Ways to play Historical seasons

[Comedian2004]

Having been part of the beta team, I have simulated many, many seasons, I have tried many of the variations that are possible.

I think with most historicals, what you are looking for is a season with total stats at the end of the season to closely match what the MLB had in that season. You also want the leaderboards to be filled with names that were on that leaderboard in that season. You also want the AI to handle the pitchers the same way, using closers and throwing complete games.

You will get that pretty much out of the box. However, you will want to run test simulations seeing what the different options do and how they make the league change. This includes using 1, 3 or 5 day modifiers.

I usually like to change the date of the draft. Since it is a historical replay, you want the players to come in at the same time as they did in real life. So, I usually set it to December 1st. This way, they do not play in that year. The best time is to have it after the end of the season, but before the free agency starts. This will change the way the teams are making their picks.

You could also have it happen in the early part of NEXT YEAR, so they can come into the league, but they will not get a FULL season, depending on when you hold the draft. It is realist for some players, others it is not.

You have to remember the butterfly effect here. A small change can have an enourmous influence on the rest of the league. If Babe Ruth is out for the 1921 season, that has a big bearing on the rest of the league. If Ted Williams is playing in 1943 and 1944, the league has changed drastically.

Now with the autoexpansion, it has created a very fun way to play the game. Start the simulation in 1901 and then sim it until the year you want to start. Plan ahead, as it takes time to get to the later years. Maybe just start out by simming to 1910. Now you have a 10 year old league, ready for you to take a last place team and manage it to the top. Take control as manager and then make trades, etc to get the team where you think they are in better shape.

Then comes the decisions on how to play the game. I may sim a week or a month or so, but then I resign from the team. I then simulate the rest of the year and see how they do. I may stop it here and there and peek at the team. Then I move to next year. I see how well the computer handles the blueprint I set up.

I also like to follow a players career. I will hope in at mid season and find the pitcher with the best record. I go to his profile page and look at his game by game. I can then just hit FINISH DAY and watch as he rests, rests, pitches, rests, etc. You get his line score there and you can see those mean 1-0 losses. I usually watch it until it scrolls off the screen. You can go through a season pretty quick that way.

When I am done playing for the night, I turn the time machine on. I decide what season I want to warp to and tell it to sim to it then go to sleep.

I do strongly suggest using the Almanac for at least saving the box scores and cvs files every year. It does add to the time of simming, but does enhance your simulation to see things that you would not be able to.

[plannine]

Thanks for the info. I am now looking forward to the release.

[Gastric ReFlux]

In lots of ways, I'm really looking forward to what looks like some great options to recreate the baseball past in OOTP2007.

[Comedian2004]

While beta testing the game, you have fun, if you do it right, but you start every season you create knowing that you will not really get into it the way that you normally would. It is like living week to week, doing one night stands with different ladies. Well, not quite that much fun.

A good example was the league I crashed last night. It was based in 1962, a historical draft. I had a round 6 pick in the fantasy draft. My 1st 5 picks were pitchers. I had Drysdale, Marichal, Bob Gibson and two more greats, but my Offense basically had Mantle and Adcock. However, this season crashed during the draft (bug was fixed this AM).

So, I did draft, round II. This time I had a round 15 pick. Not as many good pitchers there, so I built a powerhouse. Mantle, Clemente and Ashburn in the outfield. I had Burgess behind the plate and Adcock at 1B. The infield of Groat, Mazeroski, Brooks Robinson.

I managed to get Bunning, Conley, Larry Jackson and Jack Sanford as the main pitchers. Bunning won 20 games and my team, controlled by the computer won 90 games and missed lost the division in a 11-7 playoff game. I had lost Mantle and Adcock for the last 7 months of the season.

After winnig 81 and 83, they won 89 in 1965 and won the WS. By then, Mantle was gone and this offensive machine was just hitting .265, but had some pitching. They had a 2.90 ERA that year, lead by Pizarro, Sanford, Lonborg and Phil Niekro.

I let it run over night and it was in 2002 when I woke up. In 1996 Griffey tied Maris at 61 for seasonal home runs. In all, 20 players had hit 50+ home runs in a season. Big Max roided his way to lead the league with 773, Bonds at 608 and Aaron at 506.

300 game winners include Spahn, Koufax and Tommy John. Tommy was 310-300. J.R. won 273 Carlton, Sutton and Jenkins were above him.

My Ashburn never made it out of the 1962 season, having an CEI. Others with CEI were Nolan Ryan in 1983, Bobby Bonds in 1979, Blyeven in 1985, Trammell and Ben Sheets. There were actually a LOT of CEI in this league this time go round.

I look forward to the game being released for different reasons, I can play some games and not lose my season to the 'beta'. I also am anxious to start on some utils.

[Siv]

Great insight, i looke forward to running many career historical simulations.