Suggestions: Online Leagues

battists · 07-02-2007, 09:12 AM

This suggestion thread is designed to collect suggestions for the next version of OOTP, on the following topic:

Online Leagues

Includes
- Things that would improve the human GM experience in online leagues
- Tools or features that would make it easier for commissioners
- Suggestions related to the administrative side of leagues, such as online league output (league web site), league file size, .CSS files, and so forth. (There will be some overlap with the reports thread I'll create later.)

Excludes
- Discussion about features that are equally relevant to non-online leagues. For example, suggestions about how free agency works in online leagues is OK. Discussion about how the computer teams value free agents would go in another thread I'll post later on.

Instructions
We will use this thread to collect suggestions on the above topic. Later on, we hope to present this information back to the community in a way that would allow you to vote and prioritize certain features.

If you would like to participate, here are the rules!

Only 1 suggestion per post.
Suggestions must be on-topic for the thread.
Constructive, non-inflammatory suggestions only.
No comments on others' suggestions are necessary. That means, we don't need 15 posts in the thread saying "Great idea!" or "I agree!"
Please don't link to other forum threads as your way of making suggestions. ("My suggestion can be found HERE.") 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!
You can certainly post suggestions that conflict with or build upon earlier suggestions.
Mockups are welcomed, they really help Markus see what you're interested in accomplishing.

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? If this is to correct what you perceive as a problem in OOTP 2007, what is that problem? Be as specific as possible.

Priority
In your opinion, how important is this suggestion?
High (MUST have), Medium (should have), Low (nice to have))

Handy Cut-and-Paste Suggestion Form:

Suggestion

Reason

Priority

Thanks for participating!

Steve

battists · 07-02-2007, 09:15 AM

Suggestion
Create an online draft utility, either as part of the game engine or an add-on released with the next version of the game. The utility would allow online leagues to hold a draft with a web page or pages that would update after each pick, so that online GMs would be able immediately see which players had been chosen, and the draft pool would only include players who have not yet been picked.

Include the ability for absentee GMs to send in a ranked list of players. The game would automatically select from the prioritized list for those GMs.

Something like Getch's utility would be a great start!

Reason
Currently, drafting in online leagues must be handled completely outside of the game engine, and it's a bureaucratic challenge to keep an updated list of who has been drafted, etc. Absentee GMs are also an administrative headache for commissioners.

Priority
Medium

RBLwebguy · 07-02-2007, 09:50 AM

Suggestion
Display all players in one box on the trade screen, instead of having to choose between ML, AAA, AA, etc

Reason
Not so much an online thing, but when I was processing on-league trades on the trade screen, you have to choose from the active roster, AAA roster, AA roster etc. It should display all players in the organization in the scroll box on the player trade screen. That would make the commishes job easier as well as the solo GM making trades.

Priority
Medium

battists · 07-02-2007, 10:22 AM

Suggestion
e-mail support for online leagues.

Allow GMs to provide an e-mail address, and allow commissioners to e-mail out updates ("The league file is now available"), or "We haven't gotten your export yet!" etc.

Not suggesting an e-mail engine internal to the game. Rather, you could just click on a link in the game, and it would open up a new message in your default mail client (Outlook, etc.).

Reason
Currently a very manual process for a commissioner. Could be nice for GMs too.

Priority
Medium to Low

battists · 07-02-2007, 10:25 AM

Suggestion
Automated online news submittal engine

Allow GMs to write news articles and game recaps, and submit them to the commissioner. Commissioner would have the ability to review and edit the articles, and then click a "post" or "finalize" button to have to articles added to the league news.

Reason
Currently only commissioners can submit news articles in online leagues. It would be great for GMs to be able to submit their articles in-game.

Priority
Medium

thomamon · 07-02-2007, 11:03 AM

Suggestion
In game trading. One owner can send another owner a trade proposal and can approve or deny the trade without the commissioner getting involved. If both owners propose the same trade on the same sim, the trade gets processed that sim.

Reason
It is the only thing left to fully automate doing a sim and would make the Commish Portal 100% effective with one click of a button. The way it is set up now, if there is a trade you have to stop in the middle of simming to process the trade.

Priority
High (MUST have)

thomamon · 07-02-2007, 11:06 AM

Suggestion
A regular off season FA Schedule. What I mean is knowing which days the players will get back with a response so everyone has a fair chance to counter a FA Offer. Basically have all players respond to trades on Monday of each week.

Reason
Pretty much what I said above

Priority
Medium

eMLBCommish · 07-02-2007, 12:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thomamon

Suggestion
In game trading. One owner can send another owner a trade proposal and can approve or deny the trade without the commissioner getting involved. If both owners propose the same trade on the same sim, the trade gets processed that sim.

Reason
It is the only thing left to fully automate doing a sim and would make the Commish Portal 100% effective with one click of a button. The way it is set up now, if there is a trade you have to stop in the middle of simming to process the trade.

