General Status of Online Leagues?

Charlie Hough · 08-09-2006, 05:44 AM

This area of the forums seems relatively quiet, so I'm just curious to find out what the online league scene is like these days. Has the number of leagues remained stable, or is there an increase or decline? Are a ton of leagues folding? How active is the league scene generally, and is it mostly a limited group of people playing in several leagues each, or is it spread out more, with a ton of gamers playing online?

Karen Lutz · 08-09-2006, 06:03 AM

Looks like there are very few leagues for the new game so far, and most are "unique" types. I have been watching for a Brewers opening in a normal MLB league, but the few MLB leagues that open are filled within 30 minutes it seems.

There is a lot fo people looking for leagues with this new game, and the number of leagues is slowly picking up as more and more people play it and get to know it.

Charlie Hough · 08-09-2006, 04:48 PM

So this is simply an issue with people using OOTP 6.51 as opposed to OOTP 2006? So people are simply holding off on creating new leagues until they are settled more into the 2006 version?

sporr · 08-09-2006, 05:51 PM

I know we'll have some extra openings when we convert here shortly...I think it's just so different from 6.5 that it's taking some extra getting-use-to.

enuttage · 08-09-2006, 06:40 PM

Things are also running less than smoothly in some circumstances. And I'm comparing that to 6.12/6.5 leagues.

We've just started the process of testing before we convert our league, and unfortunately, we will have to make some steps backwards in order to use the new game.

Long story short? I'm sure the game will eventually prove to be good for online line leagues, but so far, I'm not convinced that the game was designed with online leagues in mind until very late in the process. This shows.

Charlie Hough · 08-09-2006, 07:22 PM

Could someone give me a brief summary of how OOTP 2006 may have gone backwards a bit in online play, compared to past versions? What exactly is missing or is causing problems for leagues that convert? Are these problems only for those leagues that convert to the new version, or would they exist with a newly created league as well?

enuttage · 08-09-2006, 08:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charlie Hough

Could someone give me a brief summary of how OOTP 2006 may have gone backwards a bit in online play, compared to past versions? What exactly is missing or is causing problems for leagues that convert? Are these problems only for those leagues that convert to the new version, or would they exist with a newly created league as well?

My allusion, at the moment, specifically relates to talent-only leagues (which our league is). Right now there is no way to properly operate a talent-only league, whereas this was quite simple in 6.5

enuttage · 08-09-2006, 08:38 PM

And, of course, there's the fact that none of my GMs can export, and OOTP isn't recognizing my folders on the server.

enuttage · 08-09-2006, 08:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by enuttage

And, of course, there's the fact that none of my GMs can export, and OOTP isn't recognizing my folders on the server.

And I'll bite my tongue on the latter. I figured that out.

beorn · 08-10-2006, 09:14 AM

Dog Days is in the process of moving over right now, after running a test league to check out the waters.

My sense of it is that running an online team is going to be more of a time commitment than in the past. While "vacation mode" will help run a team if you are away for a little while, it seems to me that, in almost every other way, things are more detailed and more time consuming. For example, consider the game strategy settings! And the number of minor league players!

My guess is that you will see far fewer people successfully taking part in a whole slew of online leagues at once, and you will see people drop out a lot quicker if they are not really into running a team anymore. In the past, you could put in a total of 15 minutes a week and get by in a league, but I don't think that that will work anymore.

On a positive note, though, we are all newbies again, so if someone is joining an online league for the first time, they are less likely to take a beating from extremely experienced owners.

Edit to add: One thing I am noticing... This game is going to be a real strain on the idea of a commish running a team. I do not do so in Dog Days, so it will not hurt us, but the commish can see an awful lot of stuff that owners cannot. (The player editor is exact; even good scouts are not nearly so, at least in regards to young players. This is far more dramatic and visible than in 6.5)

I see this as a potential trouble area, given that online leagues are often dominated by commishes to the point of provoking some skepticism already... This will worsen the problem.

