Alright boyz, here we go!!! OOTP2006 First Impressions Thread!

[Buccaneer]

Originally Posted by CamEdwards

And Windows is the most popular OS in the world. Does that mean it's the best?

All I know is I've run this game for five freaking hours and I still feel like it's the opposite of fun. After 20 minutes I'm actually pissed off, and that's a shame. I was really looking forward to this game, but now I'm tempted to go back to OOTP5.

And some people ripped and tore apart OOTP5's UI. It's not great but compared to what I've seen here (and in FM)....

I still find it amazing how much FBCB has radically changed my view of text sim UI and gameplay. Some think that a simple interface = simple game but I think not only FBCB proved that wrong but Civ4 as well. I think SI, GDS and Solecismic need to play those games some more.

[SackAttack]

Hmm. When you manage a spring training game, your lineup shows the spring stats. If you go to the lineup tab to make changes, the roster portion of the screen shows the spring stats, but the editable lineup part zeroes out.

Very odd.

[lynchjm24]

Originally Posted by SackAttack

Check whose ratings you're seeing. I've seen it happen where SISA either didn't scout a guy at all, or delivered only an incomplete report, but my head scout had something more substantial. It seems like it pins whichever report you last looked at, and does it for everybody.

If you switch from SISA to your head scout, all ratings you look at for other players display as your head scout's view. Stuff like that.

Yeah, I changed it to my head scout and I still had some dashes on my own guys. Odd. I'll see if it keeps happening.

[lynchjm24]

Originally Posted by Buccaneer

And some people ripped and tore apart OOTP5's UI. It's not great but compared to what I've seen here (and in FM)....

I still find it amazing how much FBCB has radically changed my view of text sim UI and gameplay. Some think that a simple interface = simple game but I think not only FBCB proved that wrong but Civ4 as well. I think SI, GDS and Solecismic need to play those games some more.

I was a little worried about the interface, but the bookmarks are a huge help.

[MrBug708]

The interface has all the right pieces in place they just dont seem connected. Like when looking at a player through a scout view, and he's a FA< you can't just sign him there. You need to go to league, transactions, FA, and then sign him. In FM, you have all of those options under the player card, regardless of where you are looking at it.

[SackAttack]

Augh.

"blistered on a line"
"Gijon circles under it."

*facepalm*

[King of New York]

Originally Posted by SackAttack

Augh.

"blistered on a line"
"Gijon circles under it."

*facepalm*

Gijon is one quick fielder. You should fine him for the hot-dogging, though. :lipsrsealed:

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by King of New York

Gijon is one quick fielder. You should fine him for the hot-dogging, though. :lipsrsealed:

I think that probably falls under a tampering statute if I start fining other team's players.

[jbmagic]

Originally Posted by TroyF

Well, my sim is just bogging down. It's up to 1969 at the moment. 67 years in about 20 hours or so of straight simming. My system is high end, so I'm not exactly sure what they were simming on, but this isn't it. I'm going to go grab a bit to eat, but I think I'm calling it a career whenever I get back.

I'll upload what I have and we'll see how things stack up.

According to ootp forums, to sim faster you should disable game logs and box scores.

[lynchjm24]

After spring training it would be nice if the spring training games would fall from the last 10 listing and from the game log unless you select if from the drop downs. Who wants to see the spring training games in that log for pitchers into the end of the year.

[molson]

Originally Posted by Buccaneer

I still find it amazing how much FBCB has radically changed my view of text sim UI and gameplay. Some think that a simple interface = simple game but I think not only FBCB proved that wrong but Civ4 as well. I think SI, GDS and Solecismic need to play those games some more.

So true. I haven't bought a sports sim in over a year, and I think I might be done with the genre. All of these developers are obsessed with "features", because you can list those in bullet-point format in your press releases and web sites. But the features have far, far outpaced the actual functionality of those features, and the fun level overall. FBCB is pretty much a perfect game for the features it has - everything "works".

I think what the developers are doing is a big mistake. This is a niche market anyway, and now they're further narrowing their potential market to people who want to play a certain way - extreme micro-managing.

[lynchjm24]

How do I change what email messages I'm getting? I'm signed up for way too much.

