Shields for Mercer? Are you kidding me!

[ezpkns34]

I like "Big Game" James solely because he has the most accurate nickname in all of sports. I mean, he's just so upfront about it: if it's a postseason game then his teammates better have big games or the team is gonna lose

[DiMaggio5CF]

Originally Posted by Fyrestorm3

Per the OP, yes, that may be far-fetched in real life, but the AI doesn't know names; it sees only an objective collection of ratings.

Yeah, but isn't that where the popularity ratings were supposed to come into play at least a little bit?

[The Wolf]

Originally Posted by ezpkns34

I like "Big Game" James solely because he has the most accurate nickname in all of sports. I mean, he's just so upfront about it: if it's a postseason game then his teammates better have big games or the team is gonna lose

That's funny. They were calling him "Bad Game" James on sports radio a while back.

[Fyrestorm3]

Originally Posted by DiMaggio5CF

Yeah, but isn't that where the popularity ratings were supposed to come into play at least a little bit?

They do; Shields is "Fair," while Mercer is one step up at "Well Known." Another plus for that trade for the Padres.

The popularity system is subjective. Every person is going to value different players differently. Plus, when you only have seven levels of popularity (not counting "Disliked") and 800 players in the majors, there's just too many variables.

[blackthrone]

Originally Posted by The Wolf

I play stats only too - so I agree with you.

I'm relatively new to these games, do you mind sharing how you would set a game up for stats only?

[Fyrestorm3]

League Menu -> League Settings -> Global Settings

From there you can disable the display of Actual, Potential, Overall, and Other ratings.

Personally, I recommend leaving Other ratings on (this is stuff that's hard to quantify with stats, such as baserunning ability and pitcher stamina), but it's up to you. Best to play around with it and decide what you like.

Next, you're going to want to change the AI Evaluation settings. Under League Settings, in the AI Settings tab, you can change the weight the AI puts on players' ratings, current year stats, last year stats, and 2 years ago stats. Many people recommend 0/67/22/11, but I personally like 10/55/25/10, because I feel like giving the AI a minor access to ratings with which to judge helps to simulate the "gut instinct" that a human player makes decisions with - again, play around with it and see what works for you.

To make these settings take effect, you'll want to check "Overall rating based on AI evaluation, not pure ratings" back under the Global Settings tab.

Now, the main issue you're gonna run into is drafting - you won't have ratings to base your decisions off of, after all. There are multiple ways to get around this:

• Some people turn potential ratings on just for the draft, and turn them off immediately afterwards.
• Use feeder leagues. Biggio509's Feeder League Guide is a good place to start.
• I personally like to leave Overall star ratings on, for at-a-glance checks of how good a player is. So that's what I base my drafting decisions on - that and the intangibles like speed and personality.

But really, just do whatever feels right to you. My settings come from multiple versions of fine-tuning and experimenting to see what I liked.

[CalvDaMan]

In my game, San Diego traded Shields to the Yankees for Chase Headley and a minor leaguer. Shields ended up being a major CY candidate.

[The Wolf]

Originally Posted by Fyrestorm3

League Menu -> League Settings -> Global Settings

From there you can disable the display of Actual, Potential, Overall, and Other ratings.

Personally, I recommend leaving Other ratings on (this is stuff that's hard to quantify with stats, such as baserunning ability and pitcher stamina), but it's up to you. Best to play around with it and decide what you like.

Next, you're going to want to change the AI Evaluation settings. Under League Settings, in the AI Settings tab, you can change the weight the AI puts on players' ratings, current year stats, last year stats, and 2 years ago stats. Many people recommend 0/67/22/11, but I personally like 10/55/25/10, because I feel like giving the AI a minor access to ratings with which to judge helps to simulate the "gut instinct" that a human player makes decisions with - again, play around with it and see what works for you.

To make these settings take effect, you'll want to check "Overall rating based on AI evaluation, not pure ratings" back under the Global Settings tab.

Now, the main issue you're gonna run into is drafting - you won't have ratings to base your decisions off of, after all. There are multiple ways to get around this:

• Some people turn potential ratings on just for the draft, and turn them off immediately afterwards.
• Use feeder leagues. Biggio509's Feeder League Guide is a good place to start.
• I personally like to leave Overall star ratings on, for at-a-glance checks of how good a player is. So that's what I base my drafting decisions on - that and the intangibles like speed and personality.

