Unprotect 6

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ Unprotect 6 / Unprotect-6.0.iso / update / fpsbb102 / readme.102 < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1995-02-02 | 34.1 KB | 722 lines

Front Page Sports: Baseball '94 Version 1.02 Patch This file describes the changes that the 1.02 patch makes to Baseball '94 version 1.01 as well as the changes made to version 1.00W by the 1.01 patch. CONTENTS I Installation Instructions II Game Sounds and Free Conventional Memory III Bugs Fixed in Version 1.02 IV New Features Added in Version 1.02 V Bugs Fixed in Version 1.01 VI New Features Added in Version 1.01 --------------------------------------------------------------------- I Installation Instructions The Baseball '94 version 1.02 patch is distributed both on 3.5" diskette and in a self-extracting file downloadable from the Sierra BBS, Compuserve, or America On-Line. The 1.02 patch will update both version 1.00W and 1.01 installations. 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 where Baseball '94 is installed to verify that you have at least 2,306,867 bytes of free hard drive space, which is needed to perform the patching process. After the patch has been installed, the game will occupy approximately 50k more hard drive space than it did previously. 1. If you have the patch on a 3.5" diskette in drive A: and you have installed Baseball to the default directory (C:\SIERRA\BASEBALL), you can install the patch by doing the following: 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 doing the following: a) From any MS-DOS(r) prompt, log onto the floppy drive that contains the Baseball '94 ver. 1.02 patch by typing the drive designation letter with a colon and press [enter]. For example, if the patch disk is in floppy drive B:, type: B: [enter] b) Start the update by using the following command-line syntax: UPDATE [source] [destination] [game directory] where: [source] is the letter of the floppy drive that contains the ver. 1.02 patch files (with or without a colon) [destination] is the letter of the hard drive which has Baseball '94 ver. 1.00W or 1.01 installed (with or without a colon) [game directory] is the complete path to the Baseball '94 ver. 1.00W or 1.01 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 directory where Baseball '94 is installed (be sure to copy all the files, not just the ones that start with "patch"). You can then install the patch by doing the following: a) Change to the drive and directory that contains Baseball '94 ver. 1.00W or 1.01. 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 the amount of conventional memory is increased, the longer samples will be loaded into memory and played. --------------------------------------------------------------------- III Bugs Fixed in Version 1.02 Following is a list of bugs in version 1.01 that are fixed by the version 1.02 patch. Refer to section V for a list of bugs fixed by version 1.01. * Problems with double-switches have been fixed. In some cases, player position changes were being ignored by the game and "gameinc", "roster2" and other assert messages were being generated both in the game and during game processing. * Some roster moves during games involving DHs were not being handled properly, occasionally resulting in "roster2" asserts. * The Manager Name field on the Team Data screen is now limited to 16 characters to match the field size in the database. Previously, the display field would accept 32 characters while only storing the first 16 characters, resulting in truncated manager names. * The wind direction in boxscores was being displayed opposite that of the actual game wind direction, i.e., Left and Right field were reversed. * The computer field manager will no longer order players with PH ratings greater than 40 to sacrifice bunt. * In 1st and 3rd double-steal situations, if the catcher elected to hold onto the ball, the runner at 3rd would not return to the bag, resulting in the play never ending without resetting the computer. The runner at 3rd will now return to the bag if the catcher does not throw the ball and there is no further opportunity to steal home. * The computer general manager was creating lineups with some great players (such as Barry Bonds) playing at unusual positions, usually catcher. To continue with the Barry Bonds example, this was happening because Bonds' offensive value is so great that, even with the defensive penalties applied to his starting value for not being qualified at the catcher position, his starting value was higher than any other player on the team. To help prevent this from occurring under ordinary circumstances, the lineup determination logic was modified to change the order of lineup selection and to give a starting value bonus to the best player at each position. It is important to note that it is still possible for the computer general manager to have players both play and start out of position. An integral part of the flexibility of the rosters in Baseball is that it requires the computer to be able to deal with any combination of player positions on the 25/40 man rosters (as long as you have at least 4 "pitchers" and 8 "fielders"). Additionally, players