OOTP 11 "Back of the Box" Feature Ideas

[darkcloud4579]

Originally Posted by Nihilianth

Ya know, there is a rule I would love to see implemented in OOTP, and one that I think should be implemented in the real MLB, which the NFL uses:

Players right out of high school have to wait 4 years before they can go pro. This encourages students to go to college instead, and gain an education, widening their options IRL.

However, before OOTP could ever implement such a rule as an option, they would have to have the whole highschool feeding into college thing.

If any new feature were to be added, I think that is one of the more important ones. high school feeding to college. And eventually they would be able to work the four year exclusive rule into the game as an added option for the pros.

That'd be an absolute disaster, a logistical nightmare and well, it's not particularly realistic since baseball doesn't really work that way.

Not to mention it'd be a disaster to code.

But that said, you could do that now if you wanted to, by simply raising the age limit in a league to prevent players under 22 or 23 from being in the majors. Not realistic, but...it'd have a similar effect.

[Vinny P.]

Originally Posted by darkcloud4579

That'd be an absolute disaster, a logistical nightmare and well, it's not particularly realistic since baseball doesn't really work that way.

Not to mention it'd be a disaster to code.

But that said, you could do that now if you wanted to, by simply raising the age limit in a league to prevent players under 22 or 23 from being in the majors. Not realistic, but...it'd have a similar effect.

Well, I'm not much of a programmer at all, so I'll take your word for it.

As for it being "realistic" doesn't really matter, since this is a game all about "playing it your way."

And in fact, didn't the commissioner of the MLB consider that very rule back in the 90s at one point? I am thinking of around '94 or '95. I think it also came up again in the early part of this decade as well.

Besides, if one major sport does it, why can't another?

And another besides: I don't want my high school players just sitting around, decaying because they can't get into a league until they reach 22. And to manually place them in college teams would take too long, and would probably upset the balance of the college organization, anyway if I did it incorrectly.

I dunno, probably shouldn't start that debate here. Not the place for it. So I stand by the whole HS feeding into college thing.

[AirmenSmith]

I would go with revamped more in-depth scouting feature. It would be nice to have many scouts to control with different aspects that they can scout. Like one scout is great at just pitchers one is great for batters, ect. You should have one head scout and then a set number of lower scouts. Right now the scouting in the game does not let us get involved at all.

Along with a revamped scouting feature I would say revamping coaches would be good to. I have found for reading the boards a lot of ppl seem to turn off both scouting and coaches. No official poll but just my opinion.

I think a good "Back of the Box" idea would be to revamp the scouting and coaches feature of the game.

[Killing Time]

Originally Posted by silvam14

While I respect your opinion, I couldn't disagree more.

And vice versa. 6.5 was the peak of OOTP as far as the UI and many other features were concerned. How many "new and improved" versions will we have to suffer through before we get back what we lost going from 6.5 to that awful 2006?

[Markus Heinsohn]

Originally Posted by StyxNCa

All previous reported issues have been fixed.

That's already back of the box for patch #4

[Markus Heinsohn]

Originally Posted by Bobbuttons

Revamping the injury system. There are no set career ending injuries. It's very rare that a major injury occurs where a player doesn't do all he can to come back, even if it's a year and a half or two in the future.

This is already in OOTP 10.

[Markus Heinsohn]

Originally Posted by Killing Time

And vice versa. 6.5 was the peak of OOTP as far as the UI and many other features were concerned. How many "new and improved" versions will we have to suffer through before we get back what we lost going from 6.5 to that awful 2006?

Sorry, but I couldn't disagree more. OOTP 2006 was a necessary step to take OOTP to the next level. Some people did not like that version, but since then OOTP has outgrown version 6.5 by leaps and bounds. It has more features, better AI, more stats and is way more fun. It is like comparing a 10 year old Honda to a new Porsche Turbo... I'd take the Porsche anytime.

