they must have at least 4098 PA to
qualify.

Note that the qualification levels are absolute, therefore even though a
player may lead the league in a category such as home runs (HR), he will
not show up in the display unless he has sufficient playing time, or the
"All Players" option is chosen instead of the "Qualifiers" option.

*  Occasionally, All-Star game player determination got confused with
regards to closers, resulting in an assert with a player.cpp:679
message.

*  If you started a draft with at least 1 human controlled team, quit
the draft at some point after selecting a player for the human
controlled team, changed the League to a DH league and then went to that
team's Defensive Lineup roster screen, the game would assert with a
tmroster.cpp: 1810 or 2115 message.

*  48 team associations would have a garbage name for the last team in
the first season's free agent draft, preventing continuation of the
draft.  This has been fixed to prevent its occurrence in the future,
however, associations with this condition already are corrupted and
cannot be continued.

*  In some cases, players with day-to-day injuries could not be placed
on the DL.

*  Sometimes players put on the DL would show as having gone on
January 1 and would not heal.

*  If you had teams from two different 48-team associations selected
on the Exhibition Setup screen and went to the Game Preferences screen,
the game would assert with a roster.cpp:400 message.

*  If you went to the Propose Trade screen, selected player criteria
that eliminated all players, canceled the Criteria Selection screen
without selecting valid criteria, then changed to the "Show Players to
Receive" option and double clicked on a team, part of the warning dialog
box would appear, but without an OK button, thus locking up the game.

*  The League Standings were incorrectly rounding the displayed
won-lost percentage.

*  When a trade was proposed, the receiving team's Team News screen "no
current transactions" text would disappear, leaving a blank box.  This
has been fixed so that the text will remain until the following day
when the trade proposal is cleared by the league offices and presented
to the receiving team.

*  Pitchers were making too many appearances in a season.  This has
been adjusted by reducing the amount of pitches recovered on the day
after pitching.  Pitchers will still recover their full allotment of
pitches within 5 days.

*  48 of the players in the MLBPA94 association had incorrect batting
or throwing hands specified.  This has been corrected in both the
shipping stock association and in the default association.

*  When using DataIn, the potential ratings for players were being
calculated when the base ratings were first calculated, making it
possible for the actual ratings to be higher than the potential ratings,
resulting in a sudden decrease of that player's actual ratings during
the first spring training.  Potential ratings are now calculated when
the player is saved and are based on the ratings as displayed.

*  The vs. Left/vs. Right stat on the League Standings screen was
incorrectly showing the record for the teams own starters rather than
opponent starting pitchers.

*  The exclamation point (!) on the championship screen text was not
tied to the last word of the text resulting in the possibility that the
exclamation mark would be on a line by itself with the right combination
of team, coach, and championship trophy names.

*  When new associations were created, the starting pitcher pointer
and pitcher's Pitches Available were not being reset.  This would also
sometimes result in an lu_tmr.cpp: 3347 or lu_start.cpp: 588 assert when
changes were made to the computer selected starting pitcher.

*  If you tried to set go to Preferences from within an initial player
draft screen, the game would assert with a pref.cpp: 216 message.

*  Boxscores were printing with a space at the end of each line for a
total of 81 characters per line.  On some dot-matrix printers this was
resulting in double-spacing of the boxscore printouts.

*  After successful trades or free agent signings, the computer would
assign the players directly onto the roster regardless of human control.
The computer will now only remove players from the batting orders and
rosters when injured with a 100% severity or when reassigned out of an
active slot.

*  The Pitches Available are now being updated to display the maximum
number of available pitches for all pitchers between seasons in career
associations, rather than after the completion of spring training.

*  The Reassign Players function was not working properly with the
end-of season 40-man roster resulting in the loss of players from teams.

*  Trade valuing has been modified to help prevent robbing a computer
opponent of a superstar by simply offering 3 "nobody" players.  The
second best player on any side of a trade proposal is only valued at 50%
of his normal value and the 3rd best is only valued at 25% or normal
trade value now.


SIM:

*  On some configurations with sounds enabled, the game would lock up
at the transition between the BPI and the arcade.  The sound sample is
now being cut off if it has not been completely played when the
transition is required.  Additionally, sounds should not start if there
is insufficient time to complete them.

