Independent League?

taj · 09-20-2008, 10:34 PM

I'm fairly new to OOTP but I love it for its customizability. I'm trying to create a fictional independent league that uses MLB free agents to populate the league, not fictional players. I do this by adding an MLB minor league and deleting the affiliations.

I've set up the financials to allow teams enough money to sign average MLB FAs. The only problem is that no matter what the financials are set at... during the pre-season, AI controlled teams will only sign 4 - 5 players. This forces me to populate teams with fictional players just prior to Opening Day, which crashes the game. Does anyone know how to get the AI to sign players? It's not a money issue... I have no problem signing enough players for my own team.

Of course, I could (a) use the editor to edit the appropriate FA's onto my team, or I could take control of each individual team, but I'm not wild about doing that.

f.montoya · 09-21-2008, 09:53 AM

What happens if you don't populate teams with fictional players just prior to Opening Day? Will the game crash? Might the teams in question sign some players just in the nick of time?

Bluenoser · 09-21-2008, 09:55 AM

Are all teams set to AI control and allow AI to make transactions?

Do you have minimum roster size set?

Do AI teams have plenty of money for FA's?

Have you "Run AI manager on all teams" in league setup?

blackrussian · 09-21-2008, 10:29 AM

I think there is also the factor of what quality the independent league is and how many FA's are actually available to sign. depending on the league quality, they may not want to sign scrub type FA's either just to populate their teams. perhaps there are not enough average quality (or above) FA's for the independent league?

tombair · 09-21-2008, 01:19 PM

I had a similar situation in my league (24 team MLB, 40 team indy league, and 4 foreign leagues). Salaries are basically normal in MLB ($400K to ~$20M) and roughly $15K to $50K in the indy league.

Every now and then, the game would stop because an indy team didn't have enough players (typically they had only 8). At first I thought the team didn't have enough money, but it had plenty. Then I thought there just weren't any free agents available, but there were plenty.

I think what was happening was that the free agents see that MLB has plenty of cash and that makes them demand more money than the indy team can offer. That's just my theory. Perhaps if you scale back the finances in your majors a bit?

One interesting note: when I was first testing my league I accidentally set the MLB salary cap to $100K instead of $100M. Now you'd think that would cause the MLB teams to not sign any players...but no...the indy teams all ran out of players. I think cash building up in MLB caused players to seek more money. But who knows? I fixed my error and the problem went (almost) away.

taj · 09-21-2008, 03:46 PM

f. montoya: The game won't go on. It tells me that there aren't enough players, forcing me to add them, which leads to a crash a week or so later.

BruceM: Yes to all of your questions. AI teams have ~ 10 million each.

blackrussian: There are plenty of free agents, and there are enough of them at the skill level that teams can afford. I sorta figured it was that players didn't want to sign with a AA-level league, but the same amount of players signed regardless of if the level was R-A or AAA.

tombair: Hmm, interesting theory. I'm finding that the indy league signs people as the season progresses, not all at once. I'm thinking I might try your theory first, and if that doesn't work... well, I guess I'll have to go the fictional player route. Thanks for the comments.

Bluenoser · 09-21-2008, 06:21 PM

Do you have the Independant League set to allow signig of FA's from other leagues?

Do you have foreigner % set high enough?

taj · 09-23-2008, 06:10 AM

BruceM: Yes, I've got the Free Agents set up correctly, but the foreigner % is interesting. I set that pretty low, so maybe that affects things. But I think this is hard-coded somehow, because a few days after Opening Day (5/4), the rosters were full of 30+ free agents, filling the reserve roster. Oh well, it works I suppose.

