Alright boyz, here we go!!! Out of the Park Baseball 13 First Impressions

[MizzouRah]

So far, the AI is much improved as well. Just in my imported league, I'm in the playoffs and seeing teams snatch up decent FA's who sat most of the year.

Trade AI was re-written as well and from what I've read, much improved.

I can't say this enough.. the UI is really unbelievable. How can you NOT love this?

[MizzouRah]

.. or this?

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by Atocep

The random historical players league is worth the money. Seriously, best feature in text sims. This is amazingly fun.

I'm going to try that at some point.. I'm super immersed in my universe from v11 right now.

[MizzouRah]

Check out this draft report from this season..

[Atocep]

Just created a league with a 23 year old ted williams, 20 year Lou gehrig, 20 year old darryl Strawberry, 32 year old Boog Powell, 42 year old barry bonds, 25 don Drysdale, 27 year old Christy Mathewson, 21 year old Herb Score, 32 year old Curt Schilling, and 35 year old Lefty Grove.

[MrBug708]

Is 42 year old Barry Bonds the best player?

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

Is 42 year old Barry Bonds the best player?

The league scouting service has him rated 19th best. I've probably created more than 10 of these leagues and I've never seen one close to this stacked. It also has a young Pujols, a young Bob Gibson, Chuck Klein in his prime, and Ted Kluszewski in his prime.

[Markus Heinsohn]

Glad you're enjoying it.

If you have preordered today / yesterday, PM me with your order ID, I'll give you the download links. (Please be aware that I live in Germany, so don't expect me to reply past 8 pm GMT )

By the way, this is the smoothest release we ever had. No serious problems were reported and we have already fixed all the problems that did get reported, inlcuding errors/tweaks for the roster set. The patch #1 will be released Monday along with the general release.

Have a nice weekend!
Markus
Developer OOTP

[BigDPW]

Originally Posted by Markus Heinsohn

Glad you're enjoying it.

If you do preordered today / yesterday, PM me with your order ID, I'll give you the download links. (Please be aware that I live in Germany, so don't expect me to reply past 8 pm GMT )

By the way, this is the smoothest release we ever had. No serious problems were reported and we have already fixed all the problems that did get reported, inlcuding errors/tweaks for the roster set. The patch #1 will be released Monday along with the general release.

Have a nice weekend!
Markus
Developer OOTP

You've got mail. Thanks for your offer!

[Bobble]

Originally Posted by Atocep

The random historical players league is worth the money. Seriously, best feature in text sims. This is amazingly fun.

Agreed. I thought I'd just pick up the latest OOTP, import my beloved fictional league from OOTP12 (Didya hear that, FM? "Import LAST version's saved game into THIS version" -- look into it), and march merrily on but I'm really into the random historical league. I ended up with a stable of great pitchers - most of whom I don't really recognize not being a huge baseball nut - and Carlton Fisk and that's about it. I've got my trading eye on a few young studs named Pete Rose and Lou Gehrig. I've got a good feeling about those two...

[Toddzilla]

MizzouRah - where did you get the real MLB icons?

[Bobble]

Oh, and the graphic stuff that people have done over the last few versions has really made this awesome, especially the historical facegen files. Some several generous dudes have spent a lot of time modelling historical players in facegen just to make my game more fun. Thanks, dudes.

[Bobble]

Originally Posted by Toddzilla

MizzouRah - where did you get the real MLB icons?

You can download them in-game (which is AWESOME) through the menu items: Game/Add-Ons Central or just go to OOTPMODS.COM.

[Mike Lowe]

It was a pleasure working with the beta team this year. This was my third (4th?) year working on the team, and it was definitely very smooth, and the game was very polished even in the early builds. The MLB quickstart is very nice too, and I'm pretty critical of those sorts of things.

We even got the owners' ages correct this time haha

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by Toddzilla

MizzouRah - where did you get the real MLB icons?

