Alright Boyz, Here We Go!!!! (OOTP 2007 release thoughts!!!)

[Oilers9911]

In a historical sim, is there anyway to have all the rookies automatically placed in the free agent pool and just have teams sign them? That is pretty much what happened before the draft was instituted. If that ability is in the game that would be just an incredible addition.

[MizzouRah]

I also have an MLB style "v6.51" solo career I've been playing games in. Managers and scouts are turned off, ratings are 1-20 accross the board, and I think I have the draft at 20 rounds, 45 rounds generated.

PBP is definitly more immersive this year and once I figure out how to tweak the speed at which the pbp scrolls I'll be happy for now.

[KWhit]

Originally Posted by Dekanth

Not to be a pain in the ass, but is anybody actually playing this game as a GM/manager with a non-historical replay?

Yes. I'm loving it. I have no desire to play with the historical stuff. I'm playing a totally fictional 16 team league and so far I'm having a great time. I haven't gotten too far into it yet (though I did play about 10 years during my 5 day preview).

So far, I think this is by far the best OOTP I've ever played.

[Ksyrup]

I'm working on a combo historical/fictional multi-league universe right now, doing some research and such to determine how to setup the leagues. I hope it comes out the way I envision it.

[JPhillips]

I've now gone through five drafts with two separate fictional leagues and I have yet to see a single comp pick. In one season I lost the saves leader, the Batting Title winner, and a four star first baseman just to test comp picks and received none even though all three were signed.

So, am I doing something wrong? I have comp picks checks in financials, so that isn't it. Has anyone else seen any comp picks?

[gordyhulten]

Originally Posted by Dekanth

Not to be a pain in the ass, but is anybody actually playing this game as a GM/manager with a non-historical replay? I would really love to hear how that aspect of the game is working before I think about purchasing. There is not even much talk about this on the OOTP forums. Very strange.

Longtime lurker, first time poster. Great board you have here.

I've spent the past few days creating a fictional universe I'm going to use for a dynasty. I've been renaming things, adding logos and fast-simming to test settings. I'm going to let 70 years run and then take over a team, and hopefully I can start playing tomorrow.

But just the testing, tweaking and creating has sucked me in. And I gave up on OOTP2006 before I finished setting up my first league.

This is a big improvement - it's actually fun again.

[twothree]

Originally Posted by Oilers9911

In a historical sim, is there anyway to have all the rookies automatically placed in the free agent pool and just have teams sign them? That is pretty much what happened before the draft was instituted. If that ability is in the game that would be just an incredible addition.

If you disable the first year player draft and have automatically import historical rookies turned on, then the rookies get assigned to the same team they played for in real life.

If you want all the historical rookies to go to the free agent pool, then you would have to turn off automatically import historical rookies (and probably turn off the first year player draft). And, then you would have to manually import the historical rookies into the free agent pool (and according to the manual, even if you have free agency turned off players without contracts will appear in the free agency pool.)

To do this you would have to go to the free agents screen and click import historical player for each player you want to put in the free agent pool. You have to know the player's unique ID used in the historical database. So, it would take a little time, but eventually for whatever database you use someone could put together a list of all the player IDs you would need to import for whatever pre-draft year you are about to sim.

[gordyhulten]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

I've now gone through five drafts with two separate fictional leagues and I have yet to see a single comp pick. In one season I lost the saves leader, the Batting Title winner, and a four star first baseman just to test comp picks and received none even though all three were signed.

So, am I doing something wrong? I have comp picks checks in financials, so that isn't it. Has anyone else seen any comp picks?

I think they might be broken. I'm pretty sure it's been logged. I don't know if a fix is included in the first patch.

I wish it was working, too.

[twothree]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

I've now gone through five drafts with two separate fictional leagues and I have yet to see a single comp pick. In one season I lost the saves leader, the Batting Title winner, and a four star first baseman just to test comp picks and received none even though all three were signed.

So, am I doing something wrong? I have comp picks checks in financials, so that isn't it. Has anyone else seen any comp picks?

What free agent type were the players? Type A? Type B? or No compensation? You can see what type a player is on the player's Contract and Status page on the bottom right under Roster Status Information. It should be right after salary arbitration status.

[JPhillips]

I didn't look as I didn't realize it was on the player card. I can't imagine, though, that the saves leader and batting champ weren't Type A.

