i play other sim games. alot actually. i sim seasons of madden. of ncaa 2011. of fifa. of NHL. I have played baseball mogul for years. when i was 8 or 9 i used to sim season afrer season or Tecmo Superbowl 3 just messing with the rosters. after more than a year of wis i have yet to try HBD. there are a few things that i was wondering before i start. like how close are the stats to real life? as the seasons progress does the engine change (ie. dead ball era, to later guys hitting more HR). do different citys have different economics? Are there small market and big market teams? If so can you turn a small market team into a large one with consistant winning? Player development, do they have a set peak or is it a matter of your development of that player? If it is development what factors go into developing players? too many questions, sorry. i have alot more. i just want to know what im getting into before i do. im dedicated to my sim teams and dont want to get into it just to be dissapointed.

are some players better vs lefty righty? do pitchers have different pitches at different strengths? can they learn new pitches? does the game follow real life rules regarding free-agents and trades and supplemental picks and rule 5 players and option years? do catchers have a rating that determins how well he "calls" a game. can you get a guy to rickey henderson it (steal well over a hundred bases)? how deep are the 25 round drafts? are there diamonds to find in the later rounds? how much do your coaches afect your team?

how close are the stats to real life?  Depends on the world.  Quality worlds, where owners pay attention to things like defense, will produce stats close to real-life.

as the seasons progress does the engine change (ie. dead ball era, to later guys hitting more HR)?  Not intentionally.  Engine changes are usually done to address problems or correct deviations from realistic results.  Sometimes there will be unintended consequences that will impact results.

do different citys have different economics? Are there small market and big market teams? If so can you turn a small market team into a large one with consistant winning?  No.  All teams have the same $185m budget every season.

Player development, do they have a set peak or is it a matter of your development of that player? There is a "set peak", but it's fuzzy.  It's up to you to develop players to get as close to their peak as possible.

If it is development what factors go into developing players?  Playing time, good coaches, timely promotions, good medical/training budgets to minimize injuries and their impact, and a little luck.  

are some players better vs lefty righty? Yes.

do pitchers have different pitches at different strengths?  Yes, kind of.  Pitchers can have up to five pitches on their repertoire, each with it's own rating.  Pitch types (fastball, curveball, etc.) are irrelevant.  The engine does not resolve AB's with individual pitches, it's a combination of everything.

can they learn new pitches?  Typically, no.  They tend to develop what they have.  Occasionally, they'll drop a very ineffective pitch.

does the game follow real life rules regarding free-agents and trades and supplemental picks and rule 5 players and option years?  Yes.

do catchers have a rating that determins how well he "calls" a game.  Yes.

can you get a guy to rickey henderson it (steal well over a hundred bases)?  That's been known to happen based on the player's speed and baserunning ratings, and the coaches base-stealing agressiveness.

how deep are the 25 round drafts?  Depends on how good your drafting skills are.  Typically it's hard to find potential talent beyond the 3rd or 4th round.

are there diamonds to find in the later rounds?  Yes, but you don't find out about them until sometime after the draft.  Sometimes a couple of seasons after a player has been drafted.

how much do your coaches afect your team?  Coaches only affect development, not performance.

Nicely done, tec

sounds good i think i may sign on for... i dont know how thay do it, a 10 pack or 6 pac of seasons. im gonna spend some time reading the forums first before getting my feet wet. if there is a good league out there with active owners that dont mind a little shitte talk let me know.

I would suggest to give it a try for one season and see how you like it. I have played quite a few online games like Diamond Legends and Strat-o-Matic and I have played OOP on my home computer. In my opinion Diamond Legends and Strat-o-Matic is more realistic, but Hardball Dynasty is a lot more fun. The realism you sacrifice is well worth it because it's realistic enough and with all the extras that HBD has over Strato and DL it will make up the difference in realism.

"how close are the stats to real life?  Depends on the world.  Quality worlds, where owners pay attention to things like defense, will produce stats close to real-life."

In a perfect world where everything goes exactly as planned and every team is trying to be competitive....all the stats should line up with MLB stats from 2005 (whatever was the last completed season before they rolled out HBD).  That is what they compare to when making adjustments to the engine or so I've been told.

Posted by plague on 9/28/2010 6:40:00 AM (view original):
I would suggest to give it a try for one season and see how you like it. I have played quite a few online games like Diamond Legends and Strat-o-Matic and I have played OOP on my home computer. In my opinion Diamond Legends and Strat-o-Matic is more realistic, but Hardball Dynasty is a lot more fun. The realism you sacrifice is well worth it because it's realistic enough and with all the extras that HBD has over Strato and DL it will make up the difference in realism.

