A Different Perspective On Ratings And League Totals Modifiers

[Brad K]

Originally Posted by WhiskyTango

Ha. I just checked my settings and I'm using auto for a save with 24 MLB teams starting in the early 20th century, using historical players but not obviously much else that is historical. Seems I should be using pre. See, no one knows what the game instructions are talking about and no one reads them anyway. So when an obscure setting has "(recommended)" beside it I'm guessing the vast majority go with that. And the nomenclature could improve. Auto-calc? Pre-calc? These are just sounds unless you delve into the mystery and very few will do that.

Instead of recommending it would be better to explain what each setting does. However pre-calc wasn't a viable option for a long time. It recently became viable again with build 26.4.59.

SB attempts are way off on the current file. Hopefully the file will be fixed to work with all the current historic modes.

In the meantime it's plenty easy to run auto-calc on a replay league of the same year and plug in the SB attempt LTM into the real league. That's a lot better than having to type in a new LTM for every box as I have to do with my save on OOTP 25

[WhiskyTango]

I'm not so sure using auto is messing things up, though. All stats and performances seem on course. I would expect RL all-stars to perform even better due to the diluted rosters. With this set up I'd think it's mainly the 4A players which could be more widely variable. And the RL MiL don't really contribute that much to league play. So overall, it may not be that big a deal in this case.

I would think auto would be removed as an option and made the default for historical. The choice is then simplified and easier to get across what it does.

[Brad K]

Originally Posted by WhiskyTango

I'm not so sure using auto is messing things up, though. All stats and performances seem on course. I would expect RL all-stars to perform even better due to the diluted rosters. With this set up I'd think it's mainly the 4A players which could be more widely variable. And the RL MiL don't really contribute that much to league play. So overall, it may not be that big a deal in this case.

I would think auto would be removed as an option and made the default for historical. The choice is then simplified and easier to get across what it does.

You don't know what is "on course" for a league with non-historic talent. But if you know your talent is different and you see historic output you know it's wrong.

This is the problem. People have accepted the idea that every league should be judged by how close its output is to historic. They sold the idea that a bunch of 50 HR hitters moved to 1921 should hit 15 HR each and bring Ruth's total down too. I don't know how they did it.

That's an extreme example. Convince people the extreme cases are OK and its a winner for everything less.

[Brad K]

The subject of the pre-calc file in Beta 26.4.59 due to a coaching problem was mentioned in THIS THREAD. I am placing my test results here to keep them with all the other testing I've done on the LTM problem.

As I understand it, the current pre-calc file was created with coaching set to Off. It does not produce the correct output when coaching is set to On. This is a problem with coaching and that is where the solution lies.

In the meantime, I suggest people using the pre-calc file with coaching set to On reduce the SB attempts LTM by 12% or so.

First screenshot is with coaching set to On. Second is with coaching set to Off.

[Brad K]

I have learned from PMs here and on Reddit that people are trying pre-calc. It is likely there are many more than have contacted me. So here is some information that might be helpful.

Sometimes there are clearly excessive variations. Something that causes this is wide fluctuations in historic output combines with the use of 3 year or 5 year ratings.

A good example is in 1976 MLB hit 2235 HRs; in 1977 3644 HRs; in 1978 2956 HRs. If using three year ratings there will be huge differences from historic, not due to any problems with ratings or pre-calc, but due to wide historic fluctuations.

Another issue is using full minor leagues. OOTP rates career minor league pitchers quite highly and after a few years it's common for over 30% of the MLB pitchers to be career minor leaguers. They're rated better than the actual MLB pitchers they replace so offense is lower.

Both these situations are normal. Pre-calc allows talent differences to show in the stats. That (and letting strategy matter) is the point of using pre-calc.