Stu · 08-10-2006, 09:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by beorn

Dog Days is in the process of moving over right now, after running a test league to check out the waters.

My sense of it is that running an online team is going to be more of a time commitment than in the past. While "vacation mode" will help run a team if you are away for a little while, it seems to me that, in almost every other way, things are more detailed and more time consuming. For example, consider the game strategy settings! And the number of minor league players!

My guess is that you will see far fewer people successfully taking part in a whole slew of online leagues at once, and you will see people drop out a lot quicker if they are not really into running a team anymore. In the past, you could put in a total of 15 minutes a week and get by in a league, but I don't think that that will work anymore.

On a positive note, though, we are all newbies again, so if someone is joining an online league for the first time, they are less likely to take a beating from extremely experienced owners.

Edit to add: One thing I am noticing... This game is going to be a real strain on the idea of a commish running a team. I do not do so in Dog Days, so it will not hurt us, but the commish can see an awful lot of stuff that owners cannot. (The player editor is exact; even good scouts are not nearly so, at least in regards to young players. This is far more dramatic and visible than in 6.5)

I see this as a potential trouble area, given that online leagues are often dominated by commishes to the point of provoking some skepticism already... This will worsen the problem.

All good points. My suggestion for new leagues is to leave scouts off for the first season. Like you said, there is a lot more work for Owners in this version and Scouts can add another layer of complexity that I think would frustrate newcomers.

The biggest problem facing our league is financials. Under our initial settings (no cash max, no cap, etc) the budgets skyrocket. I think the best solution is to implement a cash max even though I hate having one. We're also controlling Market Size and Fan Loyalty using an offline spreadsheet because in the game, they only seem to go up.

disposableheros · 08-10-2006, 02:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by enuttage

My allusion, at the moment, specifically relates to talent-only leagues (which our league is). Right now there is no way to properly operate a talent-only league, whereas this was quite simple in 6.5

yea, its pretty tough to judge fielding, baserunning, bunting, and pitcher endurance using only stats.

that 'design decision' is a complete joke!

axp113 · 08-10-2006, 02:40 PM

as far as a commish being able to see everything if he runs a team. if you would turn the scouts/coaches off, wouldn't that solve the problem of the commish seeing too much? everyone would then be on a level playing field.

Stu · 08-10-2006, 02:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by axp113

as far as a commish being able to see everything if he runs a team. if you would turn the scouts/coaches off, wouldn't that solve the problem of the commish seeing too much? everyone would then be on a level playing field.

Yes, but it's a lot more fun with Scouts on.

Somebody suggested it before, but it would be nice if there was a seperate commish login that logged everything the commish did.

axp113 · 08-10-2006, 03:02 PM

that is what i thought. It would be nice to have a commish log as a verification.

andymac · 08-10-2006, 03:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by beorn

And the number of minor league players!

Well, this is completely a design decision of the creator of the league. You can easily create a league that has the same or even less minor leaguers than 6.5.

The main problem I am seeing right now is the absence of a good single report to get an overview of your organization so far (or at least the minor league system). 6.5 had the minor league report which gave you a pretty good look at who should move up and who was struggling. I don't even think we need the "scout's opinions", just a similar report as that and it would make taking a look at your minor league teams much easier.

Stu · 08-10-2006, 03:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by andymac

Well, this is completely a design decision of the creator of the league. You can easily create a league that has the same or even less minor leaguers than 6.5.

Agreed. Our league is exactly like 6.5 with 3 levels of minors. I think any more and it becomes too much to keep track of.

robster1225 · 08-10-2006, 05:48 PM

I kind of came into the decision late, but I just wanted to throw my two cents in.

I'm in a number of OOTP 2006 leagues, and haven't seen any major problems. There's problems with the auto-downloading feature that was introduced in patch 1.2, so I recommend not using that, and going the old fashion way.

