[battists]

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

Online Leagues

Includes
- Things that would improve the human GM experience in online leagues
- Tools or features that would make it easier for commissioners
- Suggestions related to the administrative side of leagues, such as online league output (league web site), league file size, .CSS files, and so forth. (There will be some overlap with the reports thread I'll create later.)

Excludes
- Discussion about features that are equally relevant to non-online leagues. For example, suggestions about how free agency works in online leagues is OK. Discussion about how the computer teams value free agents would go in another thread I'll post later on.

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

[sporr]

Suggestion
The "Last Week" stats should match up with the sim week so that online leagues have more consistent stat tracking from sim to sim.

Reason
The current "Last week" stats run from Sunday through Saturday, however when you Sim Week, the game sims from Monday through Sunday. I think it was corrected at some point but reverted back.

Priority
Medium (should have) importance

[rocknfire7]

Suggestion
I would like the option to have 15 game lineups in addition with the current 7 game lineups. In fact if possible maybe the option to pick a day on the calendar and set lineups on that specific day.

Reason
It would be a great option for online leagues and give the Gm of a team complete control over who starts and when.
In addition those who wish to use actual lineups with historical players could debut their players when they actually appeared. Historical replayers could also have the option to designate certain times that players are called up, sent down, or go on the DL by having the option to make them active or inactive at certain times on the calendar. Historical replayers could, in regards to actual lineups, "set it and forget it".

Priority
I would say it is a Low priority. In other words it would be a nice option if one wanted to use it, and if Markus was in the mood to pursue historical accuracy to a tee.
For me personally (High to Medium) I would like the option to use the recently amended 7 day lineup feature, expand it to 15 days, and pick certain dates on a calendar to start a certain pitcher, kinda like Stengell would do with Whitey Ford and start him against the better opposition.. Gm's of teams that have wrapped up their division in mid September could opt to start their 5th, 6th, or even 7th starters more often to be able to rest their best pitchers and ensure that the ace starts Game One of the playoffs. The young rookie called up in September could be inserted into the lineup at certain dates and be insured of getting the playing time that the gm wants him to have. There is also the issue of getting more/less playing time in Spring Training for vets, rookies and that washed up player vying for the 25th spot on the team.
I feel it adds more strategy and control to the online Gm who has to rely on the AI to make decisions after the 7 day lineup runs out, ( when used) in particular I'd like to see the handling of pitchers in the waining days of the season be left up to the Gm and not the AI.
rock...

[WWBL Commissioner]

Suggestion
Make option to sim X number of Days

Reason
we used to sim 7 days and then 8 to help with the 15 DL issue, would be nice if I could just tell the game sim 8 days this time

Priority
Low, would be nice

[BruceM]

Originally Posted by WWBL Commissioner

Suggestion
Make option to sim X number of Days

Reason
we used to sim 7 days and then 8 to help with the 15 DL issue, would be nice if I could just tell the game sim 8 days this time

Priority
Low, would be nice

Whats wrong with simming to "X" date? You can't figure out 8 days from the current date?

[marriedman2679]

Suggestion

Head back to the OOTP 6.5 days and make it to where GM's can play out games


Reason
Brings a ton of activity to leagues. Im currently in a 6.5 league where the only reason we have not upgraded yet is because we would lose that feature. Obviously we are a slower league that sims 1 day at a time according to real world baseball. I would love to see it come back and im sure there are some that will agree.

Priority

Medium ( Should Have )

[fhomess]

Suggestion
Allow online league GM's to submit draft lists, and give the commish the ability to auto draft using those lists. If a team is without a list or their list has run out of players, the game will auto select for that GM.

Reason
Would make drafting SO much easier, and I think, a really big win for online leagues.

Priority
High

[fhomess]

Suggestion
Allow online leagues to draft over the course of several days in game time.

Reason
With the draft on a single day in the game, the commish has to put the whole league on hold while the draft is going on. Commishes currently get around this by having the draft take place outside of the game as soon as the draft class is revealed. However, if my suggestion above for importing draft lists is included, it would be better to allow teams to make picks in-game as soon as the draft class is revealed. The official draft date, then, would be the date that the draft would have to be done by.

