PureSim 2004 - v1.5 Released 10/6

[vtbub]

Shaun's screenshots were enough to get me to fork over the ol' debit card and buy the game.

I had tried some of the beta's from I believe the first version, a few years ago, and was less than impressed. FYI, we may not have been able to actually manage games yet, IIRC.

Anytime someone shows screenshots trying to right the injustices of the 1978 season, I'm there, and considersing some of the in game splash shots are the Sox celebrating after their win in the LDS in Oakland last season shows that Shaun is on the right side of history :D .

My thoughts are based on build RC2 which was the most current build as of 8:30 ET tonight:

Installation was a breeze. You had to build RC1, install it, then install RC2 on top before going through e-license. The process was painless with both builds installing without any bombs.

After forking over the nessecary(sp) money, the e-license came through and the game, written in either vbasic or vb.net, opened up full screen giving me a number of options. I tried to start an historical league, but was instructed that I needed to download Lahman 5.1 in ms access form, and a link was provided.

Using the wonders of broadband technology, I downloaded it, but initially unzipped into the wrong directory, players databases I believe. After re-reading the instructions, I moved the db into the main folder and restarted the game. From there it was very easy to access the db and I started a 1951 season.

The conversion from raw data to being able to go was VERY quick. OOTP seems to take about 1 sec to take a CSV record and turn it into a OOTP record. I think that Puresim had the whole season translated in 60 seconds, very fast.

I selected the Giants to manage and disabled the computer AI for trades. You could select, while you were setting up, a 154 game schedule, but I did not see where you could import an actual schedule.

It took awhile to see how you could configure lineups and make sure you had who you wanted on your roster and set up your rotation.

The game automatically assigns contracts to players, and quite naturally, the Yankees, Giants, and Dodgers had the highest payrolls, around 200 million dollars. Besides actual markets, I didn't see anything that resembled a financial engine that we can change. No ticket sales, no merchandise, no broadcast revenue. I'm not quite sure how that would work in future seasons. Despite having a payroll that topped 180 million, I still had 30-40 million to play with in signing whatever lose free agents that were out there. I don't know if this will be addresed before release or in future patches/versions and would be curious to see what Shaun has to say about his vision is of a financial engine.

I could put my Giants into the Polo Grounds, which is a real treat. In fact all past ballparks, or their dimensions were available for me to choose, so I took a few minutes and assigned each team to their correct 1951 parks.
(Nitpicking here, 515 to deep center in Shibe Park? Wow. Also, it would be nice to have both the old vesion of Yankee Stadium, and the current refurbished one in the game. Currently, the post-1976 version is in. Left-Center was HUGE in the old park.)

Sadly, nothing was there for how many seats were in each park. We opened at Ebbets Field against Brooklyn and it would have been nice to get the feel of the coziness of the place.

The game plays well, hotkeys are thereto access lineups and strategy. Stealing bases, or setting defense is as easy as checking of boxes, it flows real well. Reading the pbp, however, was a challenge. At the moment, the pbp is limited and scrolls up the screen. Also, the white text on a Carolina Blue background made following the game real hard. The animated balltracks are a neat idea, but because I used the default picture of Atlanta's Turner Field, and not Ebbetts Field, it seemed out of sync at times. Brooklyn won, 4-3.

Access to player cards were everywhere. A mini broswer pops open and whatever you want to know about your player in the "Association", in Shaun's terms, is right there. For those of us who want to play replays, adding career stats from before we start would be extremely helpful. It starts everybody off as blank, so unless you have a baseball book handy, or know every player, then you are at a disadvantage over the AI.

You can choose to have boxscores and logs for every game played. While not completely essential, having time of game and attendance would add some nice realism to the presentation.

I did not see where you could add your own players, change playoff structure, import schedules or edit ratings in this version. On the surface, Puresim does not have the customization that OOTP has.

It does have sortable stats, by the zillions. You should be able to sort and figure to you hearts content. The "PSPN" news stories are a step above OOTP's, giving previews of the season and adding that extra immersion factor that we've been spoiled by.

The only real concern that I had, was the apparent creation of fictionial players in a real season. I may be wrong about that.

I'll quick sim a seasn and next post go into the engine, but on first blush, Puresim is a solid major league player.

[vtbub]

Quick simming thru 2003:

Thru April, the Rockies are 19-5 while Tampa Bay leads the AL East, Texas the AL West.

One trade, Cubs send Mark Prior to the Mets for Jeremy Burnitz...Shaun's been following my RWBL exploits :p .

More tomorrow.

[FBPro]

Quick simming thru 2003:


One trade, Cubs send Mark Prior to the Mets for Jeremy Burnitz..

More tomorrow.


Ok I'll bite.......YIKES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Is there an upside to Burnitz besides leading the known world in K's? Can't say that's a trade I'd make in this lifetime or any sane person would either unless Prior is in his grave then it would still be questionable.

[vtbub]

The trade AI does need some work.

1/2 way thru '03, Chicago sends Frank Thomas to Cleveland for Angel Santos, while Toronto ships Carlos Delgado to Seattle for Edgar Martinez.

Watching the sims roll through, the numbers seem right on offense. After the season finishes, I'll compare to baseball regerence and give an accurate sense of how things turned out.

Teams that should be playing well, are. Boston and New York are fighting for the AL East, anybody's race in the AL West, Atlanta and Montreal are neck in neck in the NL East, St. Louis and Houston are battling for the Central. (side note, the Cubs got the better end of the Prior/Burnitz deal) Chisox, Cleveland, and the Twins are trading first place in the AL Central. Colorado is powering through the NL West.

Trades, so far, have been infrequent and all one for one swaps.

[vtbub]

Full season stats:

It's really not fair to go over individual numbers because ballparks were not in sync with real life counterparts and this is still a beta build.

Having said that, things are close in giving the whole picture on a league-wide basis.

PSK's Runs Scored was 93.78% of 2003MLB
Hits were 103.4%
Walks were 98.2%
Homers were 89.8%
K's were 96.65%
CG's were nearly double, 410-209 in real life
Shutouts were early half, 115-259
Saves were 108.6% of real life

Complete games are too high, but the rest of the numbers seem to be well within reason, homers being a bit low, but the others within 10%.

[vtbub]

any questions?

[jbmagic]

how you liking puresim over OOTP 6?

[vtbub]

I think that Puresim is a better in game, day to day, manager sim compared to OOTP 6.

The stat immersion is pretty high and for doing solo fictional careers, this game will do that very well.

OOTP is miles ahead as far as finances and GM simming goes. In my test MLB'03 league every team had $250 million in financs and with that, you could do anything.

As far as in game goes, Puresim is real strong. I haven't played a ton of actual games yet, but I like what I see.

[vtbub]

So I started a fictional league.

WOW!

I had the option of many league variations running from four teams to thirty two. I chose a 1 League 12 team, 2 six team condition. I randomly chose 1986 to start.

After placing franchises in cities, I was given the option of going completely random or importing players from lahman and drafting.

Are you kidding? This has been such a PITA in OOTP. Puresim does this with incredible ease.

After your options are selected, you then draft your players. You can tell the computer how you wnat to draft ranging from yoth, to pitchers that have excellent control, to crafty veterans. If you chose to draft your self, you have the option of signing players to a 1-5 year contract. The higher the contract, the lower the price. Yes, you have 250 million to spend on 50 players.

I'm impressed.

[spleen1015]

Over time, does that $250 mil change?

[vtbub]

Not that I know of, I believe that finances are dictated by market size if you choose that option or having all markets equal.

[Shaun Sullivan]

Yes, over time salaries and team finances can increase. It can ebb and flow based on a number of factors.

Shaun

[jbmagic]

wow sounds great so far...


but that 250 mil finance kinda scares me...

can u set salary cap, set cash maximum, tv revenue amount?

[vtbub]

Not that I have found.

It's much more a manager's sim than a GM(FOF-OOTP) type sim.

[lynchjm24]

wow sounds great so far...


but that 250 mil finance kinda scares me...

can u set salary cap, set cash maximum, tv revenue amount?

The teams revenue is just revenue. It doesn't have anything to do with attendance or TV contracts. Different cities have different amounts.

[vtbub]

Couple more things before I turn in.

You can manage ur minor league games. It does, at least in this build(RC3), come at the expense of managing your Major League game. You have one minor league team.

A big difference between OOTP and PS2K4 is that when you ask a runner to steal, it will do it on a random count, not always on the first pitch.

[jbmagic]

The teams revenue is just revenue. It doesn't have anything to do with attendance or TV contracts. Different cities have different amounts.


ok thanks was hoping it was a setting in league setting tha u can set the cash max, salary cap on or off and how much limit, and tv revunue, etc like in ootp 6 league setting...


it seems like you have to go by the default only

[Barkeep49]

Puresim will let you setup any sort of league you want financially. The depth is not there of OOTP, but if you wish to have a small market league, that is possible. If you want to have a league full of economic disparity that too is possible, as is a large market league, or any other combonation you can dream of; the simplicity does not mean there is no depth at all to the financial model.

[MizzouRah]

ootp=real mlb

puresim=fictional leagues

When is the 7 day trial?


Todd

[FBPro]

I play both, mostly OOTP but from time to time PS is a nice change.

[HighandOutside]

Okay, I like what I hear about PS being more of day-to-day manager sim. As long as the financials ebb and flow in a realistic manner, that is fine with me.

How is the game engine? Presumably it is not DIPS, if not what? More importantly, does it avoid those odd types of pitcher statistics that were around in OOTP5?

Also, how is the CPU AI management? Sometimes I think OOTP is just trying to do too much. I don’t need waivers and I don’t need 3 levels of minors. But I do want a competitive computer opponent that can manage his squad in a coherent manner. OOTP does a good job on this, but I wonder if Puresim will do it better.

I like the comments about the immersion factor…I love my OOTP Tigers, I wonder if I may not also be gaining a Puresim franchise.

[vtbub]

Okay, I like what I hear about PS being more of day-to-day manager sim. As long as the financials ebb and flow in a realistic manner, that is fine with me.

How is the game engine? Presumably it is not DIPS, if not what? More importantly, does it avoid those odd types of pitcher statistics that were around in OOTP5?

Also, how is the CPU AI management? Sometimes I think OOTP is just trying to do too much. I don’t need waivers and I don’t need 3 levels of minors. But I do want a competitive computer opponent that can manage his squad in a coherent manner. OOTP does a good job on this, but I wonder if Puresim will do it better.

I like the comments about the immersion factor…I love my OOTP Tigers, I wonder if I may not also be gaining a Puresim franchise.


I really wish I could give you a solid answer on this.

The numbers from last season using Puresim were mostly within 10% of real life. The AI made some rather off moves, Delgado for Edgar Martinez and Frank Thomas for a scrub, but made some decent moves too such as Eric Chavez for Nomar and suprisingly the Cubs trading Prior for Jeromy Burnitz...Burnitz finished in the top ten for homers while Prior and the Mets melted away.

The biggest drawback, IMHO, is the length of time to sim a chunk of games, around 60-90 a day on my 1Ghz laptop. It makes it impossible to run 5-7 quick seasons ala OOTP to get a good feel for numbers.

It was certainly worth the purchase and probably tomorrow I'll do one more comprehensive post.

[kcchief19]

Hmmm ... I was trying to get a configuration for starting a 1969 league and I used the sims season function and it was pretty darn fast -- faster than I've been able to get OOTP to go.

For Shawn or someone else who knows, is there a way to change teams? I'm tinkering around with settings, but what I'd like to do is start a sim pre-1969 and sim until then and take over Kansas City. But I'm forced to take control of a team at the beginning and then I can't seem to change control.

Also, there are places where I can't read the text real well because it's white text on a light background. Is there anyway to change that? I'm using the last beta build available last night, so maybe that's the problem.

One final note/observation -- on my initial installation on my laptop, Puresim took over my display settings and jacked everything up royally. On opening for the first time, it automatically changed my display resolution, and as a result moved everything on my desktop because it changed my screen size. Just a word of warning for anyone running at settings higher than 1024x768. Once you open and change the settings in Puresim, you're OK, but it's an initial PITA.

Other than the text problems with white text/light background, I really like the look and feel so far. It's sharp, yet not too much eye candy to distract. The setting up for historical leagues so far is gold -- everything I always wanted OOPT to be but wasn't.

[MizzouRah]

Hmmm ... I was trying to get a configuration for starting a 1969 league and I used the sims season function and it was pretty darn fast -- faster than I've been able to get OOTP to go.

For Shawn or someone else who knows, is there a way to change teams? I'm tinkering around with settings, but what I'd like to do is start a sim pre-1969 and sim until then and take over Kansas City. But I'm forced to take control of a team at the beginning and then I can't seem to change control.