I got mine here:

2011 MLB & MiLB Primary Logos Pack - OOTP Developments Forums

[TroyF]

I'm starting one of the random historical sims in 2011. I used the real MLB and added AA and AAA with no requirement for the minors to fill up. I really wanted at least one HOF to use in my sim. After a few reloads I find a sim where I have a 26 year old Orel Hershiser and a 23 year old Tim Raines. (who was my favorite player as a kid until Kirby Puckett took his place)

So I'm happy, I have a couple of stars and I'm going to start playing. Then I look at my minor league roster in AAA. In it, I find the prize of a lifetime. A 20 year old Sandy Koufax.

I'm dancing, dancing in the streets. . . . This is like opening up bubble gum packs as a kid. The draft is going to be the same way.

As for the guys who took the time to put together the historical pictures? Holy crap. Amazing. I'm a huge baseball fan and know all of the HOF's, but this is also a history goldmine for me. I'm learning about players I never heard of before. This is truly an amazing experience. I've been an OOTP critic for a long time, but even if I were to find some problems, this mode will get me to work around them without a problem.

[Markus Heinsohn]

Originally Posted by TroyF

I'm starting one of the random historical sims in 2011. I used the real MLB and added AA and AAA with no requirement for the minors to fill up. I really wanted at least one HOF to use in my sim. After a few reloads I find a sim where I have a 26 year old Orel Hershiser and a 23 year old Tim Raines. (who was my favorite player as a kid until Kirby Puckett took his place)

So I'm happy, I have a couple of stars and I'm going to start playing. Then I look at my minor league roster in AAA. In it, I find the prize of a lifetime. A 20 year old Sandy Koufax.

I'm dancing, dancing in the streets. . . . This is like opening up bubble gum packs as a kid. The draft is going to be the same way.

As for the guys who took the time to put together the historical pictures? Holy crap. Amazing. I'm a huge baseball fan and know all of the HOF's, but this is also a history goldmine for me. I'm learning about players I never heard of before. This is truly an amazing experience. I've been an OOTP critic for a long time, but even if I were to find some problems, this mode will get me to work around them without a problem.

I love this mode too! The good thing about it is that I often wonder "who is this guy?", then I look him up on baseball-reference.com and learn about the history of the game. It's a lot of fun!

[PurdueBrad]

I put in my order this morning and I'm really, REALLY looking forward to the random database as well. This sounds like an amazing edition.

[frnk55]

I took a chance and imported my league when it was august and so far all looks good.
Btw I would like to see the toolbar back on the bottom.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by frnk55

I took a chance and imported my league when it was august and so far all looks good.
Btw I would like to see the toolbar back on the bottom.

I imported mine right before the playoffs, so far it imported quite nicely.

Going to play all day today!

[MrBug708]

During PbP, on of my players hit the ball down the line. The 1B threw his glove at the ball but missed it...haha

Found a PbP bug. Had a runner on first and went to sacrifice and the batter popped it up. The PbP said that the throw to first got him. Either it wasn't a pop up or my player should have been thrown out back at first. But the original runner was at first. It didn't ultimately matter because my runner was picked off.

(I've had an unusual amount of pickoffs at first)

[BYU 14]

I am having so much fun setting up different random debut scenarios I have yet to even play out an actual game. This feature is just beyond cool!!

[Ksyrup]

So I played out 1901 - 2010 last night and this morning. I pretty much left things as-is and did a "Ron Popeil" sim (set it and forget it - HA!). The HR numbers are pretty crazy. Ralph Kiner was apparently shooting up during the steroids era like he was rooming with Amy Winehouse or something. 2000 he hit 89 HRs, followed by 84 in 2001.

One thing I found that I don't know how often it happens, but is an issue - I was watching the sim at the end of 2004 and saw that Ty Cobb lead the league in BA and Kiner in HR, and both had their team affiliations gone after the season ended, meaning they were either FAs or retired. Next season, I watched to see where they signed, and neither made the stat boards. So after I finished simming I went looking for them, and both of them sat out the 2005 season and didn't sign until November of 2005. I don't know if that was a quirk that one FA off-season, or whether I'll find a bunch of those as I walk through history, but that shouldn't happen. My first thought is maybe the teams didn't have enough money to pay them what they wanted?

