Fictional Leagues

Calvert98 · 01-05-2021, 07:45 PM

Hi Guys,

Open-ended question here I know and these threads come-up every so often.

However, in looking forward to OOTP 22, I was wondering what types of fictional universe fans of OTTP currently create and what folks enjoy most about them, compared to say other types of leagues or tournaments.

So how is your fictional baseball universe constructed and what do you like about it?

-Cal

Bluenoser · 01-05-2021, 08:03 PM

I would recommend reading some of threads in the Dynasty and Fictional Forums. There is a wide variety of fictional leagues with many setups.

You would get a real good picture of the many types of fictional leagues.

Calvert98 · 01-05-2021, 08:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bluenoser

I would recommend reading some of threads in the Dynasty and Fictional Forums. There is a wide variety of fictional leagues with many setups.

You would get a real good picture of the many types of fictional leagues.

Great idea. I will check those out as well. Thanks Blue

-Cal

ryanivr · 01-06-2021, 12:34 AM

I do something similar every year and it's hard to break from the habit, but I get a ton of enjoyment out of it. I have a league that starts in 1912, with 6 teams in each division. I try to expand at a relatively realistic pace, so until the 1950's or so I usually have between 16-18 teams, and then from the 60's on I expand maybe every decade or so to eventually get to 30-32 teams by the current time.

I play with modern financials, modern stats, and pretty modern options otherwise. I LOVE going through the history, watching the league unfold. I will typically control a team until I have a dynasty and then take over a new team that hasn't won. I can play small market teams, big market teams, pitching and defense focused teams, power focused teams, etc this way. Every team is a new challenge and I try to approach it differently.

For example, in OOTP21, I started a little later than usual, but I'm in 1946 and just won the series for the first time with the expansion team I took over. We have, by far, the smallest payroll in the league. Started in 1939 with them, had 5 of 7 seasons with 100 losses or more, but finally had all the pieces come together for a 102 win season in 1946. I'll play with this team for another few years and see how things go and when things have naturally run their course, I'll switch to a new team, a bigger market team that needs to rebuild or something like that.

The final thing I'll mention is that I have a few small house rules that I added recently that have made things much more fun and challenging. There's only a few things and they're simple.

1. I play with 20-80 potential ratings only. No current ratings at all. This forces me to use stats to make decisions but I'm not completely blind to how good a player should/could be if things go the right way.

2. I played a lot of Strat-O-Matic growing up and the randomness of dice always appealed to me. I incorporated it into OOTP around player acquisition. In the offseason, I use random.org to roll a number between 2 and 8 each Monday. If that number is a 5, I can make an offer to a player rated 50 or below. If it's a 7, I can offer a player rated 70 or below. I can make one offer per week based on that roll. This makes me lose free agent targets much more often that I would normally and feels more realistic in general.

3. Last one - right when the offseason begins, I roll twice between 1-4. First number is how many 50+ rated free agents I can sign that offseason. Second number is how many trades I can make that season.

In my previous example, after winning the season I had a ton of high-priced Arb players and I rolled a 1 on trades. I was forced to make extremely tough decisions on who to non-tender and which ONE trade I could make all season to stay under budget.

Sorry for the long post but hopefully this is helpful in some way!

Calvert98 · 01-06-2021, 12:41 AM

That is really helpful and interesting the way you worked-in those house rules around an RNG - from a RPG vantage point, it is like having extra ownership limits on the GM. Thanks Ryan.

tcblcommish · 01-06-2021, 01:33 AM

I don't do anything as in depth as some but I usually do a league in the 8 major countries that play baseball according to OOTP. They all play 162 game seasons and can only have players from those countries playing in them and then at the end of it, I have a tournament with the champions from each league playing in a quick playoff.

