OOTP 18 Discussion: The Interface

[NoxMortem]

I wish for only One Thing. Extended tooltips. There are many many areas in the Interface with no tooltips at all and in many other I wished there would be an explanation for wuat this stat is good for. Shift+right click could Open the ootp Manual for the Rating/stat to directly Show its Entry if more text is needed.

I am One of those players who began OOTP without ever having read anything Rating, stats, rules Wise before and having never seen a single game in my Life. I have learned a Lot about the Sport already by reading a Lot of Wikipedia articles but it is a cumbersome Task and sometimes i am spending an hour using Google before i proceed to the next ingame Day just because i need to Tab Out, enter the search Phrase, Google or click my way through the OOTP Manual until i find what I am looking for.

People like me might not be exactly the target audience but if over the next 5 Version you always incrementially add more of such features it might become easier to get into the game.

Motorsport Manager was a great example. It is the most accessible sport management game of this type I have seen so far, but they abstracted so much away that the mini games got boring quickly as I had managed to know everything important about the game very soon. OOTP has a stronger position here as it starts from the classic GM sim and could make those features more accessible without removing any depth it has.

As I am likely not target audience I know not much budget will be spent on such improvements, but maybe you think about it and from time to time I will see the game improve in this area

Anyhow. Great and mighty game.

[Hammercraft]

When a news item pops up in a message window, take me to the top of the news list where it is.

[dishnet34]

I'm hoping to have the same tools used when creating custom players be used when creating custom coaches. Or, at the very least, displaying the names of the coaches you created instead of having to blindly search for them.

[PSUColonel]

to me, this is a waste of space on highest resolutions. Why not just divide this area in to multiple panes where more information can be displayed? Keep one for morale, and another one or two could contain history, contract information, development, fielding stats, or even be customizable.

[PSUColonel]

Originally Posted by Roy Tucker

An option to remove the play by play box so we can see more of the field. Move the play by play and the swing away, bunt option etc to the grey ribbon above where the attendance is listed. So instead of the attendance and game view options it will show the offense/defense options first and then the play by play .The attendance and other info can be moved to the top ribbon next to the game log option

What I would like to see in 3D, is the elimination of play by play, and in it's stead, a sort of "information board", which (in large bold font) announces major happenings within the game such as pitching changes, substitutions, double switches, position changes, injuries, stat lines and so on.

I think with 3D, people are watching the game, as opposed to reading play by play...and as 3D improves, this will become even more so the case. Why not just interject vital information as opposed to the detailed play by play, which frankly, 1. doesn't/can't match up with the on field play, and 2. Is too much to read while also watching the game.

I might also suggest customizable game speed...so if you wanted a game to be played in real life time, you could, or you could speed it up if you chose. FM does all of this quite well.

[BigRed75]

This is a really good idea for 3D

[thehef]

If you navigate to a team’s Player, Roster & Transaction, Pitching, or Lineups page, and you then select any player, near the top left you’ll then get up & down arrows next to the players’ name. This enables you to quickly scroll through the players on that team. This is a simple but cool & useful feature, IMO.

I’d like to have similar functionality to scroll through teams, and leagues. For example, if I want to take a quick look at the pitching rotations of each team in a league, it currently takes two or three mouse clicks and moving the mouse down to select each team. And if I want to look at the Standings of each of my 24 minor leagues in 1955, that’s three clicks and a mouse-pointer move, per look.

The addition of the arrows for league and team navigation would allow quick and easy scrolling through the leagues or teams without even having to move the mouse pointer - just like you can do with players.

As an example, let's say you're looking at Arizona's pitching staff. Then, click the arrow and there's Atlanta's pitching staff. Click - there's Baltimore's pitching staff. Click - there's Boston's pitching staff... That would be cool improvement, IMO.

[PSUColonel]

It would be very helpful (when overall ratings are turned off) to have potential tool grades below the actual ones on the hovering player cards.

[PSUColonel]

When hovering over the fatigue icon...rather than saying "tired", or "exhausted", maybe it should give you the percentage instead...this would help especially in game, when you are looking for the most rested pitcher to go into the game.

[The Game]

Originally Posted by Markus Heinsohn

Hey folks,

it's this time of the year again. Development on OOTP 18 has started already, and this thread is intended to get us an overview about what kind of changes to the interface you would like to see in OOTP 18. For this, I'd like to ask a few questions:

1) Did you like the OOTP 17 color scheme and use of team colors. If not, what could be improved?
2) How about the interface layout, is the upper area (info & navigation) easy to use and understand?
3) What interface quirks would you like to see fixed / improved?
4) Any feature ideas that relate to the interface which you'd like to see implemented (i.e. more hotkey support)?
5) Which skin did you use in OOTP 17? Would you like to see an alteration to our usual default / dark / classic skin themes?