But really, just do whatever feels right to you. My settings come from multiple versions of fine-tuning and experimenting to see what I liked.

I turn stars and ALL ratings off and play with feeder leagues. Be sure to simulate four years of play before you actually start playing, so everybody in the entire game has stats.

[The Wolf]

Oh, and definitely 0/67/22/11. No ratings, no how, no way.

[blackthrone]

Originally Posted by Fyrestorm3

League Menu -> League Settings -> Global Settings

From there you can disable the display of Actual, Potential, Overall, and Other ratings.

Personally, I recommend leaving Other ratings on (this is stuff that's hard to quantify with stats, such as baserunning ability and pitcher stamina), but it's up to you. Best to play around with it and decide what you like.

Next, you're going to want to change the AI Evaluation settings. Under League Settings, in the AI Settings tab, you can change the weight the AI puts on players' ratings, current year stats, last year stats, and 2 years ago stats. Many people recommend 0/67/22/11, but I personally like 10/55/25/10, because I feel like giving the AI a minor access to ratings with which to judge helps to simulate the "gut instinct" that a human player makes decisions with - again, play around with it and see what works for you.

To make these settings take effect, you'll want to check "Overall rating based on AI evaluation, not pure ratings" back under the Global Settings tab.

Now, the main issue you're gonna run into is drafting - you won't have ratings to base your decisions off of, after all. There are multiple ways to get around this:

• Some people turn potential ratings on just for the draft, and turn them off immediately afterwards.
• Use feeder leagues. Biggio509's Feeder League Guide is a good place to start.
• I personally like to leave Overall star ratings on, for at-a-glance checks of how good a player is. So that's what I base my drafting decisions on - that and the intangibles like speed and personality.

But really, just do whatever feels right to you. My settings come from multiple versions of fine-tuning and experimenting to see what I liked.

Originally Posted by The Wolf

Oh, and definitely 0/67/22/11. No ratings, no how, no way.

Thanks for the quick responses. You guys are awesome and so is this board.

[The Wolf]

Your best bet is to go to the OOTP 15 forum and search for threads with Stats Only in the title. There are a couple of long ones that explain everything in detail. Ignore the ravings of the haters who had never actually tried Stats Only but still somehow just knew that it had to suck and that it couldn't possibly be harder than the real game was. You can ask any of the many people here who play Stats Only just how wrong the haters were.

[The Wolf]

Oh, and set scouting accuracy to average or lower. That will force you to rely more on stats than on scouting, like a modern GM.

[Fyrestorm3]

Originally Posted by The Wolf

Ignore the ravings of the haters who had never actually tried Stats Only but still somehow just knew that it had to suck and that it couldn't possibly be harder than the real game was. You can ask any of the many people here who play Stats Only just how wrong the haters were.

I've been to the ALCS once in 10 years.

[The Wolf]

Originally Posted by Fyrestorm3

I've been to the ALCS once in 10 years.

It's damn rough, isn't? But I totally feel like a real GM, instead of some guy playing a computer game and deciding things based on perfect or near-perfect information.

[bazeall]

"but I personally like 10/55/25/10, because I feel like giving the AI a minor access to ratings with which to judge helps to simulate the "gut instinct" that a human player makes decisions with - again, play around with it and see what works for you."

Would making it 20/45/25/10 or even higher on ratings give the AI an advantage?

[xnickx5757]

Stats only is a blast if you have the time to get into it.

If you are just getting started though I do recommend easing your way into it (leave star + maybe the "other" ratings on) so that you aren't too overwhelmed by the change

[Fyrestorm3]

Originally Posted by bazeall

Would making it 20/45/25/10 or even higher on ratings give the AI an advantage?

Likely not, especially if scouting is enabled. You might see teams dumping players earlier than you'd expect and stuff like that, but I don't think it'd give them an outright advantage.

[The Wolf]

The big reason to keep rating % minimized is so the AI teams don't dump players with good stats because they're foreseeing a big ratings decline. With 0/67/22/11 the AI teams keep productive players around as long as they are productive, and then get rid of them when they stop being productive, which is as it should be, instead of basing their personnel decisions on ratings.