What Do You Enjoy Tinkering with The Most In OOTP?

[mitchkenn]

What Do You Enjoy Tinkering with The Most In OOTP?

i've been playing regularly since OOTP v 14.

i've had a great interest in the Negro Leagues since i heard Dizzy Dean talk about Satchel Paige, Cool Papa Bell, Oscar Charleston and others on the Game of the Week way back in the 60's. Over the years i made a very crude notes on of some of the more famous Negro League players from a variety of books i've collected over the years. Then i discovered Seamheads.com! My list grew quickly and lots of gaps were filled in.

So, when i found OOTP v 14, and discovered i could create players, i began to add Negro League players to my "historical" games, which were really, at best, semi-historical. When historical minor leagues were introduced last year, i was very excited about that, esp. since the Negro Leagues were included. But to be honest, i was overwhelmed with the volume introduced. i'd bought a half dozen books on minor leagues before the game was released last year, to help me understand what the minors were really about. And my my my - were my eyes opened!

But i found i couldn't manage all the minor leagues, so i began to find ways to edit the game to fit my personal designs. That's when it hit me. As much as i love simming the game (don't play online, don't do play by play - just GM a team and sim after i get the creation all sorted out) - well i found the most enjoyable part for me (and the most aggravating) is the creation of a personal universe. While i really enjoy the game, i find i spend more time creating behind the scenes. i still edit in most of the Negro League players, tweaking them ever so to be more competative within the structures of the game. Currently, i am creating a fictional world, with a mix of real historical players and fictional (many self created) players, 32 teams - waiting to expand to 48 in the ever so near future. And each year, i swear will be my last, i'll just continue my personal universe with my current version. Doesn't happen, because Markus and crew always seem to add at least one feature i really like in the newest versions. So, it's not moving my league to the new version, it's creating a whole new, different one. It's mostly in the creation for me it appears.

So what's your personal part of the game you enjoy tinkering with the most?

[mettrain]

After reading the many great threads in this forum, I've been creating a historical replay with random era rookies. My first priority to this point has been creating authentic "feeling" uniforms and logos. I'm loving all of the great tools like JerseyCreator. I'm not trying for 100% authentic, just pretty good, and am happy with the results so far.


My enjoyment of this game has exploded after spending time in the forums. Unbelievable amount of shared knowledge to be found.

[Orioles1966]

Schedule editor.

In past versions of OOTP I have moved games to the front of the regular season(allowing teams to expand rosters to 40 players) plus move games past the end of the season. In addition some teams play a few doubleheaders .

In the latest version of OOTP(OOTP19) the above will be more difficult too do since the when the regular season starts all the team records goes to 0-0. I have tried doing it other ways but looks like the only way it would work would be manually move all the games for the first ten days of the season elsewhere(more likely to the end of the regular season).

[mitchkenn]

Originally Posted by mettrain

After reading the many great threads in this forum, I've been creating a historical replay with random era rookies. My first priority to this point has been creating authentic "feeling" uniforms and logos. I'm loving all of the great tools like JerseyCreator. I'm not trying for 100% authentic, just pretty good, and am happy with the results so far.


My enjoyment of this game has exploded after spending time in the forums. Unbelievable amount of shared knowledge to be found.

yep. the creating part is cool part for me these days. for the last game (not this one i'm working on) i used a logo maker found in the forums and made all my own (not too cool) logos. After the debate about female players in another section of the forums, i decided to try using the face-gen program mentioned in the forums and added a few females to my fictional league (the GAME sent me a bunch of female face-gens as well). Since it's fictional, i make certain it looks that way. Now if i could get get them Martians photos to edit, i could really expand the universe.... (well, not really ...)

[jparker2112]

I cant seem to stop creating new worlds with new uniforms to play. I play them for a few days and then get ANOTHER idea for a new world and start again...the process is never ending it seems!

[actionjackson]

Originally Posted by mitchkenn

What Do You Enjoy Tinkering with The Most In OOTP?

i've been playing regularly since OOTP v 14.

i've had a great interest in the Negro Leagues since i heard Dizzy Dean talk about Satchel Paige, Cool Papa Bell, Oscar Charleston and others on the Game of the Week way back in the 60's. Over the years i made a very crude notes on of some of the more famous Negro League players from a variety of books i've collected over the years. Then i discovered Seamheads.com! My list grew quickly and lots of gaps were filled in.

