Alright Boyz, it's time to Play Ball! (the PureSim2007 Impressions Thread)

[Godzilla Blitz]

Originally Posted by henry296

There are no player specifc lefty / right ratings, but the game engine factors in a platoon splits where lefties perform worse vs lefty pitchers.

Interesting. Does every player suffer an equal disadvantage when hitting against pitchers from the same side, or is there some variability built in?

And while I'm on to the questions, I remembered my other question from this afternoon. Where do I find the free agent pool? In the draft for my team, the computer only signed two shortstops for our whole system (and eight second basemen, ack). I'd like to dump a second baseman in favor of a shortstop, but I couldn't seem to find any pool of unsigned players to draw from.

[hukarez]

Originally Posted by Godzilla Blitz

And while I'm on to the questions, I remembered my other question from this afternoon. Where do I find the free agent pool? In the draft for my team, the computer only signed two shortstops for our whole system (and eight second basemen, ack). I'd like to dump a second baseman in favor of a shortstop, but I couldn't seem to find any pool of unsigned players to draw from.

I *think* the Free Agent pool is accessible from the 'Sign Players' from the "Modify Rosters & Lineups" screen...

[Godzilla Blitz]

Originally Posted by hukarez

I *think* the Free Agent pool is accessible from the 'Sign Players' from the "Modify Rosters & Lineups" screen...

Aha. There it is, just as you said. Thanks!

[HighandOutside]

Really would like to hear more about this Lefty/righty rating issue. I hope players are differentially rated in this regard.

[Godzilla Blitz]

Other random questions...

1. Do player ratings change in season, or only at the end?

2. Does playing time matter in player development? (I'm guessing yes)

3. What's the easiest way to print out the players in your organization and their ratings/ages/salary info? The graphic view of your organization is nice, but it doesn't have enough information on it, and it isn't sortable. I'm jumping around to different screens to analyze my team. There's got to be an easier way to do this.

I was thinking about printing out some HTML reports, but I'm getting a crash with version 1.14 beta when I try to generate the HTML reports. Run-time error 91. I'm only four games into the season. The game crashes consistently.

Edit: I've posted some of these questions over at the PureSim board as well. I'll post the answers here if/when I find out.

[jbmagic]

Godzilla blitz

Beta 1.15 release fixes the crash that happens in 1.14

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by Godzilla Blitz

Other random questions...

1. Do player ratings change in season, or only at the end?

2. Does playing time matter in player development? (I'm guessing yes)

3. What's the easiest way to print out the players in your organization and their ratings/ages/salary info? The graphic view of your organization is nice, but it doesn't have enough information on it, and it isn't sortable. I'm jumping around to different screens to analyze my team. There's got to be an easier way to do this.

I was thinking about printing out some HTML reports, but I'm getting a crash with version 1.14 beta when I try to generate the HTML reports. Run-time error 91. I'm only four games into the season. The game crashes consistently.

Edit: I've posted some of these questions over at the PureSim board as well. I'll post the answers here if/when I find out.

1. Player ratings do not change during the season.

2. Playing time definitely matters.Alot.

3.I am not sure on the printing. I agree the graphical view of the team roster kind of sucks alittle.

[Godzilla Blitz]

Originally Posted by Galaril

1. Player ratings do not change during the season.

2. Playing time definitely matters.Alot.

3.I am not sure on the printing. I agree the graphical view of the team roster kind of sucks alittle.

Thanks. I think the graphical view is helpful for deciding who to play at a given position.

However, it's not helpful when trying to compare players across positions.

What I'm realizing is creating the most frustration at this point is the minor league roster viewer. You can't see many values at once, and you have to scroll horizontally to see the right side values. When you do that, you can't see the player names. Argh. This isn't bad when you're evaluating talent within, say AAA, but if you want to compare three or four players across all minor league levels, it's a mess. My initial reaction to this screen was that it should changed so that the vertical rectangles for viewing the different levels are made into horizontal rectangles, and there should be a toggle for pitchers/position players, rather than trying to get them all on the screen at once.

Still, I'm convinced that somewhere in the almanac there must be one screen that allows me to sort and print my organization in a more efficient fashion.

