Loaded fine. This is an awesome setup. Surprise, the rosters changed during the 1960 Season (I only looked at. The Phils and Orioles). There were a number of trades during the year. And ratings are wild, I gather due to super-high TCR?

I see what you mean about the number of free agents, including plenty for the minor leagues. Now, what should happen first? Should I set up a free-agent draft, where each Continental League team can pick in sequence, to spread out the talent? Or is it every team for itself, subject to funding limits?

I got hired as GM and field Manager of the Montreal Mounties (f/k/a Buffalo), and nothing (except limited funds) to stop me from signing some guys, so I did. I tended to sign some young guys I recognized as prospects, knowing that high TCR (I am at 176) could mean that they neve develop as IRL.

I didn't have to sacrifice my bookmarks after all. There is a file named "bookmark_page_links" in the "page_links" folder which, if the league name and team numbers remain the same, will work from one iteration to the next if copied over.

You continue to ship the "Continental.lsdl' file separately in the download. Does version 3 contain this schedule already or do we need to manually load it?

You want to manually load the new schedule since v3 required a minor change to it.

It can't be TCR. Ratings were locked through the entire 1960 playthrough and only unlocked on the first day of the off-season, which is where the save starts so there hasn't been a chance for the TCR to take effect.

It could be the Very Low scouting accuracy? Also, the 1960 ratings were set to 1-year calculation base, so that might be it as well.

Also, I have the ratings default to the 1-5 scale. I prefer low granularity because it tamps down my desire to micro-manage. However, everyone is encourage to set Scouting, TCR, ratings, etc to their personal tastes.

I am signing free agents, subject to funding limits. Here's a rundown of my first day in the sim: https://forums.ootpdevelopments.com/...48&postcount=5

So, I've advanced to November 11, 1960 - the day when the new free agents declare. As anticipated, the superstars are demanding superstar money. But there are plenty of diamonds in the rough, at least based on potential. And all sorts of guys to fill out the minor league organization.

One bug I have found is that, in negotiations, when a player's demand is met, he claps back with the "I'm sure you can do better" response. The example where it has happened several times is minor leaguers demanding a minor league contract with a major league salary at $21,200 if promoted. I say fine, but no deal happens. If I then offer a $1000 signing bonus, the response is the demand for $21,200 (i.e. less than I offered!). I tried repeatedly to increase the bonus to one guy I wanted, and he kept saying no and then cut off negotiations. There are all "easy" signings, but of course they are anything but.

Am I on a sort of clock here? I can see that the other Continental League teams are slowly - or not so slowly - signing players. Which makes me feel like I need to get my offers out there. I realized that I need to check all transactions every day, to see what is happening. But happily most of the free agents are still out there negotiating. They are in their happy place, with the new league.

It can be frustrating as the game is trying to model players seeking to extract every dime they can out of you. I never offer just a milb contract, for example, because then an AI team doing the same thing will trigger a renegotiation which is tedious for this many players. If they want an milb contract, throw in a signing bonus to drive away some of the competition for him.

My plan is to nab as many good prospects as I can with signing bonuses, sign starting pitchers from the first-year pool, and nab 1-2 veteran free agents at spots that are thin in the first-year draft (I'm looking at you, SS and 3B). Then I will hopefully be able to backfill the reserves on the active roster with Rule V picks (which are paid league minimum, NO NEGOTIATION!)

I am totally ignoring first-year players that want milb contracts with MLB options. If I think they are good enough to make the roster, I will offer them an MLB contract. What I don't want is to sign some guy only to have him opt for free agency 30 days into the season.

Since my owner doesn't expect a playoff team for 5 years(!), I am exploiting this opportunity to focus on building a farm system that can help me in 2-3 years or give me trade bait in the season.


This plan of course could totally fail, but that's the plan.

here's my theory on why AI team sign players faster: https://forums.ootpdevelopments.com/...95&postcount=7

Also, with a demand of $21,200, when I "meet demand", the response is "not bad, but I am not ready to sign yet. If you would offer more salary...." then asking for the same $21,200 I must offered.

Yes you need to ignore what they say because the AI gets tripped up a bit.

"You offered me a minor-league contract. What I really want is a minor-league contract"

That can drive you nuts, trust me! The logic for milb contracts and milb contracts with options seems bugged. This guy thinks he's worth an X contract, so you offer it to him. Then the AI comes along and offers him the same thing because that's what he wants, so he's programmed to come back to you and say "Team X is interested in me, you should offer me more". But he still thinks he's worth an X contract so he asks for the same thing.

If you get in that loop, up the offer instead of listening to the player.

