The AI and personnel decisions

Curtis · 10-14-2006, 04:46 AM

This is a 'why does this work this way' question, so feel free to ignore it.

I recently spent close to a hundred hours setting up an Oriental universe. In it, there's a Chinese Baseball League of my own creation, loosely based upon the actual one. It has six teams — four 'city' teams and two 'national' teams (an over-21 team, and the Hope Stars for under-22 players). I gave the national teams more money, and I moved the best coaches and scouts onto their teams. I then signed all of the personnel on all six teams to three year contracts.

On the second day, just before the inaugural draft, the AI fired 5/6 of the personnel in the league, including all of the ones on the two national teams. Why? (insert jokes about revolting against the collective here)

1998 Yankees · 10-14-2006, 09:15 AM

The key phrase here may be "just before the inaugural draft." Apparently you did your personnel signings on the very first day of the league.

I'm guessing, because I have never closely observed personnel before any of the three inaugural drafts that I have done, but I think the game may wipe the slate clean in all aspects of virtual people, players and personnel both, as part of the inauguration process. That just seems to go naturally with the fact that the game constructs the finances only after the draft to suit team payrolls; personnel are a minor but significant part of the payroll after all.

You don't mention whether any of these personnel were "your" people; that is, you were in control of teams that got "reorganized." If your personnel were untouched, maybe it just means that the AI reserves its personnel decisions until after the draft.

Anyway, just a slightly educated guess.

Kaitiaki · 10-14-2006, 09:16 AM

Did it hire crappier ones instead (and if so, did it do so for significantly less money than the contracts you had signed)? That would suggest the AI simply felt your expenditures on staff were too large a percentage of total payroll.

Or did it fire them and then not hire replacements? That would suggest it thought you simply had too many scouts per team or something...

I don't have much of an answer for you, really. Just speculating based on the info you gave why I might have made the decision the AI did.

- Kai

Curtis · 10-14-2006, 12:02 PM

Yankees: My signings WERE on the day before the draft. Your idea about the finances is a good one. I'll have to see if they've changed. I had the computer force financial settings on day one when none of the teams had enough money to sign personnel. Since 'Black Tuesday' occured before the financials would've been reset, that would be a curious sequence of events.

I wasn't permanently running any of these teams, just 'playing as' until they were up and running the way I wanted them. (I'm the Nippon Ham Fighters, because I love the name and they're the perpetual losers of the Nippon League. By the way, they're actually the Fighters from Nippon Ham, not guys who have a losing record against ham.)

I tried to create separate human manager personae to run the two national teams, but couldn't figure out how to make it work and ended up deleting them before I began making moves.

Kaitiaki: So far it hasn't hired replacements, and it turned out that I oversold my point. The 'big names' (ie. the ones that they would've had if they'd been affiliates) got fired, but not the 'extra' scouts or doctors. Since these guys were hired to medium term contracts, the AI actually increased its personnel expenditures for the next three years.

I didn't increase the number of scouts per team from what they defaulted to upon game start, just gave them different ones. This may be significant — I also reversed almost all of the head coaches and bench coaches, since the bench coaches uniformly had better ratings and were also uniformly older. Maybe there's some kind of game bias there? If so, I haven't noticed it in my Federal League universe.

By the way, your idea about too many scouts SHOULD be valid. My intention upon setting up the universe was that the Chinese, University and Island independent minors would have the same alotment of personnel as affiliated minors do. For the real CBL, that would actually be accurate. I was confused when they ended up with the same personnel alotment as the International level teams. In the Big 6 University League, I even fired four scouts from each team. By day two, four of the 24 had already been replaced EVEN THOUGH NONE OF THE TEAMS HAD ANY MONEY LEFT.

At this point I'm pretty much just shaking my head. Thanks for trying, guys.

