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

[MrBug708]

It's not from mulitple leagues I dont believe, it just doesnt erase the history on it's own from that league...I think where you get semi histories is when you have two commishes though and some of the items are left off

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by SunDevil

http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...d.php?t=121121

Yes indeedy, this sure looks like a major upgrade worth paying for.

[timmynausea]

Originally Posted by SunDevil

Well, if you guys start playing out your games, you always have this to look forward too.

http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...d.php?t=121121

I have seen that, too. I imported the 1991 rosters just to mess around with. I only managed one spring training game and let the AI do subs. One of our starting pitchers, John Smiley, ended up in centerfield toward the end of the game for no apparent reason.

A week or two after that when the regular season was about to start I could no longer sim any games as a random minor league team that was not affiliated to my organization didn't have enough active players. So much for that career, I guess.

I realize that others have pointed that problem out in this thread. It just seemed silly what a disaster my first attempt to play this game was.

[Maple Leafs]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

In both OOTP 6.5 leagues I've been a part of, new draftees have like a decade of history. And I've seen stats for future years. It's almost like if you have multiple leagues installed, it reuses entries from one league in another, so that if one league is a decade out, and you get to the draft in the current league, it grabs an open slot from the first league but doesn't clear out the data (so in an online league, if the commish is in multiple leagues, new draftee players seem to have awards/injuries/transaction data from one of the other leagues).

It's really freaky, and really annoying.

I think that's a case of player numbers being re-used. So Joe Superstar happens to be players #1234. He retires, Johnny Prospect gets randomly assigned his number, and the history file isn't erased.

[Sweed]

Originally Posted by lynchjm24

This is going to be the most frustrating game of all time. It's so good in so many ways, but can be so annoying.

You get the stupid SISA scout ratings in the HTML and they are always incomplete. I can not stand when I am looking at a pitcher and it has all their batting ratings, but their pitching ratings are all dashes. Thanks for freaking nothing.

Actually you can get an html report using your scouts ratings instead of sisa. For example if you are looking at the batters on your roster viewing their current
and potential ratings (which you can do with custom views) with your scouts rattings you can get a html report. Bottom of screen hit the "report" button. You can open an html window in game or write to disk and the report will open in firefox or whatever your default is so you can print a hard copy if you want.

It's in the manual Section 1.01.1

With regard to pitchers in the field. This is something many cried for because
"real pitchers can do this, why can't mine?". IMHO it's so rare it shouldn't be in the game unless tested to the point of working to near perfection. I'd like to see an option in league setup that bars pitchers playing in the field.

[Maple Leafs]

Originally Posted by Sweed

With regard to pitchers in the field. This is something many cried for because "real pitchers can do this, why can't mine?". IMHO it's so rare it shouldn't be in the game unless tested to the point of working to near perfection. I'd like to see an option in league setup that bars pitchers playing in the field.

Or at the very least, let human managers do it if they insist but for god's sake don't let the AI play with it.

[Swaggs]

Originally Posted by Maple Leafs

I think that's a case of player numbers being re-used. So Joe Superstar happens to be players #1234. He retires, Johnny Prospect gets randomly assigned his number, and the history file isn't erased.

That is absolutely correct.

After the buttons, old players retire and new players get their recycled player IDs. The game erases the history's of the retired players at the button, but if you just unzip the new season file into your existing (previous season) file, the history text just seems to be compiled on top. When you see it in the RWBL, it is because one of the comissioners took over the file w/o completely deleting their existing file before unzipping the new season. I know we have done it a few times throughout our history, before we realized what was going on.

[cuervo72]

Originally Posted by TroyF

My advice on this one? Read the manual and look at the scouting portion. It's pure insanity. Depending on what you want your scout to do (scout a player, team, league or nation) you have to do it from a different screen.

Bookmark all the spots and make it easy on yourself.

In other words then, no. That's what I had thought - that you have to be on the page of what you want to scout - but man, that's all over the place. Even if you just had a dropdown on the staff for things like 'scout org', 'scout ML', 'scout AAA', etc, it would be better. Players I can understand needing to be on the player page. Teams though, that's pretty standard.

[lynchjm24]

Originally Posted by Sweed

Actually you can get an html report using your scouts ratings instead of sisa. For example if you are looking at the batters on your roster viewing their current
and potential ratings (which you can do with custom views) with your scouts rattings you can get a html report. Bottom of screen hit the "report" button. You can open an html window in game or write to disk and the report will open in firefox or whatever your default is so you can print a hard copy if you want.

