Where can you change the number of slots? I've looked everywhere...

Global settings, on the tab where you set development speed, fatigue, injuries, etc.

Does this just mean Work Ethic is a factor, or anything else?

When selecting the 'Learn a new position' development plan - do you need to manually assign the player that position to indicate which one you want learned? Or is one randomly chosen/chosen from the next most suitable position based on their currently fielding ability?

The later.

Thanks, useful to know!

One thing I'd love to see in the player development tab for next season: for the new development focus sliders, have a default for hitters and pitchers in the organization and enable blocking the AI from touching this. Instead of having to go through and individually adjust the players I want to control the sliders for, I'd rather have a default setting for the whole org, and then adjust dudes from there.

That's a good idea - maybe even presets for positions groups. Would save a lot of clicks.

An idea to explore for next year for dev lab (which has been an addicting addition). Instead of a setting for max slots per team which every team can utilize, you install a cost per slot/program. There would still be a setting for max slots total, but each program and slot could cost different prices depending on the development focus. To increase pitcher velocity would need more resources than improving defensive ratings at RF, etc. Would be interesting to see how teams would set up budget to do so. Teams like NYY could still utilize cash for contracts, FA's, IAFA's, etc. Teams like Oakland would throw more resources into dev Lab results on players on league minimum hoping to strike lightning in a bottle. An idea that I thought of last night while playing as I've been trying to utilize the max 20 slots and was looking for variation throughout the league. Would love to know what others think.

I like the suggestion to attach cost to different dev lab slots, but I want it to be optional. Idea itself seems to be good, logical etc., but I personally don't want to micromanage this aspect of the game - I wish that others, who might want to get involved in even more finance tinkering, to have that opportunity. I am absolutely hooked on this new development lab but I would be pretty upset, if I am forced to deal with it's possible financial aspect. Great idea, just make it optional. Please.

Optional yes! Great idea, option for those who do and those who don't. The big strength of OOTP is options!

Sadly, Will, there are people that think that when they see a potential boost of like 10 points, they think the dev lab did that. They don't understand that when you have scouting on, and you do a 6 month program, and if their last scouting report on the player was in, August, and they get an outstanding rating in their dev lab, that the forced scouting report on that player also includes the past 6+ months of scouting data.

I know there is the new feature that shows how the player actually was affected by the dev lab, but before that when someone seen a boost from 60/65 to 70/75, and they got an outstanding progress, they thought it was all from the dev lab. Then you try and give the the correct info, they get all huffy and puffy...

Baseball Eras
 

Is there ever going to be a "general' era so that imported players from different time frames compete based on their imported stats without any adjustments to or regard of a specific era from the list in the game?

Just some quick thoughts on the dev lab:
1) Can only withdraw from a program within 5 days. Problematic with online league off-season sim schedules generally 7+ days. Any way this can be either increased or, preferably, made customizable?
2) Because of the above (for the moment) worth thinking about keeping one or more slots for short term programs so you can switch during off-season (eg include an FA or R5 acquisition).

I must say, for the past couple of years, I have found myself forgoing the major version enhancements of OOTPB. These development features, particularly the lab, are the only ones to have made the cut. Well done.

Yes, making it 7 or 8 days would be hugely preferable.

He probably went down because in real life Pete Rose abandoned 2B by the time he was 25. In these historical modes, there does not seem to be a way to alter their destiny. The stats won't be identical of course but I have noticed (I took over the 62 Mets) that these players seem to be hard coded to play the positions they played in their actual careers no matter how hard you try to prevent it.