Another '27 Problems List (not technical)

Johnny Case · 04-06-2026, 09:49 AM

I've played out around 60 games since the beta-release, and been having some issues:

1. I've yet to see a groundball hit toward the first baseman where he did not flip the ball (usually with a goofy arc) to the pitcher. Never has he taken the out himself.

2. The AI is bringing in the infield waaay too early. Just had a game where the infield was brought in in the 1st inning. And regularly this has been happening in innings 2 or 3. Not good.

3. The pitchers (in a 1964 replay) have been hitting way too good -- I would say overall somewhere between .250 or .300. I know it's only 60 games, so maybe this is sample size.

4. Too many caught stealings (and this is 1964). The overall SB% success rate is 42% counting both leagues.

5. Infield pop ups and foul pop ups often act like it's 70 mph winds at Candlestick.

6. Rain is rain. Fog is fog. If this cannot be made realistic (and any of these "OOTP fog" games would be immediately called), please pull this until '28. (For an example of a beautiful and realistic rain, see the weather effects in Pro Strategy Football.)

7. After the 7th-inning stretch audio effects, the crowd noise always shuts off, requiring an options re-set. I know this has been a problem for the past several OOTP versions. Not fixed.

8. Too many player photos not recognized, requiring a player edit and search for the correct photo.

At this point, I am going back to '26, but will return to '27 upon any major patch.

Baconi · 04-06-2026, 01:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Johnny Case

2. The AI is bringing in the infield waaay too early. Just had a game where the infield was brought in in the 1st inning. And regularly this has been happening in innings 2 or 3. Not good.

Doesn't this happen plenty in real life? What's the situation

Reed · 04-06-2026, 01:54 PM

I agree with most of these but I am not experiencing what you are on about couple.
I play random and that may have something to do with the differences.

# 3 In my random game playing with 1984 stats almost all my pitchers are hitting between .110 and .150. The highest is around .200.
# 4 My SB success rare is around 66%.
# 8 Player photos not being recognized is not really the game/developers fault. The photos are put together by mods and if a player’s photo doesn’t load, it’s almost always because of a spelling or punctuation difference between what the game has and what the mods photo is showing. For example the game might say “Pete Rose” while the picture mod lists him as “Pete Rose Sr”, he won’t load until you change one or the other so they match. Even a simple thing like a middle initial, if one has a period after the initial and the other doesn’t, it won’t load.

I pretty much agree with your other points though.

borisrecruiter@yahoo.com · 04-06-2026, 02:48 PM

Totally agree....Firstbasemen can't seem to cover the bag from a foot away. Perhaps they should just guard the baseline from the outfield grass like a "no doubles" late inning defense.
I'm playing the 1998 season and I know this wasn't the era of a huge numbers of stolen bases but all the catchers seem to throw better than Yady and Pudge

Benz0709 · 04-06-2026, 02:58 PM

A large portion of your list seems to focus on complaints about the 3D modeling visuals rather than the gameplay sim engine itself. My typical play style is to play out roughly the first month of the season to get a feel for my team, experience that year’s roster, and build some attachment to the players then I sim the remainder of the season.

One important thing to keep in mind is that the 3D on-field modeling isn’t actually dictating outcomes, nor is it fully fluid. The result of the play is already determined by the simulation engine. The 3D model is simply a visual representation of that outcome, whether its a 5-3 putout or a pop-up. That disconnect is often why things appear inaccurate or awkward during play-by-play.

That said, I do agree there are some legitimate balance issues, most notably the tendency for first basemen or pitchers to almost always throw to first rather than taking the bag themselves. I’ve played out around 100 games, and the one time I saw a first baseman take it to the bag instead of throwing really stood out precisely because it almost never happens. The same applies to pitchers rarely tagging the bag instead of throwing.

Should the dev team focus on improving 3D modeling? Some would say yes, especially players who regularly watch or play out games using the 3D view. However, there’s also a sizable portion of the player base that never plays out games at all and strictly sims seasons. For that group, these issues effectively don’t exist, and they’d likely prefer development time to be spent on other simulation focused aspects of the game.

Your two points that are not 3D modeling related:

3. The pitchers (in a 1964 replay) have been hitting way too good -- I would say overall somewhere between .250 or .300. I know it's only 60 games, so maybe this is sample size. I don't play historical, so pitchers hitting is irrelevant to me. I do recall prior to universal DH, when playing out games my pitchers would always hit extraordinarily well. Simming would be expected results.

