Feedback Needed / OOTP 11 Features

[d9rat]

1. I would like to see real players in the international leagues (Japan, Mexico, etc.) and more international leagues (Dutch, Italian, etc.).

I realize there are problems with getting all the info but I would like to see it.

2. I would also like international tournaments (Olympics, WBC) and am a little surprised that hasn't been implemented yet. Eastside Hockey Manager, World Basketball Manager, and just about every soccer text sim has them and I think it would greatly improve OOTP as well.

3. I would like to see the ability to create baseball academies in countries not involved in the amateur draft (basically anyone outside of the US, Canada, and Puerto Rico). The more money you invest the greater chance you have of developing a player.

Along with the academies I would like to see that the academies be able to improve the baseball skills of the nation as more academies are built. Ghana and South Africa have far more youths playing baseball than before the acadamies were built and that could reflect in the game.

4. I would like to be able to hire more coaches and scouts. EHM did this terrifically in that you could hire coaches to work on defense, or offense, or skating, or goaltending. In baseball you can do this with hitting, pitching, fielding, baserunning, etc.

With multiple scouts allow them to individually scout players, teams, leagues, countries, regions, draftable players, etc. Eastside Hockey Manager basically nailed the scouting aspect of sports. I basically want that implemented in OOTP.

5. Players should also have a desire to play in their home countries. Many Japanese players don't leave for the majors even though they can play their because they are more comfortable staying at home. Many Americans choose to play in the minors rather than accept a Japanese contract because they are more comfortable. This would add greatly to the games with international leagues.

6. An international posting system for other major leagues. Great for historical PCL laegues and current international leagues.

7. More ratings for owners, GMs, coaches, scouts, managers... Have them send reports (both positive and negative) about players, the team, you... Basically create the feeling that their is a staff on your team.

8. Have the players voice their displeasure over lack of playing time (if they aren't a team player) or have them ask to talk about an extension or wonder why you aren't talking about an extension. It's a good reminder to look at the contracts on your team in an immersive fashion.

9. Have negotiations on constructing stadiums like in Front Office Football. Put up proposals to have so much of the stadium subsidized vs. team payments. The more money paid for the stadium the more seats and allow you to design the dimensions of the stadium, if its turf or grass, retractable roof or not, etc.

Also be able to threaten relocation if you aren't given money for a new stadium or stadium upgrade.

10. More stats! UZR, TotalZone, OPS+, ERA+. It's not somthing I'm dying for but would love to have.

I'm focusing on the staffing, business, and international side of baseball because I feel that OOTP is just a step behind the other text sims when it comes to that. I don't feel the game needs to become Football Manager in all those things (I tend to play the simpler Championship Manager or FIFA Manager) but it could certainly improve in many of those areas and not become bloated.

Also, with all these things a box could be included to turn those options off.

I know this post is very late in the development stage but would love to see these things implemented in the next couple iterations of OOTP. I guarantee I'd have bought more copies of OOTP had they been a part of the franchise earlier.

EDIT:
Take advantage of the CSV feature on baseballreference.com. Minor leagues, Mexican Leagues, Major Leagues could all be imported through there with some work. I know it would be a pain to code but would be so worth it.

[Scott Gustafson]

Originally Posted by Scott Gustafson

The ability to have a select all or a shift select option so you don't have to remove players one by one from minor leagues or whatever the case my be.

Been begging for this feature for lesse.... four OOTP versions now. Hi Markus! Please?

[Tycobbler]

Didn't read through all of this so sorry if it was mentioned. How about the ability to add a few screens rather than just edit the existing ones

ie. Batting Stats1, Batting Stats2

[koohead]

in an effort to not clog up Markus' thread concerning OOTP11, wanted to add in here my wish for HOF Standard and HOF monitor scores to be calculated and shown in the leaderboards.

[d9rat]

A couple more things:
1. To help with the foreign player limits players should be given more than one nationality (as they are in FM).

For example, many players are born in one country and then immigrate to another while still children and become citizens in that new country. They should be able to play in both countries without affecting the foreign player limit.

An example is in the Dutch leagues with players coming from the Netherland Antilles or in the Italian league with many players being born in the US but due to citizenship laws they are able to be considered Italian with regards to the foreign player limits.

This would also be good if any national tournaments are included as players who are not good enough to make one team would be able to play for another (this is quite common in other sports).

2. I would also like to see the nations.txt improved. Perhaps instead of using a 1-5 rubrick use percentage of major leaguers from a nations population.

As an example:
US, Japan, Canada, and Dominican Republic all have ratings of 5 right now but far more Dominicans make the majors per capita than any other country.