It's in the manual Section 1.01.1

With regard to pitchers in the field. This is something many cried for because
"real pitchers can do this, why can't mine?". IMHO it's so rare it shouldn't be in the game unless tested to the point of working to near perfection. I'd like to see an option in league setup that bars pitchers playing in the field.

Seems a little more complicated then what I'm looking for.

[lynchjm24]

Originally Posted by Sweed

Actually you can get an html report using your scouts ratings instead of sisa. For example if you are looking at the batters on your roster viewing their current
and potential ratings (which you can do with custom views) with your scouts rattings you can get a html report. Bottom of screen hit the "report" button. You can open an html window in game or write to disk and the report will open in firefox or whatever your default is so you can print a hard copy if you want.

It's in the manual Section 1.01.1

With regard to pitchers in the field. This is something many cried for because
"real pitchers can do this, why can't mine?". IMHO it's so rare it shouldn't be in the game unless tested to the point of working to near perfection. I'd like to see an option in league setup that bars pitchers playing in the field.

Seems a little more complicated then what I'm looking for. I just want my head scouts ratings to be the ratings I always see when going through the SION pages. Why would I want their horrible ratings when I've got a scout who is maxed out in every category?

[Galaril]

I read this on Octupus Overlords PC game foru,:

"I should have been clearer in my assessment. My intent was to point out that while the code may have been newly written that's rather a moot point, since the user doesn't see the code, he sees the interface. The interface and functions appear to be copied (I was going to say "based", but it's closer than that) from the FM interface. For those folks who are FM or Sports Interactive fans this is well and good, but for those (like myself) who have followed the OOTP series for several iterations it's rather a shock to have to not only look for the new functional features of OOTP, but also learn how to simply navigate around as well.

It's great to say that the engine was rebuilt from the ground up, but since I suspect that the overlap between FM and OOTPB fanbase is rather small, there would appear to be little motivation to make the interfaces the same. In fact I would venture to say that for purposes of marketing it would have been better to base the interface on the last OOTP, then show the loyal fan base how the main features of the interface from OOTP6 that they have learned to know and love were retained, and then show the new functions that have been added.

If OOTPBB2006 was built from scratch, why *does* it look so much like FM? Coincidence? A massive outcry from the OOTP fanbase saying "We want it to look like that soccer sim!"? No, it's not an accident, it had to be directed to be that way. So *why* would you want to make them look so much the same? I would hazard a guess that it is based on re-use of code, code modules, or something of that ilk. New code might have been generated for OOTPBB2006, but I suspect that it's a reuseability issue that made it look like does. Not that there's anything wrong with that, unless of course it hurts your sales, or restricts incorporating improvements.

I still bought the game since it is the best baseball sim out there, although Puresim and Mogul have made some advances. And I know that Marcus and the crew will address many of the issues and give the fans a lot of what they are asking for. However, I'll be more wary next time. "
I couldn't agree with this more.

[aran]

FM had one of the best looking and most useable text sim interfaces I've ever seen. I definitely do not mind OOTPB taking after it now. Then again, I've never played the older incarnations of the series, so I have no interface to "unlearn". It will probably take several patches and maybe another release of OOTPB for the game to grow into the UI. I have confidence that SI can make it work well.

[Neuqua]

Let's say I want to create a fictional league of say, roughly 24 teams and fast sim 50 years or so of history. Everything is fictional, fictional logos, stadiums, players, etc.

Then I take over one of the teams and play out every individual game. Play as both a manager and a General Manager.

Which game would better suit me? Or is it too early to decide?

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by aran

FM had one of the best looking and most useable text sim interfaces I've ever seen. I definitely do not mind OOTPB taking after it now. Then again, I've never played the older incarnations of the series, so I have no interface to "unlearn". It will probably take several patches and maybe another release of OOTPB for the game to grow into the UI. I have confidence that SI can make it work well.

Agreed.

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by Neuqua

Let's say I want to create a fictional league of say, roughly 24 teams and fast sim 50 years or so of history. Everything is fictional, fictional logos, stadiums, players, etc.

Then I take over one of the teams and play out every individual game. Play as both a manager and a General Manager.

