GWJ OOTP League Thread

garion333 wrote:

Thoughts on this year's feature list?

The hottest thing, to me, is multicore support that will speed up simming.

I haven't really tested out the improved sim speeds yet, but it sounds like they are drastically better.

When you first start an MLB game, you get a message that the salaries and contracts listed are not official. Thanks players associate lawyers!

On the personnel screen, you have the option to extend contracts for all minor league personnel that will be expiring. So much clicking saved!

The manager screens look pretty neat; they give you some more personality meshing info, and give you example lineups that the manager would choose.

absurddoctor wrote:

On the personnel screen, you have the option to extend contracts for all minor league personnel that will be expiring. So much clicking saved!

This one has been in for at least a year, though it could be more obvious now. In the past, it was under some minor submenu or something. Dealing with minor league contracts years ago is why I still play with ghost players enabled -- I just don't want to deal with minor leaguers who have no chance of having a major league career.

billt721 wrote:
absurddoctor wrote:

On the personnel screen, you have the option to extend contracts for all minor league personnel that will be expiring. So much clicking saved!

This one has been in for at least a year, though it could be more obvious now. In the past, it was under some minor submenu or something. Dealing with minor league contracts years ago is why I still play with ghost players enabled -- I just don't want to deal with minor leaguers who have no chance of having a major league career.

This is specific to the managers and coaches, not the players. Its now very easy to find on the personnel page instead of buried somewhere. I think last year added the ability to have the assistant GM handle the minor league coach contracts, but it was prone to screwing things up.

For minor league players, these days at least contract issues never seem to come up, outside of avoiding losing players you care about to the 5 year rule. Minor league player contracts seem to either just last forever or to automatically renew every year. I'd guess ghost players still give a simulation speed boost, and help reduce visual clutter when looking at rosters. I like having real players because once in awhile the RNG lights a fire under some scrub, making for a fun story. I let the AI handle promotions and demotions, and just lock the players I care about. I don't let the AI release anyone since that burnt me on occasion in past versions, so I do need to spend a bit of time each season purging out the worst of the lot, which I probably the biggest downside to using all real players.

New file! The first day of the playoffs are complete!

San Francisco has taken a 2-0 lead over Buffalo, as befitting their NL-best record. The Sharks cruised to a 8-3 victory in Game 1, followed by strong bullpen work in Game 2 to see them win 6-5. The series now shifts to Western New York.

Vancouver and Boston are tied at a game apiece. German Estrada continued his breakout season by tossing a 4-hit shutout to pave the way to Vancouver's 6-0 Game 1 victory, but Boston chased Bartolo Torres from the mound in just two innings in Game 2, as Logan Shelton's pair of dingers led the team to a 9-4 victory. Even with the series even, questions now linger over whether the absence of the injured Francis Riley will ultimately doom this team.

In the SL, New Orleans and San Diego split their first two games as well. New Orleans pounced on San Diego's bullpen in Game 1, belting 4 home runs from the 7th-inning on to go from being down 2-1 to winning 9-3. But in Game 2, San Diego's offense put things beyond competition by the end of the second inning, scoring 8 runs on the way to a 14-6 victory.

Houston and Richmond are also tied at a game apiece. Luis Perez's 3-run complete game went to waste in Game 1, as 6 Richmond pitchers combined to 4-hit Houston and secure a 3-0 victory. Houston's bats came roaring out in Game 2, however, pounding their way to a 10-6 victory.

So, three series tied at a game apiece, and a 4th at 2-0! Stay tuned to see who will advance to the LCS!

New file!

Just a quick overview here: San Francisco completed a 4-game sweep of Buffalo by breaking the Burrito's hearts in Game 3 with a 10th-inning win before wrapping things up in Game 4.

Vancouver and Boston are tied at 2 games apiece after splitting the first two games in Vancouver, and are headed for a pivotal Game 5.

The same goes for New Orleans v. San Diego and Houston v. Richmond, which are both tied at 2-2. So far, Boston and San Francisco are the only teams to win consecutive playoff games.

New file!

Fans that are happy: Boston, San Diego

Fans that are sad: Vancouver, New Orleans

Fans that are about to have an emotional breakdown: Houston, Richmond

Yes, Boston and San Diego are advancing to the LCS. The NL is set, with Boston preparing to take on San FRancisco, but Houston and Richmond must play a pivotal Game 7 before we find out who will face off against San Diego. Stay tuned!

New file! Richmond wins!

So it's on to the League Championship Series, where Boston will take on San Francisco, and Richmond will take on San Diego. Most pundits are predicting a all-California Championship Series between NorCal and SoCal, but let's see if Richmond or Beantown can spoil the proceedings.

Anyway, with the elimination of New Orleans and Vancouver, I believe we are all out of Human-controlled teams in the playoffs, aren't we? Because if so, we're gonna head right on towards the post-season and the move to OOTP 17.

