Here we go boyz, it's OOTP 5 Time! (First OOTP5 Impressions)

[Malificent]

I noticed a dramatic speed increase in simming when I turned my virus scanner off. Your mileage may vary, of course.

[MizzouRah]

Originally posted by Easy Mac
So to those who didn't like OOTP4's single player experience;

How is the new version? Does it feel like a real game instead of a stripped down multi-player game? Does it hold your interest?

There's alot more to this version than I had expected. I stayed up until about 2am last night and only played 3 games, becuase there is so much to look at and analyze. This version feels much more like a single player game, than v4. Manager mode is fun so far and most people who laughed at the married, kids module, are having quite a time with it.

I'm on the hardest level and have to make it to the playoffs this year, although my owner is laid back. The interface takes a little to get used to, just like FOF4 was for me. Managing a game is like a whole new game, sounds that work well, tons of more data on the screen to look at (out of town games now have teams' lineups to look at as well as the boxscore), and a much improved and cleaner interface (not so hard on the eyes anymore).

I really can't list all the new things since v4, I'm still finding out new reports/features as I play. Personally, I'm most giddy about how I can now read my boxscores with little effort to find statistics.

Yes, there is an immersion factor for the solo player. Of course only time will tell if it's harder to build/maintain a top tier team over years. Also, just reading Markus plans for a 5.01 patch soon to address small bugs makes you feel confident in your purchase.


Todd

[INDalltheway]

One thing I am not liking praticulary is the fact that I haven't seen a player improve his talents. In my first year I had several players decline, and the only improvement was when someone got faster. I am not sure if this happens all the time, but I sure hope it doesn't.

[SirFozzie]

I'm not seeing that myself, IND.. but I do notice players in the draft are a LOT better..

my first pick (#2) was a 3/5/4 Brilliant/Brilliant/Good Closer in the June first draft

[FBPro]

I don't see why you guys are not seeing improvement, I just simmed two weeks and had two area where a pitcher improved.

[SirFozzie]

I meant to say "I'm not seeing what he's seeing"

[INDalltheway]

Monday 4/7/2004 :

Felix Pie has lost some momentum, his range at CF drops to B ...
Felix Pie has lost some momentum, his range at RF drops to B ...


Monday 4/21/2004 :

Mike Remlinger seems to have lost some of his feel for his stuff...


Monday 4/28/2004 :

Mark Guthrie's control seems to have taken a bump...
Joe Borowski seems to have lost some of his feel for his stuff...
Joe Borowski's control seems to have taken a bump...


Monday 5/5/2004 :

Vernon Martinez seems to have lost some of his feel for his stuff...
Vernon Martinez has lost some movement on his pitches...


Monday 5/12/2004 :

Kyle Farnsworth's pitches have more bite now, the movement has improved!
Joe Borowski has lost some lower body strength, his duration drops to D ...
Joe Borowski has lost some momentum, his range at P drops to E ...


Monday 5/26/2004 :

Barney Dutra has worked out more, his duration raises to C ...


Monday 6/2/2004 :

Moises Alou has lost a step. His speed drops to E ...
Moises Alou has lost some momentum, his range at LF drops to D ...
Moises Alou has lost some momentum, his range at CF drops to D ...
Moises Alou has lost some momentum, his range at RF drops to D ...
Nic Jackson has lost some momentum, his stealing ability drops to D ...


Monday 6/9/2004 :

Mark Guthrie seems to have lost some of his feel for his stuff...
Sammy Sosa has lost some power...





***Not sure how this will turn out***

[INDalltheway]

Dola... My coaching staff is top notch also. So I don't have a bunch of scrubs teaching these guys....

Had to put "coaching" in there.

[Blackadar]

Well, some of think your staff is top notch also.

j/k

[Markus Heinsohn]

Please check here:
http://www.400softwarestudios.com/bo...threadid=26144

[lynchjm24]

Originally posted by Markus Heinsohn
Please check here:
http://www.400softwarestudios.com/bo...threadid=26144

Hey Markus,

I love arbitration - but how about at the end of the season the game runs through the arbitration eligible players and gives us an idea of what they will get and gives us the choice to release or not. I have no idea what these guys are going to get and knowing would change my how I handle them.

