Suggestions: New Features / Grab Bag

[Solonor]

Originally Posted by Comedian2004

Suggestion
A record book for game record books. Most hits in 9 inning game, most walks in 9 inning game, most hits by a team. Like 6.x use to do, well, still does.

Reason
Because it is not there.

Priority
High

Just to expand upon this, it should be an editable record book that tracks individual game records, team records, rookie records and league records. There should be a news story every time a player breaks one of these records, as well.

[battists]

Suggestion
Add OPS+ and ERA+ to player records

ERA+ = ERA measured against the league average, and adjusted for ballpark factors. An ERA+ over 100 is better than average, less than 100 is below average.

OPS+ = OPS measured against the league average, and adjusted for ballpark factors. An OPS+ over 100 is better than average, less than 100 is below average.

Reason
They take park factors into consideration and it makes it easier to tell (at a glance) if player X or player Y is having a better season compared to the rest of the league.

In short: A guy that has a .900 OPS at Coors Field isn't the same as a guy who has a .900 OPS at Petco Park. If you look at OPS+ it will favor the guy hitting at Petco.


Priority
Medium

[tchalifour]

Originally Posted by Solonor

Just to expand upon this, it should be an editable record book that tracks individual game records, team records, rookie records and league records. There should be a news story every time a player breaks one of these records, as well.

One of the features I miss most from OOTP6 is seeing in a players history that he set a new record. I don't see that anymore!

[cbbl]

I don't know where else to put this, so here is where it goes ...

Suggestion
Improve the handling of double headers. Three areas:
1. As part of improvements to the scheduler, enable an option to schedule double headers. Additionally, if suspended games are added (another feature I hope has been suggested), allow the scheduler to reschedule double headers.
2. Although you can manually add a second game to any game day, the game doesn't seem to recognize it when simming. You have to manually hit "Quick Play" to get the game to play, even when the starting time is clearly in advance of the other game. This can cause you to miss games, or mess up a pitching rotation.
3. The schedule grids don't list or support double headers. Although they're included in the statistics, only one game per day shows up on the grid (be it unplayed games on the schedule or played games in the results portion of the grid).

Rationale
Double headers are a fact of life. They should be better supported in the game.

Priority
Medium to high

[cbbl]

Suggestion
Introduce game cancellations. Currently, the rain feature in OOTP allows for rain delays (which is nice), but doesn't cancel games outright due to weather. This happens in RL (often in spring, of course), but no games are ever cancelled in OOTP.

Rationale
Reality

Priority
Medium to high

[Raidergoo]

Suggestion
National population total should be drawn on CIA Factbook estimates, not calculated by the sum of all cities for a nation in the cities.txt file.


Reason
Accuracy. It is laughable to see the PRC missing 750 million people. The displayed number should be realistic.

Priority
Low

[Raidergoo]

Suggestion
Rainouts. Here's how to handle it. The game can cope with doubleheaders, just not with rainouts and rescheduling games at a later date. There is a work-around. Have the game check to see if the scheduled game is the last game of a series. If it is, then use the OOTP 2007 logic that no rainout is possible. If the game is NOT the last in the series, then allow the rainout and reschedule the game the next day.

Reason
It rains hard sometimes.

Priority
HIGH

[Raidergoo]

Suggestion
Death

Reason
Everyone dies at some point. It is silly to see some guys at age 140 in some 21st century leagues.

Priority
HIGH

[Raidergoo]

Suggestion
Obituaries. Have the text team create news articles that celebrate the life and accomplishments of players. I'd suggest HoF members get an obit at some randomly selected point.

Reason
It adds immersion. Sometimes our heroes go away, but they never fade from sight.

Priority
Low

[mgom27]

Suggestion-AI - Improved September call-up AI. Teams will no longer just fill the majors with 40 players, some will maybe only bring a very few players. A key factor the AI will consider here is where it is in the standings. Teams that are hopelessly out of the race will be MUCH more likely to bring 5-10 players whereas teams in the thick of a pennant race will be super judicious around call ups.
Reason- Make the Games in September more intersting.
Priority-High

[Mike775]

Suggestion:


Would like to see the games played out in real-time action. It would be nice to see the games played out in your stadium and watch the action unfold Watch your young pitching or 5-tool prospect mature from being a rookie to the superstar if he doesnt fizzle out. Maybe with real-time-action you can also place the pitchers pitch anywhere. If you bean the batter you could possibly be thrown out and suspended. Having your batters question balls and strikes can get you thrown out as well depending on how much you argue. Umpires should have their own personalities to make the games being played out more interesting (different strike zones). How about sending scouts to other teams and watching the games. A email can be sent to you explaining that a few scouts from other teams where watching my teams games.
ONe thing that I am dying to see in OOTP Baseball is watching the games. Instead of quick, play, and text, I am dying to see the game unfold right before my eyes. I hope OOTPB adds it because if another baseball management sim does, Im going to it. I saw one baseball sim allows you to place the pitch anywhere and it looks like they have a small action screen. OOTPB is my favorite for a few years as they get better and I havent looked at other baseball sims but the one baseball sim that allows you to place your pitch has caught my eye.

Please Marcus, instead of text game or at least have the option, please add the game to be played out in action. I wish I could be in my stadium and watch the game (as well as placing the pitches anywhere). Vibrant stadiums, scoreboards that are updated in the stadium and the big screen that shows the player with his stats that is up at the plate would be a dream come true as well. Adding sound would also be a plus. I've read many reviews on OTPB and the reviewers always put under minus: sound

Reason: Immense reality that would be added to this already great game.

