Feedback Needed / OOTP 11 Features

[Dargone]

Player's firsts, single game records, more play by play descriptions. For me, I like to feel really immersed in my universe. I want more news stories (sorry mm7607) that add a sense of immersion. Maybe a weekly baseball show that is somehow integrated into the game? Where things are talked about like who is hot, pennant races, etc. I'm still waiting for some kind of simple graphics when watching a game.

Obviously a continued tweaking of the sim engine for more realistic results. I think this really goes without saying so that is why I listed the other stuff in my first paragraph. Continued improvements to the historical replay aspect of the game. Player/manager feuds and rivalries. It would be cool if rivalries developed between different teams and the game made mention of that in news stories.

The game is great now and there is so much more that can be done to continually improve it. I look forward to the next version!

[NYY #23]

I put these together without looking at other suggestions, and it looks like a few of these have already been said, but here are some things that I'd like to see in no particular order (after the first at least).

1) Single game records - both for individual performance and for a team's performance. Most hits in a game, etc.

2) Postseason records - in a game, series, or career postseason records. Even all-star records would be nice.

3) Player history - under the accomplishments section it was be nice to see their 'firsts' listed as well. I'd love to see either the milestones separated out, or a category you could filter. If I don't want to only milestones I wouldn't have to wade through all the injuries for example.

4) Breaking records - I think it would be nice to see a news story/email when a player is approaching a record, ties a record, and breaks the record.

5) Hall of fame - it would be really nice to have the option to wait 5 years, or x number of years before the player was eligible for the Hall of Fame. It seems like expanding the options for the Hall of Fame requirements would be nice with a few options such as wait x number of years after retirement, a check box to manually induct players, and maybe even a date each year when the players are inducted into the Hall of Fame. A news story that says here are the top players that are eligible in the upcoming election. One they get into the Hall of Fame it would be nice to be able to sort and filter the players. When you pull up the profile for a Hall of Famer it would be nice to see something that indicates they are in the Hall of Fame on the main profile page.

6) Accomplishments - it would be nice to be able to define some of the accomplishments, if you wanted to see all players that won more than 25 games in a season for example. Adding a way to filter or sort in the accomplishments would be nice - how many players hit 4 home runs, how many hit 3 home runs for Detroit, etc.

7) League Champions - add how the team got to the championship. Defeated team A 3-2 in round 1, defeated team B 4-1 in round 2, defeated team C in round 3 championship.

8) Team vs team all-time records - 50-50 against team A, 60-40 against team B, etc.

9) Better separation of GM and manager role - I think you should be able to apply for either a manager's job or a GM's job. You shouldn't have to apply as General Manager and then have to change the settings so the AI controls moves if you just want to manage games. Signing a contract as a manager or GM would be nice as well. All the AI managers have this, the humans should have a salary and when they are signed through.

10) GM Ratings - It would be nice for GM's to have ratings as well - developing minor league system, drafting, developing a winner, turning profit, handling coaching staff, etc. On the flip side, when looking at Available Jobs it would be nice to see what "mode" the team is in. If a team is looking to rebuild it would be nice to know, and if you are bad at drafting or developing a minor league system, why would that team be interested in you?

11) Expanded objectives for managers/GMs when you sign a contract - it would seem more realistic when you sign on as a GM for the Nationals to get objectives over the next three years to a) keep payroll at a certain level b) improve your minor league system c) build a team that is capable of contending within 3 years.

12) More interaction with your staff - it would be nice with the draft coming up for your scouts to send you a message saying you should check out this guy. Or your manager to send you a message saying that player A with a bad morale rating needs to go because he is disrupting the clubhouse, or to get a message saying this guy needs to be promoted or demoted.

13) Streaks - Cal Ripken's consecutive games played steak is one of the most famous, but we can't track that. Adding other individual streaks to fill in any gaps (all-time RBI, all-time runs) as well as adding streaks for teams - longest winning streak, losing streak, etc

14) Multi-year Historical League - I'm not sure if the title describes it properly, but if I wanted to create a historical league using teams from multiple seasons. For example creating a league with the 27 Yankees, 75 Reds, 98 Yankees, and 55 Dodgers. I know its possible today, but not the simplest process, especially when you are adding 20+ teams from 20+ years.

