Persistent Underdevelopment of Drafted Players in Long-Running Online League (OOTP 15 - OOTP 25)

veyd12 · 03-22-2025, 12:27 PM

We are experiencing severe underdevelopment of drafted players in our long-running online OOTP league. This league originated in OOTP 15 and has been imported annually, currently residing in OOTP 25.

Some Context:

Minimal High School/College Development: Players in the draft pool exhibit very little to no rating changes during their high school and college years.

High Bust Rate: A disproportionately high percentage of drafted players fail to develop as expected, resulting in a large number of busts.

Activity Incentive Dependency: We have an activity incentive point system that allows us to modify the ratings of our players. The majority of player development in our league is driven by these commissioner-intervention based activity incentives, rather than the game's inherent development system.

OOTP 26 Testing: Testing in OOTP 26 reveals that nearly 90% of all prospects in the draft pools (for the next 4 years) has a "very high" or mostly "extreme" development risk flag, indicating a potential worsening of the problem. The majority of our existing prospects from the last 3 or 4 seasons also show that same rating. This happens even when turning scouting on and assigning scouts to the players.

Custom League Setup: We are running a completely custom league, created by deleting the default MLB setup and recreating a similar structure.

No Feeder Leagues: We are not utilizing feeder leagues.

League Settings:

Batter Aging Speed: 0.875
Batter Dev Speed: 1.000
Pitcher Aging Speed: 0.875
Pitcher Dev Speed: 1.000
Development Target Age: Default
Aging Target Age: Default
Talent Change Randomness: 100
Disable player development: Unchecked
Disable development for draft-eligible players: Unchecked
Disable player development lab: Unchecked
Traditional and Sabermetric player creation modifiers: 1.000

Long-Term Import Issues: Could the repeated importing of our league file across multiple OOTP versions (OOTP 15 to OOTP 25/26) have caused data corruption or conflicts affecting player development?

Custom League Impact: Does the creation of a custom league by deleting the default MLB setup potentially interfere with the game's development algorithms?

Development Risk Escalation: Why does OOTP 26 show such a significant increase in "high development risk" for draft prospects?

Data Export/Import: Is there a reliable method to export our league's players and historical records and import them into a fresh OOTP league file without carrying over the development issue? If so, would this likely solve the problem?

Troubleshooting Steps: What specific troubleshooting steps would you recommend to diagnose and resolve this issue? Are there any specific log files or game files it would be helpful to provide?

Workarounds: Are there any known workarounds or adjustments to game settings that might mitigate this issue while we await a potential fix?

Is restarting the league the only solution?

TheShow · 03-23-2025, 05:00 PM

I am going to jump in here as the commish of this online league and add a little bit to this.

To begin with half of this concern is based on feedback from GMs in our league and the other half comes from some speculation based on what the league files look like in OOTP 26 and the "Risk Development" rating. The assumption that is here is that the Development Risk is a factor in previous versions of the game but was finally surfaced in this year's release. When we look at our league files in OOTP 26, 90-95% of all prospects generated in draft classes are "Extreme" risk or "Very High" risk, including those who get generated in later years after simulating in OOTP 26 along side those generated in previous versions. My solo play league is nearly the inverse with around 5-10% showing as "Very High" or "Extreme" development risk.

If that assumption isn't valid, we still have some history of extremely poor development rates of all prospects, not just top prospects. We only have 124 total 1st rounders from the past 10 years who have registered MLB appearances in a 32-team league. Most of those have been mediocre at best.

Screenshot of data from S+ showing the MLB Production from the 1st round picks from the past 10 seasons of TheShow.

We don't use scouting or coaching in TheShow and never have. The most extreme that we do is allow for a virtual currency (Incentive Points) to be spent each off-season to adjust some player ratings or team factors. It's nothing extreme as its primary focus is to be a part of an incentive program to keep GMs active and engaged.

I have spent the better part of the last week doing some testing in both OOTP25 and OOTP26 to try to come up with a path to recovery for the league outside of resetting and starting over. In my OOTP 26 solo league, I see that the Development Risk rating changes with scouts enabled when comparing the talent with OSA scouting and your team scouting. However, in our league files, even simulating 7 seasons into the future with over-the-top maxed out scouts assigned to each team, I cannot find any difference in the development risk ratings for any generated player or current player looking at how a team scout views them versus OSA.

We had been running with no development budgets up and until last season. We thought maybe this would help, even while in OOTP25, but we knew it would take time to see results. In my testing, I even tried ramping this up and simulated 8 more seasons maxing out every team's development budgets to see if any better results. Nearly all prospects washed out and retired as minor leaguers,

I have been trying out a different strategy, starting the league from a template of the league and then importing the players and stats back into the game. However, this doesn't seem to work as simply as the instructions here on the forums makes it out. I am still working through this idea to see if there is just a challenge with our roster set and the engine that could be reset in this manner.

I would welcome any help, any thoughts, any supporting claims from other leagues... ANYTHING. I appreciate any attention this might get, as facing a reset is never fun for a long-standing online league.

