OOTP 20 - First impressions thread!

[Whoofe]

my first impressions. the animations are much improved! great work there

also looks to me like the research on prospects has improved. the Royals in the minors that are supposed to be the top prospects are actually the better prospects in the game as well. previous versions it seemed more random to me

I still think there are too many walks in the game, but its probly just small sample size and me noticing more of the bad and not the good. but I had a game where 2 pitchers combined for something like 12 walks in 6 innings, and walked in 5 runs between them. it felt like a conga line forming up against me, lol

also I may have to mess around with the views a bit. I am having trouble for the first time ever following the ball with the default view

only had a chance to play a weeks worth of games so far, but for the most part, more positive than negative

[SteveCox]

Very preliminary findings, but looks like I'll put XX on the shelf for a while waiting for patches.
Second week of season Yankees put Gio Gonzales on waivers, so I claimed him (Mets). To make a spot, I tried to deal Jason Vargas. Yes, 36 year old Jason Vargas. The Braves offered me Julio Terhan. Settings are Hard and Heavily Favor Prospects.
Trading is not ready for prime time.
Steve

[Barreto77]

Spray chart is cool.
Advanced fielding stats too.
Team home run celebration at home is ok.

[waittilnextyear]

Originally Posted by Matt Arnold

And how many times have you offered a crappy player to the AI for Mike Trout to see if they'd take it.

SILLY HUMAN. WHY DO THEY KEEP SENDING US THESE HORRIBLE OFFERS? DO THEY THINK WE HAVE MISSING CIRCUITS?

I NEED this phrasing to be in the game for when the AI rejects one of my trade offers...


Day 1: This might be fair. Submit the offer and I will get back to you.

Day 2: NO WAY!! SILLY HUMAN...

[Cobby]

Just downloaded 20 and was disappointed to see that the report export still just gives the first page when the page selector is displayed.

I quit playing OOTP19 because of this since I can't use my spreadsheets and I didn't want to do the (immense amount) of work to get the data I use out of the database files.

Now I find I'm going to have to wait patiently for this to be fixed before I start playing 20. I'm going to optimistically assume that this *will* be fixed soon.... like you promised?

Originally Posted by Markus Heinsohn

The change was to get rid of complaints from users with slower systems, 8192 made those screens unplayably slow for them.

Having said that, we will fix the report output when the page selector is displayed instead of scrollbars.

[Al_Leiter]

Originally Posted by Matt Arnold

And how many times have you offered a crappy player to the AI for Mike Trout to see if they'd take it.

SILLY HUMAN. WHY DO THEY KEEP SENDING US THESE HORRIBLE OFFERS? DO THEY THINK WE HAVE MISSING CIRCUITS?

If they're supposed to be garbage then what's the point in having them?

Is it supposed to be immersive? Because it's not for me.

Do you consider configuring spam filters to be essential to the baseball GM experience?

[Matt Arnold]

Originally Posted by Al_Leiter

If they're supposed to be garbage then what's the point in having them?



Is it supposed to be immersive? Because it's not for me.



Do you consider configuring spam filters to be essential to the baseball GM experience?

They're not supposed to be garbage, but they're not necessarily meant as a polished deal.

So yeah, I reject nearly all that come my way, but every now and then there's something that piques my interest to explore more. I just had one a few days ago where I could have accepted the deal, but ended up swapping one of the prospects out for someone else on my end and taking the deal.

[Reed]

one of my in house rules is I will not initiate a trade or negotiate. The only time I make a trade is when the initial offer from the other club is acceptable and once every 2 or 3 years I get one that is. I have trading set to hard.

[Chico Guilbault]

Every year I've had the game (since 2014) all I've every played is my fictional game. Never had a desire to try anything else. This year, I am continuing on with that but also playing PT (two teams) and started up a league using challenge mode. That might give you some idea of my first impressions with this version!

[rain94]

Surprisingly, I'm having so much fun with Perfect Team. I ignored it in OOTP19 and when I purchased '20, I wasn't interested in it. One of the best things I like is that players who are rated mid 60's can still be great and productive for your team, sometimes even out-performing players who have much higher ratings. I would like to see injuries incorporated for PT. Perhaps the length of time injured can be reduced by 50% or higher. I want to see more strategy involved with maintaining a roster. I have so many cards and I want to put them to use and to see how they turn out instead of simply selling them to the house.

[amwendwa]

First impressions of the game after more than a week of playing time.