I've also seen random problems here and there, things like lineups being messed up by the computer, and the owner claims he didn't make any changes. These have been isolated, and I haven't been able to duplicate, so it is hard to tell if it is the owner's fault, or an actual bug in the game.

Other problems are the sheer size of the league files. The game has nice features for compiling archives and uploading the file and HTML pages, but this process is slow. I have also seen problems with the auto-created archives, where the archive doesn't get updated properly by the game, and we have to go in and manually do it.

Overall, though, it hasn't ruined my online league experience. I co-commish two leagues, and I'm a member of a few others, and I'm happy.

Stu · 08-11-2006, 10:32 AM

Another issue I've had is Owners exporting from their minor league teams without realizing it. I believe a feature request has already been submitted to have an "export entire organization" function.

Just something to keep an eye on for online players.

robster1225 · 08-11-2006, 05:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stu

Another issue I've had is Owners exporting from their minor league teams without realizing it. I believe a feature request has already been submitted to have an "export entire organization" function.

Just something to keep an eye on for online players.

As far as I know, when you export your major league team, you are exporting your entire organization.

08-09-2006, 05:44 AM	#1 (permalink)
Charlie Hough All Star Starter Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 1,880 Thanks: 58 Thanked 426x in 227 posts	General Status of Online Leagues? This area of the forums seems relatively quiet, so I'm just curious to find out what the online league scene is like these days. Has the number of leagues remained stable, or is there an increase or decline? Are a ton of leagues folding? How active is the league scene generally, and is it mostly a limited group of people playing in several leagues each, or is it spread out more, with a ton of gamers playing online?

08-09-2006, 05:51 PM	#4 (permalink)
sporr Global Moderator Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Muscatine, IA Posts: 8,275 Thanks: 2 Thanked 35x in 2 posts	I know we'll have some extra openings when we convert here shortly...I think it's just so different from 6.5 that it's taking some extra getting-use-to. __________________ Baseball Maelstrom - Commish/ St Louis Cardinals USBA - Las Vegas Scorpions

08-09-2006, 06:40 PM	#5 (permalink)
enuttage Hall Of Famer Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Balcones Fault Line Posts: 2,267 Thanks: 6 Thanked 0x in 0 posts	Things are also running less than smoothly in some circumstances. And I'm comparing that to 6.12/6.5 leagues. We've just started the process of testing before we convert our league, and unfortunately, we will have to make some steps backwards in order to use the new game. Long story short? I'm sure the game will eventually prove to be good for online line leagues, but so far, I'm not convinced that the game was designed with online leagues in mind until very late in the process. This shows. __________________ The former GM of the WHBL Managua Four Roses "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."

08-09-2006, 08:38 PM	#8 (permalink)
enuttage Hall Of Famer Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Balcones Fault Line Posts: 2,267 Thanks: 6 Thanked 0x in 0 posts	And, of course, there's the fact that none of my GMs can export, and OOTP isn't recognizing my folders on the server. __________________ The former GM of the WHBL Managua Four Roses "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."

08-10-2006, 09:14 AM	#10 (permalink)
beorn All Star Reserve Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: near Rochester, NY Posts: 953 Thanks: 18 Thanked 39x in 26 posts	Dog Days is in the process of moving over right now, after running a test league to check out the waters. My sense of it is that running an online team is going to be more of a time commitment than in the past. While "vacation mode" will help run a team if you are away for a little while, it seems to me that, in almost every other way, things are more detailed and more time consuming. For example, consider the game strategy settings! And the number of minor league players! My guess is that you will see far fewer people successfully taking part in a whole slew of online leagues at once, and you will see people drop out a lot quicker if they are not really into running a team anymore. In the past, you could put in a total of 15 minutes a week and get by in a league, but I don't think that that will work anymore. On a positive note, though, we are all newbies again, so if someone is joining an online league for the first time, they are less likely to take a beating from extremely experienced owners. Edit to add: One thing I am noticing... This game is going to be a real strain on the idea of a commish running a team. I do not do so in Dog Days, so it will not hurt us, but the commish can see an awful lot of stuff that owners cannot. (The player editor is exact; even good scouts are not nearly so, at least in regards to young players. This is far more dramatic and visible than in 6.5) I see this as a potential trouble area, given that online leagues are often dominated by commishes to the point of provoking some skepticism already... This will worsen the problem. __________________ Commish of Dog Days Baseball Commish, GM PCBL Toronto Dogs GM NUEBL Texas Rangers GM MLBD Detroit Tigers GM CBU 2.0 Vermont Greens GM Asahi2 Chicago Cubs Last edited by beorn; 08-10-2006 at 09:22 AM.

