Road to Release 7: A Cornucopia of New Features

battists · 03-28-2010, 07:01 PM

Road to Release 7: A Cornucopia of New Features (by forum member/beta tester DesertFox07)
With each new release of OOTP, there comes the great question of "What's new?" Luckily for all of us, OOTP 11 will not disappoint on this front. In addition to the revamped user interface, two new skins, historical improvements, and everything else you've read about thus far, a veritable cornucopia of other features and enhancements are all rolled up into the upcoming release. Let's head around the OOTP 11 diamond and visit a few of these new great features.

Dynamically Evolving Leagues
Those who play historic OOTP leagues are used to one of the game's great features (at least in my mind) - the ability to expand and evolve your league based on the information in the historical database. Run an OOTP historic league and you'll see it expand in '61 and again in '62 and every year thereafter. For those who may have run historic leagues in the past and had to make these changes manually, it was a big leap forward. Fictional league owners, however, were forced to make changes like expansion, rosters, schedules, and rule changes manually. That is, until now!

With version 11, OOTP introduces Dynamically Evolving Leagues. When you start a league with this option selected and run your baseball world, the game will dynamically make changes to the league over the course of its history. Some of the changes you can elect for the game to implement in your game include:

Team Expansions
Schedule Length
Roster Size
DL Length
Free Agency
Option Years
Nickname Changes
Relocations
Waiver Length
DH Rule
Increase/Decrease Offense
Increase/Decrease Pitching
Min service lengths
And more...

Player Immersion Features
Next up are two new exciting player improvements coming to OOTP 11. The first is two-way players. What the heck does that mean? Will OOTP now create scenarios like this one? YouTube: Switch hitter vs Switch Pitcher. Well, luckily, no. Imagine if you will, a player being drafted as a starting pitcher but slowly developing into a position player instead. Or a reliever, who hits well, entering a game as a pinch hitter and then staying in the game as a substitute fielder. Or a backup catcher entering the game as a reliever in a late-inning marathon game when the entire bullpen has been exhausted. The scenarios are endless.

In other words, players are now created and drafted that can have both strong pitching AND hitting abilities. Which way will they develop? Only time will tell. You'll have to trust your scouts (and more importantly, your instincts) to select your players and see where and how they develop over time. Could one of your top starting pitching prospects actually be the sharp-eyed singles hitting machine lacking from the top of your line-up?

OOTP 11 also gives you the option to clone players. Click the "Clone Player" button and an exact copy of that player, minus their stats and history, will be instantly created and added to the free agent pool. We'll leave the moral, ethical, and competitive arguments for and against cloning players to the OOTP community!

Additional player enhancements include:

Player popularity has been tweaked to be recalculated less often and/or when major events occur
Player personality rating have been changed from numeric to written, scouting report-style assessments
Pitchers' batting ratings now develop as their career progresses
Injury history ratings have been added to the players profile. Want to know if that star CF is a fragile injury risk? Now you'll know.

New Statistics
Everybody loves stats. Well people who play OOTP do at least. With version 11, you now have even more stats to choose from.

First up, ERA+ and OPS+ have both been added. These stats help to neutralize the standard OPS and ERA stats allowing for an easier comparison between different types of players. Because these stats take into account players' competition, they allow for a much more meaningful comparison between players. With 100 being the league average, an OPS+ or ERA+ of 120 would indicate a better than average player and and OPS+ and ERA+ under 100 would be a below average player. On the offensive side of the ball, wOBA (weighted on-base average) has been added. wOBA is a linear weighting statistic created by Tom Tango. You can find out more about wOBA here. Meanwhile, the pitching side of things now benefits from FIP (Fielding-Independent Pitching). FIP helps you understand how effectively your pitcher pitched, regardless of how his fielders played behind him.

