Your thoughts so far?

[__JR__]

I'm very impressed so far. I've only played out a small number of games, so I have no input for statistics and the ilk, but some things I noticed while playing out games include:

- Sound is AWESOME, except when one of the crowd noise files plays because it is wayyyy to loud. Also, would adding a sound to play after a strikeout be possible? It seems to me theres an awkward silence which would be just perfectly filled by a STEEEE RIKE!!!!!!!!!! on a looking strike three and something a little more subdued for a swinging strike three. Really anything would be nice just to signal it was a strike out as opposed to a walk (which could also use a sound) /hit.

- Animation is a great feature I was skeptical about, but it really does add to the game. However, I've noticed that when the catcher has a throwing error on a stolen base attempt the game plays the crack of the bat sound and the ball sails to wherever the errant throw went. Not a big issue, but the first couple times it happened I was a little confused.

- Very aggressive PR. I'm playing a semi-historical league in the 1870's, and I see that substitutions are supposed to be very low. However, I've seen the AI use 21 players in a 12 inning game, sometimes subbing a slower/less talented baserunner for a faster one after he had already gotten on base.

- The same applies to relief pitching in that same era. One of the highest rated pitchers in the league with 16 endurance (scale 20) was yanked in 3 consecutive starts after only 3 innings, in which he gave up a total of 0 earned runs, 1 or 2 total runs, and was striking out more than one batter per inning. I finally went in as commisioner and set his personal strategy to practically never get pulled and this fixed the problem, but the logic governing the AI's decision has me worried.

- I love some of the screen changes you've put in. The streak watch page is fantastic, Hot/cold looks very cool although I've yet to see it in its full glory. The league leaders option on the Standings page is a little cramped, so i just turned it off.

-The default skin is pretty poorly implemented. The light colors make it hard to see blue ratings, and as stated earlier the green ratings in this skin are difficult to read while playing out games. I switched mine back to Blue (haven't checked the classic yet), and everything looks good.

- I haven't watched a replay yet, but I'm waiting for a nice gem of a game to experience that. One of my players hit for the cycle already, but it took him extra innings so I think I'll hold off a while

-1870's leagues are extremely entertaining, if for no other reason that some of the box scores are absolutely ridiculous by today's standards.

EG St. Louis had 6 runs, 6 hits, and 12 errors while Philadelphia had 3 runs, 4 hits and 7 errors in a 9 inning game.

Thats an extreme example, most of the games have had more hits than errors, averaging approximately 5-6 per team per game (very rough estimation). I believe one of the catchers had 4 throwing errors on stolen bases in that game (arm rating of 5 out of 20 )


-Suspensions seem like they'll add some realism to the game. There were two players suspended coming out of spring training which I found odd, however. I'm interested to see how the drug suspension works. I'm assuming its basically a steroid suspension? Does this mean that players how do exceptionally well will be "under the microscope" so to speak? Or is it just a totally random occurance?


There were probably a few other things I noticed but did not stick out in my mind, I'm just excited to have another great product! THANKS MARKUS!!

[AirmenSmith]

So far I love it but I haven't looked to much into the new things yet. I have not even played one day yet. I have been fixing the salaries on the built in rosters. I love the new skin and like how it seems to be easier with less buttons on the screen.

[LCS213]

I spent all last night converting my league and going thru free agency/spring training. As soon as I get home from work, it's on.

One carryover gripe from last season, Markus. Can you add a button along the bottom that takes you to League Standings?

[rasnell]

You will get a strike call at random. I've reported the sound issue. I think all of the sound files are too loud for the first level of setting on sound.

Actually glad to hear that you're seeing aggressive pinch runners. That took a long time for Markus to figure out and fix in testing.

I'm also noticing a pitcher fatigue, exhaustion and low pitch count problem playing in 2008. I didn't know if it was the 2008 roster problem or whether this was showing up in other leagues. We'll have to keep an eye on what you're reporting. This was never an issue before, but something may have gotten tweaked by the release version and I share your concerns. We need to hear from more people to see what years and rosters this pitcher exhaustion and quick-hook problem is occurring.

I have changed skins because I can't see the green either.

Drug suspensions have some other neat components to it. If someone is suspended more than once, it begins to affect their popularity.

Thanks for all of your comments.

[rasnell]

Originally Posted by LCS213

One carryover gripe from last season, Markus. Can you add a button along the bottom that takes you to League Standings?