[AgPete]

I took the plunge and bought OOTP5 and I have to admit I'm very impressed with the new format.

* Everything is much easier now. None of those huge text file histories of your league, you have an almanac now.

* You don't have to spend time exporting HTML files to get a good look at your team info over time, everything is easily opened up in game browser windows including incredibly useful player hyperlinks.

* It's still pretty similar to OOTP4 which was a little disappointing but some of the time consuming things in the previous version that probably kept me from playing are out of the game.

* The new minors system is great. That was something I hated in the previous versions as well as the old up arrow/down arrow transaction system for all minor leagues.

* My favorite way to play OOTP is with historical leagues and it's A LOT easier now! The old stadium specs are built in and it looks like I don't have to spend hours making the old teams. I haven't had a chance to do it over an extended period so I have no idea if I have to manually change my divisions and/or teams to deal with expansions but at least it starts out right. The first update promises a new financial system for historial leagues too which I can't wait for.

* There's a new star system to rate players that is very helpful. Instead of opening up every single player, sometimes it's easier to do a quick check by looking at star rankings. It works the same way a 1-5 star rating with movies does.

* The player tracker is awesome! I can't tell you how many times in previous OOTP versions I've forgotten about other team's minor league prospects that I wanted to follow in case I could work out a trade OR just forgetting about my own young talent. You can tag any player and always open up the player tracker window to quickly find out what's going on with that player.

I haven't had a chance to play much. Mostly, in the time I've had, I've opened as many windows and options as I could to check out the new features. IMO, it's still the best baseball sim. I'm eagerly awaiting .400 Studios NBA sim.

[Anrhydeddu]

That's a very interesting twist to player development. Usually when we see a player hit to age wall, you need it's time to cut loose. Now with the chance that he might come back after such a drop off makes the decision making much more fun.

Agpete: Can you expand on your comments about the historical league? This is the only way that i have played and I am curious as why it's a LOT easier now and why you had to spend hours making the old teams in OOTP4?

[kcchief19]

Hmmm... That player aging algorithm is distressing as a person who is taking a wait-and-see on this game. Like a lot of people have pointed out, most players in OOTP hit the wall at 37/38 and went downhill after that. Now, it appears that players are hitting that wall at 33-35. That's not good.

I can see if you average player is crashing at that age, but your superstars should not. I'm not sure if I'm more distressed at the anecdotal evidence of a couple of players in beta testing that were productive past the wall years or that half-baked explaination Markus put out there. OPS is going to favor players who retired early or hit a lot of homeruns. I'd be more interested to see the retirement ages and games played for players with 2,500 or more hits.

[AgPete]

Anhrydeddu, I haven't had a chance to play it much but I remember downloading and installing different stadium files to match early 20th century teams. I had to install new data every few years to keep up with the teams. In OOTP5, the stadiums were already there. The only problem was each one had 45,000 capacity. I'm interested to see what the game comes up with when historical salaries are implemented. I don't know if they plan on changing the seating numbers to reflect the times or keep them at 45k. I don't know if this data was in the new baseball archive or in OOTP5 but it's damn convenient.

I remember a lot of bugs too when downloading the old archives. Some teams didn't load players at all and I had to sign them all with that team. That doesn't happen with this one. I also remember creating team names and abbreviations myself in OOTP4 but it looks like everything is already done. Maybe I should give the historical archive as much credit as I am the new version of OOTP, I'm not sure which one is making it easier. IF, and it's a big IF, OOTP5 is user friendly and automatically adds new stadiums and expansion teams, it will take out A LOT of work I had to put into my historical leagues making sure they were accurate every season. The logo and picture insertions are still required though in OOTP5.

Hope that answers your questions. It's been several months since I played OOTP4 and don't remember everything I did. The several hours preparation was an exaggeration but I do remember having to put in some grunt work before starting historical leagues and it seems everything is ready to go in OOTP5.

