Player Development Model

[macprivateer]

I have a questions on the player development model, which I can't seem to figure out from reading the manual.


And this question is for Historical game plays.


IF the player development model is disabled, then does that mean that real stats will be the only and exclusive means to determine ratings and (more importantly) the mechanics of the game engine? Or is there some "hard coded" effects that will adjust players.


So in other words, and pardon the simplicity of saying it this way but...if a player was say a .280 hitter in year 1, then a .320 hitter in year 2 and then a .240 hitter in year 3, by turning off the development model, is there more of likely chance the players in game stats follow that "pattern", so a big drop off in year 3? And yes, I understand that randomness will ALWAYS alter or influence future play. Just hoping to minimize randomness and get closer to what really happened in history.

[Charlie Hough]

Originally Posted by macprivateer

IF the player development model is disabled, then does that mean that real stats will be the only and exclusive means to determine ratings and (more importantly) the mechanics of the game engine?

Yes. With development turned off, only real life stats in the database will determine player ratings and ultimately their performance.

For players who had major fluctuations in their statistics from season to season, their ratings and performance also depend on your recalculation settings. By default, the game will use a 3-year calculation period based on the previous season, current season, and next season in the player's real life statistics. But you can change this to 1 year or 5 years, for example.

A 1-year recalculation means players should perform pretty closely to their stats for that season, within statistical probabilities of course. But a 3-year recalculation is commonly used to smooth out anomaly seasons and extreme differences from year to year.

As you learn the game, it's also helpful to understand that OOTP is different from every other baseball sim in that it uses league statistical totals as the prime driver of overall statistical outcomes. It does not use individual player ratings or stats to drive everything like other games do.

The best way to think of it is that OOTP takes the total number of home runs hit in a given season and then divides that among all the players in the league according to their power ratings. Results are still based on individually simulated games, but ultimately there's a top-down effect from these league totals, and it drives the eventual statistical outcomes.

The same thing applies to all league total statistics in every category.

This is what allows OOTP to generate realistic results for given historical conditions and seasons. For example, if you put George Foster or Dave Parker in the deadball era, they are not going to hit 35 home runs. They will have high power ratings and will be among the league leaders in home runs, but their home run totals will be similar to the league leaders for that given year in the deadball era.

[macprivateer]

Originally Posted by Charlie Hough

As you learn the game, it's also helpful to understand that OOTP is different from every other baseball sim in that it uses league statistical totals as the prime driver of overall statistical outcomes. It does not use individual player ratings or stats to drive everything like other games do.

The best way to think of it is that OOTP takes the total number of home runs hit in a given season and then divides that among all the players in the league according to their power ratings. Results are still based on individually simulated games, but ultimately there's a top-down effect from these league totals, and it drives the eventual statistical outcomes.

Wow, thank you so much for such a thorough explanation. Makes complete sense to me and helps a lot as I set up my historical sim.


One follow up question, I see in the manual it talks about using both checkboxes for (1) "Automatically adjust league totals modifiers for historical accuracy" and (2) "Lock league total stats".


So by doing this (if I understand this correctly), each year will then be based on the total stats for that year (say as I move from 1976 to 1977 to 1978) and those year's stats will be used for the calculations you mention filtering down to each player's "share" of those total league stats. Is that about right?

[Charlie Hough]

Yes, you are right, but only about the first option. The two settings should be mutually exclusive.

You use "lock league totals" when you want to keep using your current historical season's league totals as the basis for every season of your league.

If you choose to automatically adjust league total modifiers for historical accuracy, "OOTP automatically adjusts league totals after each season, based on the actual league totals in the upcoming year. This will result in your historical league producing league totals very similar to actual historical totals from that year."

In other words, automatically adjusting league total modifiers will have your league evolve statistically much like the real life MLB did in each season.

No matter which of these options you choose, you are correct that it will all filter down to each player's theoretical "share" of those totals and how the game will generate statistical results. There is statistical variation of course, but that's the overall effect.