Beginner Looking For Tips

[Brew Crew]

Beginner Looking For Tips

Never played a sim like this before which has led to my imagination going wild. Friday wont get here soon enough. Former collegiate ball player and know the ins and outs of baseball but was curious if anybody cared to share some tips that are good to know before you start a season. I just want to make sure my first time through is an enjoyable experience.

Trading tips?

Roster management?

Resting of stars? Playing of reserves?

Call ups?

Money management?

General guidance?


Appreciate all your responses. Reading threads in the forum have made me eager to see what all the hype is about.

Thanks

Brew Crew

[NYY #23]

Welcome. Try the demo for 13 to get a feel for things to ease the wait. Check out ootpmods for things that may interest you such as logo's, ballparks, etc while you wait to.

There are so many different ways to play the game, GM'ing, managing, doing both. Fictional, historical, current season. What type of league are you interested in? That might help with some of the advice.

You may also want to check out this thread too:
http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...w-players.html

[MizzouRah]

Welcome!

Those video tutorials are fantastic! I would suggest starting with the MLB quickstart and diving in, asking questions on here as you go.

I let the CPU manage my minors for the most part and only really worry about my ML club.

Most things you can choose the AI to set for you and adjust from there.

I believe if you are on a particular screen and need help, pressing F1 will take you to the help portion for that particular screen.

Have fun, it's really a special game.

[oman19]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

Welcome!

Those video tutorials are fantastic! I would suggest starting with the MLB quickstart and diving in, asking questions on here as you go.

I let the CPU manage my minors for the most part and only really worry about my ML club.

Most things you can choose the AI to set for you and adjust from there.

I believe if you are on a particular screen and need help, pressing F1 will take you to the help portion for that particular screen.

Have fun, it's really a special game.

I do the same as MizzouRah with my minors. I think it helps put me on a little more equal footing as the AI and takes some of the micromanagement out of it.

[SodoMojo]

Being new myself I'll share with you what I found to be useful:

This is assuming you're already trying the demo.

Trading tips?
I changed the setting for trades from average to hard...found it too easy to trade for prospects or all-stars otherwise.

Roster management?
Agree with what others have said, let the AI take care of your Minor League System and just keep an eye on it.

Resting of stars? Playing of reserves?
I just set backups to the option: "if starter is tired" on the lineup screen

Call ups?
No solid advice other then so far I've let the AI call up prospects (i.e. AI is in charge of Promotion/Demotion) or if I have a need for a position I will ask a scout to look at a potential candidate and use the 5.0 scout scale to judge how they will fair in the Majors with their current skillset.

Money management?
When trading always try to add a little money from the other team...more often then not you have a trade set up that they will accept, re-start the trade and add some money. More often then not you can get some extra $$ and keep the same trade in contact.

General guidance?
I suggest changing the scouting/profile stats/etc. to a scale of 1-100 where applicable. Just easier for me personally to gauge skills.

Personally like the OOTP Dark skin in version 13.

Customize/Mod it...makes it more immersive to see actual MLB team logos and player pics (I use ESPN High Res pack from these forums and Justafans MLB Hat logos)

Play the demo, be patient, check the forums and play with options until you find the way you like to play it. I'm loving it so far and can see this being a life ruiner. (in a good way)

[Pdubya64]

If I had to give one piece of advice, it would be to do your best to be patient with the game, both short and long term. As pointed out, there are some ways to lighten the load on yourself at first, and that's good; but ultimately OOTP is an extremely detailed simulation that can be rather intimidating and overwhelming, even for someone familiar with Baseball.

Don't despair if you find it hard to create the baseball universe of your dreams. Keep at it- the end results are well worth the effort. Don't forget to lean on all the great forum contributors here, they are our greatest strength in my opinion.

I find historical play v. enjoyable, but feel that fictional leagues are where OOTP's true strength lies. Make sure and try all the modes out.

Welcome and have fun!

[olivertheorem]

Patience, patience, patience.

And don't feel bad if you start over a few times as you start learning the game.

[potsey7]

These guys are right...start slow and go through all the screens and menus and look at all the different elements to the game and then decide what you want to control. I also agree that quick starting a major league is the best way to go because you are familiar with the teams/players. I personally control everything because I have fallen in love with this game. I also play out every game of my team. Also, another great thing are the people on this site...they will answer any question you have without making you feel small ha! I have learned the most about the game just pouring over these forums. Great people here

[sandman2575]

As an extreme newb, I'm in no position to be giving advice, but I've already learned something important about scouting. (I'm playing the ootp13 demo to feel my way around and will start a new fictional league when 14 comes out).

