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Old 05-22-2019, 10:13 AM   #1
Cole
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Big Game Baseball - OOTP20 Quickstart with 16-game schedule, NFL style, where every game matters!

Tl;dr synopsis:

I have released two new OOTP 20 fictional quickstarts. Both are the same 32-team league that plays an NFL-style structure of a 16-game season, one game per week. The first one is set in 1995 right before the inaugural draft:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/0lzu17...quick.zip/file

The second one is set in offseason 2034, after 40 seasons of play in the league and now also features an independent league and an international tournament:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/hja1uv...quick.zip/file

I've also created two for people who still only have OOTP 19. One that starts in 1995 and the other that starts in offseason 2033:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/565290...%2529.zip/file

http://www.mediafire.com/file/ri31kr...quick.zip/file

THE PREMISE:

In this alternative reality, the 1994 MLB strike was the ultimate death blow to that organization and the MLPBA. The fans never forgave the greedy players and owners and were hungry for something new.

After the strike led to the cancellation of the 1994 World Series, a group of 32 new owners banded together to create an upstart league. It was also the berth of a brand-new concept. What if instead of a long, 162-game season that is tough to keep the average's fan's interest, baseball was switched to a style familiar to American fans of the NFL, where every game is a big game and every game matters?

The end result was Big Game Baseball, a 32-team league featuring teams from across North America that would play only a 16-game regular season - one game per week, every Sunday. The owners hoped this new concept would help drive and maintain fan interest, while also leading to a sustainable financial model that wouldn't see player salaries skyrocket.

The league's structure is identical to modern day NFL, with 32 teams in two conferences, four divisions per conference. Each division winner makes the playoffs, as well as two wildcards. The league also features only a 20-man active roster, with teams typically taking 5 to 6 pitchers (1 starter and the rest from the bullpen)

The league would also form with one minor league, the National Baseball League, an AA calibre league that would serve as the springboard into BGB. The NBL also features a 32-team structure and follows a similar format to BGB, with only 16 games, one per week.

Finally, the owners of Big Game Baseball wanted to change the way players entered the league and to have a better balance between education and baseball. They didn't want to see young kids directly out of high school, with no post-secondary education or life skills, choosing professional baseball and then riding around on minor league buses for no pay for years in chase of a pipe dream. This led to the formation of the Big Game Baseball Academy (BGBA), which is the easiest route to finding yourself on a BGB roster.

To put it simply, BGBA is a post-secondary partnership, as well as a baseball academy for future BGB players. Players with baseball talent and promise enter BGBA and the association has partnered with a number of local universities, community colleges and other post-secondary work options and employers to provide job training and post-secondary courses for students in their preferred field from September through May. Then, between May and end of July, the student athletes compete in a high-level baseball league, which runs a 60-game season.

There are 32 BGBA teams, mostly in North America, but also with teams/BGBA campuses in Mexico, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Venezuela and Puerto Rico in order to help more international players get an education and enter the ranks of Big Game Baseball.

Big Game Baseball Academy is for players 18 to 23 years old and players become eligible for the draft three years before they reach the maximum age, with a four-round draft held each year. Anyone who doesn't get drafted is welcomed to return to the Academy for another year of education/job training and baseball preparation.

This quickstart kicks off in 1995, right before the inaugural draft of the league.

It features logos and home and away jerseys for every team in BGB, NBL and BGBA. I did also have 3D Stadiums for each team, but when I converted this league over from OOTP 19 to OOTP 20 they didn't seem to make the jump over. I also don't think 3D Stadiums get saved and downloaded in quickstarts anyway, so unfortunately you'll have to download and input the stadiums in yourself if you want to use them.
Here is the quickstart, it is one of two I am going to be posting: (PLEASE READ IMPORTANT NOTES BELOW WHICH ARE RELEVANT TO BOTH):

http://www.mediafire.com/file/0lzu17...quick.zip/file
------

BIG GAME BASEBALL with 40 SEASONS OF HISTORY

The second quickstart I'm sharing is the above premise and concept, but now added to and 40 years in the future. I started this league with OOTP 19 and have REALLY enjoyed it. These 40 seasons are ones I have played out myself (controlling the Toronto Towers). All but one of the seasons were in OOTP 19 and it was recently converted to OOTP 20 for the final season.

