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

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

I'm having sign-and-release issues in the second go-around with my Federal League universe. During spring training, a block of guys will get repeatedly signed and released by every team in the league, multiple times.

And on a related note, it's the Hank Greenberg story, Take Two...

I'm in 1924, and who shows up on an FL team's roster - Lou Gehrig! That's right, the Iron Horse himself. but the bigger issue than him getting signed by an FL team is the fact that he must have had theworst spring training in the history of baseball, because not only did the Yankees cut him, but then the Senators, White Sox, Braves, Tigers, Yankees (again!), Cubs, Athletics, Reds, Braves (again!), and Senators (again!) all passed on him as well. And all of this occurred between March 17th and April 1, until the Baltimore Terrapins signed him and kept him. Even I've never been rejected that many times!

I have seen this a number of times in my historical league. Teams sign a palyer or trade for a guy and then put him up on the trading block?

[Ksyrup]

I've also been posting over there about a general problem of the game not giving enough weight to stats over ratings, even when you modify the recommended rating weights. We're seeing it mostly with pitchers being released or demoted immediately following very good seasons. The game is going off of drops in ratings without factoring in how well the pitcher did in recent years. It's completely unrealistic to immediately release the defending Cy Young winner before he even demonstrates he can't pitch anymore. But that's what's happening pretty regularly.

[Critch]

Originally Posted by Critch

I've checked out the Yankees roster and their problem is that they like to give big contracts to old guys, particularly pitchers. They've got some 36 year olds earning 10mil a year while turning in eras over 5, they've even got a 41 year old starter who's still got three more years of 17mil a year (though he's still pretty good so it's not his fault yet).

Sorry for quoting myself....

One season on and the 41 year old starter suddenly got very old over the winter so he's another aging drain on the budget. But don't worry, the Yankees signed the best 38 year old starting pitcher in the league to a long term, 14mil per season contract to keep the rotation fresh. They're nothing if not predictable.

[Ksyrup]

In a way, that's pretty cool, since it appears to mirror real life. Almost like a built-in checks and balances on their unlimited wealth. If they fire their GM, you should check to see if there's a change in philosophy from the types of FAs they sign.

My Federal League has been simmed up to 1947 and it's been fun to follow it. Lou Gehrig's career is just about to wind up and he's got over 1,200 HRs in a 24-year FL career. His best year, he hit 88 HRs, and the next highest on the HR leaderboard was 18! I haven't checked his final numbers, but over in the MLB historical league that's running along with my FL league, Babe Ruth had hit exactly 800 HRs through age 40 and was about to retire.

I've set injuries to low in this universe, in case anyone was wondering. With the 2 leagues sharing historical players, I figured I better help conserve players so that they don't run out.

[Ben E Lou]

I've been testing/tweaking since the preview. Finally got around to really playing the last couple of nights, and it's a blast so far. I simmed 25 years of history with 22 teams (12 AL, 10 NL), then added two teams to the NL for a 24-team, 4-division league. I took over the expansion Atlanta Braves (fictional players, of course). I went all-out, and could only muster a 74-88 record. Got to the second free agency stage shortly before bed last night, and it's clear that the AI teams are holding on to most of their stars. There are some good players available, but I won't be able to build just by free agency, even though I have a lot of money available due to a very low payroll in season one. So far, so good.

[Ben E Lou]

Oh, and for fictional leagues, facegen just straight-up rocks...

Quote:

Originally Posted by battists
For me, in my personal gaming history, this heads the list of "features I thought I wouldn't give a squat for, but turned out to love."

QFT. I mean, of all-time. I've never had a feature that I've cared less for in concept, but then loved more in implementation.

[Ksyrup]

I haven't really done much with it since I've been doing historical sims, but even I got swept up a bit with it and messing around with some uniform designs/colors one night. Very cool feature, and when I eventually transition to a fictional league, I'll be interested to see how it works, with the changes to each person over time, etc.

And on the subject of unis/logos, etc., if anyone is looking for a way to match colors between logos/jerseys and what-not so that you can make sure you have the right color scheme setup in the game, try this freeware program:

http://www.nattyware.com/pixie.html

When you run it, it gives you the exact code you need for anything you run it over. Very handy.

