Future suggestions for OOTP KBO

[hoseho]

OOTP is a game that has garnered much interest among Korean fans. A significant number of Korean baseball fans show interest in management operations, so the potential popularity OOTP could achieve in Korean baseball is considerable.
However, there are too many unrealistic elements that hinder gameplay.
I, too, was disappointed with the OOTP 24 KBO version and have heard that there hasn't been much change in this regard, leading me not yet to purchase OOTP 25.

To suggest a more realistic KBO version, I request the following updates (based on OOTP 24, so feel free to skip if any have already been addressed).

Priority A (Must be modified/updated)
- Real Player Names: As you might be aware, OOTP, unlike other games, includes managing and developing future players, which makes the non-real names of most prospects a significant hindrance to gameplay. I hope the copyright issue can be resolved soon.
- FA Compensation System: As of the end of 2023, KBO's FA compensation system is a grade system. Grades A/B/C are determined considering league salary and team salary, with Grade A receiving one player outside the 20-man protection list plus cash, Grade B one player outside the 25-man protection list plus cash, and Grade C cash compensation only. I believe it should be easy to reflect this aspect in OOTP, especially since there's already a system for drafting protection lists when new teams are created.
- Foreign Player System: In Korea, each team can have three foreign players, which is regulated to avoid all three being either pitchers or hitters. Unfortunately, OOTP often resorts to signing bullpen pitchers. In reality, over 95% of Korean teams bring in two starting pitchers and one-hitter, and these starters play a significant role in the team's performance. It's disappointing that OOTP doesn't fully reflect this. Additionally, the limitations on frequently changing foreign players, the time it takes for a mid-season contract signee to start playing, and other aspects, such as limiting new foreign players to under $1 million or a total foreign player salary cap, should be considered.
- Seniority-based Salary System: Unlike in the US, in Korea, salaries start at a minimum and are recalculated annually based on performance evaluation. If a player consistently performs well, their salary increases every year. OOTP, based on the MLB system, has low-service time non-FA players playing at minimum salary before going through salary arbitration, which differs from the Korean league system. Considering the impact of pre-FA salary on FA grades, it would be beneficial to change this salary system.
Furthermore, I found that most teams release many players who are eligible for salary arbitration because they do not provide a contract offer. It does not happen in the KBO system.
- Military Service System: A significant number of Korean players are required to serve about 1.5 years of military service unless they are exempted through international competitions (e.g., Olympic bronze medal or higher, or Asian Games gold medal). This gap significantly affects team operations. Ideally, it would be great to design the system, making users determine or negotiate regarding each player's military service.

Priority B (Would be nice to have updated but not urgent)

- Access to Franchise Stars: Unlike in the US, in Korea's single league system, trading top franchise stars is very restricted unless they are FAs. Even some players end their careers with one team, and it's uncommon to sell or release a franchise star at a loss for business reasons. However, OOTP, being business-oriented, often lists high-salary, low-efficiency players for trades. It would be better if AI couldn't easily consider trades for popular franchise players.
- Minor League 10-day rule: There's a rule that if a player goes down to the minors, they must stay there for at least 10 days before being called up to the KBO league again. It would be good if this were reflected.
- Corporation-centered Sports: Most Korean baseball teams' financial status is based on corporate sponsorship. Thus, the team's financial situation is significantly influenced by its parent company's relationship, economic situation, and expectations from baseball. Unfortunately, this aspect is not reflected at all in OOTP, where a team's budget might drastically increase or decrease from one year to the next based on these factors.
- All-Star Game: Unlike the MLB, KBO is a single league. However, it divides teams into two groups for the All-Star Game. It would be great if a single-league All-Star Game could be implemented.
- Schedule: In case the game is canceled due to weather, these games are usually rescheduled to take place after the original schedule (Usually after August). Doubleheaders do not occur frequently in the current KBO league.
- KBO Historic Record Accuracy: It would be beneficial if past KBO records were more realistically reflected.

