The OOTP 16 Feedback Thread

[Markus Heinsohn]

Originally Posted by Matt Arnold

Markus did the in-game - he can clarify in a bit.

But looking, if you switch to broadcast view, the dropdown lists all 3, but in 3D it only lists the 2 views. So that's a bug that we can fix

Yup, that is fixed in Monday's patch

[Ruthian23]

Originally Posted by Matt Arnold

Playing as GM-only, you can still use the "force start" to force him to play at a certain position. Between that and promoting or demoting certain players, you should be able to do almost everything you want.

Whoa, wait, where is the force start option?

See, this is my biggest problem with OOTP. You guys put in so many features each year that sometimes I don't find half of them until 3 or 4 versions later.

[Markus Heinsohn]

Originally Posted by Ruthian23

Whoa, wait, where is the force start option?

See, this is my biggest problem with OOTP. You guys put in so many features each year that sometimes I don't find half of them until 3 or 4 versions later.

Player strategy screen (team strategy section).

[Matt Arnold]

Originally Posted by Ruthian23

Whoa, wait, where is the force start option?

See, this is my biggest problem with OOTP. You guys put in so many features each year that sometimes I don't find half of them until 3 or 4 versions later.

The player strategy page, you can force a player to start or force a pitcher to a specific role, and the AI will play them at that position.

[Ruthian23]

Originally Posted by Markus Heinsohn

Player strategy screen (team strategy section).

Originally Posted by Matt Arnold

The player strategy page, you can force a player to start or force a pitcher to a specific role, and the AI will play them at that position.

Well damn. How long has that been around? Thanks, guys.

Edit: Also, does that work on the major league level, too, even if you have a manager that isn't flexible?

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by CobaltJays

If a GM can potentially dictate major league roles, the GM should also have the ability to do so at the minor league level. I really think this needs to be addressed in an update.

Originally Posted by Matt Arnold

Playing as GM-only, you can still use the "force start" to force him to play at a certain position. Between that and promoting or demoting certain players, you should be able to do almost everything you want.

I am of two minds about this.

• First, yes, if CobaltJays wants to have this one remaining option as GM to manage personally (all the others are available in GM mode, I see), then perhaps he should have it.
• However, with these two options shown below, as Matt suggested, I have no problem with the way it stands now. Personally speaking of course. I just don't see any other situations than these two in which a GM of an organization is going to be telling his minor league managers what lineups and rotations to use on a day-to-day basis.

[Déjà Bru]

As I have said in the past, the seemingly little things (little even in the estimation of the developer himself) can have an outsized effect on the enjoyment and immersion that this game provides.

A few weeks ago, when it was announced, I enthused over those nifty new award icons. Then, almost as a throw-in, is provided the capability of having multiple shortlists.

Do you guys have any idea how many situations that this enhancement resolves? Do you have any idea how many longed-for possibilities that this opens up?

Of course you do.

[CobaltJays]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

I am of two minds about this.
I just don't see any other situations than these two in which a GM of an organization is going to be telling his minor league managers what lineups and rotations to use on a day-to-day basis.

The problem is that a major league manager isn't going to have the ability to set the lineups and pitching staffs of the minor league affiliates, either. Yet in OOTP16, if I took on the role of major league manager as well, suddenly I would get that level of control. If the GM doesn't have control of minor league lineups and pitching staffs, no one should. That said, I don't think OOTP users (especially long-time ones) would be very happy if they lost the ability to set minor league lineups and pitching staffs altogether.

The decision to take minor league lineups and pitching staff roles out of the hands of GMs in OOTP16 just seems arbitrary to me, and I don't understand why it was done. Let the user decide.

As I have said in the past, the seemingly little things (little even in the estimation of the developer himself) can have an outsized effect on the enjoyment and immersion that this game provides.

Unfortunately a seemingly little issue of a greyed-out box is going to have a significant negative effect on my enjoyment of the game unless it's addressed.

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by CobaltJays

The problem is that a major league manager isn't going to have the ability to set the lineups and pitching staffs of the minor league affiliates, either. Yet in OOTP16, if I took on the role of major league manager as well, suddenly I would get that level of control. If the GM doesn't have control of minor league lineups and pitching staffs, no one should. That said, I don't think OOTP users (especially long-time ones) would be very happy if they lost the ability to set minor league lineups and pitching staffs altogether.

The decision to take minor league lineups and pitching staff roles out of the hands of GMs in OOTP16 just seems arbitrary to me, and I don't understand why it was done. Let the user decide.


