Standard game setup - addl' leagues?

[rng9598]

Hi all - what addl' leagues do you choose when setting up a standard game? I think I had read once that the more leagues you choose, the longer it takes to build the initial season and also takes a bit longer to sim each day (since the other leagues need to sim games, etc). Are there any "must-have" leagues to choose w/o bogging things down? I was going to choose just the KBO and perhaps the US Independent Leagues.

[Big Phesta]

its ootp. do WHATEVER you want! then make a new league and do something new. then repeat

[American_Ernesider]

Originally Posted by Big Phesta

its ootp. do WHATEVER you want! then make a new league and do something new. then repeat

I often find that the only thing preventing me from really enjoying OOTP is me!

[DaBears]

I typically add US indy leagues, Japan (with minor) and KBO. Then turn off all established free agents coming in and free agents from indy leagues. Seems to work well - and balances the speed issue with depth.

[rng9598]

Originally Posted by DaBears

I typically add US indy leagues, Japan (with minor) and KBO. Then turn off all established free agents coming in and free agents from indy leagues. Seems to work well - and balances the speed issue with depth.

Do you turn off the incoming established free agents and free agents from indy leagues after creating the league? I don't see that option as I'm selecting the addl' leagues.

[BBGiovanni]

Originally Posted by rng9598

Hi all - what addl' leagues do you choose when setting up a standard game? I think I had read once that the more leagues you choose, the longer it takes to build the initial season and also takes a bit longer to sim each day (since the other leagues need to sim games, etc). Are there any "must-have" leagues to choose w/o bogging things down? I was going to choose just the KBO and perhaps the US Independent Leagues.

To phrase the response less rudely, this will depend on your machine/operating system in large part. And how much space you have for storage and how much data you want. Almanacs in particular are huuuuuuuuuuuuge! I usually set international leagues that I just want for background/color to "normal" or lower data detail (league "Stats and AI" tab).



If you have any concerns, I'd suggest you leave out the US and Japanese independent leagues and see how that goes. Or, if you have to have all the guys in the Pecos League, add the US indy leagues and leave out the international leagues.


In my MLB games lately I usually add all the Latin American and Asian leagues plus Italy and the Netherlands alongside the US independents. My game is slow, but I run on an older Win7 machine and it works fine.

[BBGiovanni]

Originally Posted by rng9598

Do you turn off the incoming established free agents and free agents from indy leagues after creating the league? I don't see that option as I'm selecting the addl' leagues.

You can, and I think as long as you don't advance a day before doing so you can wall everyone off that you don't want. I'm not sure the point of that though, if you don't want players going to those leagues and vice versa you should just leave them out and use the international free agents settings to generate a few to mimic real leagues.

[ALB123]

For people who add additional leagues...

If you don't want Japanese or Indy League baseball players moving to the MLB via Free Agency or whatever, what is the point of having the leagues in the first place? Do you just like to look at the other leagues Stats & progression, or something like that?

My Universe has the MLB, of course, ***, KBO, MEX & two fictional US Indy leagues I created. I would like there to be activity between the leagues, however, I don't want ***, KBO or MEX players flood the MLB so I disable trades between the MLB and any other league. However, I do allow Asian & Mexican league players to leave their league as Free Agents, if they're wanted by an MLB club. I also enable the Posting System and I allow MLB clubs to outright purchase players from those leagues - I set the amount very high, again, so MLB teams aren't just buying every good foreign league player.

For some reason, I still don't think I'm doing things right. At least, not doing the way I envision them in my tiny brain.

I can't remember exactly who, but a forum user explained to me several months ago that things like the Indy Leagues (or even overseas leagues) can often be a place for that struggling 2-Star Low-A Class player you've cut (because you can't promote him without hurting your High-A team) to go and continue playing baseball instead of retiring. Maybe he finally starts developing while playing in an Indy or Korean league exactly as you hoped he would when you had him and now you or some other MLB GM might picking him up as a AA or AAA organizational player, or maybe even an MLB position if he really continues to shine...

That is precisely how I hope my additional leagues work in addition to their main function of developing their own talent for their fan's enjoyment and might fit on an MLB team some day...

Does anyone else create Additional Leagues with those goals in mind? If so, do you have any tips on settings for the other leagues?

Finally, I was warned when I first started playing OOTP 7 months ago not to bother with adding Feeder Leagues, like High School & College leagues. I can't remember exactly why they suggested I stay away from them - I was so new and everything was kind of overwhelming at the time. What are people's thoughts on High School & College Leagues?

[BBGiovanni]

Originally Posted by ALB123

For people who add additional leagues...
If you don't want Japanese or Indy League baseball players moving to the MLB via Free Agency or whatever, what is the point of having the leagues in the first place? Do you just like to look at the other leagues Stats & progression, or something like that?

Yep, that seems to add to sim times and file size for no reason. But, I guess you might want to see what happens to *** if left alone? We'll see what others say I guess.

Originally Posted by ALB123

I disable trades between the MLB and any other league. However, I do allow Asian & Mexican league players to leave their league as Free Agents, if they're wanted by an MLB club. I also enable the Posting System and I allow MLB clubs to outright purchase players from those leagues - I set the amount very high, again, so MLB teams aren't just buying every good foreign league player.

