Feedback Needed / OOTP 11 Features

[conception]

This one is a small one, but I'd really like to see a notation made in a player's history page for when they made their MLB debut. Every time I look at a player's history page there is nothing to define when a player actually became a major league player. I can always look at stats to see the year that they came up, but it's more fun to just see a date for their debut because that puts everything else in their history into perspective.

[esovia23]

An Arizona Fall League would be fun. Each team could select 6 or 7 prospects to send to the league. It could be structured just like the AFL in real life.

Ratings cuts and boosts for good/bad performers.

[sboehler]

The ability to set up a tournament/playoffs structure that bypasses having to play a full season. Be nice to replay certain season's playoffs or create a fantasy set-up of our own

[sboehler]

Probably should have put both my thoughts in one post... This one will probably be a lot tougher, but to have sound that announces the game. I used to play baseball for windows and Ernie Harwell announcing the game just added a lot to playing a game...Certainly not a show stopper for me.. I love the game as is...would be a nice added dimension..

[conception]

Originally Posted by sboehler

Probably should have put both my thoughts in one post... This one will probably be a lot tougher, but to have sound that announces the game. I used to play baseball for windows and Ernie Harwell announcing the game just added a lot to playing a game...Certainly not a show stopper for me.. I love the game as is...would be a nice added dimension..

Instead of posting in back-to-back posts, you can always edit your post and add whatever you forgot to.

(not trying to be a jerk, just letting you know)

[robc]

Originally Posted by lordchaos

I know it will not happen, but this is what I want. Actual Left/Right split batting and pitching ratings for historical players.

1) Yes to the above!

2) Also, better defense implementation so standouts like Ozzie Smith really stand out.

3) Have potential ratings for defense and have the player develop.

4) I know this exists in one form, but not how I would like it. An option to have player defense ratings based on their career (IF error, IF range, etc, not the positional rating). That way the potential is there for the player to be great at the positions they played, but they still have to put in the time to learn positions they haven't played yet. My reason for this is a player like Don Mattingly. He started out in RF and not exceptional at 1b. He doesn't seem to have the potential to be great at 1B if importing him at the start of his career. But, I don't want him to be great right from the start like the current base ratings on whole career does.

5) Have more input on game decisons like sending a runner to an extra base. We should also get a percent chance of success or some other info to base the decison on. Maybe the quality of the info depends on the coaches the team has.

[TSmith1969]

Some of this has already been mentioned, but I'd personally like to see:

1. World Baseball Classic every 4 years. Caribbean Series. World Cup. Other international competitions that let players appear on both club and national teams.
2. Ability to create custom competitions, like pool play in qualifying rounds.
3. Custom playoffs, including different formats, like 4-team pools (as would have happened in 1914 if the NL and AL had agreed to play the Federal League champion in a three-way World Series.)

[bubba22plus]

Originally Posted by lordchaos

I know it will not happen, but this is what I want. Actual Left/Right split batting and pitching ratings for historical players.

Sorry to break it, but they only tracked L/R Splits starting in 1954.

[endgame]

After some time with my pitching staff's career stats this evening, I'd like to add the option to see Minor League Levels Combined, along with the ML, All Levels Combined, etc...

For that matter, it'd be great for batters as well.

[endgame]

For those who play out games:

Okay, real small thing that only this year has finally made me wish for a difference. In light of the fact that our field is a batter's view, I'd like to either change or have the option to change the pitch location box to a mirrored view so it, too, is viewing the pitcher on the field as it sits on my screen. With ball animation turned on, it just looks more natural. Just a flip. Let me see the pitches coming AT my batter from the catcher eye, not the opposing pitcher. That make sense to anyone else?

[Sweed]

Originally Posted by endgame

For those who play out games:

Okay, real small thing that only this year has finally made me wish for a difference. In light of the fact that our field is a batter's view, I'd like to either change or have the option to change the pitch location box to a mirrored view so it, too, is viewing the pitcher on the field as it sits on my screen. With ball animation turned on, it just looks more natural. Just a flip. Let me see the pitches coming AT my batter from the catcher eye, not the opposing pitcher. That make sense to anyone else?

I don't use the web page view or the pitch location widget but yeah it would make more sense your way IMHO.

[OakDragon]

IMO, the following is a bug or at least a design flaw, but it's never been considered that way.

