Originally Posted by Critical Mass (Post 3470607)

I haven't been on the forums in about a year, so I'll fill you in on what was going on a year ago:

- People were complaining that OOTP13 wasn't out by Opening Day
- People were complaining that Markus was spending too much time on iOOTP rather than OOTP13.
- Lots of griping about how people weren't going to buy OOTP13 (including myself) because lots of things weren't updated from OOTP12 or even OOTP11.

Here's what happened since then:

My friend got tired of me raving about how great a game it was, and purchased it himself. After he played himself into a coma, I asked if I could simulate my own season using his copy of OOTP13 and laptop. He said yes.

I started a brand new league from scratch, and simulated 20 seasons. I then took over the worst team (Cincinnati Reds) which had an Demanding owner who was a Mizer, and set the trading AI level to the hardest. I was impressed with the new graphics, but held my breath.

- After some wheeling and dealing, the first season I went over .500. The second season I played, I was over .700 and made the playoffs. The third season I won the championship. I made the playoffs 10 of out the next 10 seasons, finished first in the division each year, and won the championship 6 out of those 10.
- Coaches that were 64 years of age had 57 years of experience coaching.
- Guys with horrible ratings in Contact, Power, Eye, fielding, etc were hitting .310 with 40 HRs, 120+ RBIs.
- Clicking on "Batting Stats" still shows Pitchers. Clicking on "Pitching Stats" still shows batters.
- Sometimes a year went by with minor injuries. Other times, you'll lose 5 guys in one week. At one point, I had 13 people on my 40 man roster on my DL at once. That's a little extreme.
- The AI was still starting guys at a position even though they had a "4" rating at that position, despite the fact that there were better people available.
- Offers were made to Free Agents and/or Coaches who one day were at "Favors Offer" and the next day they signed with another team without notice, or a chance to increase my offer.
- And a new one I noticed: While I was waiting for a coach to accept or decline an offer, THE COMPUTER WENT AHEAD AND SIGNED A RANDOM COACH TO FILL THE SPOT WITHOUT MY KNOWLEDGE AND WITHOUT NOTICE! Now I have to fire the coach (and eat his 3 or 4 year contract) just to hire the one I want, assuming he's still available.
- After 30 years of baseball, there are over 1,500 people on the Free Agent List. It seems like either they're reproducing like jackrabbits, or else they're never retiring.
- Despite allocating the maximum amount of money to International scouting, my scout will go one or two seasons without "discovering" anybody, and then when he finally does, his Overall Assessment of the player is "The outlook is bleak". THERE ARE 1,500 PLAYERS AVAILABLE WHOSE OUTLOOK IS BLEAK! WHY AM I PAYING YOU TO GO OVERSEAS TO FIND MORE??? Why is he recommending I sign bums??
- Come to think of it, why will the scout draft someone in the 1st round whom he doesn't think will amount to much, but, yet, he thinks someone he drafted in the 4th round will be a stud? If he thinks the guy stinks, why did he draft him in the 1st round? I would think that if HE recommended them, that he at least THINKS they will ALL be decent! Why draft a guy and then tell me he stinks?
- And while we're on the topic of scouting, why is it that if your available funds drops too low, your scouting budget is dropped to the bare minimum without notice, and by the time you discover it, Spring Training has started and it's too late to change it?
- Why is it if you take a retired pitcher and turn him into a coach, he'll have a better rating at hitting than at pitching? And that isn't saying much, because his hitting rating is "OK"...

Most if not all of these things were brought up prior to last OOTP13 release. I'm sad to say that IMHO, the fears of a lot of people were realized last year: New graphics were added and it looked prettier, but simple things were overlooked, not corrected, and for the most part, OOTP13 was too much like OOTP12, and I'm glad I didn't spend my money on it. With that being said, I will still not purchase OOTP14 for the same reason.

I really want to support the franchise, but in all honesty, you're not going to trade in your 2012 car for a 2013 that has all the same features if there's nothing wrong with the old one. I'm just going to have to keep playing OOTP12 (my first version) and wait until I see enough changes (or even fixing slight little bugs like mentioned above) to warrant shelling out the money.

Sorry... just my opinion.

Originally Posted by lukasberger (Post 3470627)

Many of your complaints are things that you can control and fix/modify yourself, by changing the settings.

That's one of the beauties of OOTP, how customizable it is.

If you find the game too easy, play stats only.

If there are too many free agents, set the draft to have less rounds and generate less players.

If you don't like how accurate or inaccurate the scouts are, change the scouting accuracy level.

If you don't want the cpu to hire coaches, change the settings so it can't/won't.

