This Time, It Will Be Different

[KevinTMC]

Howdy everyone.

It may be noted that I'm posting in the "New to the Game?" subforum, but my forum account dates back to 2007.

It may further be noted (by those with access to my complete purchase records...which would be just me and the NSA I think) that I have owned the following full versions of OOTP:

Season Ticket Baseball
Season Ticket Baseball 2003
OOTP 2007
OOTP 8
OOTP 9
OOTP 11
iOOTP 2012
iOOTP 2013

And now I also have OOTP 14, picked up during the World Series this year.

So why do I still have new-user questions? Because I'm a recurring failure as an OOTP player. I've never made it through more than a single season's gameplay in any of the above versions. (In a few, I never even got as far as Opening Day.) Add up my cumulative playtime in all the game versions listed above, then discount for all the additions and changes between those versions and OOTP 14, and basically I'm still a newbie who has no idea what he's doing.

Why have I had such trouble getting off the ground? Some of it has had to do with life getting busy. Some has had to do with getting distracted by other shiny objects (my totem animal is Raven, after all). Some has had to do with being a perfectionist and control freak, making the setting up of a league an imposing project and each season a looooong slog. Mostly it's had to do with overplanning and underplaying, with getting alternately lost in research and then lost in OOTP's menus and options.

This time it will be different. This time I will get my money's worth out of OOTP many times over. This time I will dig in my heels and show a grim determination to finally have fun.

(Wait...there may be something a little off about that last bit...oh well.)

So I've watched the tutorial videos. I've started paging through the manual. I've taken a quickstart around the block for a brief spin and installed a couple mods. I've browsed the forums and read this thread and that thread and...oh dear, I can feel myself falling into the rabbit hole again already. So much to learn! So many options! So many mods and templates! I want to LEARN ALL THE THINGS! DO ALL THE THINGS! BUILD THE ULTIMATE BASEBALL UNIVERSE!

My head's already spinning and clearly I need help.

Maybe it would help if I described some goals. My OOTP dream has always been to run a fictorical style universe, with some or most or all the players drawn from real life, but alternate-history developments in the leagues. Such as:

1) Circa 1950, the PCL becomes a major league; some top IL and AA teams follow suit, forming the Continental League; and so by 1960 there are four major leagues. The NL and AL see many fewer (if any) relocations and expansion franchises. Divisional play comes about much later, if at all. How much fun it would be...though I'm not sure quite how impossible and nightmare-y it would be to simulate the competition between these leagues for talent, especially if I wanted to use actual late-40s/early-50s AL and NL and PCL rosters as a starting point. And then there's getting uniforms and logos together...facegen packs maybe...ballparks, including historical minor-league parks upgraded or replaced for the jump to the majors...so much alternate-history fun, but so much work...the head spins.

2) Professional baseball in Japan is reorganized in 1950 as before, but along slightly different lines (more stable franchises, better geographic distribution, more teams with city names rather than company names). Extra bonus with going the Japanese route: I could use real-life players, while preserving all the mystery and unpredictability of fictional players (in 99 cases out of 100, at least...names like Sadaharu Oh still do ring a bell!). Or maybe I'd go fictional anyway so that I didn't lose weeks to fussing over photo packs and facegens. At any rate, surely the single minor-league level would help keep things simpler (though university ball would probably need to be in there, maybe some other amateur leagues as well to furnish draftees with stats). Maybe I could be less of a perfectionist about ballparks and uniforms and similar details since I've got less real-world knowledge to compare my alternate world to...or maybe I'd just worry more about Doing It Wrong...though at least I'd know enough to turn all the managers' bunting sliders up to 11, so that's a start.

3) The "You Maniacs! You Blew It Up!" scenario, where labor problems cause not only the cancellation of the 1994 World Series (or, alternately, a fictional cancellation of the 1981 World Series), but of the following season as well...MLB as we know it falls apart...and a new league is started. This idea is my newest one, and so I've got less to say about it right now (luckily for the poor reader).