There's an even simpler way to do this. Go to the League Standings view. Then look at your menu bar at the top for Bookmarks. Add bookmark for that page. Notice that it just created a function key shortcut for you and now all you have to do is hit that key from anywhere in the game and you'll jump to the League Standings.

[professor ape]

I think that...

...I am very upset that I can't, in good conscience, call out of work today.

...I'll be lucky to see my first pitch before the 4th of July with all of the league setup modifications that I have to do.

...Markus has earned a break.

...we can wait an extra week for the first patch in order to accomodate the previous point.

...my computer had better be ready for a workout.

Great Job Markus!!!!!

[__JR__]

I haven't noticed any other really loud sounds, but thats because I set my speakers just loud enough so the max volume is normal. Interestingly, I can still faintly hear the crack of the bat so I'm not missing out on too much. I tried using just the animation and that wasn't quite doing it for me, so for me at least its either animation + sound or neither. I just had another game where one team used 22 players in 9 innings where they came back in the top of the 9th to pull ahead. 0 pinch runners, 5 pinch hitters, 2 relievers, and 6 defensive subs. The other team used 12 players: 2 pinch hitters and 1 defensive sub.


Oh, and I suppose I should thank everyone else involved with the game too! Thanks everybody!

Extra edit: The crowd noise after a no hitter is WAY too loud. As noted earlier, my speakers were turned way down low, and after a no hitter the noise was almost too loud to want to listen to. For comparison, I can faintly hear the crack of the bat when the ball is hit.

[Irish Fan]

I really think you have out done yourself, markus !!


I have only played a little but it is amazing !

Thank you, sir !

[Matt Uk]

Haven't delved too deeply yet but loving it so far. Converted my league I started a while back in ootp8. I was going to wait until the play offs ended as that was where I was up to but thought what the hell and imported it anyway. Well, I won the play offs (Pioneer League) and about three days later got an email telling me I'd been promoted

One thing that I have noticed and this may be due to the time of season I imported or whether its due to the new scouting system I'm not sure. What has happened is that I have no scout rating of my own players, just an OSA one. On the drop down just OSA is listed. I did also have a problem with this league on ootp8 in that when I re run SISA all of the SISA ratings became blank, so this may well be what's caused the problem rather than the import into ootp9.

Going to start up a league with the ABA this afternoon

[thevat]

I only played the demo for the past few versions, but what a difference I think this game is from what I experienced in those games. I like the menu setups, the rosters screens, and I can't believe how much sound and a ball pointer adds to the gameplay, but it really does.

Anyway, I barely scratched the surface on the game because my 5 month old son woke up and I knew I had to get to bed or I wasn't going to get any sleep!! I hope to get a few different leagues going over the next few weeks, but expect that I'll be very happy with the update.

Thanks!!

[jarmenia]

Originally Posted by Matt Uk

Haven't delved too deeply yet but loving it so far. Converted my league I started a while back in ootp8. I was going to wait until the play offs ended as that was where I was up to but thought what the hell and imported it anyway. Well, I won the play offs (Pioneer League) and about three days later got an email telling me I'd been promoted

One thing that I have noticed and this may be due to the time of season I imported or whether its due to the new scouting system I'm not sure. What has happened is that I have no scout rating of my own players, just an OSA one. On the drop down just OSA is listed. I did also have a problem with this league on ootp8 in that when I re run SISA all of the SISA ratings became blank, so this may well be what's caused the problem rather than the import into ootp9.

Going to start up a league with the ABA this afternoon

Your scouting problem would be caused by one of two things most likely. Either you don't have a scout or you are playing as commissioner. You need to play as a manager and work for that team to get the scouts opinions. Although you're playing in the minors... I'll have to check that out.

[swampdragon]

From a beginning to an 1871 historical league:

1. Defensive ratings seem to be much better. The ratings aren't so much alike anymore, and they're intuitively more correct for what I know of the players of that era.
2. There really should have been 19th century schedule files. The generated schedules are not suitable for 19th century play. 4 man rotations in 1871? I'll just handle the league structure and scheduling manually. I'm very happy to have any 19th century support at all, but it's on the needs work list.
3. The in-game engine and pbp show incremental improvements over version 8. I play games out, and those are a big deal for me. I appreciate the continued efforts to make them better.

[chimanbj]

For me, I have downloaded it, and installed it with no problem. I started up the Major League quickstart, and took over the Cubs. I was suprised, yet pleased, that I only had one scout to deal with. I played a game, and it worked very well. I like how the one-pitch was the default.
Now I'm taking a bit of a step back and filling in some of the customization gaps, such as adding graphics, and looking through some of the templates (such as the injury.txt) to see what, if any, improvements I want to make out of the box. And I copied my Cities.txt and nations.txt files from 2007, so that I wouldn't have to recreate my work.

