OOTP 2007

[Marc Duffy]

Announced today and dated for 23rd March 2007

http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...lay.php?f=3683

Key Features and improvements

Improved interface and usability

OOTP Baseball 2007 features some great user interface improvements that make the game easier and more enjoyable, including: a league creation wizard, a simplified navigation model with intuitive icons, a detailed in-game help system, improved in-game screens, and manager and online league commissioner “portals” that centralize the most commonly-used tasks.

The ultimate control over your baseball universe

OOTP Baseball 2007’s flexibility in configuring a baseball universe is unparalleled. Players have complete control over the structure, rules, and finances of their world, including the new abilities to add or delete leagues at any time, to have leagues “feed” players into other leagues and many other new league options. No simulation game has ever been this flexible.

Huge advances in the historical league experience

Historical leagues now feature an automatic expansion mode, including protection lists and expansion drafts. OOTP Baseball 2007 can also now import the history of a league prior to the selected year, giving players complete historical data and record books! Other new historical features include automatic adjustment of league financials, league strategies and rules (i.e. playoff format, schedule length). Sports Interactive re-introduce the concept of ghost players and the new option to block fictional players from reaching the major leagues. Combined with vastly improved statistical accuracy in historical leagues, the end result is the best possible way to replay the history of baseball starting in 1901, but yet with OOTP Baseball 2007 characteristic flexibility. A historical fan’s dream.

Fictional

Fictional leagues come to life like never before, thanks to the help of a wider variety of league news & stories, a player morale and popularity system and the ability to create fictional player portraits using the FaceGen technology.

Online

The online league mode of OOTP Baseball 2007 has never been more user-friendly and functional than in this year’s edition. The new commissioner portal will greatly reduce the administrative burden of running a league. Online GMs benefit from new features as well, such as an automatic waiver pullback option and an adjustable draft pool date that will give online leagues much more flexibility in processing amateur drafts. Commissioners can also now add and edit league news items and write game recaps, which will display both in-game and on league HTML reports. Commissioners can also send messages to all users and manually select all-star team members and award winners, including a new custom award of player’s choice! These features are available in solo play as well!

League expansion wizard

The new league expansion wizard helps you expand your league much more smoothly by scheduling an expansion draft and handling the submission of protection lists.

Trading

The trading model in OOTP Baseball 2007 has been vastly improved. GMs can now mark players as “untouchable” or “on the block,” with a corresponding effect on that player’s morale! The “shop player” feature allows you to quickly identify desirable trading partners and new trade-related reports put all of the information you need right at your fingertips. A “make this work now” button asks player’s trading partners to tell them exactly what is needed to make a deal under negotiation to happen immediately!

In-game experience

The experience for those players who enjoy playing out each game has improved greatly in OOTP Baseball 2007, including: strategic one-pitch mode, more natural play-by-play text, a “short PbP” option that displays just the outcome of the play and many other improvements to the in-game screens. Additionally, players can now write their own recap of the game that will appear in a game news article and will be saved along with the history of their game!

Improved AI and player development

The AI does a better job of managing its team than ever before and extensive statistical analysis and testing results in the most realistic player development system in any baseball simulation game.

Returning “fan favorite” features

Based on popular demand, a number of “fan favorite” features from previous versions of OOTP will return in OOTP Baseball 2007, including: an optional star-based rating system, adjustable AI player evaluation based on statistics/ratings, weather, ghost players, bullpen warm-up, and team focus.

[KWhit]

Some really nice features there, Marc.

[RedKingGold]

Definitely looks like some improvements were made, however, I'm probably going to save my cold, hard "cashe" for DDS Pro Basketball and play that and FOF2K7 until about summer. Maybe then, I'll come back to OOTP and really look at getting this game.

[JPhillips]

I hope it delivers. I've been pretty hard on OOTP2006, but I'll buy again if reviews are good. I'm also interested in how they'll price it.

[Marc Duffy]

$34.99, €29.99.

Screenshots etc on www.ootpbaseball.net (might be a little slow right now!)

[Ksyrup]

I really want to give this game a fresh try this year, and if the historical sim improvements deliver, it looks like this game will be well-worth my money.

[Markus Heinsohn]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

I really want to give this game a fresh try this year, and if the historical sim improvements deliver, it looks like this game will be well-worth my money.

You won't regret it

[Pumpy Tudors]

baseball mongrel the better game this year

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by Markus Heinsohn

You won't regret it

*opens can of worms*

Is that a money-back guarantee?

[spleen1015]

The new features have me intrigued. I'll keep an eye on it.

[Bee]

Definitely buying. The historic sim improvements have me pretty excited if they can deliver. Also looks like many of the complaints from the last version have been addressed.

