Online Leagues

[fhomess]

We're proud to support Official OOTP Online Leagues with a full-featured interface inside OOTP 12. With just one click, you can join a team, and creating a league is just as easy. Commissioners can make their leagues public and advertise open teams, with the ability to accept or deny requests from would-be GMs.

Official OOTP Online Leagues offer several key advantages:
- League files are patches rather than full-size files, saving plenty of up- and download time.
- Reports can be saved in MySQL databases, increasing their upload speed.
- Forget about FTP: team data exports and imports work through the database. That results in improved compatibility and security for the league web site server.
- An export tracker.
- The promise of more great features to come, including online drafts and trades.

The more I think about this, the more questions it raises in my mind. Are these features only available to leagues that are hosted by OOTP? So if an existing league is humming along fine, they wouldn't benefit from the partial league files unless they move to OOTP hosting?

Is OOTP really moving to the business of hosting online leagues? If so, are they going to host everything associated with online leagues or just the league files? Will there be additional cost associated with it?

[Cooleyvol]

What are the requirements of being an 'official' OOTP league? Will converted v11 leagues be able to reap these benefits as well or will it just be those leagues started under the new game file handling structure?

[Alan T]

I would love an answer to the previous questions as well, and also have plenty of my own.

Is this intended to be an all-in-one type of host that hosts everything for a league (with the exception of course of say league forums or other out of game utilities)? With a back end database that seems to be interacted with the various file upload/download functions, I assume that some form of web front end is also tied into that database (along with the advertised export tracker).

I guess for me a quick list of what I would love to know is:

- What are the requirements for using this?
- What (if any) additional costs are there for using this?
- What services are going to be available through the use of this?


I am sure the answers to those questions would lead me to a whole bunch more though

[SaintGeorge67]

Sorry if this has already been answered elsewhere...

Can myself and a friend play online real time like you do on football manager and ehm?

That is, we both manage separate teams and have to wait for each other to click continue?

Thanks.

[pbar25]

all great questions above that I too am very interested in.

Regarding trades and online drafts within the game, sounds like a really ambitious project.
In order for it to work (replace what we do now), I assume it would have to include instant messaging within some sort of lobby.....as the direct competition to such features and what it would seek to replace would be PMs within a forum.

If the trading/draft features rest upon exports & imports and waiting between sims to hear back from another GM, I personally don't think it is worth the effort.

pre-ordered, very excited for OOTP12!

[Jaxxvain]

bump

wondering if we could get an info from Markus in this thread

[Cooleyvol]

Daily bump in an attempt to receive information from the source.

[Sebastian Palkowski]

I will send the thread to Andreas to answer the questions.

[Andreas Raht]

There are several features we would like to add and several changes we would like to implement which require some sort of online "backend". So we decided to introduce an online database where commishes can (optionally!) add their leagues. Users who want to join such a league need a valid user record in this database, too. These leagues will be called "Official OOTP Online Leagues" (OOOL).

This system will be free to use. NO additional costs for GMs or commishes!
But it will only be available to users who signed up in the OOTP Online database through their copy of OOTP. There will be more online features in OOTP 12 which will be available after signing up, like the add-ons dialog and the online help update.

We will not host league files or league web sites at all. We will only host a database with a list of leagues.

We want to do this as a first step towards more online interaction. This will NOT cost the user any money.

It's possible that we add NEW services later which could cost money. For example we could let a server create the reports and player pictures for a league fully automated on the server or something like that.

The online league database will let us add new features for free, like an integrated export tracker, a trade system, and more. But that's all just an idea at the moment.

[Cooleyvol]

Originally Posted by Andreas Raht

But it will only be available to users who signed up in the OOTP Online database through their copy of OOTP.

Does this mean sign up from inside our copy of v12?

[Andreas Raht]

Originally Posted by Cooleyvol

Does this mean sign up from inside our copy of v12?

Yes, that's correct.

[fhomess]

Thanks for the response Andreas! Naturally, it raises some more questions.

Originally Posted by Andreas Raht

There will be more online features in OOTP 12 which will be available after signing up, like the add-ons dialog and the online help update.

So there are features inside OOTP that only get enabled once the league is registered with OOTP developments...

Originally Posted by Andreas Raht

We will not host league files or league web sites at all. We will only host a database with a list of leagues.

