Here we go boyz, it's OOTP 5 Time! (First OOTP5 Impressions)

[SirFozzie]

Downloading the game from 400's FTP server.. WOOHOOO!

I love cable.

Here's the information to access it: 400 Software Studios has created a dedicated server for fast FTP access to game setup files. Here is how to download the Out of the Park Baseball 5.0 application setup package via FTP. Note that some of the verbage below may differ based on your operating system. Please click next/continue, etc., after each step below.

1. Open Windows Explorer

2. Click Add Network Place

3. Select the option to specify the address of a web site, network location, or FTP site.

4. When prompted for an address, enter the following as shown below:

ftp://209.235.192.175/

5. When prompted for User Name and Password, select the Log on Anonymously option.

6. Next, enter a description for the new Network Place you've just created. Anything will do.

7. Open the FTP site and browse to the OOTP folder. The version 5 application setup package is ootp5setup.exe.

[McSweeny]

i'm downloading it the old fashion way and it's working nicely... try the european mirror i'm gettin 133k/sec off it

[hunt_nd]

Thank you very much for the information.

-Spielman

[SirFozzie]

Make sure you're getting the full file, I think Markus was in the process of uploading it a few minutes ago when I grabbed it ;)

[hunt_nd]

Dude... FTP _is_ the old fashioned way.

:)

-Spielman

[Joe Stallings]

BTW, if you have Yahoo Messenger, we are having a running voice chat at Recreation & Sports -- Baseball -- User Rooms

[CamEdwards]

two more hours before I go home to download the game... I hope someone's responded to my email before then. :)

[Joe Stallings]

Cam you dog.

[edm]

thanks for the ftp info. I used a download manager and was able to grab it a 80 KB/sec, and I just finished installing it!

Play Ball! :D

[Anrhydeddu]

Not even wanting to go over to .400 right now (too many Shorty types), what's the crash issue?

[KWhit]

Their servers got bombarded. Everything's fine now.

[Anrhydeddu]

Which is one of the reasons I purposely will hold off downloading until next week. Patience does have its rewards sometimes. :)

[CamEdwards]

Originally posted by Joe Stallings
Cam you dog.

LOL... hey, if you're not going to send me a ticket to Atlanta... :D

By the way, I'd love to join the chat, but the darn firewall at work is preventing me from doing so.

[KWhit]

Originally posted by Anrhydeddu
Which is one of the reasons I purposely will hold off downloading until next week. Patience does have its rewards sometimes. :)

Of course, I'm already playing the game and you're not.

:D

[Marmel]

How much is this thing?

[SirFozzie]

I can just see Joe and Markus's hosting company's eyes go wide..

"You need HOW many terabytes of bandwidth??"

"This is going to cost you, you know!"

[SirFozzie]

Installing now.. and will be starting a fictional league to check it out ;)

[Tarkus]

8%

Tarkus

[Tarkus]

9%

Wow! Here's a chance for a quick 93 posts! :D

Tarkus

[SirFozzie]

:P Dialup Much?


Started a 2003 Career League, with a Fantasy draft, and Manager Mode on :)

waiting for it to crunch the numbers, let's see how it handles the draft.

[Marmel]

What is this manager mode?

[SirFozzie]

Manager Mode

Your manager can be Great Hitting, Great Pitching or Balanced, and they have a special skill: Negotiation Skills, Handling Youngsters, Handling Veterans, Team Chemistry,

I chose: Great Hitting and Negotiations, and signed a 1 year, 400,000 dollar contract to manage, my beloved Red Sox.. talk about pressure from the get go ;)

[SirFozzie]

One bad thing.. selecting scouts/coaches, when I right clicked on one to offer him a position only to be told he didn't like my organization, when I went back to the list, it was back unsorted, so I had to click on the skill again to sort them..

Come on Markus, it's not like we haven't been asking for it for YEARS now ;)

Minor thing, but one that bugs me :)

[SirFozzie]

Manager mode puts you as the manager/GM of a team (for example in this case, I have a 1 year deal to manage the Boston Red Sox, I have to meet their goals, or I'll find myself looking for a job very quickly)

Apparently there's some life stuff in there as well, your manager can get married, have kids (which apparently turn into future players), all that. It's fluff, but entertaining fluff.

The Manager mode is perfect for dynasty writers however! :)

[McSweeny]

couple of quick first impressions:

Interface:

Very nice so far. Granted i've just been playing around with my roster, setting up depth chrats, etc etc, but I like what I see. Very crisp.

The Star rating for each player is a nice way to get a quick over view. I think i like it. It'll take a little while though.

I see there is an option for Gold Glove, very cool if it's used properly

Depth Charts, lineups, pitching staff roles, minor leagues stuff and the basic roster screen are pretty much the same as last years version.

Already I'm begining to love how each player is hyperlinked in the reports. This is going to make it a much more enjoyable experience

Coaches and Scouts appear to be the same so far, we'll see if there have been any changes made there as i play

Logos and ballpark files from OOTP4 work with 5 which is nice. I just went back and grabbed a bunch of old logos and custom ballparks and dropped them in and away i go. very nice

That is all for now. I'll be back with more thoughts later. Finances, player development, computer AI, realistic stats, and overall challange are some of the long term changes i'll be looking forward too

[McSweeny]

few more quick things

fired up manager mode and i have an owner who demands immediate results and i'm expected to win it all in my first year. talk about expectations!

anyway, playing out my first game. Sound! The crack of the bat and groan of the crowd. very low key, very cool

back to the game

[McSweeny]

the sim speed seems to be much slower this time around. Not biggie, just an observation

i was browsing the transaction report after the first month of the season. Several vets were released because they refused demotion to the minors!! excellent!

[CamEdwards]

Joe, you are indeed, The Man.

[Anrhydeddu]

I have a 1 year deal to manage the Boston Red Sox, I have to meet their goals, or I'll find myself looking for a job very quickly

Imagine that. I recall someone asking for the exact same thing in a certain football game. :)

[Anrhydeddu]

Originally posted by McSweeny
i was browsing the transaction report after the first month of the season. Several vets were released because they refused demotion to the minors!! excellent!

Very nice.

[Ksyrup]

Would like to hear what the BB/K numbers look like for superstar pitchers (or just those who perform well in any given year), and ditto for superstar hitters (or guys with high batting averages in general). That's one of the things I'll be looking at when I finally get home tonight and strt playing.

I think this will be more of an issue for computer-generated players than those that come with the game. I hope I don't hear that X pitcher went 23-5, 1.55, but with 95 BBs and 65 Ks. Or that X hitter went .357, 45, 128, with 28 BBs and 164 Ks.

[HornsManiac]

I thought we had decided to let SkyDog start this thread? Someone else seems to be hungry for attention today and stole his thunder.

It is just not the same unless he does it. I can't post in this thread anymore, I just can't bring myself to do it. :(

HornsManiac

[Anrhydeddu]

HM must have said something. ;)

[Tarkus]

Originally posted by SirFozzie
One bad thing.. selecting scouts/coaches, when I right clicked on one to offer him a position only to be told he didn't like my organization, when I went back to the list, it was back unsorted, so I had to click on the skill again to sort them..

Come on Markus, it's not like we haven't been asking for it for YEARS now ;)

Minor thing, but one that bugs me :)
I've never had that problem since all good coaches always love my organization. :D

Tarkus

[Ksyrup]

That is annoying and should be fixed.

[Schmidty]

My first impression? The Wood Maple skin looks great!!!

[vtbub]

I'm very happy.

Sounds are good, love being able to see the out of town lineups.

Playoffs are customizable.

Manager mode seems very appealing.

[TroyF]

Ksyrup,

Just finished a season with fictional players and a 24 team league.

Hitters:

League leader in BB had 127 along with 136K.
League leader in OBP and BA had 106BB and 68K

Pitchers:
League leader in ERA and K's had 380K's (yikes) and 73BB.

Only one other pitcher had 300+K's, everyone behind the second guy had 248 or fewer K's. The best BB/K ration was 26/155.

TroyF

[McSweeny]

G GS W L SV ERA IP HA R ER BB K
32 32 21 3 0 3.51 235.2 241 103 92 53 140

cy young winner in the AL my first year

[McSweeny]

dola

that's 53 walks and 140 strikeouts

[Ksyrup]

Woo-hoo! Thanks guys.

How do the stealing and speed ratings look? I know a guy can be a good base stealer but slow, and vice versa, but do you see less A/E and E/A types around?

[McSweeny]

i haven't seen any A/E E/A types, but i haven't looked that far. Things like stealing, bunting, and hook can be set for each individual player which is awesome by the way

[Ksyrup]

Yes, that is cool. I know Marcus said that the individual manager tendenceies will be set by the AI, I wonder if the AI will also set individual player tendencies as well? That would be very cool. A feature like that is really not worth much to the human if only the human can take advantage of it - which is why I either never bothered setting the manager tendencies before, or had to do it for every team, which was a pain and not worth it.

BTW, how does Spring Training look? What's different about it?

[McSweeny]

doing all the off-season stuff right now. Free Agents appear to be done the same this time around. I haven't looked in depth at all yet because I have no money available to me. So finances look good early(fingers crossed).

the ammy draft seems to have a wider curve of talent. A few superstars, lots of average guys, and a bunch of scrubs. There are plenty of guys available in rounds 2-4 who have some potential. A/A/A and A/F/G types. Even some A/F/F and F/F/A tyep guys around late. I'm curious to see how the development curves have been fixed. Note: I just noticed my draft was on 10 rounds. That could be why the talent pool was deeper.

Not much new in the way of spring training. Every thing appears to be the same there.

that is all for now... i'm taking a break before i run it through it's paces in a smaller fictional league

[Maple Leafs]

There's some concern on the OOTP boards about players "hitting the wall" in their early-30's (like they do in v4 in their late-30s), as well as huge talent swings (Brilliant to Fair in one sim, etc). Anyone seeing that?