[astrosfan64]

Originally Posted by CamEdwards

And Windows is the most popular OS in the world. Does that mean it's the best?

All I know is I've run this game for five freaking hours and I still feel like it's the opposite of fun. After 20 minutes I'm actually pissed off, and that's a shame. I was really looking forward to this game, but now I'm tempted to go back to OOTP5.

Hmm, I would challenge you to name a better OS then Windows. It is shiek to bash windows, but if you look at the hard facts there really isn't anything better then it.

[TroyF]

Originally Posted by jbmagic

According to ootp forums, to sim faster you should disable game logs and box scores.

I did that. Did all of the things they suggested last night. Seemed like a no brainer to me. Disable logs, make sure quick view is selected, etc. I wanted to see how good it would go on very high detail for the majors.

Looks like '73 will be the last year of my sim. I don't have a stop auto sim buttong anywhere, but I did set it to save after each year. I hope it really did it or none of us are getting stats. I think the only way for me to stop this is to ctrl-alt-del it and pray for the best.

[Qrusher14242]

Try ESC

[TroyF]

While I'm waiting for '73 to end and crossing my fingers this will work out ok, lets talk about the bookmarks. Here are some of my more important ones:

Home page of every team in my organization
Front Office
Trade Screen
Stats - YTD screen
Lineup (don't need rotation as both are in the same set of windows anyway)
Schedule screen


I have more, but I think those are the most critical. Anyone have tips for others they are finding useful?

[ScottVib]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

The interface has all the right pieces in place they just dont seem connected. Like when looking at a player through a scout view, and he's a FA< you can't just sign him there. You need to go to league, transactions, FA, and then sign him. In FM, you have all of those options under the player card, regardless of where you are looking at it.

This is the case in OOTP 2006 as well. At the bottom of the player card there is a button labeled "Action" one of the choices for FAs is to "Offer Contract".

Hope this helps.

[Bee]

Originally Posted by Maple Leafs

Question for those with the game...

One of the things that really annoyed me about the SI version of EHM was that you couldn't quick sim a few weeks or months without giving up control of your team. You had to go "on vacation", and turn over control of the team. You had to either allow the team to make moves without you, or prohibit them from doing anything until you got back. Neither worked especially well.

OOTP, on the other hand, had a cool feature where you could quick sim but be interupted if there was an injury or trade offer. You could decide whether to keep simming, or stop and have a look at what was up. Very neat feature, and well implemented.

Does OOTP 2006 still use this approach, or have they adopted the EHM method?

In addition to what Josh posted, there's a baseball icon you can click that has the auto-play with options like:

auto-play today
auto-play until next week
auto-play until next month
auto-play until next year

and then a few options to auto-play until specific events depending on what time of year it is (things like auto-play until winter meetings, preseason, spring training, etc).

The game is moving much faster for me than EHM or FM. It's pretty flexible once you learn the interface in letting you control how much involvement you actually want in the day to day stuff. I zip through the seasons in less than an hour, it's the off-season stuff that I get bogged down in, but that's by choice.

[MJ4H]

Originally Posted by astrosfan64

Hmm, I would challenge you to name a better OS then Windows. It is shiek to bash windows, but if you look at the hard facts there really isn't anything better then it.

Most impartial people think OS X Tiger is better than Windows Vista will be even when it comes out, and it is out right now. I haven't used it, but I really want to based on these sorts of opinions I continue to read. Not saying mac stuff doesn't have other drawbacks, or that I even like macs, just saying that opinion seems to be a big one.

No more threadjack from me sorry. Enjoying reading the impressions of OOTP.

[TroyF]

OK, starting the report process, this will take awhile.

Numbers game questions while we wait:

Through 1973:

The career HR leader has _____
The career hits leader has _______
The career Wins leader has ________
The career K leader has _________

[Bee]

Originally Posted by TroyF

OK, starting the report process, this will take awhile.

Numbers game questions while we wait:

Through 1973:

The career HR leader has _____
The career hits leader has _______
The career Wins leader has ________
The career K leader has _________

umm...2/3?

[Buccaneer]

Through 1973:

The career HR leader has _____

7.

If you had run it from 1987-2004, the number would have been 1,957,063.

Edit: 1987 not 1978.

[SackAttack]

So Greg Goodloe just hit his third homer of the spring for me.

