DMB Refugee

[Mt Fire Fighter]

Hi Guys!!!

Just switching over from DMB, I have preordered OOTP9 and I am playing around with OOTP 8. So far it seems far more involved than DMB.

How will OOTP compare to DMB?

I am also having some trouble getting the player pics, logos and stadiums to work.

I will probably have many questions in the future. By the way I like historical replays, playing a full season for one team.

Thanks,

John

[swampdragon]

Welcome. I think you'll enjoy OOTP. There are many more decisions to make if you want to manage your team than you have in DMB. Right now you pretty much have to micromanage everything for every team if you want to get an accurate single season replay, but the rumor is that OOTP9 will make major improvements in that area. As a DMB refugee, you'll particularly enjoy the Mods section of the forum, which contains links to player and ballpark photos, team logos, and other goodies you can use with the game. Be sure to check out that section.

As for the comparison between the games, the complexity of the GM aspect will leave you bewildered unless you start slow. Try your first replay with no more than one layer of minor leagues. That's enough to house your overflow without bringing in a host of fictional players. If fictional players in the majors would bother you, use the option that keeps them in the minors.

Enjoy the game, and post questions as they come up. There are plenty of helpful denizens who will answer them. This is one of the more active and helpful forums I know of.

[eriqjaffe]

Originally Posted by swampdragon

If fictional players in the majors would bother you, use the option that keeps them in the minors.

You're forgetting the ability to have "ghost" players in the minors.

MtFF: There's an option for "allow incomplete minor league rosters" (or something like that) which keeps the game from generating fictional minor leaguers. Technically, the game inserts invisible league-average players into the empty roster slots, but...well...they're invisible (even to the AI), which is why they're frequently referred to as "ghost players". Whenever I play historical, I go this way.

[Gerry58]

Originally Posted by Mt Fire Fighter

Hi Guys!!!

Just switching over from DMB, I have preordered OOTP9 and I am playing around with OOTP 8. So far it seems far more involved than DMB.

How will OOTP compare to DMB?

I am also having some trouble getting the player pics, logos and stadiums to work.

I will probably have many questions in the future. By the way I like historical replays, playing a full season for one team.

Thanks,

John

Hi John, should we call it 'The Exodus' ?

Playing a single historical season is not, IMO, the best way to really appreciate the greatness of OOTP. I also play DMB and i like historical replays too but with OOTP you can begin a replay, say in 1980, and than go on with your own history, with realistic results tied to the year you are replaying. As another poster said, OOTP is the closest to the 'perfect' baseball sim we are all dreaming.

Gerry

[Mt Fire Fighter]

Exodus might have been the better term. I am not sure how to play exactly, but I liked your idea of a start date and following that through the course of history.

I have just downloaded the manual for OOTP 8 but am waiting to get 9 before I print it out.

There are so many choices but will grow into it.

John

[Mt Fire Fighter]

Thanks for the replies guys!!!!!

How much can I customize the pbp screen? The area for the actual Pbp is either way too big or a little too small..... Also is there anyway to get a bigger size font for the entire game?

Thanks again!!!!
John

[1998 Yankees]

Originally Posted by Mt Fire Fighter

Thanks for the replies guys!!!!!

How much can I customize the pbp screen? The area for the actual Pbp is either way too big or a little too small..... Also is there anyway to get a bigger size font for the entire game?

Thanks again!!!!
John

I assume that when you say "the actual Pbp is either way too big or a little too small....." that you already have found and experimented with the PbP Box settings of Big and Normal. AFAIK, that's programmed and there is no setting in between.

As far as the font size, below are three suggestions, two of which can only be called experimental in nature. Other than changing the skins, there is no setting for changing font in the game. However, you can see from these threads that some tweaking may be possible if you know a bit about computers. Tinkerer beware! I have not tried the file editing that the last two threads talk about, and I would certainly rename the original files (add a "1" or "old" to the file name) so that they can be restored simply by restoring the names back to the originals if things do not work out.

http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...nt-change.html
http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...ange-font.html
http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...font-size.html

Enjoy the game.

[whizkid1950]

Welcome to OOTP. As someone's who's been active in DMB replay leagues for 10 years, and someone who's enjoyed OOTP solo and on-line for about five, I can tell you you're in for a real treat. I find the games to be very different approaches to the baseball sim experience. I doubt I'll stop playing DMB for many more years, but I do consider OOTP to be the closest thing yet to the perfect computer baseball game.

The only thing you may miss about DMB is the creativity, variety, and amazing detail of the play-by-play - if you play out all your games. OOTP gets a little better with every version in this area, but despite some recent, gleeful comments around here brought on by DMB's woes, DMB is waay better at pbp. The programmers put a ton of programming effort into getting DMB's in-game experience correct, and deserve to hold onto their crown a while longer. It's not going to get superceded by any competitor for years. Will Markus eventually do that? Yup, I believe he will.

For the GM aspect, and the feel of being in charge of a team's destiny - OOTP is the gold standard.

[whizkid1950]

As an ex-Wyomite, I want to add... here's to Montana firefighters

You guys have serious game out there

[Mt Fire Fighter]

Yankees 1988,

I tried the all or nothing with the pbp but would like something a little bigger, not much. Also I dont plan to 'tinker' much the font, was hoping there was a simple fix.

Thanks,

John

[Mt Fire Fighter]

WhizKid,

The pbp in DMB was good but sometimes got a little predictable; its all the other bells and whistles it needs, oics, souns, logos, etc. And since it is not going to be 'developed' anymore I think OOTP will be a good fit for me.

I do mostly structural fire fighting, 31 years on the job and a small amount of wildland work.