I have to say that I am very impressed with OOTPXX. I've tried to stay neutral after reading other peoples views, and just judge the game for what it is.

Yes, I can admit that most of us had gotten used to, and even come to expect 'huge' changes to the game and new features year-over-year for the last few years.
So I can understand how some people may have gotten the impression that the game did not add a lot this time around but after a week with the game I can say that this perception is not entirely true.

There are small changes that are being overlooked -

Visuals.

I LOVE the new look of OOTP 20. The color scheme looks and feels more polished, the team colors blend really well and create a nice smooth visual to the game. (This is especially more pronounced for those like myself who play on the non-dark skin).

I would also like to mention that this game always looks better (visually) on a minimum resolution of 1920 x 1080. The bigger your screen the better!!

3D player movements - Seeing the pitcher go through a windup prior to throwing a pitch is one of the improvements that got me excited. Again a small change but huge for guys who play out games. These visual improvements change the games aesthetics and truly help to improve realism.

Strategy and Logic

First and foremost OOTP has always been about strategy. So anytime additions are made to the game that improve strategy it should always be seen as a huge step forward in the game.


The additional team/player strategies add another layer to realism to an already award winning simulation game.Having players back up in other positions, having an opener and follower in the modern game is huge for guys who want to manage all aspects of a game like real GM/Manager would.

I get it, that for some of the guys who sim an entire season just to see the results only in the end, or those who jump to the draft and then play around with the trade deadline and sim everything else may not see the benefit to these additions, but trust me, these are huge changes to the game.

Improvements to the trade AI and game logic are evident in OOTP20 and they continue to make the game better. I cannot understand how some people don't see this.

Of course we all play on different settings, so the game will give varying results and behave different for all of us, but if you 'keep it real' and stop comparing all aspects of the real MLB to the game simulation, it will improve and change how you see this game and you will enjoy it even more.

Enjoy OOTP for what it is

If you want to enjoy this game focus on immersion and not duplication. You immerse yourself by (believing in the universe created before you). The developers give us a canvass but it is up to us to create our universe within that canvass.

Yes, most of us want that universe to feel like the real baseball world that we are familiar with but remember there will always be some constraints and limitations. There is no perfection even in real life, but OOTP is as close to it when it comes to the game of Baseball (recreated on a computer) than any thing else out there in the world!

So don't look at a trade in real life and then expect things to play out exactly the same way in your (simulated environment). Accept your simulated environment as the new reality and embrace all that happens in that environment. Dig in and follow stories in your world and you will start to really enjoy this game.

Try to make the best decisions you can to help your team win, because ultimately that is why we all play this game but don't cheese or cheat the game.

Ps. I am truly having lots of fun with this game!

[tklem321]

Originally Posted by amwendwa

I LOVE the new look of OOTP 20. The color scheme looks and feels more polished, the team colors blend really well and create a nice smooth visual to the game. (This is especially more pronounced for those like myself who play on the non-dark skin).

I would agree with this except it's driving me crazy that they removed the shading on every other line of stats/ratings in the light and classic skins. Trying to scan across a page that's nothing but uniform white with rows of numbers is making me cross-eyed. I posted about it a week ago and no one -- OOTP employee or otherwise -- responded. I guess I'm the only one?

[Statsman1]

I just realized that, when shopping a player, you can ask for what you want to receive back in a trade offer (position player, pitcher, etc.)...this is, for me, the most impressive improvement I've seen (unless it was in OOTP19, and I missed it, in which case, I suck).

Thank you, Markus And Da Boyz, for this feature!!

[dewelar]

Originally Posted by tklem321

I would agree with this except it's driving me crazy that they removed the shading on every other line of stats/ratings in the light and classic skins. Trying to scan across a page that's nothing but uniform white with rows of numbers is making me cross-eyed. I posted about it a week ago and no one -- OOTP employee or otherwise -- responded. I guess I'm the only one?

Nope, definitely not the only one. It doesn't help that even set to maximum, the font size is still only about 8 or 10-point, and I usually need text to be at least 16-point to see it clearly (even at low resolution -- yes, I'm actually blind, by the legal definition). It has improved a bit from when I started using the game (v14), but not enough for me to avoid having to turn on my magnifier at times -- which I don't have to do with literally any other program I use, and which I don't like to do since it means I can only see part of the screen.

Still, overall, the new version was well worth the price for the under-the-hood improvements. Looking forward to that trend continuing !

[tklem321]

Maybe I should throw a fit and demand a refund. That seems to get a response.

