OOTP10 Suggestions: The Offseason

[battists]

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

The Offseason

Includes
- Anything that happens from the end of one season until opening day in the next season, including awards, spring training, etc.

Excludes
- Free agency and arbitration (please use the player contracts thread)

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!

1. Only 1 suggestion per post.
2. Suggestions must be on-topic for the thread.
3. Constructive, non-inflammatory suggestions only.
4. No comments on others' suggestions are necessary. That means, we don't need 15 posts in the thread saying "Great idea!" or "I agree!"
5. 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!
6. You can certainly post suggestions that conflict with or build upon earlier suggestions.
7. 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

[t-bone shuffle]

Suggestion

-Please, please find a way to make Spring Training rosters work properly.


Reason

- Currently they do not. Currently, a player must appear on the 40 (or whatever your number is) man roster to be available to play in Spring Training games. This causes problems with service time, options, mlb contracts and other issues. I also suspect that it causes problems with the financial model, but I'm just guessing. In reality Spring Training rosters are open ended and have no service time cause/effects. Having to manipulate the 40 man roster for Spring Training purposes is in many ways counter productive to the purpose of Spring Training. As it is now it's a mess. If there were just a way to turn the Active Roster into the Spring Training roster, have it limitless in size and have no service time effects of any kind, from my perspective, the problem would be solved. I know it's deeper than this, but from a simplistic point of view, this would solve a majority of the problems caused by the current set up.

Priority

For me, one who plays solo, and micromanages one team, it's very important. I think it's the biggest misconnect from reality that the game currently deals with.

[Afino]

Suggestion


- Adding Winter Meetings of some sort to the off-season calendar. Usually a 2-3 day period.

Reason

- It's one of the pivotal points of the offseason IRL. I realize that there maybe isn't that much that can be done except for increased trade executions between AI teams and more offers headed your way.

Priority

I'd say this is pretty low. It would be a cool little wrinkle to spice up the offseason though.

[nymets3000]

Originally Posted by Afino

Suggestion


- Adding Winter Meetings of some sort to the off-season calendar. Usually a 2-3 day period.

Reason

- It's one of the pivotal points of the offseason IRL. I realize that there maybe isn't that much that can be done except for increased trade executions between AI teams and more offers headed your way.

Priority

I'd say this is pretty low. It would be a cool little wrinkle to spice up the offseason though.

I know we're not really supposed to post in here, but I just wanted to tell him that it is in the game already.

[JTSMOOTH]

Suggestion
Eliminate the Active 25 man Roster during the Offseason. There should only be a 40 man roster. The 40 man roster should be active from Sept. 1st through Opening day of the following season. The 25 man active roster would be re-activated after Spring Training, at which point players on the 40 man roster without any options remaining would need to clear waivers in order to be demoted.

Reason
Currently teams can hide players in the minor leagues indefinitely by adding them to the 40 man roster and never promoting them to the active roster. This has always been a problem in OOTP and needs to be fixed. There might be better ways to accomplish this, but the general issue needs to be remedied.

Priority
VERY HIGH

[JTSMOOTH]

Suggestion- Make adjustments to winter leagues so that they interact with your other leagues rather than have them as independent leagues ala how the MLB has the Arizona Fall League, Hawaii Winter League.

Reason- Currently in OOTP, the Winter Leagues are just seperate leagues with very minimal interaction with the other leagues. Id like to be able to send some prospects or other players from my organization to play in Winter Leagues for more development time, to get AB's they missed from being injured the past season and so on.

Priority- Very low. Certainly many more pressing needs in the game, but just wanted to throw that out there as a suggestion.

[Tony M]

Suggestion

Allow customisation of various things

1) The name Winter Meetings
2) The name Rule V Draft
3) The eligibility requirements for Rule V

Reason

These are very hard-coded and I'm sure certain online leagues and solo players would like to be able to change who is eligible and if an online league has its own rules, Rule 5 may not be to do with a roster draft.

Priority

Fairly high because it should be fairly simple just to put in

[tchalifour]

Originally Posted by JTSMOOTH

Suggestion
Eliminate the Active 25 man Roster during the Offseason. There should only be a 40 man roster. The 40 man roster should be active from Sept. 1st through Opening day of the following season. The 25 man active roster would be re-activated after Spring Training, at which point players on the 40 man roster without any options remaining would need to clear waivers in order to be demoted.