[DaddyTorgo]

i've gotten compensatory picks. Plenty of them as a matter of fact. So they can't be that broken.

[Swaggs]

Originally Posted by Dekanth

Not to be a pain in the ass, but is anybody actually playing this game as a GM/manager with a non-historical replay? I would really love to hear how that aspect of the game is working before I think about purchasing. There is not even much talk about this on the OOTP forums. Very strange.

I have been playing fictional and really enjoying it. I set up a fictinal 12-team league in 1983 and easily expanded it (the game has a setup for expansion where you can just pick the city and team names and the expansion draft rules and you are set) to a 16-team league in like 1988. I quick simmed for about 25 years and took over a team in 2009 and have been loving it.

I didn't play last season's version, so some of this may have been in it, but I really love the ability to setup other league's in the world that you can scout from and I enjoy managing an entire franchise (hiring/firing minor league staffs, docs, and scouts). I also like that when propsects bust, it at least gives a scouting message saying the scout misjudged them or that they lost their confidence, etc. Plus, the scouting reports are somewhat fluid, so fluctuations seem a little more justified when current and potential ratings change. The historical reports are also a very welcome change from past versions that I have played.

[Swaggs]

One thing I would add for fictional simmers like myself is to sim a few seasons to get a feel for things before you create a GM and take over a franchise. There is a pretty big learning curve, but I didn't find it too burdensome, since things like the face gens, designing the uniforms, and being able to access so many reports made it easy for me to get interested and familiar with the league.

[tanglewood]

Just in the middle of a historical blast through to to 2006 before I take over a team, but had to stop when I noticed just how much Jimmie Foxx is crazy tearing up the league. Beast doesn't come close to describing it. I'm pretty sure that his 1930 season will never be matched for the rest of fictional baseball history.

Career Batting Stats
Year/Team/League	Age	G	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	R	BB	HP	SF	K	SB	CS	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS	VORP
1925 Philadelphia - ML	17	11	37	12	2	0	2	9	5	2	0	0	2	0	0	.324	.359	.541	.900	3.0
1926 Philadelphia - ML	18	140	499	167	21	2	14	93	107	53	1	5	22	6	2	.335	.396	.469	.865	26.9
1927 Philadelphia - ML	19	151	618	236	31	10	27	121	142	82	4	4	17	13	7	.382	.455	.595	1.050	91.2
1928 Philadelphia - ML	20	150	625	257	39	7	49	170	140	85	0	6	24	3	11	.411	.478	.731	1.209	128.5
1929 Philadelphia - ML	21	151	601	225	28	19	53	172	161	97	1	2	21	10	0	.374	.461	.749	1.210	120.6
1930 Philadelphia - ML	22	149	580	260	40	11	55	177	172	121	1	6	15	11	1	.448	.540	.840	1.379	180.4
1931 Philadelphia - ML	23	150	573	241	31	8	62	162	154	113	0	6	26	9	4	.421	.512	.827	1.339	158.8
1932 Philadelphia - ML	24	151	573	234	38	6	49	151	149	110	1	5	22	9	3	.408	.501	.752	1.253	139.6
1933 Philadelphia - ML	25	151	567	205	29	8	40	120	123	107	3	5	59	11	3	.362	.462	.653	1.114	107.4
1934 Philadelphia - ML	26	148	545	192	23	6	42	139	141	134	0	6	89	8	2	.352	.476	.648	1.124	110.0
1935 Philadelphia - ML	27	149	567	206	29	7	44	129	154	123	2	5	78	8	2	.363	.475	.672	1.147	116.1
Total ML	       11 yrs.	1501	5785	2235	311	84	437	1443	1448	1027	13	50	375	88	35	.386	.476	.696	1.172	1182.5

This is with recalc off, FYI.

[Ben E Lou]

Dekanth, I've been working on tweaking settings to get stats where I want in a fictional league. Things are very close to where I want them now, and if all goes well in today's 100-year test (just started it up), I should be able to update the settings this evening. Here's the first draft (which people seem to be finding to work quite well):

http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...d.php?t=142738

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by LionsFan10

Thanks man, you've been a real help with this game so far. I appreciate it.

