Now I'm jealous of FM09...

[SSG Troyer]

Originally Posted by Raidergoo

Dammit, focus!

What game elements, if any, from FM09 ought to be considered for future iterations of OOTP?

Originally Posted by koohead

I'd definitely like to see a more in-depth feature where players are affected by what management is saying about them. The ability to write your own game recaps (and news articles in general) is a good start. Now the engine just needs a way to search for negative words or something like that.
My fear is every player reacts differently to being benched or called out. Take 2 examples IRL...Marbury with the Knicks and Edgerin James of the Cardinals. Granted, 2 different sports and all and possibly 2 different situations, but also 2 very different results on a personal as well as team level. If implemented, I'd like to see a players resulting reaction be based on several factors, including how well the team is doing, his contract status, some of his ratings (loyalty, greed, leadership), and possibly new ones (clubhouse cancer rating??). Every player should react differently. Maybe a negative press conference makes a player with a high work ethic rating wake up and improve, while it results in Operation Shutdown for someone with a low loyalty and work ethic rating. I just don't want every negative comment to result in an angry player...that makes the feature predictable and something I won't use.

This is exactly what FM does so very well. Each player has a definable personality that plays off yours, and the others on his team. Conflicting personalities create a tense clubhouse, and performance suffers. Over time, players "gel" into a more effective team, unless someone is too much of a disruptive influance. Players can get upset (or pleased) with media statements, both from you, other managers, or spontaneoudly generated by the media (transfer rumors, etc.) If a player is an important member of a squad (the captain, say) and gets upset, his dissatisfaction can spread to the whole squad.

OOTP has started down this road, but has a long way to go to even come close.

[Syd Thrift]

In addition to what people have said about the interactions (which, I agree, would be a fantastic addition to OOTP10), one arena in which FM really excels, especially this year, is that it tells you exactly when and why a guy is disgruntled. Right now OOTP has the morale setting which is nice and complicated, but the game doesn't really tell you that your guys are mad until they demand to be traded. There should be more interactions out there than that, a lot more. Make guys spout off to the press or come into your office for a meeting when they move down a level in morale due to being benched, aren't playing well, or are tired of losing. On the flip side is complacency: in FM you're constantly having to weigh whether you should be easy on guys so they don't get angry at you or hard on them so they don't take their job for granted.

Speaking of which, the game handles a lot of streak-related things behind the scenes as well. For example, players really do get into slumps in the game and their ability to get out of them is based in large part on their work ethic. There should be a lot more news stories and reports about guys who are trying new stances, working on a new pitch, etc. so that you know if a guy feels like he's scuffling. And then there should be some strategic ways to get him the attention he needs. Do you have him come in early for extra time with the hitting coach? A low work-ethic or high-ego guy might not take kindly to that approach. Also, a hitting coach might only have so much time to work with people. OTOH, if you just let him go it alone, a low-intelligence player might take a long time to get out of a slump.

Additionally, I'd like to see the ability to dole out punishments to your team for not running out grounders, etc. These could range from fines to getting a night off to losing your job entirely. Of course, you can bench a guy right now, but in this scenario you'd give him your reason up front for not playing him. He might not like that but at the same time it might motivate him to improve himself.

[lahoward]

Originally Posted by Cooleyvol

This is one sport that the US neither 'gets' nor controls. Pity, too, as it is 'the beautiful game'.

as of 12-9-08 the US is currently ranked 18 in the world (elo ratings non-political used in chess player ratings). 18 out of 200+ countries i'd say they "get it". i do agree however that it hasn't been or will be anytime soon a priority for young american athletes to get into.

foreigners should be careful what they wish for. imagine noel devine suiting up as a winger or Amar'e Stoudemire as a target man.


scary.

[darkcloud4579]

Originally Posted by John C

One thing I have craved in OOTP is more interaction between player and management...whether it be the manager, or GM. Players get angry, but there's nothing you can discuss with them to make a determination on where to go. You can only act on things. You get emails, but you can't respond.