[OakDragon]

Originally Posted by mm7607

- I want LESS news stories
- I want LESS messages. They never get read anyway so for me they just take up valuable memory for other things.
- I want a decent schedule editor. It would appear that making schedules is a highly guarded secret.
- I want better record keeping for individual games and players.
- Better printing of player card, game scores and stats other then the awful way it has to be done now.
- Better playoff games flexibility.
- MASS select PLEASE
- An easier was to assign players to teams without have to go into each player editor.

I agree with all of the above. The ability to turn off email entirely (including personal messages) would be nice.

[StyxNCa]

Originally Posted by NYY #23

I put these together without looking at other suggestions, and it looks like a few of these have already been said, but here are some things that I'd like to see in no particular order (after the first at least).

After all the effort I put into my suggestion you didn't even read it?

[norva13x]

I haven't gone through the entire thread, but I am a history buff and love comprehensive historical info and relocations of teams etc and would love the ability to reactivate defunct franchises and maybe even whole leagues.

[NYY #23]

Originally Posted by StyxNCa

After all the effort I put into my suggestion you didn't even read it?

Not yet, but I will. I wanted to put in mine before reading others.

[pstrickert]

I decided to expand the list I posted earlier. Here it is:

- fix fielding, please. This would include (a) using Rtz or other advanced fielding stats to generate ratings; (b) fixing the fielding LTMs; (c) adding fielding categories (PO, A, E) to the box scores; (d) adding some of the advanced fielding stats, etc.
- automatic game recaps. SOM has them. DMB users can purchase a third-party utility to have them.
- complete record book. This would include single game, post-season, and all-star game records.
- improved format for news stories. Jazz it up a bit.
- improved format for scouting reports. Jazz it up a bit.
- bring back IRS%.
- add more options to mimic historical SP/RP use. For example, using a SP to close out a game (ala the 1950s); using closers for 2- or 3-inning stints (ala the 1970s); using LOOGYs (ala the 2000s).
- baseball cards. For the fun factor.
- add more team stats, team splits.
- add more "rare plays".
- continue to add more context-sensitive PbP content.

[markmcghee]

I would love to see the Visit Mound experience to be more meaningful. Now that we have individual pitches for pitchers it would be cool if, when the pitching coach went to the mound, he would give me a quick assessment of the pitchers status by showing the colored pitch bars and a color designation indicating how effect each pitch is in comparison to how effective it was at the start of the game.

For example, you click Visit Mound in the first inning and the box pops up. Inside the box, all four of the pitchers pitches are shown with green bars. In the eighth inning maybe the fastball has gone to light yellow, the slider light green, and the curve solid green. Etc. The other idea is for the catcher's "wisdom" rating plus the skill of the pitching coach would determine how accurate these pitch status indicators are. The may be way off or right on depending. The pitching coach's rating would of course add more weight to the assessment. Does that make sense to anybody?

[neojonas]

Immersion is a key component that could make OOTP 11 really stand out even more. Immersion is what gets most people addicted and continually playing day in and day out. It's what makes us fall in love with that pitcher that nobody else wanted, but you gave him a chance and he ended up winning the world series for you. I think it starts with improving the feeder leagues to watch the players grow more and adding personality. I couldn't have worded it better then Corsairs who just nailed it on the head. I think this type of immersion would draw in more people to the game who aren't just stat-heads, helping grow the brand and company.

Originally Posted by Corsairs

When it comes to back-of-the-box feature ideas that will move units, I know exactly where I'd start: Fleshing out the feeder leagues and the amateur draft. Sure, this is something I personally would be interested in, but until recently I wouldn't have suggested it as a bullet point kind of improvement. Over the last few years, though, the MLB amateur draft has become an increasingly big deal. All of a sudden you've got the draft being shown in prime time on ESPN. Players like Stephen Strasburg are getting extensive coverage from mainstream new sources. Fans are starting to pay attention to college (and even high school) baseball to pick out the rising stars. Some agents have reached almost celebrity status thanks to their negotiating tactics.

