Is this the game for what I want?

Ozymandius · 03-22-2012, 02:45 PM

I will apologize in advance for the wall of text incoming.

I am looking for a simulator that can handle the following. I am looking to have a league that would start in a given year, say 1950. This league would use an auction system (handled out side the game) to distribute players and would have probably 3 or 4 fewer teams than MLB does at the current time, and would expand as MLB expands. Managers would submit lineups, manager settings, etc (outside of game) and these would all be enter and the season would be run in 5 phases, (roughly 40, 40, 30, 30, 22) with any player who has gone reached his usage limit (IP or AB they actually had in the majors that year) would be ineligible to play any more that season. New lineups/Manager settings can be submitted after each phase, trades can be made. Playoffs would be phases 6 and 7 but without usage checks (if you made it through 140 games you are eligible for the rest of year including post season). A keeper number would be determined and players would be able to retain that many players and the rest would go into a free agent pool and the process starts over.

My understanding is that OOTPB can handle all of the above.

How accurate are the replays compared to how a player did that year and I see a lot about

I am wondering about how easy it is to export player ratings for future seasons (actual ratings not the stats from the simulation year) so people can prepare for auction and is this allowed by the license agreement?

I would like a team owner to be able to pick a home stadium to play in and how does this simulator handle park effects? For example, the league may be in 1960 but I want them to play in PNC park 2010 version, is this doable? (seems like it would via edit park function which I just found after typing all of this)

How easy is it to export results and feed to a web page?

If every owner has a copy of the game it seems an online league could be set up, but if every owner does not have a copy, I would want to export the results and post to a web page etc.

Player performance would be based on the actual performance that year not a 3 yr average.

Several years ago, all of the above was done using SOM but that would be at great cost and this looks like a great simulator (an owner from the old league recommended it) so I am looking for feedback to the above and if what I am proposing is even allowed by the license agreement.

Thanks in advance for reading this and any feedback is much appreciated.

Reggie · 03-22-2012, 07:12 PM

Not able to answer your questions because the most exotic I get with the game is holding an inaugural draft. Figured I'd give this a bump to see if anyone can help before it drops off the page.

battists · 03-22-2012, 09:59 PM

First off, there is nothing prohibiting what you want to do from a licensing perspective. (Licensing rules are pretty hands off with what you do with your own copy of the game.)

The setup you've described is extremely unorthodox. I've been out of the loop for a while, so I can't say 100% for certain whether or not you can accomplish this with OOTP, but I guarantee this: if OOTP CAN do it, it will DEFINITELY be complicated and involve a lot of micromanaging and trial and error. It just goes with the territory of asking a tool to do something way outside the bounds of what it is expected to do.

Despite my affiliation with and affinity for OOTP, I suspect that, at the end of the day, OOTP won't be able to do precisely what you're looking for. On the other hand, I doubt there are any computer games that will come as close as OOTP can.

In looking at your message, some thoughts:

Start in a given year - doable
Auction system - doable, but would involve a lot of manual work by the commish
3-4 teams fewer than MLB, with expansion - doable
Managers submit lineups and settings - doable (easier as an online league; would be a lot of micromanagement for a commissioner to do it all)
5 phase season - it's certainly possible to set up any kind of schedule you want in OOTP, but custom schedules are difficult to create. On top of that, OOTP will not recognize the "phases" you describe. For example, it's not going to start the counting over at 0-0 after 40 games, or track what a team's record was during Phase 2. You would have to deal with that manually somehow. OOTP would certainly store enough data to enable you to do that, though. OOTP also supports "split-season" schedules, which are effectively like "two phase" seasons, so perhaps that is closer.
Usage limit - doable, but only through manual scrutiny and action by the commissioner; OOTP won't warn you when someone is over the limit or anything
Trades - doable
Keeper numbers - again, doable, but with a lot of micromanagement by the commish
export player ratings - not quite sure what you're looking for, but an ootp online league has a lot of reports that people would be able to use to view ratings; I think you could provide plenty to prepare for auction
Pick home stadium - no problem, you can customize every park and the park effects - but again, manual work
Export results and feed to a web page - pretty easy, but mainly suited to someone who already has hosted web space and knows what they are doing
Online league would certainly make your life easier in, but you can certainly run a "faux online league" with you doing all of the work and posting the results. It has been done before. But it's a LOT of work.
Player performance based on actual performance that year - doable.

Hope this helps!

Dagrims · 03-23-2012, 10:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by battists

[*]5 phase season - it's certainly possible to set up any kind of schedule you want in OOTP, but custom schedules are difficult to create. On top of that, OOTP will not recognize the "phases" you describe. For example, it's not going to start the counting over at 0-0 after 40 games, or track what a team's record was during Phase 2. You would have to deal with that manually somehow. OOTP would certainly store enough data to enable you to do that, though. OOTP also supports "split-season" schedules, which are effectively like "two phase" seasons, so perhaps that is closer.

Battists, thanks for the detailed response. I'm the 'owner from an old league' who he was referencing. With respect to playing the game in phases, he was asking about playing through a certain date, then have owners submit revised lineups/rotations/depth charts/strategies, then run the next 'phase' (set) of games. I know this can easily be done in OOTP.

ZMan · 03-23-2012, 11:02 AM

I run a league with usage limits similar to what Ozymandias describes above. It is a lot of busywork for the commish to monitor playing time caps, but OOTP at least provides a realistic sim structure for doing a season replay league.

I do wish we could add an OOTP feature that sends an alert to you when a player has reached a specified cap (whether it be PA, AB, or games started, etc.)