[Markus Heinsohn]

Here is the full feature list:
http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...d.php?t=137884

As you can see, we've added tons of stuff, brought back missing features from 6.5, and tweaked existing features. I am confident that this game will be the best baseball magagement sim ever.

[Swaggs]

Man.... This:

- Added 2 new leagues levels: College & High School

and expansion will make this a must-buy. Hopefully they make it in.

[lighthousekeeper]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

I really want to give this game a fresh try this year, and if the historical sim improvements deliver, it looks like this game will be well-worth my money.

As a beta tester, I don't think I can say too much, but I will say one thing regarding Historical simming. I was never a historical simmer before, always preferring to just sim fictional leagues. But the new historical features in ootp07 are so cool (in particular the 'import complete history' feature and "ability to view real career stats" feature) that I've now found myself doing historical sims. I'll shut up now.

[edit] Actually...1 more thing: those on the beta team who are historical freaks seem to be very pleased with the statistical accuracy in historical simming.

[Ksyrup]

That's what really has caught my eye. IIRC, Cato or someone had devised a way to set up league records for particular points in history to accomplish roughly the same thing, but it was all manual. Same with the expansion draft, which I remember giving some advice on in this forum about how I did my own manual draft. To see these options in the game automatically - assuming they work, of course - has me frothing at the mouth, to be honest.

Football and other sports have always been different for me, which is why I have given Jim a pass on the historical/customizable league thing, but with baseball, I tend to start at a particular point in history and either play a real team years later, or sim up to the present and take over a real team with a league that now has an alternate history. This has really got me excited, so I hope it comes through reasonably well.

[Bee]

I'm really hoping you can take over an expansion team to start off a historic sim, so you can recreate the expansion draft and everything.

[Markus Heinsohn]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

That's what really has caught my eye. IIRC, Cato or someone had devised a way to set up league records for particular points in history to accomplish roughly the same thing, but it was all manual. Same with the expansion draft, which I remember giving some advice on in this forum about how I did my own manual draft. To see these options in the game automatically - assuming they work, of course - has me frothing at the mouth, to be honest.

Football and other sports have always been different for me, which is why I have given Jim a pass on the historical/customizable league thing, but with baseball, I tend to start at a particular point in history and either play a real team years later, or sim up to the present and take over a real team with a league that now has an alternate history. This has really got me excited, so I hope it comes through reasonably well.

Oh, they already work perfectly. For example, when you import 1962, you'll have the complete history up to that point. Think baseball-reference.com 45 years ago For example, Maris holds the single season HR record, Ruth the all-time record, Cy Young is the W leader etc. All the other historical reports work with this as well, so you can check who the positional starters were on the 1924 Yankees, or who won the MVP in 1955. All there.

[Markus Heinsohn]

Originally Posted by Bee

I'm really hoping you can take over an expansion team to start off a historic sim, so you can recreate the expansion draft and everything.

Sure Expansion is held after the season ends, for example in November 1992 the game will automatically add the Rockies & Marlins. So you can take control of them, and work through the expansion draft. And then try to win the WS in 1997

[Ksyrup]

Awesome. Cato did a fantastic job manually setting that kind of stuff up for the previous version (I guess it was 6.5 I last played), and it really added a lot to the experience. Before that, I always forced myself to start in the early 1900s so I wouldn't have that "black hole" of history. Now I can start in 1980, say, and have it all there.

How do you deal with the Babe Ruth pitcher/OF thing - is he (and lesser players like him) still going to be an anomaly that is hard to deal with (i.e., pick one or the other), or have you found some way to resolve this that would allow him to be a pitcher and then switch to OF a few years later.

[Markus Heinsohn]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

How do you deal with the Babe Ruth pitcher/OF thing - is he (and lesser players like him) still going to be an anomaly that is hard to deal with (i.e., pick one or the other), or have you found some way to resolve this that would allow him to be a pitcher and then switch to OF a few years later.

We have added an optional historical mode to recalculate player ratings after each year, based on a time frame of 1, 3 or 5 years. If used, this will basically turn Ruth into a RF in the same year he did in real life.

We call this mode the "Hall of Fame Mode", as it creates careers which are pretty close to real life, so players who had HOF careers are a good bet to get in there in OOTP as well.

[Ksyrup]

That sounds like a decent way to do it. Is this an option that can be turned on and off throughout a career? For instance, let's say I want to play with more of an "unknown" experience where guys might not develop as they did IRL, so I turn this off, but around 1918-19 I want Ruth to become a hitter, so I could switch this on at the end of the preceding year, have him (and everyone else in the league, I guess) recalculated, then switch it off?

If not, that's just something I would deal with. Since the history gets imported anyway, and he's clearly the most significant player this impacts, I'd probably just start after 1920 or so to avoid the issue altogether.