[Ksyrup]

Oh, and talk about lucky - Florida's first draft pick in 1993? Ty Cobb.

[OldGiants]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Ha! Sammy Sosa lead the NL in HRs in 1901 with 12.

Was he doing laudanum?

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by TroyF

I'm starting one of the random historical sims in 2011. I used the real MLB and added AA and AAA with no requirement for the minors to fill up. I really wanted at least one HOF to use in my sim. After a few reloads I find a sim where I have a 26 year old Orel Hershiser and a 23 year old Tim Raines. (who was my favorite player as a kid until Kirby Puckett took his place)

So I'm happy, I have a couple of stars and I'm going to start playing. Then I look at my minor league roster in AAA. In it, I find the prize of a lifetime. A 20 year old Sandy Koufax.

Are you playing with state recalc on, or allowing the game's development system handle that? The one thing that's always kept me from really enjoying the historical game - to play out seasons, not just sim history and look at it - is that I know what happens and the AI doesn't. If Koufax is Koufax until he's 29 or 30 and becomes a FA, are you going to resign him knowing he retired in real life and the recalc of his talent based on his stats is going to reflect that? The computer sees a dominant pitcher and offers accordingly. I see a guy who retired early and has no stats left on which to sustain the talent level he's at, so he's not worth the money.

[Ksyrup]

OK, I found another one - Willie Mays. Became a FA at the end of 2003, didn't sign until November of 2004. Is still playing in 2010, so it's not like he was unwanted. He signed a 2 year $20M deal and put up good numbers. Simply sat out 2004.

I don't know if this is happening in regular sims, but I'm wondering if the issue here in the random historical sims is too many good players at one time asking for too much money and not enough money to go around, so the guys who don't sign early sit out until they get what they want.

[Ksyrup]

Mays still has an MLB record 881 HRs despite sitting out a year.

[Ksyrup]

Only 5 300-game winners in 110 years. 2 since 1944, none since 1982.

[Ksyrup]

My favorites are the "fish out of water" guys. Like Toad Ramsey, an 1880s pitcher. Dude is playing in the 2000s. And he's taking the damn ball every 5th day without whining about it - 250-270 innings every year.

[Ksyrup]

The Caught Stealing numbers from the deadball era are a bit much. The top 25 or so career leaders in CS played all or most of their careers before the 20s. Most of them had about a 55% success rate, if that.

[TroyF]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Are you playing with state recalc on, or allowing the game's development system handle that? The one thing that's always kept me from really enjoying the historical game - to play out seasons, not just sim history and look at it - is that I know what happens and the AI doesn't. If Koufax is Koufax until he's 29 or 30 and becomes a FA, are you going to resign him knowing he retired in real life and the recalc of his talent based on his stats is going to reflect that? The computer sees a dominant pitcher and offers accordingly. I see a guy who retired early and has no stats left on which to sustain the talent level he's at, so he's not worth the money.

I went with the development engine for the exact reasons you said. Sure, there is a chance Koufax ends up not hitting his potentials, but that's part of the fun. It's an alternate universe, but most of the bigtime guys will end up as bigtime guys. It's funny, because Koufax was one of the main reasons I made the decision. (along with guys like Puckett who had their careers end suddenly)

I need more power in my lineup somehow, but the big three of Raines, Bulldog and Koufax should set me up pretty well in a few years.

Reading your posts, I think I'm going to have to do something I've done with OOTP for awhile. Every couple of years, run through each team and make sure they have some extra cash. Not 60 million or anything, but make sure they aren't going bankrupt so they make idiotic trades or let guys sit in the FA pool.

One of the main reasons I always play with commissioner mode on.

[TroyF]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

My favorites are the "fish out of water" guys. Like Toad Ramsey, an 1880s pitcher. Dude is playing in the 2000s. And he's taking the damn ball every 5th day without whining about it - 250-270 innings every year.

I love that. I also love the goofy combinations. Nothing like a double play trio of Trammell to Lombardozzi to Terry or a battery of Walter Johnson and Macky Sasser.

