A little OOTP 11 update...

[Eugene Church]

Sounds great Markus.

Thanks for the info... looking forward to the details.

I'll be waiting in line to get OOTP11.

Mass selection and two-way players will be two fine additions... defensive changes are great, too.

Take care of OOTPB, Markus... but more importantly, take care of your health.

May God bless you.

[Malleus Dei]

Originally Posted by Charlie Hough

You like the AI trading away a future Hall of Famer in exchange for a player with decent ratings who is about to drop off a cliff in talent because his remaining career is worthless? Even between two AI clubs, the lack of ability to see the future creates absurd trades in historical play.

You mean like Derek Lowe and Jason Varitek for Heathcliff Slocumb? Like John Smoltz for Doyle Alexander? Like Larry Bowa and Ryne Sandberg for Ivan DeJesus? Like Jeff Bagwell for Larry Andersen? Like George Ruth for cash? Oh, wait, all those trades actually happened...

[Malleus Dei]

Originally Posted by ShaneCarson

Make it so I can import more than one historical player from a database at once and I'm in heaven.

Good point. Can we get Import Historical Team back?

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by Killing Time

Never thought of that. I'll have to try it out some time. Thanks.

In the spirit of full disclosure, it's not my idea. I recall it being suggested by Comedian2004 as a fun alternative to standard historicals. You'd have an option where all the players would be given randomly chosen new names.

I thought it a pretty good idea.

[Eckstein 4 Prez]

Originally Posted by Malleus Dei

And I'm glad it can't.

Yeah, I hope this isn't being seriously considered. I hate the idea.

[mm7607]

I'm not to impressed with any of this except mass select. In couldn't care less for bonus signings or slotted draft. Looks like what I do care about will get ignored again. I have paid money for every version of this game except 2 but version X was my last unless this update is extremely small. SO unlike so many of other I am not jumping out of my skin just yet. Sorry!

[Vinny P.]

Originally Posted by mm7607

I'm not to impressed with any of this except mass select. In couldn't care less for bonus signings or slotted draft. Looks like what I do care about will get ignored again. I have paid money for every version of this game except 2 but version X was my last unless this update is extremely small. SO unlike so many of other I am not jumping out of my skin just yet. Sorry!

Not trying to be mean or anything, but I think Markus and co., being a small business, have to keep their eyes on what the majority of their customers want/need from their product. I think, seeing the features he listed that he is implementing for XI, that he is trying to implement some of the things which have popped up quite a bit in the XI "wish list."

I know, for instance, that there have been a LOT of requests for signing bonuses, and many requests for a way for high school players to feed into college. Which is what is being covered.

And besides, some of these things are HUGE aspects that are missing in the game for the running of a real baseball club. The more "realistic" Markus can make OOTP, the better his product will do on the market.

[Vinny P.]

Originally Posted by Raidergoo

I try to give it 2 hours a day.

heh, yeah, that is something I reneged on halfway through X, and feel bad about it.

Ah well, I now know I do not have that kind of time, now. Although, if Markus ever announces some sort of design competition for a new interface, I'll be there!

[Vinny P.]

Originally Posted by silvam14

Glad to see that promotion/relegation possibilities will be in this version...oh wait

Ya know, as much as that would be cool to have as an option, I think that focusing on whole chunks of real-world baseball that are missing in OOTP should get top billing.

I understand that the motto is "it's your game, play it your way." But since we are all baseball fans (obviously! lol) and OOTP is marketed toward baseball fans, focusing on more "baseball-like" aspects which are missing in OOTP, would target a wider audience of baseball fans.

Other than that, I really think having promotion/relegation as an option would be pretty cool, and I would love to try out some sort of super international league using such a system. But I don't think the time it takes to code such a structure as an option is really worth it, when compared to these other great thing Markus has announced.

And there are still other aspects not in the game, which would really enhance game-play, such as concessions, and signing your own media contracts, and different types of media. (But those are relatively minor as well, and is on-par with promo/rele, IMHO. I had other ideas that would be more important than these, but they slipped out of my mind a few seconds ago. lol.)

[Goody]

A lot of people seem to be bringing up stuff from Earl Weaver baseball. I never took the plunge into that game during my lifetime. I guess I missed out.

Wonder if Markus ever played that game. Markus?

If I was a dev after reading all these references to Earl Weaver baseball I'd probably think it a good idea to set aside a few hours to try and play an old emulator version of that game to see what the fuss is about.

