Fictional League Setup Issue

nuwildcat · 05-01-2016, 03:46 AM

So I am trying to create a fictional 32 team league with 5 minor league teams for each. I am using the real team names and logos for both the major league teams and minor league teams as well. What I am trying to do is basically create a league of fictional players but with real life finances for the teams.

I go through the game creation process, and have even made a league template and get to the inaugural draft. From using other leagues, it seems that the best way to achieve the financial settings I am looking for involves using the Draft with a fixed budget option. I then set a budget for each team close to their real life actual payroll (teams range from $80 mil to $210 mil). After doing this I also hit the recalculate player demands button to make sure the demands match these budget settings. I also should say that I am using the default financial settings for new league creation.

Then I run the draft using the complete draft feature, and look at the team payroll reports. Every player for every team only has minor league contracts.

What went wrong and how can I fix it? I have tried this many different times and have come up with the same error. If there is any other way to make it so the bigger teams have bigger payrolls at the start of a fictional game, I am all ears. I have tried to have new fictional contracts created after the draft, but this does not achieve the desired effect as many of the smallest teams have the highest payrolls.

One other comment, when I do this using the MLB default setup, this problem does not occur.

Thanks for anyone's help in advance.

NoOne · 05-01-2016, 11:56 AM

after you run the draft, go to League Settings page... look for the function assign fictional salaries or something similar.

you don't want new finances, avoid that one. (or maybe you do). it should be able to assign ML contracts without screwing up your work done on market sizes and such.

if it works on a real-life setup, you could also start that way, delete all players, then fill with fictional players... you'll wan't to know how many FA to add and such, which could open up a whole other bag of worms for you, too.

if you match up playerid and teamid's you can also use import/export features, but that involves extra steps and care too.

dcd111 · 05-02-2016, 10:26 AM

I generally play this way, with real-life MLB and minors as a template, but all fictional players. In order to get financial balance, realistic rosters, and some history, I create the league 30 years before I actually want to start and sim those years without taking over any team yet. In your case, if you don't care about the records and history but want things to properly balance out, try simming five to ten years before the year you want to start (with evolving financials unchecked, keep it at 2016 or whatever year you want), and then delete the history.

I wouldn't use an inaugural draft, just start the game and it will fill the teams with fictional players and fictional contracts (or you can do these steps manually under league functions if it doesn't do it automatically or realistically). If that approach is not balanced (or unbalanced) the way you want for some reason, sim enough seasons and the difference in market size and annual budgets should work their "magic", and then you can delete the league history to that point so that whatever was not right at the beginning doesn't affect your team and league records.

Edit: I use 30 years because that almost guarantees all original players have retired, meaning everybody that is left was generated using the proper player creation modifiers.

nuwildcat · 05-02-2016, 02:53 PM

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll try that and see if it works.

NoOne · 05-02-2016, 03:47 PM

definitely do the 30 year head start. although they said they improved the initial players, but like dcd said, when they are created through the normal processes of hte game you know for sure nothing is screwy.

you can improve the speed of those first 30 years. turn off frivilous things, lower detail, etc etc. if you want to delete stats and league history, you can do so and it is as if you just started the league. if you plan to keep the history from those initial years, becareful of what you turn off. make sure it doesn't have a tangible influence on the game.

one tip: erase league history when you get to the preseason. otherwise, say you are in 2016 and deleted history earlier than that. you then have an extra line of league history for 2015 but it's empty. not sure if it fixes itself later on or not. also, you may only have to wait until Jan 1 2016 to clear it... not 100% sure.

Biggio509 · 05-02-2016, 05:09 PM

It has been a while since I looked at this but I think recalculating player demands is not linked to budgets you put in. It has more to do with your league financial settings.

Typically I press set budget according to city size. This gets you pretty close with the exception of Boston (lots of pop in driving distance but not in Boston) I usually have to bump them up.

Also for many years budgets looked weird right after the draft. You used to have to go to league settings and
1. Assign fictional contracts to staff
2. Assign fictional contracts to players (maybe not necessary), and
2. Assign fiction finances to teams.

I really don't know if this has been fixed to where you don't have to do this but it is what I have done since OOTP 1 or which every was the first to introduce finances. 16 versions later I have forgotten the entire history.

NB: the assign fictional finances does this based on team payroll. So the teams with the least budgets will be on the lower end. Not always but sometimes teams that should be second tier become first because the budget allows them to just reach the top market size. Teams like NYY often can't spend the whole budget so might get in the same market with a tier II team. You can adjust their market size though.

Another note team finance growth and decline is somewhat random and probably based on success so 20 years down the road a tiny market team could be a big market team. If you want to keep the disparity today it takes some tweaking over time because something triggers team's market sizes to grow and maybe shrink, I don't recall seeing them shrink though.

robwondah · 05-03-2016, 03:10 AM

What is the date on your game? I've had this happen before. Once I simmed passed opening day all contracts are in tact. Since players in my draft have no service time they all received the the minimum player salary.

bwburke94 · 05-03-2016, 03:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by robwondah

What is the date on your game? I've had this happen before. Once I simmed passed opening day all contracts are in tact. Since players in my draft have no service time they all received the the minimum player salary.

That would give everyone on a 40-man roster a minimum contract. Not good for future league financials.

robwondah · 05-03-2016, 10:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bwburke94

That would give everyone on a 40-man roster a minimum contract. Not good for future league financials.

