Non-sensical owner demands

jumpin_james · 05-09-2022, 03:00 PM

Been playing OOTP for serval years and love it. I'm a small-market Twins fan and always play as them. One of the most frustrating things I've encountered in this game is the Owner's Demands.

For the last few iterations of OOTP (20-22) playing as the Twins, the owner always demanded I re-sign Nelson Cruz to a contract extension. As a small-market team, trying to extend Cruz for anything reasonable was never possible and I always "failed" in the eyes of my owner.

I was looking forward to OOTP 23 because Cruz was gone and I wouldn't have to worry about that particular owner demand. Boy...I want to go back.

Now the owner wants me to sign .170 batting average chump Gary Sanchez to an extension (even though I have Ryan Jeffers as my primary and future catcher.) He's demanding anywhere from 10-12 million per year NOW. If he starts hitting at all, I'm sure that will go up.

My point: OOTP needs to re-evalute the AI on these Owner Demands. The small-market Twins signing Gary Sanchez to an extension worth tens of millions of dollars (when we have a young player producing much better results) makes no sense and isn't based in reality.

Or, there should be an option where I, as a GM, can "talk" the owner into understanding that one of their demands makes no sense (either financially or baseball-wise.)

Anyone else deal with similarly dumb Owner Demands? Any suggestions on how to circumvent them?

tcblcommish · 05-09-2022, 03:01 PM

I find them kind of stupid a lot of times so I just turn them off.

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MikeS369 · 05-09-2022, 03:04 PM

You can always disable owner goals. But there are some strange ones. My owner wants me to extend Justin Verlander. I'm in season 2022 and Verlander is signed through 2023. Don't know why he wants me to extend him now but it's not going to happen.

Leo_The_Lip · 05-09-2022, 03:16 PM

What I do is check the "can't be fired" box. This makes many of the "not quite fully realized" functions of the game tolerable.

UltimateAverageGuy · 05-09-2022, 03:16 PM

Turn them off, the end

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MathBandit · 05-09-2022, 03:20 PM

I'm sure RL owners have done far worse than politely request for a Gary Sanchez to be re-signed.

If the guy signing my paycheque (and that of all my players) wants to ask me to re-sign someone instead of going over my head to do the contract, all the power to him. I usually try to see if there's a reasonable deal to be made if the owners asks, but if not it's not the end of the world.

4maddux_cy's · 05-09-2022, 04:30 PM

I am currently the Royals in 2022 and my owner is asking me to sign Greinke to an extension. I am like, no!

locuspc · 05-09-2022, 08:16 PM

The game isn't that hard, I find that following the owner goals is a way to help keep it interesting. Certainly there have been dumb extensions signed for popular veterans in the past IRL! It isn't unrealistic in my eyes. It screws with my ability to fully optimize my franchise if I follow the goals, but that's what it's supposed to do. If the goals only told me to do things I was going to do anyway, there would be no reason for them to exist.

Remember, the goals aren't truly "demands", they're things that will make the owner happy. If you're providing success on the field and in the bank account, you can get away with ignoring the requests if you want, the owner will be happy enough. If you get a request to resign a popular veteran, you can take that as a sign it's time to start a rebuild, and let the owner happiness from passing the goals cover for the unhappiness at losing games.

If you want perfect control over your team you can turn the owner off. I think having an owner that sometimes gets attached to a player like Sanchez makes the game more interesting, but that's the beauty of a customizable game like OOTP, we can both play how we want.

Ty Cobb · 05-09-2022, 08:24 PM

Turn owner goals off. The average owner in this game has the IQ of a rotted cabbage. "I want..." at the beginning of every sentence from them still has me begging Markus to include the ability to send an ESABATM email to them. If you're unfamiliar with that one, you're too young to hear it from me...but it ain't good.

Ratbelly · 05-09-2022, 08:43 PM

They are a way to add challenge to the game. So I do them or at least try.

Biggio509 · 05-09-2022, 10:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jumpin_james

Been playing OOTP for serval years and love it. I'm a small-market Twins fan and always play as them. One of the most frustrating things I've encountered in this game is the Owner's Demands.

