A long tome (also posted it in Feedback thread - is that OK?)

[david limbaugh]

A LONG Tome!

Change requests for OOTP 27/ bugs?

1) Make 1871 player/managers 1 entry in database

2) In Historical Replay mode let us have OWNERS in Personnel - so each owner has his profile and his history. Right now they are embedded in a franchise's finances - and teams move from place to place - and changes ownership. For example, NL First year:


Team (City) Club Name (1876) Principal Owner / Magnate Notes
Chicago White Stockings William Ambrose Hulbert Coal merchant; architect of the NL; drove expulsion of gambling interests.
Hartford Dark Blues Morgan G. Bulkeley Insurance executive; became the first NL president.
Boston Red Caps (formerly Red Stockings) Nicholas Apollonio Club president; oversaw transition from NA to NL.
Philadelphia Athletics Bill Sharsig & partners Civic promoters; struggled financially, expelled in 1876.
New York (Brooklyn) Mutuals William Cammeyer Owned Union Grounds; resisted NL travel rules, expelled after 1876.
Cincinnati Reds John Joyce & Justus Thorner Local businessmen; Avenue Grounds opened in 1875.
Louisville Grays Walter Newman Haldeman Newspaper publisher (Louisville Courier-Journal); used press to promote club.
St. Louis Brown Stockings John C. C. Cail & others Backed by brewery and civic investors; embroiled in later gambling scandal.

3) If a P has stamina rating > 50 - a SP - even if not in rotation - and if any player's highest fielding rating is P or C - they are a P or a C - same with other 7 positions - please...

4) Allow promotion days (times appropriate) for boosting attendance - in 1870s it is stuff like �� Band concerts between games if DH or suspended game to follow

�� Ladies admitted free on certain days — a common 19th‑century practice.

�� Tavern tie‑ins — discounted beer or food for ticket holders.

�� Newspaper coupons — bring the clipping, get in at half price.

5) calculate Magic # on number of games each team plays, not from options # of games field.

6) Why #5 - I am working with Claude AI writing a QB64 to automate OOTP schedule making.

It prompts for year, series type (1=Tue/Sat), 3=(Tue/Thu/Sat) (1871 start - traint travel - 1 man rotations - switch from 1 to 3 when NL starts - cuts down on trail travel and and hotel - still 1 man rotations - so day off between games and room for rainouts or suspended games) Number of cycles (code make a round robin schedule that has conditions) 9 teams - add a 10th bye team to make it easier to schedule) 8 opponents, 4 cycles - 32 games - each cycle is 4/4 if even and 4/5 or 5/4 if off - and rotates on odd and even cycle numbers - another condition - Start Month (1-12) Right now we have hard-coded next question to Tuesday of calendar year - so we ask "Which Tuesday to begin (1-4): Next condition? "Number of stadium-sharing conflict pairs?" "Conflict Par 1 - Team ID 1:?" then "Conflict Par 1 - Team ID 2:?" same for pair 2 and etc... and if 3 teams share a stadium - just do it this way as well... It also 'seeds' the schedule, with previous year's pennant winner opening at home versus worst returning team with a w-l (no expansion teams) - and Last Round -1 is against team that finished 3rd previous year and last round is team that finished second - pennant chase - and make sure no road trip or home stand is more than 3 different opponents...

this ensures when 1 team is at home, others are on the road that day. We read a flat .dat file for this info - 1,Baltimore Marylands,20,8,.714,59 for example previous year's OUR league w-l record - this year's Baseball reference for Games Played - if a team in our league plays less then 50% of the games the team in real life played that year, we fold them after their last game and release all of their players and staff - they can re-sign them again or sign others to rebuild for next season. If real NA contracts, we create a "Federalist League" with no schedule - and they are free to sign folks - we release all of their players and staff on first day of preseason into free agent pool.

