Setting up fictional league

[markprior22]

I've never understood why it has to be so confusing (for me anyway) to mimic stats/finances from a selected MLB year in a fictional league. I've messed with recalc and other settings but it never works out like I want it to. Why can't it be as simple as

1-pick season to use as stat base
2-pick season to use as financial base

Done. Why can't the league just continue with these general settings year after year without having to recalc, mess with PCM'S, etc? I'm sure there are people out there who want a league that changes over time...I guess that's where all the other settings come into play. For someone that just wants to keep the same general stats/finances, it seems like it should be very simple.

[rdomico]

100% agree

[Scipio Africanus]

It's not too hard to do this. For financials, set inflation at 0% and turn off the Option Tab checkmark that says Import Adjusted Financials Settings After Each year.

For stats, check the first two boxes under the League Totals (Lock League Total Stats and Automatically Adjust for Accuracy).

My fictional league runs every year with each team having $100,000 to spend (player salaries range from $800 to $10,000). For stats, it's forever 1980. Once it's set up correctly it never has to be messed with again.

[krownroyal83]

Originally Posted by Scipio Africanus

It's not too hard to do this. For financials, set inflation at 0% and turn off the Option Tab checkmark that says Import Adjusted Financials Settings After Each year.

For stats, check the first two boxes under the League Totals (Lock League Total Stats and Automatically Adjust for Accuracy).

My fictional league runs every year with each team having $100,000 to spend (player salaries range from $800 to $10,000). For stats, it's forever 1980. Once it's set up correctly it never has to be messed with again.

So Lock League Total Stats and Automatically Adjust for Accuracy works for you? Your stats stay within the defined range for the most part? I know I didn't hear good things about it years ago so I assume it works how it's intended now. I know it's automatic but is there a date that the game will adjust the league total modifiers? Right now I just use auto calc in the preseason because I'm scared of messing up my league stats if I use anything else

[Scipio Africanus]

The stats are adjusted on the first day of the regular season. You can see the notification at the top of the screen just before it calculates the Season Predictions.

And yes, the stats stay within a reasonable (to me anyway) range, Id' say usually within 5-10% of the 1980 historical numbers. I do have outlier years where the stats are a bit further off but I attribute that to my seasons only being 54 games long. I'm sure if I played 162 games the stats would be even closer and the outlier years would probably go away.

Autocalc works fine too but not if I forget to use it before the season starts. <g>

[Rain King]

Originally Posted by krownroyal83

Right now I just use auto calc in the preseason because I'm scared of messing up my league stats if I use anything else

I think this is your issue. That is not when you want to run auto calc because the major league rosters/lineups are not setup at that point.

Running it on Opening Day once the rosters are set is the key.

Auto-Calc works by auto-simming the season a number of times using the current lineups and adjusting based on the totals from those sims.

There will always be a little fluctuation still as your league is going to have injuries, players ratings changing etc...but this has always worked really well for me.

[Scipio Africanus]

Running Auto-calc on opening day is essentially the same as having "Automatically Adjust for Accuracy" checked, correct? Just two different ways (one manual, one automatic) of doing the same thing?

[krownroyal83]

Originally Posted by Rain King

I think this is your issue. That is not when you want to run auto calc because the major league rosters/lineups are not setup at that point.

Running it on Opening Day once the rosters are set is the key.

Auto-Calc works by auto-simming the season a number of times using the current lineups and adjusting based on the totals from those sims.

There will always be a little fluctuation still as your league is going to have injuries, players ratings changing etc...but this has always worked really well for me.

I misspoke. I do run it on opening day. I used to do it the day before until I realized I could do it on opening day. I also do a free agent draft the day before opening day because I was tired of seeing too many good players not signing until a month into the season.

The whole league modifier thing has always been a bit confusing to me. I kind of wish it was a bit more simplified but I got it right where I want it now so without doing some tests I'll just keep hitting auto calc on opening day.

[krownroyal83]

Originally Posted by Scipio Africanus

Running Auto-calc on opening day is essentially the same as having "Automatically Adjust for Accuracy" checked, correct? Just two different ways (one manual, one automatic) of doing the same thing?

This is what I'm wondering. If it is, then it's just easier to do it your way, I just want to make sure that it works the way that it should.

[pauwoo]

Originally Posted by Scipio Africanus

My fictional league runs every year with each team having $100,000 to spend (player salaries range from $800 to $10,000). For stats, it's forever 1980. Once it's set up correctly it never has to be messed with again.

How do you manage this bit? Manual intervention on a yearly basis?

[Scipio Africanus]

No, it runs all on its own after it's set up. My Financials screens are below -- click on them to enlarge. I set the league up using these numbers, simmed it forward 20 years to let all the contract stuff sort itself out, then erased the whole league history.

Note that some of these numbers only apply to my league, like the days of service time, etc. I should also note that, because of the Luxury Tax, most years some teams will end up with, say, $102,000 instead of $100,000. Close enough.

[greg54]

Why do you delete history after simming the first 20 seasons?

[sharknut]

....this is proving that's it's difficult to set up.

[Scipio Africanus]

Originally Posted by greg54

Why do you delete history after simming the first 20 seasons?

I like to start with a clean slate -- no individual or team records.

[Scipio Africanus]

Originally Posted by sharknut

....this is proving that's it's difficult to set up.

I'd love to have a simpler system to set up my league but, realistically, the number of people who want to play this way is tiny. There's not much upside for OOTP to spend a time making it simple.

[Mat]

Originally Posted by Scipio Africanus

Running Auto-calc on opening day is essentially the same as having "Automatically Adjust for Accuracy" checked, correct? Just two different ways (one manual, one automatic) of doing the same thing?

This is correct.

You use one method or the other.

[6-4-3]

Originally Posted by Scipio Africanus

I'd love to have a simpler system to set up my league but, realistically, the number of people who want to play this way is tiny. There's not much upside for OOTP to spend a time making it simple.

I play the same way you do.... have done it this way for years. I do not enjoy playing with real players because... well... sometimes they don't come out seeming real when you know them too well and the game does not. This way there are no preconceived notions about who is good or bad or injury prone... there may be a few more of us out there than you think.

[6-4-3]

Originally Posted by 6-4-3

I play the same way you do.... have done it this way for years. I do not enjoy playing with real players because... well... sometimes they don't come out seeming real when you know them too well and the game does not. This way there are no preconceived notions about who is good or bad or injury prone... there may be a few more of us out there than you think.

Oh forgot to mention... my join date on my ID says 2019... but I have been playing since the memorable 2006 version. I lost my forum ID at some point and I dont post often... but I have always played the same way... fictional with locked stats.

[pauwoo]

@Scipio Africanus - thanks for sharing your financial settings!

[JerryShoe]

I want to run a similar project (although with the year 1985) with historical players from 1951 on, but coming across a problem I thought was solved. Even though I have development off and stats locked, batting ratings take sharp declines, as in Richie Ashburn and Jackie Robinson ending the season rated as average or even slow-ish runners even though they are 100% rested. I once had it solved but it re-emerged after restoring a backup and not sure which "switch" got turned back on (or un-turned off?). Any suggestions to keep fast runners fast? Thanks!