I enjoy it though I don't get as into OOTP as I used to

smiller · 01-06-2021, 09:54 AM

One thing I do to maintain interest (my last fictional league lasted two calendar years) after simming a couple of seasons is to start as GM of the worst team. After a few years when they've become contenders, I switch to another team with the worst record, and so on. I like building teams and this also gets you familiar with more teams and players.

Calvert98 · 01-07-2021, 06:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by smiller

One thing I do to maintain interest (my last fictional league lasted two calendar years) after simming a couple of seasons is to start as GM of the worst team. After a few years when they've become contenders, I switch to another team with the worst record, and so on. I like building teams and this also gets you familiar with more teams and players.

That's interesting.

So, it that universe it is sort of like you are the "fixer" or prime GM being hired by teams to turn their clubs around.

Calvert98 · 01-07-2021, 06:57 PM

As a follow-up, I have been checking-out some of the Dynasty league threads. Interesting ideas.

I am also leaning towards like a MLB Fictional Universe for a simple start (filled with all fictional players / minors etc...), using my normal settings: Trade settings on Very Hard / favor prospects, 80/20 ratings, no stars; then taking my hometown team.

It is interesting however, in that my hometown team (Baltimore Orioles) have some serious challenges on their own, if you start in 2019, 2020 or even this year, with legacy contracts and a middle-market.

At the same time, I like the idea of entirely new teams.

RyMACtizzle · 01-08-2021, 12:23 PM

I usually start in 1890 with two semi-Major leagues with 8 teams. Have a third major league start (usually a players league with better financials for players) in 1895 and have most of them merge together in 1900 in the USBL. Teams that don't get into USBL, form a minor league for a decade or so. Teams move locations and I expand every 5-10 years from 1920 on based on populations at the time. So cities like Miami, Vegas, San Diego don't get franchises until 1940s or later. By the time I get to 2000s, I have about 40 teams in the USBL. I start my minor leagues in 1920 with the biggest cities of the time that don't have a USBL team as franchises. Expand to second minor league in 1935, and third and final minor league in 1945. Once a minor league team gets a USBL franchise, they lose their minor league and it goes to the next biggest city/area without a minor league.

While that is going on in America, I have a Cuban league that starts in the 1890s, that goes from amateur to professional. An English league that starts in 1905, expands with a relegation league in 1920, and a third league later in the 1920s. A also have a Canadian league that starts in 1910s. Other countries (Japan, Mexico, Venezuela, Austraila, Korea) all come online later.

All my free agents come mainly from the USBL in settings. However, starting in 1950, I add my NCAA college feeder system which has about 120 actual D1 teams. I try to use the era-specific conferences and move schools when realignment happens. Even though it's one league/universe, my NCAA teams play different amount of games (except conference games) like in real life. I use custom playoffs for the College World Series because I use a database program I made to rank the teams based on SOS, RPI and so on. Conference champs get an auto bid, and at larges are based of rankings. Seeding for CWS is from rankings also.

Also, all of my teams have uniforms and logos that switch over time. Some I've borrowed, some I've created. I don't start a new league until all of the teams have logos, unis, hats from beginning to 2020.

I have been working on or expanding on this since probably OOTP16 I think. I just move all my files to the next version and start over in 1890 each year and see how far I get.

I also do the take a crappy USBL team, win a few American Cups (my World Series), and then find another crappy team and work with them. I am going to think about instituting some house rules for OOTP22 to make it tougher on me.