It's actually very easy to determine the percentages since baseballreference.com has a tool for giving you the figures based on the major leagues here:
Place of Birth Reports for Major Leaguers - Baseball-Reference.com

There are only a handful of major league players in most other independent leagues (Korea, Taiwan, Mexico) so only Japan and Cuba would need to be estimated though I think that would be pretty simple (I'd put Cuba as having a similar percentage as DR and Japan at having about 250 major league quality players).

Doing it by percentage would also allow for easy manipulation in historical leagues or as a functionof the game universe itself if baseball academies are implemented.

[edm]

Personally, I would love to see a small section under 'league settings' dedicated to custom "league ground rules". To make the game more challenging for solo league players. For example, only allow 1 for 1 trades, a "user team" salary cap, etc.. Im sure people could come up with a more. In other words, a way to customize the difficulty level to our liking.

I know we can set our own ground rules and try to follow them on our own, but inevitably I end up breaking one because I has zero will power lol. Having something we can set, lock, and not worry about again would be a great addition imo.

[reo]

Originally Posted by BruceM

A release date that coincides with MLB opening day.

This.

[CBL-Commish]

Originally Posted by Charlie Hough

Few people want to be the GM and then let the AI manage the games. Yes, we do this in online leagues out of necessity, but that's where you could implement head-to-head Internet play and really get somewhere. I'm sure there are some people who like to build a team and just sim through the seasons with the computer handling the management, but I would bet that most OOTP customers prefer to manage the games for their teams.

Besides, in real life the GM has no real say in how the team will be managed on the field, other than the ability to hire and fire the manager. So even the current feature for allowing the GM to set all the in-game strategies is unrealistic. If you wanted a GM-only simulation, you'd have to eliminate that feature for realism's sake.

I guess I'm one of the few. I've always been someone who wanted to be the GM and outside of maybe setting lineups I don't want anything to do with managing my team. I've been running ficitional leagues for 20+ years and this is what I've always done.

And I don't see why an option to have the GM set in-game strategies needs to be eliminated. If you don't want it, let the AI do it. If you do, great, it's there.

OOTP is a niche game, it's not something that is going to sell 100,000 copies at the mall. I think Markus will probably be very careful in eliminating things to satisfy one segment of his market, while alienating others.

[edm]

Originally Posted by CBL-Commish

I guess I'm one of the few. I've always been someone who wanted to be the GM and outside of maybe setting lineups I don't want anything to do with managing my team. I've been running ficitional leagues for 20+ years and this is what I've always done.

And I don't see why an option to have the GM set in-game strategies needs to be eliminated. If you don't want it, let the AI do it. If you do, great, it's there.

OOTP is a niche game, it's not something that is going to sell 100,000 copies at the mall. I think Markus will probably be very careful in eliminating things to satisfy one segment of his market, while alienating others.

I'm the same way. I don't even set lineups, I just play the role as GM and let the AI take care of everything else. On occasion, I will use the strategy settings to over ride the AI. whether it's to force a player into the starting lineup or to make a team steal more often. but as use said, it's there as an option and does not have to be used.

I do think it happens in real life as well. depending on how much power the gm has in the organization. So I dont see it as being unrealistic anyway.

[Tullius]

Besides, in real life the GM has no real say in how the team will be managed on the field, other than the ability to hire and fire the manager. So even the current feature for allowing the GM to set all the in-game strategies is unrealistic. If you wanted a GM-only simulation, you'd have to eliminate that feature for realism's sake.

I have a little problem with the statement. Firing and hiring mangers is not part of single game and OOTP was never a game which centers around playing single baseball games.

A GM plays a big role in the buildup of a team and often the buildup is based on a certain concept of baseball which reflects later the coaches decisions on the field. IRL influence of GM on different teams is very different but e.g. a John Schuerholz has done much more in Atlanta than hiring Bobby Cox and Billy Beans has a very powerfull approach ...

[Malleus Dei]

Originally Posted by edm

Personally, I would love to see a small section under 'league settings' dedicated to custom "league ground rules". To make the game more challenging for solo league players. For example, only allow 1 for 1 trades, a "user team" salary cap, etc.. Im sure people could come up with a more. In other words, a way to customize the difficulty level to our liking.

That's a really good idea.

[Tullius]

A idea for a future version. As commissioner you should have the right to approve every transaction (or certain transactions) of a league made by the AI. It could be done so that at the end of the day you will get a list with all wanted changes and unless you decline, the transaction will be done.

And i think that would be not too difficult because the most DBMS seperate between the datasource and something like a "dataset" in the memory so the decline is not more than a refused update in the original database.