Clearly there's a buregoning interest in the amateur draft and everything that surrounds it. Since this is an area I believe a lot of current OOTP'ers would like to see beefed up anyway, OOTP XI would be the perfect opportunity to break these new features in. Amongst the ideas to consider (in no particular order):

• Enable high school players to "graduate" to a league's college feeder system.
• Add agents into the game, each with their own particular methods and quirks.
• Introduce signing bonuses.
• Allow top prospects to issue contract/bonus demands (through their agents) prior to the draft.
• Rather than automatically assigning new draftees, force GMs to negotiate contracts with them. While most lesser draftees will sign for slot money, negotiations with top prospects could prove more tricky.
• In addition to contract/bonus demands, allow for other means of player negotiating leverage, including:
  • Threatening to sign with a college
  • Threatening to sign with an independent league (or simply sitting out until next year's draft if no such league exists)
  • Pre-warning his desire (or lack thereof) to be drafted by a particular orginization
• Create other signing considerations beyond money:
  • Predilection for signing with a team due to its proximity to his home town and/or school
  • The presence (or lack thereof) of established players/high-profile prospects blocking the new draftee's path
  • GMs reputation
• Regadring GM reputation, consider tracking this. Teams with GMs who sign players to large contracts and generally show a willingness to funnel money into player development would be more desireable landing spots for new draftees, while those who play hardball could get blacklisted.
• Take the reputation idea farther by allowing GMs to make promises/assurances to top players and their agents. As examples: "We guarantee you this role in our organization," or, "You'll be with the big league club in no more than 2 years." If those promises are fulfilled, reputation increases (and vice versa).
• Build the hype by starting to show news stories about top draft-eligible players on the main league's page starting 60 days from the amateur draft, and also during the feeder league(s) playoffs.
• Imbue these players with personality! You often hear about the "makeup" of a player. Is he a hothead? Does he have a penchant for upsetting his teammates or getting into trouble off the field? If so, let's see some new stories related to this. These kinds of makeup issues could carry over to a player's pro career, giving GMs an extra thing to consider when drafting. Strive to make players as three-dimensional as possible!
• OOTP already allows the trading of draft picks, something that can't be done in MLB. I would suggest going further with this. For instance, the NHL allows for conditional draft pick trading (e.g. I give you a 3rd rounder, but it could become a 1st rounder depending on something occurring). Look to other pro leagues for creative expansions of the draft pick trading model.
• Live analysis of first round picks during the draft. ESPN has a panel of "experts" sounding off on picks as they happen; why not BNN?

By no means would anyone reasonably expect all of these features to get added into OOTP XI. This should be taken as a jumping off point. Pick and choose what you think would be the most valuable/easy-to-implement additions and have at it. Overall, though, I can't think of a more apropos area of improvement to explore if you're looking to attract the casual baseball fan's attention (and please your current user base at the same time).

[markmcghee]

I'd like to see teams that brawl hold grudges that would make it more likely for beanings and fights to break out between these teams in the weeks and months following the initial brawl. As time goes by, the grudge would fade. The more fights between two teams, the slower the grudge fades. Teams could even hold grudges over to the next season, say if the brawl occurred during the playoffs.

[neojonas]

- Add more interaction with my coaching staff. I forget I even have a staff. I want my pitching coach to tell me who's improving or can't keep their fastball down or during the game make suggestions about the pitcher (take him out, etc). I want my batting coach to inform me on various batters. Bench coach could let me know who's the clubhouse cancer or how morale is going and why.

- Improve spring training. Allow me to work on different skills with different players to try and improve their bunting or eye or base running. I have a pitcher with 2 awesome pitches and 1 below average pitch. I want to have my pitcher work on that pitch but I can't tell him that right now. For some reason he can't hear me yell at the monitor.

[LeeDorm8185]

Originally Posted by NYY #23

I put these together without looking at other suggestions, and it looks like a few of these have already been said, but here are some things that I'd like to see in no particular order (after the first at least).

1) Single game records - both for individual performance and for a team's performance. Most hits in a game, etc.

2) Postseason records - in a game, series, or career postseason records. Even all-star records would be nice.

3) Player history - under the accomplishments section it was be nice to see their 'firsts' listed as well. I'd love to see either the milestones separated out, or a category you could filter. If I don't want to only milestones I wouldn't have to wade through all the injuries for example.

4) Breaking records - I think it would be nice to see a news story/email when a player is approaching a record, ties a record, and breaks the record.

5) Hall of fame - it would be really nice to have the option to wait 5 years, or x number of years before the player was eligible for the Hall of Fame. It seems like expanding the options for the Hall of Fame requirements would be nice with a few options such as wait x number of years after retirement, a check box to manually induct players, and maybe even a date each year when the players are inducted into the Hall of Fame. A news story that says here are the top players that are eligible in the upcoming election. One they get into the Hall of Fame it would be nice to be able to sort and filter the players. When you pull up the profile for a Hall of Famer it would be nice to see something that indicates they are in the Hall of Fame on the main profile page.