BTW - I'm trying a 1901 NYGiants sim on manager mode. I'm not sure if my manager dies in a few decades and the historical league ends. LOL The only problem I've run into so far (I haven't gone to 1902 yet) is the nicknames aren't processing correctly. Some nicknames in quotations are showing up as squares or other data that the game isn't reading.

[FBPro]

FYI, expansion isn't automatic now either.

[Ksyrup]

Just testing to see how this looks on the screen. I've got some data to post!


G Stewart (C) .319 1061/594 40

[Ksyrup]

OK, here’s some information/stats from a 40-year sim I did over the last 24 hours. The league is 24 teams/ 2 divisions per league, using fictional players and the default 1980's-present settings and such. I didn't modify anything.

Make of this what you will, I’ll add some comments at the end of each section. I hope this comes out semi-readable. And it's long -bear with me.

HITTING
Player -> Avg -> BB/K -> Age

Career Average Leaders (Over .310):

J Nelson (SS) .327 718/962 41
M Bordeaux (RF) .327 406/845 34 (active)
F Oropesa (3B) .325 803/1008 39
A Aguilar (1B) .322 650/690 39
G Stewart (C) .319 1061/594 40
J Sanchez (RF) .319 219/431 35
M Mendez (LF) .315 608/512 37
P Alaniz (C) .315 285/637 37
S Gonzales (LF) .315 253/783 38
G Bowlling (C) .314 534/982 38
V Greco (3B) .313 1339/1404 40
R Romero (C) .312 306/802 32 (active)
B Lozoya (LF) .310 209/373 35


3000 Hits:

F Oropesa (above) 3321 Hits
W Chen (SS) .290 901/2314 40 (3135 Hits)
C Graziani (SS) .269 794/2090 43 (3050 Hits)


Career Walks Leaders:

H Osterberg (3B) .293 1705/1289 39 (734 HR - #1 all-time)
J Kirch (2B) .260 1678/2257 38
B Murdock (3B) .238 1662/1913 38 (active)
M Dilorenzo (2B) .293 1643/1131 39
E Chao (LF) .250 1632/2236 38
D Ferrin (3B) .273 1613/1021 40 (active)


Comments:

It appears that the game is doing an adequate, but not great, job of equating high walks with high average. I see about 5-6 guys on the career average leaders who are problematic, although you’d have to allow for the odd success story despite the numbers – but not that many. On the career walks list, one guy clearly stands out with such a low average.

I think the biggest issue is the number of strikeouts for these guys. Yes, some guys who walk a lot also strikeout a lot. But not this many. G Stewart is the only one with a 2/1 BB/K ratio on these lists – I think there needs to be more T Gwynn/ T Williams types, as they appear to be lacking in the game.

Also, as in OOTP4, there appear to be an inordinate number of great-hitting catchers. I think the game needs to take into account the rigors of this unique position. There simply shouldn’t be 4 catchers in the top 13 hitters.

Another thing that pops out is that after 40 years, the highest career average is only .327. By my unofficial count, until the late 2030’s, only two hitters had hit for better than .360 in any year (one of them did it twice). I’m not sure what that says, as there are no unbelievably low career ERA’s to counter-balance the low averages. You would think one or two hitters would rise above the crowd for their entire career.


PITCHING
Pitcher -> ERA -> BB/K -> W/L -> Age

Career ERA Leaders (under 3.00):

H Mansfield 2.52 760/3403 263-123 40
C Thetford 2.53 760/2890 242-125 40
R Deblois 2.64 596/3023 212-130 39 (active)
F Garrido 2.75 795/2115 161-121 35
W Baker 2.77 727/4021 239-121 38
J Palmateer 2.91 624/1449 152-105 37
E Campos 2.91 892/4182 255-146 40
O Diaz 2.94 269/2533 155-106 35 (active)
H Smail 2.97 388/1882 157-81 35 (active)


Career K Leaders:

A Omara 3.33 763/4468 198-157 39
E Campos (above)
W Ferrant 3.78 1492/4027 245-208 40
W Baker (above)
D Pollard 3.64 754/3777 207-148 39
W Aumiller 3.48 719/3654 210-162 40
P Godinez 3.54 302/3472 181-123 39
J Ayo 3.20 820/3443 167-115 36
H Mansfield (above)


Comments:

Pitchers’ BB/K seem to show much more direct correlation to success than the hitters. In fact, some of the BB/K ratios are almost too good, but I’d rather have that than the opposite. Nearly every one of these guys was a successful pitcher, which is good to see. Not one of the best ERA pitchers had anything resembling a weak BB/K ratio.


