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[jman2050]

Ever wanted to run your own major league baseball team? Neither did I, but OOTP Baseball does a pretty good job making a tiresome and tedious job fun!

http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/

Note that the latest version released is OOTP 8/2007, but having tried it out and read dozens of impressions online, it's basically a pain in the rear to set up and work with, and too confusing to actually play. So if we want to start our own GAF league, it's recommended to stick with OOTP 6/6.5. I've participated in some online leagues already, and despite some quirks, it's a very solid and reasonably realistic simulation game. Any baseball nut should get a kick out of it.

This thread will just be seeing if enough people are interested. Note that even though versions 6 and on cost money ($20 bucks for 6.12 and $10 for the 6.5 expansion last I checked) you don't actually need to BUY the game in order to participate in a league, though it'd help greatly. The game provides enough tools for any commish to upload the necessary information on a web page. So don't think that being unable to buy the game could stop you from jumping in!

So, any takers?

 

[Trellisaze]

I would be in for a GAF OOTP 6.5 league (already in one that's been running for about 30 seasons). What's the minimum number of teams needed to form a league? It would be nice to get the full slate but I'll be impressed if even 30 active gaffers have the game, as I never ever see it mentioned around here.

 

[jman2050]

I'm sure we could easily have a smaller league. One league I'm in runs 16 teams, and you can go lower, although it might be a bit repetitive I guess it depends on how many people are interested, and like I said, you don't necessarily need the game to participate.

 

[Trellisaze]

How does that work if you don't have the game? Instead of exporting through the game you email the commish your roster moves instead?

 

[jman2050]

Yeah, or use a forum interface, or use IM, anything really to get the commish the information. Getting the information to the GMs is easy.

 

[UltiGamer]

I have been looking for a good MAC game and this seems to b just what I am looking for, if we are going to start a league I would TOTALLY be in. So, are we using both the base game and the expansion for 6/6.5?

Also, how much is it to just download the games instead of getting a disc product? If it is 20 for both instead of 30 I would be totally into that...

 

[AstroLad]

I would absolutely give this a shot if you got a league together; I was going to buy one of the OOTPs at some point anyway. The thing is Gaffers are sadly flakes about even much simpler leagues; never mind getting people interested in a text-based sim, no matter how awesome. Anyway, thread is now in my User CP so I'll keep my eye out to see if anything takes off.

Also you'd need to market this thread differently. Something like "Awesome FREE Online GAF Baseball League."

Too many sad-but-trues for one post.

 

[Trellisaze]

I would absolutely give this a shot if you got a league together; I was going to buy one of the OOTPs at some point anyway. The thing is Gaffers are sadly flakes about even much simpler leagues; never mind getting people interested in a text-based sim, no matter how awesome.

The advantage OOTP has is it's low maintenance compared to something like a Madden or NBA 2K league, especially because you don't have to worry about scheduling head-to-head matchups and such. Maybe it'll take an average of 15 minutes every 2-3 days, judging by the league I play in (though I often do spend a bit more time with stuff like tweaking my minor league rosters), to whip up the email for your roster update plus whatever time you spend talking deals with the other GMs.

Good idea about the topic title change - we need the thread to be as inviting as possible.

 

[AstroLad]

The advantage OOTP has is it's low maintenance compared to something like a Madden or NBA 2K league, especially because you don't have to worry about scheduling head-to-head matchups and such. Maybe it'll take an average of 15 minutes every 2-3 days, judging by the league I play in (though I often do spend a bit more time with stuff like tweaking my minor league rosters), to whip up the email for your roster update plus whatever time you spend talking deals with the other GMs.

Good idea about the topic title change - we need the thread to be as inviting as possible.

Can you briefly run down how the online leagues work? Would it be possible to do even if it were just 8 (optimistic) of us?

 

[jman2050]

Can you briefly run down how the online leagues work? Would it be possible to do even if it were just 8 (optimistic) of us?

As was said, it's quite low maintenance. The program itself will take care of all the things like scheduling, finances, player development, etc if you decide you don't want to be hands-on. If you Do want to be hands-on, the game provides a ton of customization options that the commissioner could employ. You can specify number of teams, number of games in a season, playoff format, divisional/league separations. You can specify several options for the financial system like the minimum $$$ of player salaries, for example, which serve as a baseline for player salaries in general, salary caps, cash maximums that can be applied for revenue sharing, etc.

Then there's roster options, options for how you want to handle minor leagues and players, stuff like DFAs, waivers, 40-man rosters and the like (you can even specify how big the active roster could be). And of course, you can tweak the simulation engine itself, scaling player talent ratings as generated by the program to your liking, and even changing the frequency of stuff like home runs, hits, walks, strikeouts, etc. in order to fit the engine to a different historical era, or even a different baseball league entrely. In a nutshell, you can conceivably forgo MLB parameters entirely and create a fictional local high school league, or college leagues, or Japanese leagues, or anything you want.

As for what a GM does, it basically boils down to setting up your lineups, pitching staff, depth charts, and moving players within the minor leagues. Offseason has the usual stuff, FA signings, first-year player drafts, etc. Really awesome stuff.

Actually, I just realized I didn't necessarily answer the question :lol If you DO have the OOTP program purchased and whatnot, you can download the league files the commissioner puts out (they can be password protected), and perform all your team changes in the program itself, then export those changes to an internet location the commish specifies. Alternatively, the program lets you output all the data of a league (and I mean EVERYTHING) into a collection of simple HTML files, which can then be uploaded onto a web space. Those without the program can look at their team and others via said web site, then give their changes to the commish for him to apply himself. As you can see, it's quite easy either way, though the former method is less annoying. And besides, creating and running leagues by yourself is a pretty fun venture too, especially if you use the manager career mode.

 

[Trellisaze]

Exactly what jman2050 said. You're essentially the team's GM, with a bit of coaching, scouting and operations thrown in for good measure.

And it's likely it would be possible to run an 8-team league, but it's much easier to contract teams when we lose people than it is to add them later. Not all teams have to be player-controlled, though - even if we start with only 8 players we can account for expansion by setting a bunch of other teams up as cpu-controlled at the start and letting newcomers pick them up as they come.

 

[Miguel]

http://clutchleagues.com/OOTP4/index.htm
League I used to be in for a short while. Pretty fun.

And I can set up access for whoever the commish will be to upload to a directory on OTLooseballs.

If you missed it in the other thread

 

[bluemax]

I'm in with the Mariners if possible.

 

[jman2050]

Still seeing if more people are interested, but I guess it's possible we can art with what we have and just have the computer control the other teams until we ca recruit more people. How does that sound?