My time just ran out on my "lucky 100" preview, final thoughts.

Sweed · 03-11-2007, 12:50 PM

First thanks to Markus, Marc, and SI for letting some of us preview ootp2007.

I play a solo league only importing from version to version and then continuing. So,this is where I spent my time checking out the game. Import went very smoothly from v2k6 to 2k7.

League modifiers do import with your game so I simmed two seasons to see if they would need to be adjusted to work in 2k7.
Most of my settings in 2k6 had to be adjusted up\down from the 1.000 defaults, some rather substantially. In 2k7 I am able to use the 1.000 defaults for most categories while any adjustments have been minor (example my hits are set at 1.024). It was a quick painless process setting up the game to get very realistic numbers. One thing to note in my universe is that the minor league stats also looked very real. The leagues were no longer pitching dominant to the extreme that we saw in 2k6. IIRC some thought this was caused by a bug where ML modifiers not being applied to pitchers in v2k6
but instead only to batters. Whatever it was, at least in my limited viewing time, it appears to be fixed.

The UI looks very similar to 2k6 but is really much improved. While a game with this much detail will have a UI that is somewhat complex IMHO the "fun factor" is back. I navigated mostly from the manager screen or used the manager\league\team icons at the bottom of the screen. The only bookmark I created was to the 7 day lineup.

League setup is a snap. Adding feeder leagues to a dynasty that has been built since v4 was as simple as a few mouse clicks. Create the league, fill with fictional players, set your normal league options ie stat detail, playoffs (if you want them) etc, edit the league name and done. Of course like creating any minor league you can go into more detail if you want. If you wanted to put in the work you could create the Big Ten, Big Twelve, etc. In my case I created two college leagues (Red, and Blue) and two high school (East and West) and then chose to have the game fill the rest of the draft with created players if needed.

For the guy that manages all of his games the "in game" is improved. Pbp is tight giving a better feel of being at a ball game. Button response is instant, no lags on my computer at all (though by patch 1.03 last year this had been fixed). Better fonts on the broadcast screen. Only the scoreboard has the "lighted numbers, the lineups are a solid color.

One other thing for those that play out their games is the "drag and drop" added this year to make positioning fielders, baserunners, and batters easy.
At first I thought this only worked when you went to the "edit stadium" tab in setup or as commish. Not hardly! Markus made it so you can adjust the placements while playing out a game

this is awesome. You could never quite get your pitcher centered on the mound at Wrigley like you wanted? No problem, just make the adjustment as you play your next game.

I can't say enough about what facegen adds to the game. I'm not a mod or graphics creator by any stretch of the imagination but I did use the circular hat logos (sorry don't know who put them out or I'd mention them) last year.
The game takes these and resizes them and puts them on the hats and they look great. It's a simple matter then of matching the color of the logo to the hat getting the code numbers in PS and then typing in three numbers on the uniform editor. Voila, MLB hats. Of course these don't approach the work Icy and the other modders have posted here but will work until their mods are released. In game the facegens look better than I could have ever imagined and add a lot of immersion to my world.

For those that turned scouts off because they were too much work this year it's a whole different story. I setup my scouts for the year in about 10 miunutes

There is just too much to try to look at in 5 days. I figured most of the betas had done a lot of long term simming along with others that got the preview. So I concentrated on doing how the slow solo player play. Of course you can only get so far with a 5 day demo and a real life job. What I did see is a game that is very solid and, at least in my universe, does what it says it will.

For those that had faith that last years version while flawed was going to be the foundation for a better ootp I think your faith was well placed.

For those that thought last year was the beginning of the end for ootp I can only say check out the demo and see for yourself.

whizkid1950 · 03-11-2007, 01:54 PM

I was totally impressed with the preview.

I played the OOTP2006 demo twice and really disliked the direction the game had taken, to the extent that I refused to buy it or switch the FBA to it. I felt like last year's version was over-hyped - not just by stat-crazed fanboys but also by the game company. It didn't feel ready upon release, some of my favorite 6.5 features were MIA, and the interface was just plain work. I tried, but I couldn't become immersed in it. I didn't voice a lot of public disgust on the forums, but in my on-line league circles I dissed OOTP2006 thoroughly.

Now? The game company showed a lot of class by giving a dissident like me the preview - considering I didn't buy last year's game or prepay for this year's. Through that gesture I've regained every bit of my respect for the game company... and for Markus, Marc, and the many others who contributed to bringing OOTP2007 to life and obviously listened very hard to all segments of their customer base. Damn, I feel wooed!

