A little too easy...

[ajmack130]

Seems like the game is a little easy in the regular, default settings. I'm playing with Cleveland starting in 1980 and have won 6 World Series and made the playoffs 18 times up to 2013. I've won 100 games 7 times and made the playoffs every year since 2001.
My average win percentage is .557. The next team is .532.
It took me until 1988 to make the playoffs, but failed to win 90 games only five times since.

Once you build a strong contender, sustaining that level doesn't appear difficult.

Thoughts?

[Izz]

If it's too easy for you, make it harder

[The Wolf]

Stats only.

http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...n-t-doing.html

http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...tats-only.html

[ajmack130]

I'm struggling to improve the ChiSox from the Dead ball era. It's significantly harder when you can't sign free agents or receive draft compensation for departing free agents.
My team is consistently above .500, but not really a strong contender. I end up picking in the 9th to 12th range when the stud starters are already gone.

[PSUColonel]

lol there are lots of combinations of things to do to make it more difficult......you need to read "A LOT" of threads on this!

[saturn2187]

Originally Posted by ajmack130

I'm struggling to improve the ChiSox from the Dead ball era. It's significantly harder when you can't sign free agents or receive draft compensation for departing free agents.
My team is consistently above .500, but not really a strong contender. I end up picking in the 9th to 12th range when the stud starters are already gone.

Pull a Washington Nationals move. Deal off your starters for prospects , lose for a few years, draft some studs.

[Charlie Hough]

Originally Posted by ajmack130

I'm struggling to improve the ChiSox from the Dead ball era. It's significantly harder when you can't sign free agents or receive draft compensation for departing free agents.
My team is consistently above .500, but not really a strong contender. I end up picking in the 9th to 12th range when the stud starters are already gone.

Well, you're already making it harder on yourself by using the draft with that era. The draft didn't begin until the 1960s, so, in the real-life dead ball era, you would have been able to sign amateur players and emerging minor league stars, and if you could beat out the teams with the best scouting resources and the most money to spend, then you could potentially sign free agents and build your team that way.

Unfortunately, while you can configure OOTP so that rookies are imported as free agents, the AI is so bad at competing with the human GM for free agents that it becomes too easy to hoard the best new players. So, until this is fixed, which I've been asking to have fixed for a few years, you would need some kind of house rules in place, like a limit on the number of free agents you sign, a geographical limit, or something similar.

If you're fine with using the draft for the dead ball era, then that's okay with me. It's just not something that I like personally. I prefer realism, but this is one area where OOTP doesn't deliver it.

[ashantewarrier]

I play historical fictional (historical teams/fictional players). For realism sake, I don't start use the draft until the 1960's.

[canadian content]

Originally Posted by Charlie Hough

Unfortunately, while you can configure OOTP so that rookies are imported as free agents, the AI is so bad at competing with the human GM for free agents that it becomes too easy to hoard the best new players. So, until this is fixed, which I've been asking to have fixed for a few years, you would need some kind of house rules in place, like a limit on the number of free agents you sign, a geographical limit, or something similar.

Do you shut off ratings?


Isn't there any other way than to use house rules?

[RchW]

I must be a bad GM. I set up my team as a Yankees type dynasty and recently went 9 seasons without winning the WS and only made 2 WS appearances. I win my share but not enough to get bored when the goal is to win it all every year. I'm in a minor rebuild due to aging now and the early returns are not positive.

[Curve Ball Dave]

I have house rules to make things more difficult. First and foremost is I don't allow my team to be in the top ten in payroll. That means I don't tender contracts to certain players when arbitration time rolls around, and don't resign every possible potential free agent. I also have to be very frugal in the free agent market, not signing the biggest names to big contracts.

I up the trading difficulty so I can't fleece the ai teams of good players while giving up little to get them and reset the financials when need be so the ai teams have plenty of money for resigning players and free agents.

I haven't won a WS in ages. I get close, I even win a pennant or two, but the brass ring has eluded me.

[Charlie Hough]

Originally Posted by canadian content

Do you shut off ratings?

Isn't there any other way than to use house rules?

Well, if you're playing a historical game, shutting off ratings doesn't always help. If you know who many of the top players were in real life, then when new rookies are imported, you already know who is going to develop into a star. Even if you're using the talent development engine, real life future stars are going to be imported with high ratings and/or potential that make it very likely that they will become good players in OOTP.

So, in that case, you still need some kind of house rules.

If you're playing a fictional historical, then it's not as much of an issue, but if you can still see at least current overall and potential ability, that still gives you some clues and can allow you to sign the top rookies that are imported as free agents.

The real problem here is that the AI is too weak when it comes to free agent negotiations. Basically, unless you abandon negotiations, you can win every free agent against the AI by simply outbidding it. OOTP supposedly adjusts players' decisions based on your team's performance or reputation, reflecting a desire to play for a winner vs. a loser, but this doesn't seem to be enough to change results in the end.

Perhaps because the negotiation sequence always gives the final chance to the human GM, the AI never seems able to win negotiations in the end.

This is one area where the game needs to be re-coded and revamped with an option to keep negotiations the way they are or significantly increase the weight of other factors and add some randomness to the player's considerations. For example, players might go for the money, go for a larger market, go to a team that has a superstar player, go to a rebuilding team some of the league's top prospects, or go where they have the best chance of winning a championship.