Some things I don't know are: Which of these models is the least foolish and unfeasible and impractical project? What sorts of mods and databases and other information sources would I need to build such worlds? What choices and options should be made to maximize fun and sanity? (If it would be ten times simpler to use exclusively fictional players with option #3, for instance, then that's probably how it'd have to be, however much the loss of verisimilitude and of many familiar faces might pain me.) Who might have already run universes along these lines, and might they be willing to share stuff with me?

Another thing I don't know: Before undertaking such a project, would I be better off giving the ABA or MLB quicksaves, or some other option involving minimal setup, a good long play first? (I played around with the ABA for half a season the last time I spent significant time with the PC version of the game, but that petered out...I'm guessing I made a fatal mistake in attempting the career-mode manager thing, thus starting out at the helm of a horribly understaffed minor-league team, and having no real control over anything beyond the games themselves, which I played out one at a time, batter-by-batter, of course...)

I'm sorry...this is a terribly long and discursive post, and it may have been traumatic for the reader to step inside the frazzled and confused and spinning OOTP part of my brain. (It's traumatic enough for me to step in there sometimes.) Any guidance or encouragement or just-chill-out-man pats on the head would be greatly appreciated, as I step up to the plate once more, ready the bat (without repeatedly adjusting my gloves...in my imaginary baseball universe, every single unfastening-and-refastening of batting glove velcro will cost the player $100), and tell myself that this time, it will indeed be different. This time, my OOTP career will take off...and hey, if it goes really well, I might even find myself filing a dynasty report. That could really be fun.

(And also work. I have a knack for turning fun into fun-work. Or maybe worky-fun. Eh...either way, it's still much better than work-work, right?)

[The Game]

You can do all this, just takes some planning. I have a MLB-***-PCL-NAL random debut league set up startied in 2000. I also have slowly been working on a 100% accurate teams fictional players league currently stuck in 1884.

I have had an idea similar to yours of having the PCL and the Negro leagues as ML's and not having west coast expansion. The only issue i have had with this is i have to manually edit the draftees to have just AA;s go to teh Negro league and keep the draft of the other 3 leagues white. In a test It worked for 2-3 seasons but with trading with other leagues on, the Black Barons got raided by the Yankees and Joe DiMaggio was playing for Birmingham while Satchel Paige was in NY. I used Spritze DB which had many *** players in it and the NAL players I wanted.
The only thing I have found hard to replicate is players going off for war then still being relevant after being retired for 4 yrs and canceling the 1994 WS. Now you can play the as is 1994 schedule(located in the schedules folder AP vs non AP) which should nullify the WS, but I did not know that at the time. In my History of the White Sox I had the 1st WS in 1903 but not in 1904. then brought it back in 1905.

[Déjà Bru]

Kevin, I want to give you just general advice, if I may.

Some has had to do with being a perfectionist and control freak, making the setting up of a league an imposing project and each season a looooong slog. Mostly it's had to do with overplanning and underplaying, with getting alternately lost in research and then lost in OOTP's menus and options.

This really resonated with me. This was my problem before I stopped the madness. My advice is, don't be so meticulous with planning and setup. The problem is, after spending weeks setting up a mega-universe, life intrudes or you get bored and you may not actually get to play the game before losing interest in it. I'll give you a brief example: Minor league logos and uniforms (which are available, thanks to our modders) are cool, but when you find yourself researching the field dimensions of Double-AA stadiums, you've gone too far (true story).

I've browsed the forums and read this thread and that thread and...oh dear, I can feel myself falling into the rabbit hole again already. So much to learn! So many options! So many mods and templates! I want to LEARN ALL THE THINGS! DO ALL THE THINGS! BUILD THE ULTIMATE BASEBALL UNIVERSE!

Chill out, man. (You did ask for that. )

Before undertaking such a project, would I be better off giving the ABA or MLB quicksaves, or some other option involving minimal setup, a good long play first?

Definitely. How can you set up your universe to your liking, as in the three scenarios that you describe above, if you don't know how the game works? You need to like this game and be immersed in it before you can successfully customize it.

Speaking of which, I recommend one more thing. Play with fictional players. That saves much time and effort in trying to replicate history to your satisfaction while indulging in alternate history at the same time. You can do all the things that you mention by creating historical games, editing league structure and settings, then releasing and deleting all the real players. Once that is done, you fill all rosters again with fictional players, release them all, and schedule an inaugural draft.

