Preorder OOTP 11 now and save $15!
 

OK friends,

we have just started our preorder period for OOTP 11! This year you can get the game for $24.99 (€24.99) from now on through February 21st, and safe $15 from the official release price. On top of that, you will receive the game two days prior to the official release if you preorder now! So, do not waste any time!!

From February 22nd until the release the preorder price is $29.99. After that, the price will be $39.99, just as every year.

OOTP 11 will be released in April 2010!

Please check our latest newsletter for preordering details and a list of new features:
NEWSLETTER containing webstore links

OOTP 11 will definitely the best OOTP we have ever produced, we are sure you will enjoy it :)

Cheers,
Markus

PS: Customers from the European Union will pay a sales tax on top of the dollar value, but this is still considerably cheaper than the €-price we had in previous years. Also, we will use eSellerate as our electronic license system for both PC and Mac this year.

woo hoo - love the April release AND I was a twitter winner so mine is already paid for. :banana:

I'm in

In like Flint.

Import Facegen files from Facegen Modeler, allowing you to put your own face into the game!

My favorite feature so far - I love facegen over facepacks simply because I like the way they look and as soon as a player changes teams his real life picture looks wrong. This allows us to create facegens for real players. Can't wait for this new feature.

In - lets see how long it takes Fool-X and Fool-H to do the switch ;)

This sounds interesting:

Dynamically evolving fictional leagues, an optional mode that breathes life into your league - imagine the league automatically introducing rule changes or league expansion randomly in a realistic fashion!

I wonder if it's just for fictional league and not real MLB 2010 roster league?

THAT'S MY FAVORITE MOVIE!!! :D

Hopefully single day season simming doesn't get killed with this. You can still turn injuries all the way off, right?

:)

Ordered, as always...

I always thought Austin Powers was the original Man of Mystery...

That was quite a short development period especially when you include the developer took some time off. Someone wake me when the show stoppers are fixed in August.

damned if he does\ damned if he doesn't :shrug:

Had to happen sometime if the game was going to get back to an April release. Just as well be now as next year.

True even if it was 18 months I'd say I'd wait until the show stoppers were squashed. This is a REALLY short cycle though and there really isn't anything in the feature list that is interesting. Loading my own picture... that's what people are excited about?

Seriously?

• A totally re-coded amateur draft with optional signing bonuses, player demands, a slotting system, post-draft contract & bonus negotiations, and compensation picks for unsigned picks (who will re-enter the draft a year later). Also, when feeder leagues are used, undrafted/unsigned high school players may go to college and continue playing!
• Automatically generated high school/college stats, helping you to evaluate potential picks in the amateur draft.
• Recoded fielding engine, making defense more realistic while introducing new fielding stats like Zone Rating, Individual Fielding Efficiency, and Team Defense Efficiency.
• More advanced statistics like wOBA (weighted on-base average), OPS+, ERA+ and FIP (fielding independent pitching)
• Team owners with distinct personalities, providing constant feedback about your performance
• Improved contract negotiations, including counter-offers from players.
• More varied news stories
• Create and print baseball cards of your favorite players on customizable templates, including historical player cards

That's a bit more than importing your face.

There is really nothing there. More varied news stories? Create and print baseball cards?

Feeder leagues have never worked right so since they can't be turned on you can throw those out the window.

I need an owner to give me feedback about my performance? Did they take the standings out of the game?

If scouting wasn't a clusterfuck then stats for high school and college players might be nice, but since you can't turn scouting on I already know their talents and ratings.

If defense is improved that's nice. If the draft is improved that is also good to hear. I'll believe those two have happened when I see it.

Hopefully those advanced stats work better in the game then VORP has.

I was sort of joking that the development period was short, but if those are the biggest of the new features then it's barely above a roster update.

+1

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. :)

I think the new draft stuff, stats, and defense are well worth the upgrade. I like the card feature too, but understand that's not for everyone.

I won't be buying OOTP until Marcus puts Relegation and Promotion into the game for my Fictional Leagues.

in 4 1

+1........looks like some nice new features to me. I'm looking forward to it.

Oh boy. You cannot be serious. :confused:

You do know that we spend time on every feature each year, improving what we have and not listing it as new features, right?

But well, I guess you cannot please everyone.

Thanks, you'll enjoy the game, I'm sure :)

I am dead serious. I support your game and have bought every version since 4, but there isn't a whole heck of a lot here to sink teeth into.

Scouting is the perfect example. Have you spent time and improved it again this version, because ten versions in and it's not a viable feature to use. If you turn on scouting and listen to your scouts in the draft you will never develop an above average major league player. You can hire the highest rated scout in the league and using OSA to draft will leave you with a better system then your scout. I've shown step by step on the OOTP board how broken it is, but it disappears into the ether under an avalanche of posts and suggestions about things that have nothing to do with improving the core baseball game.