eldur00 · 01-08-2021, 02:18 PM

My fictional universe took me a LOT of time to get it to where I like it, but the work was well worth it.
I started in 1980 because I feel it is an interesting era for baseball. I have 4 leagues, with the top league called "Premier League", and then 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Premier league has 10 teams. 1st has 16 and 2nd 20. My 3rd (lowest) is 30 teams set up like MLB. I don't have minors at any level as it would really start to slow down the sim, so I use Reserve Rosters instead.
I have Pro/Rel, but a really stingy one, where only one team per season goes up or down depending on the level. So you win it all - you get promoted. You finished last ? Down you go.
My financials have been set so the top leagues generate more money and revenue, and also made those leagues more attractive to free agents and such. To counterbalance this, teams can only trade within their respective leagues, to avoid a team from 3rd to trade with a team from the Premium League with a higher salary and basically handcuff themselves.
I also left Dynamic Evolution on, which is something a lot of people hate, but I just LOVE the random aspect of it. Makes my world feel a bit more lively.
After all this was said and done, I chose to be Manager only because I feel that is the most challenging way to play. I picked a team in the 3rd and we are hoping to go up. I play out every game so it goes a bit slow, but it goes. Our pitching is top notch, but we don't score many runs. Despite all this, we are holding on to a wildcard spot at the end of August. I'm afraid we may be not scoring enough to get us into the playoffs, but our #1 and 2 starters are both prime candidates for pitcher of the year award. Playing the games out as Manager also really helps getting immersed with all the other players on each team and they slowly start to feel real to you.

All this to say...you can really create your universe the way you want, and there's a lot of fun to be had with all the settings. You can make it as simple as you want, or you can work weeks like I did to get everything working together in a more complex universe.

Calvert98 · 01-08-2021, 05:53 PM

These are pretty deep set-ups: thanks for the detailed breakdowns. A nod to the current flexibility and capability of OOTP to customize a baseball universe. Appreciate the notes on immersion as well - that is a big aspect of the game for me too.

I play-out all of my games as well, in-part, for that immersion experience, so I get to know the players and feel even more vested in the outcomes and their development. It is one reason I hope the OOTP kicks-up the in-game experience a bit in 22 with the 3D, sounds etc… From the fictional universe side, seeing a team that you put-together, in their customized uniforms on the field as the games play-out would be pretty cool.

-Cal

nebben · 01-09-2021, 11:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RyMACtizzle

I usually start in 1890 with two semi-Major leagues with 8 teams. Have a third major league start (usually a players league with better financials for players) in 1895 and have most of them merge together in 1900 in the USBL.

Love this setup. It's similar to something I've tried, though not nearly as in-depth as your setup. Do you use any spreadsheets to track your leagues, teams, etc.? Also, I'm curious how you make enough logos and uniforms to update your teams, like what program do you use?

I want to do the same but have no idea how to make my own uniforms, so I stick to what the OOTP community's created. There are fantastic options, though most teams I've found have one set of unis and logos, not versions you can switch-out over time.

RyMACtizzle · 01-09-2021, 12:39 PM

Yeah, I use a spreadsheet to keep track of each new round of expansion using Excel. Each year I expand gets its own tab, so I know expansion teams, relocations, new leagues, etc. That way I remember who starts when.

As for uniforms and hats, I use a combination of the Jersey Maker and Cap Maker as well as Photoshop CS6 (which is the main reason I can't upgrade to OSX 15). Logos if there is not one I like on the internet, I will make one from scratch or tweak one I found online. I also use a lot from TXRanger's logos.

To get the yearly thing to work, you just need to add the years into the logo file name. For example, baltimore_crabbers_1900-1919_B4111A_FED350.png for a logo. The "B4111A_FED350" are the team colors in HEX numbers. For the uniforms, jerseys_baltimore_crabbers_1900-1919.png.

They should auto-load, when you load your game each time. I have found that I have to load them each new year though for the uniforms and hats especially using the Face & Pic settings.

Yeah, I spend way too much time on this wonderful game.

RchW · 01-09-2021, 01:18 PM

I basically do MLB clone leagues with stat output designed to emulate the the game as it was circa 2003-2011. These are long term saves 80-100 seasons starting in v6 where I run a dominant team that should win (I don't) lots of WS. It's a testament to the improvements made over each version of OOTP that I've gone from winning multiple consecutive (2-3-4) WS to basically the Bobby Cox Atlanta teams. It's extremely frustrating but I'm never bored

The best part is the league history with many of the great players stats being very believable. With some exceptions.