Also added in OOTP 11 is ZR or Zone Rating. This stat is an important one to help gauge a players value in the field by measuring their effectiveness in turning plays within their zone of play in games. ZR will help you know if your super slugging middle of the lineup OF is actually neutralizing his offensive contributions by giving up more runs than he's adding with poor play in the field. Another fielding stat, EFF (individual defensive efficiency), has been introduced as well. This stat measures how many plays the fielder makes compared to league average, where 1.100 means 10% more plays than average.

You may have also heard about this next feature, but we'll reiterate here as well. OOTP now generates High School and College stats for draft-eligible players in games that do not include feeder leagues. This is helpful in scouting and gauging a player's past performance and does not penalize you for not using the feeder leagues in your world. The OOTP beta team is also working hard to provide a regionally coded database of college and high school names to give accurate city names to these stats! Never let it be said that OOTP does not focus on the details!

Hall of Fame and Retirement Changes
When a player's career is over, OOTP now allows you to set a user-defined waiting period until a player is elected to the Hall of Fame. This can be between one and ten years, or none at all, which would be immediate entry. Players inducted into the Hall of Fame now also wear the jersey from the team where they had their greatest success.

Markus has also tweaked the code so that more retired players will now return to the games as coaches and managers than before. You might even see the son (or sons) of a retired major leaguer appearing in successive years after they retire as well. So yes, there is indeed life after retirement in OOTP!

Baseball Cards
The same way you collected your favorite players cards back when you were a kid, you can now create and save cards for your players in OOTP 11. This exciting new features allows you to create cards for each player yearly and even create and import your own custom designs! How creative can you get? And you can export your cards to the OOTP mod community to come up with some great card ideas and templates as well. Create and browse through an entire collection of cards, then share them in your online league or the OOTP forums! Who will be your favorite?

Will the Team Owner Please Stand up?
No longer a nameless, faceless entity hiding in the OOTP nether-regions limiting your payroll and denying your latest mega-million dollar offer, the Team Owner is now a real part of OOTP 11. Visible on the Front Office screen, team owners now have names, ages, Facegen photos, and more importantly, a fiscal personality (ranging from Generous to Penny Pincher) and a patience level (ranging from Understanding to Demanding). You can also access the owner's expectation all season long and get a grasp on his current mood as well. If a team owner dies, another family member can also replace them.

Additional Enhancements
In addition to the exciting new features above, some of the other great new additions and improvements for managers in OOTP 11 include:

A revised transactions screen, allowing for players full names to be seen as well as integration of the new Mass Player Selection feature
Addition of new controls over base running when playing out games

OOTP 11 puts a host of new tools, a redesigned and improved user interface, and countless functional improvements all under your control so that you get the most out of your franchise, whether it's a mega-million dollar major league franchise or a small-market independent start-up. The game is truly yours for the taking!

Preorder OOTP 11 Today!
Out of the Park Baseball 11 - The Grand Slam of Baseball Simulation Games! Preorder your copy before the official release!

Preorder now for Windows/Mac or for Linux!

Previous Road to Release Articles
If you missed one of the previous RTR articles, here are some quick links for you:

professor ape · 03-28-2010, 07:05 PM

I hear many people fainting over the two-way players.

By the way.....First reply

RchW · 03-28-2010, 07:14 PM

This is the worst form of tease.

If you guys were women there'd be some words used.

Dang, I thought I was in there first.

Jamee999 · 03-28-2010, 07:14 PM

So so awesome. OOTP FTW.

EMSoccerCoach · 03-28-2010, 07:24 PM

is there a toggle for the two-way players option?

professor ape · 03-28-2010, 07:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EMSoccerCoach

is there a toggle for the two-way players option?

What, you don't like Babe Ruth?

battists · 03-28-2010, 07:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EMSoccerCoach

is there a toggle for the two-way players option?

Hmm, not really, because it's not really an "option" per se. In past versions, OOTP simply hasn't been capable of "understanding" that a player isn't just one position. Now it is capable. Of course, you don't ever have to move any players from the positions they have been assigned!

kq76 · 03-28-2010, 07:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by battists

...[*]Injury history ratings have been added to the players profile. Want to know if that star CF is a fragile injury risk? Now you'll know.
...[*]A revised transactions screen, allowing for players full names to be seen as well as integration of the new Mass Player Selection feature

I'm probably most excited about dynamically evolving leagues, but these two points sound pretty darn good too!

bubba22plus · 03-28-2010, 07:45 PM

Waiting Periods for Hall of Fame eligibility? Oh my.

