Before I Buy (multi-player experience)

[Mezirah]

Hello, I love this game and I know its the premium simulation out there. I just get bored playing 1-player games.

Due to COVID I bought OOTP 20, and joined a league with the rest of the quartantine player surge into this product. I had a bad experience though playing the Red Sox and my commissioner was the Rays.

Despite the commish seemingly very honorable and holding Zoom calls and being great at the job, shadiness was suspected and many owners left. I even found my budget hacked down by 20 mil and after discovering and discussing, the owner claimed something must have happened but wouldn';t re-instate my budget. (was planning on bidding on Mookie in FA)

Long story short I really doesn't sound like the dev team has plans on making anything official with multi-player support or hosting in any way.

So have players and leagues made any advancements I am unaware of to make the game more transparent? Are there neutral 3rd party leagues or something where someone runs it for the love of the game or something. I want to buy this game again, support the product, and have my fill, but I just don't want to play a league with a sneaky suspicion the entire time, and have any level of paranoia participating pouring hours upon hours into a doomed experience.

I know there's a ton of 'honorable' and long running leagues, Is it unfair to say the honor system just isn't good enough for me personally? I'd love to hear if there's any advancements to curb shenanigan's.

Thanks --

[Bunktown Ballers]

Yeah, I was looking for league last year and it was cluster-F from being 3 minutes. I bailed quickly. I wish I knew how to even start one. I's love league play but it'd have to be on the up and up and just for bragging right.


BB

[cyrusb]

Originally Posted by Mezirah

I know there's a ton of 'honorable' and long running leagues, Is it unfair to say the honor system just isn't good enough for me personally? I'd love to hear if there's any advancements to curb shenanigan's.

Unfortunately, there has not been any advancements despite the longstanding requests for the developers to address this issue for online leagues.

There are some league settings that might be more desirable for you if you think you will have trouble trusting even commissioners with good reputations.

• 100% accurate ratings (i.e. no scouting system)
• Reduced setting for Talent Change Randomness (TCR)

Other than that there is only the option of finding a league where the commissioner does not manage one of the teams. But this is pretty hard to find, since it takes a lot of work (and $$$ to subscribe to StatsPlus) to be a commissioner of a well-run online league!

Another way to go about it would be to find someone you trust to run a league as well as you would yourself. Both of you create a league, and each of you runs the other one's league without also managing a team. But again, it's hard to find someone who wants to do this, and who you trust to stick around as long as you do!

We can only keep asking for new features to help with online league integrity and transparency, and hope that they add something one day!

• https://forums.ootpdevelopments.com/...d.php?t=334713

[cyrusb]

There is one surefire solution: Be a commissioner and run an online league yourself.

There's A LOT of drawbacks to doing this... it's often a thankless job, and you'll have your own fair share of people who don't trust you.

But, ultimately, you'll be the one person who knows for sure that no shenanigans are going on!

[Mezirah]

These are the responses I was expecting. I do appreciate your help and info.

[tward13]

There are honest Commissioners out there.

Look for a league that has been around a long time. One with little turnover.
Get on their waitlist.

Now if you want a new league, starting with the current rosters? Good luck, they come and go in no time. Once GMs have made amillion trades they get bored. Or the commish is overwhelmed with the work, etc, etc. I've never found one to hold my interest.

[Bluenoser]

Looks like they added something this year, "Online League Limited Power Options". Does it suggest limiting the power of the Commish? Not sure but seems to.

Still, impossible to prevent cheating entirely. If someone wants to cheat, they'll find a way.

As the old saying goes, a lock only keeps an honest person out.

[84Cubs]

I am willing to speculate that the Online league “limited power” options mentioned in the trailer might address this and when activated it limits what the commissioner can and can't do. Sort of like a challenge mode for online leagues.

Of course, I have no inside info and I am just guessing. It would be cool if once some feature is locked the only way to change it would be by a league vote. Or even if it just kept a log of what the commissioner changed. I guess we'll know more soon.

