Back from vacation, 1.0.3 coming up

[endgame]

A few comments, for what they're worth, in EC mode.

This was the original question on Markus' part:

Originally Posted by Markus Heinsohn

Any suggestions for a couple of small new features?

What could possibly have been simpler, small, new, or both?

The thread contains some outstanding ideas and exchanges.

Unfortunately, it evolved into personal editorials and proposals.

Unfortunately, it means one more pile of crap Markus won't get to; someone (maybe) will have to 'give him the jist' because very few people could just stick to 'the jist': his original simple question.

Markus took the time to post something. That alone is always meaningful. It makes be believe, rightly or wrongly, that something is happening.

The end of the month can't come quickly enough but, on the other hand, it will come too quickly. There's a buttload of code and comments to evaluate before then. I already feel he/we are late getting to the final fixes.

This post doesn't help anything much except to magnify that 120 replies, 100 of which do not address his question, don't either.

Almost every thread has a chance of becoming great and equal chance of being sucked into drivel.

There are great people here. There are people who only serve themselves. That will never change.

Indifference ultimately triumphs around here more than concensus seeking, or seeking to understand, or finding dialogue. That's a shame.

Suggestions for a couple of small new features: None. Focus on what we have, make it right, talk to us while you do. I don't assume hard work is taking place when I hear nothing. One word is enough to let me know the process is back on track for any issue. If the word is "Fixed!", all the better. Be a buddy later.

No offense to anyone. Just putting it out there without color or imagery. I give up too. No more big picture. Just me and what I think. Maybe it'll all feel better that way.

[rasnell]

I'm getting as frustrated as Charlie Hough, Endgame, Eugene Church and the other long-timers who go back to the first versions of OOTP, like myself. I'm losing faith that we're really going to see a satisfactory version of OOTP 2006.

We hear of small fixes coming by the end of August. We heard an earlier post that 1.02 would be the last. We hear of work on 2007 and an Opening Day release, which sounds like that work must begin in earnest very soon.

To have waited 18 months for a release and now since May for a working version, I think it's disappointing that very basic solo play issues like being able to read the ratings on black-on-black text, see the catcher arm rating in-game, actually see all lines of the play-by-play text and to go backwards on some of the same core problems that plagued OOTP 6.5 are very, very disappointing. Wild pitches remain wildly out of whack, you have to manually set the amateur draft in order to proceed each season, the in-game views have not been fixed (black-on-black text for unreadable runner, fielder ratings) and more.

For the first time, it is unlikely that I will buy the next version of OOTP. It's about time that just one long-time customer (sucker) votes with his wallet. The hype of the next version and whatever bells and whistles will not win my continuing support unless I learn that OOTP 2007 has the following:

1. Minors with real players.
2. Realistic historic stat results (wild pitches, for example, that are not still broken and triple the real numbers).
3. Play by play that you can actually read. (All lines in a display box large enough to see with larger fonts (you know, exactly the same problem that had to be patched, patched and finally fixed in OOTP 6.5).
4. An in-game view that allows you to see both teams' lineups, and the most essential relevant data in one view, such as pitch count, catcher arm, season-game-career stats (or some option to toggle views).

I know that I'm a broken record and keep posting exactly the same gripes, but I'm hoping that it will actually be seen by Markus at some point and acknowledged.

I keep griping and showing up because I'm clinging to a declining hope that this will become the gold standard for text sims. Meanwhile, I"m only playing for beta testing and waiting for the next patch.

Back to my game of choice, PureSim 2007, which has surpassed OOTP for the first time ever because of the fun and immersion of historic, solo play.

[Raidergoo]

Originally Posted by Charlie Hough

But speculation about the ease or difficulty of a change is absolutely pointless. It's not a matter of opinion. It's pure conjecture, and it has nothing to do with how Markus is going to view the matter.

I tend to agree, with this caveat.

Sometimes, 5 to 10 months ago, the beta team asked for a new feature, or modify how something works, and were told "Not possible" or "too difficult" or "great idea, but it would take too much time" by Markus.

Example: retired.dat

There's been a campaign for this for quite some time, and the answer is "Nice idea; too complex to use for OOTP 2006."

Someone in the public forum raised the idea recently and was shot down.

It's a good idea, but I may say in that public forum "it's too difficult" because I've been told so.

Otherwise, without being told, it is silly speculation on how long or difficult a feature addition/correction takes. In that case, it's better to make a suggestion, and move on.

[dougaiton]

Originally Posted by Doughnuts?

