Rant

[KentCol]

Please don't dump on me because I actually love OOTP and have played it since the first one and have faithfully purchased evry one of them.
But, I'm to the point of giving it up and moving to the competitor, which I actually don't really care for. Why? I play all of my teams games in one pitch mode. In OOTP 13, I'm into the 2014 season as the Rangers. My problem is two fold. One, no matter if I have a mediocre pitcher or a Cy Young type pitcher going, they invariably suck. I have Maddox as an Outstanding pitching coach. Example, I signed James Shields and he has been murdered in his first 3 starts. ERA about 18 something. The computer teams pitching is always good, no matter what the ratings.
Secondly, if I score 4 runs, the computer comes back and ties me or goues ahead in the next inning. This happens consistently to the point of being funny and predictable.
I don't know if the coding was changed to give the computer an advantage or what, but I'm tired of it.
Again, I love the game and Marcus and always have but something has changed and I can't deal with this. Too frustrating for me.

[One Post Wonder]

Come on... if what you're saying is true then you've played this game too long to really believe stuff like that.

OOTP has its weaknesses as a franchise and I'm not shy about talking about them, but in your example you're making a judgement on a guy based on 3 starts? You sound like a guy who's just had a bad month or so. We've all run teams that look great on April 1st and then they're terrible and we don't really know why. It doesn't mean the game is broken.

If things are that bad, why not revert to an old version rather than buy a competing sim that you don't enjoy?

[Rizon]

What's your defense look like?

[One Post Wonder]

So, after posting on this thread and defending the franchise, I went offline, continued to play OOTP, and won a World Series. First one in a while, so I was happy about that. Then during the post season process, OOTP crashed to desktop.

I loaded my game back up, and yep... my World Series ring is gone, 3 hours of RL play time is gone (I do a lot of minor league roster moves at the end of the year), and my interest in playing OOTP is gone. I'm likely done with it for the next few months at least.

This is a great game, but that stuff kills my interest in OOTP... every... damn... time. Since OOTP8 or so, it's been the same thing every year. I get really into the game, either buying a new version or reverting to one of my old ones, spend hours building up an organization, then wham... a crash, a corrupted file, or a e-licensing problem sends me flying back to Football Manager/Mount and Blade/WMMA3 land for a while. Backing up every season doesn't do it for me, because even if my league doesn't get obliterated, I'm not the type of person who can replay a few hours of the same stuff over again. Especially in this case, since it's questionable if I'll be able to win the WS even if I redo the whole play session.

I've been playing the Championship Manager series for 9 years, and I have never lost a league or a significant block of time because of a crash. With OOTP it's always just a matter of when. I know that this is part of the OOTP experience, it isn't something that's going to go away with any new version, but still... I'd give up any number of new features if I could just wholeheartedly get into this game and play a league without the inevitable upcoming crash in the back of my mind. I almost wish it would happen more often, just so it would make me give OOTP up. But it's not quite frequent enough for that - it gives me several weeks of enjoyable play, making me think that this time, it might be different. Then it yanks the chain. Bleh.

Sorry to hijack the thread. But you've gotta admit, KentCol, it was a fairly good basis for a rant.

[David Watts]

Originally Posted by One Post Wonder

So, after posting on this thread and defending the franchise, I went offline, continued to play OOTP, and won a World Series. First one in a while, so I was happy about that. Then during the post season process, OOTP crashed to desktop.

I loaded my game back up, and yep... my World Series ring is gone, 3 hours of RL play time is gone (I do a lot of minor league roster moves at the end of the year), and my interest in playing OOTP is gone. I'm likely done with it for the next few months at least.

This is a great game, but that stuff kills my interest in OOTP... every... damn... time. Since OOTP8 or so, it's been the same thing every year. I get really into the game, either buying a new version or reverting to one of my old ones, spend hours building up an organization, then wham... a crash, a corrupted file, or a e-licensing problem sends me flying back to Football Manager/Mount and Blade/WMMA3 land for a while. Backing up every season doesn't do it for me, because even if my league doesn't get obliterated, I'm not the type of person who can replay a few hours of the same stuff over again. Especially in this case, since it's questionable if I'll be able to win the WS even if I redo the whole play session.