[Ksyrup]

Another bug I hope that's getting fixed - and I'm seeing it personally for the second time - is the 3-way tie bug. Basically, the computer just picks 2 teams to play, and the third gets left out. There are rules dealing with this now, although I honestly don't know how they dealt with this years ago.

[Ksyrup]

Well, I think I'm just about to pack it in with this league.

I got the fictional player creation issue under control this time around, but now the issue is that the AI is not properly filling minor/major teams adequately. Maybe it's the unique way I've set up this league, with two leagues feeding off the same set of FA players, but I don't think that should matter since there are plenty of FAs to fill the voids I'm finding on the rosters.

Basically, the MLB teams (major and minor) are fine, since they are automatically getting players put on their rosters through the historical import. But just like I saw when I had originally tried this league as a pure FA league (meaning all historical players got put into the FA pool, no draft and no auto-place) and not enough guys were being signed, now I'm seeing the same issue again with the Federal League. The AI is simply not signing pitchers. Teams in the FL are down to maybe 1 or 2 SP (all aged 36 and up) and a few MRs, while their minors have 5-12 players, none of whom are pitchers. Meanwhile, there's a ton of them sitting as FAs. What completely killed this league for me is that one team had nothing more than 4 MRs and a CL, and by the end of July, 12 position players had pitched.

So I'm thinking this isn't just related to my league setup, but any league setup that doesn't rely on either a draft or historical auto-placed rosters. When the teams are having to rely on FA to do more than just fill remaining spots on a roster or address areas of need, it fails. The AI has consistently shown that it cannot complete a proper roster. That same team with 5 relievers on it? A combined 9 catchers and 7 1B between its major and minor league teams.

I'm going fictional, baby.

[Swaggs]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

Oh, and for fictional leagues, facegen just straight-up rocks...

Quote:

QFT. I mean, of all-time. I've never had a feature that I've cared less for in concept, but then loved more in implementation.

Absolutely agreed. The facegen + uniform editor was something I did not care too much about, but absolutely love now.

[cougarfreak]

Well, it looks like it'll be quite some time before a 2007 roster set is released for the game. I was defending the guy who was supposedly making one, then got sick and ended up in the hospital on the boards over there, but he seems like a real treat now, claiming he won't finish them unless people give him free itunes or something. Now that's mature.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by cougarfreak

Well, it looks like it'll be quite some time before a 2007 roster set is released for the game. I was defending the guy who was supposedly making one, then got sick and ended up in the hospital on the boards over there, but he seems like a real treat now, claiming he won't finish them unless people give him free itunes or something. Now that's mature.

Apujols is the guy who is saying that I gather. However the original (MLB only) roster set done up by Erich Ingram is going to be released to everyone. Erich has said that. I gather Apujols was just helping him out with that, and what Apujols is talking about is his "more expanded" set including full minors and college and top HS prospects.

which frankly, IMO I can do without. I'm just waiting on Erich's MLB-only set.

[cougarfreak]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

Apujols is the guy who is saying that I gather. However the original (MLB only) roster set done up by Erich Ingram is going to be released to everyone. Erich has said that. I gather Apujols was just helping him out with that, and what Apujols is talking about is his "more expanded" set including full minors and college and top HS prospects.

which frankly, IMO I can do without. I'm just waiting on Erich's MLB-only set.

Yep, that would be the one. It's neither this nor that for me, I play fictional most of the time, but what is going on over there is pretty low IMO.

[PSUColonel]

Originally Posted by cougarfreak

Well, it looks like it'll be quite some time before a 2007 roster set is released for the game. I was defending the guy who was supposedly making one, then got sick and ended up in the hospital on the boards over there, but he seems like a real treat now, claiming he won't finish them unless people give him free itunes or something. Now that's mature.

What you were failing to realize (until now it sounds like) is that AP has been bull shitting the whole time and coming up with excuse after excuse because he never really did the set in the first place.

[DaddyTorgo]

lol. I'd love to see Apujols try to sell his roster set. I bet I wouldn't even be the first person on the phone to the MLBPA getting an injunction against his sorry ass.

that being said, at least there are people out there that aren't total douchebags and I'm confident we'll see a roster set from Erich Ingram sooner rather than later. And I've got more than enough on my plate with historical anyways.