can be trained and become qualified at new positions during the course of their career, which allows for position changes down the defensive spectrum late in a player's career or for development of utility players. * Problems with the September 40-man roster have been fixed. Players that are called up in September have an eligibility flag (to prevent them from being used in playoff games) that is used to automatically return them to the AAA roster when a new season is started. * New season schedules for career leagues were being incorrectly started on April 4. Schedules for subsequent seasons will now start on the first Monday in April. * Pitchers' Home and Road situational ERAs were displaying the same data field. * The season-to-date stat display banners in the BPI were displaying incorrect totals for players called up in September. * When creating new associations, the injury and DL status of players were being copied into the new team. * Players on the DL at the end of the season in career associations were starting the next season on the DL and could not be removed. * Pinch hitters were displaying game-to-date stats on their stat banners in their first plate appearance of the game. They now correctly show their season-to-date stats on their first plate appearance. * The computer will now pinch hit for the game pitcher if it has another pitcher warming up in the bullpen. * The computer will now warm up a pitcher if the game pitcher is replaced by a pinch hitter. * Computer pitcher substitution was such that extra inning games of 16 innings or more would use the entire pitching staff, usually to the point of exhaustion. Without a day off, pitchers do not recover their pitches available, so they would remain exhausted until the next scheduled off day. Pitcher substitution logic has been modified both to help prevent staff exhaustion and to correct the problem when it does occur (usually about a week). * During trades involving multiple players, AAA players received by the computer were not having their status properly updated, resulting in their deletion from the database. * Inherited runners were being assigned to pinch hitters. * Several situations were discovered where One Pitch Mode (OPM) status would be lost for the remainder of the player's at bat. * The radar screen was flashing the location of pitches used during OPM play determination. * All runners (not just the lead runner) now run with the pitch in 2-out, 3-ball, 2-strike count situations. * Ground balls that deflected off fielders were being counted as hits. * Extra-base hits were being credited to batters in situations where a single (or double) and an error (or a fielder's choice) should have been scored. * Fielder's choices were being credited as hits. * The chance of injury for pitching has been increased. * The MLBPA94 association that was shipped with version 1.00W did not have an All-Star game as part of the schedule. If the stock association has not been played or modified, the patch will update it. * The chance of pinch hitting for position players has been decreased. * In order to help reduce stolen bases, the appropriate fielder starts the play closer to 2nd base when in a stolen base situation. --------------------------------------------------------------------- IV New Features Added in Version 1.02 Following is a list of new features added to version 1.01 by the version 1.02 patch. See section VI for a list of new features added by the version 1.01 patch. * The between-innings linescore display has been expanded to display the full, 10-inning, score-by-innings banner. * A feature that was implemented during the development of the original 1.00W version of Baseball, but was never documented in the readme file or game manual is the "rest/rust factor." The rest/rust factor only affects position players and provides the manager with the need to effectively manage not only the pitching staff, but their bench as well. The basic premise of the rest/rust factor is that continuous daily use of a player will cause fatigue which will tend to reduce a player's abilities. Similarly, if a player goes an extended period of time without appearing in a game, his skills will tend to become "rusty", reducing his ability to perform on the field. For most position players, the rest factor begins to set in when they have started games on more than 10 consecutive days. For each day that a player continues to play beyond the first 10 days, he will accumulate a reduction to his ratings. After about a month of playing every day, the player will have reached his maximum level of fatigue and further play will have no additional effect. The rest factor will be reset for a player simply by not starting a game on any given day. The effect is the same whether the entire team has a day off or if the player appears as a substitute player in a game. Similarly, the rust factor sets in after 10 consecutive days of inactivity and players will reach their maximum level of rust after about a month without appearing in any games. The rust factor will be reset for a player simply by using him in a game, either as a starter or as a substitute. Note that players returning