This quickstart drops you into the first day of the 2034 offseason. And there are some new additions.

First is the Great North American Baseball League (GNABL). This is a 10-team independent league which started play in 2017. The calibre (and pay scales) are significantly lower than BGB, but this league does provide a good option for lesser talented players to either continue their baseball careers, or get another kick at the can. The league's regular season games are played entirely in three game series that run from Friday to Sunday, so the idea is that it's basically a semi-pro league where players could maintain "day" jobs during the week and then get a bit of money to play baseball on the weekends.

It has served as a good option to keep more players in the game world active and it does act as either a way to extend the careers of former BGB or BGBA players, or in some cases to be a springboard to the big show (BGB) for some players.

A great example from a recent season is Raheem Madkins. He spent two years in BGBA, but was never talented enough to get drafted or get signed to a minor league deal. From 2026 to 2032 it looked like he had given up on his professional baseball career, as he was inactive for those years. However, in 2032 he signed on with a GNABL team and had a decent year. The next season he signed on with another GNABL team and had an even better year. That led to him at age 28 finally getting the attention of a BGB team, as the Boston Colonials signed him to a deal and not only that, they made him their starting pitcher. He went on to start all 16 games for Boston that season, and he rattled off an impressive 9-3 record with a 3.29 ERA that saw Boston finish with an 11-5 record.

Madkins and the Colonials made it all the way to the Big Game Baseball Championship, but the Cinderella story was derailed as Boston lost to the juggernaut Jacksonville Piranhas in the final game.

Finally, another new addition is the World Baseball Series Championship (WBSC). This is an 8-team international tournament held every two years, with teams from United States, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Venezuela and Japan. This is held in September after the BGB season and the first inaugural event is slated for September 2034.


So this all comes together to form the second quickstart, which again begins in offseason 2034, which can be found here:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/hja1uv...quick.zip/file

IMPORTANT NOTES:

A few things to keep in mind if playing either of these quick starts, which in my opinion will help you have a better experience.

- While regular season games are scheduled a week apart, there is no way to make this happen in OOTP (aside from deleting playoff games and rescheduling them manually a week apart, which was way too labour intensive for me to want to do). My workaround for this is to just suspend belief slightly and let OOTP schedule the playoffs as normal (one day between series), but to just use the reset fatigue of all players option to ensure that the number 1 starter ("quarterback") would start each playoff game as he had every regular season game. So after each round of the playoffs, I simply go through this step: (GAME - GAME SETTINGS - LEAGUE SETTINGS then on the left side select "RESET FATIGUE OF ALL PLAYERS") I think you may still see the number 1 starters start every playoff game even if you don't do this, as they seem to have pretty good stamina and still be 70 to 80% rested after the day rest. However, for me this is a much better option.

- I DO NOT let the game automatically schedule the all-star game. First of all, with only a 16-game season, I did not want to have the all star game in the middle of the season. And for whatever reason if you do decide to do this, after the all-star game it pushes the schedule so all games the rest of the season are played on Wednesday instead of Sunday. And despite my best efforts I couldn't seem to get the game to automatically reschedule the all-star game for the same date end of season (I believe it would revert to mid season) So, I plan the all-star game for September 1st of each year and I do this manually. All I need to do is sometime after it has been played for that year, go into the league settings menu and change the date to September 1st for the following calendar year (so in this quickstart sometime after September 1st just go in and change it to September 1st, 2035). You do so the following way: GAME - GAME SETTINGS - LEAGUE SETTINGS - OPTIONS - On the right side there is a drop down for all-star date.

- I use the NFL style schedules that were posted here from NYY #23 (whose dynasty playing this type of league were also an inspiration to me - thanks!):

http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...18#post3691832

One of those schedules is already loaded in the quickstarts, and while the schedule will vary from year to year in who you play, you will find some monotony in who your interleague games are against (will be within the same division it seems). As a result, I might suggest just downloading all the schedules from the post above and then just rotating a new one in every few years to keep the schedule a bit more fresh.

- Also, I didn't really mess with financials too much in terms of having them automatically evolve, as I thought it would be easy to have the game thrown out of whack that way due to the odd nature of this league. As a result, while salaries have increased somewhat, they haven't gotten astronomical as I've just left finances to change/grow organically. The best players in the league now make $5 million instead of say $3 or $4 million per year, but it seems to work well. I file it under part of the original premise of the league and the owners finding a way to keep salaries in check and not $30 million+ per year. That all being said, $5 million a year for only 16 games a year isn't bad. I have slightly increased the minimum salary a few times over the life of the league, and manually changed a few other numbers, but that's about it.

