OOTP Developments Forums - View Single Post - Persistent Underdevelopment of Drafted Players in Long-Running Online League (OOTP 15

TheShow · 03-23-2025, 05:00 PM

I am going to jump in here as the commish of this online league and add a little bit to this.

To begin with half of this concern is based on feedback from GMs in our league and the other half comes from some speculation based on what the league files look like in OOTP 26 and the "Risk Development" rating. The assumption that is here is that the Development Risk is a factor in previous versions of the game but was finally surfaced in this year's release. When we look at our league files in OOTP 26, 90-95% of all prospects generated in draft classes are "Extreme" risk or "Very High" risk, including those who get generated in later years after simulating in OOTP 26 along side those generated in previous versions. My solo play league is nearly the inverse with around 5-10% showing as "Very High" or "Extreme" development risk.

If that assumption isn't valid, we still have some history of extremely poor development rates of all prospects, not just top prospects. We only have 124 total 1st rounders from the past 10 years who have registered MLB appearances in a 32-team league. Most of those have been mediocre at best.

Screenshot of data from S+ showing the MLB Production from the 1st round picks from the past 10 seasons of TheShow.

We don't use scouting or coaching in TheShow and never have. The most extreme that we do is allow for a virtual currency (Incentive Points) to be spent each off-season to adjust some player ratings or team factors. It's nothing extreme as its primary focus is to be a part of an incentive program to keep GMs active and engaged.

I have spent the better part of the last week doing some testing in both OOTP25 and OOTP26 to try to come up with a path to recovery for the league outside of resetting and starting over. In my OOTP 26 solo league, I see that the Development Risk rating changes with scouts enabled when comparing the talent with OSA scouting and your team scouting. However, in our league files, even simulating 7 seasons into the future with over-the-top maxed out scouts assigned to each team, I cannot find any difference in the development risk ratings for any generated player or current player looking at how a team scout views them versus OSA.

We had been running with no development budgets up and until last season. We thought maybe this would help, even while in OOTP25, but we knew it would take time to see results. In my testing, I even tried ramping this up and simulated 8 more seasons maxing out every team's development budgets to see if any better results. Nearly all prospects washed out and retired as minor leaguers,

I have been trying out a different strategy, starting the league from a template of the league and then importing the players and stats back into the game. However, this doesn't seem to work as simply as the instructions here on the forums makes it out. I am still working through this idea to see if there is just a challenge with our roster set and the engine that could be reset in this manner.

I would welcome any help, any thoughts, any supporting claims from other leagues... ANYTHING. I appreciate any attention this might get, as facing a reset is never fun for a long-standing online league.

03-23-2025, 05:00 PM	#2
TheShow Minors (Single A) Join Date: Oct 2021 Posts: 74	I am going to jump in here as the commish of this online league and add a little bit to this. To begin with half of this concern is based on feedback from GMs in our league and the other half comes from some speculation based on what the league files look like in OOTP 26 and the "Risk Development" rating. The assumption that is here is that the Development Risk is a factor in previous versions of the game but was finally surfaced in this year's release. When we look at our league files in OOTP 26, 90-95% of all prospects generated in draft classes are "Extreme" risk or "Very High" risk, including those who get generated in later years after simulating in OOTP 26 along side those generated in previous versions. My solo play league is nearly the inverse with around 5-10% showing as "Very High" or "Extreme" development risk. If that assumption isn't valid, we still have some history of extremely poor development rates of all prospects, not just top prospects. We only have 124 total 1st rounders from the past 10 years who have registered MLB appearances in a 32-team league. Most of those have been mediocre at best. Screenshot of data from S+ showing the MLB Production from the 1st round picks from the past 10 seasons of TheShow. We don't use scouting or coaching in TheShow and never have. The most extreme that we do is allow for a virtual currency (Incentive Points) to be spent each off-season to adjust some player ratings or team factors. It's nothing extreme as its primary focus is to be a part of an incentive program to keep GMs active and engaged. I have spent the better part of the last week doing some testing in both OOTP25 and OOTP26 to try to come up with a path to recovery for the league outside of resetting and starting over. In my OOTP 26 solo league, I see that the Development Risk rating changes with scouts enabled when comparing the talent with OSA scouting and your team scouting. However, in our league files, even simulating 7 seasons into the future with over-the-top maxed out scouts assigned to each team, I cannot find any difference in the development risk ratings for any generated player or current player looking at how a team scout views them versus OSA. We had been running with no development budgets up and until last season. We thought maybe this would help, even while in OOTP25, but we knew it would take time to see results. In my testing, I even tried ramping this up and simulated 8 more seasons maxing out every team's development budgets to see if any better results. Nearly all prospects washed out and retired as minor leaguers, I have been trying out a different strategy, starting the league from a template of the league and then importing the players and stats back into the game. However, this doesn't seem to work as simply as the instructions here on the forums makes it out. I am still working through this idea to see if there is just a challenge with our roster set and the engine that could be reset in this manner. I would welcome any help, any thoughts, any supporting claims from other leagues... ANYTHING. I appreciate any attention this might get, as facing a reset is never fun for a long-standing online league.