Despite that I have never modified a players original ratings.

micropterus58 · 01-09-2021, 01:32 PM

I like to make a fictional league with teams for a local flavor. I have more interest in the league this way. Since I live in Connecticut I have a New England league where all players are from the same region. Other players like state leagues or country leagues, even fictional places like Game of Thrones or Star Wars. In OOTP you can use your imagination.

bailey · 01-09-2021, 01:48 PM

I've tried for years to come up with a fictional league with real team names, but have failed to come up with anything satisfactory. I would like to start with 50+ years of realistic fictional history, but I can't just let the simulation engine run 50+ seasons because the history is unrealistic with, for example, the Washington Senators and Philadelphia Phillies becoming dominant in their respective leagues

. I've tried simulating each season 1 by 1 and drafting according to how the teams finished in real life, but this leads to a series of dominant teams with outrageous win totals. I've wondered if somehow it was possible to (easily) change all the names in the historical database and import real players with fictional names. That should do the trick, but I don't know how to do that.

nebben · 01-09-2021, 02:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RyMACtizzle

As for uniforms and hats, I use a combination of the Jersey Maker and Cap Maker

Of course! Great utilities that I forgot about. If anyone doesn't have the link, here you go: http://www.ootputilities.com/.

HumanRainDelay · 01-09-2021, 02:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nebben

Of course! Great utilities that I forgot about. If anyone doesn't have the link, here you go: http://www.ootputilities.com/.

Thanks for mentioning and then directing to this utility. New to the game so I was unaware of it--what an easy tool for getting creative with fictional leagues.

Sizeman21 · 01-09-2021, 04:01 PM

When I think of fictional, I think literally "of fiction" so my mind turns to made up worlds, creative maps of far off lands and crazy people of worlds not of Earth.

That being said, check out some great writers on the forums, namely Eugene Church for his Islandia series, jaa34 for his Terra Baseball League, Clovidequano Dovatha's Slaabovian Baseball Confederation, and Dream Teams' Metro Leagues. All have created immersive fictional baseball that seems so close to what you watch on tv now.

Search the dynasty forums for more fun fictional leagues people have made over the years. I have over 200 pages bookmarked for when I need some inspiration in creating my own stories and leagues.

Hope this helped. Let me know if you would like some tips or ideas, happy to help.

01-08-2021, 12:23 PM	#10
RyMACtizzle Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Apr 2017 Posts: 229	I usually start in 1890 with two semi-Major leagues with 8 teams. Have a third major league start (usually a players league with better financials for players) in 1895 and have most of them merge together in 1900 in the USBL. Teams that don't get into USBL, form a minor league for a decade or so. Teams move locations and I expand every 5-10 years from 1920 on based on populations at the time. So cities like Miami, Vegas, San Diego don't get franchises until 1940s or later. By the time I get to 2000s, I have about 40 teams in the USBL. I start my minor leagues in 1920 with the biggest cities of the time that don't have a USBL team as franchises. Expand to second minor league in 1935, and third and final minor league in 1945. Once a minor league team gets a USBL franchise, they lose their minor league and it goes to the next biggest city/area without a minor league. While that is going on in America, I have a Cuban league that starts in the 1890s, that goes from amateur to professional. An English league that starts in 1905, expands with a relegation league in 1920, and a third league later in the 1920s. A also have a Canadian league that starts in 1910s. Other countries (Japan, Mexico, Venezuela, Austraila, Korea) all come online later. All my free agents come mainly from the USBL in settings. However, starting in 1950, I add my NCAA college feeder system which has about 120 actual D1 teams. I try to use the era-specific conferences and move schools when realignment happens. Even though it's one league/universe, my NCAA teams play different amount of games (except conference games) like in real life. I use custom playoffs for the College World Series because I use a database program I made to rank the teams based on SOS, RPI and so on. Conference champs get an auto bid, and at larges are based of rankings. Seeding for CWS is from rankings also. Also, all of my teams have uniforms and logos that switch over time. Some I've borrowed, some I've created. I don't start a new league until all of the teams have logos, unis, hats from beginning to 2020. I have been working on or expanding on this since probably OOTP16 I think. I just move all my files to the next version and start over in 1890 each year and see how far I get. I also do the take a crappy USBL team, win a few American Cups (my World Series), and then find another crappy team and work with them. I am going to think about instituting some house rules for OOTP22 to make it tougher on me. Last edited by RyMACtizzle; 01-08-2021 at 12:25 PM.