I understand that things like printing baseball cards have their supporters, but I really just do not get how you could want to play a baseball sim as deep as OOTP purports to be, but not care that scouting and feeders are useless but care that you can import your own face.

Just saying you've improved defense doesn't really tell me a whole heck of a lot. What was wrong was it before? What is better about it now? Since I've seen you claim 10 versions in a row that the AI is improved but have yet to see a shred of evidence in practice you'll have to forgive me if I take a wait and see approach as to if/how improved something is.

I guess there could people who want the game to change the rules and randomly expand, but I must be missing how most people play the game, because the sort of nerds who like these games seem to enjoy having control over the universe. I am not even one of the uberdorks who is making uniforms, and writing game recaps but even I take time to carefully choose what options and cities and teams I'm using in my leagues.

I did not spend a single minute coding these two features, Andreas does that part of the game, so it is not time 'wasted' (as you seem to think) from my side.

So, feeders and scouting are useless. I am glad that most people seem to disagree :) Anyway, feel free to email me (markus at ootpdevelopments.com) what you dislike about them, I am always open to ideas.

I'd love to see what majority is using feeders. I haven't seen more then a few people post they have ever been able to keep the talent entering their league balanced when using them.

As for scouting, if you can't see how you can triangulate the actual ratings in the draft by using OSA and can see where your scout is wrong... then I don't know what to tell you - it's so obvious that it's unplayable.

A. Turn on Scouting
B. Hire the best scouts
C. Go to the draft
D. See which players your scout likes best
E. Go into the editor and see their ratings
F. The players your scout likes most are the players where his positive error is.

Run 10 seasons picking the player your scout likes best, then run 10 seasons where you pick the highest rated players that your scout and OSA agree on. Go back and tell me which 10 year stretch you drafted better players. It's not even close. Unless you are picking in the top 5 the player your scout likes best is always a bust, because every team is scouting them and if their ratings were really high one of the other scouts in the league would have identified the player. I can turn on scouting, go to the draft and 5 picks into the draft I can identify the 5-10 players my scout is telling me are good but aren't, but the AI isn't taking them and my scout is 2 or 3 standard deviations high on rating those players.

Because of the way the game creates players, I know the higher the ratings the more likely they are 'mis-scouted'.

I don't really care, I've given up trying to use scouts and it doesn't keep me from playing the game, but it does give me pause when I see something like defense is 'improved', yet since I have no idea how it worked before or how it works going forward, you'll have to forgive me for being skeptical because I've seen the same claims about things like scouting and it has been wrong.

As far as who programs what features, it doesn't really matter. If you think your customer base thinks that printable baseball cards is something that is going to move more units, then that's your decision to make. If it's true it just suprises me that the sort of people attracted to this sort of game would be excited about that. I would think that real improvements to the financials, engine, AI, would sell more units, but it's your livelihood and I respect the fact that they are your calls to make, but it doesn't make me any more impressed or excited by the list.

We have tested scouting a lot, and it works exactly as designed to be honest. The best scouts have the lowest scouting error and OSA is the least reliable, as it should be. Maybe the default setting of the scouting accuracy isn't for your taste, but you can adjust this in the game options.

Also, OOTP customers play the game in many different ways, we have 15 year old guys who just play MLB, and 75 year old folks who love quick historical simming, and everything in between. And the features we choose each year are features which are suggested and supported by community members, and there really are a lot of people who enjoy baseball cards or the thought of seeing their face in the game and let the Facegen engine handle the aging/mood accordingly. I personally wouldn't see these as priorities either, but there are indeed people who do :)

I liked the new feature set enough to pre-order. I'm especially excited about being able to make mock '75 Topps cards of my Ludington Demons team. Just kidding. Here's what I'm really excited about:

* The extra fielding stats is nice. It's terribly hard to get a +/- runs/wins figure from just the base stats. This should make it easier to find out how much my "1" left fielder is costing me.
* The amateur draft changes sound promising. It's about time that signing bonuses made it into the game, IMO. That will make turning around those hopeless teams a little more challenging.
* I like having amateur stats. It'll save me from having to use feeders for just that purpose.
* Evolving fictional leagues has a lot of potential, depending on what changes are in the script. Will the spitball make a comeback? Could they get super serious about PEDs? I know, let's raise the mound and pretend it's 1968 again.

Markus, will we ever see the ability to purchase a contract from another team? It'd make modeling independent leagues much more realistic. It would also be a hit for historical simmers.

I know it works as designed. That is the problem. How anyone can play with scouts on during the draft is 100% lost on me.

I'd go through the trouble of walking through the logic on yet another draft but only a small percentage of people seem to understand the issues and I don't feel like wasting any more time on it, but I've got nothing to do so maybe I'll once again spell it out later.

