OOTP 24 Review: Overview of Changes

Curious about what's new in OOTP 24 and whether to buy the new game? Here's my insight and advice!

[@michaeladamson473]

"Once you get used to OOTP you're never gonna get fired." pfholden in shambles.

[@run4estrun348]

😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮 25:37 25:42 25:56

[@bmla88]

Welcome back Sarge.

[@pdraggy]

I just watched Foolish Bailey's 'planned' 5-year sim. He saw a bunch of RIDICULOUS trades where like 5 prospects are shipped off for one... and ofc sometimes that one prospect isn't even better than one or a few of the prospects offered for him! yeah, finances if not trades are ludicrous ATM. My hunch is it's kind of due to having 5 or whatever possible players offered for 1. They DEFFINITELY should not have released it in this state. and I came acrossed most of these in JUST my first year of simming in my VERY first game. It's like they prioritize fancy new (but inconsequential) features like statcast or owner goals over JUST HAVING THE DANG GAME WORK. I think before they release NO MATTER HOW MANY FEATURES THEY PUT they should always be confident that their game can predict the next two season's playoff teams relatively well. In this one? no, there's a TON of ridiculous trades that will never happen in real life leading to CHAOS year 2+! I mean, what kind of simulation is that?? Is OOTP turning into an Arcade sim? But yeah, the international FA process is 1000% improved, a JOY to play.

[@benross9650]

Thanks for that Big PP Package @OOTPDevelopments ;)

[@SkinnyPeteYT]

Good to see you back... Hopefully the tutorials can return for 24!

[@TwenOalley]

I hope the devs watch this

[@sgtmushroom]

They most certainly won't, but I know they're well aware of most of the issues I pointed out.

[@oldschoolsports]

Looking forward to more videos, thank you!

[@DerekS75]

Saw Ohtani sign a 6 year 180 million dollar contract in this years game and knew something was up when Bryan Reynolds is asking around 40 AAV

[@Rich-od8bs]

Really good breakdown. I suppose the challenge of games like these is to make it fun for both casual players and hardcore players. I usually ratchet up the difficulty where possible and give myself house rules to make the game feel more natural. It's still better than anything out there that I know of but your criticisms are on point. Hopefully you can and want to post more videos in the future.

[@scottlupus7837]

I disagree. Casual players are not going to go into the depths required to understand finances, trades etc. And if they do, they won't care or even recognize where things are broken. Therefore, when finances are obviously broken, it will mostly effect the game for the serious player.

[@Rich-od8bs]

@@scottlupus7837 Yeah fair point.

[@stevejunkins3732]

Should we try to get the best available Assistant GM that we can get? Also what should we look for in an assistant GM? Thanks

[@CLFCBasel]

Ive never done a league with just AI. Only in an online league since 2010 (just started the year 2050), and a couple of leagues before that. Good to find this though.

[@user-sk8yv9gc8t]

In the past OOTP it was considered important to have Sparkplug and Captain in the roster. What do you think about the effectiveness of these in OOTP24 and 23?

[@sgtmushroom]

Captains are definitely more important to chemistry than sparkplugs, and there will likely be no change to that in the new game.

[@DelgadoPropertyManagement]

sounds like I can just keep putzing along in my OOTP 23 1871 Historical league (now in 1889). I'm not hearing anything that makes a big change to that.

[@sgtmushroom]

They did make one change that affects historical games more than live games, but it's essentially a balancing thing for "realism". Historical games almost never get the attention that they arguably deserve.

[@Sweetish_Jeff_]

Question: have the AI Evaluation Settings changed? You’re the second person I’ve seen with settings of 30/50/15/5. Just curious. Thank you!

[@sgtmushroom]

Yes, the default has changed, curiously. You can still switch it back.

[@Sweetish_Jeff_]

@@sgtmushroom Thank you!

[@alexdostaler]

I am by no means a newbie to the game, but what is Mops? Is it an update to the player ranking spreadsheet?

[@sgtmushroom]

MOPS was essentially a position player evaluation tool for live/historical environments on the 22 engine. You could plug a player's ratings in and get a return on their projected stats.

[@shoukatsukai]

Sounds like I probably should hold off on it for a bit. A shame, because I want to play my Astros fresh off a World Series win.

[@sgtmushroom]

It's certainly worth it if you're a big OOTP fan, just a shame that it feels like every year the game gets more messy at release.

[@sethkaufmanceo54]

you mentioned MOPS 2.0 being a possible summer release... is this still something you plan on doing?

[@sidimannn]

Great video. This is not the right moment to buy this game. Will await your conclusion when the financial part is fixed.

[@Smitchellton]

I've only been playing since 23. When do they typically patch the launch issues? I know with Football Manager people often wait like 3 months to buy the game so everything is ironed out. Same story here?

[@sgtmushroom]

It's difficult to say, because OOTP has never had issues like this before. It could be 3 months, it could go unfixed the whole year.

[@pdraggy]

I have DL Hall (in 2024), he's a pretty fricken awesome closer!

[@Ian00003]

He never pans out at a starter for me but he’s always an insane stopper

[@Zombie1Boy]

Good thing they added in long term contracts -- just in time to sign Vladdy Jr. to a 12yr 480 million contract, lol.

[@sgtmushroom]

Absolutely agree. This was a couple versions overdue IMO and a really nice change.

[@guccipoochie2328]

BaseBALLS

[@DJ80s]

Trading is broken because the AI passes players around like hot potatoes. By the end of the 1st season you have no idea what players are where. Some players get passed around the AI more than once. The AI is spazzing out.

