OOTP 15

[Bison]

Hmmm...interesting.  I was considering picking up OOTP 14 on Steam in a few weeks when the baseball fever hits me.

[vyshka]

Is there or has anyone considered a Groghead's OOTP League?  I played in an online league using OOTP11 &12.  It can be a lot of fun although I'm not in the baseball frame of mind yet.

Although I would love to play in sport leagues, just don't think I could commit to a schedule to complete it.  Would be fun though.

It wasn't bad.  Usually just 3 submissions a week.  Each submission covers 2 weeks.  I think all of that can be customized though. 

I was just an owner, never the Commissioner.

Maybe I will have to take a deeper look into how multiplay works in OOTP....I just assumed it would be tedious.

I've never taken part in an online league of OOTP, but it has always seemed like it had the best support for it by far of sports management sims.

[KyzBP]

Is there or has anyone considered a Groghead's OOTP League?  I played in an online league using OOTP11 &12.  It can be a lot of fun although I'm not in the baseball frame of mind yet.

Although I would love to play in sport leagues, just don't think I could commit to a schedule to complete it.  Would be fun though.

It seemed to be fairly straight forward.  I do seem to remember having to jump through a few hoops initially but after that everything went smoothly.
It wasn't bad.  Usually just 3 submissions a week.  Each submission covers 2 weeks.  I think all of that can be customized though. 

I was just an owner, never the Commissioner.

Maybe I will have to take a deeper look into how multiplay works in OOTP....I just assumed it would be tedious.

I've never taken part in an online league of OOTP, but it has always seemed like it had the best support for it by far of sports management sims.

[Swatter]

I have never understood why modern baseball sim developers are deathly afraid of animation. OOTP is in its 15th iteration and they are finally getting around to an animated ball... words cannot express my disappointment. Creating an animated baseball game isn't that hard, really it isn't. Creating a great career engine is the trick and it looks like they have that down pat. Animating a ball will be boring, though. I forget the name, but someone has done that. It got boring fast, fast, fast.

With modern development tools and powerful graphics engines available, it is hard to fathom why text sims can't do more with graphics.

[Bison]

Why is it necessary?  I just spent the better part of the evening playing OOTP14 and not once did I think to myself.  "Gee I wish this text based sim had 3d graphics."  I'm sure it'll be nice and all, but honestly what's the point? 

[JudgeDredd]

I played Puresim Baseball 2007(?) and it had an animated ball...but that was it...no player movement or anything like that.

OOTP14 (and previous) never had player animation but I do believe they have ball animation now, do they not? Anyway - I actually used to play each game out...now I'm happy to sit and watch the game play with the real time sped up system they have.

I'm not sure it's necessary, but it is pleasing and adds to immersion. I sit and watch the extended highlights of every one of my 30 games in Football Manager. It has 3D animation and it's bloody good. When it first came out, it was raw and terrible...but it's got much better over the years and there's nothing quite like watching your player break the defensive line, run towards goal and fire it into the side netting...or get pulled down and not get a penalty...and you sit there shouting at the screen (not literally) that the referee is a cheating scummer.

I think the 3D will bring a new level of immersion...it also might bring other people in who aren't quite into spreadsheet simming.

I don't think it's necessarily a bad idea.

Now - if they asked me if I wanted 3D for OOTP or if I wanted them to start on a rugby game...well, I'd back a different horse there  ;D

[spelk]

Not necessarily 3d, but some visual representation really helps me to monitor the progress of the game and to encourage an enthusiastic investment in the plays made - rather than just simming it and have the results land. I've been dabbling with Basketball sims recently, and have Basketball Management Pro 2014 on Steam, now whilst the game seems to have an unusual front end - along with long load times, it does have a 2d representation of the game - and it really sucks you in - its reminiscient of the early 2d plays from Football Manager (previously Championship Manager - before its name was stolen away). I've been trying to find another Basketball management game that just has a better slicker interface and a bigger fan community - but I just can't find one that gives you the pleasure of a 2d simulation. :(

This resurgence in sports sims has me dabble in OOTP14 (and I have only  a vague interest in baseball from years ago), along with a search for the similar 2d representation for American Football. Yep, I'm a Brit who prefers American Football to normal football (soccer)! Again, I'm struggling to find an NFL simulator that gives me some visual representation of the plays so I can become more emotionally invested/excited as the game is simmed.

I remember talking with a friend who was involved with Football Manager development, and early on, the general opinion from fans was that they didn't need any graphical cues, because the textual information was enough. Then FM evolved to include 2d representation. The fans opinion being that this was enough to fine tune your team and strategy from the feedback in the 2d plays. FM wasn't going 3d ever, because the fans didn't want it! Now FM has evolved further to take on 3d and I think it doesn't suffer from this level of visual stimuli for the manager. Keep it as a choice and then you won't alienate the different play requirements from your playerbase.

[CptHowdy]

Not necessarily 3d, but some visual representation really helps me to monitor the progress of the game and to encourage an enthusiastic investment in the plays made - rather than just simming it and have the results land. I've been dabbling with Basketball sims recently, and have Basketball Management Pro 2014 on Steam, now whilst the game seems to have an unusual front end - along with long load times, it does have a 2d representation of the game - and it really sucks you in - its reminiscient of the early 2d plays from Football Manager (previously Championship Manager - before its name was stolen away). I've been trying to find another Basketball management game that just has a better slicker interface and a bigger fan community - but I just can't find one that gives you the pleasure of a 2d simulation. :(

This resurgence in sports sims has me dabble in OOTP14 (and I have only  a vague interest in baseball from years ago), along with a search for the similar 2d representation for American Football. Yep, I'm a Brit who prefers American Football to normal football (soccer)! Again, I'm struggling to find an NFL simulator that gives me some visual representation of the plays so I can become more emotionally invested/excited as the game is simmed.

