Need help deciding on how to operate my new league.

[Deitrus]

First off, I want to make a few points before I ask for the advice.

1)-I am a newbie. OOTP6 is the first baseball sim I have ever owned.
2)-I am going to be using real teams with real players (eventually fictional players will be replaing the real ones).

OK, the advice I need is this. I want to start a league but I am not sure how big I want to start it off. I was think about using 20 teams at first (10 teams in each conference-5 per division-2 divisions per conference). After about 5 season I was thinking of adding 4 teams (2 per conference). After that (around season 10-15), I was thinking of adding more teams and then realigning the divisions. This way I could build a relationship with teams and players.

I guess my question is this.....should I start off small?

Other questions (for future reference).

Assuming OOTP7 will hit the shelves in another year, will I lose all of this saved history (stats for players and teams)? Or will I be able to import all of this stuff into the future version?

Second, does Catobase keep stats on a per version basis or does it complile from version to version (OOTP5 to OOTP6 and so on)?



My goal:

To build/create a league that will (in literal sense and real time) survive with me as long I play this sim or as long as OOTP is alive. I want to create a history of players, teams, records and stats so that if I was still playing the sim 7-8-9 years down the road...I can look back and check out the history.


LOL, I hope I am making sense.

Thanks for all the help in advance.

[Deitrus]

small bump for my ( no sense post).

[Dagrims]

Originally posted by Deitrus
1)-I am a newbie. OOTP6 is the first baseball sim I have ever owned.
2)-I am going to be using real teams with real players (eventually fictional players will be replaing the real ones).

I guess my question is this.....should I start off small?

Other questions (for future reference).

Assuming OOTP7 will hit the shelves in another year, will I lose all of this saved history (stats for players and teams)? Or will I be able to import all of this stuff into the future version?

Second, does Catobase keep stats on a per version basis or does it complile from version to version (OOTP5 to OOTP6 and so on)?

Thanks for all the help in advance.

Normally I'd suggest starting on the smaller side (e.g. 16 teams). This way you get the opportunity to get to know the players of your league on a closer level. The smaller the league, the easier it is to follow the key players from every team. However, since you stated you're using real players, I think you should have a large number of teams, close to actual. Otherwise, you'll have rosters full of stars for the first number of years, which really takes away from the roster management side of the game. If you don't mind having star-studded rosters, though, I'd go back to the original recommendation of starting small and building up.

Assuming OOTP7 (or whatever it will be called given Markus' announcement) will come out around Christmas of 2005, you have more than a year and a half to enjoy your league. Given that the engine was just overhauled, I don't think there will be issues with exporting your league to the next version.

I don't know enough about Catobase to answer your last question

[Skywalker76]

Try a small league. When I first bought OOTP 3 I even did a 8 team league with 2 divisions of four teams. This helped me to understand the game and temas/players. I would suggest using fictional players as you don't trade or sign for names but talent and ratings. With fictional players you really look into a players attitude/ratings.

Have fun, if you need help, feel free to ask.

[Deitrus]

Thanks for the replys and advice guys. I think I will have to rethink my position on the current "real" league format.

[gom]

I disagree. Start large. Easier to get people interested.

I have a 30 team league. It took me less than 2 months to fill out, and we have some dynamite owners. You will have a lot of turnover, a lot of learning on the fly, no matter what you choose. Might as well go large from the get go, since your intent is to be a 30 team league.

I am a proponent of a large number of teams, mainly because you are using real players, and real stats, so you won't have to worry about running out of players. You may not want a superstar league where you have Bagwell backing up Delgado, etc. Have teams have real holes they try to fill. This encourages trading and activity in the league. I don't believe that it takes any more work to run a 30 team league than a 14-16 team league.

Just my 2 cents.

[MannyTrillo]

Good move thinking things through before you get started!

I've been playing OOTP for a long time, and for me the best set-up is definitely 2 single division leagues with 6 teams each. That way I know who the players are on every team, rather than just a few. Of course if you are more dedicated or into following along with other teams, you could probably get the same level of knowledge with more teams.

I would agree that fictional is the way to go. You might also try editing the names of some of the fictional players, or even importing some real players to spice things up. My favorite solo league is a fictional league starting in 1900, where I would import 10-15 real rookies to supplement the fictional guys. Another idea might be to fast-sim your league for 10 seasons before you really start, so that all the players have some stats... you can do this before you rename the teams and then redraft if you want your league's history starting fresh.

Also, check out www.logoserver.com for great logos for fictional teams.