PING: Solo Fictional Players

[JML]

I was reading a thread about getting to know your fictional league, and it got me to thinking about this. Personally, I don't like the "build up history" approach. I feel like if there is history, than I want to have been a part of it. So I just start playing.

[draven085]

I'm with you. I want to be part of creating the league's history. I get enough simming (and re-simming) in OTBL. Bring on the real games baby!!111

[gordyhulten]

I sim 25 years first, building up a CatoBase history. I then take over one of the last place teams.

[Andy]

I am not really happy either way. I hate having all new records in the first season and that 32 year old 5 star pitcher with 0 career wins to start out. But I have never been able to sim to build up history because I want to play out every game in my franchise's history. So yeah, I just like to complain.

[Tiger Fan]

I prefer to build up a 25-50 year history before I jump in and take control of a team.

[theasfl]

I start playin right away, so I know the leagues stars from the beginning and can follow their careers

[Antonin]

I think the poll should have had a third choice: sim up to one month. I'll almost always sim a few weeks before I start playing games out. Sometimes, though, I will sim a full season--but never more than one.

[MannyTrillo]

What I want to do is, get 10 years worth of stats for all the players, so that player evaluation is based on stats rather than ratings. But I don't want any pre-history to the league, so I reckon I'll change all the team names, maybe delete the relevant files, or just import the players into a different league.

[Johnny Slick]

I'm still using the OOTP5 league where I simmed 10 seasons in advance of playing out every game for every team with last year's version of the game (I've never been particularly happy with the way the AI uses relievers and places people in lineups). This year, I'm ceding control of the first 6 innings to the computer, which ought to greatly enhance the speed of things while still keeping me immersed enough in the league to have fun with it.

[Mel_Ott]

I just jump in and start playing. I'm too impatient with game setup to mess with developing a statistical record before I play. Plus, it's fun to see the first homer, the first steal, the first 20-win season, the first - whatever, really.

I am a little bothered by the "32-year-old superstar with 0 wins" problem, so the last few times I've started a league I've just filled the minors (or just A and AA), which lets most players have a full career. The downside is that it's really (really!) hard to predict performance based on the in-game scouting reports, and since I play with ratings off, the first few seasons are kind of a crapshoot, performance-wise. for me, though, that's part of the fun.

[blackrussian]

ive done both starting a league from scratch and others where ive built up a history. depends what im going for, really.

since ootp6 came out, i decided to start fresh with a few new leagues. one league is totally tabula rasa, no history, just jumped right in. the other one im building up a 20 yr history for. im simming that a year at a time so i can poke around and get an idea of how the league is progressing.

thats definitely one aspect i like about establishing a history, its like reading an encyclopedia of a league you havent followed before. certain patterns start coming up, rivalries develop, you can find out who the stars were, or just tracking a players career as he made his way from minors to retirement.

this way, when i get impatient about the pace of playing out every game, i can always go back to the almanac or catobase and dig in to some past history i havent seen yet.

v'

[Gastric ReFlux]

Originally posted by Mel_Ott
I just jump in and start playing. I'm too impatient with game setup to mess with developing a statistical record before I play. Plus, it's fun to see the first homer, the first steal, the first 20-win season, the first - whatever, really.

I am a little bothered by the "32-year-old superstar with 0 wins" problem, so the last few times I've started a league I've just filled the minors (or just A and AA), which lets most players have a full career. The downside is that it's really (really!) hard to predict performance based on the in-game scouting reports, and since I play with ratings off, the first few seasons are kind of a crapshoot, performance-wise. for me, though, that's part of the fun.

The league I've had the most fun with is the one where I did just that, created a league with no players, then filled the AA and A rosters with fictional players.

Some of that initial group are still playing in 1914, others faded from being early stars to retiring already. If I ever start another fictional league again, I will use the same method.

[kingcharlesxii]

I start playing right away as I want to be there when the league first forms. In my Scandinavian league, I can justify 32 year old 5 star SPs by saying that baseball was a new invention and this is their first opportunities to play. In my USA immediate future there was no professional baseball league from 1994-2010 so those older guys never got a chance to play in a high-level professional league. (BTW, I'm working on a dynasty for this league so read it when I post it!)

In both cases, I will sometimes manually induct in guys who were old but had a couple of good seasons at the beginning of the new league. I consider them in a different branch of the Hall of Fame, sort of like a League Pioneers section or something like that.

[Gastric ReFlux]

Originally posted by kingcharlesxii
I start playing right away as I want to be there when the league first forms. In my Scandinavian league, I can justify 32 year old 5 star SPs by saying that baseball was a new invention and this is their first opportunities to play. In my USA immediate future there was no professional baseball league from 1994-2010 so those older guys never got a chance to play in a high-level professional league. (BTW, I'm working on a dynasty for this league so read it when I post it!)

In both cases, I will sometimes manually induct in guys who were old but had a couple of good seasons at the beginning of the new league. I consider them in a different branch of the Hall of Fame, sort of like a League Pioneers section or something like that.

The problem I had when I tried a Scandinavian league was that every time a visiting team won a series, they would then go on to sack and pillage the city.

[kingcharlesxii]

Originally posted by Gastric ReFlux
The problem I had when I tried a Scandinavian league was that every time a visiting team won a series, they would then go on to sack and pillage the city.

Yeah right now I have to do that manually and it's a real pain. I'm hoping for a "Sacking and Pillaging" toggle in OOTP7 to automate the process.

[Gastric ReFlux]

Oslo: Team market shrinks to non-existent after Sacking&Pillaging by Stockholm.

[Kemp]

I've been thinking about starting a league with all AA and AAA players but I'm worried about what it'll do to my career records.

Do you find there are players who just DOMINATE the league in the early going? Also, do these guys own most of the career records based on the fact that they're full-time regulars at an age where OOTP doesn't usually start players?

No matter how high I jack up player development in OOPT, I can't seem to get the computer to start players who are under 24 years of age.

[DreamTeams]

I sim right away. Like being there from the very beginning.

[tategter]

Originally posted by Kemp
I've been thinking about starting a league with all AA and AAA players but I'm worried about what it'll do to my career records.

Do you find there are players who just DOMINATE the league in the early going? Also, do these guys own most of the career records based on the fact that they're full-time regulars at an age where OOTP doesn't usually start players?

Once did this in an OOTP5 league, and yes, there are some early dominators that really skew the numbers for the first few seasons. Kinda like when the MLB expands, things are watered-down for a bit before becoming more competitive. What I did to compensate was reset the record book after 5 seasons. Kind'of a fudge way to do it, but it's either that or your mediocre backup 1B in year 6 will still hold the record for HR in a season with 70!

[ctorg]

Some interesting approaches here. I've done most of them. There's good and bad to each of the options.

There is a good way to get to know the league when you've simmed it. It's the same way you can get to know real baseball. You look back at the records. You can sim 25+ years, then just take a day and look through all the stats for all the years. It can be fun if you're a stathead like me. Then, when you've got an idea of the league, you play at a slower pace. It's kind of fun to see a guy whose stats you've looked at a lot, whom you've come to know, in a way, step into a game you're watching with all that history behind him. It's like going to your first baseball game as a kid, in a way.

Of course, the ultimate league is one you've been playing for years and have built up all that history for by sticking with it. I just don't last that long with a league. I wish I had the patience sometimes, but when a new idea hits, my current league suddenly becomes less interesting to me.