"Scouting Director Recommendation" seems strange

[nedyken]

Something I've noticed for a while. During the draft if I click "Scouting Director Recommendation", why does it always select the top prospect according to OOTP Scouting Association? Shouldn't it select the top prospect according to my Scouting Director?

Example... my Scouting Director has 2 players in this draft he considers 5 star potential. OOTP has 6 different guys they consider to have 5 star potential. If I click "Scouting Director Recommendation", it seems to pull from one of the 6 guys OOTP has as 5 star potential... not the 2 guys that my Scouting Director seems to think have 5 star potential. Anyone else notice that?

It's like my Scouting Director is like "Well here's the 2 guys I think have superstar potential... but I'm just some dolt... so I recommend you take one of the guys the media likes". Why am I even paying this a-hole?

[Avindian]

I'd never noticed that, but then I rarely use that function. I don't think it's worked well since 2013 at least.

[goalieump413]

I usually ignore my scouting director (odd, but true). I check with him to see what the AI suggests, but I always draft from my own perspective. Later in the draft though, I just go with the scouting director for the last few rounds.

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by goalieump413

I usually ignore my scouting director (odd, but true). I check with him to see what the AI suggests, but I always draft from my own perspective. Later in the draft though, I just go with the scouting director for the last few rounds.

Same here, on all counts.

[craftdr]

Originally Posted by goalieump413

I usually ignore my scouting director (odd, but true). I check with him to see what the AI suggests, but I always draft from my own perspective. Later in the draft though, I just go with the scouting director for the last few rounds.

I also do this but the reason is because of what the nedyken posted. I could never understand why the scout I hire for his take on things always suggests the highest rated player by OOTP and not him.

[Rockfan616]

I go with a mix usually, but I did notice that the scouting director almost inevitably will want to take the guy who you most likely will have trouble signing (at least in the amateur draft anyway) and not someone who would be much easier to sign. Not sure why this is, but when I just had my amateur draft a couple of days ago that's what happened.

[24Rocks]

Even tho I dont Use scouts I use this feature sometimes to see what the AI suggests and find somebody i haven't looked at before who might be a better choice then who I want

[Cryomaniac]

Originally Posted by goalieump413

I usually ignore my scouting director (odd, but true). I check with him to see what the AI suggests, but I always draft from my own perspective. Later in the draft though, I just go with the scouting director for the last few rounds.

Same here mostly.

[Déjà Bru]

One thing that I have noticed, or think that I have noticed but cannot prove without much study, so take this with a grain of salt, is that your scouting director ignores crucial personality traits such as intelligence and work ethic. On the other hand, the AI seems to avoid players with negative ratings in these traits like the plague. See if you notice this as well during your amateur drafts.

[rpriske]

I use the scouting director for drafts in historical leagues. I get too much of an advantage otherwise.

[Avindian]

I wonder if anybody happens to know the answer to this: if I auto draft (normally I personally draft for the first ten to fifteen rounds, but even I have my limits), is that the same as just following the Scouting Director's recommendations?

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by Avindian

I wonder if anybody happens to know the answer to this: if I auto draft (normally I personally draft for the first ten to fifteen rounds, but even I have my limits), is that the same as just following the Scouting Director's recommendations?

Hmmm. That depends if you buy my premise in post #9. That is, if using your scouting director's recommendations during the draft is a built-in disadvantage, intentionally or not, then no, I would say that if you just auto-draft you are using the same AI module as your AI opponents in the draft.

It makes sense to me that way because the scouting director's recommendations are not what the AI does when it's drafting on its own. The AI is smarter about those personality traits that definitely have an impact on player development. At least, that is my impression.

[Pdubya64]

I wonder if the changes to AI that Markus implemented this year have not yet been carried over to Head Scout AI behavior, which in my opinion has always been a tad wonky. That may account for the differences Bru is referencing.

Then again, perhaps a change in the way the Head Scout AI fundamentally evaluates players is needed.

[endgame]

Strange as saying this sounds, even to me, my scout and I have had more than our share of disagreements. The majority of the time, frankly, I play the rank card and overrule him. In a few other cases, I've trusted his 'hunches' or inclinations, making a note in a player's history that he occupies his spot due directly to my scout's recommendation.

Now it's a new league, a new version, probably new discoveries yet to make, but suffice to say over the years of playing the game, examining and testing scouting, often obsessively, I've arrived at two main conclusions: I'm probably right only a bit more often than my scout was in the borderline picks, and if the mechanics of scouting ever evolve into easily understood stratagems and identifiable translations, well, it won't be scouting any longer.

[stealofhome]

In the draft I did last night, I thought of using the player value data from the exported game database to draft players. The scouting recommendation ALWAYS chose the top talent value player available in the draft, unless it wanted me to take a pitcher. For some reason, pitching talent value is considered differently than overall talent value. In this case, the scouting director did not have me chose the top talent pitcher, so I'm not sure what they do for them.

I use it as a guide. There are a few players available in that spot, which have better personalities? what position do I need? etc.

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by endgame

Strange as saying this sounds, even to me, my scout and I have had more than our share of disagreements. The majority of the time, frankly, I play the rank card and overrule him. In a few other cases, I've trusted his 'hunches' or inclinations, making a note in a player's history that he occupies his spot due directly to my scout's recommendation.

Now it's a new league, a new version, probably new discoveries yet to make, but suffice to say over the years of playing the game, examining and testing scouting, often obsessively, I've arrived at two main conclusions: I'm probably right only a bit more often than my scout was in the borderline picks, and if the mechanics of scouting ever evolve into easily understood stratagems and identifiable translations, well, it won't be scouting any longer.

Good post, particularly the last sentence. I do appreciate "the fog of baseball," so to speak.

[nedyken]

If my scouting director is "Legendary" rated, he should be a pretty good judge of talent. It's just that button in particular that is confusing... it seems to pick from the best players according to OOTP (the media) instead of the best players according to my scouting director. If it was "OOTP Recommendation", the button would be working properly. But since it's "Scouting Director Recommendation", I don't expect to see a guy who has 5 star potential according to OOTP and 1 star potential according to my Scouting Director.

[Gator]

I know I'm late to the party, but I agree that this is a problem and the draft list recommendation should mirror your scout's evaluations and not the OOTP Scouting Association rankings. I am not at all suggesting that the fog of war element be tinkered with, merely that the scout's recommended draft list reflect his individual player evaluations.

[PSUColonel]

I have to admit, that even though many might ignore the scouting director, something is off that shouldn't be. The recommendation should always be according to YOUR scouting Director....not OSA. I think there is a chance the recommendation is based on the real ratings though, and not even OSA.

[tejdog1]

Speaking of - anyone noticed that when players actually... perform, it's based on OSA ratings, and not your scout? Even if he's legendary across the board.

Like... if OSA says some guy is rated 60/50/50/65/65 as a 19 year old relative to midA ball (the lowest fullseason A ball league), and your scout says he's 25/20/20/30/30, the dude will hit .310/.395/.565.