General Improvement Suggestions
- OOTP seems to lack storylines. It would be great if more details were added, such as setting relationships between players, enhancing the roles and impact of leader players, or explaining the play of managers or general managers through press conferences. I hope for more interactions between players and coaches.
- Inspired by Football Manager series, it would be beneficial to include numerical values for players' match sharpness and daily condition. For example, it would be good to reflect a decrease in match sharpness if a player couldn't properly participate in spring training or if he suffer from a long-term injury during the season.
- I primarily play games on a MacBook, and it seems like the camera settings keep changing. This might be an issue I'm only facing, but it's a hassle every time I play the game, so I'd appreciate it if this could be improved.

This is what I have in mind for now. If there is a movement towards improving the KBO in OOTP, I will purchase OOTP 25 and play it to provide more feedback.
Other KBO league users definitely would have more diverse ideas. I hope the OOTP series carefully listens to their requests.

Thank you!

[Lukas Berger]

Thank you very much for this feedback, it's greatly appreciated!

We will review it and will try to implement whatever we are able to. I can't say when that might happen though. It may be in patches this year if some things are easier to do, or in future versions of the game if they are harder and will take more time to program.

[darkcloud4579]

Military Service System: A significant number of Korean players are required to serve about 1.5 years of military service unless they are exempted through international competitions (e.g., Olympic bronze medal or higher, or Asian Games gold medal). This gap significantly affects team operations. Ideally, it would be great to design the system, making users determine or negotiate regarding each player's military service.

I'm gonna write an off-field injury for this, as a workaround. I like this reminder.

[hoseho]

Originally Posted by darkcloud4579

I'm gonna write an off-field injury for this, as a workaround. I like this reminder.

Yes! I have used the same approach when playing the game.
One concern is whether it affects their overall abilities, similar to other long-term injury cases.
While I can manually manage the military issue, handling it for other teams remains challenging and takes so much time.

Given that KBO teams carefully manage the timing of young players' military services, which can significantly affect team performance, I hope the OOTP team will consider this issue.
A potential solution is to create a separate military list for 1.5 years, requiring all teams to place young players on this list before a certain age. After a certain age, they will be automatically placed on the list.
I understand implementing this change might be difficult, but I hope it will be considered for future updates.

[darkcloud4579]

Originally Posted by hoseho

Yes! I have used the same approach when playing the game.
One concern is whether it affects their overall abilities, similar to other long-term injury cases.
While I can manually manage the military issue, handling it for other teams remains challenging and takes so much time.

Given that KBO teams carefully manage the timing of young players' military services, which can significantly affect team performance, I hope the OOTP team will consider this issue.
A potential solution is to create a separate military list for 1.5 years, requiring all teams to place young players on this list before a certain age. After a certain age, they will be automatically placed on the list.
I understand implementing this change might be difficult, but I hope it will be considered for future updates.

I wrote a update to the injuries.txt file that would add compulsory military service as an "injury" and it has a period of time the player is out. The only thing about their skills it impacts are throwing a limited degree and running but that's about it.

It's not perfect, but if someone were playing a primarily KBO game it would kind of work as intended.

https://forums.ootpdevelopments.com/...02&postcount=3

[hoseho]

Originally Posted by Lukas Berger

Thank you very much for this feedback, it's greatly appreciated!

We will review it and will try to implement whatever we are able to. I can't say when that might happen though. It may be in patches this year if some things are easier to do, or in future versions of the game if they are harder and will take more time to program.

Thank you for taking the time to read and respond to my comments! I understand that many of my suggestions might require considerable time to implement or could be challenging to incorporate.
I would appreciate any feedback on which suggestions might be acted upon soon and which challenges you have. Engagement from the OOTP team would greatly motivate KBO users, including myself, to participate more actively in the discussion forums.
I also purchased the OOTP 25 and am hopeful that the upcoming patches will enhance the gameplay experience soon.

