OOTP27 well on track to be the best

[Sweed]

Imported my v26 on the day after the World Series into v27. From there I have advanced through the off season to the point of playing out 9 spring training games.

GUI dark skin, though needing some finetuning looks amazing. Ultra wide monitor, with all optional graphics (face-gen, crowd, etc.) set to it's highest setting. Font size set to "standard". Crisp and clear and a nice upgrade over v26's foggy look.

New player models are another big upgrade looking much better on field. The new detail in the jersey textures just pop. Catcher's gear also much improved. Batting helmets with logos and getting rid of the double flap model is a great add. Hopefully the first step in eventually having a box of their own, like caps, so we can build home/away/ and alternates.

On field play is something that will always be a work in progress. V27 is off to a good start that should become great as patches are released. Short pbp and text to speech work very well together as they did in v26. No idea if this is due to default of if it is my v26 settings imported in? Lighting and shadowed crowd are improved. Cameras following the ball have been much improved, but I still see them lose the play from time to time. However instances of this in v27 are maybe two per game, while v26 and before could have two per inning. Player movement in the field is another area that was improved and looks much better.

I see come complaints on ball movement. While there are some quirky ones (and the buggy ones that go through walls etc. that happen in all versions until they are patched) for the most part they are better than v26 IMHO. Grounders, bouncers, and fly balls look good.

The one thing that isn't up to v26 is high fly balls and towering home runs. I've seem complaints about these balls rocket at odd angles and don't look realistic. Too me they come off the bat fine, but the camera doesn't follow the flight like it did in v26. So in v27 a hard hit fly ball leaves the screen and can't be seen. It does look odd and yes from here it appears to rocket almost straight up. In v26 in this high fly ball/home run animation the ball stayed in view as the camera changed angles to follow it. If I watch a replay of one of these types of fly balls in v27, that shows the entire path and never leaves the ball, I see the same realistic flight path I saw in v26. I'd think an adjustment in a patch would fix this issue. While on this issue I think for infield popups the cameras should either pull back a bit more, or adjust it's angle to get a better view of the ball flight. They don't look as bad as the HR animation but they could be improved.

Bunt animation is a lot better, except the bat disappears at the end of it instead of being dropped.

Batter/ pitcher on field widgets reorganized to better use the space to show skills is a win. The expanded batter/pitcher box stat section still needs work. Selectable stats and the order they appear by user is the dream. Currently one can't see, without scrolling, things like "career vs RHP", "vs current P", "career vs RHB" etc. A bigger box as a third option would be a nice add. If not that a scroll bar that would stick.

I'm liking the other widget adjustments they have made. Crisp, clean and less obtrusive on the modern 3d field. Using standard size font there also seems to be less running together of stat columns. However with only a few games played maybe this will change as I get more stats?

The elephant in the room continues to be player movement (sign/release, waiver/dfa, and outright releases). For users that play long term saves this is probably more frustrating than a player like me, who gets in only two to three seasons per version. So far, like v26, I am seeing this as mostly a minor league "filler" player issue. I said last year, I think this comes down to the AI trying to always improve it's minor league team. The problem is it does this by bringing in players that may only be marginally better, or not better at all. For v27 they have limited early season trading to mimic reality. I think they need to do the same for minor league teams in regard to making changes to an opening day roster. To me, once the AI sets it's minor league rosters they should almost be locked with the exception of promoted players coming in and injuries. Don't be looking for a 25/35 A+ level upgrade at 3b if your current 3b is 23/35. I'm sure that is way oversimplifed. Keep in mind in v26 a feature was the AI is going to be more competitive building rosters for it's minor league clubs. v26 is also where the player issue exploded.