That's for sure. That's why now when I go fictional and start from scratch I usually don't hold a draft from the get go. That way my rosters have a random mix of players with various levels of experience and contracts.

05-01-2016, 03:46 AM	#1
nuwildcat Minors (Single A) Join Date: May 2004 Posts: 53	Fictional League Setup Issue So I am trying to create a fictional 32 team league with 5 minor league teams for each. I am using the real team names and logos for both the major league teams and minor league teams as well. What I am trying to do is basically create a league of fictional players but with real life finances for the teams. I go through the game creation process, and have even made a league template and get to the inaugural draft. From using other leagues, it seems that the best way to achieve the financial settings I am looking for involves using the Draft with a fixed budget option. I then set a budget for each team close to their real life actual payroll (teams range from $80 mil to $210 mil). After doing this I also hit the recalculate player demands button to make sure the demands match these budget settings. I also should say that I am using the default financial settings for new league creation. Then I run the draft using the complete draft feature, and look at the team payroll reports. Every player for every team only has minor league contracts. What went wrong and how can I fix it? I have tried this many different times and have come up with the same error. If there is any other way to make it so the bigger teams have bigger payrolls at the start of a fictional game, I am all ears. I have tried to have new fictional contracts created after the draft, but this does not achieve the desired effect as many of the smallest teams have the highest payrolls. One other comment, when I do this using the MLB default setup, this problem does not occur. Thanks for anyone's help in advance.

05-02-2016, 10:26 AM	#3
dcd111 Minors (Double A) Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 131	I generally play this way, with real-life MLB and minors as a template, but all fictional players. In order to get financial balance, realistic rosters, and some history, I create the league 30 years before I actually want to start and sim those years without taking over any team yet. In your case, if you don't care about the records and history but want things to properly balance out, try simming five to ten years before the year you want to start (with evolving financials unchecked, keep it at 2016 or whatever year you want), and then delete the history. I wouldn't use an inaugural draft, just start the game and it will fill the teams with fictional players and fictional contracts (or you can do these steps manually under league functions if it doesn't do it automatically or realistically). If that approach is not balanced (or unbalanced) the way you want for some reason, sim enough seasons and the difference in market size and annual budgets should work their "magic", and then you can delete the league history to that point so that whatever was not right at the beginning doesn't affect your team and league records. Edit: I use 30 years because that almost guarantees all original players have retired, meaning everybody that is left was generated using the proper player creation modifiers. Last edited by dcd111; 05-02-2016 at 10:28 AM.

05-01-2016, 11:56 AM	#2
NoOne Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2015 Posts: 7,246	after you run the draft, go to League Settings page... look for the function assign fictional salaries or something similar. you don't want new finances, avoid that one. (or maybe you do). it should be able to assign ML contracts without screwing up your work done on market sizes and such. if it works on a real-life setup, you could also start that way, delete all players, then fill with fictional players... you'll wan't to know how many FA to add and such, which could open up a whole other bag of worms for you, too. if you match up playerid and teamid's you can also use import/export features, but that involves extra steps and care too.

05-02-2016, 02:53 PM	#4
nuwildcat Minors (Single A) Join Date: May 2004 Posts: 53	Thanks for the suggestions. I'll try that and see if it works.

05-02-2016, 03:47 PM	#5
NoOne Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2015 Posts: 7,246	definitely do the 30 year head start. although they said they improved the initial players, but like dcd said, when they are created through the normal processes of hte game you know for sure nothing is screwy. you can improve the speed of those first 30 years. turn off frivilous things, lower detail, etc etc. if you want to delete stats and league history, you can do so and it is as if you just started the league. if you plan to keep the history from those initial years, becareful of what you turn off. make sure it doesn't have a tangible influence on the game. one tip: erase league history when you get to the preseason. otherwise, say you are in 2016 and deleted history earlier than that. you then have an extra line of league history for 2015 but it's empty. not sure if it fixes itself later on or not. also, you may only have to wait until Jan 1 2016 to clear it... not 100% sure.

05-02-2016, 05:09 PM	#6
Biggio509 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Aug 2007 Posts: 2,027	It has been a while since I looked at this but I think recalculating player demands is not linked to budgets you put in. It has more to do with your league financial settings. Typically I press set budget according to city size. This gets you pretty close with the exception of Boston (lots of pop in driving distance but not in Boston) I usually have to bump them up. Also for many years budgets looked weird right after the draft. You used to have to go to league settings and 1. Assign fictional contracts to staff 2. Assign fictional contracts to players (maybe not necessary), and 2. Assign fiction finances to teams. I really don't know if this has been fixed to where you don't have to do this but it is what I have done since OOTP 1 or which every was the first to introduce finances. 16 versions later I have forgotten the entire history. NB: the assign fictional finances does this based on team payroll. So the teams with the least budgets will be on the lower end. Not always but sometimes teams that should be second tier become first because the budget allows them to just reach the top market size. Teams like NYY often can't spend the whole budget so might get in the same market with a tier II team. You can adjust their market size though. Another note team finance growth and decline is somewhat random and probably based on success so 20 years down the road a tiny market team could be a big market team. If you want to keep the disparity today it takes some tweaking over time because something triggers team's market sizes to grow and maybe shrink, I don't recall seeing them shrink though.

05-03-2016, 03:10 AM	#7
robwondah Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Oct 2014 Location: Los Angeles, CA Posts: 287	What is the date on your game? I've had this happen before. Once I simmed passed opening day all contracts are in tact. Since players in my draft have no service time they all received the the minimum player salary.