[cougarfreak]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

lol. I'd love to see Apujols try to sell his roster set. I bet I wouldn't even be the first person on the phone to the MLBPA getting an injunction against his sorry ass.

that being said, at least there are people out there that aren't total douchebags and I'm confident we'll see a roster set from Erich Ingram sooner rather than later. And I've got more than enough on my plate with historical anyways.

Maybe Erich will set it up to where Apujlos can't download them.

[MizzouRah]

Why can FOF have a real set and OOTP can't?

[MizzouRah]

dola,

..and when is this "patch" coming out? My historical sim is on hold because the rule 5 draft was broken.. it's been fixed, hence I'm ready to get going once again.

[MizzouRah]

Well...

The first patch for OOTPB 2007 will be released pretty soon, so I thought I'd post this as a placeholder. The patch will be pretty straightforward. We've tested the beta with a lot of different leagues, and there shouldn't be any adverse effects on existing saved games, templates, etc.

That said, being an IT kinda guy, I will issue this statement:

ANY time you make changes to a software program, you're introducing risk. However, there is always a chance that a change in the program could cause problems with your saved game, and OOTPB is more succeptible to this sort of problem than some other games, due to the incredible variety of ways in which people use the game. I strongly recommend that you back up any custom files prior to applying the patch, including:

• Saved games
• Templates
• Custom quick-start games
• Custom logos, hats, or jerseys
• Custom text files, such as names, nations, etc.

The more important your league is to you, the more strongly I would urge you to back up your games. Obviously, if it was something you threw together in 5 minutes, no great loss if something happens. But if it took you 10 hours to put together your league, and you've played out every game for 5 seasons, do yourself a favor and back up your files before patching! And hang onto those backups for a while. Don't just fire up the patched game, say "Oh, it works," and then throw your backup away!

As someone who helps out with Tech Support, there's nothing I hate worse than being in that situation where a bug has killed someone's league, and I can't say anything except: "Sorry, you're hosed." So, while Markus does his best to put out a bug-free product, please do YOUR part to take care of the games that are important to you, too!

Thanks, all!

Steve Battisti, resident Backup Proselytizer

[lynchjm24]

I'm playing the fictional MLB quickplay. 2 seasons in I'm starting to get a little nervous.

I'm using the modifiers that SkyDog posted. Players are developing extremely fast.

Somehow my FSL schedule was deleted and I didn't realize it until July, so there were no games played, yet the players kept developing anyway.... that is not a good sign if you ask me.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by lynchjm24

Somehow my FSL schedule was deleted and I didn't realize it until July, so there were no games played, yet the players kept developing anyway.... that is not a good sign if you ask me.

If I'm understanding this correctly, I think the reason for that is the opion to not even have a minor league. You can set up a league with just a reserve roster, and the players don't play games, but they still develop "normally." With that option, they have to or the league wouldn't work. So I bet that's what took over in your league without a schedule. Just a guess.

[DaddyTorgo]

there has to be a setting to....generate stats for players entering the draft. right? where's it at?

[Buccaneer]

there has to be a setting to...

That's probably OOTP2007's tag line.

[lynchjm24]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

If I'm understanding this correctly, I think the reason for that is the opion to not even have a minor league. You can set up a league with just a reserve roster, and the players don't play games, but they still develop "normally." With that option, they have to or the league wouldn't work. So I bet that's what took over in your league without a schedule. Just a guess.

I guess it's a necessary evil. Pretty much makes the minor leagues pointless though if playing time doesn't effect development.


In my 2008 draft I took a MR in the 6th round who shouldn't have been passed over 6 times by the other 29 teams. After just a month and a half the minor league report was telling me he was ready for the majors at age 18. My first pick in the prior year was 24th overall and he's on his way to ROY in his age 20 season. I made a trade for a middling starting prospect during the offseason, only 22 he still had a lot of room between ratings and talents, by September the ratings had completely maxed to the talents.


It is nice that the AI isn't losing their best prospects on waivers though. I am beginning to worry that there are just too many moving parts and the development sweet spot is near impossible to find.

[DaddyTorgo]

nevermind. I remember where I found it before. You have to click on your major league and then click the "add minor league" button

[BigPapi]

Originally Posted by cougarfreak

Well, it looks like it'll be quite some time before a 2007 roster set is released for the game. I was defending the guy who was supposedly making one, then got sick and ended up in the hospital on the boards over there, but he seems like a real treat now, claiming he won't finish them unless people give him free itunes or something. Now that's mature.