Which game would better suit me? Or is it too early to decide?

I wondered this too, actually. It seems to me that there is clearly going to be a different sort of appeal for one game over the other depending on what you like, want, etc.

I'd like this answered too, though I'm pretty much on the side where I think works best for me.

[Sweed]

Originally Posted by aran

FM had one of the best looking and most useable text sim interfaces I've ever seen. I definitely do not mind OOTPB taking after it now. Then again, I've never played the older incarnations of the series, so I have no interface to "unlearn". It will probably take several patches and maybe another release of OOTPB for the game to grow into the UI. I have confidence that SI can make it work well.

Agreed. Like any UI it will take some getting used to. First time player of FM this year and was lost for awhile trying to learn soccer and the UI at the same time. Found learning the soccer part was much more difficult than the UI.

[Ryche]

Well, I've had a little bit of an opportunity to play around with the game now. After I initially downloaded the game, I was gone for a couple days so all I could do during that time was look at the mammoth game guide. But I do think it helped, as so far I really haven't had any problem navigating around the games interface and I've never played any of the FM or EHM game previously.

Basically though, all I've done thus far is looking around at the players, teams, stats, etc, without actually trying to manage a team yet. I simmed out 30 years, starting in 2006, while I was at work today with mostly default settings. One US major league with the standard minors, no foreign leagues. I think the only settings I changed was to make trades harder and rarer and to favor prospects. No initial draft (players distributed by the computer).

First observations: offensive numbers are a bit higher than I would prefer, particularly in the AL. AL ERAs (for the entire league) ranged from 4.58 to 5.30. Real life from 1993 to 2005 the range was from 4.32 to 5.00. So overall this might be a bit high, but I'd say acceptable and should be easy to adjust if desired.

NL ranged from 4.10 to 4.63. The NL ERAs actually fall nicely within the real life range from 1994 to 2005, from 4.11 to 4.63. (Interesting note looking at the NL league pitching stats. From 1976 to 1992, the league ERA only exceeded 4.00 once, from 1993 to today it hasn't been below 4.00. Colorado joined in 1993.)

Baltimore had the one true dynasty thus far, appearing in 5 straight World Series, winning 3 in a row. Interestingly, they played Washington 4 years in a row.

Notable players - Hitters:

Nate Leatherwood - Career batting average leader at .362 through 10 seasons. Consistantly hit 25-30 home runs as well. Also won a gold glove at shortstop. His career was tragically stopped short by an accident during spring training that left him with a fractured skull.

Mike Kaye - All time leader in HRs (696), Doubles (721), At Bats (10,790) and Strikeouts (1,796). Hit at least 30 HRs 13 times and was a career .299 hitter. He was the first pick in the 2nd round and was subsequently traded twice before reaching the majors. (Neither trade looks particularly good, but I can't criticize swapping minor leaguers.) He was never an MVP, but his best season was .318, 49 HR, 154 RBI. The end of his career got a bit interesting. He batted .295, 25 HR, 89 RBI with Cleveland in 2031. Signed a 1 yr, 510K contract with Texas in the offseason and was quickly traded to the Angels. SISA scouted him as 13 Contact, 13 Power, 9 Eye. He batted .306, 33 HR, 113 RBI for the Angels in 2032. Signed a cheap one year extension with the Angels, then was put on waivers and claimed by San Diego. A month later, San Diego traded him to Houston, where he struggled with injuries and only batted .243, 10 HR, 34 RBI in 280 at bats before retiring. Strange little sequence at the end. I think the game AI was looking too closely at the SISA ratings without paying attention to Kaye's actual production.

Stone Paulton - Single season batting average record at .403, while playing for Colorado in 2029, in what was his first full major league season. Batted .328 and .312 in his next two seasons. Was traded for a decent reliever to Chicago (N) before the 2032 season. Only batted 223 times for Chicago for a .269 average. Was then traded in the next offseason to Cleveland, where he signed a 4 year extension for 21 million. Bounced back by batting .323 with 12 HR and 94 RBI, but then missed 2034 with a ruptured achilles and only played briefly in 2035 before tearing a back muscle and ending his career. I actually like how his career developed. Did Coors make his career or did could he be consistantly good anywhere without the injuries?

