Suggestions: New Features / Grab Bag

[Kivlehan]

Suggestion
International Play - Either a World Baseball Classic style tournament or some other variation on international play as it is found in Football Manager. Options for 16/32/64 national teams to participate.

Reason
Big fun for those of us who make huge baseball worlds and want to see if our Irish, Scottish, Italian, Uzbeki, Zimbabwean, Faroese, etc league all-stars can rival the giants of the USA, DR, Japan and Cuba in an international tournament.

Priority
In your opinion, how important is this suggestion?
Low (nice to have) to the general public, but for me and a couple of other diehards who keep bringing it up, it is huge.

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by redsoxford

Suggestion

Teams to have more than one stadium. One for regular games and one for spring training for example.

Reason

It looks really odd in Spring Training to see teams playing in their home park one day and then playing the other side of the country the following.

Priority

Medium

Let me expand upon this suggestion with the following:

Suggestion

Allow teams in a league to define up to three different stadiums for their home parks. One stadium would be used exclusively for spring training games; the other two stadiums would be used for the team's regular season home games.

Reason

A dedicated spring training home park is useful for the reasons redsoxford has given. It's a small addition, granted, but it's the kind of small detail which gives the game a better, more polished feel.

The reason for up to two separate home stadiums for regular season games is simple: there have been numerous times where a major league club has played its home games at two different parks in the same year.

For example, the Boston Red Sox, from 1929-31, played Sunday home games at Braves Field but played the rest of their home games at Fenway Park. The Cleveland Indians, from 1937-47, split their home games between Cleveland Stadium and League Park, with Sunday, holiday, and night games being played at the former and the remaining games at the latter. In 1970, the Pittsburgh Pirates played the first half of their season at Forbes Field and the second half at Three Rivers Stadium. In 1989, the Toronto Blue Jays played the first part of the year at Exhibition Place and the rest of the year at SkyDome. And so on.

With the ability to define up to two different home stadiums for an individual team, these sorts of situations can be recreated in OOTP. This can make historical leagues even more true-to-life and it allows fictional leagues more creativity and options.

So how would this second or alternate home park be assigned games?

By default, the first regular season stadium set up would be considered the team's primary home field, so the user doesn't have to do anything special for it to be used. For the second or alternate home field to be used for a game, I would suggest allowing the user to use the schedule editor to designate which games will be using the alternate home field.

I would also suggest allowing the alternate home field be designated directly in the schedule file for a league. Add a column to the schedule file for this purpose; by default, the column would have a 0 which indicates the primary stadium is being used by the home team. If the value is changed to a 1 for a game, that tells OOTP that the alternate park is used by the home team for that game. Some folks will find it easier to do such alternate home park designating directly in the schedule file rather than using the schedule editor, so that's why I suggest this (and it'd make it easy for me to add the alternate park indicator to the historical schedule files used for historical leagues).

Priority

Medium.

[injury log]

I'm surprised this hasn't been brought up yet, since there was clamoring for it in General.

Suggestion

New feature: Possible player Ejections for HBPs, charging the mound, arguing calls, etc. Possible Suspensions for same. I'd find it especially interesting if events like charging the mound were linked with player personality ratings.

Reason

Realism, for one. From a gameplay perspective, it now is always advantageous to intentionally hit a batter rather than walk him intentionally; it saves three pitches, and there's the chance of injuring the opposing player (this happened on 1 in 30 intentional HBPs in my tests, with max injury proneness and frequency). There should be potential adverse consequences for intentionally hitting a batter. I'll post about suspensions, which could easily be implemented as injuries, in the Customization thread.

Priority

Medium/High.

[Geebob]

Suggestion

Cut the information on coaches and scouts down to
1. Experience
2. Reputation
3. Strengths
4. Weaknesses

Reason

Who gets the blame when a team is under-performing? The manager! In the game, though, I can see exactly how good the managers is. Let's face it... evaluation of coaches is a incredibly difficult job. Except in OOTP that is...

Priority

HIGH

[Muzamba]

Originally Posted by injury log

I'm surprised this hasn't been brought up yet, since there was clamoring for it in General.

Suggestion

New feature: Possible player Ejections for HBPs, charging the mound, arguing calls, etc. Possible Suspensions for same. I'd find it especially interesting if events like charging the mound were linked with player personality ratings.

Reason

Realism, for one. From a gameplay perspective, it now is always advantageous to intentionally hit a batter rather than walk him intentionally; it saves three pitches, and there's the chance of injuring the opposing player (this happened on 1 in 30 intentional HBPs in my tests, with max injury proneness and frequency). There should be potential adverse consequences for intentionally hitting a batter. I'll post about suspensions, which could easily be implemented as injuries, in the Customization thread.

Priority

Medium/High.

And speaking of player personalities...

