OO OOTP baseball league? (We have 16 teams! It's ON!)

J.D. · Post by **J.D.** » Fri Oct 14, 2011 11:33 am

It's been a long time since the last OOTP league. I'm thinking it would be nice to resurrect the Octopus Overlords Out of the Park Baseball League (commonly known as 4OTP Baseball). I'd even be willing to help run one of the sims per week, but couldn't take on full commish duties.

Anyone else interested in trying to start it back up? I think it would be a lot of fun.

Asharak · Post by **Asharak** » Fri Oct 14, 2011 11:50 am

I haven't played OOTP, even a solo league, in a couple of years now. Although for some reason I keep buying the game. I doubt I'd be a usefully committed GM at this point -- and if I did decide to get back into an OOTP league, I'd probably prefer to wait for a space in the BJHL, which is still running. I'll ponder it, though.

FYI (and the primary reason for this post), I still own the 4OTP.net domain, if anyone wants to take it off my hands to help with getting a new version of the league running.

- Ash

Kelric · Post by **Kelric** » Fri Oct 14, 2011 12:23 pm

I'm in, but I can't commish. I could run the odd sim here or there if the regular commish(es) couldn't, but I don't have a reliable night of the week where I know I can help.

Exodor · Post by **Exodor** » Fri Oct 14, 2011 12:58 pm

If one forms I'd be willing to take a team but can't really commish. Heck, I usually flame out as just a GM after a month or two.

malichai11 · Post by **malichai11** » Fri Oct 14, 2011 1:53 pm

I've played a boatload of OOTP over the past 4 years, easily more than any other game. I also have copious amounts of free time, so would consider being commissioner, with the caveat that I've never even been in a multiplayer OOTP game.

Sudy · Post by **Sudy** » Fri Oct 14, 2011 2:02 pm

J.D. wrote:I'd even be willing to help run one of the sims per week, but couldn't take on full commish duties.

Same here. Not having commished before, and not having l33t web skillz, I'd be hesitant to take the role of primary commissioner. My work schedule is also such that I'm just not available some days, and the schedule rotates. There's no one day of the week that I can be reliable week in and week out. But I also get a lot of days off, and I'd be more than willing to do my part at those times.

I've been holding off finding a league because I was hopeful OO might get a new one together. The other option would be invading a random new league, but this could be hit or miss if we don't know the commish(es).

One thing's for certain, we'd need to start small--16, 20, probably 24 teams max. Going full MLB always leads to difficulty maintaining owners two or three seasons in unless you're a unique, well run league popular enough in the general OOTP community to fill your vacancies quickly.

J.D. · Post by **J.D.** » Fri Oct 14, 2011 2:16 pm

At this point I'd be happy with even just 10 teams to get things rolling for a few seasons if that's all we can find.

Sudy · Post by **Sudy** » Fri Oct 14, 2011 2:19 pm

That would be fine with me too. Though I expect there are enough OOTP players in the community that we could wrangle up 16 no problem. I just don't think it's worth setting up a full MLB league, because the last one we had didn't last more than, what? 4 or 5 seasons?

noxiousdog · Post by **noxiousdog** » Fri Oct 14, 2011 2:24 pm

I would not be interested, but I forwarded it on to my dad who played for a while here and in my league.

J.D. · Post by **J.D.** » Fri Oct 14, 2011 2:51 pm

In (6):
J.D.
Kelric
Exodor
malichai11
Sudy Nym
denoginizer (from GT)

Maybe (2):
Asharak
Noxiousdog's dad

Out (1):
noxiousdog

Asharak · Post by **Asharak** » Fri Oct 14, 2011 3:03 pm

Sudy Nym wrote:Not having commished before, and not having l33t web skillz, I'd be hesitant to take the role of primary commissioner.

Regardless of whether I join the league or not, I'm more than willing to answers any questions new Commissioner(s) may have about how the process works, since I've done quite a bit of it in the past. I'm sure I'll be watching this thread and you're also welcome to PM / e-mail me.

- Ash

J.D. · Post by **J.D.** » Fri Oct 14, 2011 3:55 pm

denoginizer from GT makes 6. I've posted an invite to GT folks as well.

Alliedweasel · Post by **Alliedweasel** » Fri Oct 14, 2011 4:18 pm

*delurk*

Id be interested. I played in the original 4OTP and still play in the BJHL.

DD* · Post by DD* » Fri Oct 14, 2011 11:23 pm

Can someone give the uninitiated the scoop? I'm not familiar with OOTP but might be interested. Is it a fantasy league kind of thing?

