OOTP Player Development and Other Thoughts
For those interested in really digging in deep with OOTP’s sim engine, the Recycle Bin has put up some very interesting analysis of player development in OOTP 2006, as compared to the 6.5 version. Good stuff, indeed.
Right now I’m content to sit in a holding pattern with the game. It sounds like Patch #2 is due (knock on wood) before the start of July. For now, I’m content to wait for that before digging in deep. I still have about two dozen logos or so to put together for my custom fictional league. (And I’m learning a ton about using Photoshop Elements, so I can add to my resume in the process… sort of.) Anyway, hopefully some of the GM AI issues will get worked out on this go ’round.
As a sidenote, I’ve gotta say I’m actually extremely impressed with the level of support SI and the game’s testers have offered up to this point. Given the game’s scope, and the fact that it’s been rebuilt from the ground up, I’m actually surprised that the problems haven’t been much more severe. On the whole it’s a completely stable, playable game with features that work. Is it well-balanced? No, and it desperately needs to be. But at this point I’ll take this over the types of issues and level of support we get from EA Sports or 2k Sports, where it’s place your bets as to whether a problem will even be acknowledged, let alone get patched. (And even when patched, it usually takes much longer to happen and most of the time we don’t even know if it’s coming at all, until it’s already out.) In this genre, I’ll take the OOTP 2006 scenario any day of the week.