BaseballMan · 03-28-2010, 07:47 PM

Is there a pic of how the baseball cards from the game look?
Just curious.

jagreen · 03-28-2010, 07:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kq76

I'm probably most excited about dynamically evolving leagues, but these two points sound pretty darn good too!

I must agree.

megamanmatt · 03-28-2010, 08:14 PM

I think we all need to purchase really long sticks to poke Markus until release. That way he can understand our torture!!!

I'm getting antsy so here's hoping release is in one of the single digit day.

Cryomaniac · 03-28-2010, 08:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by battists

Will OOTP now create scenarios like this one? YouTube: Switch hitter vs Switch Pitcher. Well, luckily, no.

I would argue that that isn't lucky, and will continue campaigning for switch pitching.

Déjà Bru · 03-28-2010, 08:18 PM

I like that injury history rating. That should be something that a scout should be able to rate, even if just qualitatively like personalities will be now.

Picky · 03-28-2010, 08:22 PM

Evolving fictional leagues? I almost feinted.

TheDROCK · 03-28-2010, 08:23 PM

"Dynamically Evolving Leagues. When you start a league with this option selected..."

Does this mean you have to start a new league or will the option work with a current league?

Jeffy25 · 03-28-2010, 08:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cryomaniac

I would argue that that isn't lucky, and will continue campaigning for switch pitching.

I would LOVE it.

and have asked for it before

Afino · 03-28-2010, 09:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

I like that injury history rating. That should be something that a scout should be able to rate, even if just qualitatively like personalities will be now.

And it adds yet another dynamic to drafting as well.

No longer are you just rolling the dice with a draftee's injury "history" in leagues without feeders.

Now do you take that uber-talent that is prone to injury or take a "safer" pick?

akw4572 · 03-28-2010, 09:22 PM

Hopefully there is an option to make an imported league that's I've been carrying since OOTP 2006 a "dynamically evolving league".

Faaip De Oiad · 03-28-2010, 09:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RchW

This is the worst form of tease.

Dang, I thought I was in there first.

Sounds like prom night.