Suggestion
Give players additional personality traits that have a direct correlation to on-field and off-field behavior and morale. This could either be a general personality rating or could be broken down to show attitudes toward specific things. For example, a player with a 5-star personality rating would be a model citizen who never argues or gets into trouble and is relatively easy to negotiate with. By contrast, a player with a 1-star rating would be a "clubhouse cancer" who is constantly getting ejected from games, getting into trouble off the field, and is very difficult to keep happy in terms of his contract. If this rating were to be divided into categories, they could include (attitude toward...) opposing players, teammates, umpires, manager/coaching staff, the front office, the league/commissioner's office, the media, and society in general. Either way, this should directly tie in to suspensions. (Important: Personalities/suspensions should NOT be hard-coded. There should be an additional file, much like the injury file, that contains injuries/incidents that are personality-related versus those that are merely random.)

Reason
Probably the biggest thing that can be added to enhance the real-world feel of the game. Up until recently, players in OOTP may as well have been robots. Granted, they suffer injuries, make contract demands, get ejected from games, and occasionally even get into bar fights (or at least they used to.) But you never really got to think of them as real people whose human actions and feelings have a direct effect on your game. Some people may want to play without these human factors, especially those who enjoy historical replays or simply want to compile stats or play their games without incident. Hence, player pesonality should be an option during game-setup. However, I personally prefer to think of my OOTP world as being like real life. And once in a while IRL, players do stupid things like spit on an ump, criticize management, get a DUI, use steroids, and flip off the fans. And when they do these things, it usually has consequences. So what I'm saying is, I want to see these consequences. I want to feel what Joe Rightfielder's GM feels when, in the midst of an MVP season, he decides to punch out a news reporter and gets suspended for 10 games.

Priority
SUPER-DUPER HIGH (in case you couldn't tell from my impassioned plea above )

[Muzamba]

Suggestion
Add HoF criteria to give consideration to players with specialties other than just hitting and pitching, like outstanding defensive skills, base-stealing ability, and high career strikeout totals for pitchers. I also feel that things like awards won, ASG appearances, championship rings, and personality ratings should also play a factor. Additionally, I believe Managers should be eligible for the HoF, and maybe even "contributors" like longtime GMs, owners, and commissioners.

Reason
It just feels like the HoF in OOTP needs to be more inclusive.

Priority
Manager Eligibility: HIGH
Everything else I mentioned: MEDIUM-LOW

[pstrickert]

Suggestion
Finish up that "baseball card" feature (planned but not implemented in OOTP2007).

Reason
The idea seemed to be well received.

Priority
Low

[CBL-Commish]

Originally Posted by redsoxford

Suggestion

Teams to have more than one stadium. One for regular games and one for spring training for example.

Reason

It looks really odd in Spring Training to see teams playing in their home park one day and then playing the other side of the country the following.

Priority

Medium

Not only is it odd to see teams playing Spring Training games all over the country, it's slightly absurd to see the Anchorage Eskimos and Yukon Prospectors playing in 15 degree snow in Spring Training on March 1st. If cold influences injuries this goes from a nice-to-have to a necessity.

[Mattymo]

I've proposed this on the forums, but it belongs here as well...

suggestion
Have each individual game "rated" for each team based on how important it is, in order to better simulate real life when making game decisions. For example:

last day of the season, one game out, you could rate this game as "urgent" for your team, thus the AI would do everything in its power to win the game, including putting in a rested starter in order to get some outs.

If your 20 out, that game is "unnecessary".

A game in May against your division rival may be rated as "mildly important".

reason
Currently I find that, even in the playoffs, the AI doesn't really KNOW it's a playoff game. The AI could rate the game themselves, or the gameplayer could rate it as "commissioner"...also, I did a World Cup, but the AI had no idea of knowing it was an "elmiination game" when it was just a regular exhibition game. If this was implemented, the team would have tried harder to win the game.

priority
medium

[Stu]

Suggestion
Add Rivalries. You could do things like make them less likely to trade with each other, increase fan interest slightly with a victory over your rival, free agent bidding wars, increase attendance, beanball wars. You could also add in some rivalry articles that might give a brief report when they're playing. I think this would operate on a scale. for example the Red Sox and Yankees might be 100/100 while the Blue Jays and Red Sox might be 50/100. I'm sure others can expand on this with more ideas as well.

Reason
Adds to the realism and entertainment.

Priority
Medium

[Cryomaniac]

Originally Posted by Stu

Suggestion
Add Rivalries. You could do things like make them less likely to trade with each other, increase fan interest slightly with a victory over your rival, free agent bidding wars, increase attendance, beanball wars. You could also add in some rivalry articles that might give a brief report when they're playing. I think this would operate on a scale. for example the Red Sox and Yankees might be 100/100 while the Blue Jays and Red Sox might be 50/100. I'm sure others can expand on this with more ideas as well.

