Time to start the creation

[Hockey13Playa]

Hey all,

So I know this is brought up all the time and I apologize but its so overwhelming and I don't want to screw anything up.

So what I want to FINALLY try after playing OOTP since 13, is create my own fictional league.

I created all my own jerseys, locations, teams, etc. So I am good there. What I want/need help with and as much advice and suggestions possible is the actual creation in game. (Ps - Here is the link to my thread over in the Mods forums if anyone wants to use any of my teams once I upload a link to download: http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...-creation.html

I want to create a 20 team league. 2 subleagues/conferences with 2 divisions in each. Over time I want to hold expansions when I so choose. (I'll worry about that later). Up to a max 30-34 teams. So not sure what kind of schedule length (in games) I should do for now. I would like a weighted schedule kind of like MLB divisional is the heaviest, then conference play, then interrelate (say one division from the other league each year).

I want all fictional players, don't mind if each team is assigned or if a draft is held.

I want to mimic 2015 MLB production/stats and financials.

I want to be able to create my own ballparks using my own dimensions and factors for each city/location. (I don't know when the best time to do all the stuff like this is.)

I'd like to hold a playoffs. Since there are 20 teams, 10 teams in each league I would say 8 total playoff teams 4 from each side for a total of 3 playoff rounds.

I want to use 3 levels of minors - AAA, AA, and A. (I could use a college/highschool level also if the vets encourage that).

I want these minors to mimic the setup of the major league in terms of teams, playoff format etc.

I guess basically the manual doesn't hold my hand all the way through this setup with all the options and explanations, and I never created my own league before, ever. I know recently someone posted something similar and a very in depth lengthy step by step procedure was posted as a reply but I can't find it. So I am curious if anyone can provide any info, tips, tricks, best way to do things.

Also I know its always said to run a test sim - that is totally fine but after thats done I am not the most experience on what it is I should be looking for And as well after the test sim is done and if everything looks good I would like to start out back at "year 1" and write my history as I play the league from the beginning.

Hopefully someone actually reads my long rant and can give me a hand getting things set up as I am sure I missed tons of stuff thats crucial. Thanks in advance to anyone that can help!

[battists]

So, first off, sounds like fun! I have a similar real-world fictional league, although I have 24 teams.

I can't speak to everything in your e-mail, but one thing I would certainly recommend:

Build your league a bit at a time, saving world templates along the way. For example, add your major league and set all of the teams and cities. Then save as a template (template "1"). Then add AAA and do the same, including setting their affiliations ("2"). Then when you are done the teams, go through the major league settings and save. Then the minor league settings and save.

The main reason to do this is that setting up a league takes time, and VERY often trial and error. You don't want to find out you messed something up, and then have start ALL OVER AGAIN. With this method, if you realize you messed up, it's relatively easy to start over again from scratch.

Most of what you mentioned just has to do with the settings when you set up the league. As far as # of games and interleague play, the biggest challenge you will have is with schedules. There are a number of schedules that come with the game that will suit your 20-team alignment. However, the ones that support interleague play are 162 games,152, or 82 games. They have varied # of interleague games.

If you want no interleague, there are a few other options. Of course, you get find a way to get custom schedules anyway.

One thing I have done in my league that has worked well is to have my amateur draft occur before the start of the season. OK, so, it may be weird that my high school/college players are playing in January, but the net result is I get my rookies before the start of the season, instead of the irritating mid-year thing. This would hold true whether you want feeder leagues or not. I play "mostly stats only," so I feel like I need feeder leagues. But they certainly aren't required.

I do recommend that once you get your league fully set up, back it up! Then start up as commish and sim for some long amount of time. I only did about 10 years, but I had some people saying to do 100. Then look at the stability of the league. Some of the things I looked at included:

1. Do the schedules appear to be working well?
2. Look at the league history index. Do the league ERAs / batting averages appear to be trending strongly in an undesirable way?
3. What does the FA pool look like? Are there too many players? Too many GOOD players?
4. What are finances for the teams looking like? Is there some level of parity?

Let us know what other questions you have!

[battists]

Incidentally, it might have been my post you were referring to.

Was it this one?

[agrimsley]

This post is great. I have long wanted to make my own league and have done just that a couple of days ago so I think I'm in the same boat as the OP.

For me, I wanted to create a league based entirely in Great Britain which worked perfectly but I noticed that 15-20 years in, the league was dominated by foreign imports. Even though we only had a couple joining the league each year, because the other countries have a better standard of baseball, they were always 5* players. I don't think I could have foreseen this happening and it is not something I would have noticed without trialling. As a commish though, I just rolled with it, reduced the foreign imports numbers and continued. If the problem persists, I may even add a foreigner limit but this could be an issue as nationality is English/Welsh/Scottish rather than British.

Anyway, good luck, I hope you get the same rewards that I'm getting. Seeing some players make the HoF and create a history base before I take over a team.

[Hockey13Playa]

Originally Posted by battists

Incidentally, it might have been my post you were referring to.

Was it this one?