I created a 16 team fictional league. Took my scout and made him neutral and a 100 rating in the editor. I took the entire budget I had and put it on scouting amateurs.

My team Washington picks 11th out of 16. I'll walk you through the simple logic to show you how broken the process is and then reveal the real ratings as players are drafted.

Let's start with the hitters:

My scout likes as 5 star prospects (Con-Pow-Eye)
SS MacKinley 12-12-14
2b Matthews 20-12-17
1b Gallardo 14-14-12

OSA thinks that MacKinley is a 6-10-7. He is a bust in the first.
OSA has Matthews at 13-5-10. He's probably a decent prospect but nowhere near the player my scout says he is
OSA has Gallardo at 6-5-5. He's probably not a prospect at first base.

So I have the best scout, I've put my entire budget at scouting the draft and he has brought me reports that there are 3 5-star position players. I am 99% sure that 2 of them totally suck and would be first round busts. I think that one might be pretty good and might not be an embarrassment picking at 11.

Pitchers:
One 5 star starter Colon my scout has him at 14-15-12 OSA has him at 17-18-14. I have absolutely no doubt that this is the best player in the draft.

On to the draft;
1. Colon - True ratings of 16-15-15. SIMPLE TO TRIANGULATE HE WAS THE BEST PLAYER
2. McKinley - True ratings 8-12-10 Not actually as bad as I thought he'd be. I thought the power would be pretty low, not just contact.
3. Matthews goes next 17-8-11 He's better then decent, but it was obvious that my scout was stupid wrong on him. Since 20-12-17 ratings almost never happen, I know when I see them that they are wrong.

I know you are going to somehow tell me that statistically my scout is more accurate then OSA so far.. great, except that by knowing how the system works and the OSA ratings I can inherently have a better idea of what their real ratings are.

So I've moved ahead to my pick at 11. Guess who is left.... that's right, the 5 star first base prospect Gallardo....
Contact 14, Gap 20, Power 14, Eye 12, Avoid Ks 12. Yet he fell all the way to 11. There is no way in the world that this player isn't a complete bust and I know that. The only way to build a franchise WOULD BE TO IGNORE THE BEST SCOUT IN THE LEAGUE ON A TEAM THAT PUTS IT'S ENTIRE BUDGET INTO AMATEUR SCOUTING.

There are 2 4 star players left on my scout's board:
SS Zaitsoff - 12-3-12. OSA 8-2-8. Likely not a good first rounder
LF Guesne 16-8-12 OSA 7-4-7. Likely not a good prospect

So these are the three players my scout says are head and shoulders above the others remaining. None of them are probably any good, and I wouldn't be suprised if the SS Zaitsoff was the best of the three. Let's see.

Guesne is 11-6-9. OSA was closer
Gallardo is 10-10-8 A touch better then I thought he was going to be, but nowhere near the 5* player my scout predicted
Zaitsoff 14-3-13. The best player and the ONE I WOULD HAVE DRAFTED BY BACKING INTO THE RATINGS EVEN THOUGH MY SCOUT THOUGHT HE WAS THE WORST OF THE THREE

If this 'works', then I guess anytime I hear that anything 'works' in OOTP you'll have to understand why I'm skeptical.

So, you're saying you can use the information provided by the game to get a better idea about their real ratings? Clearly the game is busted beyond repair then.

Yeah that right... 'working' means that I ignore the highest rated scout in the game and I don't select the players he suggests, instead I intentionally ignore him. It will be just like Theo Epstein, he ignores the scouts and just reads off Baseball America's draft preview.

It's really adds a fun factor when my scout identifies 4 5* players and I know which are really 5* prospects and which aren't.

Two choices, you can triangulate using OSA which is akin to the Yankees averaging their scout's opinions with Keith Law on ESPN or I can go with my scouts and draft a shitty player in every round unless I'm picking in the top 3 and get lucky.

That's a 'working' system.

I stopped playing when everyone in my minor leagues (which included the "allow ghost player option") has ~ 45 run ERAs because it would re-use the same guys over and over as starters even when they were exhausted.

The thing that always got me was - while Markus made wizards to re-create leagues the wizards always took effect AFTER you created the players. So, if I wanted to create a league with logos and all the other settings and the re-start with no players, that was impossible. That stinks. I have a set structure that I want, why can't I just create new player databases within that template? It took about an hour to set-up - why do I have to repeat that process?

I'm not arguing for the system but it appears you're not ignoring anything; you're using it to triangulate with other information you're given instead of just using it as gospel. You've even said it's more correct than OSA by itself It seems you want the scout to be perfect else the system is busted. I find that amusing.

