"storyline engine"

[Cras]

I was checking out the list of new features, and noticed this near the bottom of the list. A story line engine? Sounds pretty cool.

[sbailey85]

Originally Posted by Cras

I was checking out the list of new features, and noticed this near the bottom of the list. A story line engine? Sounds pretty cool.

hmm.. could we expect it to be something similar to hometown boy ends up playing for his hometown team? I would love stories like that in the news. Reading the news is one of my favorite parts of baseball sims.

[Markus Heinsohn]

Yes, it has huge potential. The initial version will ship with 20-24 stories which can happen, but we will increase this significantly throughout the year.

Maybe the beta team can explain the feature a bit more, I'll ask

[attackemu]

Is there going to be any way for us to customize our own storylines? I'd imagine you could get some great stuff out of the modding community here.

[Markus Heinsohn]

Originally Posted by attackemu

Is there going to be any way for us to customize our own storylines? I'd imagine you could get some great stuff out of the modding community here.

Yes, it is all in XML format. We'll post an instruction on how to properly edit it soon

[attackemu]

Awesome. So it ships with 20-24 storylines, but we can expect 100-200 by the end of the week.

[Cowboys3356]

This could be the next BIG mod! I can see the community creating an unlimited supply of great storylines!

Awesome feature!

[kq76]

Heh. I only just noticed it in the featurelist yesterday and it also grabbed my attention. My guess is storyline must mean different player events are stringed together. That is, if A happens then one of B, C, or D are likely to happen in the next few weeks. And if B happens then one of E, F, or G may happen in a few more weeks. That sounds pretty cool to me, but maybe I'm way off on what it means.

[Cras]

This feature sounds so cool, how come it never got any love in RTTR?

If it is anything close to what FM has, it will be great. In FM I remember signing a foreign player to play for my team in England, and he wanted out after a few months because he thought all the refs were out to get him.

This feature will make you think twice about signing Milton Bradley. Unless you are Jim Hendry. In that case, you offer him a three year contract.

[injury log]

I think this feature hasn't gotten a ton of press, because there isn't a lot of content in the game yet, so you'll only see these storylines rarely in the release build. So it won't, at first, be a very noticeable feature. It is, however, very customizable, so when the beta team or the community adds content, this could be a very interesting part of the game. It is, of course, optional, so if it doesn't sound appealing to you, you can turn it off.

I wasn't able to follow the exact details of the implementation (I think someone else will chime in on that), but the rough idea is this:

* The game contains a database of 'storylines'. These might be simple one-offs (player shows up late for practice and is benched for the day, or player organizes charity event in the community) or can be running narratives (player involved in altercation at local bar, player misses court date, player sentenced to three days in jail, or whatever). The running narratives can have a tree structure, so what kq76 suggests above should be possible: when a story is triggered, there could be different ways for that story to continue.

* Each storyline has triggers and conditions. Some storylines could happen at any time, while others can be triggered by game events or at particular times of the season. Each story can also be conditioned, so if you only want a story to happen to a player with bad personality ratings, for example, that's possible. I don't know precisely which triggers and conditions were coded for the release build. There is a frequency condition as well so that one can control how often each story is likely to appear - most are very rare, of course. Finally, storylines can trigger in-game results, so a storyline might trigger a suspension, an injury, and possibly all kinds of other things - we had been talking about all sorts of possibilities, ranging from Morale or popularity changes to (in presumably very rare cases) ratings changes. I don't know just what results were coded for the release.



So the idea was to make the underlying architecture very flexible, to allow modders to create a huge variety of narratives. The only limitations are the triggers, conditions and game results that are coded, and of course these could be expanded over time as we discover new ones that would be useful. Discussing this feature in beta, we had a huge variety of ideas for what types of stories might be generated: stories about dissatisfied players, clubhouse altercations, players taking on community roles, even players defecting from Cuba. I don't know how many of these are possible at the moment, so I'll let someone who knows more about the implementation as it stands outline a few of these.

[JLK]

WOW this and the evolution of players moving into couching and manager positions is taking this game to a whole new level of realism.

[Afino]

Here's how they work.

Event X happens. This could be triggered by an in-game event (manager fired, player traded, etc), or at random. Some of the random events are based off of personality traits (i.e. could only happen to someone with a "very low" Work Ethic), others are 100% random and could happen to any player.