4. Too many caught stealings (and this is 1964). The overall SB% success rate is 42% counting both leagues.Again, don't play historical. I believe the SB accuracy in current saves is good. It's actually better than last year IMO where it was too successful when playing out. It's not as easy to abuse this year.

tonnage · 04-06-2026, 03:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Johnny Case

I've played out around 60 games since the beta-release, and been having some issues:

1. I've yet to see a groundball hit toward the first baseman where he did not flip the ball (usually with a goofy arc) to the pitcher. Never has he taken the out himself.

5. Infield pop ups and foul pop ups often act like it's 70 mph winds at Candlestick.

At this point, I am going back to '26, but will return to '27 upon any major patch.

I agree with 1 and 5 absolutely. The others, I'm not so sure, at least it hasn't been a concern for me. 1 was a problem that was corrected back in 24 I believe, but now it's back. Hope it's corrected again because it looks very unrealistic, just like the pop ups etc. Cheers!

texasmame · 04-06-2026, 03:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reed

I agree with most of these but I am not experiencing what you are on about couple.
I play random and that may have something to do with the differences.

# 3 In my random game playing with 1984 stats almost all my pitchers are hitting between .110 and .150. The highest is around .200.
# 4 My SB success rare is around 66%.
# 8 Player photos not being recognized is not really the game/developers fault. The photos are put together by mods and if a player’s photo doesn’t load, it’s almost always because of a spelling or punctuation difference between what the game has and what the mods photo is showing. For example the game might say “Pete Rose” while the picture mod lists him as “Pete Rose Sr”, he won’t load until you change one or the other so they match. Even a simple thing like a middle initial, if one has a period after the initial and the other doesn’t, it won’t load.

I pretty much agree with your other points though.

The pics are screwed up this year:

https://forums.ootpdevelopments.com/...25#post5253825

BestbatBoy · 04-08-2026, 05:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Johnny Case

I've played out around 60 games since the beta-release, and been having some issues:

1. I've yet to see a groundball hit toward the first baseman where he did not flip the ball (usually with a goofy arc) to the pitcher. Never has he taken the out himself.

2. The AI is bringing in the infield waaay too early. Just had a game where the infield was brought in in the 1st inning. And regularly this has been happening in innings 2 or 3. Not good.

3. The pitchers (in a 1964 replay) have been hitting way too good -- I would say overall somewhere between .250 or .300. I know it's only 60 games, so maybe this is sample size.

4. Too many caught stealings (and this is 1964). The overall SB% success rate is 42% counting both leagues.

5. Infield pop ups and foul pop ups often act like it's 70 mph winds at Candlestick.

6. Rain is rain. Fog is fog. If this cannot be made realistic (and any of these "OOTP fog" games would be immediately called), please pull this until '28. (For an example of a beautiful and realistic rain, see the weather effects in Pro Strategy Football.)

7. After the 7th-inning stretch audio effects, the crowd noise always shuts off, requiring an options re-set. I know this has been a problem for the past several OOTP versions. Not fixed.

8. Too many player photos not recognized, requiring a player edit and search for the correct photo.

At this point, I am going back to '26, but will return to '27 upon any major patch.

#1 does need to happen a lot more often... but to be fair, I do see it about once a game after I read this post and began looking to see if I see it happen

Benz0709 · 04-09-2026, 01:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BestbatBoy

#1 does need to happen a lot more often... but to be fair, I do see it about once a game after I read this post and began looking to see if I see it happen

Lukas acknowledges this being an issue they are investigating in this thread.

https://forums.ootpdevelopments.com/...d.php?t=369045

locuspc · 04-09-2026, 02:24 PM

The graphs on the Advanced stats tab have the wrong colors for the lines, they don't match the colors in the key.

highandoutside · 04-12-2026, 08:35 AM

These is very minor, but once I started noticing it I could stop obsessing so I'll leave it here:

Compared to '26, there are a lot of pitches high in the zone. I don't know if this is intentional, and reflects a more realistic distribution of pitch locations, but if you have pitch location on and play pitch-by-pitch, you'll notice a very high percentage of pitches high in the zone.

04-06-2026, 01:54 PM	#3
Reed Hall Of Famer Join Date: Oct 2013 Posts: 2,737	I agree with most of these but I am not experiencing what you are on about couple. I play random and that may have something to do with the differences. # 3 In my random game playing with 1984 stats almost all my pitchers are hitting between .110 and .150. The highest is around .200. # 4 My SB success rare is around 66%. # 8 Player photos not being recognized is not really the game/developers fault. The photos are put together by mods and if a player’s photo doesn’t load, it’s almost always because of a spelling or punctuation difference between what the game has and what the mods photo is showing. For example the game might say “Pete Rose” while the picture mod lists him as “Pete Rose Sr”, he won’t load until you change one or the other so they match. Even a simple thing like a middle initial, if one has a period after the initial and the other doesn’t, it won’t load. I pretty much agree with your other points though. __________________ I am not responsible for anything I post!!! Use at your own risk!

