Rookie questions

[Bud Cochrane]

As a longtime Stratomatic player just getting started with OOTP9, you can count me in as a convert: OOTP is sensational. The terrific features are too numerous to mention. The game-play is so richly detailed, especially in pitch-by-pitch mode using the warm-up rule, and the instant access to stats and information is so amazing that I’ve decided to abandon Stratomatic forever. That’s the good news.

After a few false starts and trial-and-error learning experiences, I’m managing the Toronto Blue Jays in the 1987 season in commissioner mode, and have run into a few problems I just can’t solve. (Warning: I’m 68 years old, baseball-smart but computer-stupid.)

1. All my games are night games. The manual says:

"At the top of the Pictures & Coordinates tab, we see the ballpark selection drop box again. Underneath the ballpark selection tab are places to specify the filename of the daytime and nighttime pictures for the ballpark. Daytime pictures are used for games that start prior to 7:00 PM on the schedule. That's right! You can have different pictures based on the time of day..... Any ballpark pictures that you add to the game should be stored in the ..\data\ballparks directory (e.g., the default location is C:\Program Files\Sports Interactive\OOTP Baseball 2006\data\ballparks). If you want to see the daytime or nighttime picture displayed on the screen, then click in the text box and press ENTER. The appropriate ballpark picture should be displayed."

This is probably very simple for OOTPers but I just don't get it and can’t do it. Okay, I go to Exhibition Stadium and click on “Pictures & Coordinates”. Next to “Daytime Picture” it says “default_grass.jpg” and to the right of that is a box with “...” inside it. When I click on that box I get a window with a list including “default_grass.jpg” and some choices including “Create Folder”, “Favorites”, etc. Nothing I’ve tried brings up a daytime picture. How the hell do I make a default setting that will bring up daytime screen-shots for day games, and a nighttime shot for night games? Do I have to do these settings stadium-by-stadium? I’m stumped. (Bear in mind, you’re dealing with a computer idiot.) Shouldn’t something so basic be simpler than this?

2. Scoreboard-watching while I’m playing my Blue Jays games is great. However... Let’s say my team is playing a day game and some other AL teams are playing that night. When I finish my day game, I find that all the night games have already been auto-played. What I would like to do is play my day game while watching the scores of other day games, then tune in to the night games without already knowing the results. Is there a setting that will let me to do this?

3. This happened once while playing a test league (long since deleted). I carelessly clicked on the player-icon of a right-hand hitter, on the playing field, and the icon disappeared. I thought this was a temporary aberration but it carried over to ensuing games in that league; the RH hitter’s icon never reappeared. It’s never happened since but why did it happen then? And if I ever make this mistake again, how do I restore the icon to the playing field?

4. I started a 1941 historical league managing the Brooklyn Dodgers and immediately noticed two things wrong:

Kirby Higbe, who with Whit Wyatt was the mainstay of the ’41 Dodger pitching staff (22-9 3.14) is rated very low, seemingly worthless. I understand that I can go to “Editor” and tweak Higbe’s numbers so his performance will more closely mirror real life. But I’m wondering, why are Higbe’s ratings so off?

Also, Billy Herman is on the wrong team (the Cubs). In reality Herman had just 36 ABs with the Cubs and 536 ABs with the Dodgers in 1941. I’ve tried to move Herman to the Dodgers by putting myself in charge of all teams and engineering a trade, but the game isn’t allowing me to do it. I must be missing something. There’s gotta be a simpler way to move a player from one team to another before a season begins.

I have some other questions as well, but these will do for now. All these ‘problems’ are either cosmetic or minor. As I’ve said, you’ve won me over with OOTP9 and I look forward to years of fun with it. Thanks in advance for your patience and your answers.

P.S. Just a thought: in the future could umpires’ names somehow be integrated into the game? This would greatly enhance the realism of the play-by-play accounts.

[Tycobbler]

This is probably very simple for OOTPers but I just don't get it and can’t do it. Okay, I go to Exhibition Stadium and click on “Pictures & Coordinates”. Next to “Daytime Picture” it says “default_grass.jpg” and to the right of that is a box with “...” inside it. When I click on that box I get a window with a list including “default_grass.jpg” and some choices including “Create Folder”, “Favorites”, etc. Nothing I’ve tried brings up a daytime picture. How the hell do I make a default setting that will bring up daytime screen-shots for day games, and a nighttime shot for night games? Do I have to do these settings stadium-by-stadium? I’m stumped. (Bear in mind, you’re dealing with a computer idiot.) Shouldn’t something so basic be simpler than this?

Actually the ball park picture are to be placed here- C:\Users\owner\Documents\Out of the Park Developments\OOTP Baseball 9\ballparks. Currently however there are only 2 pictures and yes they are both night time. Place any and all future ballpark pictures in this folder, then go to the Pictures & Coordinates tab again. Click on that "..." again and what you are seeing is a way to navigate to the correct folder. So what you need to do is navigate to C:\Users\owner\Documents\Out of the Park Developments\OOTP Baseball 9\ballparks and click on the appropriate ballpark. Important- once you've placed your new ballpark pictures in the appropriate folder make sure to rename whatever picture you have chosen to your stadium's name.

2. Scoreboard-watching while I’m playing my Blue Jays games is great. However... Let’s say my team is playing a day game and some other AL teams are playing that night. When I finish my day game, I find that all the night games have already been auto-played. What I would like to do is play my day game while watching the scores of other day games, then tune in to the night games without already knowing the results. Is there a setting that will let me to do this?

If you have Box scores, Game logs, and Save Replays set to All Leagues in Game setup you can check the Hide Scores box on the Scores & Schedules page then read the box score or game log and even watch the replay of that days games.