03-22-2025, 12:27 PM	#1
veyd12 Bat Boy Join Date: Mar 2025 Posts: 1	Persistent Underdevelopment of Drafted Players in Long-Running Online League (OOTP 15 - OOTP 25) We are experiencing severe underdevelopment of drafted players in our long-running online OOTP league. This league originated in OOTP 15 and has been imported annually, currently residing in OOTP 25. Some Context: Minimal High School/College Development: Players in the draft pool exhibit very little to no rating changes during their high school and college years. High Bust Rate: A disproportionately high percentage of drafted players fail to develop as expected, resulting in a large number of busts. Activity Incentive Dependency: We have an activity incentive point system that allows us to modify the ratings of our players. The majority of player development in our league is driven by these commissioner-intervention based activity incentives, rather than the game's inherent development system. OOTP 26 Testing: Testing in OOTP 26 reveals that nearly 90% of all prospects in the draft pools (for the next 4 years) has a "very high" or mostly "extreme" development risk flag, indicating a potential worsening of the problem. The majority of our existing prospects from the last 3 or 4 seasons also show that same rating. This happens even when turning scouting on and assigning scouts to the players. Custom League Setup: We are running a completely custom league, created by deleting the default MLB setup and recreating a similar structure. No Feeder Leagues: We are not utilizing feeder leagues. League Settings: Batter Aging Speed: 0.875 Batter Dev Speed: 1.000 Pitcher Aging Speed: 0.875 Pitcher Dev Speed: 1.000 Development Target Age: Default Aging Target Age: Default Talent Change Randomness: 100 Disable player development: Unchecked Disable development for draft-eligible players: Unchecked Disable player development lab: Unchecked Traditional and Sabermetric player creation modifiers: 1.000 Long-Term Import Issues: Could the repeated importing of our league file across multiple OOTP versions (OOTP 15 to OOTP 25/26) have caused data corruption or conflicts affecting player development? Custom League Impact: Does the creation of a custom league by deleting the default MLB setup potentially interfere with the game's development algorithms? Development Risk Escalation: Why does OOTP 26 show such a significant increase in "high development risk" for draft prospects? Data Export/Import: Is there a reliable method to export our league's players and historical records and import them into a fresh OOTP league file without carrying over the development issue? If so, would this likely solve the problem? Troubleshooting Steps: What specific troubleshooting steps would you recommend to diagnose and resolve this issue? Are there any specific log files or game files it would be helpful to provide? Workarounds: Are there any known workarounds or adjustments to game settings that might mitigate this issue while we await a potential fix? Is restarting the league the only solution? Last edited by veyd12; 03-22-2025 at 12:47 PM.

03-23-2025, 05:00 PM	#2
TheShow Minors (Single A) Join Date: Oct 2021 Posts: 72 Blog Entries: 1	I am going to jump in here as the commish of this online league and add a little bit to this. To begin with half of this concern is based on feedback from GMs in our league and the other half comes from some speculation based on what the league files look like in OOTP 26 and the "Risk Development" rating. The assumption that is here is that the Development Risk is a factor in previous versions of the game but was finally surfaced in this year's release. When we look at our league files in OOTP 26, 90-95% of all prospects generated in draft classes are "Extreme" risk or "Very High" risk, including those who get generated in later years after simulating in OOTP 26 along side those generated in previous versions. My solo play league is nearly the inverse with around 5-10% showing as "Very High" or "Extreme" development risk. If that assumption isn't valid, we still have some history of extremely poor development rates of all prospects, not just top prospects. We only have 124 total 1st rounders from the past 10 years who have registered MLB appearances in a 32-team league. Most of those have been mediocre at best. Screenshot of data from S+ showing the MLB Production from the 1st round picks from the past 10 seasons of TheShow. We don't use scouting or coaching in TheShow and never have. The most extreme that we do is allow for a virtual currency (Incentive Points) to be spent each off-season to adjust some player ratings or team factors. It's nothing extreme as its primary focus is to be a part of an incentive program to keep GMs active and engaged. I have spent the better part of the last week doing some testing in both OOTP25 and OOTP26 to try to come up with a path to recovery for the league outside of resetting and starting over. In my OOTP 26 solo league, I see that the Development Risk rating changes with scouts enabled when comparing the talent with OSA scouting and your team scouting. However, in our league files, even simulating 7 seasons into the future with over-the-top maxed out scouts assigned to each team, I cannot find any difference in the development risk ratings for any generated player or current player looking at how a team scout views them versus OSA. We had been running with no development budgets up and until last season. We thought maybe this would help, even while in OOTP25, but we knew it would take time to see results. In my testing, I even tried ramping this up and simulated 8 more seasons maxing out every team's development budgets to see if any better results. Nearly all prospects washed out and retired as minor leaguers, I have been trying out a different strategy, starting the league from a template of the league and then importing the players and stats back into the game. However, this doesn't seem to work as simply as the instructions here on the forums makes it out. I am still working through this idea to see if there is just a challenge with our roster set and the engine that could be reset in this manner. I would welcome any help, any thoughts, any supporting claims from other leagues... ANYTHING. I appreciate any attention this might get, as facing a reset is never fun for a long-standing online league.