Has anything been changed with contract options?

[jerrycapo]

Are we still limited to team, player, mutual options and extra cash for AB's, IP, Batter of the Year, Pitcher of the Year?

Any chance vesting options have been added?

Minor league contracts with invite to ST?

Roster bonuses for minor league contracts?

Opt out of contract options ala ARod or Albert Belle?

[molarmite]

Originally Posted by jerrycapo

Are we still limited to team, player, mutual options and extra cash for AB's, IP, Batter of the Year, Pitcher of the Year?

I'll answer this one, No new ones have been added. I'm not sure about the rest.

[CHCfan]

Originally Posted by jerrycapo

Are we still limited to team, player, mutual options and extra cash for AB's, IP, Batter of the Year, Pitcher of the Year?

Any chance vesting options have been added?

Minor league contracts with invite to ST?

Roster bonuses for minor league contracts?

Opt out of contract options ala ARod or Albert Belle?

I would really like number 2, and it seems like number 4 would be easy (but what do i know): just use the same player logic as if he were considering a player option.

[fhomess]

As molarmite said, Markus hasn't added any contract options yet. I'm not sure if he will or not, but my personal opinion is that this would potentially add quite a large amount of complexity for the amount of time we have left.

Originally Posted by CHCfan

I would really like number 2, and it seems like number 4 would be easy (but what do i know): just use the same player logic as if he were considering a player option.

As player agent for the NABA, I can tell you that contract evaluation and offers have got to be one of the most complex processes you can devise for a game. For the NABA, I created a spreadsheet which takes in nearly all visible player ratings in OOTP6.5, it incorporates stats, team standings, historical team success, and a variety of other factors to come up with contract expectations for each player in the league. It's incredibly complex and I am constantly adjusting the parameters as I see player contract demands that don't make sense. There's even a custom player similarity score that gets calculated to help guide the system. Ultimately, I think it works well, but the reason it does so is that it's got a human to verify it's results.

All that to say, programming even minor changes in contract negotiation isn't as simple as it may sound. The implications of one minor addition to a contract are large. Especially when you want the AI to be able to offer and sign the same types of contracts that a human GM would.

Even something like a roster bonus for a minor league contract affects how the GM budgets his finances for a year. Let's say I have player A that I've offered a $600 k bonus to if he makes the majors. However, team B is offering a major league contract at the minimum. First, the player needs to look at my team and decide if there's a good chance he makes the majors at some point. Perhaps I've got an injury prone guy in front of him, or maybe an older guy. My offer's about twice as good as the other one, but it's not guaranteed, so maybe he likes that one better.

Anyway, it's really simple to just add the contract options. What gets hard is figuring out how a player evaluates them. On top of that, the GM AI needs to be smart enough to know whether it makes more sense to offer the guy the incentive laden contract or the guaranteed one. If Markus adds them, I really want them to be done right.

[Giants44]

one button that has been added which I think was sorely needed is the "meet demands" button

so if a player wants say 4.5M for5 years you don't need to spend all that time putting in the numbers you can simply click one button and then submit. or even meet the demand and then tweak it a little before submitting.

is it a compensation overhaul, no - but it is a very nice simple thing that saves on time. too me one of the primary weaknesses of 2006 at launch was how time consuming so much of it was, especially parts that were not necessarily "fun" - i think simple things like this make 2007 a much more playable game.

[jerrycapo]

Originally Posted by fhomess

As molarmite said...

I agree completely with everything you said here. I was just wondering since there had been so much discussion about Non Roster Invitees leading up to this version, I was wondering how much, if any, of the contract options had been tweaked. I do understand from a player evaluation standpoint that it is quite a challenge to tackle.

It's a want, not a feature that we have to have in the game. Thanks for the insight.

[Zitofan75]

Originally Posted by Giants44

one button that has been added which I think was sorely needed is the "meet demands" button

so if a player wants say 4.5M for5 years you don't need to spend all that time putting in the numbers you can simply click one button and then submit. or even meet the demand and then tweak it a little before submitting.

is it a compensation overhaul, no - but it is a very nice simple thing that saves on time. too me one of the primary weaknesses of 2006 at launch was how time consuming so much of it was, especially parts that were not necessarily "fun" - i think simple things like this make 2007 a much more playable game.

Perfect. That was too much time wasted on something that seemed simple.

[Queensryche]

Originally Posted by Giants44

one button that has been added which I think was sorely needed is the "meet demands" button

so if a player wants say 4.5M for5 years you don't need to spend all that time putting in the numbers you can simply click one button and then submit. or even meet the demand and then tweak it a little before submitting.

is it a compensation overhaul, no - but it is a very nice simple thing that saves on time. too me one of the primary weaknesses of 2006 at launch was how time consuming so much of it was, especially parts that were not necessarily "fun" - i think simple things like this make 2007 a much more playable game.

That is a GREAT feature to add.