Ready to start a long-term save

[Paul Reuschel's Mustache]

...

[uruguru]

Originally Posted by Paul Reuschel's Mustache

I've used the past few weeks to set up and fine tune my baseball universe (MLB, MiLB, 27 international, 7 independent leagues) from Australia to Venezuela.

As a result, I've learned more about OOTP (and baseball across the world) than I ever imagined.

What an amazing product this is!

There are a few wrinkles that the next patch will (hopefully) iron out.

If the feedback on the patch is positive, I will start my long-term save.

As someone who has relatively recently discovered OOTP, I have to say that I am eternally grateful to Markus and the Team for this program.

Here's my advice to new players starting a long-term save. Once you have the save ready to start. All of the options set. all of the teams set, etc.

1. BACKUP THE SAVE.

2. Just for giggles, auto-sim a full season. This doesn't count. It's just a test. Examine the results closely. Do rosters look good? Did every team have appropriate backups? Were injuries looking reasonable? If you see something that needs adjusting, reload your backup and make the necessary changes. THEN GO BACK TO STEP 1.

3. Once you make it past step 2, then do another test sim, but maybe go 5-10 seasons out. How are the league leaders looking? What are team finances like? Too many or not enough trades? Is there some 47 year old guy who's still playing at a high level? How are the younger players developing? If there was an expansion, how did the draft go? If you see something that needs adjusting, reload your backup and make the necessary changes. THEN GO BACK TO STEP 1.

4. Start your long-term save.

I really understand that you will be super-excited to go right to step 4 and ignore all of this boring advice. But after sinking a few hundred hours into your saves and constantly restarting, you'll might come back and think, wow I should have listened to that guy who has blown thousands and thousands of hours into this game!

OOTP is an incredibly addictive game, but it's still a sandbox and there is nothing as soul-crushing as getting really invested in a long-term save only to find out in the 6th season that, holy ****, I can't believe I forgot to do this one thing that has sort of crippled my save and now I have to start over.

[Paul Reuschel's Mustache]

Originally Posted by uruguru

Here's my advice to new players starting a long-term save. Once you have the save ready to start. All of the options set. all of the teams set, etc.

1. BACKUP THE SAVE.

2. Just for giggles, auto-sim a full season. This doesn't count. It's just a test. Examine the results closely. Do rosters look good? Did every team have appropriate backups? Were injuries looking reasonable? If you see something that needs adjusting, reload your backup and make the necessary changes. THEN GO BACK TO STEP 1.

3. Once you make it past step 2, then do another test sim, but maybe go 5-10 seasons out. How are the league leaders looking? What are team finances like? Too many or not enough trades? Is there some 47 year old guy who's still playing at a high level? How are the younger players developing? If there was an expansion, how did the draft go? If you see something that needs adjusting, reload your backup and make the necessary changes. THEN GO BACK TO STEP 1.

4. Start your long-term save.

I really understand that you will be super-excited to go right to step 4 and ignore all of this boring advice. But after sinking a few hundred hours into your saves and constantly restarting, you'll might come back and think, wow I should have listened to that guy who has blown thousands and thousands of hours into this game!

OOTP is an incredibly addictive game, but it's still a sandbox and there is nothing as soul-crushing as getting really invested in a long-term save only to find out in the 6th season that, holy ****, I can't believe I forgot to do this one thing that has sort of crippled my save and now I have to start over.

Great advice - thanks!

[Bball_chick]

I'm waiting for one more save before I start my official dynasty as well, hopefully it'll be up soooooooooon

[cawinegarden]

Thx for the good advice. I am a newbie and still haven't played much yet with OOTP (I have 23, and plan to buy 25 this summer when it goes on sale). I just have felt so overwhelmed with the complexities of it all.

[cavebutter]

Seconding @uruguru's advice. Fine-tune many times before you you start for real.
Make sure that your "Allow trades with other major leagues" is set to the way you want it. (It no longer works at game creation, you have to go in once the universe is started and adjust it from league settings.

Make sure your "Allow foreign player limit" is set the way you want it for all leagues. Pay attention to whether it is set to League nation or team nation.

Make sure your logos and colors are set up the way you like it for your backup.

I usually go 20 years before I start for real to see about career records. Does your all time hits leader only have 2200 hits? Tweak something.