03-28-2010, 07:01 PM	#1
battists Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 18,506	Road to Release 7: A Cornucopia of New Features Road to Release 7: A Cornucopia of New Features (by forum member/beta tester DesertFox07) With each new release of OOTP, there comes the great question of "What's new?" Luckily for all of us, OOTP 11 will not disappoint on this front. In addition to the revamped user interface, two new skins, historical improvements, and everything else you've read about thus far, a veritable cornucopia of other features and enhancements are all rolled up into the upcoming release. Let's head around the OOTP 11 diamond and visit a few of these new great features. Dynamically Evolving Leagues Those who play historic OOTP leagues are used to one of the game's great features (at least in my mind) - the ability to expand and evolve your league based on the information in the historical database. Run an OOTP historic league and you'll see it expand in '61 and again in '62 and every year thereafter. For those who may have run historic leagues in the past and had to make these changes manually, it was a big leap forward. Fictional league owners, however, were forced to make changes like expansion, rosters, schedules, and rule changes manually. That is, until now! With version 11, OOTP introduces Dynamically Evolving Leagues. When you start a league with this option selected and run your baseball world, the game will dynamically make changes to the league over the course of its history. Some of the changes you can elect for the game to implement in your game include: Team Expansions Schedule Length Roster Size DL Length Free Agency Option Years Nickname Changes Relocations Waiver Length DH Rule Increase/Decrease Offense Increase/Decrease Pitching Min service lengths And more... Player Immersion Features Next up are two new exciting player improvements coming to OOTP 11. The first is two-way players. What the heck does that mean? Will OOTP now create scenarios like this one? YouTube: Switch hitter vs Switch Pitcher. Well, luckily, no. Imagine if you will, a player being drafted as a starting pitcher but slowly developing into a position player instead. Or a reliever, who hits well, entering a game as a pinch hitter and then staying in the game as a substitute fielder. Or a backup catcher entering the game as a reliever in a late-inning marathon game when the entire bullpen has been exhausted. The scenarios are endless. In other words, players are now created and drafted that can have both strong pitching AND hitting abilities. Which way will they develop? Only time will tell. You'll have to trust your scouts (and more importantly, your instincts) to select your players and see where and how they develop over time. Could one of your top starting pitching prospects actually be the sharp-eyed singles hitting machine lacking from the top of your line-up? OOTP 11 also gives you the option to clone players. Click the "Clone Player" button and an exact copy of that player, minus their stats and history, will be instantly created and added to the free agent pool. We'll leave the moral, ethical, and competitive arguments for and against cloning players to the OOTP community! Additional player enhancements include: Player popularity has been tweaked to be recalculated less often and/or when major events occur Player personality rating have been changed from numeric to written, scouting report-style assessments Pitchers' batting ratings now develop as their career progresses Injury history ratings have been added to the players profile. Want to know if that star CF is a fragile injury risk? Now you'll know. New Statistics Everybody loves stats. Well people who play OOTP do at least. With version 11, you now have even more stats to choose from. First up, ERA+ and OPS+ have both been added. These stats help to neutralize the standard OPS and ERA stats allowing for an easier comparison between different types of players. Because these stats take into account players' competition, they allow for a much more meaningful comparison between players. With 100 being the league average, an OPS+ or ERA+ of 120 would indicate a better than average player and and OPS+ and ERA+ under 100 would be a below average player. On the offensive side of the ball, wOBA (weighted on-base average) has been added. wOBA is a linear weighting statistic created by Tom Tango. You can find out more about wOBA here. Meanwhile, the pitching side of things now benefits from FIP (Fielding-Independent Pitching). FIP helps you understand how effectively your pitcher pitched, regardless of how his fielders played behind him. Also added in OOTP 11 is ZR or Zone Rating. This stat is an important one to help gauge a players value in the field by measuring their effectiveness in turning plays within their zone of play in games. ZR will help you know if your super slugging middle of the lineup OF is actually neutralizing his offensive contributions by giving up more runs than he's adding with poor play in the field. Another fielding stat, EFF (individual defensive efficiency), has been introduced as well. This stat measures how many plays the fielder makes compared to league average, where 1.100 means 10% more plays than average. You may have also heard about this next feature, but we'll reiterate here as well. OOTP now generates High School and College stats for draft-eligible players in games that do not include feeder leagues. This is helpful in scouting and gauging a player's past performance and does not penalize you for not using the feeder leagues in your world. The OOTP beta team is also working hard to provide a regionally coded database of college and high school names to give accurate city names to these stats! Never let it be said that OOTP does not focus on the details! Hall of Fame and Retirement Changes When a player's career is over, OOTP now allows you to set a user-defined waiting period until a player is elected to the Hall of Fame. This can be between one and ten years, or none at all, which would be immediate entry. Players inducted into the Hall of Fame now also wear the jersey from the team where they had their greatest success. Markus has also tweaked the code so that more retired players will now return to the games as coaches and managers than before. You might even see the son (or sons) of a retired major leaguer appearing in successive years after they retire as well. So yes, there is indeed life after retirement in OOTP! Baseball Cards The same way you collected your favorite players cards back when you were a kid, you can now create and save cards for your players in OOTP 11. This exciting new features allows you to create cards for each player yearly and even create and import your own custom designs! How creative can you get? And you can export your cards to the OOTP mod community to come up with some great card ideas and templates as well. Create and browse through an entire collection of cards, then share them in your online league or the OOTP forums! Who will be your favorite? Will the Team Owner Please Stand up? No longer a nameless, faceless entity hiding in the OOTP nether-regions limiting your payroll and denying your latest mega-million dollar offer, the Team Owner is now a real part of OOTP 11. Visible on the Front Office screen, team owners now have names, ages, Facegen photos, and more importantly, a fiscal personality (ranging from Generous to Penny Pincher) and a patience level (ranging from Understanding to Demanding). You can also access the owner's expectation all season long and get a grasp on his current mood as well. If a team owner dies, another family member can also replace them. Additional Enhancements In addition to the exciting new features above, some of the other great new additions and improvements for managers in OOTP 11 include: A revised transactions screen, allowing for players full names to be seen as well as integration of the new Mass Player Selection feature Addition of new controls over base running when playing out games OOTP 11 puts a host of new tools, a redesigned and improved user interface, and countless functional improvements all under your control so that you get the most out of your franchise, whether it's a mega-million dollar major league franchise or a small-market independent start-up. The game is truly yours for the taking! Preorder OOTP 11 Today! Out of the Park Baseball 11 - The Grand Slam of Baseball Simulation Games! Preorder your copy before the official release! Preorder now for Windows/Mac or for Linux! Previous Road to Release Articles If you missed one of the previous RTR articles, here are some quick links for you: Road to Release 1: The Interface Tutorial Road to Release 2: Player Comparison, Manager Notes, and Single Game Records Road to Release 3: Drafting realism like you've never seen before! Road to Release 4: Making History with OOTP 11 Road to Release 5: New Skin, Operation Sports Preview, and a Few More Tidbits Road to Release 6: A Trip into History __________________ Come check out my dynasty report, Funky Times!

