Historical players, fictional league

[ATAS]

This seems to be extremely difficult to create. I want to create a fictional 16 team league, with real Historical players. (Roger Clemens vs Ty Cobb, Bob Gibson vs Babe Ruth ect. )

My options seem to be either Fictional players and leagues, or Historical players and leagues. Can some one point me and help get this (what i thought would be a popular and easy request) type of league created.

(I had OOTP 13 and i was able to create it in a few mouse clicks...this is WAY more complex than the old system.) WHY?

Thanks for any help that my be offered.

[Reed]

Are you wanting players to appear/miss seasons/retire as they did in real life? Just start a historical league, work through the various tabs, and when you set it up, you can change the names of the teams to whatever you like and you can go into league functions/league structure if you want to change the basic structure some. Hope this gets you started in the right direction.

[Curve Ball Dave]

I have a fictional 36 team league. It's the 30 team MLB plus six that I added. I use the current rosters plus players from historical teams I've imported and individual historical players that were imported (with of course a fantasy draft). That's how I have Lou Gehrig at 1B and Nap Lajoie at 2B for me. Meanwhile, Mike Montgomery who is currently on the real Cubs is my best starting LHP.

You can import historical teams, import the individual players, or do a combination of both. It's not really that difficult if you know who you want in your league.

[NoOne]

thought you could set it up so that historical players randomnly debut?

once it runs out of historical players, you will have to play with fictional of course. i'm not sure how it handles talent distribution... hopefully random and stays spread out through the years.

[stl jason]

I put a setup together awhile back that basically did what you're looking for (only drawback is year 1 will be fictional players, but there are ways to deal with that).... I'll try to find the post....

edit (this was for v16... haven't tried it in v17 but can't imagine there's that much difference that it wouldn't work):

-create your fictional league (setup league parameters/teams/divisions/etc).

-in the "players" section, change the settings for "generate international amateur free agents" and "generate international established free agents" and "generate free agents from independent leagues" to None. (edit: also change "international scouting discoveries" to None, or your scouting dept will find random fictional players from time to time). One more optional edit also in the players section: set the min/max age range for fictional players high, so maybe 32 min / 34 max. Again, if you don't mind one/two/three seasons or so with those inaugural fictional players, they'll all be old enough that they won't rack up mega stats in the record books and retire after 3-5 years.

-in the "options" section, check off the box for "automatically import real historical rookies"

-optional: also in the "options" section, check off "use random rookies from all eras" (I personally like using this on fictional "historical player" setups so I don't know who will show up in the draft, and I might get Ty Cobb in the same draft with Nolan Ryan).


the inaugural draft pool will be fictional players. Just my preference here again, but I don't mind a single season of fictional players in the stats. Once that first year is done, you can either retire those players and have the game import enough real historical rookies to fill all the rosters again. (after that, adjust the number of rounds/players imported to fewer rounds, so you don''t keep pulling in a ton of new rookies each year); or just let those fictional players live out their careers. If you set the min/max age for fictional players like I mentioned above, they'll retire in a few years anyway.

(and as was pointed out in the other thread I posted in: You might also want to go to League Settings -> Rules -> Amateur Draft Settings and check Disable Creation of Free Agents; to avoid fictional free agents from showing up).

[Orcin]

Originally Posted by ATAS

This seems to be extremely difficult to create. I want to create a fictional 16 team league, with real Historical players. (Roger Clemens vs Ty Cobb, Bob Gibson vs Babe Ruth ect. )

How about this... create a historical random debut league starting somewhere during the 16-team era, then randomize the team names and cities.

[David Watts]

Originally Posted by Orcin

How about this... create a historical random debut league starting somewhere during the 16-team era, then randomize the team names and cities.

This is what I do for most of my random debut leagues. You can also start in the 20 team or even the 24 team periods and just delete the 4 or 8 extra teams to get down to 16. Doing this can actually be an advantage, because you end up with more players on each roster and have the ability to use the normal or high injury settings.

[Orcin]

Originally Posted by David Watts

This is what I do for most of my random debut leagues. You can also start in the 20 team or even the 24 team periods and just delete the 4 or 8 extra teams to get down to 16. Doing this can actually be an advantage, because you end up with more players on each roster and have the ability to use the normal or high injury settings.

This is a great idea. I may try it myself. Do you have an inaugural draft or just let the extra players become free agents? How long does it take to lose the feeling of playing in the era in which you started (due to the large number of players from that era on the rosters)?

[David Watts]

Originally Posted by Orcin

This is a great idea. I may try it myself. Do you have an inaugural draft or just let the extra players become free agents? How long does it take to lose the feeling of playing in the era in which you started (due to the large number of players from that era on the rosters)?

I'm sorry, I probably wasn't clear on that part. My leagues are random debut from the very get go. I just pick a season to start in. For example, my current league started in 1980(I'm using 1980 as my base year, so like that ground hogs day movie, it's 1980 over and over and over ). I deleted 10 teams to get down to 16. Decided which cities would have teams and gave them fictional nicknames. Gave them random ballparks to play in. I then held an inaugural draft and was ready to start playing.

Last year I did a one subleague setup starting in 1946 and let the league progress historically(import historical modifiers) forward. I froze things once I reached 1984. My one subleague setup started with only 10 teams and expanded to 16 by 1984.

[mitchkenn]

Originally Posted by stl jason

I put a setup together awhile back that basically did what you're looking for (only drawback is year 1 will be fictional players, but there are ways to deal with that).... I'll try to find the post....

edit (this was for v16... haven't tried it in v17 but can't imagine there's that much difference that it wouldn't work):

-create your fictional league (setup league parameters/teams/divisions/etc).

-in the "players" section, change the settings for "generate international amateur free agents" and "generate international established free agents" and "generate free agents from independent leagues" to None. (edit: also change "international scouting discoveries" to None, or your scouting dept will find random fictional players from time to time). One more optional edit also in the players section: set the min/max age range for fictional players high, so maybe 32 min / 34 max. Again, if you don't mind one/two/three seasons or so with those inaugural fictional players, they'll all be old enough that they won't rack up mega stats in the record books and retire after 3-5 years.

-in the "options" section, check off the box for "automatically import real historical rookies"

-optional: also in the "options" section, check off "use random rookies from all eras" (I personally like using this on fictional "historical player" setups so I don't know who will show up in the draft, and I might get Ty Cobb in the same draft with Nolan Ryan).


the inaugural draft pool will be fictional players. Just my preference here again, but I don't mind a single season of fictional players in the stats. Once that first year is done, you can either retire those players and have the game import enough real historical rookies to fill all the rosters again. (after that, adjust the number of rounds/players imported to fewer rounds, so you don''t keep pulling in a ton of new rookies each year); or just let those fictional players live out their careers. If you set the min/max age for fictional players like I mentioned above, they'll retire in a few years anyway.

(and as was pointed out in the other thread I posted in: You might also want to go to League Settings -> Rules -> Amateur Draft Settings and check Disable Creation of Free Agents; to avoid fictional free agents from showing up).

i've been thinking about trying something along these lines for a while, but wasn't certain what i needed to do to get started. This is a great post for me, as it gives me some ideas and specifics when i get ready to try it. Thank-you.

[sprague]

Originally Posted by mitchkenn

i've been thinking about trying something along these lines for a while, but wasn't certain what i needed to do to get started. This is a great post for me, as it gives me some ideas and specifics when i get ready to try it. Thank-you.

I agree this is a great idea. Gonna give this a shot myself.
Thanks jason