Better news reports needed

[smiller]

I'm in the 1909 season managing the Boston Doves in a game that started with the 1908 season. Near the end of the season the Phillies and Cubs just played a game that went 28 innings. There was absolutely no mention of this in any news report. Something needs to be done to highlight significant achievements like this, rather than the usual mundane mentions that comprise nearly all of what passes for news in the game. If I hadn't been looking at some box scores, I would have missed something that really adds to the pleasure of playing.

[bailey]

I agree, but I don't think they've touched news for at least 10 years. You'd think there would be software they could license that would improve this function by a lot and/or allow modders to make news come alive!

[Pelican]

Agree that the AI frequently misses unusual games; although it does pick up career milestones. One thing I’d love to see picked up is debut games by rookies, or even first game with new team after a trade. Or noting long winning or losing streaks. And as a Phillies fan, I have just have to ask who won the 26-inning game?

[oldfatbaldguy]

It's interesting that we're demanding more insight from our AI "news media" in a game at the same time the actual news media irl is getting more robotic.

[smiller]

In the bottom of the 28th, Johnny Evers walked, went to second on an error, stole third and continued home on a throwing error by the catcher.

[fredbeene]

love the idea.....and creating ability for modder enhancement/sharing....give us the tools, we will help build it

[PSUColonel]

Would love to see a news system similar to the one in Football Manager. The ability to subscribe to whatever you like in your universe such as individual nations, leagues, teams or players.

Would also love to see more "buzz" like stories surrounding signings, trades, player interest etc...

[David Watts]

There was an baseball sim back in the day called Puresim Baseball. This games best feature by far was the weekly newspaper report that came out each and every week. It was kind of like a printed version of the show This Week in Baseball. It had an under the knife report listing all the weeks injuries. A hot and cold report showing which players had a great week and which ones struggled. It had a transaction report. I think there was a longest home runs of the week report and best pitching performances of the week report.

I would love to see OOTP create something like this to give us some form of weekly summary of events. Make it in the form of a fictional Baseball Weekly.

[Pelican]

Originally Posted by smiller

In the bottom of the 28th, Johnny Evers walked, went to second on an error, stole third and continued home on a throwing error by the catcher.

I knew it. Another bitter loss for the team with the most in MLB history to date [IRL]. Was the game in Philly or Chicago? Hard to imagine so little scoring in the Baker Bowl.

On the main thread issue (sorry for the digression), the idea of a weekly newspaper has merit. Particularly for those who sim games, it would transmit a feel for the season as it progressed. Of course the necessary data is all there. Just a question of mining it for highlights and analysis.

[PSUColonel]

Why not a daily re-cap with a "week in review"? This wold feed into the FM-like system I spoke of above. There is so much that can be done with a news system, considering the amount and types of media available today.

[beepollen]

On a related note, I'd still like the ability to change game MVPs. In a full season, there will be performances that wouldn't get a second glance in a box score (reliever enters in the 3rd inning, gets out of a jam, throws another two scoreless frames) - but when you know the backstory (that reliever was making his career debut in a game where the manager needed length from somebody anybody due to playing extras the night before), they take on far more value.

[Pelican]

The game MVP system badly needs a revamp. It seems to favor pitchers by game rating, even where one starter was a mere point higher than the other. It does not seem capable of giving credit to clutch hits, even though the game summary does this quite well. I am routinely baffled by the great plays and performances that are ignored in the player of the game selection. Rather than rewrite the code for that, how about letting us edit that choice, just as we can edit the game summaries. I usually edit the summaries to reflect my comments as manager on team and player performance, particularly after a tough loss. Very therapeutic.

[Eugene Church]

I was on the Beta Team for about 3 years about 10-12 years ago.

I worked on the News Stories and the PBP and greatly expanded the number of items in each category.

Markus is a great guy and I don't mean this as a criticism of him...back then because of limited personnel he had the entire game to oversee, not just News and PBP... Markus could not do it all.

Back then, Markus was not concerned with variety in News Stories and PBP and other categories... he was happy to have 5 different news stories for a certain category like shutouts... and 5 different descriptions of a double play... naturally, this is nowhere near enough for variety.

Back then there were about 200 shutouts in a MLB season... that meant the same 5 shutout stories would be repeated 40 times each... every 5 shutouts would use the same news story.

To fix the problem I wrote 200 different stories for shutouts in the News category... Markus wrote only 5 to start and never expanded.... he depended on the Beta Team to expand each category... if no one on the Beta Team expands the category, you get endless repetition of a few stories.

This is still the case with the News Stories... not enough variations.

Variety in PBP is no longer a problem for me anymore... I don't use it... I much prefer to watch the animation.... but thank goodness for gamers like pstrickert who has done a great job on the PBP for over a decade... pstrickert has improved the PBP for the folks that don't use the animation mode.

The game recaps are a very good example of what I'm saying... look how often the same recap is repeated in the news... it seems like some categories only have 5 or fewer variations... I noticed this especially in the playoff game recaps... the same story is repeated too often.

That is why it is best to write your own recaps.

We should be able to pick the Player of Game... often the AI picks the wrong player... I see a game won by a grand slam homer in the 11th inning and the Player of the Game will go to a player who goes 3 for 5, scores 3 runs and had no RBIs... there is no mention of the game-winning grand slam.

[Lordofbrewtown]

I'll add to this - I've previously requested this in the new version requests.

I don't need every other shutout to generate a news story (especially in the late 60's/70's era). That should be limited to 1 or 2 hit shoutouts, or if the pitcher also strikes out 10 or more.

Similarly, numerous records do NOT generate stories: extra inning games; doubles or stolen bases in a single game.

