Announcing OOTP 27

[Matt Arnold]

Dear OOTP Fans,

The next version of Out of the Park Baseball, OOTP 27, is coming on March 13th!

Stay tuned to the forums and to our social channels, for our full Road to Release schedule, as we lead up to the launch.

Visit out store page to view the new features and pre-order today, and save 10%! For Steam customers, you can wishlist the game in our store page, and purchase to get access on release day. Save 10% when you buy in the first week.

Watch the full trailer for the game here, which lists some of the new features coming to the game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCq5WNL1jjo. You can read the pre-order newsletter here: See the new features!

Pitchers and Catchers are reporting, baseball is just around the corner. Thanks for all your support!

Matt & The OOTP Developments Team

[Eburaci]

Watched the trailer twice... more confused than anything else. I'm eager to see more.

Seems like major changes to the scouting model, with accuracy variable for each core rating.

Are the statcast/advanced stats indicative of a change in the engine from an outcome-based model to a physics-based one? That would be a large change, and probably difficult thing to do well.

I can't say that the ratings difficulty settings are compelling. Seems like a way to simply hamstring yourself against the AI, based on the screen shots. That doesn't feel realistic, but rather arcade-style.

Hope to have more information about the changes to the game soon. Is it too much to ask for a new manual?

[Sweed]

Looking good! Excited for all of the new advanced stats along with what's being added to the player cards.

With all of the new stats I'm wondering if that is going to reek some havoc on bringing forward out table views and user.dat files? I get it if it does but not having to rebuild everything would be nice. Having said that, for the extras that are coming in, it will be worth the effort.

Can we also assume the traditional release day (no 3 day early) Steam discount will be there?

[Hushroom]

looks like baseball savant type stats are making it in the game. awesome!

[millhousebc]

Agreed....will definitely need to see more. Track more stats and different difficulty modes not really a game changer from 26. Hopefully more to come.

[Bagpipes5]

Originally Posted by millhousebc

Agreed....will definitely need to see more. Track more stats and different difficulty modes not really a game changer from 26. Hopefully more to come.

Same, I will need to see what kind of stats this version produces before I commit. Much of it seems copy/pasta and the extended stats are no substitute for statcast. OOTP has difficulty levels now?

[rdomico]

Your link doesn't for this doesn't work

You can read the pre-order newsletter here: See the new features!

[manooly]

Excited to see the updates to the UI and in-game advanced stats optimization. I always enjoy watching my fictional games play out cpu vs cpu, so the more stats and information available, the better!

- manooly

[Matt Arnold]

Originally Posted by Eburaci

Watched the trailer twice... more confused than anything else. I'm eager to see more.

Seems like major changes to the scouting model, with accuracy variable for each core rating.

Are the statcast/advanced stats indicative of a change in the engine from an outcome-based model to a physics-based one? That would be a large change, and probably difficult thing to do well.

I can't say that the ratings difficulty settings are compelling. Seems like a way to simply hamstring yourself against the AI, based on the screen shots. That doesn't feel realistic, but rather arcade-style.

Hope to have more information about the changes to the game soon. Is it too much to ask for a new manual?

It's not changing to a physics-based engine, no. But there is deeper integration to make sure that ratings and outcomes match. So you will have players like Stanton or Judge have harder hit balls than Arraez. They might both gets singles on a play, but will lean towards hits that better match their profiles.

Originally Posted by Sweed

Looking good! Excited for all of the new advanced stats along with what's being added to the player cards.

With all of the new stats I'm wondering if that is going to reek some havoc on bringing forward out table views and user.dat files? I get it if it does but not having to rebuild everything would be nice. Having said that, for the extras that are coming in, it will be worth the effort.

Can we also assume the traditional release day (no 3 day early) Steam discount will be there?

All users save 10% in the first week, and people who buy from our store get the 3 day early preview.

Some tables and views should be able to import fine, some will have to be re-done. Most items related to players should work. Obviously if you want any of the new metrics you'll have to set up to include them.

Originally Posted by Hushroom

looks like baseball savant type stats are making it in the game. awesome!

Originally Posted by millhousebc

Agreed....will definitely need to see more. Track more stats and different difficulty modes not really a game changer from 26. Hopefully more to come.

We'll have lots more to talk about. The in-game experience has taken a big leap forward as well, and we'll lay out some more nuggets over the coming weeks.

Originally Posted by Bagpipes5

Same, I will need to see what kind of stats this version produces before I commit. Much of it seems copy/pasta and the extended stats are no substitute for statcast. OOTP has difficulty levels now?

They give you a new look on things for sure. And the integration of the stats with the game engine will help for everyone.

