Please Point Me in the Right Direction - Newbie

[grtwhtsk368]

I'm looking to start my first ever game tonight and would like to go with playing a season of my favorite team. As I'm sure this has been asked a bunch of times through the years, can someone either point me please to a thread on what I should be choosing to set up the game? There are so many settings, I'm honestly overwhelmed, but I'm so excited to get this going.

If not a thread, can you please walk me through the setup? As an example, let's say I want to be the 1977 Yankees. How do I set up from start to finish so I can play each game as both Manager and GM?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

[jksander]

Originally Posted by grtwhtsk368

I'm looking to start my first ever game tonight and would like to go with playing a season of my favorite team. As I'm sure this has been asked a bunch of times through the years, can someone either point me please to a thread on what I should be choosing to set up the game? There are so many settings, I'm honestly overwhelmed, but I'm so excited to get this going.

If not a thread, can you please walk me through the setup? As an example, let's say I want to be the 1977 Yankees. How do I set up from start to finish so I can play each game as both Manager and GM?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

I honestly would start with New Standard Game, which will give you a default setup. If you have specific questions about a certain aspect of the setup, feel free to ask, I know there is a lot to it. But that's the fun of trying a bunch of setups until you see what you really like. Worst case you can always change a setting you don't like by getting into commissioner mode and fixing it later.

[grtwhtsk368]

Originally Posted by jksander

I honestly would start with New Standard Game, which will give you a default setup. If you have specific questions about a certain aspect of the setup, feel free to ask, I know there is a lot to it. But that's the fun of trying a bunch of setups until you see what you really like. Worst case you can always change a setting you don't like by getting into commissioner mode and fixing it later.

Isn't there a Historical Setup tool or am I getting this confused with another game? I thought there was one and was wondering how to get there, settings to use, and any helpful tips/setups that are most realistic.

Thank you again!

[jksander]

Originally Posted by grtwhtsk368

Isn't there a Historical Setup tool or am I getting this confused with another game? I thought there was one and was wondering how to get there, settings to use, and any helpful tips/setups that are most realistic.

Thank you again!

Yes, you can also do historical setup and choose a year and a team where you want to start. If you start working through that and have any specific questions, I'll do my best to answer them If you are on discord, I am jksander on there as well, it may be easier by chatting rather than responding to board posts

[grtwhtsk368]

Originally Posted by jksander

Yes, you can also do historical setup and choose a year and a team where you want to start. If you start working through that and have any specific questions, I'll do my best to answer them If you are on discord, I am jksander on there as well, it may be easier by chatting rather than responding to board posts

Thank you for your help. I figured there has probably been a number of past rookies like me asking for this guidance, so I asked initially about pointing me to a past thread.

I do have discord but I'm a newbie there too! I'm not even sure how to find the OOTP server on it


I'm sorry all, have a bit of anxiety and feeling overwhelmed. Just want to play some simulation baseball. I played strat-o-matic for 40 years and keep reading that nothing tops OOTP! Help please.

[jksander]

Originally Posted by grtwhtsk368

Thank you for your help. I figured there has probably been a number of past rookies like me asking for this guidance, so I asked initially about pointing me to a past thread.

I do have discord but I'm a newbie there too! I'm not even sure how to find the OOTP server on it


I'm sorry all, have a bit of anxiety and feeling overwhelmed. Just want to play some simulation baseball. I played strat-o-matic for 40 years and keep reading that nothing tops OOTP! Help please.

I'm not on that server, but I think we can still mark each other as friends and talk even if we don't share a server. What's your username?

[jksander]

OOTP Discord Link: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...b&opi=89978449

Once you're in, look for me as jksander and send me a private message

[luckymann]

My straight up advice to you as a first-timer is just to dive in and muck around for a while before trying to get it perfect.

There's much to learn about the game and if you spend a bit of time doing so you'll not only pick up a lot about setup and settings but be less overwhelmed by what you are encountering.

Do a couple tutorials and just get a feel for the thing.

Then go and try to create the exact save you're looking for.

Welcome aboard and good luck!

G

[grtwhtsk368]

Originally Posted by luckymann

My straight up advice to you as a first-timer is just to dive in and muck around for a while before trying to get it perfect.

There's much to learn about the game and if you spend a bit of time doing so you'll not only pick up a lot about setup and settings but be less overwhelmed by what you are encountering.

Do a couple tutorials and just get a feel for the thing.

Then go and try to create the exact save you're looking for.

Welcome aboard and good luck!

G

Thank you so much!

[Brad K]

When you are learning the game disable some features. Later gradually enable them as you learn the basics of the game.

Get rid of all the psychology and never turn it back on. It shouldn't have much effect on historical players and thus is a time wasting nuisance.