For the last few iterations of OOTP (20-22) playing as the Twins, the owner always demanded I re-sign Nelson Cruz to a contract extension. As a small-market team, trying to extend Cruz for anything reasonable was never possible and I always "failed" in the eyes of my owner.

I was looking forward to OOTP 23 because Cruz was gone and I wouldn't have to worry about that particular owner demand. Boy...I want to go back.

Now the owner wants me to sign .170 batting average chump Gary Sanchez to an extension (even though I have Ryan Jeffers as my primary and future catcher.) He's demanding anywhere from 10-12 million per year NOW. If he starts hitting at all, I'm sure that will go up.

My point: OOTP needs to re-evalute the AI on these Owner Demands. The small-market Twins signing Gary Sanchez to an extension worth tens of millions of dollars (when we have a young player producing much better results) makes no sense and isn't based in reality.

Or, there should be an option where I, as a GM, can "talk" the owner into understanding that one of their demands makes no sense (either financially or baseball-wise.)

Anyone else deal with similarly dumb Owner Demands? Any suggestions on how to circumvent them?

This is so unrealistic. It isn't like any owner ever told the GM to sign a declining overpaid guy who was in the Mitchel report and had lied about his age to sign for a team. Oh and lied to congress as well. No that would never happen.
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SirSaab · 05-09-2022, 10:59 PM

The 20-teens San Francisco Giants front office (this is pre-Farhan) was locally well-known for handing out contracts rewarding past performance and fan service, with scant eye toward how that would affect the team in the future. MadBum was the last of those contracts. With Farhan’s helming operations, it’s shifted more toward pragmatism and bargain contracts for project players they feel they can resurrect. They weren’t always the *worst* signings, but they were rarely the best, either.

Brad K · 05-10-2022, 05:54 AM

I'm not saying this isn't frustrating but its an enhancement. And it can be turned off. It's not vital to the game.

Meanwhile, this

https://forums.ootpdevelopments.com/...d.php?t=337498

is vital to the game.

Prioritization is interesting.

Anteater · 05-10-2022, 06:42 AM

I never use owner goals or story lines.

PSUColonel · 05-10-2022, 06:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by UltimateAverageGuy

Turn them off, the end

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This is NOT the answer to the point he’s trying to make. He obviously wants to use them, and would like them to function a little better. Something I happen to agree with. When something is not working as well as it possibly should, the answer also shouldn’t have to be “well just turn it off”.

BBGiovanni · 05-10-2022, 11:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Biggio509

This is so unrealistic. It isn't like any owner ever told the GM to sign a declining overpaid guy who was in the Mitchel report and had lied about his age to sign for a team. Oh and lied to congress as well. No that would never happen.

This reminds me of other discussions, like the one about how relievers never bat for themselves or teams don't ever leave better players in the minors while they play "veteran presents". Sometimes the AI being "dumb" actually does a pretty decent job of simulating humanity. Maybe it's already become self-aware and taken over real-life like in Brockmire!

I turn off owner goals too, it's the OOTP equivalent of the fetch quest in an exploration game where the king tells you to sail from Lisbon to Ambon to buy a jar of nutmeg and bring it back to him for the royal feast

UltimateAverageGuy · 05-10-2022, 01:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PSUColonel

This is NOT the answer to the point he’s trying to make. He obviously wants to use them, and would like them to function a little better. Something I happen to agree with. When something is not working as well as it possibly should, the answer also shouldn’t have to be “well just turn it off”.

The answer to something that doesn’t work right isn’t to keep it on. So for NOW if it’s an issue, until they fix it, TURN IT OFF. The end.

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locuspc · 05-10-2022, 03:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PSUColonel

This is NOT the answer to the point he’s trying to make. He obviously wants to use them, and would like them to function a little better. Something I happen to agree with. When something is not working as well as it possibly should, the answer also shouldn’t have to be “well just turn it off”.