I remember talking with a friend who was involved with Football Manager development, and early on, the general opinion from fans was that they didn't need any graphical cues, because the textual information was enough. Then FM evolved to include 2d representation. The fans opinion being that this was enough to fine tune your team and strategy from the feedback in the 2d plays. FM wasn't going 3d ever, because the fans didn't want it! Now FM has evolved further to take on 3d and I think it doesn't suffer from this level of visual stimuli for the manager. Keep it as a choice and then you won't alienate the different play requirements from your playerbase.

have you checked out wolverine studios? they have pro and college basketball management games. i have version 2 of each but think they are on 3 now. i haven't upgraded as i am just not a basketball guy but i do enjoy the management aspect of the games.

[Nefaro]

Why is it necessary?  I just spent the better part of the evening playing OOTP14 and not once did I think to myself.  "Gee I wish this text based sim had 3d graphics."  I'm sure it'll be nice and all, but honestly what's the point?

True.  I don't think they really need fancy 3D stuff.  However, after playing last year's Football Manager, I can definitely see how it can enhance the experience.

Normally I just sim out the individual games in these text sims.  In other words, I don't call the plays or make any adjustments in the games.  However, the FM2013 in-game 3D action and it's accompanying game controls was a pretty huge leap in fun factor.  It just added a more immersive facet to such a text sim and I wanted to coach out each individual game after that, despite my main reason for playing these games being the overall team management side.

I think there is definitely room for 3D improvements in-game, like those of the FM series.  I don't often say that, especially about certain genres where I don't necessarily prefer 3D over 2D (RPGs for example).   Do I require them?  Absolutely not.  :)

[Grim.Reaper]

Same for me....I don't really ever play out the actual baseball games in OOTP, just sim, so graphics really do me no good.  But if I were to play them out like others might, I can see how this would be a nice enhancement.  I just think with baseball games, they take too long and there is a 162 of them, a lot of games to play if you control each one:)  To be honest, just never considered OOTP to be as good as other games when actually playing/managing a game, whether that is actually true or not.  If I want to play out games, I usually play games like ActionPC Baseball and PC Replay baseball.

[Nefaro]

This resurgence in sports sims has me dabble in OOTP14 (and I have only  a vague interest in baseball from years ago), along with a search for the similar 2d representation for American Football. Yep, I'm a Brit who prefers American Football to normal football (soccer)! Again, I'm struggling to find an NFL simulator that gives me some visual representation of the plays so I can become more emotionally invested/excited as the game is simmed.

Professional Football Manager displays the game action but only as dots with the players numbers.  The play calling isn't the insane percentage matrix that FOF uses but it only runs on a 'playbook' of named generic plays (HB Screen Strong, for example).  To customize your own, you must create a new one and add/remove the plays you want your offense to use.  Being over a hundred, it can take some time setting up.  I usually just took out a couple of the extra WR Reverse (or 'End Around') plays because there were a few and the ratio would mean that they were often being run every game, sometimes more than once (they should be a rare gamble).  In the end, PFS' in-game action is pretty dull since you don't have any input, so I just end up simming anyway.

To summarize, PFS is still a work in progress.  The 2D action is pretty basic, some text sim staples aren't in yet (coaching/schemes, better clock management by the AI coach running the games), and a few other odds and ends.  The player ability system also seemed a bit odd to me as it can be tough gauging players abilities against each other.  That can be a good thing in such a game perhaps - it just takes some getting used to.  The developer (a single guy) also took an update hiatus over this last year so there hadn't been anything in the way of updates.  However, he says that the Coaching stuff and some other things should be coming in the next few months.  I also want to see more team graphics customization on some of the windows; there isn't much interface space dedicated to custom team logos and colors. 

I think PFS has a lot of potential but it still needs to have more features added in some areas.  To it's credit, the stat outcomes of the games were believable for the most part and all the basics are present for a GM to enjoy it without having to punch in a shitload of percentages (there are just some dropdowns with general formation/styles for a few circumstances).   

One thing I like about Football Mogul is how you can customize plays and create your own playbooks for the AI to use.  I think that's way better than FOF's ridiculous percentage matrix and PFS' simple dropdown selections.  With the FMogul one, being able to create both offensive and defensive plays down to individual position tasks is superb even if the end result is just some strength/weakness values for the overall play.  Too bad Football Mogul doesn't get much attention in each successive edition and often doesn't even get issues fixed.  :-[  It desperately needs a lot more features.

Hopefully the other one (or two?)new Football sims currently in the making will be pretty good.  Not much info on them though.  I'm just glad some others are taking up the challenge.

[Grim.Reaper]

This is my most anticipated American football game that seems to have fundamental player movement on the screen.....hoping it turns out well.

http://footballgeneralmanager.wordpress.com/

[Grim.Reaper]

This is my most anticipated American football game that seems to have fundamental player movement on the screen.....hoping it turns out well.

http://footballgeneralmanager.wordpress.com/

Wow...could the hint about OOTP football be true and is actually connected to this general manager football game?  The developer commented in the OOTP thread, really seems like there might be a connection.  FCole the developer remarked about some announcement on January 31st which is around the SB.  If I am a betting man, OOTP is going to hook up with this guy to deliver the OOTP football game...if so, awesome!

http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/board/general-discussions/240115-possible-football-game-coming-ootp-devs.html#post3633501

[JudgeDredd]

that it's a game Iwould be all over

[Grim.Reaper]

that it's a game Iwould be all over

For the first time, I am starting to believe it just might happen.....my only hope is it doesn't turn into a disaster like their hockey game:(