6) Accomplishments - it would be nice to be able to define some of the accomplishments, if you wanted to see all players that won more than 25 games in a season for example. Adding a way to filter or sort in the accomplishments would be nice - how many players hit 4 home runs, how many hit 3 home runs for Detroit, etc.

7) League Champions - add how the team got to the championship. Defeated team A 3-2 in round 1, defeated team B 4-1 in round 2, defeated team C in round 3 championship.

8) Team vs team all-time records - 50-50 against team A, 60-40 against team B, etc.

9) Better separation of GM and manager role - I think you should be able to apply for either a manager's job or a GM's job. You shouldn't have to apply as General Manager and then have to change the settings so the AI controls moves if you just want to manage games. Signing a contract as a manager or GM would be nice as well. All the AI managers have this, the humans should have a salary and when they are signed through.

10) GM Ratings - It would be nice for GM's to have ratings as well - developing minor league system, drafting, developing a winner, turning profit, handling coaching staff, etc. On the flip side, when looking at Available Jobs it would be nice to see what "mode" the team is in. If a team is looking to rebuild it would be nice to know, and if you are bad at drafting or developing a minor league system, why would that team be interested in you?

11) Expanded objectives for managers/GMs when you sign a contract - it would seem more realistic when you sign on as a GM for the Nationals to get objectives over the next three years to a) keep payroll at a certain level b) improve your minor league system c) build a team that is capable of contending within 3 years.

12) More interaction with your staff - it would be nice with the draft coming up for your scouts to send you a message saying you should check out this guy. Or your manager to send you a message saying that player A with a bad morale rating needs to go because he is disrupting the clubhouse, or to get a message saying this guy needs to be promoted or demoted.

13) Streaks - Cal Ripken's consecutive games played steak is one of the most famous, but we can't track that. Adding other individual streaks to fill in any gaps (all-time RBI, all-time runs) as well as adding streaks for teams - longest winning streak, losing streak, etc

14) Multi-year Historical League - I'm not sure if the title describes it properly, but if I wanted to create a historical league using teams from multiple seasons. For example creating a league with the 27 Yankees, 75 Reds, 98 Yankees, and 55 Dodgers. I know its possible today, but not the simplest process, especially when you are adding 20+ teams from 20+ years.

Excellent list!!

[Raffke]

A dedicated screen to compare 2 players where stats and ratings can be placed side by side - this is one of the options in Football Manager 2007 onwards (the soccer one) and is a great way to easily look at and choose between 2 guys. You can do it now but I think it might be easier if it is only the 2 players on the screen.

[mgom27]

Unretirements and Retirements in Season for Staff/Personal/Players/Pitchers because lets say Derek Jeter decides on July 15th 2018 to retire or Bobby Cox says I will Manager one more year then Retire or Sammy Sosa decides to Unretire on May 23 2011.

Interm Managers or GM

Mock Drafts for both Fantasy,College/Amaetur and maybe Expansion because other Sports do it. Draft last 2 days and Trades really happening in it.

Computer Teams Relocating and Teams being put up for Sale because that would make News more interstring.

Expansion and Rule 5 Draft Rules like in real Life.

Full Spring Training Options that include Minor League Camp,Split Squad Games,Non Roster People,Games against College and Minor League Teams,setting Openging Day Roster before Opening Day and so on.

Live Play by Play,Home Run Derby and Futures Games.

Being able to interview other Teams people for one of your opening or promoting a Staff Menber from the Minors for the Job.

Contract with Minor League Team and lets say the Braves contract is up with Gwinnett in 2013 and don't decide to renew and has to find anew home for the team so then that makes Gwinnett available for a new team to relocate there or even a Expansion team if Minor League Expansion by the Computer is allowed.

From NHL Eastside Hockey Manager Organation Report would show D.Cart for team form like Best Catcher to no chance in the Majors at the moment,Top Ten Prospects,Best Pinch Hitter,Best Clutch Hitter,Best Pitcher and also Rumor Mill in terms of Possibly Trades happening like maybe Robinson Cono from the Yankees to the Brewers for Hart,Suppan and so on and also Teams unsigned Prospect Page and last Editor like from this Game.

Copy and Clone and in person's Information who they were Drafted by if they were Drafted same goes for Search.

