My OOTP 16 Experiences Thus Far

[sansterre]

First off.

This game is great. Not life-changingly great; just a definite improvement on the already-best baseball management game in existence. The Pennant Chase screen is pure brilliance (it's actually probably too good, because I live on that screen the last month of the season.) The new all-star voting and hall of fame voting are amazing (I wish that the award voting had the same feature, but perhaps that's just being greedy.)

The player personality stuff is great, though I wish there was a slightly more efficient way to get at the information of team chemistry besides the mid-season manager evaluation. In theory, it would be nice to be able to swing by the manager's office and ask him how the team is doing, and who is important to the clubhouse, and what the team needs, chemistry-wise. Because that is, in theory, a reasonable conversation but it's not a possible one right now.

The owner assignments and personalities are wonderful; they add incredible character to the game. Of course, I took over the Twins, off-loaded all their terrible long-term contracts (minus Mauer, stupid 10/5!) nearly made the playoffs (3 games short) and the owner shakes my hand and drops my budget by 20 million. Sure he's a penny-pincher, but it irritated me. Which is good, from a design point of view I'm wondering if he'll reward me for making the playoffs, or if I need to trick him into increasing the budget by overcommitting to players . . .

The new manager roles/settings are wonderful. I'm playing GM only so it's fascinating to decide who you will trust with your team. I wish there was a better way to know which managers are going to bat your 10/5/9 (out of 20) with 20 speed first, and which are going to know to bat your 14/8/17 with 5 speed first. Because it's occasionally frustrating to hire a manager for his sabermetric leaning but see him put a guy with a 315 on-base in the leadoff spot. Has anyone else had any luck figuring out which managers will build lineups more Tom Tango-style?

My game had all the international leagues in it, but it ran into a problem where one of the dutch teams had 46 players on its active roster after spring training, and the game wouldn't go forward until it was fixed. This was mildly frustrating, so I wiped out all the international leagues and went back to the less realistic but more reliable 'generate international free agents' option.

Thanks so much Markus and company (pun mildly intended.) This game is a continually evolving masterpiece, and I am very thankful to benefit from it.

Sansterre

[Déjà Bru]

You should post here more often, and not because you are such a fan.