What are some interesting rule variants you've had luck with?

uruguru · 01-16-2024, 05:03 PM

The purpose of this thread is to share ideas. I'm always looking for ways to improve gameplay! In no way am I suggesting that these ideas are 'best'; they are just things I've found make the game more fun for me.

Here are some of the things I do:

1. Hall of Fame - I set the vote on 12/31. Each player only gets ONE year on the ballot, but the threshold is set to 50%. This way you get a good-sized Hall but can still rank inductees by % of vote if you want to envision a smaller hall. Once the vote occurs, the year is over. I save the game and then zip up the folder so that I can refer to it later if I need information from that season.

2. Rule V Draft - I set the date for this draft to always be one week before Opening Day. There's something about giving those career minor-leaguers a shot at the majors after you have your spring roster sorted out and you know that you want them. One upside now is that I rarely see the AI return draft picks. Setting AI evaluation to 0/50/30/20 also ensures that an occasional plum slips into the draft. (Roberto Clemente was a Rule V pick!)

3. Trading Difficulty - for the longest time, I had just given up on trading because it was just too easy to exploit. However, I think I finally have found a system that I like. I set the trading difficulty to Easiest and will only make trades exactly as offered by the AI by email, on the day that they offer them. No shopping, no make it work, no setting my team needs -- I just mark all of my players as "On the Block". This setup means I still get to make trades (fun) even though I can't target specific players (exploit defeated), and occasionally I get a really nice offer (bingo!). Generally the trades are fairly balanced because the AI only offers trades to its advantage and setting the difficulty to easiest balances that out. I generally turn down about 90% of the offers and make maybe 2-3 trades per season. It sounds imbalanced but it has turned out to be fun as the imbalance is always driven by player-instigated trades.

4. Scouting, TCR & Potentials - when using the engine instead of recalc, I've found that scouting imbalances the game (because I always end up with the best scout) so I generally turn it off. I've also thought that knowing potentials is too powerful because they are fairly reliable. So my solution is to make potentials unreliable by setting TCR to 200 and turning them off. This makes it more of a "Moneyball" type game and always works well with the 0/50/30/20 settings for AI evaluation.

5. Awards - I only use MVP (no pitchers), Cy Young (no relievers) and Rookie of the Year. That's it. Everything else just feels like clutter to me. Then I use the feature to manually set the awards and choose the option to have the AI pick them (which gives a top 3 for each award). I then just ensure that what I think is the best of each top 3 list gets the award. Usually the AI picks are fine, but this prevents the occasional 8-12 pitcher with an average ERA and a great FIP from winning pitcher of the year which really annoys me lol.

Anyway, I am curious to see what house rules you guys use.

Reed · 01-17-2024, 06:32 AM

I play as GM and responsible for trades and draft picks. AI responsible for everything else. I play random. Don't play with financials. 2 basic self imposed rules to make it fair.

Drafts. If my team makes the playoffs, then I let the AI draft for me.

Trades. Basically the same as you. Only trade if other team makes email offer that I accept. One exception. If for some reason I end up with a very good historical player being blocked from starting by another player, then I will trade the good historical player away for a good but not as good of a player. For example I had Roberto Clemente that was blocked from starting for 3 years (a 27 year old Sam Crawford?). Traded Clemente away for a good but not HOF type 2nd baseman. Boy was I tempted to violate my rule and trade Crawford.

I turn injuries off. It is like double jeopardy in my opinion. They have been injured in real life so why make them susceptible again?

I also have my weaken/adjust setting very high (350/250 and 35/25) to cut down on the cup of coffee type players being league leaders. I still get some that are among the league leaders, especially those that are out of baseball while in their mid 20s and the development engine kicks in (TCR set at 50).

Don't play minors so I have reserve roster set at 5 so good players won't get stuck on the reserve roster. I sometimes draft a player with a great future but often times the AI will release that player. Makes me irritated but sometimes the AI will pick up a player from free agency that really helps my team.

uruguru · 01-17-2024, 11:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reed

Trades. Basically the same as you. Only trade if other team makes email offer that I accept. One exception. If for some reason I end up with a very good historical player being blocked from starting by another player, then I will trade the good historical player away for a good but not as good of a player. For example I had Roberto Clemente that was blocked from starting for 3 years (a 27 year old Sam Crawford?). Traded Clemente away for a good but not HOF type 2nd baseman. Boy was I tempted to violate my rule and trade Crawford.

I have the same problem! One exception I will allow in situations where I need to instigate a trade like that is to temporarily ramp up trading difficulty to maximum and shop the player. The rule, however, is at that point I *have* to accept one of the offers -- which prevents the exploits because you will always lose some value in those types of trades. I generally do this only all certain times: the winter meetings, the week after Rule V, or the trading deadline day.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reed

I turn injuries off. It is like double jeopardy in my opinion. They have been injured in real life so why make them susceptible again?

Yeah, I agree with this on long-term injuries. If you are retiring players according to history, you are already implementing career-ending injuries. However, short term injuries are set to "OOTP Normal" to compensate.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reed

I also have my weaken/adjust setting very high (350/250 and 35/25) to cut down on the cup of coffee type players being league leaders. I still get some that are among the league leaders, especially those that are out of baseball while in their mid 20s and the development engine kicks in (TCR set at 50).

That is a really good idea for my historical sims. Noted!

