REVIEW: Want a new baseball addiction? Give OOTP 13 a try

[Cole]

Hi guys,

Please head on over to InfieldFly.ca to check out my review of OOTP 13 after spending about a week playing a preview copy of the game.

I'd be happy to answer any questions or hear any feedback and if you're a Jays fans (or enjoy any sort of American League-esque writing) please like us on Facebook.

[DustinthePOWERHOUSE]

Hey I just read your review and I just wanted to say it was fantastically written and made me even more excited for the game!

Two things that kind of worried me though:

The Real-Time Simulation seems super exciting, but I'm considering playing it throughout the season (on a relatively fast speed) so I can watch everything. Normally I'm a simmer (and a pretty fast one) but I love the idea of getting more immersed in my league. But from what I'm reading it seems that people like the real-sim but not for an entire season, does it get repetitive? Or was it just something you weren't testing for/not your cup of tea in terms of usage?

The crashing thing. I've never experienced that before with an OOTP 13 game. Did you ever resolve that problem in terms of checking it? Or will that not happen until you get a final copy.

(Also your blog is great as well, really impressed- even though I'm a Red Sox fan! Great work man!)

Sorry if that was a lot, but I just wanted to let ya know!

[Cole]

Originally Posted by DustinthePOWERHOUSE

Hey I just read your review and I just wanted to say it was fantastically written and made me even more excited for the game!

Two things that kind of worried me though:

The Real-Time Simulation seems super exciting, but I'm considering playing it throughout the season (on a relatively fast speed) so I can watch everything. Normally I'm a simmer (and a pretty fast one) but I love the idea of getting more immersed in my league. But from what I'm reading it seems that people like the real-sim but not for an entire season, does it get repetitive? Or was it just something you weren't testing for/not your cup of tea in terms of usage?

Thanks for your feedback.

I don't see why you couldn't use/enjoy real-time simulation for an entire season. It just seemed more natural to me to use it in brief spurts, while occasionally stopping to smell the roses.

I guess the main thing would be, you aren't able to do transactions while real-time simulation mode is on, so if you ran it this way for an entire season you wouldn't be able to do call ups/send downs, change lineups when injuries pop up react to trades, etc. However if you're a fast simmer who perhaps sets all those options to CPU control and just powers through, maybe that's not a big deal... That's an interesting thought though... While the user can't make transactions during real-time simulation, if things are set to CPU control, will they make changes while multiple days are being simmed? I honestly don't know the answer, I will try to test and figure it out now.

Myself personally I'm definitely not a slow simmer, but I'm also not a super fast one either who wants to finish a season in an hour or two, so I think using real-time simulation for an entire season wouldn't really work for me. Don't be discouraged about it though. Everyone plays OOTP so differently!

The crashing thing. I've never experienced that before with an OOTP 13 game. Did you ever resolve that problem in terms of checking it? Or will that not happen until you get a final copy.

(Also your blog is great as well, really impressed- even though I'm a Red Sox fan! Great work man!)

Sorry if that was a lot, but I just wanted to let ya know!

Thanks for the comments on the blog. As for the crashing, I'm not really sure if it is resolved. It wasn't like a repeatable thing that was happening over and over, it was just something that popped up.... Actually, one time as I recall it crashed when I was in the middle of a real-time simulation and then I also tried to click "Sim Week" .... So, yeah, that's perhaps just a silly thing that people wouldn't/shouldn't do anyone but might confuse the system.

To be honest I'm not that worried about crashes or the game's overall stability once the full version comes out.

[Markus Heinsohn]

Originally Posted by ripwalk

As for the crashing, I'm not really sure if it is resolved. It wasn't like a repeatable thing that was happening over and over, it was just something that popped up.... Actually, one time as I recall it crashed when I was in the middle of a real-time simulation and then I also tried to click "Sim Week" ....

These problems were fixed in the meantime

[DustinthePOWERHOUSE]

Originally Posted by ripwalk

Thanks for your feedback.

I don't see why you couldn't use/enjoy real-time simulation for an entire season. It just seemed more natural to me to use it in brief spurts, while occasionally stopping to smell the roses.

I guess the main thing would be, you aren't able to do transactions while real-time simulation mode is on, so if you ran it this way for an entire season you wouldn't be able to do call ups/send downs, change lineups when injuries pop up react to trades, etc. However if you're a fast simmer who perhaps sets all those options to CPU control and just powers through, maybe that's not a big deal... That's an interesting thought though... While the user can't make transactions during real-time simulation, if things are set to CPU control, will they make changes while multiple days are being simmed? I honestly don't know the answer, I will try to test and figure it out now.

Myself personally I'm definitely not a slow simmer, but I'm also not a super fast one either who wants to finish a season in an hour or two, so I think using real-time simulation for an entire season wouldn't really work for me. Don't be discouraged about it though. Everyone plays OOTP so differently!




