International AI Roster Management - Feedback for LMB, KBO and ***

DrTobiasFunke · 07-16-2018, 10:27 PM

I usually like playing with International leagues to cut out the fictional international free agents in my MLB games, and in my maiden voyage for OOTP '19 I decided to move up the international leagues before taking over an MLB team. One thing that is really problematic about these leagues is that the AI cannot handle having a limited amount of foreigners per team. The KBO, *** and LMB are really great examples of this because of the different ways they can stash these foreign players. Just going to refer to my challenge mode save which included those 3 leagues and the MLB (midway through 2024).

LMB uses a reserve roster system and it kinda works. Okay, it doesn't work immediately, but after the tumult of the first weeks when several teams don't have enough Mexican players to field a team (Tijuana was my team and had a ton of loaned triple AAA players never to be returned to the US, But that's for a different rant). It took a couple of seasons, but can confirm nowadays most of the teams are only carrying 8-12 foreigners. This is might just be a function of the low budgets and the LMB arbitration system, but this system works alright after a pretty brutal start.

KBO is where everything starts to fall apart. Because of the No foreigners allowed policy of the Korean Futures league, the Korean leagues average about 10 sign and release transactions a day. This comes in the form of the AI signing foreigners to minor league contracts and then realizing they have no place on the roster for them. Besides that transaction page bloat, this is still pretty ok, at least compared to the next league on the list.

*** is where dreams of a good international FA market go to die. The combination of the foreigners allowed, an unlimited AA roster and the indentured servitude of Japanese pro players is a recipe for disaster. Every team outside of mine averages 40 Japanese players on their organizational roster, which is alright, except that their entire organizations range from a modest 100 players to 219 (Saitama Lions are in 1st place though, so they must be doing something right.) Besides keeping an extra 1000+ unnecessary players locked up on rosters, it disrupts Japanese player development for all but the most talented prospects, and really hurts the effectiveness of the shop for trade button, as quite a few teams have 5 overpaid foreigners in the Minors they'd like to part with.

Finally, shared among all the leagues is the inability to resist trading their good national players for foreigners. There does seem to be some trade value penalty the AI weighs, but as long as the foreign players aren't overpaid you can wheel and deal MLB castoffs for players who'll actually see the active roster of your team pretty easily.

Granted, some of these problems can be mitigated by messing around with settings (No foreigners allowed solves foreigner spam at the expense of realism, and yeah, we can place caps on reserve and AA rosters), but the constant minor league signings in the KBO and the overwhelmingly foreign makeup of the Japanese minor leagues seem to be problems you can't rid yourself of without banning foreign players altogether or getting rid of their minor leagues and settling for reserve rosters.

(International_AI_Rosters.lg is corresponding save)

nutt · 07-18-2018, 10:32 AM

FWIW, the Mexican League has a limit of eight foreigners (no specific batter/pitcher limit that I know of). Some of these rules are difficult to replicate. For example, if you play with European Leagues on, they all have a "European" rule: a player is exempt from foreigner status if he holds a passport or is born in a European country.

07-16-2018, 10:27 PM	#1
DrTobiasFunke Minors (Single A) Join Date: Jul 2018 Posts: 59	International AI Roster Management - Feedback for LMB, KBO and * I usually like playing with International leagues to cut out the fictional international free agents in my MLB games, and in my maiden voyage for OOTP '19 I decided to move up the international leagues before taking over an MLB team. One thing that is really problematic about these leagues is that the AI cannot handle having a limited amount of foreigners per team. The KBO, * and LMB are really great examples of this because of the different ways they can stash these foreign players. Just going to refer to my challenge mode save which included those 3 leagues and the MLB (midway through 2024). LMB uses a reserve roster system and it kinda works. Okay, it doesn't work immediately, but after the tumult of the first weeks when several teams don't have enough Mexican players to field a team (Tijuana was my team and had a ton of loaned triple AAA players never to be returned to the US, But that's for a different rant). It took a couple of seasons, but can confirm nowadays most of the teams are only carrying 8-12 foreigners. This is might just be a function of the low budgets and the LMB arbitration system, but this system works alright after a pretty brutal start. KBO is where everything starts to fall apart. Because of the No foreigners allowed policy of the Korean Futures league, the Korean leagues average about 10 sign and release transactions a day. This comes in the form of the AI signing foreigners to minor league contracts and then realizing they have no place on the roster for them. Besides that transaction page bloat, this is still pretty ok, at least compared to the next league on the list. *** is where dreams of a good international FA market go to die. The combination of the foreigners allowed, an unlimited AA roster and the indentured servitude of Japanese pro players is a recipe for disaster. Every team outside of mine averages 40 Japanese players on their organizational roster, which is alright, except that their entire organizations range from a modest 100 players to 219 (Saitama Lions are in 1st place though, so they must be doing something right.) Besides keeping an extra 1000+ unnecessary players locked up on rosters, it disrupts Japanese player development for all but the most talented prospects, and really hurts the effectiveness of the shop for trade button, as quite a few teams have 5 overpaid foreigners in the Minors they'd like to part with. Finally, shared among all the leagues is the inability to resist trading their good national players for foreigners. There does seem to be some trade value penalty the AI weighs, but as long as the foreign players aren't overpaid you can wheel and deal MLB castoffs for players who'll actually see the active roster of your team pretty easily. Granted, some of these problems can be mitigated by messing around with settings (No foreigners allowed solves foreigner spam at the expense of realism, and yeah, we can place caps on reserve and AA rosters), but the constant minor league signings in the KBO and the overwhelmingly foreign makeup of the Japanese minor leagues seem to be problems you can't rid yourself of without banning foreign players altogether or getting rid of their minor leagues and settling for reserve rosters. (International_AI_Rosters.lg is corresponding save)

07-18-2018, 10:32 AM	#2
nutt OOTP Roster Team Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Nashville, TN Posts: 2,263	FWIW, the Mexican League has a limit of eight foreigners (no specific batter/pitcher limit that I know of). Some of these rules are difficult to replicate. For example, if you play with European Leagues on, they all have a "European" rule: a player is exempt from foreigner status if he holds a passport or is born in a European country.