08-09-2006, 06:03 AM	#2 (permalink)
Karen Lutz Ball Breaker Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Canada OOTPChampionships: 5 Posts: 898 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0x in 0 posts	Looks like there are very few leagues for the new game so far, and most are "unique" types. I have been watching for a Brewers opening in a normal MLB league, but the few MLB leagues that open are filled within 30 minutes it seems. There is a lot fo people looking for leagues with this new game, and the number of leagues is slowly picking up as more and more people play it and get to know it.

08-09-2006, 04:48 PM	#3 (permalink)
Charlie Hough All Star Starter Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 1,880 Thanks: 58 Thanked 426x in 227 posts	So this is simply an issue with people using OOTP 6.51 as opposed to OOTP 2006? So people are simply holding off on creating new leagues until they are settled more into the 2006 version?

08-09-2006, 07:22 PM	#6 (permalink)
Charlie Hough All Star Starter Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 1,880 Thanks: 58 Thanked 426x in 227 posts	Could someone give me a brief summary of how OOTP 2006 may have gone backwards a bit in online play, compared to past versions? What exactly is missing or is causing problems for leagues that convert? Are these problems only for those leagues that convert to the new version, or would they exist with a newly created league as well?

08-10-2006, 02:40 PM	#13 (permalink)
axp113 Minors (Single A) Join Date: Sep 2003 Posts: 56 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0x in 0 posts	as far as a commish being able to see everything if he runs a team. if you would turn the scouts/coaches off, wouldn't that solve the problem of the commish seeing too much? everyone would then be on a level playing field. __________________ IOSBL - Philadelphia Rebels

08-10-2006, 03:02 PM	#15 (permalink)
axp113 Minors (Single A) Join Date: Sep 2003 Posts: 56 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0x in 0 posts	that is what i thought. It would be nice to have a commish log as a verification. __________________ IOSBL - Philadelphia Rebels

08-10-2006, 05:48 PM	#18 (permalink)
robster1225 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Hidd, Bahrain Posts: 2,608 Thanks: 3 Thanked 7x in 7 posts	I kind of came into the decision late, but I just wanted to throw my two cents in. I'm in a number of OOTP 2006 leagues, and haven't seen any major problems. There's problems with the auto-downloading feature that was introduced in patch 1.2, so I recommend not using that, and going the old fashion way. I've also seen random problems here and there, things like lineups being messed up by the computer, and the owner claims he didn't make any changes. These have been isolated, and I haven't been able to duplicate, so it is hard to tell if it is the owner's fault, or an actual bug in the game. Other problems are the sheer size of the league files. The game has nice features for compiling archives and uploading the file and HTML pages, but this process is slow. I have also seen problems with the auto-created archives, where the archive doesn't get updated properly by the game, and we have to go in and manually do it. Overall, though, it hasn't ruined my online league experience. I co-commish two leagues, and I'm a member of a few others, and I'm happy. __________________ Robby Ruggles

08-11-2006, 10:32 AM	#19 (permalink)
Stu All Star Starter Join Date: Dec 2005 Posts: 1,249 Thanks: 17 Thanked 16x in 8 posts	Another issue I've had is Owners exporting from their minor league teams without realizing it. I believe a feature request has already been submitted to have an "export entire organization" function. Just something to keep an eye on for online players.

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