Something changed with Inside the Park Homers

[CBL-Commish]

In the beginning, which for me was OOTP2, Markus designed the game such that park dimensions were cosmetic. You could make a park that's 550' all around, but if you make the HR park factor 1.2 you'd get a bunch of 555' home runs.

There was never any real accommodation for very large parks and the impact they had on inside-the-park homers. In the deadball era, for example. For years I would write an annual post asking Markus to change this.

Here's one. And another. And another. And another. I think I stopped in 2013.

Somewhere along the line Markus did change the code to tie ISTP HR percentages to year. So if you played in 1910 you'd get a lot more of them than if you were in 1975.

Which leads us eventually to this thread, today. Someone asked about their longest homers. CBeisbol noted that it was easy to get long homers, just make a huge park with a big HR park factor, and you'll get a bunch of really long homers.

I went to go make a screenshot of this, so I made a giant ballpark, 600' to 850' everywhere. HR park factors around 4.000 (which would be like a little league park in Colorado, with MLBers playing), and other high factors. Then played an exhibition to capture a 700' homer.

That's where things got weird. That exhibition is now in the 8th inning, and because of the crazy park effects and the league (a very high offense league to simulate playing in all high altitude parks) it's now 44-40.

And there have been a ton of homers. Like 20 or more. And as far as I can tell every single one has been inside-the-park. Clearly something in the game has changed with regards to ISTP homers and large parks.

It would be nice if Markus would comment, otherwise I'll have to do some more experiments to make sure it's not just because of some weird setting or the fact it's an exhibition.

As I mentioned in the other thread watching this is strange and hilarious: "Note: It's pretty funny... I'm using a standard 3D model, so it doesn't look gigantic. But I think the fielders motions are being slowed down to compensate. It takes forever to get to a ball up the gap. Then the cutoff man gets the ball as the runner approaches third, and holds the ball a very long time, the runner never stops, and the result is an ISTP homer. The game is now up to like eight or ten ISTPers. I think I also made the BA and triples park effects very high and it's 18-9 in the bottom of the 3rd. "

[Matt Arnold]

Yeah, if the fence is like 470 or more, then everything gets converted to an ITP HR.

[CBL-Commish]

Who's seen this before? Back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back inside the park homers.

[CBL-Commish]

Originally Posted by Matt Arnold

Yeah, if the fence is like 470 or more, then everything gets converted to an ITP HR.

Sweet! I've literally been waiting for this for over 10 years.

[jg2977]

What if you made a park with outfield wall dimensions of 200 feet? Would you get a lot of little league style 210 foot home runs?

[CBL-Commish]

Originally Posted by Matt Arnold

Yeah, if the fence is like 470 or more, then everything gets converted to an ITP HR.

I'm not sure that's exactly true. Because as I wrote in the long homer thread the end of that exhibition I just played was a walk-off grand slam that went 723 feet.

[CBL-Commish]

Originally Posted by jg2977

What if you made a park with outfield wall dimensions of 200 feet? Would you get a lot of little league style 210 foot home runs?

You should try.

I always wanted to make a park that had 210 foot fence distances, but 150' tall. Basically it's all singles.

[Matt Arnold]

Originally Posted by CBL-Commish

I'm not sure that's exactly true. Because as I wrote in the long homer thread the end of that exhibition I just played was a walk-off grand slam that went 723 feet.

What are the actual park dimensions that was in?

[CBL-Commish]

Originally Posted by Matt Arnold

What are the actual park dimensions that was in?

625-715-850-950-822-777-682. Wall heights 5, 5, 10, 75, 5, 5, 5.

[Matt Arnold]

Ah, yeah, looks like walkoffs used a different check. Easy fix

[CBL-Commish]

Originally Posted by Matt Arnold

Ah, yeah, looks like walkoffs used a different check. Easy fix

So that may be the last 700-foot homer in OOTP history?

[Cryomaniac]

Originally Posted by Matt Arnold

Yeah, if the fence is like 470 or more, then everything gets converted to an ITP HR.

It's probably a stupid amount of work for something that is a minor nit-pick, but since the longest HR in MLB is something like 520ft, shouldn't it maybe be possible (but rare) up to about that distance? So like, after 450ft there's more chance of an inside the park HR, and after about 525 its 100%?