[1998 Yankees]

Hey, Bud, welcome to the club.

Originally Posted by Bud Cochrane

As a longtime Stratomatic player just getting started with OOTP9, you can count me in as a convert: OOTP is sensational. The terrific features are too numerous to mention. The game-play is so richly detailed, especially in pitch-by-pitch mode using the warm-up rule, and the instant access to stats and information is so amazing that I’ve decided to abandon Stratomatic forever. That’s the good news.
That's the same route that I took. Before that it was a series of PC games that looked good for the time but basically were terrible at simulating baseball. You've come to the right place for the latter.

After a few false starts and trial-and-error learning experiences, I’m managing the Toronto Blue Jays in the 1987 season in commissioner mode, and have run into a few problems I just can’t solve. (Warning: I’m 68 years old, baseball-smart but computer-stupid.)
Knock it off. You think we are all young computer geeks here?

1. All my games are night games. The manual says:

"At the top of the Pictures & Coordinates tab, we see the ballpark selection drop box again. Underneath the ballpark selection tab are places to specify the filename of the daytime and nighttime pictures for the ballpark. Daytime pictures are used for games that start prior to 7:00 PM on the schedule. That's right! You can have different pictures based on the time of day..... Any ballpark pictures that you add to the game should be stored in the ..\data\ballparks directory (e.g., the default location is C:\Program Files\Sports Interactive\OOTP Baseball 2006\data\ballparks). If you want to see the daytime or nighttime picture displayed on the screen, then click in the text box and press ENTER. The appropriate ballpark picture should be displayed."

This is probably very simple for OOTPers but I just don't get it and can’t do it. Okay, I go to Exhibition Stadium and click on “Pictures & Coordinates”. Next to “Daytime Picture” it says “default_grass.jpg” and to the right of that is a box with “...” inside it. When I click on that box I get a window with a list including “default_grass.jpg” and some choices including “Create Folder”, “Favorites”, etc. Nothing I’ve tried brings up a daytime picture. How the hell do I make a default setting that will bring up daytime screen-shots for day games, and a nighttime shot for night games? Do I have to do these settings stadium-by-stadium? I’m stumped. (Bear in mind, you’re dealing with a computer idiot.) Shouldn’t something so basic be simpler than this?
As Tycobbler says, the game comes with only the two default pictures. Just to elaborate a bit on what he said, you can download some good stadium pictures from Ballparks. They go into the folder that he indicated. Also, you select the pictures individually as he described, for each stadium. The game comes with default as entered for every ballpark so it's up to you to change them one by one. What he said about changing the picture file name is important but not as much as it used to be; now it's mostly to remember which stadium is which when you go to select one. The ones you could download from that web site are generally clearly labeled.

2. Scoreboard-watching while I’m playing my Blue Jays games is great. However... Let’s say my team is playing a day game and some other AL teams are playing that night. When I finish my day game, I find that all the night games have already been auto-played. What I would like to do is play my day game while watching the scores of other day games, then tune in to the night games without already knowing the results. Is there a setting that will let me to do this?
Yeah, this is strange but unfortunately the way it is designed, so Tycobbler's recommendation is a good one. I would only add that the settings that he talked about need to be set ahead of time; they are not retroactive. See the first screen print below for example.

3. This happened once while playing a test league (long since deleted). I carelessly clicked on the player-icon of a right-hand hitter, on the playing field, and the icon disappeared. I thought this was a temporary aberration but it carried over to ensuing games in that league; the RH hitter’s icon never reappeared. It’s never happened since but why did it happen then? And if I ever make this mistake again, how do I restore the icon to the playing field?
Because I could not reproduce that during a game, the only thing that I could think of was you may have inadvertently dragged the icon off the screen or entered a bad coordinate in the Pictures & Coordinates screen of the Ballpark Editor. See the example below, second screen print.

4. I started a 1941 historical league managing the Brooklyn Dodgers and immediately noticed two things wrong:

Kirby Higbe, who with Whit Wyatt was the mainstay of the ’41 Dodger pitching staff (22-9 3.14) is rated very low, seemingly worthless. I understand that I can go to “Editor” and tweak Higbe’s numbers so his performance will more closely mirror real life. But I’m wondering, why are Higbe’s ratings so off?
This I cannot answer, other than to remind you that the game does not know Higbe as you do and may have rated him differently than you would have. Also, rosters created by community modders are prone to errors and differences in judgment.

Also, Billy Herman is on the wrong team (the Cubs). In reality Herman had just 36 ABs with the Cubs and 536 ABs with the Dodgers in 1941. I’ve tried to move Herman to the Dodgers by putting myself in charge of all teams and engineering a trade, but the game isn’t allowing me to do it. I must be missing something. There’s gotta be a simpler way to move a player from one team to another before a season begins.
If you are playing in commissioner mode, you can go to his Player Profile, select the Editor tab, and reassign him to a different team. You may have to go to that team, again as commissioner, to actually place him on the roster of his new team.

I have some other questions as well, but these will do for now. All these ‘problems’ are either cosmetic or minor. As I’ve said, you’ve won me over with OOTP9 and I look forward to years of fun with it. Thanks in advance for your patience and your answers.
Again, welcome. It sounds like you are well on your way on the learning curve; fun will follow shortly.

P.S. Just a thought: in the future could umpires’ names somehow be integrated into the game? This would greatly enhance the realism of the play-by-play accounts.
Sounds like a good suggestion, and if you hang around these forums in coming months, they may reopen the suggestions boards for the next version. That would be a good place to post this one.