Nicholas Daulton - First overall draft pick in 2016 for Tampa Bay. He hit 33 HRs in his first major league season, 2019. He followed that up with 28 HRs in 2020. But in 2021, he had probably the best single season for a batter so far in this league, batting .373, 61 HR, 170 RBI, 161 Runs, 52 SB. He followed that up with .319, 45 HR, 112 RBI, 129 Runs, 54 SB, winning his second consectutive Outstanding Hitter award. He was having another outstanding year in 2023, but was traded to the Angels in what looks like a cost cutting move. Basically, Tampa received an equal player in return who would be a free agent after the season and a prospect, giving up a player hitting his prime and about to make big money. It worked out well for Tampa as Daulton tore an ankle ligament in September and never played again.

Notable players - Pitchers:

Tercero Barrio - Maybe the best two seasons I've ever seen from a pitcher. He holds the single season record for ERA (1.74) and wins (30!). These records occured in consectutive years. He was a free agent in the initial player pool and signed by Florida in July of 2006. He was very unimpressive during three years in AAA and had a 6.86 ERA in a 2008 September callup. But he was part of Florida's starting rotation in 2009 and was an average pitcher for the next four seasons. In 2013 he was traded to St. Louis in what looks like a reasonable trade. In 2014, Barrio was 7-9 with a 4.15 ERA before his season ended with a Herniated Disc. But he came back in 2015 with a remarkable 18-1 record, 1.74 ERA. He signed a 5 yr/78 million extension on August 2nd, then suffered a Dislocated Shoulder on August 9th that cut his remarkable season short. (Only 29 starts) 2016 though...wow. Barrio went 30-3, with a 2.27 ERA, 344 K in 293 IP, 6 shutouts. The Cardinals won 102 games that year, scoring 806 runs. However, his old Florida team won 112 games and the World Series that year. Barrio never approached this success again however. He went 17-10 two seasons later, but never broke 12 wins after that. He ended up 214-154, 3.90 ERA, 3,396 K (career record), 1,503 BB (also career record).

Mike Shuck - Only 300 game winner (next has 237 wins), he played with Washington during 4 year World Series run. Was the Rookie of the Year in 2009 with a 15-6 record and 2.76 ERA. However, he pitched 103 innings in 2008, so he probably shouldn't have been eligible. But anyway, he pitched for 19 seasons with Washington and had at least 11 wins for 17 straight seasons, including 4 20+ win seasons and 2 Cy Youngs.

Just an overview of some things I've seen so far. I need to figure out how to log into the OOTP boards so I can post bugs I find. For some reason, it lets me log in, but will not let me post.

Yes, there are bugs, and some pretty major ones. I have come to expect these bugs in text sims and don't have a problem with it as I'm confident they will be fixed to make this an excellent game. Should we have to expect these bugs? Maybe not, but as long as I have fun with the final product, it's not a problem for me. When I end up not having fun with the final product (within a reasonable amount of time) that's when a company will lose my business.

Right now, I'm loving this game's potential.

[SunDevil]

Thanks for the update Ryche.

For the people who have simmed a good number of years, is there that many career ending injuries? From the brief example that TroyF and Ryche have provided it seems the top players have horrible injuries. Are there any Hall of Famers that just retire when they get old and their production declines? Thanks.

[Ryche]

Originally Posted by SunDevil

Thanks for the update Ryche.

For the people who have simmed a good number of years, is there that many career ending injuries? From the brief example that TroyF and Ryche have provided it seems the top players have horrible injuries. Are there any Hall of Famers that just retire when they get old and their production declines? Thanks.

Out of 30 players currently in the Hall of Fame, only 4 suffered career ending injuries. A few others had serious injuries that effectively ended their careers, but for the most part, it was a decline of production that ended careers. More of them ended up in the minor leagues at the end of their careers than I would prefer Very few went out at the top of their games.

For some reason, the players that caught my eye tended to flare out quickly.

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by lynchjm24

For all intents and purposes you cannot make trades. I don't care if it's realistic or not - the stupid design decision I've ever seen is this ... I'll get back to you and you get an email the next day.

I think it'd be better if you could make the trade immediately, but it took a day or two for the player to arrive for duty, honestly.

[riz]

Originally Posted by aran

FM had one of the best looking and most useable text sim interfaces I've ever seen. I definitely do not mind OOTPB taking after it now. Then again, I've never played the older incarnations of the series, so I have no interface to "unlearn". It will probably take several patches and maybe another release of OOTPB for the game to grow into the UI. I have confidence that SI can make it work well.

