Developer Update Thread (last update: 11/14/2013)

[Mr. Baseball]

Everyone attacked me when I said this before FHM came out, but I never wanted it to be released to begin with. I don't want OOTP to shift their development efforts to anything other than baseball. Selfish, whatever, I want OOTP getting 100% of the attention from this company so that it can be the best it can be. Expansion was not necessary.

[pens66]

Originally Posted by Mr. Baseball

Everyone attacked me when I said this before FHM came out, but I never wanted it to be released to begin with. I don't want OOTP to shift their development efforts to anything other than baseball. Selfish, whatever, I want OOTP getting 100% of the attention from this company so that it can be the best it can be. Expansion was not necessary.

Selfish indeed.

As for the participation in the forums dying down: It's no wonder. Communication by the devs was good for maybe two weeks after going beta. Since then it was nearly non-existant. I can't remember how often I was critical in that regard, but I only ever got one single reaction by them and their behaviour hasn't changed.
I can't believe how things are flowing with this game considering in what incredibly sad state this game is. If I, as a developer, were WAY behind schedule I'd do the utmost to keep people in the know and calm things down in the forums. Now, it seems they did a fine job calming things down by simply never reacting to anything. Interest is at an all-time low and nobody seems to care, including the developers.

It's actually funny at this point that you don't even get a reaction to this harsh criticism (I wrote this myself, but I still consider it harsh). It is all very strange...

[JeffR]

We're continuing to work on the game. Sebastian and Malte have spent the last few weeks working on some very large changes that required a lot of coding time, hence the lack of new information coming out - we haven't had an internal build in a while (although that should change shortly), so until I see that I can't really give any meaningful insight into the amount of work that still needs to be done and a timeframe for a new patch, or the specifics of what's going to be in it - the upcoming changes will be significant, but at this stage we don't want to describe them in detail in case some of them don't work out and have to be scrapped/altered. That, unfortunately, is the best I can do right now for an update. But as I've said before: I will tell you when we've stopped working on this version of the game, and we're not close to that point right now.

[gekkoguy82]

Originally Posted by Mr. Baseball

Everyone attacked me when I said this before FHM came out, but I never wanted it to be released to begin with. I don't want OOTP to shift their development efforts to anything other than baseball. Selfish, whatever, I want OOTP getting 100% of the attention from this company so that it can be the best it can be. Expansion was not necessary.

Get a grip dude. Go back under your bridge.


I don't post much, but I check in daily and keep tabs on who rages about what as the days go by. I'm quite disappointed too, just like a lot of people. But I really want this game to succeed. I admit that I haven't played in weeks, but I have in no way given up hope for this game. Keep plugging away Jeff. Fix those goalie stats.

[dave1927p]

I've been way to busy with work to play fhm


hopefully you guys are getting more time into the game then I am as of recently

[drewst18]

Originally Posted by Mr. Baseball

Everyone attacked me when I said this before FHM came out, but I never wanted it to be released to begin with. I don't want OOTP to shift their development efforts to anything other than baseball. Selfish, whatever, I want OOTP getting 100% of the attention from this company so that it can be the best it can be. Expansion was not necessary.

I'd love for you to tell me what resources from OOTP's Baseball game were taken from it. This is a dumb uneducated post, amazes me what people say on the internet.

Sebastien worked on iOOTP
Malte was brought in as someone who worked with Sebastien pre-FHM
Jeff was brought in around the point where the initial game was to be released to work on database and to help Brad with PR type stuff.

No resources were taken from OOTP so go back to your baseball boards and annoy those people please.

[omjo]

Originally Posted by JeffR

We're continuing to work on the game. Sebastian and Malte have spent the last few weeks working on some very large changes that required a lot of coding time, hence the lack of new information coming out - we haven't had an internal build in a while (although that should change shortly), so until I see that I can't really give any meaningful insight into the amount of work that still needs to be done and a timeframe for a new patch, or the specifics of what's going to be in it - the upcoming changes will be significant, but at this stage we don't want to describe them in detail in case some of them don't work out and have to be scrapped/altered. That, unfortunately, is the best I can do right now for an update. But as I've said before: I will tell you when we've stopped working on this version of the game, and we're not close to that point right now.

