Who already has OOTP?

[Cole]

Just want to see a who has OOTP9? It is way better.

[Alan Ehlers]

I like the graphics and such but im not keen on the scouting

[Cole]

I like how the scouting is simplified, especially since in all cases it is far from exact. Saves time

[Alan Ehlers]

I see your point but i think the fun of scouting is that you can look arond for different scouts and find some jewels I think verson 9 takes the fun out of scouting if you want y opnion I also think the reports are too generic. I like having 6 scouts because I got a lot of good talent from my scouts besisdes Pratt who is now my only scout. Pratt hates everyone

[John]

I agree with both of you. The written reports in OOTP 9 are awesome (although sometimes amusingly inaccurate). However, I agree with Chris in that I miss getting the varied opinions of your 6 different scouts. It seems a lot of people felt the multi-scout system was too complicated and this step was taken to simplify things. Me, I thought it was just great. I'd have been happy to keep the multiple scouts and add in the written reports. Still, overall I'd call it a step forward.

[Alan Ehlers]

I like the design of 9.0 and it is really nice especially because I could have signed Emery along with my vacancies in my miniors. However, i do not like the fact that the scouts use only Praztts reports. I have several players on my team who isgned that Pratt said were worthless. Now with 9.0 I would not sign these free agents because Pratt is my only source. My point is that you can not find anymore diamonds in the rough. I wish we had at least 3 scouts because mhy scout Ray Moss brought in a lot of talent that Pratt missed. One of my favorite things about this game was looking for these possible gems and version 9 takes that away. Also the scouting reports are generic and reall serve no purpose. I mean you tell me, having read them do they help you. SAnyway that is my two cents

[Cole]

I see what you guys are saying, but from my experience on both I feel its gets in the way because stats have always been the best harbinger of future performance.

[Alan Ehlers]

However, a lot of the free agents I am talking about do not have any stats

[klewis]

I never really played OOTP2008 but judging from what I have read, I like multiple scouts. It rewards those who worked meticulously scouting players by getting third and fourth opinions.

I guess the real interesting thing for those making the jump to OOTP9 is drafting with scouts on. In the past, you could send multiple scouts to get a gauge of a player. Now, you have one scout and have to rely on him and or just your gut instinct.

In my other league, it was real interesting and "scary/fun". A lot of the top 10 picks that were drafted, my scout thought they sucked. So there were a lot of headscratchers in the draft according to my scout. A lot of the teams had "10" rating scouts too.

I guess the only difference was how much you invested in scouting. But yeah, it was scary to draft with a high draft pick only to see other teams have a completely draft board. I did see some gems slip to me because of this (well gems according to my scout at least).

[John]

Kevin makes a good point about the importance of your scouting budget, something we're not dealing with at all in OOTP 2007/8. That's going to be a major change-up in OOTP 9, and it's something people are going to want to pay a great deal of attention to. The quality of your scouts reports will be affected by how much you're spending on scouting proportional to the rest of the league. Of course it's not as simple as that; there are four separate categories (majors, minors, international and amateur) that you're spending in. So while you may be outspending everyone in scouting the majors (and thus getting more accurate reports), you may have teams outspending you in amateur scouting (and thus getting better intel to prep for the amateur draft).

While I greatly miss the multiple scouts, I'm very much looking forward to the scouting budget aspect of OOTP 9. That will add back in some of the challenge lost being lost with the departure of the area scouts.

[Coqui]

I didn't know about the budgets. That, to me, sounds more helpful than the multiple scouts. You will "know" that you are getting good info if you are paying for it, thus eliminating some of the guesswork.

[John]

Well, I wouldn't want to give the impression that it's as cut-and-dry as all that. There are other factors that play in. Your Scouting Director's ratings, for instance, as well as his inclination (whether he favors "tools" or "ability"). So it's not quite as simple as, "I spend the most on scouting; I get the best scouting reports." However, the budget definitely factors in and will be a big part of the process in the new platform.

[Sandgnats (Bill)]

The most important thing for scouting is there accuracy. It doesn't matter if you have 1 scout or 24 scouts. If you have several dozen scouts and none of them rate better than 65 in any category-well, you're screwed!
You may as well go with SISA! Obviously, the scouts preferences factor in significantly as John mentioned.

Things seem to be streamlined in OOT9, but I preferred several scouts opinions when evaluating players in OOTP8. Just within the last month, we picked up a minor league pitcher that had scouts differ in his stuff potential by 30!! So, listening to the 1 scout who rated him highly could prove to be a waste. So, going forward in OOTP9, I'm a little nervous trusting 100% of your worldwide scouting to one man.

I mean what if he's a drinking buddy of Shatner's???? We will be most certainly doomed!

[Hitmen]

Try not to think of it as one scout. Think of it as one scouting department, which is what you had before. However, all of their thoughts are merged into one, represented by your scouting director. The better his ratings, the more you "trust" his judgment, where he takes all of the other scouts input, throws out outliers, make a considered judgment and presents to you the final report of the entire scouting department. If his ratings are lower, than you may not "trust" him as much, and may find his final reports end up different than reality. But he merely represents the entire department, meeting with his underlings and massaging the data to best represent his outlook before he presents it to you.

[John]

Try not to think of it as one scout. Think of it as one scouting department, which is what you had before. However, all of their thoughts are merged into one, represented by your scouting director. The better his ratings, the more you "trust" his judgment, where he takes all of the other scouts input, throws out outliers, make a considered judgment and presents to you the final report of the entire scouting department. If his ratings are lower, than you may not "trust" him as much, and may find his final reports end up different than reality. But he merely represents the entire department, meeting with his underlings and massaging the data to best represent his outlook before he presents it to you.

This is exactly how I view it as well. You still have your area scouts and everything; they're just reporting to a single Scouting Director, who in turn presents their reports (along with his own take) to you.