Quick question about OOTP

[billyo]

I want fun AND good simulation. I have been reading about all the PC baseball games. Is this the best on the market? Do you guys play anything in addition to OOTP?

[Unlucky 13]

Quote: Originally Posted by billyo

I want fun AND good simulation. I have been reading about all the PC baseball games. Is this the best on the market? Do you guys play anything in addition to OOTP?

I've recently started checking into the game myself. I only play offline single player franchise mode in sports games, and I fear that The Show is basically going to ignore those features going forward. I want a deep owner/GM mode more than anything.

[saintrules]

Before buying OOTP I was a long time MLB The Show player. I started with 2005 and bought the game on and off till MLB The Show 17, as well as playing any major sports game (Madden/2K/etc) under the sun. I never play online, come to think of it, I think the last online match I played was Madden 2009 for a random head to head in which the other user lagged out. I am strictly, 100%, offline franchise.

I decided to sell my PS4 and unsurprisingly regretted not having a platform to play baseball on in the Summer months.

A couple of users on these forms pushed OOTP in a few of their posts and I decided to get it just to see what all the fuss was about. What I ended up finding was one of the best built sports video games I have ever seen, even with being (mostly) a text based sim. Whether you're a casual MLB fan or the deepest most analytical fan out there, you're going to find something extremely fun to do in OOTP. One of the biggest features for me is the on-the-field action which I think was a feature they added within the last couple of games. Being able to physically see a player hit a pitched ball makes a world of difference for me.

It looks like a pretty intimating platform if you just YouTube videos on it, but once you get into it, things clear up. I'm still finding more and more things about the game as I haven't spent an enormous amount of time in it, but I have the general gist down pat.

I'm not downing any bit of MLB The Show as I think it's an incredible game in it's own right, but comparatively, The Show could never replicate baseball like OOTP does. If OOTP had a football and basketball game, I'd never buy 2K or Madden again.

[saintrules]

Here's a good tip:

There's a dumbed down version of the game on the app store from OOTP for a few bucks, it's the perfect thing to get to see if you like a text based sim. It's actually a really fun app and to be quite frank, it gets pretty in depth with League News etc. I'd try it before you delve into OOTP or at least get it until OOTP 20 comes out.

[KBLover]

Quote: Originally Posted by billyo

I want fun AND good simulation. I have been reading about all the PC baseball games. Is this the best on the market? Do you guys play anything in addition to OOTP?

If you find team building and managing virtual people as much as virtual lineups fun, then you'll be fine with OOTP.

There's a lot to do, there's a lot of ways to create a universe for yourself.

Like someone on the OOTP boards put it - this game is a baseball simulator, not just a MLB simulator.

It, of course, can do a pretty good job of giving up MLB-style numbers and such, but eventually, the league will ebb and flow along its own course due to various things like talent fluctuations, both of existing players, developing prospects, and incoming talent.

For example, there was a stretch in my Angels save, currently in 2043, where extra base hits were THE thing and just about every hitter coming in was huge on them and base running - needless to say, doubles and triples skyrocketed for a while - the all-time single-season doubles mark fell, repeatedly, and steals are still in something of a revival.

The XBH have calmed back down to more usual levels (though still on the high side), but now the NL is an a dead-ball era and Japanese players are everywhere (I called it the "Japanese Invasion" when it happened lol).

You have some control over this kind of thing. You can set how much international players come in, where they come from, where "hidden players" can be found, what offseason "owner meetings" and "collective bargaining" changes can take place (for example, DL time is 12-days, service time is 8 years until FA now, you can get expansion, etc.).

You can decide if you want full-blown international leagues in your save and their players having the change to interact with your league (and international doesn't just mean outside-USA - you can always manage a NPB team or create a league based in another nation, making USA players the "foreigners"). You can set up feeder leauges like a college system that will produce the draftee for your amateur drafts, etc.

I love that organic changes so I leave all that on as I want to be a participant, not a god, of my world, but you have the freedom to turn all that off and do it yourself based on your own created storyline for your world.

And if you need to see action, there is a simplified, though useful, animations engine that plays out the results per PA. Taking control is limited to being the manager and base coaches, basically, so you call the strategies, make decisions (game will pause and ask: "do you send the runner around third?", for example), make personnel moves, put on signs, etc.

Only thing complete absent from OOTP is taking player-level control like the typical console/action-based sports game.


That's about the long and short of it from my view. Think you might find it fun? Give the game a shot!

[billyo]

Thanks everyone, I am going to give OOTP a try.

[WaitTilNextYear]

Quote: Originally Posted by billyo

Thanks everyone, I am going to give OOTP a try.

Good call. Give it some time to sink in also. Rome wasn't built in a day. lol. I starting playing OOTP a little over 5 years ago and am still tweaking things.

[billyo]

Where do I check to make sure I have all the updates for 19?

Just picked up and started an all time Braves team and was surprised that Dale Murphy and Lew Burdette was not on there.