The storyline could end here with one simple news article. The result can be positive (something simple like morale boost) or negative (suspension), or just setting up the next one.

Originally Posted by kq76

Heh. I only just noticed it in the featurelist yesterday and it also grabbed my attention. My guess is storyline must mean different player events are stringed together. That is, if A happens then one of B, C, or D are likely to happen in the next few weeks. And if B happens then one of E, F, or G may happen in a few more weeks. That sounds pretty cool to me, but maybe I'm way off on what it means.

More or less, although it can be days, weeks, or months. But yes - some of the more complex storylines are like you described. With each article, something else can happen.

Currently, there's only a handful, and it's doubtful you'll notice these in the release. But it's a work in progress, and we're working hard on it for patches. It's 100% customizable though with the XML file!

It didn't get an RTR because a) it's not finished and b) we ran out of time to put it in there.

[RandyTiger]

Originally Posted by injury log

Finally, storylines can trigger in-game results, so a storyline might trigger a suspension, an injury, and possibly all kinds of other things - we had been talking about all sorts of possibilities, ranging from Morale or popularity changes to (in presumably very rare cases) ratings changes. I don't know just what results were coded for the release.

This is a very exciting feature, as far as I'm concerned. You see a player's off-the-field behavior effecting their game performance all the time, so attaching a one or two day reduction in abilities or even a suspension, et al, is definitely the next step in immersion, and I think it adds a great deal more realistic "feel" to the game.

For example, in real life from last season, the Tiger's Miguel Cabrera had a bit of a drinking binge and a domestic spat the night before a critical one-game playoff against Minnesota. It's somewhat debatable, but that incident cost Detroit the playoffs. If that situation happened in OOTP, it could be reflected appropriately.

All kinds of possibilities here for greater immersion!

[Charlie Hough]

I believe that the frequency of storylines will be quite low at first. You may need to sim for quite a while to see one develop. But this may change with customization and with the release of additional storylines in future patches.

[Markus Heinsohn]

Once we have a couple hundred storylines in there, I think the leagues will feel really alive. Should be lots of fun

[Afino]

Originally Posted by RandyTiger

For example, in real life from last season, the Tiger's Miguel Cabrera had a bit of a drinking binge and a domestic spat the night before a critical one-game playoff against Minnesota. It's somewhat debatable, but that incident cost Detroit the playoffs. If that situation happened in OOTP, it could be reflected appropriately.

That's exactly the kind of thing we're going for with this

Also, the plan is to dump the Off Field Injuries file into Storylines as well.

[sbailey85]

4 thumbs up! would do more but i dont like spammers This is slowly becoming a game i have always dreamed of! cant wait to see manny being manny in this... are there any storylines that lead up to lifetime suspensions just kidding but that would rule... i would kick all the juicers out of i had my way. even big papi and im a huge red sox fan

[injury log]

Originally Posted by Charlie Hough

I believe that the frequency of storylines will be quite low at first. You may need to sim for quite a while to see one develop. But this may change with customization and with the release of additional storylines in future patches.

Yes, that's the case right now. I've just simmed nine months using the release build and saw just one storyline, so you won't see these very often right now. Because of that, I'm happy it didn't get much press - users would have expected more than they'll get at the moment. But I'm sure this will quickly expand and turn into a very compelling feature over time.

[RandyTiger]

Originally Posted by Markus Heinsohn

Once we have a couple hundred storylines in there, I think the leagues will feel really alive. Should be lots of fun

Originally Posted by Afino

That's exactly the kind of thing we're going for with this

Also, the plan is to dump the Off Field Injuries file into Storylines as well.

To me, the combination of evolving fictional leagues and this together is worth the full price of 11.

I may never sleep again, because I'll be too busy playing!

(Not to mention, too busy screaming at boneheaded players and adjusting their salary as a way of fining them for idiotic behavior. )

[Nutlaw]

Originally Posted by injury log

So the idea was to make the underlying architecture very flexible, to allow modders to create a huge variety of narratives. The only limitations are the triggers, conditions and game results that are coded, and of course these could be expanded over time as we discover new ones that would be useful. Discussing this feature in beta, we had a huge variety of ideas for what types of stories might be generated: stories about dissatisfied players, clubhouse altercations, players taking on community roles, even players defecting from Cuba. I don't know how many of these are possible at the moment, so I'll let someone who knows more about the implementation as it stands outline a few of these.

Good stuff!