Suggestion Collection Thread: Grab-Bag

[battists]

I'm going to be posting a number of Suggestion Collection threads like this one, each one designed to collect a number of ideas for one specific area of the game. I'm going to compile these suggestions into some kind of helpful format, and see if this helps Marc and Markus. If necessary, I'll create polls later on to gauge the relative interest in different features.

However, if you want to join my thread, you need to follow my rules, and here they are:

1. Only 1 suggestion per post.
2. Suggestions must be on-topic for the thread.
3. Constructive, non-inflammatory suggestions only. I'm flat-out deleting posts that are angry in nature. If you want to do that, start your own thread.
4. No comments on others' suggestions necessary. That means, no posts saying "Great idea!"
5. No linking me to other forum threads. If it's important enough to you that you want it in this thread, then it should be important enough to put it in the format I've asked for here.
6. You can certainly post suggestions that conflict with or build upon earlier suggestions. You can also add screenshots of mockups and such if they help.

Format for Suggestions:
Suggestion: What is your suggestion? Be as specific as possible; include the screen you're talking about, if applicable.
Reason: Why do you think this is important?
Priority: High (MUST have), Medium (should have), Low (nice to have)

Thanks for participating!

Steve

[battists]

Today's Topic: Grab-Bag

What's In?
- Suggestions for new features that don't seem to fit in any of the other categories
- Suggestions for changes to existing features that don't seem to fit in any of the other categories

What's Out?
- Uh, stuff that fits in the other categories!

[tysok]

Suggestion: New stat, hall of fame monitor (what's used on baeball reference)
I'd like to see the black ink, grey ink, and HOF standards test too... but the monitor is my favorite. (Although I ignore the championship points (WS, LC, and DC) when I calculate)

Reason: Interesting stat the shows how your player stacks up against real life, and the game league. I had a guy finish his career with 2400 hits, 440 HRs etc... he didn't hit any of the criteria for getting in the hall automatically but I knew he was one of the best hitters to play in the league. His HOF monitor stat came up at 170... a likely HOFer scores over 100.
Just another stat that can show his progression toward the hall as one of the best to ever play... kinda like VORP but I like it better.

Priority: STAT! ... err... probably low.

[tysok]

Suggestion: Stats, more pitching breakdowns, specifically by inning.

Reason: Right now you can tell how well a batter hit in innings 1-3, 4-6 etc... but not any formulated stats for pitchers by those innings (you can get their basics by looking at the opponents batting stats, but not ERA or WHIP etc). A batter doesn't have any real basis for caring about this stat, but a pitcher that may be dealing with fatigue issues this makes a difference.

Priority: high, it's a bad ommission of useful information in a game with unbelievable levels of statistical detail.

[Raidergoo]

Suggestion: Allow a user option to block all fictional players from ever being involved in a major league transaction, which will effectively prevent them from ever being called up and used in the major leagues. This option would cover AI and user-controller teams.

Reason: This is perhaps the best alternative to bringing back ghost players. This way, the user can have a full minor league system and can have the 40-man roster, rule 5 draft, and waiver rules, without having fictional players making it into the historical major leagues.

Priority: High

[Cras]

I saw this on the general forum and I feel it needs to be posted over here somewhere.

Suggestion: Rivalries
The media should hype rivalry series, the rivalries should be formed based on previous season outcomes (do they always seem to battle for the division or the flag, do they tend to split series all the time, close geographically)
, rivalries should influence player movement, rivalries should influence on-field performance (ie CLUTCH rating), rivalires should influence attendence.

Reason: Real life has them

Priority: Medium

The earlier games didn't have them so they are not totally neccessary, but they can be a very great feature if implemented right.

[Burto1945]

Suggestion: Include pitchers record against individual hitters

Reason: Right now, you can see a particular hitter's history against each pitcher the have faced. But, you can't view a pitcher's card and see how they fared against each hitter. Important for a one stop look at your own pitchers and upcoming hitters. (Unless I missed this feature in the game)

Priority: Medium, doesn't need to be there, but since the information is already collected, it should be easy to implement.