So don't blame the dev team because the initial settings don't work for you, then throw up your hands and say 'this game sucks, I'm outta here'. Change them until they do work for you. That's what most of us do.

And if you've actually looked at the feature list for OOTP14 and you don't think that there's been any major changes, I just don't know what to say. The int complex added, the entire fielding model has been overhauled, the pitching staff setup has been massively overhauled...

Originally Posted by lukasberger (Post 3470627)

Many of your complaints are things that you can control and fix/modify yourself, by changing the settings.

That's one of the beauties of OOTP, how customizable it is.

If you find the game too easy, play stats only.

If there are too many free agents, set the draft to have less rounds and generate less players.

If you don't like how accurate or inaccurate the scouts are, change the scouting accuracy level.

If you don't want the cpu to hire coaches, change the settings so it can't/won't.

So don't blame the dev team because the initial settings don't work for you, then throw up your hands and say 'this game sucks, I'm outta here'. Change them until they do work for you. That's what most of us do.

And if you've actually looked at the feature list for OOTP14 and you don't think that there's been any major changes, I just don't know what to say. The int complex added, the entire fielding model has been overhauled, the pitching staff setup has been massively overhauled...

Originally Posted by lukasberger (Post 3470627)

Many of your complaints are things that you can control and fix/modify yourself, by changing the settings.

That's one of the beauties of OOTP, how customizable it is.

If you find the game too easy, play stats only.

Originally Posted by tomwolf2008 (Post 3470646)

Pretty much sums up the response I'll have

and just a little more nitpick on OP's complain: Nobody complains about OOTP 13 is not out on opening day or Markus spent too much time on iOOTP or lots of things aren't updated from OOTP12. Those are complaints of OOTP12, NOT OOTP 13

Originally Posted by Critical Mass (Post 3470661)

Perhaps you're right. Could it be that long since I was last here? I really don't remember.

My purpose was not to rip Markus. Obviously, if I didn't care about the game, I never would have come on here to post that rant. I just would like to see some of the old bugs resolved before trudging into new territory year after year.

Originally Posted by Critical Mass (Post 3470661)

Perhaps you're right. Could it be that long since I was last here? I really don't remember.

My purpose was not to rip Markus. Obviously, if I didn't care about the game, I never would have come on here to post that rant. I just would like to see some of the old bugs resolved before trudging into new territory year after year.

Originally Posted by Critical Mass (Post 3470607)

I really want to support the franchise, but in all honesty, you're not going to trade in your 2012 car for a 2013 that has all the same features if there's nothing wrong with the old one. I'm just going to have to keep playing OOTP12 (my first version) and wait until I see enough changes (or even fixing slight little bugs like mentioned above) to warrant shelling out the money.

Originally Posted by Honorable_Pawn (Post 3470818)

I just wanted to comment on just this one issue.

Dude, it's forty bucks. That's $0.76 a week. I mean I could find $.076 a week in my couch.

Ten cents a day. I mean, I could ask a random person oncce a day for a dime. "Hey, you got a dime on ya?" As long as you don't look like a bum most people will smile and be, all like, sure thing.

Anyway, you're comparing a $30,000 car to a 40 dollar game. I get that you don't want to play the game until the things you want to see fixed are fixed. But to try and use the money factor as your closing argument weakens everything you said. Your closing argument should have been about the pitcher that becomes a coach that had a better coach rating at hitting than pitching.

Small things I know...But you should have led off with money thing (the weakest argument) and finished with your strongest point.

Originally Posted by Critical Mass (Post 3470834)

My point wasn't that I couldn't afford it. Admittedly, I'm cheap, yes. I hate spending money on myself, but I could certainly afford it.

Ok, I think I've made my point, so I won't make any more negative comments. If someone would like to make some suggestions how I can improve the game experience on my own on either v12 or v13 (like reducing the draft rounds mentioned above) I'd be happy to listen!

Originally Posted by Critical Mass (Post 3470834)

My point wasn't that I couldn't afford it. Admittedly, I'm cheap, yes. I hate spending money on myself, but I could certainly afford it.

I think my best explanation was about the classic car -- when you have a fully restored classic car that shines in the sunlight, it looks kinda silly when you have splotches of bird poop on the windsheild. Take a minute to clean off the bird poop before you worry about how shiny the chrome is! That's great that we have international prospects who demand high contracts, and full control over how many Mexican players there are, an International Complex! The same bird poop is still there, and THAT'S where my attention is drawn when I look at the car. Take five minutes to clean it off before you worry about the chrome.

Ok, I think I've made my point, so I won't make any more negative comments. If someone would like to make some suggestions how I can improve the game experience on my own on either v12 or v13 (like reducing the draft rounds mentioned above) I'd be happy to listen!