Build 215---Nice Improvements....

[Matter2003]

We have some nice improvements in 215 with stats in most areas that needed tweaking...

IP/Start
IP/Relief Appearance
CG's
Total IP's in a season

all looking dead on now---got to give Markus a lot of props for making the changes even when the numbers weren't off by a large percentage(but out of the acceptable range)...

Looking real, real good...

In other non-stat areas, some real nice things too...

-Facegen getting even better this build(wow is all I can say!)

-Can decide how many rounds worth of players to have available in the draft now, so u can for instance have a draft of 35 rounds with 40 rounds worth of players so you can have players left over after the draft that become FA's instead of having the perfect number of draft picks so the team picking last in the last round only had 1 choice(we pushed hard for that one :>)

-Gives a warning now if your league draft does not have enough rounds to properly stock the league, and lets you know you may run out of players---also advises you as to what the minimum number of rounds should be(takes a lot of guesswork out...another real nice feature IMHO)

-Off-Field Injuries are pretty cool

-Lots of other things that I need to take a deeper look at...this build has really pushed the envelope and is a huge upgrade on 214....

[cephasjames]

Originally Posted by Matter2003

-Can decide how many rounds worth of players to have available in the draft now, so u can for instance have a draft of 35 rounds with 40 rounds worth of players so you can have players left over after the draft that become FA's instead of having the perfect number of draft picks so the team picking last in the last round only had 1 choice(we pushed hard for that one :>)

I don't think I would've even pushed for this, but I like it... a lot.

[Curtis]

I did advocate having a larger draft pool than needed, but I think I asked for a fixed percentage (like 150%). This — including the warning if you're likely to run out of players — is way cool.

[Dvdmanny]

yeah I'm a big fan of the draft pool changes, cant wait to give 2007 a whirl

[SSG Troyer]

Merchandising income received a significant revamp this build, too ... we're testing it to see the results, and it's way too early to say anything definate. But initial numbers look good. Not so much money floating around this build ...

Let's see what happens in 50, or 75, or 100 years ...

[Gastric ReFlux]

Is it spring yet?

[cephasjames]

Originally Posted by Gatric ReFlux

Is it spring yet?

""

[treedom]

Also, the fun factor is currently at 4.9.

Yeah, you read than right! 4.9!

[cephasjames]

Originally Posted by treedom

Also, the fun factor is currently at 4.9.

Yeah, you read than right! 4.9!

On a 20-80 scale?

[treedom]

Originally Posted by cephasjames

On a 20-80 scale?

Please, no jokes. I'm trying to disseminate information on the state of the upcoming release over here. Thank you.

[Raidergoo]

Originally Posted by cephasjames

On a 20-80 scale?

20-80 scale is fixed, it is now a 13 point scale.

[deadringer]

Originally Posted by Raidergoo

20-80 scale is fixed, it is now a 13 point scale.

Seriously? I would love that. It's broken into integers of five right?

[molarmite]

Originally Posted by ringer

Seriously? I would love that. It's broken into integers of five right?

That would be correct.

[deadringer]

Originally Posted by molarmite

That would be correct.

[Raidergoo]

Originally Posted by deadringer

No, no, no!

[Craig Scarborough]

I don't get it. There were issues with the game engine in previous builds -- so that means things were "un-fixed" from OOTP 2006?

I thought the majority of the changes (if not all) had nothing to do with the in-game engine.

[deadringer]

Originally Posted by Raidergoo

No, no, no!

Okay, I'm officially a total geek. I just kept hitting the banana button at random to show my thrill but as soon as I saw the email I knew without counting them that you had done 13 bananas.

This may seem like a silly little feature to get excited about but I've been wishing for it since the 20-80 scale was originally offered. I like having a ballpark idea of where my players are rated but I don't want heavy detail. That's why I chose 20-80 over 1-100. I was using 2-8 all year in 2006 until I realized that they weren't rounding up or down. After realizing that a guy could be a 59 and still show as a 5 on 2-8 was heartbreaking.

Now I'll use 20-80 and love it!

[Raidergoo]

Originally Posted by Craig Scarborough

I don't get it. There were issues with the game engine in previous builds -- so that means things were "un-fixed" from OOTP 2006?

I thought the majority of the changes (if not all) had nothing to do with the in-game engine.

I am not sure I understand the question. I shall give it a shot.

There were OOTP 2006 game engine issues detected and eliminated. Markus has commented on at least one massive one tracked down and killed concerning "catch and release".

Some of the fundamentals of the game engine are being reworked for better real world accuracy. Two of the most intense areas are aging and player development. Game data dump information is being compared to Baseball Reference and TangoTiger facts. The game engine gets tweaked to more accurately match real world historical stats. Is it perfect? No. Is it close? Yes. Is it close enough to quit testing (ie shippable)? Only in some areas, so no, it is not ready. Is there constant movement towards a better model? Yes.

There are too many WP, balks, and the like in 2006. That's a game engine issue; this has been cleaned up. Every statistical category is being looked at.

For example: currently, in DH leagues, sac bunting is too low. Not way too low, just too low. That's a work in progress.

Do financials work? Yes. Will they cause you to pull out your hair? Yes. Is it better? Yes.

Feature freeze was a long time ago for Markus. It's all about getting what is in the game really, really sharp.

OK, now I will say something controversial instead of bland.

If this was the year 2004, this current build might already be considered ready for public consumption, and could be shipped to the public tonight in just a few minutes. That standard is not good enough in 2007. Markus is shooting for a knock 'em dead type of release. This current build won't knock over enough people. The current build may not be good enough to inspire glee in several thousand people. I want this thing to melt people's brains.

That's why the game comes out in the third week of March. Remember OOTP 6? How many patches? 13?

[Craig Scarborough]

Oh, ok.

I didn't realize these were issues in OOTP 2006. It was my impression that IP per start, CG, etc., were ok in 2006 (then again, I didn't play it enough to figure out if this was so). My understanding, therefore, was that the initial post in this thread spoke of things that were not problems in 2006, and therefore created in 2007. To me, it sounded like it was a one step forward, two steps backward type of thing.

Thanks for clearing this up.

[CobaltJays]

Originally Posted by Matter2003

-Can decide how many rounds worth of players to have available in the draft now, so u can for instance have a draft of 35 rounds with 40 rounds worth of players so you can have players left over after the draft that become FA's instead of having the perfect number of draft picks so the team picking last in the last round only had 1 choice(we pushed hard for that one :>)

Does this result in a higher number of quality players being created for the draft? Or are the leftover players similar to the scrubs you'd see in the last round of a normal draft? I like the idea of this, but I wouldn't necessarily want to wind up with more top prospects being up for grabs as a result.