I have been playing OOTP since OOTP2 - never turned financials on - all over my head - I have CoPilot and ClaudeAI now (Copilot comes with my 365 -I pay $20 a month for ClaudeAI for more tokens to develop code - have other coding projects I want to work on - and detest Python - been writing BASIC since 1978 in high school connected to MTSU Univac with 4800 baud dial up modem in computer programming class (Were we up to 4800 in 1978? 9600?) be a while before we get ISDN (first in town to get it - owner of company got it for me so I could work from the house if I needed to) Our scheduler is working great so far (1871 to 1873) when we finish it want me to send you the code so you can try to incorporate it in OOTP?

last bug/change request - now that I use financials - finding some issues - 1871 - stadiums - random and nonsensical capacity for each park - I created a spreadssheet that takes into account population with a sliding scale

City (Club) 1870 Population Notes
New York (Mutuals) 396,099 Union Grounds
Brooklyn (Eckfords) 396,099 Union Grounds
Philadelphia (Athletics) 674,022 Jefferson Street Grounds
Chicago (White Stockings) 298,977 Union Base‑Ball Grounds
Baltimore (Canaries) 267,354 Newington Park
Boston (Red Stockings) 250,526 South End Grounds
Brooklyn (Atlantics) 396,099 Capitoline Grounds
Middletown (Mansfields) 102,000 Manfsfield Club Grounds
Washington, DC (Olympics) 109,199 Olympic Grounds
Cleveland (Forest Citys) 92,829 National Association Grounds
Troy, NY (Haymakers) 46,465 Haymakers’ Grounds
Washington, DC Nationals) 109,199 Nationals Grounds
Fort Wayne, IN (Kekiongas) 17,718 Grand Duchess
Rockford, IL (Forest Citys) 11,049 Agricultural Fairgrounds

0.014 396,099 5545
0.008 674,022 5392
0.017 298,977 5083
0.01725 267,354 4612
0.0175 250,526 4384
0.035 109,199 3822
0.0375 102,000 3825
0.04 92,829 3713
0.07 46,465 3253
0.1 17,718 1772
0.15 11,049 1657

OOTP resets this every season - please leave my parks alone!

Last bug is baseline attendance - way to low -

I add up all the parks, divide by all the parks - and then reduce it 300 to 400 to a nice round #

OOTP resets this on me every year too

I also change National Media to $0 and 0 contract years (no ESPN or Sporting News in 1871) and pretend local media is outfield signs, cuts from vendors and program sales) You reset this every year too...

I change all of this during the Winter Meetings - wish I didn't have too - hate it when I play a month into a season and realize I forget to change that! (Backup Backup Backup!) I zip my league up on key dates (Season ends, Winter Meetings, Preseason Starts, Opening Day...)

6) 1 last wish - Almanac auto generate the last day MLB league last game is played - snap shot of that season - not a calendar year.

OK - one more - actual Team Owners' names - try to match their settings to the real folks :-) I love OOTP a little bit - LOL! Replaced my StratoMatic - no cards to buy each year :-)

[Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]

Originally Posted by david limbaugh

A LONG Tome!

Change requests for OOTP 27/ bugs?

1) Make 1871 player/managers 1 entry in database

2) Allow promotion days (times appropriate) for boosting attendance - in 1870s it is stuff like 🎶 Band concerts between games if DH or suspended game to follow

🎟 Ladies admitted free on certain days — a common 19th‑century practice.

🍻 Tavern tie‑ins — discounted beer or food for ticket holders.

📰 Newspaper coupons — bring the clipping, get in at half price.

3) calculate Magic # on number of games each team plays, not from options # of games field.

4) Why #3 - I am working with Claude AI writing a QB64 to automate OOTP schedule making.