Unfortunately a seemingly little issue of a greyed-out box is going to have a significant negative effect on my enjoyment of the game unless it's addressed.

I hear you, CJ, and I cannot argue against what you are saying. I hope the option gets restored for your sake, although there could be programming reasons for greying it out, not just aesthetics or an oversight.

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

Actually, I prefer this. The old coaching system was too tedious and routine.

I did not know or care who the coaches were except that they had green and blue ratings.

The players are one thing; they are there to produce satisfying statistics and results. For that reason, I paid attention to them, of course. The coaches were another thing; they were there just to shade those statistics and results a bit.

Now, with styles and personalities, coaches may matter more to me.

One thing for sure is that I am turning coaching back on in my game for the first time in several versions of OOTPB.

Quoting myself . . . because I can!

What a great handling of this topic in one respect: As GM, I certainly want to retain the capability of hiring/firing team personnel, particularly the manager. But although I have done what I bolded above, I certainly appreciate the assistant GM handling the hiring/firing of minor league personnel.

I may not get to know those guys down there as well as I should, being lazy and allowing the AGM to do my job, but I appreciate having the option of being lazy if I want to.

Well done, here. Another one of those minor enhancements that can really affect game enjoyment: Assistant General Manager. (AKA, flunky doing the jobs I don't want to do. )

[Gai1997]

My only suggestion: Add All-Star Game MVP's to the icons in on player pages. It has all-star game selections but no MVP's. I'd like to see that too. (You know where it shows the amount of accomplishments with circles)

[JD396]

Originally Posted by Markus Heinsohn

Do you have position player fatigue disabled maybe? I just ran a test here, and things work as expected here, players get the occasional start when the starter at the position is tired.

Player fatigue is set to average... it seems at least in this particular game I've been running, there's enough off-days that the everybody but the catcher isn't getting fatigued enough in the first month and a half of the season to merit any rest.

However, I'm noticing the heart of my specific issue is that the bench is all set to "If starter tired" by the AI manager and there's nothing I can do about it without basically firing him, which leads to...

Originally Posted by CobaltJays

It would be easier to simply have the same level of control I had before. The "force start" option is good for occasional use, but it's a multi-click process and it's easy to forget that you've assigned a player a certain strategy.
...
I realize that I can make myself GM and Manager, but I'm not really a full manager when I play OOTP.

What I've often done 15 and before is generally let the managers manage the teams, but tweaking the depth charts and pitching staffs to make sure the managers are using the players the way I want them to -- i.e. set up L/R platoons, make sure that the backup catcher starts once or twice a week, etc. It's also good to be able to tweak it so that when you have lots of position players with similar ratings, you can get them all regular rotating playing time, have a guy start three or four days in the field and DH, etc. These are things that AI just isn't adept enough to come up with on its own. "Force start" is kind of overkill and it's best suited for when one wants a player with crummy ratings to play full-time and a guy with better ratings to stay on the bench full-time.

As of right now, I'm not sure how to make this work. It seems to recreate, I actually have to officially appoint myself the manager -- the MLB manager isn't even listed as being employed on the personnel screen. I don't want to fire the guy, I just want to tweak the rosters myself! The AI personality settings all seem to be related to in-game strategy which I'm leaving 100% up to the AI manager (BTW, I really like the in-game strategy overhaul). I'm still simming through the games and still leaving most of what the AI managers come up with in place. It just seems like there's a bit of a gap, either you take 100% control or you have to fight with the AI by "Force start"ing to keep them from playing guys out of position, etc.

[Matt Arnold]

If you want that much fine-grain control, i would recommend simply playing as GM+Manager. The GM-only mode is more intended if you want to take the true "hands-off" experience into play.

We will certainly think if there are things we can adjust to allow more options, but to me it seems weird if you can set your minor league lineups but not your major league lineups.

[JD396]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

Quoting myself . . . because I can!

What a great handling of this topic in one respect: As GM, I certainly want to retain the capability of hiring/firing team personnel, particularly the manager. But although I have done what I bolded above, I certainly appreciate the assistant GM handling the hiring/firing of minor league personnel.

I may not get to know those guys down there as well as I should, being lazy and allowing the AGM to do my job, but I appreciate having the option of being lazy if I want to.

