OOTP 18 Released Today

[Mota]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

So does being able to set lineups properly and have realistic financials.

Guess I feel it should cater toward fans who want a realistic baseball game before catering toward fans who wish baseball was soccer.

When the world's leading soccer sim is the highest selling sports sim in the world, maybe appealing to those fans isn't such a bad thing.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Mota

When the world's leading soccer sim is the highest selling sports sim in the world, maybe appealing to those fans isn't such a bad thing.

How many of those buyers are going to buy a baseball sim, that seems to be the more relevant question.

[jbergey22]

The soccer game we speak of isnt without its own warts. Love the series but it has its flaws as well.

#Cantpleaseeveryone

[CrescentMoonie]

Originally Posted by EagleFan

Because it is a great option; and would make for a better league in the US.

Sure it would. Just go ahead and try to negotiate a national TV deal when there's a chance that a major market like NY or LA could be completely without a team if they both have bad years at the wrong time. You can't get away with that unless you're the NFL and they still clawed and scratched to get teams back in the LA market.

This isn't some European country the size of California, the US has as many metro areas over 1 million people as the entire EU. Pro/rel is asinine at best in this country.

[cuervo72]

Can't wait for that team of Clint Robinsons to bump San Diego!

[spleen1015]

I'm as big an OOTP fanboy as they come, but I can definitely see the warts. Some of the issues pointed out in this thread are real.

The thing for me is, there is so much a like about the game that I am willing to over look the warts.

I think part of the issue is every year the same people are pointing out the same issues and that gets annoying. Its like your wife nagging you about something.

[Young Drachma]

Clearly the MLB license has made that game sell way more copies than ever before, so he doesn't even have to come here anymore to say anything about people's criticisms. So yeah...what we think doesn't matter, but it's still worth highlighting what's wrong with the game anyway, because most of us have supported it for the decade plus it took to get it here.

[EagleFan]

This site has been on life support for a while, that may be a reason he doesn't come around.

[spleen1015]

That and I see a lot of folks that used to buy that don't any more. Maybe he sees FOFC as a dead market and is focusing elsewhere. Its what I would do.

[jbergey22]

Probably figures he has in own site to worry about and read the negative feedback. Doesnt really need to do any marketing over here anymore.

He really has never been good at listening to customers suggestions in comparison to the other programmers we have on this site.

Apparently, Markus has a complete different vision of his game than most of the members here.

With all of that said its like the Tony Romo of sims. Periods of greatness with a lot of disappointment. I wonder if its not possible to create realistic(MLB) financials/transactions with all the other other variables you can decide on with this game. I have no other explanation on why he gets lost in the shuffle every single year.

[RainMaker]

I just think his forum and maybe even this one is insulated a bit from what casual fans would want from a sim. Maybe he has different numbers handy but I'd wager that 95% or more of people who buy this game just want to play out a MLB simulation with their favorite team. Maybe some want to do some historical replays. I think it's just a tiny percent that want to setup bizarre universes that don't exist anywhere in real life baseball.

I'm fine with adding a bunch of weird crap like promotion/relegation. I just think the game should be able to handle a bullpen properly. It should put the backup SS in the game when the starting SS gets hurt (instead of a random outfielder who has no rating at SS). A player should understand the market enough that they wouldn't turn down an $80 million contract extension and then sign for $20 million in the offseason somewhere else.

The only reason I complain is because I do think the game is so close to being great. Some in-game AI tuning, some trade logic tweaks, some work on the financials, and a few other bugs that have been prevalent and you have a wonderful game. But that time is being put into promotion/relegation or whatever the 5 people most vocal on the OOTP forums are clamoring for (I saw someone say they'd like to have other planets so they can have a galactic baseball league).

[Mota]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

How many of those buyers are going to buy a baseball sim, that seems to be the more relevant question.

I don't even like soccer, and I've bought nearly every version of Football Manager since about 1991. I'm sure that it goes the other way overseas in some cases. Certainly a lot of the playable leagues in OOTP are outside of North America, which you would think is the exclusive target market for baseball.

I think we've all purchased sim games for sports that we may not have been crazy over.

Plus, OOTP is selling very well. MUCH more than almost every other sports sim (other than Football Manager). So whatever they are doing must be appealing to a broader market than many of the grognard sims that we play.

[MizzouRah]

I'm being serious when I say you can always check out Baseball Mogul 2017, it was just released and I've been known to also support Clay's game.

I don't own it yet, but he did focus on the "under the hood" stuff this year as well as more testing before release. Early reports from people say it's relatively bug free and as always.. it's focus is purely on MLB.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by spleen1015

Maybe he sees FOFC as a dead market and is focusing elsewhere. Its what I would do.

Or maybe he just doesn't go anywhere his ass isn't kissed 99% of the time, with a horde of slobbering fanboys ready to shout down any reasonable human being that happens to show up.

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

I just think his forum and maybe even this one is insulated a bit from what casual fans would want from a sim. Maybe he has different numbers handy but I'd wager that 95% or more of people who buy this game just want to play out a MLB simulation with their favorite team. Maybe some want to do some historical replays. I think it's just a tiny percent that want to setup bizarre universes that don't exist anywhere in real life baseball.