APujols5 is a complete tool.

[bhlloy]

It would appear so. I was hoping the guy had legit reasons, but an electrical storm (ever heard of a surge protector) followed by a week long business trip followed by a night in the hospital followed by silence doesn't look too good.

What I don't understand is why Erich can't get them out in 20 minutes if they were "99.9%" done. What makes it twice as bad is that Cubbyfan, who does awesome work, trashed his rosters because he thought that a bigger release was days away.

One thing is for sure, it looks pretty bad on SI. If I was Markus, and I gave a few guys the game months early in return for an opening day roster, and this circus happened, I would be pissed.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

It would appear so. I was hoping the guy had legit reasons, but an electrical storm (ever heard of a surge protector) followed by a week long business trip followed by a night in the hospital followed by silence doesn't look too good.

What I don't understand is why Erich can't get them out in 20 minutes if they were "99.9%" done. What makes it twice as bad is that Cubbyfan, who does awesome work, trashed his rosters because he thought that a bigger release was days away.

One thing is for sure, it looks pretty bad on SI. If I was Markus, and I gave a few guys the game months early in return for an opening day roster, and this circus happened, I would be pissed.

yep. I think if I was markus, the easy solution would be to say "moving forward if you get the game early to do rosters, the expectation is you will have rosters out by date x. If you don't, you will no longer be allowed to purchase the game in the future." or hell...just say that if they fail to release by a given date, they won't ever get the chance again.


as for Erich...I think the issue is that he gave his rosters to Apujols to put a couple polishing touches on, so he's waiting for Apujols to send them back to him with those finished touches. Otherwise I presume he'd have to go in and do that work over.

[Terps]

The first patch is out.

http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...d.php?t=145001

[Marc Duffy]

Beat me to it

[EagleFan]

Thanks Marc

Now for what I was coming to the thread for....

Am I missing something in the player screens? I am looking at Babe Ruth, who also pitched, but can only see his batter stats. Also, there are two pitchers that were inducted into the HoF but they show as batters and I cannot see their pitching stats in their player screen as well. I know they were selected for their pitching stats, or should have been, so it doesn't seem to be something that happened in error (being selected due to weird averages because of few at bats) and they they seemed to have deserved selection based on their pitching stats (among the leaders in many categories in their career). The only thing I can see is that it looks like both pitchers look to have played something other than pitcher at least once.

[Ksyrup]

Which screen are you talking about - their history screen on the in-game screen? The in-game screen has different buttons to click at the top where you can view pitching/hitting/fielding stats separately. I find those to be a pain because they default to hitting, even for pitchers. On the player's history "card," I've found that it only shows Babe Ruth's hitting stats. I assume that once he switched from pitcher to hitter, the game recognizes him solely as a hitter and nothing more. I'd like the pitching stats to be there, too, but he's so rare that it probably doesn't make sense to spend too much time trying to get that to work correctly. If you're having that same issue with other players, maybe they also switched from pitcher to hitter in their careers? Who are they (assuming this is an historical league)?

[DaddyTorgo]

is there a way to see past year's stats...say on the free agent page once you've "turned over" into the new season? cuz ideally i'd like to try playing without ratings at all, but that makes it a real pain to try to scour through guys for who to pickup...maybe i'm missing something really obvious?

[Ksyrup]

You mean individual stats? Just click on the player and you should see his last 3 years' stats at the bottom of his profile, and there are links up top where you can see his career stats.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

You mean individual stats? Just click on the player and you should see his last 3 years' stats at the bottom of his profile, and there are links up top where you can see his career stats.

no I mean....to sort by. Like on the main free agent page you can see stats, but once you turn over into the new year they show up as all blank. I'm wondering if there's a way to get that to show either last year's stats or even career stats...

[DaddyTorgo]

again with "nevermind"

although it's not the single most intuitive thing...it's under "splits"

you can view last year, or 2 years ago or career.

now if I can just figure out how to set that as a default...

[DaddyTorgo]

dammit

I just had a perfect game through 8.1 innings that I was managing until their #8 hitter got a 1 out double. Walked the next guy and then got a lineout and a strikeout to end the game. So frustrated though.

