THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

The 2007 version, I presume?  Can you give any insight into what he implemented that you had suggested?

I’m in two online OOTP leagues, both of which still use OOTP 6.12/6.51a.  Both are considering moving to 2007 in the semi-near future.

I consider myself pretty adept at navigating my way around computer games, but when I downloaded the free demo I found it to be the least user-friendly game I’ve ever played. It looks like it could be a very good game if he massively cleaned up the user interface.

I found OOTP 6 to be rather overwhelming relative to my desire for a simpler, more straightforward GMing simulation.  It seems great for people with a passion for customizing every aspect of their league or controlling every aspect of a team, but I’m not sure it scales down well for more casual players.

From my perspective, it’s a towering technical achievement, but I tried and tried to want to give Marc Duffy money and just couldn’t get out of the game what I wanted to to make it happen.

I have not yet tried either of the OOTP releases since the redesign, but I have 4, 5, and 6, and I think each was better then the previous and are easily the best baseball sims I have ever played.  But I am kind of a control freak when it comes to games; I like fictional leagues, I’ve never been interested in replaying what actually happened.  And while I control a team in the fictional league, I also like playing czar/overlord over the league, and OOTP is great for that.  I’m also kind of unusual in that I play the season one day at a time, only during actual baseball season.  I know a lot of people prefer to simulate large blocks at a time.  I shudder at pondering what 100 years of playing the league and compiling all the data might do to my hard drive space.

That’s what I do, play one day’s worth of games per day.  And I have a real offseason, otherwise I’d burn out.

The league page is here:
http://home.comcast.net/~briankaat/

I’ve been using APBA for windows for about 10 years now, we used Microleague before that, and paper and dice in the years before personal computers.

I have been considering a switch to OOTP, so I’d be willing to give it a try and compare it to the APBA game.

Tango, want to play the game and keep your kid?

Just create a fictional league and make him a first round draft pick.  That’s what I did with my cat.  He gets pretty confused, one minute I’m absorbed in my computer, and the next minute I’m picking him up and congratulating him on making a great catch.

Scott, I actually didn’t suggest anything.  Marc or Markus or whoever over there must be a reader of my site, and saw my aging charts, and implemented those.  I’m not sure what else of mine they did.  I know they implemented something about DIPS, though don’t know what.

I would say that the game is great but it definitely has some cleaning up to do. Basically, I would say get the 2008 version because it will be amazing. It is definitely overwhelming just how many options you have with this game.

I’ve played OOTP since version 5 and sunk a lot of time into 6.5/2006/2007.  I’ve played Baseball Mogul 2003 and Puresim Baseball for comparison’s sake.

I’ve never played DMB, but that’s what I’d compare OOTP to.  OOTP has always had feature (and a focus) that DMB has lacked—OOTP looks slicker, has customizable graphics (logos, uniforms, and even custom player photos), and comes with a financial model.  DMB prides itself on being a very accurate simulation, but one without finances or a dynasty mode.

With the complete re-write, OOTP has started to advance into more “stat-friendly” territory.  It’s incorporated some of the newer discoveries (there’s supposedly some incorporation of pitcher HR/OF%) and the AI has gotten better at managing a team on its own. 

The OOTP community has done an incredible job at improving the game.  Their research efforts allow you to set the games sliders to correspond with correct player aging curves.  Their art allows you to see your players in customized uniforms.  Their downloadable roster sets allow OOTP to not pay for an MLB license, but still “provide” MLB players.

The problems I have with OOTP are that its interface is still very archaic and may be moving backward as more features are grafted on.  Controls in OOTP are nearly all mouse driven.  Data is buried in all sorts of places and to accept the very high learning curve.

In addition to the interface difficulties, OOTP is not a very stable game (this has been my experience running it on two different computers).  Much of the problem lies in the large league files that develop (defragment your hard drive often!).  After a few years, an OOTP league can become bloated and slow.  Occasional crashes can wipe out a week’s worth of games. 

These problems are significant, and in many other games I would not put up with them.  But I sink lots of time into OOTP because it is simply the best GM sim on the market.  I suggest you try the demo and if you like the gameplay, if you learn to navigate the interface, you can find a very rewarding experience.