Alright Boyz, Here We Go!!!! (OOTP 2007 release thoughts!!!)

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

I'm using Redsox45's historical template with the Lahman database and 3-year recalc. The only setting I changed was to turn off FA, and to stop periodically to update the names of the playoff rounds, add FA, arbitration ,etc.

I like the results, outside of what I've been discussing about the lack of context for player position changes.

What is the "Redsox45's historical template" never heard of him or it? Is there anywhere we can find it?

[Ksyrup]

Without touching the financials, it looks the game isn't properly factoring the late-90s issue that small market/small-minded teams had with competing. Pittsburgh just won the 1997 WS with 110 wins behind Thome, Strawberry, and Lieber. Poor Cubs...they kept Maddux and Johnson together, and they were 1-2 in VORP and the Cubs won 91 games, but they finished 4th in the NL Central, 19 games behind the Pirates.

Thome won the Triple Crown, BTW.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by Galaril

What is the "Redsox45's historical template" never heard of him or it? Is there anywhere we can find it?

padresfanmods.net

[Ksyrup]

OK, here's a neat trade of the sort I was looking for.

In 1995, the Yankees traded Mariano Rivera, who had a 4.38 ERA with 47 BBs in 63 IP as a rookie, to the Giants for Tony Longmire. Longmire was, and continues to be, a pretty good part-time player. Rivera is now, obviously, turning into a premier closer for the Giants. Nice!

One thing I don't understand, though, is that this trade occurred on September 27th. I guess both guys cleared waivers?

[Qwikshot]

My question is if you use Gambo and don't have a college league, will you eventually run out of players to draft?

[Ksyrup]

I don't use the draft with historical players, so I don't know. I just place them on their teams. But since they never seem to run out of players, my guess is you don't need to have any feeder leagues. But it depends on what you want - if you want fictional players mixed in with real, then you can disable the ghost player option and your minors will be filled in with fictional players.

That's not the way I play, though. My history is 100% real life players, placed on the teams they first signed/played with.

[Ksyrup]

Man, I'm loving watching the Yankees continue to shoot themselves in the foot. First the Rivera trade, then they dealt Pettitte for Lee Stevens in 1998, Bernie Williams somehow ended up with the White Sox...

As I mentioned above, though, I don't think the standard settings are doing enough to separate small and large market teams, so the Yankees continue to struggle and a bunch of small market teams are taking turns winning right now. It's kinda like watching the 80s, except with a bunch more HRs.

[Ksyrup]

Some things never change...2001 Braves go 110-52, get knocked out in the first round by the division-winning D-Backs - with an 80-82 record.

I didn't see their averages, but Bonds and Thome are still Pirates and just put up 56HR and 145/143 RBI seasons. Wow.

[Ksyrup]

To illustrate my point about the ML vs. AL/NL designations on player cards, Greg Maddux has only played for two teams - the Cubs and White Sox. Looking at his player card, you'd never know he changed teams, except that he was traded mid-season, which makes his card look even worse. Ugh, this is annoying!

[spleen1015]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

To illustrate my point about the ML vs. AL/NL designations on player cards, Greg Maddux has only played for two teams - the Cubs and White Sox. Looking at his player card, you'd never know he changed teams, except that he was traded mid-season, which makes his card look even worse. Ugh, this is annoying!

I agree, but I also think that teams in cities that have more than one team should designate which league they are in with their 3 letter abbreviation.

[Ksyrup]

I agree, but on the player card it just says, "Chicago - MLB," so the city abbreviation doesn't come into play here.

[spleen1015]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

I agree, but on the player card it just says, "Chicago - MLB," so the city abbreviation doesn't come into play here.

Heh. Whoops. :d

[Ksyrup]

I can't wait to start going through some of these rosters when the sim finishes. In 2004, the D-Rays win the AL East and make it to the WS, losing to the Cardinals. The Cardinals won the NL Central with a 113-49 record, ahead of the 105-57 Astros AND 102-60 Pirates.

That's right...the Pirates won 102 games and finished second in the Wild Card!

ARod went from Seattle to Cleveland. They got knocked out in the first round of the playoffs this year. Can't wait to see his post-season stats...