WHAT I LIKE ABOUT THIS CONCEPT AND LEAGUE:

- Obviously this isn't how OOTP was meant to be played, so I wasn't sure how this would work out, but after now having played 40 seasons in game, I can say it works great and is a LOT of fun. I mention the tagline "where every game matters" and that's one of the great parts. In a 162-game season if you go on a 5-game losing streak it's probably not a big deal. In BGB - you're probably looking at a lost season. If you like to play out your games, there is that much more intensity involved where every game basically gets managed like a must win.

- I love that the "1 man rotation" feature actually works pretty well. Teams are identified by their starting pitcher just like an NFL team is by their quarterback. And it makes a HUGE difference when you have a good solid SP versus when you're struggling to find someone suitable. It's a lot of fun to decide when that aging veteran has his best days behind him and should lose his starting spot, or to try to target your next franchise starting pitcher in the draft. The AI actually does pretty well with this too, for the *most* part they put their best suited starting pitcher in that role and stick with him. There is some occasional screwiness to their AI managing of their pitching staff, but overall I've been pretty pleased with how they do. Occasionally they do something that is head scratching and wouldn't happen in real life (say a multiple time pitcher of the year, who is just coming off an award winning season getting removed from SP and put into the closer role), but sometimes I just chalk those things up to that starter having arm fatigue and not being able to start games/throw 100+ pitches anymore.

- I love that a good draft can turn a franchise around quickly. I increased the player development speed and talent change randomness and basically wanted to make the draft more like the NFL and less like MLB. Basically, I only have a four round draft and I only have one level of minor leagues. So, much like the NFL I wanted the drafted players to be more polished and not have to spend 3 to 6+ years in the minor leagues. So you WILL see some draft picks that go right from the draft into the starting lineup/starting pitching role, but that's also not the norm. I think the AA level is a good one, as most of the draftees are able to go compete there, and some later round draft picks spend their entire careers there, some guys half a season, some guys a season or two, and some guys bounce back and forth constantly throughout their career. There is a good mix.

There are some draft busts, there are some draft surprises (like say Ernesto Rubio, a late 3rd round pick who has become one of the greatest pitchers of all times). I also am pretty happy with how the AI handles the draft. More often than not if there's a highly touted SP they will take that player with their first pick. And when they have a good SP prospect they will often hold him in the AA starting pitcher spot to gain experience (over maybe better rated/older prospects) and then call him up when he's ready or better than their current starter. A lot of times the AI will also take their highly prized SP prospects and have them spend a few years coming out of the bullpen or in the closers role, before they end up taking over the reigns as SP. It's really cool to see the different career trajectories play out.

- It makes free agency a lot of fun. With only 16 games, you definitely see some "flukey" seasons where a hitter or pitcher just stays hot for the entire season and puts up some gaudy numbers outside their career norms. Do you trust those numbers and pay them, or expect a regression to the norm?

- It is challenging as it's easy to have your season derailed with a few bad season performances or a few bullpen blown saves. I won the championship in my 3rd season of this sim, but then it took me THIRTY FIVE seasons to win my next one. There was a TON of playoff heartbreak in there (came within 3 outs or 1 run of winning the championship twice) and it made the eventual victory that much sweeter, which was something I haven't experienced in a while in OOTP. While I've generally been able to keep my team very solid year to year, I also even had a 6-year stretch where I didn't even make the playoffs. Coincidentally this is in years where I was transitioning to find a suitable starting pitcher and struggling to find someone who could do the job. I'm by no means an OOTP expert, but I have actually enjoyed the challenge of this league and format.

- It takes a while to get used to the "new norm" in terms of milestones, but it's fun to see history evolving too. For example there's obviously not going to be any 300 win pitchers or 500 home run hitters. So I have had to get my attention up when anyone approaches the all-time single season home run record of 13, or single season hit record of 33, or to get excited for the 3 players overall who have hit over .500 in a season (It took 40 years for the inaugural season batting average record of .517 to fall!). For baseball purists this may be a turn off, but to be me it's still pretty cool to see and you quickly get used to stuff like there being a few .400 hitters each season, 10 homers in a year being a huge power output, etc.