Use reserve rosters instead of minors, no coaches, and ratings 100% accurate, You might want to play with no injuries. If you have injuries enabled the game will be short of subs for the first year or too. You can help this by importing entire history. That gives you additional players. If you don't want entire history you can delete it later and the players stay. If you want to know why I can find the posts I made about this issue and link them.

If you want to cherry pick the rookies set them to import as FAs which sets up the first year player draft. You know which rookies did well and which ones didn't while AI doesn't. You'll find historical every day players still available in the second round.

When you get tired of plucking the future stars, set the rookies to import to historical teams or keep the draft but enable scouting and let your scout do the draft choices.

Disable story lines and owner goals. And since you want to run your favorite team set yourself to can't be fired.

If you have a small market team and/or a a cheap owner you might want to bump of market size or edit the owner to be more generous. The effects of these won't occur until year 2.

If I think of anything else later I'll post if.

[grtwhtsk368]

Originally Posted by Brad K

When you are learning the game disable some features. Later gradually enable them as you learn the basics of the game.

Get rid of all the psychology and never turn it back on. It shouldn't have much effect on historical players and thus is a time wasting nuisance.

Use reserve rosters instead of minors, no coaches, and ratings 100% accurate, You might want to play with no injuries. If you have injuries enabled the game will be short of subs for the first year or too. You can help this by importing entire history. That gives you additional players. If you don't want entire history you can delete it later and the players stay. If you want to know why I can find the posts I made about this issue and link them.

If you want to cherry pick the rookies set them to import as FAs which sets up the first year player draft. You know which rookies did well and which ones didn't while AI doesn't. You'll find historical every day players still available in the second round.

When you get tired of plucking the future stars, set the rookies to import to historical teams or keep the draft but enable scouting and let your scout do the draft choices.

Disable story lines and owner goals. And since you want to run your favorite team set yourself to can't be fired.

If you have a small market team and/or a a cheap owner you might want to bump of market size or edit the owner to be more generous. The effects of these won't occur until year 2.

If I think of anything else later I'll post if.

Thank you so much!

[Brad K]

Thought of something else. LOL.

I believe the game defaults to having a draft so you wouldn't need to make changes there. Remember you're drafting players for their historic first year in MLB not when they first entered organized baseball.

Also if the owner priority is profit edit it to winning. Later when you get better you might want to edit an owner to have a priority of profit to increase the challenge.

I don't know how far back you're going but I've never played with reserve clause rules. I don't see any problem for someone new to the game using modern free agency rules.

[Salathor]

I would actually suggest for your first save to pull a historic game with real lineups and transactions for the team you want to play (1977 Yankees). Just try playing as a manager for a few weeks to learn the menus and how the play works. Then, if you're bored or ready for more, make a new save as GM/Manager. If you're anything like me you'll end up with tons of saves, so it's no loss to start over a few times.

[grtwhtsk368]

Originally Posted by Brad K

Thought of something else. LOL.

I believe the game defaults to having a draft so you wouldn't need to make changes there. Remember you're drafting players for their historic first year in MLB not when they first entered organized baseball.

Also if the owner priority is profit edit it to winning. Later when you get better you might want to edit an owner to have a priority of profit to increase the challenge.

I don't know how far back you're going but I've never played with reserve clause rules. I don't see any problem for someone new to the game using modern free agency rules.

I'm actually looking to replay one season at a time. So for example, I want to play the 1982 season and see how close it comes to actual results. I am looking for settings to do this. I'm sorry if I confused you or anyone else in what I was seeking to do.

[grtwhtsk368]

Originally Posted by Salathor

I would actually suggest for your first save to pull a historic game with real lineups and transactions for the team you want to play (1977 Yankees). Just try playing as a manager for a few weeks to learn the menus and how the play works. Then, if you're bored or ready for more, make a new save as GM/Manager. If you're anything like me you'll end up with tons of saves, so it's no loss to start over a few times.

Yes, this sounds great for a start! What settings do I put in to get said game started. Sorry, I'm an old strat-o-matic player and I'm looking to do something like that with this game. I know there's so much to learn, but I need to take baby steps. Can you please tell me how I set a game up like you mentioned? Say the 1977 Yankees vs the 1977 Royals. Any help is greatly appreciated!

[LansdowneSt]

Originally Posted by grtwhtsk368

Yes, this sounds great for a start! What settings do I put in to get said game started. Sorry, I'm an old strat-o-matic player and I'm looking to do something like that with this game. I know there's so much to learn, but I need to take baby steps. Can you please tell me how I set a game up like you mentioned? Say the 1977 Yankees vs the 1977 Royals. Any help is greatly appreciated!

