Whitesox
AAA
I'm just here for the free kool-aid
Posts: 773
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Post by Whitesox on Feb 3, 2023 19:03:30 GMT -5
The time has come. DMB has been great for us over my decade+ in the NSBL and over this league's nearly two decades of existence. However, it has been the far inferior simulation platform for over a few years, and it appears that DMB is doing nothing to try to catch up with modern baseball simulations. The committee has decided to officially announce that we will be transitioning to OOTP this upcoming season, and we plan on making that our default simulation software moving forward. This season we will require OOTP 24, which will be released in late March. They usually release it on a presale for $35, otherwise, it's 40$. I am told if you purchase it directly through OOTP you are given 2 license keys, so two GMs can chip in and spit it up.
We will be recruiting on OOTP boards, and will hopefully have new GMs onboarded by the start of free agency.
I personally am incredibly excited about this, and I am sure anybody in this league who has experience with OOTP can attest to how much of an improvement it is over DMB. As has already been done on the discussion board about this topic. Get ready to be able to effectively utilize a bullpen!
OOTP is relatively easy to teach yourself by tinkering around with, but it is much more advanced than DMB. If anybody wants any one on one help I would be happy to help out and walk them through the basics that will be needed for our league.
If anybody has any concerns they want to voice PLEASE voice them, every GM in this league has a say about this league's future. We don’t want to lose anybody over this transition and the committee is willing to help in whatever way we can to make sure this process is as smooth and seamless as possible.
I firmly believe that in order for this league to last another 20 years a transition away from DMB is necessary.
The committee is still finalizing the remainder of the off-season schedule.
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Post by bluejaysgm on Feb 4, 2023 15:17:51 GMT -5
Anyone looking to share the cost and split the two licenses, shoot me an email.
I’m willing to give it a one year trial and see if I want to keep playing two leagues with two different sim software programs.
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Post by Pirates GM on Feb 5, 2023 12:28:02 GMT -5
I am pretty excited about this, and think NSBL is going in the correct direction. It's better to jump to OOTP early, then hang on to DM to the last gasp. I really don't think DM has much left in the tank, and has stopped catering to the hardcore fans who support them by dragging their feet progressively longer and longer to release their sim disk. I don't think it was released in 2022 until almost 2 months into the MLB season. It's really difficult for a sim league like this to keep momentum going when the disk releases so late, and our season lags so far behind MLB.
With that being said, what is the OOTP equivalent to the relationship ZiPS has with Diamond Mind? Does OOTP also base their own ratings off of the ZiPS projections, or are they self-contained with their own internal projections. Thanks,
JIm
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Post by marlinsgmed on Feb 5, 2023 14:59:25 GMT -5
I am excited about potentially starting sooner in the year, as has been mentioned. We are a team in rebuild, so hopefully the learning curve is not too steep.
As always and like when I started, and help would be appreciated. Who will be be sending funds to?
thanks everyone for setting this up
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Post by LA Angels GM on Feb 6, 2023 9:27:02 GMT -5
I'm excited for this. I bought OOTP23 about a month ago to try and learn how it works. I'm currently in my 3rd season and am loving it. I'll probably have my own season going along with the two sim leagues that I'm in.
The learning curve should be pretty easy. My biggest issues (still) with OOTP are things we won't have to worry about, like the team's budget (not even the salary cap), coaches, managing the minor leagues, etc. If all we have to do is set the lineups, depth charts, and manager options (stealing, bunting, bullpen usage, etc.) then it should be pretty easy for everyone to pick it up. I actually think that part is much more user friendly than DMB.
The only thing I don't know how to do is to send the files to Joe, or whoever will be running the sim. I hope it's easier to do than DMB, because that was always a pain. If I missed one step, the whole thing got messed up.
JIm, from what I have been told on MLBSA boards, is that it does take ZiPS ratings, but it's not as hard fast as DMB does, if that makes sense. Like, I think they take ZiPS, but then put their twist on it to match up with everything OOTP does. So ZiPS won't be as hard and fast a rule as DMB used it, but it should be a good jumping off point. I think we're all going to be at a disadvantage this first year, which if nothing else, is fair.
Ed, you pay OOTP directly for the product. You have to register and order there. Someone told me to order it directly through Steam so you get automatic updates. I don't know if there really is a benefit to using Steam, but it's a free, easy download, so I went for it.
I'm excited. I really think this will help me stay engaged throughout the whole season, even when my team is doing crappy. Logging on and tweaking my MP in DMB when my team sucked was oftentimes too much of a hassle. This should be much easier.
One more thing that could be fun: would we be able to play games live against each other? Obviously not all games, but it could be fun to play the World Series live, or other big regular season games. I've learned that actually playing the games is one of my favorite things about it. That could be awesome when we get to the World Series.