I'm fine with adding a bunch of weird crap like promotion/relegation. I just think the game should be able to handle a bullpen properly. It should put the backup SS in the game when the starting SS gets hurt (instead of a random outfielder who has no rating at SS). A player should understand the market enough that they wouldn't turn down an $80 million contract extension and then sign for $20 million in the offseason somewhere else.

The only reason I complain is because I do think the game is so close to being great. Some in-game AI tuning, some trade logic tweaks, some work on the financials, and a few other bugs that have been prevalent and you have a wonderful game. But that time is being put into promotion/relegation or whatever the 5 people most vocal on the OOTP forums are clamoring for (I saw someone say they'd like to have other planets so they can have a galactic baseball league).

+1

[Ragone]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

I'm being serious when I say you can always check out Baseball Mogul 2017, it was just released and I've been known to also support Clay's game.

I don't own it yet, but he did focus on the "under the hood" stuff this year as well as more testing before release. Early reports from people say it's relatively bug free and as always.. it's focus is purely on MLB.

Is Joey long in that one? man, he was soo good he broke the game, and he'd literally pay you to play, which was amazing

[spleen1015]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Or maybe he just doesn't go anywhere his ass isn't kissed 99% of the time, with a horde of slobbering fanboys ready to shout down any reasonable human being that happens to show up.

Yeah, I bet that's it.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by Ragone

Is Joey long in that one? man, he was soo good he broke the game, and he'd literally pay you to play, which was amazing

Not sure I understand this one..

[Ragone]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

Not sure I understand this one..

one of the earlier iterations of baseball mogul had a super bug that made joey long the most unstoppable pitcher in history of planet earth.. i mean he was capable of 25+ strikeout games, could pitch nearly every other day. etc

His stats ended up being so good, the game didn't know how to handle his contract negotiation, so it wrapped around to being Negative millions.. I miss that bug, and would love to play it one more time for old time sakes.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by Ragone

one of the earlier iterations of baseball mogul had a super bug that made joey long the most unstoppable pitcher in history of planet earth.. i mean he was capable of 25+ strikeout games, could pitch nearly every other day. etc

His stats ended up being so good, the game didn't know how to handle his contract negotiation, so it wrapped around to being Negative millions.. I miss that bug, and would love to play it one more time for old time sakes.

Now that's funny!

There are some things I've always loved about BM over OOTP. Like the stats on the player cards, all right there in different colors for HS, minors, MLB - very easy on the eyes to me. The news stories.. although OOTP has that, BM was the first to have those. Simming seasons are much faster as it's not as deep, but I find that I can go much further into BM than I can with OOTP, which is not a good or bad thing, but I do like the "lite" approach at times.

When I was a huge baseball fan, I would play them both day after day, but with so many games and not as much free time anymore.. it's hard for me to decide on a sports sim and actually burn through seasons instead of 15 minute spurts, which leads me to OOTP more than not.

If Clay would charge $20 for his game instead of $35, it would be an instant purchase every year for me. Kind of odd playing less for OOTP than I would have to pay for BM.

[RainMaker]

Anyone playing this? The game seems so close to being great but has the same glaring issues it's had forever that gamebreak it down the line (roster management, injuries).

[RainMaker]

And if you haven't downloaded the new patch, stay away from it. There's a big game breaking bug in it where it throws all your injured minor leaguers on the 60-day DL which should only be for guys on the 40-man roster. This causes low minors guys to accrue major league service time.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

And if you haven't downloaded the new patch, stay away from it. There's a big game breaking bug in it where it throws all your injured minor leaguers on the 60-day DL which should only be for guys on the 40-man roster. This causes low minors guys to accrue major league service time.

I've been enjoying the game quite a bit.. guess I won't be playing today as I've already installed the patch. Thankfully I don't have any minor league injuries right now.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

I've been enjoying the game quite a bit.. guess I won't be playing today as I've already installed the patch. Thankfully I don't have any minor league injuries right now.

But other teams do. It screws up everything. Hopefully they can fix it quick and this isn't one of those month long waits for a patch.

[Young Drachma]

I got it last week on sale and it's been fine. Now that I have less time to pay attention to the stuff that I know irritates me, I just can't work up the ire and use it for what it's good for -- speedy simulating baseball stats, etc.

I do wish financials weren't so messy, but in general, I do like some of the additions that are not documented anywhere like being able to split salary in trades and other stuff that escapes me right now, but it's only stuff I figured out through tinkering.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by Young Drachma

I got it last week on sale and it's been fine. Now that I have less time to pay attention to the stuff that I know irritates me, I just can't work up the ire and use it for what it's good for -- speedy simulating baseball stats, etc.

I do wish financials weren't so messy, but in general, I do like some of the additions that are not documented anywhere like being able to split salary in trades and other stuff that escapes me right now, but it's only stuff I figured out through tinkering.

Yeah I'm being hard on it but it is a great game. Takes a little while to tinker and get the right settings. I think the frustration will always be that the irritating things should get priority over soccer.

