Scouts on, or off

[NoxiousDog]

Originally Posted by Exodor

Off. I'm playing a baseball simulator, not a scout-management simulator.

I assume you turned off ratings and talent then too. :P

[Claymore]

Originally Posted by NoxiousDog

I assume you turned off ratings and talent then too. :P

Rating are legit, scouts rate players. However at a major league level, while a gem in the rough might certainly be found, scouts do a fairly good job of determining the current talent of a player that he has taken the time to scout. Having such a wide discrepency in numbers between one professionally trained scout and another seems a bit unreasonable.

What I'd really love is for there to be a way to have scouting termed half off: with a option to see true curent rating but having the potential determined by scouting (with the scouts ability determining how accurate the rating is).

[bphilipb]

I have scouting on because I am so used to it from FM. The reason why I love FM so much over the years is you do have control over everything. Some scouts are better than others. Some scout pitchers better and some scout hitters or fielders better. I love the homework part of it.

I can see the frustration that some of you may have with it. Hopefully, they will add some of those things that you are looking for in the scouting system.

BB

[Doibhilin]

Same thing for me. I had been experiemtning with them on, then decided to turn them off and see how the team looked. Oh, how was I wrong! Might be less of a problem in historical leagues when you know the stars talent and only have to rate the fewer fictional players from the minors.

FYI my head scout was an 16 20 18, so his scouting should not of been that far off.

That's the whole idea behind scouts. Assessing baseball talent is not a science, and professional scouts are going to vary wildly when it comes to rating a player. If that wasn't the case, and they were accurate for the most part, then there would be little strategy to GMing. GMs would have complete information in any transaction. The only reason to make a trade would be to exploit comparative advantages (i.e. I need a pitcher, you need a hitter).

To me, the scouting system is far and away the best aspect of OOTP 2006. Adding so much uncertainty to player assessment makes the game much more realistic, and makes AI hiccups easier to handle. Plus, it makes the game more challenging.

I can't imagine playing with them off.

[Up and Atom]

Originally Posted by Exodor

Off. I'm playing a baseball simulator, not a scout-management simulator.

On. I'm playing a baseball simulator, not a stats program.


I think the scouting changes have opened up a whole new aspect to the game, and I'm fascinated by it. I like the idea that your top two highly rated scouts can have a completely different opinion on a player. Makes the game more realistic to me. I hope in the future some of the scouting tasks can become a little more automated, but I think adding them to this version is a big step forward.

I think we all play the game for different reasons, and have certain likes/dislikes about the new version. But you have to admidt that it's rare that one game can be enjoyed by so many different types of players. (I quoted Exodor response to point out the different ways the game is played not to say I thought he was right or wrong)

[Jeremy Weimer]

I play with them off because I play in commish mode. So it's nice to know their true ratings when looking at guys instead of what a scout thinks they are. It makes it easier for me to adjust ratings in certain historical players when I feel their ratings should be higher or lower than they are when imported.

[Exodor]

Originally Posted by NoxiousDog

I assume you turned off ratings and talent then too.

Nah- I want to play as the GM and the manager. I want to decide who's on the roster, set the lineups and play out the games.

As far as I'm concerned, scouting is a mundane detail that should happen behind the scenes. As a GM, I just want scouting reports available without having to micro-manage the scouts themselves, just as I want the games to happen withing having to micro-mange the hot-dog vendors or the parking attendants.

[edm]

For now I'm playing with them off because I find the scouting system this year a little too extensive (ie too much work) for my tastes. Also, I would be more inclined to use them if they gave some kind of verbal scouting reports, instead of just ratings. I will probably experiment with it on at some point though.

[sfgiants88]

I would prefer to play with them off because it just seems like too much of a chore to sift through anything. It becomes work and not a game.

I find myself almost 'forced' to use scouts though because overall/potential ratings are not visible if scouts are off.

[Claymore]

Originally Posted by sfgiants88

I find myself almost 'forced' to use scouts though because overall/potential ratings are not visible if scouts are off.

Well, you can accomplish this by toggling scouts off for most of the time, and then turning them on when you want to see a scout's potential ratings on a player. It would be really nice though to have this as a third option: True ratings with scouts still giving potential ratings.

Any chance of this being patched in?

[redeemed]

Originally Posted by Exodor

Off. I'm playing a baseball simulator, not a scout-management simulator.

Exactly correct. I don't want manufatured challenges.

[Jayzone]

Originally Posted by Exodor

Off. I'm playing a baseball simulator, not a scout-management simulator.

Originally Posted by Cooker

....I love the idea of scouts. I prefer having a slightly flawed view of my own baseball universe because it increases the challenge.

But at this point, the challenge is great enough without adding the complexity of managing and assigning my scouts.
.....

Originally Posted by Exodor

Nah- I want to play as the GM and the manager. I want to decide who's on the roster, set the lineups and play out the games.

As far as I'm concerned, scouting is a mundane detail that should happen behind the scenes. As a GM, I just want scouting reports available without having to micro-manage the scouts themselves, just as I want the games to happen withing having to micro-mange the hot-dog vendors or the parking attendants.

^^^ I agree with pretty much all of the above.

I love the idea of "imperfect information" by using scouts to mask true ratings, but at the same time I would also like to have the scouting work done at the top level (i.e. not having to assign the multiple scouts to work and all those scheduling details, etc.). So, I propse a third option by retaining multiple scouts but make the scouting info available instantaneously (a.k.a the old OOTP way). This way, you won't have to assign the scouts to work, but you could still have the benefits of having multiple scouting info. Although, the new benefit on the time relevance of scouting information is rendered nill in this method.

Another way of reduing the scouting workload is to have automatic scouting assignment options depending on each scout's position. This way, one would still retain majority of the benefits of the new scouting system but not having able to do so much 'work'. Still, I would imagine the possiblity that one could be unhappy of the auto-scout-assignment function.

[Claymore]

Well, hopefully some new options will be introduced in an upcoming patch.

[sfgiants88]

Originally Posted by Claymore

Well, you can accomplish this by toggling scouts off for most of the time, and then turning them on when you want to see a scout's potential ratings on a player.

That would involve navigating through menus to accomplish this. If my goal is to avoid unnesessary work as much as possible, this wouldn't be a good option.