[buffalo_pete]

Terrific post! I've only been around since OOTP13, but this sums up my feelings of being overwhelmed and wanting to do everything right now!

Originally Posted by KevinTMC

Circa 1950, the PCL becomes a major league

I want to play this league.

[KevinTMC]

Thanks for the helpful replies.

From what The Game has written, it sounds like my mad scheme #1 would be doable...but not now. Mucking about in the Spritze DB or similar, to manually assign players to teams until I'm ready to turn the leagues loose to draft for themselves, is just one of many details that I'm not ready for right now. Getting lost in such rabbit holes is definitely not the way to make it different this time.

But like buffalo_pete, I do very much want to play this league. Someday I will build it. (Maybe I'll be retired by then, and playing OOTP 42, and will get bogged down trying to get the 3D ballparks to look just right on my holographic monitor..but I'll get back to it.)

Déjà Bru, your general advice is excellent. I'm glad you understand so well where I'm coming from. I will take your advice and go with fully fictional players when I create my first proper league setup (after playing around a bit more with quickstarts...though not so much that I'm putting off taking the helm of a team for the long haul and getting properly attached to it).

But what sort of setup? For reasons I can't quite explain, I've always been fascinated by the idea of playing around with a Japanese league, running from the '50s through the '80s (or some smaller slice thereof). I wonder how much harder and weirder that would be to execute than a fictional-player league stateside. Probably at least a little. Maybe more research rabbit holes to fall into too.

And I've found encouragement in starting to read Orcin's legendary Louisville dynasty. That seems rather close to what I was pondering in option #3. I could probably do much worse than make my first proper league a fully-fictional operation modeled largely after his.

I'll think about that. Surely it would reduce the to-do list considerably and get me playing in a league I care about faster. I'd probably still wind up playing around a bit with customization...but once I properly understand the various types of mods, and identify mod packs I'll be wanting to use (still awfully confused on those fronts), surely it won't take forever to get logos/uniforms/ballparks/etc. set up to my general satisfaction.

I could even make myself use the Fictional League Creation Wizard to keep things simple (too many things on the Rules/Financials/Options screens that I don't understand yet).

It would also be cool to have a FaceGen of myself for my human manager. (If that's something that's ever done.)

[The Game]

Originally Posted by KevinTMC

I'll think about that. Surely it would reduce the to-do list considerably and get me playing in a league I care about faster. I'd probably still wind up playing around a bit with customization...but once I properly understand the various types of mods, and identify mod packs I'll be wanting to use (still awfully confused on those fronts), surely it won't take forever to get logos/uniforms/ballparks/etc. set up to my general satisfaction.

I could even make myself use the Fictional League Creation Wizard to keep things simple (too many things on the Rules/Financials/Options screens that I don't understand yet).

It would also be cool to have a FaceGen of myself for my human manager. (If that's something that's ever done.)

Most of my league I play are fictional. See my EBL vs MLB dynasty thread.
The only bothersome about doing the *** would be to have 100% real players. You can use a notepad file if you wanted to import real players into the game and 90% of Sprtizes *** players are at the bottom of his master.cvs.
As far as having yourself as a GM, email me thru my profile and I will make you one. Try for a mugshot style pic 350 x 350. I can resize it if it is smaller. Or just post it here.

[KevinTMC]

That's most kind of you, The Game...thanks.

And hmm...maybe I should still consider the Japan setup. The players wouldn't all have to be real (or any of them, if even random debut looked like it would threaten to slow me down). I don't suppose I could be so lucky as for there to be an old-school Japanese quickstart, or logo/uniform/ballpark packs or anything else like that out there? (I've found some pretty good stuff so far, but it all looks contemporary.)

[The Game]

Originally Posted by KevinTMC

That's most kind of you, The Game...thanks.

And hmm...maybe I should still consider the Japan setup. The players wouldn't all have to be real (or any of them, if even random debut looked like it would threaten to slow me down). I don't suppose I could be so lucky as for there to be an old-school Japanese quickstart, or logo/uniform/ballpark packs or anything else like that out there? (I've found some pretty good stuff so far, but it all looks contemporary.)