THANK YOU's:

Sorry, I'll probably miss someone, but the vast majority of the logos for this league are from low's fantastic work. There are also a lot of logos from Trapper John. League logos are mostly tx rangers work and although they don't come over with the quick start, I have to give a shout out to the amazing fictional 3D stadium work of eriqjaffe, silvam14 and Adion.

So that's it, I hope some people can get as much enjoyment out of this league as I have. It's a pretty unique way to play OOTP but honestly is a ton of fun. I would love to see an online league under this format, I think that would be a blast (and especially so if head-to-head play online play ever comes to fruition). Any questions, fire away! And if you do end up playing it, please let me know if you see any issues, or pop in to say how things are going!
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Last edited by Cole; 06-06-2019 at 09:58 PM.
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Old 05-22-2019, 02:09 PM   #2
yazfan67
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Going to try this as soon as my work day is done!
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Old 05-22-2019, 04:54 PM   #3
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I'm not sure if I will give it a try or not but let me say you did an amazing job describing the reason behind this. You wrote a great story as to why and how the league developed.

If you ever decided to do anything on the dynasty thread, I am sure it would be a great read.
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Old 05-27-2019, 02:13 PM   #4
Cole
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Originally Posted by AirmenSmith View Post
I'm not sure if I will give it a try or not but let me say you did an amazing job describing the reason behind this. You wrote a great story as to why and how the league developed.

If you ever decided to do anything on the dynasty thread, I am sure it would be a great read.
Thanks. I did spend 10 years as a journalist in my previous career, so I like to think I have a knack for storytelling. That being said I generally like to play my OOTP saves too quickly to necessarily stop and write a lot in between. I generally zip through one or two seasons per time I play this particular sim since seasons can go pretty fast.
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Old 06-02-2019, 08:02 AM   #5
spelvin56
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This is such a great idea! Would you happen to have for download this quick start for OOTP 19? (I haven't made the plunge yet for 20!)

Thanks for the consideration!
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Old 06-03-2019, 12:13 AM   #6
Cole
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Originally Posted by spelvin56 View Post
This is such a great idea! Would you happen to have for download this quick start for OOTP 19? (I haven't made the plunge yet for 20!)

Thanks for the consideration!
I don't have it handy but yes I could whip one up as I started the game in OOTP 19. Give me a day or two and I'll upload a couple (one from beginning and one from where I ended off in OOTP19).
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Old 06-05-2019, 06:33 PM   #7
Lord PichuPal
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This does sound unique and interesting. Maybe I'll give it a shot, too
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Old 06-06-2019, 09:56 PM   #8
Cole
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Originally Posted by spelvin56 View Post
This is such a great idea! Would you happen to have for download this quick start for OOTP 19? (I haven't made the plunge yet for 20!)

Thanks for the consideration!
Here you are, there are two quickstart options for OOTP 19.

One at league inception in 1995 and the second picks up the league with history in the first day of offseason 2033:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/565290...%2529.zip/file


http://www.mediafire.com/file/ri31kr...quick.zip/file

Let me know if you run into any issues with them.
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Old 06-07-2019, 12:21 PM   #9
Cole
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This does sound unique and interesting. Maybe I'll give it a shot, too
You definitely should. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, but it's the most fun I've ever had playing solo OOTP to be honest and nearing 50+ years, it's close to the longest-running league I've ever had, if not there already.

You definitely have to have an open mind, but it really is a pretty cool game world and I'm happy with the way it turned out.
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Old 06-10-2019, 04:19 PM   #10
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This looks amazing. Trying it now. Thank you for sharing.
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Old 06-28-2019, 10:37 AM   #11
hobbitrjw
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Where can you download the 3D Ballparks for this? Don't think you put that link in there. Also having never really messed with adding in 3D ballparks before how do you do it correctly?
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Old 06-30-2019, 08:57 PM   #12
Cole
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Where can you download the 3D Ballparks for this? Don't think you put that link in there. Also having never really messed with adding in 3D ballparks before how do you do it correctly?
All the 3D parks for this were downloaded from this forum:

http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...lay.php?f=3879

A few different sources, but they are all in there somewhere. There are also specific instructions for how to install 3D parks in that forum in the stickies as well.
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