In short, I'm very happy with the latest version so far. I want to go further in the sim and try to get Greg Maddux retired and turned into a coach, to see what kind of ratings he gets out of the box.

Thanks, Markus!

[falkonisback]

I converted my OOTP 8 league last night and just basically poked around to the different screens and reports and also checked out my history and players and whatnot to make sure everything converted ok. Everything looked just like I left off from version 8. I even simmed a few games last night. The only things I've seen is that at the top right where it shows the manager name, league name, record...and then to the immediate right of that it shows the current date, etc....my league name is 'Louisiana State Baseball League' so it doesn't all fit and kinda smears in with 'Regular Season'. It would be nice it the two could be separated a little bit or if the league name doesn't all fit, have the game do something like "Louisiana State Baseba..." or just the abbreviation of the league would be perfect "LSBL". Also I noticed on the league leaders screen, the stat for 'Strikeouts per 9 IP' where it has the label for the stat at the top, its runs off the end of box. (Sorry if I'm not too clear on this one, don't know how to explain it). Other than those MINOR things, everything looks great so far. AWESOME job Markus & Co. and thanks for all of your hard work!

[bosunmate]

Markus the game is everything you said it would be and more. Though I was frustrated with the download process, I must admit that once again I got my money's worth and will spend many hours with this game. I started with Season Ticket and to watch the game grow into what it has become has been a joy. You have out done yourself this time, I can see now where your stop at SI along the way helped you immensely. You will always have a die hard fan here. Thank You Sir..::

[Sexy_Rexy_The_QB]

Being objective...

First thoughts... everything to do with yesterday was a pain, from the downloading to the AVG work arounds...

Now right to it
The Good
Game speed... wow...I can run OOTP on my laptop with out having to wait forever to load a game LOL.
the interface seems cleaner
the new features look cool so far

the bad
the MLB roster... I don't even know where to start here... the retired players that shouldn't be here.
Players at the wrong positions, and contrary to your comment to an earlier post I made, no its not an AI decision. I'm talking hundreds of players just having the wrong positions
Lots of missing players...

In the end, the MLB set reaks of amateur hour no offense to whoever did it, but it feels like it was just slapped together at the last minute... I'm gonna have to tear it down to nothing and rebuild it from scratch before I begin to a serious game that I'd want to play long term.

[clamel]

A view on animation.....

I think the very light white G or F attached to the ball is soooo light that it´s hardly seen.

One now has almost to keep looking at the field 110% to spot it. I still keep my eyes on the PbP text and spotting the ball in a moment isn´t easy.

Perhaps a darker G and F too catch the flight easier Markus ???

SOUND !!!!
Someone mentioned some sound when the catcher threw out a runner or something.
Yes that would be nice. I can recall BM2kx having a fine sound of a player sliding into the bag.
An added OUUUUT by a ump or something would easier indicate what happend.
All that is heard now is a murmle from the crowd. I did hear a SAFE one time ???

Guess a lots of modification will be issued to the sound and over time it will be really great.
The final product will hopefully sound like a radio broadcast with onfield microphones.

[OldFatGuy]

Is mine the only one whose mouse button no longer turns into a "hand" when grabbing and dragging players??

Don't know WHY I noticed that, and it shouldn't even be an issue, I guess, but after all the hours in OOTP8 I find myself feeling "out of whack" moving the mouse cursor around. Like I'm suddenly "mouse challenged" or something.

Don't mind me. I'm weird.

EDIT: Oh yeah, and I like the duck.

[clamel]

T tested another weird framed incident.

I started to be BAD and hit the batters one by one after each other.
Twice the bench cleared and the pitcher and batter got tossed.

However even if this was extreeeeem in hitting several batters after each other the umpires just kept looking and IMHO they should have issued a warning of ejection between the benchclearing.

I check should be made in a future patch that takes several HBP to an umpires decision to warn both teams that next pitcher will be tossed.

Very common in real baseball, isn´t it.

WE GOT A PATCH ISSUE !!!
The third bench clearing brawl got the pitcher and catcher tossed BUT they stayed in the game??

[Raidergoo]

Originally Posted by Matt Uk

Going to start up a league with the ABA this afternoon

I'd suggest waiting 24 hours, if you can stand it. I have a block of time tonight set aside to update that file with board member names.