09-20-2008, 10:34 PM	#1
taj Bat Boy Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 3	Independent League? I'm fairly new to OOTP but I love it for its customizability. I'm trying to create a fictional independent league that uses MLB free agents to populate the league, not fictional players. I do this by adding an MLB minor league and deleting the affiliations. I've set up the financials to allow teams enough money to sign average MLB FAs. The only problem is that no matter what the financials are set at... during the pre-season, AI controlled teams will only sign 4 - 5 players. This forces me to populate teams with fictional players just prior to Opening Day, which crashes the game. Does anyone know how to get the AI to sign players? It's not a money issue... I have no problem signing enough players for my own team. Of course, I could (a) use the editor to edit the appropriate FA's onto my team, or I could take control of each individual team, but I'm not wild about doing that.

09-21-2008, 09:53 AM	#2
f.montoya Hall Of Famer Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 6,069	What happens if you don't populate teams with fictional players just prior to Opening Day? Will the game crash? Might the teams in question sign some players just in the nick of time? __________________ Fidel Montoya Asahi2 Baseball ex-Commissioner(Historical League Since 2004) www.allsimbaseball.com (OOTP web hosting - Customized sites for online leagues - Sign up, Connect OOTP and Play!) Share Your Mods - Free, unlimited and easy to upload to share your Mods instantly(free site registration required)

09-21-2008, 10:29 AM	#4
blackrussian All Star Reserve Join Date: Apr 2002 Posts: 954	I think there is also the factor of what quality the independent league is and how many FA's are actually available to sign. depending on the league quality, they may not want to sign scrub type FA's either just to populate their teams. perhaps there are not enough average quality (or above) FA's for the independent league? __________________ v'

09-21-2008, 01:19 PM	#5
tombair Major Leagues Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: La Plata, MD Posts: 493	I had a similar situation in my league (24 team MLB, 40 team indy league, and 4 foreign leagues). Salaries are basically normal in MLB ($400K to ~$20M) and roughly $15K to $50K in the indy league. Every now and then, the game would stop because an indy team didn't have enough players (typically they had only 8). At first I thought the team didn't have enough money, but it had plenty. Then I thought there just weren't any free agents available, but there were plenty. I think what was happening was that the free agents see that MLB has plenty of cash and that makes them demand more money than the indy team can offer. That's just my theory. Perhaps if you scale back the finances in your majors a bit? One interesting note: when I was first testing my league I accidentally set the MLB salary cap to $100K instead of $100M. Now you'd think that would cause the MLB teams to not sign any players...but no...the indy teams all ran out of players. I think cash building up in MLB caused players to seek more money. But who knows? I fixed my error and the problem went (almost) away. __________________ I don't care how long you've been around, you'll never see it all. Bob Lemon

09-21-2008, 09:55 AM	#3
Bluenoser Hall Of Famer Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: In The Moment Posts: 14,048	Are all teams set to AI control and allow AI to make transactions? Do you have minimum roster size set? Do AI teams have plenty of money for FA's? Have you "Run AI manager on all teams" in league setup?

09-21-2008, 03:46 PM	#6
taj Bat Boy Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 3	f. montoya: The game won't go on. It tells me that there aren't enough players, forcing me to add them, which leads to a crash a week or so later. BruceM: Yes to all of your questions. AI teams have ~ 10 million each. blackrussian: There are plenty of free agents, and there are enough of them at the skill level that teams can afford. I sorta figured it was that players didn't want to sign with a AA-level league, but the same amount of players signed regardless of if the level was R-A or AAA. tombair: Hmm, interesting theory. I'm finding that the indy league signs people as the season progresses, not all at once. I'm thinking I might try your theory first, and if that doesn't work... well, I guess I'll have to go the fictional player route. Thanks for the comments.

09-21-2008, 06:21 PM	#7
Bluenoser Hall Of Famer Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: In The Moment Posts: 14,048	Do you have the Independant League set to allow signig of FA's from other leagues? Do you have foreigner % set high enough?

09-23-2008, 06:10 AM	#8
taj Bat Boy Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 3	BruceM: Yes, I've got the Free Agents set up correctly, but the foreigner % is interesting. I set that pretty low, so maybe that affects things. But I think this is hard-coded somehow, because a few days after Opening Day (5/4), the rosters were full of 30+ free agents, filling the reserve roster. Oh well, it works I suppose.