So, when i found OOTP v 14, and discovered i could create players, i began to add Negro League players to my "historical" games, which were really, at best, semi-historical. When historical minor leagues were introduced last year, i was very excited about that, esp. since the Negro Leagues were included. But to be honest, i was overwhelmed with the volume introduced. i'd bought a half dozen books on minor leagues before the game was released last year, to help me understand what the minors were really about. And my my my - were my eyes opened!

But i found i couldn't manage all the minor leagues, so i began to find ways to edit the game to fit my personal designs. That's when it hit me. As much as i love simming the game (don't play online, don't do play by play - just GM a team and sim after i get the creation all sorted out) - well i found the most enjoyable part for me (and the most aggravating) is the creation of a personal universe. While i really enjoy the game, i find i spend more time creating behind the scenes. i still edit in most of the Negro League players, tweaking them ever so to be more competative within the structures of the game. Currently, i am creating a fictional world, with a mix of real historical players and fictional (many self created) players, 32 teams - waiting to expand to 48 in the ever so near future. And each year, i swear will be my last, i'll just continue my personal universe with my current version. Doesn't happen, because Markus and crew always seem to add at least one feature i really like in the newest versions. So, it's not moving my league to the new version, it's creating a whole new, different one. It's mostly in the creation for me it appears.

So what's your personal part of the game you enjoy tinkering with the most?

I tinker with everything. I play historical random debut. I make my own schedules, so that I can have 162 game seasons every year from 1901 forward. I neutralize the ballparks, and the weather because when I was just cutting my teeth Garlon put it rather simply..."The stats have already been modified by the ballparks, and the weather, so why would you want to have them modified again?".

I use the default MLB teams and expand with them, as they expanded through history, but I never play with divisions, so when I have to edit the league structure to achieve that (1968/1969 offseason). When I start in 1901 through 1992, the top two teams in each subleague go to the postseason, with home field going to the top team, so I have two rounds of playoffs every year. From 1993 forward, the top four teams in each subleague go to the postseason: 4@1, and 3@2, and the teams play three rounds of playoffs.

I disable the September roster expansion rules, because why would you play with different roster rules at the most important time of the regular season? I have the DH in the AL, and no DH in the NL.

My latest experiment is a bit ambitious, but I'm distributing the talent in the draft myself (I don't play with a team - I'm more of a commissioner/official historian) based on what the players did statistically IRL, specifically WAR and WAA (Wins Above Average). I know WAR is controversial, but I like it, so I use it. I just wasn't satisfied with the way the pre-defined draft values for the AI were working out, and turning that feature off was even more goofy, so I'll do it myself even if it takes a little more work.

I bring in some players from the Spritze DB to sprinkle in some ***, KBO (I've even seen dudes from Chinese Taipei in there), PCL, and Negro League players. Perhaps there are others in that DB (Mexican Leaguers? Cuban Leaguers?) that I'll use as well. Just want to give some guys a shot at the show that never had one IRL. I'll also use Spritze to bring in say Jackie Robinson, Ichiro Suzuki, or Satchel Paige in earlier than they came into MLB as a what if exercise. The only time I won't do that is if they show up in the inaugural draft because you need players of all ages in that draft for the league to function well. Obviously the players that never played in MLB won't have any WAR, so I just use the Spritze pre-defined draft value to slot them where I think they should be.

The only thing I allow to advance as it did historically (at least as it did historically according to OOTP data) is the financials. I tie my stats output, strategy settings, and PCMs (even though they don't really factor in a historical game) to 1984 settings, and reset them every year the day before Opening Day.

I have All-Star games every season even though they didn't exist pre-1933. Previously I have selected them myself, but may be willing to give control over to the AI this year. I'm intrigued by the awards voting, and having ten slots for the Babe Ruth Award (MVP), five slots for the Walter Johnson Award (Cy Young), and three slots each for the Mariano Rivera Award (Reliever), and the Jackie Robinson Award (ROY). I can't remember if we can vote on Ted Williams Award (Silver Slugger) and Brooks Robinson Award (Gold Glove), but I hope the option exists. If tiebreakers are needed at the end of the year, I determine home field advantage, rather than the AI. That's all I can think of for now. Kind of a lot of tinkering wouldn't you say? But Markus has given us a game we can tinker endlessly with or play straight out of the box. What more can you ask for?

[texasmame]

Trades/rosters of my major league and two minor league teams in general. Always trying to get that Moneyball edge!

[actionjackson]

Originally Posted by jparker2112

I cant seem to stop creating new worlds with new uniforms to play. I play them for a few days and then get ANOTHER idea for a new world and start again...the process is never ending it seems!

This is a constant issue. You'll find your ideal world eventually.

