Stats Only League Questions

[BKL]

I have been playing a fictional league for 10 years and now want to convert to a "stats only" league. I have some questions and I know there are some postings here, but looking for clarification:

(1) What do you do about international free agents since they don't show stats? Do you just rely on written scouting text? Or is there are way to turn off international free agents?

(2) If you turn off international free agents, how do you get international players into your league? I read something about feeder leagues. My understanding was that feeder leagues are for high school and college players (not necessarily international free agents).

(3) I have read that the best AI settings for a stats only league is 0/67/22/11. I notice when using this the AI makes some weird decisions, and I tested this. For example, having an all star starting picture become a reliever role. Anyway, I'm thinking of still allocation 20% to ratings, since I will still use the "Other Ratings" and the AI seems to make better decisions. Plus, I will have some access and will be evaluating non-stats data too. Do you think this is OK?

Thank you!!

[USF]

Originally Posted by BKL

I have been playing a fictional league for 10 years and now want to convert to a "stats only" league. I have some questions and I know there are some postings here, but looking for clarification:

(1) What do you do about international free agents since they don't show stats? Do you just rely on written scouting text? Or is there are way to turn off international free agents?

(2) If you turn off international free agents, how do you get international players into your league? I read something about feeder leagues. My understanding was that feeder leagues are for high school and college players (not necessarily international free agents).

(3) I have read that the best AI settings for a stats only league is 0/67/22/11. I notice when using this the AI makes some weird decisions, and I tested this. For example, having an all star starting picture become a reliever role. Anyway, I'm thinking of still allocation 20% to ratings, since I will still use the "Other Ratings" and the AI seems to make better decisions. Plus, I will have some access and will be evaluating non-stats data too. Do you think this is OK?

Thank you!!

I will try to best answer your questions having run a current stats only online league since 2012 (19 seasons).

#1.
We use INT FA. This is one of the more exciting parts of our season when they declare. You rely on your scout/potential rating and character traits (work ethic/leadership/intelligence) of each player. Yes you can select None in the league options.

#2.
There is INT FA & FA from IND leagues available in the league setting options. I guess you could create a PRO feeder league from a different country such as Italy if you wanted too.

#3.
We use 50-30-15-5. Seems to work well 50/50 balance between ratings and stats. Again this is for an online league with human GMs.

[BKL]

Originally Posted by USF

I will try to best answer your questions having run a current stats only online league since 2012 (19 seasons).

#1.
We use INT FA. This is one of the more exciting parts of our season when they declare. You rely on your scout/potential rating and character traits (work ethic/leadership/intelligence) of each player. Yes you can select None in the league options.

#2.
There is INT FA & FA from IND leagues available in the league setting options. I guess you could create a PRO feeder league from a different country such as Italy if you wanted too.

#3.
We use 50-30-15-5. Seems to work well 50/50 balance between ratings and stats. Again this is for an online league with human GMs.

Thank you for the information! Quick follow up....

You mention in Answer #1 above, that you rely on scout potential/potential rating....do you play with potential ratings on? I thought the idea was no ratings, just stats, or am I misunderstanding your answer?

Based on Answer #1 above, it sounds like you just the traditional default international FA without a feeder league. Is this correct? Or do you in fact use feeder leagues for International FA?

In Answer #2 from above, you mention that there is an International FA option for free agency. If you use this option, when do they enter your league? Just at free agency time, or is there a draft, or separate International FA signing period just like in default game play?


Thank you!

[USF]

Originally Posted by BKL

Thank you for the information! Quick follow up....
You mention in Answer #1 above, that you rely on scout potential/potential rating....do you play with potential ratings on? I thought the idea was no ratings, just stats, or am I misunderstanding your answer?
Based on Answer #1 above, it sounds like you just the traditional default international FA without a feeder league. Is this correct? Or do you in fact use feeder leagues for International FA?
In Answer #2 from above, you mention that there is an International FA option for free agency. If you use this option, when do they enter your league? Just at free agency time, or is there a draft, or separate International FA signing period just like in default game play?
Thank you!

Sorry - yes Potential ratings are on only. I guess you could turn them off too but that seems to be a bit much considering how inconsistent the scouts can be even at high setting. I guess our league is stats/potential only. Hidden Ratings.

Yes that is correct we use the INT FA and basically all the settings available under league options / Players. We have 4 feeders; 1 is a College - US/NCAA, 2/3 are Canadian & Japan Pro Baseball Leagues (same difficulty as USA NCAA College) and the 4th is a High School Feeder league.

There is a INT FA draft in or around June 25th each year which I believe is around the same date MLB has their INT FA draft too.

[Cinnamon J. Scudworth]

Originally Posted by BKL

(3) I have read that the best AI settings for a stats only league is 0/67/22/11. I notice when using this the AI makes some weird decisions, and I tested this. For example, having an all star starting picture become a reliever role. Anyway, I'm thinking of still allocation 20% to ratings, since I will still use the "Other Ratings" and the AI seems to make better decisions. Plus, I will have some access and will be evaluating non-stats data too. Do you think this is OK?

It's your game, so it's okay if it works for you. There is a weird insistence on some in the "stats only" community that if you are playing without looking at ratings, then the AI shouldn't be able to either. This seems silly to me. In my opinion, the purpose of playing stats only in a solo game is primarily to make it more challenging on yourself. To force the AI to join you in tying one hand behind its back, as it were, seems to defeat the purpose, especially if it results in unrealistic decisions by the AI. I'd let the AI use ratings.

[NoOne]

i like to focus how things affect the AI, too. in the past as a kid, i'd typically control 1 team's decisions on the opposing league (nfl, baseballl, hockey, whatever) and make sure i always had some real competition - or at least 1 'better' team.

i didn't always see them in the championship game, but over time it occured often enough. even now in ootp, i make sure there are 3 larger markets in each league. an attempt to set up ~3 consistently competitive teams. i'll start them off with a good GM/scout and give different overall strategies and it's fun to see which roster strats worked better over those 1 or 2 decades to start.

lately the "favor ability" GMs are WAY more consistent than the favor tools AI GM and scouts. in fact the ones with a neutral scout and a favor ability gm seems like the best combination so far in a very small sample and an uncontrolled environment (lots of possible false flags).

[guizmo]

One question: can one have a ranking of players on the stats that include more than the first 11 players? With rankings for example, the top 20 of each stats ....?