I've not played the older OOTP games that much, so I cannot comment on this particular change of UI's very well, but in general, people hate change. If they are accustomed to something, they'll cry bloody murder if that something gets changed. It's always easier to complain and demand a return to the old familiar system than to try and adapt to a new system. It's just natural. We heard the exact same thing with EHM since a lot of people thought it was a herecy to go for a whole new interface just because they had grown into the old windowsy freeware UI. In our case, it should have been understandable to see a whole new UI since NHL EHM was not a sequal to the old freeware, but a whole new game on its own.

But as they say, you cannot make an omelette without breaking some eggs

[lynchjm24]

Originally Posted by SackAttack

I think it'd be better if you could make the trade immediately, but it took a day or two for the player to arrive for duty, honestly.

That would work. It's a little more realistic, plus it's still fun.

[Ryche]

Well, I ran another sim last night with a similar league setup. Only made it 17 seasons though as I forgot to turn off box scores and game logs. Anyway, for whatever reason the AL's ERA dropped significantly, down to the level I would be looking for. The range in my first sim was 4.58 to 5.30. This time the range has been 4.57 to 5.03. Only twice it has been over 5.

Had a Toronto team go on quite a run, appearing in 6 of 7 World Series. Only won one of them though.

One pitcher jumps out at me, Ramirez "Meter Man" Bejinez. He was the first overall pick for Seattle in 2003. In 2007 he was the Rookie of the Year, going 17-9, 4.02 ERA and 285 K in 241 innings. He won 14 games with a 3.09 ERA the next season while fighting through injuries. Then, from 2009-2013, Bejinez won 5 consectutive Cy Youngs, winning 21, 24, 28, 28 and 28 games, striking out well over 300 each year and putting up ERAs of 2.57, 1.75, 2.37, 1.89 and 2.01. At this point he signed a 4 yr/47 million deal with San Diego. His first season with San Diego wasn't quite at his previous level, 14-9, 2.85 ERA, but he ruptured his bicep at the end of the year and hasn't been the same since. He's now quite mortal, posting ERAs over 4 the last three seasons.

[MizzouRah]

Gentlemen,

Check out this blog: http://www.calvertgames.com/cgblog/index.php

Some excellent settings discussed:

I spent the evening hours yesterday messing around with the hits, HRs, and doubles modifiers, and am happy with the sim results. They pretty much reflect the same statistics (or close to them) for our OOTP 6.5 results. I changed hits to 1.060, HRs to 1.080, and doubles to 1.080 and ERAs went up, hitting average, HRs, and doubles were within standard deviations from previous IOSBL OOTP 6.5 sims.

Thanks to a forum member over a DS for this link. After a patch or two I just might pick this one up thanks to the user base.

[jbmagic]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

Gentlemen,

Check out this blog: http://www.calvertgames.com/cgblog/index.php

Some excellent settings discussed:


Thanks to a forum member over a DS for this link. After a patch or two I just might pick this one up thanks to the user base.

Do you have confident that there going to fix the waiviers, release and trades issus that been going on from past versions of ootp and now still on the new engine of ootp 2006?

I really hope so after a couple of patches these issuses can finally be resolved after all these years.

[rexallllsc]

The FM interface is just amazing as far as I'm concerned. FM is the benchmark for all text-sims in both interface and gameplat for me, so steps closer to that by OOTP are a big plus in my book.

I can't wait til this is 100% playable so I can get going.

Can anyone tell me how much player personalities affect this game (see: FM)?

[Icy]

Originally Posted by rexallllsc

Can anyone tell me how much player personalities affect this game (see: FM)?

Not played enought but for what i have seen and reading the manual, FM players personalities are not in OOTP2006, you just have the same greed, loyalty etc than 6.5 had before and that only affect contract negotiations. Sad news for me, i was really looking forward a baseball game like OOTP with the players personalities from FM, where the players get pissed at you, between each other, that become angry if you fire their team mate, etc etc.

[rexallllsc]

Originally Posted by Icy

Not played enought but for what i have seen and reading the manual, FM players personalities are not in OOTP2006, you just have the same greed, loyalty etc than 6.5 had before and that only affect contract negotiations. Sad news for me, i was really looking forward a baseball game like OOTP with the players personalities from FM, where the players get pissed at you, between each other, that become angry if you fire their team mate, etc etc.

