Never waited this long to post initial impressions before but a long day at work, d'load install v14, import v13 game, and then look things over and get in one game left me dead tired
Haven't slept that long in years.
On to the impressions...
1. D'load was fast and easy. Thought it might be tough due to having to wait til after work to try to get in.
2. Import from v13 worked without issue (I've imported from v4 now all the way to v14 with out issue so no surprise)
3. Imported mid-season (2025 79 games played) so also imported a "spring training" file backup to see if my league total modifiers needed adjusting to continue my current "in season" game. Changes were minimal with most v14 being within .005 of v13 modifiers. Close enough to play out a half season and then redo when starting 2026.
4. Player development report on each card is great. Figured this would only start from the point of the new game. It appears from the limited players I viewed it is retroactive, NICE!
5. Skin.. Classic skin is awesome and easy on my eyes. As others have stated its nice to have all stats that will fit on the first page of player card instead of having to dig. Any chance of adding the ability to select "level" on this page? No big deal if not, but would be a nice addition. Or did I miss a way to do it?
6. In game screens.. I use the widgets and always will. The screen is about the same with the addition of "win probability" which I love. This is not a knock as this screen is about as good as it gets in a sports simulation.
Two suggestions for the widget screen.. Use the "ball location" box from the webcast screen (just the ball without the batter) or make it available as a widget. Make the current "batter ball location box" the same size as the lineup boxes. This standard size would make it easier to "square up" one's widget screen. Even with a large monitor it's a bit of a pain to find a good location with one odd-sized box. Of course the "webcast-ball location only" box would be smaller and also fix this issue. None of this is game breaking stuff.
7. The new options "pitch to contact, throw to each base, etc." are nice and it appears we will finally have all selections stay with the same number at all times with unusable selections greyed out? This is a great addition but for us that use the keypad will take getting used to. There will be a few mistakes from old habits but once one is used to it (won't take long) it will be great.
8. With each new addition the game looks more polished v14 is no exception.
Everything just looks sharper. Facegen is amazing and adds so much immersion and now these guys are really looking "alive". The "team photo" is brilliant.
9. I loved the addition of the "stadium green" scoreboards last year in v13. I was hoping they would become the default for the "scores-schedule" page in v14 (keeping the player photos etc as they are now). IMHO they are much easier on the eyes and also simply look cooler and just say "baseball".
I'll be spending most of the weekend digging through the game, these are only initial impressions. I will say though that this game just gets better and better. I have no idea why people think the game doesn't have much room to grow because there is already so much there. Every year Markus and Andreas come up with more and more. I find it funny when someone posts something about the graphics and even Markus comes in to say "I didn't know that was in there"
Says something about the quality and imagination that goes into Andreas' work. Everyone knows who Markus is but sometimes I think Andreas, especially to newcomers, is under-appreciated for what he adds to the game. He is a big part of OOTP and a huge asset to OOTP Dev.
A big thank you to Andreas for all he does for the game.
Great job and thanks to Markus, Andreas, OOTP Dev., and the beta team (an under appreciated endeavor).