No Pepper on my sandwhich please...The No pepper Interview

[Padreman]

Legendary Modder Hall of Fame status member since 2003, nearly 1,200 Post has been thanked almost 600 times Mr. No Pepper.
Please again feel free to ask him any follow up and additional questions.



When and what version did you start playing OOTP?

I believe the first version I started playing with was OOTP2 or OOTP4 back in 2002. I started with baseball sims with the old Earl Weaver PC Game and the too infrequent Strat-O-Matic, Pursue the Pennant board games. While fun, they never had a "franchise mode" so to speak and after trying APBA Baseball for Windows for a year, I left the genre somewhat disappointed. It was only when I found OOTP did I find the ability to customize my world was I convinced to jump back in. And who could beat the dedication that Markus has in making this a great product!

What's feature of the game you love most?

Being able to customize my world (Facegen) and the ability of the program to model development over a career is the biggest draw. The players seemingly come to life when one becomes immersed. I can almost see them on the diamond. And if it's not fictional, what's better than to have Hammerin' Hank Aaron swat at electrons on my desktop?

What's favorite baseball team (any league)?

Favorite squad is the hometown Milwaukee Brewers. It was a difficult year with the injuries and especially the Ryan Braun fiasco. I have yet to manage them in OOTP in any form. To me it feels almost like voodoo.

How old you?

I'm approaching the second half of the five-year road to 40, so 37.

Where are you originally from?

I'm originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and I still live in the area.

Are you a family man?

My wife and I have plans to begin our family, so yes, I very much so want to be!

What do you for a living?

I'm involved in unraveling mysteries of kidney disease, viral and cancer research.

Besides OOTP do you have any other hobbies or interest?

I've gotten into more outdoor activities than I have in the past. Fishing, hunting, skiing. I still have a passion for basketball but don't get out on the court and cannot stand the NBA or the current state of the game. I also enjoy brewing the beer I drink.

Your known as a "modder" or "creator" what was the first you made for OOTP and do you still have it?

I started out making team logos that were requested on the boards. I remember forum user "deft" had started making player photos that one could customize. I'm not sure where he got them from (remember the old red-flannel lumberjacks?) but they were what we had before the current version of Facegen we now all enjoy. I still have all of what I created but it would be a pain to find anything in particular since its all so unorganized. The one regret I do have is that I probably mod more than I play, despite owning more than several released versions.

What individual item or project you made for OOTP are you most proud off that?

I cannot say I'm proud of anything I've made because the work is quite literally made off the backs of other pioneers either already interviewed or since forgotten. All the credit goes to their innovation. But if I am to be proud, I'd like to think that some of my creations have given people a chance to make their baseball world a little bit more lively or familiar than just electrons flying around.

If the OOTP team asked you be a consultant what will you change, add or remove for new version of the game?

I'd like to see the economics of baseball in the days before free agency be improved, such as the right to purchase contracts. That's how some teams, on all levels, managed to keep playing, whether it was to sell their top talent to pay the rent or stuff their pockets or to hire that mercenary for the weekend series against a hated rival. I'd also recommend to incorporate everything Le Grande Orange deems fit and proper. I'd like the game to improve on the use of two-way players and the tracking of exhibition stats, to name a few more.

What other modder's work do you personally enjoy?

I'll be honest and say I enjoy work, ideas or any contribution that is different from whatever I could come up with. Maybe not modders, but I always enjoyed Big Six, TigerFan, metsgeek and NYY23 dynasties, the work of darkcloud and gmo, the humor/pragmatism of Malleus Dei and The Wolf, the online leagues put on by Cooleyvol and legendsport, and the database mods by Gambo and Spritze. Not to name the real photo collections and facegen renders being put out by all the various contributors.

One modder stated that your quality work is what he tried to achive, how does it make you feel when you read other great modders make statement about in regard to your work here in the forum?

Like I said before I'm not "proud" of my work, but compliments like that do feel good. It means someone else's imagination or enjoyment is growing because of what I decided to share with everyone. Whatever I create is an extension of what someone else provided to me. That's what makes us a community!