Thanks for the comments on the blog. As for the crashing, I'm not really sure if it is resolved. It wasn't like a repeatable thing that was happening over and over, it was just something that popped up.... Actually, one time as I recall it crashed when I was in the middle of a real-time simulation and then I also tried to click "Sim Week" .... So, yeah, that's perhaps just a silly thing that people wouldn't/shouldn't do anyone but might confuse the system.

To be honest I'm not that worried about crashes or the game's overall stability once the full version comes out.

Thanks for answering me! I like the idea of going in and out of the real-time, but using it throughout the course. Basically doing my transactions/moving players and then getting back to the live action so I can have the rest of the "day" to relax and sip my beer (you get the idea)

That's actually what seemed so cool to me with the real-time simulation that you can do everything, but then it's not over super fast there's still the games and you can watch your league unfold before your eyes. Previously, and I'm only realizing this now that real-time sim is an option, you could do things during the day, but then your game is over/the rest of the games are over and you advance a day unless you actually play the games (which I don't do) That's why this is so appealing to me.

Also, does the real-time simulation "stop" if I make a trade or call someone up/down? Or does it just show up on the ticker on the top or bottom!

Again, I don't mean to ask you personally, I'm just kind of asking you because you responded so nicely and I figure maybe you know the answer.

[Cole]

Originally Posted by Markus Heinsohn

These problems were fixed in the meantime

Yeah as I said I wasn't too concerned about it. OOT has always been very stable for me. Perhaps I'll go edit my blog posting to reflect that the source of crash has been fixed.

[Cole]

Originally Posted by DustinthePOWERHOUSE

Also, does the real-time simulation "stop" if I make a trade or call someone up/down? Or does it just show up on the ticker on the top or bottom!

.

You are not able to make trades/transactions while real-time simulation is going on. So if you wanted to make a trade for example, you'd have to finish the simulation (meaning get to the end of a day of games), stop the simulation, then proceed with your trade or call/up send down.

Probably not the answer you were hoping for, but yeah, you get a prompt that says transactions aren't allowed while in real-time simulation, whenever you try to do something like a call up or send down.

[DustinthePOWERHOUSE]

Originally Posted by ripwalk

You are not able to make trades/transactions while real-time simulation is going on. So if you wanted to make a trade for example, you'd have to finish the simulation (meaning get to the end of a day of games), stop the simulation, then proceed with your trade or call/up send down.

Probably not the answer you were hoping for, but yeah, you get a prompt that says transactions aren't allowed while in real-time simulation, whenever you try to do something like a call up or send down.

Actually that sounds great. Allows me to do my business (call ups/trades and what not) in the morning and sim the games in the evening.

With my toes in the water, and a beer in my hand.

[Cole]

Originally Posted by DustinthePOWERHOUSE

Actually that sounds great. Allows me to do my business (call ups/trades and what not) in the morning and sim the games in the evening.

Well, just to be clear, you can't make transactions when this mode is on, even if there are no games currently going on .. So you have to stop the mode completely, finish the day and then go. Perhaps you realize this but just making sure. That being said it's not all too tough to switch this mode on/off, so not a huge deal.

Also, this is odd because I could have sworn there was a lot of down time on this mode while there was no games going on when I was simming earlier this week, but as I'm testing/simming it now, the simulation seems to pretty much run until an hour or two after the last game of the night ends and then it jumps immediately to the next day, right to the time of the first game of the next day.

Now granted this is happening while I'm on simulation speed x120. maybe it's different at the slower speeds, but I certainly don't have the time to test that out right now, and I wouldn't think it sims the run of a day differently depending on what speed you are on.

[DustinthePOWERHOUSE]

Originally Posted by ripwalk

Well, just to be clear, you can't make transactions when this mode is on, even if there are no games currently going on .. So you have to stop the mode completely, finish the day and then go. Perhaps you realize this but just making sure. That being said it's not all too tough to switch this mode on/off, so not a huge deal.

Also, this is odd because I could have sworn there was a lot of down time on this mode while there was no games going on when I was simming earlier this week, but as I'm testing/simming it now, the simulation seems to pretty much run until an hour or two after the last game of the night ends and then it jumps immediately to the next day, right to the time of the first game of the next day.

Now granted this is happening while I'm on simulation speed x120. maybe it's different at the slower speeds, but I certainly don't have the time to test that out right now, and I wouldn't think it sims the run of a day differently depending on what speed you are on.

So basically you start the day at 1:05 (or whenever the first game is) then you can shut off the mode (real-sim) for a few minutes to do all your call ups/send downs, trades, lineup switches and what not

...and then you can turn the mode on and sim the day through real-sim right?