One of the very first things I'll do in my new 14 league is: make sure I hire a quality scouting director. I did an inaugural draft for the fictional league, leaning pretty heavily on my scout's ratings. After I put together an entire franchise, I decided to check out my scouting director's skills. They were bad. Mostly "Fair" (which I believe is only one notch above "Inexperienced") and at best "OK". I was interested in finding a scout who was at least "Decent" in Minors and Amateur scouting, so I dumped my crappy scout and hired a better one. Boy was I surprised by the difference! My franchise that was brimming with bright young talent was suddenly revealed to be filled with garbage. The difference in assessments was truly night and day. And sure enough, when Spring Training started, the news wire projected my team to finish dead last in its division.

So note to self: hire a good scout from the get-go!

[hit_or_miss54680]

As a player since OOTP3, here's what I've got for you:

Trading tips?
DEFINITELY set trading to hard and set prospect trading and draft pick trading to off. It's WAY too easy to get a superstar for a few scrubs and low draft pick otherwise. Also, You can get anyone on the trading block for a song (but usually they have bad contracts you'd have to absorb)

Roster management?
Let AI take care of your Minor League System. Something I like to do with the major leagues is set a couple key superstar players to "Force Use at [Position]" to ensure they are always used and not just matched up against correct pitching matchups.

Resting of stars? Playing of reserves?
I play almost exclusively as GM so I don't have tips for this. Occasionally if I have a young stud pitcher coming up, I'll use the inning cap for them.

Call ups?
I let AI do this. Sometimes if I really want a player up, I will bring them up and do "Force Use at Position" but I don't do that often.

Money management?
Always check the "Upcoming Free Agents" screen and trade anyone who is not vital and who you wont' resign.

General guidance?
I suggest using stars (to get an at-a-glance view) and set the ratings to 1-8 because it increased the stress of deciding between two players. There's a BIG difference between a guy who is a 71 at something and a guy who is 88 at something, but from 7-8.... you've gotta think hard.

[Cras]

I let the AI do a lot. I hire a manager and let him set lineups and Pitching staffs.....but I do tell him what to do quite a bit. Under strategy you will be able to set certain guys as starters at positions. This will help get your manager to play the team as intended, the way you built them to be played.

I often had situation where I got a guy who I wanted to be my....say 3B, and then for whatever reason, the manager wanting more defense or whatever, would platoon him with other guys in that spot. No no no, I got him because he can hit 20-30 HRs and he is only gonna do that if you play him every day, so play him everyday. That way I have a pretty firm set starters, and then let the manager figure out the rest.

And let the AI run your minor leagues. If you are new, that can really be a daunting task to run them all yourself. You have maybe 7 minor league clubs and things can really get out of hand down there if you are not paying attention, and I find, for myself, paying that close attention to all those minor league AND my major league club AND other teams who may be in the midst of a season meltdown and which may have players I would want to poach, the game turns into a tedious mess.

[oman19]

I actually sim day to day. I set line-ups and pitching rotation but don't manage the game.

[Isryion]

Originally Posted by Brew Crew

Beginner Looking For Tips

Never played a sim like this before which has led to my imagination going wild. Friday wont get here soon enough. Former collegiate ball player and know the ins and outs of baseball but was curious if anybody cared to share some tips that are good to know before you start a season. I just want to make sure my first time through is an enjoyable experience.

Overall, the beauty of this game is a lot of different strategies can work, you just have to do them well.

Originally Posted by Brew Crew

Trading tips?

I'd agree that you want to probably set the trading to hard to make things more of a challenge and feel more realistic.

Originally Posted by Brew Crew

Roster management?

For your major league roster I'd recommend starting out just using the basic lineups and depth charts. Eventually you'll graduate to wanting to use 7-day lineups for their flexibility.

I let my minor league managers do most of the work in the minors, but I use "Player Strategy" to Force Start at X Position and Disable AI Promotion/Demotion for top prospects. I'd also recommend using no more than 3-4 minor leagues, too.

I can't recommend enough using the force start to make sure minor league players learn as many positions as possible (that they have the potential for) before reaching the majors.

These are three things you need to familiarize yourself with (in case you aren't already) to be successful in OOTP. Not understanding any one of them will cause you to lose players earlier than you would have liked.

Rule 5 Draft
Option Years/40 man roster
Arbitration/Player Control

Originally Posted by Brew Crew

Resting of stars? Playing of reserves?

I rarely have players play two weeks straight unless they are "hot." I believe, anecdotally, that this lessens the chance of injury. I also like playing my reserves to keep them from getting rusty (yes, this is a feature in OOTP).

Additionally, I highly recommend starting out with injuries on low (at worst), especially in your first season. I tried normal and found myself getting frustrated. Too low, though, and I became pretty bored.

Originally Posted by Brew Crew

Call ups?

