[mtw]

The three areas of improvement I'd like to see in OOTP5 are:
1) Record keeping
2) The played game
3) AI roster management

I have a lot to say on these topics, so I will address them in separate post to make it more readable and coherent.

Record Keeping
IMO, OOTP needs a much deeper and robust record keeping system. Being able to look back on the history of a league to me is one of if not the most enjoyable aspect of career play. The Almanac system was a huge and very welcome step forward to this end, easily allowing a detailed look back at an individual season. However, OOTP still falls short in comparative history. Many "important" records are entirely absent from OOTP5 and those that are kept are limited, to only one person in the case of single season records.

Also, while the player career pages have been much improved from v4, to include more "important" information, there is still some other "important" career information missing. The formatting of a the player history page also could use some improvement.

Itemized suggestions for improving record keeping:

1) Put single season league records in the same system as career leaders and make the list go no less than 20 deep. Personally, I would welcome an even longer list. Perhaps an alternate (and additional, not in lieu of the former) decade-by-decade list would be fun too. Make sure year is included as part of each entry. Include hitting streaks, scoreless inning streaks, pitcher win/loss streaks.

2) Add a leaguewide "Team Records" section, to include team totals records and single game team records. Put this in the career leaders format. Which team hit the most home runs in a season? Which team stole the most bases? What was the most runs scored in a game? What team was the most HR's in a game?--that sort of thing. 20 deep (or longer) would be nice. Include team wins, losses, winning streaks, losing streaks, etc.

3) Add a records section for each individual team to look at both individual performance records and team totals records, with the same information and in the same format as described in 1 & 2.

4) Expand the career leaders lists to include more players, or at least provide a customizable option for expanding the list similar to the League Leaders section (i.e. 10, 15, 30, 50 100). Also, include many more categories; for hitters include OBP, SLG, OPS, strikeouts, games played, at bats, home run%, runs created, pinch hits, pinch hit HR's, extra base hits; for pitchers, games pitched, games started, innings pitched, win %, save %, losses, hits allowed, walks allowed, WHIP, opponent AVG, opponent OBP, opponent SLG, home runs allowed.

5) Add option to look at career leaders position by position.

6) Add career fielding leaders section, with the same depth and breadth described above. I.e., position by position, putouts, assists, total chances, fielding %, RTO %, PB, range, errors, defensive innings. At least 25 deep and both single season and career should be included.

7) Player history: expand to include career fielding numbers and career lefty/righty splits.

8) Many more noteworthy single game achievements should be tracked, both as entries in Player History, in a league history section similar to no-hitters, and also as career totals. For hitters, include 4+ HR's (separate from 3+ HR's), cycles, grand slams, 7+ RBI's in game, 5+ runs in game, 5+ SB's in game. For pitchers, one-hitters. Add different viewing opitions for these and the already included "noteworthy game" events (No-hitters, 3+ HR's, 6+ hits in game,15+K's) to include viewing in Alphabetical order with career totals and dates and team vs. Ex.:

3+ HR's in game:

Joe Muscles (3): 4/18/03 vs. CIN; 8/20/05 vs. LA; 6/15/06 vs. NY


and also viewing by sorted total, ex:

50+ HR's:

73 Barry Bonds (SF), 2001
70 Mark McGwire (STL), 1998
66 Sammy Sosa (CHN), 1998


9) Do the same thing as 8 for the already included season achievements (50+ HR's, 20+ wins). Add 300+ strikeouts, 75+ SB's, 120+ (100+) runs, 120+ (100+) RBI's, 200+ hits, .350+ (.300+) AVG. The Runs, RBI's, AVG would be nice to see at the lower number, which is the typical becnhmark for these categories, but it would become very cumbersome in chronological order. Perhaps being able to have separate lists for chronological and career achievements in these and single-season categories.

10) Add "trade splits" to player career numbers. I know this has been requested numerous times in the past, but...

11) Add entry for any league records set to player history.

12) Sort Player History . Include separate categories for injuries, single game achievements (perhaps sorted into different categories the way is currently done with single season leader entires), awards, league records set, bio info, and perhaps a catch-all for other info which can also be used to include the player histories of players in exisitng leagues when this sorting feature is finally implemented. Please give us this one ASAP.

13) All single game achievements in the League Almanac (3+ HR, 6+ hits, 15+ K's, No-hitters, plus the ones I included above should list the team against which the player achieved the mark, ex. (No-Hitter) 6/1/1950, Bob Rocket (NYA), vs CHA, 6K 3BB (W, 8-0). Include decision and final score (as shown) for pitching achievements.

14) Add ability to actually view team vs team records, which apparently OOTP tracks (as seen in in-game PbP).

15) Add range to fielding League Leader categories. Already calculated on player sheets, just need to add to league leaders.

16) Add ability to view standings on any given day during season. I.e. on Sept 1, if I want to know how where a team is in relation to where it was on July 1. Also, add ability to view month by month team won/loss records.


Wow, I didn't relaize this would be so long. Yeesh, my other wish list categories are even longer. I think I'll take a break and post them later...