[Burto1945]

Suggestion: Change the criteria for inclusion in the pitcher/batter history record for times where a hitter has only walked against the pitcher (0 ABS)

Reason: In the Game Guide, it says that a hitter must have 1 AB against a pitcher to be included in the individual pitcher/hitter history on the player's card. This should be changed to 1 plate appearance, just so all hitter/pitcher matchups are accounted for.

Priority: High, I guess for completeness. I haven't looked at this, it might already be included, and the Game Guide has the info wrong.

[KGAGE]

Suggestion: Create umpire profiles. Would include their strike zones, temperment, accuracy. If you get a player with a short fuse arguing with an umpire who has the quick hook, the likleyhood of the player getting tossed should be higher. Umpire ratings (based on accummulated argue calls over the season) could determine who umps in the playoffs. Pitchers who rely on a high strike zone should have better games when being umped by a high strike zone ump.
Reason: Realism. More variety to the game
Priority: Low

[KGAGE]

Suggestion: Add player of the game as a stat and not just window dressing. I would like to see who has had the most player of the games for a season/career. 6.5 did total up POG's for a player but I would like to see who gets the most for the entire league. I would imagine this could have an affect on who gets the MVP for the year as well.
Reason: It's already part of the game. Make it something that can be totalled.
Priority: Low

[Qrusher14242]

Suggestion: Ability to save boxscores and gamelogs for the All-star game and Playoffs only. I dont want to save all the boxscores, but want to save it for just those games.

Reason: So we dont have to turn boxscores on just for those days.

Priority: Low

[Pirate Fan]

I like to quick play the first 5 innings of most games for my team and then manage the rest of the game.

Suggestion: Provide players the option of interupting the quick play of individual games when the AI believes a pitching change or pinch hitter is approriate.

Reason: The AI sometimes makes what are in my opinion poor decisions in this area. I would like greater control of my team without having to play out every inning of every game.

Priority: Medium

[Twelvefield]

SUGGESTION: Rivalries Pt. II

REASON: As Cras suggested, I'd like to see media build up rivalries. I think, though, that geography should aslo be a factor in deciding how rivalries work. I will post again below this as another geography-related feature. Specifially, I don't think fans will be interested in team rivalries that a) are too far way from them and b) require too many changes of time-zone to follow, i.e. Victoria BC versus Godthaab Greenland.

PRIORITY: Medium

[Twelvefield]

SUGGESTION: In setting up a league, OOTPB should prevent, or at least warn the Commisioner that the teams' cities are physically too far apart. That, and OOTPB should take into account time zones when generating schedules.

REASONING: Who's up for a game between Edmonton, Alberta, and Mumbai, India? Or, another example, players who come from New York should feel fatigued when they play a night game in California. I'd like to see OOTPB handle that kind of situation, especially when the league has a significant East-West spread.

PRIORITY: Low

[MadMax58]

Building on the HoF suggestions, and general retirement logic.

Suggestion: Make a user definable coefficient for "Do not retire players who are X% from certain lifetime achievements". This would only apply ONCE to a player which the AI would "normally" retire. After that one time "catch", the player simply may not be capable of achieving the stat, so you wouldnt want to keep forcing a player to play for 20 years who is stuck at 299 wins, if he isnt even ML caliber to get it any more. It could be setup similar to the HoF criteria, but for all players across the board. Example:
300 HR- 5%
400 HR-10%
500 HR-15%
3000 H-5%
300 W-5%
etc.
Reason: This would allow players to influence when players who are "too close" to a milestone, to get an automatic 1 time unretire.
Priority:High...why not, I am to post this idea.

[Comedian2004]

Suggestion: A true SQL application. Meaning that the data is actually stored on a SQL database. So, another application could access the data and be able to change it.
Reason: It would open the doors for many things.
Priority: High (MUST have)

For instance, software could be easily written to integrate with OOTP, like a draft utility, or while you are simming the game, e-mail could be generated in the background and sent when news happens.