This is why all of my milb contract offers come with some sort of signing bonus, even if it's just $500. It's to keep the AI from matching what is a essentially a free offer and making me negotiate more than I want to.

This save has reignited the flames of OOTP for me! Not that it takes much — it happens periodically with the slightest of sparks, sometimes even by spontaneous combustion — but your project was the lit match this time. Thanks again. :thumbup:

The authenticity of the names really helps with the immersion, at least for me. I know the coaches of this time as well as the players, so seeing a completely fictional slate of coaches always throws me off a bit. I would totally help research all of these for the game if it was ever implemented as a default feature.


Glad you are enjoying it! I just had 77 minor-league offers accepted.. woot!

I can't really complain. I've been able to sign some decent free agents, including Sandy Koufax coming off a bad year and thus at a discount, great stuff but no control. Missed out on all the big guys, whose demands continually escalated, and probably they did not prefer the Continental League. Speaking of which, the other Continental teams have been pretty passive in notable FA signings, although like me active in the Rule V Draft. Maybe they too are getting outbid or guys want to play in the NL and AL.

I lost out on Camilio Pascal and Jackie Jensen, plus a guy I never heard of, Aldo Salvent, who had a breakout year with Cleveland and then retired at age 31. I unretired him, and the A's signed him to a huge seven-year contract. Maybe that was for the best.

Trades have been wild, even after I set AI trade frequency back. Hank Aaron, Frank Robinson, Willie Mays and others changed teams. The Yanks have Ernie Banks and Ken Boyer, to go with Mantle and Maris. But no pitching.

Just realized that I still have about fifty spots to fill in my minor league system, and at this point I may let the AI pick those players for me. The good news is, I currently have around fifteen age and talent-appropriate guys at each minor league level, so just need to fill in positions, mostly pitchers.

The big lesson is that free agency all at once with eight new teams bidding is chaotic - the owners' worst nightmare. No wonder guys are coming out of retirement to play.

Also, I need to load the schedule files. I just started Spring Training, and noticed the schedule is blank for regular season and for Spring games. I'm fine with the round robin, and can load that. Any advice on that process??

When the preseason starts, go to the schedule editor (League Settings->Options->Edit League Schedule) and load the Continental.lsdl schedule. That will schedule 154 games for each of the 24 teams.


Please read the Spring Training section in the READ_FIRST.txt file for more info on that.

Also, I am to the Free Agency Filing and there have been 5 trades so far. The frequency is set to Average, and it seems like there's always a flurry of trades when the post-season starts.

Thanks! It really is a cool sandbox! Resetting trades from Normal to Very Low has settled things down. And what I saw was more free agent movement, or trades in anticipation of not being able to keep superstars who were going to follow the money. On that, I’m curious how teams can afford these inflated salaries within their 1961 budgets. In Montreal, I am benefitting from high ticket sales, particularly season tickets, for added revenue. Some MLB teams have gotten outbid repeatedly. When you look at that cool drop-down that shows year-to-year changes by WAR lost and gained, it is devastating for some teams.

Todays’s task, after loading that schedule file, is to fill out my minor league roster. Still plenty of minor league free agents for that. Then, onto Spring Training. (Will setting the regular season schedule also cause the game to populate the Spring Training schedule? I may try to create Grapefruit and Cactus Leagues, with interleague play in both places.

Yes, if you do it before Spring Training is supposed to start. If you load the schedule when the Preseason begins, you should be fine.

All good. The schedule loaded, and the Spring Training games miraculously appeared as well. (On off days, I scheduled games for the CL Mounties with AL and NL teams.).

I managed to sign enough players to fill out my minor league teams. Not sure about the 35-man rosters. Seems like the guys wo’t get enough playing time. I am going to change the rosters back to 25 at most.

At the major league level, I lost out in bidding for Ralph Terry, the last prime SP left. My rotation was Don Newcombe, Sandy Koufax, and a trio of rookies. Somehow, I managed to acquire Frank Larry and Johnny Podres, by shopping Turk Farrell and Hal Smith. Now, the young guys will have time to develop in AAA. My bullpen i strong, with Lindy McDaniel and Hank Aguirre.

In the preseason predictions, the Mounties are chosen to finish first in a close race. The Yanks are the choice over Baltimore in the AL, and the Giants are slight favorites over the Dodgers in the NL.

The game recommends that your lowest level of minors should have rosters of at least 35. In the official game, the bottom levels generally have unlimited rosters (although this is really a limit of 200).



Sounds impressive!

Oh man, I can't believe I just found this. Been working for hours on almost the exact same thing. On the bright side, I figured out how to do it without having to start in 1960 and fast forward...

Thank you for sharing uruguru.
I’ve thought of doing this a few times myself.
The Continental League has always fascinated me.