Priority
High (MUST have)

I hope this is on topic. If not, I apologize.

I'm not as high on this as thomamon is. In fact, as a longtime Commish, I'd prefer that if this were added, it be optional. There are some things I think a Commish should be involved on, such as fair trade value.

Nice idea, but I'd suggest it be an optional feature.

thomamon · 07-02-2007, 12:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eMLBCommish

I hope this is on topic. If not, I apologize.

I'm not as high on this as thomamon is. In fact, as a longtime Commish, I'd prefer that if this were added, it be optional. There are some things I think a Commish should be involved on, such as fair trade value.

Nice idea, but I'd suggest it be an optional feature.

In the leagues I'm in, we've never really had a problem with fairness. But I can see your point. A bunch of adults can make fair deals, from what I've seen.

An idea would also be to have a forum where the trade must also be posted for league review.

EDIT: Or an even better idea would be if while simming a pop up box would alert you of a trade for commish approval.

I just find it very annoying having to stop using commish portal to process trades.

battists · 07-02-2007, 01:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eMLBCommish

I hope this is on topic. If not, I apologize.

eMLB, this sort of commentary is fine, as long as the thread doesn't degenerate into a 70-post yea-nay discussion!

enuttage · 07-02-2007, 07:39 PM

Okay then, I'll try again...

Suggestion
Create an online draft utility, either as part of the game engine or an add-on released with the next version of the game. The utility would allow online leagues to hold a draft with a web page or pages that would update after each pick, so that online GMs would be able immediately see which players had been chosen, and the draft pool would only include players who have not yet been picked.

Include the ability for absentee GMs to send in a ranked list of players. The game would automatically select from the prioritized list for those GMs.

Something like Getch's utility would be a great start!

Reason
Currently, drafting in online leagues must be handled completely outside of the game engine, and it's a bureaucratic challenge to keep an updated list of who has been drafted, etc. Absentee GMs are also an administrative headache for commissioners. In addition, this might well help to spawn a whole new group of commissioners with the increased ease-of-use.

Priority
High

battists · 07-02-2007, 07:46 PM

Don't sweat the priority too much, enuttage.

Like I said, later on we'll be looking to put this info back in front of the community to give feedback on priority, etc.

enuttage · 07-02-2007, 07:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by battists

Don't sweat the priority too much, enuttage.

Like I said, later on we'll be looking to put this info back in front of the community to give feedback on priority, etc.

I'm afraid to waste the space to answer in the affirmative, that I understand. As always, we very much appreciate both your hard work and your unbendable good spirit here, Steve.

Tony M · 07-04-2007, 11:33 AM

Suggestion

Instead of supplying a complete league file structure for GMs to download, create a merge file download with only recent changes. This is a utility which I am pondering developing for 2007.

Reason

The entire .dat files get put in the download. GMs will already have things like player history and team history etc from previous years - they don't need to keep receiving it every download. Obviously for new GMs they can have a full database download.

Priority

Medium

Raidergoo · 07-05-2007, 10:28 AM

Suggestion
Broadcast game function

Reason
Because it was there in OOTP 6, and it is so cool.

Priority
High

idle_dreams73 · 07-05-2007, 01:23 PM

Suggestion:

The ability for users to place web links (url's) into team/player/league pages within the game itself so that user created web pages about and for leagues/teams/players can all be integrated into the game itself.

Similarly, the link could be to a file within one's own computer (such as a catobase type file or even a spreadsheet program one might use in assisting themselves within their solo league)

Seems like it would be quite easy to implement and would lend a, for lack of a better way to put it, more holistic feel to the environment of a league...might also inspire more people to endeavor into extended creativity concerning the detail of their fictional baseball universe.

Of course, its pretty easy to just pull up all those files from outside the game...but there'd just be something kinda slick about having those links right there on team and league pages.
Priority: very low, but, if its easy enough to implement, it might be administratively cool.
(btw, hope this suggestion doesn't seem so lame that my other suggestions--once I manage to post them--won't be just passed over..lol)
thanks.

Raidergoo · 07-16-2007, 09:00 PM

Suggestion
Create a easy method for a old GM that used to be in a league but quit for some reason to be reassigned to a team that the commish wants

Reason
Because the existing method is very awkward

Priority
Medium

eMLBCommish · 07-16-2007, 09:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Raidergoo

Suggestion
Create a easy method for a old GM that used to be in a league but quit for some reason to be reassigned to a team that the commish wants

Reason
Because the existing method is very awkward

Priority
Medium

I'll elaborate since I was discussing this idea with the gooey raider:

When in Online League mode, if I am putting a former owner on a new team, if I sign up as that owner, I cannot assign him. Instead I get 'Cannot apply for a new job in an online league when not in Commish mode'.

