First Thoughts and Suggestions for OOTP17

[NeuroticTruth]

I know there is a suggestions board and a bugs board but I'm posting this for discussion and not to immediately suggest / report anything. The list below is my my initial observations / thoughts to OOTP17 after porting my league over to it, as well as a list of changes and implementations I would like to see added to the game. I would love to get some community perspective and thoughts on some of these ideas. As well as to see if some of the problems I'm having with OOTP17 are shared with other leagues that ported over.


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Initial Reactions to 17:

• Top navigation bar doesn't seem as functional as previous versions, especially during live sim.

  - I find it hard to get back to the live sim screen if you navigate away during the sim. Clicking on the scoring updates doesn't always bring you back.

• Top prospect list isn't working properly. Shows only INT Complex guys on team home page.

  - If you navigate to other teams their top prospect lists are fine.

  - My top prospects list is correct after advancing for a sim, but once I upload the file anyone else that gets it is incorrect.

• 1st round draft picks weren't taken away from teams that signed comp players (teams not in protected draft spots [IE: picks 15 and 28]). Instead their 2nd round picks were taken.
• Not getting the monthly in game emails about dev reports. Our settings have not changed, not sure if that's a game change that they’re not sent out anymore but I always liked getting those.
• If you force a pitcher to the SP role in the minor leagues and then auto the rotation the AI doesn't follow who you have set to force start at SP.
• You lose the ability to search for a player while live sims are active.
• Hitting in the minors seems messed up. Our first sim with Rookie and Short A teams active there were 5+ no hitters in a 10 day span. In Rookie through Single A our leagues have one team per minor league hitting over .200 as a TEAM.
• Spring Training stats don't show up on the in-game reports pages.

Suggestions:

• Add ability to institute a budget cap / floor in the financial system.
• Add ability to not allow your closer to pitch in non save situations.
• Allow some form of “stadium maintenance” cost in the game.
• On the “rule 5 eligible players” tab on the Front Office -> Finances page - Allow the “stats” section to be interchangeable with scouting potentials.
• Allow for separate player creation modifiers for different feeder leagues.
• Ability to set a standard start time for rescheduled games due to rain outs.

  - IE: currently all my league games start at 9 AM. If there is a rainout the games get rescheduled to 1 PM and 7:05 PM. Every time there is a rainout I have to go in and manually edit the times. If you could set league specific game start times and let reschedules get set to those.

• Add Gap / Avoid K to player development reports.
• Add pitch progression (actual and potential) to player development reports.
• When you click the Cog on the “Icon Bar” in the League section, if you haven't entered the commish password it brings you to a blank screen. Perhaps it should bring up the password prompt (this has been around for a few versions now)?
• When you offer a player a signing bonus (ie: you offer a FA a minor league contract with a $2,000,000 signing bonus), where does the money go? I’ve found that the signing bonus doesn’t get put into any player expense (ergo it feels like it's a bug). I assume when you sign someone to a minor league contract with a signing bonus it should go into your player expenses or misc player expense, but I’ve never been able to track a bonus. I’ve offered them in the offseason before with zero player expenses or misc player expenses and once signed the money is never trackable anywhere.
• In online leagues, when rule 5 players are drafted they $50,000 cost is never paid to the team they’re drafted from. I assume that is due to the complications of returning players.

  - If you return a player in an online league, if a team's export is pulled after yours (IE: Houston returning a player to Minnesota) the player ends up getting released to FA because he’s not on Minnesota’s roster their export gets pulled.

  - Would it be possible to start charging teams $50,000 to their misc player expense when they draft a player. If they return a player he gets placed in a “temporary hold” in FA for a certain period, say 15-20 days max before he times out and becomes a FA.

  - Once he’s released an in game mail is sent to the previous owner of the player and they can respond with either a “take him back and return $25,000” or “decline and he goes to FA”.

  - Perhaps the in game mails only get generated once you advance the day.

• Bring back the Manager of the Year award (the one the game will vote on itself).

[Bluenoser]

Manager of the Year is still in OOTP.

[NeuroticTruth]

Originally Posted by Bluenoser

Manager of the Year is still in OOTP.

Oh really? How have I missed it?

Its not on my Awards page, where is it located?

[Bluenoser]

Originally Posted by NeuroticTruth

Oh really? How have I missed it?

Its not on my Awards page, where is it located?

It's the same as it's always been. It's not on the Awards page in setup, it's automatically awarded by the game if Coaches are enabled.

[Lukas Berger]

Originally Posted by NeuroticTruth

[*]Hitting in the minors seems messed up. Our first sim with Rookie and Short A teams active there were 5+ no hitters in a 10 day span. In Rookie through Single A our leagues have one team per minor league hitting over .200 as a TEAM.

Likely, somehow your league modifiers got messed up. You might want to check and see what they are.

This shouldn't happen with the default settings.

[NeuroticTruth]

Originally Posted by Bluenoser

It's the same as it's always been. It's not on the Awards page in setup, it's automatically awarded by the game if Coaches are enabled.

I'm not entirely sure thats accurate (in that its "always" been that way). My league has been running since OOTP13, we've never used the coaching system, and we had the Manager of the Year Award until OOTP16.

[Roggie]

Originally Posted by NeuroticTruth

I'm not entirely sure thats accurate (in that its "always" been that way). My league has been running since OOTP13, we've never used the coaching system, and we had the Manager of the Year Award until OOTP16.