Also, there are places where I can't read the text real well because it's white text on a light background. Is there anyway to change that? I'm using the last beta build available last night, so maybe that's the problem.

One final note/observation -- on my initial installation on my laptop, Puresim took over my display settings and jacked everything up royally. On opening for the first time, it automatically changed my display resolution, and as a result moved everything on my desktop because it changed my screen size. Just a word of warning for anyone running at settings higher than 1024x768. Once you open and change the settings in Puresim, you're OK, but it's an initial PITA.

Other than the text problems with white text/light background, I really like the look and feel so far. It's sharp, yet not too much eye candy to distract. The setting up for historical leagues so far is gold -- everything I always wanted OOPT to be but wasn't.
What, kcchief is happy with a baseball sim? Is it cold down below?

:D :p

Todd

[Shaun Sullivan]

KCChief,

It is a snap to change teams. Simply visit that team's main screen and click the "Buy Team" button.

Regarding the game changing your resolution initially, I actually tweaked that in the final release. In the final, if you are running in higher than 1024x768 then the game will default to running in windowed mode (it won't switch to full screen). Of course if you want the option to that is available under options..display options.

Regarding some stuff being hard to read, there must be some pretty big differences in contrast and brightness from machine to machine. Can you point me at a few screens that are particularly difficult for you to read? Maybe if you crank brightness down it will help? Not sure. I'll have a look at what I can do to make that more "configurable.

Thanks for trying the game!

Shaun

[kcchief19]

Shaun, thanks for the follow-up. I'll take a look at the screens I'm having troube with. I did notice when I updated from the final beta build to the release version that it was now windowed -- excellent!

[akw4572]

Not that I have found.

It's much more a manager's sim than a GM(FOF-OOTP) type sim.

How so? The last version of puresim didn't have the number of options "in game" that ootp did. Did they improve the number of options when you are managing a game? That's a make or break for me, as i play all my games out.

[kcchief19]

KCChief,
Regarding some stuff being hard to read, there must be some pretty big differences in contrast and brightness from machine to machine. Can you point me at a few screens that are particularly difficult for you to read? Maybe if you crank brightness down it will help? Not sure. I'll have a look at what I can do to make that more "configurable.
I took a before screenshot that I will post later, but the real problem are any of the screens where there is white text on a stadium image with high brightness/contrast. I adjust my monitor, but it made no difference. Bold text is easier to read than normal text, but it's still hard to read.

I opened and adjust the brightness and contrast of the background and it made a HUGE difference. I'll post a before and after shot when I get a second. Thanks!

[Shaun Sullivan]

OK,

I just figured out why you were seeing the contrast issue. You are probably running Windows ME with an old version of IE. If that is the case then you are actually not seeing the black translucent graphical overlays that the text is supposed to be rendered on.

I highly recommend that you head to www.windowsupdate.com and install the latest version of IE along with all other critical OS updates.

After that you will see a different game :)

Shaun

[MizzouRah]

Who in the hell uses Win ME? Must have been a Kansas Cityian.

:D

Ahhh..that side of Missouri.... :p

[Ben E Lou]

FYI, this thread is now archived in the top thread.

[MizzouRah]

Version 1.1 has been released.

<!--EZCODE LINK START-->Download from here (http://www.puresim.com/download2k4.aspx)<!--EZCODE LINK END-->

<!--EZCODE BOLD START-->Here is the change / fix list:<!--EZCODE BOLD END-->

* Fix - After one season was complete then the "Pure Slugger" and "Gold Glove" awards were not listing the correct players in the end of year PSPN Issue.

* Fix - If user edited player bio information then the edits were not reflected on all screens until PureSim was re-started

* Tweak - Improved contrast on some screens -- things were a little too tough to read on some systems.

* New - Roster Size option. At association creation time, for non-replay associations you can choose between 50 (default), 55 and 60 players on the roster. There will always be 25 major league players, so essentially this increases the depth in the minors. 60 might be overkill but 55 can be useful.

* Tweak - Added IE 5.5 startup warning for Windows 98/ME users. PureSim is best experienced with IE 6.0

* Fix - Changed syntax of user.xml file to be compatible with Windows ME / IE 5.5 combination.

* Fix - "No current record" when releasing player from the modify roster screen if it resulted in the lineup being empty

* Fix - "No current record" when attempting to release pitcher from "Modify Roster" screen

* Fix - "No current record" when attempting to auto gen lineup (rare)

[MizzouRah]

From Shaun:

Good news! I just got DSL with a great upload pipe so it is much easier for me to do updates now! (I had Satellite internet before).

I am going to release a 1.2 version tonight and also probably do another release this weekend.

There's really no stability issues, so the next few updates will be more about AI and Balance tweaks and a few new little goodies.

Here is what I have completed and tested for 1.2 so far:

* Fix - Player's Injury level was not always described properly (e.g. sometimes when it was "Moderate" it was being described as "Minor" on the player card)

* Tweak - Minor adjustments to computer AI regarding whether or not it puts a player on the DL

* Tweak - Minor tweaks to injury/recovery modeling

* <!--EZCODE BOLD START-->New - Long Term Injury Impact.<!--EZCODE BOLD END--> In rare cases, where a player gets a severe injury, there is a possibility that it will impact his ratings/potential permenantly.

* Tweak - Improvements to pinch hitting AI

* Tweak - Increased the likelihood that a runner on second scores on a base hit to the OF in the situation where they were running on the pitch (e.g. 3-2 count, 2 outs, and forced)

* Tweak - When the league is expanding, if it is not an association that was built by assigning equal finances to all teams then when determining the region from which the new expansion team hails from PureSim will select a region that more closely matches the charactersitics (market size) of the teams that are already in the association.

[Shaun Sullivan]

After 3 months of beta releases 1.5 is finally in the can :) It adds 60 new features and tweaks to PureSim along with tons of fixes (70+).

The full list of enhancements and fixes can be viewed here (http://www.puresim.com/readme.html).

This is a free upgrade for existing PureSim 2004 owners.

The 7 day trial can be downloaded here. (http://www.puresim.com/download2k4.aspx)


Shaun Sullivan
PureSim Baseball
www.puresim.com

[Ben E Lou]

http://www.puresim.com/weblogo.jpg

PureSim Baseball 2004

©2002-2004 Shaun Sullivan ([email protected]) -- Please send feedback to [email protected] ([email protected]).

