|
All Star Reserve
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Brooklyn
Posts: 972
|
Ping: Historical Simmers, OOTP2k6 Experts
Cross-posted from the OTBL boards.
Quote:
THE DILEMMA
I started playing a 2004 league, and this new incarnation of OOTP can't come pre-packaged with history (or can it?!) like the old ones. In other words, every record in the book is made by an active player, the (super-cool) in-game history has nothing in it, the hall of fame is bare, etc. And I kind of think, what's the point in a super-cool in-game history or, indeed, in a modern day MLB sim, without the history? That's kind of what I like about baseball. Without it, eh.
THE SOLUTION
Making my own history. I'm planning to start a league in 1901, with as little "fictionalization" as possible. No ammy draft 'til '65, reserve clause 'til '76, no integration 'til '47, and so on. I'll update team names, locations and stadia based on historical truths where I can find them. If game-situations change history in a noticable way (like if Curt Flood doesn't get traded in '69, say) then I'll manipulate the story such that historical happenings still happen.
The league will include the Major Leagues, the Negro Leagues, the Federal League, most independent/minor leagues that I have data for, the Japanese League, the Cuban League and the Mexican League.
NEW DILEMMAS (AND PROPOSED SOLUTIONS)
1. How to include leagues that either don't exist in 1901 or stopped exisiting at some point. This applies to the various minor leagues, Japanese League, Mexican League, Federal League and Negro Leagues. As far as I know, OOTP still doesn't have the capacity to add/delete leagues from a universe, so I'll have to figure something out.
Solution: For the foreign leagues, I think it will be as easy as setting their player creation modifiers way down, eliminating trades with other leagues and free agency, and then turning on player movement when historically necessary to do so. A bunch of history will be created, which will be historically inaccurate but maybe enriching to the game.
For the minor leagues, in order for teams to be affiliated once affiliations start happening, they have to be affiliated with the Majors from the start. The way I propose to do this is to have all the levels of minors, and include in them whichever minor league teams/leagues of that equivalant level existed in a given year. For example, AAA in 1901 has the Eastern League and Western League, with no interleague play and no playoffs. None of these teams are affiliated with any major league teams. So, finally, the history of AAA will include the modern PCL, etc. all the way back to the Western League. Its not perfect, but its better than nothing.
New dilemma: With all the minor leagues unaffiliated, unsigned players are just as likely (financially) to sign with any minor league team as with a major league team. Superstars shouldn't be affected because they probably won't get released. Will players, when offered a lesser amount of money, sign with a higher level team simply because it is higher level?
For the Negro Leagues, I plan to have one blanket Negro League that will include all of the smaller Negro Leagues as divisions and sub-leagues. But how to make it stop existing after 1954? Is it possible to make a league's schedule zero games? Is there another workaround for deleting leagues?
For the Federal League, I have the same problem as I had with the Negro Leagues. One thing I'm considering is just not including it. I don't know that two years of history are worth it. The other thing I'm considering is having an over-arching independent baseball league that includes all independent American Major Leagues that exist. There would be no Federal League history page, for example, but the Federal League would be included among the Independent Leagues.
2. How to prevent Negro League players from signing in the Majors until 1947 while still allowing them to play in Cuba or Mexico. How to prevent Major League free agents from signing in the Negro Leagues.
Solution: Since the Major Leagues have no free agency, no one can leave the league. I will also mark it so that the Majors cannot sign any free agents from other leagues. However, the Negro Leagues will have free agency though players from other leagues will not be able to sign with the Negro Leagues.
3. How to get real rookies on their teams pre-amateur draft.
Solution: Have an amateur draft turned on, but assign rookies to their original teams until 1965.
Besides a solution to my shutting-down leagues question, what I'd like from experienced historical simmers is any other problems I may not have thought of yet, feedback on what I've got so far, and some general problems/things a new historical simmer wouldn't think of that relate specifically to historical simming. Stuff like how to import Babe Ruth, whether to assign players to their original teams, blah blah blah. I've been making use of the stickied page on the OTBL's OOTP discussion board and the big fat ESPN baseball book for historical info.
TIA!
|
__________________
"Disguised in EMU's Blunt and sometimes hostile post is actually very sound advice. I think you would be wise to consider what he said."
-ihatenames
|
Home | Webstore
09-13-2006, 02:34 PM