I'll try downloading the patch that jbmagic mentions and see what there is in the almanac.

[Godzilla Blitz]

Originally Posted by jbmagic

Godzilla blitz

Beta 1.15 release fixes the crash that happens in 1.14

Humm. Thanks, but it didn't work for me. Also, the crash described in the patch is different than the one I'm encountering.

[spleen1015]

Originally Posted by Galaril

1. Player ratings do not change during the season.

I don't like this. Until this changes, I probably won't buy Puresim.

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by spleen1015

I don't like this. Until this changes, I probably won't buy Puresim.

Does this happen in Baseball Mogul or OOTP?

[lynchjm24]

Originally Posted by HighandOutside

Really would like to hear more about this Lefty/righty rating issue. I hope players are differentially rated in this regard.

They are rated, but the ratings are hidden. I did not know this until today and I've been playing this game since the Alpha builds.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by Galaril

Does this happen in Baseball Mogul or OOTP?

It does in ootp.

[Galaril]

How often do they get updated in OOTP?

[Godzilla Blitz]

Originally Posted by Galaril

Does this happen in Baseball Mogul or OOTP?

It used to happen in the latest version of Mogul that I played, which was three versions ago. I don't know how often, though.

[Godzilla Blitz]

Dola...

Yes, that is excellent news for the lefty/righty ratings. Apparently, their are hidden lefty/righty ratings for each of the hitting values (contact, power, eye).

Also in the news...

The next patch will adjust the trading AI for middle relievers.

Good news all around.

Rethinking that minor league roster screen...

I imagine as the season wears on, it is helpful to see the stats for the players rather than the ratings, and the way it is set up now, you can see all the stats of your minor leagues at one quick glance. I imagine that this is helpful as the season progresses. In the beginning of the year, when all you have are the ratings to work with, it's frustrating to work with because all the stats are blank and you have to scroll to see the ratings.

[jbmagic]

Godilla Blitz

That goods news on the trading Ai for middle relievers.

With latest patch, how is the AI when it comes to free agent signing and doing their starting lineups?

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by Galaril

How often do they get updated in OOTP?

Not sure it's a set time, I think it happens to different players at various times throughout the year. If you look at some of the 2006 player reports, it now lists what went down or up.

[Godzilla Blitz]

1.16 beta has been released:

http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=1153412

[hukarez]

Originally Posted by Godzilla Blitz

1.16 beta has been released:

http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=1153412

Got updated to 1.16 beta just an hour or two ago, and spent some time playing.

I really like not having to click 'show pitchers' anymore when I'm substituting a pitcher in mid-game. There's one curious thing though -- I had 2 players on the DL. One of them, I probably should've put on the 60 day DL as opposed to the 15 day DL, and the other who was to be ready in 2 days time.

Anyways, after having managed out my game, and simulating the 'remainder' of that particular day -- I got a message notification window declaring something along the lines of my pitcher ready to come off the DL (the same one who had 27 or so days remaining to recover). Anyways, it was the end of the 15 day DL listing for him -- however, the message popped up about 3 times throughout the AI evaluation periods. Thought it was a bit strange... and was waiting to see if it would happen again with my other player -- but it didn't, so I'm hoping it was just some kind of fluke.

Only other thing was I had traded a 1B and RP to Cleveland, for 2 minor league prospects -- both being MRs. 2 or 3 days later, Cleveland seemed interested in trading for one of the MRs that I had just traded for.

[spleen1015]

Originally Posted by Galaril

How often do they get updated in OOTP?

I believe players can develop at any time during the season in OOTP. I know for a fact ratings change throughout the season. How often or when they change is what I'm not sure about. I believe it is every day.

I have no idea about Mogul.

[HighandOutside]

With all the negativity surrounding OOTP2006, I downloaded the PS demo. I must say that I am duly impressed. The in-game experience is second to none and the GM aspects seem to be more fun than work. A major cosmetic change I would make to the game is removing ratings and adding statistics to the in-game environment.

