how difficult is the game?

[JamesOOTP]

I know there have been numerous discussions about the difficulty of the game, whether good or bad.

Is it common to have successful careers? In the past I could take losing teams and turn them around very quickly, however I have made a couple of rules for myself.

1) I only accept computer offered trades. To me this makes the game closer to the difficulty level it should be.

2) Take charge of an expansion team (adding two teams) and giving them the lowest TV and Local contract. For example, if Detroit has the lowest TV contract at $22,000,000 for local, and $9,000,000 for national that is what I give my expansion team.

I guess what i'm wondering is if my success is because I may actually be good at the game or if it is normal for everyone to be good d/t the difficulty level.

Thanks for your input

[andjbock]

Originally Posted by JamesOOTP

I know there have been numerous discussions about the difficulty of the game, whether good or bad.

Is it common to have successful careers? In the past I could take losing teams and turn them around very quickly, however I have made a couple of rules for myself.

1) I only accept computer offered trades. To me this makes the game closer to the difficulty level it should be.

2) Take charge of an expansion team (adding two teams) and giving them the lowest TV and Local contract. For example, if Detroit has the lowest TV contract at $22,000,000 for local, and $9,000,000 for national that is what I give my expansion team.

I guess what i'm wondering is if my success is because I may actually be good at the game or if it is normal for everyone to be good d/t the difficulty level.

Thanks for your input

What MM setting do you use, if any?

[Cooker]

The difficulty of OOTP is one of the things I like best about it.

I started in OOTP5 playing with the TotalMinors rosters (2003 season). I took the Indians to the playoffs in 2005. I don't use MM.

In mid 2006 I took over the Pirates, easily the worst team in the majors. I upgraded to OOTP6 (i.e., converted my version 5 team) in mid 2008. It's now early 2009. My Pirates finished 2008 still as the 8th or 9th worst team in baseball. I mainly focused on building Pittsburgh's farm system. I'm hopeful they'll contend in 2009 though it's still a little too early to tell.

The fact that you can't immediately turn a losing franchise into a perrenial contender in OOTP is one of its greatest strengths. It takes work and planning. The new roster limitations in version 6 added an additional level of complexity that I really like.

Of course, it's also possible that I'm just not very good.

[ctorg]

The game has so many options, it's not really easy to say how hard it is. If you play with all talents off in manager mode using the hardest setting and take a team with an almost nonexistent market, the game is nearly impossible. If you play using a huge market team with no scouts, it's pretty darn easy.

[Markus Heinsohn]

What ctorg said.