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Australia - Extra courses and updated showcase!!! (UPDATED)
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Author:  StReims [ Wed May 02, 2012 4:04 pm ]
Post subject:  Australia - Extra courses and updated showcase!!! (UPDATED)
UPDATE: v1.1

Since SO3, I've been playing around with trying to add more courses to the Australian game. Trying to work out what all the files in that mysterious wp folder meant, and so on. By SO4, I had more or less sussed it all out, and I set myself a goal to have a whole lot of additional courses ready for when SO5 eventually came out. After all, while it's fun to play a computer game to try and win a Melbourne Cup, isn't there something just as special about being able to win a maiden at Taree? Now you can find out!

This is not only an updated schedule, with over 400 current Black Type races, but this file contains an additional 34 courses with accurate course maps. Here are examples of four of the course PNGs:
Image

And here's how they look in the game. First in the Werribee Cup:
Image

And then a close finish in the Kilmore Cup:
Image

If you want to try it out, here's the download link: http://www.mediafire.com/?yh885qwz91qayqe (v1.1 with more realistic field sizes, more international feature races and other minor corrections)

And if you're not sold, there's more info below...

INCLUDED IN THIS PACKAGE
*44 Australian courses:
Albury, Ascot, Ballarat, Belmont, Bendigo, Bunbury, Canberra, Canterbury, Caulfield, Coffs Harbour, Cranbourne, Doomben, Eagle Farm, Flemington, Geelong, Gold Coast, Gosford, Grafton, Hawkesbury, Hobart, Ipswich, Kalgoorlie, Kembla Grange, Kilmore, Launceston, Moonee Valley, Mornington, Morphettville, Muswellbrook, Newcastle, Randwick, Rosehill, Sandown (Hillside), Scone, Seymour, Sunshine Coast, Tamworth, Taree, Toowoomba, Wagga, Warrnambool, Warwick Farm, Werribee, Wyong.

*15 New Zealand courses (every course that has at least 1 Group race in the 2011/12 season):
Ellerslie, Pukekohe, Tauranga, Te Aroha, Te Rapa, Arawa Park, Matamata, Pukekura, Hawera, Hastings, Awapuni, Otaki, Trentham, Riccarton, Wingatui.

*All original game courses have been updated with new PNGs, and updated course information. This means that the straight at Moonee Valley is no longer 400 metres long!

*Australian showcase file featuring 434 Group and Listed races, including ALL 273 Group races from the 2011/12 season.

*New Zealand showcase file featuring all 78 Group races from the 2011/12 season.

*Schedule file featuring all 434 Australian showcase races plus 6 NZ Group Ones.

*Updated stakes for each race (as SO5 adds 67% to the stakes in Australian races)

*Four 8-race cards for Melbourne Cup week, including all 26 Group & Listed races, plus 6 additional Cup week races.

Feedback is welcomed. If you notice anything inaccurate that you think should be fixed, or have any suggestions for improvements, let me know in the forum. Not sure how much work I'll put into updating this file in the future, but I'm open to suggestion for small improvements.

Also, for anyone who wants to have a go at creating their own courses, but doesn't know how, I'll try and post a quick guide before the weekend. Although after almost a week of testing this mod, I'm keen to actually start playing the game, so don't hold me to it! (But I'll post one soon, I promise.)
Author:  exxplozion [ Wed May 02, 2012 4:46 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Australia - Extra courses and updated schedule/showcase!
WOW!!! :shock: :shock: Simply AWESOME!! Well done mate, bloody hard work I can see.
Author:  Palk [ Wed May 02, 2012 6:16 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Australia - Extra courses and updated schedule/showcase!
OMG :shock:
Great job, how did you created new racecourses? or are they copy from originals?
Author:  pjrhodes1970 [ Wed May 02, 2012 6:22 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Australia - Extra courses and updated schedule/showcase!
jesus that brilliant must have taken days of non stop work

well done mate
Author:  panther [ Wed May 02, 2012 9:00 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Australia - Extra courses and updated schedule/showcase!
That's an amazing piece of work you've put together there; very impressive indeed! To be honest, I don't have a great deal of interest in Australian racing, but I had been planning to update the Australian showcases and schedule files as a little side project while waiting for the game to be fully patched. However, I'm glad I didn't really get started on it, as it wouldn't have been anywhere near as thorough as this!

The only feedback/suggestions I would give would be:

I noted that you've made good use of the new "F" function in the showcases file, but for the sake of realistic field sizes I would probably only use this for races that frequently run with their maximum field sizes in real life; when Mark created this function for use in SO5, the main reason it was created was for handicaps and other big races that always run with a maximum field. If you apply it to every race, it will mean that every season every feature race will run with its maximum field size, which is not always realistic when it comes to WFA or set weights races. There is always the option of (S)mall or (M)edium field size as well.

I also noticed that the only overseas races you've included are races from New Zealand, yet you have left all the horses from the other countries in there too. It's possible to set to "0" in the schedule file for any country that you don't want represented, and doing this will also mean that the pool of Australian horses is increased. However, if anyone was going to use your schedule as a base, and add a few extra overseas races in there, they would obviously need to add the horses from the relevant countries back in.