Also, how are the cpu/cpu trades? Realistic? Any of last year's problems in that area resurfacing?

[Anrhydeddu]

One of the things I most anticipated is a more robust trade interface. Have they done anything beyond what they included in 4.2 (counter-offer)? And with counter-offers, are you seeing more of them or better ones?

[Ksyrup]

Yes, I saw the same thread (started by TRO and Subby) about player talent ratings severely dropping by their early-to-mid 30's. It sounds like this was an issue that was caught in beta, but either has come back or is a fluke. If it is an issue, at least it's one that is known and should be taken care of pretty quickly.

[Ksyrup]

Dola.

FYI, here's the link to that thread:


http://www.400softwarestudios.com/board/showthread.php?s=&threadid=25629&perpage=15&pagenumber=2

[Neuqua]

Originally posted by Maple Leafs
Also, how are the cpu/cpu trades? Realistic? Any of last year's problems in that area resurfacing?

Hmm, running a "test" league and STL just traded SP Matt Morris (7/7/6, G/G/G) and a prospect SP (G/G/G) for a backup C Ramon Castro (F/A/G).

Anyone else catch anything?

Neuqua

[Maple Leafs]

Originally posted by Neuqua
Anyone else catch anything?
Have they fixed that annoying bug where the Cubs always win the World Series in online leagues?

[Hammer755]

Originally posted by Neuqua
Hmm, running a "test" league and STL just traded SP Matt Morris (7/7/6, G/G/G) and a prospect SP (G/G/G) for a backup C Ramon Castro (F/A/G).


Must be the John Schuerholz GM Simulator.

[Ksyrup]

Originally posted by Neuqua
Hmm, running a "test" league and STL just traded SP Matt Morris (7/7/6, G/G/G) and a prospect SP (G/G/G) for a backup C Ramon Castro (F/A/G).

Anyone else catch anything?

Neuqua

Sounds like a financial dump, maybe?

I'll tell you, Marcus should send a big basket of fruit to Sheurholz making the Millwood deal. Sounds an awful lot like your scenario, doesn't it?

[Ksyrup]

Ha! Thinking along the same lines!

[AgPete]

Can anyone who has it summarize what new features are worth playing from OOTP4 to OOTP5? OOTP is a great sports sim but I was a little disappointed from 3 to 4 because it felt too similar. I'm that way with any computer game though, I usually only enjoy sequels if they're complete overhauls of the first one. I find myself getting bored with them if they're the same engine with new info, maps, etc.

[Hammer755]

Originally posted by Ksyrup
Ha! Thinking along the same lines!

Yes, that deal made the 0.400 crew's lives much easier. Anytime someone complains about the trade AI, they can say, 'It happens, look at the Kevin Millwood for backup catcher trade.'

:)

[korme]

Originally posted by Anrhydeddu
Not even wanting to go over to .400 right now (too many Shorty types), what's the crash issue?

Guilty!

I'm installing now!

[EagleFan]

Just what was wrong with the Millwood deal? :D

[primelord]

Originally posted by EagleFan
Just what was wrong with the Millwood deal? :D

The fact that he didn't go to the Cardinals.

[daedalus]

Originally posted by Anrhydeddu
HM must have said something. ;)[/B]

Heh. I heart working software.

Originally posted by Ksyrup
Yes, that is cool. I know Marcus said that the individual manager tendenceies will be set by the AI, I wonder if the AI will also set individual player tendencies as well? That would be very cool. A feature like that is really not worth much to the human if only the human can take advantage of it - which is why I either never bothered setting the manager tendencies before, or had to do it for every team, which was a pain and not worth it.

IF that is what is happening, it may explain the supposed slower simming time in this version. And IF that is, in fact, what is happening, I would gladly accept the slower simming time. [Er, to a certain extent. Yeah.]

[JeeberD]

OK, I just downloaded the game and am about to start playing for the first time. I have a couple of questions though.

First, where can I download current rosters from?

Second, where I can I get the files to run a historical league?

Umm, I think that's all for now. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[McSweeny]

go back to the OOTP boards you newbie!! :p

[INDalltheway]

I really need some rosters too. Anyone point me in the right direction?

[Neuqua]

Hmm, in the 2nd round of the Amateur draft, I (Cubs) just selected SP D. Bridges (B/B/G).. Umm, quite the catch for the 2nd round.. I have the 4th overall pick..

Neuqua

[INDalltheway]

What is the best way to sign your free agents? I don't see a box at the bottom of the Roster screen. Just wondering how you guys do it. Thanks

[McSweeny]

there's a thread for rosters over at the OOTP boards, as for re-signing guys you can see them from you front office screen i believe

[Raven]

Some guys are already generated with nicknames. Here are some samples

Stretch, Cosmos, The Comet, Chappy, Train, Night Train, Big Train, Steady, Juggie, Fritz??, The Big Cat, Dr. Deliver, Dr. Excitement, Dr. Evil, Coach, The General, Bulldog, Big-O, Big-D, Bump, The Whammer, The Natural, Crash, Spike, Smash, The Fireball, The Snake, Viper, Goose, Tiger, Mr. Magnificent, King Fish, Big Hurt, Mr. Miracle, The Kid, Happy, Shooter, The Rocket,Cowboy, Shotgun, Pistol, Firecracker, The Machine, The Turtle, Space, Galaxy, The Web, Punchy, The Tank, Ghost, Buffalo, Graveyard, Bones, Dizzy, Dazzy, The Steamboat, Flash, Champ, Dynamite, Booker, Pop, The king, Big Louie, The Hammer, Maverick, Merlin, The Dragon, Thunder, Ace, Blackjack, The Spade

[primelord]

Fritz's powers know no bounds

[SirFozzie]

I like the "Simulate X Years" button. Don't know how much I'd USE it, but great for taking a league at the start and simming five-six years, to get all the aging stars and the 30 year olds will likely be ready to retire at that point

[Ksyrup]

I've read that the slower sim speed is due to the increase in stats - namely, the career minor league stats and playoff stats. You want something, you've got to give up something.

[Qwikshot]

Originally posted by primelord
The fact that he didn't go to the Cardinals.

Bah...Millwood is a rent a player, he'll never resign with Philly, and the same goes if he had went to the Cards...I heavily dislike the Cards for the reason of one J.D. Drew, here's hoping he busts like he's done every year...and I do wish Rolen the best, but I'm figuring that if Bowa didn't coach, he'd been crawling back to Philly as of now, just like Schilling is...but hey, it's spring training, every team can hope to be a winner right now...we gotta wait till September to know what the right moves really were...

[NoMyths]

Originally posted by Raven
Some guys are already generated with nicknames. Here are some samples

Stretch, Cosmos, The Comet, Chappy, Train, Night Train, Big Train, Steady, Juggie, Fritz??, The Big Cat, Dr. Deliver, Dr. Excitement, Dr. Evil, Coach, The General, Bulldog, Big-O, Big-D, Bump, The Whammer, The Natural, Crash, Spike, Smash, The Fireball, The Snake, Viper, Goose, Tiger, Mr. Magnificent, King Fish, Big Hurt, Mr. Miracle, The Kid, Happy, Shooter, The Rocket,Cowboy, Shotgun, Pistol, Firecracker, The Machine, The Turtle, Space, Galaxy, The Web, Punchy, The Tank, Ghost, Buffalo, Graveyard, Bones, Dizzy, Dazzy, The Steamboat, Flash, Champ, Dynamite, Booker, Pop, The king, Big Louie, The Hammer, Maverick, Merlin, The Dragon, Thunder, Ace, Blackjack, The Spade
The SPADE?!?

[primelord]

Well I don't really think J.D. has been a bust. He had a very good 2001 season that was shortened by a broken hand. And last year he was playing hurt the entire season.

[CamEdwards]

Perosnally, I like "Punchy". Too bad there's not a "Banky" and a "Silent Bob" nickname in there.

[FBPro]

You can edit "nicknames.dat" file with a test editor (it's found in the data folder) to add your own nicknames.

[Blackadar]

So far, any really in-depth impressions, especially as compared to OOTP 4?

[Qwikshot]

Originally posted by primelord
Well I don't really think J.D. has been a bust. He had a very good 2001 season that was shortened by a broken hand. And last year he was playing hurt the entire season.

He's been hurt since he started, he hasn't played a full season yet...he's shown promise but I don't think he'll pan out...

[Ksyrup]

So far, I'm impressed. Just finished simming the first year, and the numbers look very realistic. Nearly all of the top 15 hitters had good, if not great, BB/K ratios, and the pitchers at the top had solid, if not spectacular, BB/K ratios. I took a look at the guys with the highest and lowest BB/9 IP and K/9 IP ratios, and with an exception here and there, it appears that performance correlated to BB/K ratio.

The one area I saw the most exceptions was for pitchers with good BB/K ratios who somehow ended up with high H/IP ratios and ERAs. But even then, I only saw maybe 2-3 of these guys out of 15-20, which can happen in any given year. However, each of these guy's scouting report was very similar, in that the scout thought much less of them than their BB/K ratio would suggest - usually it's just the opposite (read a Gammons article!). It was as if the scout could see past the good ratios and knew that the pitcher would suck anyway, which his numbers demonstrated.

I like the skins - the wood maple takes me back to Tony LaRussa 3!

I'm going to let it sim all night and look for the "32-year olds hitting the wall" issues that Subby and TRO reported over at the .400 board.

[MizzouRah]

He's been hurt since he started, he hasn't played a full season yet...he's shown promise but I don't think he'll pan out...

This is a big year for him, it's time to put up or shut up.


