[Muzamba]

Okay, I know it's not technically the weekend anymore. Nonetheless, here is my new League Setup mockie, as promised!

Before I begin, I should point out that I cropped off everything except for the central part of each screen I'm describing. This includes the list of leagues that appears to the left, the buttons along the bottom, and all the headers and footers. I'm not recommending they be removed from the screens in the game. I just left them out here, since they don't include any significant modifications.

Oh yeah, and be sure to pace yourself, because there's a LOT to process here. (Just don't say I didn't warn ya! )

Now, on with my ideas!

In my proposed redesign, there would be 6 types of leagues...

• Major League - In addition to MLB, this category would include the top levels of any international or independent league in one's universe.
• Minor League - I've made very few alterations that are unique to the Minors category. Most changes mirror those of the Majors category.
• Instructional League - These would include offseason developmental leagues, like the Arizona Fall League. What makes them unique in this structure is that players would be able to concurrently appear on their affiliated major/minor league roster. Otherwise, most options here are similar to the Minors category.
• College League - No longer labeled a "Feeder League", the Colleges category would still feed other leagues, but have more options that allow them to operate as a standalone league. Colleges would be subdivided into 4-Year and 2-Year levels, with players from 2Y schools feeding into and transfering to/from 4Y schools and both levels feeding amateur draft(s) at the Majors level.
• High School League - Like the Colleges category, High School leagues could function on their own. Players would feed into both 4-Year and 2-Year schools, as well as directly into the amateur draft of affiliated major league(s).
• Tournament League - Unlike the other types of leagues, this playoff-only format doesn't involve a regular season or even a permanent structure. (Although, similar to Instructional Leagues, their teams would be temporarily populated with players that concurrently appear on rosters in other leagues.) There would be 4 subdivisions of Tournament Leagues: Champions League (between champions of multiple leagues), International Competition (between players from different countries), Inter-Regional Competition (between players from different states or regions), and College/HS Tournament (between schools from different conferences, as in the College World Series).

For each League Type, there would be 7 different League Setup screens, which could be accessed via the tabs at the top of each screen. The examples below would be the default settings for a "Major League", specifically Major League Baseball. I'll go through each screen individually and describe the changes and additions I made.

Note that while the "Strategy" screen remains, I didn't make any alterations to it, so I didn't cover it below. Also take note that the "Functions" tab has been eliminated, as the "Function" button at the bottom of the screen basically serves the same purpose. (Plus, a League Wizard button could easily be added to the same area at the bottom, since it doesn't seem to really "belong" where it currently is.) Finally, I want to point out that I mis-labeled the Schedule screen/tab as "Season". Even though I neglected to change it, I do think "Schedule" is a better title.

Here are descriptions of all content that has been added to, altered, repositioned within, moved to, moved from, and removed from each screen...

[Muzamba]

STRUCTURE

Added:

• League Type - See descriptions of each of the 6 types listed above.
• Competition Level - This would be where the strength of each league is measured against other leagues of the same League Type. In other words, Major Leagues (such as MLB, NPB, KBO, GBL, Can-Am, Northern, and Frontier Leagues) would be measured against one another, as opposed to Minor, Instructional, College, or HS Leagues. Hence, MLB would have a Competition Level of 10 out of 10, whereas NPB would probably be around 8, and the smaller independent leagues somewhere around 2 or 3.
• Average Team Market Size - This would help establish the size of markets within the league, which would generally prevent low-level Minor League teams, for instance, from being located in inappropriately large cities. However, unlike the current market size format, this rating would be on a scale of 1-100. Thus, the MLB would probably have an average market size of about 70, compared with the Pioneer League, which would likely be rated around 20.
• League Offices Location - This would primarily be used in bylines for news articles describing actions taken by the Commissioner's Office or other administrative functions.

Repositioned on Screen:

• Parent League - This would be moved down the screen just a bit. As in previous versions, its main function is to show what Major League a Minor (or Instructional) League is affiliated with. It would also apply to College and HS Leagues, which would now have the option of feeding into multiple leagues, instead of just one parent league.
• League Nation - Also moved down slightly on the screen.

Moved TO This Screen:

• League Name (from NAMES & AFFILIATIONS screen) - It just seems more logical to place the League Name & Abbreviation with the other basic league info, instead of keeping it on a separate screen.
• League Abbreviation (from NAMES & AFFILIATIONS screen) - (see above)
• Average Attendance per Game (from "Financial Rules" section on RULES screen) - This information seems most appropriate grouped with Average Team Market Size, as it also helps establish the size of the market.