It prompts for year, series type (1=Tue/Sat), 3=(Tue/Thu/Sat) (1871 start - traint travel - 1 man rotations - switch from 1 to 3 when NL starts - cuts down on trail travel and and hotel - still 1 man rotations - so day off between games and room for rainouts or suspended games) Number of cycles (code make a round robin schedule that has conditions) 9 teams - add a 10th bye team to make it easier to schedule) 8 opponents, 4 cycles - 32 games - each cycle is 4/4 if even and 4/5 or 5/4 if off - and rotates on odd and even cycle numbers - another condition - Start Month (1-12) Right now we have hard-coded next question to Tuesday of calendar year - so we ask "Which Tuesday to begin (1-4): Next condition? "Number of stadium-sharing conflict pairs?" "Conflict Par 1 - Team ID 1:?" then "Conflict Par 1 - Team ID 2:?" same for pair 2 and etc... and if 3 teams share a stadium - just do it this way as well... this ensures when 1 team is at home, others are on the road that day. We read a flat .dat file for this info - 1,Baltimore Marylands,20,8,.714,59 for example previous year's OUR league w-l record - this year's Baseball reference for Games Played - if a team in our league plays less then 50% of the games the team in real life played that year, we fold them after their last game and release all of their players and staff - they can re-sign them again or sign others to rebuild for next season. If real NA contracts, we create a "Federalist League" with no schedule - and they are free to sign folks - we release all of their players and staff on first day of preseason into free agent pool.

I have been playing OOTP since OOTP2 - never turned financials on - all over my head - I have CoPilot and ClaudeAI now (Copilot comes with my 365 -I pay $20 a month for ClaudeAI for more tokens to develop code - have other coding projects I want to work on - and detest Python - been writing BASIC since 1978 in high school connected to MTSU Univac with 4800 baud dial up modem in computer programming class (Were we up to 4800 in 1978? 9600?) be a while before we get ISDN (first in town to get it - owner of company got it for me so I could work from the house if I needed to) Our scheduler is working great so far (1871 to 1873) when we finish it want me to send you the code so you can try to incorporate it in OOTP?

last bug/change request - now that I use financials - finding some issues - 1871 - stadiums - random and nonsensical capacity for each park - I created a spreadssheet that takes into account population with a sliding scale

City (Club) 1870 Population Notes
New York (Mutuals) 396,099 Union Grounds
Brooklyn (Eckfords) 396,099 Union Grounds
Philadelphia (Athletics) 674,022 Jefferson Street Grounds
Chicago (White Stockings) 298,977 Union Base‑Ball Grounds
Baltimore (Canaries) 267,354 Newington Park
Boston (Red Stockings) 250,526 South End Grounds
Brooklyn (Atlantics) 396,099 Capitoline Grounds
Middletown (Mansfields) 102,000 Manfsfield Club Grounds
Washington, DC (Olympics) 109,199 Olympic Grounds
Cleveland (Forest Citys) 92,829 National Association Grounds
Troy, NY (Haymakers) 46,465 Haymakers’ Grounds
Washington, DC Nationals) 109,199 Nationals Grounds
Fort Wayne, IN (Kekiongas) 17,718 Grand Duchess
Rockford, IL (Forest Citys) 11,049 Agricultural Fairgrounds

0.014 396,099 5545
0.008 674,022 5392
0.017 298,977 5083
0.01725 267,354 4612
0.0175 250,526 4384
0.035 109,199 3822
0.0375 102,000 3825
0.04 92,829 3713
0.07 46,465 3253
0.1 17,718 1772
0.15 11,049 1657

OOTP resets this every season - please leave my parks alone!

Last bug is baseline attendance - way to low -

I add up all the parks, divide by all the parks - and then reduce it 300 to 400 to a nice round #

OOTP resets this on me every year too

I also change National Media to $0 and 0 contract years (no ESPN or Sporting News in 1871) and pretend local media is outfield signs, cuts from vendors and program sales) You reset this every year too...

I change all of this during the Winter Meetings - wish I didn't have too - hate it when I play a month into a season and realize I forget to change that! (Backup Backup Backup!) I zip my league up on key dates (Season ends, Winter Meetings, Preseason Starts, Opening Day...)

1 last wish - Almanac auto generate the last day MLB league last game is played - snap shot of that season - not a calendar year.