SPECIAL NOTE: PureSim REQUIRES that Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 or Higher be installed on your machine! It does not have to be your default browser or anything, it just has to be there, since PureSim leverages IE 6.0 technology.

PureSim Baseball 2004 Release v1.5 Fix/Tweak/New List =================================




http://www.puresim.com/images/new.gifMassive AI Improvements - Just about every facet of the GM AI has been improved.
http://www.puresim.com/images/new.gifAI Needs and Disposition - The team home pages now list some information about what that team's GM is looking to do (e.g. "Aggressively Improve", "Get Younger", "Dump Salary" etc..) It also now lists the the top 3 aspects of their team that they are interested in improving.
http://www.puresim.com/images/new.gifNon Veteran Release Rule - New rule - If you release a NON veteran you are only responsible for 75% of his salary per year for the duration of the remaining contract. Veterans are still owed 100%
http://www.puresim.com/images/new.gifAlmanac/HOF - Added some additional info to the grid that details player's key career stats.
http://www.puresim.com/images/new.gifDeals & Moves Filter - Added a drop down filter to the Deals and Moves (Association Transactions) screen that allows the list to be filtered by: All This Year's Transactions, Promotions/Demotions, DL Moves, In-Season Free Agent Signings, Releases, Amateur Draft Signings, Trades, Initial Draft Signings, Off-Season Free Agent Signings, Contract Extensions,Rejected Contract Extensions,Expansion Draft Signings
http://www.puresim.com/images/new.gifAdded ability to view disabled list players from the the modify roster screen (it brings up a dialog report)
http://www.puresim.com/images/new.gifAdded "Do NOT draft veterans" option to the Auto Draft Parameters dialog. This can be useful when you are auto drafting say, the last 10 or 15 rounds and you don't want the AI to pick any vets.
http://www.puresim.com/images/new.gif More significant AI improvements and tweaks in regards to roster and lineup decisions. It is important to realize that sometimes the AI can't be "perfect" due to restrictions around the Veteran roster rule
http://www.puresim.com/images/new.gif PureSim can now import custom schedule files designed for OOTP6 (available via the options dialog).
http://www.puresim.com/images/new.gif Added new 14 team 2 league configuration. This also has the nice side effect of fixing the issue where folks had 12 team 2 league associations that expanded to 14 teams 1 league, but they "lost" 1 league. Now 12 team 2 league configs will expand to the 14 team 2 league format.
http://www.puresim.com/images/new.gif Tracking and displaying no-hitters under "Milesones" on Pitcher's player card (Note: total no hitters will only include no hitters achieved AFTER installing test release 11)
http://www.puresim.com/images/new.gifNew PSPN special report story for Walk Off Homers
http://www.puresim.com/images/new.gifNow tracking and reporting on hitting streaks (PSPN Special reports will be generated at 10+ games.) The story will be included standard in every PSPN issue.
http://www.puresim.com/images/new.gifMilestones now being tracked and reported on in PSPN. When players reach certain milestones a special issue will be generated noting the milestone achieved. Currently Home Runs (100 and then intervals of 50), Hits (1000 and then intervals of 500), Games (1000 and then 500 intervals), Wins (100 and then intervals of 50), K's (1000 and intervals of 500)
http://www.puresim.com/images/new.gifMilestones are listed on player card.
http://www.puresim.com/images/new.gifAdded minor engine tweaks to account for home field advantage. This can also be tweaked in the puresim.xml file if desired (see tag "HOME_FIELD_ADVANTAGE")
http://www.puresim.com/images/new.gifAdded ability to edit league and division names and toggle the possibility of expansion for an association (Its on a new tab on the Configuration Options dialog which is accessible from the association home page under "Quick Links")
http://www.puresim.com/images/new.gifAdded ability to export and then edit and later import scheules. This way folks can create custom schedules for the game with relative ease. (Its on a new tab on the Configuration Options dialog which is accessible from the association home page under "Quick Links")
http://www.puresim.com/images/new.gifAdded ability to toggle DH rule for leagues via the options and utilities dialog
Tweak - GM AI now more likely to put players on DL that have mid-range injuries (e.g. out 2-4 weeks)
Tweak - More improvements to Trading AI, specifically in the case where AI was too careless in regards to trading away decent starting pitchers for higher rated players that were not starting pitchers, to teh point where they could really hurt their rotation. Now the AI will make sure that they have the rotation covered if they are about to trade away a SP for a non SP.
Tweak - When in "dump salary" mode AI GMs were still a little too stingy about getting rid of high-priced vets in trades.
Tweak - When assigning players to the minors prior to the expansion draft (denoting that they are "unprotected") the user will now be able to demote veterans during that time frame. Any veterans not snagged by the expansion teams must be moved back on to the major league roster after the expansion draft.
Tweak - Decreased the likelihood that older players (in a state of steep decline) will be signed to extensions.
Tweak/Optimizations (Test Release 9) - More pretty significant speed improvements to the off season free agent period.
Tweak - AI was still not pinch hitting for pitchers enough. This has been significantly improved and after a fairly detailed analysis I am happy with the frequency now, especially in close and late situations. It will never be 100% because there are cases where the bench or bullpen are exhausted.
Tweak - Reduced AI's affinity for signing aging veterans to multi year contracts, the AI is now a little conservative with older guys.
UI Tweak - Now displaying the current date on the standings page
Tweaks - More tweaks to pinch hitting AI logic, 1) There were still some cases where late in the game a pitcher would bat when his team was behind, this would happen if the bullpen was very tired. The AI is now more agressive, and will make a late inning move to pinch hit for the pitcher regardless of the condition of the pen. 2) AI is less likely to pinch hit for hitters at the top of the order (if they are pure starters -- if they are not every day players but were inserted into the lineup to give someone a rest then the AI may still aggressively pinch hit for them).
Tweak - Improved smoothness of in game ball flight animation
Tweak - Minor tweaks that increase the platoon advantage (Note these tweaks are applied at player-generation time, so in order to see the impact you will probably have to play a number of seasons with an established league, or start a new one)
Optimizations - Lots of little speed improvements here and there...
Tweak - Pinch hitting AI was sometimes a bit too aggressive, especially with 1-5 hitters. This has been toned down a bit.
Tweak - Slight increase on number of foul balls
Tweak - Almanac All Time team records was sorting by total wins, which was useless now that we have expansion, it sorts by Winning Pct now...
Tweaks - Made some little tweaks improving the robustness of the Lahman import code for situations where folks are attempting to edit lahman in order to create custom leagues
