Out Of The Park 14

[Nefaro]

Just picked up OOTP14 since the release looks to have gone quite smoothly and the new additions are popular with the forumites.

I've never been a huge baseball fan but love the sports manager "text" sims.  This will give me some intellectual chin scratching time while waiting on my TrackIR to show up, and also between my flights of fancy with DCS sims in the near future.

Anyone else committed yet?  I know there were at least a couple, hereabouts, ready to board that ship.

[Grim.Reaper]

Pre ordered and got a week ago...but haven't played a game yet:). I usually try and wait for the onslaught of initial patches that always come out after release.

[son_of_montfort]

I'm compulsive about getting this one. I usually try to only get the odd numbered ones, but I broke down and grabbed it. But I've had no time to start a league.

[GJK]

I'm a huge baseball fan - it's my favorite sport.  I love stats and following the players.  You'd think that OOTP would be a big hit with me...but not so.  I can only get through a few games before I set it aside.  I think it's the text sim aspect.  I've found that as I've aged, I can't read anything for longer than a few minutes before my attention diverts to something else.  I think I have adult ADD now as I used to love to read.  If I'm on my tablet reading the rules or manual to a game, I'll quickly get distracted and start surfing websites or checking forums.  I can't spend hour(s) just reading like I once could.  So that becomes a problem in games like OOTP because I get bored with reading and go off to do something else.  Maybe it's the day and age that we live in; with the internet and all of these electronic devices, there is just so much to be doing and so your mind wanders off thinking about what else you could be doing.  There, I've just diagnosed what's wrong with todays kids and all the over-prescribing of psychotropic drugs.  Ok, I'm bored with typing this response...off to go find something to play.....

[gabeeg]

I pre-ordered OOTP 14 and am playing it tonight (actually learning it).   Waiting for Baseball Mogul to get into playable shape and then it will probably be my primary baseball sim.  I imagine if I ever get comfortable with OOTP it will replace BM but so far I enjoy the ease and simplicity of BM.   I really wish there was an option somewhere between the the two in terms of options and play...again its probably just a matter of getting OOTP configured to suit my preferences more than anything.

OOTP14 is pretty damn slick...

[KyzBP]

I pre-ordered OOTP 14 and am playing it tonight (actually learning it).   Waiting for Baseball Mogul to get into playable shape and then it will probably be my primary baseball sim.  I imagine if I ever get comfortable with OOTP it will replace BM but so far I enjoy the ease and simplicity of BM.   I really wish there was an option somewhere between the the two in terms of options and play...again its probably just a matter of getting OOTP configured to suit my preferences more than anything.

OOTP14 is pretty damn slick...

Invest the time in OOTP.  In my opinion there's no comparison between OOTP and Mogul.  The OOTP world seems more alive and fluid than Mogul.

[Cougar_DK]

I have version 13, but must confess that I really got my head around baseball and ootp even though I really wanted. So I will maybe buy when ootp 15 is released  ;)

[Nefaro]

I pre-ordered OOTP 14 and am playing it tonight (actually learning it).   Waiting for Baseball Mogul to get into playable shape and then it will probably be my primary baseball sim.  I imagine if I ever get comfortable with OOTP it will replace BM but so far I enjoy the ease and simplicity of BM.   I really wish there was an option somewhere between the the two in terms of options and play...again its probably just a matter of getting OOTP configured to suit my preferences more than anything.

OOTP14 is pretty damn slick...

After you've studied up a bit on a couple of the more troublesome concepts, such as the Roster Management rules (Option years, Rule 5 Draft Eligibility, etc.) and contract details, you should be fine.  The rest is cake since you can hire some highly rated staff to do the grunt work (filling out line-ups & game strategies).  In most cases, it's just a matter of hitting 'F1' if you need detailed info on all the specific stuff it contains.  The in-game manual is fairly detailed and takes you straight to the section corresponding to what you're spying at that moment. 

The most difficult part I had picking up was how to juggle injuries & replacements back and forth without burning too many Player Option years in the process.  That's an art in & of itself, to be sure.  I highly suggest you ogle the Tutorial Vids that are linked in a pop-up when you first start the game and also on the OOTP website under Support IIRC.  It gives you a quick rundown on these things.  I found them helpful in clarifying this odd MLB stuff after reading the manual section on them and becoming familiar with the interface location of such info. 

Vid links:  http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/out-of-the-park-baseball/videos.php

Once you understand the roster mgmt rules & interface, it's all down hill.  You'll probably be as addicted as I've already become, and I'm still learning!

Pre ordered and got a week ago...but haven't played a game yet:). I usually try and wait for the onslaught of initial patches that always come out after release.