My v27 offseason experience after importing my v26 game was about the same as my v26 experience. FA filings, arbitration, winter meetings, and trades worked fine for me. It was easy enough to trade (hard, reputation, slightly favor prospects) away a starting level LF who had run out of options to a team that needed a starting LF. In return I got a minor leaguer on the path to becoming the player I just traded away. I get rid of a guy that would have never passed waivers. I take a chance I can develop the player coming in and have control over him for several seasons to come. Time will tell with more detail but I'm thinking v27 will at least be a marginal improvement over v26. My hope is with lower MLB player movement until June/July and better trade decisions the front office side of the game will be a major improvement. It will be fun running through the season to see how this all works.

Like every version there are issues. Like every version there will be attempts to address those is patches. Some will fix issues, others may fall short. At the end of the day every time I fire up v27 I'm getting my money's worth. Thank you OOTP development team for another great game. Your efforts are appreciated by me.

Do I need to put in the disclaimer that "no game is perfect" before saying I'm really enjoying v27? Okay, no game is perfect.

To that end OOTP still does a poor job with creating draft classes with players that are way overrated. Eleven 80 overall draft players when IRL there wouldn't be one is not "fun". Though "fun" is the reason they are there. They need to get back to realistic draft classes where the hype of a 70 (or almost never 80) overall means something.

[Bluenoser]

[malor]

Wish I could say that.

With the major reported/acknowledged bugs affecting game play and the UI problems that make it impossible for me to read commonly used screens, I've not opened the game in a week. Even simming is not fun.

Waiting for bug fixes to make it playable.

[Sweed]

Originally Posted by malor

Wish I could say that.

With the major reported/acknowledged bugs affecting game play and the UI problems that make it impossible for me to read commonly used screens, I've not opened the game in a week. Even simming is not fun.

Waiting for bug fixes to make it playable.

FWIW I've had no issues reading any screens. Desktop & unltra_wide so I'm not surprised a resolution issue isn't affecting me. No overlap, no color issues (dark screen).

[crazyjoedavola]

thanks for sharing your thoughts and opinions...

[malor]

Originally Posted by Sweed

FWIW I've had no issues reading any screens. Desktop & unltra_wide so I'm not surprised a resolution issue isn't affecting me. No overlap, no color issues (dark screen).

Light and classic skins have many issues with white on white text and black on black text, reported by many users.

If I could read anything on the dark skin, I'd try playing, buy dark background screens are very difficult for me to read.

[David Watts]

Originally Posted by malor

Light and classic skins have many issues with white on white text and black on black text, reported by many users.

If I could read anything on the dark skin, I'd try playing, buy dark background screens are very difficult for me to read.

Is this while using Modern 3D as well? The classic and light skins are unusable when using Classic 3D, Classic 2D and Webcast. Black lettering on a black background is used for the current year stat line and the current game stat line on both the pitcher and batter widgets. I didn't make it far enough to see any of the white on white screens. Once I realized I couldn't play out a game, I went to the dark skin.

[Sweed]

Originally Posted by malor

Light and classic skins have many issues with white on white text and black on black text, reported by many users.

If I could read anything on the dark skin, I'd try playing, buy dark background screens are very difficult for me to read.

Understood. I have seen screenshots from the light and classic and don't understand some of the choices. I hope the next patch can take care of this and other issues that are making some users wait to start a serious save.

[tonnage]

Still too many issues for me in 27. I'm on hold until some of this stuff is corrected.

[Vinnyvagus01]

Originally Posted by David Watts

Is this while using Modern 3D as well? The classic and light skins are unusable when using Classic 3D, Classic 2D and Webcast. Black lettering on a black background is used for the current year stat line and the current game stat line on both the pitcher and batter widgets. I didn't make it far enough to see any of the white on white screens. Once I realized I couldn't play out a game, I went to the dark skin.

Light green on a light coloured background makes it hard to see on the Classic skin still.

[silvam14]

Great post sweed


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[mcercone]

I completely agree and think this version of OOTP is amazing!