Priority: HIGH

[Raidergoo]

Suggestion
For on-line leagues, have a "Confirm All Star Game roster" popup that interrupts the game, not allowing it to advance before the rosters are finalized

Reason
It sucks to have the game select the all star team automatically when conducting outside the game balloting

Priority
MEDIUM

[Oxydizer]

Suggestion
Here's what I talking about. If your a minor league manager you now get an email telling you that a player has been placed on your team or taken off of your team. How about the ability to communicate with the GM of the club thru a virtual email system by using "Canned" messages. Let say you need to send the GM email concerning your pitching staff and you really need another starter, you would select a canned message saying something like this. "we really need another starting pitcher here in your single A club"


Reason
I think it would vastly improve the realism of the game


Priority
probably about medium I would say.

Oxydizer

[redsoxford]

Suggestion

Following on from an earlier suggestion I made about keeping detailed stats such as at bats for batters and pitchers in the main database, with an option to turn this on or off for anything more than the current season.

Allow the option to save these details but in a set of archive files (players_yyyy.dat for example), so that they don't interfere with the general running of the game but can be loaded up if you wish to see certain stats like how a batter has performed on a 3-2 count over his entire career not just the current season.

Reason

More efficient idea for my previous suggestion in terms of processor and memory usage for loading up players

Priority

Medium

[CaptainObvious]

Suggestion
Temperature affecting results.
Currently, there are temperatures listed ingame, but it is unclear whether they actually affect anything. The temperatures are already there, so all that is needed is using them.

Balls travel slightly further in hot weather than in cold weather.
Players get hurt more often in cold weather (I think)? This would probably have to be tied into the suggestion for having spring training games in different stadiums than regular season.

Rationale
Reality.

Priority
Medium

[djcoss]

Suggestions:

I'd like to see an umpire feature added so that there are different strike zones (wide, small, large, inconsistent, etc.) and different crews umpiring each game or series.

It would also be cool to have the ability to add specific features to ball parks, like small, average or large foul territories; surface conditions i.e poor, average or good playing surface and also to be able to add where home runs go in specific stadiums, like hit into the upper deck or roof shots, onto waveland avenue, or into the bullpen, etc.

Reason:

To help add an even more realistic feel to the game

Priority:

Low

[voxpoptart]

Suggestion
There should be a "Hide Partial Seasons/ Show Partial Seasons" toggle -- like at baseball-reference.com -- on the Player Profile screen and on each Career Statistics page we can access from the Profile.

Reason
Sometimes, yes, it's nice to see how a player did with each team in a year (as we currently do): I do like, for example, seeing how Rob Gray went on an out-of-character .373/.444/.639 tear for two months when the Kalmar Lamborghinis picked him up for a stretch drive last season. But when I'm just trying to see the shape of a player's career, I want yearly totals, period; the partial seasons make it hard to sense rises and falls.

Importance
Medium-to-Low.

[Kaitiaki]

Suggestion

Add an (optional) Home Run Derby to take place on the same day as a league's All Star Game (MLB's HR Derby takes place the day before, but since OOTP allows for different lengths of All Star breaks, sticking the Derby on the same day as the AS Game would avoid possible scheduling 'conflicts').

Player selection for the Derby could occur in the same manner as the All Star Game itself: the user would have the option, in advance of the day, to manually select a handful of hitters to take part in the Derby, or the AI could select them if the user does not.

The Derby itself could occur in one of two ways, depending how much time/coding is deemed appropriate for the feature:

1. The 'easier' approach: when the Derby commences, have a screen pop up when simming that resembles a playoff bracket, with the participants listed. As the Derby is simmed, home run totals would appear beside each player's name in the same way that team wins appear when simming the postseason, with player elimination and progression occuring in the same fashion. This screen should of course be 'skippable', with an 'Finish Derby' option for those who don't want to watch it play out.

2. The 'harder' approach: the Derby could take place using the in-game screens, almost as if it were a regular game. This would allow for greater immersion and suspense, as each pitch and swing could be 'called' like they were part of a regular game. But this approach would require more effort, such as the creation of Derby-specific PbP text.

In either case, the performance engine behind the Derby should factor in each participant's Power rating, but with a considerable random adjustment built in, and the results calibrated so that 'realistic' HR totals are produced in the Derby (because the only thing thrown in the Derby are Batting Practice fastballs, players obviously hit HRs at a far higher rate during the Derby than they do during a regular game situation).

Reason

MLB's Home Run Derby before the All Star Game each year has evolved into a major fan- and television-spectacle. Including it in the game would provide a similar showcase and opportunity for bragging rights for a league's top sluggers, and would bring OOTP one step closer to being able to simulate everything that occurs in a real baseball season.

Priority

Low.

- Kai

[CobaltJays]

Suggestion

Add a player discipline system, similar to EHM's.

Reason

While there are restrictions in MLB on how teams can discipline players, this is something that would be fun for fictional leagues. In EHM, I liked the ability to fine players for things like poor performance, violent behavour, or (my personal favourite) no reason whatsoever.

Priority

Low

[CobaltJays]

Suggestion

Add random drug testing for major and minor league players, with someone occasionally flunking and getting suspended. Multiple infractions by one player would progressively lead to stiffer penalties.

Reason

It's something that now occurs is real life from time to time. This could be random, similar to how off-field injuries are handled.

Priority

Low