Adding Mods and setting up leagues takes only about 20 minutes. It lacks some of the depth of OOTP (e.g. players aren't rated for GB% ratings, Spray/pull hitter or bunting, from what I can tell) but it seems to evolving at a good pace.

If you are dissatisfied with the direction of OOTP, I highly recommend getting you fix with this game.

[spleen1015]

Originally Posted by HighandOutside

With all the negativity surrounding OOTP2006, I downloaded the PS demo. I must say that I am duly impressed. The in-game experience is second to none and the GM aspects seem to be more fun than work. A major cosmetic change I would make to the game is removing ratings and adding statistics to the in-game environment.

Adding Mods and setting up leagues takes only about 20 minutes. It lacks some of the depth of OOTP (e.g. players aren't rated for GB% ratings, Spray/pull hitter or bunting, from what I can tell) but it seems to evolving at a good pace.

If you are dissatisfied with the direction of OOTP, I highly recommend getting you fix with this game.

Everyone has their quirks, right? I can't get over the fact that players only develop during the off season. Doesn't anyone else see this has a major flaw?

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by spleen1015

Everyone has their quirks, right? I can't get over the fact that players only develop during the off season. Doesn't anyone else see this has a major flaw?

Not really. As long as players develop an appropriate amount each year or decline depending on th eplayer and their career. That is one area PS excels is the very developed career arc of players. The only "flaw" I see is the AI making weird roster moves well not weird but not good ones. I had a bunch of good young prospects in my double AA team and I simmed two months ahead with no roster moves accept for injuries. So, what I see after two months? The AI moved three or four of the young (18-19yrs old) guys upto majors where thye are starting part time and hitting 150-190 avg. I had some pretty good players that were quality early 30's (30-32) players that were likewise moved down to AAA ball. So that looks to be a problem.

[cougarfreak]

Originally Posted by spleen1015

Everyone has their quirks, right? I can't get over the fact that players only develop during the off season. Doesn't anyone else see this has a major flaw?

I do as well. Players only lose/gain ratings during the offseason? Weird.

[spleen1015]

Players not developing during the season is unrealistic. With it working this way, there is no reason to move guys up and down in your minor league system because they're not getting any better or worse.

It is just totally crazy to me that a guy as smart a Shaun did it this way.

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by spleen1015

Players not developing during the season is unrealistic. With it working this way, there is no reason to move guys up and down in your minor league system because they're not getting any better or worse.

It is just totally crazy to me that a guy as smart a Shaun did it this way.

I disagree. You move them up to get them playing time in majors to improve the team.

[spleen1015]

Originally Posted by Galaril

I disagree. You move them up to get them playing time in majors to improve the team.

Does anyone know how the off season development works? Surely, it has to take into accout what they did during the season, right?

Maybe if I had a clear explanation of how it works, my opinion would change.

[HighandOutside]

Interesting comment about the poor AI roster moves. I really wish this game received more attention because Shaun seems incredibly responsive to any shortcomings that players find.

[jbmagic]

Bill Abner toughts on Puresim 2007

http://sportsgamer.blogspot.com/

Just a few notes about PureSim after spending the morning setting up a league and playing a few games:

* It's nowhere near as detailed as OOTP. However, for some I think this will be a positive rather than a negative because OOTP 2006 is information overload. (I love the detail but some may find it just too much) I still think that PureSim's newspaper coverage is the best in any sim on the market. Grade A stuff.

* I cannot express just how much it adds to managing a game to see that little ball being smacked around the park. What's more dramatic? Reading text or actually seeing a ball travel near the wall and hoping it clears the fence? I'll take the simple graphics, thanks. Not to keep harping on this but once a "text" game adds little men to chase said ball around the park I'll be back in MicroLeague heaven.

* This was in Puresim 2005 Gold but there are sound effects...but wow they sound bad. You get a computerized voice that announces each player as he comes to bat but it sounds like the old Wordperfect text reader. I wish that instead of that we got crowd noise and/or a batted ball sound. That voice is sure to give me nightmares.

* I noticed a SAC bunt glitch in both games I played this morning. If a failed SAC bunt takes place, the defense turns a double play. I dunno if the game sees a failed bunt as a batter swinging away or what but it doesn't make a whole lotta sense.