Tweak - If the AI has some cash and there are still some decent free agents hanging around at the start of the season, it is very likely that they will be signed within the first few weeks (especially if there are some "rich" teams)
Tweak - More tweaks on financial model. Slight reduction on player salary demands, improved dynamic reduction for cases where a player feels he may not be able to pick up with a team
Tweak - More reductions in the chance that a player can get doubled off first on a flyball when the hit and run is on. It was still happening too much even after the last tweak.
Tweak - When generating fictional players, previously the game generated Veterans and assigned them all with 5 MLYears and also generated non veterans and assigned them 0 MLYears. These numbers now ae variable, meaning there can be non veterans in the initial draft with an initial MLYears in th 0 - 4 range.
Tweak - Enhanced Free Agent AI and off season experience #1: Teams can sign more than the maximum allowable players during the free agent signing period (they may not always do this, but if they have a lot of cash and there are still good players out there, they will likely do this.
Tweak - Enhanced Free Agent AI and off season experience #2: Teams will "wait out" players a little longer in the free agent period, attempting to take advantage of the fact that players will reduce their salary demands if they haven't been signed after each week
Tweak - Enhanced Free Agent AI and off season experience #3: You can now enter sring training with a larger roster than what the maximum available in season roster is. This way you can sign some extra players (maybe some bargain guys) and then amke some tough decisions on who to release based on whether or not some guys really tear up the spring.
Tweak - On the modify roster page when the user hits "Suggestion" and the AI suggests that a player be released, the player name is now hyperlinked so the player card can be opened from the suggestion dialog, making it easier to release a player.
Tweak - After the end of the regular season, but before the start of the next season players who have just finished their contracts will now be listed as "Contract Expired at the end of this season" on their player card (It used to say 1 year remaining)
Tweak - Similar to above. Added new "Contract Expired at the end of this season" section to the team->Contract Status report
Tweak - Modify Roster Page - At the end of the regular season the "Contract" column will be reduced by 1 (for example it will show "0" for players whose contracts just expired at the end of this season)
Tweak - When calculating/displaying a team's available financial resources at the end of the regular season, player's salaries whose contracts have expired as of the end of the year will no longer be included in the total salaries amount.
Tweak - Too many spot starters were being generated with very low endurance ratings (25-30 range)
Fix - There were still some (extremely rare) cases where the AI was demoting a veteran in a situation where this should not have been allowed due to veteran roster rule.
Fix - Award Filter drop down was not visible on the Almanac->Annual Awards screen
Fix - Too many PSPN issues were being archived historically (due to the Milestone stories). Milestone issues are now no longer archived, also games played milestone stories are no longer published in PSPN.
Fix - Closed a loophole. User could sign a free agent to some huge 1yr contract (say for example, offering a 100% increase!) during the FA draft and then when the season started offer him an extension at a much lower demand. The player's extension demands will now reflect the premium he was signed at.
Fix - The code introduced in test 11 that allowed veterans to be demoted during the protecttion phase of the expansion draft was not implemented in the build I uploaded -- it is now :)
Fix - If a pitcher was pinch-hit for and then during the at-bat or on the base path the pinch-hitter is injured. The message appears that the PH needs to be replaced. If either a new pitcher or another position player are put in as the sub the replacement was not appearing in the proper slot on the lineup screen, but: The message that the original injured pinch-hitter needs to be replaced appears again. This left the user stuck in a loop on the lineup screen with no way to exit other than CTL-ALT-DEL.
Fix - If a player had all walks and no official AB's his OBP was reading 000. Once he got a hit his OBP was being displayed correctly.
Fix - OBP in career totals was always slightly higher than the single season total for a player with only 1 season.
Fix - A player traded mid-season to a pennant winner sometimes on his player card under "Post Season History" it was attributing his post season stats as being with the team he was traded from, not the team he was traded to that ultimately made the post season. (Note: this may still be reflected incorrectly for past seasons played prior to test release 12 -- from 12 forward it will always be correct)
Fix - On the team front office page if a team was using 4-man rotations, then where it listed upcoming games the starters were listed as "undecided" vs. "undecided" every 5th day.
Fix - Error 9 when closing the options dialog from the main menu.
Fix - Fixed "Invalid Control Array Index" crash when managing a game as the home team and clicking "Strategy" before any AB's have taken place.
Fix - GMs from AI teams were sometimes going into "dump salary" mode too late (e.g after the trading deadline)
Fix - Fixed rare issue where AI would do 2 defensive substitutions consecutively at the same position during the same at bat
Fix - In some cases, if there were runners on first and 2nd with less than 2 outs and the ball was hit to the 3rd baseman, then the out would be properly recorded (he stepped on 3rd), but the base situation after the play would be reflected as 1st and 3rd instead of 1st and 2nd.
Fix - PSPN, On Dr. Karl's injury report, if a player received a career-ending his estimated time to recovery was still being listed even though he'll never play again.
Fix - In some cases after expansion or schedule import, all teams are listed with 1 run from and 1 run against of the standings page even before they played any games.
Fix - The new "Walk off homers" PSPN story was causing too many unique PSPN issues to be generated. These stories will now appreal in the next regularly scheduled PSPN issue instead of being the catalyst for creating a brand new issue.
Fix - TONS of changes to improve the robustness of the PureSim schedule import code. Additional changes were made to other parts of the game to improve robustness in handling "strange" schedules.
Fix - Hitting streaks were being ended if a player appeared in a game but had no plate appearances.
Fix - Less than 2 outs runners on 2nd and 3rd. If the infield was in and a ground ball was hit to an infielder and he threw out the runner at the plate, the batter who hit the ground ball was not appearing on first.
Fix - While PureSim was correctly marking runs as unearned for a pitcher when an error is made with 2 outs, it was only marking the runners on base at the time of the error as being unearned if they scored, it should have marked ALL runs for the rest of the inning as unearned. Note: if a pitching change is made, then any baserunners that reach base and then score on the new pitcher will be charged as earned.
Fix - When a computer team decides to dump salary the user was continually being notified of this, now the user will only be notified once