As someone else in the league, all of our managers were listed as just managers in OOTP 15. When we switched to 16, all managers are now listed as Manager + GM. Just for a little more info in case this has anything to do with the award not being given out now.

[NeuroticTruth]

Originally Posted by lukasberger

Likely, somehow your league modifiers got messed up. You might want to check and see what they are.

This shouldn't happen with the default settings.

Our modifiers for most of the low minor leagues are almost identical (minor changes in some of the modifiers) to what they were when we were on 16. HRs / runs per game is up quite a bit in the ML and looking all all the modifiers there they're up vs what we were on.

I assume that _hopefully_ this will auto adjust itself once we hit the offseason but if not, thats a pretty big "bug" if modifiers dont port over correctly.

[Bluenoser]

Originally Posted by NeuroticTruth

I'm not entirely sure thats accurate (in that its "always" been that way). My league has been running since OOTP13, we've never used the coaching system, and we had the Manager of the Year Award until OOTP16.

The custom award is still there in setup. Were you using that previously?

[NeuroticTruth]

Originally Posted by Bluenoser

The custom award is still there in setup. Were you using that previously?

I dont believe so? Its been so long I cant remember. I know when I realized it was gone in OOTP16 I tried setting the custom award to Manager of the Year but it wouldnt auto vote on it etc.

[Bluenoser]

Originally Posted by NeuroticTruth

I dont believe so? Its been so long I cant remember. I know when I realized it was gone in OOTP16 I tried setting the custom award to Manager of the Year but it wouldnt auto vote on it etc.

Manager of the year hasn't changed, so I'm not sure what you're seeing or setting is. If you use Custom Award for Manager of the Year, then you can vote on it. If Coaches are enabled in league setup, then MOY is automatically awarded by the game. That hasn't changed.

[NeuroticTruth]

Originally Posted by Bluenoser

Manager of the year hasn't changed, so I'm not sure what you're seeing or setting is. If you use Custom Award for Manager of the Year, then you can vote on it. If Coaches are enabled in league setup, then MOY is automatically awarded by the game. That hasn't changed.

Like I said, until OOTP16 the game would vote on Manager of the Year for us. We've NEVER had coaches enabled in our file.

[NeuroticTruth]

Originally Posted by lukasberger

Likely, somehow your league modifiers got messed up. You might want to check and see what they are.

This shouldn't happen with the default settings.

As a test I reset all our modifiers to 1.000 and simmed the rest of the season. I then let the CPU auto adjust all our modifiers (they werent lowered even remotely close to what our modifiers previously were) and simmed another season. I had the same issue in my minors again. Teams batting under .200 while pitching absolutely dominated.

[Lukas Berger]

Originally Posted by NeuroticTruth

As a test I reset all our modifiers to 1.000 and simmed the rest of the season. I then let the CPU auto adjust all our modifiers (they werent lowered even remotely close to what our modifiers previously were) and simmed another season. I had the same issue in my minors again. Teams batting under .200 while pitching absolutely dominated.

Hmmm. Not sure what would be causing that to happen. You might want to upload your league files and post in the bug reports forum.

[injury log]

Originally Posted by NeuroticTruth

[*]When you offer a player a signing bonus (ie: you offer a FA a minor league contract with a $2,000,000 signing bonus), where does the money go?

You have a Draft Budget; it comes out of that. It's only if you overspend your draft budget that you'll see any new expenses.

Originally Posted by NeuroticTruth

[*]In online leagues, when rule 5 players are drafted they $50,000 cost is never paid to the team they’re drafted from. I assume that is due to the complications of returning players.

It is not due to any complications. It is because the sum of money is such a pittance that it's not worth bothering with.

[Roggie]

Originally Posted by injury log

You have a Draft Budget; it comes out of that. It's only if you overspend your draft budget that you'll see any new expenses.

It's never come out of there in this file. I've signed INT FAs in the offseason for $25+million and it never once came off my books until it was edited by a commish. Draft budgets have never come close to being that high.

[injury log]

I thought you were talking about bonuses for draft picks. For international amateur FAs, a new budget for them was specifically added in OOTP17. I haven't checked to see if that works properly, maybe there's a bug in there.

[Roggie]

Originally Posted by injury log

I thought you were talking about bonuses for draft picks. For international amateur FAs, a new budget for them was specifically added in OOTP17. I haven't checked to see if that works properly, maybe there's a bug in there.

No, it's not for INT amateurs either. He's talking about regular FAs who are giving a minor league contract with a signing bonus. Usually with guys who are 25 or so who show up in the offseason when the INT FAs are generated, or with players who show up from independent leagues. Or an undrafted guy who someone just wants to give a bonus to. Players like that.

[NeuroticTruth]

Originally Posted by injury log

It is not due to any complications. It is because the sum of money is such a pittance that it's not worth bothering with.

The money isnt really a big deal for me, its mainly a deterrence imo, however small it may be. I've seen guys draft 3 or 4 guys and return them all the very next sim.

[NeuroticTruth]

Originally Posted by Roggie

No, it's not for INT amateurs either. He's talking about regular FAs who are giving a minor league contract with a signing bonus. Usually with guys who are 25 or so who show up in the offseason when the INT FAs are generated, or with players who show up from independent leagues. Or an undrafted guy who someone just wants to give a bonus to. Players like that.

Yes, I'm referring to any player thats signed off regular Free Agency and given a signing bonus. That money doesnt show up anywhere in game for me on my file.