Initial Impressions Thread

[Sweed]

Bought v24 on Steam and have been playing since last Friday. Imported my v23 game the day before off-season and have moved on from there. The first thing I noticed, after the gorgeous skin, was when offering a contract extension to a player that would be arbitration eligible, that each year was labeled as either an Arb year or FA year. Nice touch.

Names, numbers, shoes, bat color all add immersion to the 3d game. Animations for 3d games have been upgraded significantly. Always room for improvement, but these have come a long way in a fairly short time. The players on the field look better and move better, with player movement after plays enhancing the atmosphere. It’s all a big step forward and being one that plays out all of my games I am loving it. The Super Stat Replay is pretty cool for those special plays.

The skin is crisp, clear, and easy on the eyes. I’ve settled on the dark skin. The classic is well done but just a bit too bright for my eyes. I have looked through most of the category choices for building views and it looks like it’s the same as v23. Not necessarily a bad thing as the list is already quite extensive, but more would be nice too. Having said that I did find one very nice enhancement. Traits are done as one letter abbreviations when OOTP detects the columns are going to run together. IE Low = L, N = Neutral etc. So nice to be able to add all of the attributes columns for Wok Ethic, Intelligence etc. without them taking up half the screen. Nice QOL addition.

I like the addition of trade reputation and the hard mode. I play out all of my games so am nowhere near checking out the Trade Deadline Day, but look forward to seeing it in action. Lot’s to like about the new version and I’m sure I’ll find a lot more as the hours pile up.

Like any game OOTP has it’s flaws and things that didn’t get added that one hoped they would see. No game will ever be perfect but OOTP 24 is 9/10 IMHO, and another step in the right direction. Still the best baseball simulation on the market.

[Bobfather]

Has anyone else noticed outfielders jumping to try to catch home runs, so far they have not succeeded in my game?

[darkcloud4579]

...

[Highlander]

Started way back with the original OOTP, soooooo many years ago. It's always amazing to think back to how great I thought that game was at the time.....and where it is today. Initial impressions show I again will not be disappointed!

[Bobbyraz49]

This is what I get WAY to often..... ootp24.exe has stopped working.
It occurs randomly at any point during game play. I play as GM/mgr in the 23 MLB season.
I got addicted to this game/sim with the 21 version. NEVER had ANY issues prior to this release.

Secondly.... while playing, players will become invisible. Every position has become invisible at some point in time including the batter.

I like everything else regarding this game.

My PC has 8 GB or ram and tons of space on the HD.

Thanks for viewing.

[deacon2817]

actually had 1 pulled back.

[rudel.dietrich]

I am late here but I will give my short overall impression.
I am not going to write anything overly long because it is just a waste of words at this point.

I purchased the game via Steam and did a simple MLB quick start.
I had some of the issues that others are complaining about in reviews. I play at 1440p on a 27" monitor and the screen was stretched and fuzzy.
I adjusted settings in OOTP and Windows and never could get it 100% solved.
I imagine this will get worked out, but I am not sure what this issue is.
I imagine it comes down to just poor testing and not making your beta test staff diverse enough to include those with large high DPI monitors.


Most of the announced features were as usual very minor or bug fixes or things like 'best AI ever in the series'
Very nebulous stuff that cannot be measured.

The two biggest features at least for how I play was trading hard mode and trade deadline day.

Trading hard mode is a bust. As I said in another thread, my blunt and harsh assessment is that this is a mode that was put into the game as a smoke screen to get around that they can never actually improve trade AI.
They added additional hurdles into the game for the human player to have to get around to hide that the trade AI is no better than past versions.

Why does my trade rep drop each time the AI proposes a trade and I reject it?
What does trade rep even do?
I intentionally tanked mine just to see if it had an impact.
And...I can't tell if it had an impact or not. I was still getting trade offers and other GMs would still trade with me.

This is a typical half baked OOTP special that will get fixed down the road and called a feature.

I understand why the mode removes the 'make this work now' button.
But why exactly? I know that makes trading easier, but in real life trading, if two GMs are talking, one will eventually ask the other what they are interested in to get the deal over the line.

There has to be some middle ground between what that mode is now and what it could be.
I like the idea of GM rep. But make it mean something, don't make it go up and down for arbitrary reasons, and maybe have a conversation with an actual front office on how front offices talk to one another.


The trade deadline day feature was pretty cool.
It reminds me of transfer deadline day in FM that was added many years ago.
It slows things down on that day and let's you really get into trades.
You can add timers as well if you wish to put yourself on the clock.

