Suggestions: News and Text Engine

[battists]

This suggestion thread is designed to collect suggestions for the next version of OOTP, on the following topic:

News and Text Engine

Includes
- Features and suggestions related to in-game news and the XML text engine

Excludes
- Play-by-play stuff should go in the play-by-play thread

Instructions
We will use this thread to collect suggestions on the above topic. Later on, we hope to present this information back to the community in a way that would allow you to vote and prioritize certain features.

If you would like to participate, here are the rules!

1. Only 1 suggestion per post.
2. Suggestions must be on-topic for the thread.
3. Constructive, non-inflammatory suggestions only.
4. No comments on others' suggestions are necessary. That means, we don't need 15 posts in the thread saying "Great idea!" or "I agree!"
5. Please don't link to other forum threads as your way of making suggestions. ("My suggestion can be found HERE.") If it's important enough to you that you want it in this thread, then it should be important enough to put it in the format I've asked for here!
6. You can certainly post suggestions that conflict with or build upon earlier suggestions.
7. Mockups are welcomed, they really help Markus see what you're interested in accomplishing.

Format for Suggestions

Suggestion
What is your suggestion? Be as specific as possible; include the screen you're talking about, if applicable.

Reason
Why do you think this is important? If this is to correct what you perceive as a problem in OOTP 2007, what is that problem? Be as specific as possible.

Priority
In your opinion, how important is this suggestion?
High (MUST have), Medium (should have), Low (nice to have))


Handy Cut-and-Paste Suggestion Form:

Suggestion


Reason


Priority


Thanks for participating!

Steve

[injury log]

Suggestion

More options in Manager 'News Subscription Settings'. Ideally I'd like to be able to customize this completely: I'd like to receive messages about 6-hit games, but not 5-hit games; I'd like to know about career and season ending injuries, but not day-to-day injuries, etc. If the existing options could remain, but if there could also be an 'advanced mode' where detailed settings could be made, that would please everyone, I think.

Reason

When fast-simming, with league news on, my inbox gets congested with hundreds of messages, many of which are of little interest to me. With greater customizability, the news message feature would be more useful.

Priority

High.

[injury log]

Suggestion

Additional news items for extraordinary events. For example:

-8+ RBI games
-5+ SB games
-16K+ games
-30/30 seasons
-10+ years into a sim, for record-breaking seasons in major categories (career and single-season records)
-etc...

Reason

Would be interesting to read about such things.

Priority

High.

[JerryArr]

Suggestion
Articles for Blowouts, Game Scores of 90 and above, very long games (maybe 15+), player X hit 50 homers/300K/20 wins, etc in a season.

Reason
They're interesting and people may way to read of them.

Priority
High

[kptom155]

Suggestion: Run up to setting career records in league and specific team news.


Reason: Adds a bit of drama and excitement (especially if you are the GM of the player in question). Think of all the news about Barry Bonds breaking Hank Aarons record (just take away all the steroid talk


Priority: Low to Medium

[Kuttner]

Working off of Injury Log's post...

Suggestion
More customizable options for Milestones.

Reason
If your league has short seasons (mine has 96 games) you rarely get to see Milestone news like a "300th HR". It would be nice to be able to set lower achievements like 100 or 200.

Priority
Low

Originally Posted by injury log

Suggestion
More options in Manager 'News Subscription Settings'. Ideally I'd like to be able to customize this completely:

[Stu]

from an owner in my online league:

Suggestion
Tracking and reporting of Major League debut. If one of your Top 10 prospects makes their debut. They should have a news article. That would also be a good line for their history:
"4/12/81 -- Made Brewer's League Baseball Debut vs Los Alamos - 2 for 3, 1 2B, 2 RBI, BB, K"

Reason
more news is good

Priority
medium

[KGAGE]

Suggestion
Team news. Right now all news is generated off of individual happenings. I want to read about teams who have won/lost 10 in a row, teams who have clinched a playoff spot, attendance records, teams who score 20 runs in a game, etc.

Reason
Immersion

Priority
Medium

[battists]

Suggestion
Have a notification that is delivered to human GMs three days before players at any level reach free agency:

In three more days, players at all levels can declare for free agency if they are eligible. Please be sure to review the Possible Free Agents (link?) screen for your organization and make any necessary transactions. Remember, some players may take several days to respond to contract offers.

