goguen@cheers.DEC (Don Goguen 381-2565) (02/24/86)
> Strat League over the net sounds great.... > BUT HEY! Where were you last fall!!!! I recall someone started up > net.conversation about this back then and it seemed like I was the only > one that replied to him. Anyway, this is rather beside the point. It wasn't me that stated I was interested in a net.strat league. That was part of the comment from another netter that I included with my response. I remember that happening, though, but was too involved in a net rotisserie league (within DEC) at the time. > You actually punched in 520 players' stats? Was it the advanced game > statistics -- whew! even more typing. Yes, it was the advanced version - it IS lots of typing, EVERY YEAR (new cards are due soon...). I had only typed in AL players, 23 per team, since the game was devised to work with a DH (lots easier than worrying about pitchers hitting...). So far, I have full data bases for 82 thru 84. I have recently expanded the game to potentially include NL teams (no full NL data bases have been entered yet), but for now, current users (other DEC systems) will be forced to use a DH. I created a data structure for the player cards - a record with many fields representing all card info - and wrote a data base entry program to get the info from the cards into the system. All I have to do is type codes, with the program prompting me for everything (all the ratings, and each dice roll). e.g. (prompts / what I type / what it means) 1 2 > fo foulout 1 3 > lo lineout 1 4 > gba ground ball A 1 5 > hr 4 do** HR 1-4 DO** 5-20 etc. The program calculates the probabilities, and accumulates like entries for the data base values. > Do you mind sending me the source for your vax-stratomatic? I am definitely > interested in a net.stratleague. The simulation of Strat was done in an internal DEC language, which is similar to Pascal, with many extensions to support everything (like printers, screen support with windows, ...). Because of that, the sources are "unavailable", except within DEC. > I am also interested, having made some efforts along the same lines > (using the Maryland Windows Package); school and job have slowed progress > on it to a snail's pace. An overview of your system, such as how it plays, > design considerations, etc. might prove more valuable than the source, at > least for me. > Call-Me: Pete Cottrell, Univ. of Md. Comp. Sci. Dept. Here's a little info on how the game was written (besides what was mentioned above): The user is given his choice of teams to play, then is asked for starting pitchers and lineups (I've thrown in an automatic lineup generator - which is really my choice for a lineup for each team - potentially different against righties or lefties - just indices of players read from an external file). Then, windows are filled up with a playing field, the starting lineup, a line- score, and a keypad diagram with choices of what to do... Here's a rough picture of the screen (it looks a little better with bolding and reverse video renditions): team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 R H E Out Money +-----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ +--+--+--+ +---+ +----------+ | Mil | 0| | | | | | | | | | | 0| 0| 0| | 0 | | BA .000 | +-----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ +--+--+--+ | 1 | | HRs 0 | | Bos | 0| | | | | | | | | | | 0| 0| 0| | 2 | | RBIs 0 | +-----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ +--+--+--+ +---+ +----------+ / \ +---------------++------+------+------+------+ / Miller \ | BREWERS || MINI |P2HELP|P3HELP|P4HELP| \ Rice Evans / | ||KEYPAD|PH'ers|RP'ers|Dfense| \ / |b players pos|+------+------+------+------+ \ / | ||7bring|8 hold|9 def.|- HELP| \ Simmons / |r Molitor 3b||inf.in|runner|normal|runner| \ / |r Yount ss|+------+------+------+------+ Hoffman/ \Remy / |l Cooper 1b||4pinch|5pinch|6 walk|, HELP| \ / \ / |s Simmons c||hitter|runner|batter|batter| TCruz/ \Stapleton |l Oglivie lf|+------+------+------+------+ Eckersley Oglivie |r Thomas cf||1steal|2 sac.|3 hit |ENTER | \ (r) / |r Money dh||a base| bunt | & run| | \ / |r Moore rf|+------+------+------+change| \ / |l Gantner 2b||0 have batter|. new |dfense| Money |- Haas p|| swing away |pitchr| | Dempsey +---------------++-------------+------+------+ ENTER CHOICE > The bases are reverse, the runners are bolded, the keypad show the current defense, etc... The user just has to hit keypad keys to run the game. A random number generator provides the dice and chart results, so the user just sees the final result (I think Strat's new computerized version shows the dice roll or split card choice, and makes you look up the result on your card - I don't know how they proceed from here...). The rest of the program tracks the progress of the game and keeps track of player statistics. That took quite some time, considering the many possibilities (think of a SI (cf) with runners on first and second, for example - who runs, do you throw home or to third, ...). All the ratings (arms, stealing, ...) are in the data base, displayable with various help keys... It was quite a spare-time task, but very enjoyable to do. It now takes only 5 - 10 minutes to play a quick game, and no more manual tracking of stats. I'm in the middle of replaying a couple of AL seasons, but keep getting sidetracked. I've got to get back to 'em... If you intend to continue with your venture, good luck and have fun. If you have any other questions, let me know. -- dg