[Ksyrup]

Strange. Bob Feller's career started in the 90s with the Twins. He was a really good starter, as you would imagine. In his walk year of 2002, the Twins made him their closer. I looked - their staff sucked, so it wasn't like he got squeezed out or anything. He became a FA, got the hell out of there, and went back to being a really good SP (won 21 games the next year with Texas).

[BillyNYC]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Are you playing with state recalc on, or allowing the game's development system handle that? The one thing that's always kept me from really enjoying the historical game - to play out seasons, not just sim history and look at it - is that I know what happens and the AI doesn't. If Koufax is Koufax until he's 29 or 30 and becomes a FA, are you going to resign him knowing he retired in real life and the recalc of his talent based on his stats is going to reflect that? The computer sees a dominant pitcher and offers accordingly. I see a guy who retired early and has no stats left on which to sustain the talent level he's at, so he's not worth the money.

This relates to one of my questions re: the historical sim: does the computer have any idea that 19 year old Ty Cobb is uh TY COBB? I would want to play the game, not just sim to see stats. When I would make trades and I'd value a young Ty Cobb/Willie Mays/etc much more highly than the AI, then would have to make up some house rules for trading.

[Ksyrup]

OK, I'm seeing it again - another dominant starter switching to closer for 1 season. Same team, too - who the hell is managing this team? 1998 Minnesota Twins won 106 games, and with Bob Feller, Burleigh Grimes and Steve Carlton in the rotation, you can see why. But who was their closer? None other than Roy Halladay. He won 18 games in 1997, and would go on to win 18 games in 1999. But in 1998, he saved 47 games. He also left the Twins after 1998. Ha! I guess they didn't learn their lesson.

If the AI is filling a hole in the closer position by picking someone with great stuff on their staff, to the point where they are taking a 250 inning pitcher out of the rotation and converting him for a year until they can sign a closer, that is a problem.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by BillyNYC

This relates to one of my questions re: the historical sim: does the computer have any idea that 19 year old Ty Cobb is uh TY COBB? I would want to play the game, not just sim to see stats. When I would make trades and I'd value a young Ty Cobb/Willie Mays/etc much more highly than the AI, then would have to make up some house rules for trading.

Yep. If you let the game develop guys randomly, though, it partially cuts down on that. Yes, the HoFers will probably still end up being great, but in some cases, maybe they don't develop at all, or not to expectations. the computer only sees their talent levels. That's why playing the the recalc set is more true to life, but it results in you knowing pretty much how guys are going to develop (outside of injuries, I guess). For instance, you could see a scrub 25 year old Raul Ibanez in someone's farm system and trade for him cheaply, knowing he's going to explode in a few years.

[Markus Heinsohn]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Strange. Bob Feller's career started in the 90s with the Twins. He was a really good starter, as you would imagine. In his walk year of 2002, the Twins made him their closer. I looked - their staff sucked, so it wasn't like he got squeezed out or anything. He became a FA, got the hell out of there, and went back to being a really good SP (won 21 games the next year with Texas).

Sometimes injuries result in a temporary loss of stamina, this might be the case here.

Also, check your setting for the use of historical roles in the league setup...

[Markus Heinsohn]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

OK, I'm seeing it again - another dominant starter switching to closer for 1 season. Same team, too - who the hell is managing this team? 1998 Minnesota Twins won 106 games, and with Bob Feller, Burleigh Grimes and Steve Carlton in the rotation, you can see why. But who was their closer? None other than Roy Halladay. He won 18 games in 1997, and would go on to win 18 games in 1999.

If the AI is filling a hole in the closer position by picking someone with great stuff on their staff, to the point where they are taking a 250 inning pitcher out of the rotation and converting him for a year until they can sign a closer, that is a problem.

No, the AI fills the rotation first before selecting a closer. Check the ratings, not the names.

