I have to say it

[Malleus Dei]

This is the best version ever. Hands down. And not just because this version finally has mass select and is over twice as fast.

Thank you, everyone who made it happen.

[Markus Heinsohn]

Glad you enjoy it!

[OldFatGuy]

Is increased speed always a good thing?

Genuine question, I'm a total idiot when it comes to computers.

But sometimes increased speed can be a result of reduced calculations, right? So, if a game increases its speed because it now does fewer calculcations, is that always necessarily a good thing? Isn't it possible some of those reductions in calculations are "cutting corners" that could lead to different results?

An example. Suppose the game did a number of calculations on every pitched ball based on pitcher effectiveness, the pitch selected, the weather, etc. to determine if a pitch was going to be a wild pitch in the dirt. Whereas now it merely takes 1 out of 25 curves and says that's a wild pitch. Much fewer calculations, but less real, no?

So, is better speed always a good thing?

I'm only asking in this thread because it's about the fourth reference to better speed I've read today.

And please, be nice. I already admitted I'm an idiot. So I may be way off base in my musings.

[akw4572]

Agreed Malleus, this is hands down the best release. It's darn near the ideal baseball text sim, and for my money it is the best one available, by far.

[Bobbuttons]

Originally Posted by Markus Heinsohn

Glad you enjoy it!

Who do we have to contact to get you to be awarded the Bundesverdienstkreuz?

[thbroman]

Here's a stupid question, guys, mostly because I haven't even had time to d-load the new game yet:

What is the advantage of the mass select feature? Where does it find its best use?

[BusterKing]

Loving this version.

The BEST ever!


Congrats!

[Bobbuttons]

Originally Posted by thbroman

Here's a stupid question, guys, mostly because I haven't even had time to d-load the new game yet:

What is the advantage of the mass select feature? Where does it find its best use?

I would use it most in moving players from one minor league level to another or demoting them from the big club during Spring Training.

[RchW]

Originally Posted by OldFatGuy

Is increased speed always a good thing?

Genuine question, I'm a total idiot when it comes to computers.

But sometimes increased speed can be a result of reduced calculations, right? So, if a game increases its speed because it now does fewer calculcations, is that always necessarily a good thing? Isn't it possible some of those reductions in calculations are "cutting corners" that could lead to different results?

An example. Suppose the game did a number of calculations on every pitched ball based on pitcher effectiveness, the pitch selected, the weather, etc. to determine if a pitch was going to be a wild pitch in the dirt. Whereas now it merely takes 1 out of 25 curves and says that's a wild pitch. Much fewer calculations, but less real, no?

So, is better speed always a good thing?

I'm only asking in this thread because it's about the fourth reference to better speed I've read today.

And please, be nice. I already admitted I'm an idiot. So I may be way off base in my musings.

I'm no expert but in this case I can assure you that Markus cut no corners in terms of the number of calculations. The increased speed is a result of programming and structure (way above my head) that works better with the chip and the OS and the hardware in your computer.

In this case the better speed is analogous to Markus being in his prime developmentally.

How's that for a monster suck up.

[markprior22]

Awesome game....thanks Markus and crew!

[Solonor]

Originally Posted by Bobbuttons

I would use it most in moving players from one minor league level to another or demoting them from the big club during Spring Training.

Yeah, the transactions screen is the only place I have used it, and it's cool for that. The only thing that bugs me is that it doesn't work when you use the "Act As" option, so it's not useful for a Commish.

[BMW]

Originally Posted by OldFatGuy

Is increased speed always a good thing?

Genuine question, I'm a total idiot when it comes to computers.

But sometimes increased speed can be a result of reduced calculations, right? So, if a game increases its speed because it now does fewer calculcations, is that always necessarily a good thing? Isn't it possible some of those reductions in calculations are "cutting corners" that could lead to different results?

An example. Suppose the game did a number of calculations on every pitched ball based on pitcher effectiveness, the pitch selected, the weather, etc. to determine if a pitch was going to be a wild pitch in the dirt. Whereas now it merely takes 1 out of 25 curves and says that's a wild pitch. Much fewer calculations, but less real, no?

