PureSim is on a roll / PureSim 2008 brainstorming thread!

[Urth]

ORIGINAL: dneely

Shaun:

Here is my list for 2008, some of which were on my list for 2005 and 2007, but I'm nothing if not persistent!

1. GET RID OF the runner tagging up at 1st base and us being ask if we want him to try for 2nd. I say again, it NEVER happens in real baseball! Make sure we have this option with runners on 2nd and 3rd!!
2. 40 man roster call-up in Sept.
3. Online play vs another opponent, this feature would send PS through the roof!
4. More in-game managerial decisions. Squeeze, pick-off attempts, double steal, playing the corners in, run and hit play (no current game I am aware of has this feature!)suicide squeeze, odd or RARE plays, ejections, balks, Morganna running out on the field and kissing someone (showing my age) fan interference, an RJ fast ball killing a bird....stuff like that.
5. Enhanced closer and bullpen usage model.
6. ERA SPECIFIC XML files!!!
7. Enhanced and expanded PBP with a Toggle switch to turn it off for those who don't want it.
8. A Pitch-by-Pitch mode while managing your own teams games. DMB is the King when it comes to in-game managerial options and this is a biggie. BUT make sure you don't HAVE to play this way the entire game aka OOTP 2006.

DO NOT add European, Latin, Russian or Chinese leagues to your game!!! Keep it simple and easy for those of us who are not very bright and DON'T get bogged down with minutia that no ones wants aka OOTP 2006

Thanks for listening. DNeely

PS: MORE Mods from the community! I wish I could do that stuff but I sure love what we have now and what is still to come.

...Nitpicking here, but the tagup from first *does* occasionally occur.

From Tuesday's M's vs O's game:
**************************************
--------------------------- MIDDLE 6TH

Bottom 6TH B:3 S:2 O:1
Melvin Mora flies out to center fielder Adam Jones.

Bottom 6TH B:4 S:2 O:1
Miguel Tejada walks.

Bottom 6TH B:0 S:1 O:2
Jeff Conine flies out to right fielder Ichiro Suzuki. Miguel Tejada to 2nd...
**************************************
...but it is admittedly a rarity, and to misquote a previous post: unless the right fielder falls down running deep to the corner to snag the fly ball, I *don't* want to be bothered to tell the baserunner to stay put.

And to misquote yet another post in this thread, I do believe that there is an issue with never being asked to tag from third. I will be prompted to wave a runner *past* third on some plays, but I don't remeber ever being asked if I want a runner to tag from third.


***EDIT:
Oops...just saw the other thread and someone already mentioned this play, and some discussion ensued about just how often the sim engine should ask us to advance from first to second. Sorry, should have kept reading...

Also, I wasn't a good citizen and failed to add my wishlist:
1. Cleanup the XML file for readability. I think that there may be some utility there that I haven't either seen or deciphered correctly and may be missing out on.
2. Like above, era-dependant XML files.
3. Interface: While I like the overall feel, I think some functionality could be added here. Things like drag 'n drop, dropdown menus, and the previously mentioned "undo" button.
4. Ballpark templates. I my be missing something, but in the process of assigning stadiums to all of the teams in my league, if found the action of placing *all* of the play-by-play locations in *all* of the stadiums to be a lot of work. Since most of the ballpark photos that I'm using have the same general layout, it would have been helpful to have a template available to assign those custom locations to different photos.

[Amaroq]

ORIGINAL: rpommier
Just to change things up a bit, can I add some things not to add?
- No ticket, hotdog or parking prices
- Anymore animation
- Owner emails or emails of any type

Hmm, I agree with you on the first, but I'm not so sure about the latter pair.

The ball-flight animation has definitely worked, and I think taking additional steps could also be made to work - I wouldn't rule it out entirely (though it is easy to imagine disastrous animations).

Likewise, thought the e-mail system seems to have annoyed OOTP fans, it works very well in FM, EHM, FOF, and even that older game, Grand Prix Manager. It can be a good motif for communication between the game and the player - for example, I could imagine an e-mail 'reminder: trading deadline is in two weeks', or an e-mail contract negotiation system with offers, counter-offers, etc, working pretty well. Again, I don't think its a bad idea on its own - its just one which can be both well and poorly implemented.

