Baseball Sim Wars!!! Not really, but...

[Axxon]

I've been playing a lot of OOTP5 lately and have been super happy with it. It's not a satisfaction issue here but this morning I'm jonesing for a new game. Any game, well any entertaining game.

I thought about puresim as my fix but a couple of things are worrying me.

1) I spent a few minutes with the demo and it didn't hook me. This is bad because when I'm new game fiending I am pretty forgiving.

2 ) $30 is pretty steep for a game that doesn't grab me instantly. Most of my impulse buys end up sucking long term but are worth it for the initial rush; I'm not sure puresim will do this.

Balancing this is:

1) I like Shaun and have been reading about his efforts since he first pitched it on usenet. I WANT to support his efforts but he fell off the radar and I haven't bought a version yet.

2) I really want a new game this am and I don't want to leave my house. I can't stress this enough. I am an impulse game buyer and the urge is strong.

I must be getting better because the credit card is still in the wallet and I am THINKING rather than engaging in a buying frenzy.

I'd like some input from anyone who's played the thing. Is it a worthy purchase right now? Why?

Any other d/l games I might try as an alternative? Preferably cheap. Come on, I gave you guys superstar and it was only $6. Help a gaming addict out here.

[Blackadar]

Well, if it doesn't have to be baseball, try a copy of CM.

[Axxon]

Originally posted by Blackadar
Well, if it doesn't have to be baseball, try a copy of CM.

I own every version since '93. It's my favorite game series ever.

[Travis]

Don't know if you've tried it, and though it runs a little slow in it's current version, Eastside Hockey Manager is great, and it's free.

[Axxon]

Originally posted by Travis
Don't know if you've tried it, and though it runs a little slow in it's current version, Eastside Hockey Manager is great, and it's free.

This is going to be tough.

Yep, love the game and I HATE hockey. Still an excellent game. I'll buy the SI version.

Keep up the suggestions though. I really do appreciate the effort.

Thanks.

[Alan T]

I am in the same boat.. so if anyone has any good suggestions...

You sound just like me though... I recently downloaded the puresim demo too, and just couldn't get into it. Not sure if it was the graphics, but I think it was more the rating system just made my head hurt some...


I also have bought CM in the past and played Eastside hockey too....

I end up coming back to ootp to play though most often, but am looking for something else to diversify my entertainment at least

[condors]

hey axxon,

if you like soccer sims sick as a parot is a good one

check out

machoward.com

there is a demo

its doesn't give you flat out #'s for players but i have been playing it since there reviewed it on computer games online and i think its a very good game and mac is always improving on it

[Subby]

Plus, Mac Howard is super nice! And benevolent.

[Karim]

Is there room on one hard drive for both CM4 and SaaP? For the amount of time I devote to CM4, I don't know if I could do it for another smg.

[QuikSand]

Originally posted by Axxon
1) I like Shaun and have been reading about his efforts since he first pitched it on usenet. I WANT to support his efforts but he fell off the radar and I haven't bought a version yet.

I totally agree with the statement above - and that's why I bought PureSim.

I started up one career, and found it completely lacking. I posted some thouhts over at Shaun's board (regarding player sslary demands) and he seemed to agre with my points... and included some fixes in the next patch/update.

I loaded the update, and started again - and was not really impressed. I still felt like my team was completely stacked with superstar-caliber talent, and that the game was just completely unrealistic in assessing player value. The salary system was tweaked, but not completely rethought (which is exactly what it needed).



Regrettably, I haven't gone back to the game since then. I even have a page or two worth of a would-be dynasty thread all written up... but it just ended with me typing to myself "good god, why do I have all these great players, and still the lowest payroll in the league by far?"

I wanted to like it... I really did.


Hope your searchign goes well - take this for what it's worth.

[daedalus]

If you already like CM4 and have tried SaaP then I think it's definitely worth a shot. Perhaps grab the demo first. It's a good game and gives you a very nice different perspective. I know a lot of people didn't like the UI, but I really didn't think it was bad. Just different.

[sabotai]

I bought the game mainly to support Shaun and because I liked the first version. The second version is a pretty good game, imo, but a few issues have come up, specifically the ones that QS said.

However, Shaun seems to be constantly updating the game and keeps making it better. For instance, he released version 1.41 which featured a major rework of the GM AI with regards to promotion and demotion of players and it seems to have worked great. And he's already going to be releasing 1.5 soon (major feature being ballpark photos and more support for in game photos of players)

[dawgfan]

Call me a die-hard optimist, but I think Jim's next game is an MLB baseball sim, and I have high-hopes for it being a better game (single-player at least) than anything else out there.

I still have hopes that Craig Scarborough will eventually release his baseball sim as well - the concepts around which he was developing his game were the closest to the ideal sim I've seen so far.

[MizzouRah]

I think Craig has Markus's ear for improving ootp. He's semi-active in the ootp community and has some great ideas I'm sure he's brought over from Franchise Baseball.


Todd

[CraigSca]

Hey guys...

Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure Franchise is just going to go by the way side. My fulltime job cuts way too much into my potential free time and it would probably take me years to get FB to the point where I would be proud of it's release. I give kudos to Markus and Shaun for taking their projects to completion, and for pushing the envelope. Looking at apps like OOTP5 however, made me realize that I'd never be able to compete with it's "wow" factor and it's graphical/UI depth.
I'll probably think about FB again years from now and kick myself for not seeing it to it's end. Oh well...

It's sad, because there are a lot of things in FB that, to this day, are still on the forefront (i.e. I completely embraced V. McCracken's research and the event engine was based on it, the GM AI used equations to determine whether the team should be looking to add late season veterans or trade them for youngsters and to what degree, along with my own research that figured typical career paths for players/pitchers). Problem is, FB could never match OOTP's flexibile, do-anything approach, which seemed to be paramount with the majority of buyers.

As far as working with Markus is involved, it's far from being an official "relationship", nor do I think I have his ear I posted a thread on the OOTP boards asking him if OOTP6 was going to incorporate McCracken's research. In the thread I offered him a copy of a more detailed equation I used in FB to determine event tables as well as some of the research I did on DIPs for player creation. That's basically been it. If, however, he'd like to incorporate some of my ideas in OOTP, I'd be more than happy to share them. However, I'm also not arrogant enough to think he couldn't do so himself, if he wanted. I just wish he'd do it sooner than later .

-Craig

[GoldenEagle]

You should make what you have done so far an open source project. I am sure some FOFCers would love to get a hold of what you have done so far.

[Shaun Sullivan]

Craig,

Can you pass on that research info to me? I'm interested in taking a look.


Shaun