[bababui]

Originally Posted by mgom27

Interm Managers or GM

Mock Drafts for both Fantasy,College/Amaetur and maybe Expansion because other Sports do it.

Computer Teams Relocating and Teams being put up for Sale because that would make News more interstring.

Expansion and Rule 5 Draft Rules like in real Life.

Full Spring Training Options that include Minor League Camp,Split Squad Games,Non Roster People,Games against College and Minor League Teams,setting Openging Day Roster before Opening Day and so on.

Live Play by Play,Home Run Derby and Futures Games.

Being able to interview other Teams people for one of your opening or promoting a Staff Menber from the Minors for the Job.

Contract with Minor League Team and lets say the Braves contract is up with Gwinnett in 2013 and don't decide to renew and has to find anew home for the team so then that makes Gwinnett available for a new team to relocate there or even a Expansion team if Minor League Expansion by the Computer is allowed.

in person's Information who they were Drafted by if they were Drafted

[Vinny P.]

Originally Posted by markmcghee

I would love to see the Visit Mound experience to be more meaningful. Now that we have individual pitches for pitchers it would be cool if, when the pitching coach went to the mound, he would give me a quick assessment of the pitchers status by showing the colored pitch bars and a color designation indicating how effect each pitch is in comparison to how effective it was at the start of the game.

For example, you click Visit Mound in the first inning and the box pops up. Inside the box, all four of the pitchers pitches are shown with green bars. In the eighth inning maybe the fastball has gone to light yellow, the slider light green, and the curve solid green. Etc. The other idea is for the catcher's "wisdom" rating plus the skill of the pitching coach would determine how accurate these pitch status indicators are. The may be way off or right on depending. The pitching coach's rating would of course add more weight to the assessment. Does that make sense to anybody?

This would be really cool to have added, and something I haven't seen suggested yet.

However, I highly doubt that is a feature that could be added, even within the next couple of versions of OOTP, and certainly probably not for XI. If it can even be done (I'm not a a very good programmer, so I don't even know how Markus would go about programming this into the game.)

But nevertheless, I will keep this suggestion in mind, and give it an extra endorsement here, even if it doesn't see the light of day for another two versions or so.

[Afino]

Originally Posted by mgom27

Unretirements and Retirements in Season for Staff/Personal/Players/Pitchers because lets say Derek Jeter decides on July 15th 2018 to retire or Bobby Cox says I will Manager one more year then Retire or Sammy Sosa decides to Unretire on May 23 2011.

Interm Managers or GM

Mock Drafts for both Fantasy,College/Amaetur and maybe Expansion because other Sports do it. Draft last 2 days and Trades really happening in it.

Computer Teams Relocating and Teams being put up for Sale because that would make News more interstring.

Expansion and Rule 5 Draft Rules like in real Life.

Full Spring Training Options that include Minor League Camp,Split Squad Games,Non Roster People,Games against College and Minor League Teams,setting Openging Day Roster before Opening Day and so on.

Live Play by Play,Home Run Derby and Futures Games.

Being able to interview other Teams people for one of your opening or promoting a Staff Menber from the Minors for the Job.

Contract with Minor League Team and lets say the Braves contract is up with Gwinnett in 2013 and don't decide to renew and has to find anew home for the team so then that makes Gwinnett available for a new team to relocate there or even a Expansion team if Minor League Expansion by the Computer is allowed.

From NHL Eastside Hockey Manager Organation Report would show D.Cart for team form like Best Catcher to no chance in the Majors at the moment,Top Ten Prospects,Best Pinch Hitter,Best Clutch Hitter,Best Pitcher and also Rumor Mill in terms of Possibly Trades happening like maybe Robinson Cono from the Yankees to the Brewers for Hart,Suppan and so on and also Teams unsigned Prospect Page and last Editor like from this Game.

Copy and Clone and in person's Information who they were Drafted by if they were Drafted same goes for Search.

I.......like a lot of these ideas.

I wouldn't want to turn OOTP into EHM, but there's things I wouldn't mind implemented.

[OmahaBaseball]

I admit that I did not read the whole thread, but I vote for the next version to use/display graphs - big fan of graphs :-)

[AirmenSmith]

Non roster invitees for spring training. Maybe have it so we can sign players to just spring training contracts so basically a 30 day contract.

[TribeFanInNC]

Originally Posted by AirmenSmith

Non roster invitees for spring training.

yes, definitely NRIs