imported save26 to 27 player ratings drop- any tips?

[Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]

I've been playing my long term historical-ish save from 25, 26 and now into 27.
Now I play with recalc off, and development, personality and coaching, and fictional internationals allowed in.
Moving from 25 to 26b was seamless.


I accept with the new ratings that ratings will move a bit, but I think my long term save is cooked now and I'll probably have to play it in 26 only if I want to keep it.


in my game I'm in 1968 and I'd been carefully planning to replace some ageing stars, and was very impressed with how I'd managed to plan for Mickey Mantle's body falling apart, and Willie May's ageing and also one of my fictional international pitchers.. I had drafted and developed well to have both an international fictional CF Roy Acret (45/73) on the cusp of a MLB call up right when i needed him. Same for my SP, I have a guy Bob Moose (who in my world as he developed over 4 yrs in the minros had outperformed his real career arc) and was also on the cusp of a MLB call up rated a 38/68.

When I imported to 27 though Moose had dropped to a max potential of 58 and Acret had dropped 10 points in potential as well.
These are just a couple of examples to illustrate a point. Previously I had a very balanced in progress development program across my whole organisation, and now its just a mess and with Mantle and May's and my pitcher's still ageing out, I now find myself without a coherent roster plan and will bottom out and have to rebuild if i persist with it in 27.

I normally don't like to mess around with editor and pump guys up.. but is this really my only option if i want to play my save in 27. If so any light touch suggestions to rebalance my now skewed roster?


Oh and I'm not complaining, given the list of changes from 26 this must be a nightmare to try and please everyone.


I'm, sure for those who play strictly pure historical would be fine, given recalc and dev being off, so it's probably my just desserts for messing with history in such a cavalier fashion

[Sweed]

I'm just going to throw this out. The AI teams went through the same import that your team went through. Me? I'd continue in v27 and, I wouldn't edit a thing.

This is coming from a guy that has only ever played one serious save. My save was started in OOTP 4 (2002) and imported to every version since. Next year it will be imported into OOTP 28.

Take my advice for whatever you think it is worth.

[Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]

Thanks for the post Sweed, i have read your posts about how you've imported your same save across the journey of OOTP iterations and I was hoping your provide a counter view.
I appreciate it.

Have you had many imports where the ratings of your list have been drastically altered?
I think one of my issues is just how happy I was with myself for identifying my potential roster issues like 7 or 8 seasons ago, and had planned and worked hard to ensure I didn't have massive list holes when the core of my offense aged. And I then made some difficult trades to plug the looming SP hole (like Moose) when one of my previous high hope prospects cratered in AA ball.

Similarly knowing for the past 7 years that Mantle's legs were made of crepe paper, I had invested heavily and spent many hour scouting prospects and seeing a few of my higher hopes melt as they came through, only to have 1 finally seem to stick...

And now I look at my list and there are holes aplenty at all levels again.. It just seems a big hill to re-climb.. but I'm very interested in how you've experienced and managed it..

I had not considered that the AI teams were in the same position, so that does give me pause to consider.

Thanks for posting.

[millhousebc]

I agree with Sweed......maybe play a year out and see if the numbers/totals for the league look on average with your history.

[Sweed]

Originally Posted by Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

Thanks for the post Sweed, i have read your posts about how you've imported your same save across the journey of OOTP iterations and I was hoping your provide a counter view.
I appreciate it.

Have you had many imports where the ratings of your list have been drastically altered?
I think one of my issues is just how happy I was with myself for identifying my potential roster issues like 7 or 8 seasons ago, and had planned and worked hard to ensure I didn't have massive list holes when the core of my offense aged. And I then made some difficult trades to plug the looming SP hole (like Moose) when one of my previous high hope prospects cratered in AA ball.

Similarly knowing for the past 7 years that Mantle's legs were made of crepe paper, I had invested heavily and spent many hour scouting prospects and seeing a few of my higher hopes melt as they came through, only to have 1 finally seem to stick...

And now I look at my list and there are holes aplenty at all levels again.. It just seems a big hill to re-climb.. but I'm very interested in how you've experienced and managed it..

I had not considered that the AI teams were in the same position, so that does give me pause to consider.

Thanks for posting.

For the most part I've been happy with how imports have worked. I have always given OOTP the benefit of the doubt on any changes that do occur. That this game even allows one to import and carry on (when most don't) and does it while still maintaining that whole baseball world in context is amazing and the best feature of OOTP.

There's always the possibility of some drift, with one player getting a bit better and the next a bit worse. It's acceptable to me, as the cost of being able to import.

The biggest issues/changes came a few years ago as OOTP expanded the underlying ratings scale from 250 ish, to 500+, followed by the current 600+ we have now. Every issue I had was worth it as the larger ratings scales, that allowed more variance and detail in the players, was a massive improvement to the game. I don't think a lot of users understand how big of an upgrade this was.

