[SteveP]

Originally Posted by progen

I have been in online leagues for nearly eight years, and quite frankly just got burned out and tired of having leagues fold and having to be on a schedule. I've been in as many as nine and as few as one, and just got tired of them. With that said, I've decided to retire to these two games, OOTP and FM10 and put away all my Age of Empire and the other dozens of RTS, RPG, and other sports games.

I just started to get into OOTP11 and have the Pirates, since I like a challenge. The thing that frustrates me, is the strength(intelligence) of the AI. I have been so involved in FM10 and just how incredibly in depth that game is, and how challenging it is to play solo, that I am just now starting to pull myself away from it to play OOTP. I have the trade settings to Trading Freq-Low, Trading Diff-Hard and Trading Pref-Neutral. I just put C Ryan Doumant on the block, and lo and behold the Angels want to trade one of their four starters, Kazmir, Santana, Weaver and Pineiro. Now, at first I thought, here we go again with the absurd, but after looking at their stats, the Angels and these starters are doing terrible. Santana is 0-11, lol, Kazmir is 3-4, and Weaver is 6-6. But my scouts give them all rave reviews, Santana top line starter, Weaver, middle of rotation, and Kazmir "knows how to win".

So I ask you, am I once again able to take advantage of a weak AI, or is it intelligent enough to want to move these pitchers for a .275 career hitting catcher, who I do like. Perhaps because of the year they're having, or a team who wants to dump some payroll? I doubt however that the AI is that good. And should I change the settings to something different? I am also trying to think of ways to play this game that will give me the same incredible enjoyment that FM10 gives me. Should I occasionally manage a game or two during the week as one guy posted that he does? I'm not just concerned with the trading aspect of the game, as I've read there are still issues, but of the entire game and playing solo.

I live in the US and am a die hard baseball fan. I have played FM on and off over the years but over the last few months have been totally addicted. And I've been playing OOTP for much longer. I want to have that same feeling with OOTP, as I once did when playing online. I play in two baseball leagues and haven't played soccer since high school, so I am 100 times more of a baseball fan. Thanks for taking time to read this, and would appreciate any suggestions.

I am going to give you an answer, but for reasons that remain mysterious to me, some people don't like this answer:

1. If you don't think the AI is making an reasonably intelligent trade with you, don't make the trade. It's your solo league. You can control it.

2. Don't worry much about trades the AI makes with itself. The chances are that one of those teams is getting stronger as a result. There is no reason to be concerned about which team it is.

There is only so much that can be done with an AI in a commercial sim game, especially when you don't have a big staff of expensive programmers. We users have to help out a little.