Fix - When running unattended auto play for a large number of years (20+) Rosters were becoming extremely unbalanced and a large number of players were reducing their salary demands to $50,500. This was caused by a flaw introduced in test release 7
Fix - Some changes to save logic back in test 7 broke one situation: Relief picthers that come in the game in a non save situation and pitch "effectively" for at least 3 innings should be awarded a save.
Fix - Test Release 7 introduced a bug where if a player hit a walk off homer he was only getting credited for the amt of RBIs that it took to win the game +1. Now, if a guy hits a walk off grand slam he is properly credited with 4 RBIs whereas before he was only getting credited for 2.
Fix - In some cases PureSim was using the formula (AB * 3.1) to use as a minimum qualifier for the batting title and some other stat leaderboards. (Plate Appearances * 3.1) is the appropriate formula
Fix - Fixed some aspects of off season free agent processing that could result in crazy processing times. Typically this was happening when folks were seeding associations with real players, but the association itself was actually larger than the corresponding MLB configuration from the seed year.
Fix - When playing in real player replay mode, for some seasons (for example, 1939) there were just not enough players available, and this would lead to the off season free agent draft getting hung up.
Fix - Fixed some spurious lockups that would occur in the post season free agent period. (Typically this was with real player leagues -- seeded or replay)
Fix - A player becomes a veteran after 5 seasons of ML service, however, the status doesn't change until the end of the season. Therefor it was possible for a human GM to send the player to the minors before the end of the season and have veterans in the minors at the start of the following season. PureSim now notifies the user if this case occurs and forces the veterans to be placed on the major league roster.
Fix - Improper Implementation of Rule 10.18.(c) - Earned Runs. If a 2 out error was made, prolonging the life of any current base runners, if any of those runners scored, they were being charged to the pitcher as earned runs, which was not correct.
Fix - If the defense had the infield in with less than 2 outs and runners at first and third, if there was a ground ball and the defense nailed the runner at home, then the guy that hit the grounder was not showing up as being on first after the play.
Fix - When managing a game, if human manager chose "Guard Lines" their strategy was not reflected in the PBP window.
Fix - Bottom of an inning in extra innings, if a runner was on first and the batter tripled, instead of the game being over, PureSim was just showing the original base runner still on first, and the score still tied.
Fix - When the human player was managing a game, sometimes the computer team would send up multiple pinch hitters for the same batter
Fix - Save Rule 10.20.b was not being properly checked in a situation where a team was up by 4 runs and runners were on 2nd and 3rd, 1st and 3rd or 1st and 2nd. Rule 10.20.b reads: "A Pitcher gets credit for a save if: He enters the game, regardless of the count, with the potential tying run either on base, or at bat, or on deck (that is, the potential tying run is either already on base or is one of the first two batsmen he faces". PureSim was not peoperly looking at the on deck batter in this case in order to determine if a pitcher should get credit for a save.
Fix - Intermitent Error 440 introduced in 1.5 Test release 3, usually encountered when closing a player card that was summoned when the user got a trade offer
Fix - Fixed rare case on PSPN "Who's Hot - Pitchers" story where a pitcher who has not been performing very well is listed as "hot".
Fix - Error 91 when attempting a Hit and run with 1 out, and a runner on 2nd
Fix - In the post season PSPN issue, in the story where the champion is congratulated, PureSim was listing the team's post season record incorrectly (it was displaying the team's all-time record, not the post season record for the year just completed.
Fix - When managing a game the "steal home" option was not working correctly.
Fix - Error 13 on Almanac when opening player card from season leaders, offer extension - cancel.
Fix - PSPN Time Machine Story - Batting stat leaders from past seasons were being listed with the team they currently play for as opposed to the team they were playing for on the year they achieved the stats
Fix - PSPN Time Machine Stories (Batter and Pitcher) - For stats that require a min # of AB's, or Innings Pitched PureSim was assuming the association had a 162 game schedule instead of looking at how many games it was actually configured for.
Fix - Intermittent "No Current Record" on modify roster page that could occur after the user clicked "Suggestion".
Fix - Fixed strange late season roster demotions by first place teams.
Fix - After a league had expanded more than once there were cosmetic errors on the expansion draft report (showing hall of fame players etc...)
Fix - In 2 League, 3 divisions per league associations in the Post Season PSPN issue story that reports the world champion it was incorrectly reporting the world champ's post season record (it was leaving out the first round off the playoffs)
Fix - In fictional leagues, the pre-season PSPN issue was sometimes projecting outrageous batting avgs in the "Hitters to Watch" story
Fix - Fixed error when importing 1993 players from the Lahman database (Only happened if 1993 was the first season in the association)
Fix - In rare cases (more frequent after the initial draft) AI was allowing veterans to be in the minors.
Fix - Sometimes when a player retired after being released from a team that still had contractual obligations to him, he was still showing up "on the books" of the team that released him. Now, when a player retires he forfeits all salary.
Fix - In some cases if a pitcher came into a game and the runners on base were the responsibility of the previous pitcher, if one or more of those runs scored, putting his team behind, he was incorrectly being assigned the loss (the loss should have gone to the guy that was responsible for putting them on)
Fix - PureSim was not properly interpreting rule 10.20(3)(b). If a pitcher came in the game and his team was up by more than 3 runs then PureSim was not calssifying this as a save opportunity. However, if the bases are loaded (and the runners got there via another pitcher), and the pitchers team is up by exactly 4 and the tying run comes to the plate it should in fact be classified as a save situation.
Fix - Some season records that require a minimum number of AB's (Batting Title, OPS etc...) were using Player Appearances when checking the minimum requirement instead of AB's. The chance of this impacting things was extremely rare, but it was possible that a guy could have won the batting title with less than the min number of AB's if he had a ton of BB's
Fix - Fixed extremely rare error 91 that could happen when navigating to a team via the team dropdown from the association home page (If you tried to navigate at the te exact moment that one of the dynamic stats panes was about to update)
Fix - when signing a free agent from a computer-controlled teams modify roster page, the caption was incorrectly showing the human player's team name
Fix - The modify roster page on a computer-owned team was letting the human player sign free agents
Install - No longer forcing uninstall before installing an update.