* In PureSim, unlike OOTP 2006, you can decide if a player tags up, tries to throw out a runner, etc. I love this. OOTP 6.5 did this but both PureSim and OOTP 6.5 don't go far enough. We simply need more information. Simply saying, "Fly ball to RF. Do you a send Smith (speed 65) home against Jones RF (Arm Strength 55.) " Well, I have no friggin' idea if a want to or not. Where is the ball, exactly? Deep RF? Shallow RF? Was Jones retreating when he made the catch or was his momentum taking him toward home? As a manager, I absolutely need to know this kinda thing.

* Anyway, after a quick two hour tour this feels a lot like PureSim 2005 Gold but with the nifty animated ball graphics thrown in. The featurelist says a lot under the hood was retooled but as I said, I just started messing with it. Try the demo to see that ball thing I keep yapping about. It's cool.

[jbmagic]

More toughts by Bill Abner.
http://sportsgamer.blogspot.com/

PureSim Weirdness

As I stated in my earlier post, I like PureSim 2007. The series continues to grow and is clearly headed in the right direction. That said...

I am simming the 2007 season to check long term stats in PureSim, and because of this I turn my team over to the CPU. I notice some interesting stuff as the season comes to a close.

In 2006 I played a 24 year old LFer who I drafted mainly for his future potential. He carried a 50 contact and a 76 power and in 2006 hit .275 and blasted 40 homers for the big league club. A GREAT year -- and at 24 -- wow this guy could turn into a real hammer. Well, his ratings took a slight dip in the off season and he started the 2007 season with a 48 contact and 74 power. I have no issue with this at all. All players shouldn't get better, but I do find it odd that his potential rating was a 70, which is very good. Still, I'm cool with it. The problem? The CPU put him in AAA and there he sat the entire year. This is a guy who at 24 years old hit 40 home runs and the following year he can't make the roster? And his ratings only took a slight hit. Just like OOTP, PureSim's GM AI is not looking at stats at all, and I think that's a mistake. It just doesn't make a lick of sense to me.

Also, I noticed that my starting CF was no longer on the roster. In 2006 before I auto simmed I had a platoon in CF -- two players with very similar attributes but I was playing the L/R splits and each platooned based on who was pitching. It worked well in 2006.

In 2007 CF Barry Nowlin was gone. Now, Nowlin is 28 years old and carries a 70 contact and a 98 eye and an 81 speed. He's a good CF with great plate discipline who can run his ass off. In 2006 he hit .281 with an OBP of .398. What does the new CPU GM do? It cuts him, of course. Doesn't trade him (which would make sense if it didn't want to do the platoon thing) but it outright cuts him. He's then picked up by another team, signed to a one-year deal and starts about 90 games.

Now, if this were OOTP people would be screaming from the rafters. To me, this is equally as messed up as what OOTP does. To outright cut this guy is completely bonkers.

More Pure Simming

As I continue digging into PureSim I'm ready to make a few more blanket observations:

* I enjoy managing the individual games in PS more than I do OOTP and the reason is mainly cosmetic. I like the PS sound effects and animated ball. I also love the fact that when you set the game speed to Very Fast you can zip through a game in 10-15 minutes. OOTP's new forced pitch by pitch mode is uneccessary and drags out games for those that want a true 1-pitch game.

* That said, I wish PureSim showed more player info on-screen during a game, stuff like defensive range and arm stregnth should be on the screen at all times (for players in the field).

* Just like OOTP, there are things that happen on the field that make no sense, and the obtuse play by play doesn't provide any answers. How does a CF with a weak arm throw out a fast runner tagging up to score on a "deep" fly ball? I guess he slipped. The PbP in all of these text games really need to be as detailed as humanly possible and I think both games fail here. We either need simple real time graphics or better text.

