Pre-Order Reminder (Special Sweepstakes End 2/15) & New Screenshots Released!

[swoboda]

Okayyyyyy, I would like to return to celebrating a very good moment in time here.

[tomwolf2008]

Originally Posted by Threnodas

OOTP Developments Team,

I have been addicted to OOTP since I first played a demo of OOTP10, and I am almost indescribably excited for the improvements in OOTP16 and the bright future ahead with an MLB license and the expanded fan base sure to come with it. Please know that this comes from a place of love ... I see something in one of the promotional screenshots that I feel should not go unremarked upon:



Wil Myers has never played in the infield in the majors. He has a grand total of 15 games played at 3B in the minors, three years ago (2012). Now, Myers should go ahead and pinch hit for Mercer if the game is on the line, but this put the Padres in a really tough spot, lineup-wise. I don't know who else was left on the Padres bench (Yonder Alonso shouldn't play SS, either), but the end result of Myers at SS is the kind of emergency Hail Mary that only happens maybe once every few years to a given team. I, like every Giants fan, still clearly remember the image of Aubrey Huff failing to cover 2B in the one single inning he played there in a similar emergency in 2012; most of us still remember that one time that Randy Winn played 3B and Noah Lowry played RF. These are the kinds of moments that make a baseball season worth watching, but they are extremely rare. And they're much too common in OOTP.

I am a programmer who has written my own baseball simulation and lineup construction programs, so I know all about the computational complexity of optimizing the offense and defense using a certain list of players. I am not jumping up and down stomping my feet screaming "WHY HAVEN'T YOU FIXED THIS?!?!" But I would like to request that you please consider making this lineup management AI a higher priority so that these mildly immersion-breaking situations occur less often. Thank you for reading, and for putting out such an invaluably entertaining and realistic game year after year.

I counted 12 position players for the Padres so it's possible they just ran out of players, now should computer AI be smarter about this when doing the double switch/pinch hit? That's a point to discuss

[Assos]

Comments like Wil Myers playing Shortstop make me think of this:

Baseball?s craziest game? ? The Hardball Times

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by BMD

Must . . . suppress . . . urge . . . to . . . audit . . . statements

If you do you'll find something interesting: where are the rest of the club's expenses? Apparently OOTP teams have free team travel, free spring training, free stadium operation and no-cost maintenance, no game-day expenses, the ticket office is all volunteers, marketing costs nothing, all the minor league affiliates are provided gratis, and the general and administrative functions are all donated... I guess that explains why player expenses account for 84% of total team expenses.

[hfield007]

one question about the pennant chase screen, why are there 10am game times??

[Assos]

Originally Posted by hfield007

one question about the pennant chase screen, why are there 10am game times??

Your time zone is set on PST, 1pm EST is 10am PCT.

[Trebro]

That pennant chase screen is totally unrealistic. No WAY the Mets have a 6% chance of winning their division this year. :P :P :P :P :P

These look great, and the All-Star screen? Where we can vote and it gets added into the computer mix? WOW.

[Cryomaniac]

Originally Posted by Assos

Comments like Wil Myers playing Shortstop make me think of this:

Baseball?s craziest game? ? The Hardball Times

I like games like that. I've done similar things a few times in OOTP (I seem to remember a game with a couple of pitchers going back and forth between the mound and 1B).

[olivertheorem]

My pre-order is now in the can.

[Markus Heinsohn]

Originally Posted by Poweshow

SECONDARY LOGOS?!? Say it's so. Say it's so and say that they're available for fictional players to use too.....

Yes.

[Markus Heinsohn]

Originally Posted by Threnodas

OOTP Developments Team,

I have been addicted to OOTP since I first played a demo of OOTP10, and I am almost indescribably excited for the improvements in OOTP16 and the bright future ahead with an MLB license and the expanded fan base sure to come with it. Please know that this comes from a place of love ... I see something in one of the promotional screenshots that I feel should not go unremarked upon:



Wil Myers has never played in the infield in the majors. He has a grand total of 15 games played at 3B in the minors, three years ago (2012). Now, Myers should go ahead and pinch hit for Mercer if the game is on the line, but this put the Padres in a really tough spot, lineup-wise. I don't know who else was left on the Padres bench (Yonder Alonso shouldn't play SS, either), but the end result of Myers at SS is the kind of emergency Hail Mary that only happens maybe once every few years to a given team. I, like every Giants fan, still clearly remember the image of Aubrey Huff failing to cover 2B in the one single inning he played there in a similar emergency in 2012; most of us still remember that one time that Randy Winn played 3B and Noah Lowry played RF. These are the kinds of moments that make a baseball season worth watching, but they are extremely rare. And they're much too common in OOTP.

