Newbie to baseball, interested in OOTP18
 

Hello all,
Baseball has always held quite some mystique for me and I've been wanting to learn about it for years (I learned some watered down version at highschool in the 1990s), but there's barely any interest for it in Belgium, so it was a difficult sport to follow back then so I kinda dropped it.

Now, 20 years later, I still want to know a lot more about this sport, so I've started by reading the rules on wikipedia. (if any of you know a good site or book that might help me understand the sport better, I'd love to know which ones, by the way)

I've also been looking at OOTP Baseball 18 in Steam, and it's tempting to me, but I wonder: as a total Baseball noob, how enjoyable can this game be? Can I play this with a (for now) limited knowledge of the rules and the history of the sport?

It is a great way to learn and play baseball.
You can delegate decisions to the AI that you are not comfortable with yet and handle the ones you like. The AI will do well enough for you to learn. Once you know enough to question the AI then you can take over those decisions.

thx for the feedback.
I've just bought the game in the Steam store.
I'm still at the officenow, but I can barely wait to dive into it tonight :)

You may find yourself a bit overwhelmed at first but don't give up! Experiment, read the manual, surf the forums, and you'll find yourself addicted in no time.

I'd also recommend reading some dynasty reports. If you do, read a few written from different viewpoints (manager, GM, spectator). That will give you a nice overview of what the game can do.

Enjoy! :D

Suggest you reduce the complication to start.

Scouting OFF
Real Ratings ON
Minor leagues OFF (you'll get a reserve roster I think without option years or player refusals to be demoted... if not on options and refusals turn those off too).
Player Morale OFF

Thx for all the advice, guys.
Haven't had the time to dive into it yet. Due to other obligations, but this info'll get me started.

I'm alerady reading "baseball for dummies", and I'm watching some videos of matches on youtube to get a clear grasp on the rules though.

Ah, rules. Well... I've found that rules seem contradictory to those who didn't grow up with the game. Actually there are so many exceptions that there is a completely different perspective between those who grew up with the game (it makes sense to them) and someone who didn't (this is crazy... and they're probably right).

I hope those who grew up with the game will approach the following with an open mind.

Curving line drive down the left field line, lands in foul territory

Q Why is that out of play?

A It landed in foul territory.

Q But a bit ago a ball landed there but they called it fair.

A That ball hit the ground inside third base, so its fair.

Q But this ball passed over third base fair.

A Yea, but it has to it the ground in fair territory to be fair.

....

So a little later a batter pops up foul down the left field line and the LF catches it for an out.

Q How is that an out?

A He caught the ball.

Q But its a foul ball, out of play.

A Its only out of play if it hits the ground foul.

Then we have the situations of when a foul is a strike and when it isn't, when a base runner has to be tagged and when he doesn't, and then try to explain the difference between a wild pitch and a passed ball (I remember a catcher one time saying he THOUGHT the difference was a passed ball was a strike but he wasn't sure) and why neither a passed ball nor a wild pitch is charges as an error even though runners advance.

So, if a ball is hit into the dugout and hits a seagull on the way, is it a foul ball or a fowl ball? <G>

That depends on the location of the seagull when it was struck by the ball. If the gull was in fair territory, the ball is fair. If the gull is in foul territory, the ball is ruled foul. If the seagull survives, it is still a fowl. If it dies and is properly prepared, it can become fare.

Buy
 

Best $ you will ever spend on a baseball game. This comes from someone who has dabbled in many baseball simulation games since the 1960’s.

Hey Vintersorg how's it going?

I'm in the similar boat as OP. Just starting to get into baseball and found ootp on steam. Been browsing forums, watching youtube and reading some books about it. So far so good, theres just so much to look at in game.

I would advise not to get caught up with every rule. Learn the basic ones to enjoy the game more. Then learn the obscure and more advanced rules.
Also rules change. Strike zone changes, it use to be 8 strikesfor a strikeout in the early history of baseball.
One great thing is that you are always learning more things about the history of the game or you can use stats to look at a player from a different perspective.
For someone new to baseball it can be fun to learn the history of the game.
And just experiment with ootp. You can try to follow baseball history in ootp but you don't have to. Your in charge so do it your way.

YouTube has tons of videos explaining the rules of baseball. Here are a few.

If you want to learn the rules, fine, but I don't see that you need to know the detail unless you are going to be the field manager. Consider that an awful lot of companies are run by people who really don't understand what's happening at the front line.

Haven't got much time to game lately, but I've played a few hours already. I'm definitely lost in the game for now, but that's usual for me in the more complex kind of games: I don't succeed in anything for the first 30-40 hours and then all the pieces of the puzzle suddenly click into place.

Before I dive into it more seriously, I'm also looking to mod real player photos into their profiles. I'm not a big fan of the facegen thing.

Puzzle on this game goes on forever!!!

I agree with you on face gen. I like real photos although it takes a while to get used to people in the wrong uniforms.

Love the facegen, as long as you have the historical facegen pack. You can download 36,000+ of these suckers right here if you feel like it...Or not. I used photos at first too, but I found over time that I prefer having the correct uniform on the player as he changes teams through time. There are also mods for photos if that's what you want.

A great post, I hope you learn about a great sport. The thing about baseball is the history and how statistics play a huge role on how we talk about the game. It's been played on a field that really hasn't changed much in the last 120 years. Except, the pitching mound height was reduced in 1969. This was due to the pitching dominance in 1968 and before. The umpires even have to check the rule book at times. If you have a chance and can watch some games on the internet, I really like the NY Mets announcers of Ron Darling and Keith Hernandez. Take a look at SNY sports and WPIX.
https://www.sny.tv/mets/news

Have fun