Dear Baseball Fan,

We at Out of the Park Developments are proud to announce that we have just released the latest version of our popular Out of the Park Baseball game, the 6.5 expansion pack! This is not your usual expansion pack, it is full of new features and tweaks which greatly enhance the OOTP playing experience! A great amount of effort and time went into the development of this product, and we are extremely excited about the result.

The expansion pack is backward compatible to OOTP 6.12, meaning that your league files can be directly loaded into the new version. Also, OOTP 6.12 team exports work in OOTP 6.5 online leagues!

Important Note: In order to use OOTP 6.5, a valid license of OOTP 6 has to be installed on your system.

Get your OOTP 6.5 expansion pack now, loaded with 47 new features and major tweaks, for just $9.95!


Here is a description of the new OOTP 6.5 features and enhancements:

New player evaluation algorythms - The core of the AI in a baseball game is it's player evaluation algorythm. We have used modern reasearch and player evaluation concepts (i.e. value over replacement players) in order to rework the player evaluation in OOTP 6.5, resulting in smarter AI throughout the game. This influences trades, signings and basic roster AI, for example lineups or pitching staff settings.

Smarter roster handling AI - The new roster handling AI does not only benefit from the new player evaluation, it was almost completely reworked and now acts more realistic, resulting in less waiver moves and better understanding of the roster structure.

New team focus - In previous versions, teams did not really understand their position in the league and therefore did not adjust their free agent signings or trades to the state of the organization. Now, teams have a focus, which is either 'normal', 'win now' or 'rebuild'. This focus influences the trading as well as roster AI. Teams which are rebuilding may give their rookies more playing time, and may trade aging players when they are out of the pennant race early in the season. 'Win now'-teams may trade a prospect or two in order to get an established player for the final push for the playoffs.

Player popularity - Players now have a national and local popularity rating, which has impact on the team if the player leaves or gets added to it. If you sign a very popular superstar, your fan interest may get a boost. But if you trade one of your locally most popular players, fans may may be upset and stay home.

Modified player development algorythms - Player development is also one of the most important parts of a career baseball game. We have further enhanced the algorythms of OOTP so that the game now offers even more variation in career curves and more realism overall.

7-day lineup screen - Users now have the chance to set their lineups for the following 7 days. This is especially useful for online leagues play, but also offers a new way to handle lineups/depth charts for solo players. The screen displays the projected opposing starting pitchers and offers some options, for example if you allow the AI to insert utility starters into your lineups. The 7-day lineups are included in the team export files used for online leagues.

Trading of draft picks - It is now possible for a league in online league mode to allow the trading of draft picks. Picks received via trades may be traded again.

Base talent ratings on peak seasons - So far the game only allowed you to base player talent ratings on the entire career or the remaining career when you imported players/seasons from the Lahman Database. OOTP 6.5 allows you to base the talent ratings on peak seasons of the player's career, resulting in more realistic career curves.

Fielding ratings may be based on career fielding stats - The subject says it all, you can now use the career fielding statistics of a player as the base for his fielding ratings.

Visit the mound option - Instead of a pitcher turning immediately red when tiring, you may now visit the mound and ask the pitcher how he feels. We reworked the in-game fatigue system for this feature, so that the performance drop due to fatigue is more realistic.

Option to reduce foul balls in the PbP - A lot of OOTP users have been complaining for the amount of foul balls that get mentioned in the play-by-play. We have now added the option to only display the foul balls which where close plays are involved.

Enhanced play-by-play - We have added some more basic plays to the game engine, for example errors on dropped foul balls or players colliding in the field.

Better pinch-hitting and pitcher change AI - The quest for the perfect in-game AI continues, as we have improved the pinch-hitting and pitching change AI.

• Added the option to prevent computer teams to adjust their own strategy setting
• Players now have projected stats listed in their player stats page
• Added projected stats and milestone watch reports to league website
• Relievers may win the pitching award in rare cases
• The MVP and best pitcher award selecting algorythm has been redesigned
• Japanese and defected Cuban players entering the league before free-agency
• In-Season retirements now happen from time to time
• Players now sometimes come out of retirement and start a comeback
• Off-season and spring training injuries have been added
• A complete new skin is also included, as well as a fictional data update
• League & Team injury Reports have been added
• Player awards are now listed in the team histroy section as well
• BABIP & WHIP categories on pitching leader boards are now displayed
• Career minor league homeruns allowed get tracked
• Career BABIP & WHIP stats get tracked and displayed
• Added BABIP to league pitching report
• Tweaked contract length demands by average players
• A team focus and team ages section has been added to the league financial report
• Split up transaction news into major transactions and all transactions, for both team and league news
• Added a shop player around function, which you can access from the player viewer screen
• The general page of the player viewer now shows talent ratings in talent-only leagues
• Added a 'toggle stats' button to the lineup screens which toggles between overall and L/R split stats
• The in-game screen now displays runners thrown out percentage instead of the passed ball rating of the catcher
• Added a 'clear rookie records' button to the records screen
• The player fatigue system has been reworked
• Scheduled double-headers now work properly in terms of fatigue and pitcher selection
• The in-game substitution screen now shows the game situation (inning, score) and if a player in the lineup is tired
• Increased influence of hitter pull rating in the game engine
• Fixed scoring on throwing errors from the outfield
• Numerous small fixes and tweaks

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