OOTP 11 "Back of the Box" Feature Ideas

[blueturf]

Originally Posted by silvam14

NEW! Ability to create custom player announcements with the use of a microphone.

This is already in the game and was also available in OOTP9 - unless you are taking about a direct interface where the sound is recorded/edited within the game.

See this post from Markus. Although the "feature" has been there, I am not sure it was ever announced anywhere else.

I had tried this, awarding some star players their own intros, but the execution within the game leaves a little to be desired. Rather than the intro play at the end of the prior play while the batter comes to the plate, the custom intro does not start until play is continued, often meaning most of the PbP results have completed before the intro music/announcement is finished. Perhaps it works a little better in one-pitch mode.

[Raidergoo]

A game summary engine based on WPA (win probability added) and XML. WPA would tell you the crucial events in the game, and the engine would then write a sentence or up to a paragraph describing what happened. The text description of the events would be stored in english.xml, which would have multiple descriptions of common baseball events. Through the use of tokens, the text of the article would be highly customized.

[Vinny P.]

Originally Posted by Raidergoo

A game summary engine based on WPA (win probability added) and XML. WPA would tell you the crucial events in the game, and the engine would then write a sentence or up to a paragraph describing what happened. The text description of the events would be stored in english.xml, which would have multiple descriptions of common baseball events. Through the use of tokens, the text of the article would be highly customized.

Raidergoo. I love ya man. But would that seriously be something the company would write on the back of the box as a selling point?

A lot of normal, everyday people who are looking for a good, solid baseball management simulation may not know what an "XML" or a "
WPA" is. Seriously lol.
However, I absolutely ADORE that idea myself!

[Raidergoo]

Originally Posted by Nihilianth

Raidergoo. I love ya man. But would that seriously be something the company would write on the back of the box as a selling point?

A lot of normal, everyday people who are looking for a good, solid baseball management simulation may not know what an "XML" or a "
WPA" is. Seriously lol.
However, I absolutely ADORE that idea myself!

That's the idea in Geek. In Marketing, it'd be "Unique game summaries for every game with interviews about the key events of the game. And, of course, it is highly customizable!"

[Tony M]

Originally Posted by Raidergoo

That's the idea in Geek. In Marketing, it'd be "Unique game summaries for every game with interviews about the key events of the game. And, of course, it is highly customizable!"

Along with full Retrosheet compatible at-bat coding

I think a lot of the game could be driven by xml - I've got a playoff structure xml that could be good, and a nations/city/player generation one as well.

[AndrewG]

Facegen expanded and now home and away jerseys available for all teams.

[Malleus Dei]

Originally Posted by Raidergoo

A game summary engine based on WPA (win probability added) and XML. WPA would tell you the crucial events in the game, and the engine would then write a sentence or up to a paragraph describing what happened. The text description of the events would be stored in english.xml, which would have multiple descriptions of common baseball events. Through the use of tokens, the text of the article would be highly customized.

I love the idea, but it was totally over the top. Consider this: how many people out there could even understand that paragraph? I'm even kind of embarrassed that I do.

[Goody]

Originally Posted by AndrewG

Facegen expanded and now home and away jerseys available for all teams.

How about an entire screen which shows the player modeling both home and away uniforms and a few different angles.

Expand facegen to the entire body, so you can see if the player is short and stout, tall and lanky, overweight etc...

The player view could have a pic of the player standing facing the "camera"...a close up of his head so you can see the hat and hat logo...and then a view of the back, shoulders and head so you can see what the name and number looks like on the back of his jersey (also the hair in the back if long hair was added would be important).

You'd need a robust uniform editor like in Madden/NCAA...but with more options for things like fonts for the name and # on the jersey.

[Tony M]

Originally Posted by Goody

Expand facegen to the entire body, so you can see if the player is short and stout, tall and lanky, overweight etc...

There's a clue in the title facegen that might give it away. It doesn't do anything more than face and I'm not sure there's a bodygen available yet.

http://www.facegen.com/faq.htm#body

[silvam14]

Originally Posted by Goody

How about an entire screen which shows the player modeling both home and away uniforms and a few different angles.

Expand facegen to the entire body, so you can see if the player is short and stout, tall and lanky, overweight etc...

The player view could have a pic of the player standing facing the "camera"...a close up of his head so you can see the hat and hat logo...and then a view of the back, shoulders and head so you can see what the name and number looks like on the back of his jersey (also the hair in the back if long hair was added would be important).