Also, related to that, I'm just double checking the owners list vs recent files uploaded to the server, and I'm realizing I have almost totally lost who is in, and who is out. So as of RIGHT NOW, here is the owner list I last have set up.

Teams & Owners:

Northern League - Eastern Division:

Baltimore Bridgeburners - garion333
Boston Waving Whiteflags - No Owner
Brooklyn Sandwiches - slumberland
Detroit Bulldogs - No Owner
Philadelphia Kings - No Owner
Pittsburgh Fighting Pierogies - Novocain

Northern League - Western Division:

Denver Atoms - Nightmare
Buffalo Breakfast Burritos - No Owner
Portland Bears - No Owner
San Francisco Sharks - No Owner
Seattle Rain - No Owner
Vancouver Kings - Prederick (Commissioner)

Southern League - Eastern Division:

Atlanta Knights - No owner
Charlotte Angels - No Owner
Memphis Blues - BillT
Miami Prodigy - No Owner
New Orleans - Laars
Richmond Raptors - No Owner

Southern League - Western Division:

Dallas Dirigibles - No owner
Houston Heat - No Owner
Los Angeles - No Owner
Las Vegas Gamblers - No Owner
Phoenix Henchmen - No Owner
San Diego Surfers - No Owner

Does that look right? Am I counting out people who are in, and counting in people who are out?

ALSO:

I'll ask again, for everyone's sake, how do we feel about No Scouting/No Ratings in our league? I only ask because I know free agency, and certainly the draft are made much tougher without having, say, player stars as a rough guideline to look for player quality. So do we want to bring them back, or stay with our stats-only approach?

Baltimore should be on AI.

i didn't realize boston is an AI team. In fact, i didn't realize we had lost so many human players. i thought there were a few more new players that want to join the league. are they all waiting for the OOTP17 upgrade?

i'm totally cool with speeding through the rest of the playoff.

as far as the rating/scouting goes, I'll be the first to admit that player scouting is difficult for me (and it shows via Pittsburgh's team record) and I think bringing the rating system back would actually benefit the human controlled teams more. i say bring them back.

Sure, what he said. I'm down.

I always figured it'd fluctuate. OOTP's not hugely dissimilar from Fantasy Baseball as far as online leagues go, it's not like Madden or MLB 16 where you have to show up to play a game. It's fairly easy to lose track and not update for a while. That said, I encourage anyone looking on that our league is plenty welcoming, the time investment really isn't that bad (unless you want it to be).

Considering how cheap it is for me to run this league (web hosting fees are just $10 a month), the threshold for me between running the league and canceling it out of lack of interest is 3 people (including myself). So as long as at least TWO of you are interested and having fun, we'll keep rolling along.

Anyway, new file! With all the user teams eliminated, I pushed us through the playoffs. Your champions?

The San Diego Surfers, who defeated San Francisco in the NABL Championship by 4 games to 2.

ALRIGHT! SO! Here's what's coming next:

First off, the next sim will be done in OOTP 17, so if you haven't upgraded and you plan to remain in the league, please do. I'm going to give everyone a few days to get OOTP 17, so the deadline will be on Saturday, April 9.

Now, if you already have OOTP 17 and are having any issues with importing the league, just drop me a line at my email address (Prederick at gmail dot com) and we'll get you sorted out.

Next up, ratings are back! First off, for a change of pace, rather than the game's default ratings system, I have gone with the way real baseball scouts assess players abilities, the 20-80 scale. All ratings, including fielding and overall ratings now fall on a scale from 20 to 80.

I have also turned back on scouting. Why? Because turning OFF the scouting system results in 100% accuracy in ratings if they are shown. I don't mind having ratings, but I do mind there not being any human error in rating those players. I have left the game's scouting accuracy at "Normal", but will consider dropping it to "Low" in the future.

Also, everyone needs to hire a scout for their team now. If you've forgotten how, let me know.

And that's it! So, again, if you haven't, you have until next Saturday (April 9) to grab OOTP 17. If you want in on the league, grab OOTP 17 and get on in!

All right, I'm in. I'll be taking over Portland again

I am in. I will take the San Diego Surfers (tough rebuild)

SniPeZ- wrote:

I am in. I will take the San Diego Surfers (tough rebuild)

Yes, tough rebuild with the Burke fella on your team.

Aw man--that dude hasn't retired or had a career ending injury yet?

Was thinking about joining up with you guys. I'm hoping a few questions are ok?

How accessible is this for someone with very casual baseball knowledge? Is there some sort of study guide?
Would being out of town during the week (Mon-Fri), make things difficult?

I can probably install steam on the work laptop if necessary, but hotel WiFi is notoriously horrible, so I don't know if that will help.

CptDomano wrote:

Aw man--that dude hasn't retired or had a career ending injury yet? :lol:

He only hit .414 last year. So he isn't as absurdly game breaking anymore.

fogrob wrote:

How accessible is this for someone with very casual baseball knowledge? Is there some sort of study guide?