RETIREMENTS/INJURIES

HITTERS:

Among the top 25 career average leaders, 3 of them retired at age 40 or older (or were active at age 39 or older). Among the top 25 career hits leaders, 8 were 40 or older.

Five hitters on the career average leader board had careers that appeared to end early. On the list above, I targeted J Sanchez (35), B Lozoya (35), and 3 others. Only one of those players could I definitively attribute the retirement to an injury. The others played well up to the year before they retired. I couldn’t trace their ratings from year to year, since I wasn’t thinking and set the league to talents only (which is what I use when I play out a career).

Notwithstanding, it would seem logical that the other 4 players had a precipitous dropoff in their ratings which led them to be released by a couple of teams during their last year, and ultimately to retire. I’ve got no problem with this happening every now and then, but I think the loss of skills should not be so sudden (call it the Dale Murphy Effect). That rarely happens. I think certain ratings should go, and the others follow over the next year or two – for instance, lose average, but keep power until it fades away.

Guys shouldn’t go from .300/30/120 to out of the league in an off-season, which is what I’m seeing. Retiring at 35 is one thing – retiring at 35 coming off an above-average or great season is another.

PITCHERS:

Among the top 25 career ERA leaders, 6 retired at 40 or older (or were active at age 39 or older). Among the top 25 career wins leaders, 13 retired at 40 or older (top wins leader is 263, btw), including a guy with the nickname “The Freak” who retired at age 44!

Eight pitchers on either (or both) the career ERA and career wins leader boards had careers that appeared to end early. I included H Mansfield, because he had a decent year at age 40, although he’s arguable. The only ones actually mentioned by name above are F Garrido (35), J Ayo (36), and J Palmateer (37). Of these 8, 5 of them had career ending injuries in their final year and 1 had a string of minor/moderate injuries his last year – only H Mansfield and J Palmateer, the 2 oldest of the 8, btw, just retired.

CONCLUSIONS:

Pitchers seem to be more risk/reward, which mirrors real life, I think. On the one hand, career ending injuries seem to be a real potential among mid-30’s pitchers, but compared to hitters, many more successful pitchers make it to their 40’s than hitters.

It appears the only problem with the new aging scheme is that hitters are aging too rapidly in order to get them out of the league at a younger age. Either the aging process should start a year or two earlier and be more gradual, or they should get career ending injuries like the pitchers do. When I’m playing, I can accept a career ending injury far more than seeing that a guy who was one of my team’s best hitters the year before is on the retired list the next year.

Overall, I’m very impressed with the game and the numbers being generated. I’m a little concerned with the career high averages, but this is only one sim and might be fluky. Although, I will say that I’ve read a few comments about how the drafts seem to have more pitching talent than hitting, and maybe what I’m seeing is the outcome of that fact.

Anyway, make of this what you will. I'm going to do this over again with a new league and see what happens.

[Dargone]

Well done Ksyrup. I look forward to your follow up post.

[ISiddiqui]

FYI, expansion isn't automatic now either.

When was it ever?

[lynchjm24]

For what it's worth, I'm playing with the default rosters, and my averages seem way to high. I'm only 5 years in, but I've had at least 15 guys hit .350.

Most of what you said seems pretty positive though KS.

[daedalus]

Originally posted by Ksyrup
I think the biggest issue is the number of strikeouts for these guys. Yes, some guys who walk a lot also strikeout a lot. But not this many. G Stewart is the only one with a 2/1 BB/K ratio on these lists – I think there needs to be more T Gwynn/ T Williams types, as they appear to be lacking in the game.