Everyone's got a different philosophy on this. It really depends on your scouting features, but in general, I have three different criteria for when I feel a player is ready:

1) If the player is clearly statistically ready (crushing AAA)
2) I'll promote a player in the minors if he gets too old (though not to the bigs) even if he's not performing as a "last chance."
3) If my scout says a player is ready and he's mad he's not playing in the majors -- even if his stats aren't there, just in case I've made a mistake and his poor performance in AAA is due to being grumpy.

This gets to your next question, but I rarely call any rookies up to start the season in order to delay their arby clock.

Originally Posted by Brew Crew

Money management?

Where the game is won or lost, imo.
Sign star young players through their arby years (ala Longoria).
Don't re-sign players to big contracts past age 33/34 unless they are superstars (and even then, don't go much further, they seem to drop off even more in OOTP than in real life).
And, most important, make money. If you come out with positive revenue in a season, your owner will increase your budget doesn't matter if you win/lose/win it all, that's what does it in OOTP.

Originally Posted by Brew Crew

General guidance?

I'd start small. Go with a 12-16 team league.

The ratings, settings and scouting will all be relatively easy for you to tell your preference. The smaller the range (1-5 or 1-100) the bigger the challenge. I like the fog of war of scouts, but not everyone does. Ratings, and especially splits, are more useful than stars. Finally each league is different, so be aware of the value of each position within that league (are good hitting catchers more/less rare than shortstops? Is there a dearth of good LHP in your league, making RHP more dominant than expected and thus LHB more valuable?).

Other settings are up to your own preference. For example, pacing: I like the GM POV, but I manage one game a series because it helps me get to know the players better and adds to the immersion. Playing every game means things move slower than I'd like. I've heard other people play a season a day (or multiple seasons a day) and just take the GM role.

Have fun and let us know if you have more questions.

[rpriske]

Add the mods FIRST. If youa re like me and can't wait to start you will jump in, planning to fix up the logos etc soon.

It doesn't work that way. Get the logos (and the facegen, imo) in before you start. You will appreciate it later.

[olivertheorem]

Originally Posted by Isryion

I also like playing my reserves to keep them from getting rusty (yes, this is a feature in OOTP).

Just to clarify, "rust" only accumulates in the offseason, not during the season.

[oman19]

Originally Posted by olivertheorem

Just to clarify, "rust" only accumulates in the offseason, not during the season.

Hmmmm.....I always thought that if a player didn't get enough playing time through out the year they would have rust or if they were coming back from injury. That is why we have rehab assignments. I could be wrong.

[olivertheorem]

I recall Markus say explicitly in a thread on 12 or 13 that rust was only in the offseason. I think rehab assignments are there (1) because they're an MLB reality and (2) they buy you time to figure out your roster changes.

Though, now that I think about it more, I think Markus said rust only happens in the offseason and with long-term (2 weeks plus, I think?) injuries. I do not think it happens if you sit a sub on the bench for 150 games then play him.

[Isryion]

Originally Posted by oman19

Hmmmm.....I always thought that if a player didn't get enough playing time through out the year they would have rust or if they were coming back from injury. That is why we have rehab assignments. I could be wrong.

Correct that injuries also generate rust. I had forgotten it did not apply to players who hadn't played for awhile.

[Brew Crew]

You guys have been so helpful. Ran the demo for 3 days on MLB quickstart and noticed somethings pretty quickly which obviously spurned more questions:

-Im pissed it stops at the All Star break. Was wondering when the "demo" portion was going to kick in. Now I want 14 that much more

-Think I am going to def turn the trading to hard. No way should I have gotten both CarGo and Tulo to add to my potent Rangers lineup. If only I didnt make that trade 2 days before that damn demo stopped.

-Seeing how "easy" it was to play with the Rangers lineup and their upper tier farm system, I think I am going to give my shot at the Cubs and see if I can win by 2015 like Theo says they will.

-Looking forward to my first offseason as I am sure that is just as much fun as getting through the year.


Thanks for all the great help. I can already see myself posting more and more and searching the forums for all the answers.

Good luck this year everybody.

[Mister_G]

I would suggest starting with the MLB Quickstart to try to get a feel for the game. Strangely enough, at least for me, when I started playing with OOTP 8 I think I got the hang of it pretty quickly. I did have experience playing Season Ticket Baseball 2003 back when I was a precocious 13-year old, but I don't think much of what I learned carried over to 5 years later. If you're a perfectionist, well-organized and thorough it shouldn't take toooo long to get into everything.

I would def start with the QS though. I know it took me awhile to really figure out how to setup a fictional league just the way I wanted, occasionally running into problems with weird stats or financials if I tried to go too quickly.

Good luck, you're sure to love the game!