[bulletsponge]

just picked up ootp yesterday for the 1st time. ive been hooked since

[RainMaker]

Your posts on AI settings are great over at the OOTP forums Mizzou. Wish more people discussed the game that way over there instead of trying to talk Markus into adding weird features.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

Your posts on AI settings are great over at the OOTP forums Mizzou. Wish more people discussed the game that way over there instead of trying to talk Markus into adding weird features.

Thank you.. I appreciate that!

I wish you could change them in Challenge Mode.. it has me thinking about restarting.

[MrBug708]

Does MizzouRah have his settings readily available?

[RainMaker]

Do you have any other setting recommendations Mizzou? I've been tweaking the development/aging settings a bit. Feel like guys don't develop fast enough and age too quickly.

Injuries also seem off. Just seems too many long term injuries and not enough guys playing a majority of the games.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

Do you have any other setting recommendations Mizzou? I've been tweaking the development/aging settings a bit. Feel like guys don't develop fast enough and age too quickly.

Injuries also seem off. Just seems too many long term injuries and not enough guys playing a majority of the games.

I really only mess with the AI evaluation settings.. I like 50/30/15/5 over the default which favors ratings heavily.

For injuries I like OOTP classic.. seems to be pretty spot on IMHO.

[MrBug708]

Just had a draftee ask for 20,000,000 signing bonus..

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

Just had a draftee ask for 20,000,000 signing bonus..

Bug or does this guy have massive ratings?

[MrBug708]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

Bug or does this guy have massive ratings?

4* according to my scout. 19/12/13. He was deemed "impossible", which generally were anywhere from 2.2 to 4.0. I took him at 1.20, which I assumed meant he dropped to because of his demand rating, but man, he wasn't worth 20 million

[MrBug708]

I just rescouted him after getting the comp pick and his signability is listed as Very Easy...haha

Going to shortlist him to see what he signs for next time

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

4* according to my scout. 19/12/13. He was deemed "impossible", which generally were anywhere from 2.2 to 4.0. I took him at 1.20, which I assumed meant he dropped to because of his demand rating, but man, he wasn't worth 20 million

I've never seen that high of a signing bonus.. what year are you in?

[MrBug708]

Just saw a 4 way tie for the AL Central. Two teams lost their final games, another won their last game, and the other won their last two games. Looks like they had a four team single elimination tournament.

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

Just saw a 4 way tie for the AL Central. Two teams lost their final games, another won their last game, and the other won their last two games. Looks like they had a four team single elimination tournament.

Too funny when that happens.

I've been playing a lot more lately, I think things I like about OOTP after shitting on it forever is the fact that you can import mods from years ago and they still work. Also that you can upgrade from version to version even if you didn't own it, so files mostly work.

The most insanely frustrating thing about FM is that you cannot upgrade from year to year, so you just end up wasting a lot of time rebuilding DBs.

Finally decided to purge database records in my current 300+ year old save file, so needless to say it's taking a LONG time, but it should finally reduce the file size and speed things up considerably. I'd forgotten how long it'd been since I managed to do that. I was keeping all minor leaguers even if they didn't make the majors for a while, but after hundreds of years, there's no world where I'm actually going to go back in time and look at dudes who didn't make it to the bigs, regardless of the storyline.

[MrBug708]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

I've never seen that high of a signing bonus.. what year are you in?

It was in 2030. I am now in 2035. He was drafted in 2031 later in the first and signed for 3.5 million and doesn't look like he'll ever be much of anything in the league.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

It was in 2030. I am now in 2035. He was drafted in 2031 later in the first and signed for 3.5 million and doesn't look like he'll ever be much of anything in the league.

Was his last name Ball by any chance?

[Young Drachma]

Another dumb thing I like is that it tracks player numbers now across their careers.

[MrBug708]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Was his last name Ball by any chance?

You might be the only person who think Lonzo won't do anything in the league

[larrymcg421]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

You might be the only person who think Lonzo won't do anything in the league

My initial thought was that was a dig at Reggie Ball, not Lonzo Ball.

[larrymcg421]

Is this worth getting for $19.99? Does the relegation system work well?

[MrBug708]

Originally Posted by larrymcg421

My initial thought was that was a dig at Reggie Ball, not Lonzo Ball.

You could be right

[MizzouRah]

3D update in the last patch.. adds diving and some other neat animations. Love the new bullpen widgets as well!

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by larrymcg421

Is this worth getting for $19.99? Does the relegation system work well?

It is. And it does work pretty well, I don't do it automatically, it do it manually and then you can check and make sure it relegate/promotes the right clubs but it's pretty seamless in general. And you'll get $20 worth if you otherwise play/like OOTP

[MrBug708]

My in game pet peeve is the DtD injuries. Usually for a few days of injury, I dont put them on the DL. But the game keeps playing them through their injuries and they last much longer.

[frnk55]

I broke down and bought it yesterday so my record is perfect. 1-18 all bought I was temped by the new injury system and it was on sale.
Can someone tell me how the team chemistry/player morale is now? Improvement?