Scouting and development budget issues

dcd111 · 08-19-2015, 02:32 PM

I'm a General Manager of a major league team, we're in preseason, I have plenty of Projected Budget Room and I'm not over the team salary cap. I am in control of setting budgets for scouting and development according to the team control settings. Yet, when I go to change my scouting or development budgets, I'm getting some very strange results.

The baselines are $2,430,000 for each of these budgets (late 1980's financials).

On the Finances tab, last year's amounts for each of these was $1,215,000. I have had to keep it low for a variety of reasons, but now I have plenty of available budget room, so I want to increase to at least be around league average.

When I type in $2,430,000, it changes to $1,444,360 instead. If I type over it again with $2,430,000, it changes to $1,673,720. Increasing by no more than $229,360 each time. Okay, annoying, but I can work around it.

Here's where it gets stranger. If I type in a number in the Scouting tab, it reverts to $1,215,000, no matter what I type in. Same thing in the development tab. It's acting like I'm over budget and forcing me to use 50% of the league baseline, but there's no reason it should be doing that. I have a projected balance of over $6,000,000, and a current balance of over $9,000,000. There's a hard salary cap of $14,000,000, and I'm not over it or projected to be.

I started looking around, most teams have the same budgets: $1,215,000, although some have up to $1,800,000 or so. But none are at the baseline. How can that be? Most teams have a lot of money and are under the salary cap, the league financials haven't imploded or anything like that.

What am I missing here? Is there an amount you can't go over the league average? And why is the average so much lower than the baseline in the league setup?

sreem · 08-19-2015, 02:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dcd111

I'm a General Manager of a major league team, we're in preseason, I have plenty of Projected Budget Room and I'm not over the team salary cap. I am in control of setting budgets for scouting and development according to the team control settings. Yet, when I go to change my scouting or development budgets, I'm getting some very strange results.

The baselines are $2,430,000 for each of these budgets (late 1980's financials).

On the Finances tab, last year's amounts for each of these was $1,215,000. I have had to keep it low for a variety of reasons, but now I have plenty of available budget room, so I want to increase to at least be around league average.

When I type in $2,430,000, it changes to $1,444,360 instead. If I type over it again with $2,430,000, it changes to $1,673,720. Increasing by no more than $229,360 each time. Okay, annoying, but I can work around it.

Here's where it gets stranger. If I type in a number in the Scouting tab, it reverts to $1,215,000, no matter what I type in. Same thing in the development tab. It's acting like I'm over budget and forcing me to use 50% of the league baseline, but there's no reason it should be doing that. I have a projected balance of over $6,000,000, and a current balance of over $9,000,000. There's a hard salary cap of $14,000,000, and I'm not over it or projected to be.

I started looking around, most teams have the same budgets: $1,214,000, although some have up to $1,800,000 or so. But none are at the baseline. How can that be? Most teams have a lot of money and are under the salary cap, the league financials haven't imploded or anything like that.

What am I missing here? Is there an amount you can't go over the league average? And why is the average so much lower than the baseline in the league setup?

Did you accumulate cash from trades that is factoring into your balances? If you or positive on budget room due to cash received through trades, but would have been negative without the cash, I believe the system won't let you use your acquired cash for scouting and development.
I'm not positive on this but I think that's how it works.

Matt Arnold · 08-19-2015, 03:22 PM

It's based on projected budget room - do you have budget space for them? Post screenshots of your finances page if you want clarification.

dcd111 · 08-20-2015, 07:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sreem

Did you accumulate cash from trades that is factoring into your balances? If you or positive on budget room due to cash received through trades, but would have been negative without the cash, I believe the system won't let you use your acquired cash for scouting and development.
I'm not positive on this but I think that's how it works.

No cash spent or received in trades.

dcd111 · 08-20-2015, 07:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matt Arnold

It's based on projected budget room - do you have budget space for them? Post screenshots of your finances page if you want clarification.

I had plenty of projected budget room, well above the amounts I'm trying to increase these budgets. I will post some screenshots when I am in the offseason/preseason again, this wasn't critical enough to hold everything up so I just sucked it up and moved on in the meantime.