Frustrated with the way AI is handling the Waiver Wire and DFA's for players signed to long-term contracts, therefore I stopped playing for now. Once this is fixed in a future patch the game will be amazing.

Unfortunately, I just wish there was more communication and would have heard something from Matt today since it was Opening Day. Even if it was something like, "Happy Opening Day, here is what we are thinking for the next patch..."

Anyway, appreciate your post!!

[Lukas Berger]

Originally Posted by mcercone

Unfortunately, I just wish there was more communication and would have heard something from Matt today since it was Opening Day. Even if it was something like, "Happy Opening Day, here is what we are thinking for the next patch..."

Anyway, appreciate your post!!

Apologies for this We've been far too busy working this week to communicate much.

All the folks who can communicate here are the same ones who are actually working on the game, and the more time we spend posting, the less time we have to actually fix/improve stuff.

This week has just been a grind with some of the fixes not being easy ones, and the OD rosters taking a ton of elbow grease to get done.

Hopefully today's public beta patch will fix a lot of the most pressing problems and we can settle back in and work through more balancing and some of the fixes and improvements a little further down the list now.

[mcercone]

Originally Posted by Lukas Berger

Apologies for this We've been far too busy working this week to communicate much.

All the folks who can communicate here are the same ones who are actually working on the game, and the more time we spend posting, the less time we have to actually fix/improve stuff.

This week has just been a grind with some of the fixes not being easy ones, and the OD rosters taking a ton of elbow grease to get done.

Hopefully today's public beta patch will fix a lot of the most pressing problems and we can settle back in and work through more balancing and some of the fixes and improvements a little further down the list now.

Thanks Lukas! Sorry if I sounded impatient, I was just excited to start playing in franchise mode again. Now that these fixes are in place with the latest patch, I am sure it will be excellent.

I have purchased this game every year since 2008 and think the work the developers have done this time around is incredible.

['94 EXPOS]

The elephant in the room continues to be player movement (sign/release, waiver/dfa, and outright releases). For users that play long term saves this is probably more frustrating than a player like me, who gets in only two to three seasons per version. So far, like v26, I am seeing this as mostly a minor league "filler" player issue.

Thx Sweed for clarifying this. It will temper my expectations when I end up getting '27 (I annually wait for a lull where I can shake off my work for a little while....then I am all in lol).

It is a bummer it wasn't able to be addressed. The issue seems to get progressively worse the longer your save goes - by the end of my most recent save (12 seeasons), some of the players hitting the wire were quality players on top of the10-20 fringe players continually being added and dropped.

I love checking the waiver wire daily to look for a diamond in the rough but had to stop because it became a cheat. When you add in that the game's AI trade logic does not appear to be tied to 40 man roster logic decisions - I have found you can trade waiver claimed players for decent value as of v26 - it further aggravates this issue.

At some point, I am hoping one our OOTP peeps can overhaul the roster management AI similar to the changes that I should see for the trade logic in '27.

Nonetheless, OOTP is still the best game....ever!

[Sweed]

Two week update..

Two or three patches later and I'm 20 games into my first season playing out every game. There are still quirks that need to be ironed out but, the on field modern 3d is a big improvement over v26. I already mentioned player models/movement being much better.

Camera movement still loses the ball more than it should but is better than v26. Some of that is losing the ball less with the other being the dynamic camera using a better mix of camera locations during the play. I've seen views from behind the dugout during that I neve saw in previous versions (yes there was a camera there in v26 and before) along with better angles all around the field.

What I didn't appreciate on first view was how much better the whole in game experience looked. Or maybe it's better to say I saw it and appreciated it, but I didn't exactly know why. To me the shadowing and lighting is a huge upgrade over previous versions. This not only shows on the more detailed uniforms mentioned but the ballcaps of the players have shadowing too. It is kind of subtle but that's a good thing. IE it doesn't stick out ("look at what we added!"), rather it is just naturally taken in by your eye giving a more realistic
view of a ballgame being played. This is so well done and whoever coded it deserves a nice pat on the back. Thank you.