Just a small suggestion.

I'm sure OOTP has been light years ahead of Earl Weaver since the beginning, but it seems to have had a lot of features that people pine for even now. And its a very old game...

[Vinny P.]

Originally Posted by Goody

A lot of people seem to be bringing up stuff from Earl Weaver baseball. I never took the plunge into that game during my lifetime. I guess I missed out.

Wonder if Markus ever played that game. Markus?

If I was a dev after reading all these references to Earl Weaver baseball I'd probably think it a good idea to set aside a few hours to try and play an old emulator version of that game to see what the fuss is about.

Just a small suggestion.

I'm sure OOTP has been light years ahead of Earl Weaver since the beginning, but it seems to have had a lot of features that people pine for even now. And its a very old game...

Funny thing is, that is the "newest" game I had on my oldest system. I only actually played like.....20 games or so at the most on my old DOS machine, before we replaced it with Windows 3.1!

[Markus Heinsohn]

Originally Posted by Malleus Dei

Good point. Can we get Import Historical Team back?

It's there since OOTP 2007... league structure editor, you can import single teams there.

[Markus Heinsohn]

Originally Posted by Sweed

Does this work in conjunction with newly created players for your college league? By that I mean if you typically graduate 150* college players then the next year OOTP creates new freshmen to replace them.

Now if 50* HS players go undrafted and move onto college will the game take that into account and only create 100 new players?

* these numbers were pulled out of thin air and are not based on any league I run

Will the positions of those players be taken into account so things don't get out of balance?

And by "HS players may go to college" I assume only ones with enough talent will move on. Will these guys still have a chance to "blossom" while in college and become "real" MLB prospects?



Sorry for so many questions and understand if you don't have time to answer but thought I'd throw them out there if for nothing more than discussion

Yes, yes and yes

[Muzamba]

Originally Posted by Markus Heinsohn

What should that (cloning) be good for?

I may not be envisioning the "clone" concept correctly, but couldn't duplicate players be used to fulfill the ubiquitous request for WBC/World Cup/Olympic competitions?

Of course, it would just be a workaround until a true WBC-style format could be implemented. But if you could essentially create a copy of an existing player and kept his name the same (maybe with just an asterisk to differentiate him from the original), couldn't you theoretically fill a national team--or any other kind of all-star team for that matter--with these players? Then, when the competition is over, simply retire them?

Again, maybe I'm thinking of this all wrong, but if this could work, it would certainly be another advantage of allowing the "cloning" or players.

[ctorg]

Amazing. Every year things get added to OOTP that somehow make it even better. And to think that back at version 6 I thought that was about as good as it could get.

[Malleus Dei]

Originally Posted by Muzamba

I may not be envisioning the "clone" concept correctly, but couldn't duplicate players be used to fulfill the ubiquitous request for WBC/World Cup/Olympic competitions?

Yes, it could. Suppose you have "Juan Flores," who is on an MLB team but whom you also want to play in a WBC tournament. You select him and clone him, thus creating "Juan Flores*" with a different ID number, who is identical in every aspect to "Juan Flores." Then you clone the rest of the players that you want in the WBC and place "Juan Flores*" and all the other clones on the appropriate WBC teams. You fill in any gaps that are left by creating a generic player at each position and cloning them. Voila, an annual WBC that uses your leagues stats and development up to that point but doesn't affect the real league. When the WBC is over, you delete the teams/clones and move on.

You can also do the same thing for winter leagues, the Olympics, etc.

Clone player rocks.

[Markus Heinsohn]

Originally Posted by Malleus Dei

Clone player rocks.

OK, I added it to my feature list...

[bosunmate]

I would also like to see rehab assignments for players. It never feels real to me to put a player back in the lineup after a long injury especially pitchers...

[endgame]

Originally Posted by bosunmate

I would also like to see rehab assignments for players. It never feels real to me to put a player back in the lineup after a long injury especially pitchers...

An interesting feature that's had some advocates for some time. Of course, there's nothing to stop you from implementing this feature on your own, controlling just when the player returns, with the exception of sims and online leagues.

Even then, you could 15-day them OR assign them to the minors on a short term basis and monitor performance.

[Malleus Dei]

Originally Posted by Markus Heinsohn

OK, I added it to my feature list...

Woo-hoo! Thanks!