OOTP Developments Forums - View Single Post - Replay League

3fbrown · 08-09-2019, 10:05 AM

Introduction to the Replay League

I have a historical OOTP league that has nearly 94 years of history. I have enjoyed the world-building aspect, as I like both baseball and history. I thought that if anyone else would appreciate hearing about it, it might be the folks on this board.

I figured I would start by explaining how my league runs, and a little of its history. This way the stories make sense in context.

Actual timeline:
I started this league in 2005, so I have been playing with it for about 14 years. Things moved much quicker at the beginning, as I had no kids and more time. This also means that I started with OOTP 5. Later on I switched to version 9 I think, and have updated every other version, keeping to odd versions. I do this for a number of reasons, but one big thing is that making the big jump from 5 to 9 meant that a lot of stuff was lost. Not only was the game a lot different in the old version, but much of it wasn’t compatible. So some league history before the switch – which happened before the 1948 season – was lost.

I am currently in the 1994 season, and I play through fairly slowly. It takes a few months to get through a season, at least. It is even slower now, as I also play a second league where I am including pre-integration black and Cuban players.

League structure:
This league started in 1901, because I wanted to learn more about the old school guys, but pre-1900 leagues are a giant pain (and were MUCH more painful in the old versions of OOTP). I maintained the historical league structure the entire time – expanding as the league did.

I have minor leagues turned on, and there is both a AAA and AA league. I like having minor leagues on, so that players in the minors accumulate statistics, and you can see how well they perform. This is not the case with reserve rosters. I have the AA league only because in the old version, if you did not have an AA team, the computer would often release good players immediately after the draft. I think it was because they had high potential but low current ability, appropriate for AA, and that confused the AI. It may not be a problem now.

I have financials turned off, so no free agency – the reserve clause is in full effect. Players are imported into a first-year player draft.

The draft:
For most of history the draft order was based on record, worst to first. However, at some point I got tired of the extreme parity in the league. Since the worst teams always improved the most in the draft, everyone was pretty similar in talent, and the standings seemed to be fairly close and random, often based on who got lucky in 1-run games. So in the early 80s I instituted an NBA-like lottery system. Now, all teams are in a lottery, and while the number of “balls” in the lottery relates to how many losses you had (with additional penalties for being in the playoffs), even the worst team only has 2-3 times the chance of getting chosen as the top teams. Quite often good teams will choose near the top, and bad teams will get a bad draft choice. This has had the desired effect of creating some more dominant teams with multiple superstars. Without free agency, there was no other way to make that happen.

Players are imported at their appropriate historical date, though for much of league history I would manually push back the debut of players that had only a cup of coffee, until the date that their career really started. The most blatant example of where this would have an effect is Joe Nuxhall. This actually causes some glitches in newer versions of OOTP, so I try to minimize this now.

08-09-2019, 10:05 AM	#1
3fbrown Major Leagues Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 414	Replay League - 94 years of alternate history Introduction to the Replay League I have a historical OOTP league that has nearly 94 years of history. I have enjoyed the world-building aspect, as I like both baseball and history. I thought that if anyone else would appreciate hearing about it, it might be the folks on this board. I figured I would start by explaining how my league runs, and a little of its history. This way the stories make sense in context. Actual timeline: I started this league in 2005, so I have been playing with it for about 14 years. Things moved much quicker at the beginning, as I had no kids and more time. This also means that I started with OOTP 5. Later on I switched to version 9 I think, and have updated every other version, keeping to odd versions. I do this for a number of reasons, but one big thing is that making the big jump from 5 to 9 meant that a lot of stuff was lost. Not only was the game a lot different in the old version, but much of it wasn’t compatible. So some league history before the switch – which happened before the 1948 season – was lost. I am currently in the 1994 season, and I play through fairly slowly. It takes a few months to get through a season, at least. It is even slower now, as I also play a second league where I am including pre-integration black and Cuban players. League structure: This league started in 1901, because I wanted to learn more about the old school guys, but pre-1900 leagues are a giant pain (and were MUCH more painful in the old versions of OOTP). I maintained the historical league structure the entire time – expanding as the league did. I have minor leagues turned on, and there is both a AAA and AA league. I like having minor leagues on, so that players in the minors accumulate statistics, and you can see how well they perform. This is not the case with reserve rosters. I have the AA league only because in the old version, if you did not have an AA team, the computer would often release good players immediately after the draft. I think it was because they had high potential but low current ability, appropriate for AA, and that confused the AI. It may not be a problem now. I have financials turned off, so no free agency – the reserve clause is in full effect. Players are imported into a first-year player draft. The draft: For most of history the draft order was based on record, worst to first. However, at some point I got tired of the extreme parity in the league. Since the worst teams always improved the most in the draft, everyone was pretty similar in talent, and the standings seemed to be fairly close and random, often based on who got lucky in 1-run games. So in the early 80s I instituted an NBA-like lottery system. Now, all teams are in a lottery, and while the number of “balls” in the lottery relates to how many losses you had (with additional penalties for being in the playoffs), even the worst team only has 2-3 times the chance of getting chosen as the top teams. Quite often good teams will choose near the top, and bad teams will get a bad draft choice. This has had the desired effect of creating some more dominant teams with multiple superstars. Without free agency, there was no other way to make that happen. Players are imported at their appropriate historical date, though for much of league history I would manually push back the debut of players that had only a cup of coffee, until the date that their career really started. The most blatant example of where this would have an effect is Joe Nuxhall. This actually causes some glitches in newer versions of OOTP, so I try to minimize this now.