[lynchjm24]

1 bug I think
1 necessary tweak

The bug is that players on the DL when the automatic contract renewals are handed out don't seem to get one. So I've got a player in the majors who still says Minor League Contract because when I brought him back from the 60 Day DL I moved him straight to the majors.

Tweak: The AI when building lineups should not put the backup catcher as a backup at other positions or as the starting DH which it loves to do to me.

[lynchjm24]

I'm not sold on amature player generation. In my 30 round draft there is only 1 player rated as a SS who is better then a 1 star potential. Doesn't really jive with reality when so many good players come in as SS and then move down the spectrum.

Why doesn't the game prompt me when I leave someone in DFA - the days run out but I can just go along playing with them in that status.

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by lynchjm24

I'm not sold on amature player generation. In my 30 round draft there is only 1 player rated as a SS who is better then a 1 star potential. Doesn't really jive with reality when so many good players come in as SS and then move down the spectrum.

Yeah, I don't think it works particular well either. I've have to go in and created masses of better prospects. The game still generates ENTIRELY too many middle relievers and awesome first baseman for my taste.

[Qrusher14242]

Originally Posted by lynchjm24

1 bug I think
1 necessary tweak

The bug is that players on the DL when the automatic contract renewals are handed out don't seem to get one. So I've got a player in the majors who still says Minor League Contract because when I brought him back from the 60 Day DL I moved him straight to the majors.

I got this too, although i think it was just a regular contract. I had Toby Harrah signed and he ended up on the DL and all of a sudden he was a free agent. Now, i think i had him signed, because he wasnt on soon to be Free Agent list on the Front Office tab. But he still ended up as a FA the next year

[lynchjm24]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

Yeah, I don't think it works particular well either. I've have to go in and created masses of better prospects. The game still generates ENTIRELY too many middle relievers and awesome first baseman for my taste.

The AI doesn't really value the MRs very well either in the draft. You can get pitchers who are borderline starters with great talents into the 4th, 5th and 6th rounds. Since everything else by then is garbage, it's pointless to pass up these MRs.

[Ksyrup]

The more I'm reading, the more I think I might stick with the historical sim side of this game for awhile. Maybe I'll do like Bucc and jump into an historical sim and take over a team - and try to get over my issues with knowing things about the players. Then there at least won't be any player creation issues.

[Buccaneer]

Chris, make sure you don't do the recalc thing. That way the "knowing" part becomes more fun and a bit of a gamble.

[Ksyrup]

Yeah, I'll definitely keep that off.

Do you use ratings, or do you go without and strictly use stats? I'm thinking that going without would prove to be a bigger challenge.

[Senator]

I started with the Senators (why???) in 1920 with the recalc off. More fun than I know what to do with. A fellow with no speed by the name of Muddy Rheule has kept us in spitting distance of the Yankees with 5 games to go.

[Buccaneer]

I think that's the hook of playing historical this way - there are always players that will surprise. Most of the time they are players that were, at best, minor stars or more likely, run of the mill players.

I've always used Reduced Ratings. When I looked at v2007, I saw way too many ratings and never could find a way to trim it down to just the three that I'm used to. One of these days I'll get up to speed but in the meantime, v5 gives me my immediate and comfortable fix.

If you start a historical career for real, I'll be interested in reading your experiences.

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by Senator

I started with the Senators (why???) in 1920 with the recalc off. More fun than I know what to do with. A fellow with no speed by the name of Muddy Rheule has kept us in spitting distance of the Yankees with 5 games to go.

Muddy Ruel is always a player I watch in historical replays.....must be the name. He was definitely slow as molasses, but a pretty good hitter and a decent enough Catcher....

Is the Big Train still with you?

[Buccaneer]

By the way, one of the things I am doing as I'm playing my current career is not only to keep track of the steps I do to play (so I can learn to do them in v2007) but also to compare stats and players. One of the simpler ways is to compare the end-of-the-year leader boards. Here's the 1931 season I just finished and it would interesting to see comparative results with the new version:

[Ksyrup]

One of the annoying things about 2007 is that the screen you watch the auto-sim from immediately goes away once the sim is finished, so you can't see that nifty overview of the standings/league leaders on one page. At least I haven't found it if it exists. So this is the best i can do: