Feedback Needed / OOTP 11 Features

[ae37jr]

This seems like a natural evolution for the updated pitching system....Have sliders on the player strategy page for pitch distribution. ie) 60% Fastball, 30% Slider, 10% change. Then have it so the more a pitcher throws a certain pitch, the greater chance he has of reaching the peak for that pitch.

This would be great for those fringe relief prospects who are on the cusp of being starters. You'd actually have the ability to "coach" them into learning it, spending time working on the third pitch.

[Muzamba]

Originally Posted by KuwabaraTheMan

Owners with names and personalities.

You could have two different types of owners, individual owners and corporate owners, both of which would have differences. Some owners would be willing to open up the purse strings, while others would only care about the bottom line and run the team like a business.

They could also have a rating based on their degree of interference. Some owners might trust their baseball people to make all the moves, while others could try and force their GM to trade for or sign certain players, or block trades that had already been put together (Peter Angelos says hi). Some owners might also be more likely to fire managers and GMS more quickly, while others would be loyal and stick with you for awhile.

You could even have some owners who would mouth off to the media about the team's performance (let's call this hypothetical owner 'Hank').

This is precisely what I've suggested. It would be more realistic/immersive than simply saying "the owner" wants this or that.

[Muzamba]

Originally Posted by jmknpk2

Screen to track prior players of a team. The prior draft is a good screen to see who was drafted, but it would be nice to see all other players in the team history in one spot.

This could simply be a list of all players by season, who are no longer on the team. The players name could be a hyper-link that can be right-clicked for player profile if still active in the league, with a quick blurb about current status. For example:

Previous Tiger players no longer on the team:
2008
---------
SP Joe Shmo - Currently on Toronto Blue-Jays
1B Bob Smith - Retired 2009
3B Ken Douglas - Currently on Boston Gators (AAA)

2009
--------
SS John Smith - Currently on New York Highlanders
MR Jake Johnson - Retired 2010

Or maybe another option listing years on our team:
2007-2009 SP Joe Shmo - Currently on Toronto Blue-Jays
2005-2009 1B Bob Smith - Retired 2009
2008-2008 3B Ken Douglas - Currently on Boston Gators
2008-2011 SS John Smith - Currently on New York Highlanders
2003-2007, 2009-2010 MR Jake Johnson - Retired 2010

By keeping track of how long each player plays for each team, there could also be a "familiarity" factor that helps determine where a player signs as a free agent or what teams he includes in partial NTCs.

Example: Johnny Smith plays for the Cougars and has been on the team for several seasons. Billy Jones also played for the Cougars for much of the same time. Stevie Johnson was also Smith's teammate on the Cougars for parts of a few seasons. Later, Jones was traded to the Falcons and Johnson signed with the Falcons at the end of the season. Also, Rick Robinson, the manager of Smith's previous team, the Stars, now manages the Falcons. Now, Smith is a free agent and is trying to decide which team to sign with. All other factors being essentially equal, Smith decides to sign with the Falcons, since 2 of his longtime former teammates play for them and one of his former managers manages them.

(Okay, that probably made it sound even more complicated. Anyway, it would be a nice addition to the game.)

[Muzamba]

Originally Posted by CBL-Commish

The ability to limit reserve rosters to less than 15. As it is you still have to have the smallest of indy league teams with at least 30 players under contract at all times (15 active + 15 reserve). Limited reserve rosters was a listed feature of OOTPX, but the feature really only changed the limit from infinity to 15 or more.

I wouldn't mind having this apply to to active rosters, as well. The reason I originally thought of this was when I was setting up the small D3/NAIA colleges in my feeder league, I wanted some of the teams to only have a couple of players on the roster, so less of them would show up in the draft. However, I'm hoping the entire college/feeder system will be revamped and this will be unnecessary. (Then again, I suppose this could still be useful for high school teams in areas with small populations.)