Yeh! I'm sure it'll be in the next version. That would've sealed the deal for me!

[tucker rocky]

Has anybody ever had any "zip code error" when trying to purchase?
What if I purchase by check? Will I receive a license to make the game fully functional(have already downloaded the game)?

[jbmagic]

Originally Posted by lynchjm24

I didn't think this would be possible, but waivers don't even work. I just DFAed a guy, and then the next day assigned him to AAA. Didn't force me to put him on waivers.

Did you report this bug at the ootp tech forum ? I didnt see it there.

[kcchief19]

OK, the good and bad from a bit more in-depth fun with the game:

First -- I got fired for not meeting the owner's goals on June 30 of my first season. I need to RTFM, because I couldn't figure anywhere you can find out what your goals are. I stayed within my budget, but after a so-so April and a great May to climb within a game of first, we had some injuries and crashed in June to last place in the division and 15 games out. However, just before I got fired I made a key trade and we got some players back. The rest of the way the team played lights out and finished in second place three games out of the wild card. The AI made only one significant trade, and that trade was pretty lateral -- he picked up a 3B with better ratings who put up nearly identical numbers to the 3B we already had. But 2 of the 3 key players on the team were players I acquired and one of them was on the default roster.

Interleague management: Again, I apparently need to study the hundreds of pages of documentation. But right now, I would make this statement: If you are a purist and want a real-life baseball simulation, this is not it. It might be the same message I would give to people about TCY, which I liked tremedously but I think Jim made it clear that it was his interpretation of college football, not an identical recreation.

Why do I give this warning? Unless there are some settings I missed, when you have foreign leagues and you have player movement enable, the game plays like soccer, not major league baseball. Also, it seems that if you want foreign players in your game or even if you want to mirror real-life baseball, you have to endure a certain amount of unreal diversity -- I can't tell you how many Chinese players you run into.

I can encapsulate an example of all of this with just one player: Alvino Franco. I discovvered Franco while scouting the Dominican Republic. The SISA souting rated the 23-year-old RF 8/8/8 but my top scout rated him 10/9/10 with a great glove to boot. He was head and shoulders above everybody else in the league, so I tried for six months to acquire his rights from his team in the Domincan. I finally worked out a deal two weeks before I was fired that included a couple of journeymen who flamed out immediately and a couple of prospects that flopped completely along with $6 million in cash, which I had plenty of. Maybe that's why I got fired.

Franco came in and was absolutely on fire. In 74 games he hit 21 homers, drove in 55 runs and hit .299. Gee, maybe that's why we had such a great second half of the season. In his second season he hit 44 homers with 126 RBI and a .301 average and .421 OBP. During spring training the following season he was traded to Colorado for a RF of slighlty less quality and a somewhat promising 3B. He has a solid season -- 35 homers, 104 RBI, .284 average. After the season, he was traded to Matanzas of the Cuban League for a 27 year-old pitcher rated 7/10/7. Lots of league hopping for everybody.

Other things of note: the pitcher the Rockies acquired by Franco has plaeyd games at 2B, C, CF, LF,3B, RF and SS during his career.

I've also have either a great example of the waiver insanity that Troy has noted or an example of how great this game is. Luis Plasencia was the No. 1 pick in my first draft in 2006. I had my scouts all scout the draft pool and all of them rated him in the top five. He was drafted by the Dodgers and developed a familiar pattern -- after dominating rookie ball, he moves up a level, struggles, then dominates and moves up level. Rinse, lather, repeat. Then somethign wacky happened: in 2007, SISA's ratings for potential in his player history were blank, which happens a lot. In 2008 his ratings were -/2/7 with potential of -/6/8 -- a bit lower than he was original rated by my scouts in the draft. He got called up midseason by the Dodgers and went 2-1 with a 2.40 ERA -- and ends up on waivers. In 2009 he was rated -/7/8 with potential of -/10/9, a nice bump up from a year earlier. Arizona nabs him and he has a so-so rookie season in 2009 before becoming one of the best pitchers in the league in 2010 and winning the 2011 Cy Young Award.

So was this just another case of the broken waiver wire? That's my guess. I can't rule out that the Dodgers didn't like his ratings and didn't think he was going to pan out and tried to sneak him through waivers but Arizona pounced.