I intend to spend this summer twisting arms to buy the new game. The FBA will definitely move to it for our 2009 season.

My favorite new features:
1. The (slightly) simplified and more logical user interface.
2. The ability to edit league news.
3. Feeder leagues
4. One-step waive-and-DFA
5. Scouting task lists
6. Pending trades
7. Contract and extension offers via export
8. Team positional strength reports
9. Decreased league file size
10. Return of ghost players

And one last comment... the timing of the release is fantastic! This is going to be a great year for baseball.

silvam14 · 03-11-2007, 02:13 PM

Thanks for the thoughts Sweed!

Claymore · 03-11-2007, 03:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by whizkid1950

Now? The game company showed a lot of class by giving a dissident like me the preview - considering I didn't buy last year's game or prepay for this year's.

If you did not pre-order how did you get a copy of the 5 day preview?

The Wolf · 03-11-2007, 03:12 PM

Connections?

Dagrims · 03-11-2007, 03:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Claymore

If you did not pre-order how did you get a copy of the 5 day preview?

On-line league commissioners were given a copy.

RchW · 03-11-2007, 03:25 PM

Online league Commish. IMO a very classy and smart move by SI to reach out to those who may have felt left out last year. After that the game speaks for itself.

disposableheros · 03-11-2007, 06:11 PM

good review/forum hype from:

joe schmo solo player = 1-2 games sold

joe schmo online league commish = 10+ games sold

enuttage · 03-11-2007, 07:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RchW

Online league Commish. IMO a very classy and smart move by SI to reach out to those who may have felt left out last year. After that the game speaks for itself.

Agreed.

storytyme · 03-11-2007, 10:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RchW

Online league Commish. IMO a very classy and smart move by SI to reach out to those who may have felt left out last year. After that the game speaks for itself.

...yet those who purchased the title last year (and for several years) cannot get the 20% discount to pre-order this year's title simply because they do not spend every waking moment on the site or this forum?

Hmmm...I'll have to check with Mr. Webster, for this does not seem to be the definition of "class" to me.

Dagrims · 03-11-2007, 10:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by storytyme

...yet those who purchased the title last year (and for several years) cannot get the 20% discount to pre-order this year's title simply because they do not spend every waking moment on the site or this forum?

Those who ordered last year's version did get a 20% discount offer emailed to them. If your email changed, or you didn't receive it for some reason, you should have sent a message to Marc Duffy. Maybe you still could *shrug*.

storytyme · 03-11-2007, 10:59 PM

...but apparently the powers that be have made up their minds, and I am the little boy standing with his nose to the window of the candy store while all of the other kiddies are happily enjoying their good fortune.

It was not an email issue, this I have confirmed. It is simply my fault for not being able to live on the message forums like some seem to be able to do.

Congratulations to Markus for creating what appears to be a truly special product this year. I only wish that I had been able to pre-order, but real life got in the way.

jazzrack · 03-11-2007, 11:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RchW

Online league Commish. IMO a very classy and smart move by SI to reach out to those who may have felt left out last year. After that the game speaks for itself.

a very smart marketing move indeed, i was quite impressed.

they are simply trying to sell more product like any business. and letting some people who have potential influence over other buyers, try the game out is a smart business move.

i don't particularly find it classy or unclassy (is that even a word?? you know what i ment)

enuttage · 03-11-2007, 11:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jazzrack

a very smart marketing move indeed, i was quite impressed.

they are simply trying to sell more product like any business. and letting some people who have potential influence over other buyers, try the game out is a smart business move.

i don't particularly find it classy or unclassy (is that even a word?? you know what i ment)

Well spoken also. I do believe the relationship is symbiotic, though, FWIW.

enuttage · 03-11-2007, 11:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by storytyme

...but apparently the powers that be have made up their minds, and I am the little boy standing with his nose to the window of the candy store while all of the other kiddies are happily enjoying their good fortune.

It was not an email issue, this I have confirmed. It is simply my fault for not being able to live on the message forums like some seem to be able to do.

Congratulations to Markus for creating what appears to be a truly special product this year. I only wish that I had been able to pre-order, but real life got in the way.

If I PayPal you the seven bucks, will it get you to return to your old ways?

No offense intended, but man there was AMPLE opportunity to buy this game early.

And either way, let the poor bastards at SI rest, man. They did what they could within reason.

Curtis · 03-12-2007, 01:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jazzrack

i don't particularly find it classy or unclassy (is that even a word??

declasse?