Fixing the aging algorythm is the only indispensible fix that needs to be implemented, imo. Its current state is making the game unplayable for me.

POTENTIAL GREAT NEWS BULLETIN

In case no-one reads the aging thread, it looks like a bug has been spotted in the code by our fearless leader that caused players in their 30s to lose their skill and average age to slip down from 28.5 to 26.

[Eugene Church]

Originally Posted by endgame

This was the original question on Markus' part:


What could possibly have been simpler, small, new, or both?

Apparently Old Eagle Eye (endgame) was one of the few, who understood what Markus wanted.

I missed the intent of this thread.

Should pay more attention to what I read.

Thanks, endgame.

I guess I was so excited about another patch and started reposting things I have posted before ad nauseum, hoping Markus would see them.

I am tired of all the rehashing we are doing on the board...I am even tired of "all of my great and selfish suggestions", too.

But most of all I am tired of seeing good threads ruined by unnecessary personal attacks.

If you have to attack someone, please keep it to yourself. It does absolutely no good here on the forum and it makes the attacker look childish and immature and does nothing for your credibility and reputation.

It also ruins constructive interaction, which is the primary purpose of this forum.

We need good positive interaction to improve our beloved OOTPB.

[Eugene Church]

I don't know if it is a large feature or a small feature, but I sure would like an in-game screen similar to the OOTP6.5 screen. Give us a third option for in-game play, if it is not too difficult to include.

[Raidergoo]

Originally Posted by Eugene Church

I am tired of all the rehashing we are doing on the board...I am even tired of "all of my great and selfish suggestions", too.

Your suggestions are desired, check that, are needed in battists threads in the Suggestions forum.

[Zeyes]

Originally Posted by Big Koolaid

Isn't it also presumptious for Zeyes and company to assume what may or may not be possible? I didn't realize they were Markus these days

Of course I'm presuming, but at least my presumptions are based on how I'm perceiving programmers to usually work, i.e. most that I know are very keen on getting the underlying data structures correct the first time, exactly so they don't have to make any intricate changes like that when there are already umpteen thousands of lines of code that depend on those structures. And I did say "it might be an easy change", exactly because I obviously don't know all the details of Markus' code. If some desired change is in fact easy, I'd probably just go "oh, cool, even better". All I'm taking issue with is the presumption by certain people that because they think it should be easy, that it must be easy. That's bound to set people up for disappointment, and ultimately we're heading for the inevitable "why isn't X implemented yet? I thought it was easy!" threads. I'd rather take the cautious approach.

Anyway, as a small example of database structures right from the start being geared towards what will be, not merely towards what is, you can do a csv output and take a look at parks.csv...there's already the groundwork for weather data in there, even though OOTP2006 obviously uses none of that yet.

[Rockpile]

Would being able to have exibition games again be a hard coding job?

With teams around the world, exibition games would be really cool. You could play your world series championship against the Japanese champion, etc.

[thbroman]

Originally Posted by Faroo6

bookmark the most frequently visited pages, giving you one button access. the interface gets much easier this way

Here's the suggestion that I like the most.

The aging algorithm is the other one to tweak.

[robster1225]

Originally Posted by Rockpile

Would being able to have exibition games again be a hard coding job?

With teams around the world, exibition games would be really cool. You could play your world series championship against the Japanese champion, etc.

You can schedule exhibition games in the schedule editor.

I don't really have anything to add to the discussion. I think everything I want added has been mentioned.

[disposableheros]

i take back my earlier post.

after spending the night playing OOTP2006, id rather Markus spend that 15 minutes of new feature coding on fixing another broken/half-assed feature thats already there.

[TheNutz72]

I'm kind of blah about this, but it may be easy and you did ask. There is a back button on the menu bar (right next to a baseball). There is also a back button when scrolling through players.

Right now if you scroll through a bunch of players the menu back button acts just like the player back button and brings you to the previous player(s). I think it would be better if the menu back button saved screens and not players.

Example, go to Transactions, Player Draft. CLick a player and and scroll through a few dozen. Now if I want to filter by Thrid Basemen I'd have to hit back through every player just to get to the Player Draft Screen. For fun I could instead use the player back button and then the menu back button so I could go forward through the players and then back to the screen.

[rwd59]

Originally Posted by disposableheros

i take back my earlier post.

after spending the night playing OOTP2006, id rather Markus spend that 15 minutes of new feature coding on fixing another broken/half-assed feature thats already there.

What did you find thats got you so fired up?

