"Realistic" historical play

[DustyElbows]

I'm looking to do a replay of major league history with a new host of teams. In the past, I've had problems where historical players don't display proper aging or talent randomness. This causes two problems:

1) Players will debut at 19 and retire at 42 and have the same talent level pretty much the whole time.
2) Every real-life Hall-of-Famer also turns out to be very good in the sim.

Does anyone know what settings I need to reverse these? I want historical players to develop realistically and randomly, meaning they have normal career arcs (on average) and that they occasionally wind up at talent levels that they didn't in real life (either positively or negatively).

[thehef]

Originally Posted by DustyElbows

I'm looking to do a replay of major league history with a new host of teams. In the past, I've had problems where historical players don't display proper aging or talent randomness. This causes two problems:

1) Players will debut at 19 and retire at 42 and have the same talent level pretty much the whole time.
2) Every real-life Hall-of-Famer also turns out to be very good in the sim.

Does anyone know what settings I need to reverse these? I want historical players to develop realistically and randomly, meaning they have normal career arcs (on average) and that they occasionally wind up at talent levels that they didn't in real life (either positively or negatively).

Others who have toyed with the settings more than I might have better info, but what I would do: Don't yet mess with the aging and development speed settings and instead just fool around (run some tests) with different numbers for Talent Change Randomness. I believe the default is 100, with a range of 1 (min.) to 200 (max.). I dunno which setting you have been using, but, if you are using a very low number (like 1, or especially if you have Player Development disabled), I would try setting it at 100, run a test sim for 20 or so years, and then look at some players and see what you think of the results. And if you're already using 100 (the middle setting), bump it up to 150... Tweak & test a few more times, if needed. (I would think that a setting between 75 and 100 would accomplish what you want, but that's really up to you.)

At that point, you might determine what is the idea number for you and can then either move forward with that, or then decide that you also need to tweak the aging and/or development speed sliders to change the curve on your young and old players, etc.

Hopefully that makes sense. Good luck!

[Markus Heinsohn]

Also, make sure player development is actually enabled, as per default it is not for historical games.

[David Watts]

This is a tough one. If you want realistic development curves, I would say use recalc for sure. Especially 1 year recalc. Afterall, what's more realistic than real life. But, you said you want players to stray from real life so every player isn't exactly the same as real life. This makes me lean towards using only the the OOTP development engine, with talent change randomness set at 200. This should lead to a lot more surprises. I would make sure to base pitching roles/stamina on whole career and do the same for position players. That way Ryan isn't a relief pitcher forever and Babe Ruth will be able to hit.

[thehef]

Originally Posted by Markus Heinsohn

Also, make sure player development is actually enabled, as per default it is not for historical games.

Actually, the default for this - as per the Historical Wizard, step 3 - is Recal before each season using real stats, and in Players & Facegen settings, Player Devel is not disabled, with the Talent Change Randomness slider defaulted to 100... At least that's the way it is for me

Originally Posted by David Watts

This is a tough one. If you want realistic development curves, I would say use recalc for sure. Especially 1 year recalc. Afterall, what's more realistic than real life. But, you said you want players to stray from real life so every player isn't exactly the same as real life. This makes me lean towards using only the the OOTP development engine, with talent change randomness set at 200. This should lead to a lot more surprises. I would make sure to base pitching roles/stamina on whole career and do the same for position players. That way Ryan isn't a relief pitcher forever and Babe Ruth will be able to hit.

Yes, this ^^^. If you set Talent Change Randomness to 100 or more, you'll get some pretty significant deviations from reality, but with recalc, these significant deviations won't stick beyond that season (IOW, if the development engine turns 1995 Tony Gwynn into a .250 hitter, recalc after the season will undo that; and if the d-engine turns 1975 Doug Rau into a 25-win ace, recal will undo that to bring Rau back to reality)...

Although they can be a bit overwhelming at times, so many variables in OOTP (including the other settings that D Watts mentioned above) make it possible to surely get to where you want to go. They key is testing to find your sweet spot.