StReims wrote:
*Updated stakes for each race (as SO5 adds 67% to the stakes in Australian races)


This is actually an error in the game, which Mark is going to fix at some point. The prize money values stated in the Australian showcases file are the values that should appear in the schedule file. A formula should only be applied when using races from other showcases files that are entered in different currencies. I know it will be a hassle changing all the amounts back to the AUD amounts, but at least it will mean you don't have some prize money amounts showing with a "1" at the end, when the maths isn't exact!
Author:  pjrhodes1970 [ Wed May 02, 2012 9:10 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Australia - Extra courses and updated schedule/showcase!
guys how do you edit the schedule

is it the showcase_f file

when i edit and save it says access denied
Author:  panther [ Wed May 02, 2012 9:20 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Australia - Extra courses and updated schedule/showcase!
pjrhodes1970 wrote:
guys how do you edit the schedule

is it the showcase_f file

when i edit and save it says access denied


You maybe need to adjust the security settings...

Right-click on the file you want to update, and select "Properties"...

Select the "Security" tab, then click on the "Edit" button...

Select "Users", then if it's not already selected click on the "Allow" box beside where it says "Full control" (this will automatically select the other unticked boxes too)...

Then click on "Apply"...

You should now be able to edit the file.
Author:  pjrhodes1970 [ Wed May 02, 2012 9:55 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Australia - Extra courses and updated schedule/showcase!
you are astar Panther cheers
Author:  GS63 [ Wed May 02, 2012 11:13 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Australia - Extra courses and updated schedule/showcase!
Hats off to you StReims, that's an awesome piece of work, well done.
Author:  pishton [ Thu May 03, 2012 3:25 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Australia - Extra courses and updated schedule/showcase!
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

Saves me hours upon hours of work now!
Author:  Teejay1993 [ Thu May 03, 2012 4:39 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Australia - Extra courses and updated schedule/showcase!
pishton wrote:
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

Saves me hours upon hours of work now!


Exactly the same here, thank you so much.
Author:  TysonM [ Thu May 03, 2012 6:03 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Australia - Extra courses and updated schedule/showcase!
Brilliant work mate. Kinda pumped that I can go back to where I lived for a long time and went to school to win the Kilmore Cup!
Author:  panther [ Thu May 03, 2012 8:14 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Australia - Extra courses and updated schedule/showcase!
Teejay1993 wrote:
pishton wrote:
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

Saves me hours upon hours of work now!


Exactly the same here, thank you so much.


Before you start a serious game with the schedule, it might well be that StReims will need to alter the prize money values, as there is currently an issue with this in the game with the Australian schedule, which Mark is hopefully going to fix soon. At present the game adds 67% to all prize money from the Australian showcases file to the Australian schedule, and StReims has taken this into account with the amounts he's used, but this shouldn't happen in the game. I have mentioned it to Mark, and he's said it is something he should be able to sort in a patch once the urgent fixes have been dealt with.
Author:  StReims [ Thu May 03, 2012 11:39 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Australia - Extra courses and updated schedule/showcase!
Thanks so much for the feedback, guys! I'm glad to see people getting enjoyment out of this. Makes all those frustrating crashes on SO4 when I was missing out minor details worthwhile!

panther wrote:
I noted that you've made good use of the new "F" function in the showcases file, but for the sake of realistic field sizes I would probably only use this for races that frequently run with their maximum field sizes in real life; when Mark created this function for use in SO5, the main reason it was created was for handicaps and other big races that always run with a maximum field. If you apply it to every race, it will mean that every season every feature race will run with its maximum field size, which is not always realistic when it comes to WFA or set weights races. There is always the option of (S)mall or (M)edium field size as well.


Yeah, I went a little crazy because I was so excited when I noticed in SO5 that the Melbourne Cup always had 24 runners, and the Cox Plate always had 14 runners (my pet peeve from previous games was seeing 20+ runners in this race). I thought it was odd that the fields always seemed to reach their limits, so I'll try and edit a lot of these. Thanks for the clarification on how the S & M (wait, what?) tags will affect field sizes in your other thread, by the way. That should help a lot!

panther wrote:
I also noticed that the only overseas races you've included are races from New Zealand, yet you have left all the horses from the other countries in there too. It's possible to set to "0" in the schedule file for any country that you don't want represented, and doing this will also mean that the pool of Australian horses is increased. However, if anyone was going to use your schedule as a base, and add a few extra overseas races in there, they would obviously need to add the horses from the relevant countries back in.


Yeah, I think I'll probably put some of the major overseas races back in, anyway. It's probably less of a hassle for anyone who doesn't want them to delete them, than it is to add them. At least until the schedule editor's back up and running.

panther wrote:
I know it will be a hassle changing all the amounts back to the AUD amounts, but at least it will mean you don't have some prize money amounts showing with a "1" at the end, when the maths isn't exact!


Actually, since I still had all the figures I'd entered in a spreadsheet next to the actual stakes, it was about a 5 minute find & replace job, so I've been able to fix this up already. I'm glad to hear this will be fixed eventually. And until then, what kind of trainer would I be if I complained about the stakes being too high? :D

Palk wrote:
OMG :shock:
Great job, how did you created new racecourses? or are they copy from originals?


I created them using course overhead photographs from the web, and I'll be adding a guide to creating courses in the forum very soon!
Author:  Sir-Slick [ Thu May 03, 2012 12:20 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Australia - Extra courses and updated schedule/showcase!
Brilliant work St Reims! I was probably going to jack-in the Australian game, but not now, you've taken it to another level. Can't wait to win a cup in the bush, but most of all, add all the New Zealand group races so I can find glory on my home tracks.

Just one thing, I tried auto-running 5 seasons for interest's sake and it crashed every time. Doing it for one season worked. Is this a future problem with the schedule? Because when I auto-ran the original Aus Schedule and the English Flat for 5 seasons there were no problems.
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