Ozymandius · 03-23-2012, 12:42 PM

Thanks for the response and yes I should have been more clear, instead of stopping after 40 games, I think we did it before where standings and such were just printed out after like 45 days 45 days, 35 days 35 days and then rest of the regular seasons, so I would not think this should be too much of a problem. Please correct me if I am wrong.

03-22-2012, 02:45 PM	#1
Ozymandius Minors (Rookie Ball) Join Date: Mar 2012 Posts: 24	Is this the game for what I want? I will apologize in advance for the wall of text incoming. I am looking for a simulator that can handle the following. I am looking to have a league that would start in a given year, say 1950. This league would use an auction system (handled out side the game) to distribute players and would have probably 3 or 4 fewer teams than MLB does at the current time, and would expand as MLB expands. Managers would submit lineups, manager settings, etc (outside of game) and these would all be enter and the season would be run in 5 phases, (roughly 40, 40, 30, 30, 22) with any player who has gone reached his usage limit (IP or AB they actually had in the majors that year) would be ineligible to play any more that season. New lineups/Manager settings can be submitted after each phase, trades can be made. Playoffs would be phases 6 and 7 but without usage checks (if you made it through 140 games you are eligible for the rest of year including post season). A keeper number would be determined and players would be able to retain that many players and the rest would go into a free agent pool and the process starts over. My understanding is that OOTPB can handle all of the above. How accurate are the replays compared to how a player did that year and I see a lot about I am wondering about how easy it is to export player ratings for future seasons (actual ratings not the stats from the simulation year) so people can prepare for auction and is this allowed by the license agreement? I would like a team owner to be able to pick a home stadium to play in and how does this simulator handle park effects? For example, the league may be in 1960 but I want them to play in PNC park 2010 version, is this doable? (seems like it would via edit park function which I just found after typing all of this) How easy is it to export results and feed to a web page? If every owner has a copy of the game it seems an online league could be set up, but if every owner does not have a copy, I would want to export the results and post to a web page etc. Player performance would be based on the actual performance that year not a 3 yr average. Several years ago, all of the above was done using SOM but that would be at great cost and this looks like a great simulator (an owner from the old league recommended it) so I am looking for feedback to the above and if what I am proposing is even allowed by the license agreement. Thanks in advance for reading this and any feedback is much appreciated.

03-22-2012, 09:59 PM	#3
battists Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 18,506 Blog Entries: 7	First off, there is nothing prohibiting what you want to do from a licensing perspective. (Licensing rules are pretty hands off with what you do with your own copy of the game.) The setup you've described is extremely unorthodox. I've been out of the loop for a while, so I can't say 100% for certain whether or not you can accomplish this with OOTP, but I guarantee this: if OOTP CAN do it, it will DEFINITELY be complicated and involve a lot of micromanaging and trial and error. It just goes with the territory of asking a tool to do something way outside the bounds of what it is expected to do. Despite my affiliation with and affinity for OOTP, I suspect that, at the end of the day, OOTP won't be able to do precisely what you're looking for. On the other hand, I doubt there are any computer games that will come as close as OOTP can. In looking at your message, some thoughts: Start in a given year - doable Auction system - doable, but would involve a lot of manual work by the commish 3-4 teams fewer than MLB, with expansion - doable Managers submit lineups and settings - doable (easier as an online league; would be a lot of micromanagement for a commissioner to do it all) 5 phase season - it's certainly possible to set up any kind of schedule you want in OOTP, but custom schedules are difficult to create. On top of that, OOTP will not recognize the "phases" you describe. For example, it's not going to start the counting over at 0-0 after 40 games, or track what a team's record was during Phase 2. You would have to deal with that manually somehow. OOTP would certainly store enough data to enable you to do that, though. OOTP also supports "split-season" schedules, which are effectively like "two phase" seasons, so perhaps that is closer. Usage limit - doable, but only through manual scrutiny and action by the commissioner; OOTP won't warn you when someone is over the limit or anything Trades - doable Keeper numbers - again, doable, but with a lot of micromanagement by the commish export player ratings - not quite sure what you're looking for, but an ootp online league has a lot of reports that people would be able to use to view ratings; I think you could provide plenty to prepare for auction Pick home stadium - no problem, you can customize every park and the park effects - but again, manual work Export results and feed to a web page - pretty easy, but mainly suited to someone who already has hosted web space and knows what they are doing Online league would certainly make your life easier in, but you can certainly run a "faux online league" with you doing all of the work and posting the results. It has been done before. But it's a LOT of work. Player performance based on actual performance that year - doable. Hope this helps! __________________ Come check out my dynasty report, Funky Times!

03-22-2012, 07:12 PM	#2
Reggie Major Leagues Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Rochester, NY Posts: 442	Not able to answer your questions because the most exotic I get with the game is holding an inaugural draft. Figured I'd give this a bump to see if anyone can help before it drops off the page.

03-23-2012, 11:02 AM	#5
ZMan Minors (Double A) Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Brooklyn, NY Posts: 107	I run a league with usage limits similar to what Ozymandias describes above. It is a lot of busywork for the commish to monitor playing time caps, but OOTP at least provides a realistic sim structure for doing a season replay league. I do wish we could add an OOTP feature that sends an alert to you when a player has reached a specified cap (whether it be PA, AB, or games started, etc.)

03-23-2012, 12:42 PM	#6
Ozymandius Minors (Rookie Ball) Join Date: Mar 2012 Posts: 24	Thanks for the response and yes I should have been more clear, instead of stopping after 40 games, I think we did it before where standings and such were just printed out after like 45 days 45 days, 35 days 35 days and then rest of the regular seasons, so I would not think this should be too much of a problem. Please correct me if I am wrong.