OOTP 25 Discussion

[KSUowls]

Well I decided to buy it due to the new development lab and some of the under the hood stuff.

I really like the new player cards when you mouse over. It really helps having just that little bit of extra information without needing to dive fully into the player's page. Nice QoL change.

I haven't had the opportunity to test out the development lab yet since I believe that happens in the off-season, but I have enjoyed adjusting development focus areas for some of my minor leaguers.

Really liking the new ratings system. We'll have to see how it actually plays out, but theoretically it should be better since there are more ratings to scale up/down for a player's performance.

Highly unimpressed with the first AI trade offer that I received. I was offered a 25 year old AAA OF who is 45/45 ratings guy. They wanted a 29 year old major league reliever (55/55 rating and salary still at the league minimum) AND a 21 year old pitching prospect whose ratings are 35/50. This continues to be my biggest complaint about the series year after year. I am positive that AI trading is not an easy thing to code, but surely they can make something that isn't THAT lopsided...It's not even a starting point.

I also wish that there was a way to input the strategy "don't swing on a 3-0 count" when playing 1 pitch mode. Not a huge deal, but it's bothered me for a few years now.

Good so far.

1 QoL feature that I have wanted for a while is universal rule setting for minor leagues. It takes 8 mouse clicks to set the roster limit for 1 league. So, if you want to do that with all 14 default MLB associated minor leagues then that is 112 mouse clicks to set 1 rule. Then additional clicks beyond that if you want to change up anything else. I always set a roster limit for minor leagues to avoid having like 60 players end up in AA, and it's just a pain to do that. It is slightly better if you do set everything up at the league creation, then it ranges from like 15-30 clicks total per rule change, which still isn't ideal, but if you want to make edits after that then you're right back to the 112 clicks.

[MizzouRah]

You can adjust the trade AI difficulty as well as have the AI favor prospects or veterans.

I haven't tested it fully yet to find the best setting though.

[KSUowls]

Quote: Originally Posted by MizzouRah

You can adjust the trade AI difficulty as well as have the AI favor prospects or veterans. I haven't tested it fully yet to find the best setting though.

The above mentioned trade failed in both directions there.

They offered one minor league for both a higher rated veteran and a higher rated prospect. The AI says, "why ask for one when you can ask for both"

[Cod]

Quote: Originally Posted by KSUowls

Highly unimpressed with the first AI trade offer that I received. I was offered a 25 year old AAA OF who is 45/45 ratings guy. They wanted a 29 year old major league reliever (55/55 rating and salary still at the league minimum) AND a 21 year old pitching prospect whose ratings are 35/50. This continues to be my biggest complaint about the series year after year. I am positive that AI trading is not an easy thing to code, but surely they can make something that isn't THAT lopsided...It's not even a starting point.

What player evaluation settings are you using? Those play a much larger roll in AI decision making for trades, lineups, etc. than year's past.

[KSUowls]

Quote: Originally Posted by Cod

What player evaluation settings are you using? Those play a much larger roll in AI decision making for trades, lineups, etc. than year's past.

Default settings for difficulty:
Difficulty = 14 points towards hard
Favors Prospects = 5 points towards favors prospects

Slightly adjusted for Player Evaluation:
Ratings weight = 50
Current Year Stats = 35
Previous Year Stats = 10
2 years ago stats = 5



The trade offer that I originally mentioned happened 1 or 2 weeks into the first season.

About a month deeper into the season I received another trade offer. I do not remember the details, but it was even worse than the first one. The AI again offered like a 4A caliber player, for both a higher rated veteran in the starting lineup and a prospect that was already rated higher than the offered player while also carrying a much higher potential. I'm hoping this gets better as the season progresses and scouting for all teams becomes more filled out. I know my scouting director was vacant at the launch of play and it takes some time to go from "low" on the scout to being more accurate.

Hoping you're right that things are better this year. I have hundreds of hours in every OOTP game going back the last few years, and I would be shocked if there were 10 AI trade offers that made me even stop and pause to consider or use it as a starting point. Which I have always found funny because the AI is usually really good at understanding when you're trying to fleece them, and they even regularly reject fair and slight overpays as laughable.

[Cod]

Recommend trying 70/25/5/0 or 75/20/5/0. A lot of long time OOTPers use settings very close to this, myself included, and find the aforementioned settings great because they take advantage of "how the game works" (sim results based on ratings, not stats).

[Jeffrey99]

I've read alot on the forums, watched some videos. I'm no longer in a league, so don't have to buy the new version every year. I just don't see enough to warrant the $50 price tag. Yeah yeah, I know it's on sale for $35 but I base games off their full price. And to me I see no point in jacking the price up to $50 to turn around and offer it for $35 during it's first normal week. Sounds like a great way to tick off the casual fan that doesn't follow them on the forums. Both OOTP and FHM have both become every other year (at minimum) buys for me.

Bought a month of gamepass for $4, gonna try The Show and will probably go that route.

[canes21]

To be fair, they basically have the game on sale the first week every single year, so this year is no different.