Expansion draft problems

[Trav876]

I’ve done a lot of expansion drafts in all of the versions over the years, and always seem to run into very unrealistic players not being protected.

For example, the Orioles just traded a few good prospects for John Smoltz. Then five days later, decided not to protect him, and he got picked up in the expansion draft by the Devil Rays with their first pick.

Obviously, besides the unrealistic part of this, why would the AI value Smoltz enough to trade good prospects for him, and then give him right up for nothing? You would think with the AI developments that have been made in the real world, this game would have more intelligent decisions now in 2024. But the issues still seem the same.

I also looked at their protection list after this happened, and there are several very mediocre players being protected.

Stuff like this isn’t new either… I run into unrealistic expansion drafts quite often in this game. Besides manually looking at every list and overriding any dumb decisions, is there anything else that could be done?

I don’t mess with much in the settings- I keep it mostly at default.

[uruguru]

Originally Posted by Trav876

I’ve done a lot of expansion drafts in all of the versions over the years, and always seem to run into very unrealistic players not being protected.

For example, the Orioles just traded a few good prospects for John Smoltz. Then five days later, decided not to protect him, and he got picked up in the expansion draft by the Devil Rays with their first pick.

Obviously, besides the unrealistic part of this, why would the AI value Smoltz enough to trade good prospects for him, and then give him right up for nothing? You would think with the AI developments that have been made in the real world, this game would have more intelligent decisions now in 2024. But the issues still seem the same.

I also looked at their protection list after this happened, and there are several very mediocre players being protected.

Stuff like this isn’t new either… I run into unrealistic expansion drafts quite often in this game. Besides manually looking at every list and overriding any dumb decisions, is there anything else that could be done?

I don’t mess with much in the settings- I keep it mostly at default.

I once saw a pitcher picked up in an expansion draft maybe two weeks before he won the Cy Young award! That was it for me. Ever since then, I just pull up wikipedia and manually recreate the historical draft.

[Trav876]

Originally Posted by uruguru

I once saw a pitcher picked up in an expansion draft maybe two weeks before he won the Cy Young award! That was it for me. Ever since then, I just pull up wikipedia and manually recreate the historical draft.

Oh yeah... I've had similar things happen.

Issue with manually putting all the correct players on the teams is, if you like to play an "alternate" historical where you don't re-calc, & leave the development engine on, those players may be much better or worse than they were IRL.

My question is more related to the AI logic. Is there no a way to make the AI smarter than this? Seems silly for these things to happen in this game... and having an "intelligent AI" - at least intelligent enough for a realistic GM, seems paramount.

I know (from scouring the forums) there are people out there who would say "in real life there are often dumb decisions made!" But... trading good prospects for a great pitcher who you then let go to the expansion draft like a week later? Cmon... these things are not realistic at all & would never happen.

[uruguru]

Originally Posted by Trav876

My question is more related to the AI logic. Is there no a way to make the AI smarter than this?

No, honestly there is not. Creating a competent AI is without a doubt the hardest thing to do in a strategy game and it's basically impossible in a game as complex as OOTP with the constantly changing features.

All we can hope for is something that isn't too terrible. This is not saying anything about the OOTP devs at all, this is just an extremely difficult problem to solve.

Another approach I've taken with the expansion draft is to use commissioner mode to update each team's protection lists on the day of the draft. You'd be surprised at how easy that is to do and it makes a big difference.

[Trav876]

Originally Posted by uruguru

No, honestly there is not. Creating a competent AI is without a doubt the hardest thing to do in a strategy game and it's basically impossible in a game as complex as OOTP with the constantly changing features.

All we can hope for is something that isn't too terrible. This is not saying anything about the OOTP devs at all, this is just an extremely difficult problem to solve.

Another approach I've taken with the expansion draft is to use commissioner mode to update each team's protection lists on the day of the draft. You'd be surprised at how easy that is to do and it makes a big difference.

I mean, I feel like when you put the trades on the more difficult setting, the AI has a pretty good feel of who is worth what.

Since it can pretty accurately assign values to players, it seems strange that this kind of stuff happens in the expansion draft.