Lock in historic year

[jbergey22]

Is there a way to lock in the historic year so it isn't changing the modifiers and league totals?

I like how 80s baseball was with starting pitchers and a nice balance between home runs/stolen bases/pitching wins/saves. It seems no matter what I do, it wants to keep changing the historical year after every season. I want to be able to lock this.

[venflaalachi]

I think there is a lock stats option to lock in the league totals, its on the same page as the league totals for the league.

[jbergey22]

Originally Posted by venflaalachi

I think there is a lock stats option to lock in the league totals, its on the same page as the league totals for the league.

Thanks!

I do see Lock league total stats. Do you know if that will stop the game from changing things each year so I can consistently keep 80s baseball?

[venflaalachi]

Originally Posted by jbergey22

Thanks!

I do see Lock league total stats. Do you know if that will stop the game from changing things each year so I can consistently keep 80s baseball?

It should keep the league totals the same year after year. I also uncheck the "adjust league strategy" from the league options page to keep the strategy from a certain year. The historical year will still change but the stats and league strategy should remain the same.

[actionjackson]

Haven't played regularly since 21ish or 23ish, but back then I would use the "Select Year" dropdown feature, and select "1984" the day before Opening Day every year. It worked remarkably well for me. The 1984 RL BABIP was .286, which I found turned out stats that were a bit hot, so I wound it back to .283, and it worked very well for my purposes. Things may have changed since then, but I found those settings by tinkering, and I'm sure you could find what you want by tinkering as well. Start with that basic method and go from there. Merely keeping the stats the same may result in some drift (it did back in the previous versions I played), I think towards offence, but again that may have changed.

I uncheck pretty much all the auto-import, or auto-adjust boxes, except for the auto-import historical rookies. That includes auto-import historical player-creation modifiers (not because it's necessary for a historical game, but because it tells me that my stats are definitely in 1984 at a quick glance, as those settings are burned into my brain by now), league strategy, financial settings (I manually import those on the first day of the offseason because they might change my league strategy settings [can't remember], and I want them to stay the same), league total modifiers (because I'm using the select "1984" method for them). I don't use lock league total stats, or control in-game engine either. This method's always gotten me what I want, in terms of league total stats. You can also find your own way by testing and tinkering until you get what you want. I also use 162 game schedules throughout.

[Reed]

Originally Posted by actionjackson

Haven't played regularly since 21ish or 23ish, but back then I would use the "Select Year" dropdown feature, and select "1984" the day before Opening Day every year. It worked remarkably well for me. The 1984 RL BABIP was .286, which I found turned out stats that were a bit hot, so I wound it back to .283, and it worked very well for my purposes. Things may have changed since then, but I found those settings by tinkering, and I'm sure you could find what you want by tinkering as well. Start with that basic method and go from there. Merely keeping the stats the same may result in some drift (it did back in the previous versions I played), I think towards offence, but again that may have changed.

I uncheck pretty much all the auto-import, or auto-adjust boxes, except for the auto-import historical rookies. That includes auto-import historical player-creation modifiers (not because it's necessary for a historical game, but because it tells me that my stats are definitely in 1984 at a quick glance, as those settings are burned into my brain by now), league strategy, financial settings (I manually import those on the first day of the offseason because they might change my league strategy settings [can't remember], and I want them to stay the same), league total modifiers (because I'm using the select "1984" method for them). I don't use lock league total stats, or control in-game engine either. This method's always gotten me what I want, in terms of league total stats. You can also find your own way by testing and tinkering until you get what you want. I also use 162 game schedules throughout.

ActionJackson has helped me (and others) a lot in the past. Agree with everything he says here but I do my autocalc on opening day before any games are played. Either way should work fine. I once read in a post a couple years ago that rosters/lineups aren't set until opening day so that is why I started doing auto calc on opening day. Don't think it really makes any noticeable difference.

[actionjackson]

Originally Posted by Reed

ActionJackson has helped me (and others) a lot in the past. Agree with everything he says here but I do my autocalc on opening day before any games are played. Either way should work fine. I once read in a post a couple years ago that rosters/lineups aren't set until opening day so that is why I started doing auto calc on opening day. Don't think it really makes any noticeable difference.

Good to know about the Opening Day thing. I think I started doing it the day before Opening Day because that's the day the MLB Preseason Predictions come out, and that sounded like a good day to do it. Or maybe the predictions come out on Opening Day, and I wanted to lock in my settings the day before. It's been a while, so I'm kind of hazy on it.

I don't use the auto-calc feature. I use the select year drop down feature. I can't remember why. I just remember that I didn't like how all the numbers appeared with auto-calc, so I stayed with select year. If auto-calc works too, cool beans. As long as you get what you're looking for.

[David Watts]

Originally Posted by actionjackson

Good to know about the Opening Day thing. I think I started doing it the day before Opening Day because that's the day the MLB Preseason Predictions come out, and that sounded like a good day to do it. Or maybe the predictions come out on Opening Day, and I wanted to lock in my settings the day before. It's been a while, so I'm kind of hazy on it.

I don't use the auto-calc feature. I use the select year drop down feature. I can't remember why. I just remember that I didn't like how all the numbers appeared with auto-calc, so I stayed with select year. If auto-calc works too, cool beans. As long as you get what you're looking for.