I've been playing the Championship Manager series for 9 years, and I have never lost a league or a significant block of time because of a crash. With OOTP it's always just a matter of when. I know that this is part of the OOTP experience, it isn't something that's going to go away with any new version, but still... I'd give up any number of new features if I could just wholeheartedly get into this game and play a league without the inevitable upcoming crash in the back of my mind. I almost wish it would happen more often, just so it would make me give OOTP up. But it's not quite frequent enough for that - it gives me several weeks of enjoyable play, making me think that this time, it might be different. Then it yanks the chain. Bleh.

Sorry to hijack the thread. But you've gotta admit, KentCol, it was a fairly good basis for a rant.

Sorry to hear this. One thing you could try is setting the game to save daily. At least a crash wouldn't be so painful.

[One Post Wonder]

Well... it happens to us all, right?

I've played around with different save options over the years, but in my experience a daily save causes the game to run too slowly. Especially if I'm running feeder leagues and minors and so on. And that still wouldn't save me from a corrupt file.

Next time I get into OOTP, I'm going to play with a small league, maybe 16 teams at the most, with minor leagues off. It's reasonable to think that with less data that can break, I'm going to have greater reliability. Plus with that, the extra speed would make a daily backup feasible.

One thing that FM does (not to keep bringing that game up) is look at your PC and tell you how many leagues it will reasonably be able to handle. I don't exceed whatever it recommends and maybe that's why I never have problems with that game. Perhaps a feature like that would help OOTP. Just because the game is physically capable, on paper, of running 32 major league organizations and a bunch of feeder leagues, it doesn't mean it should.

[KentCol]

Originally Posted by One Post Wonder

Come on... if what you're saying is true then you've played this game too long to really believe stuff like that.

OOTP has its weaknesses as a franchise and I'm not shy about talking about them, but in your example you're making a judgement on a guy based on 3 starts? You sound like a guy who's just had a bad month or so. We've all run teams that look great on April 1st and then they're terrible and we don't really know why. It doesn't mean the game is broken.

If things are that bad, why not revert to an old version rather than buy a competing sim that you don't enjoy?

No, I'm not basing it on 3 starts. That was just an example. I'm basing it on my last 3 full seasons of play. And I didn't say the game was broken. I stated maybe the coding was changed somewhere along the line to make it easier for the computer ai to compete. But thanks anyway for your input.

[KentCol]

Originally Posted by Rizon

What's your defense look like?

Moreland, 8 at 1st, Kinsler 9 at 2nd, Andrus 9 at SS and Olt 9 at 3b. These are on 1-10 scale. Heisey 8 at LF, Hamilton 5 at CF and Tabata 8 at RF.

[Honorable_Pawn]

[MizzouRah]

I sim many of my games, but over the past 15 seasons, I've played about 20 games or so per season and I haven't noticed anything like that.

I know there are some posters on this forum that play out each and every game and have for many, many seasons and I don't recall anything being mentioned.

Show me your pitching staff from last year - all 5 starters end of season stats.

[Questdog]

I play every game out in one-pitch mode and I do not see the behavior that the OP is complaining about....

And if there was any such nonsense built into the game, how in the heck could anyone ever enjoy playing games out?

Just silly.

Every year, without fail, this exact same post is replicated in some form or other and Markus is accused of creating a flaming bag o' poo masquerading as beautifully intricate baseball simulation.

Meanwhile, I go on playing and watching my team win games and my pitchers pitch shutouts (sometimes).....

[The Wolf]

I play out every game in one-pitch mode (since 6.5). I have not seen what the OP says he has seen. Ever.

[Honorable_Pawn]

Originally Posted by The Wolf

I play out every game in one-pitch mode (since 6.5). I have not seen what the OP says he has seen. Ever.

Silence, ruffian!