[Bluenoser]

Originally Posted by Tullius

A idea for a future version. As commissioner you should have the right to approve every transaction (or certain transactions) of a league made by the AI. It could be done so that at the end of the day you will get a list with all wanted changes and unless you decline, the transaction will be done.

And i think that would be not too difficult because the most DBMS seperate between the datasource and something like a "dataset" in the memory so the decline is not more than a refused update in the original database.

What the Commissioner does irl, is ensure that a transaction, such as a trade, follows the league rules. He can't just approve/disapprove based on his personal opinion. If the deal follows league rules, then he has no choice but to give the ok.

[Tullius]

What the Commissioner does irl, is ensure that a transaction, such as a trade, follows the league rules. He can't just approve/disapprove based on his personal opinion. If the deal follows league rules, then he has no choice but to give the ok.

This is correct but the idea behind my proposal was to prevent the AI from stupid actions. At the moment we see sometimes strange actions like the trading bug PSU has shown. In one of my test leagues i had the following situations: 1 player trade between team A (player CD) and team B (player EF), player CD is sent to team B and placed on waivers and team A claims him successfully. Team A has now CD und EF (all teams are controlled by AI)! This bug will perhaps solved in the next version but we will see other AI busters. And i am not sure if that the AI will not waste unnecessarily minor league options or make not unnecessarily secondary roster placements which could be the source for later trouble.

[Cryomaniac]

Originally Posted by BruceM

What the Commissioner does irl, is ensure that a transaction, such as a trade, follows the league rules. He can't just approve/disapprove based on his personal opinion. If the deal follows league rules, then he has no choice but to give the ok.

Tyrannical commissioners ftw!!!

[Bluenoser]

Originally Posted by Tullius

This is correct but the idea behind my proposal was to prevent the AI from stupid actions. At the moment we see sometimes strange actions like the trading bug PSU has shown. In one of my test leagues i had the following situations: 1 player trade between team A (player CD) and team B (player EF), player CD is sent to team B and placed on waivers and team A claims him successfully. Team A has now CD und EF (all teams are controlled by AI)! This bug will perhaps solved in the next version but we will see other AI busters. And i am not sure if that the AI will not waste unnecessarily minor league options or make not unnecessarily secondary roster placements which could be the source for later trouble.

The problem with that is, you then have to be able to input all your rules somewhere in OOTP. Not everyone plays by standard MLB rules. Just look at the wide variety in online leagues to get an idea. Same for solo leagues, there's many different ways/rules played. That would be a massive amount of programming I think just to be able to input your specific set of rules.

A better way to prevent the AI from stupid actions is to improve the AI, not add more complications to the game that can cause more stupid actions by the AI.

[Bluenoser]

Originally Posted by edm

Personally, I would love to see a small section under 'league settings' dedicated to custom "league ground rules". To make the game more challenging for solo league players. For example, only allow 1 for 1 trades, a "user team" salary cap, etc.. Im sure people could come up with a more. In other words, a way to customize the difficulty level to our liking.

I know we can set our own ground rules and try to follow them on our own, but inevitably I end up breaking one because I has zero will power lol. Having something we can set, lock, and not worry about again would be a great addition imo.

House rules cover that. Discipline yourself to follow them. I can't see how you could possibly code the large amount of ground rules that are used by the large amount of OOTP players. Again, more likely to cause the AI to do other stupid things.

[edm]

A couple more what I think are small requests. sorry if theyve been mentioned already

1) Clicking a player link from the teams Home page or any other html page from inside the game takes you to that players BNN (html) page. but 99% of the time I would rather go to the 'player profile' page instead.

Would it be possible to add a setting under the "ootp preferences" menu that allows us to choose where clicking a player link take us (BNN player page or the Players profile page). I know we can get there by right clicking and selecting the player profile link there, but having less clicking to do is always better.

2) Along with the Force start/use at position option we have under the player strategy menu, I would love a way to Force a batter/s into a specific spot in the batting order. for example, force a specific player to lead-off, bat cleanup, etc.

[jmknpk2]

It would be nice if we could get the pitchers "suggested" role in reports. I think this is valuable as the appropriate role, which may differ from his currently set role.

This would be very helpful in making my prioritized draft list from the available draft pool report.

[Bluenoser]

Originally Posted by jmknpk2

It would be nice if we could get the pitchers "suggested" role in reports. I think this is valuable as the appropriate role, which may differ from his currently set role.

This would be very helpful in making my prioritized draft list from the available draft pool report.

Suggested role shows on player HTML page.