Pretty sure that with the way the game works now, you are going to have to use autocalc. When you change the year to your base year the game no longer runs the calculations, it simply sets your league totals to appropriate numbers.

Game now has a feature that allows you to lock league totals. It works great, but I've found that even though I had the box to import strategy by year unchecked, the game seems to do so anyway. At least it did in OOTP24. I started a random in 1992 and kept stats locked to that year. By the time I got to 2022, starting pitchers were going 5 to 7 innings the majority of the time and there were almost zero complete games. I really wish the option to import strategy didn't also include financial aspects as well. I really like the lock feature, but I don't want to play modern day bullpen ball.

[Bluenoser]

I just wanted to add my thoughts to the auto-calc on opening day rather than letting the game do it automatically.

I have always allowed the game to auto-calc rather than run it on opening day. I've heard the argument for doing that but it never made sense to me.

If you allow the game to auto run it, then OOTP does 3 things when you click continue to opening day - reduces rosters, auto-calcs the modifiers, runs pre-season predictions.

The game cannot run pre season predictions until the rosters are reduced to 26 (or whatever setting you have the rule at). Otherwise when you run auto-calc yourself on opening day, the preseason predictions that were generated would not be accurate. So it has to reduce rosters before running its auto-calc and preseason predictions. At least that's the way I see it.

I've asked about this a few years back but never got an answer. I wish Matt would pipe in and confirm or refute my thoughts on it. Would be nice to know for sure.

[David Watts]

Originally Posted by Bluenoser

I just wanted to add my thoughts to the auto-calc on opening day rather than letting the game do it automatically.

I have always allowed the game to auto-calc rather than run it on opening day. I've heard the argument for doing that but it never made sense to me.

If you allow the game to auto run it, then OOTP does 3 things when you click continue to opening day - reduces rosters, auto-calcs the modifiers, runs pre-season predictions.

The game cannot run pre season predictions until the rosters are reduced to 26 (or whatever setting you have the rule at). Otherwise when you run auto-calc yourself on opening day, the preseason predictions that were generated would not be accurate. So it has to reduce rosters before running its auto-calc and preseason predictions. At least that's the way I see it.

I've asked about this a few years back but never got an answer. I wish Matt would pipe in and confirm or refute my thoughts on it. Would be nice to know for sure.

Do you use the lock feature to keep your league set to one specific year? If so, what year?

[Bluenoser]

Originally Posted by David Watts

Do you use the lock feature to keep your league set to one specific year? If so, what year?

I haven't tried the lock feature yet, but am going to this version. I use 1985 consistently.

[David Watts]

Originally Posted by Bluenoser

I haven't tried the lock feature yet, but am going to this version. I use 1985 consistently.

When you try it, please let me know if you see the steady creep in terms of your leagues pitching strategy towards modern day. I'm wondering if I did something wrong. Maybe I should have unchecked the box for import modifiers according to history. If I did that, I'm guessing I would have to manually run auto calc each year. I just don't want my game to creep towards bullpen ball.

[Bluenoser]

I'm starting my league anew in 25 rather than import. With the new ratings system and other things, I just decided it was time for a reboot. All new fictional players created in 25.

Just finished my 1st season this morning, going to wait about 3-5 seasons before I try the lock. I want to make sure things are stable first.

I'll let you know how it goes.

[David Watts]

Originally Posted by Bluenoser

I'm starting my league anew in 25 rather than import. With the new ratings system and other things, I just decided it was time for a reboot. All new fictional players created in 25.

Just finished my 1st season this morning, going to wait about 3-5 seasons before I try the lock. I want to make sure things are stable first.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks.

[Bluenoser]

One thing I'll mention that I've always done in the past, on the Options Tab in Setup, where you input the year for "Progressing Settings", I always reset that to 1985 when Pre Season begins.

I'm pretty sure that keeps the General AI Roster Settings from changing things like reliever usage, etc etc.

[David Watts]

Originally Posted by Bluenoser

One thing I'll mention that I've always done in the past, on the Options Tab in Setup, where you input the year for "Progressing Settings", I always reset that to 1985 when Pre Season begins.

I'm pretty sure that keeps the General AI Roster Settings from changing things like reliever usage, etc etc.

When you have the time, any chance you can screenshot that setting, so I can see where to find it? Thanks.

[Bluenoser]

Here you go
_

[David Watts]

Originally Posted by Bluenoser

Here you go
_

I was always scared to change that due to it saying the deal about the financials. I thought it would mess with players contracts and such. So, you change it to 1985 each season and nothing crazy happens to your leagues financials? Oh man, I'm really hoping this is the solution.

[Bluenoser]

Doesn't mess with my financials at all. If you're keeping it at the same year, then the financials wouldn't change.

I do edit the financials myself a bit as the league ages. I increase revenues in a few areas like merchandise, tv contracts, but then I also increase expenses to counter it. My changes always stick.

[David Watts]

Originally Posted by Bluenoser

Doesn't mess with my financials at all. If you're keeping it at the same year, then the financials wouldn't change.

Yeah, I always lock financials to one year. Thank you so much for all the help.