[luckymann]

Originally Posted by nebben

I have a question related to financials, luckyman. I've tried playing historical, starting in the 1900s, and mimicking how it was pre-draft. The problem I've had is teams have too so much money one team can sign all the top prospects that enter the game. So, it's not really a challenge for me.

I have imported financials on, but it doesn't make sense to me that I have more than enough money every offseason to meet all the decent specs' demands. Of course, one way around this is to turn the draft on, except that's not what I want to do.

So, I guess my question is if you think there are some tweaks I can try to make it, so it's more competitive for teams to sign specs when they enter the game?

This is a bit of a hot-button topic with the game and there's no simple workaround, I'm afraid. Even with FA on well in advance of the historical, the financial model OOTP uses makes it way too easy to game the system. Then again, with the Res Clause that's kind of how it was IRL, especially in the earliest years - money wasn't an issue for clubs until Ruth came along and salaries started being more representative of players' values. Even then, only the really good guys received commensurate coin.

One of the many fantastic attributes of OOTP is how it offers you the ability to - if so inclined and, admittedly, with some effort involved - overcome its own limitations. So, my somewhat non-committal answer to you is "yes, this would be possible". But I've never done it, opting instead for tightly-controlled house rules, and don't really have any specific suggestion on how to go about it. My general thought would be to turn the financial import OFF and play around with salaries to make the financial system more challenging while still allowing teams some profitability. But this would be a HUGE undertaking that would need to be maintained across the financial model each and every year then realigned with FA once it comes in. Keeping the proper balance would be a real challenge.

I reckon I'm one of the more adventurous OOTPers when it comes to this sort of tinkering, but even I would balk here. Thus the house rules.

Sorry I couldn't be more helpful, and - if you do attempt this, please keep us updated on here as to what you've tried and how it has gone. I'm sure many would be highly interested in your findings.

G

EDIT Thinking on this some more, you could consider picking a modern year and importing those financials as a basis with the IRL financials of teams. That might at least get you headed in the right direction whilst maintaining the integral balance of the financial system? Just a thought, again I have not tried it myself.