I wouldn't mind owner goals being better functioning, but I feel like the powergamers' idea of "better" would be "only give me goals that will help the team and I would have wanted to do anyway". That wouldn't be better, that would make it a pointless mechanic. Owner goals function well enough as they are. (Other than the bug that crops up sometimes for "improve team stat" goals, which hopefully they fix.)

JerseyPirate · 05-10-2022, 03:21 PM

There is nothing that annoys me more about this game than the owner goals. I know I can turn them off but I guess I like something to annoy me. The worst I've seen involve re-signing a past his prime player AND demanding I cut payroll. I almost win a World Series while making a profit and he wants me to cut payroll so I can make him more money.

Biggio509 · 05-10-2022, 04:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JerseyPirate

There is nothing that annoys me more about this game than the owner goals. I know I can turn them off but I guess I like something to annoy me. The worst I've seen involve re-signing a past his prime player AND demanding I cut payroll. I almost win a World Series while making a profit and he wants me to cut payroll so I can make him more money.

What is so unrealistic about an owner putting his profit over a world series win on the GM's resume? I believe it was Branch Rickey who argued it is best to spend enough to give a team a chance at the playoffs and a chance at winning then spend so much you should win. That is profit maximizing because the cost of a team to win it all often exceeds the extra money gained from doing so unless you can do it with young guys who are due a big pay day later.

As much as Astros fans dislike the owner back when we had Tejada, Clemens, and Pettite he realized putting butts in the seat was better than winning it all. He could get attention with big names and a chance at a world series without spending enough to win it all. Fans hated it but it made him money and franchise value was much higher when he sold it.

A pain in the ass as the GM? Sure but not unrealistic at all. I don't want the fan interest hit from losing this guy but get enough young talent to win on a budget isn't unrealistic. Very hard to do but not impossible.

I just quit and manage another team if an owner wants that and I don't want to deal with the PITA. I have found generally cutting payroll and meeting the profit target will keep your job even if you don't win if you don't say ok find someone else to do it.

05-09-2022, 03:00 PM	#1
jumpin_james Minors (Single A) Join Date: Mar 2020 Location: Upstate NY Posts: 75	Non-sensical owner demands Been playing OOTP for serval years and love it. I'm a small-market Twins fan and always play as them. One of the most frustrating things I've encountered in this game is the Owner's Demands. For the last few iterations of OOTP (20-22) playing as the Twins, the owner always demanded I re-sign Nelson Cruz to a contract extension. As a small-market team, trying to extend Cruz for anything reasonable was never possible and I always "failed" in the eyes of my owner. I was looking forward to OOTP 23 because Cruz was gone and I wouldn't have to worry about that particular owner demand. Boy...I want to go back. Now the owner wants me to sign .170 batting average chump Gary Sanchez to an extension (even though I have Ryan Jeffers as my primary and future catcher.) He's demanding anywhere from 10-12 million per year NOW. If he starts hitting at all, I'm sure that will go up. My point: OOTP needs to re-evalute the AI on these Owner Demands. The small-market Twins signing Gary Sanchez to an extension worth tens of millions of dollars (when we have a young player producing much better results) makes no sense and isn't based in reality. Or, there should be an option where I, as a GM, can "talk" the owner into understanding that one of their demands makes no sense (either financially or baseball-wise.) Anyone else deal with similarly dumb Owner Demands? Any suggestions on how to circumvent them? __________________

05-09-2022, 03:16 PM	#4
Leo_The_Lip All Star Starter Join Date: Nov 2009 Posts: 1,813	What I do is check the "can't be fired" box. This makes many of the "not quite fully realized" functions of the game tolerable. __________________ "My name will live forever" - Anonymous

05-09-2022, 08:24 PM	#9
Ty Cobb Hall Of Famer Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: Grayling, MI Posts: 4,622	Turn owner goals off. The average owner in this game has the IQ of a rotted cabbage. "I want..." at the beginning of every sentence from them still has me begging Markus to include the ability to send an ESABATM email to them. If you're unfamiliar with that one, you're too young to hear it from me...but it ain't good. __________________ "You could not live with your own failure. Where did that bring you? Back to me." Thanos

