What's your biggest gripe with OOTP finances?
 

In the RWBL, we are having a big discussion of whether the OOTP financial engine (ie. fan loyalty, fan interest, revenue, payroll capacity) needs to be hand tuned, or if it's ok as-is.

I know there are a couple of people here that don't like it. So why is that? What have you found that just doesn't fit right with you?

One Owner in our league pointed out that game doesn't recognize "upcoming stars". He is the Pirates, and has been one of the bottom feeders for several years. He has slowy climbed the NL Central ladder and has several prospects ready, as well as a huge Free Agent signing of Mark Prior (25?). The enthusiasm that this might bring to the fans just isn't reprented in the game.

It's really pretty random, and this is comin' from someone who beta tested OOTP4. I've seen teams win the World Series and then suffer a drop not only in fan interest, but in the market size as well. I dunno. I could see a drop after a run like Atlanta's (11 straight division titles? Mail it in), but a team that's just won its first title shouldn't be losing fan interest.

Put another way, anybody think the Angels are gonna have attendance issues this year?

Most definately needs to be hand-edited.

The fan enthusiasm and interest are generaly ok, but could use some tightening up. As stated, too often up and coming teams do not receive the increases they should. For the most part this works ok but could use a tiny bit of improvement.

Market size is completely screwed. Far too often I have seen a market size drop or increase two or three years consecutively. That is simply not realistic. Market size increases very gradually over long periods of time and is not tied to team performance. I think rating changes in this category should be random and occur very rarely (every 10 years or so).

The other thing that really bugs me is the national TV contract. Most every team has a different dollar value and expiration on this. WTF!?!?!?! This is just sloppy. In case anyone is not familiar with professional sports, national TV contracts are signed by the league and the money is distributed equally to all teams. It should go without saying that the expiration of this contract should be the same for each team. The way the game handles this is unbelievable.

I think in OOTP the national contract are all the same. The local contracts are all different, but in my leagues the national is the same for all teams.

I think OOTP does a reasonably good job of emulating real life. You can't draw fans if you don't win. You can't win if you don't have money to spend. You won't have money if you don't draw fans. So the big teams stay big, the small teams stay small, and the same teams contend every year. Just like real life.

Like I say, very realistic. Not fun, of course. Not necessarily something you find yourself wanting to spend hours on every week in an online league. But realistic.