[Markus Heinsohn]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

That sounds like a decent way to do it. Is this an option that can be turned on and off throughout a career? For instance, let's say I want to play with more of an "unknown" experience where guys might not develop as they did IRL, so I turn this off, but around 1918-19 I want Ruth to become a hitter, so I could switch this on at the end of the preceding year, have him (and everyone else in the league, I guess) recalculated, then switch it off?

Yes, you can turn this on or off at any time

[JPhillips]

Markus: I really want to believe that this game is going to be great. A little advice though, after some of the problems OOTP has had I'd stay away from making blanket claims like "best ever" and "works perfectly". You're just setting yourself up for a future beating.

[Icy]

So we can come out of the closet!

The game is greatly improved from 2006, most of the 6.5 requested features are back in 2007 after being missing in 2006, like the stars, shop player around, minors ghost players (optional) for those running historical leagues, etc. And even better, all them are optional.

We have also the great baseball statistician RonCo in the beta team that is pushing Markus all the time with his suggestions to improve the engine to make it 99% realistic. So far I'm impressed with the historical leagues stats, some of the divisions mirror perfectly real life even with the teams having the same amount of wins/loses and stuff like that. I'm learning a lot only from reading RonCo's threads full of stats analysis for every beta build.

Now the built-in facegen... this alone is amazing for the immersion factor. Every player/coach/scout/gm has an auto generated picture of his face, and for the players, the uniform changes automatically when they switch teams. Of course it can be turned off too and/or you can use real pics alone or mixed with the fictional ones.

[Markus Heinsohn]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

Markus: I really want to believe that this game is going to be great. A little advice though, after some of the problems OOTP has had I'd stay away from making blanket claims like "best ever" and "works perfectly". You're just setting yourself up for a future beating.

Maybe you're right. But I am really excited about this game. It won't be perfect in every area, of course. But I never had this much fun playing my own game before. And that says something

[lighthousekeeper]

Originally Posted by Icy

So we can come out of the closet!

The game is greatly improved from 2006, most of the 6.5 requested features are back in 2007 after being missing in 2006, like the stars, shop player around, minors ghost players (optional) for those running historical leagues, etc. And even better, all them are optional.

We have also the great baseball statistician RonCo in the beta team that is pushing Markus all the time with his suggestions to improve the engine to make it 99% realistic. So far I'm impressed with the historical leagues stats, some of the perfectly divisions mirror real life even with the teams having the same amount of wins/loses and stuff like that. I'm learning a lot only from reading RonCo's threads full of stats analysis for every beta build.

Now the built-in facegen... this alone is amazing for the immersion factor. Every player/coach/scout/gm has an auto generated picture of his face, and for the players, the uniform changes automatically when they switch teams. Of course it can be turned off too and/or you can use real pics alone or mixed with the fictional ones.

I echo Icy's comments. As someone who played ootp 6.5 extensively, then hated ootp06, i have to say some of the best features are the non-glamorous ones. My favorite improvements are:

- strategic one-pitch. Now when playing out games you can toggle between pich-by-pitch or strategic 1-pitch
- instant play-by-play . Sometimes playing out games could be tedious - but now you can set the pbp speed to instant and there is no delay. it really makes playing out games more enjoyable
- ghost players: this is important not only for historical simmers, but for those that sim fictional that don't want to spend their entire lifetime managing all 150 players in their organization - so it's got back that nice v6.5 simplicity
- shop player: yes!
- stats-based AI: it's back and it is actually implemented better than it was in 6.5
- little things like: custom award (let's me finally have Rollaids Relief Man in the game), edit player history, 'match offer' makes contract negotiations easier, lineup/depth chart is easier to use

[Tyrith]

I really hope this improves on 06. I've wanted a new solid baseball sim for a couple of years, but the UI of OOTP 06 was just too bad. However, it seems like good progress, and I must say I'm really excited now.

[Senator]

I am very willing to support this game. Sounds like the new stuff is great. Looking forward to it.

[CraigSca]

You'll have my $34.95. Looks great!

[Young Drachma]

I enjoyed 2006 quite a bit, even if there were some problems with it that I knew they needed to fix. I generally get more enjoyment out of text sims than I ever do console games that I spend more for, so..I figure that if the game improves dramatically, I'm in.

I hope this one doesn't make us wait as long as last year, but..so long as it gets here and there aren't major showstopping bugs, I'm looking forward to seeing the new version. Almost makes me want to stop my dynasties until the game comes out.

[Icy]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

I hope this one doesn't make us wait as long as last year, but..so long as it gets here and there aren't major showstopping bugs, I'm looking forward to seeing the new version. Almost makes me want to stop my dynasties until the game comes out.

You won't wait a lot, as marc wrote: dated for 23rd March 2007

And about your 2006 dynasties, they can be played in 2007 (also the 6.5 ones), so you don't need to stop them now.