You'd need a robust uniform editor like in Madden/NCAA...but with more options for things like fonts for the name and # on the jersey.

This is a great idea!

[Goody]

Originally Posted by Tony M

There's a clue in the title facegen that might give it away. It doesn't do anything more than face and I'm not sure there's a bodygen available yet.

Singular Inversions - FaceGen FAQ

That's why this is future feature ideas!

[silvam14]

How about:

"Generate a printable scorecard for each game" - With the click of a button. A classic scorecard can be saved and printed. Great for those memorable games!

[Malleus Dei]

Originally Posted by silvam14

How about:

"Generate a printable scorecard for each game" - With the click of a button. A classic scorecard can be saved and printed. Great for those memorable games!

That's a great idea! That and a baseball card for every player, coach and manger that can be saved and printed would really improve the game.

And they would not be hard to do.

[BMW]

Originally Posted by silvam14

How about:

"Generate a printable scorecard for each game" - With the click of a button. A classic scorecard can be saved and printed. Great for those memorable games!

Can I have a Phil Rizzuto version that records "Wasn't looking" for random entries and has liner notes on his latest golf game?

[TribeFanInNC]

I posted this in another thread, but thought I'd capture it here as well:

"OOTP needs a hook for the casual fan.

I wonder if the inclusion of a broader set of quickstarts would help overcome this. Maybe a few select historical seasons of note, a couple fictional setups, an all-time greats setup, a best teams of all time setup, maybe a Japanese league or something. The casual player could learn the game by using the quickstarts, then move on to setting up their own leagues. A couple of these should be in the demo as well. This could easily be a 'back of the box' selling point.

I know the mod community handles some of this, but it would be better to be all-inclusive for the new player. "

[TribeFanInNC]

I like the printable scorecard and baseball card idea.

[ike121212]

Re-package some things the game does well today, but require some setup that isn't always easy for people new to the game. For example, 'What if Scenarios'. What if Babe Ruth had stuck to pitching. An appealing scenario to many. An experienced user could set it up quickly, but a new person might not be able. Package 20 scenarios, including logos, uni's, pictures, stadiums, etc. and I think you'd have an easy, marketable feature.

Alternatively, some type of player mode. For example, you choose George Brett and start off managing the Royals in his rookie season and continue to manage him throughout his career.

In short, I'd find some way to get new, less knowledgeable fans immersed into the game.

[BMW]

Originally Posted by Malleus Dei

That's a great idea! That and a baseball card for every player, coach and manger that can be saved and printed would really improve the game.

And they would not be hard to do.

Someone asked me about creating baseball cards using the FaceGen pics. If you wanted to print out baseball cards the size of postage stamps, they would be adequate.

And even considering that, they look lousy, because baseball cards that you buy have action shots on them. They don't have a picture of the guy staring into the camera (or slight variations of guys looking into the camera), at least most of them don't. Even cards created 100 years ago had at least drawings/paintings of players in action.

If you wanted ones the size of baseball cards, suitable for printing, you'd need a 300 dpi image at roughly 2.25 at 3.50 inches. They'd be about 1/2 a MB each.

Doing them on demand wouldn't be much of a problem, but if you did a whole league, that could be 3-4 GB of data for just the card fronts alone.

Originally Posted by ike121212

Package 20 scenarios, including logos, uni's, pictures, stadiums, etc. and I think you'd have an easy, marketable feature.

Uniforms, pictures and stadiums would bankrupt OOTP. You have to pay to license that stuff, you know.

[Vinny P.]

Originally Posted by BMW

Uniforms, pictures and stadiums would bankrupt OOTP. You have to pay to license that stuff, you know.

Yeah, actually, I was just wondering how, exactly OOTPD is getting away with including an MLB quickstart with team names, logos, and stadium names already?

I'm just curious. I realize the community made those quickstarts, but isn't Markus skating on the edge of plagiarizing by actually INCLUDING those thing within the game that is shipped? I understand giving the ABILITY to DOWNLOAD those types of things from independant modders, such as Padresfan. But to actually include it, without people having to download them?

Just wondering....

[endgame]

Nothing official by MLB standards is included. The Lahman base is there by license. No player pics or representations other than names which is not prohibited, IIRC. Even the logos are not official.