The in game text?

[wilkiburger]

Is the game going to become more informative during the in game text. I recall one version having "Castillo is on a 8 game hitting streak" "Castillo leads the NL with 23 2B hits"

I would like to see that reintoduced and further to that it would be nice if the milestones were notified in the text of the game, including things like "With that home run Jacobs moves past Cabrera into 2nd position on the all time Marlins HR he is now only 23 HR behind the all time leader Soandso"

Can Markus or someone comment on this please?

[Base Stealer]

This would be a great addition to the game...really immersive.

[wilkiburger]

Ive mentioned it on previous versions, but it appears to fall on deaf ears. If you are watching baseball on the TV they are always on the milestone banner and who next to catch. Look at Barry Bonds, and Im an Englishman in England. The whole of baseball is based on stats.

When the stats evolve I want to see it unravel in the in game text.

I think I want this more though because I play out all my games, this would improve the real life feel.

Cheers

[Simmo13]

I've requested several times that, for those of us who play out our teams games,the consequences of defensive positioning should be included in the PBP... stuff like " and that's a single through the drawn-in infield" or "guarding the lines certainly saved an extra base hit " but the answers I've received suggest that this is unlikely to happen. Pity.

[The Wolf]

I wish you all luck with this. I sure wouldn't hold my breath waiting on it, though.

[Simmo13]

Breathing normally again Wolf.

[Ambermonk]

Originally Posted by wilkiburger

Is the game going to become more informative during the in game text. I recall one version having "Castillo is on a 8 game hitting streak" "Castillo leads the NL with 23 2B hits"

I would like to see that reintoduced and further to that it would be nice if the milestones were notified in the text of the game, including things like "With that home run Jacobs moves past Cabrera into 2nd position on the all time Marlins HR he is now only 23 HR behind the all time leader Soandso"

Can Markus or someone comment on this please?

I play a 100 game season, and one of my starting pitchers got his 200th strike-out but the announcer never noticed it!

Over the last month or so there has been much discussion regarding weak links in the PBP. Some headway has been made (and Markus has confirmed this). One thread (What will make OOTP 9 a great game?) is especially informative. This suggestion (and many many others - like multiple announcers with different styles) has been made and noted by OOTP.

For OOTP to implement many-most of the good ideas that have been put forward would be a massive undertaking - The whole module would have to be rewritten (and tied into things like the Almanac, League totals, leaders, etc.). This would probably end up being the major enhancement for a future release. It is not something that can be casually implemented.

Imagine the difficulty of tying the PBP into the actual results of a play (for example, if a player hit a home run into the upper deck it might be described as "smashed," but if the ball just barely made it out of the park it might be described as "wind-aided."

As I said: to give the PBP knowledge of the rest of the game elements (like almanac, streaks, leaders, personal history, etc.) would be a major rewrite.

Here's hoping Markus will one day do it!

[wilkiburger]

Originally Posted by Ambermonk

I play a 100 game season, and one of my starting pitchers got his 200th strike-out but the announcer never noticed it!

Over the last month or so there has been much discussion regarding weak links in the PBP. Some headway has been made (and Markus has confirmed this). One thread (What will make OOTP 9 a great game?) is especially informative. This suggestion (and many many others - like multiple announcers with different styles) has been made and noted by OOTP.

For OOTP to implement many-most of the good ideas that have been put forward would be a massive undertaking - The whole module would have to be rewritten (and tied into things like the Almanac, League totals, leaders, etc.). This would probably end up being the major enhancement for a future release. It is not something that can be casually implemented.

Imagine the difficulty of tying the PBP into the actual results of a play (for example, if a player hit a home run into the upper deck it might be described as "smashed," but if the ball just barely made it out of the park it might be described as "wind-aided."

As I said: to give the PBP knowledge of the rest of the game elements (like almanac, streaks, leaders, personal history, etc.) would be a major rewrite.

Here's hoping Markus will one day do it!