Sudy · Post by **Sudy** » Fri Oct 14, 2011 11:30 pm

It's a text simulation. Think Football Manager, but for baseball. Link.

DD* · Post by DD* » Sat Oct 15, 2011 12:06 pm

What kind of commitment are we talking about? I might be interested but I can't do the level of involvement as I did when I clanned in UT back in the day

Asharak · Post by **Asharak** » Sat Oct 15, 2011 12:16 pm

DD* wrote:What kind of commitment are we talking about? I might be interested but I can't do the level of involvement as I did when I clanned in UT back in the day

You can cover the essentials of running a team in about 15 minutes per sim (which means probably something like 45 minutes per week, although how often games are simmed is a question to be decided). You'll spend a bit more time than that at certain points in the season, such as the start of free agency (when you'll probably have lots of offers to manage simultaneously) and the start of the regular season (when you'll need to make a lot of roster decisions at once). And you CAN spend hours more than that, if you want, doing everything from negotiating trades with the other players to pouring over the vast array of stats that the game produces to writing "news stories" about the league, if you're so inclined.

OOTP is very much a game that can be played as casually or as obsessively as you like.

- Ash

Baroquen · Post by **Baroquen** » Sat Oct 15, 2011 7:19 pm

Put me down as a maybe. I'll keep checking this thread to see how things unfold.

DD* · Post by DD* » Sat Oct 15, 2011 7:53 pm

I'm in, if it goes forward. $40 is "steep" in my game buying world these days, so I expect you all to amuse me if it turns out OOTP is not as much fun as you make it out to be

Sudy · Post by **Sudy** » Sat Oct 15, 2011 8:08 pm

Its absolutely titanic fun, but as a first time player the learning curve may be a tad steep. You might want to give the demo a go just to get the feel of it. Not sure if the demo is out yet for 12, but the one for version 11 isn't much different.

So not to put the cart before the horse, but any general thoughts as to the type of league? Fictional? Present day fantasy draft with less teams? Historical? Japanese? No need to make up our minds yet, but thought it might be fun to start thinking about it.

I was recently reading about using the high school database for historical leagues, so that players import at more appropriate ages.

Kelric · Post by **Kelric** » Sun Oct 16, 2011 10:55 am

I think any league we start needs to begin with a fantasy draft. In order of preference right now I'd vote historical, fictional, then present day. That is subject to change of course.

Exodor · Post by **Exodor** » Sun Oct 16, 2011 11:39 am

Kelric wrote:I think any league we start needs to begin with a fantasy draft. In order of preference right now I'd vote historical, fictional, then present day. That is subject to change of course.

I'm down with this. If we do a historical draft what era would be preferable?

I'm partial to the 1985 season.

Sudy · Post by **Sudy** » Sun Oct 16, 2011 12:21 pm

I too would be interested in a more recent historical league. Something 1980 or later. It's the 90s I'm most interested in playing around in, but I wouldn't want to start too soon, presuming we play it for a long time.

As for a fantasy draft, I adore them. But they also greatly delay the start of the league if we draft deep, and managing long lists is extremely cumbersome. I can't imagine it's a great joy for the commissioners to wade through, either. I frankly wouldn't have a problem with an auto-draft, and a lottery for team selection order. Franchise names could be changed after, if it were a big deal.

On the other hand, we could do a limited owner selection draft, say, the first 10 rounds. Perhaps even break it into a half round each day, should the league grow to a large number of teams, to make for a quicker list creation process.

Or of course, we can do a whole draft, as deep as the league likes. Just, again, it takes time, and in my mind, a great amount of effort. It can also lead to parity issues out of the gate if some owners are weaker drafters. Not that an auto-drafted league will have perfectly equal teams. But it's less likely the AI focuses all on youth, or something.

J.D. · Post by **J.D.** » Sun Oct 16, 2011 12:27 pm

Or, if we want to do a historical league we just make it so whatever team you choose you start with that ACTUAL team from that year. So say we start from 1980 and I pick the Jays. Then I get the 1980's Jays and have to build from there. That's another option if people aren't a fan of big long deep drafts.

J.D. · Post by **J.D.** » Sun Oct 16, 2011 12:31 pm

Updated list:

In (8):
J.D.
Kelric
Exodor
malichai11
Sudy Nym
denoginizer (from GT)
Alliedweasel
DD*

Maybe (4):
Asharak
Noxiousdog's dad
Baroquen
gellar (from GT)

Out (1):
noxiousdog

So we have 8 interested and 4 on the fence. I would like between 10 and 16 to start so we're getting close.