One thing to note is the timing for being able to change some/most of these rules. This game isn't Maximum Football customizable. For things like FA and most of the roster rules, you can only change those settings at some point around or after spring training (not sure exactly when the button turns from being grayed out to active). So, for instance, if you wanted free agency for the 1975-76 offseason, you can't just wait until after the 1975 WS to check the FA button. If you do, you'll find the buttons grayed out and you won't be able to add FA until the next spring. So you'd want to add it in the spring of 1975, maybe as the season starts, so that it will be activated during the next offseason when contracts start to expire.

[Drake]

Bah. I just lost my first career due to a FaceGen database corruption (related to the windows shutdown error I mentioned above). Apparently, the last time I saved, it didn't take completely before the shutdown.

Yes, I created a backup, but that was a couple of seasons earlier, so it isn't completely lost, but I won the world series for the first (and second) time in the intervening seasons.

[Drake]

dola...

Given that it took me twelve years to win the first WS, this might not be a bug. It might just mean that the game hates me.

[Ksyrup]

There's an article in the "weird news" today about the strange names Cuban baseball players have. Among the weird American names brought up was Calvin Coolidge Julius Caesar Tuskahoma McLish. He had a rather long career in the MLB from 1944 to 1964, mainly as a reliever but a few as a starter pitching for 7 different teams. He apparently went by Cal. I'll have to look him up in my latest sim to see how he did and whether it imported his entire name. That was a new one for me.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

There's an article in the "weird news" today about the strange names Cuban baseball players have. Among the weird American names brought up was Calvin Coolidge Julius Caesar Tuskahoma McLish.

Although I didn't know the trivia about his name, for some odd reason I remember him as a pitching coach, which would have been with the Expos in the early 70s. Considering that stage of his career ended when I was 8 years old, I have no clue why he stuck in my mind at that early age.

http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseb...McLish_Cal.stm
"There were eight kids in my family, and I was the only one my father was permitted to name, so I guess he figured he'd make up for the situation."

[Ksyrup]

For you guys who play fictional leagues, what do you do about parks? Is the game generated with neutral parks, and do you leave them or change them? If you change them, do you go with the option to create random park settings for each park? Does the game do a decent job of not allowing the league to get out of balance because of the park factors, or is it truly random and something I'd need to edit if I see that all parks have high HR factors, for example?

[Cork]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

For you guys who play fictional leagues, what do you do about parks? Is the game generated with neutral parks, and do you leave them or change them? If you change them, do you go with the option to create random park settings for each park? Does the game do a decent job of not allowing the league to get out of balance because of the park factors, or is it truly random and something I'd need to edit if I see that all parks have high HR factors, for example?

What I do is to use fictional pictures and then assign real parks to the teams. I then edit my fictional parks to use the real park data that I assigned each team.

-Cork

[Ksyrup]

Where can I find the real park data to manually edit the fictional parks? I assume when I have been doing my historical sims that the game automatically imports all of that, so I've never bothered looking at it. But it occurred to me that in a fictional sim, if I want some variety, I need to do something, but also need to be wary of not screwing up the balance of the league's stats.

[korme]

Sorry guys, didn't follow much on OOTP2007 and now I'm trying to play catchup as I d/l the game and try for the life of me to figure out what kind of universe to start with. Great problem to have.

One question - I know this wasn't in last year's version, but for historical replays, do franchises automatically move or change team names or do you still do that manually? e.g. Chicago Orphans to Chicago Cubs, Brooklyn Dodgers to LA Dodgers..

[Swaggs]

Shorty, you gotta go with the JBL. It's in there.

[Ksyrup]

League structure and team names/moves happen automatically.

[korme]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

League structure and team names/moves happen automatically.

Oh thats just too easy! I can't believe that. I did a historical sim in OOTP 2006 and took to the task of reviewing MLB history to accurately get every single transition/change correct. Now it seems with the simplicity of this year's version, how in pluperfect hell could I pass up starting off my league with a historical sim???

And with the option to add leagues at any point, oh god. I can't get my hands on this fast enough.

KSyrup, Q for you, have you been playing with all levels of MLB on? AAA, AA, A, Rookie, etc?