[SunDevil]

First Patch List:

Originally Posted by Marc Duffy

Current fix list

New features:
- Added the ability to add a park in the park editor
- The game now remembers the preferred view in the pitching staff & lineup/depth chart screens
- When loading a game or selecting a new manager, the head scout is now preselected on all pages

Troubleshooting:
- New command line parameter 'nofacegen'. Disables Facegen when added to command line.
- New config setting "Facegen mode (Standard/Troubleshooting)" in preferences dialog. Troubleshooting uses a hidden window for rendering instead of pixel buffers.
- If trace mode is enabled through command line parameter or config file setting, certain problems which happen during startup will be displayed in message boxes

Bug fixes:
- Importing rosters from league setup no longer effects fan interest
- When creating a historical league with minor leagues through the wizard, 40-man roster rules are now enabled
- Added better error reporting for esellerate problems
- Fixed problems when managing a minor league team, the AI no longer interferes
- Editing weather data in the ballpark editor no longer requires hitting ENTER
- Fixed Joe Nobodies popping up after reimporting the name database
- Fixed some template related problems (#3039)
- Fixed a bug which could let Facegen use the wrong pixel format
- Fixed a bug which let Facegen use the wrong windows handle
- Fixed several problems with deleted leagues
- Fixed problems with adding leagues after game has been created and simulated for a few years

This is scheduled for release next week

[Eilim]

This game is evil, I've spent most of my time with it so far just editing files to create my own little baseball universe. Other than test runs to check data for errors and side effects or testing various league structures, I haven't really "played" the game yet and I've had it since release day.


Just finished the base for my universe, adding the "nations" of Massachusetts, Eastern Mass., Western Mass., and also nations for each county of the state with corresponding city affiliations. Pretty soon I'll have multiple leagues set up and intermingling without the taint of any of you dirty outsiders.

[SunDevil]

I would be interested in a league template if you ever decide to release to the public.

[Swaggs]

Is there an easy way to assign my scout(s) to check out the draft pool?

I'm in my second season and I couldn't figure it out last season, so I manually scouted maybe 30-45 players and it was fairly laborsome (and not fun, at all). Hopefully there is an easy way to canvas all of the players and get a decent report from my scouts.

[JPhillips]

Go to draft under league transactions. There is a scout button in the lower right corner.

[Eilim]

Originally Posted by SunDevil

I would be interested in a league template if you ever decide to release to the public.

Not a problem, a lot of additions and cleaning up to do as of yet. Some of the choices on the cities to represent Massachusetts (and some of the errors) have had me scratching my head.

If anyone else is considering doing the same for their own area, I've found http://www.census.gov/ and http://www.hometownlocator.com/ to be great aids.

[molson]

Originally Posted by Eilim

Not a problem, a lot of additions and cleaning up to do as of yet. Some of the choices on the cities to represent Massachusetts (and some of the errors) have had me scratching my head.

If you don't include Fitchburg I'm putting you on my ignore list.

[Swaggs]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

Go to draft under league transactions. There is a scout button in the lower right corner.

Thanks, man.

I figured it was in there somewhere. I am enjoying this game a lot, but I was worried that the draft was going to be a big dragging point for me each season.

[SirFozzie]

Originally Posted by molson

If you don't include Fitchburg I'm putting you on my ignore list.

Yeah, same with Franklin

[Eilim]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

Yeah, same with Franklin

In one of my early test runs with my modified nations and city file using the Japanese league structure Franklin went on a streak of I think 8 straight championship appearances, winning 6 of them. Almost made me remove them, especially after they swept Foxboro in one of the series. The bastards... Almost redid their nickname to the Yankees after that.

[Toddzilla]

Here's an issue that will potentially determine if I'm going to purchase the game....

I'd like to set up a league similar to MLB - complete with minor leagues - but model it after soccer, i.e. top teams in lower divisions get promoted and bottom feeders get relegated. Is that going to present a problem?

[spleen1015]

Originally Posted by Toddzilla

Here's an issue that will potentially determine if I'm going to purchase the game....

I'd like to set up a league similar to MLB - complete with minor leagues - but model it after soccer, i.e. top teams in lower divisions get promoted and bottom feeders get relegated. Is that going to present a problem?

I haven't tried this with 2007, but I was able to accomplish it with 2006 as a beta tester.

You will have to promote and demote the teams manually.

