OOTP Preview Thread (*17-YEAR-LEAGUE UPLOADED 4/16/2K4*)

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Ragone

You hinting at something.. or you just taunting us with your beta copy?

hehe

First off, let me say that I know nothing about an official release date. Markus said publicly that the game wouldn't be released "before Friday," which to me seems like he's saying, "Friday or later, but pretty soon." I am in unchartered waters here in that I have a beta version of a game, am under no NDA, with not even a "be careful about saying this or that..." from the developer of the game. I could literally say anything I want to about it. This displays both great confidence in his product and that he's decided to really trust me. Because Markus has entrusted me as such, I want to exercise my own level of restraint here in speculating about a release date. All of that being said, I'll say that though I haven't messed with every portion of the game yet (gonna do a full offseason after I finish this post, which will get me to the point of having covered all the most important bases to me), from what I've seen so far, I have a stable, fairly bug-free beta build with just a few tweaks that need to be made before it is release-ready. Of course, you never know if tweak "A" is going to create bug "B" that needs to be fixed before release...

Also, I feel that one thing is important to say to the many who aren't "from 'round here", but are reading this thread. Many people who are somewhat unfamiliar with me and with FOFC are reading this because of the link at OOTP Developments. To that group, I want to make sure y'all understand that you're *not* reading the impressions of an OOTP fan. I've been frustrated with this game for years for various reasons (so frustrated, for example, that apparently I missed the renegotiation commentary changes in one of the later patches of OOTP5 because I got to the point that I didn't care to try another patch out). Right now, there are still some things remaining that annoy me (and I've mentioned a couple of 'em already), but they are beginning to feel less significant because my worst grievance, the stats/development side of the game, appears to be much improved, and only will require minor tweaking to be pretty solid.

OK. On to my first full offseason. I'll just pick up with the more-mature universe I have now at the beginning of 2019.

[Ragone]

well i figured the tongue smiley would show i was joking heh sorry skydog

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

1. WHIP needs to be somewhere on the player HTML report, besides just when a guy is in the top 10.

I had the exact same thought while reviewing the first player card I looked at from your first sim year.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Ragone

well i figured the tongue smiley would show i was joking heh sorry skydog

No apology needed at all. I thought your post was a fair question, and worth a response.

[Ben E Lou]

Now y'all stop talking to me and let me do this offseason!

[Ragone]

course i probably headed off about 20 guests from making a account and pming you asking if it was being released tomorrow

[Tekneek]

Originally Posted by Ragone

course i probably headed off about 20 guests from making a account and pming you asking if it was being released tomorrow

And prevented them from being converted to our way of thinking.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Ragone

course i probably headed off about 20 guests from making a account and pming you asking if it was being released tomorrow

[Ragone]

what are we? the borg? we assimliating other boards now? heh

Resistance is futile.. you will put on a wizard robe and hat

[Ben E Lou]

As I'm evaluating my team's needs, I need to mention a nice thing on the interface that I think may be new (or I never noticed before, but is helpful now that I've figured it out ): On the "pitching ratings" and "batting ratings" screens, the ratings are now color-coded. Good ratings are "colder" colors and bad ratings are "hotter" colors, as such:

80-100: Blue
60-79: Green
40-59: Yellow
20-39: Orange
0-19: Red

It is now easier to scan down the pitching staff looking for "cold" colors to find your good pitchers on the ratings screen.

[spleen1015]

They were colored coded before, Ben. I think the fact that you rarely saw double digits didn't 'bring them out'. Now that most ratings are double digits (when using the 1-100 scale) it is more noticeable.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by spleen1015

They were colored coded before, Ben. I think the fact that you rarely saw double digits didn't 'bring them out'. Now that most ratings are double digits (when using the 1-100 scale) it is more noticeable.

Makes sense....on to the next big post....

[Ben E Lou]

OFFSEASON--PART ONE

or..."Is dat trade AI so good, it make Buc's D*** hard???!!!"

First off, I'm working with a 16-team league that is 2019. If I run across any anomalies in terms of number of players available, I also have a 30-team MLB-structured league that is at the beginning of the first offseason to work with as well.

