Please make some recommendations on my league setup

[robc]

Hi,

It's been a while since I've posted here. I don't play OOTP a ton, but I kinda got the itch to play. Typically in the past I would play the 1970s / 80s as the Yankees, using recalc to keep players in line with their real life performance. After doing that several times I think I'm ready to change it up. This time I'm going to have a historical, same time span, but I want to turn off recalc and use the OOTP player development system instead. I plan on using the real minor leagues.

I typically do a combination of GMing and managing. I don't usually play out every game, but maybe play out once through the rotation, then sim the next time through the rotation. In general I want players to tend to roughly follow their real life performance, but I don't want to know exactly what to expect. I also don't want the game to be super easy, but playing as the Yankees with a big budget it may be inevitable. Leaving amateur draft off so players start with their real teams.

Can anyone give advise on what settings work out the best? Below are the settings I have questions about, but please feel free to give advise on whatever you think is important. I'm psyched that real L/R splits are in the game now!

Challenge mode: Worth enabling? Does it make the game more fun or rewarding to play?

Initial start: If I want to start playing in 1971, should I just choose that as my start date, or should I pick an earlier date and sim up to 1971?

Base Fielding Ratings on: Not sure if using 3 year period is best, or if I should just use entire career. I hate to get into situations where someone (like Don Mattingly) played most of their career a position but started somewhere else - so in my OOTP world they are forever playing out of their typical position.

Base Pitcher Stamina on: Same thing as above.

Adjust / weaken batters / pitcher: I'm inclined to leave it at the defaults.

Require full minor league rosters: I'm guessing I should leave this off. Is that a good idea?


Scouting: How is scouting now? Should I use it? If so, what accuracy?

Rating scale I usually keep it fairly low, such as 1-5 or 2-8 so there is more unknown and I need to rely more on their performance to evaluate them. It is inconvenient not to have any ratings though. Sometimes I turn off current ratings and just leave potential ratings on.

Display player ratings relative to current league?: I've never used this feature. Recommended?

Coaching Staff: I used to turn this off. Has it been improved and / or less tedious?

Owner Goals: I'm inclined to turn this off because I want to make sure I stay with the Yankees. Are these fun / well implemented? Maybe I'd use them for a different league.

Injuries: I'm inclined to turn them on so I need to make use of more players. Recommended frequency?

Player personality ratings: I used to keep them off. More fun to turn them on?

Show and use player morale system? Is it fun to keep this on?

Show and use team chemistry? Is it fun to keep this on?

Trading Difficulty: Leave at default of hard / neutral?


Unmentioned settings I plan to leave at their defaults unless I get advise to do otherwise.

Thanks for any help

[UltimateAverageGuy]

Are you really asking people to choose every single aspect of how you play?

[robc]

I'm asking if people have recommendations on some particular options. I don't necessarily expect one person to answer everything. If it's not something you want to help with then don't. Nobody is obligated.

[Orcin]

Hi Rob. I have played this way a lot. I am basing my answers on what I liked and didn't like. Your mileage may vary.

Originally Posted by robc

Challenge mode: Worth enabling? Does it make the game more fun or rewarding to play?The key is the commissioner mode. If you think you will ever want to use it, then avoid Challenge Mode. It also restricts the settings that you can choose, such as scouting, injuries, and AI eval. If you want to tinker, leave it off.

Initial start: If I want to start playing in 1971, should I just choose that as my start date, or should I pick an earlier date and sim up to 1971?Start in 1971. You don't want the AI trading one of your fav players before you get to use him.

Base Fielding Ratings on: Not sure if using 3 year period is best, or if I should just use entire career. I hate to get into situations where someone (like Don Mattingly) played most of their career a position but started somewhere else - so in my OOTP world they are forever playing out of their typical position.Use entire career.

Base Pitcher Stamina on: Same thing as above. Use entire career.


Adjust / weaken batters / pitcher: I'm inclined to leave it at the defaults.Default

Require full minor league rosters: I'm guessing I should leave this off. Is that a good idea?Off


Scouting: How is scouting now? Should I use it? If so, what accuracy?Yes, normal accuracy.

Rating scale I usually keep it fairly low, such as 1-5 or 2-8 so there is more unknown and I need to rely more on their performance to evaluate them. It is inconvenient not to have any ratings though. Sometimes I turn off current ratings and just leave potential ratings on.I think 20/80 scale with everything enabled is the best way to play. This is pure personal pref.

Display player ratings relative to current league?: I've never used this feature. Recommended?Yes, use it. I also check ratings relative to all players, not position.

Coaching Staff: I used to turn this off. Has it been improved and / or less tedious?No, but I would use it simply to soak up budget. You can delegate hiring to your assistant if it becomes tedious, especially for the minors.