Press conferences would be awesome to have in the game, because the season is so long, and the complexities of the relationships would be amazing. Could you put yourself in Theo Epstein's shoes back in July, having to deal with a fragile clubhouse being wrecked by Manny Ramirez, a player with a no-trade clause? What about when you clean house and start rebuilding? What about the players who stick around?

Or what about that pitcher who has had three bad starts in a row? How do you handle his psyche through the press?

I am glad that Markus made the break from SI for many reasons. However, I do wish he had stuck around long enough to add this into the game. (I also crave a better 2D engine, more along the lines of ESPN's GameCast, but that's for another time).

What do you think of the idea of these kind of relationships in the game?

I hate this stuff. It's just bad business to have players "personalities" in the game, as it really distracts from the simulation aspect of things. I get why they're appealing to some folks ,but we've already diverged enough from sensible things in this game, that conceding anymore would truly render it less than stellar.

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by SSG Troyer

This is exactly what FM does so very well. Each player has a definable personality that plays off yours, and the others on his team. Conflicting personalities create a tense clubhouse, and performance suffers.

The only problem I see there is how one would go about quantifying that in terms of how much a player's baseball statistics would be affected by such things.

[Syd Thrift]

Another way of doing this would be to have chemistry and so on heavily influence your ability to re-sign your own players as well as sign new ones from other teams. I still think that personality ought to be something you have to deal with on a daily basis, but perhaps the effects of dealing with it or not dealing with it could be primarily an offseason thing.

Yet another way of going is something like what I did in Thrift Training. The new version of FM has a thing where you can go in and ask a player to concentrate on a move that he doesn't do a lot in games, or to stop practicing a move that he likes but that's not working. Similarly, I'd like to be able to tell a guy I want to be my leadoff man to try and take the first pitch more often. Ideally this would result in him getting more walks and perhaps hitting for a little more power (since he's facing the pitcher while ahead in the count more), but he might respond to it negatively depending on my ability to teach, or his relationship to me. In an extreme case, he might take my advice as an affront and demand to be traded right then and there.

Ideally, of course, you'd have all of these options at once.

[SSG Troyer]

Originally Posted by Le Grande Orange

The only problem I see there is how one would go about quantifying that in terms of how much a player's baseball statistics would be affected by such things.

Granted. So much work has been put into having the option to make OOTP a "replay"er that such non-quantifyables would have to be excluded. Thus, personalities, as with durnnear every other feature in OOTP, would need to be optional. But for those who enjoy their fictional worlds, it would be an aspect that would add greatly to the immersion. IMO.

Even if the option were turned on, extensive testing would be needed to determine how much a relationship, good or bad, would effect a player and those around him.

OOTP trys to be everything to evryone. And largely, it suceeds...may it always be so.

[jaguar8311]

Originally Posted by asurob

To be perfectly honest.

IF OOTP ever did something along the lines of a 3D engine to sim the games, I'd be all over that.

MLB Front Office Manager

*Scuttles back into corner*

[ugen64]

Originally Posted by lahoward

as of 12-9-08 the US is currently ranked 18 in the world (elo ratings non-political used in chess player ratings). 18 out of 200+ countries i'd say they "get it". i do agree however that it hasn't been or will be anytime soon a priority for young american athletes to get into.

foreigners should be careful what they wish for. imagine noel devine suiting up as a winger or Amar'e Stoudemire as a target man.


scary.

the only reason the US is rated anywhere near that high is because they play 90% of their games against poor teams (I'm being kind here) in CONCACAF. we are comparable maybe to a team like Sweden, Belgium, Romania, or Greece in Europe - given a good coach, some luck, and poor play from the big teams, we might win a tournament some day. (see Greece).

[deadringer]

Originally Posted by jaguar8311

MLB Front Office Manager

*Scuttles back into corner*

Here's to praying that the stats engine / AI are even Baseball Mogul level. I'll be hooked if they are.