FINANCES
Team payrolls at this juncture range from $35.07M (Detroit) to $78.45M (Chicago). The league's highest salary is $14.37M, belonging to SP Sebastian Fuster, a 32-yo with a lifetime 3.02 ERA, and a streak of 6 straight 16+ win seasons. The highest-paid position player is 1B Jack Dekker, a 38-yo wonder who leads my young league in career homers with 487, and had a .313-28-89 year last season, so he's still goin' strong. Attendance last year ranged from Detroit's dismal 654,072 to Toronto's 3,065,939. Cash on hand ranges from a low of -$5M (Florida) to the max of $10M. Only three teams have less than $10M, and Florida is the only team in the red in terms of cash on hand. Complete financial report can be found at http://www.benelou.com/ootp6/finances.html

FREE AGENCY COMMENTS
The team I'm working with, Atlanta, has a $55.99M payroll, and $15.72M available. The "Team Weaknesses" list is long: C, 1B, 3B, SS, CF, RF, RP. Here are the situations at each positions:

C: best current option is a 40/50/35 (Con/Pwr/Eye) 30-year-old 2-star guy who has never been a starter. There's also a 3.5 blue star 22-year old who could be good one day, but has never played above A-ball. Good call by the AI here.

1B: 2-star 31-year-old who was .274-22-90 last year and has a Platinum Glove, and a 5-star 24-year-old who tore up AA for half a season last year, then had a decent time at AAA for the 2nd half (.256-10-37-.716OPS). He's only a year or so away I think. I'm not sure this team should be signing a 1B. If the fact that this is listed on "weaknesses" means that if this were an AI-run team it would be going after a 1B, this is a concern.

2B: A 3.5 star 33-year old all-around stud is there: 58/96/74 ratings, 85 range, .261-36-100 last season. Good call here.

3B: Best option is a 34-year-old 52/57/56, 2.5 star guy with 76 range who has never had more than 307 AB in a season. He looks like he could be full-time in a pinch, based on his ratings, but given that there's no youngster at 3B >2 stars in the organization, I'd say it is a good call for an AI team to pursue a 3B.

SS: Rough situation here. Nothing resembling a starter. No-brainer for the AI, but it got it right.

LF: 59/67/76 29-year-old who was .272-22-103 last year with 101 walks. Good call.

CF: Hmmmm...best option is a 27-year-old who started last year. Pretty decent offensively: 69/53/45, .300-10-84-.755 OPS last year, but mediocre 46 range and 49 arm. Best prospect is a 3-star 24-yo who hasn't made it above A-ball yet. This one is debatable, and I can live with the AI wanting a new guy at CF, but I would hope that it goes after other positions with more fervor, considering the number of needs.

RF: Best option is a 36-year-old 65/20/58 2-star guy with a weak arm and decent speed. No decent prospects in the system, either. Definitely need someone else here.

SP1: 5-star 36yo, 15-10, 2.75 last year
SP2: 3-star 35yo, 10-10, 3.48 last year
SP3: 3-star 28yo, 14-12, 4.14 last year
SP4: 2-star 29yo, 9-10, 4.48 last year
SP5: 3.5 blue star 24yo, 6-9, 5.86 last year, but 75/52/43 (STU/CNT/MOV) rated right now.
SP6: 1.5-star 32yo, 9-0, 4.36 at AAA last year. Has the ratings to probably be a serviceable 4 or 5 starter in a pinch

The youngster looks like a solid candidate for the #4 slot. I personally favor strong pitching staffs and would probably try to go after another good pitcher, but I can live with the AI standing pat with this starting staff.

RP: The closer is a 4-star 34yo who looks good. 2 4.5-star righties and 2 2.5-star lefties are also in the 'pen. I could go either way on whether or not this team really needs RP help. If it were my team, I'd want at least one 3.5-ish star lefty down there, so that's pretty good.


All-in-all, I'd say the AI has done a good job evaluating weaknesses. The one concern is if it would go after a first baseman. Having done the exercise above, it is clear to me at this point is that I'd rather see how the AI handles this team in free agency rather than how well I can do. Looking at the FA screen options, there don't appear to be any major cosmetic or feature changes here. Let's look under the hood then. I set Atlanta back to AI control, and we'll run one week at a time and see who they pursue!