* The base simulation engine in PureSim reflects MLB a bit more accurately than OOTP -- at least with fictional leagues. I ran a few test sims based on fantasy drafts and the general statistics looked surprisingly good. A sprinkling of starters with sub 3.00 ERAs, 40 to 50 hitters with .300+ averages, team stats, when compared to real baseball, all looked very beliveable. Sometimes OOTP can suffer a bit here. I know you have all of the modifier tools to tweak it but I like that the base PS stats loked this good. Granted, I dunno how well it holds up after, say, 10 years. (If you want to do your own tests for this stuff I'd check out Baseball Reference to get an idea.)

* PureSim has built-in Lahman support. Fire it up and play with the 1975 Reds as easy as pie.

* The CPU-CPU trade AI in PS is not QUITE as weird as OOTP but there are still trades that will make you look sideways. Now, the cut-player gaffe is not in PS so guys don't do the sign and cut thing, but some of the trades I think are odd at best. If anyone tells you that PureSim's trade AI is vastly better than OOTP -- they are lying. It's just that the cut player bug in OOTP makes a huge dent in that game.

* OOTP has a HUGE advantage in terms of interface. Take or leave the new OOTP look, and I know a lot of you are still getting used to it, but OOTP presents information, particularly player stats, MUCH better than PS. There are a lot of pop up windows and expandable screens in PS and even then, OOTP tracks more stats.

* In PS you do get some cool tools, though, like ratings and stats graphs and the Bill James "toy." I still want SOMEONE to include WIN SHARES. Damn it.

* There are no scouts or coaches in PS.

* One of the biggest beefs in past editions of PS is sim speed. Well, it's still not "fast" unless you do an "Unattended Sim" but that turns over control of all human teams to the CPU, doesn't track game logs, etc. If you do a regular sim, this is still a fairly slow sim game. Faster than before, but slower than OOTP and MUCH slower than Baseball Mogul which still has, by far, the fastest sim engine on the planet. Clay, please redo that game's interface. Please. Mogul has so many cool features but the aging interface is killing that game, man.

* There is no front office worries in PS -- no ticket prices, etc. The only money stuff you deal with is player contracts.

* PS is also not nearly as deep as OOTP in terms of league and world scope. I still contend that OOTP has more potential if SI can fix its AI issues. But I am having a lot of fun with PureSim and if SI fumbles the patching process I'll have no problem playing it long-term.

[jbmagic]

Shaun release beta patch 1.18

OK, standard disclaimer applies. This is NOT an official release this is a BETA patch, so use at your own risk. If you prefer to play it safe then stick with 1.1 until this code is officially released. That said, patches are typically rock solid and I have added/fixed over 50 features since 1.1 was released. I'd appreciate it if those of you who are willing, will do some testing of this puppy. Be sure to backup your associations before using any patch.

This will likely be the last BETA patch before the 1.20 official release (barring anything catastrophic)

http://www.psmultiplayer.150m.com/Pu...Beta_Patch.exe (27mb Requires 1.1 or higher to apply)

================================
PS 2007 v1.18 (Beta) Patch Notes
================================

=== 1.18 Beta Changes ===

- Fix: When using pre-1940 era associations PureSim would very rarely get stuck after making a trade that pushed the roster to the brink of minimum pitcher and batter requirements.

- Fix: Fixed error "Item Not Found in this collection" that would happen if a minor league player was on a human owner's short list and the owner attempted to view the short list.

- Fix: Sometimes after a steal attempt the count would be reset or not be consistent with the count as mentioned when the steal attempt took place

- Fix: When opening a player card from the short list, the user was given the option to release the player (the button was visible on the player's card)

- Tweak: Slightly reduced frequency of errors in the outfield

- New: Added link to a new PureSim fan sites page from the main game menu.

[JonInMiddleGA]

I've have to be honest, even for $15 the AI for handling rosters and lineups looks atrocious, at least with financials turned on & 50 man organizations.

I decided to try something different, starting a 12 team league in 1910 & importing real players. 10 largest cities in the U.S. (2 teams each in NY & Chi) for a starting point, then expand by two teams each year with the largest cities without teams. Financials set to equal for all regions, with a starting amount of the middle option (I think that was like $1.8m or something). Figured I'd let this go until the mid-40s or early 50s and then pick a team.

Looking through the FA's every couple of years, some of the top rated players in the league go unsigned while teams spend money locking up guys with 1's across the board to multi-year deals.