10-14-2006, 04:46 AM	#1
Curtis Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Watertown, New York Posts: 4,567	The AI and personnel decisions This is a 'why does this work this way' question, so feel free to ignore it. I recently spent close to a hundred hours setting up an Oriental universe. In it, there's a Chinese Baseball League of my own creation, loosely based upon the actual one. It has six teams — four 'city' teams and two 'national' teams (an over-21 team, and the Hope Stars for under-22 players). I gave the national teams more money, and I moved the best coaches and scouts onto their teams. I then signed all of the personnel on all six teams to three year contracts. On the second day, just before the inaugural draft, the AI fired 5/6 of the personnel in the league, including all of the ones on the two national teams. Why? (insert jokes about revolting against the collective here)

10-14-2006, 09:16 AM	#3
Kaitiaki Hall Of Famer Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Ontario, Canada Posts: 2,065	Did it hire crappier ones instead (and if so, did it do so for significantly less money than the contracts you had signed)? That would suggest the AI simply felt your expenditures on staff were too large a percentage of total payroll. Or did it fire them and then not hire replacements? That would suggest it thought you simply had too many scouts per team or something... I don't have much of an answer for you, really. Just speculating based on the info you gave why I might have made the decision the AI did. - Kai __________________ BJHL: Commissioner; Owner: Wichita War Eagles

10-14-2006, 09:15 AM	#2
1998 Yankees Hall Of Famer Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Yankee Stadium, back in 1998. Posts: 8,645	The key phrase here may be "just before the inaugural draft." Apparently you did your personnel signings on the very first day of the league. I'm guessing, because I have never closely observed personnel before any of the three inaugural drafts that I have done, but I think the game may wipe the slate clean in all aspects of virtual people, players and personnel both, as part of the inauguration process. That just seems to go naturally with the fact that the game constructs the finances only after the draft to suit team payrolls; personnel are a minor but significant part of the payroll after all. You don't mention whether any of these personnel were "your" people; that is, you were in control of teams that got "reorganized." If your personnel were untouched, maybe it just means that the AI reserves its personnel decisions until after the draft. Anyway, just a slightly educated guess.

10-14-2006, 12:02 PM	#4
Curtis Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Watertown, New York Posts: 4,567	Yankees: My signings WERE on the day before the draft. Your idea about the finances is a good one. I'll have to see if they've changed. I had the computer force financial settings on day one when none of the teams had enough money to sign personnel. Since 'Black Tuesday' occured before the financials would've been reset, that would be a curious sequence of events. I wasn't permanently running any of these teams, just 'playing as' until they were up and running the way I wanted them. (I'm the Nippon Ham Fighters, because I love the name and they're the perpetual losers of the Nippon League. By the way, they're actually the Fighters from Nippon Ham, not guys who have a losing record against ham.) I tried to create separate human manager personae to run the two national teams, but couldn't figure out how to make it work and ended up deleting them before I began making moves. Kaitiaki: So far it hasn't hired replacements, and it turned out that I oversold my point. The 'big names' (ie. the ones that they would've had if they'd been affiliates) got fired, but not the 'extra' scouts or doctors. Since these guys were hired to medium term contracts, the AI actually increased its personnel expenditures for the next three years. I didn't increase the number of scouts per team from what they defaulted to upon game start, just gave them different ones. This may be significant — I also reversed almost all of the head coaches and bench coaches, since the bench coaches uniformly had better ratings and were also uniformly older. Maybe there's some kind of game bias there? If so, I haven't noticed it in my Federal League universe. By the way, your idea about too many scouts SHOULD be valid. My intention upon setting up the universe was that the Chinese, University and Island independent minors would have the same alotment of personnel as affiliated minors do. For the real CBL, that would actually be accurate. I was confused when they ended up with the same personnel alotment as the International level teams. In the Big 6 University League, I even fired four scouts from each team. By day two, four of the 24 had already been replaced EVEN THOUGH NONE OF THE TEAMS HAD ANY MONEY LEFT. At this point I'm pretty much just shaking my head. Thanks for trying, guys.