[Yellow5]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Where can I find the real park data to manually edit the fictional parks?

hxxp://ootpmodsquad.com/mods/stadium/Gambo2007StadiumChart.zip

[Pumpy Tudors]

It's difficult, but I'm waiting for the patch. I'll be in New Orleans for most of next week, so I won't really get any playing time with this game until after Easter. I'm very, very excited about getting my fictional universe going, though.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by Shorty3281

Oh thats just too easy! I can't believe that. I did a historical sim in OOTP 2006 and took to the task of reviewing MLB history to accurately get every single transition/change correct. Now it seems with the simplicity of this year's version, how in pluperfect hell could I pass up starting off my league with a historical sim???

And with the option to add leagues at any point, oh god. I can't get my hands on this fast enough.

KSyrup, Q for you, have you been playing with all levels of MLB on? AAA, AA, A, Rookie, etc?

I have done a sim with 3 levels of minors using ghost players to fill in the gaps, and I've also done one with a template that suggested only AAA.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by Yellow5

hxxp://ootpmodsquad.com/mods/stadium/Gambo2007StadiumChart.zip

Thanks!

[korme]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

I have done a sim with 3 levels of minors using ghost players to fill in the gaps, and I've also done one with a template that suggested only AAA.

Which would you recommend?

[Ksyrup]

I didn't notice any major issues either way, but honestly, all I've been doing is simming history and looking through it, not really getting into the substance of the game yet, so I can't really recommend one over the other.

For you fictional players, there's a thread over at OOTP about some possible development issues for players coming out of feeder leagues. One of the guys has a good handle on it and is going to recommend some changes to Markus. I've been toying with the idea of using a feeder league instead of just having players show up in the draft pool, but the complexities it adds concerning the number of feeder teams you need to properly fill out a draft, keeping those in check if you expand your league, plus any other indirect feeders into your league like independent major and minor leagues, has me worried about the balance of talent in a league.

We may be sacrificing quality of results for realism with all of these league setups. I want to create something substantial, but I'm afraid it will be a waste. Someone over at OOTP has confirmed that you basically can't set up the NCAA system as a feeder league for MLB and expect to keep the talent levels where they should be. I'm really not sure how to proceed.

[molson]

It seems like the game isn’t re-calculating talent distribution when you add a feeder league. Feeder leagues work if you use the formula recommended by the manual in terms of number of teams, but if you have too many or too few feeder league teams, there will be too many or not enough good players. Thus, if you add a full feeder league after you started, you’ll be flooded with All-star players better than the ones you have.

It got me thinking – is there any way to test what effects a major change in your league might have? There doesn’t seem to be a “save as” option, so I can’t make a copy of league so I can screw with it without destroying it. Or can I?

[MizzouRah]

I think you need a bachelors degree in ootp this year.

I'm really wanting to start in 1901 and sim through the years to take over in 2007 at some point, but is there any real guide that shows all the years things happened in baseball? Like FA, amateur draft, rule 5, etc..? It's pretty easy to set it up initially with a historical template, but from there, I'm lost.

[Ksyrup]

Over the past couple of pages we've hit on some of the important dates when things changed. You could probably google it to get a consensus on when certain things happened.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Over the past couple of pages we've hit on some of the important dates when things changed. You could probably google it to get a consensus on when certain things happened.

I want a nice spreadsheet PM'd to me by COB today.

Thanks!

[Ksyrup]

I've got your cob right here, buddy!

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

I've got your cob right here, buddy!

Ty

[LionsFan10]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

I think you need a bachelors degree in ootp this year.

I'm really wanting to start in 1901 and sim through the years to take over in 2007 at some point, but is there any real guide that shows all the years things happened in baseball? Like FA, amateur draft, rule 5, etc..? It's pretty easy to set it up initially with a historical template, but from there, I'm lost.

Go back a couple pages, I asked this exact same question and got a couple of responses. The only one we couldn't come up with a clear answer for was the Rule 5 draft, otherwise I believe the list is as follows ...

First Amateur Draft - 1965
Arbitration - 1973
Free Agency - 1976
Revenue Sharing - 2002

[Ksyrup]

However, as far as the draft goes, that date is largely irrelevant depending on how you want to play your historical sim. Either you want to place all players on the correct teams, in which case you'll not want to use the draft until 2007, or you want the players to end up on random teams as they are imported into the game, in which case I don't think you have any option but to have them imported into the draft pool, and you'll need to have a draft beginning in year 1 of your sim. I think the only other option, and I'm not sure how this would work, would be to choose neither of those options and manually import the rookies, one by one each year, which would make them free agents, until 1965, at which point you could put them into the draft. I think. But that's an awful lot of work just to conform to when the draft was implemented.

