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TLBOrioles · 03-13-2003, 09:59 AM

Some of these have probably been beaten to death in other threads, but I felt like posting something with all the little things about OOTP5 that I think could be improved. Some are bugs, some are just little details that could be improved. If you think I'm off my rocker, well, ok.

Disclaimer: Before I take a beating for being a whiner, personally attacking Markus, hating OOTP, or whatever: yes, I think OOTP5 is a great game, yes I play it a lot, yes it's better than OOTP4, yes, it's the best baseball sim in the world, but there is still room for improvement.

1) Trade AI needs to place a higher value on prospects who are already well-developed. A four-star or five-star guy who's already got major league capable ratings comes way too cheap it seems.

2) Trade AI needs to NEVER accept players who have no value in deals. The computer should laugh at me when I throw in a 1-star 5 million dollar player.

3) Fix the trade AI "we need a pitcher" bug that Martin mentioned--I think Markus is already on this.

4) Player development still seems to produce too few early debut players (players debuting 18-21 historically seemed to make up about 12% of the major league population...in my experience running leagues the figure is more like 2-4%).

5) In the Blue skin that comes with the game, the Teach position popup selector for spring training is white on sky blue. This is almost completely unreadable.

6) Superstar players should not take a year off. If nobody signs them they should continually drop their prices, to minor league status if necessary. I've never heard of the reigning Cy Young or MVP going unsigned in the real world. This problem arises because the computer aggressively resigns its own mediocre players at the expense of signing stars in FA.

7) Many of the computer generated catchers who also play other positions (I've seen LF, 3B, 1B) have no arm rating. The fact that these players exist is a great touch, but they're fairly useless as catchers.

8) There's a bug I've described with players generating a "-" rating at a position they're learning in the minors. When it happens that player for no reason becomes a 5-star player and demands 10 million dollars a year, can be traded for the best players in the league, etc.

9) Bring back the possible free agents. Yes, I love the stuff that's been added to the page, but please, is there ANYWHERE we can sneak this in?

10) I prefer buttons to pull-down menus wherever possible. Is there any way to expand on the customizability of skins, so that people can write their own button-based skins?

11) Please make more sorts sticky. Yes, some of them got sticky in OOTP5. Most of them still aren't. Barring that, can the default sort be made something more useful? In many cases it shows counterintuitive data, like placing the worst rated hitters at the top of a sort.

12) There seem to be a lot of doubles. After a few decades of simming, I have dozens of people breaking the career record for doubles. I think this may be a long-term statistical realism issue, but I haven't heard anyone else complaining. Thoughts?

13) There's not enough variance in BATTER strikeout totals. Even with Brilliant/10 in avoiding K's, batters are striking out 50-80 times a year in my fictional leagues. There should be some hitters who don't strike out often.

14) The news stories could use more variance. It's not that they're awful now, it's just that I've been reading them since OOTP3. I'd be happy to write 1000 little sentences that could be thrown into the generator, and so would dozens of other people, I'm sure.

15) Using the find player by ratings option from the league/advanced menu finds ratings that are not the ratings you're scouting. I feel that I'm cheating when I'm playing in manager mode, because there's no way for me to quickly search for players by rating and still see what my scouts see.

16) Pitchers who are 26-27 still seem to develop somewhat in the minors, as they did in OOTP4. But, when they turn 26, the AI immediately declares them worthless. I feel like the AI should still attach SOME value to such players. Right now they'll give me 5 of them for nothing.

17) When you try to negotiate with a player who's in an arbitration year, and can't agree with him, he says he's going to test the free agent market. At this point I'm inclined to respond "the hell you are, buddy!" Would be a nice touch if the player could instead say something like "Let's let the arbitrator settle this, then."

18) In coach/scout signing, if you offer someone 200,000 for 6 years, they will sign with you every time--or at least every time I've tried it. They prefer this to something like 1million/3 years, which seems kinda inexplicable.

19) I'd like to see more players at least throw out a figure, even if it's ridiculous, when it's time to resign them. "Let me hear an offer" is pretty vague.

20) When resigning, if you type in a number that's wildly out of range (I'm thinking Dr. Evil's one BILLION dollars), that offer should be disregarded. As is, once you type that in, the player will not let you back off it.

21) When resigning, I should be able to change BOTH the length and the dollar value of the contract before the player considers it a new offer and counts it against me in terms of his anger level with me.

22) In play-by-play, some things need to be sanity checked. Players don't go back, back, back, to grab a ball off their shoetops. In general, not every play is a spectacular achievement in fielding. Sometimes, players just ground out to the shortstop. It's ok if most of the plays just say that.

23) The game still doesn't know what to do with Babe Ruth, or anybody else who can pitch and hit. Is it just impossible codewise to let the game see that some pitchers can hit?

24) There seem to be lots of triples in play by play mode. I don't have the tenacity to play 5000 games in a row to have a good sample size, but there seem to be other people feeling this way too.

25) The AI makes hyper-aggressive defensive substitutions that sometimes result in things like having nobody to catch, players playing out of position, no pinch hitters left, etc. The computer needs to check its substitutions and not empty its bench wildly in a one-run ballgame.

26) Any way to get cash included in trades? This might open up some flexibility in dealing with a mix of different market sizes.