[Ktulu]

Originally Posted by 84Cubs

I am willing to speculate that the Online league “limited power” options mentioned in the trailer might address this and when activated it limits what the commissioner can and can't do. Sort of like a challenge mode for online leagues.

Of course, I have no inside info and I am just guessing. It would be cool if once some feature is locked the only way to change it would be by a league vote. Or even if it just kept a log of what the commissioner changed. I guess we'll know more soon.

This is just so that you can give other people the ability to run sims without giving them the ability to edit anything.

[Matt Arnold]

Originally Posted by Ktulu

This is just so that you can give other people the ability to run sims without giving them the ability to edit anything.

Correct. There is always the need for a global commissioner who has full power to edit ratings and options and budgets and everything, but limited commissioners will be given all the powers to run sims (and everything with that, which can include processing trades and the like), but not be able to surpass budget limits when offering contracts, see editor ratings, and stuff like that.

[stevem810]

Are there neutral 3rd party leagues or something where someone runs it for the love of the game or something.

There are a few leagues out there that are run by people who are 'commish-only'. I have a small 12 team fictional but rarely are there any openings. I have a friend who runs a 12 and 20 team fictional leagues, commish only. None of these are MLB real players. For commish only it's more of a desire to take any distraction out of league management decision making.

Of course, I also know some commission/GM's who are honest in the administration of their leagues. Again, fictional.

If you want more info on the fictional PM me.

[Fabtron7]

Sorry if this is a little bit on the nose, but perfect team is one of the best multi-player experiences in sports sim history. It's obviously very different from a standard online league... but in a lot of ways that's a good thing.

A lot of people on the forums are salty about the mode... but trust me, it's awesome.

[EZB]

Originally Posted by Matt Arnold

Correct. There is always the need for a global commissioner who has full power to edit ratings and options and budgets and everything, but limited commissioners will be given all the powers to run sims (and everything with that, which can include processing trades and the like), but not be able to surpass budget limits when offering contracts, see editor ratings, and stuff like that.

Sure, but the obvious solution is to host online and have an AUDIT LOG for the commissioner's actions. If EVERY PLAYER can see exactly what the commissioner looked at and changed in the commissioner role, then any cheating is clear.

[Mezirah]

Originally Posted by EZB

Sure, but the obvious solution is to host online and have an AUDIT LOG for the commissioner's actions. If EVERY PLAYER can see exactly what the commissioner looked at and changed in the commissioner role, then any cheating is clear.

Lets put OOTP on the blockchain.

[cyrusb]

Originally Posted by Matt Arnold

Correct. There is always the need for a global commissioner who has full power to edit ratings and options and budgets and everything, but limited commissioners will be given all the powers to run sims (and everything with that, which can include processing trades and the like), but not be able to surpass budget limits when offering contracts, see editor ratings, and stuff like that.

Thank you, Matt! (and all the rest of OOTP's developers)

This change makes it possible to provide greater assurance of online league integrity. Leagues should now be able to create a "limited power" co-commissioner profile for the person who runs the sims and manages a team.

All we'll need to do is make a deal with a friend/commissioner in another online league to act as the "master commissioner" of each other's leagues. The full-power commissioner will only need to occasionally intervene to change league settings or make edits when necessary. Since it's less of a burden, it will be reasonably easy to find someone willing to take on that responsibility without also managing their own team.

Really appreciate adding this feature, and you'll get 30 game purchases out of it -- one for every GM in my online league

[thegoldengod]

Originally Posted by Matt Arnold

Correct. There is always the need for a global commissioner who has full power to edit ratings and options and budgets and everything, but limited commissioners will be given all the powers to run sims (and everything with that, which can include processing trades and the like), but not be able to surpass budget limits when offering contracts, see editor ratings, and stuff like that.

Thanks for adding this, Matt. Will these users still have the ability to perform data dumps for third party tools like S+?