[fantastic flying froggies]

That link to the financial report seems to be bad, SD.

[Ben E Lou]

Oops! That's www.benelou.com/ootp6/finances.html

[Ben E Lou]

Dola--Now fixed in the post as well.

[Ben E Lou]

DAY 1

Heh. This is going to be a bit annoying. I have to change back and forth every day from computer-controlled to human controlled to see what offers the AI has made.

The AI makes the following offers:

SS: 5yrs, $6.32M
SP: 3yrs, $7.39M
1B: 1yr, $2.87M
CL: 4yrs, $5.49M
RF: 3yrs, $1.05M
RRP: 4yrs, $3.21M
3B: Minor league deal, but this guy COULD be good enough to get some playing time in the bigs.
C: Same


The closer offer is a concern. Yes, he is a dominant closer, but our current one is solid, and making $6.46M this coming season in the last year of his contract. Now, if the AI trades him after signing the other, better guy, then I'd be down with that.

Also, the RF offer points out an issue that has been brought up in this thread earlier. This guy is the best "RF" available, but only has 2 stars. There's another player who is listed at SS, but has 57 range in RF who could fill that need much better than the guy we've offered.

Finally, going after another good right-handed reliever makes very little sense to me. Granted, the best lefty FA MR is a 3.5-star guy, but with an offer out on a 5-star closer, we'd be looking a potentially having FOUR high-salaried right-handed relief pitchers.

Now, to be fair, this is a 16-team league, and there is always the possibility that there are too few quality guys available for the AI to make smart decisions. I'll finish up this free agency period, then do a run on my 30-team league as well.

[fantastic flying froggies]

Just to make things clear, all those html reports are directly generated by the game, correct ?

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by fantastic flying froggies

Just to make things clear, all those html reports are directly generated by the game, correct ?

Heck yeah. I sure don't have that technical ability!

[Ben E Lou]

Jumping forward a few more days...

[Ben E Lou]

First signing (day 5)--34yo 5-star RHRP, 4yrs, $3.46M per year--lifetime 3.83 ERA, mostly as a MR. Spent four years as a closer (2010-2013), but that's been a while.

[Ben E Lou]

Checking in with the offers at day 10, things are looking better. Leading team on some pretty logical players right now.

[Ben E Lou]

I think I saw some concern about players being claimed off of waivers...

Tuesday 2/2/2019 :

New York (A): Free agent SS Cletus Fitzgerald has been signed to a contract of $1,738,400 per year, for 4 years. Chicago (N): Released P Adan Rosales, he refused assignment off 40-man roster. New York (A): Raleigh Frasher has been claimed off waivers from Chicago (N).

[Ben E Lou]

Day 11 Signing...

SS Jeffrey Wiley
1.5 stars
$444K per year (2 yrs)
45/45/45
71 spd, 57 stl, 38 instinct
51 rng, .961 fld

With Atlanta's dismal SS situation, getting this guy at this price is pretty good, as far as I can tell.

[wheels]

Cletus Fitzgerald

i see the names have retained their humor

[rdomico]

How many rounds are you using in the amateur draft? I thought in version 5, the default of 10 was too many.

[Ben E Lou]

That was my understanding too, but I'm using default settings as much as I can. As I've mentioned before, it is fair to expect that a game should work properly and give realistic results using its default settings. User-changed settings should be for the user to tweak the game to his less-than-realistic liking.

[Butter]

So, what sliders did you move again? Clearly, this game is best in the pre-glove and shoe era when ratings like "handlebar mustache wax" and "bunion size" were important. Without those settings, this game is unplayable.

Sorry.

[Ben E Lou]

Through no real fault of their own, Atlanta only makes the signings mentioned above, plus one other one-star SP to a minor league contract. All the good players got signed, and salaries don't seem to be out of control. The highest salary paid a FA goes to LF Benito "Hawkeye" Demiras (82/75/79), a four-time All Star who was .306-28-109 with a .913 OPS last year and 21 SB's. He received $10.70M per year for 4 years from Montreal.