Priority
Medium

[fhomess]

Suggestion
Allow teams to submit All-Star ballots via export.

Reason
We have manual All-Star selection, why not let the online league GM's actually vote for it in-game?

Priority
Low

[fhomess]

Suggestion
Allow teams to submit end-of-season awards ballots via export.

Reason
Better league interaction and with the ability to enter the selections manually, might as well let online league GM's vote on it.

Priority
Low

[ELDoro]

Suggestion
Allow teams to trade without the commish having to do it manually. Each GM could submit a trade and as long as the two offers match then the trade could go through. There could even be a screen where the commissioner just has to click an "approve" button ....it would make it quicker than looking the trade up on a message board then going into the game and finding the correct players (many times at different levels). And assuming the trade goes through there could be an option to make out lineups/rotation with your newly aquired players.

Reason
Less work for commissioners

Priority
high (i think this would be a great addition that many would appreciate)

[georgehounddog]

Suggestion
Provide a method of sending private messages to other owners for trade talks.

Reason
Incorporates a league's private message board in the game.

Priority
Medium

[georgehounddog]

Suggestion
Allow for an owner's real data to be edited by the owner. Add email address, AIM, etc.

Reason
Makes it easier to customize birthday's, city of birth, etc without having to both the commish. Enhances experience.

Priority
Low

[bp_]

Suggestion
Create a Rule 5 draft interface similar to the new in-game drafting that was implemented in OOTP9.

Reason
We need an easy way to handle the Rule V draft in online leagues. This would eliminate work outside of the game for a commish.

Priority
Medium

[alinkens]

A second on this one.. Except I would like to see the priority moved up.. I'm still kinda bitter that I spent my money on OOTP 2006 to find out this feature had been removed.

I have 8 people who all play in two different OOTP 6.5 leagues that would all love to upgrade if this feature was put back in.

Originally Posted by marriedman2679

Suggestion

Head back to the OOTP 6.5 days and make it to where GM's can play out games


Reason
Brings a ton of activity to leagues. Im currently in a 6.5 league where the only reason we have not upgraded yet is because we would lose that feature. Obviously we are a slower league that sims 1 day at a time according to real world baseball. I would love to see it come back and im sure there are some that will agree.

Priority

Medium ( Should Have )

[Tony M]

Suggestion

Create and use delta-files for online league updates.

Reason

Between sims, a player, for example, will not change things like First Name, Surname, Birth Date, Age, Nation, City of Birth, and his career stats will not alter for anything except the period the sim covered, so why should all this stuff be packed up sim after sim when it's invariant?

The game could keep track of the number of delta's needed to make sure all GMs can get up to the current sim without missing any data.

And then a full file would only need to be created for a new GM

Priority

Medium-high

[kleric]

Suggestion
Fix compression functionality for online league uploads.

Reason

I'm doing my first online league update in OOTP9 right now and it's TAKING FOREVER to add files to the upload tarball. Seriously, this took like 5 minutes tops in OOTP2007. How did it get so bad in OOTP9? This is horrible.

Priority
Mandatory.

[Skeebe]

Suggestion
The I's have it. I would also like to request that the ability to play out games be put back into the next release of OOTP.

Reason
Our league has been around for a very long time. It is hard to recruit new members when you are running a 6.5 league. It adds a whole new dimension to league play when you have that in-game managerial control over the changes and decisions made for your club. The ability to upgrade to a current version would be very big for our league.

Priority
Very High

I have a question for the developers. Why was this feature removed after 6.5? Seeing as how it was a feature that was available in the past how hard is it to put it back in?

[Tony M]

Suggestion

Improved Strategy settings

Reason

If playing in an online league that sims > 1 day at a time you don't get the chance to alter strategies.

I've knocked together a quick document to show the concept (simple strategy would still be available obviously)

Priority

Highish

[Jaxxvain]

Suggestion
As with the above post it would be nice to have more control over strategy, on a per game basis.

Reason
This is kind of essential when playing online leagues and you want/need a specific strategy against each opponent during a sim.

Priority
High, as it would greatly enhance online play (and it would work in solo leagues as well).