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(April Fool's article)
OOTP Developments are proud to announce that we have reached a licensing agreement with Tolkien Industries, allowing us to fulfill a long-standing goal of fully integrating J.R.R. Tolkein's Middle Earth into OOTP 11! "This is a huge step forward for fantasy baseball fans," remarked SGBL commissioner Solonor Rasreth, "the OOTP community has been clamoring for better support for hobbit leagues for years. It's nice to play a game where the developers listen to their fans like Markus does. That's why we keep coming back!"
Statistical Enhancements
OOTP is all about stats, and the addition of hobbits, orcs, and elves to the rosters of OOTP leagues has introduced some fascinating challenges for OOTP's statistical engine. At the very least, it raises questions about whether or not additional statistics should be captured. After all, human leagues have never had to worry about such things as being eaten while on the basepath. But FP9 (fatalities per 9 innings) is a critical measure of the defensive worth of any orc. Beyond the addition of new statistical categories, this change reaches to the very core of OOTP's calculations. After all, if your catcher is a bloodthirsty cave troll, runners are unlikely to try to score, resulting in extremely low ERA figures for pitchers, and perhaps not deservedly so. Should the statistical engine be adjusted to account for these things? These were some of the many challenges that faced lead developer Markus Heinsohn.
FaceGen Considerations
"Generating human faces was challenging enough," said OOTP Developments' Andreas Raht, "but having to accommodate orcs, goblins, dwarves, trolls, and more has really taken up a significantly amount of development time!" We think the results have been worth it, don't you?
Revisiting How the Game is Played
Baseball in the human world has developed over 100+ years. But in Middle Earth, it's a relatively new thing. Watching how denizens of Middle Earth play the game has given Markus a new perspective on the game of baseball. Team members who worked extensively with Middle Earth baseball players during the development cycle for OOTP 11 reported findings that challenged even the most fundamental of baseball rules. They found that teams often had left-handed third basemen, or stole third with two outs when trailing, or gnawed on the carcasses of opposing players during play. Hobbits, in particular, have proved troublesome for League Security Directors, as they often have bench-clearing brawls. Not with the opposing teams, but rather any time a food vendor came within smelling distance of the dugout. For Markus, these have resulted in some significant additions to the OOTP engine - all optional, of course. When we asked Bucklebury Fairies' orc ace Duudak Heartmasher what he thought of these developments, he said . . . well, we're not really sure what he said, exactly. It was mostly grunts and growls. But he sure can pitch!
In fact, baseball in Middle Earth has the same sort of labor and personnel woes human leagues have faced. It's a little-known fact that baseball in Middle Earth was nearly halted before it began, when the ents staged a formal protest over the use of "their brothers" as bats. And monitoring illegal performance enhancement is just as tricky, if not moreso, in Middle Earthian leagues, as you can see from this screenshot:
And performance incentives are much different in Middle Earth, too! When closer Urok Gruush of the Minas Morgul Slayers walked in the winning run in a game against the visiting Dead Marshes Uruk Hai, he was summarily executed and torn to pieces by the team's fan club. Dead Marshes' manager Higak Footpoker just shook his head sadly, and said, "One does not simply walk in a run in Mordor."
No galu govad gen!
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Previous Road to Release Articles
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