Customizable Star Ratings

omniart · 12-31-2012, 04:40 AM

The problem. At present when preparing for an amateur draft in OOTP, I have to copy a lot of information into a spreadsheet where I can then apply my own formulas to generate a player ranking. One of the online leagues in which I play is stats-only, so this is absolutely necessary for me to sift through the hundreds of players. My other league has star ratings, but I use my spreadsheet anyway as my valuation of players differs from the ranking provided by the star ratings. In both cases, I then have to adjust my OOTP draft lists manually to match my spreadsheets rankings. A tedious, tedious task, all too frequently made more tedious by my accidentally hitting paste instead of copy and ruining my work.

The solution. It seems to me (and I could be wrong) that much of this functionality is already at play in OOTP. What is needed is to make the star ratings customizable.

Here is how I would imagine it playing out. Just as you have a screen for overall team strategy (the screen where you adjust the sliders for, among many other things, using "hit & run" from "never" to "frequently"), so you would have a screen for overall scouting strategy. There would be a section for batters and a section for pitchers. The batter section would have a sub-section for offensive ratings (contact, gap, power, eye, K's, speed, stealing, baserunning, sacrifice bunt, bunt for hit) each with sliders that add up to 100%. Then there would be a speed sub-section for defense (which would be more complicated, so I'll come back to it later). Last, there would be a section that allows us to weigh offense vs. defense.

For example, I could make contact, eye, speed, and defense more important, and turn down the influence of gap and power on the star ratings. The star ratings should then provide me with a list that reflects my personal scouting preferences.

With pitching, we would adjust the relative influence of stuff, movement, contact, stamina, velocity, hold runners.

I see two tricky spots. One: relievers vs. starters. The evaluation of pitchers changes depending on what position we assign them. Two: defense. Position players often play several positions, so which position do we assign them? Different positions also demand that offensive & defensive contributions get weighed differently: a shortstop's defensive contribution is far greater than a first baseman's.

In any case, I see tremendous benefits if this were implemented. A customizable star rating would then allow us to generate a draft list in-game and save people like me hours upon hours of time. I'm sure that we would all have fun adjusting the sliders and searching for the best leadoff-type hitter or the best stuff + movement pitcher. Most of all, different GMs would then see different rankings of players—even in leagues that have star ratings and scouting turned off. I think that this would make things more interesting as, in my experience, it is all too easy to be dependent upon the OOTP rankings in evaluating players.

In any case, this feature would make my OOTP playing experience far more pleasant. Thanks for listening!

snepp · 12-31-2012, 06:49 AM

I make use of the "Overall based on all players not positions" setting, that takes care of the position assignment problem.

12-31-2012, 04:40 AM	#1
omniart Major Leagues Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Seattle, Washington Posts: 328 Blog Entries: 2	Customizable Star Ratings The problem. At present when preparing for an amateur draft in OOTP, I have to copy a lot of information into a spreadsheet where I can then apply my own formulas to generate a player ranking. One of the online leagues in which I play is stats-only, so this is absolutely necessary for me to sift through the hundreds of players. My other league has star ratings, but I use my spreadsheet anyway as my valuation of players differs from the ranking provided by the star ratings. In both cases, I then have to adjust my OOTP draft lists manually to match my spreadsheets rankings. A tedious, tedious task, all too frequently made more tedious by my accidentally hitting paste instead of copy and ruining my work. The solution. It seems to me (and I could be wrong) that much of this functionality is already at play in OOTP. What is needed is to make the star ratings customizable. Here is how I would imagine it playing out. Just as you have a screen for overall team strategy (the screen where you adjust the sliders for, among many other things, using "hit & run" from "never" to "frequently"), so you would have a screen for overall scouting strategy. There would be a section for batters and a section for pitchers. The batter section would have a sub-section for offensive ratings (contact, gap, power, eye, K's, speed, stealing, baserunning, sacrifice bunt, bunt for hit) each with sliders that add up to 100%. Then there would be a speed sub-section for defense (which would be more complicated, so I'll come back to it later). Last, there would be a section that allows us to weigh offense vs. defense. For example, I could make contact, eye, speed, and defense more important, and turn down the influence of gap and power on the star ratings. The star ratings should then provide me with a list that reflects my personal scouting preferences. With pitching, we would adjust the relative influence of stuff, movement, contact, stamina, velocity, hold runners. I see two tricky spots. One: relievers vs. starters. The evaluation of pitchers changes depending on what position we assign them. Two: defense. Position players often play several positions, so which position do we assign them? Different positions also demand that offensive & defensive contributions get weighed differently: a shortstop's defensive contribution is far greater than a first baseman's. In any case, I see tremendous benefits if this were implemented. A customizable star rating would then allow us to generate a draft list in-game and save people like me hours upon hours of time. I'm sure that we would all have fun adjusting the sliders and searching for the best leadoff-type hitter or the best stuff + movement pitcher. Most of all, different GMs would then see different rankings of players—even in leagues that have star ratings and scouting turned off. I think that this would make things more interesting as, in my experience, it is all too easy to be dependent upon the OOTP rankings in evaluating players. In any case, this feature would make my OOTP playing experience far more pleasant. Thanks for listening!

12-31-2012, 06:49 AM	#2
snepp All Star Starter Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 1,365	I make use of the "Overall based on all players not positions" setting, that takes care of the position assignment problem.