Quote:

Originally Posted by storytyme

It is simply my fault for not being able to live on the message forums like some seem to be able to do.

You didn't need to live here. There was four plus weeks' notice given. If you'd stopped by anytime in February or even the last few days of January OR the first two days of March Marc would've found a way to shoehorn you in. Okay, life cut you a bad break. We get it.

The Wolf · 03-12-2007, 08:36 AM

Storytyme, with all due kindness and respect, GET OVER IT ALREADY. It was only like seven dollars.

silvam14 · 03-12-2007, 08:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by storytyme

...but apparently the powers that be have made up their minds, and I am the little boy standing with his nose to the window of the candy store while all of the other kiddies are happily enjoying their good fortune.

It was not an email issue, this I have confirmed. It is simply my fault for not being able to live on the message forums like some seem to be able to do.

Congratulations to Markus for creating what appears to be a truly special product this year. I only wish that I had been able to pre-order, but real life got in the way.

Marc Duffy · 03-12-2007, 08:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by storytyme
...but apparently the powers that be have made up their minds, and I am the little boy standing with his nose to the window of the candy store while all of the other kiddies are happily enjoying their good fortune.

It was not an email issue, this I have confirmed. It is simply my fault for not being able to live on the message forums like some seem to be able to do.

Congratulations to Markus for creating what appears to be a truly special product this year. I only wish that I had been able to pre-order, but real life got in the way.

I've traded PMs with you.

We tried (twice) to mail every previous customer - it seems our mails are classed by some ISPs as 'spam'. There is little I can do to prevent some of that. Also, the 10% offer was available for over 1 month. It's not that you have to spend every waking moment here - but once during February might have helped you.

03-11-2007, 12:50 PM	#1 (permalink)
Sweed All Star Starter Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Iowa Posts: 1,744	My time just ran out on my "lucky 100" preview, final thoughts. First thanks to Markus, Marc, and SI for letting some of us preview ootp2007. I play a solo league only importing from version to version and then continuing. So,this is where I spent my time checking out the game. Import went very smoothly from v2k6 to 2k7. League modifiers do import with your game so I simmed two seasons to see if they would need to be adjusted to work in 2k7. Most of my settings in 2k6 had to be adjusted up\down from the 1.000 defaults, some rather substantially. In 2k7 I am able to use the 1.000 defaults for most categories while any adjustments have been minor (example my hits are set at 1.024). It was a quick painless process setting up the game to get very realistic numbers. One thing to note in my universe is that the minor league stats also looked very real. The leagues were no longer pitching dominant to the extreme that we saw in 2k6. IIRC some thought this was caused by a bug where ML modifiers not being applied to pitchers in v2k6 but instead only to batters. Whatever it was, at least in my limited viewing time, it appears to be fixed. The UI looks very similar to 2k6 but is really much improved. While a game with this much detail will have a UI that is somewhat complex IMHO the "fun factor" is back. I navigated mostly from the manager screen or used the manager\league\team icons at the bottom of the screen. The only bookmark I created was to the 7 day lineup. League setup is a snap. Adding feeder leagues to a dynasty that has been built since v4 was as simple as a few mouse clicks. Create the league, fill with fictional players, set your normal league options ie stat detail, playoffs (if you want them) etc, edit the league name and done. Of course like creating any minor league you can go into more detail if you want. If you wanted to put in the work you could create the Big Ten, Big Twelve, etc. In my case I created two college leagues (Red, and Blue) and two high school (East and West) and then chose to have the game fill the rest of the draft with created players if needed. For the guy that manages all of his games the "in game" is improved. Pbp is tight giving a better feel of being at a ball game. Button response is instant, no lags on my computer at all (though by patch 1.03 last year this had been fixed). Better fonts on the broadcast screen. Only the scoreboard has the "lighted numbers, the lineups are a solid color. One other thing for those that play out their games is the "drag and drop" added this year to make positioning fielders, baserunners, and batters easy. At first I thought this only worked when you went to the "edit stadium" tab in setup or as commish. Not hardly! Markus made it so you can adjust the placements while playing out a game this is awesome. You could never quite get your pitcher centered on the mound at Wrigley like you wanted? No problem, just make the adjustment as you play your next game. I can't say enough about what facegen adds to the game. I'm not a mod or graphics creator by any stretch of the imagination but I did use the circular hat logos (sorry don't know who put them out or I'd mention them) last year. The game takes these and resizes them and puts them on the hats and they look great. It's a simple matter then of matching the color of the logo to the hat getting the code numbers in PS and then typing in three numbers on the uniform editor. Voila, MLB hats. Of course these don't approach the work Icy and the other modders have posted here but will work until their mods are released. In game the facegens look better than I could have ever imagined and add a lot of immersion to my world. For those that turned scouts off because they were too much work this year it's a whole different story. I setup my scouts for the year in about 10 miunutes There is just too much to try to look at in 5 days. I figured most of the betas had done a lot of long term simming along with others that got the preview. So I concentrated on doing how the slow solo player play. Of course you can only get so far with a 5 day demo and a real life job. What I did see is a game that is very solid and, at least in my universe, does what it says it will. For those that had faith that last years version while flawed was going to be the foundation for a better ootp I think your faith was well placed. For those that thought last year was the beginning of the end for ootp I can only say check out the demo and see for yourself.