[spleen1015]

Originally Posted by Eilim

This game is evil, I've spent most of my time with it so far just editing files to create my own little baseball universe. Other than test runs to check data for errors and side effects or testing various league structures, I haven't really "played" the game yet and I've had it since release day.


Just finished the base for my universe, adding the "nations" of Massachusetts, Eastern Mass., Western Mass., and also nations for each county of the state with corresponding city affiliations. Pretty soon I'll have multiple leagues set up and intermingling without the taint of any of you dirty outsiders.

I haven't played it yet, either. Like you I am figuring out how to accomplish my league idea with a bunch of trial and error leagues.

[Swaggs]

Originally Posted by Toddzilla

Here's an issue that will potentially determine if I'm going to purchase the game....

I'd like to set up a league similar to MLB - complete with minor leagues - but model it after soccer, i.e. top teams in lower divisions get promoted and bottom feeders get relegated. Is that going to present a problem?

You cannot set teams to be promoted/relegated, but you can very easily edit the league structures at the end of each season to get the same effect.

[Ksyrup]

Here's a perfect example of the recalc issue - John Smoltz.

First of all, Smoltz has had an almost dead-on accurate sim of his career. Through 2006, he's got 204 wins and 169 saves, compared with 193 wins and 154 saves IRL. And the difference in those numbers is pretty much attributable to the fact that he didn't miss the 2001 season from injury, since the game averaged that 3 year period and made him a starter then closer immediately, resulting in a few more wins and saves in the sim. Otherwise, he was nearly perfectly simmed. He's spent almost his entire career with Atlanta, with the exception of 1.5 years with Cleveland. He was dealt to Cleveland midway through 1992, stayed for the entire 1993 season, then signed with Atlanta again after that season as a FA.

Looking at the 2000-2001 seasons when he was a SP then converted to closer, he was the staff ace in 2000, going 17-10 with a 3.53 ERA. In 2001, he converted to closer, with a dominating 1.27 ERA and 43 saves. However, in 2000, the team had John Rocker as its closer, and he saved 30 games with a 2.76 ERA. In 2001, as a set up man, he notched a nearly identical 2.77 ERA in the same number of innings (about 62). Controversial comments to SI aside, I don't see a reason he needed to be replaced by Smoltz.

The cool thing about how the AI reacted, though, is this - I'm assuming that Smoltz's "career change" occurred at some point immediately following the 2000 season. The AI recognized that he was now a "closer," and went out and traded Mark DeRosa for Matt Clement on December 10th, during the Winter Meetings. Is that bad ass or what? Now, again, for the context of the game, the entire thing was completely unecessary, but the fact that AI reacted as it did to shore up what became a hole in the rotation is amazing to see.

Bravo, Markus!

[Ksyrup]

On the position player side, I'm seeing something interesting with Biggio. I would have expected to see him move from C to 2B in 1992, but he never did. Early on, he bounced from C to OF and then primarily played C for his entire career, playing 2B sparingly. However, on that 1992 Astros team, Rance Mulliniks played 2B and hit .203, while the Astros had Andy Allanson and Scott Servais as back up catcher who hit a combined .300. Strange. Seems like that would have been a good opportunity to make the move.

[Ksyrup]

I have to say that I'm pleasantly surprised with the trades I have examined so far. I like that the AI seems to be taking stats into account in making deals. For instance, in looking at the 1981 AL Champ Tigers, I saw that John Tudor was the ace of the staff. I new he came up with the Red Sox around that time, so I looked at his history and saw that he came up with Boston in 1980 and made 2 appearances, then was dealt in the off-season to Detroit for Jim Norris. Norris had hit .293 in 1980 for the Tigers. So they dealt a young pitcher for a 1B/OF they needed (he ended up splitting time with an over-the-hill Willie Stargell, so he was clearly a need). It turned out to be a terrible deal for Boston, but it made sense.

EDIT: Speaking of Tudor, he ended up being the Jack Morris of the Tigers staff for the 80s. In 1989, he became a FA and the Tigers, luckily, let him go. I say luckily because he signed a 3-year deal with Cleveland that offseason for $4.6M, and repaid his new club by posting a 4-29 record with a 4.76 ERA in 1990. He actually pitched pretty well the next year in a reliever/spot starter role, then was released with 1 year remaining on his contract and signed to a minsal contract in late 1992 by the expansion Rockies, for whom he never threw a pitch.