Just my 2 cents

[Lucas718]

Spring Training stadiums

[Cryomaniac]

Originally Posted by Markus Heinsohn

This is already in OOTP 10.

But aren't there still automatic career ending injuries in OOTP?

[Goody]

Originally Posted by Markus Heinsohn

Sorry, but I couldn't disagree more. OOTP 2006 was a necessary step to take OOTP to the next level. Some people did not like that version, but since then OOTP has outgrown version 6.5 by leaps and bounds. It has more features, better AI, more stats and is way more fun. It is like comparing a 10 year old Honda to a new Porsche Turbo... I'd take the Porsche anytime.

Just my 2 cents

I'm pretty much on board with this. I just think the look and feel is missing something that 6.5 and previous versions had.

[phenom]

"Manual included. Sorry for the size of the box."

[UWHabs]

If I get the following, I'd be very happy with the next version
Revamped Financials - You can set everything from ticket prices to popcorn prices at the stadium. Your owners sometimes set you with strict budgets, but will also loosen it up in you're in a playoff drive. Your owners can also tell you to sell off some high priced players to cut costs, or give you leeway to re-sign that face of the franchise.
Improved ratings model - Players no longer have just current skill level and potential. Now with more ratings to gauge how likely players are to making their potential. Do you grab the guy who's almost guaranteed to become a decent platoon player, or take the chance at the guy who has superstar potential, but might not be "all there"
New and improved scouting - Send your scouts far and wide to every league in the planet, searching for talent. Get detailed scouting reports on every player, listing all their talents and skills, comparable players, chance of making it to their potential, and everything you ever wanted to know about a player.
More stats! Never need to look, but did you want to know which players have hit best on afternoon games that were raining? Or did you ever look back at your schedule and see 4 big wins in a row, and wanted to know which of your players had the big hits? Now you can, with all new sortable and customizable stats.

[Bobbuttons]

Originally Posted by Markus Heinsohn

This is already in OOTP 10.

Has it been revamped a bit in recent versions? Sure, but it's still nowhere close to what I was describing. Until there are no more messages on the day of an injury (or the day of a setback) saying that a player's career is over, it will continue to be one of the more unrealistic parts of the game. Don't get me wrong, I love the new system of setbacks. I always hated knowing exactly how long a player will be out for the moment an injury occurs. But there is too much of a random element to it and we, as managers and GMs don't get to really see how the player progresses as he tries to recover and rehab from an injury. I'd be all for being able to really see some reports on how a player's recover is going (not just if there's been a setback), but how the treatment or surgery went (as sometimes they don't go as well and further surgery is required) and how he is doing on his rehab program that may clue us in on any lingering affects the injury will have on his ratings. I happen to think that seeing a player get injured for a few months, then shortly after seeing the player's ratings drop some on the next scouting report takes the fun out of it. I'd like more immersion.

Also, if you look at the model of Football Manager, in that one you have a couple of options when a player is injured. I'd like to see something like this for OOTP. For certain injuries, a player may not be playing at 100%, but he is still able to play every day (i.e. Grady Sizemore had a shoulder injury all year and played through it as he was postponing surgery until the offseason, in September they just shut him down and he had surgery then). I'd like to see the option to in some cases let the player continue to play at 90% or so for a month or two because he's too important to lose to surgery when he can still be helpful to the team without much of a chance of making the injury worse, then having the player have the surgery during the offseason.

Just my 2 cents, though. Others may disagree.

[Dunk44]

I'd like the ability to have the GM "scout" some prospects before the draft, kind of like the way FOF does. Maybe have an option where you could quick scout a player a day to get another opinion on a player, and another option where where you could full scout a player which would take a week, but give you more detailed info. As it is right now I feel I am at the mercy of my scout, and it feels that he is the one running the franchise. Maybe I'm wrong on this, but I get a feeling that a GM would want to take a look at a prospect before drafting him.

