Perfect Game 2009

[DaddyTorgo]

palli - from reading the developer diary - i LOVE that everything is XML and customizable. That's a great way to develop a passionate community around the game.

[DaddyTorgo]

i want player pictures in mine - how can i get them?

[Sebastian Palkowski]

I´m in the middle of preparing the update with the new lineup/rotation/bullpen screen (see last post in the Developer Diary). I guess it will take 1-2 hours before the download is ready.

It will not be possible to use any previous save as I made a big mistake early in development: I forgot to save the version-number of the save to make it possible to continue old saves in newer versions. I have to put it in sometimes and I guess now is better then sometimes in the future so I have that out of our way for future versions. I´m really sorry! If you really want to continue your game just send me a PM and I will help you out.

I will answere all post after the upload but now I just want to get the files up.

Just a short answere for the player pics:

Go to the PG board and find the pinned thread in "General Talk". There are logos and player-pics to download.

Unzip them into the player_pics and logos folder in (your pg folder)/games/2009_startseason.gdb and (your pg folder)/games/2009_offseason.gdb. If you start a new game the pics and logos will be placed into your save folder.

If you already have a game running you must copy the logos and player_pics into (your pg folder)/saves/(your save folder)/logos AND player_pics.

palli

[DaddyTorgo]

cool...thanks palli. just wasn't sure if there was a post somewhere with them and logos or not. figured they had to be sized right and all. Thanks for the directions - that'll make it much more immersive to me personally.

Along those lines - question for everyone else - is palli going to incur the legal wrath of MLB by having real rosters+hosting photos+logos on his board? What was the outcome of all of that with say OOTP? I'm not up to speed on it.

[Sebastian Palkowski]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

cool...thanks palli. just wasn't sure if there was a post somewhere with them and logos or not. figured they had to be sized right and all. Thanks for the directions - that'll make it much more immersive to me personally.

Along those lines - question for everyone else - is palli going to incur the legal wrath of MLB by having real rosters+hosting photos+logos on his board? What was the outcome of all of that with say OOTP? I'm not up to speed on it.

No problem, just tell me if it works. And wait until the new update before you start a game (see last post)!

One thing I forgot to say (I wrote it in the thread with the links): The player pics and team logos are not from us, we just use them for testing as the game looks much cooler. All credit goes to the original artists!

For the legal stuff: as far as I know player names and stats are open source, team logos and player pics not. We will remove both packs from our webspace as soon as we start to sell the game. But we can not hinder people to generate cool packs for PG.

palli

[DaddyTorgo]

Names and stats are open source. I'm just worried that by having the pics+logos on your site you could open yourself up for trouble -- even if you're not selling the game yet. But I'm not 100% on the law on that - I hope somebody else here might be and can help you.

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

Names and stats are open source. I'm just worried that by having the pics+logos on your site you could open yourself up for trouble -- even if you're not selling the game yet. But I'm not 100% on the law on that - I hope somebody else here might be and can help you.

The lawyers on the board can chime in but I agree playing itsafe may be just to have padresfan to host that pack as soon as is feasible to eliminate any trouble.And on a similar point it is great to see a game that makes it real easy to load player pics and logos that used to driveme crazy spending a whole evening setting upa league and never getting to play a game. That is one of the main reason I have switched almost 90% of my gamng to baord gaming (sports) and have not regretted one bit.

[Sebastian Palkowski]

Ok, it took longer then expected (as always ) but we finished the 1.02 update.

This is not a bugfix update and not a major update. As I wrote we redesigned the lineup+bench screen and the starter+bullpen screen as we thought that the old one was not really intuitive. Now you have more "classic" screens. On the pitching screen you can assign your rotation and the bullpen-roles. The lineup screen has 4 lineups (R, R+DH, L, L+DH) and bench roles for all of them. The game will use the right lineup so no surprises any more.

Please remeber: you have to start a new game (reason in one of my post above).

To download an update or the full version go here: Download-Page

If you have 1.00 installed please install 1.01 first, then 1.02.

Thanks for all your help!

palli

[Sebastian Palkowski]

Sorry to post back to back but I want to answere a few questions.