I'm obviously nitpicking here but Tony Gwynn wasn't much for walking (you can't walk out of San Diego or something like that). He had one year where his walk was over 59. Mind you, he only had one year where his strikeout was even as "high" as 40.

Still, if you take a look at the career leaders for batting average, your point is DEFINITELY true. On the other hand, and I don't know how much this effects it, I can't help wonder how much of it is due to the era you have them playing. Strikeout-to-walk ratio seems to be less of a big deal with the 80s-and-beyond era.

As Dargone said, I'm definitely looking forward to more of your analysis.

[Ksyrup]

I see your point on Gwynn. My point was that he had a low K total and a good BB/K ratio, even if he didn't walk much. Those kinds of hitters are missing. A couple of the guys on my list had low K and BB totals, but their ratios seemed to be turned around. For instance, J Sanchez had a 219/431 BB/K ratio. Turn that around, and it might look more like a Gwynn-type player.

[Ksyrup]

Well, I simmed a new league, but only got 25 years until 2029 got corrupted because my daughter started playing on the computer and caused the game to freeze (probably used too many resources).

Anyway, I saw quite a bit of the same thing I reported up above. Basically, the best hitters are striking out as much, if not more, than they are walking, although they are walking at a higher rate. And the best pitchers have a great BB/K ratio. I think these are related, and causing the problems with the hitters' K's. In order to create pitchers for which there is a correlation between BB/K and success, I think the game is causing all hitters to strike out a lot when there is clearly a type of hitter that shouldn't be striking out a lot (or necessarily walking a lot either).

In this particular league, hitting dominated early (including a monster 89 HR 200 RBI season for one guy),and then as it progressed, pitching became more dominating. Again, this seems to support the idea that good pitching prospects are more plentiful in the drafts than hitters.

I haven't looked at the injury/sudden retirement issue in this league yet, though.

[lynchjm24]

I'm finding this game to be 100 improved.

I've been criticial of some things on the past, mostly related to the K/BB ratios and career paths.

K/BB is headed in the right direction and the career paths are much more realistic.

Also, players aren't nearly as consistent from year to year, there is much more variation in season, even with players who's ratings don't change.

Nothing makes me happier then this. I grabbed AJ Hinch in 2006 as a minor league free agent.

He hit 296/363/529.
So I resigned him at age 33 for 1 year, $600k.
AJ rewards me by promptly going out and hitting 217/264/342.

Another great feature is the arbitration feature. Now you really have to be careful about when to start the clock on players in the minor leagues. It will be great when they add some features to the arbitration process.

Some minor improvements might be:
1. Players still could develop more quickly - they stay in A ball to long - even players then end up being good spend 2+ seasons there.

2. There seem to be more pitching prospects in the draft then hitters. However, the pitching prospects fall off the face of the earth a lot of times, I've yet to have a successful first round selection with a pitcher.

I just hope that Markus sticks to these development curves, as it seems most of the talk on the .400 board is a touch negative on them.

Markus, if you are going to change the curves later on - please make it a separate patch, because I'd rather have these curves and no other features.

[Maple Leafs]

Can anyone comment on this OOTP pet peeve? When someone from the starting lineup is hurt and there is no backup listed (or the backup is already playing another position), does the game's AI put the best available guy in or does it just guess?

Example: CF gets hurt. Backup CF is also the starting DH. Would the AI put the "A-range" third-string LF into CF, or does it still toss the backup catcher into the spot?

[Anthony]

not sure if this is cool or bad...

using geforce's beta rosters, i'm playing as a really bad Mets team. Roger Clemens was released by the Yankees (with some pretty above average ratings, mind you, better than 2 stiffs i got on my team) right before his 300th win. Cleveland picked him up, he gets his 300th win with them, and a few wins after that he was released. i picked him up now for $2million (after bumping up $1million to the paltry $1million he initially agreed to sign for). like i said, his ratings were pretty above average, should be worht more than $2million. then again, in real life Chuck FInley is out of a job, so is Kenny Rogers, so it's possible in a way.

