Scouting ideas

[OakDragon]

I have a couple ideas I'd like to see added to the scouting. They may be a bit "out there" and a bear to program, so I can see how these would not make it in til OOTP 2007 or later, if at all. They are:

1. Add scout trip scheduling. For example, allow the user to schedule a trip for a scout to countries A,B,C,D, and E and let me arrange the routing so I can make the trip as short as possible (because of distance between countries --> travel time, etc.)

2. Add an option to allow scout X to scout countries A,B,C, etc. (chosen by user) or a random country when otherwise idle (i.e., when not sent to scout a specific team or league). This way, scouts can always be on the lookout for foreign talent.

[Ruthian23]

I was also thinking that perhaps in future versions we can get the ablity to assign a scout to scout a specific aspect of a team. For instance, if we have a scout who has:

Scout Hitting: 200
Scout Hitting Talent: 195
Scout Pitching: 128
Scout Pitching Talent: 112
Scout Fielding: 100

We could have that scout scout a team's hitting, since that's his specialty, and his pitching scouting is far less reliable. Since he would only be scouting about half of the team or organization or league, sending a scout to scout only hitting or pitching would take half of the time it would take the fully scout that team/organization/league. It could make for more efficient use of scouts.

[Raidergoo]

Where have I seen this stuff before?

[sljchung]

Originally Posted by Ruthian23

I was also thinking that perhaps in future versions we can get the ablity to assign a scout to scout a specific aspect of a team. For instance, if we have a scout who has:

Scout Hitting: 200
Scout Hitting Talent: 195
Scout Pitching: 128
Scout Pitching Talent: 112
Scout Fielding: 100

We could have that scout scout a team's hitting, since that's his specialty, and his pitching scouting is far less reliable. Since he would only be scouting about half of the team or organization or league, sending a scout to scout only hitting or pitching would take half of the time it would take the fully scout that team/organization/league. It could make for more efficient use of scouts.

I like this idea, too!

[Curtis]

Both of these are good. I have some scouting suggestions of my own:

1) The monthly quickscout from your minor league scouts is useless. On most of my teams, including those whose scouts have ratings of 140+, two thirds of the players get rated 70+ on the 'ready for the majors now' scale, and a third of those are rated as an 80. Obviously, this is ridiculous, and the fact that this rating is factored into the average of all scouts' ratings for that player means I have to subtract it back out and recalculate for everyone. Instead of a quickscout, minor league scouts should spend the first four or five days of each month doing a full team scout. After they complete that they would be available for other scouting duties IN THEIR LEAGUE (or only subleague, if no crossover games are allowed). They could do fullscouts of individual players on their own team or any team they play that month. They could do quickscouts of players on teams they face after the date when they finish their own team's report. They could do team scouts of teams in their league, or quickteamscouts of every team they play that month (after the date when they finish their own team's report). They could start a leaguescout, which would probably need to be interrupted (without losing effort accumulated). They should NOT be able to scout free agents or organizations, or do quickscouts of players on days when they're performing other assignments.

2) I believe ALL scouts should have lower values for their 'scout _potential' ratings than for their 'scout_' ratings. By this I mean that 'scout batting potential' should always be lower than 'scout batting', though it wouldn't have to be lower than 'scout pitching'. It's only common sense that nobody can do a better job of predicting how good someone will be than they can at telling how good he is now.

3) I like the ideas I've seen elsewhere in the forum about being able to assign a major league scout as an advance scout, though I'd never use that feature myself.

[Raidergoo]

This thread was turned into 4 line items.

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[endgame]

An additional idea I've been brooding over for some time:

Be able to specify scouting target areas, i.e. define (filter) their search to an area between the 200+ days it takes to scout a leauge, the two months for a team, and the quick-scout for one player. What I have often desired is the ability for Scout A to assess the pitching staff in a particular Rookie League, or the batters only in AAA, or another example, California's organization (the pitching staff only). Basically being able to provide a small section for review rather than having to face nearly an all or nothing proposition.

Another helpful, though not as important, tool might be the ability to multiple quick task. I usually spend at least a couple of two day periods (game time) using my 2nd best pitching scout to assess my pitching staffs, my 2nd best hitting scout to assess batting orders, etc.. That way, when I bring up any individual player (my team or not) I'm able to quickly garner a comparision of SISA and at least two of my scouts rather than spend the QS on-the-fly. So it'd be convenient to bring up a player and then quickly checkbox the scouts you'd like to have QS him (one being All). Additionally, it'd be desireable (I think) to retain the previous assessment of a scout in chronological order in the Coaching and Scouting page. That way, I quick glance could tell me that Simpson thought a bit more highly of Tamersham back in July when he looked at him than he did as the post-season approached.

[Curtis]

Originally Posted by endgame

Additionally, it'd be desireable (I think) to retain the previous assessment of a scout in chronological order in the Coaching and Scouting page. That way, I quick glance could tell me that Simpson thought a bit more highly of Tamersham back in July when he looked at him than he did as the post-season approached.

That's the only part of your post that might be problematic. In this situation, how do you add up the averages? Only count the most recent from each scout? Only count the most complete (longest time spent) from each scout? Only count the most recent from the ML scouts? Count everything that fits on the lines available in that part of the player profile? Stop doing averages?

One thing I've noticed is that quickscout results tend to be higher than more thorough evaluations. Often they turn out the same, but if I quickscout someone to see if I should acquire them, then put them through a full teamscout or organizationscout very soon after, their rating NEVER goes up in the subsequent scout, and about a third of the time it drops. Sometimes it drops by a lot. This makes averaging different types of scouting potentially troublesome.

[ctorg]

- Here's the main thing I want from scouting (and then maybe I'll start using it again):

The ability to see the latest scouting report I have on all players rather than having to switch between scouts. IOW...

Let's say I have the free agents screen open. Scout A scouted the whole league last season, so he has info on everyone. Scout B scouted Team X, so players from Team X have updated reports.

I'd like to be able to see the list with Scout B's reports for former Team X players and Scout A's reports for everyone else.

- Another thing I'd like to see that I can't find a way to do (tell me if there is one): scout all potential free agents.

[Curtis]

As far as I know, these are new suggestions. They're also pretty good ones. 'Scout Upcoming Free Agents' sounds like it should be fairly easily implementable. Not being a programming expert, 'View Most Recent Report' sounds like it would be more complex to implement.

I'm beginning to think that, by 2008 at least, scouting might need to become its own page, like Financials, rather than just a popup menu. Otherwise, you'll never be able to incorporate all of the options everyone wants.

[endgame]

Originally Posted by ctorg

- Another thing I'd like to see that I can't find a way to do (tell me if there is one): scout all potential free agents.

Excellent idea. That's another "limited target area", and a logical one, that is in keeping with my first suggestion. Yours is probably a lot easier to code than the California organization's pitching staff. Nonetheless, I'd like to see those types of scouting ventures added eventually.