On another note, one interesting thing about ratings is this, now that 1-100 ratings can be used, it is interesting to note when overall ratings are greater than talent ratings.

[mauchow]

I noticed people were complaining about too many 30-Homer players on teams. I believe I heard that there were about 3-30 homer guys on each team. I don't remember one thing though, was this with the 16-team league, or the regular 32 team setup? If it was the 16 team league, then 3-30 homerun guys shouldn't be an odd occurence.

16x3= 48 hitters with 30 homers. Let's see what the MLB produced last year. I put in a few extra players with 28 and 29 homers. Just to stretch it out a little bit.

Rk Player, Team AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB BA OBP SLG OPS 
1 J. Thome, Phi 578 111 154 30 3 47 131 0 3 111 .266 .385 .573 .958 
  A. Rodriguez, Tex 607 124 181 30 6 47 118 17 3 87 .298 .396 .600 .995 
3 R. Sexson, Mil 606 97 165 28 2 45 124 2 3 98 .272 .379 .548 .927 
  B. Bonds, SF 390 111 133 22 1 45 90 7 0 148 .341 .529 .749 1.278 
5 J. Lopez, Atl 457 89 150 29 3 43 109 0 1 33 .328 .378 .687 1.065 
  A. Pujols, StL 591 137 212 51 1 43 124 5 1 79 .359 .439 .667 1.106 
7 C. Delgado, Tor 570 117 172 38 1 42 145 0 0 109 .302 .426 .593 1.019 
  F. Thomas, CWS 546 87 146 35 0 42 105 0 0 100 .267 .390 .562 .952 
9 J. Giambi, NYY 535 97 134 25 0 41 107 2 1 129 .250 .412 .527 .939 
10 S. Sosa, ChC 517 99 144 22 0 40 103 0 1 62 .279 .358 .553 .911 
Rk Player, Team AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB BA OBP SLG OPS 
11 J. Edmonds, StL 447 89 123 32 2 39 89 1 3 77 .275 .385 .617 1.002 
  G. Sheffield, Atl 576 126 190 37 2 39 132 18 4 86 .330 .419 .604 1.023 
  J. Bagwell, Hou 605 109 168 28 2 39 100 11 4 88 .278 .373 .524 .897 
14 A. Soriano, NYY 682 114 198 36 5 38 91 35 8 38 .290 .338 .525 .863 
  R. Palmeiro, Tex 561 92 146 21 2 38 112 2 0 84 .260 .359 .508 .867 
16 M. Ramirez, Bos 569 117 185 36 1 37 104 3 1 97 .325 .427 .587 1.014 
17 A. Jones, Atl 595 101 165 28 2 36 116 4 3 53 .277 .338 .513 .851 
  P. Wilson, Col 600 94 169 43 1 36 141 14 7 54 .282 .343 .537 .880 
19 B. Boone, Sea 622 111 183 35 5 35 117 16 3 68 .294 .366 .535 .902 
20 A. Huff, TB 636 91 198 47 3 34 107 2 3 53 .311 .367 .555 .922 
Rk Player, Team AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB BA OBP SLG OPS 
21 T. Helton, Col 583 135 209 49 5 33 117 0 4 111 .358 .458 .630 1.088 
  V. Wells, Tor 678 118 215 49 5 33 117 4 1 42 .317 .359 .550 .909 
23 M. Lowell, Fla 492 76 136 27 1 32 105 3 1 56 .276 .350 .530 .881 
24 R. Sanders, Pit 453 74 129 27 4 31 87 15 5 38 .285 .345 .567 .913 
  J. Burnitz, LA/NYM 464 63 111 22 0 31 77 5 4 35 .239 .299 .487 .786 
  J. Guillen, Oak/Cin 485 77 151 28 2 31 86 1 3 24 .311 .359 .569 .928 
  D. Lee, Fla 539 91 146 31 2 31 92 21 8 88 .271 .379 .508 .888 
  D. Ortiz, Bos 448 79 129 39 2 31 101 0 0 58 .288 .369 .592 .961 
  C. Lee, CWS 623 100 181 35 1 31 113 18 4 37 .291 .331 .499 .830 
30 J. Posada, NYY 481 83 135 24 0 30 101 2 4 93 .281 .405 .518 .922 
Rk Player, Team AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB BA OBP SLG OPS 
31 G. Anderson, Ana 638 80 201 49 4 29 116 6 3 31 .315 .345 .541 .885 
  D. Young, Det 562 78 167 34 7 29 85 2 1 58 .297 .372 .537 .909 
  M. Ordonez, CWS 606 95 192 46 3 29 99 9 5 57 .317 .380 .546 .926 
  E. Chavez, Oak 588 94 166 39 5 29 101 8 3 62 .282 .350 .514 .864 
  H. Blalock, Tex 567 89 170 33 3 29 90 2 3 44 .300 .350 .522 .872 
36 J. Valentin, CWS 503 79 119 26 2 28 74 8 3 54 .237 .313 .463 .776 
  C. Everett, CWS/Tex 526 93 151 27 3 28 92 8 4 53 .287 .366 .510 .876 
  S. Rolen, StL 559 98 160 49 1 28 104 13 3 82 .286 .382 .528 .910 
  N. Garciaparra, Bos 658 120 198 37 13 28 105 19 5 39 .301 .345 .524 .870 
  T. Nixon, Bos 441 81 135 24 6 28 87 4 2 65 .306 .396 .578 .975 