I am a programmer who has written my own baseball simulation and lineup construction programs, so I know all about the computational complexity of optimizing the offense and defense using a certain list of players. I am not jumping up and down stomping my feet screaming "WHY HAVEN'T YOU FIXED THIS?!?!" But I would like to request that you please consider making this lineup management AI a higher priority so that these mildly immersion-breaking situations occur less often. Thank you for reading, and for putting out such an invaluably entertaining and realistic game year after year.

Edit: I don't want to derail a happy thread any more than I have, so I'll add to this comment. When Myers pinch hit for Mercer, there were still two middle infielders in the lineup: Tolleson and Barmes. I feel like one of them should have slid over to SS, and either Myers or Alonso could play 3B. I'm saying that this could have been solved either by not running out of bench players or by better shuffling the players already on the field. I still love the game! I'm pre-ordering as I type.

The in-game AI is still being worked on, no worries... sometimes though something like this has to happen because of injuries or other factors. There's no way to prevent it entirely. Also, I need to check wether Myers did indeed have a rating at SS in that test league Again, all still a work in progress and 5 weeks left until release to do tweaks.

[Threnodas]

Originally Posted by Threnodas

Hi Markus, the AI manager did something silly, either in that game or a previous one, and put an OF/DH at SS. You know that was silly, right?

Originally Posted by Markus Heinsohn

Yep, that was silly. The in-game AI will always have to do silly things on occasion, but it is a constant work in progress and making it less silly is indeed a high priority.

Well, my Valentine's Day is complete. Please, nobody tell my girlfriend...

[Cryomaniac]

The AI doing silly things occasionally is fine, because real life managers sometimes do too.

[Jase]

Just wondering when OOTP started charging tax? I've been buying the game since 2000 and can't remember ever paying tax before.

[Neasag]

How will secondary logos work exactly? Will the one that appears in drop-down menus be the same as the one that is used for standings? It would be great if we could determine in which circumstances each logo appears, although not exactly crucial to gameplay.

[Cryomaniac]

Originally Posted by Jase

Just wondering when OOTP started charging tax? I've been buying the game since 2000 and can't remember ever paying tax before.

Where are you buying it from? If you're in Europe it's probably a VAT thing, which is not in OOTP's control. I'm in the UK and I've been paying VAT on it since I started buying it (OOTP 8 IIRC) I think.

[justafan]

Originally Posted by Neasag

How will secondary logos work exactly? Will the one that appears in drop-down menus be the same as the one that is used for standings? It would be great if we could determine in which circumstances each logo appears, although not exactly crucial to gameplay.

Can we get more info on this?

[jasonzimmie]

i can not wait to get this game, i am a baseball fanatic and i know that i will love all the stats and all the possibilities are endless, keep up the great work guyz

[Cinnamon J. Scudworth]

Originally Posted by Jase

Just wondering when OOTP started charging tax? I've been buying the game since 2000 and can't remember ever paying tax before.

OOTP uses eSellerate for sales. In the United States, eSellerate collects sales tax in all states that have sales tax, though in some of these states it only applies when a physical product is being shipped.

In general, states are getting craftier about writing legislation to count more things beyond simple physical presence as "nexus" (the legal term that refers to the requirement for companies doing business in a state to collect and pay tax on sales in that state), and sellers are getting more risk-averse about it as they have seen Amazon and other big online retailers lose some cases.

There's been an uptick in lobbying for national online sales tax legislation that would try to standardize all of this by giving states more power to collect sales taxes from out-of-state residents, though prospects in 2015 aren't great. Even so, the good old days of not paying tax on most online purchases are pretty much over.

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by Markus Heinsohn

Matt coded that one. He has a thing for numbers apparently

Nice going, Matt.