Hometown Player
 

One of my owner's goals is to acquire a hometown player, but I have no idea what that means. Is it someone from the town my team is located (Baltimore), or is it someone who is very popular in Baltimore (whether it is because he played there or another reason.) If someone could explain that would be great!

I, for some reason, think its the former. But, there isn't a way to search by city. I will sign someone from Oakland and let you know shortly if that does it.

Edit so as not to double post: It is someone born in that city. I traded a 19yr old pedro martinez for a 41 yr old Dennis eckersley (I'm kidding) And you can search on it by using filters.

As best I can remember Matt's response is that it's within a certain distance..Not sure if it's 250 miles or if it depends on a specific drawing area within a region or what the final decision was that he used. It's not from the exact hometown your team is in though.

I don't want to reveal all the secrets, but I'll say at 250 Miles you would get partial credit for completing the goal, it has to be a little closer to get full credit (but should not need to be the actual hometown city)

I'm running Tampa Bay Rays now, and the owner wants me to acquire a hometown player. So I searched for a player who was born in Tampa, Florida - 1/2 star 30yr minor league FA - and managed to sign him.
However, the goal progress says still "NO PROGRESS."

So, I found another one - 5y MLB experience, 2 star SP. signed him for an major league contract and even started him in a major league game. Still "NO PROGRESS" is on the goal menu.

Is this a bug? Or should I acquire a decent player to meet the goal?

Well, the Rays stadium is actually in St. Pete ... give that a shot! :D

I'm not sure there should be "secrets" in this regard. I think if you're going to give us goals to accomplish, the parameters of the goal should be a little clearer, at least for some of them. The owners are perfectly clear, down to the exact number, when they ask for increased attendance, but I think it would make more sense to have something like that a little more vague than the definition of "hometown." In real life, you'd probably be able to say, "what, you mean like from the neighborhood or from the state or what?"

I think the lack of clarity in a lot of the goals is probably the biggest weakness of that new feature, which I think has the potential to add a lot. Also frustrating is when your owner tells you to upgrade in a specific stats category, you do (say you're 15th and you jump to 10th or something) and then they're like "yeah that's okay but I was thinking 6th or better" at the end of the season. Then why didn't you tell me that?! Even if tweaks aren't made, can you guys at least consider adding a strangle owner button to OOTP17?

Lol, will think about that.

As for the above, there's a bug where i don't always recognize players in the first year of the goal - should be better next patch. Certainly Tampa should count for the Rays.

For precision on goals, I want to give all the info, but in a lot of cases I'm limited in space. I'll look into where I can squeeze a little more in to tell you what they want.

1/2 star St. Petersburg born minor leaguer did not work.

Fianlly I tried Orlando born player...
Zack Greinke: 1 star, 40yrs old. 1.4M major league deal.

The Owner Goal now says "Closest Match: Zack Greinke"

Now I'm really confused.

Sounds good. Maybe you could have them link to a separate goal description screen with a description of the possible goals and what they mean?

Because if there's one thing OOTP doesn't have enough of, it's screens.

Alternatively, maybe a mouse over element where hovering over the goal makes a description pop up, like one guy suggested to help the colorblind folks distinguish between the colored baseballs on the trade screen?

What about if the goals came in an email that had more specifics on them when they are initially set?

That's another good idea.

owners be crazy.

Here's what I've found (which is pretty realistic, IMO) -- if you win enough, none of those other goals matter.

I agree that if they're in the game they should work right. But as a practical matter, I'd say you only need to listen to the owner's goals if you think the team can't win and you need to find another way to keep him happy.

Yeah, I've said this a few times, and I think it's true and a good design decision.

You can search by city like this

from FA or league specific player list screen
Click Filter ->
Click Customize ->
Check the box at the beginning of row of
Click the drop down box in the popup window
Choose City of birth
Next box is "is"
Third box type in the City and state you want to search for i.e. St. Louis, MO
Then click "OK"

You could just do Hometown Rosters.

I am doing a Yankees franchise, and my owner wanted me to "acquire a hometown player" as well. To keep him happy, I traded for Joe Panik from Hopewell Junction, NY.

When I went back to the goals screen, it had not given me credit for accomplishing the goal. This irked me because I didn't want that scrub Panik in the first place.:mad::mad:

I like the owner goal feature, but would definitely want more clarity in the future regarding specifics on how to satisfy owner goal criteria.

Other than that, having a ball with the game. Thanks:D:D

I think it has to be a semi-popular player who is from the region. Nobody cares if the 30 year old scrub you happened to sign to a minors deal is from Tampa or Anchorage, Alaska.

I've fixed a bug where you weren't getting full credit for the "close" matches. That will be fixed in the next patch, and hopefully should make this one a bit easier to accomplish in the future :)