Also, doesn't this mean that power guys in big parks will have unrealistic amounts of Inside The Park Homeruns, and speedsters with no power wont get many (although I get that Gap Power does increase triples, which affect inside the park HRs too...)?

[MateDow]

Originally Posted by CBL-Commish

You should try.

I always wanted to make a park that had 210 foot fence distances, but 150' tall. Basically it's all singles.

Here is a blog post with your idea...


https://baseballcontinuum.com/2015/0...rena-baseball/

[CardiffBlue]

Originally Posted by Cryomaniac

It's probably a stupid amount of work for something that is a minor nit-pick, but since the longest HR in MLB is something like 520ft, shouldn't it maybe be possible (but rare) up to about that distance? So like, after 450ft there's more chance of an inside the park HR, and after about 525 its 100%?

Also, doesn't this mean that power guys in big parks will have unrealistic amounts of Inside The Park Homeruns, and speedsters with no power wont get many (although I get that Gap Power does increase triples, which affect inside the park HRs too...)?

In the other thread, I posted a 518 foot homer - because I thought I'd never seen one so long ... as thing stand you can get close to 520.

Maybe the change relates to custom parks?

[Bunktown Ballers]

Originally Posted by Cryomaniac

It's probably a stupid amount of work for something that is a minor nit-pick, but since the longest HR in MLB is something like 520ft, shouldn't it maybe be possible (but rare) up to about that distance? So like, after 450ft there's more chance of an inside the park HR, and after about 525 its 100%?

Also, doesn't this mean that power guys in big parks will have unrealistic amounts of Inside The Park Homeruns, and speedsters with no power wont get many (although I get that Gap Power does increase triples, which affect inside the park HRs too...)?

To each their own but.....why? I always run as far away as I can from arcade baseball games. I'd never make changes to make OOTP like that. Just too much of a purest I guess

[CBL-Commish]

Originally Posted by Bunktown Ballers

To each their own but.....why? I always run as far away as I can from arcade baseball games. I'd never make changes to make OOTP like that. Just too much of a purest I guess

What about that is like an arcade baseball game? I think we're just trying to get more realistic portrayal of large stadiums, which aren't present in today's MLB but have been in the past. And are present in countless fictional leagues.

[CBeisbol]

Originally Posted by Bunktown Ballers

Just too much of a purest I guess

"Purist" is one way to say it
"Lacks imagination and/or curiosity" might be another.

[jeffw3000]

Originally Posted by Bunktown Ballers

To each their own but.....why? I always run as far away as I can from arcade baseball games. I'd never make changes to make OOTP like that. Just too much of a purest I guess

I would say wanting realistic home run distances based on stadium, and a realistic number of Inside the Park Homers based on stadium is being a purest, because you want to improve the realism in the game.

[Anyone]

If you're going to do it this way, which makes sense in many ways, in very big parks (as in bigger than any that exist in real life today, the ones that lead to conversion to inside the park homeruns), Speed should be as important as Power for inside the park home runs (well, Speed should always be as important as Power for inside the park home runs, just that if you use parks that look like modern day parks it'll matter a lot less because there'll be a lot less inside the park home runs).

[CBL-Commish]

Originally Posted by Anyone

If you're going to do it this way, which makes sense in many ways, in very big parks (as in bigger than any that exist in real life today, the ones that lead to conversion to inside the park homeruns), Speed should be as important as Power for inside the park home runs (well, Speed should always be as important as Power for inside the park home runs, just that if you use parks that look like modern day parks it'll matter a lot less because there'll be a lot less inside the park home runs).

Are you sure about that? If you have a park that's 500+ feet to the fence, the outfielders will have to play more than 100' from the fence. There's some point where any MLBer, even the slowest, will be able to round the bases before any outfielder could run back and retrieve the ball. The fast players would have an advantage if it was 440' to RC. 500'? I don't know.

With really long fences power might be more important than speed for ISTPers. Billy Hamilton could probably never hit a ball over Mays' head in the Polo Grounds in the '54 Series, but Prince Fielder might.

In fact... in real life, in small, modern stadiums Fielder had two ISTP homers and Hamilton has yet to hit one.

What would be great is to see someone like Eric Davis with 30-homer power and 80-steal speed in a deadball era park.