There are so many things to check!

[OzzieFan]

Originally Posted by cavebutter

Seconding @uruguru's advice. Fine-tune many times before you you start for real.
Make sure that your "Allow trades with other major leagues" is set to the way you want it. (It no longer works at game creation, you have to go in once the universe is started and adjust it from league settings.

Make sure your "Allow foreign player limit" is set the way you want it for all leagues. Pay attention to whether it is set to League nation or team nation.

Make sure your logos and colors are set up the way you like it for your backup.

I usually go 20 years before I start for real to see about career records. Does your all time hits leader only have 2200 hits? Tweak something.

There are so many things to check!

Okay so maybe it's me, but I think for a normal MLB setup the settings should be pre-tweaked to get realistic results.

[ayaghmour2]

Originally Posted by uruguru

Here's my advice to new players starting a long-term save. Once you have the save ready to start. All of the options set. all of the teams set, etc.

1. BACKUP THE SAVE.

2. Just for giggles, auto-sim a full season. This doesn't count. It's just a test. Examine the results closely. Do rosters look good? Did every team have appropriate backups? Were injuries looking reasonable? If you see something that needs adjusting, reload your backup and make the necessary changes. THEN GO BACK TO STEP 1.

3. Once you make it past step 2, then do another test sim, but maybe go 5-10 seasons out. How are the league leaders looking? What are team finances like? Too many or not enough trades? Is there some 47 year old guy who's still playing at a high level? How are the younger players developing? If there was an expansion, how did the draft go? If you see something that needs adjusting, reload your backup and make the necessary changes. THEN GO BACK TO STEP 1.

4. Start your long-term save.

I really understand that you will be super-excited to go right to step 4 and ignore all of this boring advice. But after sinking a few hundred hours into your saves and constantly restarting, you'll might come back and think, wow I should have listened to that guy who has blown thousands and thousands of hours into this game!

OOTP is an incredibly addictive game, but it's still a sandbox and there is nothing as soul-crushing as getting really invested in a long-term save only to find out in the 6th season that, holy ****, I can't believe I forgot to do this one thing that has sort of crippled my save and now I have to start over.

This is excellent advise. Maybe worth a post of its own? With how many settings there are its easy to not notice one random thing that went wrong until its too late

[PSUColonel]

Originally Posted by OzzieFan

Okay so maybe it's me, but I think for a normal MLB setup the settings should be pre-tweaked to get realistic results.

The problem here is that the development team is no longer supporting most international leagues.

[Reed]

Originally Posted by uruguru

Here's my advice to new players starting a long-term save. Once you have the save ready to start. All of the options set. all of the teams set, etc.

1. BACKUP THE SAVE.

2. Just for giggles, auto-sim a full season. This doesn't count. It's just a test. Examine the results closely. Do rosters look good? Did every team have appropriate backups? Were injuries looking reasonable? If you see something that needs adjusting, reload your backup and make the necessary changes. THEN GO BACK TO STEP 1.

3. Once you make it past step 2, then do another test sim, but maybe go 5-10 seasons out. How are the league leaders looking? What are team finances like? Too many or not enough trades? Is there some 47 year old guy who's still playing at a high level? How are the younger players developing? If there was an expansion, how did the draft go? If you see something that needs adjusting, reload your backup and make the necessary changes. THEN GO BACK TO STEP 1.

4. Start your long-term save.

I really understand that you will be super-excited to go right to step 4 and ignore all of this boring advice. But after sinking a few hundred hours into your saves and constantly restarting, you'll might come back and think, wow I should have listened to that guy who has blown thousands and thousands of hours into this game!

OOTP is an incredibly addictive game, but it's still a sandbox and there is nothing as soul-crushing as getting really invested in a long-term save only to find out in the 6th season that, holy ****, I can't believe I forgot to do this one thing that has sort of crippled my save and now I have to start over.

Excellent advice and have been doing this for several years. The only thing I do different is fast sim 20 years once I think I have settings that look really good.

[Ty Cobb]

Originally Posted by PSUColonel

The problem here is that the development team is no longer supporting most international leagues.

Most people, including the Dev Team, don't enjoy getting sued for licensing violations. As you become increasingly successful, that sort of thing starts appearing.