Some outstanding game issues

[Killebrew]

These were noted after the most recent OOTP BM 2006 patch:

- League setup: You are allowed to input any average attendance amount, but the game often ignores this or defaults to it's own hard coded numbers. Tested example: Average attendance of 100 will default to an average of around 4,000. I suspect there is a hard coded minimum attendance # in the game with the assumption that MLB teams won't get below that. For the wider scope (eg. indie leagues) of this game that assumption should not be there anymore.

- League setup: Like previous versions of OOTP this game has loopholes that allow teams to go over a set salary cap, and I regularly see teams that are spending 5 times or more above the leagues payroll cap. This is particularly noticeable in leagues with a small cap, maybe there's a hard coded minimum cap in the game? Chris Johnson seems to confirm this issue here (under 'Salary Cap' post).

- Text input does not always work. I think it's related to some quirky textbox logic, and some examples of this include editing player profiles and adding cash to trades. For inputting some textboxes I think you need to hit "ENTER" or the input is ignored when returning to the game. Other times your text input seems to be ignored no matter what you do. If there are some textboxes where hitting the ENTER key is required for the game to recognize the input, then changing that would be higly recommended.

- 1B defense logic ratings appear to be buggy when creating a new player, it seems to me that inputting similar numbers for a SS and 1B will result in a 1B that has much better defensive ability. I think this has been mentioned in this forum before, and perhaps it's a game feature.

- AI for signing free agents does not work as it should, at least not in a baseball universe with an indie league. The highest quality players will often accept offers from indie league teams where the salary scales are a fraction of the MLB scale.

- In a full league (MLB team plus it's affiliates) even upping the MLB draft to the max 50 rounds will mean that every few years you have to generate about 1000 fictional players or the game will not sim due to the requirement of having full rosters at every level. What seems to happen is that some teams have massive rosters and fill up on as many free agents as possible while other teams go for the minimum and run out of players every few years. I think this issue has been mentioned on these boards.

- Option buttons disappear on some screens. To get them back you go to a different screen, then go back to your initial screen. I think I've only seen this since the patches so this could be a new problem. For a novice player this would make playing the game difficult since they would not know all the options that should be visible. An example of this is the free agents screen - it will sometime have a "view" button set to all batters or pitchers, but the view button is not visible, making you think that there are only batters or pitchers available in free agency. Clicking another tab on the screen and then returning to the free agents screen will allow you to see all the buttons.

- Contract Extensions: If you stay on the contract extension screen after making an offer for a player, then sim ahead 1 day the game allows you to offer a new extension after he's already accepted your 1st offer. This same logic applies to free agents. It also seems like the game might save BOTH extension offers, since the 2 players I have done that to (by accident) are often duplicated on various info and email screens. I have seen no other examples of duplicated player info so I think this is a related problem. I know a workaround should be to not stay on the extension/offer screen, but the game should not even accept a new offer after a player has agreed to a previous offer.

- AI Trade issue: You won't always get a response from trades offered to AI teams. It means that you can't offer the players involved in trade offer #1 until that team has decided yes or no. If they don't actually inform you of their decision it means you have to sim 1 day at a time, then go back to the player trade screen to see if your previously offered players are free to be offered to another team. This is a pretty big deal, and I suspect it might be caused by the game treating MLB, AAA, AA, A, A(rookie) as well as indie league reserve lists as completely separate teams. I believe the trade offer response/email is ignored when a MLB team calls up a player that the AAA team is considering in a trade offer.

- Player ratings issues: In OOTP6.51a there was an unfixed player rating bug where a player with a '1' current rating in Control never got better than '1' (AKA 'frozen rating'), even if his potential rating was 10/10 (or 100/100 or whatever scale you used). This same bug might be in OOTP BM 2006. I'm basing this on seeing many 30+ year old minor leaguers with high potential and a current rating of '1'. It looks like this issue might apply to several talent area's, not just pitcher control, but as mentioned I'm still not positive of this.

- Player dev with no coaches/scouts: There is very little dev without coaches, and most of it is negative. Maybe this is the design plan, but it seems to me most users would prefer some options here as I don't imagine this design is nearly everyone's preference.

[Raidergoo]

If I had battist's powers, I'd split this into multiple threads for you, then explain or TT them.

Sorry, can't do that, so I will try to muddle through.

- League setup: You are allowed to input any average attendance amount, but the game often ignores this or defaults to it's own hard coded numbers. Tested example: Average attendance of 100 will default to an average of around 4,000. I suspect there is a hard coded minimum attendance # in the game with the assumption that MLB teams won't get below that. For the wider scope (eg. indie leagues) of this game that assumption should not be there anymore.

TT#2418

League setup: Like previous versions of OOTP this game has loopholes that allow teams to go over a set salary cap, and I regularly see teams that are spending 5 times or more above the leagues payroll cap. This is particularly noticeable in leagues with a small cap, maybe there's a hard coded minimum cap in the game? Chris Johnson seems to confirm this issue here (under 'Salary Cap' post).