i'm also noticing Todd Zeile refusing to go to the minors, being released, getting picked up and being released after refusing the minros again by different teams. happened 3 times already. i like the refuse to go to minors option, but i hope it doesn't result in a lot of excessive add/drops. i haven't looked too deep, but i'd imagine the Roger Clemens probably refused assignment to the minors, which was why he was a free agent.

also seeing quite of bit of 3 or 4 for 1 trades. not looking in to the particulars to see if it's salary dumps or if the one player traded is a stud. but with the trade frequency set to very low, i am seeing a realisticl amount of trading and no superstars changing teams every couple of weeks.

one other gripe i have is that Toronto, being way out of the hunt for a wildcard berth, offered me Carlos Delgado (having a pretty nice year). i was interested, but didn't need Delgado AND Mo Vaughn's fat ass in the lineup, so i countered with a simialar offer to what they wanted and added Vaughn. they never said they didn't want to take on his salary, rather they "wanted a little more" and after a while what i was offering them was pretty much more than than what they were asking for in their own offer. i just thought the AI should remember what it offered to you so that when you want to counter offer with something slightly different you're not trying to reinvent the wheel with them.

i love the game, i'll love it more when geoforce comes out with his final version of the MLB rosters (some of this stuff is so off he shouldn't have even bothered, as it stands i'm pretty much using this league i'm in now to practice. no reason for Giambi to be a free agent after 2003). the manager feature is not fluff, just what it is - an extra feature. not like some nonsense involving people's astrological signs. i love the different skins feature too. they just need to make it so that you can read some of the black text when you're in the darkest skin they provide. how was that missed?

[Anthony]

"Can anyone comment on this OOTP pet peeve? When someone from the starting lineup is hurt and there is no backup listed (or the backup is already playing another position), does the game's AI put the best available guy in or does it just guess?"

well, is it the game's fault or your fault? there ARE three slots for backups for each position, why is it the games fault that you're too lazy to utilize them all.

granted, you expect a certain amount of common sense from the AI, but you should just remember the ole saying "if you want the job to be done right - you gotta do it yourself"...or live with the consequences. the AI is supposed to read your mind who you'd want to put in? no. that's why we're giving the option to outline a pretty deep depth chart.

[kcchief19]

Excellent breakdown, Ksyrup. As a I was reading your stats and notes, I came to the exact conclusion you did -- the pitching aging algorithm seems fine, but the hitters aging is a tad off. It's good to see guys pushing into their late 30s/early 40s, but it is rare that a great player retires mid-30s after an average/above average year without a precipitating injury. Even Dale Murphy played a few years in the tank before retiring.

This is the same problem OOTP4 had, but I think I can articulate it better now. The problem seems to be that the aging algorithm views all players equally, when it should not. Your average player will peak a little early and decline faster than a great player, who will peak a little later and decline slower. In OOTP, they peak and decline the same rates to a large degree.

I was very pleased to see your career stats as well. I was very critical of the fact that in OOTP4 you had way too many guys who would hit well over .400 (I had three in one season once) or hit over 80 HRs. Those are once in a lifetime occurences, not every couple of years, based on the settings. Except for your one monster guy in the second career, it looks like the game does a better job keeping thos freak years out.

What have you guys run into in the way of bugs? It sounds as though the game is pretty tight, except for .400's usual DirectX/graphics problems. Anything major?

[Maple Leafs]

Originally posted by Hell Atlantic
granted, you expect a certain amount of common sense from the AI

Yes, I think you should expect that. It wasn't there in v4.

Originally posted by Hell Atlantic
but you should just remember the ole saying "if you want the job to be done right - you gotta do it yourself"

Problem is, I don't feel like "doing it myself" for every team in a solo league. If the AI is screwing it up for the computer teams, it's a problem regardless of whether the human player takes time to fix his own lineup.

[Anrhydeddu]

If Jim Lynch says it's 100 (percent) improved, that's good enough for me.

[Ksyrup]

LOL! I haven't seen any bugs, but then again, I'm just simming and reviewing stats. The one minor (and when I say minor, this may redefine the term!) thing I've seen is that on the yearly almanac, there are a couple of link to OOTP5 and .400.com. The link to .400 says "dot400.com."

BUG!