[korme]

Rule V - 1933

[LionsFan10]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

However, as far as the draft goes, that date is largely irrelevant depending on how you want to play your historical sim. Either you want to place all players on the correct teams, in which case you'll not want to use the draft until 2007, or you want the players to end up on random teams as they are imported into the game, in which case I don't think you have any option but to have them imported into the draft pool, and you'll need to have a draft beginning in year 1 of your sim. I think the only other option, and I'm not sure how this would work, would be to choose neither of those options and manually import the rookies, one by one each year, which would make them free agents, until 1965, at which point you could put them into the draft. I think. But that's an awful lot of work just to conform to when the draft was implemented.

Well, I guess what I had planned on doing was having players go to their designated teams until the first draft and then from there, make it sort of a revisionists history, with players getting drafted from that point forward. Unless that can't be done for some reason? But as many options are in this game, I'm assuming that would work just fine.

[Ksyrup]

No, you can definitely do that, but I guess the thought never occurred to me. Those players went through a draft and ended up where they did IRL, just like the players prior to the draft were signed by the organizations that signed them and that's how they ended up where they were IRL. So in that respect, I don't see the relevance of the 1965 draft date.

But obviously, it's your game, so don't mistake my preferences for some sort of limitation on what the game can do. You can add the draft at any point.

[DanGarion]

I saw this hint...

"1927, 1939, 1961, or 1998 New York Yankees . . . Who was the best? Import them in the league structure editor (league setup) and see!"

Anyone figure out hwo to do this yet? I'm trying to import some teams from specific years and I can't figure out how exactly to do it...

[PadresFan104]

Originally Posted by yabanci

I also see this "padresfan user mod site" has what appear to be cap, logo, jersey images, but they don't give you a readme or other instructions for what to do with them. that's the most bizarre site. They have all this stuff on there but they don't tell you what to do with it.

I added an "Installation Help" page to my site today. Most downloads that have been submitted already have ReadMe files included, but this page should help for those that don't.

www.padresfanmods.net

[SirFozzie]

BTW, Padres: I'll try to find another place to host that College Template, but I may have to re-work it (having to retype 293 College Names and Nicknames? Oi!) cause you cannot associate a created college league as a feeder to a professional league if it was not created as such :/

[twothree]

Originally Posted by dangarion

I saw this hint...

"1927, 1939, 1961, or 1998 New York Yankees . . . Who was the best? Import them in the league structure editor (league setup) and see!"

Anyone figure out hwo to do this yet? I'm trying to import some teams from specific years and I can't figure out how exactly to do it...

I don't think you can add a historical team when first creating a league, however just do this...

Start a new game. Set up a fictional league with everything how you want it (except for the historical teams just use whatever city and team name is randomly selected). You would probably want to turn off the inaugural fantasy draft, as it would be a waste of time. Start the game. Add the first manager.

Now go to the game setup page and select league setup. Select edit league stucture. Delete all the teams. Select import historical team under the division you want to import them into. Make sure to select the Master.csv file for the database you want to use when asked. Enter a year. Hit refresh list and then select a team.

Also, you might want to goto the free agent pool and delete any players in it. And possibly import any historical players into it, if you want.

[twothree]

Almost forgot, don't forget to select the generate schedule button at the bottom of the edit league structure page.

And if you want to delete all the free agents make sure you have a manager who is a commissioner selected.

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by twothree

I don't think you can add a historical team when first creating a league, however just do this...

Start a new game. Set up a fictional league with everything how you want it (except for the historical teams just use whatever city and team name is randomly selected). You would probably want to turn off the inaugural fantasy draft, as it would be a waste of time. Start the game. Add the first manager.

Now go to the game setup page and select league setup. Select edit league stucture. Delete all the teams. Select import historical team under the division you want to import them into. Make sure to select the Master.csv file for the database you want to use when asked. Enter a year. Hit refresh list and then select a team.

Also, you might want to goto the free agent pool and delete any players in it. And possibly import any historical players into it, if you want.

Yeah I sort of figured it out. Of course there seems like there should be a delete players option... Or something like that. I don't want fictional FAs in my pool, and it seems a bit of work to remove them by hand.