J.D. · Post by **J.D.** » Sun Oct 16, 2011 12:33 pm

Also, gellar is actually in if there is a mac version that can be used to play with all of us using a PC version. Does anyone know if the game is multi-platform in that Mac's and PC's can play in the same league in blissful harmony?

Kelric · Post by **Kelric** » Sun Oct 16, 2011 12:58 pm

J.D. wrote:Also, gellar is actually in if there is a mac version that can be used to play with all of us using a PC version. Does anyone know if the game is multi-platform in that Mac's and PC's can play in the same league in blissful harmony?

I'm pretty sure they do, but I don't actually know.

Sudy · Post by **Sudy** » Sun Oct 16, 2011 1:42 pm

J.D. wrote:Or, if we want to do a historical league we just make it so whatever team you choose you start with that ACTUAL team from that year. So say we start from 1980 and I pick the Jays. Then I get the 1980's Jays and have to build from there. That's another option if people aren't a fan of big long deep drafts.

I personally dislike that option, because it follows that if we're going with less teams than there were in reality at that time, the rest of the players/teams are either deleted or released into a free agent pool. Or I suppose we could conduct a manual draft of them. But this neither is a small undertaking.

J.D. · Post by **J.D.** » Sun Oct 16, 2011 1:58 pm

Ah, good point. I didn't even think of what would happen to those extra players.

Post by **godhugh** » Mon Oct 17, 2011 2:24 pm

Put me down as a maybe. It's been years since I played, but I've been thinking of getting back into it.

J.D. · Post by **J.D.** » Tue Oct 18, 2011 9:34 am

In (10):
J.D.
Kelric
Exodor
malichai11
Sudy Nym
denoginizer (from GT)
Alliedweasel
DD*
gellar (from GT)
Ninyu

Maybe (4):
Asharak
Noxiousdog's dad
Baroquen
godhugh

Out (1):
noxiousdog

Nine people guaranteed and four maybe's. Any one of the four want to step up and give us at least ten? Anyone else out there interested?

J.D. · Post by **J.D.** » Tue Oct 18, 2011 9:36 am

Also OOTP 12 is half-price during the world series, so if you don't have it yet, you can get it for $19.99!

dedewhale · Post by **dedewhale** » Tue Oct 18, 2011 9:49 am

I am on the fence. Depends on the type of league...I have no interest in historical leagues, might be more tempted by pure fantasy league. I still dont have ootp12 yet.

So depending on the rule set and how badly you need owners is what I will base my decision on.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Tue Oct 18, 2011 9:50 am

Can you give me a rundown of how (your) league play works? I have OOTP X but have only ever played (simmed?) single player and done so as a fairly hands off GM. I might be talked in to dropping $20 to pick up 12 if I understood what I was getting in to by getting in to a league.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Tue Oct 18, 2011 10:35 am

J.D. wrote:Also OOTP 12 is half-price during the world series, so if you don't have it yet, you can get it for $19.99!

Augh! Stop tempting me!

noxiousdog · Post by **noxiousdog** » Tue Oct 18, 2011 11:01 am

If you haven't been in an OOTP league before, it's one of the greatest multiplayer gaming experiences out there. I couldn't even guess at the number of posts I made trying to veto the Tejada/Berkman trade

J.D. · Post by **J.D.** » Tue Oct 18, 2011 11:07 am

noxiousdog wrote:If you haven't been in an OOTP league before, it's one of the greatest multiplayer gaming experiences out there. I couldn't even guess at the number of posts I made trying to veto the Tejada/Berkman trade

But not great enough to join this time?

Ninyu · Post by **Ninyu** » Tue Oct 18, 2011 11:33 am

I'd be interested as long as we do only one or two sims per week. I also would prefer present day rosters. Historical doesn't interest me.

I call the White Sox!

J.D. · Post by **J.D.** » Tue Oct 18, 2011 11:43 am

I was actually thinking a 2-sim week would probably work best for a rookie commissioner crew. I can definitely commit to doing Thursday night sims if there is someone else who wants to take the other one (Monday?)

I have no preference for historical, fictional, or present-day. Whatever gets the most people to join works for me.

EDIT: Ninyu I've also added you to the "yes" list as you do seem pretty interested. If it turns out that everyone wants historical than you can decide at that point if you still want in.

J.D. · Post by **J.D.** » Tue Oct 18, 2011 11:51 am

I'm going to set up a league structure / rule discussion thread soon over in Forum Games for those that are interested in joining the league. I'll leave this here as a recruiting thread. I'll post a link to the thread when it's up.