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Post by LA Angels GM on Feb 6, 2023 11:40:10 GMT -5
For Ed and anyone else who may not know, here's the OOTP website where you will buy the product. OOTP 23 (last year's game) is currently $19.99, which if you have $20 to spare, I think is totally worth it to start playing around with the software for the next couple months until OOTP 24 drops. You will still need to buy OOTP 24, though. You can also find the forum there, which has a lot of information on it. There's also a good subreddit which has good info, as well. www.ootpdevelopments.com/out-of-the-park-baseball-home/ |
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Post by marlinsgmed on Feb 6, 2023 11:51:33 GMT -5
For Ed and anyone else who may not know, here's the OOTP website where you will buy the product. OOTP 23 (last year's game) is currently $19.99, which if you have $20 to spare, I think is totally worth it to start playing around with the software for the next couple months until OOTP 24 drops. You will still need to buy OOTP 24, though. You can also find the forum there, which has a lot of information on it. There's also a good subreddit which has good info, as well. www.ootpdevelopments.com/out-of-the-park-baseball-home/Thanks John! |
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Post by BrewCrewGuru on Feb 6, 2023 21:05:30 GMT -5
I am pretty excited about this, and think NSBL is going in the correct direction. It's better to jump to OOTP early, then hang on to DM to the last gasp. I really don't think DM has much left in the tank, and has stopped catering to the hardcore fans who support them by dragging their feet progressively longer and longer to release their sim disk. I don't think it was released in 2022 until almost 2 months into the MLB season. It's really difficult for a sim league like this to keep momentum going when the disk releases so late, and our season lags so far behind MLB. With that being said, what is the OOTP equivalent to the relationship ZiPS has with Diamond Mind? Does OOTP also base their own ratings off of the ZiPS projections, or are they self-contained with their own internal projections. Thanks, JIm OOTP gets Dan's numbers and then translates them into their ratings system. The use different defensive metrics to determine defensive abilities, but Dan's use of Runs Saved will give you a general idea if they player is good at the position Dan rated them at. The learning curve will be figuring out how players play out-of-position and how multi-position players work. Where as DMB had solid rules about where they rated a player defensively, I've yet to find anything in the FAQ or forums to answer this in OOTP. Otherwise, you can expect to see players on the '24 disk to have similar projected performance to the numbers Dan has given us. Dan has said in the past that OOTP is always one of the first clients that he ships his projections to each year. |
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Post by KC Royals Nate on Feb 6, 2023 22:18:54 GMT -5
Anyone have any insight into injuries?
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Post by Pirates GM on Feb 7, 2023 10:06:11 GMT -5
Anyone have any insight into injuries? Unlike DM, OOTP will absolutely give players season-ending injuries. However, you can moderate the severity of injuries. In my other league, I believe GMs voted on whether or not to allow season-ending injuries. One really nice thing about DM is I don't believe players ever suffered more than a 45-day injury. We can modify the settings in OOTP to do the same if we'd like. JIm |
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Post by Texas GM on Feb 7, 2023 10:38:06 GMT -5
Anyone have any insight into injuries? Unlike DM, OOTP will absolutely give players season-ending injuries. However, you can moderate the severity of injuries. In my other league, I believe GMs voted on whether or not to allow season-ending injuries. One really nice thing about DM is I don't believe players ever suffered more than a 45-day injury. We can modify the settings in OOTP to do the same if we'd like. JIm Given the totally random nature of injuries, I think I would highly advocate for limiting the duration of them. In this format, I don't believe that a key injury or two should wipe out someone's entire season. |
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Post by BrewCrewGuru on Feb 7, 2023 13:30:35 GMT -5
Unlike DM, OOTP will absolutely give players season-ending injuries. However, you can moderate the severity of injuries. In my other league, I believe GMs voted on whether or not to allow season-ending injuries. One really nice thing about DM is I don't believe players ever suffered more than a 45-day injury. We can modify the settings in OOTP to do the same if we'd like. JIm Given the totally random nature of injuries, I think I would highly advocate for limiting the duration of them. In this format, I don't believe that a key injury or two should wipe out someone's entire season. Injuries in DMB are random. In past seasons I've had guys go down for over 100 days. In 2022, the longest injury appears to be 53 days. There is just no real rhyme or reason to injuries because we don't use the injury rating. Being injury prone isn't a real thing in NSBL because we gots dem good doctors! Random injuries are definitely my preference. Limiting the length of injury to a max like 60 days would give us some impactful but not catastrophic scenarios. Like I agree with the sentiment that we don't want teams taken out by injury, but roster fragility is also a part of this game and experience. So I feel like we need to make sure that there is potential for injury to force teams to make decisions on buying and selling in-season. It's one of those pieces of "realism" that I like. I think teams should be punished for not having a plan if Xander Bogaerts goes out for 2 months. Ooof! |
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Post by LA Angels GM on Feb 9, 2023 12:34:02 GMT -5
Do we have an offseason schedule anywhere? Most importantly, when does FA start?
