Feedback Needed / OOTP 11 Features

[PSUColonel]

Originally Posted by battists

More immersion factor.

I'd like to see the return of messages from my managers, "So-and-so is doing really well."

I'd also like to see some things like messages that require decisions and have impacts down the road. Like a player demanding a trade, or a coach recommending you bench a player, etc.

The problem here is you are fusing the GM and coach into one role. This game should gear towards a GM. That's why I think ticket prices should be out, and owners should be in. The game should gear itself towards features that are part of a club's "Baseball Operations". That was why I was sort of disappointed to see the over simplification of the scouting system in OOTP 8. Rehab assignments would be an example of this. I have always said that OOTP's biggest problem is that it attempts to be all things to all people. In doing this, the detail level for a person who just wants to play as a GM has suffered. People will criticize me and say "but I don't just want to play as a GM", but that is what the initial intention of this game really was...

[PSUColonel]

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).

An excellent example of the types of features that would serve OOTP well.

[PSUColonel]

Originally Posted by NYY #23

I put these together without looking at other suggestions, and it looks like a few of these have already been said, but here are some things that I'd like to see in no particular order (after the first at least).

1) Single game records - both for individual performance and for a team's performance. Most hits in a game, etc.

2) Postseason records - in a game, series, or career postseason records. Even all-star records would be nice.

3) Player history - under the accomplishments section it was be nice to see their 'firsts' listed as well. I'd love to see either the milestones separated out, or a category you could filter. If I don't want to only milestones I wouldn't have to wade through all the injuries for example.

4) Breaking records - I think it would be nice to see a news story/email when a player is approaching a record, ties a record, and breaks the record.

5) Hall of fame - it would be really nice to have the option to wait 5 years, or x number of years before the player was eligible for the Hall of Fame. It seems like expanding the options for the Hall of Fame requirements would be nice with a few options such as wait x number of years after retirement, a check box to manually induct players, and maybe even a date each year when the players are inducted into the Hall of Fame. A news story that says here are the top players that are eligible in the upcoming election. One they get into the Hall of Fame it would be nice to be able to sort and filter the players. When you pull up the profile for a Hall of Famer it would be nice to see something that indicates they are in the Hall of Fame on the main profile page.

6) Accomplishments - it would be nice to be able to define some of the accomplishments, if you wanted to see all players that won more than 25 games in a season for example. Adding a way to filter or sort in the accomplishments would be nice - how many players hit 4 home runs, how many hit 3 home runs for Detroit, etc.

7) League Champions - add how the team got to the championship. Defeated team A 3-2 in round 1, defeated team B 4-1 in round 2, defeated team C in round 3 championship.

8) Team vs team all-time records - 50-50 against team A, 60-40 against team B, etc.

9) Better separation of GM and manager role - I think you should be able to apply for either a manager's job or a GM's job. You shouldn't have to apply as General Manager and then have to change the settings so the AI controls moves if you just want to manage games. Signing a contract as a manager or GM would be nice as well. All the AI managers have this, the humans should have a salary and when they are signed through.

10) GM Ratings - It would be nice for GM's to have ratings as well - developing minor league system, drafting, developing a winner, turning profit, handling coaching staff, etc. On the flip side, when looking at Available Jobs it would be nice to see what "mode" the team is in. If a team is looking to rebuild it would be nice to know, and if you are bad at drafting or developing a minor league system, why would that team be interested in you?

11) Expanded objectives for managers/GMs when you sign a contract - it would seem more realistic when you sign on as a GM for the Nationals to get objectives over the next three years to a) keep payroll at a certain level b) improve your minor league system c) build a team that is capable of contending within 3 years.

12) More interaction with your staff - it would be nice with the draft coming up for your scouts to send you a message saying you should check out this guy. Or your manager to send you a message saying that player A with a bad morale rating needs to go because he is disrupting the clubhouse, or to get a message saying this guy needs to be promoted or demoted.