If this is the case, then I don't really understand how the promoted feature of smaller league files would only affect leagues signed up with OOTP. Is that part of the bonus for signing up?

Originally Posted by Andreas Raht

The online league database will let us add new features for free, like an integrated export tracker, a trade system, and more. But that's all just an idea at the moment.

I guess I still don't quite understand how these features will work if all OOTP is hosting is a database of online leagues. For example, I would expect the exports to continue to be sent to a league website, so I don't understand how OOTP would know if there are exports there or not. Unless I'm providing OOTP with access credentials to my league's website, which I would expect most commishes to be somewhat reluctant about.

[Andreas Raht]

Originally Posted by fhomess

Thanks for the response Andreas! Naturally, it raises some more questions.

So there are features inside OOTP that only get enabled once the league is registered with OOTP developments...


If this is the case, then I don't really understand how the promoted feature of smaller league files would only affect leagues signed up with OOTP. Is that part of the bonus for signing up?


I guess I still don't quite understand how these features will work if all OOTP is hosting is a database of online leagues. For example, I would expect the exports to continue to be sent to a league website, so I don't understand how OOTP would know if there are exports there or not. Unless I'm providing OOTP with access credentials to my league's website, which I would expect most commishes to be somewhat reluctant about.

The team exports will not go to the league server via FTP as in OOTP 11. They will go into the online database! The GMs will click on "Export team" and OOTP 12 will connect to the database and upload the team export data into the database. The commish will start OOTP 12 which connects to the database and so he will see who exported the team data. The league server is not involved at all when it comes to team export/import
Obviously we need user accounts for GMs and commish to make this work.
The commishes will never have to give any FTP info to their GMs or to OOTP Developments.
When the commish clicks on "upload league file", OOTP 12 will upload the league file to the league server just as it does now. OOTP 12 will not transfer the league server FTP settings, they are only saved locally on the commish computer. But OOTP 12 will additionally connect to the database if the upload was successfull and update the value "league file data" in the league record. So the GMs will automatically see that the commish uploaded a new legue file!

(Edited several times)

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by Andreas Raht

We will not host league files or league web sites at all. We will only host a database with a list of leagues.

Andreas, Can you help clarify this part for us? You say the database will only be a list of leagues. I assume in that database will be the connection information that is provided to OOTP for individual GMs to be able to do the league interaction that is needed to modify their team for the next sim as you said commissioners will not need to provide any connectivity information such as FTP info to end users for this to work.

But then you say when GMs hit export, it will automatically connect to the database and update their team info (thus getting rid of the need for uploads/downloads). This statement leads me to think that the database is actually more than just a list of leagues? Is the database actually a pointer to the location of the league server where the league file had actually been uploaded? If that is the case, what protocol is being used for this communication? Is it still FTP, or is it using something else?

Also you did not indicate if it was a requirement to start a brand new OOTP12 league to use this or if leagues that upgrade from OOTP11 can enter the database and take advantage of these features as well?

[Cooleyvol]

Originally Posted by Alan T

Also you did not indicate if it was a requirement to start a brand new OOTP12 league to use this or if leagues that upgrade from OOTP11 can enter the database and take advantage of these features as well?

^^Very important question.^^


I understand that OOTP will have its db and the league will have one to run its reports, etc.? Am I correct? If so, which db are the exports going to?


How much will be done with the OOTP db and how much will be done with the league's local db?

[Andreas Raht]

This will only work for OOTP 12 leagues. Existing OOTP leagues can be converted to OOTP 12 and will then work with the new system.
You are right, it's slightly more than just a list of leagues. For example, team export data will be stored in the database. But no FTP info at all.
Please, be patient. More info will follow as soon as we have it.

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by Andreas Raht

This will only work for OOTP 12 leagues. Existing OOTP leagues can be converted to OOTP 12 and will then work with the new system.
You are right, it's slightly more than just a list of leagues. For example, team export data will be stored in the database. But no FTP info at all.
Please, be patient. More info will follow as soon as we have it.

No worries Andreas, we are all over eager to understand it for a few reasons. The proposed ideas sound great, we all are eager to have a more seamless method of exporting for our GMs. Also many of us live and breathe ootp online leagues, it is the sole reason we buy the game. So the changes excite many of us to optimistic panic.

[dankrzyz]

Curious if Andreas or another developer could share some more about the new system, considering the game is due out within days...