[lynchjm24]

Originally posted by Anrhydeddu
If Jim Lynch says it's 100 (percent) improved, that's good enough for me.

Have you played yet? I have a feeling you'll like the Almanac a lot.

[Cowtown]

Does anyone know why my game crashes every time I try to import my old OOTP4 solo league? I have tried it repeatedly and it does not finish the import before crashing.

[FBPro]

You are not typing the path in properly, make sure you type "LG" exactly in the path for the source league and don't type any "lg" for what you want to rename it to in v5.

[Cowtown]

Originally posted by FBPro
You are not typing the path in properly, make sure you type "LG" exactly in the path for the source league and don't type any "lg" for what you want to rename it to in v5.

So are you saying the ".lg" extension must be capitalized to be ".LG?"

[FBPro]

Fairly certain.

[Swaggs]

A couple observations....

--I am absolutely loving the manager feature--including the wife and kids. I started out with Pittsburgh and suprised and went over .500 with a $44M payroll. The next season, I dropped to about 10 games under and was fired at midseason! I had to wait out the season to sign on with a new club. I picked Oakland, managed there for two season w/o making the postseason, before moving across the bay to S.F., where I made a lot of offensive pickups during FA and made the playoffs in my first season. There is no more trading away of all your veterans and loading up on talent. Or rather, you can do it, but someone else will likely be managing the club before the youngsters are ready to win.

--Nicknames are cool and add a little bit of extra character. My last first round pick was nicknamed "the Sorcerer," which is kind of cool. It seems to me that the nicknames are only applied to better players, but that is just from the few random times I have seen them.

--I am seeing a lot of boom/busts in prospects. Still need to get some more time in before figuring this out, but it may be a little less guaranteed that your stud draft picks will grow into stars.

--I have noticed the mid-30s declines, but to me they have seemed a little more gradual. Where in OOTP4 a player might go from 9/9/6 to 2/2/1 from the beginning of a season to the end, it seems like he may now go down to 5/5/5 for a season or two before completely dropping off. Again, it is early and I need to play more to get a better feel for this.

--Almanac and Player Tracker are two awesome new features. I would like to see top 25 lists for each team (a la TCY and FOF4), but I guess not this time around. I also like the addition of the gold glove awards--very nice.

--Arbitration is going to wreak havoc to online leagues that don't have really dedicated owners. Spending can get out of control from one season to the next if GMs don't pay close attention. It will be interesting to see each teams' GMs' philosophies regarding arbitration. Will you sign you arbitraion eligibles to long term deals or let the arbiter determine their salaries?

[lynchjm24]

RE: Arbitration

I'd love to see a lot more of the information regarding this entered into the player history. Also, it seems that players just disappear from your roster if you don't have the funds to meet their arbitration requirements. It'd be nice to get some kind of notice on that somewhere.

[Anthony]

i noticed the lack of bugs in this game has resulted in a poor showing in this type of thread (the Alright Boyz type). last year we reached the 500 mark by the time. really does show you that when a game is great you don't hear too many people cuz they're all busy playing the game.

good job .400 studios.

[Markus Heinsohn]

Originally posted by Ksyrup
LOL! I haven't seen any bugs, but then again, I'm just simming and reviewing stats. The one minor (and when I say minor, this may redefine the term!) thing I've seen is that on the yearly almanac, there are a couple of link to OOTP5 and .400.com. The link to .400 says "dot400.com."

BUG!

Well, type that into your browser... NO BUG!

[Ksyrup]

Originally posted by Hell Atlantic
i noticed the lack of bugs in this game has resulted in a poor showing in this type of thread (the Alright Boyz type). last year we reached the 500 mark by the time. really does show you that when a game is great you don't hear too many people cuz they're all busy playing the game.

good job .400 studios.

I think that's part of it, but I also think there is a lot about the game that is familiar, so there's no need to rehash it all. Last year's version felt like a whole new game to me, so there was a lot of discussion about the basics. Here, they've taken last year's game and improved it.