[Hrycaj]

I'm a serial world builder. Love creating leagues. I feel after playing OOTP for a number of years I'm starting to get pretty good at building worlds as well. My next big leap of faith will be to really edit the world file and create a truly fictional league not associated with Earth. Always afraid I'm going to break the game since I have two left thumbs and am computer illiterate at times.

Mitchkenn, what books about the minors were you reading? I love reading about the game and would welcome recommendations. Thanks.

Originally Posted by mitchkenn

What Do You Enjoy Tinkering with The Most In OOTP?

i've been playing regularly since OOTP v 14.

i've had a great interest in the Negro Leagues since i heard Dizzy Dean talk about Satchel Paige, Cool Papa Bell, Oscar Charleston and others on the Game of the Week way back in the 60's. Over the years i made a very crude notes on of some of the more famous Negro League players from a variety of books i've collected over the years. Then i discovered Seamheads.com! My list grew quickly and lots of gaps were filled in.

So, when i found OOTP v 14, and discovered i could create players, i began to add Negro League players to my "historical" games, which were really, at best, semi-historical. When historical minor leagues were introduced last year, i was very excited about that, esp. since the Negro Leagues were included. But to be honest, i was overwhelmed with the volume introduced. i'd bought a half dozen books on minor leagues before the game was released last year, to help me understand what the minors were really about. And my my my - were my eyes opened!

But i found i couldn't manage all the minor leagues, so i began to find ways to edit the game to fit my personal designs. That's when it hit me. As much as i love simming the game (don't play online, don't do play by play - just GM a team and sim after i get the creation all sorted out) - well i found the most enjoyable part for me (and the most aggravating) is the creation of a personal universe. While i really enjoy the game, i find i spend more time creating behind the scenes. i still edit in most of the Negro League players, tweaking them ever so to be more competative within the structures of the game. Currently, i am creating a fictional world, with a mix of real historical players and fictional (many self created) players, 32 teams - waiting to expand to 48 in the ever so near future. And each year, i swear will be my last, i'll just continue my personal universe with my current version. Doesn't happen, because Markus and crew always seem to add at least one feature i really like in the newest versions. So, it's not moving my league to the new version, it's creating a whole new, different one. It's mostly in the creation for me it appears.

So what's your personal part of the game you enjoy tinkering with the most?

[james17]

Trades really get my juices rolling. That and contact extensions and keeping payroll under my league’S $155 million cap.

[stl jason]

for the longest time I played strictly historical/real players... I'd only tinker with basic settings but have fun with the random debut and watch old timey players face off with their modern day counterparts.

a few versions ago I took the plunge into editing the world.xml file (with the help of some excellent guides posted on the boards) and created a westeros league (off the game of thrones series)... took awhile to map it all out (leagues/divisions/cities/owners/player first-last name file/etc), and create the logos/uniforms/etc (got help there as well from the more artistic board members) but had a lot of fun putting it all together.... now I keep a separate folder on my pc (and a copy in the cloud) with the excel sheet of the xml entries, and the logos/uniforms/name files/etc so it's ready to go for each new version (and I can just copy/paste them all into the appropriate game files/folders)... still edit the world.xml file once I get the new release, but that only takes about 10 minutes now to copy/paste it all in and get it organized...

I always mean to carry over a league from one version to the next, but end up starting a new one anyway (in part because I want to test out the edited file and make sure it works before I make it into a quick-start and upload it for anyone else to use).

[Syd Thrift]

I can get bogged down in creation but personally I find that I have, like, a level 4-5 point of fun with this game when I do that, meaning it engrosses me for a while but doesn't necessarily rise above games like Europa Universalis or Civ or AGEOD's Civil War, but then when I finally say "damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead" and just start actually playing stuff out, the fun level rises to like a 9 or 10. Play the game however you want, of course, but I want to point out that this is a thing that I've found about my own playing style that others may find useful.

[mitchkenn]

Originally Posted by Hrycaj

I'm a serial world builder. Love creating leagues. I feel after playing OOTP for a number of years I'm starting to get pretty good at building worlds as well. My next big leap of faith will be to really edit the world file and create a truly fictional league not associated with Earth. Always afraid I'm going to break the game since I have two left thumbs and am computer illiterate at times.

Mitchkenn, what books about the minors were you reading? I love reading about the game and would welcome recommendations. Thanks.