Thanks in advance for your feedback!

Markus

I only use the dark skin for all versions. Would like to see the drop down menus, namely for file navigation & reports be highlighted so i can easily find what I am looking for.

[bulldog55]

Multilevel sorting would be a really helpful option, like you can do in Excel. Sort by contact, then by power, then by eye, etc.

I would also like to see the filter conditions organized into menus so you're not scrolling through dozens of options looking for the one you want. General info, hitting ratings, pitching ratings, etc.

[mitchkenn]

lighter backgrounds (or skins) - so the logos of some teams such as 1914 Cubs etc. show up on the left side of the screen. (if this is available, i haven't figured it out yet.)

[Walsh06]

Just a little bug I noticed. If you go to the positional strength by positions report page and sort the page. Its sorting alphabetically which means any "tied for x" will go to the top because it starts with t rather than a number

[andjbock]

The league settings screen doesn't repopulate if you switch to a new league from that menu. (It will say you are now in the Eastern League (e.g.), but the settings will still be for MLB).

[thehef]

Originally Posted by andjbock

The league settings screen doesn't repopulate if you switch to a new league from that menu. (It will say you are now in the Eastern League (e.g.), but the settings will still be for MLB).

From the dropdown on the top/middle, this is correct. However, once you are in League Settings, the way to navigate to other leagues is to use the dropdown that is on the right, just above the Available League Actions dropdown. (Not to say that your issue isn't valid, just that there is a way to get to other leagues )

[Hammercraft]

Oh yeah, one other thing - please put a check box somewhere that turns on/off the automatic creation of a Shortlist at the end of the draft called "Year -Draft" and add all of that year's draftees to the Shortlist.

Thanks!

[andjbock]

Originally Posted by thehef

From the dropdown on the top/middle, this is correct. However, once you are in League Settings, the way to navigate to other leagues is to use the dropdown that is on the right, just above the Available League Actions dropdown. (Not to say that your issue isn't valid, just that there is a way to get to other leagues )

Thanks. I never realized anything was there. I will check it out tonight.

[udbacker58]

Originally Posted by RonCo

Personal Views:

1) Please, please, please, let us export and import views from earlier versions. This annoys me every new version.
2) Please use and make the same views available everywhere....

Yes, PLEASE allow an 'import view' function!!!! This would also allow users to share views with each other.

And to have to create the same view for the shortlist screen, the draft pool, my team page, and my minor league player screen is extremely tedious.


I'd like the forward and back buttons on a mouse to work like the forward and back buttons in game. That would make navigation fractionally quicker in the short term, but when you consider the number of clicks we make over the span of a year, I'm sure that would be a TON of time saved.

Not sure if this is the place, but I'd like to see some editing to the HTML pages to include International players. Right now, the only way to view players in the International Complexes is to go to the one page in game. It would be nice to be able to pull up all of those players in the league (just like you can pull up all the players in a minor league or feeder league). Sure, you can create a filter for all players at the Major League level with no service time, but that will also pull up rookies who have yet to make their debut. And there is absolutely no way to pull them up in the HTML, which is a pain for online leagues. I think the simple solution in the HTML is to add the International Complex to the bottom of the Minor League System page.

[mochuck]

I don't know if this has been mentioned or not.. but on the team screens.. the pitchers assigned role are shown.. like setup.. and when they are used etc.. I would like to see this shown on the in game screen when you are playing one of the teams... if I want to change pitchers.. I'd like the option to see what the AI show the pitching roles to be in case I want do do it that way.... any chance of this happening.. ty

wanted to make sure I got this right.. I'm talking about the player substitution screen during game play

[mitchkenn]

Originally Posted by thehef

If you navigate to a team’s Player, Roster & Transaction, Pitching, or Lineups page, and you then select any player, near the top left you’ll then get up & down arrows next to the players’ name. This enables you to quickly scroll through the players on that team. This is a simple but cool & useful feature, IMO.

I’d like to have similar functionality to scroll through teams, and leagues. For example, if I want to take a quick look at the pitching rotations of each team in a league, it currently takes two or three mouse clicks and moving the mouse down to select each team. And if I want to look at the Standings of each of my 24 minor leagues in 1955, that’s three clicks and a mouse-pointer move, per look.

The addition of the arrows for league and team navigation would allow quick and easy scrolling through the leagues or teams without even having to move the mouse pointer - just like you can do with players.

As an example, let's say you're looking at Arizona's pitching staff. Then, click the arrow and there's Atlanta's pitching staff. Click - there's Baltimore's pitching staff. Click - there's Boston's pitching staff... That would be cool improvement, IMO.

never gave this much thought before (or any really). But it would be a nice tool. Any short cuts are nice to cut down on mouse clicks when doing some "research" on a player or team in respect to trades or another teams strength.