*  The blue fence in the BPI at Jacobs has been changed to the correct
green color.

*  Offensive numbers, particularly home runs, were grossly inflated.
Bat speed has been reduced to bring the numbers into line with expected
totals for modern baseball.

*  Adjustments were made to the swing and pitch selection AI for
batters and pitchers in the BPI.  This should result in less foul balls,
less swinging strikes, more called strikes, and more realistic hitting
averages and ERAs.

*  Manager AI for pinch hitting and relief pitching has been improved.
Pitchers that will be brought out of the game in the next half inning
are now being pinch hit for.

*  Fielder AI has been improved.  Fielders now have a lesser chance of
attempting to make a putout on the lead runner, particularly if it is
not a force situation.  With 1 and 2 outs, computer controlled fielders
will have a greater chance of taking the easiest force out.

*  Batter AI has been improved with regard to swing type selection and
swing determination.  Computer controlled batters will no longer attempt
a bunt with 2 strikes.

*  Computer controlled batters with high CH and SP ratings will now
attempt to bunt for a base hit more often.

*  Fastballs are now harder to hit.  The ability to make good contact
on a good fastball pitch was reduced.  Poor contact will result in more
pop ups and topped ground balls.  Good contact will still usually result
in a long fly ball.

*  Outfielders now have a lesser chance of throwing home and allowing
the batter/runner to advance to second.  Fielders will still attempt the
throw when there is a good chance of getting an out at home and there is
no chance of getting an out anywhere else.

*  Cutoff men will now let throws go through to the plate, unless they
are intending to throw to another base to make a putout on another
runner.

*  A couple of possible roster moves in games (usually involving
double-switches), would result in an assert during stats processing
with a gameout.cpp: 575 or 907 message.  These are now being handled
properly.

*  If a team used all available pitchers, the game would assert with a
roster2.c:2325 message.  It will now properly put a position player on
the mound.

*  In some double-switch situations, relief pitchers were being
displayed in an incorrect order in the batting section of the boxscore.

*  Earned run and run crediting was incorrectly crediting relievers
with a run with the earned run being assigned to the previous pitcher.
This has been fixed to assign both runs and earned runs to the proper
pitcher.

*  Picking off baserunners with long leads at 2nd was automatic.  This
has been fixed so that only slower runners with long leads against
pitchers with good Hold Runner ratings can be picked off.

*  Occasionally when in One Pitch Mode, the game would drop out of OPM
and would allow more than 4 balls or 3 strikes to a batter.

*  Standard mode and computer controlled substitutions in One Pitch
Mode were not working properly by either overriding the user's choice or
canceling the substitution before the resolution of the plate
appearance.

*  When playing with keyboard only, any keypress would clear the
substitution screens and stat banners.  This is now fixed so the
keyboard is treated the same as a joystick for these screens.

*  The stat banners shown at the beginning of a pitcher's first
appearance in a game were showing the season-to-date number of OUTS
rather than innings pitched (IP).

*  Forced baserunners now break with the pitch on 3 ball, 2 strike
pitches with 2 outs.

*  If you attempted a snap throw from the catcher, the arcade would
assert with selected.c: 267 error message.

*  Wild pitches and passed balls were incorrectly being counted as
errors.

*  Pitchers were not covering first base on balls hit to the first
baseman.

*  Viewing a replay during an exhibition game would reset the turf
type to the default type if it had been changed during the game.  You
may change the turf type during exhibition games and it will no longer
be reset when going to the VCR.

*  If a file other than a valid stadium file was in the STADIA
directory the game would assert with a volume.c: 40 error message.

*  Earned runs were not always being assigned to valid players
(usually because of a relief pitching event), resulting in an earnedr.c:
226 assert message.

*  Players with 100% injury severity were being remaining in the
game because they were the only qualified players at their position.
All 100% injury results will now cause the removal of the player from
the game.

*  Game lengths in the boxscores have been reduced to a more normal
level (around 2 1/2 hours for a typical 9 inning game).