[Eaglesfan27]

I've also seen the AI react nicely to the game changing a starter to closer. After Eckersley was changed to a closer in my career, the AI reacted aggressively to get a good starter. Part of the trade was the closer they had before Eck


Of course, I wish it was possible to not have guys automatically change to closers, yet still keep the other recalc features.

[Eilim]

Decided to quick sim another league in the background while gathering info on local ball parks to add into the game. Due to my in-ability to deal with peer pressure or the thoughts of being ignored, the league was expanded by two teams in 2027.

Sadly, due to the commissioner not paying attention during the writing up of the expansion documents, the new teams had an expansion draft in which I believe all the teams in the league were able to protect all of their rosters... Woops.

Fitchburg made a nice run in the 2031 season, and while leading the race for most of the year they could not pull away and fell in the final weeks finishing out in 3rd. Seems the GM had a melt down after and they have yet to recover.

Franklin on the other hand had been completely abysmal since their entrance into the league, that is until 2038. In '38 they seemed destined for glory, but went the way of the '31 Fitchburg team. That is, with one exception... Franklin didn't have a melt down the next year.. far from it.

Anyways, for those curious, I threw up the almanac here : Link

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

I've also seen the AI react nicely to the game changing a starter to closer. After Eckersley was changed to a closer in my career, the AI reacted aggressively to get a good starter. Part of the trade was the closer they had before Eck


Of course, I wish it was possible to not have guys automatically change to closers, yet still keep the other recalc features.

Yeah, the AI reaction is sweet. With Eckersley, it was even more ridiculous that he changed - he was the only decent starter by a long stretch. But oh well.

I've been going through the history - it's so overwhelming, I almost don't know where to start. But I've been taking a year-by-year look at standings, the best/worst teams, league leaders, and individuals as I come across someone interesting. The immersion factor is great.

[Ksyrup]

Tonight, I think I'm going to work on plans for a fictional historical league, as well as keep looking through the history of the league I just simmed.

[Ksyrup]

Also, I should mention, as I did with Biggio above, that the AI seems to be less strict about position player changes, sometimes ignoring altogether when someone changed full-time to a new position. Like with Biggio above, or with Dale Murphy, who stayed a catcher until around 1986, I believe, in my sim, when he switched to CF. Someone at the OOTP board suggested that the pitcher "roles" be eliminated altogether and determined solely by stamina, and that might not be a bad idea. It certainly would help alleviate some issues with the recalc option. Maybe a Smoltz or Eck wouldn't automatically be switched from SP before the next season, but slowly transition. That would work for me.

[Young Drachma]

I know I suggested last year that the games to stop categorizing pitchers by SP, MR, RP, CL, because we all know that its porous and that even the stamina factor can change depending on the guy and the year.

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

I know I suggested last year that the games to stop categorizing pitchers by SP, MR, RP, CL, because we all know that its porous and that even the stamina factor can change depending on the guy and the year.

The groundwork is in place to get rid of the pitching categories. If you go to the player's profile and look at his contract you'll see under his expectations what role he expects to be in on the team.

Having the best low stamina pitchers in the league insist on being a closer and also having pitchers that insist on being a starter should be the way the game works. When a player is a free agent, his contract demands should be tied to his ability level and the role they expect to play on a team.

[Atocep]

Suggestions for Markus if he's still checking this thread:

1) On the lineups and depthcharts screen, make a drop-down menu that allows you to toggle between depth charts and splits. This is possibly my biggest pet peeve right now. I understand that the depth charts being side by side with lineups makes setting both easier, but after they're set and I'm simming I like to be able to quickly check to see how my guys are doing as I like to tweak my lineup a bit as I sim depending on who's hot and who's slumping or just not performing. Being able to see the splits right next to the lineup makes that a whole lot easier.

2) Same thing for the standings screen. Make a drop-down menu that allows me to see the expanded standing w/ wildcard standings or the straight divisional standings with the mini-leaderboards.

3) Move the option to zoom facegen to 'Player and Picture Options' under Game Setup. Makes a whole lot more sense.

[DeToxRox]

KS - How are our beloved Tigs doing?