[ashantewarrier]

Originally Posted by The Wolf

I play out every game in one-pitch mode (since 6.5). I have not seen what the OP says he has seen. Ever.

Same here. One pitch mode since I've been playing OOTP and never seen that happen.

[tomwolf2008]

Originally Posted by KentCol

No, I'm not basing it on 3 starts. That was just an example. I'm basing it on my last 3 full seasons of play. And I didn't say the game was broken. I stated maybe the coding was changed somewhere along the line to make it easier for the computer ai to compete. But thanks anyway for your input.

Then there is something wrong with your particular game or how you played the games or your teams or ten thousands other reasons.

but...

I always play one pitch and don't have your problem, and judging from comments in this post I'm not in minority here

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by Questdog

I play every game out in one-pitch mode and I do not see the behavior that the OP is complaining about....

And if there was any such nonsense built into the game, how in the heck could anyone ever enjoy playing games out?

Just silly.

Every year, without fail, this exact same post is replicated in some form or other and Markus is accused of creating a flaming bag o' poo masquerading as beautifully intricate baseball simulation.

Meanwhile, I go on playing and watching my team win games and my pitchers pitch shutouts (sometimes).....

Originally Posted by The Wolf

I play out every game in one-pitch mode (since 6.5). I have not seen what the OP says he has seen. Ever.

Originally Posted by ashantewarrier

Same here. One pitch mode since I've been playing OOTP and never seen that happen.

Originally Posted by tomwolf2008

Then there is something wrong with your particular game or how you played the games or your teams or ten thousands other reasons.

but...

I always play one pitch and don't have your problem, and judging from comments in this post I'm not in minority here

Thanks bestowed on all, but I wish I could double-thank 'dog for his comments.

Well, add me to the list. 48 "years" and counting in my league, much of it played out in one-pitch mode, and it's crashed maybe once or twice if that much. Certainly not chronically and, guess what, CRASHES MAY NOT BE THE SOLE FAULT OF THIS GAME!

And yes, the thread has been hijacked and sidetracked by the crashing complaint. So, my comment to KentCol is this:

I don't think you are a troll, but you are frustrated by SHORT TERM RESULTS and by not realizing that JAMES SHIELDS AND OTHER "REAL PLAYERS" ARE JUST A BUNCH OF BITS AND BYTES TO THE GAME. Simulated reality does not always mean perfectly mirroring real life in this game. The developer intentionally built RANDOMNESS into this game to make it more interesting. OVER TIME, it will come close to reality but certainly not in, say, a season and a half in your game (I am guessing that you are playing the MLB game that started in 2012, correct?)

Not dumping on you, but give the game a chance. At least hold off on posting stuff like this based solely on limited experience and perspective.

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

I sim many of my games, but over the past 15 seasons, I've played about 20 games or so per season and I haven't noticed anything like that.

I know there are some posters on this forum that play out each and every game and have for many, many seasons and I don't recall anything being mentioned.

Special mention to Mizzou whom I missed in my compilation above and whom I also thanked ex post facto.

[Fyrestorm3]

Originally Posted by One Post Wonder

So, after posting on this thread and defending the franchise, I went offline, continued to play OOTP, and won a World Series. First one in a while, so I was happy about that. Then during the post season process, OOTP crashed to desktop.

I loaded my game back up, and yep... my World Series ring is gone, 3 hours of RL play time is gone (I do a lot of minor league roster moves at the end of the year), and my interest in playing OOTP is gone. I'm likely done with it for the next few months at least.

This is a great game, but that stuff kills my interest in OOTP... every... damn... time. Since OOTP8 or so, it's been the same thing every year. I get really into the game, either buying a new version or reverting to one of my old ones, spend hours building up an organization, then wham... a crash, a corrupted file, or a e-licensing problem sends me flying back to Football Manager/Mount and Blade/WMMA3 land for a while. Backing up every season doesn't do it for me, because even if my league doesn't get obliterated, I'm not the type of person who can replay a few hours of the same stuff over again. Especially in this case, since it's questionable if I'll be able to win the WS even if I redo the whole play session.