05-09-2022, 08:43 PM	#10
Ratbelly Minors (Double A) Join Date: Feb 2014 Posts: 176	They are a way to add challenge to the game. So I do them or at least try. __________________

05-09-2022, 10:59 PM	#12
SirSaab Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Dec 2020 Posts: 283	The 20-teens San Francisco Giants front office (this is pre-Farhan) was locally well-known for handing out contracts rewarding past performance and fan service, with scant eye toward how that would affect the team in the future. MadBum was the last of those contracts. With Farhan’s helming operations, it’s shifted more toward pragmatism and bargain contracts for project players they feel they can resurrect. They weren’t always the worst signings, but they were rarely the best, either. __________________ “Lady, I’m not an athlete. I’m a professional baseball player.” - John Kruk

05-09-2022, 03:01 PM	#2
tcblcommish Hall Of Famer Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Canada Posts: 3,444	I find them kind of stupid a lot of times so I just turn them off. Sent from my SM-G998W using Tapatalk

05-09-2022, 03:04 PM	#3
MikeS369 All Star Reserve Join Date: Dec 2020 Location: USA Posts: 654	You can always disable owner goals. But there are some strange ones. My owner wants me to extend Justin Verlander. I'm in season 2022 and Verlander is signed through 2023. Don't know why he wants me to extend him now but it's not going to happen.

05-09-2022, 03:16 PM	#5
UltimateAverageGuy All Star Reserve Join Date: Jan 2017 Posts: 591	Turn them off, the end Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

05-09-2022, 03:20 PM	#6
MathBandit All Star Starter Join Date: Feb 2021 Posts: 1,448	I'm sure RL owners have done far worse than politely request for a Gary Sanchez to be re-signed. If the guy signing my paycheque (and that of all my players) wants to ask me to re-sign someone instead of going over my head to do the contract, all the power to him. I usually try to see if there's a reasonable deal to be made if the owners asks, but if not it's not the end of the world.

05-09-2022, 04:30 PM	#7
4maddux_cy's All Star Starter Join Date: May 2012 Posts: 1,191	I am currently the Royals in 2022 and my owner is asking me to sign Greinke to an extension. I am like, no!

05-09-2022, 08:16 PM	#8
locuspc Major Leagues Join Date: Apr 2022 Posts: 340	The game isn't that hard, I find that following the owner goals is a way to help keep it interesting. Certainly there have been dumb extensions signed for popular veterans in the past IRL! It isn't unrealistic in my eyes. It screws with my ability to fully optimize my franchise if I follow the goals, but that's what it's supposed to do. If the goals only told me to do things I was going to do anyway, there would be no reason for them to exist. Remember, the goals aren't truly "demands", they're things that will make the owner happy. If you're providing success on the field and in the bank account, you can get away with ignoring the requests if you want, the owner will be happy enough. If you get a request to resign a popular veteran, you can take that as a sign it's time to start a rebuild, and let the owner happiness from passing the goals cover for the unhappiness at losing games. If you want perfect control over your team you can turn the owner off. I think having an owner that sometimes gets attached to a player like Sanchez makes the game more interesting, but that's the beauty of a customizable game like OOTP, we can both play how we want.

05-10-2022, 05:54 AM	#13
Brad K Banned Join Date: May 2016 Location: St Petersburg Florida USA Posts: 6,693 Infractions: 0/2 (4)	I'm not saying this isn't frustrating but its an enhancement. And it can be turned off. It's not vital to the game. Meanwhile, this https://forums.ootpdevelopments.com/...d.php?t=337498 is vital to the game. Prioritization is interesting.

05-10-2022, 06:42 AM	#14
Anteater Minors (Double A) Join Date: Apr 2022 Location: Florida Posts: 132	I never use owner goals or story lines.

05-10-2022, 03:21 PM	#19
JerseyPirate Minors (Double A) Join Date: Jul 2020 Posts: 172	There is nothing that annoys me more about this game than the owner goals. I know I can turn them off but I guess I like something to annoy me. The worst I've seen involve re-signing a past his prime player AND demanding I cut payroll. I almost win a World Series while making a profit and he wants me to cut payroll so I can make him more money.