Originally Posted by Galaril

The lawyers on the board can chime in but I agree playing itsafe may be just to have padresfan to host that pack as soon as is feasible to eliminate any trouble.

I guess we should really put the two files somewhere outside our own side. We will find a place in the next few days.

Originally Posted by Galaril

And on a similar point it is great to see a game that makes it real easy to load player pics and logos that used to driveme crazy spending a whole evening setting upa league and never getting to play a game. That is one of the main reason I have switched almost 90% of my gamng to baord gaming (sports) and have not regretted one bit.

The philosophy of PG is simple: don´t work the game, play it. We want the game to be fun "out of the box". After a long day just start the game and play 2 hours. We will take care of the rest. It is our job to get the numbers right, the development and the AI (we get paid for it someday). And to reach this goal we decided not to make everything an option. Some people will not like that but I guess other games will give them fun. And believe me, it is hard enough to teach the AI how to handle a 25 men roster, I don´t want to teach it how to handle a roster between 15 and 100 men.

Just to be clear: everything from news/pms, graphics to pbp-text is (or will) be editable!

So we try it our way and hopefully a few people will follow us.

I will write more about what you can expect from PG in the future so you can decide if it is the right game for you but if you have special questions about this just ask.

Originally Posted by Galaril

Nice looking game UI. This one looks better IMHO than other well known baseball sim. Greta job. If it plays as well as it looks we got a winner.

Thanks very much. The Minosgames Text Sim Interface Framework (short MTSI) took us a lot of work but in the end it is well worth the time we spend. We try to make navigating as simple as possible:

The main-screen (2, one for the season, one for the offseason) has all important infos right in front of you. On top of that we use popups. Every button will open a popup so most of the time 1 click will be enough to get you your information and then just close the popup. The new modular system I talked in the Developer Diary (which the In-Game mode will use for the first time) will be expanded to the mainscreens to make them even more useable (decide what modules you want, higher sreen resolutions can load more modules).

Is the MTSI-Framework perfect? No, no way. But after all the time we spend with the game you don´t see any problems any more. Thats why we have you take a look.

palli

[DaddyTorgo]

making all the news and pbp text and everything editable is awesome palli - that will definitely help to get an enthusiastic community around the game.

[USFLTecmo]

Liking this so far, and I'm glad you left the lineups up to us. The computer was putting Prince Fielder in my leadoff spot half the time.

[Galaril]

I know the game is still beta but will there be any consideration to making it so the LAHMAN hsitorical DB could be used to start seasons in the MLB past? If not no biggie just thought I would ask

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by Galaril

I know the game is still beta but will there be any consideration to making it so the LAHMAN hsitorical DB could be used to start seasons in the MLB past? If not no biggie just thought I would ask

that'd be cool!

i wonder if it'd be problematic though due to differences in financials and stuff?

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

that'd be cool!

i wonder if it'd be problematic though due to differences in financials and stuff?

Oh, I am pretty sure it would be a complete pain the arse to do which is why I asked. Seriously it would be cool to have.

[Sebastian Palkowski]

Originally Posted by Galaril

I know the game is still beta but will there be any consideration to making it so the LAHMAN hsitorical DB could be used to start seasons in the MLB past? If not no biggie just thought I would ask

I will go into more details about the direction of PG later this week but just a short answere:

all data is already in the master database. Even better, all players have ratings stored based on normalized (era + ballparks) stats. The AI even uses normalized Batting/Pitching Runs for evaluation, so theoreticaly we could put Babe Ruth right into 2009 and the game would be able to handle it.

So why no historical play so far in PG?

We could just let you start in 1901 (or any other year), divide money by 100 (or whatever number works), divide attandance by X and let you play. But that has absolutely nothing to do with historical play. Thats a "2009 look and feel" with numbers from 1901.

We want the player to feel like playing in 1901: the way leagues work in that time, the way contracts work in that time, the way roster are build in that time. Thats the reason we take small steps in development: we don´t want to build in a "wrong" mode fast and then have no chance to change it, we want to make it right from the start. But we decided to start modern first and then, after the basics are working, expand into the past.