Thanks, John

[endgame]

Originally Posted by Mt Fire Fighter

Yankees 1988,

I tried the all or nothing with the pbp but would like something a little bigger, not much. Also I dont plan to 'tinker' much the font, was hoping there was a simple fix.

Thanks,

John

Welcome, John. There are some areas of the game that are affected by the monitor display settings and it rearranges space accordingly. I don't know if this is one of them (I've never evaluated it), but you may try it.

[P. Nylam Plante]

Hello,

I'm a potential member of the exodus, with one foot out the DMB door and one foot in the OOTP door.

With DMB, I was particularly interested in playing the projection disks, which came out shortly before each Major League season began. I tended to play along with the actual seasons, using actual rotations and rosters, making the transactions and call-ups as they occurred in the actual MLB season. Leaving aside calculations based on minor/major league equivalencies, DMB uses a rather basic (though I'd say effective) method of player projections based mostly on the player's age and his three most recent seasons with the latest season receiving some more weight.

Along these lines, I have a few really basic -- and uninformed -- questions about OOTP:

1. Would you know if anyone in the OOTP community puts out a projection "disk" prior to each MLB season, something like the one DMB does or Dan Szmborksi's ZiPS projection disk?

2. Is it possible and, if so, easy to play a single projection-type season with OOTP using rosters composed only of those players who are playing in the current MLB season (and making real-life transactions as they occur in the actual season)?

3. I realize that #2 above forecloses a lot of the GM options available with OOTP. Is it very feasible to play OOTP on a sort of single-season basis where the GM decisions are really the GM decisions being made during the actual current MLB season (this questions may just be a restatement of #2)?

4. Say someone were to start playing a projection-type season with OOTP in April and a new version of OOTP were to be released in June or July. Is it possible to transfer a then-active season into the latest released version of OOTP?

Thanks very much for any answers and advice.

[swampdragon]

Originally Posted by P. Nylam Plante

Hello,

I'm a potential member of the exodus, with one foot out the DMB door and one foot in the OOTP door.

With DMB, I was particularly interested in playing the projection disks, which came out shortly before each Major League season began. I tended to play along with the actual seasons, using actual rotations and rosters, making the transactions and call-ups as they occurred in the actual MLB season. Leaving aside calculations based on minor/major league equivalencies, DMB uses a rather basic (though I'd say effective) method of player projections based mostly on the player's age and his three most recent seasons with the latest season receiving some more weight.

Along these lines, I have a few really basic -- and uninformed -- questions about OOTP:

1. Would you know if anyone in the OOTP community puts out a projection "disk" prior to each MLB season, something like the one DMB does or Dan Szmborksi's ZiPS projection disk?

2. Is it possible and, if so, easy to play a single projection-type season with OOTP using rosters composed only of those players who are playing in the current MLB season (and making real-life transactions as they occur in the actual season)?

3. I realize that #2 above forecloses a lot of the GM options available with OOTP. Is it very feasible to play OOTP on a sort of single-season basis where the GM decisions are really the GM decisions being made during the actual current MLB season (this questions may just be a restatement of #2)?

4. Say someone were to start playing a projection-type season with OOTP in April and a new version of OOTP were to be released in June or July. Is it possible to transfer a then-active season into the latest released version of OOTP?

Thanks very much for any answers and advice.

1. I don't think that's something you can depend on, although it has been done before.
2. Yes, but you have to micromanage everything.
3. See #2.
4. Yes

[Mt Fire Fighter]

With DMB I used to replay full seasons playing one team; play all of the games for the team. With OOTP I am looking foward to historical replays, again for one team. There are so many more things I like about OOTP, I am not all that sure that DMB was that accurate! 2002 season, Soriano hit 62 HRs...................

So if OOTP comes close I have no regrets for leaving DMB; I think I have found something far better.

John

[P. Nylam Plante]

Thanks for the answers, Swampdragon. I admit, the way I like to play projection seasons takes a lot of micromanaging. I'm going to search the forums for any posts about projection disk type seasons.

Firefighter, I, too, like to manage all games of my favorite team, while managing at least some games for all remaining teams.

[swampdragon]

Originally Posted by Mt Fire Fighter

With DMB I used to replay full seasons playing one team; play all of the games for the team. With OOTP I am looking foward to historical replays, again for one team. There are so many more things I like about OOTP, I am not all that sure that DMB was that accurate! 2002 season, Soriano hit 62 HRs...................

So if OOTP comes close I have no regrets for leaving DMB; I think I have found something far better.

John

With the new 19th century support, I intend to start a replay in either 1871 or 1876, using the actual starting pitchers for each game (available from Retrosheet), an as-played schedule (which I'll have to do manually), and the batting orders used by each team. Other than lineups on Retrosheet for 1872 and 1874, real life lineups aren't available until 1886, unless you have access to the Boston Globe archives through Proquest. I believe that replay will be possible with OOTP9 using the recalc option.

[Kelric]

swampdragon, some of us sure would appreciate you releasing those schedules once you create them.

[swampdragon]

Originally Posted by Kelric

swampdragon, some of us sure would appreciate you releasing those schedules once you create them.

Happy to share, but I play almost all the games out, and I'm likely to create them one at a time.

[P. Nylam Plante]

Originally Posted by swampdragon

1. I don't think that's something you can depend on, although it has been done before.
2. Yes, but you have to micromanage everything.
3. See #2.
4. Yes

Thanks for the answers, swampdragon. I tried to post a thanks last night, but it seems it may have been lost in cyberspace. Not sure I have the hang of this forum, yet. I can't even locate my name on the members' list. In any event, thanks again, and I hope this answer goes through. In my lost response, I indicated I'd run a search on the forums looking for posts about projection "disks" by OOTP players.