PAD Circus - 002 - Pulling three cards for managers...TWICE!

Good evening (or morning or afternoon, depending on what time it is when you read this where you are)! We're back with a couple packs on the OFFICIAL Opening Day of the MLB season. Let's see what goodies we can pull today:

2013 Panini Hometown Heroes

Cleon Jones - Mets - Buckstore Cards (Wahoo!!)
Matt Williams - Diamondbacks - Alec (Wahoo!!)
Brandon Phillips - Phillies - Dawgbones (Wahoo!!)
Rick Monday - Dodgers - Night Owl (Wahoo!!)
Mariano Rivera - Yankees - BoRosny (Wahoo!!)
Robin Ventura Rivalry - Mets/Yankees - Buckstore Cards (Wahoo!! x2)
Jim Sundberg - Rangers - Play At The Plate (Wahoo!!)
David Wright - Mets - Buckstore Cards (Wahoo!! x3)

Wow! Congrats to Buckstore Cards for getting THREE cards out of this pack! Congrats to everyone else pulling cards here, too!

Remember, all multi-player cards will be randomly and instantly given to one of the managers that owns the team/category. In this case, Buckstore Cards was chosen randomly.

2013 MLB Chipz
Playmat - "Fillers" - FREE AGENT
Craig Kimbrel - Braves - Jafronius (Wahoo!!)
Clay Buchholz - Red Sox - T&S (Wahoo!!)
Stephen Strasburg Glow-in-the-Dark - Nationals - CaptKirk42 (Wahoo!!)
Bryce Harper - Nationals - CaptKirk42 (Wahoo!! x2, Back-to-Back!!)
Nationals Vinyl Decal - Nationals - CaptKirk42 (Wahoo!! x3, Back-to-Back-to-Back!!!)

Holy smokes!! Wow, CaptKirk42 came on with a vengeance at the end! Wow!! Congrats to everyone and a special WOW to the Capt.

PAD Circus - 001 - Opening Day Weekend!! Wahoo!!

Hello, everyone! Welcome to the official kickoff of the 2016 Pack-A-Daily Circus!! Wahoo!! First of all, I want to remind everyone that we are starting the season with a FREE AGENT. That's right, the Florida Marlins were not picked up during the off season, so they will be offered up as a free agent in the first draft (which will come later).

Also remember: ALL Free Agent Drafts will be open to *ANY* of my readers - including managers that already have teams or anyone that missed out on the initial picks! I will post a link to each draft and anyone can drop by and choose to take part. If you draft a team, person, category, etc, you will get ALL the cards that belong to it. Ex: If you end up drafting the Marlins, you will get ALL the Marlins cards busted during the season.

Let's recap the first pack we opened during pre-season, now with managers:

Jonathan Schoop - Orioles - Pedersejs (Wahoo!!)
Edinson Volquez - Royals - Ventura County Royals (Wahoo!!)
Shelby Miller - Braves - Jafronius (Wahoo!!)
Mike Moustakas WS Highlights - Royals - Ventura County Royals (Wahoo!! x2)
Carlos Carrasco Future Stars - Indians - Enamel Rods (Wahoo!!)

Doug Fister - Nationals - CaptKirk42 (Wahoo!!)

Giants Magic Beans - Giants - Arpsmith (Wahoo!!)

Tommy Kahnle - Rockies - Infield Fly Rule (Wahoo!!)

Brad Ziegler - Diamonbacks - Alec (Wahoo!!)

Washington Nationals Team Card - Nationals - CaptKirk42 (Wahoo!! x2)

Kyle Lohse - Brewers - Jacksonville Jobu (Wahoo!!)
Matt Cain - Giants - Arpsmith (Wahoo!! x2)
Bill Withers First Pitch - FREE AGENT ("Singers")
Joaquin Benoit Purple - Padres - Marcus (Wahoo!!)
Aaron Harang Purple - Phillies - Dawgbones (Wahoo!!)
Giancarlo Stanton Purple - Marlins - FREE AGENT ("Marlins")

I had forgotten about the Withers card! That's TWO free agents into the pot. Withers will be treated as a "Singer" (and thus, any cards deemed as "Singers" go to the person who drafts Singers). The Marlins card will be treated as a MARLINS player (and thus, all Marlins cards will go to the person who drafts Marlins).

If you want to see pics of the cards above, see the "Preview" post:
http://www.tribecards.net/2016/03/pad-circus-pack-preview.html

Now, let's rip open a new pack to officially kick things off!! Actually, I have three Purple 2016 Topps that came free floating with a retail pack from Toys R Us, so I'll go ahead and list those here, then we'll open a pack of 2011 Panini Americana. Why not?