OK - one more - actual Team Owners' names - try to match their settings to the real folks :-) I love OOTP a little bit - LOL! Replaced my StratoMatic - no cards to buy each year :-)

Some really well articulated feedback.
I have been working using my paid Chat GPT for several months now to help me bridge that gap between my love of these immersive sports management games, but my absolutely limited baseball knowledge.. It's been heavy work, but slowly I've set in place for most functions some reliable processes with Chat GPT to help me parse information to help me make more informed decisions that improve my overall knowledge of the game of baseball.


This has been immense to helping me improve my enjoyment of the game and use more cohesively the suite of OOTP screens and data and reports throughout the 'seasons' within each season.
I am interested in how you have used AI to help to you play with financials on.. I too run simple reserve era rules because of my desire to avoid having a second unpaid job in a payroll department for my baseball team

I would be interested in any insights about this you might be willing to share.

[AZTarHeel]

These are great suggestions ...

I'd like to be able to tell the schedule editor to only create games for weekends or certain days only

Also would like to be able to create a my own schedule and then tell the game afterward: these are the beginning and end dates to the regular season and it adjusts.

[joefromchicago]

Originally Posted by david limbaugh

A LONG Tome!

Change requests for OOTP 27/ bugs?

1) Make 1871 player/managers 1 entry in database

OOTP has a real problem with player/managers in every era. Yes, this should be addressed.

2) If a P has stamina rating > 50 - a SP - even if not in rotation - and if any player's highest fielding rating is P or C - they are a P or a C - same with other 7 positions - please...

If the only problem with the way OOTP handles pitchers - especially in the pre-reliever era - was the way it designates starters and relievers, I'd be overjoyed.

3) Allow promotion days (times appropriate) for boosting attendance - in 1870s it is stuff like �� Band concerts between games if DH or suspended game to follow

Meh. Some people want to click a button and let the game handle everything else, some people want to set how many spaces are in the parking lot and what kind of mustard to serve with the hot dogs. As long as it's optional, I don't care.

4) calculate Magic # on number of games each team plays, not from options # of games field

Good idea, especially for leagues (like the old PCL) in which teams weren't always scheduled to play the same number of games.

5) Why #4 - I am working with Claude AI writing a QB64 to automate OOTP schedule making.

I understood "automate OOTP schedule making" and that's about it. If you can do anything to improve on the in-game scheduler, then my hat's off to you.

- if a team in our league plays less then 50% of the games the team in real life played that year, we fold them after their last game and release all of their players and staff - they can re-sign them again or sign others to rebuild for next season. If real NA contracts, we create a "Federalist League" with no schedule - and they are free to sign folks - we release all of their players and staff on first day of preseason into free agent pool.

Clever. Really, OOTP needs to figure out how to handle teams that don't finish seasons, teams that fold after a season, third leagues (UA, PL, FL), etc.

OOTP resets this every season - please leave my parks alone!

Agreed. Same with market size and fan interest. There should be a way to set these by the user so that the game doesn't mess with them.

Last bug is baseline attendance - way to low -

I add up all the parks, divide by all the parks - and then reduce it 300 to 400 to a nice round #

Not sure if this is true - there's really no way to know what attendance was like in the 1870s. Newspapers rarely published that information, and when it was ever mentioned it was the reporter estimating the crowd size rather than an actual turnstile count. Maybe the game in 1882 when the Worcesters drew only six fans was an accurate count, but I'd be skeptical of any other attendance figure.

6) 1 last wish - Almanac auto generate the last day MLB league last game is played - snap shot of that season - not a calendar year.[

OK - one more - actual Team Owners' names - try to match their settings to the real folks :-)

Good ideas.

[david limbaugh]

Originally Posted by Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

Some really well articulated feedback.
I have been working using my paid Chat GPT for several months now to help me bridge that gap between my love of these immersive sports management games, but my absolutely limited baseball knowledge.. It's been heavy work, but slowly I've set in place for most functions some reliable processes with Chat GPT to help me parse information to help me make more informed decisions that improve my overall knowledge of the game of baseball.
.