I'm not sure whether my bigger mistake was in choosing 50 man organizations
(I figured there'd be plenty of players with so relatively few teams) or in leaving financials on at all or if the roster management is just so bad that neither of those would have mattered.

Right now, it looks like my comment about "using PS like I used Mogul last year" are coming back to haunt me. I really may end up just building dynasties in order to get the nostalgia of watch players import from Lahman.

I can probably get $15 worth of fun out of that, but I have to admit that I'm disappointed with what I'm seeing so far, it's pretty bad with this configuration.

[jbmagic]

JonInMiddleGA

Are you using the latest beta patch 1.18 too?

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by jbmagic

Are you using the latest beta patch 1.18 too?

Yep.

[Cringer]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

I've have to be honest, even for $15 the AI for handling rosters and lineups looks atrocious, at least with financials turned on & 50 man organizations.

I decided to try something different, starting a 12 team league in 1910 & importing real players. 10 largest cities in the U.S. (2 teams each in NY & Chi) for a starting point, then expand by two teams each year with the largest cities without teams. Financials set to equal for all regions, with a starting amount of the middle option (I think that was like $1.8m or something). Figured I'd let this go until the mid-40s or early 50s and then pick a team.

Looking through the FA's every couple of years, some of the top rated players in the league go unsigned while teams spend money locking up guys with 1's across the board to multi-year deals.

I'm not sure whether my bigger mistake was in choosing 50 man organizations
(I figured there'd be plenty of players with so relatively few teams) or in leaving financials on at all or if the roster management is just so bad that neither of those would have mattered.

Right now, it looks like my comment about "using PS like I used Mogul last year" are coming back to haunt me. I really may end up just building dynasties in order to get the nostalgia of watch players import from Lahman.

I can probably get $15 worth of fun out of that, but I have to admit that I'm disappointed with what I'm seeing so far, it's pretty bad with this configuration.

Pretty interesting. I have not found a big problem like this in my 30 year career starting in 1902.

Do you have affinity mode turned on? Wonder if that is effecting you in some way.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Cringer

Do you have affinity mode turned on? Wonder if that is effecting you in some way.

Nope, couldn't use it because (I assume) I didn't start with RL franchises. That box was greyed out.

What it looks like is that the teams are so intent on not going over budget that they simply ignore players who are asking for more than they can afford, instead of trying to reorganize their payroll in order to afford them.

Seems to me that it would make more sense to sign a $100k deal with 32 y/o 2B who was an all-star the year before and is still 5 contact/4 power than it does to have 4 guys who are 1/1 with 2 potential in their early 20's all making $10-$11k each for the next 3 years as your choices at 2B.

I can at least excuse the problem with pitchers, since with only 12 teams, pretty much everybody is stocked up on guys with 5's for Stuff & Control already. I don't believe I've seen a pitcher past the first couple of seasons make an appearance (through 1925) who had less than a 3 in anything other than endurance & there's dozens of guys with 5's languishing in AAA already, so I can at least understand why older pitchers with relatively high price tags could be left out in the cold.

[Cringer]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Nope, couldn't use it because (I assume) I didn't start with RL franchises. That box was greyed out.

What it looks like is that the teams are so intent on not going over budget that they simply ignore players who are asking for more than they can afford, instead of trying to reorganize their payroll in order to afford them.

Seems to me that it would make more sense to sign a $100k deal with 32 y/o 2B who was an all-star the year before and is still 5 contact/4 power than it does to have 4 guys who are 1/1 with 2 potential in their early 20's all making $10-$11k each for the next 3 years as your choices at 2B.

I can at least excuse the problem with pitchers, since with only 12 teams, pretty much everybody is stocked up on guys with 5's for Stuff & Control already. I don't believe I've seen a pitcher past the first couple of seasons make an appearance (through 1925) who had less than a 3 in anything other than endurance & there's dozens of guys with 5's languishing in AAA already, so I can at least understand why older pitchers with relatively high price tags could be left out in the cold.

Well, I think it is pretty clear that PureSim's strength is not the financial aspect of it and this kind of points that out a little more I guess.

