Is it cheating when...?

[phightin]

Having been an avid "hall of famer" expert CM/FM player over the years there was a general understanding of what cheating was when playing the game. You simply just loaded up, and played for the most part wit any looking at potentials, editing etc, being more or less considered cheating. Now, with that said the boundaries of what cheating is in terms of playing ootp seems to be much more indiscrete due to it being less polished than say an fm etc. From my experience of playing a solo MLB league here are some things I've come across so far that I consider cheating and not cheating, feel free to chime in.

1. Looking at players ratings/potential using the editor.
I admit that at first when I started playing game I took it upon myself to look at my players using the editor tweaking things etc, but it also helped me to gain a better understanding of how the game works and operates, so I don't have any regrets about it. At this point though I make it a point to not look at my players ratings/potential if I use the editor for other things, and I don't use the editor to look at other players ratings at all.

2. Editing CEIs and talent hits.
I do in fact use the editor to edit out CEIs for most players in my league as IRL CEIs have become very very rare. The one exception I'll make though is if the player is old, usually mid 30s or older. In that case since it's much more common for an older player to get injured and then retire I'll let it be. In terms of talent hits I try to make it a point to leave it alone however I have on a couple occasions edited a couple young players in my game who took huge talent hits for more minor injuries. While I don't plan on doing it again I didn't want to see the competitive nature of the league drop and I wanted to make things more challenging for myself. When looking at talent hits when they happen to my team I don't adjust my players as I would consider that cheating. I had a great young catcher who got injured this year, and upon looking at his stats (which I dont usually do but I wanted to see) I saw the talent hit. As hard as it was to tak e it's something I have to live with as every other team in my league does.

3. Trading with the AI
This is a problem here that many have solved for themselves by raising the difficulty of the trade level to hard etc. The problem with this though that I've found is the opposite happens for me in that reasonable trades become impossible to come by. So, as much of a pain as it is, I take it upon myself to only make reasonable trades that I would probably make if I was the other team using the normal setting. I'll usually wait for the team to say it's a good offer, instead of just fair, barely. I try to trade players ability/potential at the same level or very close to it. Poaching young prospects for players is in my opinion cheating and something I don't do at all unless I'm trading a player in or close to his prime, at least who is still very good, to perhaps a team at the deadline etc, much like IRL.

4. Editing players positions
Not much experience with trying to change players positions who have little experience in their new one, however this is a tough issue that I'm not sure of. For example, If I had a veteran shortstop with a defensive rating of 13/14 at short and wanted to move him to third, much like cal ripken etc. It would seem unreasonable for me for him to go from being a 14 rating to a 0-3 with experience etc. I would tempted to raise it probably to at least an 8-10 rating, but I dunno it's iffy territory.


using these principles I've found that I can play a pretty fair game. The game still may be a little too easy for myself using a team with a larger scale payroll and market like the phillies, but as long as I'm not winning the world series every year or close to it, which I'm not, it's very enjoyable. In my 5 year history I've won two world series and lost in the NLDS twice and NLCS once over the last 5 years.

[Nutlaw]

Pretty much any use of the Editor would be considered "cheating". Other than maybe taking advantage of the trade AI, anything else ought to be fine.

[Bobble]

Originally Posted by Nutlaw

Pretty much any use of the Editor would be considered "cheating". Other than maybe taking advantage of the trade AI, anything else ought to be fine.

Ditto. Although of course, it's your game, play it your way. If you dig cheating, cheat yourself silly.

[RchW]

There are too many middle infielders with spectacular ratings at 1B. This skews the AI to play good SS and 2B at 1B. That cascades into crappy 2B and SS playing the MI positions and affecting offensive results. Once a year I edit the 1B ratings on these guys to 25-60 from the 120-160 range. I don't change "true" 1B, even though it is a judgment call on what a true 1B is.

I don't consider that cheating.

[Bluenoser]

If you're playing solo, nothing is considered cheating. It's up to you what you wish to do with your game.

[conception]

In response to #2, I often edit young player's injuries to be very long term but not career ending. I place them in the FA pool and let them have a "comeback", which is usually at a vastly reduced talent rate but for the best ones that still leaves them capable of competent play.

[Leatherfut]

Originally Posted by conception

In response to #2, I often edit young player's injuries to be very long term but not career ending. I place them in the FA pool and let them have a "comeback", which is usually at a vastly reduced talent rate but for the best ones that still leaves them capable of competent play.

I edit all CEIs to a 499 day injury, about 16 months. This seems more realistic to me. Otherwise, my league would have lost no less than 15 players to CEI in the last 8 seasons.

happy gaming,
Frank