Well done, here. Another one of those minor enhancements that can really affect game enjoyment: Assistant General Manager. (AKA, flunky doing the jobs I don't want to do. )

I really like that -- I've been locking AI promotion/demotion on my top prospects and other minor leaguers I care about, but let the AGM handle the rest of the promotions and demotions, so I don't have to go through and spend a half an hour scrambling up my entire minor league system because my AA bench outfielder got hurt.

I also like that it automatically moves the existing GM into the AGM role. (In the game I've been playing since last night I swapped the AGM and the scout so his skills would be put to better use). Previously, if you started up with the current MLB rosters, and selected a job before actually firing up the game, the existing GM would be hidden behind you on the Personnel screen.

[CobaltJays]

Originally Posted by Matt Arnold

We will certainly think if there are things we can adjust to allow more options, but to me it seems weird if you can set your minor league lineups but not your major league lineups.

I have the ability to set my major league lineup if my major league manager permits it. I have no such ability at the minor league level, despite the fact that minor league managers should have much less influence. If I can make those decisions at the major league level as GM, I should have that ability at the minor league level. I've always had the ability to set minor league lineups in OOTP even if I'm playing as a GM primarily.

The current setup has left me with a choice between two features: have a major league manager with a personality of his own, or have the ability to set minor league lineups and pitching staffs. If I have to choose, I will always pick the latter. I just don't understand why I can't have both. OOTP has always been about giving users flexibility, but the restriction on minor league lineups and pitching staffs is needlessly inflexible IMHO. Playing as GM only, I can give my team a budget equivalent to the GDP of Luxembourg, but I can't select the leadoff hitter for my AA team.

I hate to be such a nuisance on this issue, and I think you've done a great job revamping the coaching system, but this is really something that needs to be fixed. There's no reason to prevent users from setting minor league lineups and pitching staffs while acting as GM only.

[AlpineSK]

Originally Posted by JD396

As of right now, I'm not sure how to make this work.

What about developing some kind of conversation ability? You say to your manager, "Hey, I need you to play Ryan Howard more" or "Howard has to start" and set a "goal" for your manager as a result.. (kind of like the Promises feature in FM) Your manager's response could be determined by their personality. Think of it like the Scott Hatteberg scenes from Moneyball...

The same could be done from the Manager to GM side.. "I need you to acquire a new shortstop for me based on his performance"

[JD396]

Originally Posted by Matt Arnold

If you want that much fine-grain control, i would recommend simply playing as GM+Manager. The GM-only mode is more intended if you want to take the true "hands-off" experience into play.

We will certainly think if there are things we can adjust to allow more options, but to me it seems weird if you can set your minor league lineups but not your major league lineups.

Okay, I kind of solved my own issue I was going on about above... I just hadn't played with this new feature quite enough! In GM-only mode you can just set control of major league lineups and pitching staffs to yourself as the GM, without affecting the rest of what the manager does -- it just defaults to giving that responsibility the manager.

As for the minor leagues, the option to manage the lineups is completely greyed out rather than just defaulting to the minor league managers. So, the only way to take this over is to be the GM+Manager, which wipes out your MLB manager (and the newly-overhauled in-game strategy personalities!). It'd be nice to have the option available, that is to say, have it mirror what you can do at the major league level.

[AlpineSK]

Also I think a lot of the GM/Manager debate becomes a realism vs. enjoyment debate. Some might find the realism very enjoyable. I am one of those people. Playing as a GM only is A LOT more fun than I expected. Taking on the GM/Manager role, however, is not that realistic to me. When was the last time that happened in the majors? The work load (it would seem) is just WAY too much. In the game though the balance is very easy to achieve.

That said, I always liked just having a manager "there" for the storyline side of things.. hiring on the staff etc.. while totally immersing myself in every decision made for my franchise. That developed over the years to what the coaching system became up to OOTP15 and what it has turned into today.

I guess what my point is, I feel like the options for the role you take should be:

GM Only
Manager Only
GM/Manager
Traditional OOTP - for those who want that experience that they have had year after year but against a more difficult AI.

That said, AMAZING job, folks.. Just when I thought the game could not get any better...

[AlpineSK]

Originally Posted by JD396

Okay, I kind of solved my own issue I was going on about above... I just hadn't played with this new feature quite enough! In GM-only mode you can just set control of major league lineups and pitching staffs to yourself as the GM, without affecting the rest of what the manager does -- it just defaults to giving that responsibility the manager.

That might not be true with EVERY manager.. or at least it does not seem to be.

[CobaltJays]

I think this illustrates the issue. Playing as General Manager only, I can have control over every aspect of my team, except one: