[Reed]

Originally Posted by thehef

I was just running a test, historical with no historical transactions, with minors, with development on, 1-yr re-calc. Koufax played until age 50, and was dominant except for his final season, where he was merely very good. Clemente played until 49 and was also excellent.

I tried another test, same settings except I turned development on but had Talent Change Randomness set to 2 (meaning development was in effect, but just barely). In that test, the development engine apparently took over after Koufax & Clemente ran out of real-life stats, and their OOTP careers then took believable paths: Koufax was excellent for 5 more seasons (after his real-life retirement), then had a mediocre final season at age 36, and retired. Clemente played two more seasons as a part-timer before retiring at age 39. (Also, Lyman Bostock had a reasonable OOTP career: a couple decent seasons before fading away.)

So I think - based upon limited testing - the answer to quillenl's question is to play with the development engine on, and having the number set very low. That's assuming you want guys to have seasons similar to their real-life seasons, and want guys who retired early IRL to keep playing in OOTP, but not to unrealistic levels and age.

Finally, it may be worth noting that the Retire According to History and Miss Seasons Accdg to History checkboxes do not work if you are playing with historical transactions. This used to work - you could play with historical transactions, uncheck Retire Accdg to History, and Koufax would not retire early. Several versions ago this was changed for some unknown reason, and the ability to play that way no longer exists.

Nice post. I wonder how much affect the aging development would affect these players. What is the upper setting limit for aging development?
Anyway, good post.