Does anyone else watch their league unfold without taking over a specific club?

[darkcloud4579]

Originally Posted by Habsfan18

Just wondering how many other people play this way? Essentially, it's like being a spectactor or even commissioner rather than being a GM or Manager of a particular club.

One of my favorite things to do is create/sim a complete alternate/fictional MLB history from 1901 to 2015 and then go from there. I've noticed that sometimes I have more fun just "watching" the league unfold rather than take over a club myself.

So yeah, do you guys act as a commissioner type as well? Or do you HAVE to be a GM or Manager to have fun? Of course it comes down to personal preference.

Pretty much how I play always. I get invested in teams across the league, on storylines and it's a real blast.

[NCBeachBum]

Yeah, this is what I do with any league that I really care about. Once in a while I'll kick up a nice fast, easy quickstart and run a team for a decade or so before I delete the league, when I'm in a mood to just screw around a bit with something without doing all the work I put into my leagues that matter to me. But other than that, I'm just the (apparently immortal) commissioner.

[hfield007]

Originally Posted by Habsfan18

Just wondering how many other people play this way? Essentially, it's like being a spectactor or even commissioner rather than being a GM or Manager of a particular club.

One of my favorite things to do is create/sim a complete alternate/fictional MLB history from 1901 to 2015 and then go from there. I've noticed that sometimes I have more fun just "watching" the league unfold rather than take over a club myself.

So yeah, do you guys act as a commissioner type as well? Or do you HAVE to be a GM or Manager to have fun? Of course it comes down to personal preference.

I did this with my main sim from ootp 9 to ootp 13.

I ran it as commissioner, elected all awards and all-star teams using my own systems and just sat back and watched. i'd watch the playoff games then and did a bunch of extra awards and such. was intense immersion, ran about 40 years like that (a season generally taking 6-8 hours with everything i did)

then i finally switched to playing as one team in ootp 14. but i do sometimes miss that spectator league. still remember all of the great players.

[catcherjul]

I did it too during 35 years in my fictional league and had a lot of fun!! I almost regret that I took over a team...

[isles4ever11]

I'm very, very slowly building out a FIFA based world - my first league (called the North American Baseball League, which will then break up into specific country leagues as I expand everything) has 4 teams from the USA, and will progressively get bigger. Without getting too deep into the specifics, I usually sim about a month per week and keep track of all of the results over time. It's been a blast so far, having way more fun than when I've taken over real/historic teams.

[Crimguy]

Originally Posted by Habsfan18

Just wondering how many other people play this way? Essentially, it's like being a spectactor or even commissioner rather than being a GM or Manager of a particular club.

One of my favorite things to do is create/sim a complete alternate/fictional MLB history from 1901 to 2015 and then go from there. I've noticed that sometimes I have more fun just "watching" the league unfold rather than take over a club myself.

So yeah, do you guys act as a commissioner type as well? Or do you HAVE to be a GM or Manager to have fun? Of course it comes down to personal preference.

In all past versions of OOTP I did just that - create a universe at the turn of the century and let it sim for 100 years or so. Problem was I kept having issues with expansion of stadiums - they'd stay at 20,000 and not get any bigger so this time around I just loaded it up, created a league and hit go.

[hdespain]

I was running a fictional league like that and I decided to turn it into an online league. The Heartland Baseball League is now a semi-stats only online league that's been running for 2.5 realtime years and entering our 23 season. I commish the league and track the history but have never taken over a team.

I always loved playing OOTP this way and I always hated online leagues where the commish won all of the time so this seemed like a perfect setup for me.

[ussoldier2002]

Here is what I just started. I have essentially created my own universe. I created a graphic representation of the United States and Canada in Simcity 4. I photograph the ballparks and use them for my parks in OOTP. I started in 1850 with 4 high school teams from the Boston area. In 1851 New York state got in the game with 4 teams from NYC. I am going to rapidly expand the high school ranks and start the college level around 1860 then Major League Baseball will kick off in 1871.

I am just building everything up at this moment. I only watch and let things unfold as they would unfold with no intervention from me. I am going to create my grandfather's when they are of age and watch their careers unfold. Then the same with my dad and uncle.

I will also put all of my closest friends in as well and watch us all compete against each other. When the year rolls around to where I would be a freshman in high school in real life I will play game by game (maybe).

This is a very slow process because I get stupid over details. I use real high schools, use their logos, create all of my schedules... work takes up to much of my time lol.

What I enjoy is putting in all of this work and watch it all come together in this game.

[BBGiovanni]

Originally Posted by ussoldier2002

I created a graphic representation of the United States and Canada in Simcity 4.

This is a very slow process because I get stupid over details. I use real high schools, use their logos, create all of my schedules... work takes up to much of my time lol.

What I enjoy is putting in all of this work and watch it all come together in this game.

Wow, that would be really interesting to see. Maybe sometime you can post a screenshot? If you are really in Afghanistan... safe return and post when you get home!

Actually I too spend way more time designing leagues, making the graphics, tweaking all that stuff than I ever play things out. This thread is actually inspiring me to sim out one of my leagues that I lost after 50 or so years in OOTP 14 or so. Sometimes I like several teams so much I hate to choose one!