So that is essentially just getting the work done before watching and your day essentially starts at 1:05? Unless I'm missing something, which I hope I'm not?

[Cole]

Upon closer inspection, you aren't quite as limited as I thought in real-time sim mode... WIth games going on in the background you can still offer contracts to free agents and negotiate with draft picks, and offer trades (and get responses back).... So yeah, that's great! I guess all you can't do is stuff on the transactions screen.The more I play this mode, the more I think I will be using this a TON. Amazing.

[Cole]

Originally Posted by DustinthePOWERHOUSE

So basically you start the day at 1:05 (or whenever the first game is) then you can shut off the mode (real-sim) for a few minutes to do all your call ups/send downs, trades, lineup switches and what not

...and then you can turn the mode on and sim the day through real-sim right?

So that is essentially just getting the work done before watching and your day essentially starts at 1:05? Unless I'm missing something, which I hope I'm not?

Well once the day of games starts simming, you would then be unable to make your transactions without finishing the day and subsquently having to sim through all games....

So a better way to go about it would be after the last game of the night is done, stop real-time simulation. FINISH the day. Then make your transactions, call ups/send downs, etc. Then restart the real-time sim for the next day.

[Cole]

Also, the CPU does make moves for you while real-time sim is on if you have them set to do so....

I just had Kyle Drabek eligible to come off the DL for me the computer did that and put him back into the rotation ... His first game back with the team he gets into a bench-clearing brawl and he's now suspended for 15 games! Hahaha.

[DustinthePOWERHOUSE]

Originally Posted by ripwalk

Well once the day of games starts simming, you would then be unable to make your transactions without finishing the day and subsquently having to sim through all games....

So a better way to go about it would be after the last game of the night is done, stop real-time simulation. FINISH the day. Then make your transactions, call ups/send downs, etc. Then restart the real-time sim for the next day.

So basically:

(Sorry this became a conversation, I hope this isn't annoying to you and everyone else)

You can (during real time simulation) trade, offer contracts/negotiate with free agents/your player during the sim...

But you can't call down/change lineups (unless you're in the game I assume) during the real time simulation

Now, do other teams make trades during it and can you view those trades in the transaction screen when the game is simming (real time simming) or is that not an option.

Sorry, I have a feeling I'm getting really annoying I can stop.

[Cole]

Originally Posted by DustinthePOWERHOUSE

So basically:

You can (during real time simulation) trade, offer contracts/negotiate with free agents/your player during the sim...

But you can't call down/change lineups (unless you're in the game I assume) during the real time simulation

Now, do other teams make trades during it and can you view those trades in the transaction screen when the game is simming (real time simming) or is that not an option.

.

Not annoying all, I'm glad to answer what I can. I only hope I don't provide any misinformation as I haven't been playing with RTS all that much. However, you'll find out for yourself in a few days!

That being said I'm pretty sure you have the jist of it. The only thing it seems I CAN'T do while games are going is do call ups/send downs or move people off the DL. There could be more but that's the only time I've gotten that message.

You actually can set your lineup for upcoming games while in this mode.

While my June 26th game was playing I set my June 27th lineup the 7-day lineup screen and I did a goofy lineup so I'd know if it "took" or not and sure enough it does!

Yes other teams make trades and when the days turn over you'll get the new batch of e-mails coming in telling you about what went on, just like if you were simming normally.

I'm not sure what you mean about viewing trades in the transaction screen... But, you'll get e-mails about them as usual... I don't *think* any prompts come across saying they've happened, like the score updates, for exampple. I could be wrong, but I believe all that stuff is "computed" as the days change over as there is a slight pause at that moment.

[Markus Heinsohn]

In a nutshell: When RTS is ACTIVE, you can not do any roster moves that involves players changing teams. However, you can of course when RTS has finished (at the end of the day for example) do these moves. It's just that you cannot do transactions when games are in progress as this could cause problems obviously.

The AI does moves after all games have finished too after advancing to the next day.

[MizzouRah]

I'm assuming this is due to the real roster set?

I noticed a ton of waiver activity in the early going of my 2012 MLB game. I don’t know if that’s typical of a new roster game and it will die down but it seemed overkill to me with many players going up on waivers, getting claimed, switching teams, etc.

[Cole]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

I'm assuming this is due to the real roster set?

Yes I would assume so. I haven't delved too heavily into a fictional game but I would assume you are correct and this dies down after a while in the MLB set when everyone settles.

[BabyLemonade]

Great review..Thanks for sharing

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by ripwalk

Yes I would assume so. I haven't delved too heavily into a fictional game but I would assume you are correct and this dies down after a while in the MLB set when everyone settles.

Thanks, I figured as such. As long as you are not seeing Pujols being waived.