My game I have going is a little less relaxed you could say, with most teams probably not having to worry about busting their budget. That would probably explain why I have not seen good FA's go unsigned. The teams with enough money just snag them up because they are not as worried about the money.

Hopefully the $$ side of the game gets ironed out in the future to be more real life like, but with this game I honestly don't mind that it's not perfect. I have been enjoying it since day one.

If you haven't posted at the PureSim boards with this though, I suggest doing so. Maybe it is something Shaun can adjust in a future patch. He has been pretty good at listening to guys so far from what I see (this is the first PureSim I have played).

[JonInMiddleGA]

Maybe somebody can chime in here -- how does the game work with financials turned off completely?

Specifically, how is the movement of players? My first worry with that is teams that stagnate over time instead of using the end of a contract to prompt a decision to let a player go.

Best I could tell, since setting teams to equal revenue at start produced teams with identical revenues each & every year through 15 seasons, turning them off completely might eliminate my unsigned stars problem if it doesn't create another set of problems all its own.

Anybody tried it?

[lynchjm24]

I've been meaning to spend some time pulling apart the finances and making some suggestions, just haven't had time yet. They have gotten better, but the focus has been on adding other features.

You make an excellent point that there are sometimes unsigned players who are much better then the players who are playing every day. I don't usually find great players available - but there are better then average players. You are right, the AI can't fit them under the cap so they don't sign them - but the AI needs to have a second look taken after spring training to see paying the reduced in-season salary and eating some other contracts nets out to a better team.

I'll make it my goal next weekend to pick apart every team in my 10-team association and come up with what they 'should' do after spring training is over.

[Drake]

Well, I've given this iteration of Puresim a couple of days. Some things about it, I really like -- the Almanac, the player cards, that silly little animated ball flight & the whole game managing experience, the PSPN newspaper -- but overall, it just doesn't grab me. I don't hate it or anything. It's just "meh" for me.

Definitely not a disappointment, but I guess I'm just more of an OOTP guy.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by lynchjm24

I'll make it my goal next weekend to pick apart every team in my 10-team association and come up with what they 'should' do after spring training is over.

While you're at it, take a look at some of the occasional (as far as I can tell) oddities in decisions about who stays up & who goes to AAA. I certainly haven't dissected it thoroughly but I've got a sneaking suspicion that "Potential" is playing a part in creating both problems.

It seems possible that the top 20%-at-their-position type guys who are going unsigned are being ignored in part because their Potential rating has dropped to 1. Best I can tell, that seems to be a rating that means "how much more than this player improve from their current ability" which is fine, but perhaps it is being weighted too heavily by all the computer GM's when it comes to signing decisions.

[jbmagic]

JonInMiddleGA

Any chance you can post this over at the Puresim forum.

Seems like Shaun fixes things quickly after they been reported over there.

[DaddyTorgo]

i just started experiencing a very bad CTD with the latest (1.24) version of PS. In-game if I respond to a dialog box with a "yes" or "no" (y or n press on my keyboard) the game CTD's.

VERY frustrating as it's impossible to manage games out

edit: it only happens when i'm on offense. defensively my dialog box responses still work

[jbmagic]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

i just started experiencing a very bad CTD with the latest (1.24) version of PS. In-game if I respond to a dialog box with a "yes" or "no" (y or n press on my keyboard) the game CTD's.

VERY frustrating as it's impossible to manage games out

edit: it only happens when i'm on offense. defensively my dialog box responses still work

Please post that in the puresim forum, so Shaun can fix it.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by jbmagic

Please post that in the puresim forum, so Shaun can fix it.

but then i'd hafta create an account over there and all that junk. i wanted to see if anyone here had experienced it first and had an easy fix

it also didn't happen in the new association i created after the patch, only in the pre-patch one that was updated by the game...

[lynchjm24]

Send him an email at shaun at puresim.com if you don't want to register.

[PadresFan104]

Shaun has released a new beta patch. Some cool additions in this version. Here's the post from the PureSim boards.

As we move towards closing the book on PureSim 2007 here is a patch that fixes a few issues and has a couple of nice additions.

