[SelzShoes]

Originally Posted by Buccaneer

It's been a while but how are AI roster changes being tracked or controlled?

Good Question. Here is the an answer about a OOTP5 League I ran a couple years ago; I now use the

Let me just say this: I know there is probably a better way. The fact that this is essentially 15 years old and I’m still tweaking and tuning it up tells me that. And I know the things I rely on from the game for information and standards are not perfect. The features of this game are discussed through out this forum with complaints, apologies and explanations. And while imperfect, I feel it is doing what I want it to do. Is it right for anyone else? Probably not, at least in the format I have. Unless you have the DC Heroes RPG and the exact same philosophies and beliefs I do, someone isn’t going to develop the same thing. If this at least gives you some ideas for running your own GM’s, that’s great. And seeing how the players in the forum find ways of looking at OOTP that I never thought of, extra eyes on my system can only help me.

So, the basics of my league: Still using OOTP5 (it works for me—with this dynasty I don’t feel the extended financials or revised game engine are worth changing for, yet), financials on, no salary cap, minors enabled, coaches & scouts on, all teams set to human, reduced ratings. Store that information for a while or refer back to it later.

Now the DC Heroes RPG came with quick reference cards for some of the more important heroes and villains. If I remember my RPG’s correctly, this isn’t too different than what most games have—though the labels could be different. Here is how they look:

BATMAN
DEX: 10 STR: 5 BODY: 6
INT: 12 WILL: 12 MIND: 12
INFL: 10 AURA: 8 SPIRIT: 10
INITIATIVE: 36 HERO POINTS: 150
Skills:
Advantages:
Drawbacks:
Equipment:
Alter Ego: Bruce Wayne
Motivation: Seeking Justice
Wealth: 20

It became a question of how to link those ratings and skills to the game.

Now, here is where you may find your self-saying, “that seems a little random.” I just want you to know that you’re not that far off at times. I tried to make linkages that made some sense, but some had to be forced because there wasn’t any other rating left.

I decided, for me, the most important rating was INITIATIVE. This to me made sense, since it was used to determine turn order in the RPG. Everything from who is looking to trade, demotions, promotions and everything else I use the GMS to determine has this at the base. Since I wanted to keep everything resolved with only rolling 2d10, I halved the INITIATIVE, renamed it Aggressiveness and began the linkage. If we can think of the card altered for OOTP it would look like the following.

BRUCE WAYNE
Pitching: 10 Hitting: 5 Defense: 6
Response: 10 Scouts: 10 AA: 10
Propose: 10 AAA: 8 A: 5
Aggressiveness: 18
Skills, advantages, drawbacks: If any of these seemed applicable (charisma for example) to negotiations or thought process of a GM—I assigned it a value in terms of column shifts either positively or negatively.
Motivation: Balanced prospects/FA, spends smartly
Willingness to spend: 10

Since I am using a 10-point rating system for my players in OOTP, I felt reducing the ceiling for every rating, except Aggressiveness, to 10 made sense.

I also used these numbers to develop a “profile” for each GM for an “ideal” hitter and pitcher. I tried to set this “rating” based on 15 points (5 contact/stuff-5 power/movement-5 eye/control being average). Bruce Wayne’s ideals would be 8-3-4 for hitters with C range or speed; 5-5-5 his ideal pitcher. Now Wayne isn’t looking for those exact combos, but players who match or exceed his base in each category.

From these ratings, the following profile emerges for Wayne: He prefers contact hitters, but doesn’t have a favorite talent with pitchers. He’ll spend money, but smartly. Has a lot of faith in his scouts and his upper minors. Very aggressive, hard to convince to accept a trade, but able to convince others. He even has an additional advantage over GM’s because of his charisma. Values pitching over hitters. Bottom line—good GM who can fleece a bad one.

I also use these ratings, in a simple formula, to determine salary offers to Free Agents, coaches, scouts and minor league managers. Wayne, with the exceptions of hitting coaches and A managers, is going to be tough to outbid—if his club has the money.

Now, before I get into the How it works, I want to anticipate some criticism. I use the advice of scouts and the listed “team weaknesses” in the trade/FA scenes probably more than most of the veteran gamers do. I understand the limitations and flaws in these parts of the game engines. However, those flaws I think are fairly realistic. Something may be listed as a “team weakness” when there is a player at that position posting All-Star numbers. Well, I’d argue while the player may be having a great season, he could be viewed by the club as not a long-term solution. Hey, Scott Cooper was an all-star—clearly outperforming his ratings—and the Red Sox cut their ties with him before he fell of the face of the earth. I think this could be more of an issue if I was trying to do a historical league; for a fictional league (which, despite historical players, is what this league is) I don’t think it is a much of a problem.

There are different statistical peaks and valleys that trigger actions. Off-days is where alot of the action happens. There are date triggers. Players are all compared based on salary, defense rating, character, and several "as played" stat catagories. If you want to know more, I can post the rest of the 'series'; I've tweeked it since I moved to 6.5, but the fundamentals are the same.