This is a good feature that I would like to see expanded. The trade AI still being so poor, and the trading hard mode being an utter dud does take the shine off a bit, but the idea is at least good.
I would like to see this feature extend to draft day and the winter meetings.

Often in OOTP I just find myself simming forward with not a lot to do beyond keep an eye on stats and injuries.
Making these days more special makes the few fun parts of being a GM that much more special.


So...other things I liked...
I never did a long term sim, but sim speeds seem to be getting better and better.
I do have a new PC with a top of the line i9 so that may have something to do with it as well.
But everything seemed snappy and responsive.
I just wish someone had played this game at a resolution over 1080p during testing.

Also, the leagues that are being simulated have been cut by like 80%
Easy to make your game faster when you slash out a lot of what you have to process

I never played the international leagues.
But I did simulate them as a baseball world and would pull players from them.
Seeing young players born in Cuba or Mexico or Japan play in those leagues and then come over was fun.
And seeing fringe players or older players go to those leagues was also fun.

But...no longer

The 3D and stadiums and animations just get better and better.
I am a GM gamer, so I hardly ever play out my games or even watch them due to life and time constraints.
But watching games now is a pleasure. Big props to the art team for taking a text only sim and making it into a really impressive on the field experience.

A few other small things I liked were the 15 year contracts and up to 10 players in trades.
But....as a new feature for a $40 game? Get the **** out of here

Then in the off season, my league totally lost it's mind and about 1/3 of the league was traded for one another. Some players were moved twice.

This is well documented, but again, should of been caught in testing.
Does anyone play this game before launch, like actually play it long term and intentionaly stretch and try and break the game?

Or do they all test the PT servers to make sure the income machine is 100% up and running before launch?

So in the end, I uninstalled and refunded the game.
I may come back to it down the line when it hit's $10 or whatever the final sell price is.

I never purchased 23
I am still on 22, I went back into 22 for the first time in a while and looked over my last league.
And while I can see some differences, there is nothing even close to making me recommend 24 to anyone beyond PT players and the very hardcore players who have to have the latest real rosters.

Sadly, I could probably go back to 19 or 20 and play those and while I would come across some things that I miss, they would be far and in between.

One last thing
I am one of those people who almost never sees the serious bugs or crashes. But in the few hours I played, I had four crashes.
One when come back from a 3D ballpark game to the GM screens.
Three others when just moving day to day.

So that was a new and exciting cherry on top of this years offering.

I will keep track of the game and check back on it during the playoffs.

I have no issues spending around $10 on what is offered here.
But with the issues I ran into, the league looking radically different after one season, fuzzy text and display, crashes and the bare amount of effort into what could legally be called a new version.
No thanks


That is my review of 24. Harsh, but it is how I feel.
I am just one player and don't expect the game to be made just for me. I still enjoy the series. It is the only serious GM simulation of the sport available.
But it has badly stagnated. I have felt this way for almost 5 versions now.



OOTP and me have moved in different directions.
It sees other people now, the kids are grown and I don't get them on the weekends anymore.

Maybe it is time for me to finally move on as well.

Bittersweet after 19 versions.
But sometimes, if you love something, you have to give it constructive criticism that no one will read and let it go.

[rudel.dietrich]

Well that was my no means short.
I guess in many ways I still care enough to give it that large of a write up.

[Ktulu]

Originally Posted by rudel.dietrich

I purchased the game via Steam and did a simple MLB quick start.
I had some of the issues that others are complaining about in reviews. I play at 1440p on a 27" monitor and the screen was stretched and fuzzy.
I adjusted settings in OOTP and Windows and never could get it 100% solved.
I imagine this will get worked out, but I am not sure what this issue is.
I imagine it comes down to just poor testing and not making your beta test staff diverse enough to include those with large high DPI monitors.

Game looks fine at 3440x1440 on 34" and at 4K on 65". Every lower resolution setting also works fine in windowed mode, so if it's "stretched and fuzzy" there's something wrong with your configuration.

[rudel.dietrich]

Originally Posted by Ktulu

Game looks fine at 3440x1440 on 34" and at 4K on 65". Every lower resolution setting also works fine in windowed mode, so if it's "stretched and fuzzy" there's something wrong with your configuration.

I messed around with a lot of settings and got it better, but could never get it fully solved. And going off Steam reviews and some Reddit posts, I was not the only one who ran into that issue.
I am not sure what was causing it, but I expect it to be cleared up quickly if it has not been already.

But even if it was my set up, I still stand by the rest of what I wrote.

[jcard]

Originally Posted by rudel.dietrich

But even if it was my set up, I still stand by the rest of what I wrote.