I've been playing the Championship Manager series for 9 years, and I have never lost a league or a significant block of time because of a crash. With OOTP it's always just a matter of when. I know that this is part of the OOTP experience, it isn't something that's going to go away with any new version, but still... I'd give up any number of new features if I could just wholeheartedly get into this game and play a league without the inevitable upcoming crash in the back of my mind. I almost wish it would happen more often, just so it would make me give OOTP up. But it's not quite frequent enough for that - it gives me several weeks of enjoyable play, making me think that this time, it might be different. Then it yanks the chain. Bleh.

Sorry to hijack the thread. But you've gotta admit, KentCol, it was a fairly good basis for a rant.

That happened to me in one of my leagues once (I think it was in OOTP11). The game crashed while saving, and my file got completely corrupted. I lost THREE YEARS of my fictional league. Since that incident I have made sure to always set the game to save every in-game week, and I also try to remember to back up my file at the same time. It really doesn't make it take that much more time and I've never experienced anything catastrophic like that again.

Lesson learned: take precautions.

[One Post Wonder]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

Well, add me to the list. 48 "years" and counting in my league, much of it played out in one-pitch mode, and it's crashed maybe once or twice if that much. Certainly not chronically and, guess what, CRASHES MAY NOT BE THE SOLE FAULT OF THIS GAME!

Well, I'm writing based upon a decade of playing this game, with different versions and different PC's, and I can tell you that no game I've played long term -ever- has blown up on me as much as OOTP. I play plenty of other games too, some just as resource intensive as this one, and none comes close. So if my different PC's have been off, they have all been off in a similar way that affects only the various versions of OOTP and not other games. It is the sole reason why OOTP is not my all time favorite game - I love it when things are working, but in the end I simply can't trust it like I do other games.

Of course the crashing isn't constant. If it was I wouldn't be here. But it does happen often enough to harm the overall experience and send me away from the game for months on end.

But you know... I should know better than to rise to that and escalate the tone here. Believe me regarding my experiences or not. If the game has always worked perfectly for you, that's great. Your tale has warmed my heart. I'll remember it fondly when I'm spending the next few months playing FM.

Fyre, I'll figure out a way to deal with it in the end. I simply can't replay a year or even a couple of months that I've already played before... it brings me no enjoyment. Next time I make up a league, I'll create one that's much less demanding resource wise, try doing a daily save, and see how it works out for me. Thanks for your help.

Anyway, I've spoken my piece and it's not my intent to come off as a troll. It was dangerous for me to post on this rant thread right after a crash. Most of you understand what my frame of mind was like, I'm sure. I'll move along now.

[KentCol]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

Thanks bestowed on all, but I wish I could double-thank 'dog for his comments.

Well, add me to the list. 48 "years" and counting in my league, much of it played out in one-pitch mode, and it's crashed maybe once or twice if that much. Certainly not chronically and, guess what, CRASHES MAY NOT BE THE SOLE FAULT OF THIS GAME!

And yes, the thread has been hijacked and sidetracked by the crashing complaint. So, my comment to KentCol is this:

I don't think you are a troll, but you are frustrated by SHORT TERM RESULTS and by not realizing that JAMES SHIELDS AND OTHER "REAL PLAYERS" ARE JUST A BUNCH OF BITS AND BYTES TO THE GAME. Simulated reality does not always mean perfectly mirroring real life in this game. The developer intentionally built RANDOMNESS into this game to make it more interesting. OVER TIME, it will come close to reality but certainly not in, say, a season and a half in your game (I am guessing that you are playing the MLB game that started in 2012, correct?)

Not dumping on you, but give the game a chance. At least hold off on posting stuff like this based solely on limited experience and perspective.

Thanks for your input. No, I'm not a troll. As I said, I've played every OOTP since the beginning. As far as limited experience, I assume you mean 2 and a half full seasons is a limited experience?
To all, sorry I ever brought this up. I know everyone here loves this sim and so do I. But to me my experience has been different with this version. That's all I'm saying. I guess this is why I rarely post.