So, is better speed always a good thing?

I'm only asking in this thread because it's about the fourth reference to better speed I've read today.

And please, be nice. I already admitted I'm an idiot. So I may be way off base in my musings.

Once you get a program as complex as OOTP (to be honest, even if the program is 1/100th as complex as OOTP), there are always ways to shave off processing time without sacrificing quality.

Usually programming works like:

1. I have a goal (i.e. get a picture from x location).
2. My first attempt didn't work.
3. My second attempt didn't work.
4. My third attempt did work!
5. Someone found a bug. &%!*@!
6. I am confident this code is solid now. It does everything we require.

Several months later:

1. My program is a bit slow. What can I optimize?
2. Hey, if I already have a picture stored in the database, I don't need to actually check for a picture at x location.
3. I'll write something in my code so that when a picture is already stored, don't bother going to look for one.
4. Now pages run faster, because I've cut out some unnecessary steps.

I had this exact scenario from my website. I had a MLB.com player ID. It would go to the site and look for a photo and if it found one, it would import it to my site.

However, it still did this, even if I already had a photo captured. So I wrote some extra calculations to check my local directory to see if I had the picture. The run time to check my local directory was much, much faster than making my website go to MLB.com and look for a picture.

As I mentioned before, there was nothing incorrect about my first method. It did everything that I wanted. It went to MLB.com and if there was a photo, it grabbed it. Version 2.0 does exactly the same thing: it went to MLB.com and if there was a photo, it grabbed it. Only this time it also checks to see if it was successfully done in the past. So extra lines of code (i.e. calculations) actually make it run faster.

What you asked was a good question. But one answer is that are just so many ways to make something run faster, beyond removing calculations.

Sorry, that was a long and complex answer.

[OldFatGuy]

Originally Posted by RchW

I'm no expert but in this case I can assure you that Markus cut no corners in terms of the number of calculations. The increased speed is a result of programming and structure (way above my head) that works better with the chip and the OS and the hardware in your computer.

In this case the better speed is analogous to Markus being in his prime developmentally.

How's that for a monster suck up.

lol.

TBH, I wasn't really wondering about Markus or OOTP specifically, it's just all the talk about speed made me curious as to whether in general that's always a good thing or not. Because I just don't know. I suppose in hardware it would almost always be a good thing, but I wasn't sure about software.

Anyway, like I said, it was more a general question than a question of OOTP.

Sorry, I get curious about things like that sometimes. Probably be better in the future when I do to just STFU, huh? Especially since it's not related to the thread.

Sorry MD, didn't mean to threadjack. Just curious. Will leave the thread now.

[Cougar109]

Have to say, this is by far the most enjoyable version of OOTP I've played yet and I've played pretty much all of them. You and your team have outdone yourselves Markus.

[BMW]

Originally Posted by Malleus Dei

This is the best version ever. Hands down. And not just because this version finally has mass select and is over twice as fast.

Thank you, everyone who made it happen.

You forgot to mention clone player.

[Jason]

This is like Rush Limbaugh saying Obama got it right.

Seriously...glad you like it MD. I often found myself during beta testing wondering "I wonder what MD's going to think about this..."

[Malleus Dei]

Originally Posted by Bobbuttons

Who do we have to contact to get you to be awarded the Bundesverdienstkreuz?

My stepfather was awarded the Eisernes Kreuz 1. Klasse, so there's no need.

[Malleus Dei]

Originally Posted by BMW

You forgot to mention clone player.

So I did. Clone player is awesome.

[Syd Thrift]

Originally Posted by BMW

You forgot to mention clone player.

This version would have been 100x better if instead of "clone player" it had a "chone player" option.

[Malleus Dei]

Originally Posted by akw4572

Agreed Malleus, this is hands down the best release. It's darn near the ideal baseball text sim, and for my money it is the best one available, by far.

Well, it's not hardly ideal yet, but it's damned sure good and the best game of its kind out there.