Before that skill scale upgrade occurred I had a young 21 year old SP that I had discovered at 16 in South America or the Caribbean. 100+ mhp strike out king. Vulnerable to giving up home runs, but dominated enough there weren't runners on base. Imported to the game with the upgraded skill scale and his home runs allowed skyrocketed. He'd get shelled and I'd give him another chance. Then he' dominate one start and I'd think "ok, he's back!" only to have it a be a one game exception. He was never the same. I didn't want to, but I eventually gave up and traded him for pennies on his previous version dollars. I dreaded that once he was gone he'd return to his studly form. He didn't. He did hang around the league becoming a 5th starter or decent bullpen arm that you couldn't trust in a high stress game. The funny thing is he went to a couple of teams after the first trade and all of those teams scouts must have still seen the potential of that arm. When he's fisrt arrive they'd slot him in the middle of their rotation. A month later he'd be in their bullpen. Where I dodged the bullet is I hadn't signed him to an extension. I intended to do that and buy out his arb years, but I was at season's end with the new version of OOTP to be released soon. So I was waiting to extend in the new version when I turned the season over. He was getting hammered in ST so I waited to see what the regular season was going to bring. It only brought relief that he was still a min-salary guy and I wasn't on the hook.

The experience with that pitcher is by far the worst thing I've seen. As noted above you see some get better and some decline. However they aren't normally big changes, only slight. Who knows they may have declined if one more season had been played in the old version too?

The biggest thing I already mentioned. For anything that bothers me I tell myself "the AI teams are in the same boat.", and from there I'm good with handling any player changes. All changes are worth the price of being able to import and continue my on going game.

I normally stop my game just after the World Series if the new game is coming out soon. I get the new game, import and move on. The first off season takes me forever to get through as I get comfortable with how the new game may have changed some things in my game. The second off season I get through in probably half the time the first took.

I do play at a slow "manage every inning of every game" pace that protects me from "long term" save game bugs in the early patch stages of OOTP. For every version I have been continuing my game starting with the release version. I have never had to go back and start over because of a bug. FWIW, I buy Steam so I don't get the beta. If I got the beta I would not import and play with it. I'd still wait the three days for the release patched version.

[Bobfather]

I know I go through this with every new version. But I have learned not to compare versions over versions, but to the other players in the new version.
One thing I like to do is to look at the expected stats in the editor. And most of the time, they are right on.

[Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]

Thanks for the suggestions and feedback.
One other thing, did I jump the gun though in imported mid-season? Should I have played out the season in 26 and then imported?
Would that have materially changed how 27 rated players or is in inconsequential?

[malor]

My first step after import is to have my scout re-scout every player in my organization. I only import on day off-season starts so this allows plenty of time for it to get done.

[Sweed]

Originally Posted by Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

Thanks for the suggestions and feedback.
One other thing, did I jump the gun though in imported mid-season? Should I have played out the season in 26 and then imported?
Would that have materially changed how 27 rated players or is in inconsequential?

I don't think it would change how the players came in, but that's based on
assumption and not factual knowledge.

To be ready for a new version I stop playing the day after the World Series finishes (the last official day of the current season). I then import and after checking over my game, settings, how players came in, etc. If all looks good (and it always has in the past) I make a backup and call it something like "first import v26-v27" just in case. Yes, you can always reimport but I still like having that original on hand.

The next step is to advance one day and move the game into the off-season (the first day on the path to the next season). The reason to wait and do it as the seasons change is this allows the game to sort out any new rules, financials, or other settings. Teams are starting with as fresh a slate as possible.

You can import during the season usually without many issues. But keep in mind there are changes under the hood. Your autocalced League Total Modifiers aren't going to be tuned to the "improved" engine. Trading, contract offers/signings, are tweaked every version and may play out differently in your "mid-season" import. There are so many moving pieces that IMHO it is best to wait for the season to end.

[OutS|der]

Originally Posted by Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

Have you had many imports where the ratings of your list have been drastically altered?

First of all I want to get this out of the way. We're talking about DISPLAYED ratings. Not actual editor ratings

23 to 24 saw massive changes in displayed ratings. There was NO change to the actual ratings.

What this should tell you is that displayed ratings are a guide, nothing more.

As mentioned look in the editor. Pitchers with the same Overall can have a +/- 3 WAR difference in projected stats. This doesn't count for outliers or any development improvements.

A two way player with ****ty ratings for hitting or pitching can drag down their overall. Changing a player from RF to CF can change their overall.


The main issues with importing during the season is the change in displayed ratings, the AI may be more active adjusting it's roster and it's always had issues putting players DFA, so that's something to keep an eye on.

[Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]

thanks again for the suggestions. I've taken it on board and continue with my save. spent a long time rejigging things and seem to have my team lineu[s/SPs and bullpen roles and usage and individual and team strategies now working in harmony with the new ratings.
Appreciate everyone's input on this, cheers!

[Tycobbler]

Well said guys! I'm part of an online league that is just going through this so I came here looking for clarity. This'll do

[twins_34]

This happen with every new release. Some players might see a uptick in some of their ratings while a lot will see a minor downgrade. This happens every single new game because ratings get tweaked a bit but it happens to all teams in your league, some of it might be, like this year, scouts had a small tweak. So your scout might now see your player slightly different.

I can say, without scouts, the rating changes were very minor compared to previous versions of the game. 24 to 25 was a HUGE change, 25 to 26 there was a noticeable chance but 26 to 27 was pretty minor when NOT using scouts.

Remember, and the devs have said this, your scouts lie to you. They are not 100% correct about your players.

[OutS|der]

Also remember it's only displayed ratings, not the actual ratings. The formula for the displayed ratings changes every year, it doesn't mean you're player suddenly got worse.