Reason
Currently teams can hide players in the minor leagues indefinitely by adding them to the 40 man roster and never promoting them to the active roster. This has always been a problem in OOTP and needs to be fixed. There might be better ways to accomplish this, but the general issue needs to be remedied.

Priority
VERY HIGH

I second this, and add the following

Suggestion: Spring Training invites, or maybe a Spring Training roster that consists of the 40 man roster and minor leaguer-contract players that are not on the roster.

Reason: More realistic. Plus, it would be nice to sign more fringe players and give them a shot without giving them a major-league contract that would cost the team money. It would be feasible I guess without changing the structure of the game to have a separate "Invitation" roster that would allow players to be added to active roster without a major league contract, and that roster would disappear on opening day.

Priority: Medium. I hate having to add young players or AAA depth to my 40 man just to get them into spring training and try them out.

[injury log]

Suggestion

Change the minor league free agency AI.

Reason

At the moment, most upcoming minor league free agents will agree to sign minor league contracts- they don't request Major League deals. That's all good, and how it should be. However, AAA-quality minor league free agents should be very reluctant to sign an extension with their current team. If they are at the top level of the minors, and their team hasn't given them a chance to play in the bigs, and hasn't added them to the 40-man roster, they should be seeking an opportunity with another organization. This is how things are in real life; most minor league free agents change teams. In OOTP, it's too easy to hoard the top-level AAA veteran talent.

Priority

Medium.

[Lucas718]

Suggestion

Add a field to the team setup screen that will allow us to set the team's Spring Training stadium.

Reason

As it is now, each team plays their ST games in their home ballpark. As the game starts up the attendance announced is much lower than what you would expect to see if Spring Training games were held in Major League ballparks. It just looks weird to see 4500 people showing up for a game in Fenway Park or Camden Yards. I think allowing us to use Spring Training ballparks would help the immersion factor and be a nice touch.

Priority

Low

[mikev]

Not sure where else to put this.

Suggestion

Rank free agents - Type A, Type B, unranked. Allow customization for ranking FAs, ie "Type A = Top 20% by OPS, Type B 20-40% by OPS" or something like that.

Reason

Realism. This would add a TON to online leagues as well.

Priority

Medium

[satchel]

Suggestion

• Allow ties in Spring Training games

Reasons

• It would be realistic, teams don't play extra innings in Spring Training; they don't even always play nine innings
• Decreases chances for injuries; Spring Training injuries are a real bummer, and sometimes they really hit a team hard
• Places less stress on a team overall, as far as player fatigue, managing pitching staff, etc.; the purpose of Spring Training is to prepare a team for the regular season; overworking players has the opposite effect; I realize that in-game there's usually a break between Spring Training and Opening Day, and that takes care of some of these problems; the potential for negative consequences for mishaps in Spring Training is still there though

Priority

• Medium—this is how Spring Training should be, in OOTP

[khucke]

Give us the top three finishers in MVP and Cy Young awards. Or even better have a simulated voting by tallying the ballots one after the other.



Would add suspense and immersion to a sometimes dull off-season



Priority: middle

[lt2cents]

Suggestion
Provide for automating a major team changing minor league affiliations.

Reason
For a quasi historical player, trying to model a change in minor league affiliation is rough. Your operations include pulling 40 man roster players off the minor team being left and place them with the new affiliate. Where do you put them in the meanwhile? A demotion-promotion combination upsets them. Now you have to squeeze them onto the new roster, and the team you left needs to replace the players you took. If its the 1950s, every major team has around 10 minor affiliates and 15 or 20% of them change, you have maybe 25 or so of these operations annually.

Priority
Low. Yes, its somewhat obscure.

[ootpFox07]

Originally Posted by khucke

Give us the top three finishers in MVP and Cy Young awards. Or even better have a simulated voting by tallying the ballots one after the other.



Would add suspense and immersion to a sometimes dull off-season



Priority: middle

I'll take this a step further and add:

Suggestion:
Add a button to the awards screen labeled "BNN Vote". This button would hold a vote by the AI which would hold balloted votes for the top awards. While pitchers could go entirely off the VORP to get an accurate winner, MVP will have to weigh the players team standing and the teams overall batting and pitching results (how much support or assistance) the player had, into the equation. The vote results would be final an announced in the news according to the league events scedhule.