I believe that I've found a couple bugs already.  A couple in regards to having your Manager or Coach automatically setting the lineups/pitchers every game.  They haven't been reevaluating the player situation before each game, so if there's an injured player, it still tends to leave them in during the next game as a starter instead of benching them.  Then it will switch 'em out on the 2nd game after the injury.  This delay also happened whenever I set the specifically injured player to be forceably benched for a couple weeks and that didn't kick in until the game after the next, too.  Minor stuff.. now that I know it's happening, I can just manually switch the line-up for that 1 game in between.  Still, it'd be nice if the AI Manager/Coach checked this stuff at the beginning of the next day's game instead of at the end.  I guess this isn't as much of a problem for those who micro-manage their own lineups and games. 

There are probably more little bugs like that.  Also saw mention that the Amateur Draft funds set aside for just such purposes may not actually be getting alotted when draft time comes.  That could be a real pain if it's bugged as then you could only use any extra 'pocket' cash normally used for paying Free Agents in the draft and would be missing the Millions of dollars the owner had set aside for the draft.  Doing it that way is kinda gamey but I read there were some gameplay & AI purposes for doing so.  And now it may not be working properly at the moment.  :D

Despite some of these things, I'm in Info Overload heaven.  I do have at least one question for you vets, right now.  What are some useful hot-keys??!   I found that Backspace is the 'Back' button.  Another important shorty is Rt-Clicking to close Player Info windows.  That's brilliant as you do it all the time.  Gimme more!

[JudgeDredd]

I was almost going to take the plunge - but didn't...and now I'm over the itch I probably won't. Like others, I seem to get every other...and I have 13 which is pretty cool.

I still don't have the info down pat and find the roster amazingly difficult to grasp. Injuries really throw me because promoting/demoting seems to cause issues and you can only "demote" so many times?

[Nefaro]

I still don't have the info down pat and find the roster amazingly difficult to grasp. Injuries really throw me because promoting/demoting seems to cause issues and you can only "demote" so many times?

From what I've seen.. once you use a player's Option to move them from the Majors back down to the Minors, you can freely move them between the two for that whole year.  So as long as injuries don't go over-the-top crazy, you should theoretically be keeping a handful of backup players on your 40-man Roster who have at least one free Option year for replacing injuries.  Once these backups are out of Option years, and aren't good enough for a Starter position & getting older, then get rid of them and replace with another new depth player with available Option years.  Hopefully some younger ones that you can sign cheap.  This stuff is certainly part of the challenge.

I'm not sure how well injury frequency is modelled.  I seem to be getting them quite regularly even though my Phys Trainer is rated pretty high.  I shudder to think how many injuries I'd have if he weren't.  Makes me wonder whether I should lower the injury rates a tad when you start getting six or eight of your starters on the Disabled List for 2+weeks at a shot.  To be fair, the injury frequency always seems to be a bit too frequent in all these sport text sims anyway, so it wouldn't be surprising if OOTP is too.  At least we can manually adjust it.  :D

[son_of_montfort]

When I finally start my league, I intend to use the AI managers to handle the minors. That is just too deep for my tastes.

[Nefaro]

When I finally start my league, I intend to use the AI managers to handle the minors. That is just too deep for my tastes.

Oh definitely.  That would be just too much workload to juggle so many teams at once. 

I've put the Minor League promotions, demotions, and signings under the Minor teams' control.  Every once in awhile I'll go release a few of the minor league players who are getting older and obviously never going anywhere in order to make room for my new Draftees or the odd free agent I may give a Minors contract to.  Don't want too many Minors players on one team else some prospects may not get enough play time!  ;)

Just had my first year's 1st round draft pick turn down two separate signing bonus offers of 4 and 5 Million bucks, then tell me to piss off.   >:(  When it said that specific player would be "very difficult" to sign, it wasn't joking.   ;D

[Grim.Reaper]

Seems lke a new patch coming this week and then the developers are taken some time off....probably give it a go then.

[bbmike]

Nefaro, do you play with financials enabled? In seven years I've never tried it!

[JudgeDredd]

Couple, of things...for those that play

First off - I don't really get the "draft" thing. So I tend to steer clear and in fact I don't think I've EVER bought/sold/swapped a player before - and I've likely gotten away with that because I've never finished a season because I ALWAYS want to play the games out - though now with the real time playout, I just sti and watch that - very gripping at times.

Anyway - couple of things...

• Do you auto play through the seasons? I generally watch the real time feeds, as I've said
• And do any of you change your squad from the off? Generally because I'm starting a new season, I start with the squad I've got and check their stats as I go...but I only ever really got the the first (possibly second) draft before I've gave up because I have no idea what I'm doing
• Do any of you change your staff? I've always kept the staff I start with