[reds1]

I've always played as a mercenary GM since I first got OOTP, taking on a struggling team and building it up over a few seasons. As it became successful, I would already have one eye open as it were for the next down and out team to switch to.

The re-building process has always been the most fun for me. The challenge of taking stock of your organization, getting to know your players and prospects and then formalizing a game plan to turn a team's fortunes around is a lot more fun for me than sticking with a winning team season after season. I've never stuck with a team long enough to deal with the other challenge: how to keep a team competitive as the players age and decline, although I've wanted to try that for some time now.

My dynasty is my very first attempt at simply being an observer. Writing about the teams on a month-by-month basis is a very effective way of getting to know your league, I find. So I'm beginning to appreciate the fun of simply being an observer and why so many players enjoy it too.

[ussoldier2002]

Originally Posted by BBGiovanni

Wow, that would be really interesting to see. Maybe sometime you can post a screenshot? If you are really in Afghanistan... safe return and post when you get home!

Actually I too spend way more time designing leagues, making the graphics, tweaking all that stuff than I ever play things out. This thread is actually inspiring me to sim out one of my leagues that I lost after 50 or so years in OOTP 14 or so. Sometimes I like several teams so much I hate to choose one!

I will have to post screen shots when I get the time. I am actually not in Afghanistan, I am now in Kuwait but thank you for the well wishes.

[catcherjul]

When I saw this post, I told myself ''Oh my god, I'm not the only one who does/did it'' So I quit my GM job and went back to spectator mode

Thanks community hehe

[david limbaugh]

Originally Posted by Habsfan18

Just wondering how many other people play this way? Essentially, it's like being a spectactor or even commissioner rather than being a GM or Manager of a particular club.

One of my favorite things to do is create/sim a complete alternate/fictional MLB history from 1901 to 2015 and then go from there. I've noticed that sometimes I have more fun just "watching" the league unfold rather than take over a club myself.

So yeah, do you guys act as a commissioner type as well? Or do you HAVE to be a GM or Manager to have fun? Of course it comes down to personal preference.

The way I play since OOTP4

Start with 4 teams in 1871.

When the number of free agents is greater than number of players on rosters I expand by 2 teams.

My rosters are 26 for MLB teams and 10 on AAA.

26: 4 SP 5 RP 3 C 2 1B 2 2B 2 SS 2 3B 2 LF 2 CF 2 RF

10 - 1 of each - ghost players for the rest

If a player on MLB goes on DL I call up that position from AAA until he comes of the DL.

60 games - Friday, Saturday and Sunday - 3 man strict rotation (think college)

AAA - 40 games - Wednesday and Thursday

I have monthly scouting - first Monday of each month I adjust each team's roster, demoting and promoting based on overall rating and letting managers re-do lineups and rotations.

Post-season best 2 out of 3

I do the draft at the end of the season after the post season. To 'weight' the league, I always put draft order in order of how strong I want each team to be. I 'act as' each team in as they draft and do 'scout recommendation' and that is their pick.

Each pre-season I import my schedule (I have a quick basic routine to write .lsdl files - even years and odd years swap home and away series - each team gets 30 home and 30 away but if you open at home one year you open on the road the next, etc...)

I play in commissioner mode and control every team with no AI moves.

Each Spring I adjust rosters, adding free agents from free agent pool if better player at the position or needed to fill a position - here is where I go in order from worse team to best team the previous season.

I let manager set lineups and pitching staff.

I decide players on MLB roster by the team's scout's overall rating. If tied I go from left to right of other ratings. For the team's AAA team I use potential rating.

I real-time sim each day at 300 speed - watching line scores and look at standings and leaders each Monday.

I manual do my awards and hall of fame voting. My HOF criteria is that they have to get more than the average in at least 3 of 5 categories - occasionally I will have a 'veterans committee' HOFer if he is in the leaders in a big category or has several awards.

I archive almanacs yearly and saved weekly.

After the draft and after I have made all the team's ready for each season on opening day I do backups up my entire .lg folder to another internal drive and to an external drive (Yeah USB3!!!)

At the end of each season, I write standings, playoff results, leaders and award winners into a spiral notebook.

[TomVeal]

My only venture into spectator mode was an historical replay starting with Herb Score's rookie year. I wanted to see what might have happened if he hadn't been injured. So far, he's as great as everyone expected him to be. What's unexpected is that a number of players who never did much in real life have become stars.

[silvam14]

I set up my 8 team US baseball league and just sit back and watch the league unfold. I started in 1930 and am currently in 1945 through 3 versions of the game. I love coming up with my own storylines and also figuring out when to expand and where to put those franchises. great fun for me

[sprague]

Originally Posted by david limbaugh

Each Spring I adjust rosters, adding free agents from free agent pool if better player at the position or needed to fill a position - here is where I go in order from worse team to best team the previous season..

David this is one of the best new ideas I have come accross!

It will work perfect for a semi fictional with historical players that I play so the good teams still draft the players from their organization while the other teams can get the top free agents.
Brilliant.'