[Muzamba]

Originally Posted by Puckett guy

I preface my suggestions with the comment that I strictly play with fictitous leagues and players. Therefore, recreating historic stats does not interest me and I do not have a problem if off field events can affect on field play.

I would like to see the game develop more personality. By this I suggest that:

1. Players sometimes like/dislike other players, coaches, managers, general managers.
2. Players have agents who can affect contract negotiations.
3. The contract negotiation features of the game are better developed. Players and agents will actually reduce their demands to keep negotiations moving towards a settlement.
4. Some players are simply high maintenace, others are true professionals.
5. The game has a strong media component. Players may read the papers and their morale can be affected by media coverage or comments you make to the media.
6. The manager or GM conducts regular press conferences and may have to field difficult questions.
7. Regular input from coaches of what is happening in the locker room, who is helping the team, who is hindering it. Reports of any significant changes in player capabilities. E.g. a report from your pitching coach that a pitcher has developed a new pitch. Similar reports from managers of the minor league teams.
8. Reports from the team's head accountant which keeps you informed of any financial changes, trends, concerns.
9. Changes in your reputation as a manager or GM that affect your dealings with other players, agents and GMs from other teams.
10. Successful trading with a divisional opponent is much more difficult then with teams outside your division or competition group.
11. Some foreign players may have a difficult time adjusting to the new culture, language.

I realize that many of these things may not be practical for the next version of OOTP, but I would like to see the game eventually move in this direction. Of course any of this could be made optional for those who would like to keep the game based purely on on-field statistical capabilities.

I enthusiastically concur with PSU, Corsairs, and IronMan on this one...



I've long suggested some variations of the first few of these, but I would love to see all of them eventually be incorporated. Adding personality to OOTP has always been one of the toppers on my wish list. Not only do I agree that this is the direction OOTP needs to take, I think this should be the big "back-of-the-box" add for OOTP11!

[Muzamba]

Originally Posted by Pineapple

Some of these have already been mentioned but:

1. HS feeder league feeding into college league

2. Player agents (Front Office Football)

3. More dynamic player personality. Often times teams have to trade away talented players because of the negatives they bring into a clubhouse (Manny Ramirez and Milton Bradley for example)

4. More dynamic free agent A.I. I know free agents sign with a team based on money, loyalty, location and chance for a winning team. But this needs to be more stressed. An older veteran may sign cheaper just to go to a winning team. A young guy could favor a team where he sees a chance to start rather than be a bench player.

5. Veterans mentoring youngsters (Front Office Football). Lesser talented veterans and those in the twilight of their years are often kept around for their leadership. Give us an incentive to want to sign that aging John Smoltz or Mike Sweeney.

6. Implement an off-season training of sorts whether it be Winter Ball or simply an option to tell a young player to focus on fielding or hitting.

7. Improved scouting system especially for the amateur draft and lower level minor league farm systems. I keep referencing Front Office Football but I especially like the scouting method it uses during their football draft. Potential draftees are scouting on a "sliding scale" system rather than a pure singular numerical value. If you spent more time scouting that player, the level of ambiguity reduces. Rather than a player being rated "11-16" (out of 20) in particular category, a heavily scouted player may be rated "12-14" instead. Same thing for the low minors, the ratings should be more ambiguous until they play for a long period time where scouts can get a better grasp of their potential.

8. Importable coaching/game strategies! This is an absolute must. Playing in solo and online leagues, I hate having to reconfigure my strategies every time I take over a new team. It would be nice if I can create a coaching profile so I can import to other leagues.

9. Leadership and perhaps work ethic can evolve over time. It is debatable whether leaders are naturally born or not... but I would like to see young players develop into better leaders as they get older. Similarly, some players may work harder as they age. Or even vice versa, some players get lazier over time. This suggestion is pretty much an add on for making player personalities more dynamic. I want players to feel real and immersive rather than just computing code.

I already gave you a "Thanks" for this, but I decided this list deserved an additional , especially for 1-4 and for 9. I hadn't considered 5 before, but that's a good one, too.