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by Icy

You won't wait a lot, as marc wrote: dated for 23rd March 2007

And about your 2006 dynasties, they can be played in 2007 (also the 6.5 ones), so you don't need to stop them now.

It's usually easier to start over though, with all of the new features and stuff, it's not as fun to try to continue over. But I'll play it by ear.

[lungs]

Do managers and coaches accumulate history?

[Markus Heinsohn]

Originally Posted by lungs

Do managers and coaches accumulate history?

Yes, GM's and manager now feature a history... and in the history report you can see for example the leaders in wins, winning% etc.

[lungs]

Originally Posted by Markus Heinsohn

Yes, GM's and manager now feature a history... and in the history report you can see for example the leaders in wins, winning% etc.

Awesome. That'll definitely get me more into the coach/GM aspect.

So with the ability to have high school leagues will that also in essence mean we can create youth leagues in countries like Venezuela and the Dominican Republic but instead of feeding into the draft they would simply become free agents at age 16?

[MizzouRah]

"Sounds" like baseball nirvana. I *hope* it delivers. Definitly will purchase if the FOFC clan gives its approval. Would LOVE to see what my new pc can do with this game.

[CraigSca]

Other PCs AI better, Todd.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by CraigSca

Other PCs AI better, Todd.

fix ai markus or puresim get my vote

[Maple Leafs]

Originally Posted by Marc Duffy

A “make this work now” button asks player’s trading partners to tell them exactly what is needed to make a deal under negotiation to happen immediately!

Will this result in a deal that's tilted in the CPU's favor (but could have been better with a little more human work), or will it be a sort of "reveal the answer" shortcut to negotiations?

[Markus Heinsohn]

Originally Posted by Maple Leafs

Will this result in a deal that's tilted in the CPU's favor (but could have been better with a little more human work),

Just that

[Cringer]

I skipped 2006 and went with PureSim for the first time and enjoyed it. Maybe I will give OOTP another chance once reviews start coming in. Sounds good.

[dervack]

As someone who hated 2006 and said so many times on these boards, I think this year's OOTP is miles above last year's. I've too never been a big historical guy, but I find myself creating leagues to replay the past few years to see if I can make the Cubs a WS contender. Unfortunately, much like real life, it doesn't work.

[Ksyrup]

OOTP imports Bartman too?

[Izulde]

Expansion? With a draft built in? High school and college ball?

Man oh man, I'm positively giddy.

That still leaves two questions:

1. Ratings able to be universally 1-100? With 100+ ratings available for those superlative types?
2. Sim speeds?

[Ksyrup]

Have contract negotiations progressed from the way they were handled in the older versions of the game? I hated the '3 strikes and your out' guessing game-style of negotiating.

[Maple Leafs]

Originally Posted by Markus Heinsohn

Just that

In that case... cool feature.

[Icy]

Originally Posted by Izulde

Expansion? With a draft built in? High school and college ball?

Man oh man, I'm positively giddy.

That still leaves two questions:

1. Ratings able to be universally 1-100? With 100+ ratings available for those superlative types?
2. Sim speeds?

Ratings can be set to none, 1-5, 2-8, 1-10, 1-20 and 1-100. Internaly are stored from 1 to 250 (you can see them from 1 to 250 in the editor). I would say from 200 to 250 are for those superlative guys 100+. I think this has not changed from 2006.

[King of New York]

I enjoyed OOTP 6.51, passed on OOTP 2K6, but if the historical simming lives up to expectations, I'll certainly buy OOTP 2k7

I want mad numbers of deadball-era fielding errors.

[Coder]

Originally Posted by dervack

As someone who hated 2006 and said so many times on these boards, I think this year's OOTP is miles above last year's. I've too never been a big historical guy, but I find myself creating leagues to replay the past few years to see if I can make the Cubs a WS contender. Unfortunately, much like real life, it doesn't work.

This comment made me impressed. Not because of how you feel of the game (well that too), but rather the fact that Markus and SI had the guts to hire someone who's previously stated he really didn't like 2006 as a beta-tester for 2007(I'm not mistaken here am I?).

I think this shows a great commitment to the users from the developers to not "only" listen to the die-hard fans, but also the ones who have negative opinions (which were probably constructive none the less).

[Markus Heinsohn]

Originally Posted by Coder

This comment made me impressed. Not because of how you feel of the game (well that too), but rather the fact that Markus and SI had the guts to hire someone who's previously stated he really didn't like 2006 as a beta-tester for 2007(I'm not mistaken here am I?).

I think this shows a great commitment to the users from the developers to not "only" listen to the die-hard fans, but also the ones who have negative opinions (which were probably constructive none the less).

We have several beta testers who didn't enjoy OOTP 2006, but showed the interest to improve the game. I think the only way to improve a game is to listen to its critics