Another thing that would make the game more enjoyable for me would be more records. I want to know things like the most amount of runs my team has scored in a game, most gave up, longest winning/losing streak, most runs in an inning, biggest comeback/collapse, and longest game to throw out a few examples.

[Killing Time]

Originally Posted by Markus Heinsohn

Sorry, but I couldn't disagree more. OOTP 2006 was a necessary step to take OOTP to the next level. Some people did not like that version, but since then OOTP has outgrown version 6.5 by leaps and bounds. It has more features, better AI, more stats and is way more fun. It is like comparing a 10 year old Honda to a new Porsche Turbo... I'd take the Porsche anytime.

Just my 2 cents

If that's what you really think, then why do you still charge for 6.5 while the 2008 version is free? Oh, right, you do that because after all these years there's a big demand for it. Ever wonder why that is?

P.S. When are we finally going to get all of 6.5's features back?

P.P.S. I drive a 1968 Shelby GT. Porsche Turbo drivers envy me.

[norva13x]

Originally Posted by Dunk44

Another thing that would make the game more enjoyable for me would be more records. I want to know things like the most amount of runs my team has scored in a game, most gave up, longest winning/losing streak, most runs in an inning, biggest comeback/collapse, and longest game to throw out a few examples.

This, I am sucker for these kinds of things, and more stats can't hurt. Especially team and league stats which are sorely lacking. I'd also like to be able to look at past All-Star game scores without having to save each individual box score.

[canadiancreed]

Originally Posted by Killing Time

If that's what you really think, then why do you still charge for 6.5 while the 2008 version is free?

Free access to a version with the new UI, which many folks have stated is their main reason for being leery to upgrade, negates that roadblock

Originally Posted by Killing Time

Ever wonder why that is?

People hate change?

Originally Posted by Killing Time

P.S. When are we finally going to get all of 6.5's features back?

What features are missing that you feel need to return?

Originally Posted by Killing Time

P.P.S. I drive a 1968 Shelby GT. Porsche Turbo drivers envy me.

I bet the insurance companies love you as well.

[Goody]

Pulled these from a thread where we were discussing ballpark editing.

Originally Posted by jasonn29tn14

Or the old Earl Weaver Baseball ballpark editor. I created some interesting parks with that one.

Originally Posted by phenom

Earl Weaver was the best because you'd get instant visual feedback on the look of the ballpark.

Originally Posted by jasonn29tn14

Yeah, and I never would have thought that over 20 years later I'd still be waiting for another game to adopt the idea.

[Goody]

An online league management program (such as StatsLab) for drafts and export tracking etc. included with the game.

These 3rd party programs that make the game easier and more interesting are great but they always make me nervous because you're relying on somebody who is donating their free time for future versions and patch updates.

[endgame]

Keep in mind the new, potential audience. What we, as existing customers, see is a lot different than the 'guy just thinking about getting into a baseball game.' OOTP, for some time has marketed to the existing clientle and additions and strides forward have almost become expected and often evolve step-by-step and the impact can be diminished.

Okay, here's what I'm saying. When I first started looking for a PC Baseball game, I had a lot of trouble finding one that said "Conduct your own fantasy draft! You choose who plays for you and in what position!" Really. It just wasn't out there for me until I found a copy of Season Ticket Baseball and saw that I wasn't just stuck with a pre-set team or a pre-set roster that I could make trades with later and change. The 'fictional' aspect of it grabbed me right away. To think now that the game ships with a Lahman database, I would have then seen, "Conduct your own fantasy draft from today's modern players!"

These are simple things, along with its customization, that the game has had all along, but just hasn't HAD to market because we all sort of . . . grew up with it in OOTP, but a casual game shopper doesn't see the possibilities unless we magnify what we already do but now kind of take for granted. They're not any less "back-of-the-box" features, they just haven't been portrayed in that light.

All right, no essay. Just writing aloud a little again. There's a lot to be said for this game and some it just needs said the first time, the right way, to the right people.