Note to self: Deal with that in different thread.

- Text input does not always work. I think it's related to some quirky textbox logic, and some examples of this include editing player profiles and adding cash to trades. For inputting some textboxes I think you need to hit "ENTER" or the input is ignored when returning to the game. Other times your text input seems to be ignored no matter what you do. If there are some textboxes where hitting the ENTER key is required for the game to recognize the input, then changing that would be highly recommended.

Known issue, you are entirely right.

1B defense logic ratings appear to be buggy when creating a new player, it seems to me that inputting similar numbers for a SS and 1B will result in a 1B that has much better defensive ability. I think this has been mentioned in this forum before, and perhaps it's a game feature.

The way this works is not intuitive, and Markus has said he's up for a change in the next version.


AI for signing free agents does not work as it should, at least not in a baseball universe with an indie league. The highest quality players will often accept offers from indie league teams where the salary scales are a fraction of the MLB scale.

That's a big issue, and specifics are needed, and probably the .dat files. If you could create a new thread on this, it would be appreciated.



Option buttons disappear on some screens. To get them back you go to a different screen, then go back to your initial screen. I think I've only seen this since the patches so this could be a new problem. For a novice player this would make playing the game difficult since they would not know all the options that should be visible. An example of this is the free agents screen - it will sometime have a "view" button set to all batters or pitchers, but the view button is not visible, making you think that there are only batters or pitchers available in free agency. Clicking another tab on the screen and then returning to the free agents screen will allow you to see all the buttons.

Never seen this; I will try to replicate.


Contract Extensions: If you stay on the contract extension screen after making an offer for a player, then sim ahead 1 day the game allows you to offer a new extension after he's already accepted your 1st offer. This same logic applies to free agents. It also seems like the game might save BOTH extension offers, since the 2 players I have done that to (by accident) are often duplicated on various info and email screens. I have seen no other examples of duplicated player info so I think this is a related problem. I know a workaround should be to not stay on the extension/offer screen, but the game should not even accept a new offer after a player has agreed to a previous offer.

TT# 2419

- AI Trade issue: You won't always get a response from trades offered to AI teams. It means that you can't offer the players involved in trade offer #1 until that team has decided yes or no. If they don't actually inform you of their decision it means you have to sim 1 day at a time, then go back to the player trade screen to see if your previously offered players are free to be offered to another team. This is a pretty big deal, and I suspect it might be caused by the game treating MLB, AAA, AA, A, A(rookie) as well as indie league reserve lists as completely separate teams. I believe the trade offer response/email is ignored when a MLB team calls up a player that the AAA team is considering in a trade offer.

I think this is by design. I'll ask. TT# 2420.


- Player ratings issues: In OOTP6.51a there was an unfixed player rating bug where a player with a '1' current rating in Control never got better than '1' (AKA 'frozen rating'), even if his potential rating was 10/10 (or 100/100 or whatever scale you used). This same bug might be in OOTP BM 2006. I'm basing this on seeing many 30+ year old minor leaguers with high potential and a current rating of '1'. It looks like this issue might apply to several talent area's, not just pitcher control, but as mentioned I'm still not positive of this.

I am surprised this has never been raised. TT #2421.

- Player dev with no coaches/scouts: There is very little dev without coaches, and most of it is negative. Maybe this is the design plan, but it seems to me most users would prefer some options here as I don't imagine this design is nearly everyone's preference.

Pretty sure that's by design, and I would have to go check.

[dodgecharger1968]

Hey, quick question about this: where players don't develop without coaches, is that only with the coaches on and none hired? Or with coaches off there is no development?

[fantom1979]

Originally Posted by Raidergoo

Option buttons disappear on some screens. To get them back you go to a different screen, then go back to your initial screen. I think I've only seen this since the patches so this could be a new problem. For a novice player this would make playing the game difficult since they would not know all the options that should be visible. An example of this is the free agents screen - it will sometime have a "view" button set to all batters or pitchers, but the view button is not visible, making you think that there are only batters or pitchers available in free agency. Clicking another tab on the screen and then returning to the free agents screen will allow you to see all the buttons.

Never seen this; I will try to replicate.

This is the same screen where all I did is click between lineups and pitching. Notice how different buttons are missing each time, and on the third time all of the buttons have returned. This is with 12262

[fantom1979]

Originally Posted by Raidergoo

AI for signing free agents does not work as it should, at least not in a baseball universe with an indie league. The highest quality players will often accept offers from indie league teams where the salary scales are a fraction of the MLB scale.

That's a big issue, and specifics are needed, and probably the .dat files. If you could create a new thread on this, it would be appreciated.

I have seen this as well. My biggest problem is with players signing with the Indie teams at contracts that they should only receive from the MLB leagues.

I posted some screen shots here:

Players not following Financial Rules