Todd

[Ksyrup]

Some other random comments:

Since I'm not playing in-depth, I can't comment on trading, drafting, etc. There is a report over at .400 that in certain instances, you can't see the comments of the team you are trading with. It appears to be a color issue (black words on black background). Not sure if that has happened to anyone over here.

I really like the player links everywhere. I went into the news items and wanted to see the card of the player the story was about, and I was disappointed that I couldn't click on his name - then I saw a link to his name at the bottom of the screen! Very cool.

The league reports are great. Power rankings, complete with Pythagorean Standings (Rob Neyer would approve!), top minor league system rankings, a list of the outstanding performces throughout the year. The HTML output pages are very nice looking.

The manager mode sounds great and I thinnk it will add a degree of difficulty for those looking for that. You get an owner type, so it's possible that you could get stuck with a Steinbrenner type owner and have to win or else.

OK, I'm off to sim now!

[Ksyrup]

All right, I think the Almanac may be the coolest thing I've seen in a sports text sim.

Not only can you look at the general history and see the same award winners (gold glove winners added), standings, playoffs, top 5 league leaders listing, etc., bu there is also a separate listing for champions and awards, which is great, because now you can see a listing of just one item instead of having scroll through everything from each year to see who did what.

But the amazing thing is the yearly almanac. Fifty years later, you can pull up the standing, stats, league leaders, etc., for any year in the past. Totally amazing. Talk about getting immersed in a league. Now I can sim a bunch of years and then go back and re-live each season even though I didn't watch a single game. This alone is worth the upgrade from OOTP4, frankly.

[Raven]

KSyrup, looks like the batters BB:K ratio issues haven't been addressed.

I set up a 20 team league, and simmed 4 seasons. The top 15 guys in career average almost all have 1:1 (or 1:1+) BB:K ratios.


# Name AVG BB K
1 T. Pier* .358 440 330
2 R. Gaeta* .342 348 345
3 R. Baver* .320 261 376
4 M. Blose* .316 342 335
5 S. Cassidy* .313 274 268
6 H. Jakuchu* .312 171 192
7 T. Castilla* .311 247 241
8 A. Fluker* .310 279 364
9 K. Rolland* .307 356 363
10 G. Quintana* .304 130 287


Also did a small sample of the walk leaders and they are pretty much the same.


# Name BB K
1 D. Frisina* 450 497
2 T. Pier* 440 330
3 B. Belmonte* 362 379
4 G. Martinez* 358 418
4 S. Rivera* 358 494
6 K. Rolland* 356 363
7 R. Gaeta* 348 345
8 J. Hollander* 346 347

[SirFozzie]

Easy way to see who's contract is coming up..

Go to salary info and sort by years..

Nice thing is that it'll tell you who'll be a free agent, and who's eligible for arbitration

[Ksyrup]

Originally posted by Raven
KSyrup, looks like the batters BB:K ratio issues haven't been addressed.

I set up a 20 team league, and simmed 4 seasons. The top 15 guys in career average almost all have 1:1 (or 1:1+) BB:K ratios.


# Name AVG BB K
1 T. Pier* .358 440 330
2 R. Gaeta* .342 348 345
3 R. Baver* .320 261 376
4 M. Blose* .316 342 335
5 S. Cassidy* .313 274 268
6 H. Jakuchu* .312 171 192
7 T. Castilla* .311 247 241
8 A. Fluker* .310 279 364
9 K. Rolland* .307 356 363
10 G. Quintana* .304 130 287


Also did a small sample of the walk leaders and they are pretty much the same.


# Name BB K
1 D. Frisina* 450 497
2 T. Pier* 440 330
3 B. Belmonte* 362 379
4 G. Martinez* 358 418
4 S. Rivera* 358 494
6 K. Rolland* 356 363
7 R. Gaeta* 348 345
8 J. Hollander* 346 347


That's a helluva lot better than it used to be though. Sure, there needs to be a few guys who don't strike out a lot added into the mix, but I don't see any 30 BB/120 K great hitters anymore. I can live with those numbers.

[Fritz]

Originally posted by primelord
Fritz's powers know no bounds

First he's a candy, then he's a gum!

[Ksyrup]

BTW, I've got it on auto-sim for several years, and I'm averaging about 30 minutes to sim a season and playoffs, proceed to next season, hire coaches/scouts, go through free agency, and run the amateur draft. Not bad.

[Raven]

Looks like the drafts are a little too pitcher friendly - seeing lots of brilliants. Or maybe that was just one instance. Anyone else?

[Raven]

Looks like the computer AI sets individual steal and bunt tendencies for faster players, but they never lower them below the midpoint. So guys with E/E speed won't be set to never run.

I've also never seen them use the "never PH for this player".

[daedalus]

Originally posted by Ksyrup
I've read that the slower sim speed is due to the increase in stats - namely, the career minor league stats and playoff stats. You want something, you've got to give up something.

If that's the case, it's definitely a worthwhile tradeoff.

How much slower is "slower" in this case?

[Godzilla Blitz]

Did they fix the "English" in the game?

[KWhit]

Originally posted by Godzilla Blitz
Did they fix the "English" in the game?

Not all of it. I caught a couple of misspelled words (did I even spell "misspelled" correctly?) and some interesting grammar.

[INDalltheway]

I will add one thing at this time. I think the interface is very appealing, but is kind of hard to navigate. I believe though once I "catch on" to it, it will be so much easier to navigate. I am liking this game a lot. The Cubs start off with a horrible roster though. :)

[Dargone]

I'm enjoying the game so far. There are a couple of issues with player deveopment that need to be looked at. First, some players take multiple ratings hits in one day and second, players appear to be aging to quickly. Both of these issues have been reported at the main boards. I'm sure they will be fixed shortly.

[MizzouRah]

The interface looks much better, imo. Like most, it will take awhile to get used to, but it looks appealing (neat and clean).

The game itself has a BIG immersion factor for me. Information and stats everywhere you look. I can spend hours just looking at reports, stats, etc..

I actually like the sounds when managing a game. The boxscores look really good as well.

There are some little quirks that need to be cleaned up, but so far more than an 'upgrade' to v4. It's playable for me, with no showstopping bugs as of yet.

If you have a passion for baseball, you should at least try the demo if/when it is available.


Todd

[SirFozzie]

Trying to import 1986 with version 5.0 of the database, let's see how it handles career leagues :)

It's taking QUITE a while, but then again it has 995 players..

Let's see if we can change history to kill the Curse of the Bambino, and eliminate the memory of the ball going through Billy Frickin Buckners legs.

[KWhit]

You wouldn't be a Sox fan, would you?

:)

[SirFozzie]

Drove my grandfather crazy (he was as big a fan as I am)

I was born in 74, next year, Sox to the World Series.. and we all know what happened.

My brother Jody (short for Joseph), was born in 77.. next year? Bucky Bleeping Dent (I can't say Bucky and then Dent together without putting Bleeping in there in between)

Since we were the two oldest grandkids, my grandpa shook his fist and said "No More Grandkids!"

My cousin Katrina was born in 85.. we all saw it coming...

I'm like Eddie Andelman, a local sports talk host who pretty much pioneered sports talk radio. He already has his headstone carved and just waiting for his death. "He Never Lived long enough to see the Red Sox win the World Series"

Does that answer your question if I'm a sox fan? :)

[SirFozzie]

Oh.. they got this right.. from the scouting report for a certain pitcher..

"If Bob Stanley is on the mound, you are probably headed for a heartache."

[ISiddiqui]

How much slower is "slower" in this case?

It ain't bad at all. Isn't lightening fast, but definetly can live with it.

Sorry, would have been here sooner, but have been playing the game. Wonderful stuff. Gotta love the skins and the almanac. I'm trying the Manager Mode with the 1980 Chicago White Sox (they offered me some decent money ;))... hopefully I don't get fired!

[AgPete]

There's an almanac now? Feeling.....compulsion....to buy.

I haven't checked out OOTP5 much mainly because I'm not much of a baseball fan but some of the new features and info organization look great compared to past versions.

[Easy Mac]

So to those who didn't like OOTP4's single player experience;

How is the new version? Does it feel like a real game instead of a stripped down multi-player game? Does it hold your interest?

[Malificent]

I noticed a dramatic speed increase in simming when I turned my virus scanner off. Your mileage may vary, of course.

[MizzouRah]

Originally posted by Easy Mac
So to those who didn't like OOTP4's single player experience;

How is the new version? Does it feel like a real game instead of a stripped down multi-player game? Does it hold your interest?


There's alot more to this version than I had expected. I stayed up until about 2am last night and only played 3 games, becuase there is so much to look at and analyze. This version feels much more like a single player game, than v4. Manager mode is fun so far and most people who laughed at the married, kids module, are having quite a time with it.

I'm on the hardest level and have to make it to the playoffs this year, although my owner is laid back. The interface takes a little to get used to, just like FOF4 was for me. Managing a game is like a whole new game, sounds that work well, tons of more data on the screen to look at (out of town games now have teams' lineups to look at as well as the boxscore), and a much improved and cleaner interface (not so hard on the eyes anymore).

I really can't list all the new things since v4, I'm still finding out new reports/features as I play. Personally, I'm most giddy about how I can now read my boxscores with little effort to find statistics.

Yes, there is an immersion factor for the solo player. Of course only time will tell if it's harder to build/maintain a top tier team over years. Also, just reading Markus plans for a 5.01 patch soon to address small bugs makes you feel confident in your purchase.


Todd

[INDalltheway]

One thing I am not liking praticulary is the fact that I haven't seen a player improve his talents. In my first year I had several players decline, and the only improvement was when someone got faster. I am not sure if this happens all the time, but I sure hope it doesn't.

[SirFozzie]

I'm not seeing that myself, IND.. but I do notice players in the draft are a LOT better..

my first pick (#2) was a 3/5/4 Brilliant/Brilliant/Good Closer in the June first draft

[FBPro]

I don't see why you guys are not seeing improvement, I just simmed two weeks and had two area where a pitcher improved.

