New to OOTP, new to baseball: How to start

darkwhite · 06-27-2015, 10:54 AM

Hello all, absolute-super-newbie here. Not only to OOTP but to baseball in general. Been to the States on holidays, there watched my first baseball game (in a ballpark) ever, got hooked and bought OOTP. Now... how do I get into all that? Do you know any websites - besides the manual - with howtos to crack the secret code to OOTP? Is there a guide to OOTP? I turned off morale, scouting, switched on cannot-be-fired and gave AI most of the things to decide to have an easier-ish start. Anything else you can recommend? Any team or league more newbie-friendly perhaps? Do you know a guide with the most relevant player attributes for the various positions? Thank you all in advance. DW

Orcin · 06-27-2015, 01:11 PM

Have a look at the dynasty forum on this site. There are many good examples of how to start a league, what decisions to make, etc. They make a pretty good walkthrough.

If you are using the MLB quickstart, you might find a dynasty report focused on the same team that you are using. That should help you know who the good players are.

David Watts · 06-27-2015, 02:00 PM

One thing you might think about is leaving financials off to start.

endgame · 06-27-2015, 02:52 PM

Or begin with a quickstart league that has everything set up for you, then once you have a feel for all the nuances: what bothers you, want you like, what you want to get rid of, what's not good, what is, etc... then consider creating your own league.

The first step alone, for a first-timer, including looking at setup pages to see how what you are experiencing is reflected in the gameplay and such, will take a long time, but worth it.

And as always, feel free to post here for explanations, questions, and clarifications. There's many who know quite a bit, some who know just the right things, and a few who believe they know everything. We'll help you sort them out as well.

Best of luck.

towerbooks3192 · 06-27-2015, 03:07 PM

I am a total noob of the game and I still have trouble with it. Here is what I did to kinda get in to a game and see some results

1) Read the manual and work your way around the UI and familiarise where things are.
2) Once you kind of know how to work around the UI, read about topics such as how to set-up your line-up, how to choose good players and what decisions to use if you decide to call the shots in a game.
3) Read some intro to sabermetrics and other articles that relate to using stats in making decisions.
4) Find a playstyle you want (e.g buy players and never worry about setting line-ups, focus on setting line-ups or micromanage everything).
5) Play on and ask questions here as you go.
6) The knowledge page on the wiki points out to some good threads here that really skyrocket my knowledge relating to the game from knowing totally nothing.

Just play and continue and ask as you go. Also don't be scared of losing and it is important to learn from it and see where you went wrong and apply it to your next game. Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game.

edit: I missed the part you are new to baseball. I am also new to baseball but I managed to learn and appreciate the sport even more. My advice is looking at a youtube video that explains the basic of the sport. There was a cool video that explained the sport and used some cool whiteboard drawings. Next thing you want to know is what those things on the box score mean, knowing how to read the box scores and game logs really helps a lot. Wikipedia and other sources or even the in-game glossary can help a lot with some elements of the box score.

darkwhite · 06-28-2015, 12:15 PM

Hello all and thank you for your replies.

I already browsed the dynasty forum, the Rays - which I picked - are not overly represented there it seems. I found two threads there yet, however these are from 2014 and I assume these were written for OOTP 15? I will try to build on them nevertheless. Do you know of any newbie-friendly threads, no matter which team?

Financials.. right. I will turn them off. My first two attempts to get an additional pitcher and a 2B failed because of some budget limitations, so I am more than happy to turn that off.

I started with the Standard Game, picked the Rays (because I watched them at Tropicana Field, that's all) and waited to load and to be overwhelmed by options and menues. Worked so far. ;-)

Reading. Yes, that's what I did and what I do. Some F1-help pages seem to not exist however? Anyway, I am reading through the manual and have Wikipedia in the background. At least I am getting into baseball slowly but steadily.
The Wiki... I briefly had a look at it but honestly I did not find it that helpful for newbies like me. Will dig deeper the next time.

I am surprised to not find fan-pages for OOTP to help get into the game, at least I did not find any.

Thank you again. Happy to hear (and see) that there is a board filled with baseball-pros willing to share their knowledge.

Peregrine · 06-28-2015, 02:10 PM

I find it's not a bad idea to start small with a fictional league as a spectator, just watch what teams do and how things play out, before you start doing it all yourself. That really helped me when I started the game. That way you can learn the menus and options without the pressures of running your own team.

battists · 07-01-2015, 06:19 PM

I would suggest using some external resources like this one to learn more about baseball itself. The manual is great for describing what the game does, but it definitely assumes you have a solid understanding of baseball.

