OOTP9 Fictional League Preview

[Ben E Lou]

First off, as in the past, thanks to Markus at OOTP Developments for letting me have free reign on this. My intention here is to give the community a preview of league creation, simmed results (with default modifiers and league totals), and gameplay in a fictional universe. This thread will remain closed, for easy reading/printing of the preview in its entirety. To discuss and ask questions, go to this thread.

[Ben E Lou]

LEAGUE CREATION--WIZARD

New leagues can be created via a wizard, or using the advanced setup options. The wizard has the same four options as the last version:

The fictional league wizard is pretty much unchanged, except for one new option: the ability to set nation locations for teams:

The rest of the options are pretty much as one would expect, and unchanged from the last version: customization of league sizes, number of minor leagues, league and division names, number of games, interleague play off/on, wild card playoff options, number of games per postseason series, names of postseason series, etc.

Next up: Advanced League Creation Options.

[Ben E Lou]

LEAGUE CREATION--ADVANCED

Using the Advanced mode for League Creation brings up many more options to customize. There are too many to attempt to list them all, but it's pretty much everything you'd expect. The most significant change is the ability to customize fielding, pitcher endurance, and a few other items:

I've tested the pitcher endurance options quite a bit, and they add a nice new layer for those of us who like to customize statistical performances. For example, by ratcheting up SP endurance but leaving use of relievers/closers to "Very Often," you can end up with your stud pitchers throwing 12-15 CGs in a season, but with maxIP staying in the 270-275 range, and that being rare.

For the purposes of this preview, I'm leaving all of the creation modifiers an strategic tendencies at the default for 2008, but those who are familiar with my modifications (http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...ghlight=skydog) know that I love to mess with this stuff to create my personal ideal stats. The good news on that front is that the settings referenced above for OOTP8/2007 still work pretty much identically, so MP leagues who are using them will probably see no need to change them at all.

Other added options to the Advanced setup are Suspensions and Drug Suspensions. Those are on for this preview, and also the much-maligned coach/scout system is on as well. I'm going as close to default settings as possible here.



NEXT UP: Simming 20 seasons, and uploading the HTML.

[Ben E Lou]

The sim completed overnight, and the HTML upload has begun. Based on the total filesize, I expect the complete HTML to be there by around 1pm EST today. (I did full history for 20 years or majors and all 5 minors levels, because I know people will ask about promotions and whatnot.) However, I went ahead and uploaded the index file, so people can poke around before then. It's going in this order, fyi:

• History (a decent bit of the history for the MLB level is there already)
• Leagues
• Players
• Teams

Images, Box Scores, Logs, and Coaches aren't in the current queue. I'll throw those up there once the main upload is complete.

http://www.younglifenorthdekalb.com/ootp9preview

Again, if you're going in this morning, start here: http://www.younglifenorthdekalb.com/...100_index.html

[Ben E Lou]

All primary data and images are now uploaded. Box scores and game logs going up now.

TOMORROW: Getting started running a franchise.

[Ben E Lou]

Yesterday ended up being busier than I thought with work and some home stuff, too. I haven't done any playing, but I took some screen shots this morning to illustrate one of my most unexpected favorite features of fictional leagues. It's not much different from OOTP2007/8, but it is something that people who didn't play that version might have missed.

Those who are familiar with me as a gamer know that I'm not typically into graphical stuff. So, it should come as no surprise that when I heard that facegen was being added to OOTP, I quickly dismissed it as "another feature that I'll never use."

I couldn't have been more wrong about anything.

I've found that facegen adds a TON for me, immersion-wise, to the fictional league experience. I never would have guessed it. So, I took some time to import some logos and team colors from the WOOF (one of my FOF2K7 MP leagues, upon which the team names in this preview are based) into a league using the WOOB template, and created unis for each team.

DISCLAIMER: I am *HORRID* at designing this sort of thing. So, if the unis look terrible, blame me, not OOTP. I've seen the work of others on fictional leagues, and it really can be taken to the next level with some effort. At any rate, here are some shots of the game's key screens, at midseason:













For those so inclined, this screen is where unis get edited:


(For those of us who don't know the HTML number codes, the "SELECT" button above takes you to a screen where you can just click on a color for each of the different elements.)


Again, not much of what's in this post is necessarily new for OOTP9. However, given that this preview is all about fictional leagues, I think it's important to point out what this feature adds to the mix.

[Ben E Lou]

This is not over. A good bit of free time has been taken up with the FOFC moving details for the past few days, which is why this has moved more slowly than I'd hoped. However, I should be back on track. I'm going to actually play out a few seasons, probably tonight. I started a new fictional league (smaller, 16 teams) with the latest build, less stats detail, let it sim 25 seasons, and generated an almanac. The almanac is uploading now and should be done in a couple of hours, but it's partially up now. Feel free to check for the resolution of some of your pet issues from the earlier build's HTML.


http://www.younglifenorthdekalb.com/ootp9preview2/