The PBP guy was pretty excited, yelling "Go to war, Miss Agnes!"

I don't know why I found that so hilarious, but I'm still laughing. Is that a cultural reference I'm missing?

[TroyF]

Originally Posted by Bee

umm...2/3?

2/3 of what?

Buc,

Higher than 7.

Single season HR was 65.

[TroyF]

Originally Posted by SackAttack

So Greg Goodloe just hit his third homer of the spring for me.

The PBP guy was pretty excited, yelling "Go to war, Miss Agnes!"

I don't know why I found that so hilarious, but I'm still laughing. Is that a cultural reference I'm missing?

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/b...ball-storyutil

[pbot]

Originally Posted by SackAttack

The PBP guy was pretty excited, yelling "Go to war, Miss Agnes!"

That was one of Chuck Thompson's - HoF broadcaster for the Orioles (and Baltimore Colts) -catchphrases.

[GoSeahawks]

The career HR leader has 700
The career hits leader has 3500
The career Wins leader has 350
The career K leader has 4300

[CraigSca]

Originally Posted by SackAttack

So Greg Goodloe just hit his third homer of the spring for me.

The PBP guy was pretty excited, yelling "Go to war, Miss Agnes!"

I don't know why I found that so hilarious, but I'm still laughing. Is that a cultural reference I'm missing?

Hall of Fame Broadcaster Chuck Thompson of the Orioles used to say this.

Edit: Whoops, beaten to the punch.

[GoSeahawks]

dola

Are you using different eras? Also, sorry if this has been answered.

[TroyF]

Originally Posted by GoSeahawks

The career HR leader has 700
The career hits leader has 3500
The career Wins leader has 350
The career K leader has 4300

HR - Lower
H - Lower
W - Lower
K - Lower

[GoSeahawks]

HR 650
h- 3200
W- 325
K- 3500

Hope they aren't too low... Last guess

[Buccaneer]

Originally Posted by TroyF

2/3 of what?

Buc,

Higher than 7.

Single season HR was 65.

Play along.

[TroyF]

Originally Posted by GoSeahawks

dola

Are you using different eras? Also, sorry if this has been answered.

Yes, I clicked on the options to make it resemble each era. So this is 1901 to 1973, fictional players, 30 team major league, DH in one league, no financial options toggles, injuries at normal.

[TroyF]

Originally Posted by Buccaneer

Play along.

It saddens me I didn't get to go the full 100, I'd have loved the steroid era. Such is life.

I only looked at the career leader board. It looked like there was an incredible pitcher. Only stat that really jumped out at me was the stolen base leader who was well over 800. The rest of the stats looked reasonable.

[kcchief19]

I think this is an import from FM, but the frequency of trade offers and opportunities between foreign leagues is just off the chart. Trades between MLB teams and foreign teams are pretty rare, but I got 11 different trade offers from foreign teams in my first two months of simming.

[Buccaneer]

Originally Posted by TroyF

Yes, I clicked on the options to make it resemble each era. So this is 1901 to 1973, fictional players, 30 team major league, DH in one league, no financial options toggles, injuries at normal.

Actually 2/3 is not that far off. If you played through the eras (why???), then about 2/3 of the time you probably had guys that lead the season with 20 HRs.

Wouldn't it have made more sense to start at 2006 and play forward since not many care about the historical eras and think baseball sims should only be about how it is played now?

[CraigSca]

So far so good with this one. Sure, there are some annoying bugs that people have explained here:

Like when you click on the substitution screen in-game, it doesn't save your last view and will automatically show you're entire roster rather than just the pitchers, or just the hitters.

There's a bug in the app itself that causes it to use 100% of your CPU. It seems to get slower and slower as it goes along.

The interface is a little less than intuitive, but should get better as you learn it.

The bug where, since injuries are now accurately reflected, the lower minors tend to run out of players (because the parent club needs to replace the injuries). This causes an autosim to stop.

The fact that I can't use one pitch per batter to steal, hit and run, etc. I can either quick sim a batter or utilize one of the strategies.

Overall, however...I'm liking this more than previous iterations. I love the fact that when I'm playing a game I can see what this batter has done against this pitcher when they faced each other in the past - very cool. I love the accurate injuries. This will definitely take some time to delve into, but I can see myself getting much further along in this game than previous versions.