from the Disabled List (DL) are not considered to have any days of inactivity accumulated and thus will require 10 consecutive days of inactivity before the rust factor sets in. Because the physical demands placed on catchers are so much greater than those of other position players, the rest/rust factor is treated a bit differently. Catchers will go into rest/rust after 5 days (as opposed to the 10 days for other position players). Additionally, the effects of rest and rust are accumulated at twice the rate of the other position players, with the result that catchers will reach maximum fatigue or rust after only about 2 weeks. If the computer is controlling starting lineup selection, either because the team is computer controlled or when a game is simmed, it will evaluate the need to rest or play players based on their rest/rust values. For human controlled lineup selection, the manager must have knowledge of the team's schedule and the usage patterns of the players to determine if rest or play is necessary. The ratings displayed in the game are displayed with the effects of injury and rest/rust already applied to the base rating. Note: The FATIGUE option on the Association Data screen determines whether pitcher fatigue during games is on or off. It has no effect on rest/rust. * The new QuickRoster(TM) function was added to the BPI and is activated by pressing the 'R' key on the keyboard anytime the BPI screen is displayed during games or sims. When QuickRoster is activated, the game pauses and the screen scrolls upward to reveal the current batting and pitching rosters of both teams. Pressing the 'R' key a second time will return to the game. The batting lines on the QuickRoster screen (including the batting lines of pitchers in non-DH games) contain the following fields: Pos = Current fielding position occupied by the player * = (Next to position) Denotes a player who is NOT qualified at the displayed fielding position BT = Bats/Throws (S=Switch, R=Right, L=Left) CH = Contact hitting rating (modified by injuries and rest/rust) PH = Power hitting rating (modified by injuries and rest/rust) SP = Speed rating (modified by injuries and rest/rust) FA = Fielding ability at current position (modified by injuries and rest/rust) AS = Arm strength (modified by injuries and rest/rust) In = Amount of ratings reduction due to injuries PL = Pull rating GF = Groundball/flyball rating vL = vs. Left modifier Hm = Home modifier Sc = Scoring position modifier CL = Close and Late modifier Mo = Monthly modifier for current month The pitching lines on the QuickRoster screen (including the pitching lines for non-pitchers) contain the following fields: Pos = Status of pitcher (CP=Current pitcher, B1 & B2=Pitchers in the bullpen) T = Throwing arm CO = Control rating (modified by injuries) EN = Endurance rating (modified by injuries) HR = Hold runner rating (modified by injuries) SP = Speed rating (modified by injuries) FA = Fielding ability at current position (modified by injuries) AS = Arm strength (modified by injuries) In = Amount of ratings reduction due to injuries GF = Groundball/flyball rating vL = vs. Left modifier Hm = Home modifier Sc = Scoring position modifier CL = Close and Late modifier Mo = Monthly modifier for current month PA = Number of pitches currently available Cond = Condition of pitcher * Infielders will now "delay" their throw to a base if they feel that they have more than enough time to get the runner out. As part of the delay, they will take several steps toward the base they intend to throw to before actually releasing the ball. The effect of the delay is to decrease the chance of an error on the play while still making the necessary out. * During One Pitch Mode (OPM), while the computer is finding the play to display, a "Finding Play..." dialog box is displayed. --------------------------------------------------------------------- V 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 (shell or sim). SHELL: * Pitchers can no longer be credited with both a Hold and a Win. * On the Association Statistics screen, 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 up 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 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 is 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 logic 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 logic 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 logic 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 logic 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. * Relievers were being credited with a run and the previous pitcher was being credited with the earned run. 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. * Stadium surface type is now saved with saved Exhibition games if the surface was changed from the default type for that stadium. * 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 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). --------------------------------------------------------------------- VI 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, that is, 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, which 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------