I too played diamond legends and OOP.  I absolutely loved diamond legends but it was very expensive.  OOP became too easy against the computer AI and I never joined a league with real humans.

This is going to be my first season playing HBD and am looking forward to it...if only we can just find 3 more human owners to join our league WIB.  LOL

one thing I will note only because you have a history of sims that are mostly sims of "real life" people is that is takes a long time to get to "know" players in HBD

In a sim on Madden or NHL or even OOTP (with a Lahamn database), you already know all the names ... that adds a certain "out of the box" knowledge that puts you up the learning curve.  You know Pujols is a stud, you know Manny used to be a stud but he's now in decline, you know Alphonso Soriano is going to be a butcher in the field.

HBD has ratings to "tell" you those things, but there is a learning curve to know what matters, and you don't jump in with a "name = skill set" knowledge.  Even after 17 seasons in Moonlight Graham, I may only "recognize" about 10% of the names in the world that weren't once in my system.  So, you probably won't even be able to peruse the leaderboards or team stats and think things like "wow, Joe Pitcher sure is having an off year" or "I never though Tom Slaphitter would have a 25 HR season in him"

To add to what 98green said... this is my only real beef with HBD.

I think I know better than 10%, but that's because I only play 2 teams. You will get familiar with some of the names as you bid for FAs (or see them in the draft, IFA bidding, whatever), do trades, etc., but that tends to be more about the studs. One thing I do when I am bored is, when my team is about to play a series against another team, is to go through their roster a bit and look at them. That way, when I read the play-by-play, I know when to get annoyed ("WTF, light hitting shortstop X hit a home run off my closer!") or not ("alright, stud centerfielder X made another ++ play"), or whatever. It adds a little enjoyment to the game, but it is a bit awkward to do because the rosters are not arranged in any particular way.

I REALLY wish there was a "team preview" or something where you could look at a team and it would display a page with the player's names arranged along the diamond (arranged based on who has gotten the most innings in each position) and their 5 starters who have gotten the most starts displayed as starters and the bullpen, etc., with some very basic stats (maybe just AVG/OBP/SLG for hitters and W-L/WHIP/ERA for pitchers) under their names. It would be an easy way to get a feel for the team you are going to play in about 20 seconds of reading and add a lot to the immersive quality of the game.

Either way though, the game is a lot of fun. I highly recommend it.

That is an awesome idea jtrinsey.  You should write a tik to ask for something like that.  I should think it would be fairly easy to write that code.  And it certainly would add a lot to the look and feel of HBD.  If you dont want to write a tik I will for you.  Let me know eh

Maybe not even that complex.   Just top 3-5 hitters and the next SP.    Maybe some team rankings.    You could put it in the next game box.

That would be cool too. One thing I would like is to make it easier to figure out who plays what position. If I go into another team's page, I can look at their roster, which is sorted by ratings. I can get an idea by looking at the fielding ratings of who might play where. Then I can look at their stats and see who leads in at-bats and piece their lineup together. I just think it would be cool if one click could tell me a "typical" lineup (based on innings fielded at various positions) along with AVG/OBP/SLG and also possibly Field% and +/- plays. That way in 2 clicks (one on team name, the other on "team preview" tab or whatever) and about 20 seconds of viewing, I could have an idea of who plays where and a general idea of their hitting and fielding prowess.

Why not just under the reports section in the wrold office have each teams 1-9 lineups and pitching staff spots? You wouldnt have to track innings, just let me view what you have your current lineup/pitching staff set to. Then it would be very easy to do.

A lot of teams have 3 or 4 guys who play outside of their regular listed position which makes it pretty hard to figure out whose their lineup.

Posted by MikeT23 on 9/28/2010 3:26:00 PM (view original):
Maybe not even that complex.   Just top 3-5 hitters and the next SP.    Maybe some team rankings.    You could put it in the next game box.

But something like this would be a good step. I can already see the next pitcher and his ERA. Adding a few more lines below that telling me who leads their team in OPS, Home Runs, Stolen Bases and + plays (for example) would be a nice little start.

Or maybe a "hottest hitter" that shows something like:
Bob Jones, 18 for 41, 5 HRs, 22 RBIs in last 10 games.

Little things that get you more familiar with my pretend opponents.