[Paul Reuschel's Mustache]

Has the "AI" logic been significantly revised? Or will we see a repeat of this in the new version?

I'll be closely monitoring user feedback for the first few months.

Good luck on a successful rollout and a hopefully bug-free OOTP 2027!

[OutS|der]

Originally Posted by Matt Arnold

It's not changing to a physics-based engine, no. But there is deeper integration to make sure that ratings and outcomes match. So you will have players like Stanton or Judge have harder hit balls than Arraez. They might both gets singles on a play, but will lean towards hits that better match their profiles.

Very interested on how this works. Are there new ratings? How do I adjust current ratings from a past save to reflect this change?

[Sweed]

Originally Posted by Matt Arnold

Some tables and views should be able to import fine, some will have to be re-done. Most items related to players should work. Obviously if you want any of the new metrics you'll have to set up to include them.

Thanks Matt. Bringing them in, reviewing and fixing any conflicts/issues will be easier than building from scratch. I play on an ultra wide monitor and even with that it will be interesting trying to squeeze new metrics into my current views. Which will end up meaning more views in an already too long list.

Maybe one day the view menu would allow us to have categories and submenus? And I'm off to the suggestion thread.

[GlennN]

As others have mentioned, I'm confused by having difficulty settings in a game that doesn't involve arcade action. Like to override player ratings? Can you shed some light on what difficulty settings would do and what aspects of the game to which that would pertain?

[MK_735]

Looking good so far. Excited to see any changes to the AI when it comes to trade as I've felt that's needed a little more work under the hood.

Either way, love the new stats and metrics. Looks very clean.

[Will Beh]

Originally Posted by Eburaci

Watched the trailer twice... more confused than anything else. I'm eager to see more.

Seems like major changes to the scouting model, with accuracy variable for each core rating.

Are the statcast/advanced stats indicative of a change in the engine from an outcome-based model to a physics-based one? That would be a large change, and probably difficult thing to do well.

I can't say that the ratings difficulty settings are compelling. Seems like a way to simply hamstring yourself against the AI, based on the screen shots. That doesn't feel realistic, but rather arcade-style.

Hope to have more information about the changes to the game soon. Is it too much to ask for a new manual?

The difficulty setting ranges from making the game easier by giving your team some advantages, to making it hard by adding negatives to your team as described in the screenshot included in the trailer. So it's more of a way to give an extra challenge to veteran players, or make it easier for new players to be successful.
And the standard difficulty setting is exactly the same as in all past games, so it won't impact your experience if you don't want to play with it

[Rain King]

Originally Posted by GlennN

As others have mentioned, I'm confused by having difficulty settings in a game that doesn't involve arcade action. Like to override player ratings? Can you shed some light on what difficulty settings would do and what aspects of the game to which that would pertain?

If you pause the video on that screen there is an explanation as to what "Hall of Fame" difficulty represents.

It seems to be more about how players and coaches will feel about your team in both free agency and when trading.

It also mentions it will skew talent change randomness.

[Will Beh]

Originally Posted by GlennN

As others have mentioned, I'm confused by having difficulty settings in a game that doesn't involve arcade action. Like to override player ratings? Can you shed some light on what difficulty settings would do and what aspects of the game to which that would pertain?

It's a very subtly effect, doesn't override anything. Basically it gives your team a boost in the eyes of players/coaches, so they will like you more or less (depending on the difficulty setting). This has many secondary effects, for example a very hard to sign player might only be hard to sign (or vice versa), or free agents might cost a bit more or less, etc. Also players in other organizations will have a tiny skew in talent change randomness.

Essentially it won't be something noticeable, but harder difficulty will dampen the snowballing veteran players can achieve, and easy difficulty will allow new players to create and sustain teams easier.

[jbyrd923]

Really hoping there is more to be revealed before release. From the perspective of an online league player it looks like all that is new is a new UI and some advanced stats to look at.

Some new features with more in depth bullpen, hitting, and pitching strategy is something that can go a long way in online leagues. More control over players approaches and pitchers pitch mix are features that really let you leave an imprint on how you run your team. From this trailer im just not seeing much that would make a switch to the new game worth it for an online league.

[Lukas Berger]

Originally Posted by Paul Reuschel's Mustache

Has the "AI" logic been significantly revised? Or will we see a repeat of this in the new version?

It's been worked on quite a bit in regard to prospect signings and releases.

We'll also post a beta patch for 26 as well with some of those improvements soon.

[Lukas Berger]

Originally Posted by jbyrd923

Really hoping there is more to be revealed before release. From the perspective of an online league player it looks like all that is new is a new UI and some advanced stats to look at.

There's plenty of other good stuff to discuss. As always, we'll put out more details over time as we continue toward release.