03-11-2007, 01:54 PM	#2 (permalink)
whizkid1950 Minors (Double A) Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Durham, NC Posts: 120	Thoughts on the preview I was totally impressed with the preview. I played the OOTP2006 demo twice and really disliked the direction the game had taken, to the extent that I refused to buy it or switch the FBA to it. I felt like last year's version was over-hyped - not just by stat-crazed fanboys but also by the game company. It didn't feel ready upon release, some of my favorite 6.5 features were MIA, and the interface was just plain work. I tried, but I couldn't become immersed in it. I didn't voice a lot of public disgust on the forums, but in my on-line league circles I dissed OOTP2006 thoroughly. Now? The game company showed a lot of class by giving a dissident like me the preview - considering I didn't buy last year's game or prepay for this year's. Through that gesture I've regained every bit of my respect for the game company... and for Markus, Marc, and the many others who contributed to bringing OOTP2007 to life and obviously listened very hard to all segments of their customer base. Damn, I feel wooed! I intend to spend this summer twisting arms to buy the new game. The FBA will definitely move to it for our 2009 season. My favorite new features: 1. The (slightly) simplified and more logical user interface. 2. The ability to edit league news. 3. Feeder leagues 4. One-step waive-and-DFA 5. Scouting task lists 6. Pending trades 7. Contract and extension offers via export 8. Team positional strength reports 9. Decreased league file size 10. Return of ghost players And one last comment... the timing of the release is fantastic! This is going to be a great year for baseball.

03-11-2007, 02:13 PM	#3 (permalink)
silvam14 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Medford, MA Posts: 2,924	Thanks for the thoughts Sweed! __________________ Check out my Fictional Uniform Project! http://s76.photobucket.com/albums/j1...007%20Jerseys/ Also, Check out my collection of Circular OOTP logos (Kudos to cephasjames for his original logos) http://s76.photobucket.com/albums/j10/silvam14/

03-11-2007, 03:12 PM	#5 (permalink)
The Wolf Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Baying at the moon Posts: 3,434	Connections? __________________ __________________ "The main problem we face is that when it's 8 AM in London and 3 AM in New York and midnight in L.A., it's still 1968 to Democrats and 1566 in the Middle East."

03-11-2007, 06:11 PM	#8 (permalink)
disposableheros Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2004 Posts: 4,339	good review/forum hype from: joe schmo solo player = 1-2 games sold joe schmo online league commish = 10+ games sold __________________ 2 Wild Cards, 11 Division Champs, 4 League Champs, 3 World Champs, and 3 Best GM awards Baseball Maelstrom - New York Mets - 180-149 .547 Corporate League Baseball - Coke Buzz - 889-649 .578 Western Hemisphere Baseball League - Santiago Saints - 672-793 .459 Record - 2428-2271 .517

03-11-2007, 10:59 PM	#12 (permalink)
storytyme Bat Boy Join Date: Dec 2005 Posts: 18	I have tried... ...but apparently the powers that be have made up their minds, and I am the little boy standing with his nose to the window of the candy store while all of the other kiddies are happily enjoying their good fortune. It was not an email issue, this I have confirmed. It is simply *my fault* for not being able to live on the message forums like some seem to be able to do. Congratulations to Markus for creating what appears to be a truly special product this year. I only wish that I had been able to pre-order, but real life got in the way.

03-12-2007, 08:36 AM	#17 (permalink)
The Wolf Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Baying at the moon Posts: 3,434	Storytyme, with all due kindness and respect, GET OVER IT ALREADY. It was only like seven dollars. __________________ __________________ "The main problem we face is that when it's 8 AM in London and 3 AM in New York and midnight in L.A., it's still 1968 to Democrats and 1566 in the Middle East."

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