As you should. The fact that it is so refreshing to see someone on this forum plainly and unapologetically state the obvious speaks volumes. Or, perhaps, it really speaks many others that once brought a similar sensibility to this forum but have long since expressed themselves through their absence.

[Bobbyraz49]

Originally Posted by Lukas Berger

In the settings > 3d and facegen, try to switch to the OpneGL mode: 'Use OpenGL in 3D only'.

Will try. Thanks Lukas.

[Bobbyraz49]

Originally Posted by Bobbyraz49

Will try. Thanks Lukas.

That didn't work. I appreciate the effort. Now some baserunners are invisible.

[BaseballGOAT]

Originally Posted by rudel.dietrich

I am late here but I will give my short overall impression.
I am not going to write anything overly long because it is just a waste of words at this point.

I purchased the game via Steam and did a simple MLB quick start.
I had some of the issues that others are complaining about in reviews. I play at 1440p on a 27" monitor and the screen was stretched and fuzzy.
I adjusted settings in OOTP and Windows and never could get it 100% solved.
I imagine this will get worked out, but I am not sure what this issue is.
I imagine it comes down to just poor testing and not making your beta test staff diverse enough to include those with large high DPI monitors.


Most of the announced features were as usual very minor or bug fixes or things like 'best AI ever in the series'
Very nebulous stuff that cannot be measured.

The two biggest features at least for how I play was trading hard mode and trade deadline day.

Trading hard mode is a bust. As I said in another thread, my blunt and harsh assessment is that this is a mode that was put into the game as a smoke screen to get around that they can never actually improve trade AI.
They added additional hurdles into the game for the human player to have to get around to hide that the trade AI is no better than past versions.

Why does my trade rep drop each time the AI proposes a trade and I reject it?
What does trade rep even do?
I intentionally tanked mine just to see if it had an impact.
And...I can't tell if it had an impact or not. I was still getting trade offers and other GMs would still trade with me.

This is a typical half baked OOTP special that will get fixed down the road and called a feature.

I understand why the mode removes the 'make this work now' button.
But why exactly? I know that makes trading easier, but in real life trading, if two GMs are talking, one will eventually ask the other what they are interested in to get the deal over the line.

There has to be some middle ground between what that mode is now and what it could be.
I like the idea of GM rep. But make it mean something, don't make it go up and down for arbitrary reasons, and maybe have a conversation with an actual front office on how front offices talk to one another.


The trade deadline day feature was pretty cool.
It reminds me of transfer deadline day in FM that was added many years ago.
It slows things down on that day and let's you really get into trades.
You can add timers as well if you wish to put yourself on the clock.

This is a good feature that I would like to see expanded. The trade AI still being so poor, and the trading hard mode being an utter dud does take the shine off a bit, but the idea is at least good.
I would like to see this feature extend to draft day and the winter meetings.

Often in OOTP I just find myself simming forward with not a lot to do beyond keep an eye on stats and injuries.
Making these days more special makes the few fun parts of being a GM that much more special.


So...other things I liked...
I never did a long term sim, but sim speeds seem to be getting better and better.
I do have a new PC with a top of the line i9 so that may have something to do with it as well.
But everything seemed snappy and responsive.
I just wish someone had played this game at a resolution over 1080p during testing.

Also, the leagues that are being simulated have been cut by like 80%
Easy to make your game faster when you slash out a lot of what you have to process

I never played the international leagues.
But I did simulate them as a baseball world and would pull players from them.
Seeing young players born in Cuba or Mexico or Japan play in those leagues and then come over was fun.
And seeing fringe players or older players go to those leagues was also fun.

But...no longer

The 3D and stadiums and animations just get better and better.
I am a GM gamer, so I hardly ever play out my games or even watch them due to life and time constraints.
But watching games now is a pleasure. Big props to the art team for taking a text only sim and making it into a really impressive on the field experience.

A few other small things I liked were the 15 year contracts and up to 10 players in trades.
But....as a new feature for a $40 game? Get the **** out of here

Then in the off season, my league totally lost it's mind and about 1/3 of the league was traded for one another. Some players were moved twice.

This is well documented, but again, should of been caught in testing.
Does anyone play this game before launch, like actually play it long term and intentionaly stretch and try and break the game?

Or do they all test the PT servers to make sure the income machine is 100% up and running before launch?

So in the end, I uninstalled and refunded the game.
I may come back to it down the line when it hit's $10 or whatever the final sell price is.

