23-please explain New Features

[jgrandison3]

deleted

[MathBandit]

Originally Posted by Marinersfan51

I really miss the old road to release series and when the developers were actually attempting to market the game and explain the value of the new version. I don't know what the new features are in this version and I have had to actively search to find any of the announcements and even then they are just announcements of upcoming trailers and twitch streams that will allegedly reveal new features.

Maybe I am just an old man yelling at clouds, but I miss when there would be 5 stickyed posts at the top of the forums with in depth explanations of the new features and overhalls that would get me excited for the game. Instead there is 1/10th that info out there scattered across a bunch of different platforms. Ever since they sold, it feels like the entire focus is on PT and twitch streams. There may be just as much focus being put on the actual game, but they are doing their damnedest to hide it.

This is the first time that I haven't preordered in 12 years and I am completely ambivalent to the new version, I probably will just wait until it goes on sale in a few months. I have been a day one preorder for a decade, but I really haven't been able to figure out if this is anything more than a FIFA/Madden/2k roster update game at this point.

That's not my experience at all. I feel like I have a good deal of information about what is new in this version that has nothing to do with roster updates.

[Bunktown Ballers]

Originally Posted by Reed

Well probably but instead of hunting them down it would be nice if a developer could make a post on the forum just giving more details on some of key features.
Some of the videos I have seen in the past just show it but don’t give any details or just show the aspect they are interest in. Helpful sometimes but a waste of time otherwise IMO.
Also, I will probably be working on my league before they ever post their videos.

I would be willing to bet the NEW TUTORIALS (many groaned about) might just show or explain some of the new stuff included. Just my guess

[progen]

Originally Posted by Marinersfan51

I really miss the old road to release series and when the developers were actually attempting to market the game and explain the value of the new version. I don't know what the new features are in this version and I have had to actively search to find any of the announcements and even then they are just announcements of upcoming trailers and twitch streams that will allegedly reveal new features.

Maybe I am just an old man yelling at clouds, but I miss when there would be 5 stickyed posts at the top of the forums with in depth explanations of the new features and overhalls that would get me excited for the game. Instead there is 1/10th that info out there scattered across a bunch of different platforms. Ever since they sold, it feels like the entire focus is on PT and twitch streams. There may be just as much focus being put on the actual game, but they are doing their damnedest to hide it.

This is the first time that I haven't preordered in 12 years and I am completely ambivalent to the new version, I probably will just wait until it goes on sale in a few months. I have been a day one preorder for a decade, but I really haven't been able to figure out if this is anything more than a FIFA/Madden/2k roster update game at this point.

You summed up what I've been thinking as well. With Football Manager, my last purchase was FM16, and I still am playing that now. The newer versions were never enough to "push" me to purchase, and with all the mods, I still get plenty of enjoyment out of FM16.

Similar to FM16, every year I would think, when will OOTP fall into this category for me, and I'm beginning to think that this might be the year that I just stick with OOTP22. I've been playing since OOTP4, and like you, pre-ordered every year, but I just can't get excited about this year's release. I don't play PT, and I rarely play out the games during the season. Maybe a dozen or two at most, so I'm sure that's a big part of it.

There are still items I feel can be added to the game, like more interaction with the players/agents, a better process when obtaining a manager/GM position. Some others that have already been mentioned.

I am very interested though in the feedback from those who will be playing this week. At that point, I'll either get really excited and purchase, or just shrug my shoulders, and continue with OOTP22.

[Bunktown Ballers]

Originally Posted by Syd Thrift

It sounds like they're hitting different things. This year, out of Markus' mouth, they rebuilt the sim engine from the ground up. In years past they've spent times on different aspects of the game. I know last year they devoted a bunch of time to improving the trade AI. I don't remember exactly what it was they tweaked around v 19 or 20 but I don't recall it being a deep dive into the simulation engine.

For the sim engine itself though, that's potentially a thing that people won't see a lot of difference in but may have been a very necessary piece of tech debt. That's always a hard proposition: you go in and completely rework a particular facet of this massive system you have, it's often a thankless job. At worst, you get out of it and people complain that it doesn't work like it did before (which, that's kind of the point), and there are new bugs (which do happen of course) and things don't happen the way they wanted them to (which sometimes happens as an artifact of quashing a bug - I worked with a system a couple years ago that I wanted to rework and I came to the table with the issues I had with it, but we decided to keep the old code base in large part because the sales staff had based their packages on a decade plus of the old (wrong) way that the system was doing things). At best, people don't notice it, really, and complain that you spent a lot of time doing "nothing".

The thing is, though, sometimes those big old pieces of tech debt are necessary to move forward. I know Markus kind of famously said he had to skip a version between 6 and 2007 to rewrite everything as it moved from a one or two man operation to something they were employing multiple devs on. If you leave things as is, it can get harder and harder over time to add new features because the more intricate and spaghetti-like the code is, the more issues adding those features creates. And it also gets harder to quash bugs for similar reasons.

So, like I said, I take these "revamp" versions philosophically. Sorry to see that some people here have fallen out of love with the game but it happens. For many of us, I feel like complaining about not getting some shiny new feature out of a game we pay $36 for a thousand plus hours of gameplay a year is a bit much.

I'm seeing it's mostly the newest of the new and not the (LIFERS) of OOTP that questions every thing of what does NEW THIS OR THAT MEAN. From a player since SEASON TICKET I have no doubt that whatever the changes are is for the betterment of the game. I'm also in belief the NEW TUTORIALS part of the game that many have groaned about will clear up many question about the NEW THINGS. Just me but I'm so excited to return to the part of the game I have moved away from bc of PT which I enjoyed but just burnt out on it. I'm taking a break from PT to get back to Franchising


BB

[David Watts]

Originally Posted by progen

You summed up what I've been thinking as well. With Football Manager, my last purchase was FM16, and I still am playing that now. The newer versions were never enough to "push" me to purchase, and with all the mods, I still get plenty of enjoyment out of FM16.

