Commissioner mode

[ColoRox]

I got iOOTP for my iPhone. But I've searched through the app, and haven't found where I can activate commissioner mode. Is that mode on the iPhone app? If so how do I activate commissioner mode?

[Markus Heinsohn]

Sorry, wrong forum.

Anyway, iOOTP does not have a commish mode.

[David Watts]

Originally Posted by Markus Heinsohn

Sorry, wrong forum.

Anyway, iOOTP does not have a commish mode.

What about a "Manager Mode" for OOTP at the big league level? I know we can do this by turning things over to the AI, but I think it would be cool to actually get hired/fired as a manager and not as a combo GM/Manager

[torpidbeaver]

I'd also love to see some optional random traits/events that would help role-play the feeling of being a general manager: hands-on owners, incompetent (Dolan-esque) owners, or even flat out corrupt owners (Loria-ish) meddling in the affairs of the team. Decrees from on high, "bribes" (play popular player X over unknown up-and-comer Y, get another $5 million budget boost), strong suggestions. That sort of thing.

[The Wolf]

Originally Posted by Markus Heinsohn

Sorry, wrong forum.

Anyway, iOOTP does not have a commish mode.

It needs one. Desperately.

[Sebastian Palkowski]

Originally Posted by The Wolf

It needs one. Desperately.

Taking into account that iOOTP will never be loaded with options like OOTP, what exactly would you like to see in regards to Commish mode?

[Markus Heinsohn]

Originally Posted by The Wolf

It needs one. Desperately.

No, it doesn't. Our goal for iOOTP is not to mirror OOTP.

[The Wolf]

Originally Posted by Sebastian Palkowski

Taking into account that iOOTP will never be loaded with options like OOTP, what exactly would you like to see in regards to Commish mode?

The ability to set teams up and move players as we wish. A force trade option. Some kind of player editing.

[The Wolf]

Originally Posted by Markus Heinsohn

No, it doesn't. Our goal for iOOTP is not to mirror OOTP.

And it never could compete, given the inherent limits of the iPad. But crippling the game beyond those limitations doesn't do you any good, Markus, because it reduces the appeal of the iPad version and we all know what's going on with iPad and iPhone gaming. What's more important to you, maintaining strict product differentiation or game sales and long-term market penetration of the gaming market of the future? I work with a woman on engineering and science apps and the philosophy of the people swarming to the iPad market today is "Let's see just how far we can push this thing."

I strongly urge OOTP to literally make iOOTP all that it can be and put everything you can into it for sales and marketing reasons. It won't cannibalize the sales of the PC product, in the long run it will enhance them.

[sfnate]

Originally Posted by The Wolf

crippling the game beyond those limitations doesn't do you any good

Some developers don't realize it yet, but we're moving into a PostPC era of computing. Which means that more and more consumers will be turning to the tablet as their primary computing device. Developers who view the tablet as a "toy" device and design their tablet games as dumbed-down or limited versions of their PC products are missing a real opportunity to make a smooth and seamless transition to the future of gaming. I understand that the development costs of doing an iOS or Android version are a real barrier to making this move, but eventually everyone is going to be there--it's time to start moving resources and investment over to the mobile computing side of your shop.

But I don't necessarily see the goal of keeping iOOTP somewhat streamlined in terms of its overall feature set as being incompatible with making it a more robust and deeper gaming experience. Some of us over in the iOOTP forums have made suggestions for fairly modest improvements that would increase the depth of the game while keeping it well within the confines of its reduced complexity. A commissioner mode to enable more user control over the game's tiny baseball universe would certainly make the game more appealing to those of us who started with the full version of OOTP, and I expect that the new generation of users, who started on iOOTP, would appreciate it as well. But what's the trade off? How many lines of code would be required to make this work? Personally, I'm happy to rely on iExplorer to make the geeky customization tweaks that I need to enhance the immersion factor. What I'd really like to have in this game is more and improved access to the statistical detail that the game accumulates, but for reasons related to code size and memory limitations (on the first gen iPad anyway), there's no way (in the current version) to review a career leaderboard, or past award winners, etc., just to cite a couple of examples. In my opinion, the lack of access to the statistical detail is the biggest immediate "problem", but then again, I'm a stats geek. And really, if you play a game like this, you're probably a stats-oriented person, right? So give us (a little) more statistical detail!

With Sebastian now fully engaged on the upcoming hockey sim, it appears that the development of the next version of iOOTP has taken a back seat, for now anyway. There's a real lack of buzz in the iOOTP forums, and suggestions for improvement are (currently) going unremarked upon by the developers. Again, I know that Sebastian is working himself to exhaustion trying to get the hockey sim finished, but it would be nice to hear how the little game is going to be enhanced and improved in 2013.

[The Wolf]

Originally Posted by sfnate

Some developers don't realize it yet, but we're moving into a PostPC era of computing. Which means that more and more consumers will be turning to the tablet as their primary computing device. Developers who view the tablet as a "toy" device and design their tablet games as dumbed-down or limited versions of their PC products are missing a real opportunity to make a smooth and seamless transition to the future of gaming. I understand that the development costs of doing an iOS or Android version are a real barrier to making this move, but eventually everyone is going to be there--it's time to start moving resources and investment over to the mobile computing side of your shop.

Very well put. Tablets and phones are the future of gaming and we all need to recognize that.