[kingfc22]

Originally Posted by JeeberD

+1

+1

[Ksyrup]

One thing I'm seeing that partially explains the low number of career pitcher wins is this game is much more likely to convert a mediocre starter to reliever, even guys who have had a long history of being a successful starter. That seems much more rare in reality. For instance, Cliff Lee had a fairly decent run as a starting pitcher between 1950 and 1960, then spent his last 6 years as a middle reliever.

[Markus Heinsohn]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

One thing I'm seeing that partially explains the low number of career pitcher wins is this game is much more likely to convert a mediocre starter to reliever, even guys who have had a long history of being a successful starter. That seems much more rare in reality. For instance, Cliff Lee had a fairly decent run as a starting pitcher between 1950 and 1960, then spent his last 6 years as a middle reliever.

You should try setting the injury frequency to low or very low. That's what I always do in historical simulations.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by Markus Heinsohn

Sometimes injuries result in a temporary loss of stamina, this might be the case here.

Also, check your setting for the use of historical roles in the league setup...

Halladay didn't have an injury of any kind within a year of moving from starter to reliever. Feller had a couple of minor injuries in March/April of 2002 (missed 1 day, then out for a week). I can't imagine either of those would lead to him spending an entire year in the bullpen on a 79-83 team that could have used him in the rotation. But it's hard to say what his stamina was that year since we don't see it looking back.

I had "base roles/positions on" set to real life stats.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by Markus Heinsohn

You should try setting the injury frequency to low or very low. That's what I always do in historical simulations.

I usually do, too. It's been a couple of years since I played OOTP and I forgot all of the tweaks I used to make to the settings in my historical sims. At one point, I had them all done to a science, but I'm a bit out of practice at this point.

[Markus Heinsohn]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Halladay didn't have an injury of any kind within a year of moving from starter to reliever. Feller had a couple of minor injuries in March/April of 2002 (missed 1 day, then out for a week). I can't imagine either of those would lead to him spending an entire year in the bullpen on a 79-83 team that could have used him in the rotation. But it's hard to say what his stamina was that year since we don't see it looking back.

I had "base roles/positions on" set to real life stats.

I suggest setting the role option to "AI evaluation", otherwise pitchers may get selected which got tons of IP in real life and hence get the nod instead of modern day pitchers.

Edit: I just made this the default setting for random debut leagues.

[Ksyrup]

OK, I'll try that for my next sim.

The Reds won the most WS in my sim, 13. But ironically, their worst run of seasons came from 1968 through 1974. It's amazing how bad you can be with Mortimer Hogan, Terrmel Sledge, and Craig Wison as your everyday OFers! I'd name the starting rotation, but you'd probably not recognize any of their names.

[Big Fo]

I have Babe Ruth on my team and just traded for a 16 year old Ty Cobb. I'll tell the clubhouse guy not to put their lockers near each other. And I guess the same goes for Prince and Cecil Fielder.

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by Big Fo

I have Babe Ruth on my team and just traded for a 16 year old Ty Cobb. I'll tell the clubhouse guy not to put their lockers near each other. And I guess the same goes for Prince and Cecil Fielder.

Hope you don't have any black guys on your team or you might end up having issues with your team chemistry...

[Bobble]

Originally Posted by BillyNYC

This relates to one of my questions re: the historical sim: does the computer have any idea that 19 year old Ty Cobb is uh TY COBB? I would want to play the game, not just sim to see stats. When I would make trades and I'd value a young Ty Cobb/Willie Mays/etc much more highly than the AI, then would have to make up some house rules for trading.

The AI doesn't know his name but does recognize him as a dude with a ton of potential. He won't be as expensive to trade for as a fully developed Ty Cobb who has already turned his potential into talent but then if you trade for potential, there's always the chance that the player won't develop. That is, IF you have the game set to develop by it's own internal routines rather than recalculate a player's ratings based on his historical performance (as discussed above). Secondly, you can change settings in the game that alter the AI's weighting on trades so it very heavily favors prospects. OOTP is ridiculously customizeable. You can adjust the game to value Ty Cobb where you think he should be valued.

[Peregrine]

Finally got back from vacation and getting to load up my preorder OOTP 13 - really looking forward to playing around with it - lots of new features and love the new UI.