Ike Davis Purple - A's - Dayf (Wahoo!!)
Billy Burns Purple - A's - Dayf (Wahoo!! x2)
Scott Feldman Purple - Astros - Raz (Wahoo!!)
Kathryn Thornton - Astronaut - FREE AGENT ("Astronauts")
Barry Bostwick - Actor - FREE AGENT ("Actors")
Willa Ford - Singer, Dancer, etc - FREE AGENT ("Singers")
Blank Card Filler - Filler - FREE AGENT ("Fillers")
Daniel Roebuck - Actor - FREE AGENT ("Actors")
Kristy Coventry - Olympic Swimmer - FREE AGENT ("Olympians")

Well, things have already gotten interesting here... And, yes, I am making up the categories as I go. Hey, it's my game and I'll make up the rules, even if it is on the fly. Basically, I will do my best to associate the person/item with the thing they are most known for - or what turns up to be most-associated when I Google them. As for "Fillers," that will include any insert revealed that is not team/item specific (generally, these will be contest cards, blank cardboard, "Crack the Code," security tabs, etc).

PunkRockPaint - Star Wars Galactic Greats Set

(Youtube Video: https://youtu.be/dyyWxcqtkyE)

What I present to you today is one of the greatest custom card sets I have ever seen. And now, I own a set! These are the Galactic Greats Card Set from PunkRockPaint (aka Travis Peterson). Holy smokes, these things are fantastic!

It's not just the cards, though. The entire packaging screams of 1977 Kenner Star Wars action figures! The hanger card is styled perfectly and beautifully. The back includes fun tidbits and a special appearance by that ever-frustrating toy, Boba Fett with "shooting" missile - yeah, you know the one that DIDN'T shoot because kids might choke on it!?

The cards are made of great card stock, featuring each of the 30 MLB teams represented as a Star Wars reference. On the back are hand-drawn "Galactic Greats" comics with wonderfully referenced captions.

These really are that good! (Click images to see larger views)

 

 

 

 

 

Now, if you've scrolled down this far, you are about to be told a secret... Sshhh... I actually ordered TWO of these packs!! Why is that a secret? Because I am giving away one of the packs during a future free agent draft!! That's right, *YOU* could win! Now, I haven't decided if I am doing the pack as one "card" or if I am going to separate them out and let folks pick the individual card(s) they'd like to draft - either way, this will be open to *ALL* readers, even if you aren't yet a manager in the PAD Circus 2016! Stay tuned for details. If you have a preference - whole pack or individual cards, feel free to comment below. I'll think about which direction to take.

Happy Easter!

He sure is...

OOTP 17 - Cool Changes, Fun as ever!

I received a code to check out the latest offering of OOPT17. I believe my version is still in beta (or something similar).

Those familiar with the OOTP franchise will recognize features from previous versions, though some menus have been moved and/or consolidated, so it may take a little bit of getting used to where things are now in 17. That aside, the game has made some cool improvements that stand out to me for sure.

The main thing that jumped out at me were the team-oriented banners:

When you select a team from the drop-down menu, the banner across the top changes to match the team's primary color and the menus change to reflect the secondary color. This is a HUGE help visually when you are navigating between teams frequently. Even if you aren't, it's a nice touch.

I love the updates to the 3d stadiums as well:

The rendering gives a cool, "you are there" feeling to the game that was started last year but has really been elevated in this version. My understanding is that they are still working on the modeling and will continue to release updates as more stadiums get the improved 3d treatment.

A few of the things I really like: The scoreboard in the left corner, the info in the right corner, and the play-by-play box in the center. The whole layout, really, gives you the feeling that you are watching the game live on your screen.

I did manage to crash the database once, but I think that was my fault. I had started a new game and exited before finishing the set-up. I think I confused the system. Oops!

I also had a heck of a time getting the game to record for YouTube. Once recording kept jumping because it didn't like sitting there without changing. That is, on menu screens, etc where nothing on-screen changed, my recording software thought I was looking at loading screens. That's a flaw in my software, not the game. When I tried recording again, the game got way out of sync with the voice-over I did. I'm not sure what was happening there.

Several times, not while recording, but just while playing, the mouse seemed to get "lost" and did not match up with menu locations on the screen. So, I would point to the "File" button, but the mouse thought it was higher or lower than the button so it would not let me click. I don't know if that is a resolution issue, a "beta" issue, or if that is a glitch in the game. I did resolve it by forcing the game to full-screen. Once in full-screen, the weird mouse alignment issues went away.

It also seemed that the Steam overlay interfered with the game. It's like the overlay made the game slow down at times and/or get jumpy. I am blaming the overlay because it seemed to be worse when I took screenshots or hit Shift-Tab (a Steam overlay function). Not really the game's fault, but something that might need to be checked.

Aside from those weird quirks, the game is fantastic! I loved creating an exhibition World Series between the 1979 Pirates vs the 1948 Indians. I also had a blast creating a game using the greatest players in team franchise history. This pitted greats like Reggie Jackson against Bob Feller and Babe Ruth vs Randy Johnson. I mean, really, does it get any better than that!? That is exactly the kind of thing I like about baseball simulations and OOTP17 delivers.

There may be no crying in baseball, but seeing some of the greats of days gone by take on the greats of today may very well bring a tear of joy to your eye.