Marcus, as long as you are reading, a minor suggestion:

The player history is much improved, with the listing of achievements as opposed to one big paragraph. However, even with the lists, the important information gets lost and is hard to find. My suggestion is to bold the entries for MVP/Rookie of the Year/Cy Young so we can easily track them down. Either that, or separate the items in the player history by awards, free agent signings, personal achievements, etc. I assume the latter would be more work (although ideal), but I think even the first suggestion would be an improvement.

[Ksyrup]

Bump?

Where is ole' SD's commentary? I've seen him post over at .400.

I've simmed another 30+ years or so, and I'll be reviewing those numbers and posting my thoughts tonight, if I get the chance. Then, I think I'll dive into a test year or two, to see how the specifics of the game look. Really, I'm just waiting for the patch before I get into a real career.

Some bugs/issues have been posted over at .400, so it's not like the game is bug-free, but damn, it's close! A hot topic over there right now is the customization of manager mode. AS it stands, once you start manager mode, you can't alter anything, which means if you want to play a historical career in manager mode, you've got to forego expansion and, I assume, the different era settings, etc. Nothing can be changed. I think they are looking into making that optional or allowing restricted customization.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally posted by Ksyrup
Bump?

Where is ole' SD's commentary? I've seen him post over at .400.

Heh. I'm just feelin' pretty tired and wiped out today. I haven't had the mental energy to really evaluate the game. Just been pokin' around a little with it today. With a patch coming out midweek, I expect I'll get serious at that point.

[Ksyrup]

I knew that would call you out!

[CentralMassHokie]

Markus,

I'm just posting this here since I'm not registered at the OOTP boards. If you get the chance to answer it, fantastic. No worries if you don't.

I'm truly on the fence about getting OOTP5. The option years feature (which I think might be misnamed) and arbitration are two fantastic features.

I'm wondering if these are just two small features of where OOTP is moving. I would buy OOTP5 today if I heard that a patch was going to add the 40 man roster and true minor league options. Both would add a whole level of complexity and challenge to the game, much along the lines of your current service time feature.

The current "option" feature is really a service time feature. Is it set to 5 full years on the major roster? If not, how is it implemented?

The reason I desire 40 man rosters and options is that, like the service time feature, it'll greatly increase the thought process one goes through when moving players between AAA and the show. For instance, often I'll see teams keep a decent player at AAA and just bounce him up and down when there's an injury. With 40 man rosters or minor league options (3 option years), those guys might end up on waivers where another team could grab them. That's one of the joys of baseball GMing, and would go along way towards breaking the tedium of watching teams have to rebuild solely through the draft.

Minor league free agents would be another huge addition. As would the Rule 5 draft. But I won't get picky.

So, to restate my question, is there any chance that other GM type features are going to make their way into OOTP5. OOTP6? Ever?

Thanks much for any feedback.

[Ksyrup]

Although I haven't played with it yet, my understanding is that the option years feature is based strictly on years and not service time, meaning that a player will have used up a "year" of eligibility by being called up in September.

[AgPete]

I'm a little disappointed that we can't re-sign coaches and scouts before their contracts are up. I always lose coaches in OOTP. It seems the more I win, the more everyone hates me.

That's a feature I'd like to see in FOF too. Most sports sims seem to ignore coaches. I'd like these types of games to focus more on coach hiring. Finding a hidden talent in coaching, watching the preseason coaching moves, staff overhauls, etc. - they're all fun things to watch in the real life sports, I wish the sports sims would put as much effort in the coaching sim aspects as they do the players to simulate some of the real things that happen in pro sports coaching.

[ScottVib]

The way "options" is set up in OOTP5 is really more like the Veteran right to refuse minor league assignment.

Waivers were not built into the game as we didn't have the time to truly work out the algorithm to get them in there, as a result in OOTP you have 5 years (the players automatic contract and option years) where they can be promoted and demoted at will.

After thost years your players have "veteran" rights and can refuse minor league assignment. If they refuse the assignment just like in MLB you'll have to keep him in the majors or release the player.

[HornedFrog Purple]

Probably too early to ask but how are the financials stacking up for the AI and how is the financial multiplier for historical leaguers who do not feel like paying Babe Ruth $9 million a season?