Stats?

[HonusWagner]

I dont suppose OOTP has given any more consideration to incorporating stats for this version?


Ok, first, OOTP has a number of things going for it. The size of league universe, customizability and so on. So this is not to simply take a swipe at OOTP developers. The amount of hours I have invested to make this game work attests to the qualities I think I see in it. I understand that there is a very skeleton crew at work behind this so expectations have narrowed considerably.

Given that, recently I thought it would be an interesting idea to create a true hybrid game - one where I import historical players into a fictional game. Not all historical players. Just a handful of HoFers now and then. I thought it would be interesting to import a player, put him in a feeder league to develop, and change his name, so as to hide his RL identity. Pretty cool idea huh?

Problem is that when you open a historical player`s profile of course you see the Real Life tab and know he is one of the HoFers. Kinda spoils it. So, I looked for a workaround. What to do what to do. I finally settled on using the BNN pages, because those dont indicate if a player is real or fictional. Great!

Not so fast. The rookie pool page - no stats, just - yep you guessed it - ratings. (See, this is an all-stat league, I dont mess with ratings because I would like to play with a real sim). There are other ways I suppose one could work around it. But these ways are really time consuming and just plain not fun - just work.

Anyway, it wouldnt work anyways as even if one got past the draft clicking on player profiles after the draft would reveal who was historical. If the BNN pages provided stats then I need never look at a player profile again. But, even with the scant availability of BNN pages - Free Agents, future free agents, top players, top prospects - none of them provide stats, just ratings.

Are ratings easier to program? Does your clientele not really generally concern itself with stats? Stats seems to me to be such an integral part of baseball. uh, Bill James anyone? Sabremetrics? Do these ring a bell?

Stats are so integral to the game one would think this is where the attention would go. But it appears to be going in a different direction. Even the stats that are provided are one step above minimal. Thats too bad. Given the shorthandedness of the development team I get the sense I should not expect to see this really changing.

[SteveP]

A bit hard to parse through this to figure what would be a useful suggestion. How about this?

It sounds like you are, de facto, trying to create fictional players who have the same characteristics (ratings, but possibly other things as well) as HOF players. So why don't you just edit a fictional player so he matches up with the HOF player, then delete the HOF player from your universe?

Also, I assume you know you can turn off all display of ratings, so that stats are the only thing that gets displayed. There are a number of OOTPers who play the game this way.

If those suggestions don't fit into what you were looking for, at least I tried.

[HonusWagner]

Hey SteveP, thanks for the tips. No doubt without guys like you contributing so much this experience would be greatly diminished. Maybe I dont get out much (well, thats not true) but I have never seen a community volunteer such support to a game like this.

Anyway, re your suggestions - youre right of course. One could simply create a fictional player with the RL data. Certainly a lot more work that way, but that would solve the tab issue.

Re turning off ratings, yes, this is what I do. However, the BNN pages (not the individual player page but the group pages) only offer ratings, no stats. So its either ratings or nothing there.

Ill give your suggestion a go, and see how much time its going to take.

[bababui]

You can also create players by simply imputing stats in this iteration, I believe. That should make player creation much easier.

[SteveP]

Originally Posted by HonusWagner

However, the BNN pages (not the individual player page but the group pages) only offer ratings, no stats. So its either ratings or nothing there.

Well, after all, as a major cable network dedicated to the fans of baseball, BNN could hardly be expected to cater to the peculiarities of the fans of a particular baseball computer sim. But I have heard that BNN may be acquired by ESPN, which should resolve everyone's concerns and frustrations with the way BNN does its reporting ...

[SteveP]

Btw, if you have Excel or the like, you can easily do this player editing that way, by exporting your roster, do the edits and then re-importing. You could do what you are talking about with a simple copy and paste. Then delete the HOF player.

It's actually so simple you could even do it in a text reader.

[endgame]

Originally Posted by HonusWagner

Hey SteveP, thanks for the tips. No doubt without guys like you contributing so much this experience would be greatly diminished. Maybe I dont get out much (well, thats not true) but I have never seen a community volunteer such support to a game like this.

Does everyone named Steve eventually evolve into an MVP or a HOF candidate? Seriously. I wonder if 1998 Yankees / Deja Bru is a Steve?


(Chandler Bing voice)

Can this guy BE any more helpful?

(/Chandler Bing voice)

[HonusWagner]

Originally Posted by bababui

You can also create players by simply imputing stats in this iteration, I believe. That should make player creation much easier.

what does this mean

[HonusWagner]

Originally Posted by SteveP

Btw, if you have Excel or the like, you can easily do this player editing that way, by exporting your roster, do the edits and then re-importing. You could do what you are talking about with a simple copy and paste. Then delete the HOF player.

It's actually so simple you could even do it in a text reader.

not sure what is meant here.. if i edit in excel then I will know the new player`s identity.

[HonusWagner]

What I am most amazed at though is that NO ONE has exclaimed -- MY GOD! WHAT A FANTASTIC IDEA! just coz they wish theyd thought of it

[SteveP]

Originally Posted by HonusWagner

not sure what is meant here.. if i edit in excel then I will know the new player`s identity.

Well, I can only assume from your OP that you had some method for giving an HOF player a new fictional name in a way that was satisfactory to you. The reason for exporting the roster and editing it, is that you essentially give your HOF player a new Player ID (which is presumably the link to the RL stats). You can give him a new ID # (making sure it isn't a duplicate) or copy and paste his data into another player, and erasing him from the roster. After you import the roster, if you still remember his name (or if you didn't change the name because you gave him a new ID#), just use you trick to give him a new fictional name that you won't know going forward. The point is that he won't have a Real Stats tab in his profile.