[@stanleyrosella7042]

Never liked the owner goals. Very dicerolling thing. Not very realistic. New trade system looks a bit weird with reputation as you tell it. But biggest thing is that now OOTP crawl back inside US ONLY. One can't play with the whole world open. That was the price Markus had to take when selling the company to Japanese owners. It goes down the same road as Football Manager. Certain leagues and countries are not in with real teams and more important players. Whatever comes out of Japan when playing it now like this is fictional from the start. Horrible. Guys it's not US that is number ONE, it's Japan and many of those players will eventually end up in MLB. Now you got crazy fictional games right off the bat, so a save will be weird IMHO. The contract negotiation looks good for humans, but do need to improve AI giving contracts and trades. Have been crazy and still are I see. These new features don't improve it obviously. Perhaps time to skip over a version or two. Hoping they fix the stuff with fictional players abroad first, but I feared a step back and perhaps stop looking business like as this new owners do. It was on the wall when the news sprung that ownership and control shifted from the diehard fan Markus to the Japanese. It could have been a deathroll. Markus had one direction but this new owner clearly got a different direction. Fear too that graphics will be more since it sells more than just numbers. Think we can agree that the new owenrs have made their presence known. SHIT. Thanks for this insight of the new version.

[@Sweetish_Jeff_]

I agree with most of what you said. However, the new owners of OOTP are Korean, not Japanese. I am very disappointed that OOTP took it upon itself to remove the international leagues and now censors their message boards. You can’t even say NPB anymore. It will get redacted. Moreover, NOBODY at OOTP will comment publicly on this. You’re right. Japan just won the WBC. They have some of the best players. Yet we get none of them in OOTP 24. Instead, we get a fictional South African League with fictional South African players. That makes a lot of sense. SMH Why couldn’t they have renamed the Japanese leagues to something like JPB and renamed the teams, but kept the players and history intact? It’s ridiculous and it’s one of many reasons why I haven’t bought OOTP 24 yet. In fact, I predict that sales for OOTP 24 will be the lowest they’ve had in decades. You watch. They’re going to lose money. A lot of their fanbase are not happy about this and will not pay for a second-rate version of the game. My prediction long-term is that OOTP will eventually work out a deal and try to win back customers, but it won’t happen this year.

[@sgtmushroom]

So, I do absolutely agree that it's unfortunate OOTP has dropped international leagues, but there are a couple of things to note here. First off, they sold to a Korean company, not a Japanese company. Secondly, the game's sale had nothing to do with the removal of international leagues. That came about as a result of OOTP getting in trouble for violating copywrite last year, so all leagues they weren't licensed for (which really shouldn't have been in the game in the first place) were removed this year. Third, I don't really think the KBO (which is a Korean league, not a Japanese league) actually alters the MLB with its talent that much, so I'm not sure where your last assessment came from. I do not agree that the new contract system is good for humans. There are loads of inefficiencies that allow signing of excellent talent cheap or prevent signing some players because their demands are so overinflated. It is my opinion that PT was guaranteed to be gutted to a money maker after the Com2us sale, but I don't really think base game has been much affected. The dropping professionalism and quality of OOTP (at release at least) in recent years is 100% on Markus and company. That said though, I believe that also means your biggest worries about the game being driven in a bad direction intentionally are likely not going to come to fruitition.

[@Sweetish_Jeff_]

@@sgtmushroom I like Dishnet and admire his dedication, but ever since Kris Jardine left OOTP I feel that PT has gone downhill.

[@sgtmushroom]

@@Sweetish_Jeff_ Dishnet is absolutely not the reason PT is going downhill right now (as someone who knows him to some degree directly, and has followed the PT world and its downhill decline). Jardine was a solid content director and an entertaining streamer, but Dishnet is absolutely more community friendly and still an entertaining streamer for his part. The real problem is the hiring of Paul Sporer as content director, someone who doesn't know PT (and it clearly shows) and the very obvious push towards a money sucking approach as a company direction.

[@Sweetish_Jeff_]

@@sgtmushroom I agree with you about Sporer. And I do like Dishnet and think he sounds like a cool dude. The way things are going, I’m likely to stick with OOTP 23 for now. Your video was very informative and helpful. Thank you! I just don’t think the game is worth the money.

[@METALBUG999]

yeah it's worth a buy if you have ootp 21 and earlier. not a big improvement over 23. graphics are the same.

[@theseanie9958]

graphics definitely arent the same tho

[@YourKidnies]

@@theseanie9958 The new graphics in game are actual motion capture of the games creator Markus Heinsohn

[@sgtmushroom]

I don't really prioritize graphics. That said, the simulated graphics look a bit sharper, but I think the game's visual elements are disappointing and sometimes buggy this version.

[@pdraggy]

Yeah on Reddit I complained at 39.99 (never bought at release, but wasn't it 19.99 back in 2022 and stuff?) I might just as well buy MLB The Show for my PS5! But after seeing a simmed game, while certainly NOTHING like the 70 dollar MLB The Show, it's really FUN watching xD. That's all I need, I like to watch ^_^

[@YourKidnies]

@@pdraggy OOTP has been $40 on release as long as I remember.

[@dave1927p]

disappointing version with focus on their money making gambling mode

[@sgtmushroom]

This is a common misconception that I don't think is actually supported at the moment. OOTP has separate development teams for PT and base game, and while I would guess that the original release of PT came with sucking some resources from base game that may have never been restored, I don't think it's like they've diverted more resources from base game to PT. The big problem is that, quite frankly, OOTP is run by a messy and somewhat unprofessional developer with no real beta to fix bugs that they either don't dig up themselves or don't bother to fix so they can prioritize flashy new features and sell more copies of the game. That's just the reality of it.