There are 41 players with 28 HR's or better. Okay. Now we know for sure these numbers were indeed inflated, right?!

Oh, but wait. What about the previous years when homeruns were really soaring. I found that, "IN THE YEAR 2000"(lol), that there were 47 players with 30+ homers..... And 53 with 28 or more.

So, I think it all depends really, if the league settings were on 16, or 32.

And if I remember right, the settings were on 32,but I'm too lazy to check myself.

Thoughts?

[Ben E Lou]

Drafting AI isn't a big concern to me in a baseball game, since it is such a long-term thing and much more of a crap shoot than football or basketball. I'll do the draft myself to just get a feel for how it works with the HS/College players.

[Ben E Lou]

Mauboy:

Two things...
1. an issue that caused some inflation to offensive stats (not a major inflation though, from what I've seen) is being fixed..as we speak it sounds like

2. It was the 30-team league that I uploaded earlier and people looked at. I took it down because those stats will be irrelevant when Markus finishes the next beta build.

[Ben E Lou]

Hmmmm...an immediate issue I see (unless I'm missing something) is that there's no way (other than the HTML report) to see both HS and College players at the same time. There will be times when I just want to grab the guy with the best potential, no matter how old he is. In the later rounds, I see myself almost always grabbing HS guys, but early on, I would think I could either way.

[mauchow]

Okay, thanks.

Care to tell us the play-by-play options that you have when hitting?

Swing Away
Hit for fences?
Make Contact?
Etc.

[Ben E Lou]

As some have mentioned from screenies, the player scouting reports are VERY nice, although I must admit that they are also somewhat of a tease. They show up in a Courier-type font on the screen, just begging to be copied and pasted right onto a message board or dynasty report.

At this point, all HS players are listed as having had "Easy" competition. College players appear to have five different competition levels (Easy, Fair, Average, Tough, Very Tough)

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by mauboy1

Okay, thanks.

Care to tell us the play-by-play options that you have when hitting?

Swing Away
Hit for fences?
Make Contact?
Etc.

When I get to the regular season, I'll look at what managing options are there.

[Ben E Lou]

FYI, Markus also informed this morning that there are Rule 5 Draft issues that will be fixed in the next build. When the ammy draft is at the beginning of the season, rule 5 comes right after it, just so y'all know. I'm skipping it for now. As far as the interface for it, it is quite simple and logical.

[Ben E Lou]

Spring Training appears to be pretty much the same as in the past, unless I'm missing something.

[Treches]

I haven't focused on that area, but I believe play-by-play's options (hitting/pitching) are the same as V5.

[CraigSca]

Yeah, it's pretty much the same as in the past, except Markus added an option for players in MP leagues to automatically FTP their spring training settings to the league's commissioner.

-Craig

[Maple Leafs]

Great work so far...

A few questions:

- Is there any indication at all that AI teams are trading for youth or veterans based on team situations (contending vs. rebuilding)?