I'd also rather have an option to generate standings weekly as a news story instead of the power ratings.

[AESP_pres]

One thing is missing for sure... Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth record in the first game of the 1976 season in my current simulation and for the game it wasn't big news worthy of a mention.

Come on, any record beaten should get a news article.

[Pelican]

EC, is there any way for those of us with time on their hands (i.e. retired) to "volunteer" for the beta team writing new templates for news stories? It would be a labor of love for me to draft new accounts. I am no coder; but I am married to one, and she could no doubt help me shape up the narratives to a form that was ready to be added by the developers.

[Eugene Church]

Originally Posted by Pelican

EC, is there any way for those of us with time on their hands (i.e. retired) to "volunteer" for the beta team writing new templates for news stories? It would be a labor of love for me to draft new accounts. I am no coder; but I am married to one, and she could no doubt help me shape up the narratives to a form that was ready to be added by the developers.

Contact Matt Arnold on the OOTP Development Team and tell him you would like to help write the News and Recaps...I'm sure he would help you... they took me in, computer illiterate, and taught me all of the technical language for codifying the stories and PBP that I did.... it was a lot of learning, but I got pretty good at it because I am very detailed-oriented person and that goes well with computing tokens and encoding.

The last time I wrote for them, I just told them I would write the stories, but someone else would have to take the time to encode them for the game.

OOTP may have reached the point that they only accept computer literates on the Beta Team... it has become too complex for the computer-challenged like me.

Be advised, it takes a lot of time and dedication to be on the Beta Team... they will work you a lot... and you will probably have to have a whole lot of computer programming knowledge and expertise.

I offered to come back and write game recaps and news for them again about 2 years ago... but no one ever contacted me... I can be pretty demanding, hard-to-please, opinionated and vocal... maybe they got tired of me on the Beta Team... could be... but I did a darn good job for them, along with pstrickert and another great guy, who name escapes me now... I think his real name was Gary, but I don't remember his game name... it was something like RBLwebguy... both he and pstrickert really did their jobs well.

[Lukas Berger]

Originally Posted by Pelican

EC, is there any way for those of us with time on their hands (i.e. retired) to "volunteer" for the beta team writing new templates for news stories? It would be a labor of love for me to draft new accounts. I am no coder; but I am married to one, and she could no doubt help me shape up the narratives to a form that was ready to be added by the developers.

Originally Posted by Eugene Church

Contact Matt on the OOTP Development Team and tell him you would like to help write the News and Recaps... they took me in, computer illiterate, and taught me all of the technical language for codifying the stories and PBP that I did.

The last time I wrote for them, I just told them I would write the stories, but someone else would have to take the time to encode them for the game.

Yes, absolutely! We're always looking for folks who are willing to help out with improving the game.

I'm actually the one to get in touch with here though, not Matt. Matt would just pass you on to me and he's busy enough working on OOTP23 right now anyway (so am I, and all of us for that matter).

For anyone who's interested in helping with new stories, pbp, any other text writing, rosters or any other specific area of the game, or even just general beta testing, please do feel free to drop me a line and let me know what areas you're interested in helping with and a little bit about your background, skills, history with the game etc.

I can't guarantee we'll have an immediate spot on the beta team for anyone who does so, as we only have limited places, but we're always on the lookout for folks who are passionate about the game and willing to help out, whether immediately or at least to keep you in mind for any openings in the future.

[Eugene Church]

Originally Posted by Lukas Berger

Yes, absolutely! We're always looking for folks who are willing to help out with improving the game.

I'm actually the one to get in touch with here though, not Matt. Matt would just pass you on to me and he's busy enough working on OOTP23 right now anyway (so am I, and all of us for that matter).

For anyone who's interested in helping with new stories, pbp, any other text writing, rosters or any other specific area of the game, or even just general beta testing, please do feel free to drop me a line and let me know what areas you're interested in helping with and a little bit about your background, skills, history with the game etc.

I can't guarantee we'll have an immediate spot on the beta team for anyone who does so, as we only have limited places, but we're always on the lookout for folks who are passionate about the game and willing to help out, whether immediately or at least to keep you in mind for any openings in the future.

Lucas Berger is a great guy... he and Matt Arnold are always willing to help gamers with questions about the game.

And since I have his attention a little bit.
Lucas, you really need to work on the game recaps... they really need some work... they are poorly programmed and designed... I guessing 30% of the time the recaps are misleading and don't contain important information about the game... I would say 25% of the time it picks the wrong Player of the Game... and many times completely leaves out game-deciding information and keys on lesser events in the game.

But I'm sure you are aware of it and can't do much about it... otherwise they would have improved over the last few 3-4 versions, since you have been including game recaps.

[Lukas Berger]

Originally Posted by Eugene Church

But I'm sure you are aware of it and can't do much about it... otherwise they would have improved over the last few 3-4 versions, since you have been including game recaps.

I do agree, but it's just like with everything about the game. There are plenty of areas that need work and improvement and lots of interesting new features and things to add as well.

That being said, there are still only so many of us and only so much time in each day. Our team has been growing lately, which is a great thing, and that gives us the flexibility to do more than we used to be able to. Even so, there's still always far more to do than we can squeeze in. No matter how much work we do on the game, our list of things to work on only ever gets longer, not shorter!

So we do have to prioritize what we spend our time and effort on, and sometimes that means that even worthy projects that are very much on our list of things we want to work on eventually can fall by the wayside for a few years.

For things that do tend to fall further down our priority list, like game recaps for example, we still depend to a great extent on the kindness of volunteers. Thus, the progress or lack of such that you see in those areas is directly proportional to how many folks are currently interested and involved there.