01-09-2021, 12:39 PM	#14
RyMACtizzle Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Apr 2017 Posts: 229	Yeah, I use a spreadsheet to keep track of each new round of expansion using Excel. Each year I expand gets its own tab, so I know expansion teams, relocations, new leagues, etc. That way I remember who starts when. As for uniforms and hats, I use a combination of the Jersey Maker and Cap Maker as well as Photoshop CS6 (which is the main reason I can't upgrade to OSX 15). Logos if there is not one I like on the internet, I will make one from scratch or tweak one I found online. I also use a lot from TXRanger's logos. To get the yearly thing to work, you just need to add the years into the logo file name. For example, baltimore_crabbers_1900-1919_B4111A_FED350.png for a logo. The "B4111A_FED350" are the team colors in HEX numbers. For the uniforms, jerseys_baltimore_crabbers_1900-1919.png. They should auto-load, when you load your game each time. I have found that I have to load them each new year though for the uniforms and hats especially using the Face & Pic settings. Yeah, I spend way too much time on this wonderful game. Last edited by RyMACtizzle; 01-09-2021 at 12:49 PM.

01-09-2021, 01:18 PM	#15
RchW Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Toronto ON by way of Glasgow UK Posts: 15,629	I basically do MLB clone leagues with stat output designed to emulate the the game as it was circa 2003-2011. These are long term saves 80-100 seasons starting in v6 where I run a dominant team that should win (I don't) lots of WS. It's a testament to the improvements made over each version of OOTP that I've gone from winning multiple consecutive (2-3-4) WS to basically the Bobby Cox Atlanta teams. It's extremely frustrating but I'm never bored The best part is the league history with many of the great players stats being very believable. With some exceptions. Despite that I have never modified a players original ratings. __________________ Cheers RichW If you’re looking for a good cause to donate money to please consider a Donation to Parkinson’s Canada. It may help me have a better future and if not me, someone else. Thanks. “Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition …There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.” Frank Wilhoit

01-09-2021, 01:48 PM	#17
bailey Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 3,362	I've tried for years to come up with a fictional league with real team names, but have failed to come up with anything satisfactory. I would like to start with 50+ years of realistic fictional history, but I can't just let the simulation engine run 50+ seasons because the history is unrealistic with, for example, the Washington Senators and Philadelphia Phillies becoming dominant in their respective leagues. I've tried simulating each season 1 by 1 and drafting according to how the teams finished in real life, but this leads to a series of dominant teams with outrageous win totals. I've wondered if somehow it was possible to (easily) change all the names in the historical database and import real players with fictional names. That should do the trick, but I don't know how to do that.

01-09-2021, 04:01 PM	#20
Sizeman21 Major Leagues Join Date: Feb 2016 Location: The bleachers of Sportsman's Park Posts: 435	When I think of fictional, I think literally "of fiction" so my mind turns to made up worlds, creative maps of far off lands and crazy people of worlds not of Earth. That being said, check out some great writers on the forums, namely Eugene Church for his Islandia series, jaa34 for his Terra Baseball League, Clovidequano Dovatha's Slaabovian Baseball Confederation, and Dream Teams' Metro Leagues. All have created immersive fictional baseball that seems so close to what you watch on tv now. Search the dynasty forums for more fun fictional leagues people have made over the years. I have over 200 pages bookmarked for when I need some inspiration in creating my own stories and leagues. Hope this helped. Let me know if you would like some tips or ideas, happy to help. __________________

