[Charlie Hough]

I don't think the OOTP 10 manual is very clear on explaining the feature mentioned above. Is the predefined draft value supposed to allow the AI to see the future value of players when drafting them?

Here is how the manual explains it:

"This option is only available in historical leagues. The historical database now supports a predefined draft value that is used by the AI in the first-year player draft or inaugural draft in order to create more realistic (i.e. "true to history") draft selections."

If this means that the AI can "see the future" and make better selections based no future historical value, why isn't this feature also implemented for the AI to evaluate all players and not just potential draftees? It should use this same process to evaluate players for trades, free agency, etc.

Another way to do it would be to have the AI use the NEXT several years to evaluate players in the same way that allows the options to be set so that players are evaluated based on current and previous two years' statistics.

I just tried running a new historical game on OOTP 9, and some of the trades were absurd. I have the trade difficulty set to very hard and AI trades set to low, but the AI makes suicidal trades with other AI GM's because it can't see the future historical value of players. So a mediocre shortstop who is one year away from becoming worthless was traded for a young Bob Gibson. And another subpar player with no future was traded for a relatively young Jim Bunning. Take away the names, and these trades are still absolutely stupid on the basis of the future statistics. And that's all I would ask the AI to be able to see.