[Cryomaniac]

Originally Posted by Muzamba

I wouldn't mind having this apply to to active rosters, as well. The reason I originally thought of this was when I was setting up the small D3/NAIA colleges in my feeder league, I wanted some of the teams to only have a couple of players on the roster, so less of them would show up in the draft. However, I'm hoping the entire college/feeder system will be revamped and this will be unnecessary. (Then again, I suppose this could still be useful for high school teams in areas with small populations.)

I think making the lower limit 9 (or maybe 10) for active rosters is probably sensible, otherwise you don't have a full team. How would a team play games if they only had 2 players on the roster?

It would be cool for a highschool league to have a 15 man roster with only 1 or 2 reserves.

[Muzamba]

OK, one more and I'm caught up!

Originally Posted by Dark Horse

high school leagues feed to college leagues

Yes! Absolutely needed! Plus, there should be a JUCO level that feeds the 4-Year College level. (4Y feeds draft only, 2Y feeds 4Y and draft, HS feeds 2Y, 4Y, and draft)

to mimic recruiting college pick in reverse order – best teams pick first
o best teams possibly based on prestige (records for last five/ten years?)
o only pick enough to fill out roster

I'd definitely like to see recruiting modeled, although I'm not sure what basically amounts to a "draft" is the best way to go. It should certainly be that the traditional powerhouses get the lion's share of top recruits, but perhaps a simple "prestige rating" for each school could suffice?

no draft for high school leagues players just created to fill roster

I've gone back and forth on this one and I think I've decided that this is the best way to go. On one hand, I thought high schools could work the same as colleges, but I just don't see any way to keep that type of configuration manageable. I mean, you'd have to have upwards of 15,000 teams to be realistic, and that's just for the US! So I think the best way to model high schools is to simply have a text database. And that would help with the next suggestion...

high school players should be created with same birth place as the team’s city

A high school database could include the school's name and maybe their nickname for cosmetic purposes, the city it's located in, and a numerical prestige rating.

Personality predicts whether player starts a brawl or gets kicked out for arguing call

See many of my previous posts. I'm a HUGE fan of incorporating more personality into the game.

News Items -

Thumbs up to all of these, especially the Mock Draft and Preseason Preview ideas!

All Star Game history
o At very least, which league won each season.

Right on.

On the teams’ history page for individual seasons, note the manager and coaching staff
o Currently, there is no easy way find out who the manager, coaches were for a given team.

+1

Player firsts noted in history
o First game with summary
o For batter - First hit
o For batter - First home run
o For pitcher - First win
o For pitcher - First save

See my Player Profile mock-up. This could be a big addition to the History screen.

Allow us to set the criteria (create a formula based on stats and ratings) to determine All-Stars and Award Winners.

I love this idea. It might be complicated, but it would vastly improve the custom awards. (Don't get me wrong, I'd be happy to see the option for more custom awards, but it would be nice if they could be decided for us!)

Add an end of the year All-League Team award.
o Picked the same way you’d pick the all-star team only the amount of players is different, RH SP, LH SP, RH RP, LH LP, C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, LF, CF, RF
o Second team optional?

There simply needs to be more awards! In addition to the above, give us a true MVP (not just best hitter/pitcher), Reliever, Comeback Player, Executive, etc.

Team Ring of Honor – manual induction
o For online leagues, allow the GM to make these selections and export

I assume this would be basically the same as retired numbers? If so, bring it on!

No repeat numbers, at least for forty man roster

Good stuff.

allow GMs to move players to these teams and automatically moved back after season

...and...

players don’t treat this as a demotion; they still have the option to refuse
o the player’s decision based on his loyalty, work ethic and age.

Developmental leagues could be handled by a function that would allow players to appear on multiple teams at once, as with All-Star, World Cup, or WBC teams.

LOTS of great ideas here!