I wish a bad (high) greed rating was shown in red instead of blue, like all the other bad ratings are. Otherwise showing them in color (which I really like) really has no purpose. The good ratings should all be at one end of the color spectrum and the bad ratings should be at the other, so we can tell at a glance what the good ratings are and what the bad ones are. As it stands, the high numbered ratings are at one end and the low ones are at the other so the colors and the numbers give the same info. It's redundant. I can understand why greed (a bad thing) has to have a high number (more greed), otherwise what else would we call it, but since greed breaks the high/low number pattern, bad greed (high) should be given the bad color (red) and vice versa.

[Gambo]

I don't know if this has been mentioned previously but in terms of historicals I think implementing the transaction database from retrosheet.org.

This of course would be a user option but this would allow players the ability to coach their favorite teams through their history and have the real historical players join and leave their team accurately.

[Russ]

All I want:

when playing out games, I want the pitcher's "hold runners" rating displayed on the main and widget screens.

[TwinsTHunter]

Adding on to the post I quoted below, I'd love to see a better way to sign international free agents. I don't mean the players that come over during free agency, ala Dice K or Ichiro, but rather the prospects. I love that when scouts are on my scout will find 'hidden players' which I basically consider the top international prospects.

I just wish that the top prospects my scout found were seen by several teams, much like they are in real life. Rather than having the ability to simply sign a 5* potential prospect to a minor league deal and stash him in the minors with no risks involved, I'd love to see a signing bonus implemented where teams can bid for the top prospects. Hardball Dynasty, on whatifsports.com, does a great job with this part of the dynasty and I really hope it's something OOTP can use in future versions because it's the only thing I like better about Hardball.

Originally Posted by Corsairs

When it comes to back-of-the-box feature ideas that will move units, I know exactly where I'd start: Fleshing out the feeder leagues and the amateur draft. Sure, this is something I personally would be interested in, but until recently I wouldn't have suggested it as a bullet point kind of improvement. Over the last few years, though, the MLB amateur draft has become an increasingly big deal. All of a sudden you've got the draft being shown in prime time on ESPN. Players like Stephen Strasburg are getting extensive coverage from mainstream new sources. Fans are starting to pay attention to college (and even high school) baseball to pick out the rising stars. Some agents have reached almost celebrity status thanks to their negotiating tactics.

Clearly there's a buregoning interest in the amateur draft and everything that surrounds it. Since this is an area I believe a lot of current OOTP'ers would like to see beefed up anyway, OOTP XI would be the perfect opportunity to break these new features in. Amongst the ideas to consider (in no particular order):

• Enable high school players to "graduate" to a league's college feeder system.
• Add agents into the game, each with their own particular methods and quirks.
• Introduce signing bonuses.
• Allow top prospects to issue contract/bonus demands (through their agents) prior to the draft.
• Rather than automatically assigning new draftees, force GMs to negotiate contracts with them. While most lesser draftees will sign for slot money, negotiations with top prospects could prove more tricky.
• In addition to contract/bonus demands, allow for other means of player negotiating leverage, including:
  • Threatening to sign with a college
  • Threatening to sign with an independent league (or simply sitting out until next year's draft if no such league exists)
  • Pre-warning his desire (or lack thereof) to be drafted by a particular orginization
• Create other signing considerations beyond money:
  • Predilection for signing with a team due to its proximity to his home town and/or school
  • The presence (or lack thereof) of established players/high-profile prospects blocking the new draftee's path
  • GMs reputation
• Regadring GM reputation, consider tracking this. Teams with GMs who sign players to large contracts and generally show a willingness to funnel money into player development would be more desireable landing spots for new draftees, while those who play hardball could get blacklisted.
• Take the reputation idea farther by allowing GMs to make promises/assurances to top players and their agents. As examples: "We guarantee you this role in our organization," or, "You'll be with the big league club in no more than 2 years." If those promises are fulfilled, reputation increases (and vice versa).
• Build the hype by starting to show news stories about top draft-eligible players on the main league's page starting 60 days from the amateur draft, and also during the feeder league(s) playoffs.
• Imbue these players with personality! You often hear about the "makeup" of a player. Is he a hothead? Does he have a penchant for upsetting his teammates or getting into trouble off the field? If so, let's see some new stories related to this. These kinds of makeup issues could carry over to a player's pro career, giving GMs an extra thing to consider when drafting. Strive to make players as three-dimensional as possible!
• OOTP already allows the trading of draft picks, something that can't be done in MLB. I would suggest going further with this. For instance, the NHL allows for conditional draft pick trading (e.g. I give you a 3rd rounder, but it could become a 1st rounder depending on something occurring). Look to other pro leagues for creative expansions of the draft pick trading model.
• Live analysis of first round picks during the draft. ESPN has a panel of "experts" sounding off on picks as they happen; why not BNN?