Don't know about anybody else but this post kind of has me anticipating the next update quite a bit now.

Appreciate the updates even if they aren't extremely detailed. Better than nothing.

[traveler99]

Originally Posted by omjo

Don't know about anybody else but this post kind of has me anticipating the next update quite a bit now.

Appreciate the updates even if they aren't extremely detailed. Better than nothing.

To me it sound more like buying time from the angry mob...no matter if things no work in the update, TELL people what you are working on, be more transparent and people have more patience, keeping off the view and keeping everyone in the dark certainly is not helping much...this game should had been released on September of 2014 not 2013, too early for that so many things still no work and now its December already...

[traveler99]

Originally Posted by JeffR

We're continuing to work on the game. Sebastian and Malte have spent the last few weeks working on some very large changes that required a lot of coding time, hence the lack of new information coming out - we haven't had an internal build in a while (although that should change shortly), so until I see that I can't really give any meaningful insight into the amount of work that still needs to be done and a timeframe for a new patch, or the specifics of what's going to be in it - the upcoming changes will be significant, but at this stage we don't want to describe them in detail in case some of them don't work out and have to be scrapped/altered. That, unfortunately, is the best I can do right now for an update. But as I've said before: I will tell you when we've stopped working on this version of the game, and we're not close to that point right now.

and you really think that talking in circles is the best strategy? sound more like smoke and mirrors to me :P it would be more beneficial to you tell people what you are working on and if things no work out, who cares?!? then simply inform this function could not get working right now, we try to put it on to next patch instead. Keeping quiet is not helping anyone i'm sure, My personal opinion on FHM in greenlight, you should have kept it off until its good to go (If it gets through now, it's gonna get brutal reviews with their new reviewing system they have in place) It won't do any good for your company's esteemed image as it has good image outside, releasing beta/half assed product is tarnishing that big time, people are gonna think twice next year for any pre-orders for FHM if there might be, Good news spread slowly but bad news spread like wild fire i guess we all know that by now.

[Duranium]

Originally Posted by Mr. Baseball

Everyone attacked me when I said this before FHM came out, but I never wanted it to be released to begin with. I don't want OOTP to shift their development efforts to anything other than baseball. Selfish, whatever, I want OOTP getting 100% of the attention from this company so that it can be the best it can be. Expansion was not necessary.

Maybe they wanted to do a managment game about a sport which is popular in more than ...hmm....3 countries in the world - which nations play baseball? USA, Duckburgh & ....Japan ?

This game has big potential in NA where ppl will likely play this beside their boring Baseball stuff and even more potential in europe (especially Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, Middle-Europe -especially the EBEL zone- ) where nobody, absolutely noboy gives a **** about your favourite pastime

So, wtg and keep uo the great work

[Risk2014]

I still cant beleive that this game is taking so long for the developers to fix. You gave us an update! But that means nothing to me as you have mislead the customers from the beginning. This game still has flaws thst needed to be fixed even from the first patch. Yes you are working on this game supposedly but when you do release the patch it will be the same result, nothing is fixed. Not buying 2015 for sure.

[Germaniac]

Originally Posted by JeffR

We're continuing to work on the game.

Good to hear - I wasn't all that sure about that recently

Originally Posted by JeffR

... - we haven't had an internal build in a while (although that should change shortly), so until I see that I can't really give any meaningful insight into the amount of work that still needs to be done and a timeframe for a new patch, or the specifics of what's going to be in it - the upcoming changes will be significant, but at this stage we don't want to describe them in detail in case some of them don't work out and have to be scrapped/altered. That, unfortunately, is the best I can do right now for an update. But as I've said before: I will tell you when we've stopped working on this version of the game, and we're not close to that point right now.

Not all that good - basically what most of the guys in this forum want to read, including me, is what is going on.

We're almost 4 months beyond release and almost 10 months beyond release of the beta and all we see is ... nothing.