*  Stadium surface type is now saved with saved Exhibition games if the
surface was changed from the default type for that stadium.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
  IV  New Features Added in Version 1.01

In addition to fixing the programming errors in the game, the following
features have either been added to the game, or have been modified to
make the game more enjoyable.

*  The batter uniform number and skin tone detail toggle has been added
to the F3 detail screen as a permanent detail setting.

*  Teams created with DataIn will now have a random default color
rather than always being red.  You can still change the uniform color of
teams at any time.

*  Stadium file names have been changed to a more consistent naming
convention, i.e., the name of the city.  The stadium names have been
changed in the default and MLBPA94 associations, however for other
associations, each team's stadium model must be re-selected.  If the
stadium model is left blank on the Team Data screen, the first stadium
found in the STADIA directory will be used.

*  The Wrigley Field stadium has been enhanced with additional graphic
detail.

*  Monitors with blanking circuitry present a problem when switching
from the 640x480x16 BPI screen to the 320x200x256 arcade screen.  There
is nothing that can be done to eliminate the blanking which is
completely controlled by hardware, but the effect on the game can be
reduced by using the new -wx parameter when starting Baseball.  "X" is
the number of tenths of seconds that the game will pause on the first
frame of the 320x200x256 arcade screen after transitioning from the BPI.
For example, if the game is started by typing:

                    PLAYBALL -W12 [enter]

the lo-res screen will pause for 12/10ths of a second (1.2 seconds) on
the first frame of each play.  The purpose of this is to cause the game
to wait until the blanking process is completed before continuing the
play.  The amount of delay depends upon the specific hardware involved.
You should experiment with the delay period until plays are starting
with the ball just off the bat when the monitor blanking is completed.

*  When a free agent claim or trade proposal is submitted, a message
box will now appear confirming your submission.

*  The inning update box that is displayed at the start of each half
inning, now shows the next 3 batters due up along with their positions.

*  The Playoff screen now displays the round number for each round of
multiple round playoffs.

*  DataIn now contains normalization factors for the 1994 season.

*  In response to the overwhelming number of requests for fictional
player associations, we are shipping an alternate player generation
table along with batch files to activate and deactivate it.  Some users
have already discovered the trick to creating associations composed
entirely of generated free agents, but normally, the free agents
generated by the game are in the very poor to average range, resulting
in very poor player ratings throughout the association until quality
players can be developed in the minor leagues.

Rather than rendering player development through the minor league system
useless by changing the default player generation table in the game's
data volumes, we are providing an alternate player attribute generation
table in the form of an external file.  If this file, PGENTABL.DAT, is
in the game directory, the game will ignore the built in table and will
use the values in the external file instead.

This alternate player attribute generation file has modified values for
the generation of Free Agents only (amateur player generation is
unaffected).  When players are generated to stock a new association,
they will have attributes and abilities ranging from very poor to very
good, with the majority being average.  Ages will range from 17 to 42
with the majority being in the 26 to 30 year range.

Creating a new association composed entirely of fictional generated
free agent players is a 3 step process:

  1)  Using DataIn, create one or more single team associations.  You
may create one single team association to use as the source team for
your fictional association and rename the teams after the association is
created.  Do not create any players for these single team associations,
the game will generate the players it needs.

  2)  From within the game directory, type: FADRAFT [ENTER].  This will
create the PGENTABL.DAT in the game directory.

  3)  Run Baseball and create a new association of the type and size
desired.  Select the empty single team association created in step 1 as
the New Source Association and copy the team into all new team slots in
all the leagues and divisions of the new association.  When you are done
copying the blank team into all the team slots, select the CONTINUE
button on the screen.  When you are asked whether you wish to dump all
the players into a pool for initial drafting, click the YES button.

Baseball will generate enough free agent players to allow for 40 or 50
rounds of drafting (depending on whether the association is a single-
season or career type).  Since the players are generated using separate
first name, last name, and attribute data files, each new fictional
association will be unique.

When you are finished creating your new fictional association, you
should remove the PGENTABL.DAT file from the game directory to restore
the stock player generation values.  To do this you may simply delete
the file PGENTABL.DAT or type: REGDRAFT [ENTER] to have this done for
you by the batch file.

---------------------------------------------------------------------