Historical League Options?

[Otrex]

Apologies if this has been asked already; I could not find my answer on the forums.

I have a question regarding historical leagues: I see that OOTP16 proclaims that you can play "any historical season from 1871 to 2013" which is great - that means a database of older players is in there somewhere.

However, is that just a "play a single season with set teams" option, or can you set it up like a league, with a draft and everything?

For example, If I start a 20-team league in 1910, could I, as the Boston Beaneaters, select Ty Cobb as my number 1 draft pick, and then have him age and eventually retire?

What about when the 1911 season starts? Do all those new players get put into the draft to be selected?

Or is this option just to allow a player to play a single historical season without any differences from the historical teams/lineups?

Perhaps with a database of these older players in the game somewhere, even if this is not an automatic process, perhaps it is possible to set it up manually?

Thanks for any confirmed details that anyone can provide.

[David Watts]

It's not just for playing 1 season. You can start in 1910 and after each season OOTP will import every player that made his MLB debut the following season. You can choose whether you want these players to debut with their original teams or be part of draft.

Setting up a 20 team league in 1910 might be tough, mainly due to lack of players.

You also have the option to have the game recalc a players abilities after each season, use the games development engine or a combination of both.

[Otrex]

Thank you for that - that's quite an amazing tool, then.

Does the game allow for eras to come and go, or do you have to designate it in advance? What I mean by that is: Will the 1920s see the "lively ball" era, followed by pitching dominance in the 1960s? Or do you have to tell the simulation what exactly you are looking for in advance?

[David Watts]

Originally Posted by Otrex

Thank you for that - that's quite an amazing tool, then.

Does the game allow for eras to come and go, or do you have to designate it in advance? What I mean by that is: Will the 1920s see the "lively ball" era, followed by pitching dominance in the 1960s? Or do you have to tell the simulation what exactly you are looking for in advance?

Eras will most definitely come and go. If you select the option for it, the game will even expand according to history. Teams will relocate according to history as well. There are options that allow your league to progress financially according to history. Options that allow for team strategies to change as well. Example, you can watch the closer role develop in OOTP through the years just like real baseball.

[Otrex]

Thank you, once again, for your answer.

So, it seems like the only thing "missing" from my old Statis-Pro baseball is the ability to mix players from various eras and have them normalized into one group? By that I mean: Nolan Ryan will never pitch to Rogers Hornsby in OOPT16?

That is, unless you're about to come back and tell me that there is an option for that!

[Markus Heinsohn]

Originally Posted by Otrex

Thank you, once again, for your answer.

So, it seems like the only thing "missing" from my old Statis-Pro baseball is the ability to mix players from various eras and have them normalized into one group? By that I mean: Nolan Ryan will never pitch to Rogers Hornsby in OOPT16?

That is, unless you're about to come back and tell me that there is an option for that!

Of course OOTP can do this. It's called the "random debut" feature

[David Watts]

Originally Posted by Otrex

Thank you, once again, for your answer.

So, it seems like the only thing "missing" from my old Statis-Pro baseball is the ability to mix players from various eras and have them normalized into one group? By that I mean: Nolan Ryan will never pitch to Rogers Hornsby in OOPT16?

That is, unless you're about to come back and tell me that there is an option for that!

Not missing at all. When you create a historical league one of the options is for random debut. When you select this option, your initial draft will be filled with players from all era's. Players in the initial draft will be show up at all different ages---So, you might get a 22 year old Babe Ruth or a 36 year old Ruth. This is done so your league has a proper age distribution. Following your first season, each future draft will be populated with random players from all era's of the game, but these players will debut at the age they made their real life MLB debuts.

You can select a beginning year for players to debut and a maximum year. For example, if you want players from no earlier than 1901, just select 1901 for your minimum. I personally exclude the players from the 1800's as they tend to perform rather video game for my taste.

[Otrex]

Thank you, Markus & David. I must say, I've bought approximately 6 versions of OOTP in the past (including the first, I believe), and if this program offers those features, I will almost certainly purchase it again.

I have one final question in this regard that comes to mind: In our Statis-Pro league, we were able to go through and draft any single player from all of baseball history at the outset, essentially hand-picking our entire initial roster from any one of thousands of players. Is this also possible with OOTP, or are we limited to just who happens to be available from year to year? I'm okay with either scenario since both present their own unique challenges.

[Peregrine]

You can add individual historical players to your draft fairly easily if you want, though not sure it would be too easy to draft all players from throughout baseball history. But if you just want to throw a Ty Cobb and Gaylord Perry into the mix it's easy enough.