And I agree with Peregrine, I would suggest staying away from the default MLB league. It's about as complex as you can get.

Create a very simple fictional league with no minors, and turn off financials, and maybe even turn off scouting to begin with.

Then just play for a bit and try to get the feel of things. From there you can decide which additional features to add first...

RchW · 07-01-2015, 07:49 PM

Might I suggest watching classic baseball games on you tube. Talking and reading only go so far. Watching and listening to commentators is a high speed education.

I did this recently watching the Cricket world cup. I understood the basics but when I watched so many games even when they were compressed I gained a far greater insight into the strategy and the physical attributes of different players. I'm no expert but there is way less mystery now.

darkwhite · 07-03-2015, 05:38 PM

Hello all and thank you for your replies. Over the last days I read the manual and almost everything on "How Baseball Works".
Thank you battists for that link. I noticed that I do know more of baseball than I had thought. Also I am still new to the game, I at least know the basics it seems. Still, a long way to go.

I started with a fictional league. I must have missed some checkbox because the game started with asking me to draft a team. I struggled more than managed to do so with help of the AI.

Nevertheless it was a valuable lesson. It made me notice that I do not know the relevant attributes needed to play a certain position. E.g. does a Shortstop need a high arms rating? Or is a high error attribute more important for 2B than for 3B (or vice versa)?
How can I learn that?

I searched youtube for some baseball games as well. I mostly found compilations and best-ofs but not many full games to watch. I understand that there is no live-stream (at least no free one) to watch some MLB games. But is there by chance a website offering historic games e.g. from last season or from a couple of months ago?

IsaacR · 07-03-2015, 06:17 PM

MLB.TV isn't free, but it's probably your best shot at getting a decent stream that doesn't come with thousands of viruses. It also isn't terribly expensive. I have no idea about viruses.
Your shortstop needs to be the best arm in your infield. Third base is more important than second. Really, the best way to learn is by reading long, sometimes boring articles on baseball. There's a book, I'm not sure if it's in print still, that was helpful for me, but for the life of me I can't remember the title. If I find it I'll make sure to post it here.

darkwhite · 07-04-2015, 03:51 PM

Hello IsaacR,
I had a look at mlb.tv and noticed they have one daily free game. Will give that a try if local time of the stream is not too extreme.

Long and boring articles? You know how to make learning baseball sound like fun.

If you remember the title of that book I'd be very grateful.

The last couple of games were rather frustrating, also I played with the editor to learn which attribute does what and created (aka cheated) some excellent players, I lost all games. Almost every ball my team hits got plugged down into fly outs whereas the other team scored home runs after home runs and additionally my outfielders never caught a flying ball. G-r-e-a-t.

One question: What does "LP" stand for on the scoreboard? I could not find that on the glossary.

RchW · 07-04-2015, 03:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by darkwhite

Hello all and thank you for your replies. Over the last days I read the manual and almost everything on "How Baseball Works".
Thank you battists for that link. I noticed that I do know more of baseball than I had thought. Also I am still new to the game, I at least know the basics it seems. Still, a long way to go.

I started with a fictional league. I must have missed some checkbox because the game started with asking me to draft a team. I struggled more than managed to do so with help of the AI.

Nevertheless it was a valuable lesson. It made me notice that I do not know the relevant attributes needed to play a certain position. E.g. does a Shortstop need a high arms rating? Or is a high error attribute more important for 2B than for 3B (or vice versa)?
How can I learn that?

I searched youtube for some baseball games as well. I mostly found compilations and best-ofs but not many full games to watch. I understand that there is no live-stream (at least no free one) to watch some MLB games. But is there by chance a website offering historic games e.g. from last season or from a couple of months ago?

One game a day is streamed free of charge on mlb.com

Here is the you tube link to classic games. The reason I suggest this is knowing the outcome may explain why certain strategies or pitcher use succeeded or failed.

https://www.youtube.com/user/MLBClassics

IsaacR · 07-04-2015, 04:23 PM

LP means last pitch velocity.

I'm looking for the book right now. I have it stashed in a box somewhere. When I find it or remember the title I'll tell you.