[HighandOutside]

Looks really, really good. I think I'm finally going take the plunge and purchase Puresim.

[Rich1033]

Looks good Shaun. I will DL the game and give it a try after work.

[stevew]

Unfortunately I'm on my backup computer right now, and I hear this game runs slow on older models(right now i have a p3 550 laptop with 128 megs of ram). Whenever I get a good machine back running, i am really excited about trying it out.

[jbmagic]

how is puresim compare to ootp 6.03?


which is better for peopel that has play both the new puresim 1.5 version and ootp 6.03?

[rjolley]

jbmagic: There's a current thread about that.

Here's the link: http://dynamic2.gamespy.com/~fof/forums/showthread.php?t=29468

[Ben E Lou]

A few impressions...

SIM SPEED (I just went ahead and put this first because it is what a lot of people want to know about this game.)
Things are markedly improved. I left it running overnight on my laptop (P4, 2.4, 512MB), and it went from 7/16/2012 at 8:51pm, to 7/16/2013 at 7:07am, or 11 seasons in 10 hours and 16 minutes. This was with 16 teams, 2 league, 2 divisions per league. This will definitely bring it into acceptable time ranges for simming one week at a time, which is what I think I'll tend to want to do in order to read the PSPN.COM stuff, which is *excellent*. It will never be as fast as OOTP, because it sims pitch-by-pitch rather than batter-by-batter, but at least now it is playable for me.

INTERFACE
The interface is just vastly superior to OOTP's, with lots of hyperlink and right-click options. For example, I'm looking at my pitching rotation screen right now. I've got a starter who is 1-8, with a 6.35 ERA. On the same screen is the minor league rotation. I can see that Phillip Williams is 12-1, 2.91 in the AAA. I right-click on Williams, and I'm given a pop-up menu with 12 different options:


Open Player Card

Player Usage Settings (playing time, platoon/sub, pitcher usage, option to ignore all trade offers for him, etc.)

Demote Player (greyed out, cause he's in the minors)

Promote Player

Release Player

Shop Player

Game Log (shows his game-by-game performances for current season)

Season Graph (line graph of his ERA throughout the season)

Defense Chart (graphic representation of baseball field and how he plays each position)

Ratings History (drool)

Stats History (line graph of major or minor league stats..era/w/l/bb/k)


Looking at this menu, I can quickly right-click on his ratings history, and see that his stuff jumped from the low 60's to the high 60's from last year to this year, but that his control, velocity and endurance haven't improved much over last year, and that he still has mid-60's potential. I can quickly make a decision from there. If I decide to promote him, I just right-click again, select the "promote" option and he's in the bigs, then right-click on the other guy, and demote him--all from one screen. Gotta love those right-click options. I wonder who it was that has been whining for this in all text sims for a while. ;)

STATS/RATINGS TRACKING
The level of tracking of stats, ratings, awards, etc. in this game rival CatoBase. Year-to-year ratings are tracked and graphed from within the game. On the Career Records and Single Season Records screens in the Almanac, there's a quick drop-down menu to see the leaders on any team. Sweet! The ratings charts are just WONDERFUL for looking at player development over time. For hitters, you get a bar graph of six different ratings (CON/PWR/EYE/HANDS/RNG/POTENTIAL) over his entire career. For pitchers, you get the same graph of STUFF/CNTRL/VEL/END/POT. Nice!!!

AI
I haven't looked hard at the AI yet, but the framework is definitely there for AI teams to take a step forward from what we're used to in OOTP and FOF. It is *GREAT* to see that teams can have "dispositions." Just looking through the teams in my league right now, the following different dispositions are out there...

-Not actively looking for deals.
-Aggressively looking to make some major improvements.
-Looking to make some minor improvements.
-Looking to get younger

At times, you get a popup saying, "Salt Lake City's GM has decided to dump salary and is open to deals that will offload veterans for prospects." :)

Of note: There are two teams in my league "looking to get younger." One of them is 26-74 at the moment, with two SP's 35 and older. The other is 45-55, 13 games out of first (in mid-July), with 5 everyday players age 32 and up. The "disposition" AI passes the first-glance test. :)

THINGS THAT NEED IMPROVEMENT
1. Only one level of minors.
2. #5 slot getting 32 starts per season.
3. There appear to be some pitcher usage issues. Looking at career records, after less than 20 seasons, there are 10 pitchers who started 42-49 games in a season, and 11 pitchers who appeared in 138-153 games in a season. Also, there are too many 50+ save pitchers. There have been 13 in my league so far. However, all other single-season records look pretty good.

OTHER THINGS OF NOTE
The game does a little better job than OOTP of tracking player history on the card. It is broken up into three sections (Notable Achievements, Milestones, History), rather than just one.

PSPN.COM, the games "newspaper" function, blows everything else I've seen away in other games. There are beginning-of-year power ratings, random "time machine" stats from time-to-time (you might see who the Top 10 HR hitters were 5 years ago, and their player cards are clickable), notable hitting streaks, injury reports, stories on walk-off homers, hot batters, hot pitchers, cold batters, cold pitchers, sabermetrics, "most-feared hitters" list at the beginning of the season--with projected averages and HR's, hottest prospects, best offensive showings of the past week, transaction tracker, and more. This is looking like a very immersive feature. As I said in my comments on sim speed, PSPN.COM is good enough to make me want to sim a week at a time, rather than the month at a time I'm used to in OOTP.

I haven't tried it out yet, but it appears that there is an option in-game expansion, a la FOF2K1, complete with an expansion draft, etc.

OVERALL THOUGHTS SO FAR
This game has a chance to surpass OOTP as far in solo fictional league play. If a few stats anomolies can be taken care of, and the AI is solid, this is a definite winner. I'd STRONGLY recommend at least trying the 7-day demo.

[Ben E Lou]

Bump. Un-stick.

[Ben E Lou]

Dola:

Archiving in reference thread.

[Philliesfan980]

OVERALL THOUGHTS SO FAR
This game has a chance to surpass OOTP as far in solo fictional league play. If a few stats anomolies can be taken care of, and the AI is solid, this is a definite winner. I'd STRONGLY recommend at least trying the 7-day demo.


You say that it performs well in a solo fictional league, but what about a historical solo league? I already own OOTP6 and am semi-satisfied with the single player historical mode. I know that most of your dynasties are fictional, but does PureSim handle historical players with relative accuracy?

[Ben E Lou]

Version 1.5: http://dynamic2.gamespy.com/%7Efof/forums/showthread.php?t=31247

[Galaril]

I love this game been playing throughout it's incarnations and have immensely enjoyed myself.Shaun has done a greta job lsitening to EVERY suggestion made on his boards and very timely.I have bought both last years and this years OOTP releases and theyare definitely game(s) but I am strictly looking to play solo play and I found it to be a little too dry for my tastes.Puresim got alot of intangibles and a greta presentation.Solo players: It could be some of the best fun you will have. Legally that is. I would highly recommend this game.