The application could then interact with a website, if the website was designed correctly. In fact, the FTP d/l u/l for team owners could easily be eliminated.

Picture this: The local database of the league is synched with one on a webserver. So, as a team owner, I could go in at anytime and see the games being simmed. I could see the results of the games right after it happened. I could even make replacements for injured players during the sim.

[zuty]

Suggestion: HALL OF FAME ballot process.
Reason: Adds to realism; allows for exceptions to the "automatic induction" criteria; is fun for those playing "God mode" in a league over many years.
Priority: Medium. Would be a nice touch, but isn't really necessary.

Let me elaborate a bit. First of all, I dislike the automatic HOF induction. In real life, players have to be retired for five years before they qualify. This is, in part, to keep HOF players from un-retiring. I'm sure there's other logic involved.

So, how best to get out of the automatic thing? Well, I propose an alternative to the current method. Currently, we have criteria (hits, wins, homers, etc.) that make a player an automatic inductee. My alternative plan would be two-fold:

Fold #1: Have criteria that get a player to the ballot. Examples: 2000 hits, 150 wins, 350 homers, 1500 games played, 8+ all-star selections, 1+ MVP, 1+ Cy Young, etc.
Fold #2: Player must have played his last game five years ago.

Like in real life, at some point during the calendar year, MLB would evaluate those players out of action for five or more years. Using my proposed criteria from Fold #1, a ballot would be put together. We could get an in-game email that says, "The following players have made the HOF ballot." We can see a list of those players, and see their stats, their years played, their profiles, etc.

Now, if I'm playing in "God Mode," I can just choose who goes into the HALL from that last. As a true observer, I can take more into account than numbers alone. Maybe there's good reason to induct a guy who hit .268 with 220 homers and 2,240 career hits, but OOTP's standard criteria for auto-induction would overlook him.

And if I'm not in "God Mode," perhaps I can just place my votes, and the game will also calculate a set of votes (let's imagine a fleet of randomly generated "sports writers") and people go in or not.

And the best part, for the realists among us, is that it happens FIVE YEARS after the player(s) retire.

[cephasjames]

SUGGESTION: The ability to toggle awards on/off

REASONING: Not everybody wants all of the awards available all of the time (ex: Rookie of the year the year a league exists)

PRIORITY: high

[towerofpower]

Suggestion: Have a pre-made universe created in the game that anyone can jump right into. The universe would have specific teams and players, history and records already in place.

Reason: A couple of reasons come to mind, first it would be great for the newer players to have a fully realized world that they can jump right into and take control of a team. Being able to see the history of the team they are controlling (i.e. the number of world titles, current roster, etc) would only serve to immerse the player all the more instead of it feeling like a completely random world (as happens now). It would be great to see the community here share stories about how they were able to take team X to the playoffs in y years. Also this could serve as a built-in difficulty system as it would considered "easy" to start with a pre-defined strong team, and "hard" to start with a pre-defined weaker team (or better yet have a team that was just created in an expansion year for the fictional league for the ultimate challenge)

Secondly, as a long-time fan of the wrestling simulators created by Adam Ryland, I have come to love his created Cornellverse that ships with his games now. In some ways, this fictional universe he's created has become more popular than the real-life mods created to simulate the current wrestling scene. Since having the MLB license for this game is not feasable (I won't get into the pros and cons of that), I'd really like to see Markus and the team create their own world and create characters to live in that world.

Priority: Medium

[Pirate Fan]

As far as I can tell the only way to keep a player who is out of options off of the active playoff roster at this time is to waive him. There is no rule like this IRL.

Suggestion: Change playoff roster rules to confirm to actual rules. Players should be able to be kept off of the active playoff roster without demoting them to the minors and thus in some cases, subjecting them to the waiver proscess. Changes to playoff rosters should also not be permitted in the middle of a series.

Reason: I would like to see the game as realistic as possible.

Priority: mediium