[SirFozzie]

I meant to say "I'm not seeing what he's seeing" :)

[INDalltheway]

Monday 4/7/2004 :

Felix Pie has lost some momentum, his range at CF drops to B ...
Felix Pie has lost some momentum, his range at RF drops to B ...


Monday 4/21/2004 :

Mike Remlinger seems to have lost some of his feel for his stuff...


Monday 4/28/2004 :

Mark Guthrie's control seems to have taken a bump...
Joe Borowski seems to have lost some of his feel for his stuff...
Joe Borowski's control seems to have taken a bump...


Monday 5/5/2004 :

Vernon Martinez seems to have lost some of his feel for his stuff...
Vernon Martinez has lost some movement on his pitches...


Monday 5/12/2004 :

Kyle Farnsworth's pitches have more bite now, the movement has improved!
Joe Borowski has lost some lower body strength, his duration drops to D ...
Joe Borowski has lost some momentum, his range at P drops to E ...


Monday 5/26/2004 :

Barney Dutra has worked out more, his duration raises to C ...


Monday 6/2/2004 :

Moises Alou has lost a step. His speed drops to E ...
Moises Alou has lost some momentum, his range at LF drops to D ...
Moises Alou has lost some momentum, his range at CF drops to D ...
Moises Alou has lost some momentum, his range at RF drops to D ...
Nic Jackson has lost some momentum, his stealing ability drops to D ...


Monday 6/9/2004 :

Mark Guthrie seems to have lost some of his feel for his stuff...
Sammy Sosa has lost some power...





***Not sure how this will turn out***

[INDalltheway]

Dola... My coaching staff is top notch also. So I don't have a bunch of scrubs teaching these guys....

Had to put "coaching" in there.

[Blackadar]

Well, some of think your staff is top notch also. ;)

j/k

[Markus Heinsohn]

Please check here:
http://www.400softwarestudios.com/board/showthread.php?s=&threadid=26144

:)

[lynchjm24]

Originally posted by Markus Heinsohn
Please check here:
http://www.400softwarestudios.com/board/showthread.php?s=&threadid=26144

:)

Hey Markus,

I love arbitration - but how about at the end of the season the game runs through the arbitration eligible players and gives us an idea of what they will get and gives us the choice to release or not. I have no idea what these guys are going to get and knowing would change my how I handle them.

[AgPete]

I took the plunge and bought OOTP5 and I have to admit I'm very impressed with the new format.

* Everything is much easier now. None of those huge text file histories of your league, you have an almanac now.

* You don't have to spend time exporting HTML files to get a good look at your team info over time, everything is easily opened up in game browser windows including incredibly useful player hyperlinks.

* It's still pretty similar to OOTP4 which was a little disappointing but some of the time consuming things in the previous version that probably kept me from playing are out of the game.

* The new minors system is great. That was something I hated in the previous versions as well as the old up arrow/down arrow transaction system for all minor leagues.

* My favorite way to play OOTP is with historical leagues and it's A LOT easier now! The old stadium specs are built in and it looks like I don't have to spend hours making the old teams. I haven't had a chance to do it over an extended period so I have no idea if I have to manually change my divisions and/or teams to deal with expansions but at least it starts out right. The first update promises a new financial system for historial leagues too which I can't wait for.

* There's a new star system to rate players that is very helpful. Instead of opening up every single player, sometimes it's easier to do a quick check by looking at star rankings. It works the same way a 1-5 star rating with movies does.

* The player tracker is awesome! I can't tell you how many times in previous OOTP versions I've forgotten about other team's minor league prospects that I wanted to follow in case I could work out a trade OR just forgetting about my own young talent. You can tag any player and always open up the player tracker window to quickly find out what's going on with that player.

I haven't had a chance to play much. Mostly, in the time I've had, I've opened as many windows and options as I could to check out the new features. IMO, it's still the best baseball sim. I'm eagerly awaiting .400 Studios NBA sim.

[Anrhydeddu]

That's a very interesting twist to player development. Usually when we see a player hit to age wall, you need it's time to cut loose. Now with the chance that he might come back after such a drop off makes the decision making much more fun.

Agpete: Can you expand on your comments about the historical league? This is the only way that i have played and I am curious as why it's a LOT easier now and why you had to spend hours making the old teams in OOTP4?

[kcchief19]

Hmmm... That player aging algorithm is distressing as a person who is taking a wait-and-see on this game. Like a lot of people have pointed out, most players in OOTP hit the wall at 37/38 and went downhill after that. Now, it appears that players are hitting that wall at 33-35. That's not good.

I can see if you average player is crashing at that age, but your superstars should not. I'm not sure if I'm more distressed at the anecdotal evidence of a couple of players in beta testing that were productive past the wall years or that half-baked explaination Markus put out there. OPS is going to favor players who retired early or hit a lot of homeruns. I'd be more interested to see the retirement ages and games played for players with 2,500 or more hits.

[AgPete]

Anhrydeddu, I haven't had a chance to play it much but I remember downloading and installing different stadium files to match early 20th century teams. I had to install new data every few years to keep up with the teams. In OOTP5, the stadiums were already there. The only problem was each one had 45,000 capacity. I'm interested to see what the game comes up with when historical salaries are implemented. I don't know if they plan on changing the seating numbers to reflect the times or keep them at 45k. I don't know if this data was in the new baseball archive or in OOTP5 but it's damn convenient.

I remember a lot of bugs too when downloading the old archives. Some teams didn't load players at all and I had to sign them all with that team. That doesn't happen with this one. I also remember creating team names and abbreviations myself in OOTP4 but it looks like everything is already done. Maybe I should give the historical archive as much credit as I am the new version of OOTP, I'm not sure which one is making it easier. IF, and it's a big IF, OOTP5 is user friendly and automatically adds new stadiums and expansion teams, it will take out A LOT of work I had to put into my historical leagues making sure they were accurate every season. The logo and picture insertions are still required though in OOTP5.

Hope that answers your questions. It's been several months since I played OOTP4 and don't remember everything I did. The several hours preparation was an exaggeration but I do remember having to put in some grunt work before starting historical leagues and it seems everything is ready to go in OOTP5.

BTW - I'm trying a 1901 NYGiants sim on manager mode. I'm not sure if my manager dies in a few decades and the historical league ends. LOL The only problem I've run into so far (I haven't gone to 1902 yet) is the nicknames aren't processing correctly. Some nicknames in quotations are showing up as squares or other data that the game isn't reading.

[FBPro]

FYI, expansion isn't automatic now either.

[Ksyrup]

Just testing to see how this looks on the screen. I've got some data to post!


G Stewart (C) .319 1061/594 40

[Ksyrup]

OK, here’s some information/stats from a 40-year sim I did over the last 24 hours. The league is 24 teams/ 2 divisions per league, using fictional players and the default 1980's-present settings and such. I didn't modify anything.

Make of this what you will, I’ll add some comments at the end of each section. I hope this comes out semi-readable. And it's long -bear with me.

HITTING
Player -> Avg -> BB/K -> Age

Career Average Leaders (Over .310):

J Nelson (SS) .327 718/962 41
M Bordeaux (RF) .327 406/845 34 (active)
F Oropesa (3B) .325 803/1008 39
A Aguilar (1B) .322 650/690 39
G Stewart (C) .319 1061/594 40
J Sanchez (RF) .319 219/431 35
M Mendez (LF) .315 608/512 37
P Alaniz (C) .315 285/637 37
S Gonzales (LF) .315 253/783 38
G Bowlling (C) .314 534/982 38
V Greco (3B) .313 1339/1404 40
R Romero (C) .312 306/802 32 (active)
B Lozoya (LF) .310 209/373 35


3000 Hits:

F Oropesa (above) 3321 Hits
W Chen (SS) .290 901/2314 40 (3135 Hits)
C Graziani (SS) .269 794/2090 43 (3050 Hits)


Career Walks Leaders:

H Osterberg (3B) .293 1705/1289 39 (734 HR - #1 all-time)
J Kirch (2B) .260 1678/2257 38
B Murdock (3B) .238 1662/1913 38 (active)
M Dilorenzo (2B) .293 1643/1131 39
E Chao (LF) .250 1632/2236 38
D Ferrin (3B) .273 1613/1021 40 (active)


Comments:

It appears that the game is doing an adequate, but not great, job of equating high walks with high average. I see about 5-6 guys on the career average leaders who are problematic, although you’d have to allow for the odd success story despite the numbers – but not that many. On the career walks list, one guy clearly stands out with such a low average.

I think the biggest issue is the number of strikeouts for these guys. Yes, some guys who walk a lot also strikeout a lot. But not this many. G Stewart is the only one with a 2/1 BB/K ratio on these lists – I think there needs to be more T Gwynn/ T Williams types, as they appear to be lacking in the game.

Also, as in OOTP4, there appear to be an inordinate number of great-hitting catchers. I think the game needs to take into account the rigors of this unique position. There simply shouldn’t be 4 catchers in the top 13 hitters.

Another thing that pops out is that after 40 years, the highest career average is only .327. By my unofficial count, until the late 2030’s, only two hitters had hit for better than .360 in any year (one of them did it twice). I’m not sure what that says, as there are no unbelievably low career ERA’s to counter-balance the low averages. You would think one or two hitters would rise above the crowd for their entire career.


PITCHING
Pitcher -> ERA -> BB/K -> W/L -> Age

Career ERA Leaders (under 3.00):

H Mansfield 2.52 760/3403 263-123 40
C Thetford 2.53 760/2890 242-125 40
R Deblois 2.64 596/3023 212-130 39 (active)
F Garrido 2.75 795/2115 161-121 35
W Baker 2.77 727/4021 239-121 38
J Palmateer 2.91 624/1449 152-105 37
E Campos 2.91 892/4182 255-146 40
O Diaz 2.94 269/2533 155-106 35 (active)
H Smail 2.97 388/1882 157-81 35 (active)


Career K Leaders:

A Omara 3.33 763/4468 198-157 39
E Campos (above)
W Ferrant 3.78 1492/4027 245-208 40
W Baker (above)
D Pollard 3.64 754/3777 207-148 39
W Aumiller 3.48 719/3654 210-162 40
P Godinez 3.54 302/3472 181-123 39
J Ayo 3.20 820/3443 167-115 36
H Mansfield (above)


Comments:

Pitchers’ BB/K seem to show much more direct correlation to success than the hitters. In fact, some of the BB/K ratios are almost too good, but I’d rather have that than the opposite. Nearly every one of these guys was a successful pitcher, which is good to see. Not one of the best ERA pitchers had anything resembling a weak BB/K ratio.


RETIREMENTS/INJURIES

HITTERS:

Among the top 25 career average leaders, 3 of them retired at age 40 or older (or were active at age 39 or older). Among the top 25 career hits leaders, 8 were 40 or older.

Five hitters on the career average leader board had careers that appeared to end early. On the list above, I targeted J Sanchez (35), B Lozoya (35), and 3 others. Only one of those players could I definitively attribute the retirement to an injury. The others played well up to the year before they retired. I couldn’t trace their ratings from year to year, since I wasn’t thinking and set the league to talents only (which is what I use when I play out a career).

Notwithstanding, it would seem logical that the other 4 players had a precipitous dropoff in their ratings which led them to be released by a couple of teams during their last year, and ultimately to retire. I’ve got no problem with this happening every now and then, but I think the loss of skills should not be so sudden (call it the Dale Murphy Effect). That rarely happens. I think certain ratings should go, and the others follow over the next year or two – for instance, lose average, but keep power until it fades away.

Guys shouldn’t go from .300/30/120 to out of the league in an off-season, which is what I’m seeing. Retiring at 35 is one thing – retiring at 35 coming off an above-average or great season is another.

PITCHERS:

Among the top 25 career ERA leaders, 6 retired at 40 or older (or were active at age 39 or older). Among the top 25 career wins leaders, 13 retired at 40 or older (top wins leader is 263, btw), including a guy with the nickname “The Freak” who retired at age 44!

Eight pitchers on either (or both) the career ERA and career wins leader boards had careers that appeared to end early. I included H Mansfield, because he had a decent year at age 40, although he’s arguable. The only ones actually mentioned by name above are F Garrido (35), J Ayo (36), and J Palmateer (37). Of these 8, 5 of them had career ending injuries in their final year and 1 had a string of minor/moderate injuries his last year – only H Mansfield and J Palmateer, the 2 oldest of the 8, btw, just retired.

CONCLUSIONS:

Pitchers seem to be more risk/reward, which mirrors real life, I think. On the one hand, career ending injuries seem to be a real potential among mid-30’s pitchers, but compared to hitters, many more successful pitchers make it to their 40’s than hitters.

It appears the only problem with the new aging scheme is that hitters are aging too rapidly in order to get them out of the league at a younger age. Either the aging process should start a year or two earlier and be more gradual, or they should get career ending injuries like the pitchers do. When I’m playing, I can accept a career ending injury far more than seeing that a guy who was one of my team’s best hitters the year before is on the retired list the next year.

Overall, I’m very impressed with the game and the numbers being generated. I’m a little concerned with the career high averages, but this is only one sim and might be fluky. Although, I will say that I’ve read a few comments about how the drafts seem to have more pitching talent than hitting, and maybe what I’m seeing is the outcome of that fact.

Anyway, make of this what you will. I'm going to do this over again with a new league and see what happens.

[Dargone]

Well done Ksyrup. I look forward to your follow up post.

[ISiddiqui]

FYI, expansion isn't automatic now either.

When was it ever?

[lynchjm24]

For what it's worth, I'm playing with the default rosters, and my averages seem way to high. I'm only 5 years in, but I've had at least 15 guys hit .350.

Most of what you said seems pretty positive though KS.

[daedalus]

Originally posted by Ksyrup
I think the biggest issue is the number of strikeouts for these guys. Yes, some guys who walk a lot also strikeout a lot. But not this many. G Stewart is the only one with a 2/1 BB/K ratio on these lists – I think there needs to be more T Gwynn/ T Williams types, as they appear to be lacking in the game.

I'm obviously nitpicking here but Tony Gwynn wasn't much for walking (you can't walk out of San Diego or something like that). He had one year where his walk was over 59. Mind you, he only had one year where his strikeout was even as "high" as 40.

Still, if you take a look at the career leaders for batting average, your point is DEFINITELY true. On the other hand, and I don't know how much this effects it, I can't help wonder how much of it is due to the era you have them playing. Strikeout-to-walk ratio seems to be less of a big deal with the 80s-and-beyond era.

As Dargone said, I'm definitely looking forward to more of your analysis.

[Ksyrup]

I see your point on Gwynn. My point was that he had a low K total and a good BB/K ratio, even if he didn't walk much. Those kinds of hitters are missing. A couple of the guys on my list had low K and BB totals, but their ratios seemed to be turned around. For instance, J Sanchez had a 219/431 BB/K ratio. Turn that around, and it might look more like a Gwynn-type player.

[Ksyrup]

Well, I simmed a new league, but only got 25 years until 2029 got corrupted because my daughter started playing on the computer and caused the game to freeze (probably used too many resources).

Anyway, I saw quite a bit of the same thing I reported up above. Basically, the best hitters are striking out as much, if not more, than they are walking, although they are walking at a higher rate. And the best pitchers have a great BB/K ratio. I think these are related, and causing the problems with the hitters' K's. In order to create pitchers for which there is a correlation between BB/K and success, I think the game is causing all hitters to strike out a lot when there is clearly a type of hitter that shouldn't be striking out a lot (or necessarily walking a lot either).

In this particular league, hitting dominated early (including a monster 89 HR 200 RBI season for one guy),and then as it progressed, pitching became more dominating. Again, this seems to support the idea that good pitching prospects are more plentiful in the drafts than hitters.

I haven't looked at the injury/sudden retirement issue in this league yet, though.

[lynchjm24]

I'm finding this game to be 100 improved.

I've been criticial of some things on the past, mostly related to the K/BB ratios and career paths.

K/BB is headed in the right direction and the career paths are much more realistic.

Also, players aren't nearly as consistent from year to year, there is much more variation in season, even with players who's ratings don't change.

Nothing makes me happier then this. I grabbed AJ Hinch in 2006 as a minor league free agent.

He hit 296/363/529.
So I resigned him at age 33 for 1 year, $600k.
AJ rewards me by promptly going out and hitting 217/264/342.

Another great feature is the arbitration feature. Now you really have to be careful about when to start the clock on players in the minor leagues. It will be great when they add some features to the arbitration process.

Some minor improvements might be:
1. Players still could develop more quickly - they stay in A ball to long - even players then end up being good spend 2+ seasons there.

2. There seem to be more pitching prospects in the draft then hitters. However, the pitching prospects fall off the face of the earth a lot of times, I've yet to have a successful first round selection with a pitcher.

I just hope that Markus sticks to these development curves, as it seems most of the talk on the .400 board is a touch negative on them.

Markus, if you are going to change the curves later on - please make it a separate patch, because I'd rather have these curves and no other features. :)

[Maple Leafs]

Can anyone comment on this OOTP pet peeve? When someone from the starting lineup is hurt and there is no backup listed (or the backup is already playing another position), does the game's AI put the best available guy in or does it just guess?

Example: CF gets hurt. Backup CF is also the starting DH. Would the AI put the "A-range" third-string LF into CF, or does it still toss the backup catcher into the spot?

[Anthony]

not sure if this is cool or bad...

using geforce's beta rosters, i'm playing as a really bad Mets team. Roger Clemens was released by the Yankees (with some pretty above average ratings, mind you, better than 2 stiffs i got on my team) right before his 300th win. Cleveland picked him up, he gets his 300th win with them, and a few wins after that he was released. i picked him up now for $2million (after bumping up $1million to the paltry $1million he initially agreed to sign for). like i said, his ratings were pretty above average, should be worht more than $2million. then again, in real life Chuck FInley is out of a job, so is Kenny Rogers, so it's possible in a way.

i'm also noticing Todd Zeile refusing to go to the minors, being released, getting picked up and being released after refusing the minros again by different teams. happened 3 times already. i like the refuse to go to minors option, but i hope it doesn't result in a lot of excessive add/drops. i haven't looked too deep, but i'd imagine the Roger Clemens probably refused assignment to the minors, which was why he was a free agent.

also seeing quite of bit of 3 or 4 for 1 trades. not looking in to the particulars to see if it's salary dumps or if the one player traded is a stud. but with the trade frequency set to very low, i am seeing a realisticl amount of trading and no superstars changing teams every couple of weeks.

one other gripe i have is that Toronto, being way out of the hunt for a wildcard berth, offered me Carlos Delgado (having a pretty nice year). i was interested, but didn't need Delgado AND Mo Vaughn's fat ass in the lineup, so i countered with a simialar offer to what they wanted and added Vaughn. they never said they didn't want to take on his salary, rather they "wanted a little more" and after a while what i was offering them was pretty much more than than what they were asking for in their own offer. i just thought the AI should remember what it offered to you so that when you want to counter offer with something slightly different you're not trying to reinvent the wheel with them.

i love the game, i'll love it more when geoforce comes out with his final version of the MLB rosters (some of this stuff is so off he shouldn't have even bothered, as it stands i'm pretty much using this league i'm in now to practice. no reason for Giambi to be a free agent after 2003). the manager feature is not fluff, just what it is - an extra feature. not like some nonsense involving people's astrological signs. i love the different skins feature too. they just need to make it so that you can read some of the black text when you're in the darkest skin they provide. how was that missed?