Scour the mods forum, there was someone who was having some older uniforms made. I use Eriqjaffe's *** uniforms and my *** is in 2017. Tom the Fish lives in Japan, maybe he might have some? Justafan should have some older logos. Gambo's .prk file has all the modern parks and maybe some older *** parks. I know he has Negro league and every park known to man. It is the 2nd file under Ballparks on ootpmods.com. Finding photos or graphical parks might be hard.

[24Rocks]

I started playing OOTP in 2004 with version 5 and I was just 12 this game the perfect setup can change the minute you sim the first test sim , I kept on setting up great leagues and I am a very History oriented guy and when things in game kept me from getting to far in my leagues and I would tweak this or that and then I wasn't getting any fun out of it.

My advice is to setup the things that mostly wont change or if they do are a real issue like Amount of leagues and teams your era, then work on draft basic player modifiers league strategy. Save a template then go in to the hard stuff and if you run test leagues do that and if you have to start over unless you want to change one of your basic settings you have a clean template to try fresh expressly with all the new player stuff in this games settings it will take time if you like the detail.

[themonk]

Originally Posted by 24Rocks

My advice is to setup the things that mostly wont change or if they do are a real issue like Amount of leagues and teams your era, then work on draft basic player modifiers league strategy. Save a template then go in to the hard stuff and if you run test leagues do that and if you have to start over unless you want to change one of your basic settings you have a clean template to try fresh expressly with all the new player stuff in this games settings it will take time if you like the detail.

Great advice! This is exactly what I usually do when I start a new league...

[KevinTMC]

Continued thanks for the useful replies.

I'm getting a bit confused with Add-Ons Central and the Mods forum. For instance:

1) Add-Ons Central makes it easy enough to install things...but how about uninstalling them? Am I just stuck with them once they're in? (Or does that not even matter?)

2) Some of the Mods threads are just long long long threads, without any packages to download. I take it a person is supposed to just browse, and download individual uniforms and whatnot as they catch one's eye?

3) Some of the most famous and highly regarded things in the Mods forum were made for older versions of the game (and some I can't even find...not sure I'm finding all of No Pepper's work, for instance...and it looks like Padresfan's site no longer hosts OOTP stuff). Photo sets from 2008...uniforms from 2010...will these still work well? How far back should an OOTP 14 user reach?

And there's plenty of other questions rattling round my head that won't stay still long enough to get written down. If I weren't so ambitious and didn't care about details, this would be a lot simpler. Maybe 24Rocks has the right idea--just get a league started, and worry about modding and prettying it up later. (If I'm reading his advice correctly.)

[themonk]

Yes, Kevin. Just do it! I, myself, spend a lot of time setting up my leagues. In fact, I probably spend more time setting them up than playing them.

But realized that I'll not probably be able to set up the "perfect" league. Just started playing, and made the appropriate adjustments as I went along...

[The Game]

Originally Posted by KevinTMC

Continued thanks for the useful replies.

I'm getting a bit confused with Add-Ons Central and the Mods forum. For instance:

1) Add-Ons Central makes it easy enough to install things...but how about uninstalling them? Am I just stuck with them once they're in? (Or does that not even matter?)

2) Some of the Mods threads are just long long long threads, without any packages to download. I take it a person is supposed to just browse, and download individual uniforms and whatnot as they catch one's eye?

3) Some of the most famous and highly regarded things in the Mods forum were made for older versions of the game (and some I can't even find...not sure I'm finding all of No Pepper's work, for instance...and it looks like Padresfan's site no longer hosts OOTP stuff). Photo sets from 2008...uniforms from 2010...will these still work well? How far back should an OOTP 14 user reach?

And there's plenty of other questions rattling round my head that won't stay still long enough to get written down. If I weren't so ambitious and didn't care about details, this would be a lot simpler. Maybe 24Rocks has the right idea--just get a league started, and worry about modding and prettying it up later. (If I'm reading his advice correctly.)

you can delete things once you install them, just depends on where it installed them to. I deleted all logos and uniforms after I installed teh All in one because after 2013 the game reverts to older logos. I had 1984 Red Sox 1014 Cubs etc logos with 1924 Cubs jerseys etc. I like preloading my uniforms anyway for my league after 2013. You can delete the ZIPS from OOTP 14 - Addons - Downloads. Then you would still have to delete them from the folder itself and sometimes from your saved game. 99% of them dont take up that much space.