Reason
Would be cool to have the game do a little more digging into how the players finished and add some randomness to the awards. Since he time would be at random, a different MVP could be chosen, though ther seasons top finishers will likely always rank high in the results.

Priority
Low

[KurtBevacqua]

Sorry, moved this over to Contracts thread where it more correctly belongs.

[Curtis]

I don't know if these belong here, or in Game/League Setup, so please move this suggestion or the next one if they are improperly categorized.

SUGGESTION: I would like to see an MVP award for the postseason.

EXPLICATION: During League Setup you could include a set of checkboxes that would allow for the following options: An MVP for each series played; An MVP for each round of the playoffs; An MVP for the postseason as a whole; No postseason MVP.

REASON: I'm surprised that such things as World Series MVP are not included already. If implementingthe whole range of options mentioned in the previous paragraph is too complicated, I'd settle for just 'Playoff MVP' (meaning only one player regardless of number of rounds played) and 'No Playoff MVP'.

PRIORITY: Low, but as mentioned above, I'm surprised that it isn't already included.

[Curtis]

SUGGESTION: In leagues where there is no ASG, there should still be an All Star Team announced at the time postseason awards are handed out.

EXPLICATION: If it was up to me, I'd list sixteen players, and I'd base it on how they performed over the course of the entire season (not including playoffs). Each position should have one selection, based on complete play at that position (including fielding, baserunning, etc.). In addition there would be a DH selection (even in non-DH leagues) who would represent the best pure hitter not already selected. There would also be seven pitchers selected, based solely on their pitching prowess. Four would be starters, along with the best closer, best setup man and best non-closer/non-setup reliever.

REASON: There should still be a recognition of the best players at each position. It would help with decisions regarding who qualifies for the Hall of Fame, and it would be an important part of a player's history.

PRIORITY: Medium to High. I've never understood why leagues with one subleague (or two subleagues and no game) are discriminated against in this way.

[drowtfs]

Suggestion
Make Spring Training altogether a deeper experience, with activities starting earlier than the start of exhibition games, with non-roster invitees, coaches and scouts reporting on the physique of players just arriving in camp and on their level of intensity at workouts, with intra-squad games before exhibition games start, with split squad exhibition games, having feeder leagues, why not have exhibition games with college teams?,

Reason
I find it that the exhibition games alone are not enough to make Spring Training an exciting part of the season. I think Spring Training can be one of the most enjoyable times of the season, I can easily take longer with that 2-month period than I do with 4 or maybe even the whole of the regular season, the regular season is more like just simming to me. Please make Spring Training a much much deeper part of the season and you will make me enjoy it a lot more.
I like the way they did it in NHL Eastside Hockey Manager, but it has to be much better than that! Spring Training is much more important in baseball than in any other sport.

Priority
High

[drowtfs]

Suggestion
If it is possible, for online leagues, some way to sim part of the offseason "live", meaning reactions from FAs happen imediately once an owner exports (though time does not pass), and other owners can come back to the game and update to see if any FAs have contacted them. It would be like the commissioner activates an offseason mode and this will start happening, the commissioner can then trigger a time lapse of however much time he wants every night or as often as his league says it should be. After each specific league's desired length of time in this offseason mode, the commissioner resumes normal simming and life goes on as normal. I would call it the winter mode, rather, in reference to the Winter Meetings.

Reason
I think that, in online leagues, signing free agents is very different than in offline leagues or in real life, because negotiations don't happen as thoroughly as they should, because of the in-game days within sims, during which we are "frozen". You often have to place almost a blind bid because another team may offer more than your first bid, but not more than you are ultimately willing to offer, and subsequently sign the player before you have a chance to react. This does not ever happen in real life.
Generally, in online leagues, I don't think there is much interest in the in-game time during the offseason, that I would even say the old round-based offseason model from OOTP6.5 is more practical. So an upgraded alternative would be something in connection to the real world time, leaving in-game time in the background for a moment.
However, I don't know if it's possible to have exports make changes to the league file immediately like this. If that is not possible, then obviously my suggestion is irrelevant.

Priority
low