[HighandOutside]

Galaril,

I just bought the game last night. Based on first impressions, I can definitely see how this could be a great solo-gamer experience. My only problem is that I am pretty deep into my OOTP fictional league. I know all the players and I am building up a history. It will take some time to get immersed into a new league, but it looks like it may be worth the effort.

[Ben E Lou]

Threads merged. (Original Puresim Thread and 1.5 Thread.)

[Ksyrup]

I still haven't bought this yet. And I know it sounds ridiculous, but reading something like this just turns me off of the game completely:

"There appear to be some pitcher usage issues. Looking at career records, after less than 20 seasons, there are 10 pitchers who started 42-49 games in a season, and 11 pitchers who appeared in 138-153 games in a season. Also, there are too many 50+ save pitchers. There have been 13 in my league so far. However, all other single-season records look pretty good."


No matter how great the game may be, seeing those kinds of stats would absolutely ruin the game for me. If that can get fixed and the trading AI tweaked, I may take the plunge.

[jbmagic]

everybody says puresim is great for solo fictional league

what wrong with puresim for historical and real MLB roster compare to ootp?

[sabotai]

everybody says puresim is great for solo fictional league

what wrong with puresim for historical and real MLB roster compare to ootp?

Well, from my prior dealings with PureSim compared to OOTP in historic replay, the major problem was no expansion. I haven't messed with it, but it appears that there is expansion AND importing schedules. There would also be problems with imported players. Ratings and stats were kind of "out of whack".

I think the last time I tried the historic replay with Puresim was the 2003 version. It looks like Shaun has improved it A LOT and I'll be taking a look at that soon as well.

[Galaril]

I have been playing 2003 replay (playing each game out managing the games myself not simming) and am now in the year 2008 using the Lahman MLB players database. The stats have been with alittle very minor tweaking of Starting pitchers and relief pitchers(actually the Managers ai hook ability) and the stats are very believable. If you want an exact copy of major league baseball I would say OOTP 6 or even better watch the real MLB games. But, without sounding fan boyish I must once agiain reiterate how great and fun a game this is for historical and fictional solo leagues. :)

[lynchjm24]

I still haven't bought this yet. And I know it sounds ridiculous, but reading something like this just turns me off of the game completely:

"There appear to be some pitcher usage issues. Looking at career records, after less than 20 seasons, there are 10 pitchers who started 42-49 games in a season, and 11 pitchers who appeared in 138-153 games in a season. Also, there are too many 50+ save pitchers. There have been 13 in my league so far. However, all other single-season records look pretty good."


No matter how great the game may be, seeing those kinds of stats would absolutely ruin the game for me. If that can get fixed and the trading AI tweaked, I may take the plunge.

I've never seen anything near that bad. If you were seeing that, some simple XML tweaks would fix those problems, the pitchers are just recovering too quickly, which takes about 2 seconds to fix.

I can tell you that 1.5 out of the box has no issues like this at all for me.

[lynchjm24]

Well, from my prior dealings with PureSim compared to OOTP in historic replay, the major problem was no expansion. I haven't messed with it, but it appears that there is expansion AND importing schedules. There would also be problems with imported players. Ratings and stats were kind of "out of whack".

I think the last time I tried the historic replay with Puresim was the 2003 version. It looks like Shaun has improved it A LOT and I'll be taking a look at that soon as well.

Puresim will expand on it's own. You can't decide when and how it expands. I actually dislike the expansion greatly, because I've got a slow computer and play small 8 team leagues to overcome that fact.

[MizzouRah]

Let us "in" on the tweak to fix the quick hook pitching problem.


Thanks,

Todd

[Swaggs]

Puresim will expand on it's own. You can't decide when and how it expands. I actually dislike the expansion greatly, because I've got a slow computer and play small 8 team leagues to overcome that fact.

Don't say things like this. I don't need to buy anymore games. :)

[Shaun Sullivan]

Puresim will expand on it's own. You can't decide when and how it expands. I actually dislike the expansion greatly, because I've got a slow computer and play small 8 team leagues to overcome that fact.

Just to be clear I'd like to point out that expansion is an optional setting that you can toggle when an association is created. If you turn it on then yes, it will happen dynamically (though not unrealistically often).

When the league decides to expand you are notified and given an opportunity to "protect" players on your roster before the expansion draft takes place. There is also a rule enforced where the expansion teams may select no more than 5 players from a given team's roster during the expansion draft.

Shaun
PureSim Baseball

[Shaun Sullivan]

I still haven't bought this yet. And I know it sounds ridiculous, but reading something like this just turns me off of the game completely:

"There appear to be some pitcher usage issues. Looking at career records, after less than 20 seasons, there are 10 pitchers who started 42-49 games in a season, and 11 pitchers who appeared in 138-153 games in a season. Also, there are too many 50+ save pitchers. There have been 13 in my league so far. However, all other single-season records look pretty good."


No matter how great the game may be, seeing those kinds of stats would absolutely ruin the game for me. If that can get fixed and the trading AI tweaked, I may take the plunge.

Seriously I have not seen this, nor has it been reported in the past. Of course I'll go back and look again, but this sure sounds anomalous. I suggest you download the demo and give it a shot.

- Shaun
Shaun

[Galaril]

Let us "in" on the tweak to fix the quick hook pitching problem.


Thanks,

Todd


I change the SP hook to 0 or +1 and the reliever hook to -1 this has given me very realistic stats for the the 35 man roster replays

[MizzouRah]

I change the SP hook to 0 or +1 and the reliever hook to -1 this has given me very realistic stats for the the 35 man roster replays

Thanks!


Todd

[Ksyrup]

Seriously I have not seen this, nor has it been reported in the past. Of course I'll go back and look again, but this sure sounds anomalous. I suggest you download the demo and give it a shot.

- Shaun
Shaun
I haven't "seen" it either, just what SD reported.

I'll probably give the game a try at some point, seeing as though baseball is my favorite sport and I haven't been too anxious to play the current version of OOTP, for whatever reason.

[Ben E Lou]

I haven't "seen" it either, just what SD reported.I'll try it again, but it sure happened to me, and I didn't change any settings whatsoever. Shaun, any thoughts?

[Eaglesfan27]

I decided to give PureSim a try earlier today. Unfortunately, I'm having problems playing it on my laptop because the "select player" button in the draft is obscured by the round data. Any suggestions on how to fix this?

Also the text in many windows is having problems lining up correctly. I've tried all different resolutions from 1024 by 768 to 1920 by 1200 (my laptops "preferred" resolution mode.)