I never purchased 23
I am still on 22, I went back into 22 for the first time in a while and looked over my last league.
And while I can see some differences, there is nothing even close to making me recommend 24 to anyone beyond PT players and the very hardcore players who have to have the latest real rosters.

Sadly, I could probably go back to 19 or 20 and play those and while I would come across some things that I miss, they would be far and in between.

One last thing
I am one of those people who almost never sees the serious bugs or crashes. But in the few hours I played, I had four crashes.
One when come back from a 3D ballpark game to the GM screens.
Three others when just moving day to day.

So that was a new and exciting cherry on top of this years offering.

I will keep track of the game and check back on it during the playoffs.

I have no issues spending around $10 on what is offered here.
But with the issues I ran into, the league looking radically different after one season, fuzzy text and display, crashes and the bare amount of effort into what could legally be called a new version.
No thanks


That is my review of 24. Harsh, but it is how I feel.
I am just one player and don't expect the game to be made just for me. I still enjoy the series. It is the only serious GM simulation of the sport available.
But it has badly stagnated. I have felt this way for almost 5 versions now.



OOTP and me have moved in different directions.
It sees other people now, the kids are grown and I don't get them on the weekends anymore.

Maybe it is time for me to finally move on as well.

Bittersweet after 19 versions.
But sometimes, if you love something, you have to give it constructive criticism that no one will read and let it go.

I would agree with most everything you said. I said in another thread, that it feels to me that the passion is gone for Markus. The last major addition that was in fact a game changer was the new 3d stadiums. Everything else is tweaks like you said or things that we can't actually measure. Half the time I feel like Matt and Markus don't even know how things are working with their tweaks. I can't even count how many threads go unanswered in the beta forums when we testers are looking for feedback on if things we see are supposed to be happening. I could make a list that would take up an entire page on these forums of things that have been implemented half way and never finished. Or there's the fact there's been a loophole in the drafts ever since they changed the draft setup a couple versions back. I know I've brought it up multiple times only to hear th3 crickets chirp in response. I can't even imagine how easy it is to cheat on drafts in online leagues if they used advanced negotiations. Unfortunately this game peaked either at 22 or 23. I only use 24 for ratings for players I'm adding to my 23 saved game. A lot of people said this would happen with PT when it came about and it definitely looks to be true. While I get that Ootp has so many features it's hard to add something that will be universally welcomed no matter how someone plays the game because again. .. 24 versions lol. But I truly wish I could mirror Mlb at least correctly

[jtsly2000]

Originally Posted by rudel.dietrich

I am late here but I will give my short overall impression.
I am not going to write anything overly long because it is just a waste of words at this point.

I purchased the game via Steam and did a simple MLB quick start.
I had some of the issues that others are complaining about in reviews. I play at 1440p on a 27" monitor and the screen was stretched and fuzzy.
I adjusted settings in OOTP and Windows and never could get it 100% solved.
I imagine this will get worked out, but I am not sure what this issue is.
I imagine it comes down to just poor testing and not making your beta test staff diverse enough to include those with large high DPI monitors.


Most of the announced features were as usual very minor or bug fixes or things like 'best AI ever in the series'
Very nebulous stuff that cannot be measured.

The two biggest features at least for how I play was trading hard mode and trade deadline day.

Trading hard mode is a bust. As I said in another thread, my blunt and harsh assessment is that this is a mode that was put into the game as a smoke screen to get around that they can never actually improve trade AI.
They added additional hurdles into the game for the human player to have to get around to hide that the trade AI is no better than past versions.

Why does my trade rep drop each time the AI proposes a trade and I reject it?
What does trade rep even do?
I intentionally tanked mine just to see if it had an impact.
And...I can't tell if it had an impact or not. I was still getting trade offers and other GMs would still trade with me.

This is a typical half baked OOTP special that will get fixed down the road and called a feature.

I understand why the mode removes the 'make this work now' button.
But why exactly? I know that makes trading easier, but in real life trading, if two GMs are talking, one will eventually ask the other what they are interested in to get the deal over the line.

There has to be some middle ground between what that mode is now and what it could be.
I like the idea of GM rep. But make it mean something, don't make it go up and down for arbitrary reasons, and maybe have a conversation with an actual front office on how front offices talk to one another.


The trade deadline day feature was pretty cool.
It reminds me of transfer deadline day in FM that was added many years ago.
It slows things down on that day and let's you really get into trades.
You can add timers as well if you wish to put yourself on the clock.

This is a good feature that I would like to see expanded. The trade AI still being so poor, and the trading hard mode being an utter dud does take the shine off a bit, but the idea is at least good.
I would like to see this feature extend to draft day and the winter meetings.