Most uniform threads you would have to right click save as to download them. Make sure that if they dont load in the game they are 512 x 512 and logos are 150 x 150. They will not load in Edit Team Colors & uniforms otherwise.
Padresfan site is dead ootpmods.com hots everything now. No Pepper should have a link to his photobucket in his sig.
OOTPMODS.COM
here are all No Pepper started threads in teh uniforms section
http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...archid=1649545

photo sets and uniforms should work. I started on 11 and still use uniforms from then. Bobble's hair mod changed for 14 vs 13 and previous versions. Some of the SQL files changed I think. I want to say any file made for any version prior to 10 will not work but that would be a question for the mod who made it. Ask The Wolf, Questdog or someone else that has been around prior to 10 they will know far better then I do and I hate giving false information.
anymore ques?

[chucksabr]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

This really resonated with me. This was my problem before I stopped the madness. My advice is, don't be so meticulous with planning and setup. The problem is, after spending weeks setting up a mega-universe, life intrudes or you get bored and you may not actually get to play the game before losing interest in it. I'll give you a brief example: Minor league logos and uniforms (which are available, thanks to our modders) are cool, but when you find yourself researching the field dimensions of Double-AA stadiums, you've gone too far (true story).

I'm hip. I've done so much research for my English league idea, I was wondering at what point I was going to burn out. I haven't yet, but I have found that the deeper I go, the more realism I demand. I figure, I put so much work into this, why should I settle for something I can't control easily? I have to figure out a way to control it. But to maintain my sanity, I have to punt on certain things.

Example: my league started in 1888. There were no night games. But the Game assumes there have always been night games, so it always schedules them. So I had to learn how to manage the .lsdl/.txt file to make schedule changes in bulk.

But then, once I introduced playoffs in 1892, all the playoff games were scheduled at night. All of them. So in order that the almanacs, which I am sharing on my thread, do not show this inconsistency, I went in using Komposer, which I'd never head of before, located the six teams with playoff schedules, and changed the times manually. Then I remembered the individual game box scores had the times, too. So I had to change those.

That all took more over an hour, since I had to figure out a system for effectively changing them.

Then I thought: why? To what end? Who's going to even see these anyway, besides me?

So I think next season, I'm probably going to punt on that. It'll be a bit of a kick in the shin knowing they're there. But once I let it go, mentally, I'm sure it will be freeing.

Don't let the need for realism rule your life.

[dl_]

Originally Posted by chucksabr

I'm hip. I've done so much research for my English league idea, I was wondering at what point I was going to burn out. I haven't yet, but I have found that the deeper I go, the more realism I demand. I figure, I put so much work into this, why should I settle for something I can't control easily? I have to figure out a way to control it. But to maintain my sanity, I have to punt on certain things.

Example: my league started in 1888. There were no night games. But the Game assumes there have always been night games, so it always schedules them. So I had to learn how to manage the .lsdl/.txt file to make schedule changes in bulk.

But then, once I introduced playoffs in 1892, all the playoff games were scheduled at night. All of them. So in order that the almanacs, which I am sharing on my thread, do not show this inconsistency, I went in using Komposer, which I'd never head of before, located the six teams with playoff schedules, and changed the times manually. Then I remembered the individual game box scores had the times, too. So I had to change those.

That all took more over an hour, since I had to figure out a system for effectively changing them.

Then I thought: why? To what end? Who's going to even see these anyway, besides me?

So I think next season, I'm probably going to punt on that. It'll be a bit of a kick in the shin knowing they're there. But once I let it go, mentally, I'm sure it will be freeing.

Don't let the need for realism rule your life.

You are an inspiration. I'm trying to mess with and see all the little things the game has and sometime it's a bit bothersome knowing how much I could do with a feature I find, and therefore how much of a halt it can have on my dynasty..