By no means would anyone reasonably expect all of these features to get added into OOTP XI. This should be taken as a jumping off point. Pick and choose what you think would be the most valuable/easy-to-implement additions and have at it. Overall, though, I can't think of a more apropos area of improvement to explore if you're looking to attract the casual baseball fan's attention (and please your current user base at the same time).

[shefffred]

Don't know if this was mentioned earlier, but I'd like to see two features from stra-o-matic computer version: An automatically generated recap for each game ( see below), and a printer friendly daily recap option which includes four or five pages of info (Standings, leaders, pitchers, boxes, recaps, news, etc) for a given league.

Thanks for asking.

Dodgers 7 Reds 1

Preacher Roe allowed Burt Shotton to rest his bullpen, tossing a complete game and Bobby Morgan had 3 base hits and 2 RBI as the Brooklyn Dodgers defeated the Cincinnati Reds by a score of 7 to 1 at Crosley Field.

Cincinnati was unable to recover after Brooklyn went ahead in the top of the 2nd inning scoring a single run using 2 hits. After two were out Morgan banged out a single. Billy Cox stepped into the batter's box and he doubled scoring the run. Brooklyn managed 9 in their victory.

The victory was credited to Roe(5-0) who went the distance, allowing 1 run. Herm Wehmeier(1-4) was charged with the loss. He was unable to control the Brooklyn offense and allowed 9 hits and 7 walks in 6 and 2/3 innings.

[OakDragon]

How about adding an option to exit a sim when a shortlisted player retires?

[robc]

Originally Posted by bubba22plus

Sorry to break it, but they only tracked L/R Splits starting in 1954.

That would be good enough for me! I only play 1970's on.

[BMW]

Originally Posted by Gambo

I don't know if this has been mentioned previously but in terms of historicals I think implementing the transaction database from retrosheet.org.

This of course would be a user option but this would allow players the ability to coach their favorite teams through their history and have the real historical players join and leave their team accurately.

DMB already does something like this, although I don't know that it uses Retrosheet data.

I think it's dangerous to create parts of OOTP that require outside people/organizations to keep running.

I understand that there's a lot of data out there, but OOTP isn't a baseball data company, it's a baseball game company. DMB is as much a data company, because its business model is built around selling season disks that they produce themselves.

Undoubtably, Lahman and Retrosheet feel like they will be around for eternity and hopefully they will be.

But if OOTP starts needing fresh data from multiple sources, once a source dries up or radically changes their format (i.e. they publish it with x,y,z columns right now, and they want to change the format to a,b,c,d,e,f... these people/orgs have no vested interest in OOTP and no reason to keep the data the same for OOTP's sake) then that means that it will leave OOTP high and dry. Or it will force them to become more of a data company, or force them to rely on the generosity of fans.

You should know as much as anyone that these sources aren't permanent and cannot be taken for granted. If you made your Gambo DB way back when and OOTP decided that it would build the game around your data and over that time it morphed into a wholly unique structure (i.e. significantly different than Lahman schema). At this point OOTP would have three choices: 1. Convince you not to retire, 2. Find someone else in the community to continue your work or 3. Take over maintenance of the database themselves.

Even though you can play the game without the pseudo-Lahman DB, and indeed build MLB rostersets without it, as much as it's technically optional, it's now expected by the customer.

It's the same thing with historical pitches, and it would be the same thing with L/R data and Transactions. Markus can provide the functionality, but users will expect the functionality and data.

[snnort]

RE: FA Compansation

(1) Create a report that lists all current Type A and Type B players that are in the FA pool as well as what team will be compensated if they are signed.

(2) When a Type A or Type B player is signed from the FA pool... the news report of the signing as well as the players individual history text should note not only the players signing value (as it does now) BUT also the details of what team was given what pick(s) in FA compensation.

(3) Create a customizable field that will list FA type just like "asking price/demand" was just added with the 10.4.29 patch.

(4) The ability to edit a players compensation tag (Type A, Type B, and No Compensation)... this would allow leagues that start running drafts using online utilities to edit out all remaining FA Compensation.

THESE would make using FA compensation in online leagues MUCH, MUCH easier.