I may not be a computer programmer but surely the hitting streak for one could be coded quickly as it was in 6.5!!!?, I don't care much for worrying about where the ball landed, that should be introduced in the 2D version which no doubt will come one day. Just want the stats and leaders to be encompassed in the in game text.

[ctorg]

What irks me more than not having PBP is not having news stories. Not long ago I had a guy win his 304th game to become the winningest pitcher in my league's history. Not a word in the news. But every 5-hit game gets a big story.

While there have been steps forward regarding triggers for news articles, I think this area needs a lot of work to become something truly immersive. The game still seems somewhat unaware of the league's history. The history feels as though it is treated as some other part of the game rather than something integrated.

[Base Stealer]

Originally Posted by ctorg

What irks me more than not having PBP is not having news stories. Not long ago I had a guy win his 304th game to become the winningest pitcher in my league's history. Not a word in the news. But every 5-hit game gets a big story.

While there have been steps forward regarding triggers for news articles, I think this area needs a lot of work to become something truly immersive. The game still seems somewhat unaware of the league's history. The history feels as though it is treated as some other part of the game rather than something integrated.

Absolutely right. The 5-hit game thing is what i like less...

[wilkiburger]

Originally Posted by ctorg

What irks me more than not having PBP is not having news stories. Not long ago I had a guy win his 304th game to become the winningest pitcher in my league's history. Not a word in the news. But every 5-hit game gets a big story.

While there have been steps forward regarding triggers for news articles, I think this area needs a lot of work to become something truly immersive. The game still seems somewhat unaware of the league's history. The history feels as though it is treated as some other part of the game rather than something integrated.

Thats terrible, like I said, when Bonds was goingfor the biggy, you couldn't get him ut of the news! and that was in England too!!!. I hadn't even thought of the news after the game, you are dead right, I would accept that as a starting point, I tend to see loads of news items but they are all the same, if someone has thrown a shutout lets find out where that takes him in the career or club leaderboards and how close he is to the next target!!!, lets have some streak action!!!!!

[Base Stealer]

Originally Posted by wilkiburger

lets have some streak action!!!!!

Ohhhhh yeah!!!!!!!!!!!

[Gerry58]

Originally Posted by ctorg

What irks me more than not having PBP is not having news stories. Not long ago I had a guy win his 304th game to become the winningest pitcher in my league's history. Not a word in the news. But every 5-hit game gets a big story.

Speaking of 5-hits games, there are too many of them right now (IMO).

Has this been corrected for ver.9?

Gerry

[tysok]

Originally Posted by Gerry58

Speaking of 5-hits games, there are too many of them right now (IMO).

Has this been corrected for ver.9?

Gerry

This was looked at quite a bit in last years beta and the result was that it mostly mirrors MLB. Here's a couple pieces of the data that was found:
OK, here is 2006 MLB Hit Distribution:
This DOES NOT include pitchers

0 Hit Game Percentage: 41.58%
1 Hit Game Percentage: 35.52%
2 Hit Game Percentage: 17.26%
3 Hit Game Percentage: 4.82%
4 Hit Game Percentage: 0.78%
5 Hit Game Percentage: 0.05%

To test this, I first ran an OOTP league starting in 2006, and simmed to 2014 to clear most of the big-bang creation out of the way to see how it turned out. I used No Minors, 25 round draft. I was shocked at how close to the MLB it turned out:

0-Hit Game Percentage: 41.89%
1-Hit Game Percentage: 36.66%
2-Hit Game Percentage: 16.91%
3-Hit Game Percentage: 4.15%
4-Hit Game Percentage: 0.62%
5+ Hit Game Percentage: 0.05%


Thanks to retrosheet I have been able to determine that the number of 5 hit games is not off, as much as it is too consistently high.
I checked the previous 15 years, and determined that there were 6 seasons where there were 30 or more 5+ hit games, and 1 season of over 40 5+ hit games. On average, there are roughly 30 5+ hit games each year, but 6 of the seasons, had under 25 5+ hit games. So, from what I am seeing, is that there are not too many 5+ hit games in OOTP, just that there are too many 5+ hit games year in and year out...there needs to be a wider dispersal in the number of 5+ hit games, and not have 35-40 every year---there are a lot of years it should be in the low-mid 20's...