Removed:

• League Level - With the inclusion of League Type, this field becomes obsolete. However, it would remain on Minor League Structure screens to distinguish between AAA, AA, High A, Low A, Short-Season A, Rookie-Advanced, and Rookie classifications.

[Muzamba]

NAMES & AFFILIATIONS

Added:

• Region - The addition of a States/Regions database would help to further distinguish geographical locations for teams and players. Since certain states (California, Florida, Texas) produce more baseball talent than others, it help the game reflect a more realistic demographic. Also, it would allow for the creation of Interstate or Inter-Regional tournaments.

Moved FROM This Screen:

• League Name - (moved to the STRUCTURE screen)
• League Abbreviation - (moved to the STRUCTURE screen)
• Awards Names Setup - (moved to the HONORS screen)

[Muzamba]

RULES & OPTIONS (The RULES and OPTIONS screens would be combined. The new screen includes the newly-labeled sub-categories "Rosters", "Trades", "Amateur Draft", as well as the relocated "Player Options" "Historical Options", and "Tracked Stats Detail".)

Added:

• Disabled List 2 Length - This would allow a different length for the traditional 60-Day DL.
• Waiver Trading Deadline Date - This allows the option to change the trading deadline for players who have cleared waivers.
• Allow No-Trade Clauses - Although this has (thankfully, IMO) already been added to the game, I would imagine some might prefer the option of playing without it.
• Allow Players to Opt Out of NTC's - This would allow players with a NTC who become irreversibly unhappy with their team or who want to go from a losing team to a playoff contender to drop their NTC. They may also waive a full NTC in favor of a Partial or, eventually, even a Limited NTC. (However, players would usually ask for monetary compensation to drop their NTC when being traded to non-competitive teams.)
• Number of Teams Player May be Traded to with Partial NTC - This sets the number of teams a player can reject a trade to. This would typically be a rather small percentage of teams in the league. A player given a Partial NTC as part of his contract would, upon signing a contract, "choose" the teams he will accept a trade to. These teams would be determined by the same criteria he used to determine which team to sign with. In other words, if his top choice as a FA was to sign with Team A and his next five choices were Teams B, C, D, E, and F, he would probably list Teams B, C, D, E, and F as the teams he would accept a trade to.
• Number of Teams Player May be Traded to with Limited NTC - Same as above, except this would usually be a higher number. Since a Ltd. NTC would be of lesser value than a Prtl. NTC, he would only be able to list the teams he wouldn't agree to being traded to. These would normally be among the theoretical last teams he would want to sign with as a FA.
• "10/5 Rule" - This allows you to set the number of years a player must have been in the league and the number of years he has been with the same team in order for a NTC to kick in. On the Player's Profile page, a "countdown" could track the number of days until this milestone is reached, allowing a human GM to trade players just before they reach the deadline, if they so choose. (And since service days are already tracked, hopefully this can be too!)
• Cash Max. per Team - This would limit the amount of cash each team could include in a trade, thus keeping the wealthiest teams from simply throwing tens of millions of dollars at another team to try and obtain a prized player.
• Earliest Date to Trade FA Signed in Offseason - This option would prevent teams from signing a FA and trading him away in the first week of the season. (Incidentally, there could even be an NBA-style timeframe for players just aquired in trades, which would keep the AI from making those unrealistic trades that send one player to 5 different teams in the matter of a week. However, it would also prohibit 3-way trades. And since I don't yet see a better way of doing them, it's probably best to leave it out and hope the AI improves!)
• Draft Order - This gives you the option of having either the traditional "Worst-to-Best Record" order for each round, a "Serpentine" (1-2-3-3-2-1) order, or a totally "Random" order.
• Deadline to Sign Draft Picks - With the MLB moving up this deadline recently, it has become more of a factor IRL. Therefore, it should be in the game.
• Allow Signing Bonuses for Draft Picks - Again, this is a timely issue that should be addressed in OOTP.

Altered:

• Minor League Option Years - Currently, you only have the option whether or not to have option years. This gives you the opportunity to change the actual number of years. (Of course, it can still be disabled by setting the years to "0".)
• Disabled List (1) Length - Simply adds a "1" to distinguish it from the 60-Day option
• Non-Waiver Trading Deadline Date - Distinguishes the non-waiver deadline from the waiver deadline
• Earliest Date to Trade Newly-Drafted Players - This basically replaces the "Allow Trading of Recently Drafted Players" option with a specific date.
• Edit Nationality Percentages button (See detailed description for new screen below) - This replaces the Foreigner Percentage field, which is too general, IMO.