I did play with it a little more in the subsequent offseason, and it seems that as long as I only change the numbers on the finance page, and not the scouting or development pages, it stays increased rather than reverting to 1/2 the baseline. But I have to repeatedly enter the increased value until it increases to the value I'm looking for, it will only increase in small increments with each entry as I described in my original post. But I can increase it by that increment as many times as I want (until the owner's budget is exhausted or up to the value I'm entering) in the same offseason, I don't even have to leave the page.

So it doesn't seem to be a budget room issue, otherwise I assume it would stop me from increasing it at all once (and it does stop me if I drain all of my projected budget room). Something else appears to be limiting how much I can increase these budgets each time I enter a new value. The issue with the other tabs seems to be a bug, regardless of what the limiting constraint on these budgets is, I don't think these pages are supposed to be treating these budget inputs differently than the finance tab does.

Matt Arnold · 08-20-2015, 09:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dcd111

I did play with it a little more in the subsequent offseason, and it seems that as long as I only change the numbers on the finance page, and not the scouting or development pages, it stays increased rather than reverting to 1/2 the baseline. But I have to repeatedly enter the increased value until it increases to the value I'm looking for, it will only increase in small increments with each entry as I described in my original post. But I can increase it by that increment as many times as I want (until the owner's budget is exhausted or up to the value I'm entering) in the same offseason, I don't even have to leave the page.

That to me is weird, because I can tell you for a fact that whether you enter from the main finances page or the scouting page, they literally run through the same lines of code to check if you have budget room, so I don't know what to tell you about that. If you see this again, let me know, but I'd be very surprised if there wasn't something else going on here.

NoOne · 08-20-2015, 09:35 AM

Read below - what matt responded too will be at the end of the double post. after my omg frustration line, lol. it's more clearly written. i was logged out and it double posted instead of saving an edit to this post.

Matt Arnold · 08-20-2015, 09:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NoOne

if you get over 2billion in cash (2,147,483,648), you will experience what you described. even if you have budget room, it is magically eaten up by some unseen force. i am kidding, of course.

the program is having problems with addition and subtration that involves numbers larger than (2^32)/2). even if you are below that figure for on-hand cash, it can still be a problem.

easy fix: set money cap (not salary cap!) at the largest possible budget any team could get plus some wiggle room to be safe. subtract that from (2^32)/2. Do this regardless of any current problem. if given the opportunity, it can and will happen eventually, regardless of how unlikely it is.

again, it doesn't have to be any single value that equals (2^32)/2, but any operation(+,-,*,/ etc...) that could result in a number larger. ie it will happen before you reach that cap figure in regrads to on-hand cash. the larger your budget, the sooner it will hapen.

Yeah, that's a limitation because we used signed 32-bit integers all over the place. If you truly want to play with teams with billion-dollar budgets, I'd suggest keeping the default financials down, but using a financial multiplier of like 1000. The multiplier is used for display and should be able to display elements larger than 2B.

NoOne · 08-20-2015, 09:57 AM

it wasn't criticism. there is no reason for a larger number. a team won't be adversely affected in any way, if they limit themselves to a 1.5 billion on-hand money cap.

I had this problem by having a 17 year playoff run withut a cap on cash on-hand - i wasn't even running the team. i merely simmed with "do not disturb." all of a sudden i had tons of budget room but my team salary and other things were severely restricted under my budget. Making a cash on hand cap in financial settings fixed the problem.

so, i wasn't referencing billion-dollar budgets in any way except that they are obviously at some point added to existing cash reserves and therefore you can go over that cap, regardless of how large or small the budget is.

omg, if i get logged out it double posts... not my fault.... but this is written more clearly.

if you get near 2billion in cash (2,147,483,647or8 is the actual max), you will experience what you described. even if you have budget room, it is magically eaten up by some unseen force. i am kidding, of course.

the program is having problems with addition and subtration (etc..) that involves numbers nearing/resulting in 2billion+. the variables range is -2,147,483,648 - "0" - 2,147,483,648, zero is in the range, so one of those figures is actually 1 less ignoring sign.

it doesn't have to be any single value that equals (2^32)/2, but any operation(+,-,*,/ etc...) that could result in a number larger. ie it will happen before you reach that cap figure due to on-hand cash. the larger your cash reserves, the sooner it will hapen (a budget doesn't have the same bloated potential as cash on hand). fyi: not all values in all games have the same defined range. it is always a 2^x step, and can potentially have the same problems when you reach it. there are ways to prevent it or handle it better in the code.