[Muzamba]

Originally Posted by Cryomaniac

I think making the lower limit 9 (or maybe 10) for active rosters is probably sensible, otherwise you don't have a full team. How would a team play games if they only had 2 players on the roster?

It would be cool for a highschool league to have a 15 man roster with only 1 or 2 reserves.

This is why, as I mentioned in my response to Dark Horse's suggestion list, that high schools should probably just appear in a database, and maybe small colleges and JUCOs, too. It would be okay if all the feeder league games were being simulated in the background. The rest of the players could just be "ghost players" that would never show up in the draft pool. Otherwise, you're probably right that anything less than 9 or 10 would be impossible, or at least impractical.

[Cryomaniac]

Originally Posted by Muzamba

This is why, as I mentioned in my response to Dark Horse's suggestion list, that high schools should probably just appear in a database, and maybe small colleges and JUCOs, too. It would be okay if all the feeder league games were being simulated in the background. The rest of the players could just be "ghost players" that would never show up in the draft pool. Otherwise, you're probably right that anything less than 9 or 10 would be impossible, or at least impractical.

I like being able to play out high school games, but if it was optional I can see how your idea would work.

[robc]

I would like a graph to track player ratings over time. Puresim has one and it clearly shows the rating history. It is much easier to get a picture of how things are changing than the player development report.

[TribeFanInNC]

Originally Posted by robc

I would like a graph to track player ratings over time. Puresim has one and it clearly shows the rating history. It is much easier to get a picture of how things are changing than the player development report.

Neags23 has a DevTracker mod for this if you are looking for graphs. Not that I'm saying it shouldn't be included in the game. Just making you aware.

[robc]

Originally Posted by TribeFanInNC

Neags23 has a DevTracker mod for this if you are looking for graphs. Not that I'm saying it shouldn't be included in the game. Just making you aware.

Thanks, but it seems to have disappeared from the hosting website. It sounds good though.

[OakDragon]

I don't think this has been mentioned, but I would like to see spring training games played in actual "spring training" weather (warm, with little or no rain) for added realism where injuries are concerned (because in OOTP, more injuries occur in cold weather).

[Muzamba]

Originally Posted by Cryomaniac

I like being able to play out high school games, but if it was optional I can see how your idea would work.

I had been thinking maybe we could have a "Source of Schools" option at Game/League Setup. The idea was that for each type of school (4 Year Colleges, 2 Year Colleges, High Schools) you would be able to select one of two source options, either "feeder league" or "text database". This would allow you to better control the size of your feeder system.

Then I had an even better idea!

Here's how it goes...

There would be three standard text databases, probably something along the lines of "4yr_colleges.txt", "2yr_colleges.txt" and "high_schools.txt".

Each database would contain 5 columns:

School ID, School Name, Nickname, City ID, Prestige Rating

School name and nickname are obvious. City ID would ensure that players from a given city go to a geographically realistic high school and that more players from within a given state/region go to a certain college than other states/regions. Prestige Rating would ensure that better players go to schools with better baseball reputations. (Note: I suppose prestige ratings for feeder leagues could be dynamic and change over time, although that would naturally create a discrepancy between the feeder league team's rating and the team's database equivalent, so I don't know how or even if this could be handled effectively.)

School ID is where we eliminate the need for the "either/or" with feeder leagues and text databases. That's because it would allow you to set up feeder leagues from schools in the databases! This would require the feeder system to be redesigned, so that feeder leagues would be set up using school IDs, instead of the usual way league structure is set up.

So let's say you want to only use the "BCS" conferences in a feeder league. You'd set up your league, probably naming it "NCAA Division I" and setting up divisions titled "ACC", "Big East", "Big Ten", "Big 12", "PAC-10", and "SEC". On the League Structure screen, you would simply enter the school IDs. You would also select "4-Year Colleges" from the initial dropdown menu. (As I mentioned earlier, the various levels should feed into one another: 4Y feed into draft, 2Y feed into 4Y and draft, HS feed into 2Y, 4Y, and draft.)