[Padreman]

BTW great job on the cancer research, I lost my mom at only 65 years of age September 14, 2013, first time of my life I experienced true depression. great job, I will always help fund cancer research even if all I can give is a few bucks I will.

[Elysian Fields]

I find it totally interesting that you haven't played you're hometown Milwaukee Brewers yet. If I'm not playing historical, I'm playing the favorite team. You're strange.

I like the history of the game and can't say enough about your caps and jerseys. Excellent work!

[Raidergoo]

Originally Posted by Padreman

Your known as a "modder" or "creator" what was the first you made for OOTP and do you still have it?

I started out making team logos that were requested on the boards. I remember forum user "deft" had started making player photos that one could customize. I'm not sure where he got them from (remember the old red-flannel lumberjacks?)


but they were what we had before the current version of Facegen we now all enjoy. I still have all of what I created but it would be a pain to find anything in particular since its all so unorganized. The one regret I do have is that I probably mod more than I play, despite owning more than several released versions.

Here's how we got Facegen in the game.

Nine (!) years ago, a board member used a soccer website to generate faces for fictional players. Here's the thread:

http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...-facepack.html

A project (you'll see some familiar names) came together and used the site to whip up some usable faces, and then hats and unis were photoshopped in. If you read the thread, you can see some of the early efforts, which were comical, and then some work that looked brilliant. Here's the best looking effort, in my opinion:

http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...tml#post950951

So, by December 2004, people could turn out decent fictional player pictures. It was not easy nor fast, but it was cool as all get out.

In the spring of 2006, two things happened, one trivial and one monumental. The trivial bit was that I got an invite from Marc Duffy to beta test OOTP 2006. The monumental part was this thread:

http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...iscovered.html

My favorite Canadian socialist, Layton is My Homeboy, documented what he could do with a software demo called Facegen. He whipped up a large number of useful faces in a short period of time. He posted techniques and samples. Again, it was not easy nor fast, but the quality level had gone up. Layton is My Homeboy built a tool and there was an thirty one page epic thread launched:

http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...-facetool.html

At some point, and I don't recall when or how exactly (fall 2006...I guess), either Layton or I saw that the makers of Facegen (Singular Inversion) had listed companies on their marketing page that had bought a license to use their application. On that list was Sega. At the time, OOTP was under the SI umbrella, which in turn was owned by Sega. That led to some questions. I traded messages with Layton, basically asking "Does this mean what I think it means?", and the answer was yes.

At that point, since I was under an NDA and the guys were trying to whip the code into better shape and add marketable new features, I wrote an email to Marc Duffy. I asked if OOTP could use Facegen in a future version because it was already bought and paid for by Sega, and I added some links to what the mod community was already up to using the demo. He gave me some encouraging feedback and promised he'd investigate. A couple months later, Facegen was baked into OOTP. See

http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...cetool-31.html

One of the best things about OOTP is how much of what modders whip up gets integrated into the game, and how Markus and Andreas code like crazy to support the efforts of the modder community here.

[No Pepper]

^ A true legend!

Very interesting. I must have missed all this back then. I was a huge lurker back in the day, still am.

[fhomess]

A lot of the mods that have been created over the years are incremental improvements on what has been done before. I always think of No Pepper as being the guy who showed us the possibilities of 19th century FaceGen that eventually led to some of the more creative jerseys we see people creating today. The high quality of his work elevated everyone else's game. Thanks, No Pepper!

[Fyrestorm3]

Originally Posted by Raidergoo

One of the best things about OOTP is how much of what modders whip up gets integrated into the game, and how Markus and Andreas code like crazy to support the efforts of the modder community here.

Indeed. And it's still happening - just look at the addition of away jerseys.

[The Wolf]

OOTP modders make a great game even better.

[Thundercrack]

No Pepper, thanks for all the work you've done to make a great game even better. And by the way, how are those NL historical uni's coming?

[Rich Tiger Fan]

Great post Raidergoo...I loved reading about the history of how Facegen came about. Facegen is without a doubt my favorite feature added to this great game over the years.

[No Pepper]

Thundercrack, the NL set should be available within the month.