Historical simmers...Help!!!

[pvtitan21]

I just bought the game last month and love it.
My first project was to start a whole new league in 1969 with all the existing teams but with all the players thrown back into the draft.
After finishing in last my first season, I ended up the 1970 season with the best record in MLB.
I'm about to start 1971 and my team is 21-2 during spring training.
Somehow through draft and trades I've collected such a huge talent pool that the AI is predicting I'll win 114 games.
My point is, how can I run a league like this in which the AI drafts players that are going to be great like I am. I can't turn off my knowledge of baseball history and purposely draft stiffs when future stars like Steve Garvey and Ted Simmons are sitting there.
But I also don't want to continue on with a dominating team compiled of All-Stars.
I know some people would suggest I just go fictional, but I really like using real players.
Any help with this would be great.

[rlsimpson2]

I don't do historical a lot, but from what I've read on here and the little bit I have fooled with it I think turning "recalc" off and allowing the players to develop using their ratings and OOTP's development engine would accomplish what you're looking for, at least in not guaranteeing your dominance. By doing this, you would be adding variance, so that not every time would guys like Garvey and Simmons develop into the same players they historically were. They could be better or worse, depending on OOTP's development engine. The same would be true for other players who maybe have good potential but for whatever reason didn't develop into stars in real life. They might in the game. That would level the playing field, so to speak, between you and the A.I. Not sure if that's what you're looking for, but it is one idea.

[TribeFanInNC]

This is an inherent issue with historical play. You always know who is good. I limit my trading to a very minimum. Sometimes I take over the very top of the draft manually to distribute the talent to make it seem fair.

[actionjackson]

Originally Posted by pvtitan21

I just bought the game last month and love it.
My first project was to start a whole new league in 1969 with all the existing teams but with all the players thrown back into the draft.
After finishing in last my first season, I ended up the 1970 season with the best record in MLB.
I'm about to start 1971 and my team is 21-2 during spring training.
Somehow through draft and trades I've collected such a huge talent pool that the AI is predicting I'll win 114 games.
My point is, how can I run a league like this in which the AI drafts players that are going to be great like I am. I can't turn off my knowledge of baseball history and purposely draft stiffs when future stars like Steve Garvey and Ted Simmons are sitting there.
But I also don't want to continue on with a dominating team compiled of All-Stars.
I know some people would suggest I just go fictional, but I really like using real players.
Any help with this would be great.

I thought I had this discussion with you in OOTP16 (if I didn't forgive me). You can check the box "Use pre-defined draft value for AI" in Game Settings > League Settings > Rules > Amateur Draft Settings. That will make the AI teams draft all the players from best to worst (or a reasonable facsimile of that), so you won't be able to snag all the good ones. This applies to drafts only. You may have to set trading to "Hard/Favour Prospects" if you want to further restrain yourself from getting all the good players.

[pvtitan21]

Thanks guys. Can these setting be changed after the league has already started?

[actionjackson]

Originally Posted by pvtitan21

Thanks guys. Can these setting be changed after the league has already started?

Yes, as always you can toggle them on or off as you wish, when you wish.

[The Game]

Also have rookies go to their original teams. !920-1954 ish were some very lean talent years for the White Sox. Which is way i tend to us e a draft or rookies become FA and let the highest bidder (the NY yankees) win.

[italyprof]

ActionJackson it might have been me that you gave this advice to in 16, not sure, but I agree with your suggestion.

pvtitan21, I have the same issue as I only play historical leagues. I don't have too much to add except that at one time or another I will use one of the strategies everyone has suggested here and at other times another. Distributing the top talent manually to each team, use pre-defined AI value, setting trades to hard and favor prospects, turning recalc off, all good ways to level the playing field.

I have found - I have a 1964 league going right now - that the best approach for me is to bite the bullet and run a fantasy draft to inaugurate the league as you do but then let the AI draft the whole draft for every team, and I take over a team blind (usually the Yankees as that is who I root for). If the team is boring, my first task is to make trades, which often involves losing out on trades merely to get the aesthetic I want for my team.

So this time I got Willie Mays, great, can't turn him down in 1964. But I also got Joe Morgan and Frank Howard. This seemed excessive. While a Morgan-Mays team would be very exciting to watch, I felt like I was too sure to have a winner for decades. I traded Morgan for Roy White - good leadoff or number 2 hitter with good OBP for the late 60s into the 70s, and Howard for Wes Parker - great fielding, good hitting 1B with speed. Got some minor talent in the mix, since I was trading more for less, but got a good bench out of it: Hal Lanier, Jesus Alou. I prefer that team to a mega-team with Mays and Howard and Morgan.

Sometimes instead you get a pretty lousy team, which I sort of like though I will still trade to get some modest upgrades or to not have four shortstops or whatever. But a random draft makes it more challenging. I want to win championships, but I don't like winning one the first two-three seasons and if I win one the first season I get bored.