The latest patch, at least for me, has greatly improved the roster/player churn. I do look at my "all transactions" daily. I have been randomly clicking on players that were released and then going to their history tab to check the dates. These players are not being signed and released multiple times. Most players released as their league's opening day was arriving had been signed before Jan 1. With many of those in Nov the previous offseason. Almost every player had been with their club for a month, with the majority 3 months or more. The opening day release cycle put a lot of players out of work. Again, looking at my "all transactions" every day of my season I am not seeing these marginal guys return in a sign/release cycle that never ends.

As I enter May the daily "all transactions" are numbering anywhere from 1 to 12ish. Most are IL moves, some are DFA, others straight up releases, with very few signings. DFA's for the most part make sense. Straight up releases are remaining free agents as signings are not off the charts. It seems the AI is no longer signing and releasing marginal players over and over.

Keep in mind I am a slow "manage ever game/ look over my league every day" player. What I see may not be what a long term sim player sees. From where I sit the game is in great shape and I'm looking forward to the "little fixes" and QOL patches that will be coming.

Edit to add: I did increase my minor league clubs to 39 player max and rookie is at 50 (as it was before). I saw Lukas suggest increasing (I picked 39 players as my best guess) this as a way to combat the sign/release. I wondered if teams would hoard players and all keep 39 on the team, perhaps causing a shortage if I was needing injury replacements? Some AI teams did go to 39, some didn't. Most have at least 35. It has not caused a shortage of FA that can actually play at some minor league level. Nor is there a shortage of MLB players that are still FA. They may be AAA type players, which is fine. It seems these guys don't want a minor league deal. To be fair as it's only May IDK if this trend will hold or if they will eventually take minor league deals. Time will tell.

[OutS|der]

Originally Posted by Sweed

They need to get back to realistic draft classes where the hype of a 70 (or almost never 80) overall means something.

This will be fought every step of the way kicking and screaming but I agree, displayed ratings need become even more realistic.
70+ should be reserved for top 5 batters, Relivers should top out at 60.

Stats and advance stats should be how we evaluate players.

I haven't picked up the new game yet, is there a way to generate advance stats for a newly created player via the Dev lab or something?

[LansdowneSt]

Originally Posted by OutS|der

I haven't picked up the new game yet, is there a way to generate advance stats for a newly created player via the Dev lab or something?

i don't think so. They are in-game outputs like stats. So you can't have them generated for a new player any more than you can generate H and RBI or BB and K for a newly created player. They have to play to get them.

[OutS|der]

Originally Posted by LansdowneSt

i don't think so. They are in-game outputs like stats. So you can't have them generated for a new player any more than you can generate H and RBI or BB and K for a newly created player. They have to play to get them.

Ok I kinda figured. I'll use development leagues for this I guess.

Was thinking of batting practice or a bullpen session where they can get a baseline of expected output or something.

[Sweed]

Originally Posted by OutS|der

This will be fought every step of the way kicking and screaming but I agree, displayed ratings need become even more realistic.
70+ should be reserved for top 5 batters, Relivers should top out at 60.

Stats and advance stats should be how we evaluate players.

I haven't picked up the new game yet, is there a way to generate advance stats for a newly created player via the Dev lab or something?

Sorry, I was out of town yesterday and couldn't answer. As to the realistic draft classes we have a good discussion going on here.
https://forums.ootpdevelopments.com/...d.php?t=368658

I don't intend to let it go anymore. Perhaps with enough noise we can get some changes? It worked for those that screamed reality was "not fun". Why can't it work for those that want it at least to be toned down?

Originally Posted by LansdowneSt

i don't think so. They are in-game outputs like stats. So you can't have them generated for a new player any more than you can generate H and RBI or BB and K for a newly created player. They have to play to get them.

I believe this is spot on. Thanks for answering.