06-27-2015, 10:54 AM	#1
darkwhite Bat Boy Join Date: Jun 2015 Posts: 4	New to OOTP, new to baseball: How to start Hello all, absolute-super-newbie here. Not only to OOTP but to baseball in general. Been to the States on holidays, there watched my first baseball game (in a ballpark) ever, got hooked and bought OOTP. Now... how do I get into all that? Do you know any websites - besides the manual - with howtos to crack the secret code to OOTP? Is there a guide to OOTP? I turned off morale, scouting, switched on cannot-be-fired and gave AI most of the things to decide to have an easier-ish start. Anything else you can recommend? Any team or league more newbie-friendly perhaps? Do you know a guide with the most relevant player attributes for the various positions? Thank you all in advance. DW

06-27-2015, 02:52 PM	#4
endgame Hall Of Famer Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 16,843	Or begin with a quickstart league that has everything set up for you, then once you have a feel for all the nuances: what bothers you, want you like, what you want to get rid of, what's not good, what is, etc... then consider creating your own league. The first step alone, for a first-timer, including looking at setup pages to see how what you are experiencing is reflected in the gameplay and such, will take a long time, but worth it. And as always, feel free to post here for explanations, questions, and clarifications. There's many who know quite a bit, some who know just the right things, and a few who believe they know everything. We'll help you sort them out as well. Best of luck. __________________ "Try again. Fail again. Fail better." -- Samuel Beckett _____________________________________________

06-27-2015, 03:07 PM	#5
towerbooks3192 Minors (Single A) Join Date: Jul 2014 Posts: 70	I am a total noob of the game and I still have trouble with it. Here is what I did to kinda get in to a game and see some results 1) Read the manual and work your way around the UI and familiarise where things are. 2) Once you kind of know how to work around the UI, read about topics such as how to set-up your line-up, how to choose good players and what decisions to use if you decide to call the shots in a game. 3) Read some intro to sabermetrics and other articles that relate to using stats in making decisions. 4) Find a playstyle you want (e.g buy players and never worry about setting line-ups, focus on setting line-ups or micromanage everything). 5) Play on and ask questions here as you go. 6) The knowledge page on the wiki points out to some good threads here that really skyrocket my knowledge relating to the game from knowing totally nothing. Just play and continue and ask as you go. Also don't be scared of losing and it is important to learn from it and see where you went wrong and apply it to your next game. Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game. edit: I missed the part you are new to baseball. I am also new to baseball but I managed to learn and appreciate the sport even more. My advice is looking at a youtube video that explains the basic of the sport. There was a cool video that explained the sport and used some cool whiteboard drawings. Next thing you want to know is what those things on the box score mean, knowing how to read the box scores and game logs really helps a lot. Wikipedia and other sources or even the in-game glossary can help a lot with some elements of the box score. Last edited by towerbooks3192; 06-27-2015 at 03:12 PM.

06-28-2015, 02:10 PM	#7
Peregrine All Star Reserve Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Cary, North Carolina Posts: 635	I find it's not a bad idea to start small with a fictional league as a spectator, just watch what teams do and how things play out, before you start doing it all yourself. That really helped me when I started the game. That way you can learn the menus and options without the pressures of running your own team. Last edited by Peregrine; 06-28-2015 at 02:15 PM.

07-01-2015, 07:49 PM	#9
RchW Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: The big smoke Posts: 15,628	Might I suggest watching classic baseball games on you tube. Talking and reading only go so far. Watching and listening to commentators is a high speed education. I did this recently watching the Cricket world cup. I understood the basics but when I watched so many games even when they were compressed I gained a far greater insight into the strategy and the physical attributes of different players. I'm no expert but there is way less mystery now. __________________ Cheers RichW If you’re looking for a good cause to donate money to please consider a Donation to Parkinson’s Canada. It may help me have a better future and if not me, someone else. Thanks. “Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition …There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.” Frank Wilhoit

06-27-2015, 01:11 PM	#2
Orcin Hall Of Famer Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Indiana Posts: 9,798	Have a look at the dynasty forum on this site. There are many good examples of how to start a league, what decisions to make, etc. They make a pretty good walkthrough. If you are using the MLB quickstart, you might find a dynasty report focused on the same team that you are using. That should help you know who the good players are.

06-27-2015, 02:00 PM	#3
David Watts Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Looking for a place called Leehofooks Posts: 8,849	One thing you might think about is leaving financials off to start.