03-28-2010, 07:14 PM	#3
RchW Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Toronto ON by way of Glasgow UK Posts: 15,629	This is the worst form of tease. If you guys were women there'd be some words used. Dang, I thought I was in there first. __________________ Cheers RichW If you’re looking for a good cause to donate money to please consider a Donation to Parkinson’s Canada. It may help me have a better future and if not me, someone else. Thanks. “Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition …There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.” Frank Wilhoit

03-28-2010, 07:24 PM	#5
EMSoccerCoach Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 2,464	is there a toggle for the two-way players option? __________________ The Pastime Baseball League The Pastime Baseball League - 10-Year Recap The Pastime Boxing Association

03-28-2010, 07:45 PM	#9
bubba22plus All Star Reserve Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Equestria Posts: 808	Waiting Periods for Hall of Fame eligibility? Oh my. __________________ OOTP Resident Brony

03-28-2010, 08:18 PM	#14
Déjà Bru Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Long Island Posts: 11,742	I like that injury history rating. That should be something that a scout should be able to rate, even if just qualitatively like personalities will be now. __________________ - Bru

03-28-2010, 07:05 PM	#2
professor ape All Star Starter Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: The belly of the beast Posts: 1,498	I hear many people fainting over the two-way players. By the way.....First reply

03-28-2010, 07:14 PM	#4
Jamee999 All Star Reserve Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 772	So so awesome. OOTP FTW.

03-28-2010, 07:47 PM	#10
BaseballMan Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 6,524	Is there a pic of how the baseball cards from the game look? Just curious.

03-28-2010, 08:14 PM	#12
megamanmatt Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Lakeville, Minnesota Posts: 2,416	I think we all need to purchase really long sticks to poke Markus until release. That way he can understand our torture!!! I'm getting antsy so here's hoping release is in one of the single digit day.

03-28-2010, 08:22 PM	#15
Picky Minors (Single A) Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Washingon Posts: 93	Evolving fictional leagues? I almost feinted.

03-28-2010, 08:23 PM	#16
TheDROCK Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Mar 2002 Posts: 210	"Dynamically Evolving Leagues. When you start a league with this option selected..." Does this mean you have to start a new league or will the option work with a current league? __________________ Proud owner of EVERY version of OOTP

03-28-2010, 09:22 PM	#19
akw4572 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Kentucky Posts: 2,601	Hopefully there is an option to make an imported league that's I've been carrying since OOTP 2006 a "dynamically evolving league".