[The Game]

Originally Posted by chucksabr

I'm hip. I've done so much research for my English league idea, I was wondering at what point I was going to burn out. I haven't yet, but I have found that the deeper I go, the more realism I demand. I figure, I put so much work into this, why should I settle for something I can't control easily? I have to figure out a way to control it. But to maintain my sanity, I have to punt on certain things.

Example: my league started in 1888. There were no night games. But the Game assumes there have always been night games, so it always schedules them. So I had to learn how to manage the .lsdl/.txt file to make schedule changes in bulk.

But then, once I introduced playoffs in 1892, all the playoff games were scheduled at night. All of them. So in order that the almanacs, which I am sharing on my thread, do not show this inconsistency, I went in using Komposer, which I'd never head of before, located the six teams with playoff schedules, and changed the times manually. Then I remembered the individual game box scores had the times, too. So I had to change those.

That all took more over an hour, since I had to figure out a system for effectively changing them.

Then I thought: why? To what end? Who's going to even see these anyway, besides me?

So I think next season, I'm probably going to punt on that. It'll be a bit of a kick in the shin knowing they're there. But once I let it go, mentally, I'm sure it will be freeing.

Don't let the need for realism rule your life.

chuck if your league has the same amount of teams from 1888 MLB then you should be able to use the 1888 MLB schedule and it wont have night games. I find it easier to change schedules in game.

[KevinTMC]

Thanks again for the thoughtful replies. I very much appreciate the willingness of folks here to give of their time and attention, to help others get past the overwhelmed and paralyzed stage.

Speaking of which:

Originally Posted by themonk

But realized that I'll not probably be able to set up the "perfect" league. Just started playing, and made the appropriate adjustments as I went along...

Once, when I was having trouble getting a project done--or even properly started--I got some useful advice from a professor who was similarly prone to paralyzing perfectionism.

He had just published a book. He told me that in order to get that book written, and to let go of it once it had reached a reasonable state of done-ness, he had to keep telling himself that the next book could be perfect...this one just needed to get shipped out the door.

(He still did a fine job on that book, by the way.)

So this is what I'll do. My next league can be a perfect fictorcial creation along the lines of mad schemes #1 and #2 above. This league, the one I use to get properly started with OOTP 14, will be a full-fictional league along the lines of simpler scheme #3.

Classic League Baseball, according to my storyline, will be a league founded in reaction to MLB's efforts to murder itself in the 1990s with a Series-cancelling labor dispute, steroids, the wild card, interleague play, overexpansion and improper expansion*, walk-up music, and other excrescences from the reign of the Interim Commissioner-for-Life. In theory, I suppose CLB would be in competition with MLB; for this reason, all teams will be located in cities that were without MLB franchises as of CLB's founding (1995, most likely). In practice, sanity will surely dictate that I run the league as the only one in its OOTP universe, and not spend a second worrying about what might be going on anywhere else.

Classic League Baseball will consist of the Western League and Federal League. (Reviving historic names will be a theme in setting up the league.) Each league will have 8 teams; divisional play will not be necessary.

Here are some questions I'm mulling over now that I've decided that much:

1) Would it be a huge blunder to shorten the season? Going with a classic 154-game season would make the season totals make more sense, of course...but I know me, I'll be tempted to manage every single game by hand, in which case trimming the schedule could really help move things along.

2) Minor leagues: How much will I need? Would one AAA affiliate and one AA affiliate per franchise sound good? And how about feeder leagues...would one properly-sized collegiate league do the trick, perhaps?

3) I suppose I'll start by using the Fictional League Creation Wizard, to avoid being confronted with the full 747 cockpit full of options. What changes should I consider making to the default settings (including those the Wizard might not cover?).

4) One thing I don't quite understand about fictional leagues is how they handle progression over time. In historical leagues, everything from league-average statistics to financials changes over time...does all this remain static in a fictional league? (And does it default to being based on the selected starting year, or on 2013?)