- Has the merchandising issue (that merchandising revenue never significantly changes, no matter how much market size, fan interest, attendance, etc. goes up or down) been addressed?

- Is the AI able to make good decisions when replacing injured or tired players even if there's nobody listed as a backup in the depth chart? e.g. using a LF to play RF instead of a catcher?

- Does it still auto-save every time you stop simming or quit the game, even in solo mode?

- Is there any way to set depth charts/lineups once and copy them across the board (LH/RH, DH/no DH) or do you still have to set each one four times?

[Ben E Lou]

PITCHING OPTIONS
Pitch+Normal
Pitch
Pitch Around
Intentional BB
Hold Runner
Pitch Out

DEFENSE OPTIONS
Normal
Guard Lines
Corners In
Infield In
Outfield In

OFFENSE OPTIONS
Swing Away
Bunt For Hit
Bunt For Hit
Hit & Run
Steal

There's a ticker in the upper left of the PBP screen of other games in progress, and you can grab a box score of any of those games by clicking.

[Treches]

These I can tell you:

- Autosave is still around.
- As of now, you have to set the four lineups. However, you can create the depth charts from the lineups as well.

[mauchow]

I'm surprised the hitting options incorporated into ITP aren't in OOTP6.

I thought for sure it would be incorporated. Oh, well!

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Maple Leafs

Great work so far...

A few questions:

- Is there any indication at all that AI teams are trading for youth or veterans based on team situations (contending vs. rebuilding)?

One of the beta guys can comment on that more that me. I *believe* I read that is something that they are hoping Markus can implement, but hasn't happened at this point.

- Has the merchandising issue (that merchandising revenue never significantly changes, no matter how much market size, fan interest, attendance, etc. goes up or down) been addressed?

Check the financial stuff I upoaded. It varies from $9.78M to $19.99M in that league.

- Is the AI able to make good decisions when replacing injured or tired players even if there's nobody listed as a backup in the depth chart? e.g. using a LF to play RF instead of a catcher?

Haven't gotten down to that level of detail yet.

- Does it still auto-save every time you stop simming or quit the game, even in solo mode?

I think so, but I haven't had a probelm with that myself. I just checked, and it is taking less than 2 seconds in a 15-year-old league.

- Is there any way to set depth charts/lineups once and copy them across the board (LH/RH, DH/no DH) or do you still have to set each one four times?

No way that I can tell, but there's no reason to set lineups vs. DH, is there???

[johnnyshaka]

Ben...great job...nice to hear an unbiased opinion and, as always, you're providing pertinent info to either tease the hell out of us or to make us hate you with a passion 'cause you've got the game!!!

I look forward to reading the rest of your preview for the next day or two...thanks!!

[Maple Leafs]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

Check the financial stuff I upoaded. It varies from $9.78M to $19.99M in that league.

OK, but I'm not talking about variance between teams. I mean variance on the same team, year-to-year.

For example, let's say Atlanta starts with the smallest market and average fan interest. If, after ten years, they've increased market size and attendance and have a 100 fan interest, does their merchandising reflect that or does it stay almost exactly the same as it was in the first year?

[Ben E Lou]

Some good news...before the regular season started, Atlanta traded some excess pitching for a starting-caliber shortstop. Then, on the first day of the regular season traded for a starting-cailber CF (parted with a SP).

[Ramzavail]

I want to know one thing about OOTP6 - When a player gets traded or changes teams mid-season (drop,picked up) are the stats split up accordingly:

Example

2004 CHI .256 4 20
2004 NYM .210 3 10
2004 TOT .238 7 30

Sort of like a baseball card.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Maple Leafs

OK, but I'm not talking about variance between teams. I mean variance on the same team, year-to-year.

For example, let's say Atlanta starts with the smallest market and average fan interest. If, after ten years, they've increased market size and attendance and have a 100 fan interest, does their merchandising reflect that or does it stay almost exactly the same as it was in the first year?

Ahhh....I see what you're asking. Since I'm not going to be doing much else with this version of the beta anyway, I'll go ahead and get it simming a few seasons. We have the merchandising numbers for 2019, so let's see how they are 5-10 years out.