Not even close to my point. The system doesn't work because I shouldn't have my scout telling me there are 4 5* prospects and be able to know which one is the real deal by using a system that is supposed to be much worse then mine.

From the standpoint of a game how does that design make any sense. I was under the impression that OOTP was trying to simulate what running a baseball team would be like. In real baseball you don't KNOW that your scouting department is wrong because either A: Baseball America tells you so or B: When you see that other teams aren't interested in a player you know your scout's rating is wrong

If you hire the best scout and spend the most money on scouting and follow your scout's advice, you will never draft any prospects until you are picking in the top 5 and get lucky, because any lower in the draft and you are plucking the players your scout is most wrong about. What about that system works?

If hiring the best scout and spending more money then the other teams in scouting amateurs doesn't lead you to drafting better prospects then how is the system anything other then 'broken'? Obviously you aren't going to hit on every pick, there needs to be some sort of scouting fog, but there should be a long term advantage if you align your resources towards scouting the draft with the best scout.

I hate it when lynchjm24 ruins things with his numbers and book knowledge.

I've never played with scouting on in any text sim (when it was an option to turn it off). I'd much rather go with a really low rating scale (like 1-5), and just get randomness from that.

I don't think, generally, text sims have figured out scouting yet. I know there have been a bunch of threads here about that.

If you had to get through an NFL/NBA draft with nothing but ESPN.com mock drafts - nobody would notice your results as being drastically different than the teams' hired professionals. (In fact, we tend to evaluate real NFL/NBA drafts by how far they deviate from the mock drafts.) There's really not that much difference between scouts.

I guess in baseball, they have a somewhat more important role, in that they have to "find" lower-rated guys out there in corn fields across America, but again, if a guy has 1st round talent, every scout is going to agree with that. The guy might still be a bust, but anyone would take him in the 1st round.

I play with real ratings off, talent only. Never had any interest in scouts, I like my fog of war the way I play.

No chance I'm buying. Fool me 6 times, shame on me.

+1. I, too, don't think I have ever turned scouts on in any game, esp. OOTP (particularly from reading the stuff here). I do like the way FBCB does it but we're not looking for much and it seems to be a direct correlation between the scout value and the degree of accuracy. I recall buying 2007 (?) and turning most things off.

Nice work jimlynch to prove a point.

Put Izulde down for seven copies.

I do appreciate the pre-order period though. If I was going to buy it I am always a fan of saving money. I'm sure I will get version 12. It is just too much to expect everyone in a league to shell out 25 to 40 dollars each year. Or drop out.

I love OOTP but this has always bugged me too. I spend time setting up uniforms, logos, caps, ballpark dimensions...all the options and rules. If I later decide I want to start the same league over, you can't just create new players. That certainly would be nice.

I'd love it if a much simplified online version was developed. Basically scrap everything that came out after 6.5. And just make a stable easy to use game that is fairly easy to follow.

Like I actually liked the 30 day free agency period and the offseason drafts. The current method is too cumbersome.

Correct me if this is not what you're looking for, but why not save the initial game as a quickstart, then, if you want to start over with no players, load up the quickstart, release all players to FA, delete all FA.

If you want new players, assign fictional players to all teams, then schedule inaugural draft.

And something as simple as the financial coefficient has never worked for me. What I would like is to start a league in 2010 and have revenues gradually increase over time. So if I sign a guy to a progressive 5 year contract, by year 5 some sort of inflation will occur and it will be somewhat proportional to the amount of revenue at that period. Like how FOF does it.

I agree completely with you on this part.

An average scout should be more accurate than OSA. OSA should basically be like a below average scout.

An A scout would have an error margin of +/- 10.(100 scale)
A B scout would have an error margin of +/- 20
so on and so forth.

Like you say it seems OSA is the voice of reason right now instead of the Baseball America type feature it should be.

Id speculate OSA is used to draft for the computer teams which completely defeats the purpose of scouts in the first place as either you have a team that drafts like a 12 year old kid would or as it is where OSA is more accurate than you scouts.

I'll have to give that a try.

Markus is going to say that your scout IS more accurate then OSA, and I'm sure that it is if you took the average deviation between the scout and OSA versus the actual ratings. The problem is that you don't ever take advantage of the 'average deviation' because when you select players in a draft, you are selecting the outliers.

It doesn't matter that my scout was more accurate on say 25 of the 30 players who would go in the first round: I'm going to select one of the 5 that my scout is wrong about because the chosen player looks attractive because he's incorrectly scouted. If you play enough season every round of the draft has a player that sticks out like a sore thumb and it's obvious that he's the player my scout missed by 3 standard deviations. It doesn't matter that my scout is off by 3 SDs on fewer players, because it only takes one to ruin the illusion that the game reflects 'reality'.

Will Carroll likes how ootp scouting works.