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Post by BrewCrewGuru on Feb 9, 2023 12:58:47 GMT -5
Do we have an offseason schedule anywhere? Most importantly, when does FA start? We are in discussion regarding the final schedule before we post it. There were other issues that took priority and we haven't got back on track as quickly as we would have liked, but we should have something posted soon. Because of my work schedule, Free Agency timing is going to be important. I'm going to lay out my preferred time table this evening and we should be able to move forward from there. We also need to schedule CE offers, so there is still a lot to be done. |
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Post by LA Angels GM on Feb 23, 2023 14:56:41 GMT -5
OOTP coming out March 24th! Preorder now to save 10%. Or, if you use Steam like me, you can order the week of and still save that 10%.
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Post by LA Angels GM on Feb 23, 2023 20:26:59 GMT -5
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Post by sanfran on Feb 23, 2023 22:09:37 GMT -5
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Post by bluejaysgm on Feb 24, 2023 11:36:16 GMT -5
Anyone wanting to split it and share the two licenses?
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Post by LA Angels GM on Feb 24, 2023 12:25:05 GMT -5
For anyone debating between getting the Steam vs. the non-Steam version, here's what someone in MLBSA said:
I used Steam because I didn't want to have to worry about manually updating it, but I didn't know that we wouldn't be able to export files until it's updated. If this is the case, it may be worth it for everyone to buy the Steam version. Just an FYI.
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Post by seattlegm on Feb 24, 2023 12:32:22 GMT -5
Anyone wanting to split it and share the two licenses? I’ll do it with you. I’ll email you to coordinate. Thanks! |
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Post by seattlegm on Feb 24, 2023 12:34:17 GMT -5
For anyone debating between getting the Steam vs. the non-Steam version, here's what someone in MLBSA said: I used Steam because I didn't want to have to worry about manually updating it, but I didn't know that we wouldn't be able to export files until it's updated. If this is the case, it may be worth it for everyone to buy the Steam version. Just an FYI. This is foreign to me. What is Steam? Sincerely, The person who officially feels like an 80 year old man. |
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Post by LA Angels GM on Feb 24, 2023 13:22:46 GMT -5
For anyone debating between getting the Steam vs. the non-Steam version, here's what someone in MLBSA said: I used Steam because I didn't want to have to worry about manually updating it, but I didn't know that we wouldn't be able to export files until it's updated. If this is the case, it may be worth it for everyone to buy the Steam version. Just an FYI. This is foreign to me. What is Steam? Sincerely, The person who officially feels like an 80 year old man. It's an online gaming platform. I had never head of it before all this talk about switching to OOTP, so I was hesitant to use it. I don't like downloading things I'm not familiar with. But it was free and easy to install. Then, you can buy OOTP straight from there starting March 24th, and the game will be automatically updated. store.steampowered.com/ |
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Post by Cubbies on Feb 24, 2023 16:53:48 GMT -5
This is foreign to me. What is Steam? Sincerely, The person who officially feels like an 80 year old man. It's an online gaming platform. I had never head of it before all this talk about switching to OOTP, so I was hesitant to use it. I don't like downloading things I'm not familiar with. But it was free and easy to install. Then, you can buy OOTP straight from there starting March 24th, and the game will be automatically updated. store.steampowered.com/I've never used Steam or had any interaction with it, but I've heard a lot about it. It's a pretty big deal. I know people can broadcast themselves playing games, similar to Twitch, and they can play games easier without the higher functioning PCs because the games are actually on another server, you're just controlling them from your computer. So, don't worry about Steam if you've not heard about it. It's not a janky two-bit operation. It's likely a multi-billion dollar Silicon Valley thing. I think most of us are just a little too old to be into the new wave of gaming so it isn't in our world much. |
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Post by Pirates GM on Feb 24, 2023 23:03:43 GMT -5
Anyone wanting to split it and share the two licenses? I’ll do it with you. I’ll email you to coordinate. Thanks! Tracy, looks like you're going to have to split it 3 ways, since Matt Kevin is going to want in too.  JIm |
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Post by Pirates GM on Mar 20, 2023 14:38:00 GMT -5
If the OOTP interface is identical or similar to the OOTP Go! series of mobile games, we should have choices over the following:
1. Ratings scale
You can default with the standard MLB 20-80 scale, but I would personally recommend using the wider 0-100 scale. What I found with 20-80 is that many of the player ratings cluster in the 40-60 ratings range, but there's a wide range of talent in that area, with a broad range of production. The 0-100 scale spreads the players out more, so it's easier to see how the system might treat their production.
2. Team chemistry angle
OOTP Go has a neat team chemistry option where you can see a player's positive and negative personality attributes. You want to have as many positive attributes- team leader, sparkplug, work ethic, etc.- as possible, and avoid players with strong negative attributes. (For example, I don't know what Alex Verdugo did to OOTP designers, but he's considered very detrimental to team morale in the mobile game.) Some GMs might not like this because it's subjective, but I really like that it does add in the intangible of team chemistry. I don't think it affects the cumulative win total of teams by more than a few games, but could add some interesting strategy aspects to our sim.
3. Star ratings
You can use a 0.5-5 star rating system for players and prospects, including both current and potential ability. I would really like to see this added, because it makes for a great visual, especially when talking trades with prospects.
I could be wrong, and our OOTP ends up very similar to Diamond Mind. But if it is similar to the mobile version, we should have all of these options as features. Thanks!
JIm
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Post by LA Angels GM on Mar 20, 2023 15:42:18 GMT -5
All of these options are on OOTP 23.
I'm used to the 20-80 scale, but can see the argument for 0-100.
If we can turn the Team Chemistry off, I would like that. I've noticed on OOTP 23 that if you bench a guy who is seen a malcontent, he can completely change the dynamics of the clubhouse and actually hurt your team a fair amount. I just don't think we were prepared to include that when we were putting our teams together.
I would love it if we could add all of our prospects to our teams, but I don't know how much work that would add for whoever is populating the rosters. If it's not a lot, I say add them all and let us see how OOTP rates them. If it is a lot of work, then it's not a big deal.
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Post by seattlegm on Mar 20, 2023 15:49:25 GMT -5
This is foreign to me. What is Steam? Sincerely, The person who officially feels like an 80 year old man. It's an online gaming platform. I had never head of it before all this talk about switching to OOTP, so I was hesitant to use it. I don't like downloading things I'm not familiar with. But it was free and easy to install. Then, you can buy OOTP straight from there starting March 24th, and the game will be automatically updated. store.steampowered.com/I'm trying to look up Steam and the site doesn't seem to be working. Anyone else having this issue? |
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Post by BrewCrewGuru on Mar 20, 2023 15:54:14 GMT -5
If the OOTP interface is identical or similar to the OOTP Go! series of mobile games, we should have choices over the following: 1. Ratings scaleYou can default with the standard MLB 20-80 scale, but I would personally recommend using the wider 0-100 scale. What I found with 20-80 is that many of the player ratings cluster in the 40-60 ratings range, but there's a wide range of talent in that area, with a broad range of production. The 0-100 scale spreads the players out more, so it's easier to see how the system might treat their production. 2. Team chemistry angleOOTP Go has a neat team chemistry option where you can see a player's positive and negative personality attributes. You want to have as many positive attributes- team leader, sparkplug, work ethic, etc.- as possible, and avoid players with strong negative attributes. (For example, I don't know what Alex Verdugo did to OOTP designers, but he's considered very detrimental to team morale in the mobile game.) Some GMs might not like this because it's subjective, but I really like that it does add in the intangible of team chemistry. I don't think it affects the cumulative win total of teams by more than a few games, but could add some interesting strategy aspects to our sim. 3. Star ratingsYou can use a 0.5-5 star rating system for players and prospects, including both current and potential ability. I would really like to see this added, because it makes for a great visual, especially when talking trades with prospects. I could be wrong, and our OOTP ends up very similar to Diamond Mind. But if it is similar to the mobile version, we should have all of these options as features. Thanks! JIm 1. I'll drop a poll about ratings. I prefer the 20-80 because it is both familiar and less detailed. The 0-100 scale gives us access to more nuanced ratings which gives us more precise roster options. I like that the area between 40 and 45 is kinda gray. I like that we can debate the merits of 2 good players being both rated 60 instead of one being 63 and the other being 61. Again, it's not that important to me as my team building won't change until I have a couple seasons of OOTP under my belt. 2. We need to turn this off. I think it's cool if you are playing a league that originated on OOTP because you've had time to adapt to these systems. I'm not going to spend time on "making my players happy" in addition to everything else. 3. I'll go with the majority on star ratings. |
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Post by BrewCrewGuru on Mar 20, 2023 15:57:13 GMT -5
It's an online gaming platform. I had never head of it before all this talk about switching to OOTP, so I was hesitant to use it. I don't like downloading things I'm not familiar with. But it was free and easy to install. Then, you can buy OOTP straight from there starting March 24th, and the game will be automatically updated. store.steampowered.com/I'm trying to look up Steam and the site doesn't seem to be working. Anyone else having this issue? Link just worked for me. Could also just Google "steam install" and that should work. |
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Post by Pirates GM on Mar 20, 2023 19:51:59 GMT -5
Patrick, if Sean’s suggestion doesn’t work, you can Google “Cleveland Steamer” instead.
That will take you directly to the Guardians Steam page, and from there, you can access all of the other teams’ steamers.
Here to help,
JIm
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