Quote:

Don't play minors so I have reserve roster set at 5 so good players won't get stuck on the reserve roster. I sometimes draft a player with a great future but often times the AI will release that player. Makes me irritated but sometimes the AI will pick up a player from free agency that really helps my team.

ouch, haha. I never give AI that level of control because I still want to feel like I am building my team. However, small reserve rosters are really important because they create a free agent pool that the AI can draw from when necessary. This singlehandedly prevents the player exhaustion bug.

Keep in mind you can still play minors instead of a reserve if you create an AAA league (without using historical minors) and use it to hold your reserve players and fill it with fictional players. That would allow you to have a Rule V draft to keep teams from hoarding MLB-quality players on their reserve rosters.

SidHickenbottom · 01-17-2024, 01:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by uruguru

I've also thought that knowing potentials is too powerful because they are fairly reliable. So my solution is to make potentials unreliable by setting TCR to 200 and turning them off. This makes it more of a "Moneyball" type game and always works well with the 0/50/30/20 settings for AI evaluation.

I experimented with stats only this year just to mix things up. It wasn't a bad experience, but I'm not sure it's the way I want to play permanently. I am, however, really intrigued by turning off potential because I find that I successfully focus and rely on it way too much when trading and drafting (I tend to play rebuilds and expansion teams). This seems like a way to force me to engage in stats and independent evaluation without shutting ratings down entirely.

01-16-2024, 05:03 PM	#1
uruguru All Star Starter Join Date: May 2022 Posts: 1,195	What are some interesting rule variants you've had luck with? The purpose of this thread is to share ideas. I'm always looking for ways to improve gameplay! In no way am I suggesting that these ideas are 'best'; they are just things I've found make the game more fun for me. Here are some of the things I do: 1. Hall of Fame - I set the vote on 12/31. Each player only gets ONE year on the ballot, but the threshold is set to 50%. This way you get a good-sized Hall but can still rank inductees by % of vote if you want to envision a smaller hall. Once the vote occurs, the year is over. I save the game and then zip up the folder so that I can refer to it later if I need information from that season. 2. Rule V Draft - I set the date for this draft to always be one week before Opening Day. There's something about giving those career minor-leaguers a shot at the majors after you have your spring roster sorted out and you know that you want them. One upside now is that I rarely see the AI return draft picks. Setting AI evaluation to 0/50/30/20 also ensures that an occasional plum slips into the draft. (Roberto Clemente was a Rule V pick!) 3. Trading Difficulty - for the longest time, I had just given up on trading because it was just too easy to exploit. However, I think I finally have found a system that I like. I set the trading difficulty to Easiest and will only make trades exactly as offered by the AI by email, on the day that they offer them. No shopping, no make it work, no setting my team needs -- I just mark all of my players as "On the Block". This setup means I still get to make trades (fun) even though I can't target specific players (exploit defeated), and occasionally I get a really nice offer (bingo!). Generally the trades are fairly balanced because the AI only offers trades to its advantage and setting the difficulty to easiest balances that out. I generally turn down about 90% of the offers and make maybe 2-3 trades per season. It sounds imbalanced but it has turned out to be fun as the imbalance is always driven by player-instigated trades. 4. Scouting, TCR & Potentials - when using the engine instead of recalc, I've found that scouting imbalances the game (because I always end up with the best scout) so I generally turn it off. I've also thought that knowing potentials is too powerful because they are fairly reliable. So my solution is to make potentials unreliable by setting TCR to 200 and turning them off. This makes it more of a "Moneyball" type game and always works well with the 0/50/30/20 settings for AI evaluation. 5. Awards - I only use MVP (no pitchers), Cy Young (no relievers) and Rookie of the Year. That's it. Everything else just feels like clutter to me. Then I use the feature to manually set the awards and choose the option to have the AI pick them (which gives a top 3 for each award). I then just ensure that what I think is the best of each top 3 list gets the award. Usually the AI picks are fine, but this prevents the occasional 8-12 pitcher with an average ERA and a great FIP from winning pitcher of the year which really annoys me lol. Anyway, I am curious to see what house rules you guys use. Last edited by uruguru; 01-16-2024 at 05:07 PM.

01-17-2024, 06:32 AM	#2
Reed Hall Of Famer Join Date: Oct 2013 Posts: 2,337	I play as GM and responsible for trades and draft picks. AI responsible for everything else. I play random. Don't play with financials. 2 basic self imposed rules to make it fair. Drafts. If my team makes the playoffs, then I let the AI draft for me. Trades. Basically the same as you. Only trade if other team makes email offer that I accept. One exception. If for some reason I end up with a very good historical player being blocked from starting by another player, then I will trade the good historical player away for a good but not as good of a player. For example I had Roberto Clemente that was blocked from starting for 3 years (a 27 year old Sam Crawford?). Traded Clemente away for a good but not HOF type 2nd baseman. Boy was I tempted to violate my rule and trade Crawford. I turn injuries off. It is like double jeopardy in my opinion. They have been injured in real life so why make them susceptible again? I also have my weaken/adjust setting very high (350/250 and 35/25) to cut down on the cup of coffee type players being league leaders. I still get some that are among the league leaders, especially those that are out of baseball while in their mid 20s and the development engine kicks in (TCR set at 50). Don't play minors so I have reserve roster set at 5 so good players won't get stuck on the reserve roster. I sometimes draft a player with a great future but often times the AI will release that player. Makes me irritated but sometimes the AI will pick up a player from free agency that really helps my team. Last edited by Reed; 01-17-2024 at 06:47 AM.