Nice, got 800kbps from that link, it took like 2 minutes to download, installing now :)

Would have been my guess as well. What I'm noticing is that managed games are yielding pretty low scores and simulated games are yielding something more than that.

I've seen lots of 1-0 and 2-1 games while managing, and a handful of 9-2 and 17-3 games while simming.

So I'm not precisely sure what's going on, but it feels like when managing, the game is treating the ratings as it would do if the players were in the major leagues. Very, very anecdotal at this point, but I bring it up in case somebody else has a similar take.

Yes sir.

Fairly certain that if I imported the Lahman database, I wouldn't have to go through that, but with no network connection, I can't snag the Lahman database TO import.

*sob*

Well maybe you are really good at managing pitchers, but absolutely horrible at managing hitters. ;)

Not offensively. Pitching, I don't know, but offensively I had several guys with 9's and 10's for contact - although I had a few who were seven and below as well.

I'm great at working the count, though!

For some reason, they just don't want to safely put the ball in play when they're swinging 3-1 and 3-2. I thought those were hitters' counts. :(

Got up to 1910 on an historical replay(started in 1901). Only takes about a min and a half to sim a season. It imports automatically and you can have it automatically adjust the league totals each year.

If someone needs a download link, I can put one up off my machine.

http://rapidshare.de/files/21883680/...Guide.zip.html

Big question mark, why should I pay in € ???

Do you have a choice?

Already discussed to dead here and at ootp when they announced the preorders in past December. One of the few things i didn't like from SI, that we Europeans need to pay way more for a game when it's a sport supossed to be way less popular here (when it was their excuse for cheaper FM in the states).

The low rating system for young players sounds like it's borrowed from the FM system. 19 y/o in FM typically are measured against their older, more polished veterans. How or why this would affect OOTP game outcomes is unclear as the same system in FM doesn't seem to influence the plausibility of that game's results.

Keep in mind that the system in FM is still just going off the ratings. It just happens. Younger guys aren't necessarily being compared to older players, its just that the younger guys' ratings are in general going to be lower.

Ok, loaded the game and toyed around and it looks as complex as FM that are awesome news for me. It's late here in Spain so i'm going to read the manual and wait until tomorrow to start to play. I hope somebody will release soon a MLB06 quickstart with real players, teams, etc etc.

I actually read through a lot of that monstrous manual. I had a couple questions for people who have the game. I love the idea of starting small time and advancing in a career. However, am I right that the only real ability you have to enhance your team's success as an A-ball manager is to set lineups and manage games? Since you can't control transactions, isn't your success really entirely at the whim of the parent organization? That's probably realistic, but it does mean you can have years upon years of failure with little you can do about it. Am I wrong there?

Related to that, does someone have a feel for the prospects of job advancement? In the real world, it is really damn hard to break into the big leagues. An overwhelming majority of minor league managers never do that. And unlike FM, you can't crash the big leagues through promotion of your team. Does OOTP make it too easy (not that I'm sure I want the realistic option either - I'm torn on this)? And if making from minor league manager to MLB manager is rough, how is it from foreign leagues? In the real world, it is pretty much impossible (since managers like Valentine who go to Japan also had MLB experience). Does OOTP make this happen too easy (since you have much greater control of a foreign franchise than you would a minor league team)?

edit: I realize the 2nd question is unlikely to have a solid answer in the short term for players. So, maybe it is better directed at the developers or beta testers.

I thought I read, say I started at the O's organization in Single A Aberdeen, that it wasn't possible to get promoted up to AA, AAA, and then MLB.

Dola,

Within the same organization, at least.

South African major league baseball...here we go. ;)

The manual says that. It says the only way to get new jobs is to look at the available jobs screen and apply. To me, that means you aren't precluded from moving up in an organization, but you can only do so in the same way you can change jobs generally. I'm not sure if that is right, but that's how I interpreted things.

just kidding, it'll be a winter league.

But the UAE major leagues? It's a done deal.

That seems realistic since even if a team "promotes" a manager from A to AA or to hitting coach, he'd have to apply for the gig..even if he's the only applicant.

I think that is realistic, but I do think organizations often look inward when they have an opening. I'm not sure OOTP does that. In fact, I'm not sure you receive job offers at all. If that's the case (no jobs at all), then it would be more than a little disappointing. If the game doesn't look inward in organizations, it probably isn't that big of a deal.

Are the uniforms customizable?
Does your CPU's MIPS rate affect the results of games?
Can I use Canadian rules?

These are the questions that must be answered.

:D

I guess its time to crack open the manual.

Has anyone tested this whole "winter league" deal? I'm curious how that's going to work...

They don't work as you would think. Organizations can't send prospects to play in a winter league. They're just regular leagues that play in the winter

Yeah, I just read the OOTP boards and that's the impression I got there. Oh well. I'll adapt.

Thanks.

This is as I feared. The minor leagues sound like they are being treated like just a slightly lower rated league when actually there is ahuge differnce between them.

Wow, after reading this thread, I'm tempted.
I've just got going with Puresim, and now OOTP is out.
I may wait a little longer for more reviews.

Well here's my experience so far.

I started off at Single A - West Virginia (fictional league). You basically have no control over the roster and the Major League team keeps moving your players up and down. It can be pretty frustrating at times because you have no control over your roster. You do control the lineups and rotation and that seems to be the only influence you really have. I had a couple guys they sent me that I more or less refused to play and they ended up shipping them off to the other Single A team at the end of the month. The owner expected me to finish .500. I ended up finishing in 2nd place with a record of 81-59. After the season, I checked the available jobs and there were about 10 openings. Most were other Single A teams and Rookie league teams, but there were 2 Double A teams so I took one of those and moved on to Bowie. I'm now working my way through the offseason. I got the feeling I'll be abandoning this career and starting over in the Majors just to have some control of my roster.

So, I just noticed the trading block and shop player feature were removed for some reason.

Has anyone worked through a major league draft yet?

Have they changed it at all? (like do players sign immediately and are there more player details?)

Not that I have any interest in purchasing this version but if this is true, that's despicable. A good portion of the enjoyment I get out of any pro text sims is in looking to make trades. That's probably one of the main reasons I stick with 5.11 for that had the best trade AI, better than what came before and after (including 5.12 and 6.x). IMO.

This confuses me. How do you get that impression? Minor league stats might not be perfect, but I'm not seeing anything too out of the ordinary.

After 3+ hours of setup, I'm finally ready to get started. lol

6.5 isn't bad with some settings.. but I agree, another reason to keep my wallet closed.

I screwed up the quote thing on that post. I got that impression from this quote earlier by SACKATTACK:
"Six hits of combined offense in 12 innings because the game appears to be treating the ratings of minor leaguers as major league equivalencies (i.e. contact of '4' sucks ass even though, well, he's a 19 y/o in Rookie ball)? That's...not so cool."

I wouldn't be especially interested in playing this sort of career but assuming you were... isn't this exactly what you would expect? Wouldn't it be unrealistic to be an A-ball manager and have roster control?

I am assuming this is sarcasm? If not wouldn't that constitute a deal breaker. How do we trade?:confused:

Probably like we did it for OOTP4 (and FOF, if I recall correctly). You just make your offer and the AI will tell you how close or not.

Well, trading and trading block are different. Trading block is putting players on a trading block so other teams can offer you players or you can see who the computer is wanting to get rid of. Shop a player lets you pick a player and in one click see what other teams are willing to offer you for that player.

A few thoughts. I hate how you have to go to a certain screen to sign FA's or do anything, instead of a sub menu on the players card. I also dislike when offering a contract, they'll tell you the offer and you have to manuelly enter it in to get to the right price, instead of their offer being what is the default offer

I have found the value of trade blocks to be one way. I get a lot of offers for decent players I put on the block (every once in a while, the AI would offer a trade that interest me). With 5.11, I have not had much success in trading for good players that they put on the block so I don't use that. However, I absolutely love the shop player feature. I know v.6 did improve on that mechanism but v.511 works very well for me even if I have to do it team by team.

Use the Save as Quickstart option.

This will save all settings nicknames/etc in the league. Then the next time you create a league just choose that quickstart as the base.

The trading in OOTP2006 requires you to make or respond to an offer (rather then just hitting the shop player button).

After you make the offer the other GM will contact you via email with a response.. if he doesn't like the offer he'll tell you what he's looking for to make it work for him.

I was hoping to have some degree input on the roster, which seems like it would be much more realistic to me. A MLB GM doesn't just move people around without consulting the managers of the minor league teams. I'd have also liked to see the option to request certain free agent signing, releases, etc. I didn't expect final decision power, but I was hoping (not expecting) there would be something in place for roster input at the minor league level.

But it has to be a game in there somewhere, which is what I think you are getting at. I think that's one of the big things I have against people crying "not realistic" is that if it were true realism, it would so boring and monotonous. We are playing a game not simulating real life and in the case of managing at A, it has to be fun for us to play, just as if we are playing GM/Coach at any other level.

I'm not responding to anything specific, just a random, incoherent thought I had.

I'm seeing what feels like a ton of injuries in my second season. This is at the default "normal" injury setting. Does this same unusually high to anyone else?

I didn't download the game yet or anything, but in EHM, you put a guy on the trading block, by setting their player status and making them available. I don't know if OOTP 2006 is the same or not.

Yep, I agree. I think there's a balance that could have been struck to keep the minor leagues interesting without giving too much unrealistic control to the minor league manager. Instead I'm finding it pretty boring and not all that realistic since I have absolutely zero input or ability to comment if I think players are ready for the next level or not.

I went ahead and purchased.

It has seemingly everything under the sun. It just isn't really built for people who want to blow through season like I like to. It sims very fast, but it takes so much time to make decisions or filter through a mind-blowing amount of information that it's not something you can breeze through and have any success.

Yeah, I initially thought that could've been what was up, but there aren't 'statuses' in this game.

Because baseball is not hockey or soccer? There may be more to that flippant remark than meets the eye?

This is the problem I've had with the Grey Dog games thus far. I have so much un-fun managing the roster that I can't even get into the game.

Like you, this comment isn't about this game - I'll prob. even buy it in a few weeks after school.

que?

I say the same thing about another company but then again, I'm a strategy gamer, not a sports simmer. Heck, I play OOTP5 and FBCB like a strategy game because they are very easy for me to do so.

OK, some quick thoughts:

My 100 year sim is running. I got a really late start on it. I likely won't have it up until tomorrow night. Sorry.

Early impressions are pretty much what I expected. The amount of options are staggering. A little overwhelming at first to be honest. It will take me some time to set up a "serious" league if I ever get into the game.

Running through a fictional draft now, more to report later.

I think that injuries in V2006 are probably modeled as close to reality as anything in the game. BP's Will Carroll, who is an injury expert, shared the data that he's collected with Markus, thus the 'Under the Knife' section. It may look like a lot, but I don't think the average baseball fan understands how many injuries occur in real life.

I'm kind of surprised as I know you get into Puresim quite a bit. ;)

So far though, nothing has made me want to purchase the game at all. In fact, back to my 6.5 career.

So is this like EHM where even if you don't load one of the standard league, they still exist?

I don't see the 'sim multiple seasons' option. Is it in this years edition?

I don't think so.

umm...i feel ashamed to ask this...but how do i control a team? i started the league as unemployed so i could sim a few seasons out and now i want to take control over a team. i read the 'smaller' manual but didn't see anything encouraging.

Not sure, but try clicking the manager tab and check job openings. I haven't gotten that far though.

I'm not even going to try to get into the AI tonight. My plan is to put my 100 year sim up and let everyone else go through it at the same time I get to do so.

Some initial thoughts on the game itself:

1) Overwhelmed. I think I've probably said that to myself 10 or 12 times in the two hours I've played around with the game. You can literally get lost in all of the options, stats, screens. . . it's utterly amazing the way this thing is layed out. I'm still getting used to it, but I like it a lot. For those who hate the FM interface? Don't even bother with this. You'll spend 10 minutes looking dumbfounded at the screen and go insane.

2) I don't like the new trade interface. There should be a trade block in every sports game.

3) I have to play around more, but I didn't see an option that would let me watch a game straight through, without clicking a button. I like to watch the occasional game, I'd like to be able to do it without having to click the mouse 100+ times in a game.

4) That said, the different ways to watch a game are outstanding. The "web" based interface is incredible. It gives you the location and speed of each pitch. Very nicely done.

5) Have I mentioned that I've felt overwhelmed a couple of times? I love stats. Love them. I love options. This is insanity. (that's a good thing)

6) The game is super, duper fast.

---------------------------------------------------------

If the AI from those reports shows up and is a letdown, this will be a major dissapointment. The game has a ton going for it. I could see myself getting lost in it like no other game in recent memory.

***Sigh*** Look at what I just wrote up there? I'm setting myelf up to be left to die on Mt. Everest with the FOFC faithful laughing at me as it happens.

Well, more impressions tomorrow (along with the reports tomorrow night)

I'm going to play the game some more before I start noticing bugs and get ticked off.

Yes it is, just designed differently. Go to the sked page, click on the year at the top of the sked and you should get a column of about 20 or so seasons. You can scroll higher if you wish...just choose the year/season you want to sim until. Then at the bottom of the page you choose "autoplay" and the date you selected is the bottom option.

I had trouble figuring that out myself. Here is what you do:

Go to the schedule screen. You'll be able to see the current day. Click on the year tab. Scroll down to the year you want. Click on "auto play" at the bottom right of the screen. Click on "sim until this date"

i don't want to be offered a job. i want to be god and control whichever team i want.

oh i figured it out. need to go to manager homepage, then select 'play in commissioner mode', then go to the 'available jobs' screen

Wow. Just made the purchase and as it's been said already, THERE IS SO MUCH STUFF. Being that I am a computer idiot I feel like a lost 6 yr old in a grocery store.

Is there a way to start a league using default rosters, or is the draft the only way to start the game?

FWIW I'm making a real-life quickstart with all the real nicknames and hopefully all the logos of the MLB and minors. Not sure if all the logos have been done or not, but I'll include as many as possible (all will be named correctly for ease of use).

Just finished up all the nicknames and damn is this exhausting, especially when a handful of teams were in the wrong divisions.

Nice, I was naming teams up until AA and then I got sick of it.

Can't you download that database of professional teams names and such for this game just like you could for Puresim? I thought i saw someone say that they hadn't downloaded that DB because they hadn't been on the internet recently... Maybe I'm thinking of the pursim impressions thread, though.

Yeah, but what about the gazillion minor league teams? :)

I just created an English Baseball league to go with all the leagues that go with it.

Bringing proper sport to Jolly Old England! It's just not cricket I say.. :D

You don't even need to do that. When you set up a league and you create a manager, you have the option right there to either start as unemployed or specifically select the team you wish to control.

That might've been me. Last time I downloaded Lahman separate from a baseball game was back in the OOTP 5 days, I think. My OOTP desktop is STILL fucking offline, so I haven't been able to snag it for OOTP 2006.

I struggled with this for awhile, too. I wanted to sim multiple seasons before i started managing, but the game has you create a manager from the start. I don't recall whether I picked this up from the extensive guide, the shorter manual, or someone's post at the OOTP forums, but I've landed on a good approach -- at least for me.

You can easily set up multiple managers. Set up your first manager as the commissioner, with no team. Sim through as many seasons as you want before starting your managing career.

Then create a new manager, the one you want to be your active manager (actually, it appears that you can create as many of these as you want, and you can cycle thru them as you wish). When you create the new manager, you have the opportunity to assign him to manage any team you want, without making him a commissioner.

Anytime you want to edit in commissioner mode, you simply cycle to the original manager (the commissioner).

As far as the game goes, I think "overwhelming" is an apt description. The trading situation is almost a deal killer for me -- but the jury is still out, and I'm going to press on for now.

So it sounds like Bee got discouraged playing a career as a minor league manager. Is anyone else trying that or will impressions of that have to wait? Anyone have draft impressions? For those managing in the majors, such as lynchjim because I know we have similar play styles, what kind of decisions are you making on a daily basis? Certain micromanaging I don't mind as long as the decisions are easy to do, meaning I'm not forced to go to 5 screens play each week, for instance.

i must say that the play-by-play is very much improved. there's a good deal of variety and it's just plain odd to see text for plays that isn't the same old text that had been in ootp since v3.

i actually need to read the wholoe play to find out what happened, as opposed to ootp6 where i could predict what the play would be based on the first word, since it had gotten so repetitive.


i love seeing things like "fouled off the catchers mitt" or "he throws his bat down in disgust after that out"

I can't wait to see someone do up an announcer text file like Ernie Harwell.. or Vin Scully. Or well.. you get the point.

How do you sim to a certain year? I started a fic. league in 1980 with plans to sim until 2006 but I only see an option of sim for one season.

I played one season using the full MLB template. I want to introduce you to Sol Padilla. As of 7/30/2006 Padilla was leading the MLB in HR's and RBI's. His .348 BA ranked second in the MLB only behind his LF teammate.


On the day of the trade deadline the Baltimore fans were shocked as their triple crown hopeful was traded away to San Diego.


Of course the thought of getting a MR in exchange for a 25 year old phenom was cause for distress, but there's a happy ending.

That's right, he got two wins out of the bullpen for the O's and helped them to a spot in the playoffs (BAL finished 111-51). Even though the he posted an 8.08 era and two wins he was left off the playoff roster and watched as his team won the world series. Ahhhh, I only see him getting better throughout his 30's.....

End of story.....

Change the date at the top of the schedule screen, then under the same button you see the option to sim for one year, you can sim to the date you've chosen.

Sims 1 season in a minute and a half? My ass. I have the full MLB, plus Japan and Korea and a brand new laptop, it's been ten minutes and I've simmed through 2 months of the first season

How many teams is that?

Yay, my computer works again.

FIRST DAY FICTIONAL MLB QUICKSTART (14.1 MB)
-----

What this has:
-Only MLB and all minor leagues
-Real team nicknames
-fictional players
-Correct minor league setup (there are errors in the default quickstarts)
-All major league logos and the majority of minor league logos (AAA, AA, and all levels of A should be there) (all logos courtesy of OOTP member 'truthserum' - he's done a masterful job)

What this won't have:
-real MLB players (!!)
-any foreign leagues
-Every single logo
-MLB color schemes should be right, but I think all the minor league schemes are messed up

-I only messed with a few cosmetic things in the initial setup. Otherwise, just about everything is the default. Hopefully I didn't miss something.

-To install unzip the Fictional MLB.quick folder into your data/quickstart_games folder with any other quickstarts you have
-----

Let me know if there are any mistakes mmkay

Okay, which one of you saps is gonna download that thing and make sure it works? I'm too busy starting my managing career in Durham.

Sov, I might give it a try.

Is it possible to replace logos within the quickstart? I'd be okay with leaving his AAA and AA logos alone, but I really like the stamp baseballs that justafan did, and would rather use those for my major league logos.

Is replacement easy enough?

Should be. What you'll want to do is open up your data/saved_games/yournewleague.lg/news/html/images folder and see what the current ones are named in case the ones you are downloading aren't named correctly. Then drag the justafan logos over and hopefully they will overwrite the current ones.

Cool.

I'll give it a shot.

Al Bone is the next big thing. The Orioles GM must have known this.

Hmmm.. it seems that with the quickstart you'll start off with me as a manager. I should hope that there is a way to delete managers, but I'm not seeing it.

Yeah, this is friggin brilliant. You are forced to at least name a general manager once you create a new game, so I don't think I could've prevented myself from being included in the quickstart!

You can edit the manager, but unless you add a new one you're stuck with the Durham Bulls as your starting team.

Closest thing I can think of to keeping yourself out of the quickstart would probably be to create Joe Unknown and have him start unemployed. It still freezes you out of the majors, but it's probably the next best thing unless you want to activate Commish Mode.

looking at that trade in the screenshot above.. maybe balitmore figured they couldn't keep him at his price level.. as he was a free agent after the season and basically got what they could for him

Yeah, this quickstart is only going to be cool for like 3-4 days tops anyways. It's like this:

1. Go to Game, Add Manager and create your very own profile
2. Go to Game, Select Manager and select yourself
3. Go to Game, Add Manager and delete me from your mothatruckin game