Repositioned on Screen:

• DH Rules - It seems unnecessary to have these under a separate heading than the rest of the roster rules.
• "Historical Rookies Options" section - It makes more sense, IMO, to keep these grouped with the other "Historical Options".

Moved TO This Screen:

• "Player Options" section (from the discontinued OPTIONS screen) - Combining the general rules and options onto one page seems to be a better use of space.
• "Historical (Progressing) Options" section (from the discontinued OPTIONS screen) - (see above)
• "Tracked Stats Detail" section from the discontinued OPTIONS screen) - (see above)

Moved FROM This Screen:

• "Financial Rules" section, including Average Attendance per Game - The Financial Rules should have their own screen, while I feel that the Avg. Attendance/Game value belongs on the STRUCTURE screen with the other basic league info.

Edit Nationality Percentages (via the RULES & OPTIONS screen)

This pop-up window would be accessed by the "Edit Nationality Percentages" button. It would contain all the nations in your nations.txt database. Next to each nation's name would be a slider that allows you to control the percentage of players created for your league that come from each nation. The slider function, like those used in other areas of the game (like the team scouting budget screens) would maintain 100% distribution. A key element to this function is that as long as there is at least 1% remaining, multiple nations may be set to "Less Than 1%". This final 1% would be divided between all nations with a "Less Than 1%" setting. Therefore, if you have only 2 at "LT1%", each would contribute .5% of players to your league. On the other hand, if there were 10 nations set to "LT1%", each would contribute only .1% of players. This allows you to have a miniscule number of players generated from nations with very little baseball tradition.

[Muzamba]

SCHEDULE (Because this is a new screen, items refer to the "Spring Training Options", "Schedule Options", "All-Star Game Options", and "Playoff Options" sections originally located on the discontinued OPTIONS screen. Notice the new sub-categories are now labeled "Spring Training", "Regular Season", "All-Star Game", and "Playoffs".)

Added:

• Spring Training Start Date (Pitchers/Catchers) - This allows more control over the duration of the preseason. It also differentiates between the earlier reporting date for pitchers and catchers, as opposed to other players.
• Spring Training Start Date (All Players) - (see above)
• Allow Spring Training Invitees - This has been asked for on numerous occasions and should now be in the game.
• Schedule Intra-Squad/Split-Squad Games - Allows for the realistic use of players in preseason games.
• Schedule Exhibition Games - If you just want Spring Training, but don't want actual games to be played, you'd have the option to disable them here.
• Schedule Exhibition Games vs. Teams from Other Leagues - With this option, a team would play a few exhibition games against teams from other leagues that play in the same general region or teams in their farm system. For example, an MLB team could play a game against their AAA affiliate or a local college team.
• Exhibition League 1 & 2 Names - This is just a simple way to distinguish between different groupings of teams in Spring Training, as with the Grapefruit and Cactus Leagues. The names would serve no other real purposes than as a header for exhibition standings and for use in news stories.
• Exhibition Season Start Date - A way to control when standard Spring Training ends and the Exhibition Season begins.
• Number of Exhibition Games per Team - Helps control the number of games teams play in the preseason
• Enable Extended Spring Training - This option allows players recovering from injury to get more conditioning before joining the major league team at the beginning of the regular season.
• Number of Interleague Games per Team - The greatest benefit with this option would be for all the leagues out there who don't have the same limited relationship between sub-leagues that MLB does. (Since my fictional leagues tend to have East/West sub-leagues, I personally prefer to have a more balanced number of intraleague and interleague games.)
• Interleague Format - This options would let you control how interleague rivals are determined. The options would be: "Alternate Between Each Division" (e.g. NL East teams would play AL East teams one year, AL Central the next, AL West the next, then back to AL East the next), "Play Same Division Each Year" (e.g. NL East always plays AL East), or "Random Opponents", which should be pretty much self-explanatory..
• Schedule Interleague Series 1 & 2 for..." - Gives you the opportunity to have interleague series played around specific occasions, like the Memorial Day and/or Independence Day holidays in the US.
• Always Schedule Games vs. Top Interleague Rival - Checking this option would allow certain teams from opposite sub-leagues to play each other every season, like the Mets and Yankees, Angels and Dodgers, Cubs and White Sox, or any number of interstate rivals.
• ASG Date - This gives you the option to hold the game at the end of the season, or on any other date, for that matter
• ASG Location - With this option, you could choose between "Alternating Between Sub Leagues", having the AI pick a "Random Site", or selecting a regular field from a list of all the stadiums in the database.
• ASG Format - This could be either the traditional "Sub League vs. Sub League" format or the "League Nation vs. International" (players from the league's base country against players from the rest of the world).
• ASG Roster Size - Determines how many players may be on each team's roster.
• ASG DH Rule - Allows you to choose between "Always Use DH", "Only Use in DH-League Stadiums", "Use DH Every Other Year", or "Never Use DH".
• ASG Pitching Staff - This would control how pitchers are selected for the ASG. The options would be: "Limit MRs, Favor CLs", "Limit MRs, Favor SPs", or "Use Normal Roles".
• Substitutions - Dictates how often players are replaced during the game. With the "Regular Game" option, substitutions would be treated just like any other game, while "Showcase Talent" would ensure that as many players as possible make it into the game. The final option, "Limit Innings/Pitch Counts", would essentially balance between getting players into the game and managing the roster to win the game.
• ASG Representation - The two options here are "Best Players Available" or "All Teams Represnted", the latter of which would force the AI to pick at least one player from each team, as long as there are more teams in the league than there are roster spots.)
• Factor Popularity in Roster Selections - If checked, more popular players would have a sllght edge over less popular players with similar stats.
• ASG Managers - This determines which managers will manage each team in the ASG. The options would be "Last Season's Pennant Winners", managers with the "Current Best Records", "Voted On" (which would favor more popular/successful managers over their careers), or "Random" managers.
• ASG MVP Name - An alternate name for the game's MVP
• Hold Futures Game - The option of whether or not to hold a game the day before the ASG featuring the top minor league prospects.
• Futures Game Format - (see "ASG Format" above)
• Hold Home Run Derby - The option of whether or not to hold a HR-hitting tournament between top power hitters in the league.
• HRD Participants - The number of players that would compete in the aforementioned contest.
• Force (Playoffs) Start on Certain Weekday - Lets you control what day of the week the playoffs begin on.
• Count Tiebreaker Stats in Season Totals - Whether a player's stats that are accumulated in a 1-game tiebreaker at the end of the season count toward regular season or (if unchecked) the postseason.
• Count Postseason Stats in Career Totals - Whether a player's stats that are accumulated in the playoffs count among his career stats.
• Factor Postseason Stats in Player Awards - Whether playoff stats should be considered when determining yearly award recipients.
• Championship Series HFA Determined by... - This could be either "All-Star Game Winners", "Best Record in Sub League", or "Rotate Yearly Between Sub Leagues".
• Allow 1st Round Intra-Divisional (Playoff) Match-Ups - This option dictates whether 2 teams in the same division can meet in the first round of the playoffs.

Moved TO This Screen:

• "Spring Training Options" section (from the discontinued OPTIONS screen) - Places all schedule info onto its own screen.
• "Schedule Options" section (from the discontinued OPTIONS screen) - (see above)
• "All-Star Game Options" section (from the discontinued OPTIONS screen) - (see above)
• "Playoff Options" section (from the discontinued OPTIONS screen) - (see above)

Removed:

• Interleague Play - This field would be eliminated and replaced by multiple fields with more detailed options concerning interleague games.
• Automatically Schedule All-Star Game - Replaced by the option to schedule the ASG on a given day, week, and month.

[Muzamba]

FINANCIALS (Because this is a new screen, items refer to the "Financial Rules" section originally located on the RULES screen. The new sub-categories are "Revenue", "Free Agency", and "Salary/Budget".)

Added:

• Business Mode - When this option is checked, you (or a President/CEO that you hire) have control over financial decisions concerning revenue and front office issues. If unchecked, you must only deal with financial decisions concerning players and coaches.
• Average President/CEO Salary - At league startup, you would have the option of whether or not to act as your team's President/CEO, If you decline this option, you would be in charge of hiring one. This determines the average salary of Presidents/CEOs in your league.
• Average Annual Merchandising Revenue - This helps to determine how much merchandising revenue is normally generated by teams in your league, which largely depends on the market size of your league's teams and the number of star players on their rosters.
• Generate Revenue from Other Sources - With this option, teams have control over things like stadium construction/renovation, team relocation, the sale of naming rights, the awarding of broadcasting rights, the sale of advertising space in their stadiums, and "commercials" that are "broadcast" during play-by-play.
• Salary Floor - This would fulfill a common request that leagues have minimum amounts they must spend on their rosters, which prevents some teams from sacrificing their competitiveness in favor of profits.