04-06-2026, 02:58 PM	#5
Benz0709 Minors (Single A) Join Date: Jul 2011 Posts: 67	A large portion of your list seems to focus on complaints about the 3D modeling visuals rather than the gameplay sim engine itself. My typical play style is to play out roughly the first month of the season to get a feel for my team, experience that year’s roster, and build some attachment to the players then I sim the remainder of the season. One important thing to keep in mind is that the 3D on-field modeling isn’t actually dictating outcomes, nor is it fully fluid. The result of the play is already determined by the simulation engine. The 3D model is simply a visual representation of that outcome, whether its a 5-3 putout or a pop-up. That disconnect is often why things appear inaccurate or awkward during play-by-play. That said, I do agree there are some legitimate balance issues, most notably the tendency for first basemen or pitchers to almost always throw to first rather than taking the bag themselves. I’ve played out around 100 games, and the one time I saw a first baseman take it to the bag instead of throwing really stood out precisely because it almost never happens. The same applies to pitchers rarely tagging the bag instead of throwing. Should the dev team focus on improving 3D modeling? Some would say yes, especially players who regularly watch or play out games using the 3D view. However, there’s also a sizable portion of the player base that never plays out games at all and strictly sims seasons. For that group, these issues effectively don’t exist, and they’d likely prefer development time to be spent on other simulation focused aspects of the game. Your two points that are not 3D modeling related: 3. The pitchers (in a 1964 replay) have been hitting way too good -- I would say overall somewhere between .250 or .300. I know it's only 60 games, so maybe this is sample size. I don't play historical, so pitchers hitting is irrelevant to me. I do recall prior to universal DH, when playing out games my pitchers would always hit extraordinarily well. Simming would be expected results. 4. Too many caught stealings (and this is 1964). The overall SB% success rate is 42% counting both leagues.Again, don't play historical. I believe the SB accuracy in current saves is good. It's actually better than last year IMO where it was too successful when playing out. It's not as easy to abuse this year. Last edited by Benz0709; 04-06-2026 at 03:00 PM.

04-06-2026, 09:49 AM	#1
Johnny Case Minors (Double A) Join Date: Mar 2015 Location: Brooklyn Posts: 129	Another '27 Problems List (not technical) I've played out around 60 games since the beta-release, and been having some issues: 1. I've yet to see a groundball hit toward the first baseman where he did not flip the ball (usually with a goofy arc) to the pitcher. Never has he taken the out himself. 2. The AI is bringing in the infield waaay too early. Just had a game where the infield was brought in in the 1st inning. And regularly this has been happening in innings 2 or 3. Not good. 3. The pitchers (in a 1964 replay) have been hitting way too good -- I would say overall somewhere between .250 or .300. I know it's only 60 games, so maybe this is sample size. 4. Too many caught stealings (and this is 1964). The overall SB% success rate is 42% counting both leagues. 5. Infield pop ups and foul pop ups often act like it's 70 mph winds at Candlestick. 6. Rain is rain. Fog is fog. If this cannot be made realistic (and any of these "OOTP fog" games would be immediately called), please pull this until '28. (For an example of a beautiful and realistic rain, see the weather effects in Pro Strategy Football.) 7. After the 7th-inning stretch audio effects, the crowd noise always shuts off, requiring an options re-set. I know this has been a problem for the past several OOTP versions. Not fixed. 8. Too many player photos not recognized, requiring a player edit and search for the correct photo. At this point, I am going back to '26, but will return to '27 upon any major patch.

04-06-2026, 02:48 PM	#4
borisrecruiter@yahoo.com Bat Boy Join Date: Oct 2014 Posts: 1	Totally agree....Firstbasemen can't seem to cover the bag from a foot away. Perhaps they should just guard the baseline from the outfield grass like a "no doubles" late inning defense. I'm playing the 1998 season and I know this wasn't the era of a huge numbers of stolen bases but all the catchers seem to throw better than Yady and Pudge

04-09-2026, 02:24 PM	#10
locuspc Major Leagues Join Date: Apr 2022 Posts: 349	The graphs on the Advanced stats tab have the wrong colors for the lines, they don't match the colors in the key.

04-12-2026, 08:35 AM	#11
highandoutside All Star Reserve Join Date: Mar 2004 Posts: 697	These is very minor, but once I started noticing it I could stop obsessing so I'll leave it here: Compared to '26, there are a lot of pitches high in the zone. I don't know if this is intentional, and reflects a more realistic distribution of pitch locations, but if you have pitch location on and play pitch-by-pitch, you'll notice a very high percentage of pitches high in the zone.