I use ClaudeAI for coding - tokens are a pain - and CoPilot for everything else - I am owner of White Stockings- GM is a friend I made when buying baseball equipment for my 1860s amateur baseball club - we have complete bios - lol we keep a list of 'cast members' like we are making a movie or documentary - on day of games AI creates our days as me the owner, him as the GM/Traveling Secretary and a writer for the Chicago Tribune - from waking up to first pitch. After simming that game's days, I send box scores and play by play - AI creates the 3 Chicago paper's edition for the next day - news, ads,etc. as bullets but an exhaustive Tribune sports section with standings,scores, game recaps, key plays and box scores (along with boxing and other sports news of the week. When a month ends. the 2nd of each month the Trib prints the huge sports edition - with months news, injuries, trades and complete transactions, a new generated almanac (you have to delete it to write a new one each month) that AI uses for everything on main page, and Chicago's team page page of lineups and stats, and league leaders and teams' stats from stats page. (Just HR-RBI-AVG-SB for hitters and (W-L) era and Ks for pitchers (saves not a thing yet)..... I have all of this saved as 1873.txt if AI forgets something - I am having so much fun! and I share financials with GM/Travel secretary each month and we debate ticket prices and development spending during winter meetings - I do zero roster management for any team except any team that has too many players and some on the reserve list get cut :-) back to free agent pool....

[david limbaugh]

Originally Posted by AZTarHeel

These are great suggestions ...

I'd like to be able to tell the schedule editor to only create games for weekends or certain days only

Also would like to be able to create a my own schedule and then tell the game afterward: these are the beginning and end dates to the regular season and it adjusts.

Familiar with QB64 code? Got the compiler??? :-)

[david limbaugh]

Originally Posted by joefromchicago

OOTP has a real problem with player/managers in every era. Yes, this should be addressed.

If the only problem with the way OOTP handles pitchers - especially in the pre-reliever era - was the way it designates starters and relievers, I'd be overjoyed.

>>> No argument - but as a player since OOTP2 - it has come a long way - and gets better every year - and far easier than stratomatic cards... LOL! One think I notice is rookie pitchers have great first season - Buttery is a great example in 1872 and McDoolan in 1873.

Meh. Some people want to click a button and let the game handle everything else, some people want to set how many spaces are in the parking lot and what kind of mustard to serve with the hot dogs. As long as it's optional, I don't care.

>>> again, no argument - what makes this game so great....

Good idea, especially for leagues (like the old PCL) in which teams weren't always scheduled to play the same number of games.

>>>> or when teams folks so teams play uneven number of games

I understood "automate OOTP schedule making" and that's about it. If you can do anything to improve on the in-game scheduler, then my hat's off to you.

>>>> Know your QB64 Coding?? Got the compiler??? :-)

Clever. Really, OOTP needs to figure out how to handle teams that don't finish seasons, teams that fold after a season, third leagues (UA, PL, FL), etc.

>>>>> :-)

Agreed. Same with market size and fan interest. There should be a way to set these by the user so that the game doesn't mess with them.

>>>> :-)

Not sure if this is true - there's really no way to know what attendance was like in the 1870s. Newspapers rarely published that information, and when it was ever mentioned it was the reporter estimating the crowd size rather than an actual turnstile count. Maybe the game in 1882 when the Worcesters drew only six fans was an accurate count, but I'd be skeptical of any other attendance figure.

>>>> No primary sources of the times - no argument there - but default numbers are way off! Philadelphia's stadium twice as large as Brooklyn's (10,000 vs 5,000) - or Washington has 500 but Rockford IL has 10,000? and 900 or so baseline breaks every team - LOL!

Good ideas.

>>> Thank you - I love this game :-)

[Bobfather]

My suggestion, players work on things in-season. This happens all the time in real life.
Pitcher works on a new grip between starts
Batters take extra hitting
Position players take ground balls/flyballs to learn a new position.
And many more examples.

When a team goes over budget when making a trade. Let me negotiate while having the warning. I would like to see if the other team is even interested in my proposal before figuring out the money.
Rework the Trading Block. The list should be dynamic. Growing before the trade deadline. Add an indication of what the team is looking for. IE Rental, Major League talent, prospects, salary dump.
Make this work now, not always show just my best player for a backup infielder.

