Time machine (ala Oldtime Baseball)?

[capa]

Was just wondering if it was possible to replciate what the Oldtime Baseball series used to do with the Time Machine functionality. You could choose what era you wanted to play a game in, and if it was dead ball era, you'd see fewer homers and stronger pitching.

Does anyone think this is a worthwhile endeavor to research as far as datafile mods go to create perhaps 3 or 4 "eras"? Dead-ball (1890 - 1929), pre-war (1930 - 1945), post-war (1946 - 1980), modern day (1981 - 2005)? You can break up the years any way you want to, but you get the idea. Four or five different datafiles could be swapped around depending on what era/teams you wanted to play with.

I know SteCropper (Don) is a big Oldtime fan...what are your thoughts? Doable with datafiles? Worthwhile for Total Classics?

C

[Thome25]

That be cool.

[stecropper]

Capa,

You are a mind reader My Friend. Earlier this week when I reinstalled my Oldtime Baseball game to extract it's Music I messed with it a bit just to revisit that great old game that brought me so many years of pure fun. While doing this I did exercise the Time Machine (acutally did it more so to try and discover additional music that I may have missed) and it was a nice trip down memory lane.

Then I thought that I could possibly recreate that Time Machine effect via the Sliders within my game - actually never gave much thought to doing it via datafile modifications (primarily because I have Zero expertise or experience in messing with the datafile). But now that you mention it I do believe that would be the best way to accomplish that objective which is a very worthy one in my opinion.

The reason the datafile approach is a much better idea is becaue Sliders are very much a personal farvorite/style type thing and so many factors effect how Sliders are set like what roster set you are using, what datafile and obviously how you play the game. So you certainly have hit on what I think is something very worthwhile pursueing by those in the know. If I recall correctly - you have messed with datafiles in the past so perhaps you can get this project off the ground and I am sure others will chip in with their contributions as it matures.

I think matching it to the ERAs provided in Oldtime Baseball's Time Machine would be an idea way to approach this.

Take Care & Good Luck,

Don

[peterbernard]

Could you actually change the physics of the ball so it responded as though it were one of the old dead balls? It wouldn't bounce as high or get hit as far, for instance. Are those parts of the game moddable?

I see the deadball era (1) as different, then Babe Ruth through Mickey Mantle the hitters dominated (2), then the 60's were pitcher-dominated (3), then they lowered the mound for the late 70's through mid-80's era (4), then steroids hit (5--Sosa/McGwire/Bonds "breaking all the HR records"-yeah right), then the current (supposedly) post-steroids era (6). To me, those would be the different eras where the ball looks like it responded differently. So if you have power in era 5, you hit 50-70 HRs a year, if you have power in era 1, you hit 14 or 15 HRs a year, and the others are various points in-between. Remember when all the homeruns started happening in the 90's, everyone wondered if they had made the balls have more bounce? Ha ha! We were so naive.

Whichever way this might be achievable, it would be a worthy goal. Since this may be the last moddable pc baseball game for a decade, it's worth taking time and perfecting it. It's not important to get everything modded by May for the old-time fans, they'll likely be playing this next year and the next if it's turned into a really complete old-time experience. This is a good idea worth pursuing.

[stecropper]

peterbernard,

I believe it is very possible to change the physics of the ball via the datafile mods although I have no idea how to do it. But I do believe those that mod datafiles have done that frequently in the past.

Also, I think your ideas are very good ones. Thus, the datafile Pros could probably do this and very similiar to what you describe above.

I think baserunning/stealing was a distinctive difference between the era's as well. I could be wrong on this but I think the 60s with Wills & Brock started the real speed game. Although I know the Go Go Soxs came a couple years earlier but I think thier game was a lot of bunting, hit & run combined with a bit more stealing than years pass.

[capa]

I have asked for a little assistance from Trues, but I will be looking in to this.

C

[69Yanks]

Here are the first lines of the data file having to do with the ball physics. I know last year it was modded by John?? and others. I do not have time to do this right now.

0xc38c638e 70 1;64 BAT_TIMEMOD;30 Contact_Parameters;19 Hot_Power_Mod;8 Hit_Power;56 INSIDE_SPIN_VAL;54 Bat_launch_angle;50 Vertical_bunt_zone;33 Ball_size;59 MAX_TOPSPIN_VAL;58 MIN_TOPSPIN_VAL;48 Batfudgetime;45 Bat_time_off;29 Max_spin_RPM;16 Bunt_Speed_MPH;15 BestHitPower;51 Hit_vert_compress;22 No_Power_Mod;68 HACK_STARTTIME;36 Hot_Contact_Mod;26 Min_topspin;17 Bunt_Var_MPH;5 Longball_Adjust;2 Power_launch_angle;66 MAX_VERTICAL_OFFSET;42 Outside_power;35 Bunt_max_lead;67 BALL_RADIUS;65 VERTICAL_ZONE_SIZE;62 BAT_YCENTER;40 Inside_power;63 BAT_ZCENTER;31 Bat_length;21 Cold_Power_Mod;20 Warm_Power_Mod;69 HACK_BATFUDGETIME;61 BAT_LENGTH;60 Contact;47 Starttime;46 Hacks!!;41 Sweetspot_power;38 Cold_Contact_Mod;25 Outside_factor;24 Inside_factor;12 SprayPowerMod;0 Hit_Parameters;57 OUTSIDE_SPIN_VAL;52 Bunt_vert_compress;43 Bat_Y_off;37 Warm_Contact_Mod;13 PullPowerMod;49 Vertical_hit_zone;44 Bat_Z_off;34 Ball_offset;32 Vertical_offset;28 Min_spin_RPM;18 Bunt_Aim_Comp;3 Bunt_launch_angle;53 Hit_Speed_MPH;39 No_Contact_Mod;11 Min_vert_power;9 Ball_bat_friction;1 Contact_launch_angle;23 Hit_Spin;14 WorstHitPower;7 Inside_pos;10 Max_vert_power;4 Grounder_Adjust;55 Hit;6 Sweetspot_pos;27 Max_topspin;

0xf3957227 70<batter>;0 ;1 6.0;2 14.0;3 -15.0;4 -20.0;5 20.0;6 0.75;7 0.40;8 ;9 0.34;10 1.00;11 0.10;12 0.90;13 1.02;14 66;15 90;16 25.0;17 10.5;18 0.43;19 0.00;20 0.00;21 0.00;22 -0.20;23 ;24 0.15;25 1.00;26 0.00;27 1.00;28 1400.0000000000;29 2400.0000000000;30 ;31 36.0;32 2.0;33 2.5;34 3.0;35 7.3;36 0.15;37 0.00;38 -0.15;39 -0.30;40 0.10;41 1.00;42 0.60;43 0.5;44 0.0;45 0.00;46 ;47 0.0;48 0.0;49 12.0;50 6.0;51 0.80;52 0.06;53 140;54 10.0;55 ;56 -0.80;57 0.70;58 0.00;59 1.40;60 ;61 30.0;62 1.5;63 5.0;64 0.00;65 8.0;66 2.0;67 2.5;68 1.0;69 -2.0;