Once this league is created, it will populate itself with fictional players that come from schools in the HS and 2Y databases. You will then be able to simulate it and watch the individual players progress and accumulate statistics up until the time they enter the draft. When the draft pool is announced, it will contain players from your BCS league, as well as other players that come directly from the 4Y, 2Y, and HS databases. (These other players, however, will have artificial stats and ratings, since they didn't actually play in a feeder league.)

With a school ID/database revision, you could use any number of configurations for your feeder system. If you don't care about following the players before they enter the draft or you simply don't have enough memory on your computer, you might choose to just let all the players come directly from the databases. On the other hand, if you have an abundance of memory, you could set up as many feeder leagues as you want. You could have a high school league with just high schools from your hometown and still have plenty of other players from other high schools all over the country show up in colleges and in the draft. In fact, as long as they're at the same level, you could even create your own mix of schools to play in a custom feeder league! The possibilities would be virtually endless!

Anyway, I'm going to submit a detailed proposal on a revised feeder system to Markus and company soon, as this is one of my personal top priorities for v11. So if anyone has any other thoughts or suggestions on the matter, please let me know.

[bailey]

Since hitting streaks are tracked, why not track consecutive scoreless innings pitched?

[Goody]

Originally Posted by bailey

Since hitting streaks are tracked, why not track consecutive scoreless innings pitched?

I remember the Orel Hershiser scoreless innings streak when I was younger. It was more highly publicized than any of the hitting streaks in baseball since I was born.

[GEP]

In order of importance (although not necessarily ease of implementation -- I realize some of these ideas have been suggested and dismissed in the past as way more trouble than they're worth to code. But this is a wish list thread...):

1. Show pitcher's Hold Runners rating in the pitching widget.

2. Separate day/night locations for player and ball locations in the ballpark editor.

3. More flexible inter-league scheduling (i.e., don't always play the same division every year).

4. Better UI for ballpark editor (especially next/previous park buttons).

5. More playoff options (double-elimination, league winners play each other, etc.)

6. Single game and team record books.

7. High school feeder leagues that feed some players into the professional draft, others into a draft for college feeder leagues.

8. Customizable home field for World Series (top seed, alternate years, or all star game winner).

9. Allow human managers who won LCS in previous season to manage all star game.

10. When filling out rosters directly (i.e., not through the draft), give the option of preferentially generating players from local region.

11. Double headers and rainouts.

12. Ballpark quirks. Obviously, this has to be fairly limited, but there are still a couple things that you could do based on what the game knows about the parks:

• Penalties for turf teams playing on grass and vice versa.
• Balls getting lost in the sun (outdoor day games only) or against the dome (more like for visiting team).
• Long indoor homers landing on catwalks.
• Balls bouncing off speakers (indoors) or, very, very rarely, the dreaded Dead Seagull Play (outdoors).

[mikev]

Implement wOBA as a stat.

[robc]

1) I would like position players to have individualized stamina ratings. How many games did Ripken play without a break (not to say he was always at 100%).

2) I'm not sure if OOTP does this, but I would also like historical leagues to have the players injury rating based on the player's historical injuries.

3) Graphs to track a players performance over their career to easily see that their average, power, etc is slipping. I had a prior post about this for ratings.

4) Have the ball flight be more like Puresim's ball flight. It has a nice shadow to give the perception of a fly ball. Well hit balls go faster. It makes it so I actually watch the animation when I tried out Puresim. I turn it off in OOTP.

5) I version of play by play that doesn't give anything extra. Again, this would be like PureSim. I don't want to see the player's season average or anything. Just a description of the actual play. I would also like the play by play to give obvious feedback to how fielders perform. For example, if a lesser fielder wouldn't have got to a ball, say so. I know that sometimes the PbP says great play and stuff but I have no idea if it is based on the play or it's essentially making up random descriptions.

6) I would like a yearly check from OOTP for my salary of managing a ballclub. I have won the World Series and should be compensated.