Altered:

• Allow Players from Other Leagues - Formerly a simple yes/no option, you would now have three options: "New Players are Free Agents" (meaning they can be signed just like any other FA), "New Players Enter Draft" (meaning they go into next season's amateur draft pool), or "Not Allowed" (meaning players from other leagues can't play in this league).
• Allow Players to Leave League - Like the item above, this was formerly a yes/no option. Your three options here would be "Yes", "No", or "Use Posting System", which would require teams from other leagues to bid for negotiating rights with this league's players, like the NPB has done with Japanese players wanting to play for MLB teams.

Repositioned on Screen:

• Financial System - Moved to the top of the screen, since everything below it is contingent upon it being enabled.
• Various Financial Options - The order of many items in this section have been shuffled around for organizational purposes.

Moved TO This Screen:

• "Financial Rules" section (from the RULES screen) - I felt this information was important enough that it warranted its own screen.

Moved FROM "Financial Rules" section:

• Average Attendance per Game - (moved to the STRUCTURE screen)

[Muzamba]

HONORS (Because this is a new screen, items refer to the "Award Names Setup" and "Hall of Fame Requirements for Automatic Induction" sections originally located on the NAMES & AFFILIATIONS and discontinued OPTIONS screens, respectively. These two sub-categories have been renamed simply "Awards" and "Hall of Fame".)

Added:

• Per League / Leaguewide options - This would determine whether an award(s) should be given out for each sub league or for the entire league.
• MVP - In previous versions, the Hitter Award has served as the de facto MVP award. However, since pitchers do occasionally win the award, I think a separate MVP Award is needed.
• Manager - Even though the award itself was added in the last version, you should have the same opportunity to name it as you do other awards.
• Hitter by Position - These are basically the equivalent of the MLB Silver Slugger Awards.
• Reliever - Awarded to the best reliever in the league.
• Comeback Player - Awarded to the player that has had the biggest positive turnaround in his career over the season, after suffering an injury or poor performance the previous season(s).
• Most Improved Player - This award would go to a non-rookie player who has had the greatest improvement in performance over the season, compared with the previous season(s).
• General Manager - This award would go to the GM who had the most success over the season, especially after making high-impact transactions during the past year.
• League Champions - Awarded to the team that wins the League Championship title.
• Custom Award 2 - Allows you to create additional custom awards.
• Custom Award 3 - (see above)
• Award Presentation - This can either be set to "Over a 1-Week Period After Playoffs" (miscellaneous awards on MON, Managers on TUE, Rookies on WED, Pitchers on THU, Hitters on FRI, and MVP on the next MON) or "All at Once Following Regular Season".
• HoF Location - Used mainly in bylines for news articles about the Hall of Fame.
• HoF Game Stadium - Allows you to select the field where the Hall of Fame Game is played from a list of all stadiums in the database.
• HoF Game Opponents - This determines the teams that mean in the exhibition Hall of Fame Game. It can be set to either "Last Year's Pennant Winners", "Current Best Records", "Random Interleague" or "Random".
• Years Retired Before HoF Eligible - Dictates how many years must pass once a player/personnel must be retired before they can be inducted into the HoF.
• Members Eligible for Universal HoF - This option refers to a "Universal Hall of Fame" that would feature the best players from all leagues in your universe. If members in your league's HoF are eligible, they may also be in the Universal HoF. Otherwise, they will only appear in their individual league's HoF.
• Allow Non-Players/Managers to be Inducted - If checked, personnel other than players or managers would be eligible for induction. These would include the highest rated and most successful coaches, GMs, scouts, and owners.
• Factor Major Awards Won/All-Star Selections - This would allow a player's awards and ASG selections to be considered when determining their worthiness for the HoF.
• Factor Postseason Stats - If enabled, a player's postseason stats would be considered among his HoF credentials.
• Factor Defensive Skills - When this option is checked, players with extremely high defensive skills and fielding stats could receive additional consideration for the HoF.
• Submit Candidates with 85% of Min. Requirements for Review - This option would result in a list of eligible retired. players being presented to you each year for HoF consideration, who have at least 85% of the minimum requirements in any category below. Those who are deemed worhy could be inducted with the click of a button.
• Min. Stolen Bases - A stat that should be considered.
• Min. Strikeouts - (see above)
• Min. Wins for Managers - Criterion for including managers in the HoF.
• Min. Postseason Appearances for Managers - (see above)
• Min. Championships for Managers - (see above)
• Offensive Modifiers by Position - These modifiers would give more or less weight to certain positions when considering whether they belong in the HoF. For instance, catchers with high offensive totals are generally more deserving than first basemen with similar totals.