I hope Kaline retired at Tig.

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

OK, here's a neat trade of the sort I was looking for.

In 1995, the Yankees traded Mariano Rivera, who had a 4.38 ERA with 47 BBs in 63 IP as a rookie, to the Giants for Tony Longmire. Longmire was, and continues to be, a pretty good part-time player. Rivera is now, obviously, turning into a premier closer for the Giants. Nice!

One thing I don't understand, though, is that this trade occurred on September 27th. I guess both guys cleared waivers?

what level is trade set to?

[Ryche]

Just the expansion option by itself has me tempted to get this. The hardest part of a baseball sim for me is always getting started and I love being able to start building a team from scratch.

But I'm still gunshy from OOTP2006, which I never even got through a full season on. I'm kind of disappointed there's not a discount given to those who purchased OOTP2006 considering it was released only about 9 months ago.

From everything I'm reading so far though, seems like they've made some major improvements. Pretty sure I'll end up buying this after a patch or two.

[DaddyTorgo]

can someone walk me step-by-step through getting stadium pictures in place? I have them all in the mydocuments/si/ootp/data/ballparks subfolder. I have them in there both in the main folder, and in subfolders, but both ways when I startup my saved game they're not showing up.

Would they only showup in a new game? i'm confused. help!

[DaddyTorgo]

oh man. Do I hafta start with a template that has that all assigned out? that's what it sorta looks like. Cuz the pics are all set to "default", and I don't know how i'd get them all changed otherwise.

[Drake]

Originally Posted by Ryche

I'm kind of disappointed there's not a discount given to those who purchased OOTP2006 considering it was released only about 9 months ago.

I got 10% off because I purchased OOTP2k6 & pre-ordered. What else did you want?

[Young Drachma]

When console games start coming with discounts because we pre-purchased the previous version that sucked, then I'll get mad at text sim publishers who don't do the same. Otherwise, I'm fine. I don't get patches, support or anyone who gives a damn when some random EA Sports game I play has some goofy bug or problem.

And no, it's not the same..but they shouldn't get a free pass just because the developers of those games don't give a damn about what people at home really think, while the little guys are here in the trenches with us. If their games stinks long term, they'll go out of business.

But I don't believe in holding them to a different standard.

[yabanci]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

can someone walk me step-by-step through getting stadium pictures in place? I have them all in the mydocuments/si/ootp/data/ballparks subfolder. I have them in there both in the main folder, and in subfolders, but both ways when I startup my saved game they're not showing up.

Would they only showup in a new game? i'm confused. help!

As far as I can tell, you have to:

1. go game settings>league setup>edit ballparks
2. lick the second tab (pictures & coordinates)
3. either type or cut & paste the exact file name for each ballpark, both day and night versions, if available.
4. repeat over and over until you go through all the teams.

Then you have the mess of lining up the player coordinates.

Then, if you want ballparks to affect the game other than just being an extra graphic, you have to go back to the "park profile" tab and manually input for each team the ballpark type, surface, capacity, ballpark factors, outfield wall distances, and wall heights.

Then shave the long white beard you grew while doing all of this busywork.

I asked earlier in the thread how people manage this mess, but nobody replied. Maybe there's an easier way. It'd be nice to know.

[Ryche]

Originally Posted by Drake

I got 10% off because I purchased OOTP2k6 & pre-ordered. What else did you want?

Sorry, I couldn't justifying preordering this time.

Very excited that it seems major improvements have been made though.

[Drake]

It just occurred to me that my response reads sort of bitchy. I didn't mean it bitchy, Ryche. Sorry if it seemed that way.

[Dekanth]

I have read through most, but not all of this thread, so forgive me if I missed it anywhere, but has anybody actually played this game yet, or are you all just simming historical stuff?

I would love to know how it is to play a fictional league. How is the player development? How are the drafts? How is the AI when it comes to lineups, rotations, trading, drafting, etc?

I appreciate how this game appeals to historical simmers, but I never do that, so I am curious how it fares as a true text sim game.

[Ryche]

Yeah, my initial comment came out a bit more sour sounding than I meant too. Realistically, a discount would be meaningless to me, if a game's good, I'll pay whatever. I was just so looking forward to OOTP 2006 and ended up so disappointed. Sounds like this version was what I was looking for.