HP's Pre-Review

[Roy Tucker]

As a fictional player, I really appreciate the automated recaps. The next step for me is to have these news stories be more context sensitive. For example, a recent season I played, on opening day, I faced a former pitcher of mine who just left that offseason. He had played for me the previous 15 seasons! It would have been nice for that to be mentioned in the news story.

Also, in the end of season awards stories, it would be nice to list how many times the player has won the award and what the all time record for winning the award is. If he breaks the record, that should be mentioned as well.

player extensions should be more difficult. Players who are high or very high on greed should simply not negotiate and should want to test the open market.

i have had an owner who keeps begging my team to hit more hrs. 5 years in a row. I build my team to be a smallball team so that will never happen. He should move in the fences on his own. Owners should change ballpark dimensions on their own if they want more hrs.

There should be more stories about players in the last year of their contract. Some players should press and play worse, and have news stories recognize that. Some players should play better, and have news stories recognize that and of course most players should play the same.

And of course , my ultimate dream, doing away with the email system, and having all news be delivered via a dynamic in game website hub

[Roy Tucker]

Oops, almost forgot. More interaction between me and the computer manager. If the computer manager benches a star player or puts a starter into the bullpen. I should get a notification as to why and there should be a news story about whether the public agrees with it or not.

[Honorable_Pawn]

Originally Posted by baseballonly

Nope.

A little harsh on the AI.

I agree that it sometimes makes bad line-up choices and sometimes waives players that never should have been on the 40 man roster to begin. Especially high draft picks that the AI controls for 6 years before they become arby 5 eligible. No way some of these guys should be on the 40-man roster. The AI wastes 3 options then has to waive the player. This is the AI's biggest weakness if you ask me.

But overall the AI has gotten better year over year. But OOTP developments can't just say, "Only one new feature this year...Improved AI."

They have to add features that sell more units so the game grows. That growth allows them to hire more developers which in turn leads to a better game. I'm very happy with the features even though I won't use them very much because I know the end-result of more sales equals better AI.

Lastly, I'm putting aside my selfishness. It is definitely about time historical guys got some love.

[Honorable_Pawn]

Originally Posted by Le Grande Orange

Regrettably, however, the leagues themselves are not quite as authentic in terms of matching up to their real-life counterparts.

It's become a perennial call of mine, but the minors are not simply duplicates of the majors, as OOTP would have you believe. The minor leagues have their own unique way of doing things, and I miss seeing that. It takes away some of the interesting ways professional baseball leagues operate (and keeps some interesting options out of the hands of fictional league users).

Interesting. I assumed that you were behind the scenes in making this one happen. Thanks for your input. I don't have the knowledge that you do so even if I look I probably wouldn't know the difference.

[Honorable_Pawn]

Originally Posted by lukasberger

Just want to add this fwiw, the facegens in the game now are of massively higher quality than in the AIO mod.

The AIO mod used pretty low-res pics for most faces. Many faces ended up being around 8-10kb in size and many looked awful. Plenty of undead and zombies wandering around as well.

Now the facegens are built entirely around ultra high-res pics and are typically around 100-500 kb's in size and I don't think any of them look awful and most look great, though some came out better than others of course.

Fictional face-gens will look better too, yes?

[Honorable_Pawn]

Originally Posted by lukasberger

Idk, really. I have no concrete info on how much they've been worked on, if at all.

They look maybe a bit better to me on average, but that could just be how I see it.

This is why I should read the whole thread before I start posting responses.

[Honorable_Pawn]

Originally Posted by Roy Tucker

Oops, almost forgot. More interaction between me and the computer manager. If the computer manager benches a star player or puts a starter into the bullpen. I should get a notification as to why and there should be a news story about whether the public agrees with it or not.

I'd like more feedback too. And not just from the owner and manager.

I'd like feedback from the fans. I'd like to know what they are saying on the radio about the team. Maybe not specifics but the general consensus. Also, what about the national media. What are they saying?

[aslanking]

Originally Posted by Markus Heinsohn

I'm curious, what would have appealed to you (or the other fictional guys in this thread)?

Keep in mind, we have not announced everything yet, there are a lot more seemingly little improvements which impact every type of league.

Excellent question, Markus. I am not entirely certain! As I mentioned, I thought v16 was perfect and I could not even conjure up too many improvements other than behind the scenes fixes. V16 added things I hadn't even contemplated such as the awards icons, HOF voting etc so I was hoping for other such surprises as these.

The only thing I can think of is the ability to edit empty entries in award history (I.e reliever of year winners which did not exist prior to v16)

[Roy Tucker]

Also, I would like more realistic coach movement. I had an assistant gm with a legendary reputation refuse to resign with me. I figured fine, he wants to be a head gm somewhere. He didn't get hired for another 5 years!

