Historical game as if it's OOTP99

[DetroitStyle]

What's the best way to set up a historical game where I start with historical rosters and minors (i.e. 1999) but everything beyond is fictional such as the draft, international prospects, etc.

Essentially playing a modern game but starting in a historical base.

I've only ever done real drafts in the past and usually a ton of features are disabled in historical sims.

[Rain King]

First, you will want to set up a Historical League in "Career Mode".

Once your league is created, you will want to go to the League Settings --> Historical tab and Uncheck the "Automatically import historical rookies" checkbox.

Then, you will want to go to the Rules tab and adjust the settings on your draft. It's default number of Rounds is probably way too high. You will want to lower that to whatever you prefer. I believe general defaults are now 20 rounds with players for 25.

Finally, to get the International players you will want to go to the "Players" tab and enable all of those options that are currently set to "None" to your preference (but "Default" is probably the best place to start.


Those are the main things off of the top of my head. You will have to decide some other things, like if you want the stats/strategies to stay at 1999 settings or evolve like "real life" through the 2024 season. That option is on the Stats & AI page.

I would recommend going through all of the other settings and just making any common sense changes you might want and of course Backup/Test a bit to make sure things are progressing like you would like...but I think this covers the main process.

[David Watts]

Originally Posted by Rain King

First, you will want to set up a Historical League in "Career Mode".

Once your league is created, you will want to go to the League Settings --> Historical tab and Uncheck the "Automatically import historical rookies" checkbox.

Then, you will want to go to the Rules tab and adjust the settings on your draft. It's default number of Rounds is probably way too high. You will want to lower that to whatever you prefer. I believe general defaults are now 20 rounds with players for 25.

Finally, to get the International players you will want to go to the "Players" tab and enable all of those options that are currently set to "None" to your preference (but "Default" is probably the best place to start.


Those are the main things off of the top of my head. You will have to decide some other things, like if you want the stats/strategies to stay at 1999 settings or evolve like "real life" through the 2024 season. That option is on the Stats & AI page.

I would recommend going through all of the other settings and just making any common sense changes you might want and of course Backup/Test a bit to make sure things are progressing like you would like...but I think this covers the main process.

I think he would want to go to Rules, Amateur Draft and uncheck the box for Disable automatic creation of free agents and fictional draft class to ensure he gets fictional players for his draft.

[Rain King]

Originally Posted by David Watts

I think he would want to go to Rules, Amateur Draft and uncheck the box for Disable automatic creation of free agents and fictional draft class to ensure he gets fictional players for his draft.

Yep, good catch.

[DetroitStyle]

Originally Posted by Rain King

First, you will want to set up a Historical League in "Career Mode".

Once your league is created, you will want to go to the League Settings --> Historical tab and Uncheck the "Automatically import historical rookies" checkbox.

Then, you will want to go to the Rules tab and adjust the settings on your draft. It's default number of Rounds is probably way too high. You will want to lower that to whatever you prefer. I believe general defaults are now 20 rounds with players for 25.

Finally, to get the International players you will want to go to the "Players" tab and enable all of those options that are currently set to "None" to your preference (but "Default" is probably the best place to start.


Those are the main things off of the top of my head. You will have to decide some other things, like if you want the stats/strategies to stay at 1999 settings or evolve like "real life" through the 2024 season. That option is on the Stats & AI page.

I would recommend going through all of the other settings and just making any common sense changes you might want and of course Backup/Test a bit to make sure things are progressing like you would like...but I think this covers the main process.

Thanks, everyone. I think I got the basic structure setup.

My only outstanding question are the modifiers. I want to be stuck in a specific year so I don't want the engine to create players or adjust league totals to the next historical year.

What do I do with historical player creation modifiers and auto-calc of modifiers?

Do I need to rerun all the modifiers for the specific year or do i just leave everything at 1.000 for stats and player creation.

[Rain King]

On League Settings --> Stats & AI

Uncheck the box that says "Automatically adjust league strategy when advancing to next season".

I would also check the box that says "Lock league total stats". This will keep your League Totals at 1999 as you progress to "future" seasons.

The game also recommends using "Auto-Calc" every year. This will run some test simulations before each new season and adjust your modifiers a bit to try to keep your overall stats very close to 1999 levels. However, as long as you run that the very first season and do the steps above, things should stay pretty close to 1999 going forward either way. Leaving Auto-Calc off after the first season will allow for a bit more fluctuation from year-to-year based on the overall batter/pitcher talent fluctuation where as using Auto-Calc will smooth that out and adjust the modifiers based on that potential talent fluctuation.

[jksander]

Turn off automatic league evolution too ...

[RANGER11JP]

Is it even possible to have an Independent League for homeless free agents who are still hoping for another shot? Maybe with a few "unretired" guys for backup and color? Even a few fictional players hand curated?

Thanks for the help. I've been absent for awhile and need to catch up!

[thehef]

Originally Posted by RANGER11JP

Is it even possible to have an Independent League for homeless free agents who are still hoping for another shot? Maybe with a few "unretired" guys for backup and color? Even a few fictional players hand curated?

Thanks for the help. I've been absent for awhile and need to catch up!

Going through this thread & if I'm understanding, you should have a pretty static minor league system since you started with a historically accurate system for 1999 but - I *think* - you haven't been using historical evolution (called "automatically expand league" under League Settings > Historical). Therefore, I see no reason you couldn't add an independent league (Game Settings > League Settings > Functions... League Actions dropdown at the far right: Add Minor / Feeder League...).

However, if you have automatically expand league enabled, then your game would follow real life structure and any league you add would be wiped out as soon as your game transitions from the postseason to the offseason (unless you were to monkey with the milbleagues.csv and milbteams.csv files; but that is a different ball 'o wax...).

[RANGER11JP]

Originally Posted by thehef

Going through this thread & if I'm understanding, you should have a pretty static minor league system since you started with a historically accurate system for 1999 but - I *think* - you haven't been using historical evolution (called "automatically expand league" under League Settings > Historical). Therefore, I see no reason you couldn't add an independent league (Game Settings > League Settings > Functions... League Actions dropdown at the far right: Add Minor / Feeder League...).

However, if you have automatically expand league enabled, then your game would follow real life structure and any league you add would be wiped out as soon as your game transitions from the postseason to the offseason (unless you were to monkey with the milbleagues.csv and milbteams.csv files; but that is a different ball 'o wax...).

Thanks for the help on the mechanics. Yes, my independent league just vanished, so that explained that issue. I'm still working on trying to historically name the Cleveland franchise pre 2021.

[thehef]

Originally Posted by RANGER11JP

Thanks for the help on the mechanics. Yes, my independent league just vanished, so that explained that issue. I'm still working on trying to historically name the Cleveland franchise pre 2021.

So you have "automatically expand league" on? That is why your indy minors would vanish.