College Baseball Online League

[jaxoncorbit]

So, after extensive trial and error I have created the most realistic College Baseball experience I can make using OOTP 17. Its incredibly fun and I've played decades on it. I want to bring this experience to online play because as fun as it is now, I feel playing it with other real people controlling their favorite schools from around the country would be even more fun! My only problem is, I have no experience creating or running an online league and would need a lot of help with that. I'm more than willing to work with someone who knows more about it than I do. Please let me know if there is any interest in a game world like this and/or if anyone can help me. Following is some info about the world I've created:

-Includes Division 1,2,3 NAIA Juco and High School.
-Players have the option to take teams from any of these levels, even High School.
-Recruiting consists of year round Free Agent like bidding. Each league has a salary cap which is in place of a certain number of "Scholarships" being available. Salary Cap space can be spent on players however the GM feels is neccesary.
-Due to OOTP only limiting age of players, there are certain players who are able to play a full five years instead of the four that college allows due to the players birth date but this is available to every GM so its fair.
-Hall of Fame functions for every level of play.
-High School has a yearly draft to spread talent around.
-Playoffs consist of a Sub-Regional, Regional, Super Regional, and World Series form. The amount of rounds and number of games per round varies by league.
-I have included most major colleges at each level but obviously coould not include everyone or may have forgotten some so I'm more than willing to change the name of certain schools to fit what a GM wants to play as.

[USF]

Originally Posted by jaxoncorbit

So, after extensive trial and error I have created the most realistic College Baseball experience I can make using OOTP 17. Its incredibly fun and I've played decades on it. I want to bring this experience to online play because as fun as it is now, I feel playing it with other real people controlling their favorite schools from around the country would be even more fun! My only problem is, I have no experience creating or running an online league and would need a lot of help with that. I'm more than willing to work with someone who knows more about it than I do. Please let me know if there is any interest in a game world like this and/or if anyone can help me. Following is some info about the world I've created:

-Includes Division 1,2,3 NAIA Juco and High School.
-Players have the option to take teams from any of these levels, even High School.
-Recruiting consists of year round Free Agent like bidding. Each league has a salary cap which is in place of a certain number of "Scholarships" being available. Salary Cap space can be spent on players however the GM feels is neccesary.
-Due to OOTP only limiting age of players, there are certain players who are able to play a full five years instead of the four that college allows due to the players birth date but this is available to every GM so its fair.
-Hall of Fame functions for every level of play.
-High School has a yearly draft to spread talent around.
-Playoffs consist of a Sub-Regional, Regional, Super Regional, and World Series form. The amount of rounds and number of games per round varies by league.
-I have included most major colleges at each level but obviously coould not include everyone or may have forgotten some so I'm more than willing to change the name of certain schools to fit what a GM wants to play as.

Deja Vu - I was thinking about something like this over the holidays. Not sure I have the time to commit to this but, was curious what happens to the players once they leave college? Do you keep the ML/AAA/AA/A to follow their development?

Jason

[jaxoncorbit]

No, the world is already huge with tons of players and teams. I did do that one time but it ran so slow that I could not convince myself it was worth it just to see how their careers would pan out. Its possible, it works perfectly, just not good for a cheap laptop.

[x12AiDeRx]

I am interested! Please send me a direct message with any details :-)

[jparker2112]

Color me in!!! Do you happen to have a quickstart for those of us wanting to do a solo lg?

[italianstallion]

I'd also be interested...but wondering how it would work out in practice if there was one owner of a Pac12 team, one over in SEC, one in high school, etc....I guess I'm wondering how many owners you'd have to get so that you'd be competing against people instead of AI on a regular basis. Would you try to push owners towards one particular conference/level/etc. at first or just leave it up to everyone as to where they would go?

[jaxoncorbit]

Originally Posted by italianstallion

I'd also be interested...but wondering how it would work out in practice if there was one owner of a Pac12 team, one over in SEC, one in high school, etc....I guess I'm wondering how many owners you'd have to get so that you'd be competing against people instead of AI on a regular basis. Would you try to push owners towards one particular conference/level/etc. at first or just leave it up to everyone as to where they would go?

I definitely wouldn't force people to be in any certainleague. I would try to have as many owners as possible but youre right it could be a lot of computer run teams. However, I will say a lot of the battling is in the recruiting. Because of the Salary Cap, recruiting is a huge part of the game and you would be fighting over the same players with other GM's. Also, winning your Conference versus mostly computer teams and then playing the other GMs in the playoffs would still be really fun and interesting.