That'll do for now I guess, but I reserve the right to add more :)

03-13-2003, 09:59 AM	#1
TLBOrioles Minors (Double A) Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 188	Suggestions for future patches/updates: Some of these have probably been beaten to death in other threads, but I felt like posting something with all the little things about OOTP5 that I think could be improved. Some are bugs, some are just little details that could be improved. If you think I'm off my rocker, well, ok. Disclaimer: Before I take a beating for being a whiner, personally attacking Markus, hating OOTP, or whatever: yes, I think OOTP5 is a great game, yes I play it a lot, yes it's better than OOTP4, yes, it's the best baseball sim in the world, but there is still room for improvement. 1) Trade AI needs to place a higher value on prospects who are already well-developed. A four-star or five-star guy who's already got major league capable ratings comes way too cheap it seems. 2) Trade AI needs to NEVER accept players who have no value in deals. The computer should laugh at me when I throw in a 1-star 5 million dollar player. 3) Fix the trade AI "we need a pitcher" bug that Martin mentioned--I think Markus is already on this. 4) Player development still seems to produce too few early debut players (players debuting 18-21 historically seemed to make up about 12% of the major league population...in my experience running leagues the figure is more like 2-4%). 5) In the Blue skin that comes with the game, the Teach position popup selector for spring training is white on sky blue. This is almost completely unreadable. 6) Superstar players should not take a year off. If nobody signs them they should continually drop their prices, to minor league status if necessary. I've never heard of the reigning Cy Young or MVP going unsigned in the real world. This problem arises because the computer aggressively resigns its own mediocre players at the expense of signing stars in FA. 7) Many of the computer generated catchers who also play other positions (I've seen LF, 3B, 1B) have no arm rating. The fact that these players exist is a great touch, but they're fairly useless as catchers. 8) There's a bug I've described with players generating a "-" rating at a position they're learning in the minors. When it happens that player for no reason becomes a 5-star player and demands 10 million dollars a year, can be traded for the best players in the league, etc. 9) Bring back the possible free agents. Yes, I love the stuff that's been added to the page, but please, is there ANYWHERE we can sneak this in? 10) I prefer buttons to pull-down menus wherever possible. Is there any way to expand on the customizability of skins, so that people can write their own button-based skins? 11) Please make more sorts sticky. Yes, some of them got sticky in OOTP5. Most of them still aren't. Barring that, can the default sort be made something more useful? In many cases it shows counterintuitive data, like placing the worst rated hitters at the top of a sort. 12) There seem to be a lot of doubles. After a few decades of simming, I have dozens of people breaking the career record for doubles. I think this may be a long-term statistical realism issue, but I haven't heard anyone else complaining. Thoughts? 13) There's not enough variance in BATTER strikeout totals. Even with Brilliant/10 in avoiding K's, batters are striking out 50-80 times a year in my fictional leagues. There should be some hitters who don't strike out often. 14) The news stories could use more variance. It's not that they're awful now, it's just that I've been reading them since OOTP3. I'd be happy to write 1000 little sentences that could be thrown into the generator, and so would dozens of other people, I'm sure. 15) Using the find player by ratings option from the league/advanced menu finds ratings that are not the ratings you're scouting. I feel that I'm cheating when I'm playing in manager mode, because there's no way for me to quickly search for players by rating and still see what my scouts see. 16) Pitchers who are 26-27 still seem to develop somewhat in the minors, as they did in OOTP4. But, when they turn 26, the AI immediately declares them worthless. I feel like the AI should still attach SOME value to such players. Right now they'll give me 5 of them for nothing. 17) When you try to negotiate with a player who's in an arbitration year, and can't agree with him, he says he's going to test the free agent market. At this point I'm inclined to respond "the hell you are, buddy!" Would be a nice touch if the player could instead say something like "Let's let the arbitrator settle this, then." 18) In coach/scout signing, if you offer someone 200,000 for 6 years, they will sign with you every time--or at least every time I've tried it. They prefer this to something like 1million/3 years, which seems kinda inexplicable. 19) I'd like to see more players at least throw out a figure, even if it's ridiculous, when it's time to resign them. "Let me hear an offer" is pretty vague. 20) When resigning, if you type in a number that's wildly out of range (I'm thinking Dr. Evil's one BILLION dollars), that offer should be disregarded. As is, once you type that in, the player will not let you back off it. 21) When resigning, I should be able to change BOTH the length and the dollar value of the contract before the player considers it a new offer and counts it against me in terms of his anger level with me. 22) In play-by-play, some things need to be sanity checked. Players don't go back, back, back, to grab a ball off their shoetops. In general, not every play is a spectacular achievement in fielding. Sometimes, players just ground out to the shortstop. It's ok if most of the plays just say that. 23) The game still doesn't know what to do with Babe Ruth, or anybody else who can pitch and hit. Is it just impossible codewise to let the game see that some pitchers can hit? 24) There seem to be lots of triples in play by play mode. I don't have the tenacity to play 5000 games in a row to have a good sample size, but there seem to be other people feeling this way too. 25) The AI makes hyper-aggressive defensive substitutions that sometimes result in things like having nobody to catch, players playing out of position, no pinch hitters left, etc. The computer needs to check its substitutions and not empty its bench wildly in a one-run ballgame. 26) Any way to get cash included in trades? This might open up some flexibility in dealing with a mix of different market sizes. That'll do for now I guess, but I reserve the right to add more :)