Makes sense to me, I have always heard that trades between major leagues are goofy (hard for the AI to value?) so I've always turned them off. Once I accidentally set the *** to allow trades with MLB and all of a sudden all the *** teams started peddling their best guys to my rivals, it was quite annoying.

Originally Posted by ALB123

I can't remember exactly who, but a forum user explained to me several months ago that things like the Indy Leagues (or even overseas leagues) can often be a place for that struggling 2-Star Low-A Class player you've cut (because you can't promote him without hurting your High-A team) to go and continue playing baseball instead of retiring. Maybe he finally starts developing while playing in an Indy or Korean league exactly as you hoped he would when you had him and now you or some other MLB GM might picking him up as a AA or AAA organizational player, or maybe even an MLB position if he really continues to shine...

Well that's what the Indy League people say in real life, so I hope so! I also like the old broken down slugger going to be Jose Canseco with the San Diego Surf Dogs

Originally Posted by ALB123

Does anyone else create Additional Leagues with those goals in mind? If so, do you have any tips on settings for the other leagues?

I don't care much about the indy leagues, and IRL there is huge turnover/upheaval every year in league membership, so just to compact the league list and clean up stats I often combine them into one league. I also use them sometimes to fill in minor leagues after expansion, faster to affiliate Pecos League teams than to sign a bunch of filler scrub free agents. Also, sometimes if I do an ABA/AFL/WHA style maverick pro league I'll just affiliate them as minor teams to the new major league.

Originally Posted by ALB123

Finally, I was warned when I first started playing OOTP 7 months ago not to bother with adding Feeder Leagues, like High School & College leagues. I can't remember exactly why they suggested I stay away from them - I was so new and everything was kind of overwhelming at the time. What are people's thoughts on High School & College Leagues?

Funny you ask that as I was just thinking about feeders the other day and considering adding them to an MLB setup. I was wondering if things have improved beyond where they were in v14-16 the last time I messed with them. I recall a couple of things, one to do with player ages and one with prospect skills. I don't recall the age problem, but it had to do with HS/college players coming out at the wrong ages. Maybe the college players stayed in too long? I forget.


The other problem was in talent bloat, IIRC feeders over time cranked out too many good players (maybe just relievers?). I don't know how that works nowadays, and no one seems to discuss feeder leagues on the boards much so I wonder if people have sort of gone away from them generally. Now that the game by default assigns players colleges/high schools, that's close enough for me. Stats-only folks must use them though, otherwise what stats would they use to draft?

[DaBears]

My understanding has always been that the bottom two boxes on the Game Settings - League Settings - Players page are to generate international free agents and free agents from indy leagues IN ADDITION to the ones the game might have from the leagues you are running within your OOTP universe. I don't want that. Those players have no stats, and thus rely on the AI system to generate ratings, projections, etc. I prefer to only have players that have been in OOTP for a while move into my system. Almost no one on here, for all the wonderful things about OOTP, believes that the AI is its strongest aspect. For me, my two goals in the way I set up the game are i) keep things as simple as possible for the AI (no rainouts - he doesn't have to handle doubleheaders/pitching staff issues; no limits on lower level rosters - doesn't have to decide to who to keep/cut). By only allowing international free agents who have a track record in the game, I get a better feel for what a player is from their stats rather than investing millions into a player based solely on the AI's ratings. With indy leagues, I'm not sure why you would have those and ALSO have game-created free agents from indy, unless you just don't feel you have enough players. I play games out so don't have to worry about a universe 80 years from now. Maybe it's an issue with longer-term leagues, but I'll probably never get more than 10-20 years into a league.

[ALB123]

Originally Posted by BBGiovanni

Funny you ask that as I was just thinking about feeders the other day and considering adding them to an MLB setup. I was wondering if things have improved beyond where they were in v14-16 the last time I messed with them. I recall a couple of things, one to do with player ages and one with prospect skills. I don't recall the age problem, but it had to do with HS/college players coming out at the wrong ages. Maybe the college players stayed in too long? I forget.


The other problem was in talent bloat, IIRC feeders over time cranked out too many good players (maybe just relievers?). I don't know how that works nowadays, and no one seems to discuss feeder leagues on the boards much so I wonder if people have sort of gone away from them generally. Now that the game by default assigns players colleges/high schools, that's close enough for me. Stats-only folks must use them though, otherwise what stats would they use to draft?

The thing that really interested me about HS & College Feeder Leagues was having full school statistics available. I don't know why, but that seems so cool to me.

One thing that really bothers me about brand new, fictional League Creation is how you can only have 2 sub-leagues. You can have a gazillion Divisions & Teams, but only 2 sub-leagues, like American League & National League. Why can't we have more? What I really wanted was to create leagues and divisions like MLB in the 80s. But, I wanted 4, not just 2 like the MLB - American League Red, American League Blue, National League Red, National League Blue. So, there would be 2 World Series type of championships (AL Red vs NL Red & AL Blue vs. NL Blue) and then the big grandaddy Championship. They;d be called something different, but that's the general idea.

I don't see why that's not allowed.

[PSUColonel]

I would suggest US Indy, Japan majors, minors and Indy, KBO and future league.

Then turn off generated Indy players and reduce IEFA to 5 generated players only coming from Mexico, Cuba and Taiwan.