[Lukas Berger]

Originally Posted by hoseho

Thank you for taking the time to read and respond to my comments! I understand that many of my suggestions might require considerable time to implement or could be challenging to incorporate.
I would appreciate any feedback on which suggestions might be acted upon soon and which challenges you have. Engagement from the OOTP team would greatly motivate KBO users, including myself, to participate more actively in the discussion forums.
I also purchased the OOTP 25 and am hopeful that the upcoming patches will enhance the gameplay experience soon.

We'll do our best to communicate more here and keep you up to date on what things we can try try to implement next, as well as continuing to ask for feedback from the Korean community. We really want all our Korean users to feel motivated to help us make the KBO better and more realistic!

[Lukas Berger]

Originally Posted by hoseho

Given that KBO teams carefully manage the timing of young players' military services, which can significantly affect team performance, I hope the OOTP team will consider this issue.
A potential solution is to create a separate military list for 1.5 years, requiring all teams to place young players on this list before a certain age. After a certain age, they will be automatically placed on the list.
I understand implementing this change might be difficult, but I hope it will be considered for future updates.

I think making the list basically functional in OOTP will not be too hard, especially given we can already do this manually, as you've been discussing (and as Kyu-dong and I do every year for the roster set players who have military service in real life). I'm hopeful we can do this sooner rather than later.

What might be more challenging is adding the strategy aspect of managing the service times, so a player who is managing a team can choose for the the military service dates to fall at the 'right' time for the team. That would likely be difficult and take some time to plan out and implement.

[tehsuigi]

Tossing a suggestion in: team theme songs and cheers. You've got the license, let's get some more immersive sound effects!

[hoseho]

Originally Posted by Lukas Berger

I think making the list basically functional in OOTP will not be too hard, especially given we can already do this manually, as you've been discussing (and as Kyu-dong and I do every year for the roster set players who have military service in real life). I'm hopeful we can do this sooner rather than later.

What might be more challenging is adding the strategy aspect of managing the service times, so a player who is managing a team can choose for the the military service dates to fall at the 'right' time for the team. That would likely be difficult and take some time to plan out and implement.

I see your point. It seems difficult for the AI to strategically analyze their military list and set the schedule. If it's difficult right now, I think it's okay to create a special list and randomly add young players to it every year. Of course, it's not ideal, but I believe users can still play if the preliminary list is announced in the middle of the season, allowing users to prepare for the next season.

[hoseho]

Originally Posted by Lukas Berger

We'll do our best to communicate more here and keep you up to date on what things we can try try to implement next, as well as continuing to ask for feedback from the Korean community. We really want all our Korean users to feel motivated to help us make the KBO better and more realistic!

Thank you for your consideration! As a big fan of OOTP series who has played the game for almost 10 years, I really want to see OOTP create a realistic KBO version akin to the MLB. Such an addition would undoubtedly attract more potential Korean users to play the game.

I've also noticed a growing interest among Koreans in discussing the issues and possible solutions. While we understand that realizing this at once may be difficult, we remain hopeful to see progress in this direction.

[Lukas Berger]

Originally Posted by hoseho

I see your point. It seems difficult for the AI to strategically analyze their military list and set the schedule. If it's difficult right now, I think it's okay to create a special list and randomly add young players to it every year. Of course, it's not ideal, but I believe users can still play if the preliminary list is announced in the middle of the season, allowing users to prepare for the next season.

Yes, this would probably be a good initial step we could take and then might be able to further refine and improve the model over time.

[Lukas Berger]

Originally Posted by hoseho

I've also noticed a growing interest among Koreans in discussing the issues and possible solutions. While we understand that realizing this at once may be difficult, we remain hopeful to see progress in this direction.

This is a very good thing. Thanks to everyone who has posted here so far, we really appreciate being able to get direct feedback from Korean fans of the game, so that we know the areas where we need to improve.