However, for the player it is still an easy fix: set money cap at 2^32 minus the largest possible budget any team could get plus some wiggle room to be safe. Do this regardless of any existing problem. if given the opportunity, it can and will happen, regardless of how unlikely it is.

08-19-2015, 02:32 PM	#1
dcd111 Minors (Double A) Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 131	Scouting and development budget issues I'm a General Manager of a major league team, we're in preseason, I have plenty of Projected Budget Room and I'm not over the team salary cap. I am in control of setting budgets for scouting and development according to the team control settings. Yet, when I go to change my scouting or development budgets, I'm getting some very strange results. The baselines are $2,430,000 for each of these budgets (late 1980's financials). On the Finances tab, last year's amounts for each of these was $1,215,000. I have had to keep it low for a variety of reasons, but now I have plenty of available budget room, so I want to increase to at least be around league average. When I type in $2,430,000, it changes to $1,444,360 instead. If I type over it again with $2,430,000, it changes to $1,673,720. Increasing by no more than $229,360 each time. Okay, annoying, but I can work around it. Here's where it gets stranger. If I type in a number in the Scouting tab, it reverts to $1,215,000, no matter what I type in. Same thing in the development tab. It's acting like I'm over budget and forcing me to use 50% of the league baseline, but there's no reason it should be doing that. I have a projected balance of over $6,000,000, and a current balance of over $9,000,000. There's a hard salary cap of $14,000,000, and I'm not over it or projected to be. I started looking around, most teams have the same budgets: $1,215,000, although some have up to $1,800,000 or so. But none are at the baseline. How can that be? Most teams have a lot of money and are under the salary cap, the league financials haven't imploded or anything like that. What am I missing here? Is there an amount you can't go over the league average? And why is the average so much lower than the baseline in the league setup? Last edited by dcd111; 08-19-2015 at 02:41 PM.

08-20-2015, 09:35 AM	#7
NoOne Banned Join Date: Apr 2015 Posts: 7,273 Infractions: 0/1 (3)	Read below - what matt responded too will be at the end of the double post. after my omg frustration line, lol. it's more clearly written. i was logged out and it double posted instead of saving an edit to this post. Last edited by NoOne; 08-20-2015 at 10:02 AM.

08-20-2015, 09:57 AM	#9
NoOne Banned Join Date: Apr 2015 Posts: 7,273 Infractions: 0/1 (3)	it wasn't criticism. there is no reason for a larger number. a team won't be adversely affected in any way, if they limit themselves to a 1.5 billion on-hand money cap. I had this problem by having a 17 year playoff run withut a cap on cash on-hand - i wasn't even running the team. i merely simmed with "do not disturb." all of a sudden i had tons of budget room but my team salary and other things were severely restricted under my budget. Making a cash on hand cap in financial settings fixed the problem. so, i wasn't referencing billion-dollar budgets in any way except that they are obviously at some point added to existing cash reserves and therefore you can go over that cap, regardless of how large or small the budget is. omg, if i get logged out it double posts... not my fault.... but this is written more clearly. if you get near 2billion in cash (2,147,483,647or8 is the actual max), you will experience what you described. even if you have budget room, it is magically eaten up by some unseen force. i am kidding, of course. the program is having problems with addition and subtration (etc..) that involves numbers nearing/resulting in 2billion+. the variables range is -2,147,483,648 - "0" - 2,147,483,648, zero is in the range, so one of those figures is actually 1 less ignoring sign. it doesn't have to be any single value that equals (2^32)/2, but any operation(+,-,,/ etc...) that could result in a number larger. ie it will happen before you reach that cap figure due to on-hand cash. the larger your cash reserves, the sooner it will hapen (a budget doesn't have the same bloated potential as cash on hand). fyi: not all values in all games have the same defined range. it is always a 2^x step, and can potentially have the same problems when you reach it. there are ways to prevent it or handle it better in the code. However, for the player it is still an easy fix: set money cap at 2^32 minus the largest possible budget any team could get plus some wiggle room to be safe. Do this regardless of any existing problem. if given the opportunity, it can and will happen, regardless of how unlikely it is. Last edited by NoOne; 08-20-2015 at 12:23 PM.*

08-19-2015, 03:22 PM	#3
Matt Arnold OOTP Developer Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Here and there Posts: 16,222	It's based on projected budget room - do you have budget space for them? Post screenshots of your finances page if you want clarification.