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by rasnell

1. Minors with real players.

Just curious, but what do you mean exactly? Historical leagues with minors?

[The Wolf]

Originally Posted by rasnell

I'm getting as frustrated as Charlie Hough, Endgame, Eugene Church and the other long-timers who go back to the first versions of OOTP, like myself. I'm losing faith that we're really going to see a satisfactory version of OOTP 2006.

We hear of small fixes coming by the end of August. We heard an earlier post that 1.02 would be the last. We hear of work on 2007 and an Opening Day release, which sounds like that work must begin in earnest very soon.

To have waited 18 months for a release and now since May for a working version, I think it's disappointing that very basic solo play issues like being able to read the ratings on black-on-black text, see the catcher arm rating in-game, actually see all lines of the play-by-play text and to go backwards on some of the same core problems that plagued OOTP 6.5 are very, very disappointing. Wild pitches remain wildly out of whack, you have to manually set the amateur draft in order to proceed each season, the in-game views have not been fixed (black-on-black text for unreadable runner, fielder ratings) and more.

For the first time, it is unlikely that I will buy the next version of OOTP. It's about time that just one long-time customer (sucker) votes with his wallet. The hype of the next version and whatever bells and whistles will not win my continuing support unless I learn that OOTP 2007 has the following:

1. Minors with real players.
2. Realistic historic stat results (wild pitches, for example, that are not still broken and triple the real numbers).
3. Play by play that you can actually read. (All lines in a display box large enough to see with larger fonts (you know, exactly the same problem that had to be patched, patched and finally fixed in OOTP 6.5).
4. An in-game view that allows you to see both teams' lineups, and the most essential relevant data in one view, such as pitch count, catcher arm, season-game-career stats (or some option to toggle views).

I know that I'm a broken record and keep posting exactly the same gripes, but I'm hoping that it will actually be seen by Markus at some point and acknowledged.

I keep griping and showing up because I'm clinging to a declining hope that this will become the gold standard for text sims. Meanwhile, I"m only playing for beta testing and waiting for the next patch.

Back to my game of choice, PureSim 2007, which has surpassed OOTP for the first time ever because of the fun and immersion of historic, solo play.

"

Hope Markus is listening to us.

[The Wolf]

Originally Posted by Carplos

Do you want your ball to take home with you too?

This is the exact kind of crap that has led may of us to lose faith in this board, and some to lose faith in the game. People post their legitimate concerns, and the Fanboys attack them for expressing them. And get away with it over and over and over.

If SI really wants this game to improve and if it really wants to address the legitimate issues of its dissatisfied customers - and there's a lot to be dissatisfied about - then SI had better clearly tell the moderators to stop the Fanboys from pulling this kind of crap. When Markus asks for input, no Fanboy should be allowed to get away with hassling anyone for providing input of any kind. Period. There is no conceivable excuse for this.

We don't want to be PureSim players. But if this crap keeps up, like it or not, a lot of us will be. And for good.

[ricobrown]

I would like to see the import a roster use the team names instead of using team ids. It makes it hard to import correctly if teams are in a different setup

[Darkphoenix]

Well...there is very little I can say that hasn't already been addressed....the Aging seems a bit outta whack as has been said, and there do seem to be too many Wild Pitches and Passed Balls....more than in real life. So It would be nice to see these areas of the game addressed.

One thing I would like to see is when the computer teams offer a trade, that the trade should be a feasable one and not an insulting one. I routinely see computer teams ask for All-Star caliber players and offer washed up has beens or never was's in return. Don't get me wrong....I don't mind a few rounds of bartering back and forth, but the initial offer shouldn't be so bad that your first instinct is to tell them what they can do and also do it with the horse they rode in on. Also I have noticed that the computer AI is not usually willing to deal veteran players when they are outta the race....even when offered 3-4 good to great prospects.

I would like to see a return of scouting commentaries, and also a radar gun feature for the play by play that lists last pitch thrown and velocity. These are minor though and even though I would like these I realize that the above things are more important by far. Still, these would be a nice addition....maybe if they would not prove to difficult or time consuming to code in.

[Carplos]

Example, go to Transactions, Player Draft. CLick a player and and scroll through a few dozen. Now if I want to filter by Thrid Basemen I'd have to hit back through every player just to get to the Player Draft Screen. For fun I could instead use the player back button and then the menu back button so I could go forward through the players and then back to the screen.

For now you could always use the dropdown menu to go back to the Transaction Screen and click the draft pool tab again. It would be faster, depending on how many players you've gone through.