01-05-2021, 07:45 PM	#1
Calvert98 All Star Reserve Join Date: Apr 2010 Posts: 579	Fictional Leagues Hi Guys, Open-ended question here I know and these threads come-up every so often. However, in looking forward to OOTP 22, I was wondering what types of fictional universe fans of OTTP currently create and what folks enjoy most about them, compared to say other types of leagues or tournaments. So how is your fictional baseball universe constructed and what do you like about it? -Cal

01-05-2021, 08:03 PM	#2
Bluenoser Hall Of Famer Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: In The Moment Posts: 14,201	I would recommend reading some of threads in the Dynasty and Fictional Forums. There is a wide variety of fictional leagues with many setups. You would get a real good picture of the many types of fictional leagues.

01-06-2021, 12:34 AM	#4
ryanivr All Star Reserve Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 907	I do something similar every year and it's hard to break from the habit, but I get a ton of enjoyment out of it. I have a league that starts in 1912, with 6 teams in each division. I try to expand at a relatively realistic pace, so until the 1950's or so I usually have between 16-18 teams, and then from the 60's on I expand maybe every decade or so to eventually get to 30-32 teams by the current time. I play with modern financials, modern stats, and pretty modern options otherwise. I LOVE going through the history, watching the league unfold. I will typically control a team until I have a dynasty and then take over a new team that hasn't won. I can play small market teams, big market teams, pitching and defense focused teams, power focused teams, etc this way. Every team is a new challenge and I try to approach it differently. For example, in OOTP21, I started a little later than usual, but I'm in 1946 and just won the series for the first time with the expansion team I took over. We have, by far, the smallest payroll in the league. Started in 1939 with them, had 5 of 7 seasons with 100 losses or more, but finally had all the pieces come together for a 102 win season in 1946. I'll play with this team for another few years and see how things go and when things have naturally run their course, I'll switch to a new team, a bigger market team that needs to rebuild or something like that. The final thing I'll mention is that I have a few small house rules that I added recently that have made things much more fun and challenging. There's only a few things and they're simple. 1. I play with 20-80 potential ratings only. No current ratings at all. This forces me to use stats to make decisions but I'm not completely blind to how good a player should/could be if things go the right way. 2. I played a lot of Strat-O-Matic growing up and the randomness of dice always appealed to me. I incorporated it into OOTP around player acquisition. In the offseason, I use random.org to roll a number between 2 and 8 each Monday. If that number is a 5, I can make an offer to a player rated 50 or below. If it's a 7, I can offer a player rated 70 or below. I can make one offer per week based on that roll. This makes me lose free agent targets much more often that I would normally and feels more realistic in general. 3. Last one - right when the offseason begins, I roll twice between 1-4. First number is how many 50+ rated free agents I can sign that offseason. Second number is how many trades I can make that season. In my previous example, after winning the season I had a ton of high-priced Arb players and I rolled a 1 on trades. I was forced to make extremely tough decisions on who to non-tender and which ONE trade I could make all season to stay under budget. Sorry for the long post but hopefully this is helpful in some way!

01-06-2021, 12:41 AM	#5
Calvert98 All Star Reserve Join Date: Apr 2010 Posts: 579	That is really helpful and interesting the way you worked-in those house rules around an RNG - from a RPG vantage point, it is like having extra ownership limits on the GM. Thanks Ryan.

01-06-2021, 01:33 AM	#6
tcblcommish Hall Of Famer Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Canada Posts: 3,439	I don't do anything as in depth as some but I usually do a league in the 8 major countries that play baseball according to OOTP. They all play 162 game seasons and can only have players from those countries playing in them and then at the end of it, I have a tournament with the champions from each league playing in a quick playoff. I enjoy it though I don't get as into OOTP as I used to

01-06-2021, 09:54 AM	#7
smiller Major Leagues Join Date: Oct 2013 Location: Pittsboro NC Posts: 430	One thing I do to maintain interest (my last fictional league lasted two calendar years) after simming a couple of seasons is to start as GM of the worst team. After a few years when they've become contenders, I switch to another team with the worst record, and so on. I like building teams and this also gets you familiar with more teams and players.