13) Streaks - Cal Ripken's consecutive games played steak is one of the most famous, but we can't track that. Adding other individual streaks to fill in any gaps (all-time RBI, all-time runs) as well as adding streaks for teams - longest winning streak, losing streak, etc

14) Multi-year Historical League - I'm not sure if the title describes it properly, but if I wanted to create a historical league using teams from multiple seasons. For example creating a league with the 27 Yankees, 75 Reds, 98 Yankees, and 55 Dodgers. I know its possible today, but not the simplest process, especially when you are adding 20+ teams from 20+ years.

Another great example

[PSUColonel]

Originally Posted by Muzamba

Even though I really want to give more detailed proposals, I'm just really antsy to get in on this discussion, so here are my top priorities at the moment...

1. PLEASE allow us to export, edit, then re-import all data used in the game via csv files!

2. Revise the feeder system. Advanced details are forthcoming, but for now, here are some basics:

• Revise the way the draft is populated, so that more feeder teams are utilized; Consider relegating high schools to a database, so more real schools can be used
• Incorporate a 3-level feeder system (high school, 2-yr. college, 4-yr. college)
• Allow levels to feed into others (HS feeds 2YC/4YC/ML Draft; 2YC feeds 4YC/ML Draft; 4YC feeds ML Draft only)
• Add prestige rating for schools (or simply allow Fan Loyalty/Market Size ratings for feeder teams) to ensure more and better players come from certain schools
• Allow for smaller minimum roster sizes, so less players from small schools will be created
• Allow transfers (especially for quality players with limited playing time)
• Display a player's feeder team(s) prominently on his profile page

3. Incorporate the 10-5 no-trade clause, as well as limited/partial NTCs (based primarily on free agency prefernces) that are periodically waived as a player's mood/morale changes

4. Implement advanced player personalities that reflect their attitudes toward opponents, umpires, teammates, coaches, front office, and society in general (These would affect things like team chemistry, ejections, on-field altercations, contract negotiations, and off-field issues)

5. Revise the injury system based on an action/result format (more details to come) and incorporate advanced suspensions for both on-field and off-field infractions, based on personality

6. Use additional (preferably editable) free agency factors, including familiarity with other players/coaches (More specific ideas later)

7. Allow for more total ethnicities/name sets and more specific ethnicities per each nation

8. Apply nation factors (baseball quality, ethnicities, etc.) to individual states/regions or even to specific cities

9. Add more All-Star Game options (details to come) as well as other events, like a home run derby and futures game

10. Add more awards (true MVP, Reliever, Comeback, Executive, additional custom, etc.) and allow them to apply either league-wide or per sub-league

11. Add additional HoF criteria (stolen bases, strikeouts, defense, managing, etc.)

12. Add rain-outs and doubleheaders (even if they have to be added randomly)

13. Update the in-game screen to include:

• Clear and/or collapsible widgets
• Dynamic backgrounds (that change during games, based on time of day and weather)
• Dynamic Weather Window (showing current weather conditions)
• Game Clock ("real" time and elapsed time)

(Details on each of these to follow)

14. Allow more facegen customization, including hair, additional standard ethnicities, more realistic-looking faces for specific ethnicities, the ability to manually customize ("tweak") each face, and the feature that allows you to create a facegen face from an existing photo

15. Add 1B, 3B and bullpen coaches

16. Add umpires (with ratings for skill and temperament that affect the number of blown calls and ejections, respectively)

17. Add player agents (with ratings that affect how difficult they are to negotiate with)

18. Add team owners (with ratings that determine how thrifty [i.e. "cheap"] they are and how involved [i.e. "meddlesome"] they are in the everyday decision-making process)

19. Incorporate more advanced front office/financial factors (Not a big priority for V11, but I'll give more details soon anyway)

20. Allow more control over what types of emails are sent, news stories are displayed, and triggers are used to stop simming

Plus, here are some other random ideas:

• More news stories, including events like playoff clinchers
• Team rivalries that affect attendance and the number of in-game fights
• Alternate team nicknames and unique rally music
• Elimination numbers
• Customizable text-to-speech to simulate PbP announcers

And remember... make all of it as CUSTOMIZABLE as possible!