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by CraigSca

Hall of Fame Broadcaster Chuck Thompson of the Orioles used to say this.

Edit: Whoops, beaten to the punch.

I did not know that. Very cool.

At any rate, he hit another in the 9th inning - which was a good thing, because my reliever gave up 3 in the bottom of the 9th. Would've tied the game, too, not for that homer.

[Bee]

Originally Posted by kcchief19

I think this is an import from FM, but the frequency of trade offers and opportunities between foreign leagues is just off the chart. Trades between MLB teams and foreign teams are pretty rare, but I got 11 different trade offers from foreign teams in my first two months of simming.

I don't think that's a FM thing since there really aren't trades in FM.

[aran]

How's the report generation/uploading going, Troy?

I'm eagerly awaiting the chance to peruse some hard data.

[General Mike]

Originally Posted by TroyF

OK, starting the report process, this will take awhile.

Numbers game questions while we wait:

Through 1973:

The career HR leader has _____
The career hits leader has _______
The career Wins leader has ________
The career K leader has _________

636
3173
322
3722

[TroyF]

Originally Posted by aran

How's the report generation/uploading going, Troy?

I'm eagerly awaiting the chance to peruse some hard data.

Still creating the reports. I'm worried about the size. We'll see how big it ends up being.

[kcchief19]

Originally Posted by Bee

I don't think that's a FM thing since there really aren't trades in FM.

Really? I thought transfers and what not were a huge part of that game.

[TroyF]

Originally Posted by General Mike

636
3173
322
3722

Damned impressive guesswork. Almost wondering if you did this yourself.

HR - 592
Hits - 3109
W - 312 (I believe I had five man rotations selected by default, I didn't change those)
K - 3726

I really can't complain with any of the numbers. It looks like hits and HR are a tad low, wins and K's would be pretty reasonable for a five man rotation.

[cougarfreak]

Originally Posted by TroyF

Damned impressive guesswork. Almost wondering if you did this yourself.

HR - 592
Hits - 3109
W - 312 (I believe I had five man rotations selected by default, I didn't change those)
K - 3726

I really can't complain with any of the numbers. It looks like hits and HR are a tad low, wins and K's would be pretty reasonable for a five man rotation.

I think that's pretty close to what I'm getting. I'm in 1966 right now, autosimming until 1972, I'll post what I come up with.

[Qrusher14242]

Looks like the 255 bug is still there. You cant have more than 255 runs or RBI's. Markus said it was going to be fixed for this release, but he changed his mind

[TroyF]

Originally Posted by Qrusher14242

Looks like the 255 bug is still there. You cant have more than 255 runs or RBI's. Markus said it was going to be fixed for this release, but he changed his mind

Huh? You mean in a single season? Is it really that bad that you can't get more than 255 RBI in a year?

[TroyF]

Originally Posted by cougarfreak

I think that's pretty close to what I'm getting. I'm in 1966 right now, autosimming until 1972, I'll post what I come up with.

This is taking forever. I'm not confident I'm going to have the space for this thing when it gets done. I tried limiting a big chunk of data, but it's not looking good at all.

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by kcchief19

I think this is an import from FM, but the frequency of trade offers and opportunities between foreign leagues is just off the chart. Trades between MLB teams and foreign teams are pretty rare, but I got 11 different trade offers from foreign teams in my first two months of simming.

This is odd since I thought the engine was rewritten and wasn't using the code base my mistake I guess. Anyways, this is one reason, the vast difference between baseball in the MLB (US) and soccer in Europe as it relates to interaction among teams and leagues. In Europe as with most things there is a "free" flow of talent across national borders from different teams and leagues. In the Major Leagues, many players come from the Domincan Republic/PR, some from Cuba , a few out of Venezuala and Columbia plus about 20 players from Japan/Korea. That's it. There shouldn't be 150 players from Italy showing up in the Majors or MLB minors for that matter.

[cougarfreak]

Originally Posted by TroyF

This is taking forever. I'm not confident I'm going to have the space for this thing when it gets done. I tried limiting a big chunk of data, but it's not looking good at all.

I'm just getting my info off of the in game "catobase" tracker.