Thank you sir! That was certainly what I was referring to! I'm just so overwhelmed with this whole creation process and feeder leagues and %'s of players of different ethnicities that play in the league and all that.

I just don't really know what I'm doing lol as I've always played the MLB QuickStart and changed or tinkered randomly when I pleased.

[battists]

Originally Posted by Hockey13Playa

Thank you sir! That was certainly what I was referring to! I'm just so overwhelmed with this whole creation process and feeder leagues and %'s of players of different ethnicities that play in the league and all that.

I just don't really know what I'm doing lol as I've always played the MLB QuickStart and changed or tinkered randomly when I pleased.

Well, I would suggest not letting it overwhelm you TOO much. After all, ultimately, you want to PLAY this league. Use the step by step process I mentioned, and then get rolling. If later on you figure out there was something you didn't like (wrong mix of nationalities, say), you can either start over, tweak it on the fly, or just note it for the next time you decide to create your own league.

[Hockey13Playa]

Originally Posted by battists

Well, I would suggest not letting it overwhelm you TOO much. After all, ultimately, you want to PLAY this league. Use the step by step process I mentioned, and then get rolling. If later on you figure out there was something you didn't like (wrong mix of nationalities, say), you can either start over, tweak it on the fly, or just note it for the next time you decide to create your own league.

That's a good point, I just have to experiment then with some trial and error sessions and follow your instructions above (which are very great by the way - thank you).

While everything is fresh in my mind - if I wanted to add say a college feeder for all division 1 schools. How easy / hard is that? I know it had to of been done before, anyway I can "insert" that into a new league to save me all the creation time?

^ I know I'm a little off topic with that but figured I'd ask all my questions here while this post is active

[battists]

I have to admit, while I do use features myself, I don't have a ton of experience with them. So if you had a college feed feeder with all the Division I schools, I'm not sure if that would generate the right number of players for your league or too many, or whatever.

[Hockey13Playa]

Ok no problem! just figured I would ask! If anyone else has any knowledge on the college feeder and wants to chime in then awesome; if not I will go with your instructions above and see how things rollout!

Another question; when you create a fictional league is it better to start with a fantasy draft or just have the game assign players to every team? Reason I ask is because I'm curious if the game makes all teams start equal as far as talent level, number of stars, prospects, etc.

[battists]

In my case, I wanted to start playing myself after there was some history in the league. So I just let the computer draft. And so far, it seems like the league has decent parity.

[battists]

By which I mean, I schedule an inaugural draft, but I don't participate in it. A fantasy draft is really only something that happens in MLB leagues.

[Hockey13Playa]

Ahh yes inaugural draft sorry! Coffee hasnt kicked in yet! but that's what I planned let the computer do the entire draft and I'll chose a random team after; I just didn't want each team to end up playing say .500 ball where every team is pretty average, I like a little bit of flux when it comes to teams and there talent level

[battists]

The game will naturally have some flux. I think in my league which now has 12 seasons there have been 8 championship winners.

[Hockey13Playa]

Originally Posted by battists

The game will naturally have some flux. I think in my league which now has 12 seasons there have been 8 championship winners.

Ok cool; if I modify each teams owner personalities and market size and what not that should help create a little distortion too I would believe, right? Goving some ball clubs a little bit of an advantage with money to retain as well as pull in better talent.

[battists]

Originally Posted by Hockey13Playa

Ok cool; if I modify each teams owner personalities and market size and what not that should help create a little distortion too I would believe, right? Goving some ball clubs a little bit of an advantage with money to retain as well as pull in better talent.

I believe this stuff will be randomized upon creation, so no need to touch it IMHO.

[Hockey13Playa]

Originally Posted by battists

I believe this stuff will be randomized upon creation, so no need to touch it IMHO.

Ok Sweet! You've been most helpful! I'm going to build my courage up and attempt to start creation this afternoon when I'm home from work!

[battists]

Originally Posted by Hockey13Playa

Ok Sweet! You've been most helpful! I'm going to build my courage up and attempt to start creation this afternoon when I'm home from work!

I'm sure you will have more questions when you are in front of the setup screen!

[battists]

One more advice thing that might help:

With logos, you can actually append color hex codes to the file name. This can be used to set the "team colors" automatically, so that the background and text color match. This is a HUGE time savings compared to setting them for each team individually.

The absolute BEST way to do this is with the Pickoff utility I mentioned in my linked thread above. That utility lets you pick the two team colors with an eye dropper and automatically appends the colors to your logo file. It's awesome.

[Hockey13Playa]

Originally Posted by battists

I'm sure you will have more questions when you are in front of the setup screen!

Oh I know I will! One thing I do remember from last night when I dabbled around... Which I feel so lame and stupid for asking.

When you said create each league and save a template how's the best way to go about that?

New fictional custom league
Do I do basic or advanced? Then on the right it lets me check off the levels of minors, do I do that? Since you said do one league at a time? I just want to know the basic process of those first steps and that should hopefully get me going

[battists]

Personally I would avoid the wizard entirely. Just do advanced. Start with ML, enter your team names and cities. Save as a template.

Then go ahead and add your minor leagues from there.