I will go into more details sometime this week to give you an overview where we are going with Perfect Game.

Originally Posted by USFLTecmo

Liking this so far, and I'm glad you left the lineups up to us. The computer was putting Prince Fielder in my leadoff spot half the time.

I guess we where blind after spending so much time with the game. But it became clear that we had to change it and it was better to do it now to make it easier to use. I will implement Drag&Drop on both screens in the near future but the In-Game mode has to be finished first.

palli

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by palli

I will go into more details about the direction of PG later this week but just a short answere:

all data is already in the master database. Even better, all players have ratings stored based on normalized (era + ballparks) stats. The AI even uses normalized Batting/Pitching Runs for evaluation, so theoreticaly we could put Babe Ruth right into 2009 and the game would be able to handle it.

So why no historical play so far in PG?

We could just let you start in 1901 (or any other year), divide money by 100 (or whatever number works), divide attandance by X and let you play. But that has absolutely nothing to do with historical play. Thats a "2009 look and feel" with numbers from 1901.

We want the player to feel like playing in 1901: the way leagues work in that time, the way contracts work in that time, the way roster are build in that time. Thats the reason we take small steps in development: we don´t want to build in a "wrong" mode fast and then have no chance to change it, we want to make it right from the start. But we decided to start modern first and then, after the basics are working, expand into the past.

I will go into more details sometime this week to give you an overview where we are going with Perfect Game.



I guess we where blind after spending so much time with the game. But it became clear that we had to change it and it was better to do it now to make it easier to use. I will implement Drag&Drop on both screens in the near future but the In-Game mode has to be finished first.

palli

Wait a minute does that quote mean that we have to set lineups for both teams or just if we choose to? Is there an option for the AI to set them or use real life lineups from that year something like that?

[Sebastian Palkowski]

Originally Posted by Galaril

Wait a minute does that quote mean that we have to set lineups for both teams or just if we choose to? Is there an option for the AI to set them or use real life lineups from that year something like that?

No, just your team.

palli

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by palli

No, just your team.

palli

Palli thanks. Not to rush you but do you suspect to have 1.1 in the next few weeks done and ready for sale?

[Sebastian Palkowski]

Originally Posted by Galaril

Palli thanks. Not to rush you but do you suspect to have 1.1 in the next few weeks done and ready for sale?

I will not give a release date but so far work goes pretty smooth on version 1.1. Motivation is high after our first release ever (we are a little proud to have finished something ) and we work fast to get 1.1 out of the door. We talked about the way we will release version 1.1 but have not made a decision so far.

I have a few more smaller tweaks and updates on my todo list, stuff that makes the game more fun to play on a day by day basis and I need to tweak the game-engine more. Right now I do stuff like that in between but maybe I will take a few days "just for the small stuff". I will to continue to write a Developer Diary so you will always be up to date.

Thanks for all the interest, its really a fun trip so far!

palli

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by palli

I will not give a release date but so far work goes pretty smooth on version 1.1. Motivation is high after our first release ever (we are a little proud to have finished something ) and we work fast to get 1.1 out of the door. We talked about the way we will release version 1.1 but have not made a decision so far.

I have a few more smaller tweaks and updates on my todo list, stuff that makes the game more fun to play on a day by day basis and I need to tweak the game-engine more. Right now I do stuff like that in between but maybe I will take a few days "just for the small stuff". I will to continue to write a Developer Diary so you will always be up to date.

Thanks for all the interest, its really a fun trip so far!

palli

Thanks for your honest answer. I prefer developers who treat there customers like adults and not kids.(Not to infer any of sim devs do that)

[Galaril]

Anymore updates in the works especially the one that will add the in game mode? It has been quiet for the last few days and was wondering since it won't be a perfect game until it has that mode

[Sebastian Palkowski]

Originally Posted by Galaril

Anymore updates in the works especially the one that will add the in game mode? It has been quiet for the last few days and was wondering since it won't be a perfect game until it has that mode

I added an update to the Development Diary.

palli

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by palli

I added an update to the Development Diary.

palli

I love that you have added the character to each player and it will be somewhat real lile accurate for the initial rosters.