5) I've seen that some people prefer to discard the initial batch of players created with a new fictional league, or they run the league a while before jumping in, and there may be other strategies as well that I'm not bright enough to have understood at first glance. Would there be any serious disadvantages to just creating the league, holding an inaugural draft, and running with it? (I'm inclined to do it that way not just because it's simpler, but also because if the league is my creation I'd prefer to be fully involved from day 1 and not miss any of its history...and also also, inaugural drafts are fun.)

6) I don't want to jump too far down the rabbit hole of add-ons...but I suspect I'll want to use something like the Nickname Project as a source of plug-and-play logos and uniforms...don't know how I'll handle ballparks...and hmm, maybe Questdog's Names Files would be good to use. Am I on the right track here?

I hope I'm not abusing folks' courtesy by continuing to throw out questions and thoughts. Many thanks again for the helpful replies so far.

* By "improper expansion" I mean placing teams in spring-training locales. If you ask me (and I don't know why you wouldn't), Florida and Arizona should be allowed to have either spring training or major-league franchises, but not both.

[The Game]

Originally Posted by KevinTMC

Here are some questions I'm mulling over now that I've decided that much:

1) Would it be a huge blunder to shorten the season? Going with a classic 154-game season would make the season totals make more sense, of course...but I know me, I'll be tempted to manage every single game by hand, in which case trimming the schedule could really help move things along.
Others can answer this better but from my experience you may need to tweak PCM's - player creation modifier anf league modifiers if using a statistical season. In my EBL I did nto have 162 games the 1st 6 seasons and there were more 50 HR hitters in those 6 seasons then in the last 6.

2) Minor leagues: How much will I need? Would one AAA affiliate and one AA affiliate per franchise sound good? And how about feeder leagues...would one properly-sized collegiate league do the trick, perhaps?
I missed how big your league is but 2 should be fine just reduce the size of the draft. i use just AAA for my EBL draft size varies but I also have full MLB with minors to get players from and I have on average 1800 FA each year. See Biggio's thread for Feeder leagues, it is a great guide.

3) I suppose I'll start by using the Fictional League Creation Wizard, to avoid being confronted with the full 747 cockpit full of options. What changes should I consider making to the default settings (including those the Wizard might not cover?). I always use Advanced Options. yyou could increase or decrease the inmternational Complex, Fictional League FA's

4) One thing I don't quite understand about fictional leagues is how they handle progression over time. In historical leagues, everything from league-average statistics to financials changes over time...does all this remain static in a fictional league? (And does it default to being based on the selected starting year, or on 2013?)
Not sure, I use MLB seasons past for my PCM's etc. Right now using 1987 for a 2017 league.

5) I've seen that some people prefer to discard the initial batch of players created with a new fictional league, or they run the league a while before jumping in, and there may be other strategies as well that I'm not bright enough to have understood at first glance. Would there be any serious disadvantages to just creating the league, holding an inaugural draft, and running with it? (I'm inclined to do it that way not just because it's simpler, but also because if the league is my creation I'd prefer to be fully involved from day 1 and not miss any of its history...and also also, inaugural drafts are fun.) i disagree with people who sim for year saying that the 1st batch is always the best batch, I have not seen it. In my History of Baseball League the best SP did not debut until 1937. In my EBL I see players performing better then my custom players in 2017.

6) I don't want to jump too far down the rabbit hole of add-ons...but I suspect I'll want to use something like the Nickname Project as a source of plug-and-play logos and uniforms...don't know how I'll handle ballparks...and hmm, maybe Questdog's Names Files would be good to use. Am I on the right track here?
Sure. I use many real parks from the MLB the Show set 2K10 and JRP's classic's. I do not like real photos since there is always some type of flaw i can find in them.
http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...ml#post3495493
http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...ml#post3296805
I believe we talked about Bobble hair mod. There are also many unique facegens even if it is just you using Elvis Presley for John Adams. GMO makes some great schedules as does Sandman.
http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...-use-ootp.html
I hope I'm not abusing folks' courtesy by continuing to throw out questions and thoughts. Many thanks again for the helpful replies so far.

* By "improper expansion" I mean placing teams in spring-training locales. If you ask me (and I don't know why you wouldn't), Florida and Arizona should be allowed to have either spring training or major-league franchises, but not both.

I love answering question when I knopw the answer, hopefully others can answer the ones I can not for you.