Oh, and a guy rated 4/4/4 with potential of 4/5/4 just threw a no-hitter.

Much of what I have seen supports everything Troy has said. Next league I start, waivers is getting the heave-ho.

[Buccaneer]

You know, it's funny that for many years, OOTP customers have been complaining or joking about the lack of a manual. Now it comes with a hefty manual (apparently) and everyone still complains or jokes about it.

[rexallllsc]

Originally Posted by kcchief19

After the season, he was traded to Matanzas of the Cuban League for a 27 year-old pitcher rated 7/10/7. Lots of league hopping for everybody.

I don't like that.

[DaddyTorgo]

i <3 the FM interface but it sounds like ATM there is just too much that doesn't work (waivers, interleague movement, etc). Maybe I'll wait until next year to give this a look, although i suppose the demo will at least warrant a DL.

[INDalltheway]

So if you don't want to run all of those other leagues can you still get players from those countries to come into the FA pool? It seems like more trouble than is needed turning on all of those other leagues.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by Buccaneer

You know, it's funny that for many years, OOTP customers have been complaining or joking about the lack of a manual. Now it comes with a hefty manual (apparently) and everyone still complains or jokes about it.

It's not so funny. People aren't making jokes about the manual, they are making jokes about a UI / set of features that makes reading the manual a necessity to do much of anything.

Not that that may stop me from giving this a try after a patch or two irons out the key sim issues that were brought up and converts the financial / trading model to a baseball one from a soccer one.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by jbmagic

Do you have confident that there going to fix the waiviers, release and trades issus that been going on from past versions of ootp and now still on the new engine of ootp 2006?

I really hope so after a couple of patches these issuses can finally be resolved after all these years.

Confidence in Markus alone? Not really.. but I'm going to give SI the benefit of the doubt here. Markus now has many people logging bugs and recognizing some UI issues as well as some graphical issues.

I get juiced up about ootp, then I read posts like kcchief's and I scratch my head. I would really love to get this game and import my 6.5 world, heck I'm hoping it would also let me get used to EHM as well. Good thing I'm only at the AS break in my 6.5 career, so I have time to wait for a patch or so before my import date passes up again.

[ice4277]

Originally Posted by kcchief19

Interleague management: Again, I apparently need to study the hundreds of pages of documentation. But right now, I would make this statement: If you are a purist and want a real-life baseball simulation, this is not it. It might be the same message I would give to people about TCY, which I liked tremedously but I think Jim made it clear that it was his interpretation of college football, not an identical recreation.

Ugh. I wouldn't touch TCY because of what you mentioned. If that is the case here, without a workaround, I probably would, unfortunately, stay away from this too.

[Terps]

Originally Posted by kcchief19

First -- I got fired for not meeting the owner's goals on June 30 of my first season. I need to RTFM, because I couldn't figure anywhere you can find out what your goals are.

You get an e-mail on Opening Day telling you what the owner expects for the season.

[Fouts]

I'm enjoying the game, but as a minor league manager the game moves around my lineup and pitching staff in between games everytime the GM makes a roster transaction.

Anyone know how to keep the game from making these lineup changes? Is there a way to save my lineups/rotation as a minor league manager?

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by kcchief19

He has a solid season -- 35 homers, 104 RBI, .284 average. After the season, he was traded to Matanzas of the Cuban League for a 27 year-old pitcher rated 7/10/7. Lots of league hopping for everybody.

Other things of note: the pitcher the Rockies acquired by Franco has plaeyd games at 2B, C, CF, LF,3B, RF and SS during his career.

That is a show stopper and this along with other things I am hearing can't be fixed in a patch or two. In fact, I doubt this kind of thing would be changed in latter versions. Why? These kinds of design parameters obviously were built into the game purposely. Kind of feels like the game design had the blessings of Bud Selig aka Mr World Baseball Classic.

[Maple Leafs]

If I was in the middle of a career and saw a star player from MLB traded to Cuba, I think it would kill my interest pretty much immediately.

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by Galaril

That is a show stopper and this along with other things I am hearing can't be fixed in a patch or two. In fact, I doubt this kind of thing would be changed in latter versions. Why? These kinds of design parameters obviously were built into the game purposely. Kind of feels like the game design had the blessings of Bud Selig aka Mr World Baseball Classic.