01-07-2021, 06:57 PM	#9
Calvert98 All Star Reserve Join Date: Apr 2010 Posts: 579	As a follow-up, I have been checking-out some of the Dynasty league threads. Interesting ideas. I am also leaning towards like a MLB Fictional Universe for a simple start (filled with all fictional players / minors etc...), using my normal settings: Trade settings on Very Hard / favor prospects, 80/20 ratings, no stars; then taking my hometown team. It is interesting however, in that my hometown team (Baltimore Orioles) have some serious challenges on their own, if you start in 2019, 2020 or even this year, with legacy contracts and a middle-market. At the same time, I like the idea of entirely new teams.

01-08-2021, 02:18 PM	#11
eldur00 All Star Reserve Join Date: Apr 2015 Posts: 506	My fictional universe took me a LOT of time to get it to where I like it, but the work was well worth it. I started in 1980 because I feel it is an interesting era for baseball. I have 4 leagues, with the top league called "Premier League", and then 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Premier league has 10 teams. 1st has 16 and 2nd 20. My 3rd (lowest) is 30 teams set up like MLB. I don't have minors at any level as it would really start to slow down the sim, so I use Reserve Rosters instead. I have Pro/Rel, but a really stingy one, where only one team per season goes up or down depending on the level. So you win it all - you get promoted. You finished last ? Down you go. My financials have been set so the top leagues generate more money and revenue, and also made those leagues more attractive to free agents and such. To counterbalance this, teams can only trade within their respective leagues, to avoid a team from 3rd to trade with a team from the Premium League with a higher salary and basically handcuff themselves. I also left Dynamic Evolution on, which is something a lot of people hate, but I just LOVE the random aspect of it. Makes my world feel a bit more lively. After all this was said and done, I chose to be Manager only because I feel that is the most challenging way to play. I picked a team in the 3rd and we are hoping to go up. I play out every game so it goes a bit slow, but it goes. Our pitching is top notch, but we don't score many runs. Despite all this, we are holding on to a wildcard spot at the end of August. I'm afraid we may be not scoring enough to get us into the playoffs, but our #1 and 2 starters are both prime candidates for pitcher of the year award. Playing the games out as Manager also really helps getting immersed with all the other players on each team and they slowly start to feel real to you. All this to say...you can really create your universe the way you want, and there's a lot of fun to be had with all the settings. You can make it as simple as you want, or you can work weeks like I did to get everything working together in a more complex universe.

01-08-2021, 05:53 PM	#12
Calvert98 All Star Reserve Join Date: Apr 2010 Posts: 579	These are pretty deep set-ups: thanks for the detailed breakdowns. A nod to the current flexibility and capability of OOTP to customize a baseball universe. Appreciate the notes on immersion as well - that is a big aspect of the game for me too. I play-out all of my games as well, in-part, for that immersion experience, so I get to know the players and feel even more vested in the outcomes and their development. It is one reason I hope the OOTP kicks-up the in-game experience a bit in 22 with the 3D, sounds etc… From the fictional universe side, seeing a team that you put-together, in their customized uniforms on the field as the games play-out would be pretty cool. -Cal

01-09-2021, 01:32 PM	#16
micropterus58 All Star Starter Join Date: May 2007 Location: Connecticut Posts: 1,228	I like to make a fictional league with teams for a local flavor. I have more interest in the league this way. Since I live in Connecticut I have a New England league where all players are from the same region. Other players like state leagues or country leagues, even fictional places like Game of Thrones or Star Wars. In OOTP you can use your imagination.