You definitely want to get some single player time under your belt, at least until you get the basics down. I stopped playing sp when I was in the league and it was to my team's detriment as I experimented with my mp team to ... not great results.

Study guide...hmm. The online manual is super helpful. That's the best start.

OOTP has also put up some video tutorials, but I can't speak to their efficacy: https://www.youtube.com/user/OOTPDev...

K. I'll give sp some time and see how it goes. I can always start up next season.

K. I'll give sp some time and see how it goes. I can always start up next season.

Oooh! I leave the thread for a few days and NEW BLOOD shows up!

garion333 wrote:
SniPeZ- wrote:

I am in. I will take the San Diego Surfers (tough rebuild)

Yes, tough rebuild with the Burke fella on your team. ;)

Well, I mean, they only won 101 games and the title. That's not even CLOSE to 116!

fogrob wrote:

K. I'll give sp some time and see how it goes. I can always start up next season.

Eh, I'm happy enough to loosen up the rules to let people in whenever they want to jump in. But garion is 100% right, get to know the game's basic concepts in SP first. You can totally play with a casual baseball knowledge, but you still need to know about how to handle Demotions/Designating Players/the Rule 5 Draft, et cetera.

So! Those of you who haven't contacted me yet about getting settled in, I assume you're all settled in and ready for OOTP 17?

And those of you who HAVE contacted me, as I said, drop me a line at Prederick at gmail dot com and we'll get you all settled into the game.

Sounds good, I'll get settled in and started. Still going to use OOTP 15 for now, as it's the one I currently own.

Prederick wrote:

And those of you who HAVE contacted me, as I said, drop me a line at Prederick at gmail dot com and we'll get you all settled into the game.

Sorry, everyone! I'm holding up the process here I'm having some technical issues with getting the league set up in 17. Working on it with Pred's help, though!

HRM....

Alright, we seem to be having some serious technical difficulties getting people into OOTP 17. I'm getting reports of the game saying the league file can't be loaded, or that it's a OOTP 15 file, frustrating stuff.

I was going to try and upload the league file somewhere for you all to download outside of the league website, but I just checked and it's actually 5 GB. So what i'm gonna do is try importing from OOTP 15 into 17 again tonight, re-uploading the file, and see what happens.

If that doesn't work? Well, worst-case scenario, we might start a new league (which, considering we're using a fictional league with a bit of history but not that much to get THAT attacked to, doesn't seem that worst-case, unless I'm reading everyone wrong here).

A league without Burke might be a league worth coming back to.

garion333 wrote:

A league without Burke might be a league worth coming back to.

If it means more people in the league I can part with him.

SniPeZ- wrote:
garion333 wrote:

A league without Burke might be a league worth coming back to.

If it means more people in the league I can part with him.

That statement has nothing to do with you and everything to do with the game creating him.

Yeah, this is driving me nuts because I can't seem to figure out a fix.

f*ck it. How do people feel about a brand-new league?

Hmm, let's see:

Average team with average history with less than average prospects

vs

The Wild Unknown

Let's do this, boss!

Alright, responses so far have been pretty positive, so... y'know what? I'm gonna go for it. New league!

First thing however, the CONSTRUCTION of the damnable thing.

So here's what I'm proposing:

- A 16-team league, with 8 teams in each league, all in one division. Y'know, like the old-days of pennant chases. Two teams make the Championship Series.

- All players get to select where their team is located at start. I would say within reason, but nah, might as well have fun. So if you'd like a team to be in New Zealand, go for it.

- No DHs.

- Draft picks may be traded.

- Free Agent Eligibility is dropped to 4 years of service, rather than 6 (Considering making it 3).

- Arbitration after 2 years

- Fixed national media contracts, rather than having them based on team size.

- Revenue sharing is done via Luxury Tax

- No salary cap (although, strongly considering implementing one. Average payroll for a modern MLB game is $123M, so maybe set it at $150M if we used one?)

- The AI will handle the inaugural draft. (Because it's like 500 rounds long.)

Then, the last big Q is gameplay settings. By which I mean, should I set the game to churn out modern MLB like numbers and strategies? Or should I set it to 1930s baseball, or 1960s or 1995?

'95 would be interesting. Right on the cusp of the steroid era, so you've got some guys putting up big numbers but not a ton of them. You've also still got the occasional high-contact guy who might get near .400. Pitching outside of a few guys as pretty mediocre, though. Of course, I could come up with a bunch of reasons every other era would be interesting as well.

The only one I'd really prefer to avoid is the '98 - '06 peak steroid years. I don't need to see 10 players a year hit 55+ homers. Although that could be fun in its own way.

I guess what I'm saying is ... whatever everyone else wants.

Edit: It also might be interesting to start the game in 1900 (or whatever) and let game handle updating player creation modifiers and such to match up with history. It's been a long time since I've done something like that with OOTP, and even then I believe I did so in an attempt to recreate the actual history of the game, but I don't see any reason it wouldn't work with a wholly fictional league.