In 2006, there were 24 5+ hit games.
In 2005, there were 35 5+ hit games.
in 2004, there were 41 5+ hit games, including an astounding 6!!! 6 hit games...
In 2003, there were 28 5+ hit games
In 2002, there were 25 5+ hit games
In 2001, there were 25 5+ hit games
In 2000, there were 38 5+ hit games
In 1999, there were 39 5+ hit games
In 1998, there were 25 5+ hit games
In 1997, there were 23 5+ hit games
In 1996, there were 35 5+ hit games
In 1995, there were 21 5+ hit games
In 1994, there were 23 5+ hit games
In 1993, there were 21 5+ hit games
In 1992, there were 20 5+ hit games
In 1991, there were 30 5+ hit games


All of that work was done by Matter2003. Haven't seen any similar study since then.

[Gerry58]

Originally Posted by tysok

All of that work was done by Matter2003. Haven't seen any similar study since then.

Interesting. Thank you.

Gerry

[KGAGE]

Perhaps if it is too difficult to note milestones and streaks into the PBP, the better spot may be with the stats of the player when he is up. Along with the guy's picture, stats of the day, ratings, and so forth you could have a field of interest there.

This is common on telecast. For most broadcasts that I see, a batter's first at bat will show graphically, the guy's basic stats. From then on, when a batter comes up, they will show what he has done for the game graphically and then often a point of interest concerning the player.

This field of interest could be player's current hitting streak, nearing milestones, current slump/hot streak, record vs. current pitcher, on and on so that it wouldn't be too repetitive. The game could internally rank what is the best point of interest for this field. A bonus would be to update this field before moving on to the next at bat if the result of the current play creates a new and more exciting point of interest than what was there.

And a really cool bonus and the ultimate in custability would be to allow us to determine/add what stats and conditions qualify as points of interest for that field. I might find it interesting if a player has just taken over the all time career RBI lead for my team while others might not so I could choose to have that as a point of interest while others may not want that there. Custimization would alos allow us to rank what points of more important than others.

[remington]

The game interface is the main reason I still use OOTP6.5 for my online leagues. I've even done three expansions and am working on a third-party expansion tool for facilitating expansions because of my preference in interface.

The dull play-by-play and crappy reporting of milestones are the reasons I still use OOTP6.5 for my personal leagues.

I'd really like to see the new features that came with OOTP7 (2006) and OOTP8 (2007) worked into the old interface. SI's interface has prevented me from purchasing any of their other games. And it has kept my copies of the OOTP franchise in my closet, not even installed.

[Beach23BoyP]

Originally Posted by remington

SI's interface has prevented me from purchasing any of their other games. And it has kept my copies of the OOTP franchise in my closet, not even installed.

You've missed out on a lot of good stuff. I loved 6.5a, but I gotta say that version 8 has really got me hooked.

[Markus Heinsohn]

Originally Posted by wilkiburger

Is the game going to become more informative during the in game text. I recall one version having "Castillo is on a 8 game hitting streak" "Castillo leads the NL with 23 2B hits"

I would like to see that reintoduced and further to that it would be nice if the milestones were notified in the text of the game, including things like "With that home run Jacobs moves past Cabrera into 2nd position on the all time Marlins HR he is now only 23 HR behind the all time leader Soandso"

Can Markus or someone comment on this please?

The first two examples are planned, but the third one would slow the game down too much, as calculating the special leaders before and after a play takes some time...

[Simmo13]

Markus, thanks for the PBP news.No chance of my suggestion being implemented I suppose, although I realise that it may be problematic to include it and I may be the only one who thinks it's a good idea!