Or, at the very least, the AI maybe needs to be made much more aggressive in its bidding and be given a random chance to submit the final bid for a player. For example, I can't think of any case that I have ever seen where the AI aggressively jacked up the price on a free agent by making a huge increase in the offer. It's always in smaller increments. But what if teams were offering $250,000 for a player and the AI suddenly offered $400,000? Wouldn't that send a message and potentially discourage other bidders? Of course, you'd have to temper this to make sure that the AI doesn't make too many reckless offers and potentially disrupt the whole financial stability of the league by escalating salaries. But it's just a point to illustrate that the AI doesn't seem to behave in any way that remotely resembles human GMs in free agent negotiations.

In the end, though, if you've built a powerhouse team, I suppose it's realistic to continue to make it fairly easy to sign free agents within your budget, because that's what happens with the top teams in real life.

[ajmack130]

In league settings under rules, there is a box to enable the amateur draft. I want to try a few years without the draft. In parentheses, it states "can only be changed" and the rest is hidden.
It can only be changed during the season? Before starting a dynasty? I can't find the answer in the online manual.

[The Game]

Originally Posted by ajmack130

In league settings under rules, there is a box to enable the amateur draft. I want to try a few years without the draft. In parentheses, it states "can only be changed" and the rest is hidden.
It can only be changed during the season? Before starting a dynasty? I can't find the answer in the online manual.

Can only be changed during Preseason.

[Biggio509]

Originally Posted by Charlie Hough

The real problem here is that the AI is too weak when it comes to free agent negotiations. Basically, unless you abandon negotiations, you can win every free agent against the AI by simply outbidding it. OOTP supposedly adjusts players' decisions based on your team's performance or reputation, reflecting a desire to play for a winner vs. a loser, but this doesn't seem to be enough to change results in the end.

The real problem here is the insane budgets you get. I thought the problem was default financials. That really isn't the biggest problem. If you use owner sets budgets budgets get out of whack with financials over time. I have modified the financials and before the start of each off season I import and adjust to a 10 to 20% operating margin. In the 1890's there are teams losing a lot of money with 30k+ for free agents because the budgets are being set to allow big loses. It could also be the smaller rosters in the 19th century up to the roster expansions in 1910 or so. Playing with the full coaching system also seems to help some.

It is the budget mechanic that is broken. I have enough budget each year to sign 2 or 3 rosters. For instance in 1897 I have a payroll of 23k with a budget for free agents of 35k! I already have a full roster and enough available money to sign another team then over half another team. It isn't financials almost every team is losing money but still has a huge budget. At 10 to 20% OM on average (by the financial projector) this shouldn't be happening. Teams are signing twice the amount of players and putting them on the reserve roster even if they don't need them. I have to go to commissioner and clear the reserve rosters at the beginning of every off season.

The problem is you have the money to outbid everyone. Eventually players will sign and as long as you keep bidding higher players finally reach a point where they sign.

My fix is to assign fictional financials every so often. This recalculates budgets to where the budget is actually a constraint. If you don't do this eventually there is no real budget constraint. I also up my player development to lower the budget to where I have to cut some players to sign new ones or just have enough for a couple of extra free agents.

The biggest problem is insane budgets. Maybe it would be better to play with budgets turned off. I think it might have something to do with playing reserve clause era rules. I have never had the problem playing modern day.

[DustinthePOWERHOUSE]

Originally Posted by Charlie Hough

Well, you're already making it harder on yourself by using the draft with that era. The draft didn't begin until the 1960s, so, in the real-life dead ball era, you would have been able to sign amateur players and emerging minor league stars, and if you could beat out the teams with the best scouting resources and the most money to spend, then you could potentially sign free agents and build your team that way.

Unfortunately, while you can configure OOTP so that rookies are imported as free agents, the AI is so bad at competing with the human GM for free agents that it becomes too easy to hoard the best new players. So, until this is fixed, which I've been asking to have fixed for a few years, you would need some kind of house rules in place, like a limit on the number of free agents you sign, a geographical limit, or something similar.

If you're fine with using the draft for the dead ball era, then that's okay with me. It's just not something that I like personally. I prefer realism, but this is one area where OOTP doesn't deliver it.

Wait go back to this for a second. Can you disable the amateur draft and just have "free agency" in terms of teams signing the "imported feeder leage college/high school players???" Cause that's huge. Im not talking about free agency as a whole I don't want that included (I have that disabled) Im strictly speaking about instead of a draft making it a competition with the AI to sign the amateur free agent college/high school kids.

[sprague]

Originally Posted by DustinthePOWERHOUSE

Wait go back to this for a second. Can you disable the amateur draft and just have "free agency" in terms of teams signing the "imported feeder leage college/high school players???" Cause that's huge. Im not talking about free agency as a whole I don't want that included (I have that disabled) Im strictly speaking about instead of a draft making it a competition with the AI to sign the amateur free agent college/high school kids.

Yes. If You have reserve on and then no draft then the feeder players should become free agents. But they often only sign minor league contracts at 18 19 so sort of defeats the purpose. I can run a test tom and post the results.

[DustinthePOWERHOUSE]

Originally Posted by sprague

Yes. If You have reserve on and then no draft then the feeder players should become free agents. But they often only sign minor league contracts at 18 19 so sort of defeats the purpose. I can run a test tom and post the results.

The league I'm running is in the 1800's and just starting out...but if they sign minor league contracts that actually might work as well. I have 3 leagues running as of now, but I could try this in one of my southern leagues or something along those lines.