(The message would not be sent if free agency is turned off in the league.)

Reason
It's friendly, it's just one message a year, and it may save a lot of GMs from losing players and getting aggravated at the game.

Priority
High

[battists]

Suggestion
Have a notification that is delivered to human GMs three days before the Rule 5 Draft:

In three more days, the Rule 5 Draft will be held. Eligible players can be seen on your transaction page marked with a #. Please be sure to review the eligible players on your team before the draft, and protect any players if necessary by placing them on your secondary roster!

(The message would not be sent if Rule 5 Draft is turned off in the league.)

Reason
It's friendly, it's just one message a year, and it may save a lot of GMs from losing players and getting aggravated at the game.

Priority
High

[Stu]

Originally Posted by battists

Suggestion
Have a notification that is delivered to human GMs three days before players at any level reach free agency:

In three more days, players at all levels can declare for free agency if they are eligible. Please be sure to review the Possible Free Agents (link?) screen for your organization and make any necessary transactions. Remember, some players may take several days to respond to contract offers.

(The message would not be sent if free agency is turned off in the league.)

Reason
It's friendly, it's just one message a year, and it may save a lot of GMs from losing players and getting aggravated at the game.

Priority
High

Ditto for personnel. We should get an email warning us before their contracts end.

[kroney37]

Suggestion
Information about team relocation/movement/expansion. Currently, there is very little in the way of textual messages regarding this.


Reason
Crucially important in certain situations i.e the start of the DH rule, Milwaukee moving to the NL. If you didn't know what year one of things happened, team strategy may be drastically changed.

Priority
Medium low (As it only impacts players in certain situations)

[drprestwood]

Suggestion
News stories when a player breaks a league or team record.

Reason
The old versions had this, and it was a cool way to keep up with great performances you might not otherwise notice.

Priority
Medium. We all like to notice this stuff, don't we? I have a player in an online league with 156 SB entering the final week of the season - and there was no kind acknowledgement that he shattered the league record.

[tysok]

Originally Posted by Stu

Ditto for personnel. We should get an email warning us before their contracts end.

Priority on this: Extraordinarally Astronomically HIGH!
Or maybe just really really high at least.

[ctorg]

Suggestion:
News reports for all rounds of playoffs, preferably not just for decisive games.
Reason:
I think all playoff games should generate news stories, no matter the outcome.
Priority:
Low

[endgame]

Suggestion
Add the Delete Message option to the League News page.

Reason
The two year minimum is still a LOT of messages and unless other pages, for some reason, rely on this news info it can contain way too many messages that no longer have import. We can throw personal messages away, and we should be able to discard League News as well. Besides, it's a bit of a hog loading and saving later, I'm sure.

Priority
High

[Ktulu]

Suggestion
Add the ability to "flag" news stories as "Major News" and store all of the major news stories in the history of each season.

Reason
I would like to be able to select the major news stories of a season and be able to view them in the league history. In addition, if I want to write a story on league expansion, a team moving etc. there should be someplace where I can view this at a future date. Basically the idea is to have an archive of the major stories of the year, by having a user "flag" system the user has can decide whether they want 3 or 4 major stories or dozens.

Priority
Medium

[falkonisback]

Suggestion
News stories when players in your minor league teams may be ready to move to the next level. It could notify you when say LF Joe Blow is looking great in AA, he is ready for AAA.

Reason
It would save us from having to bring up the minor league reports every couple weeks or so to make sure leaving a top prospect in a lower level for too long as not to destroy his development. It also saves us from panning through stats and ratings of every player to check who might have a shot at advancing.

Priority
Medium to High

[Raidergoo]

Processed to this point.

[cephasjames]

Originally Posted by endgame

Suggestion
Add the Delete Message option to the League News page.

Reason
The two year minimum is still a LOT of messages and unless other pages, for some reason, rely on this news info it can contain way too many messages that no longer have import. We can throw personal messages away, and we should be able to discard League News as well. Besides, it's a bit of a hog loading and saving later, I'm sure.

Priority
High

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