Another option is to expand the league and set strict limits on how many players are protected to thin out your talent. You can even do this in the inaugural draft to limit the available talent.

[risp2out]

Originally Posted by pvtitan21

I just bought the game last month and love it.
My first project was to start a whole new league in 1969 with all the existing teams but with all the players thrown back into the draft.
After finishing in last my first season, I ended up the 1970 season with the best record in MLB.
I'm about to start 1971 and my team is 21-2 during spring training.
Somehow through draft and trades I've collected such a huge talent pool that the AI is predicting I'll win 114 games.
My point is, how can I run a league like this in which the AI drafts players that are going to be great like I am. I can't turn off my knowledge of baseball history and purposely draft stiffs when future stars like Steve Garvey and Ted Simmons are sitting there.
But I also don't want to continue on with a dominating team compiled of All-Stars.
I know some people would suggest I just go fictional, but I really like using real players.
Any help with this would be great.

I feel your pain. I prefer historical (although I've had great fun with some fictional leagues, too) because I like the sort of "alternate universe" feel of familiar guys in unfamiliar settings. I do burn out if my teams get too dominant though. After many years of experiments (I started on OOTP 9), my preferred mode is recalc off, scouting on, amateur draft (although this may change with the new historical minors included, we'll see), and trading = very hard. Combined with a few "house rules" (just like, hey, I'm not going to try to pry Ted Williams or Joe DiMaggio away in their prime), I find this to be a really enjoyable mode of play. With recalc off, you will get some unexpected booms and busts. I had a completely underwhelming Jeter last year in 16, but Scott Elarton turned into a staff ace for, like, four seasons. It's not the style for people who want players to perform exactly as they did historically, but I like it.

[Silent_Thunder]

Combining the OOTP dev engine, scouting back on, and historical minors can remove a lot of that inherent knowledge, as players won't do what they are "supposed" to as per real life often enough. Especially as you're going to be getting these supposed "superstars" when they're still in highschool or college. The problem rookie debut from the older games is that by the time the players are drafted, they're already gotten through the risky part of development.

To put it in perspective, Mays for instance will debut at about only 19 years old, and thus there is a ton that can happen that make him no longer the sure bet he'd be in the older editions, where they only showed up when they reached the majors. In 17, Mays could easily never escape the minors.

We've already seen people posting about how some unknown minor leaguer turned out to be a monster who history never gave a chance. For instance

http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...ml#post4008725

That thread also mentions Mays being a bust.

[pvtitan21]

Silent Thunder is on to something about the new historical minors meaning we are getting players younger etc. Sad thing is I started this league in OOTP16. Guess I could bite the bullet and start over. These are all great recommendations. Maybe I'll try all the other tweaks and see if it balances out. Following my team's great 1970 season I drafted last entering '71 and most of the good newcomers were already selected so this will help balance it out as well.
Thanks guys

[Painmantle]

If you really want it to be interesting crank Talent Change Randomness up to 200

[Cowboys3356]

Originally Posted by Painmantle

If you really want it to be interesting crank Talent Change Randomness up to 200

Do that combined with the other suggested changes while also setting trade difficulty as high as possible and I think you will find the game a bit more challenging.

I am like you in that I normally play my first run through and end up getting a super team. Then I start over with a much harder setup as many suggested and that league actually ends up being much more enjoyable even though I win fewer games.

[Orcin]

I play historical to enjoy seeing the players from the past in action. I want them to be the players that I remember, and the great teams to still be great. Therefore, I use recalc (3yr with 2x current yr) and no inaugural draft. I avoid domination by taking over a lesser team and using a few house rules. My primary house rule is that I will not trade for anyone that made the Hall of Fame. I also put rookies on their historical teams, and I will not trade for any player with less than 2 years pro experience. By that time, the AI usually realizes what it has.

One thing I have noticed is that the teams typically start with poor financial positions. I always edit every team to have a first-year budget that allows a good bit of room, i.e. would show a decent profit based on the budget. I have found that this makes the AI more determined to keep its better players because they don't need to clear payroll. I also edit any penny-pincher and/or meddling owners on AI teams back to the middle, which again keeps the AI from dumping a great player just to please the owner.

This environment makes a pretty enjoyable historical game for me. I prefer to use self-control and avoid trades that take advantage of my future knowledge rather than destroy the reality of the game world. If I want no-holds barred competition with the AI, I play fictional.

[The Game]

Soon i will start a historical league from 1871. I always use 1 yr recalc. I will have FA from day one. I can be fired, as it is my goal to manage every team at some point. i want to see how well i can do with Yankees $$ and in a small market like St Louis Browns. Historical rookies will go to their team. i am waiting for the new Spritze DB. So there will be many FA rookies i can sign. I also want to try more stats only since i know the majority of the players.