Owner Goals: I'm inclined to turn this off because I want to make sure I stay with the Yankees. Are these fun / well implemented? Maybe I'd use them for a different league.I always use them because it adds to the challenge and gives me something else to manage. Winning trumps everything else, so you can safely ignore the sign/acquire/trade goals if they don't align with your own.

Injuries: I'm inclined to turn them on so I need to make use of more players. Recommended frequency?I use OOTP Classic for historical play.

Player personality ratings: I used to keep them off. More fun to turn them on?I always turn them off for historical because the personality ratings are random. When Munson comes up as disruptive, you will not like it. Also, turn off storylines.

Show and use player morale system? Is it fun to keep this on?Fictional yes. Historical no.

Show and use team chemistry? Is it fun to keep this on?Same as above.

Trading Difficulty: Leave at default of hard / neutral?Hard/neutral


Unmentioned settings I plan to leave at their defaults unless I get advise to do otherwise.If GM-only, check the box for always in control of lineups unless you want the manager to set everything. I usually turn TCR down to 50 because I want less randomness. The defaults for aging/dev work ok imo. I turn off contract opt-outs in your era because they really never happened. I also shorten the extensions to 7 or 5 years. Make sure league evolution and expansion are set to follow history unless you want some weird changes or a frozen structure.

Thanks for any help

You're welcome.

[robc]

Thanks a lot Orcin, I appreciate it!

It's good to see you're still playing. When I saw your name I looked up Puresim and it seems Shaun is working on a new version. He posted on Twitter about it.

If I want historical parks, do I need to install silvam14's parks, or does OOTP come with historical 3D parks?

[Orcin]

Originally Posted by robc

Thanks a lot Orcin, I appreciate it!

It's good to see you're still playing. When I saw your name I looked up Puresim and it seems Shaun is working on a new version. He posted on Twitter about it.

If I want historical parks, do I need to install silvam14's parks, or does OOTP come with historical 3D parks?

You need silvam’s parks unless you just want to use the default for every game.

Last I heard, Shaun had abandoned the game. Did you hear that Glenn passed away? Some of the old gang still post on the forum over there occasionally.

[robc]

I'll grab silvam's parks then, thanks. Seeing the stadiums that I remember when I watched baseball as a kid adds to the experience.

Maybe Shaun did give it up. The puresim website is no longer functioning and the last tweet about it was July 2016.

[robc]

Originally Posted by Orcin

Did you hear that Glenn passed away? Some of the old gang still post on the forum over there occasionally.

How old was Glenn? I don't remember everyone that was there as I didn't have the history you guys had. I remember yourself, Tomas, Zorro, and now I can't remember his name. I think it started with a M.

[Orcin]

Originally Posted by robc

How old was Glenn? I don't remember everyone that was there as I didn't have the history you guys had. I remember yourself, Tomas, Zorro, and now I can't remember his name. I think it started with a M.

Glenn was 59. There is an obituary for him linked on that forum.

Zorro is here now. You might by thinking of Mking55 - he plays OOTP a little and posts here occasionally. There are a few other guys over here. I can't remember Jeff's screen name over there, but he played OOTP a few versions back and wrote an excellent dynasty report here under the name "Sal, the Barber".

Tomas and Don Braswell don't play OOTP but they are still around over there. Some of the Wolverine gamers are still there off and on too. The Wolverine forums for Puresim are closed and wiped out. It's too bad about how that ended.

Sorry to derail your thread with all these old memories.

[robc]

Yep, MKing. I've read some of his writings from China over the last several years, I just drew a blank on the name - Martin, that's it.

No problem with the derailing, I liked the guys over there. It was fun to get involved. I took the tool I wrote to evaluate Puresim's player accuracy and made it support OOTP. I got mildly involved in the beta here several years back to help tighten up the historical player accuracy and to Markus' credit he did improve it.

[italyprof]

Originally Posted by Orcin

Hi Rob. I have played this way a lot. I am basing my answers on what I liked and didn't like. Your mileage may vary.




You're welcome.

I agree on every point here with Orcin except I turn off Owner's goals, in part because they are often unreasonable. But to each his own. And I go with trading at very hard/favor prospects, because it makes it harder for me to gather up future stars, have a bad team in the first three years and then win every championship for a decade, which to me is not that exciting. And I prefer injuries on low, but I do turn position player fatigue to high. The rest I set exactly as Orcin does.

[robc]

Hmm injury frequency seems to be locked on Low - I can't change it to classic. Does challenge more lock the injury setting?

[Orcin]

Oh yeah. It locks several things.

[timmermac]

I leave owner goals on, but I also check the can't be fired box so that I can tell the owner to piss off.