At the Start Screen, select New Game
It will expand into other options, select New Historical Game
A pop-up about Challenge Mode will appear, select No
On Step 1 of the Wizard, select 1977 on the left-hand side of the screen and on the right-hand side select "Replay Mode" then Next Step.
Change nothing on Step 2 of the Wizard and select Next Step,
Given you are a Strat player, let's leave Scouting off. Only decision on Step 3 are the ratings. I'm a 1-100 guy on the Current, Potential and Other scales. I recommend it for a learning player as it shows the finest granularity. Everyone has an opinion. It is also safe to just leave everything as-is. Hit Next Step.
Enter the name of the game so it isn't a generic "New Game #". For play mode choose Manager if that's where you want to start. The transactions and such will be according to life in this mode so you don't lose too much by not being the GM. On the right-hand side, add your name for the save and choose Commissioner mode so it is enabled. Then Next Step.
Step 5, Choose your team.
now, go to Game at the top, select the drop down and go to "Game Settings". In the lower left of the Global Settings subtab, turn off coaching by unselecting "Use Coaching System".
Lastly, go to... The team name at the top and hit the dropdown. Select Team Home Screen.

That's as intro to a Strat-like replay of 1977 as I can think of. Should be a great place to start for you.

Good luck! Unless you chose the Yankees, in which case i hope they finish last in the East in this alternate universe.

[jksander]

Originally Posted by LansdowneSt

At the Start Screen, select New Game
It will expand into other options, select New Historical Game
A pop-up about Challenge Mode will appear, select No
On Step 1 of the Wizard, select 1977 on the left-hand side of the screen and on the right-hand side select "Replay Mode" then Next Step.
Change nothing on Step 2 of the Wizard and select Next Step,
Given you are a Strat player, let's leave Scouting off. Only decision on Step 3 are the ratings. I'm a 1-100 guy on the Current, Potential and Other scales. I recommend it for a learning player as it shows the finest granularity. Everyone has an opinion. It is also safe to just leave everything as-is. Hit Next Step.
Enter the name of the game so it isn't a generic "New Game #". For play mode choose Manager if that's where you want to start. The transactions and such will be according to life in this mode so you don't lose too much by not being the GM. On the right-hand side, add your name for the save and choose Commissioner mode so it is enabled. Then Next Step.
Step 5, Choose your team.
now, go to Game at the top, select the drop down and go to "Game Settings". In the lower left of the Global Settings subtab, turn off coaching by unselecting "Use Coaching System".
Lastly, go to... The team name at the top and hit the dropdown. Select Team Home Screen.

That's as intro to a Strat-like replay of 1977 as I can think of. Should be a great place to start for you.

Good luck! Unless you chose the Yankees, in which case i hope they finish last in the East in this alternate universe.

Great help, as usual, LansdowneSt He and I have been in touch on Discord as well, so I think we're giving the new folks as good of an introduction as you can get

[thehef]

Wow! I read the OP and thought I could offer some good advice. Then read through the replies: Tons of GREAT advice, though not surprising given the contributors. grtwhtsk368, you are in great hands!

[Brad K]

Originally Posted by grtwhtsk368

I'm actually looking to replay one season at a time. So for example, I want to play the 1982 season and see how close it comes to actual results. I am looking for settings to do this. I'm sorry if I confused you or anyone else in what I was seeking to do.

So you're just watching not playing.

Easy.

Historical lineups and transactions, one season ratings, development and talent change off, and reduce the adjust and weaken as suggested by the game.

[grtwhtsk368]

Originally Posted by LansdowneSt

At the Start Screen, select New Game
It will expand into other options, select New Historical Game
A pop-up about Challenge Mode will appear, select No
On Step 1 of the Wizard, select 1977 on the left-hand side of the screen and on the right-hand side select "Replay Mode" then Next Step.
Change nothing on Step 2 of the Wizard and select Next Step,
Given you are a Strat player, let's leave Scouting off. Only decision on Step 3 are the ratings. I'm a 1-100 guy on the Current, Potential and Other scales. I recommend it for a learning player as it shows the finest granularity. Everyone has an opinion. It is also safe to just leave everything as-is. Hit Next Step.
Enter the name of the game so it isn't a generic "New Game #". For play mode choose Manager if that's where you want to start. The transactions and such will be according to life in this mode so you don't lose too much by not being the GM. On the right-hand side, add your name for the save and choose Commissioner mode so it is enabled. Then Next Step.
Step 5, Choose your team.
now, go to Game at the top, select the drop down and go to "Game Settings". In the lower left of the Global Settings subtab, turn off coaching by unselecting "Use Coaching System".
Lastly, go to... The team name at the top and hit the dropdown. Select Team Home Screen.

That's as intro to a Strat-like replay of 1977 as I can think of. Should be a great place to start for you.

Good luck! Unless you chose the Yankees, in which case i hope they finish last in the East in this alternate universe.

Wow, this is great!!! Thank you so much. I have been ill so hopefully tomorrow I can use this step by step. I appreciate it greatly.

As for team, ummm, not sure yet 😉.