If I'm myself in Commish mode, if I go to available jobs and select the new team, it'd be for me. In Add/Edit, you cannot re-assign a new team to a Non-Commish owner, unless I'm missing something blatantly obvious.

The workaround: I did turn off Online League mode, then sign in as the returning owner, and apply for the job and give it to him. I then turned Online League mode back on.

Comments: This is a very frustrating situation. I'd list it higher than Medium. From the Commish Portal, I should have the ability to manually assign an Owner with No Team to a new team.

eMLBCommish · 07-16-2007, 09:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Raidergoo

Suggestion
Broadcast game function

Reason
Because it was there in OOTP 6, and it is so cool.

Priority
High

My league is the biggest proponent of this. We played a 'Game of the Week' using this feature. Unless you provide Head to Head capabilities, the Broadcast Game function that updates two web pages during the game being played needs to be brought back. It's worth the two hours we spend playing the game, and is the closest thing OOTP has had resembling H2H play thus far.

robster1225 · 07-18-2007, 05:38 PM

Suggestion
Allow the commissioner to choose which human GM's appear on the GM list when logging into the game.

Reason
This will allow leagues to keep GM records, without having a huge list of inactive GM's who have left the league for whatever reason. Currently if you delete a human GM from the game, his records dissapear as well.

Priority
Low

07-02-2007, 09:12 AM	#1
battists Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 18,506	Suggestions: Online Leagues This suggestion thread is designed to collect suggestions for the next version of OOTP, on the following topic: Online Leagues Includes - Things that would improve the human GM experience in online leagues - Tools or features that would make it easier for commissioners - Suggestions related to the administrative side of leagues, such as online league output (league web site), league file size, .CSS files, and so forth. (There will be some overlap with the reports thread I'll create later.) Excludes - Discussion about features that are equally relevant to non-online leagues. For example, suggestions about how free agency works in online leagues is OK. Discussion about how the computer teams value free agents would go in another thread I'll post later on. Instructions We will use this thread to collect suggestions on the above topic. Later on, we hope to present this information back to the community in a way that would allow you to vote and prioritize certain features. If you would like to participate, here are the rules! Only 1 suggestion per post. Suggestions must be on-topic for the thread. Constructive, non-inflammatory suggestions only. No comments on others' suggestions are necessary. That means, we don't need 15 posts in the thread saying "Great idea!" or "I agree!" Please don't link to other forum threads as your way of making suggestions. ("My suggestion can be found HERE.") 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! You can certainly post suggestions that conflict with or build upon earlier suggestions. Mockups are welcomed, they really help Markus see what you're interested in accomplishing. 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? If this is to correct what you perceive as a problem in OOTP 2007, what is that problem? Be as specific as possible. Priority In your opinion, how important is this suggestion? High (MUST have), Medium (should have), Low (nice to have)) Handy Cut-and-Paste Suggestion Form: Suggestion Reason Priority Thanks for participating! Steve Last edited by battists; 07-02-2007 at 11:31 AM.

07-02-2007, 09:15 AM	#2
battists Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 18,506	Suggestion Create an online draft utility, either as part of the game engine or an add-on released with the next version of the game. The utility would allow online leagues to hold a draft with a web page or pages that would update after each pick, so that online GMs would be able immediately see which players had been chosen, and the draft pool would only include players who have not yet been picked. Include the ability for absentee GMs to send in a ranked list of players. The game would automatically select from the prioritized list for those GMs. Something like Getch's utility would be a great start! Reason Currently, drafting in online leagues must be handled completely outside of the game engine, and it's a bureaucratic challenge to keep an updated list of who has been drafted, etc. Absentee GMs are also an administrative headache for commissioners. Priority Medium Last edited by battists; 07-02-2007 at 09:17 AM.

07-02-2007, 09:50 AM	#3
RBLwebguy Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Canuckistan Posts: 5,162	Suggestion Display all players in one box on the trade screen, instead of having to choose between ML, AAA, AA, etc Reason Not so much an online thing, but when I was processing on-league trades on the trade screen, you have to choose from the active roster, AAA roster, AA roster etc. It should display all players in the organization in the scroll box on the player trade screen. That would make the commishes job easier as well as the solo GM making trades. Priority Medium Last edited by RBLwebguy; 07-02-2007 at 10:16 AM.