[SittingDuck]

I enjoy the animation.  I can see where people might not want it and an option to cut it out would be nice.  But to back off the animation and go back to the lines would, IMO, be a massive mistake.

But... no hotdogs? [:(] 

[;)]

[rpommier]

How about the ability to scroll through the play-by-play text?  If it's there I've missed it, sometimes it scrolls through and I would like to see what happened earlier.

Rod

[SittingDuck]

Major League/Minor League Salary Differences

One of the ways to alter this is very simple.

Currently the XML file has a YEARS_ADJUST parameter section. This is a variable on salary level to account for how many service years the player has. However, I take it this is for both major and minors service and not just major. Thus you have minors players asking for major league salary levels. And the leagues spin out of control for finances.

The way to affect that is code the YEARS_ADJUST to be for majors service time only. You'd have to figure a way to set some standard minors salary and then work it in so that guys retire properly if in the minors and underpaid (in their opinion). I think that might already be taken care of from the 'playing time' angle (ie., in AA but being 33 years old; aka - "I'm outta here!").

But this seems to me to be a way to affect salary levels and differentiate between majors and minors salaries.

[Walewander]

I would love to see the Almanac become a little more interactive, and I would be willing to sit through extra build times if the team stats were sortable by category - most ABs to least ABs, lowest ERA to highest ERA...

  

[SittingDuck]

I would definitely like to have filters put on the stats categories for:

Hitting (exclude pitchers, or at least have the option in a checkbox - ughh, pitchers!  but not as bad as the DH...)

Pitching (for ERA, filter out the relievers, or again have the checkbox option)

[SittingDuck]

RE: Fan Approval (Season Summary)

If you could engineer it so our finance levels could drop if we kept bombing in the public's eye...

Whew - I would love that!

Basically, we just stand to lose initially. Then if we improve, we can gain a bit back, but never more than the default starting financial level. And that is what I'd love to see in PSBB '08. I don't need to orchestrate bobble-head nights and set the price of hot dogs or any of that silliness. But having some type of financial repercussions for having a stinker team would be great.

Real life example: the O's attendance, after a near decade of mismanagement by the front office and PGA, has taken a massive dive - the largest percentage-wise in MLB. We are encouraging people to stay away from the ballpark as much as possible, in the hopes that it will force PGA's hand. Whether or not it does, who knows. But the point being, that type of attendance drop (around 26K now when OPACY would be near full attendance in the 90's) eventually hurts things, a lot.

So that is one way to make that approval rating really matter. And I think it should. People shouldn't be able to sandbag their season to get a high draft pick without repercussions. And I am not sure how you figure out how FAs choose which team they prefer, but a team that bombs continuously should definitely have some type of modifer to the FA's desire to play there. Again, witness the O's now. Players now openly say they won't play there. What a reversal!

But if it did become designed that approval ratings mattered again, then whatever is going on that makes them flop around like that would have to be addressed. No big whoop, I am sure. And you'd definitely want to make some basic XML parameters available to ward off the crying.

Man, I hope this lead balloon will somehow fly...

[Amaroq]

ORIGINAL: SittingDuck
Currently the XML file has a YEARS_ADJUST parameter section. This is a variable on salary level to account for how many service years the player has. However, I take it this is for both major and minors service and not just major. Thus you have minors players asking for major league salary levels. And the leagues spin out of control for finances.

OMG, Duck - I'd seen that in there, but I assumed it worked as you described it 'should'. If minor league years count as full service years, no wonder total salaries are so high!

There should probably be parameters for
- played no higher than A last year
- played no higher than AA last year
- played no higher than AAA last year

And we might want 'years of service' to accrue with the correct AB / IP thresholds required to make players non-rookies.

So, a player with '0' might have gotten 20 at bats, but not have accured a 'full year'.

[Amaroq]

I think that's the next direction I would like to see us grow in: I don't need FM's full-blown model, but having some things like

- avg attendance
- season ticket sales
- gate receipts
- local radio contract (from the 30's on)
- TV contract (from the 60's on)
- stadium upkeep/building costs

As the next step in the financial model, would be a good thing. I could imagine these working as follows:

Season tickets: based on *last year's* success X catchment area. Win the World Series in 2004, get more season tickets in 2005. Do abysmally in 2005, see a big drop in season tickets for 2006.