06-28-2015, 12:15 PM	#6
darkwhite Bat Boy Join Date: Jun 2015 Posts: 4	Hello all and thank you for your replies. I already browsed the dynasty forum, the Rays - which I picked - are not overly represented there it seems. I found two threads there yet, however these are from 2014 and I assume these were written for OOTP 15? I will try to build on them nevertheless. Do you know of any newbie-friendly threads, no matter which team? Financials.. right. I will turn them off. My first two attempts to get an additional pitcher and a 2B failed because of some budget limitations, so I am more than happy to turn that off. I started with the Standard Game, picked the Rays (because I watched them at Tropicana Field, that's all) and waited to load and to be overwhelmed by options and menues. Worked so far. ;-) Reading. Yes, that's what I did and what I do. Some F1-help pages seem to not exist however? Anyway, I am reading through the manual and have Wikipedia in the background. At least I am getting into baseball slowly but steadily. The Wiki... I briefly had a look at it but honestly I did not find it that helpful for newbies like me. Will dig deeper the next time. I am surprised to not find fan-pages for OOTP to help get into the game, at least I did not find any. Thank you again. Happy to hear (and see) that there is a board filled with baseball-pros willing to share their knowledge.

07-01-2015, 06:19 PM	#8
battists Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 18,506 Blog Entries: 7	I would suggest using some external resources like this one to learn more about baseball itself. The manual is great for describing what the game does, but it definitely assumes you have a solid understanding of baseball. And I agree with Peregrine, I would suggest staying away from the default MLB league. It's about as complex as you can get. Create a very simple fictional league with no minors, and turn off financials, and maybe even turn off scouting to begin with. Then just play for a bit and try to get the feel of things. From there you can decide which additional features to add first...

07-03-2015, 05:38 PM	#10
darkwhite Bat Boy Join Date: Jun 2015 Posts: 4	Hello all and thank you for your replies. Over the last days I read the manual and almost everything on "How Baseball Works". Thank you battists for that link. I noticed that I do know more of baseball than I had thought. Also I am still new to the game, I at least know the basics it seems. Still, a long way to go. I started with a fictional league. I must have missed some checkbox because the game started with asking me to draft a team. I struggled more than managed to do so with help of the AI. Nevertheless it was a valuable lesson. It made me notice that I do not know the relevant attributes needed to play a certain position. E.g. does a Shortstop need a high arms rating? Or is a high error attribute more important for 2B than for 3B (or vice versa)? How can I learn that? I searched youtube for some baseball games as well. I mostly found compilations and best-ofs but not many full games to watch. I understand that there is no live-stream (at least no free one) to watch some MLB games. But is there by chance a website offering historic games e.g. from last season or from a couple of months ago? Last edited by darkwhite; 07-04-2015 at 02:58 AM.

07-03-2015, 06:17 PM	#11
IsaacR Major Leagues Join Date: Mar 2015 Location: Bowie, Maryland Posts: 464	MLB.TV isn't free, but it's probably your best shot at getting a decent stream that doesn't come with thousands of viruses. It also isn't terribly expensive. I have no idea about viruses. Your shortstop needs to be the best arm in your infield. Third base is more important than second. Really, the best way to learn is by reading long, sometimes boring articles on baseball. There's a book, I'm not sure if it's in print still, that was helpful for me, but for the life of me I can't remember the title. If I find it I'll make sure to post it here. __________________ The Oriole Way - My Dynasty as the Orioles GM Online Leagues: SBL - Colorado Rockies PATP - Montreal Royals

07-04-2015, 03:51 PM	#12
darkwhite Bat Boy Join Date: Jun 2015 Posts: 4	Hello IsaacR, I had a look at mlb.tv and noticed they have one daily free game. Will give that a try if local time of the stream is not too extreme. Long and boring articles? You know how to make learning baseball sound like fun. If you remember the title of that book I'd be very grateful. The last couple of games were rather frustrating, also I played with the editor to learn which attribute does what and created (aka cheated) some excellent players, I lost all games. Almost every ball my team hits got plugged down into fly outs whereas the other team scored home runs after home runs and additionally my outfielders never caught a flying ball. G-r-e-a-t. One question: What does "LP" stand for on the scoreboard? I could not find that on the glossary.

07-04-2015, 04:23 PM	#14
IsaacR Major Leagues Join Date: Mar 2015 Location: Bowie, Maryland Posts: 464	LP means last pitch velocity. I'm looking for the book right now. I have it stashed in a box somewhere. When I find it or remember the title I'll tell you. __________________ The Oriole Way - My Dynasty as the Orioles GM Online Leagues: SBL - Colorado Rockies PATP - Montreal Royals