Note, this is a BETA patch, so all disclaimers apply, if you are the conservative type you may just want to wait until the official final patch.

Download Patch 1.25

I'll probably look into doing a few more little tweaks and fixes this weekend and that will be pretty much it as far as new development (of course anyone who has been a PureSim player for the past 4 years knows that every time I say that I always end up coming back and doing more , but it makes me feel good to say it -- I need to get motivated on PS 2008!)

Here is the list of changes:

- New: Major revamping of the stats display on the in game lineup card. There are now links at the bottom of the lineup card that can toggle its display between Season Stats, Todays stats, Season vsL/R, and Career stats vs. the current pitcher

Check out these screen shots, it looks real nice:
New In-Game Lineup card (shot 1)
New In-Game Lineup card (shot 2)

- New: Added new optional setting to allow for importing duplicate real players. This can be handy if you are doing "What if?" type scenarios and want to have multiple versions of the same real player in your association (say from different periods of his career for example, or maybe Ruth as a pitcher and Ruth as a hitter etc...)

- New: You can now create new pitchers and hitters before the start of the initial draft.

- New: When autoplaying games, PureSim shows some detail about the user's team's most recent game under the running scores. The score is displayed along with info on the pitcher from the user's team that got the decision as well as any HR's that the user's team hit. Note for double-header's only the most recent game result is displayed.

Screen shot:
More info during Autoplay


- Fix: AI sometimes had a tendency to do major roster shuffles (with highly questionable moves) just before the post season.

- Fix: The new option added in 1.24 to bring players into the association early had an issue with assigning players incorrect positions in some cases.

- Tweak: Improvements to ball flight distance calculations (I'd like some feedback on this if you get a chance). I made some changes to try and give the displayed ball flight vs. park fence distance and graphical hot locations a little more consistency. Its sort of an inexact science though and depends on graphical ball flight locations being appropriately placed on custom stadiums, facors in wind speed, stadium altitude, batter swing speed and more...

- Tweak: Human player can now call for hit and run with two outs (At their own peril!)

- Tweak: Runners were not advancing for extra bases on OF errors. With v1.25 there is approx a 60% chance runners will advance an extra base on an error in CF, and a 75% chance on errors in LF and RF. Note, if a hit and run was on, then the runner will always get an extra base or two. Note, these defaults are tweakbale via the following new XML entries: FIELDING_ERRORS_THROW, FIELDING_ERRORS_THROW2BASE, FIELDING_ERRORS_OF_MULTIBASE

[PadresFan104]

hot on the heels of 1.25 is 1.26. Here's the post from the PureSim boards:

1.26 is a BETA patch, standard disclaimers apply... I'll see if I can follow this with another update this weekend cleaning up some more issues...


Download 1.26 Beta Patch

=== 1.26 Beta Changes ===

- Cosmetic: Fixed some text wrap issues on the new in-game linup card feature

- Tweak: PureSim will also now indicate if a ball was hit off the wall. It has always calculated this, but was not always letting the user know if that was the case. Build a park with short fences and 50' walls and enjoy

- New: The new "early player debut" feature recently added is now also available for PureSim Classic mode associations that are using the "Seed with real players" option.

- Tweak: Throttled back early/early-mid season trade activity. There was a little to much manuevering going on in May/June.

- Fix: SLG was being calculated incorrectly in some places in the HTML Almanac

- Cosmetic: Some of the new verbiage on the lineup card showing how a player was doing in the current game found its way into the play by play window. The pbp window has been changed back to the way it always displayed this info.

- Tweaks: More tweaks around flyball distances and physics. Distances should be decent now regardless of park. Note: When making a tagup decision, the most important thing to look at is PureSim's description of the depth the ball was hit Shallow/Medium/Deep) the distance traveled in feet matters as well, but that is taken into account by PureSim's description

[JonInMiddleGA]

FYI -- I've been getting frequent CTD's with 1.26. If you haven't installed it yet, you might want to wait a little bit.

The issue has been posted by several people on the support forum, so you'll probably be able to tell when it's resolved by checking there.