Again, another great example

[Bluenoser]

Originally Posted by PSUColonel

The problem here is you are fusing the GM and coach into one role. This game should gear towards a GM. That's why I think ticket prices should be out, and owners should be in. The game should gear itself towards features that are part of a club's "Baseball Operations". That was why I was sort of disappointed to see the over simplification of the scouting system in OOTP 8. I have always said that OOTP's biggest problem is that it attempts to be all things to all people. In doing this, the detail level for a person who just wants to play as a GM has suffered. People will criticize me and say "but I don't just want to play as a GM", but that is what the initial intention of this game really was...

That doesn't mean the game shouldn't grow and evolve into more things. I remember when OOTP first came out, it was heavily designed towards online leagues. That has changed with the evolution of the game and it should continue to evolve.

[PSUColonel]

[QUOTE=BruceM;2888669]That doesn't mean the game shouldn't grow and evolve into more things. I remember when OOTP first came out, it was heavily designed towards online leagues. That has changed with the evolution of the game and it should continue to evolve.[/QUOTE


I don't know if you ever have, but you need to play Football Manager to understand the scope of what OOTP COULD be.

[Bluenoser]

Originally Posted by PSUColonel

I don't know if you ever have, but you need to play Football Manager to understand the scope of what OOTP COULD be.

I understand what OOTP could be, which was the point of my post.

[PSUColonel]

Originally Posted by BruceM

I understand what OOTP could be, which was the point of my post.

Yes, but it can't be all things to all people...it has to take a definable direction

[BMW]

Originally Posted by PSUColonel

Yes, but it can't be all things to all people...it has to take a definable direction

Well it could, depending on whether or not the open universe or closed universe theory is true. If it's a closed universe, one day, all matter will condense into a singularity, which theoretically, will have one way that he/she/it will play/think about/devour OOTP.

If it's an open universe, Markus is screwed, unless he is immortal.

[Bluenoser]

Originally Posted by PSUColonel

Yes, but it can't be all things to all people...it has to take a definable direction

Despite the quirks, it has done a pretty good job of this so far.

Is it perfect? No

Will it ever be perfect? No

Can it be all things to all people? No

Can it be most things to most people? Yes

[Antonin]

Originally Posted by PSUColonel

I don't know if you ever have, but you need to play Football Manager to understand the scope of what OOTP COULD be.

I love soccer and have played FM since 2001, when it was still CM. What it has become is exactly what I don't want OOTP Baseball to be: bloated and cluttered with things that suck out all the enjoyment and have little or nothing to do with the main reason people play sports sims: to manage their team and have fun doing so.

Repetitive team talks, repetitive media comments, player interactions that don't follow any kind of real-world logic, chairmen whose decisions are arbitrary, 3D graphics that look nice but slow your system down and don't really add anything to the gameplay, etc etc etc.

The last time I looked at the SI forum a couple weeks ago it was full of complaints from people who think the game has become too big, too hard, and too full of pieces and parts that don't work properly and just are not very much fun.

People who still like FM flame those who find the game has become too much of a once-good thing as being insufficiently hard core.

With all due respect, I don't want OOTP to go down that route. We have a good thing going here, and we need to develop in our own way.

[Charlie Hough]

I don't know if you ever have, but you need to play Football Manager to understand the scope of what OOTP COULD be.

I've played CM/FM since CM 97/98, and I can definitely see how OOTP could become more like Football Manager. But I believe this would be a disaster. OOTP has already been down that road when it was part of SI, and we saw the game take on entirely new code and a slew of new features that did not work well.

Some will surely disagree, but I think OOTP deviated from the ideal path for its target market, and I think it suffered accordingly.

The baseball sim market goes back decades to the dice and card games, long before there were computer simulations. The entire point of baseball simulations since day one has been to allow the human player to manage real life baseball players or more recently fictional players. Even with card and dice games, you could draft and trade players, form leagues with friends or relatives, and combine both the "front office" and "on the field" managerial elements. If it was strictly a GM simulation, it wouldn't really work, because the baseball sim audience expects more than that.

Few people want to be the GM and then let the AI manage the games. Yes, we do this in online leagues out of necessity, but that's where you could implement head-to-head Internet play and really get somewhere. I'm sure there are some people who like to build a team and just sim through the seasons with the computer handling the management, but I would bet that most OOTP customers prefer to manage the games for their teams.