[Anthony]

"Can anyone comment on this OOTP pet peeve? When someone from the starting lineup is hurt and there is no backup listed (or the backup is already playing another position), does the game's AI put the best available guy in or does it just guess?"

well, is it the game's fault or your fault? there ARE three slots for backups for each position, why is it the games fault that you're too lazy to utilize them all.

granted, you expect a certain amount of common sense from the AI, but you should just remember the ole saying "if you want the job to be done right - you gotta do it yourself"...or live with the consequences. the AI is supposed to read your mind who you'd want to put in? no. that's why we're giving the option to outline a pretty deep depth chart.

[kcchief19]

Excellent breakdown, Ksyrup. As a I was reading your stats and notes, I came to the exact conclusion you did -- the pitching aging algorithm seems fine, but the hitters aging is a tad off. It's good to see guys pushing into their late 30s/early 40s, but it is rare that a great player retires mid-30s after an average/above average year without a precipitating injury. Even Dale Murphy played a few years in the tank before retiring.

This is the same problem OOTP4 had, but I think I can articulate it better now. The problem seems to be that the aging algorithm views all players equally, when it should not. Your average player will peak a little early and decline faster than a great player, who will peak a little later and decline slower. In OOTP, they peak and decline the same rates to a large degree.

I was very pleased to see your career stats as well. I was very critical of the fact that in OOTP4 you had way too many guys who would hit well over .400 (I had three in one season once) or hit over 80 HRs. Those are once in a lifetime occurences, not every couple of years, based on the settings. Except for your one monster guy in the second career, it looks like the game does a better job keeping thos freak years out.

What have you guys run into in the way of bugs? It sounds as though the game is pretty tight, except for .400's usual DirectX/graphics problems. Anything major?

[Maple Leafs]

Originally posted by Hell Atlantic
granted, you expect a certain amount of common sense from the AI Yes, I think you should expect that. It wasn't there in v4.

Originally posted by Hell Atlantic
but you should just remember the ole saying "if you want the job to be done right - you gotta do it yourself"Problem is, I don't feel like "doing it myself" for every team in a solo league. If the AI is screwing it up for the computer teams, it's a problem regardless of whether the human player takes time to fix his own lineup.

[Anrhydeddu]

If Jim Lynch says it's 100 (percent) improved, that's good enough for me.

[Ksyrup]

LOL! I haven't seen any bugs, but then again, I'm just simming and reviewing stats. The one minor (and when I say minor, this may redefine the term!) thing I've seen is that on the yearly almanac, there are a couple of link to OOTP5 and .400.com. The link to .400 says "dot400.com."

BUG! :D ;)

[lynchjm24]

Originally posted by Anrhydeddu
If Jim Lynch says it's 100 (percent) improved, that's good enough for me.

Have you played yet? I have a feeling you'll like the Almanac a lot.

[Cowtown]

Does anyone know why my game crashes every time I try to import my old OOTP4 solo league? I have tried it repeatedly and it does not finish the import before crashing.

[FBPro]

You are not typing the path in properly, make sure you type "LG" exactly in the path for the source league and don't type any "lg" for what you want to rename it to in v5.

[Cowtown]

Originally posted by FBPro
You are not typing the path in properly, make sure you type "LG" exactly in the path for the source league and don't type any "lg" for what you want to rename it to in v5.

So are you saying the ".lg" extension must be capitalized to be ".LG?"

[FBPro]

Fairly certain.

[Swaggs]

A couple observations....

--I am absolutely loving the manager feature--including the wife and kids. I started out with Pittsburgh and suprised and went over .500 with a $44M payroll. The next season, I dropped to about 10 games under and was fired at midseason! I had to wait out the season to sign on with a new club. I picked Oakland, managed there for two season w/o making the postseason, before moving across the bay to S.F., where I made a lot of offensive pickups during FA and made the playoffs in my first season. There is no more trading away of all your veterans and loading up on talent. Or rather, you can do it, but someone else will likely be managing the club before the youngsters are ready to win.

--Nicknames are cool and add a little bit of extra character. My last first round pick was nicknamed "the Sorcerer," which is kind of cool. It seems to me that the nicknames are only applied to better players, but that is just from the few random times I have seen them.

--I am seeing a lot of boom/busts in prospects. Still need to get some more time in before figuring this out, but it may be a little less guaranteed that your stud draft picks will grow into stars.

--I have noticed the mid-30s declines, but to me they have seemed a little more gradual. Where in OOTP4 a player might go from 9/9/6 to 2/2/1 from the beginning of a season to the end, it seems like he may now go down to 5/5/5 for a season or two before completely dropping off. Again, it is early and I need to play more to get a better feel for this.

--Almanac and Player Tracker are two awesome new features. I would like to see top 25 lists for each team (a la TCY and FOF4), but I guess not this time around. I also like the addition of the gold glove awards--very nice.

--Arbitration is going to wreak havoc to online leagues that don't have really dedicated owners. Spending can get out of control from one season to the next if GMs don't pay close attention. It will be interesting to see each teams' GMs' philosophies regarding arbitration. Will you sign you arbitraion eligibles to long term deals or let the arbiter determine their salaries?

[lynchjm24]

RE: Arbitration

I'd love to see a lot more of the information regarding this entered into the player history. Also, it seems that players just disappear from your roster if you don't have the funds to meet their arbitration requirements. It'd be nice to get some kind of notice on that somewhere.

[Anthony]

i noticed the lack of bugs in this game has resulted in a poor showing in this type of thread (the Alright Boyz type). last year we reached the 500 mark by the time. really does show you that when a game is great you don't hear too many people cuz they're all busy playing the game.

good job .400 studios.

[Markus Heinsohn]

Originally posted by Ksyrup
LOL! I haven't seen any bugs, but then again, I'm just simming and reviewing stats. The one minor (and when I say minor, this may redefine the term!) thing I've seen is that on the yearly almanac, there are a couple of link to OOTP5 and .400.com. The link to .400 says "dot400.com."

BUG! :D ;)

Well, type that into your browser... NO BUG! :D

[Ksyrup]

Originally posted by Hell Atlantic
i noticed the lack of bugs in this game has resulted in a poor showing in this type of thread (the Alright Boyz type). last year we reached the 500 mark by the time. really does show you that when a game is great you don't hear too many people cuz they're all busy playing the game.

good job .400 studios.

I think that's part of it, but I also think there is a lot about the game that is familiar, so there's no need to rehash it all. Last year's version felt like a whole new game to me, so there was a lot of discussion about the basics. Here, they've taken last year's game and improved it.

Marcus, as long as you are reading, a minor suggestion:

The player history is much improved, with the listing of achievements as opposed to one big paragraph. However, even with the lists, the important information gets lost and is hard to find. My suggestion is to bold the entries for MVP/Rookie of the Year/Cy Young so we can easily track them down. Either that, or separate the items in the player history by awards, free agent signings, personal achievements, etc. I assume the latter would be more work (although ideal), but I think even the first suggestion would be an improvement.

[Ksyrup]

Bump?

Where is ole' SD's commentary? I've seen him post over at .400.

I've simmed another 30+ years or so, and I'll be reviewing those numbers and posting my thoughts tonight, if I get the chance. Then, I think I'll dive into a test year or two, to see how the specifics of the game look. Really, I'm just waiting for the patch before I get into a real career.

Some bugs/issues have been posted over at .400, so it's not like the game is bug-free, but damn, it's close! A hot topic over there right now is the customization of manager mode. AS it stands, once you start manager mode, you can't alter anything, which means if you want to play a historical career in manager mode, you've got to forego expansion and, I assume, the different era settings, etc. Nothing can be changed. I think they are looking into making that optional or allowing restricted customization.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally posted by Ksyrup
Bump?

Where is ole' SD's commentary? I've seen him post over at .400. Heh. I'm just feelin' pretty tired and wiped out today. I haven't had the mental energy to really evaluate the game. Just been pokin' around a little with it today. With a patch coming out midweek, I expect I'll get serious at that point.

[Ksyrup]

I knew that would call you out!

[CentralMassHokie]

Markus,

I'm just posting this here since I'm not registered at the OOTP boards. If you get the chance to answer it, fantastic. No worries if you don't.

I'm truly on the fence about getting OOTP5. The option years feature (which I think might be misnamed) and arbitration are two fantastic features.

I'm wondering if these are just two small features of where OOTP is moving. I would buy OOTP5 today if I heard that a patch was going to add the 40 man roster and true minor league options. Both would add a whole level of complexity and challenge to the game, much along the lines of your current service time feature.

The current "option" feature is really a service time feature. Is it set to 5 full years on the major roster? If not, how is it implemented?

The reason I desire 40 man rosters and options is that, like the service time feature, it'll greatly increase the thought process one goes through when moving players between AAA and the show. For instance, often I'll see teams keep a decent player at AAA and just bounce him up and down when there's an injury. With 40 man rosters or minor league options (3 option years), those guys might end up on waivers where another team could grab them. That's one of the joys of baseball GMing, and would go along way towards breaking the tedium of watching teams have to rebuild solely through the draft.

Minor league free agents would be another huge addition. As would the Rule 5 draft. But I won't get picky.

So, to restate my question, is there any chance that other GM type features are going to make their way into OOTP5. OOTP6? Ever?

Thanks much for any feedback.

[Ksyrup]

Although I haven't played with it yet, my understanding is that the option years feature is based strictly on years and not service time, meaning that a player will have used up a "year" of eligibility by being called up in September.