[Otrex]

Oops, sorry one more question:

If we utilize the random debut feature, what prevents a "nobody player" who had a super-short, but excellent career, from entering the draft as a dominant player? For example if the game selects "Bob Hoogleman" to put into the draft and he had 5 at-bats in his career with 5 hits, 3 of which were homeruns, how does the game rate him? Or can those player types be weeded out somehow?

For those of you running to Google, Bob Hoogleman is not a real player, by the way.

[David Watts]

Originally Posted by Otrex

Oops, sorry one more question:

If we utilize the random debut feature, what prevents a "nobody player" who had a super-short, but excellent career, from entering the draft as a dominant player? For example if the game selects "Bob Hoogleman" to put into the draft and he had 5 at-bats in his career with 5 hits, 3 of which were homeruns, how does the game rate him? Or can those player types be weeded out somehow?

For those of you running to Google, Bob Hoogleman is not a real player, by the way.

OOTP has a very cool feature that limits the success of players with limited at bats or innings pitched. It's actually part of the historical setup wizard.

[Peregrine]

Originally Posted by David Watts

OOTP has a very cool feature that limits the success of players with limited at bats or innings pitched. It's actually part of the historical setup wizard.

That doesn't mean, however, that in random debut (or even historical leagues) a top player will always be a top player - injuries, or just the vagaries of player creation will mix it up a bit - that's one thing I like actually.

[Bluenoser]

Originally Posted by David Watts

Not missing at all. When you create a historical league one of the options is for random debut. When you select this option, your initial draft will be filled with players from all era's. Players in the initial draft will be show up at all different ages---So, you might get a 22 year old Babe Ruth or a 36 year old Ruth. This is done so your league has a proper age distribution. Following your first season, each future draft will be populated with random players from all era's of the game, but these players will debut at the age they made their real life MLB debuts.

You can select a beginning year for players to debut and a maximum year. For example, if you want players from no earlier than 1901, just select 1901 for your minimum. I personally exclude the players from the 1800's as they tend to perform rather video game for my taste.

And to add to this, you also have the option to bring in players individually if you like - and assign them to any team of your choice, make them draft eligible, or make them an FA.

You could just import Nolan Ryan and Rogers Hornsby if you like, and import them at whatever age you like as well.

[RchW]

Originally Posted by David Watts

OOTP has a very cool feature that limits the success of players with limited at bats or innings pitched. It's actually part of the historical setup wizard.

My caveat there is that the default AB/IP to "weaken" and make "bad" (not sure that's the right term) are too low.

[Otrex]

Which begs the question: How low are they?

Do you often see real historical players come through the draft and dominate, when in reality they only saw X at-bats?

[Peregrine]

I haven't seen it very often at all when they have like 50 career at-bats, but it's not uncommon to have someone who was a career backup turn into a much better player in the game - a lot depends on your player creation options and how much randomness there is in the system.

[Gambo]

Actually in OOTP16 you don't have to do it one by one. There is an option to import from a text file a group of players, the year for them to use and automatically assign them to team or as free agent.

[Otrex]

Okay, if the system can be set up so as to allow historical players to show up at the proper age that they started in real life, how do the minor leagues work? For example, does Ty Cobb show up ready to play at 19 years of age and not require minor league time?

[Gambo]

Originally Posted by Otrex

Okay, if the system can be set up so as to allow historical players to show up at the proper age that they started in real life, how do the minor leagues work? For example, does Ty Cobb show up ready to play at 19 years of age and not require minor league time?

When importing from the database that comes with the game then it will not import a player unless he played in the majors that year. So by default it's moot.

However, if you use a custom database (such as Spritze's or my version of Spritze's) then that is taken into account when his stats are projected.

[Otrex]

Are you referencing a historical season for that answer though? The reason I ask is that you say "if he played in the majors that year" whereas my question was strictly in regards to the random debut feature, so whether or not he played in the majors that year is irrelevant.

As perhaps a better example, in our league, it's 1901, and Cal Ripken is selected by the Random Debut feature to be in the draft pool. Historically Cal Ripken played his first season at age 20, so is that the age he is when he shows up for possible drafting in our 1901 Random Debut league? If so, does that make the minor leagues useless when playing this way, which is to say it just becomes a holding-box for the players who are of the proper age, but not good enough to make the roster? That would mean that there is no youth development because the Random Debut feature refuses to give you anyone who isn't of major league age, right?

Finally if all of the above is accurate, does the Spritze's custom database work for the Random Debut feature as well? That would mean, in the above example it's 1901 and an 18 year old Cal Ripken shows up for drafting (I have a feeling this guy might be good).