Besides, in real life the GM has no real say in how the team will be managed on the field, other than the ability to hire and fire the manager. So even the current feature for allowing the GM to set all the in-game strategies is unrealistic. If you wanted a GM-only simulation, you'd have to eliminate that feature for realism's sake.

Given that baseball gaming is largely unique to the U.S. market in terms of overall sales and appeal, I don't think that a culture exists to embrace OOTP as a mostly front office managerial sim. Rather than including features like setting ticket prices, I think those features should be eliminated in favor of added focus on expanding the in-game features, personnel management, and historical play. Keep it to player personnel and on-field management only. In real life, there are other people in the front office who deal with setting ticket prices and managing the other finances.

What makes OOTP so unique is that it applies a "career-style" approach to the core baseball sim elements of drafting, trading, and managing games. By offering the Lahman database, it blows away other products like Strat-O-Matic and Diamond Mind, which are much better for single-season replays but require customers to spend their life savings on season disks and other utilities.

I think OOTP has struck a nice balance in many ways, but if it makes changes in the future, I don't want to see it try to become like Football Manager, as much as I love that game. I think the game would lose a lot of its appeal to those who are looking for those core, traditional elements.

[PSUColonel]

Originally Posted by BruceM

Despite the quirks, it has done a pretty good job of this so far.

Is it perfect? No

Will it ever be perfect? No

Can it be all things to all people? No

Can it be most things to most people? Yes

But I think many of the quirks are as a result of attempting to be all things to all people

[PSUColonel]

Originally Posted by Antonin

I love soccer and have played FM since 2001, when it was still CM. What it has become is exactly what I don't want OOTP Baseball to be: bloated and cluttered with things that suck out all the enjoyment and have little or nothing to do with the main reason people play sports sims: to manage their team and have fun doing so.

Repetitive team talks, repetitive media comments, player interactions that don't follow any kind of real-world logic, chairmen whose decisions are arbitrary, 3D graphics that look nice but slow your system down and don't really add anything to the gameplay, etc etc etc.

The last time I looked at the SI forum a couple weeks ago it was full of complaints from people who think the game has become too big, too hard, and too full of pieces and parts that don't work properly and just are not very much fun.

People who still like FM flame those who find the game has become too much of a once-good thing as being insufficiently hard core.

With all due respect, I don't want OOTP to go down that route. We have a good thing going here, and we need to develop in our own way.

It's not that OOTP has to be exactly like FM(press conferences), but there are an awful lot of FM elements that can benefit OOTP.

[mgom27]

Make Person available to be Traded and see what the Team would give up to get who want him like let say the Mets want A. Gonzalez the Padres ask for like Martinez,Thole,Holt and so on-Rumor Mill

Restricted Free-Agents meaning lets say the Yankees offer Jeter Arb. then if another Teams signs him and if the Yankees don't match it they get 5 Draft Picks in return or the Yankees can ask for Kings Ransom if somebody trys to get him in a Trade.

If you reset Service Time keep contracts they way they are.

Amateur Draft 2 days like in real life.

[fhomess]

Originally Posted by mgom27

Amateur Draft 2 days like in real life.

I would not like to see this implemented. In real life, you spread it out over 2 days because you can't draft that many players in 1 day. In OOTP, where you essentially pause time, you don't need to do that. Having it all in 1 day lets you take care of it and move on with your game. Splitting it over 2 days has no real advantage from a gameplay standpoint.

[Cryomaniac]

Originally Posted by PSUColonel

It's not that OOTP has to be exactly like FM(press conferences), but there are an awful lot of FM elements that can benefit OOTP.

I like how FM does the press conferences, but I appreciate it is hugely complex.

[PSUColonel]

The ability to assign different player coordinates for day and night ballparks.

[PSUColonel]

Automatically have correct weather attached to each city, so you don't have to manually import each city's weather.

[JAttractive]

I just want a way to play version 6.5 again but with some of the realism (ie. pitching) updates. I could care less about all the added stats, modifications etc. I want a simple, dumbed down, fun version with a simple click of the button damnit and maybe some horrible 2d/3d graphics to go with it. Seems like everyone wants to add to this game and I want to see it an option to make it simpler! I believe in the the less is more approach! Dagnabbit, I remember when this was a game, not a sim!