Coming back to OOTP after awhile, need some help!

[voorhees_13]

I'm coming back to OOTP after playing 15 and not really enjoying it but with 18 I figured I want to get to know baseball a little better, and I don't know if I should pick just GM or Manager + GM. I did a test run as the Angels as just GM and I started losing a lot of games, I really want to learn everything regarding lineups and things like that, what should I do and do ya'll have any tips?

Pretty much what I need help with are:

How to decide the linups vs RHP/LHP and RHP w/DH and LHP w/DH

How to decide pitching

Managing callups/how to decide who to call up in case of injury

Hiring Personnel

Scouting

Setting strategies/how to decide strategies

I really want to learn this game because I've kind of been interested in baseball again recently and have watched in the past but still don't know too much about the grand scheme of things.

[eriqjaffe]

I would recommend starting relatively simple - maybe start by basically just managing and letting the AI take care of a lot of the administrative stuff so you can focus on in-game strategy (you can do this by delegating tasks to the AI). See what the AI likes to do to get a general feel for strategy and slowly start "un-delegating" tasks.

[NoOne]

turn off all the fog of war stuff for a season or 2. soucting accuracy - 100% etc.

turn off coaching model and personality etc.. (layers of sophistication to provide more variation etc)

that stuff is awesome and i'd recommend using it, but to learn the game better, start with the facts, then add the fog and volatility later when you have a solid baseline of what works well in your particular game world.

as far as gm or coach -- that's all about enjoyment.

i do a hybrid. i am gm-only, but i make a coach with my name, because i want to retire like a normal coach and Name II takes his place. so, don't feel restricted in anyway... play how you want to do it - any way possible if the settings aren't quite cookie cutter for that situation.

gm-legacy mode (global settings) will allow a gm-only to control things you normally can lose control of to controlling/high rep coaches. this setting is necessary for my way of doing things. or, i'd have to edit my coach strategy sliders as needed.. but, very little i could do if i disagreed with linup or pitching staff setup, wihtout it.

[NoOne]

turn off all the fog of war stuff for a season or 2. soucting accuracy - 100% etc.

turn off coaching model and personality etc.. (layers of sophistication to provide more variation etc)

that stuff is awesome and i'd recommend using it, but to learn the game better, start with the facts, then add the fog and volatility later when you have a solid baseline of what works well in your particular game world.

as far as gm or coach -- that's all about enjoyment.

i do a hybrid. i am gm-only, but i make a coach with my name, because i want to retire like a normal coach and Name II takes his place. so, don't feel restricted in anyway... play how you want to do it - any way possible if the settings aren't quite cookie cutter for that situation.

gm-legacy mode (global settings) will allow a gm-only to control things you normally can lose control of to controlling/high rep coaches. this setting is necessary for my way of doing things. or, i'd have to edit my coach strategy sliders as needed.. but, very little i could do if i disagreed with linup or pitching staff setup, wihtout it.

almost all these questions you ask depend alot on the environment you play it... ~2000hr/year vs ~5000hr/year is a totally different animal in regard to which pitchers/batters benefit the most or are hurt the least by the differences. if i give any opinion it's more about a modern environment with ~5000+ hr a year.

How to decide the linups vs RHP/LHP and RHP w/DH and LHP w/DH
there's a ton of debates in forums and a simple goolgle search will do wonders for idea: "mlb batting order xxxx"

How to decide pitching
again, lots of debate. SP need to be more rounded. i have minimums of movement and control that i won't often go below. ~60/100 move and 50-60/100 control for SP. RP i want velo and higher stuff (~100% scale or higher for a great setup/closer) with higher movement than an SP, in general.

with pitchers, the ratings ar enot as cut and dry as they are with batters. the same movement in profile may result in different hr/9 values for different pitchers... so many factors combine together etc... not jsut Stuff" but also which pitches do they have? some result in more hr than others, some are ball in play pitches vs strikeout pitches etc etc... which is best for your league is very difficult to predict without a TON of info that we won't get into here.