I'm sure that you guys work hard on this, but you know that, Malte and Sebastian know that ... but we as your customers have no idea what's going on.

That is extremely frustrating and has caused a dramatic drop of interest - just check the amount of recent posts.

And make no mistake - once the interest in this game has died it doesn't matter if you guys continue to work on this project or not ... keep us informed, keep our interest in this game.

Nobody needs a detailed list of what will be included in the next patch, but give us a few ideas and give us a timetable of when to expect the next patch.

[Risk2014]

To Germaniac...thank you. Totally Agree.

[Mike's Rangers]

Stop knocking baseball. I get it. You don't like it. So don't play it and stop trashing it. It's not boring. Concentrate on helping FHM like you have.

[Mr. Baseball]

Originally Posted by Duranium

sport which is popular in more than ...hmm....3 countries in the

Japan
Venezuela
United States
South Korea
Dominican Republic
Panama
Cuba
Canada
Puerto Rico
Mexico
Nicaragua
Netherlands

Simply because Europe hasn't caught on to the greatest game In the world, doesn't mean that the rest of the world hasn't. Many Asian countries love baseball and baseball has always been king in the Caribbean and North America. Get out of your bubble.

Furthermore, I don't understand why people are being so rude here calling me 'tough behind a computer screen'. I would say the same things in person. It's my opinion. I didn't articulate my opinion in a way that attacks the game, it's just how I feel. I wasn't aware that the majority of the FHM developers don't work with OOTP. I thought it was mostly the same group.

Calm your socks.

[Lukas Berger]

Originally Posted by Mr. Baseball

Japan
Venezuela
United States
South Korea
Dominican Republic
Panama
Cuba
Canada
Puerto Rico
Mexico
Nicaragua
Netherlands

Also Taiwan, Australia, Italy.

There's also a very small but growing interest in baseball in several other major European nations including Germany, Spain, France, Belgium and the Czech Republic. Each of those nations have decent semi-pro leagues that compete well in European competition with the more established professional teams from Holland and Italy and have had young players good enough to be signed by MLB teams and play in the American minor leagues.

[Mr. Baseball]

I'd argue baseball is actually more popular than hockey worldwide. I've always lived in the states, but I don't imagine hockey has much of a presence in Asia, Africa, South America, or the Caribbean. Baseball has popularity somewhere in every inhabited continent. Heck, hockey is basically nonexistent in the southern United States.

[Alessandro]

Originally Posted by lukasberger

Also Taiwan, Australia, Italy.

Maybe Alex Liddi plays in the MLB but baseball is I think 100 times less popular than hockey, which is already 1000 times less popular than basketball, which in turns is magnitudes away from soccer. With all the due respect, in Italy no one has a ****ing clue about how the hell is Alex Liddi. Only baseball fans or geeks know him.

EDIT: Here you have some attendance figures... http://cnc.fibs.it/cnc/baseball/2013/L1/control/mas.htm

[Lukas Berger]

Originally Posted by Alessandro

Maybe Alex Liddi plays in the MLB but baseball is I think 100 times less popular than hockey, which is already 1000 times less popular than basketball, which in turns is magnitudes away from soccer. With all the due respect, in Italy no one has a ****ing clue about how the hell is Alex Liddi. Only baseball fans or geeks know him.

EDIT: Here you have some attendance figures... Italian Baseball League - 2013 - Toshiba Mastiff Gros

That may be true, but the point is that Italy does have a fully professional baseball league with a somewhat reasonable standard of play. There may not be much attendance, but there's clearly at least some level of interest there.

In fact I'd say that the IBL is probably a better baseball league than the Elite A is a hockey league. So yeah, baseball may not exactly be widely popular in Italy but I guess hockey really isn't either for that matter.

[Mr. Baseball]

Baseball exists almost everywhere in the world in some capacity. Hockey does not exist in well over half the globe.

Bottom line, there is a huge market for baseball. Both sports are interesting in my opinion, but saying only three countries care about baseball is completely idiotic.