Reason
Adds to the realism and entertainment.

Priority
Medium

To add to this:

Suggestion

Let us set up rivalries in the league setup screen.

Reason

If I make a British league for example I would like to establish rivalries that exist in other sports (Eg Nottingham - Derby, Oxford University - Cambridge University).

Priority

Medium

[Stu]

Suggestion
Bring back ability to prioritize pinch hitters vs LHP and RHP. This existed in 6.5.

Reason
Managers should be able to specify who the first hitter of the bench should be.

Priority
Medium

[Who Killed Kenny?]

Suggestion
Automatic Team Relocation

Reason
When a team does poorly with the fans for a number of years (like the Expos) or the owner is a jerk (like Al Davis in the NFL) the game should relocate the team to a better market. The new market must be able to better sustain the team and the new fan interest should be high. This would better create a Sim like world with a rich immersive history.

Of course the relocating team needs the Commissioner's approval before doing so.

Priority
Low

[Who Killed Kenny?]

Suggestion
League Hierarchy Idea. Players under contract with a Major League team should also be allowed to play games for their national team and/or independant "Winter Leagues".

Reason
To closely model real-life. Players like Henry Blanco play in WBC, MLB, and Winter League games.

Priority
Medium

In more detail From League Hierarchy Idea
I believe the best way to model this is to have a hierarchy of leagues. Then a player could be a member of teams in different teams but on game day play for the team in the highest or most important league.

There should be at least three classifications of leagues. At the top of the hierarchy would be all World Cup, World Baseball Classic, or National teams. Any player on these teams would leave their other teams to play here on game day. Next should come the Major Leagues (and their minor leagues). At the lowest level should be independant minors and Winter League. Players can only play here if no other games are played in their other leagues.

Players can only be a part of 1 team at each level to prohibit really complex player movement.

Every day, the roster AI looks at the World Cup games being played and moves the the active players off their other team's active roster, and onto "on loan" roster. Then it moves to the Major League games and fills up the roster and moves all players from their other (winter or independant) teams' active roster to the "on loan" roster. Finally the AI goes thru the lowest level and moves players from the reserves to the active.

I like this approach because, set up correctly, players will be able to play for multiple teams while honoring their contracts AND play for the right team. I offer Henry Blanco of the Chicago Cubs as my example. Blanco plays every year in the Winter Leagues, even though he is under contract with a Major League team. He also played for Venezuela in the WBC. Following this hierarchy system he'd play for the correct team if ever the games were to overlap.

There would be more customization if we were allowed more levels, but 3 would make me happy.

[idle_dreams73]

what about, while simming a league, filling that text box with news headlines from the league being simmed? rather than the same info over and over again.

[Who Killed Kenny?]

Originally Posted by idle_dreams73

what about, while simming a league, filling that text box with news headlines from the league being simmed? rather than the same info over and over again.

If you mean like AUHistoryHint (AUHistoryHint, I'll put it "Suggestion" format for you.

Suggestion
Implement AUHistoryHint.

Reason
Because it is awesome and less repetitive.

Priority
Low

[idle_dreams73]

Managerial journals:
Day-by-day Notes and entry
MANAGER LOG 4-1-1986
Lost to Kentucky (pride hurt icon)

[endgame]

Suggestion
Return the IRS% (Inherited Runs Scored Percentage), or embrace the newer IRS% (Inherited Runs Stranded Percentage) - basically the inverse.

Reason
Offers an additional and, IMHO, valued tool to assist in evaluating relievers.
The information is already in the box score, just a matter of collecting it.

Priority
Medium - not everyone cares. I'd rate it High, personally.

[KGAGE]

Suggestion
Add local and national columnist to news system. These columnist would have personality ratings such as Critical/Nuetral/Benovolent. On a weekly/monthly basis, the local columnist would write articles about your team commenting on the manager's strategy, hot and cold players. National columnist would write articles in a more broad stroke bringing out league high and low lights.

Reason
The local columnist would provide more feedback on what the public thinks of your team. Currently there isn't much of that other than attendance and the loyalty raiting.

Priority
Low
__________________

[KGAGE]

Suggestion
If you are going to do sound, it needs to be done right:
-> The more people in attendance, the louder the crowd should be. If you only have 5,000 people in the stands, you should only be able to get a smattering of applause. Blow outs should generally get quieter towards the end of the game as people leave. Conversly, a close game should get louder towards the end of the game when a tense situation arises.
-> Superstars from visiting teams should generally be booed when coming to the plate.
-> After a good performance, a home pitcher should get a nice applause when being taken out of the game.
-> A superstar on the home teams should not be booed when striking out after going 3-3 earlier in the game. Booing local players should be reserved for unpopular or seriously slumping players.

This list could go on and on but you get the idea. To do sound right, it would be quite complicated.

Reason
Immersion

Priority
Low