Managing callups/how to decide who to call up in case of injury
just be smart about it. you don't always want to call up the hot-shot prospect for a fill in... i reserve that for only situation where that player is ready to be in the mlb... i do not want to start the service time clock if i don'thave to... that mil contract becomes 500k/year in addition to starting their clock, too. if i intend to call them up this year or next, i won't mind a 5-10 day stint and 500k extra on payroll.

injury replacements are rarely 'good'... if they were good, they'd be on a 25-man roster somewhere. other great alternatives -- if you intend to trade that player or they are not part of your plans, use as needed... who cares if you add 30days to a clock on a player you traded/released next offseason or they are lost to rule 5 or whatever the cause.

Hiring Personnel
crapshoot. reputation has virtually zero correlation to the coaches ratings being.. well anything. total fog of war. good luck. i cheat and i look at their ratings under the hood :P ... at this point i think the most important thing is that their strategy sliders are not too crazy. so, if you don't cheat, focus on those.

Scouting
profit gets you nothing.. spend, spend, spend. no int'l leagues operating? then, zero out international scouting. that will give more money for the other three. if drafting high, maybe put more money into amatuer scouting that year... if drafting 30th, maybe dump it into mil scouting for trading purposes... try to think ahead... if in that year you know you will definitely focus on 1 more than the others, redistribution of funds is a GREAT idea.

mlb scouting is important. it helps your manager make the 'best' decisions based on their sliders.. the more accurate the socuting, the more likely they pick out the best break-even point based on probabilities / strategy preferences.

if you do use the 100% accurate suggestion for a bit, you'll also pick up on how these scouting budgets work. you will have a besline of accuracy as a known... the differences you see in after you change to inaccurate scouting in future wil be mostly related to your budgets. how bad is it as 2M compared to 100% accuracy? pop in editor with comissioner mode on and scan through a list sorted by portential... you'll see X/100 bad players at top, or wherever... that ratio of inaccuracy reduces as you spend more.


Setting strategies/how to decide strategies

i like fairly conservative and conventional. i do deviate, i'm sure, since i don't know exactly what those thigns are, lol. i'd google things you aren't super familiar with.. like playing the infield in, vs corners in etc...statistical environment will be huge, so anythign i say here could be really wrong for you. so, i'm avoiding specifics.

there's overall team strategy and then there is per player individual strategy. if tehy "adjust to team" it will be relative to your team's overall strategy slider.

e.g. if your manager is 12/20 (2 clicks up) aggressive on stealing, then the player's slider will adjust from there.

i adjsut each position players to their ability, and relative to my overall team sliders. i definitely make plodders more conservative in baserunning.. my coach is 1 tick up from 1/2 on baserunning aggressiveness. so i think of that is the "middle" when i adjust a individual player's slider for baserunning.

a plodder i go 2 ticks down from 10/20 on baserunning slider... if they are 1/100 speed/baserunning ability i may go down to just 1 tick up from zero.

i regularly reduce stealing on any player who cannot maintain a high %. sometimes it takes a few years to see it, even if well-rated. seen a guy do 40/20caught for first 2-3 years then consistently 50/10 the rest of their careers. so, be a bit more forgiving for the young/inexperienced player, or bump it up as they age.

in my experience, they will get a certain # of steals as long as you don't reduce it too far below half aggressive. the slider will reduce how often they are "caught" upto the point it starts to reduce the # of average steals in a year. same with increasing it... when i increse i am looking for a downturn in %. if it remains high, it's a good change. if it reduces they %success i drop it back.

sometimes a click up on stealing will actually improve they %success. reducing it will sometimes increase their % failure... so, if i can't get a guy at my threshold for acceptable, i reduce them to zero - not matter what their ratings say, assuming enough track record


* play the right way, if at all possible. learn any way possible... ie use comissioner mode, use 100% accuracy scouting as needed, but only initially... cut it off at some point and only play with the rules/settings as you wanted. couple seasons? and you don't have to 'care' much about it since you'll throw it out in short order.