Multiple questions from a new player

[deakscauz]

Hey all,

First let me say how much I'm enjoying this game. I briefly played OOTP 14, but never got into like I am attempting to do this year. Thus, as I've explored the game to further depths this year, I have a multitude of questions.

1. How do I (as the commissioner) set each teams focus? I don't remember what window it was that I saw (I think trade window) but some teams (like the Dodgers) are in rebuilding mode. Obviously this makes no sense, so I would like to correct this. Is there a way to set up each teams desire such as Win now, or rebuild? How does this focus impact teams and their trades? Does a rebuilding team hang on to all their prospects like in real life?

2. Trade logic: I'm having some issues with trade difficulty. If I put it on average with a focus on prospects, I can still fleece a team like it's no big thing, but if I put it on hard with balanced I can't even trade a 5 star free agent to be for a 2 star prospect. Just seems like there is no in between. Part of what I was really looking for in this game was a great trade logic system that surpasses most console games like MLB the Show. Hopefully some simple advice will alleviate these problems. Also, is there a way for me to have trades that teams will try to make pop up so I can veto them? That was I can correct any lopsided trades that would never likely happen in real life.

3. Knowing when to call up players: I wanted some advice on when I should call up players in my farm system. Sometimes they have the little green arrow, other times now. Obviously a green arrow seems to indicate they should be moved up. But what about a 5 star prospect hitting .288? Are they ready? What impact in the game is there to calling or sending down prospects at inappropriate times?

4. Steam: I purchased the game on steam and would like to know if I need to manually install the updates. Usually games update via steam but it looks like OOTP hasn't done so at this time. Also, I noticed a fair few transactions that weren't updated in the default rosters. Is their an updated roster I can find?

Sorry for the slew of questions. I really want to put some serious time into the game, but it's incredibly difficult for a new player to understand just how deep the game goes, and how to accomplish everything. Hopefully this will help. Thanks so much for taking the time to help me out as I greatly appreciate it. I wish you all well in your OOTP games!

[Déjà Bru]

What I can answer is in bold.

Originally Posted by deakscauz

Hey all,

First let me say how much I'm enjoying this game. I briefly played OOTP 14, but never got into like I am attempting to do this year. Thus, as I've explored the game to further depths this year, I have a multitude of questions.

1. How do I (as the commissioner) set each teams focus? I don't remember what window it was that I saw (I think trade window) but some teams (like the Dodgers) are in rebuilding mode. Obviously this makes no sense, so I would like to correct this. Is there a way to set up each teams desire such as Win now, or rebuild? How does this focus impact teams and their trades? Does a rebuilding team hang on to all their prospects like in real life? As commissioner, go to team menu, front office. There's a pull-down menu for Team Focus under GENERAL INFORMATION. See the online manual for more.

2. Trade logic: I'm having some issues with trade difficulty. If I put it on average with a focus on prospects, I can still fleece a team like it's no big thing, but if I put it on hard with balanced I can't even trade a 5 star free agent to be for a 2 star prospect. Just seems like there is no in between. Part of what I was really looking for in this game was a great trade logic system that surpasses most console games like MLB the Show. Hopefully some simple advice will alleviate these problems. Also, is there a way for me to have trades that teams will try to make pop up so I can veto them? That was I can correct any lopsided trades that would never likely happen in real life. Advice: Set Trading to be "Hard" and get used to it, as IRL. That's the way it is and should be. You should be able to trade a 5-star for a 2-star, however, unless there are other factors involved (such as a no-trade clause - it's easy to overlook that one). If you have trading option on (better check under League Settings, Rules), the AI will eventually offer you trades in e-mail messages. It may take a while, and it may depend on whether you have needs that the AI thinks it can fill.

3. Knowing when to call up players: I wanted some advice on when I should call up players in my farm system. Sometimes they have the little green arrow, other times now. Obviously a green arrow seems to indicate they should be moved up. But what about a 5 star prospect hitting .288? Are they ready? What impact in the game is there to calling or sending down prospects at inappropriate times? I take note of the green arrows but I also use my Minor League System Report (team menu, Team Info, Team Reports Home, SELECT REPORT). Stats are important to me as well. All that said, there is no foolproof way of knowing, as intended to closely simulate what baseball GM's go through in this process. Trial and error, experience, luck all count.

4. Steam: I purchased the game on steam and would like to know if I need to manually install the updates. Usually games update via steam but it looks like OOTP hasn't done so at this time. Also, I noticed a fair few transactions that weren't updated in the default rosters. Is their an updated roster I can find? I can only talk in general terms on this one. First, from experience with other games, Steam does a good job of updating installed games. Whether that goes on behind the scenes or it notifies the user to go and get updates is a question. Second, I have seen that patches which are issued here for downloaded games are not made available to Steam until somewhat later. Whether that is days or weeks, I don't know, but OOTPD does not have direct control over updates on Steam.

Sorry for the slew of questions. I really want to put some serious time into the game, but it's incredibly difficult for a new player to understand just how deep the game goes, and how to accomplish everything. Hopefully this will help. Thanks so much for taking the time to help me out as I greatly appreciate it. I wish you all well in your OOTP games!

Wishing you well in yours, too. Enjoy!