[AgPete]

I'm a little disappointed that we can't re-sign coaches and scouts before their contracts are up. I always lose coaches in OOTP. It seems the more I win, the more everyone hates me. :(

That's a feature I'd like to see in FOF too. Most sports sims seem to ignore coaches. I'd like these types of games to focus more on coach hiring. Finding a hidden talent in coaching, watching the preseason coaching moves, staff overhauls, etc. - they're all fun things to watch in the real life sports, I wish the sports sims would put as much effort in the coaching sim aspects as they do the players to simulate some of the real things that happen in pro sports coaching.

[ScottVib]

The way "options" is set up in OOTP5 is really more like the Veteran right to refuse minor league assignment.

Waivers were not built into the game as we didn't have the time to truly work out the algorithm to get them in there, as a result in OOTP you have 5 years (the players automatic contract and option years) where they can be promoted and demoted at will.

After thost years your players have "veteran" rights and can refuse minor league assignment. If they refuse the assignment just like in MLB you'll have to keep him in the majors or release the player.

[HornedFrog Purple]

Probably too early to ask but how are the financials stacking up for the AI and how is the financial multiplier for historical leaguers who do not feel like paying Babe Ruth $9 million a season?

[ScottVib]

Originally posted by HornedFrog Purple
Probably too early to ask but how are the financials stacking up for the AI and how is the financial multiplier for historical leaguers who do not feel like paying Babe Ruth $9 million a season?

Financial Multiplier had to be delayed to allow it to be fully tested. (There are a lot of areas to change and test) It should be in the game in the near future (but not the first patch).

[Hammer755]

Originally posted by HornedFrog Purple
Probably too early to ask but how are the financials stacking up for the AI and how is the financial multiplier for historical leaguers who do not feel like paying Babe Ruth $9 million a season?

The financial multiplier was not completed to the developer's liking and will be included in an update.

[cincyreds]

I am with AgPete.

It would be nice to be able to resign coaches and scouts, instead of losing most of them.

[FBPro]

I think that not being able to resign scouts and coaches helps to give things a bit more balance since in some leagues a guy could sign 'em and keep 'em forever. This way there is some movement.

[AgPete]

I found out today not to trust the auto-depth manager. I traded for Jose Vizcaino to have a decent utility infielder on my team and the game kept wanting to replace A-Rod with Vizcaino when I faced left handed pitchers. :o

[tucker342]

I wasn't planning on buying for a while, but I just couldn't resist. The amount of record keeping in the game is awesome.

[McSweeny]

The patch is now ready and available here:
http://400studios1.inetu.net/files/ootp/ootp501.zip

Here is the ReadMe:

March 5th, 2003:

Welcome to the first OOTP 5 patch, version number 5.01! In order to install the patch, simply unzip the new OOTP5.exe file into your OOTP 5 main folder, for example
C:\Program Files\400 Software Studios\OOTP5

The following things were fixed or enhanced:
- Made salary arbitration an option (advanced league setup)
- Fixed the bug that caused the inidividual hook setting to not being saved
- You can now set a salary cap and cash maximum in manager mode, also editing of
player nicknames for players on the human team is possible now!
- Fixed a bug that you had limited control over your team in manager mode when you edited
the league structure. This does not affect leagues that had this already occur, so
you might want to start a new league if that has happened for you.
- Players coming off the DL now accept the assignment to the minors
- Fine-tuned injury frequency
- Fine-tuned player development, talent hits for established players in their prime
is now less likely
- Fixed the bug that caused the team strategies to be reset when making certain transactions,
like trading or releasing a player.
- Fixed font color problem in trade screen
- Hitting streaks in the league leaders in the sim or main screen are no longer the active
streaks, but the longest of the season.
- You can now sign coaches/scouts up to $200,000 during the offseason, even when you have no
money left.
- Fixed catcher defensive range bug when creating fictional leagues.
- Fixed draft reset bug that caused duplicate players
- Fixed 4 division league problems when the league was expanded to 4 divisions
- Fixed a bug that made certain players that showed up as automatic resign becoming arbitration eligible
after the end of the year.
- Fixed financial problems in historical career leagues, although not in already existing ones.
- Fixed a bug that allowed the owner to make contract extention offers
to computer team players through the trade screen in manager mode.
- The sort in the team screen is now sticky after offering a contract extention
- Manager mode is possible now with one league leagues as well.
- Greatly improved lineup AI
- Fixed bug when backing up/restoring leagues
- Fine-tuned trade AI
- When acquiring a player, he no longer goes to the active roster but rather into AAA.
- Free agents now more often give you more time to react to a computer offer.
- Enhanced the team minor league report!
- Fixed drag&drop problems that some users had.

Enjoy!
Markus Heinsohn
CEO .400 Software Studios

[ScottVib]

You beat me, I was going to post that. :p

[Ksyrup]

Scott, was the LH/RH team W/L record bug fixed? Not a biggie, but just wondering, as I don't see it listed.

[ScottVib]

Originally posted by Ksyrup
Scott, was the LH/RH team W/L record bug fixed? Not a biggie, but just wondering, as I don't see it listed.

According to a post in the Beta Forum it was.

[Anrhydeddu]

Wow.

Downloading today.

[Ksyrup]

I am hopeful that I will get to start a career tonight. I plan on starting a normal fictional career in 2003, probably a 20 team, 2-league. 4-division set-up, but using 4-man rotations and good starting pitcher stamina. I still like it when guys go 300+ innings and actually complete games! And, I think I'll do it in Manager Mode.

That will allow me to check the game out in-depth. After I get a good feel for the game, I'll set up a longer career league in which I simulate 50-75 years of history before taking over a team. This is my ideal setup, as I get much more immersed in a game when there is some history to review. As far as I can tell, I will be able to simulate a bunch of seasons, and then jump into the league in Manager Mode (I hope - at least that what it appears to allow).

[Markus Heinsohn]

Originally posted by Ksyrup
I am hopeful that I will get to start a career tonight. I plan on starting a normal fictional career in 2003, probably a 20 team, 2-league. 4-division set-up, but using 4-man rotations and good starting pitcher stamina. I still like it when guys go 300+ innings and actually complete games! And, I think I'll do it in Manager Mode.

That will allow me to check the game out in-depth. After I get a good feel for the game, I'll set up a longer career league in which I simulate 50-75 years of history before taking over a team. This is my ideal setup, as I get much more immersed in a game when there is some history to review. As far as I can tell, I will be able to simulate a bunch of seasons, and then jump into the league in Manager Mode (I hope - at least that what it appears to allow).

Yes, you can do that :)

[McSweeny]

I've been playing my fictional leage quite a bit over the past few days and i must say i am impressed with the game. OOTP4 never held my attention as long as 5 has been.

I took my team to a World Series championship in 10 years. So the difficulty seems to have gotten better. I played in the League Championship Series 4 times losing in 7 games each time before making it to the World Series.

I have over-extended myself on long, expensive contracts to keep my team together and i've got maybe 1 or 2 more years of solid production left before everything goes to hell.

Financially the game seems solid. The AI doesn't let studs slip through the FA market cheaply and it's damn hard to put together a solid team through FA.

The talent drop-offs have been fine. Frustrating at times, but nothing over board.

I love the almanac! It's awesome

I'm not playing in manager mode btw. I hate the idea of not being able to make changes to my league as i see fit.

I'm having a hell of a time so far!

[Ben E Lou]

Well, I haven't had time to play much, and even less time to say much. I was able to play some yesterday morning for 2 or 3 hours though, and have some impressions now. I had a conversation with Steve, Joe and a couple of others last night at the party about player development and trading. I just posted this over at the OOTP boards as a follow-up to that conversation, and thought it would be worth putting in this thread as well...



Here's the 4-1-1 on the player I mentioned last night. This is with 5.01:

Monday 3/31/2020 :

Jeremy Etheredge plate discipline seems to have faded...
Dino Mcdonald seems to have lost some bat speed, resulting in less contact...
Dino Mcdonald has lost a step. His speed drops to E ...
Dino Mcdonald has lost some momentum, his range at CF drops to C ...
Dino Mcdonald has lost some momentum, his range at CF drops to D ...
Lyndon Weisberg increased his bat control, resulting in more contact!
Lyndon Weisberg has gained more power!
William Brey increased his bat control, resulting in more contact!
William Brey has improved his plate disclipine!
Dennis Birdsell has lost some momentum, his range at 1B drops to D ...It was a little later (5/5) that his range dropped to "E". He also dropped power on 4/28. I LOVE the less predictable performances, but this a bit extreme. McDonald looks like he'll go from being a perenniel all-star (over the previous 4 seasons he hit .287 with a .519 slugging pct., and he hasn't hit less than 27 homers over the past 11 seasons) to a not-ready-for-AAA scrub by the time the season is over. If this is an isolated case, no biggie (other than me having to deal with the ignomy of getting fired after my first season of my first career :p). If this happens on a semi-regular basis, it appears to be a problem. Without getting injured, a consistent star player shouldn't have such a rapid drop-off. It would seem more reasonable to see McDonald go from .283-30-95 (his numbers in 2019 at age 36) to maybe .260-20-70. Right now (June 1st), he's on pace for .234-12-60, but I seriously doubt he'll even hit 10 HR's and drive in 50 runs if he drops any more talent. Dale Murphy had a severe drop-off, but he only put up star-caliber numbers for 6 seasons in a row, and he still managed 5 straight seasons of 18-24 homers even after he dropped from being a threat to hit .300 to hitting under .250.

Don't get me wrong, so far I am VERY pleased with this version (and as you probably know, I've been left a little limp with previous versions). As I said last night, I haven't seen any big problems in trading. At the hardest level, things seem pretty good there. Navigation is much improved, and the little tweaks like the rotation usage and lineup saving have helped me avoid having to micro-manage things nearly as much. Overall, I LOVE the more varied player development. I just think that the drop-off curve may need to be looked at still. But again, if this is an isolated instance, my advice would be not to mess with it. If we routinely see stars become unusable scrubs in one season, then a tweak is in order.