Also, I have a pitching coach who has a legendary reputation. In the description of him it says he would make a fine manager. Yet I have been able to resign him year after year. When assistant coaches get certain reputations, they should be more likely to move on and refuse to resign with you and there should be rumors throughout the year that other teams have their eye on him and of course the news story when they finally do leave.

[Honorable_Pawn]

Originally Posted by Roy Tucker

Also, I would like more realistic coach movement. I had an assistant gm with a legendary reputation refuse to resign with me. I figured fine, he wants to be a head gm somewhere. He didn't get hired for another 5 years!

Also, I have a pitching coach who has a legendary reputation. In the description of him it says he would make a fine manager. Yet I have been able to resign him year after year. When assistant coaches get certain reputations, they should be more likely to move on and refuse to resign with you and there should be rumors throughout the year that other teams have their eye on him and of course the news story when they finally do leave.

Yeah, the best coaches shouldn't be hoarded. They should gravitate to the top.

[Statsman1]

Originally Posted by Markus Heinsohn

I'm curious, what would have appealed to you (or the other fictional guys in this thread)?

Keep in mind, we have not announced everything yet, there are a lot more seemingly little improvements which impact every type of league.

Well, Sir Markus, since you ask...

An expanded range of random players in the draft pool each year (in terms of quality of players, positions and age range, especially when starting a new universe), and the ability to specify exactly what I want to receive in a trade when I shop a player to the league.

Plus (and maybe I am the only one who notices this), a relaxed dependency on French first names when I set up a fictional Canadian league. Not everyone is Canada is named Yves, Jean Claude or René!

[Habsfan18]

Originally Posted by Roy Tucker

And of course , my ultimate dream, doing away with the email system, and having all news be delivered via a dynamic in game website hub

I actually created a thread on this awhile back in the suggestions part of the forum.

Wouldn't it be awesome to have an in-game ESPN or MLB.com-type website with news/rumors/recaps etc..It would be filled with an OOTP "twitter feed" filled with league insiders commenting on rumors and league happenings.

Maybe one day!

[Padreman]

Bro up to 60% faster sim that benefits all of us

[Habsfan18]

Originally Posted by Padreman

Bro up to 60% faster sim that benefits all of us

*Most of us.

This feature will work for those of us with multi-core devices. Older machines won't have such benefit. At least that's how I understand it. With that being said, I assume most people have multi-core processors by now anyways.

I mainly play on my Surface 3 tablet/laptop which uses the quad-core Atom x7 processor with 4GB of RAM. My PC is also using a quad-core processor. The Core i5 4460 with 8GB of RAM.

So I'm pretty excited. Especially as a long-term simmer!

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by The Wolf

LGO, I am sure that you will get your wish...in the fullness of time.

I've got my real-life baseball research (as well as fiction writing*) to keep me busy, so I just limit myself here to stopping by from time to time to be the grumpy old man.

*Ever read a story combining science fiction and baseball? I'll be writing such a short story fairly soon.

Originally Posted by Honorable_Pawn

Interesting. I assumed that you were behind the scenes in making this one happen.

I've tried. But there just wasn't the interest in addressing league-level matters; the focus and push was always for other things. C'est la vie.

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by Markus Heinsohn

I'm curious, what would have appealed to you (or the other fictional guys in this thread)?

Keep in mind, we have not announced everything yet, there are a lot more seemingly little improvements which impact every type of league.

Originally Posted by Izz

Promotion/relegation

*ducks and runs*

(Sorry, couldn't help myself)

Perhaps an even more customizable playoffs system? (I've got a system for that. )

[Padreman]

I would love to see round robin type playoffs

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by Padreman

I would love to see round robin type playoffs

The system I have in mind could easily handle that. (And a ton of other things too.)

[frangipard]

Originally Posted by Markus Heinsohn

I'm curious, what would have appealed to you (or the other fictional guys in this thread)?

One thing I would really love is more customizable league setups w/r/t playoffs/rules/organization, including things that do not currently exist IRL.

For example:
- DH/non-DH set up on a division-by-division or even team-by-team basis.
- Teams with age limits (aside from feeder leagues)
- Teams that are set up geographically, but not by nation. (e.g. A team of all Californians playing the EU all-stars)
- Round-robin or World Cup style tournaments

[frangipard]

Originally Posted by Honorable_Pawn

Authentic minor league systems from 1919 through 2015 with a database of more than 100,000 real players
... I won't make much use of this but historical players (i.e. Stratomatic guys) are going to have a ball.

This undersells the feature. I've never played historical, precisely because it was like Strat-o-matic, and not a full-on managerial sim. Until now, the historical mode felt to me like only half a game (and not the best half).

As far as I'm concerned, this is like historical play just got put into the game for the first time.