Often in OOTP I just find myself simming forward with not a lot to do beyond keep an eye on stats and injuries.
Making these days more special makes the few fun parts of being a GM that much more special.


So...other things I liked...
I never did a long term sim, but sim speeds seem to be getting better and better.
I do have a new PC with a top of the line i9 so that may have something to do with it as well.
But everything seemed snappy and responsive.
I just wish someone had played this game at a resolution over 1080p during testing.

Also, the leagues that are being simulated have been cut by like 80%
Easy to make your game faster when you slash out a lot of what you have to process

I never played the international leagues.
But I did simulate them as a baseball world and would pull players from them.
Seeing young players born in Cuba or Mexico or Japan play in those leagues and then come over was fun.
And seeing fringe players or older players go to those leagues was also fun.

But...no longer

The 3D and stadiums and animations just get better and better.
I am a GM gamer, so I hardly ever play out my games or even watch them due to life and time constraints.
But watching games now is a pleasure. Big props to the art team for taking a text only sim and making it into a really impressive on the field experience.

A few other small things I liked were the 15 year contracts and up to 10 players in trades.
But....as a new feature for a $40 game? Get the **** out of here

Then in the off season, my league totally lost it's mind and about 1/3 of the league was traded for one another. Some players were moved twice.

This is well documented, but again, should of been caught in testing.
Does anyone play this game before launch, like actually play it long term and intentionaly stretch and try and break the game?

Or do they all test the PT servers to make sure the income machine is 100% up and running before launch?

So in the end, I uninstalled and refunded the game.
I may come back to it down the line when it hit's $10 or whatever the final sell price is.

I never purchased 23
I am still on 22, I went back into 22 for the first time in a while and looked over my last league.
And while I can see some differences, there is nothing even close to making me recommend 24 to anyone beyond PT players and the very hardcore players who have to have the latest real rosters.

Sadly, I could probably go back to 19 or 20 and play those and while I would come across some things that I miss, they would be far and in between.

One last thing
I am one of those people who almost never sees the serious bugs or crashes. But in the few hours I played, I had four crashes.
One when come back from a 3D ballpark game to the GM screens.
Three others when just moving day to day.

So that was a new and exciting cherry on top of this years offering.

I will keep track of the game and check back on it during the playoffs.

I have no issues spending around $10 on what is offered here.
But with the issues I ran into, the league looking radically different after one season, fuzzy text and display, crashes and the bare amount of effort into what could legally be called a new version.
No thanks


That is my review of 24. Harsh, but it is how I feel.
I am just one player and don't expect the game to be made just for me. I still enjoy the series. It is the only serious GM simulation of the sport available.
But it has badly stagnated. I have felt this way for almost 5 versions now.



OOTP and me have moved in different directions.
It sees other people now, the kids are grown and I don't get them on the weekends anymore.

Maybe it is time for me to finally move on as well.

Bittersweet after 19 versions.
But sometimes, if you love something, you have to give it constructive criticism that no one will read and let it go.

As a long time player who has bought it every year for the last two decades, I've decided for the first time to not buy the game. The amount of bugs is alarming. Reading all the trade issues as well as many others in your message it sounds like a non polished beta was released. Since Markus sold the game things have gone down hill substancially. I hope the development team takes a hard look at your message as well as those of many other veteran players and their disgust of how an unfinished product was released. My good friend has had game crash after game crash while trying to play games out. Like me he's a long time player. He uninstalled it and asked for his money back. Glad Markus made bank on the sale of the game. I'm happy for him in that respect. Unfortunately it seems to be at the expense of the product sold to consumers. Not good boys, very disappointed as I badly wanted to play a new polished version.

[smiller]

I was looking forward to buying the game, but Mr. Dietrich's comments and those of others right below him have put a stop to that. I'll see how things develop with future patches, but this is starting to look more and more like a year to stay with the previous version.

[PSUColonel]

.

[MathBandit]

Originally Posted by smiller

I was looking forward to buying the game, but Mr. Dietrich's comments and those of others right below him have put a stop to that. I'll see how things develop with future patches, but this is starting to look more and more like a year to stay with the previous version.

This is quite ironic considering the previous version was the worst release of the franchise and was actually unplayable for like two months lol.

[smiller]

I've found it quite playable, but then I didn't buy it until last October.

[rudel.dietrich]

Originally Posted by smiller

I've found it quite playable, but then I didn't buy it until last October.

This is probably what I will do. But for every third version.
$10 or whatever the playoff price is about worth what they put into each year to year version.

At least until the next version when they raise the price to $60 on launch day.