07-02-2007, 11:03 AM	#6
thomamon Global Moderator Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: NJ Posts: 5,274	Suggestion In game trading. One owner can send another owner a trade proposal and can approve or deny the trade without the commissioner getting involved. If both owners propose the same trade on the same sim, the trade gets processed that sim. Reason It is the only thing left to fully automate doing a sim and would make the Commish Portal 100% effective with one click of a button. The way it is set up now, if there is a trade you have to stop in the middle of simming to process the trade. Priority High (MUST have) __________________ Thomas A. Montalto Please check out my Stupid Little Blog - http://www.stupidlittleblog.com

07-02-2007, 11:06 AM	#7
thomamon Global Moderator Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: NJ Posts: 5,274	Suggestion A regular off season FA Schedule. What I mean is knowing which days the players will get back with a response so everyone has a fair chance to counter a FA Offer. Basically have all players respond to trades on Monday of each week. Reason Pretty much what I said above Priority Medium __________________ Thomas A. Montalto Please check out my Stupid Little Blog - http://www.stupidlittleblog.com Last edited by battists; 07-02-2007 at 11:30 AM.

07-02-2007, 10:22 AM	#4
battists Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 18,506	Suggestion e-mail support for online leagues. Allow GMs to provide an e-mail address, and allow commissioners to e-mail out updates ("The league file is now available"), or "We haven't gotten your export yet!" etc. Not suggesting an e-mail engine internal to the game. Rather, you could just click on a link in the game, and it would open up a new message in your default mail client (Outlook, etc.). Reason Currently a very manual process for a commissioner. Could be nice for GMs too. Priority Medium to Low <!-- / message --><!-- edit note -->

07-02-2007, 10:25 AM	#5
battists Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 18,506	Suggestion Automated online news submittal engine Allow GMs to write news articles and game recaps, and submit them to the commissioner. Commissioner would have the ability to review and edit the articles, and then click a "post" or "finalize" button to have to articles added to the league news. Reason Currently only commissioners can submit news articles in online leagues. It would be great for GMs to be able to submit their articles in-game. Priority Medium

07-02-2007, 07:39 PM	#11
enuttage Hall Of Famer Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Hill Country Posts: 2,431	Okay then, I'll try again... Suggestion Create an online draft utility, either as part of the game engine or an add-on released with the next version of the game. The utility would allow online leagues to hold a draft with a web page or pages that would update after each pick, so that online GMs would be able immediately see which players had been chosen, and the draft pool would only include players who have not yet been picked. Include the ability for absentee GMs to send in a ranked list of players. The game would automatically select from the prioritized list for those GMs. Something like Getch's utility would be a great start! Reason Currently, drafting in online leagues must be handled completely outside of the game engine, and it's a bureaucratic challenge to keep an updated list of who has been drafted, etc. Absentee GMs are also an administrative headache for commissioners. In addition, this might well help to spawn a whole new group of commissioners with the increased ease-of-use. Priority High __________________ The former GM of the WHBL Managua Four Roses *"The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them."*

07-02-2007, 07:46 PM	#12
battists Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 18,506	Don't sweat the priority too much, enuttage. Like I said, later on we'll be looking to put this info back in front of the community to give feedback on priority, etc.

07-04-2007, 11:33 AM	#14
Tony M Global Moderator Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Here Posts: 6,156	Suggestion Instead of supplying a complete league file structure for GMs to download, create a merge file download with only recent changes. This is a utility which I am pondering developing for 2007. Reason The entire .dat files get put in the download. GMs will already have things like player history and team history etc from previous years - they don't need to keep receiving it every download. Obviously for new GMs they can have a full database download. Priority Medium

07-05-2007, 10:28 AM	#15
Raidergoo Hall Of Famer Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 9,005	Suggestion Broadcast game function Reason Because it was there in OOTP 6, and it is so cool. Priority High

07-05-2007, 01:23 PM	#16
idle_dreams73 Minors (Rookie Ball) Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 27	Suggestion: The ability for users to place web links (url's) into team/player/league pages within the game itself so that user created web pages about and for leagues/teams/players can all be integrated into the game itself. Similarly, the link could be to a file within one's own computer (such as a catobase type file or even a spreadsheet program one might use in assisting themselves within their solo league) Seems like it would be quite easy to implement and would lend a, for lack of a better way to put it, more holistic feel to the environment of a league...might also inspire more people to endeavor into extended creativity concerning the detail of their fictional baseball universe. Of course, its pretty easy to just pull up all those files from outside the game...but there'd just be something kinda slick about having those links right there on team and league pages. Priority: very low, but, if its easy enough to implement, it might be administratively cool. (btw, hope this suggestion doesn't seem so lame that my other suggestions--once I manage to post them--won't be just passed over..lol) thanks.

07-16-2007, 09:00 PM	#17
Raidergoo Hall Of Famer Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 9,005	Suggestion Create a easy method for a old GM that used to be in a league but quit for some reason to be reassigned to a team that the commish wants Reason Because the existing method is very awkward Priority Medium

07-18-2007, 05:38 PM	#20
robster1225 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 2,617	Suggestion Allow the commissioner to choose which human GM's appear on the GM list when logging into the game. Reason This will allow leagues to keep GM records, without having a huge list of inactive GM's who have left the league for whatever reason. Currently if you delete a human GM from the game, his records dissapear as well. Priority Low