[italianstallion]

Originally Posted by jaxoncorbit

I definitely wouldn't force people to be in any certainleague. I would try to have as many owners as possible but youre right it could be a lot of computer run teams. However, I will say a lot of the battling is in the recruiting. Because of the Salary Cap, recruiting is a huge part of the game and you would be fighting over the same players with other GM's. Also, winning your Conference versus mostly computer teams and then playing the other GMs in the playoffs would still be really fun and interesting.

hmmm that's an interesting point. Can you elaborate on the salary cap recruiting process? Is there like one big auction? Or ongoing throughout the year and you don't know what type of talent is available later? Do players always go to highest bidder?

[USF]

Originally Posted by jaxoncorbit

No, the world is already huge with tons of players and teams. I did do that one time but it ran so slow that I could not convince myself it was worth it just to see how their careers would pan out. Its possible, it works perfectly, just not good for a cheap laptop.

I feel there is an added benefit of also seeing how they pan out in real life - something to consider if this moves forward. I know I would be excited to see my youngster playing in the big leagues and I would finally have a REAL GOOD use for the SHORTLIST! feature.

[USF]

Originally Posted by USF

I feel there is an added benefit of also seeing how they pan out in real life - something to consider if this moves forward. I know I would be excited to see my youngster playing in the big leagues and I would finally have a REAL GOOD use for the SHORTLIST! feature.

Thinking out of the box, another great angle with having the ML involved is you could create some sort of a recruiting bonus for GMs/teams that developed ML players as a hook to the process.

[jaxoncorbit]

Originally Posted by italianstallion

hmmm that's an interesting point. Can you elaborate on the salary cap recruiting process? Is there like one big auction? Or ongoing throughout the year and you don't know what type of talent is available later? Do players always go to highest bidder?

At the end of the season, after the High School and JUCO playoffs have ended, the players that are too old to play in those leagues become available as Free Agents in the College leagues. This is where the most recruiting takes place. There have been times that I have lost recruits to Division 2 teams because they spent more money than I did. Its a balancing act. If you spend too much on that big name star that every school is trying to sign then you are leaving yourself vulnerable to a lack of depth or talent spread throughout your team. I've seen that having two or three big names is fine for the regular season but it kills you come playoff time because other teams are much more well rounded. The other thing to note is that recruiting is throughout the offseason. The season ends in June or July so you recruit a lot through the fall but there will be players that become available throughout the winter leading up to preseason so if you spend all your money and then a huge talent becomes available in December, another school could get him on a small scholarship because no one else has money left to bid.

[jaxoncorbit]

Originally Posted by USF

Thinking out of the box, another great angle with having the ML involved is you could create some sort of a recruiting bonus for GMs/teams that developed ML players as a hook to the process.

No doubt about it, creating a Major league setting for the players to go to would be awesome to see, and could definitely be entertained as an option when creating the league. I like the incentive idea, maybe adding to a teams scholarship money for certain positive aspects of the game, simulating making them more "desirable" to a player. It was really fun to see the players advance to the Majors and have a career when I tried it!

[USF]

Originally Posted by jaxoncorbit

No doubt about it, creating a Major league setting for the players to go to would be awesome to see, and could definitely be entertained as an option when creating the league. I like the incentive idea, maybe adding to a teams scholarship money for certain positive aspects of the game, simulating making them more "desirable" to a player. It was really fun to see the players advance to the Majors and have a career when I tried it!

In this league concept you focus on winning championships but, also taking pride of the number of players you have graduated to the big leagues. You have your own HOF for that level in College but, also can retire jerseys for players that exceled at the MLs too. There might be a case where a player in your college team wasn't the best but, went on to have one of the best careers in MLs' Stuff like that is cool.

If I read your other post correctly, this means alot of playing versus computer controlled teams?...

[jaxoncorbit]

Originally Posted by USF

In this league concept you focus on winning championships but, also taking pride of the number of players you have graduated to the big leagues. You have your own HOF for that level in College but, also can retire jerseys for players that exceled at the MLs too. There might be a case where a player in your college team wasn't the best but, went on to have one of the best careers in MLs' Stuff like that is cool.

If I read your other post correctly, this means alot of playing versus computer controlled teams?...

That all depends on how many people we can get to join. The more people we get the better, and the less you play the computer.

[italianstallion]

I'm definitely interested if you could get enough people to do it (or at least a group of people who agreed to be in the same conference).

[Matty86]

I'd be interested if this happens! Cool concept, I really need to get a solo game going with a set up like this!

[mookiecrisp]

This seems very interesting, could you PM me if you're looking for a member?

[traviswjames]

Was wondering if i could join ur college league?

[Robo]

I would be interested too.