[Spritze]

Originally Posted by BaseballMan

I dont know if this is new or not but i noticed that players from folding teams
go to free agency. In previous versions i would have to go to league history sometimes in order to find the player to release him.
When you have to do transactions manually till 1901, every little bit helps.
Dont know when this was put in the game but i like that its there.

Thanks for noticing. Slowly chipping away at 19th century challenges one by one.

[jimmysthebestcop]

Originally Posted by Statsman1

I just realized that, when shopping a player, you can ask for what you want to receive back in a trade offer (position player, pitcher, etc.)...this is, for me, the most impressive improvement I've seen (unless it was in OOTP19, and I missed it, in which case, I suck).

Thank you, Markus And Da Boyz, for this feature!!

It wasn't in launch day ootp 19 but one of the updates that came out during 19.

[AirmenSmith]

My first impression

Most of the new features don't impact my style of play. I only sim games as a GM so new features for that didn't really happen. While I am disappointed in that I'm not upset because hopefully next year it will be looked at more. Online leagues always seem to be the most overlooked, from what I can tell on the forums, so I consider myself lucky.

PT and 3D just don't make the game for me but from my guess it seems more people play out games then they do sim. I'm basing this off of OOTP putting a lot of work towards these elements.

For the style I play I would say the biggest upgrade is the trade logic. I do feel that it has improved a lot and the spray charts are pretty cool. Aside from that and updated rosters, OOTP 20 is like OOTP 19 to me. I'll continue to buy though because even if they didn't send something I find important, eventually they will.

[Whoofe]

my 2nd impression is better than my first

the more I've played the better I've felt about this version in general

[UltimateAverageGuy]

Originally Posted by amwendwa

First impressions of the game after more than a week of playing time.

I have to say that I am very impressed with OOTPXX. I've tried to stay neutral after reading other peoples views, and just judge the game for what it is.

Yes, I can admit that most of us had gotten used to, and even come to expect 'huge' changes to the game and new features year-over-year for the last few years.
So I can understand how some people may have gotten the impression that the game did not add a lot this time around but after a week with the game I can say that this perception is not entirely true.



There are small changes that are being overlooked -

Visuals.

I LOVE the new look of OOTP 20. The color scheme looks and feels more polished, the team colors blend really well and create a nice smooth visual to the game. (This is especially more pronounced for those like myself who play on the non-dark skin).

I would also like to mention that this game always looks better (visually) on a minimum resolution of 1920 x 1080. The bigger your screen the better!!

3D player movements - Seeing the pitcher go through a windup prior to throwing a pitch is one of the improvements that got me excited. Again a small change but huge for guys who play out games. These visual improvements change the games aesthetics and truly help to improve realism.

Strategy and Logic

First and foremost OOTP has always been about strategy. So anytime additions are made to the game that improve strategy it should always be seen as a huge step forward in the game.


The additional team/player strategies add another layer to realism to an already award winning simulation game.Having players back up in other positions, having an opener and follower in the modern game is huge for guys who want to manage all aspects of a game like real GM/Manager would.

I get it, that for some of the guys who sim an entire season just to see the results only in the end, or those who jump to the draft and then play around with the trade deadline and sim everything else may not see the benefit to these additions, but trust me, these are huge changes to the game.

Improvements to the trade AI and game logic are evident in OOTP20 and they continue to make the game better. I cannot understand how some people don't see this.

Of course we all play on different settings, so the game will give varying results and behave different for all of us, but if you 'keep it real' and stop comparing all aspects of the real MLB to the game simulation, it will improve and change how you see this game and you will enjoy it even more.

Enjoy OOTP for what it is

If you want to enjoy this game focus on immersion and not duplication. You immerse yourself by (believing in the universe created before you). The developers give us a canvass but it is up to us to create our universe within that canvass.

Yes, most of us want that universe to feel like the real baseball world that we are familiar with but remember there will always be some constraints and limitations. There is no perfection even in real life, but OOTP is as close to it when it comes to the game of Baseball (recreated on a computer) than any thing else out there in the world!

So don't look at a trade in real life and then expect things to play out exactly the same way in your (simulated environment). Accept your simulated environment as the new reality and embrace all that happens in that environment. Dig in and follow stories in your world and you will start to really enjoy this game.

Try to make the best decisions you can to help your team win, because ultimately that is why we all play this game but don't cheese or cheat the game.

Ps. I am truly having lots of fun with this game!

Spoken like an objective adult, love this review.