Similar to FM16, every year I would think, when will OOTP fall into this category for me, and I'm beginning to think that this might be the year that I just stick with OOTP22. I've been playing since OOTP4, and like you, pre-ordered every year, but I just can't get excited about this year's release. I don't play PT, and I rarely play out the games during the season. Maybe a dozen or two at most, so I'm sure that's a big part of it.

There are still items I feel can be added to the game, like more interaction with the players/agents, a better process when obtaining a manager/GM position. Some others that have already been mentioned.

I am very interested though in the feedback from those who will be playing this week. At that point, I'll either get really excited and purchase, or just shrug my shoulders, and continue with OOTP22.

For me it has nothing to do with the product OOTP puts out year in and year out. I've only had two versions I disliked, OOTP17 and 18 and since 19, I have been very happy with the course the game is on.

For me, as usual it's ME that's the problem. Year after year I repeat the same crazy cycle. When I buy the game I like to start fresh, so I download the Facegens, the historical stadiums etc. I then start a league. Then I start another one. And another. Bad thing is, this process will go on for months. Now I'm not saying I don't have fun. Heck, i can start a league and play a months worth of games and I have fun. Before I know it, it's August and I have accomplished very little with the game. Then around September I start finding my groove. This year I found it on 11/3/21. Tonight when I get home I will finish up season 25 of my random debut league. I don't really want this league to end, but I know I won't want to bring it into 23 either. So the question becomes, should I repeat the cycle again this year or try something different by waiting till later in the year to purchase the new game? Ugh. The bats in my head go round and round.

[Reed]

Originally Posted by Bunktown Ballers

I would be willing to bet the NEW TUTORIALS (many groaned about) might just show or explain some of the new stuff included. Just my guess

You have a lot more faith than me but I hope you are right. The closest thing to the tutorial in the past has been the manual. I am somewhat skeptical because I am not that thrilled with the manual. The manual doesn’t go into details and it has some errors that have carried over for years.
For example, the manual has for years stated the default value for weaken hitters is 200 but when you actually create the game the default is 300??? Every year there is the same discussion about AI evaluation, recalc settings, and the aging model. Seems the manual could have been updated to give more details at some point.
I guess you think the tutorials will give a lot more details about the
functions/settings/gameplay and I hope you are right. The way I learn about things is by running test leagues with every new version or by reading the forum. I usually skim through the manual once every year. Like I do every year, I will set up a couple leagues tonight and start testing things out.

[Supermercado]

Any updates to the news system? It's frustrating seeing the same inflexible filters every year - I've put this in the suggestions forum every year for about the last five versions but we've got to get better control over what news we get.

For instance, instead of just 'game performances' where I'm getting inbox messages about every 3HR game in the league, let me choose which highlights I want to be notified about. I'd love to get a message about every no hitter/perfect game, couldn't care less if somebody threw a non-record number of strikeouts.

The customisation options in OOTP leave all other sports games for dead, which makes the lack of change in the news system even more frustrating.

[asaintsfan]

Hmmmm - I purchased for the same reason many of you have - Mr H's creation many many moons ago has given me many many many hours of entertainment of which I am grateful. I always think the game is great as it is. The only question I have is "pants" ??? that's what people wanted? Hell I would settle more for names and logos on players - in game play????

Anyway many thanks for the new game!! Can't wait.

[MikeS369]

I'm sure this has been posted somewhere on this forum but I cannot find it. What time does the game release?

[AlpineSK]

Originally Posted by jgrandison3

What do you people get from waiting and seeing if your just gonna buy the game eventually anyway?

Let an initial patch get posted... Let rosters get updated.. Make sure that the game lives up to the actual hype.... Potentially pay what you think the game is worth vs. what it costs on release....

[asaintsfan]

The rosters thing IMO is a moot point as the game is being released 2 weeks after the opening of the actual season - soooooooo rosters should be pretty close to set - right?

[koolkerns101]

Originally Posted by MikeS369

I'm sure this has been posted somewhere on this forum but I cannot find it. What time does the game release?

Markus said early afternoon ET, so a couple hours from now. Fingers crossed.

[Mike D]

Originally Posted by jgrandison3

What do you people get from waiting and seeing if your just gonna buy the game eventually anyway?

Spending half as much money waiting for the bugs to get ironed out.

[PSUColonel]

Originally Posted by Supermercado

Any updates to the news system? It's frustrating seeing the same inflexible filters every year - I've put this in the suggestions forum every year for about the last five versions but we've got to get better control over what news we get.

For instance, instead of just 'game performances' where I'm getting inbox messages about every 3HR game in the league, let me choose which highlights I want to be notified about. I'd love to get a message about every no hitter/perfect game, couldn't care less if somebody threw a non-record number of strikeouts.

The customisation options in OOTP leave all other sports games for dead, which makes the lack of change in the news system even more frustrating.

This. With more leagues available it’s imperative the user be able to choose what leagues, teams, players and events to subscribe to.

[Pelican]

My wife is a data manager with programming skills, and I understand her job just enough to expect that the vast majority of time was spent “under the hood” improving the AI in ways that are subtle but will gradually reveal themselves as we play more games. I’m not against the “bells and whistles” and shiny new toys for a moment. But I look forward to the sublime pleasure of appreciating refinements and enhancements that improve the quality of play.