News
Out of the Park Baseball 17 Now Available
March 22, in the year of our Lord 2016 --
OOTP 17 Features 2016 Opening Day Rosters, a Redesigned
Interface, an Improved 3D Mode, and Much More
Out of the Park Developments, an official licensee of MLB.com,
MiLB.com, and the Major League Baseball Players Association
(MLBPA), today announced that Out of the Park Baseball 17 (OOTP
17) is now available worldwide through the company's web site,
Steam, the Mac App Store, Amazon, and other online outlets.
OOTP 17 added an MLBPA license this year, a first for the
long-running series, in addition to the license from MLB.com and
MiLB.com that was introduced last year. The MLBPA license allows
OOTP 17 to include realistic FaceGen images of MLB players,
adding another layer of immersion on top of the game’s official
MLB and MiLB league and team logos.
OOTP 17 runs on PC/Mac/Linux and, like last year, it features
the American League and National League logos, the World Series
trophy, team logos and jerseys for all 30 MLB teams, over 150
MiLB league and team logos, and historical MLB logos. No word on
a physical copy of this game at this time.
New Features
In addition to the MLBPA license allowing the use of realistic
FaceGen images of all MLB players, OOTP 17’s new and improved
features include:
2016 Opening Day Rosters
The brand new 2016 roster sets include all Opening Day MLB
rosters, via a free update to be released shortly after Opening
Day, as well as the complete minor league system down to the
rookie leagues. Will Jake Arrieta build on his historic 2015
performance and lead the Chicago Cubs to the promised land? Can
David Price help turn around the fortunes of the Boston Red Sox?
Will Johnny Cueto give the San Francisco Giants the boost they
need? Can Mike Trout recapture MVP honors in the AL? Can Bryce
Harper get even better in his 5th season? Will Giancarlo Stanton
regain his form after his season-ending injury in 2015?
All MLB (and more than 2,000 MiLB) player ratings are based on
ZiPS, the projection system created by well-known baseball
writer and SABR member Dan Szymborski. The remaining MiLB
players are rated manually by OOTP's established research team.
OOTP 17 also features several US independent minor leagues and
eight international leagues in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan,
Mexico, Cuba, Italy, Australia, and The Netherlands. All of
those leagues feature real rosters, with countless hours of work
invested in researching realistic player biographical
information, statistics, and ratings.
Historical minor leagues
OOTP has always featured the most comprehensive historical play
available in a baseball management game, and OOTP 17 makes a
huge leap forward in that area with accurate historical minor
leagues from 1919 through 2015. Now when a player starts a
league in the past, their team will have the correct minor
league affiliates, including rosters full of real players,
thanks to a new database containing over 150,000 MiLB players.
As the historical seasons pass by, the minor leagues evolve as
they did in real life, with teams moving cities, changing their
names, and switching MLB affiliations. For example, the
Sacramento River Cats began in 1978 as the Oakland A’s AAA
affiliate, switched to several other teams (including a second
stint with Oakland) between 1979 and 2014, and became the San
Francisco Giants’ AAA affiliate in 2015. Those changes will now
be accurately represented in OOTP.
Beautiful redesigned game interface
OOTP 17 features a redesigned user interface that makes it
easier than ever for armchair GMs and managers to get the
information they need and access important game functions.
Improved 3D engine with moving player symbols
OOTP’s 3D in-game view has steadily improved since it was
introduced in v15, and this year it’s better than ever, with
improved MLB stadium models and player symbols that move around
the field as the action happens. This is the next step toward
showing 3D players on the field.
Automatically generated game headlines and recaps
OOTP has always featured a robust news system that reports on
exciting events from around the league, and now it also offers
an automatically generated headline and recap after each game,
just like a real world news article.
Historical exhibition mode
Ever wonder how great teams of the past might fare against the
modern era’s best clubs? That has always been possible in OOTP
by creating a custom league, but now such “What if?” scenarios
can also play out in a new mode that’s as simple as choosing any
two historical teams and playing a single game or a series.
New GM and manager preferences
AI-controlled GMs and managers are even smarter in OOTP 17: They
now evaluate players in unique ways, and GMs now have individual
trading tendencies, so some wheel and deal on a regular basis,
some prefer to stand pat, and others exhibit a mix of behaviors.
In addition, GMs now have unique preferences for drafting,
scouting, and development, so they’ll apply that personal style
to their teams when setting budgets.
Recoded scouting algorithms
Scouts have always added realism to OOTP by introducing some
“fog of war”: As in real life, they might be spot-on in a player
evaluation, or they could be very wrong, and often they’re
somewhere in between. That part of the game has been improved so
it’s more realistic, offering an even greater challenge than
before.
More realistic player career curves
OOTP 17 features even better player development algorithms, so
their career arcs will feel more realistic than ever.
Better trading with defined team needs
Need to bolster the bullpen and bring in someone to create a
platoon at third base? Players facing such situations can now
define their team needs and expect other GMs to make trade
offers accordingly.
AI improvements in trading, roster management, and dugout
decisions
Opposing GMs and managers are now even better at trading,
handling their rosters, and calling shots from the dugout during
games. In addition, the game simulation engine has been improved
for even more realistic results.
Redesigned in-game defensive engine
OOTP 17 features even more defensive shift options for human
managers to choose from, allowing the AI to also better mimic
many real world managers’ tendencies.
Multi-core processor support for fast sim speed
OOTP’s simulation engine, which was already the quickest in the
sports text sim world, is now up to 40% faster than before,
thanks to support for multi-core processors.
Steam Workshop support
Valve’s Steam Workshop enables gamers to find the best
user-created content for their favorite titles, and now OOTP
players can do the same. OOTP’s large user community has long
been a source of unique and interesting logo packs, Quick
Starts, and other add-ons, and now they’ll be able to easily
share them with the world through Steam Workshop.
Much more
As in past versions, OOTP 17 features a variety of other small
improvements and new features throughout the game.