Gate receipts: based on *current* success X catchment area - if you're in the pennant race in September, you should be drawing lots; if you're out of the race, attendance should drop off.

Local radio revenues: based on the size of the catchment area X historical success rating - e.g., the Yankees get much higher local radio than the Mets due to their historical revenues, but both get higher than the A's based on their catchment area.

TV revenues: shared equally based on inflation X number of teams

With variable revenues, that could lead to variable budgets - and you might even get mid-season budgetary updates, with the 'boss' authorizing an extra $5M to chase the pennant, or requiring you to dump salary mid-season if you were out of it and gate receipts were plummeting.

[SittingDuck]

oooo - that, IMO, should be an optional thing for the player.  I'd like to see what I suggested as a base, which could be supplanted instead by anything you are talking about.  I think that level of financial detail would hose quite a few player's interest in the game, whereas for others it might increase it.

Hence the 'option'.

[KG Erwin]

Anything to do with finances is immaterial to me, as I don't use them.
 
However, if I were to transition into the modern free-agency era, I'd simply set salary caps for each team, and let the players with exorbitant demands sit out until they (or their agents)  [8|] see reason.
 
Imposing a salary cap bothers me, too, as I can see AI GMs overspending themselves quickly.  
 
Damn -- the money issue (and baseball as a business) keeps getting in the way.   

[pbot]

When starting a new association from a template, I would like to be able to set the start year to whichever year I chose...and not have whatever year the template was created with be the start year. 

[DandricSturm]

My current association just entered its 13th year and for the first time players were elected to the hall. One of them, while having compiled decent stats for the time he played is simply inappropriate. He is listed as having an 11 year career but he only played 5, then filed for free agency, sat out the next 5 years and then retired.

Some way to control who goes in to the Hall of Fame would be nice. A simple "Veto" button would suffice but being able to set criteria in some fashion would be better.

[Tigers Roar]

If I could have just one change it would be this:
Please allow adjustments of the lineup card for each team prior to play, whether the computer is managing the team or not. The AI decisions on lineups are driving me crazy.

I have adjusted the lineups vs. lefty/righty for each team in my league from the Lineups Screen, but the AI continually ignores those lineups when the games are played. Why? I could accept the occasional change for player fatigue, that makes sense, but when my choice for cleanup hitter is continually being move to the lead off spot and the banjo-hitting, rarely used backup catcher is slotted 5th in the batting order it doesn’t make sense.

I know I could go to each player card and "lock" the batter into a specific spot in the batting order, but this is too much work for every player and that would be going to far the other way in terms of usage. I just want the flexibility to review the AI lineup decisions and change them if I choose to do so, just as I can with the human owned/controlled teams lineup.

Thanks Shaun for all your hard work and considering user requests for improving the game!

[jcdcubs]

I have seen too many players with about 50 BB and 100 So. Should add K or SO rating just like ootp. Like Gwynn, Grace, Boggs - More walks than strikeouts.

[Woodruff]

Shaun, I have what I believe to be a very easy addition. When there is a runner on 1st base, we have an option to "Sac Bunt"...but no option for "Bunt for Hit". It's not unusual for me to want to go ahead and try to bunt for a hit in that situation, as I love to have my high-speed guys do this.

Would this be an easy addition?

[verizon32]

ORIGINAL: Woodruff

Shaun, I have what I believe to be a very easy addition. When there is a runner on 1st base, we have an option to "Sac Bunt"...but no option for "Bunt for Hit". It's not unusual for me to want to go ahead and try to bunt for a hit in that situation, as I love to have my high-speed guys do this.

Would this be an easy addition?

Good Idea. As long the cpu teams can do the same too.

[SittingDuck]

While fireworks are something, I'd prefer to see some type of cool celebration after winning the league championship and then after winning the WS.  That's the cause for celebration.  Nice to have it as a capper on your season.

[KG Erwin]

ORIGINAL: SittingDuck

While fireworks are something, I'd prefer to see some type of cool celebration after winning the league championship and then after winning the WS.  That's the cause for celebration.  Nice to have it as a capper on your season.

I like that idea. Maybe a short video clip of a ticker-tape parade or something like that?