You can set in leagues if they are able to trade.

It's under Rules
Trade with other Major Leagues.

[TroyF]

Turn off the "hidden player" option. No players from other countries get created adn you don't have to worry about the foreign invasion.

Still working on getting the twenty season upload done for everyone.

The game is strangely growing on me, but it's taking a damned bit of work for that to happen. I think the waiver wire is irrepairable. I just shut em off and don't bother. Ditto with the foreign leagues and hidden players. It's just broke.

If markus could get a patch out that just made sure pitchers didn't play the freakin field, I think I can work around the rest of the crap. The stats are fairly realistic, the career arcs fairly solid, the statistical tracking is the freakin bomb.

The only down side at that point would be the trade model, which I'm getting used to, no matter how ridiculous it is.

[cuervo72]

I think that any *serious* (historical types) simmers are going to ignore these other leagues, so this won't happen. Those who have them all on are probably of a much different mindset and won't care, or might like it (perhaps those who don't really follow baseball, but picked up the game bc of the SI connection for instance).

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by TroyF

Turn off the "hidden player" option. No players from other countries get created adn you don't have to worry about the foreign invasion.

Still working on getting the twenty season upload done for everyone.

The game is strangely growing on me, but it's taking a damned bit of work for that to happen. I think the waiver wire is irrepairable. I just shut em off and don't bother. Ditto with the foreign leagues and hidden players. It's just broke.

If markus could get a patch out that just made sure pitchers didn't play the freakin field, I think I can work around the rest of the crap. The stats are fairly realistic, the career arcs fairly solid, the statistical tracking is the freakin bomb.

The only down side at that point would be the trade model, which I'm getting used to, no matter how ridiculous it is.

if waivers are included in the game they should be on. ditto with foreign leagues. they should work in the way that they work in the real world, otherwise why bother to include them. it's like i'm paying for features i'm not using then. If you were deaf would you want to pay extra for a 6-disc CD changer in your car? I think not! Same thing here. Why pay for a feature if it's not going to be useable. If waivers and foreign countries are broken then the game should cost less or the features ought to be removed. Otherwise I'm paying for a feature I'm not using, which as a consumer I am opposed to.

[JW]

Summer is here so I just looked at my OOTP 6.5 and my 22-year-old fictional league and decided to get back at it. I've played a couple of seasons and am quite happy. I only sim games and generally run through a season in one-two days. I have no interest in buying a new baseball game this summer based on what I'm reading.

[Buccaneer]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

if waivers are included in the game they should be on. ditto with foreign leagues. they should work in the way that they work in the real world, otherwise why bother to include them. it's like i'm paying for features i'm not using then. If you were deaf would you want to pay extra for a 6-disc CD changer in your car? I think not! Same thing here. Why pay for a feature if it's not going to be useable. If waivers and foreign countries are broken then the game should cost less or the features ought to be removed. Otherwise I'm paying for a feature I'm not using, which as a consumer I am opposed to.

I strongly disagree. The value of having the core features work very well is worth far more than the cost of the game. These "extra" stuff are distractions and only there for marketing/sales purposed. One could argue that waivers are a fundamental part of real world baseball but it apparently does not translate well to a computer game and therefore, it becomes more of a hindrance (or micromanagement chore) than added value.

cuervo: You are correct in that historical simmers wouldn't bother with stuff like that and therefore, could run a more playable game.

[Buccaneer]

Originally Posted by JW

Summer is here so I just looked at my OOTP 6.5 and my 22-year-old fictional league and decided to get back at it. I've played a couple of seasons and am quite happy. I only sim games and generally run through a season in one-two days. I have no interest in buying a new baseball game this summer based on what I'm reading.

I've been at my OOTP5.11 historical career since the middle of April and just got into my 16th season. It does that very well, imo, and there's no need to add any of the extra stuff that would only make it look like a modern league with an international flavor. Doing something more simple very well is worth more than doing something more complex not so well.

[Cringer]

I think my hard drive reaching capacity this week while running PureSim was a sign I shouldn't get this game.

I am enjoying PureSim, much more then I thought. I never tried previous versions, and had planned on still getting this OOTP when money allowed. Now I am not so sure. I love the FM interface, but this sounds like it's a messed up version. I am sure it will be fixed, but I have problems with some of the other things mentioned.