Also, I would like to have access to reports, rosters, etc, while playing a game without having to quit the game.

I have mentioned this in the past. I would like AGM comments for all transactions, not just trades.

Those are my ideas based on how I play the game and my experiences- Thank you.

[david limbaugh]

Originally Posted by Bobfather

My suggestion, players work on things in-season. This happens all the time in real life.
Pitcher works on a new grip between starts
Batters take extra hitting
Position players take ground balls/flyballs to learn a new position.
And many more examples.

Development labs??? I turn them off... :-)

[david limbaugh]

Originally Posted by Bobfather

When a team goes over budget when making a trade. Let me negotiate while having the warning. I would like to see if the other team is even interested in my proposal before figuring out the money.
Rework the Trading Block. The list should be dynamic. Growing before the trade deadline. Add an indication of what the team is looking for. IE Rental, Major League talent, prospects, salary dump.
Make this work now, not always show just my best player for a backup infielder.

Also, I would like to have access to reports, rosters, etc, while playing a game without having to quit the game.

I have mentioned this in the past. I would like AGM comments for all transactions, not just trades.

Those are my ideas based on how I play the game and my experiences- Thank you.

all this sounds great!

[Bobfather]

Originally Posted by david limbaugh

Development labs??? I turn them off... :-)

No, not labs, coaching.

[david limbaugh]

Originally Posted by Bobfather

No, not labs, coaching.

I have never used them - but I think that is what it is 'simulating'? Ron Washington working with middle infielders ? :-)

[Bobfather]

In theory that's how coaching should work. But I have never seen any report or anything that tells me that it is working or not working even.

[david limbaugh]

Originally Posted by Bobfather

In theory that's how coaching should work. But I have never seen any report or anything that tells me that it is working or not working even.

ChatGPT says it does - and a google search of forums says it does?

I have never looked at - I do historical replays so I turn them off.

Curious to see what you find out if you try it... Mookie was fun to watch in High School :-)

[Guthrien]

Originally Posted by david limbaugh

...on day of games AI creates our days as me the owner, him as the GM/Traveling Secretary and a writer for the Chicago Tribune - from waking up to first pitch. After simming that game's days, I send box scores and play by play - AI creates the 3 Chicago paper's edition for the next day - news, ads,etc. as bullets but an exhaustive Tribune sports section with standings,scores, game recaps, key plays and box scores (along with boxing and other sports news of the week. When a month ends. the 2nd of each month the Trib prints the huge sports edition - with months news, injuries, trades and complete transactions, a new generated almanac (you have to delete it to write a new one each month) that AI uses for everything on main page, and Chicago's team page page of lineups and stats, and league leaders and teams' stats from stats page. (Just HR-RBI-AVG-SB for hitters and (W-L) era and Ks for pitchers (saves not a thing yet)..... I have all of this saved as 1873.txt if AI forgets something - I am having so much fun! and I share financials with GM/Travel secretary each month and we debate ticket prices and development spending during winter meetings - I do zero roster management for any team except any team that has too many players and some on the reserve list get cut :-) back to free agent pool....

I love this.

You can create a Gemini Gem / ChatGPT GPT, or whatever each calls a specialized helper and point them at this forum, the wiki, (YouTube if you're using Google) or whatever source of your choice and it's a fun assistant manager (which is exactly the personality I tell it to have). Obviously it opens up a ton of options for very quick interactions with exported data like draft pools. Sure is a hell of a lot more interesting than the built in assistant GM.

The game is already using AI of a sort, like every game does, but I look forward to text based simulations using some sort of LLM tech as they are so well suited to fantasy interactions in a game like this.

[Bill Veeck]

I did a quick prompt with ChatGPT (have been using it for some OOTP insights) asking it to create a new chat - an OOTP brain and received the following lengthy response. I post it as a lazy example of mine that might spur others. [not sure it will show up as an attachment here]

I can't imagine what the dynasty threads will look like in a couple of years as one example of the impact.

[Bill Veeck]

Trying attachment again