[Senator]

Anrhydeddu

Keep me updated on your thoughts. I will not have the chance to buy the game until after the pending War. But I wanted to know your thoughts.

[Tarkus]

I have an interesting problem with just one player. He's a middle reliever with a rating of 10 ERA, and 9 Hits. He's clearly my best MR. However, when I do the auto-staff thing the AI keeps putting him as 3 MR and mop-up duty. That is, they don't make him a setup guy or one of the first two relievers. All the other auto stuff makes sense, but the AI just doesn't like this guy for some reasons. BTW, when I manually put him in the first setup spot, he ends up with better numbers than any of the other relievers. Has any one else seen this?

Tarkus

[Ksyrup]

Yes, I've seen that in past versions as well. Sometimes, you just have to override what the AI thinks with what you want. With MRs, I frequently let the AI set up my pitching staff, then I reconfigure the set-up and mop-up guys the way I want. For instance, the second set-up guy rarely gets used, in my experience, so I put my best MR at set-up 1, then my second best MR at long relief 1 (or mop-up, or whatever that next category is), then put my third and fourth best MRs as backups to those two.

I'm just about to start a real career tonight. I started an historical league in 1969 with the real players (first time I've ever done a true historical league with OOTP), with subsequent years' rookies going into the amateur draft. I skipped expansion in 1977, since I wasn't sure how to stock the teams, and simmed through 1979. It's 1980 right now, and I'm taking over the worst team in baseball - the Padres. I don't have much to work with, there are really no good free agents (and I don't have money to spend on them anyway), and my minor leagues are barren of any position player talent. At least my owner is "normal." Should be fun!

[Anrhydeddu]

Senator,

I am honored that you would value my opinion. I did install the game last night with the purpose of checking out the UI and the new menu elements. I simmed through a season so I could experience lineup adjustments, transactions, news, almanac and the draft/fa processes. I was struck as to how many things remained the same - from a game play point of view. It appears that, besides the alamanc/reports, most of the changes are beneath the hood. Finally, the three skins choices are only okay (I found the much-desired wood grain skin to be too yellow - I hate yellow). But I will look for other skins, no big deal.

As far as my desires with OOTP5, replay and continued play is not a problem (unlike FOF) but instead, is the wanting of a challenge when it comes to competing and paying for players. From what I have seen, the game will be more challenging than OOTP4 even though house rules will always be there. But more specifically, I am interested in a challenge when playing a historical career (which is the only way I will play). That is a different animal than what most are talking about (or even tested), so I'm not sure if the challenge changes will apply equally to such a career. In that, I look for the AI to evaluate veterans and young potential stars properly (or at least better).

Using OOTP5 for JBL and any other online leagues will be really good.

With all that, I have to think about my gaming priorities so I'm not sure when I will start a solo historical career (it could be this weekend or sometime later).

[HornedFrog Purple]

- Fixed financial problems in historical career leagues, although not in already existing ones.

I was just wondering if this was the financial coefficient, or something else.

[Ben E Lou]

OK, here's a follow-up to my earlier post. I've been looking at the top HR guys in my universe to see how older elite power hitters like McDonald drop off in OOTP5.01. I found seven power hitters who had eleven or more consecutive seasons of sustained excellence. Here's how they did in the twilight of their careers.

Freddie "Swordfish" Bruner
2003-2013: Max OPS--1.065, Min OPS--.724
2012 (age 34): .292, 49 HR, 132 RBI, .995 OPS
2013 (age 35): .254, 34 HR, 107 RBI, .838 OPS
2014 (age 36): .213, 20 HR, 86 RBI, .652 OPS

Omezo "The Rogue" Munemitsu
2006-2016: Max OPS--1.078, Min OPS--.776
2015 (age 35): .292, 31HR, 94RBI, .888 OPS
2016 (age 36): .281, 22HR, 95RBI, .839 OPS
2017 (age 37): .228, 23HR, 78RBI, .675 OPS

David Macy
2003-2013: Max OPS--.995, Min OPX--.777
No huge drop-of. Last five years of career (ages 36-40): .820, .777, .853, .753, .802

Lance Batson
2003-2013: Max OPS--1.267, Min OPS--.827
2013 (age 35): .321, 39HR, 97RBI, 1.047OPS
2014 (age 36): .254, 32HR, 101RBI, .888OPS
2015 (age 37): .244, 6HR, 26RBI,.757 OPS (only played 42 games before breaking his wrist and going out for the season)

Oswaldo "Stone" Acha
2005-2015: Max OPS--1.179, Min OPS--.777
2015 (age 36): .274, 31HR, 104RBI, .879OPS
2016 (age 37): .279, 25HR, 94RBI, .793OPS
2017 (age 38): .272, 21HR, 74RBI, .768OPS

Hector Laguna
2002-2012: Max OPS--1.129, Min OPS--.944
2011 (age 35): .311, 35HR, 107RBI, .989OPS
2012 (age 36): .301, 31HR, 84RBI, .944OPS
2013 (age 37): .243, 10HR, 36RBI, .704OPS

Robert "Chappy" Abrego
2002-2012: Max OPS--1.159, Min OPS--.848
2011 (age 36): .291, 32HR, 96RBI, 1.004OPS
2012 (age 37): .277, 25HR, 94RBI, .848OPS
2013 (age 38): .226, 18HR, 53RBI, .674OPS

Most of these guys had significant drop-offs in performance, though some didn't. None were as bad as McDonald. Looks like a case of REALLY bad luck for me! I can certainly live with that. Even among these seven guys, there's some good variety. From this little more in-depth look, things look pretty solid (except for that fact that McDonald's drop-off is likely to get me fired in my first season.) :(

[Anrhydeddu]

Going over the patch readme, I am reminded that I will definitely try out the Manager Mode when I understand it better. As you know, this has always been one of my pet projects.

[Bee]

I was fired in my fictional league after my second season. I took a job with a team that had just finished about 20 games below .500. The owner was a "real nice guy". His expectations for the first season?

win it all. Sadly he was disappointed. ;)

The next season, he lowered his expectations to just making the playoffs, which I was able to accomplish.

[Anrhydeddu]

Again, looking through the 5.01 list, I am wondering something. During the extensive testings that went on, did no one notice the font color problem in the trade screen? Or look at the hitting streaks in the league leaders? Or even expanded to 4 divisions?

I am not being critical because some of the testers are friends, and the fact that I develop and test software myself, but I just found this curious, that's all.

[Tarkus]

This game sucks! It's totally unrealistic. I'm running the Yankees and I've completed seven seasons and my Yanks have yet to win the World Series! Now, that's just not realistic at all! :D

Tarkus

[Bee]

The question is do you have unlimited money as the Yankees? ;)

[ScottVib]

Originally posted by HornedFrog Purple
I was just wondering if this was the financial coefficient, or something else.

Nope it was a different problem where too many historical league teams were going broke.

Anr.......,

Some of the readability things can be improved upon by turning off the 3D.

[Tarkus]

Originally posted by Bee
The question is do you have unlimited money as the Yankees? ;)
No, I keep running out and it's really pissing me off! ;)

Tarkus

[Tarkus]

Originally posted by Anrhydeddu
Again, looking through the 5.01 list, I am wondering something. During the extensive testings that went on, did no one notice the font color problem in the trade screen? Or look at the hitting streaks in the league leaders? Or even expanded to 4 divisions?
Hmm, I didn't notice anything in the trade screen but the hitting streaks should definitely be fixed.

Tarkus

[Anrhydeddu]

I was referring to the those problems I listed that were found after 5.0 was released and was fixed in 5.0.1. Sorry for the confusion.

Scott: Why were historical teams going broke?

[Tarkus]

Hmm, I think the hitting streaks are still messed up. I'll have to verify that.

Tarkus

[Ksyrup]

Yes, they are. The same guys are listed as top hitting streak year after year, until someone has a streak that is longer. Then, the new guys sit atop the leader board every year, and so on.

[Anrhydeddu]

One of the best things to measure a sports sim AI by is what I call the holy grail - the ability for the AI to properly evaluate players. This is shown in several areas including acquiring free agents, managing rosters (e.g., deadweights) and in evaluating trades. OOTP4 did okay with free agents (as long as you gave them enough money to spend) but just like with FOF4, it fails when it comes to acquiring and managing overpriced/underpriced players.

In my current OOTP5 1960s Cardinals career, I have paid close attention to this to see what has improved. I can say that it still evaluates free agents properly, paying really good money for the superstars and little money for those not deserving much. This makes acquiring free agents a challenge esp. when they don't have a cap and you do.

In the area of managing rosters, it is significantly better than OOTP4. I see many more extensions signed for players that they should keep and it does a good job weeding out overpriced/underperforming veterans (as well as losers in the minors).

As far as trades (where I key on), it is improved. The single most important area, imo, is how they evaluate young superstars making minimal money. This had always been the weakness in OOTP and FOF where we, as human players, can find such players which in turn, frees us to be able to pay for more superstars and significantly reduces the challenge. OOTP5 is much better at this. For example, I wanted to acquire one of the best young pitchers in the game (a 8/7/6, 4-star making $300k). Before, I was able to trade them 2-3 mediocre players, usually MRs and backups to get him ("close but we need more"). Now I cannot do that, even playing to their roster weaknesses, I had give up two good starters in positions that they needed to get him.

I believe the star-ratings is now a big factor in balancing out trades with the AI. Because this pitchers was a 4-star with good ratings, the AI knows its value better despite his low salary. I am not saying it is perfect at all because the one advantage we have is that we can agressively target these players whereas the AI usually do not (this, more than anything else, forces the house rule of having a personal team salary cap). But the OOTP5 AI can now evaluate these players more highly than they did before and that is a good thing.