Four of the books still in my room about the minors (most of the ones in here are reference books on the Negro Leagues - rest got boxed into the garage earlier this year) are Pacific Coast League (1903-1988) by Bill O'Neal, The American Association (1902-1991) by Bill O'Neal,
The International League 1884-1991 - by Bill O'Neal, The League Of Outsider Baseball - Gary Cieradkowsi. Also first one i read was on the Texas league, but it's boxed so i don't want to move half the stuff in my garage to find who the author was. Got all of them from Amazon. All interesting reads for me.

biggest problem with this "room" is lack of room, with 11,000 records and Cds, a large stack of poetry books, my Negro League books (mostly reference books) and a few books on other topics, oh, and an older computer that i use mostly to play OOTP.

[JaBurns]

I constantly tinker with my league setup in Historical Random Debut since I discovered OOTP 16. Chasing the elusive perfect way for me to play, always getting ideas from these forums. Constantly creating “what if” scenarios in my head. Matching up logos, unis, and caps from the great guys in mods.
Believe I am getting closer now, Random Debut MLB with 3 unaffiliated AAA leagues which will max out at 36 teams (3X12), with the ability for ML teams to purchase contracts. Still finding errors that require attention and fixing in my test league but getting a good feeling about the setup.
This of course is until somehow I get a new “better” idea and off I will go chasing windmills.

[joefromchicago]

Originally Posted by actionjackson

I tinker with everything. I play historical random debut. I make my own schedules, so that I can have 162 game seasons every year from 1901 forward.

Originally Posted by stl jason

a few versions ago I took the plunge into editing the world.xml file (with the help of some excellent guides posted on the boards) and created a westeros league (off the game of thrones series)... took awhile to map it all out (leagues/divisions/cities/owners/player first-last name file/etc), and create the logos/uniforms/etc (got help there as well from the more artistic board members) but had a lot of fun putting it all together.

I'll just take this opportunity to put in a request for you guys and all of the other inveterate tinkerers out there to post your schedules and namesets to the mods forum.

[jparker2112]

Originally Posted by actionjackson

This is a constant issue. You'll find your ideal world eventually.

So have you found your PERFECT world yet? I feel like i get it and then poof...a different idea that creates havoc in my baseball brain and I spend hours tinkering with another new world idea . this is FAR from a complaint, as it is so great to be able to do these kinds of things within a game!

[4maddux_cy's]

Right now I am incredibly hooked on a world I created. It is a pro-rel world where major league baseball is the top division and then there are 8 divisions below that. In those divisions are NCAA teams as in my fictitious world they have decided to pay players as professionals.

I took and divided up the divisions 2-9 into 40 teams each except the bottom division has 46. I basically took and tried to put the top college programs and put them in the higher levels and went down. Then in the bottom division I added some prominent schools and some I pay attention to that don't have baseball in the real world and added them there. So Syracuse now has baseball but is in D9. Same as Wisconsin. D9 also has some of the top real world NCAA D2 teams and a D3 school that I worked at for a bit.

Pro-rel is set up to move 4 teams each way all the way down the ladder. No playoffs in each division and there are no sub-divisions or leagues in each level. The world is set up as an association with the champs from each division playing in a tournament after the season. I am entering year three and the Yankees just were double demoted!

All players were initially generated as fictional and moving forward I am using random debut rookies. It's really fun so far!

[jparker2112]

Originally Posted by 4maddux_cy's

Right now I am incredibly hooked on a world I created. It is a pro-rel world where major league baseball is the top division and then there are 8 divisions below that. In those divisions are NCAA teams as in my fictitious world they have decided to pay players as professionals.

I took and divided up the divisions 2-9 into 40 teams each except the bottom division has 46. I basically took and tried to put the top college programs and put them in the higher levels and went down. Then in the bottom division I added some prominent schools and some I pay attention to that don't have baseball in the real world and added them there. So Syracuse now has baseball but is in D9. Same as Wisconsin. D9 also has some of the top real world NCAA D2 teams and a D3 school that I worked at for a bit.

Pro-rel is set up to move 4 teams each way all the way down the ladder. No playoffs in each division and there are no sub-divisions or leagues in each level. The world is set up as an association with the champs from each division playing in a tournament after the season. I am entering year three and the Yankees just were double demoted!

All players were initially generated as fictional and moving forward I am using random debut rookies. It's really fun so far!

Do you have a quick start for this? This sounds like exactly what i was trying to build in my mind! What year did you start in?

[5-4-3]

I don’t tinker with it all. It works just fine the way it ships. You can just fire up the 2018 season and go and wow, it’s a great simulation. Why should I fix what isn’t broke?

But if you like to tinker, have fun.

[Matt Arnold]

I guess my answer to this would be to look back at the various patch notes Although not all of that stuff is what I *like* to tinker with...