[Sebastian Palkowski]

I posted this on our site: Jobs

This is nothing we have to fill out right away but maybe someone is interested in working with us from the beginning (even help to develop tools for the work). Or maybe you guys know someone who might be interested and you can direct them to us.

thanks for all your help.

palli

[damnMikeBrown]

Found a bug tonight.

Right up against the spending limit. Cut a guy during FA signing period, going over budget. The game stays in FA mode forever..advancing years at a time w/o ever getting in to the season.

Frustrating trying to move draft picks to 'A' ball as well...would like to just right click and assign them to a level I want them at.

[Sebastian Palkowski]

Originally Posted by damnMikeBrown

Found a bug tonight.

Right up against the spending limit. Cut a guy during FA signing period, going over budget. The game stays in FA mode forever..advancing years at a time w/o ever getting in to the season.

Ok, thanks. I will look into that.

Originally Posted by damnMikeBrown

Frustrating trying to move draft picks to 'A' ball as well...would like to just right click and assign them to a level I want them at.

Thats not a bug, its because we made the decision to let the CPU handle the Minors up to AAA. At first we had the user make all decisions himself but it took forever to play a season. Maybe some sort of Minorleague-Coach would be the ideal way to go. The user could make decisions on some player in the minors (moves, roles) and override the coach who does all the rest of work. I will take a look.

palli

[damnMikeBrown]

Originally Posted by palli

Thats not a bug, its because we made the decision to let the CPU handle the Minors up to AAA. At first we had the user make all decisions himself but it took forever to play a season. Maybe some sort of Minorleague-Coach would be the ideal way to go. The user could make decisions on some player in the minors (moves, roles) and override the coach who does all the rest of work. I will take a look.

palli

I'm actually fine with the minor leaguers being moved about on their own. Just thought I was missing something on how to move them around. So, to be clear, after I draft my studs in training...I just go to dfa, move them to the major league roster, then down to AAA?

If the cpu is handling it, may be nice for them to automatically drop the flotsam at the bottom of the roster then, so as to avoid the "check your AAA roster" notification when there are too many kids on the team.

[mschwarz]

Originally Posted by damnMikeBrown

I'm actually fine with the minor leaguers being moved about on their own. Just thought I was missing something on how to move them around. So, to be clear, after I draft my studs in training...I just go to dfa, move them to the major league roster, then down to AAA?

After the draft you can leave the prospects on the dfa list. The cpu will move them to their minor league teams.

[Karlifornia]

Palli and mschwarz are really making a good first impression. Can they continue to deliver? Find out next week on "As The FOFC Turns".

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by palli

Ok, thanks. I will look into that.



Thats not a bug, its because we made the decision to let the CPU handle the Minors up to AAA. At first we had the user make all decisions himself but it took forever to play a season. Maybe some sort of Minorleague-Coach would be the ideal way to go. The user could make decisions on some player in the minors (moves, roles) and override the coach who does all the rest of work. I will take a look.

palli

Palli I am sure you have been busy working on the game but I am curious if you have anymore development updates or news of an updated version coming soon

[Sebastian Palkowski]

Sorry, I had a bad cold last week and did not do as much as I hoped on PG.

As a short update: the display-part of the In-Game is almost finished, only the baserunning has a few problems left (not showing the right pbp-text for base advancment, drives me crazy ). The In-Game AI is at 90%, I guess I only have to check if everything is in place (the AI is the same as for simmed games). Malte will start today to add all the user-options (like subs, change positions, ...) and as with the "new" lineup/rotation screens it is Drag&Drop all the way. As far as I see it you can do all changes directly on the game-screen, only if you want to see a player in detail you need to open the player-popup.

palli

Originally Posted by Galaril

Palli I am sure you have been busy working on the game but I am curious if you have anymore development updates or news of an updated version coming soon

[JS19]

With the release of OOTP coming shortly, was curious how this was coming along?

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by JS19

With the release of OOTP coming shortly, was curious how this was coming along?

Yeah, three weeks and no word.