Why is the AI not Aggressive with Staff

[PSUColonel]

I notice there is a lot of good staff in the pool, but the AI is never aggressive about going after talent. Why is this? It does it with players after all!

[jimmysthebestcop]

Originally Posted by PSUColonel

I notice there is a lot of good staff in the pool, but the AI is never aggressive about going after talent. Why is this? It does it with players after all!

Almost everything to do with staff is just so basic its borderline broken. Just the ability to not poach other staff members for promotions is a big deal.

If you are playing with a full a universe you can get some good staff members stuck in lower ranked leagues and you have to wait till contract expires in ever hoping to land them again.

I'm into a full universe OOTPb 21 and here are the only trainers available. They are awful. If you trainer retires you are most likely screwed. You have to hope their are good expiring contracts cause you can poach. And there might be a great trainer in an Indy league.



There are more scouts available and some are well above average. But at least you can also hire GM's as scouts. There is even a PC who has great listed for everything.

I guess the AI probably doesn't fire staff, eat contract and hire new better ones. There also isn't a list of expiring staff contracts like you can see with players.

At least the Indy leagues staff are only on 1 year deals.I think 2 leagues are all 2 year deals. And the Indy leagues will sign good staff members. So its first come first serve. However some leagues like Mexico staff are all completely awful. Even the Mexican league has a higher rep then most Indy leagues.

While look signed as a scouting director in this Spanish team


Other things are strange too. Checking out all the leagues I saw Japan and Korea with very very few USA staff while China had a lot. But it seems the smaller Int leagues and Indy leagues it's a free for all for all staff from any nation.

The longest contracts I have seen outside the MLB were only 3 year deals. And that was for some of the big leagues like Japan every other league seemed to be 1 or 2 max.

The human player doesn't even get notifications for staff hitting the market like it does free agent players. All the leagues have different off season free agency dates so you aren't exactly sure when the staff are hitting the open market unless you are extremely proactive. And during the heat of a long session I often forget.

I've been looking for a better trainer for 2 years and can't land one yet.

[PSUColonel]

this is a big reason(to me anyway) not to enable all of the international leagues. I think you can probably use Indy leagues, but the international rules and staff issues are just too much for me.

[jimmysthebestcop]

Originally Posted by PSUColonel

this is a big reason(to me anyway) not to enable all of the international leagues. I think you can probably use Indy leagues, but the international rules and staff issues are just too much for me.

I get done positions there will always be more talent. Cause you have president and vice president type people showing up as gm. And gm, scout, assistant gm all share the same group.

Most of the int leagues actually don't sign anyone good. Unless it's one of their citizens. The Billy beane thing was just so weird.

But the USA Indy leagues do get good staff on 1 year deals. Not sure if it's easier cause it's the same Nation or what. Especially their trainers. So many are mlb quality.

I don't know if it's different this year but I've never had a foreign staff member refuse work in mlb. I know the previous versions they wouldn't want too work outside their country. Some did but most didn't.

Trainers do seem weird to me. Its medical staff. Everyone in the mlb should basically be the same honestly. Should be a very small margin of variety.

I could see coaches or scouts varying greatly. But medical professionals for mlb teams? Seems a little unrealistic. They all have the best doctors. The differences should be much closer.

[dward1]

staff and coaching system is woefully inadequate and broken. there is no way to know who is a good coach necessarily (OUTSTANDING managers can basically just be ones who won 5 straight double A titles) and as mentioned here the hiring process is totally broken.

as with almost every GM feature added to the game in the last 5 years it feels like a few days of work was put on it and then essentially no more thought added to it since

[jimmysthebestcop]

Originally Posted by dward1

staff and coaching system is woefully inadequate and broken. there is no way to know who is a good coach necessarily (OUTSTANDING managers can basically just be ones who won 5 straight double A titles) and as mentioned here the hiring process is totally broken.

as with almost every GM feature added to the game in the last 5 years it feels like a few days of work was put on it and then essentially no more thought added to it since

lol yeah there are about a dozen of us or so who end up eventually saying exactly the same thing on almost every thread it feels like.

And the funny thing is I'm all for those feature but I've found myself turning more and more off in OOTPb 21 because they eventually just much something up for the AI.

I've removed owners control budget and storylines after the charity storyline nerfs market size. And I am really close to removing owner goals just because they are so absurd that it's starting to not be entertaining having them.

Also real close to disabling personality and chemistry. Just because for the most part its static. I've think I've seen players flip personality types but its either so rare or I was hallucinating that it basically doesn't exist. And it requires no interaction from us the human so why bother with it. You are telling me I get a 16 year old with bad work ethic and there is nothing I can do to improve it? Even after 5-8 years by the time he is ready for the show?

If players can't gain and flip personalities dynamically why bother? If us the human can't try to impact them why bother with it? It then becomes a useless mechanic after enough versions. Same players every year will have the same traits. So all it does is make you avoid those players.

Over time it just becomes flat and stale. Like 4 or 5 versions ago I am like ok this cool. Then by XX I was so sick of it being the same I only played perfect team. Now I'm more hours into 21 then I had in XX but I am getting disgusted with so many mechanics.

I see why all of the sports media that are running "Sim" ootpb seasons turn all of that stuff off. Or why a section of the players are just sitting back and crunching the sim numbers and not worrying about the "gm management simulation" side of things.

And it does really appear everyone who plays out there games and is focusing on that part of baseball and OOTPb is loving 21. While the one's like us who are looking for a GM management simulation are growing more disgusted and disappointed with each new version that comes out.

[AJFO]

Came here to share my thoughts, but everyone here as already beaten that horse to death 10x over.

All I'll say for now is, without hugely in-depth customization and knowledge of the innards of OOTP, it is impossible to build an indefinitely entertaining model that works. Yet without knowing the innards the game may be moreso appealing than not. I remember falling hard for OOTP 18 and wasting weeks of my summer holidays on creating the perfect MLB roster w/o realizing the #-based side of things, personalities and so much more. Heck, I didn't discover feeder leagues until '20 came out.

Pandering aside, my point is, perhaps, ignorance is bliss.

And while that might frustrate some (us), it is a model that has worked to an extent for OOTP *thus far*. A lot of the newer customers may not realize how defunct and lifeless the coaching and player interaction components of the game really are.

Does this mean they'll get 'fixed' in the near future? One might only hope, but given the fundamentals of the game hinge on systems that haven't been overhauled in years, I'd bank on the dev team looking towards polishing the exterior (as they did with '21) rather than creating completely new interfaces and underlying code for interactive gameplay.

For instance, one thing I've always desired was a family tree function in OOTP, where future generations that share a last name have an X% of being a relative of one of the retired (or 40+ yr. old) in-game players.
Take Druw Jones, real-life MLB prospect. His father was retired-MLBer Andruw Jones. Yet outside of some scouting to figure out who this OOTP draftee is, I have no idea of connecting the dots.

Will it happen? Who knows. Would it be cool? Subjectively, yes.