Altered:

• Pitcher (Award Name) - Shortened to save space.
• Hitter (Award Name) - Shortened to save space.
• Rookie (Award Name) - Shortened to save space.
• Defense by Position - Formerly called simply "Defense Award Name".
• Custom Award (Name) - Changed to Custom Award 1 to distinguish it from Custom Awards 2 & 3
• Minimum Hits for BA Above - Switched wording from "Hits Minimum..." for consistency.

Moved TO This Screen:

• "Award Names Setup" section (from the NAMES & AFFILIATIONS screen) - Moved in order to place Awards and HoF info on the same screen (and in the case of Awards, to include additional options)
• "Hall of Fame Requirements..." section (from the discontinued OPTIONS screen) - (see above)

[Muzamba]

I will undoubtedly realize I have left some of my ideas out here. If/when I do, I'll try to edit them into the original post and note the changes.

As always, your feedback is welcome. Please feel free to offer any suggestions, comments, or constructive criticism in this thread.

I will be adding a few other League Setup mock-ups to this thread within the next few days.

In the meantime... enjoy!

[OakDragon]

I don't quite have the energy to read this in detail right now, as it's after midnight here, but I've skimmed it and holy moly, this is awesomeness!

One thing does occur, however. I have an inkling most of this probably won't make it in til OOTP XXV or so, sayin'?

[Muzamba]

Yeah, I imagine it'll be quite a while (if ever) before much of this actually makes it into the game. Still, ya can't blame a guy for dreamin'!

Like I've said before, most of my designs are based on an ultimate vision of what the game might someday look like. I have no delusions that Markus is gonna implement everything in my mock-ups by OOTP11. But hopefully, it'll give him and the rest of the OOTP community something to chew on while mulling over new ideas.

[Le Grande Orange]

Much to read and comment on, Muzamba. Let me tackle a few items that come to mind at the moment...

Originally Posted by Muzamba

Disabled List 1 Length - Simply adds a "1" to distinguish it from the 60-Day option
Disabled List 2 Length - This would allow a different length for the traditional 60-Day DL.

There's a better way to differentiate them—call them Disabled List (short-term) and Disabled List (long-term).

You didn't include an option to limit the number of players on the short-term DL. That needs to be there, since in earlier years the DL was strictly limited in the number of players that could be on it at one time (it was just two players when MLB first began using a disabled list).

Originally Posted by Muzamba

Waiver Trading Deadline Date - This allows the option to change the trading deadline for players who have cleared waivers.
Non-Waiver Trading Deadline Date - Distinguishes the non-waiver deadline from the waiver deadline

Sorry, but I don't see what the point is of the second option. It seems to me it's a misunderstanding of how the trade deadline works. You're also missing something that really ought to be there in terms of trading: interleague trading waiver restrictions. These were a part of baseball for over fifty years.

I would propose the trading options be set up thusly:

• Allow Trading. This determines whether or not players can be traded or sold from one team to another.
• Enable Trade Deadline. This determines if there will be a trade deadline in the league. This is a separate matter from whether trading is allowed or not. Without a trade deadline, players can be traded or sold to another team at any time with no restrictions. With a trade deadline, then during the off-season and during the regular season before the trade deadline players can be traded or sold without restriction; during the regular season after the trade deadline, trades/sales require the players to clear waivers first.
• Trade Deadline Date. The trade deadline date is selected here.
• Enable Interleague Trading Restrictions. This setting results in restrictions on trades/sales between the sub leagues within a league (or between separate major leagues). With this enabled, then trades/sales between sub leagues during the off-season and during the regular season before the trade deadline (if any) requires the players to clear waivers within the sub league they are leaving. During the regular season after the trade deadline, trades/sales between sub leagues requires the players to clear waivers in both sub leagues. (The point of such interleague waiver restrictions in MLB was specifically to limit the movement of players between the leagues so as to preserve the player uniqueness of each league).
• Enable Waiver-free Interleague Trading Period. This option enables a specified period during the off-season when interleague trades/sales can be conducted without waivers. The period runs from five days after the conclusion of the league's championship series up to the end of the league's winter meetings. This option is only available if the Enable Interleague Trading Restrictions option is active.
• Allow Trades with other Major Leagues. Enables trades/sales of players to other major leagues.

Originally Posted by Muzamba

Earliest Date to Trade FA Signed in Offseason - This option would prevent teams from signing a FA and trading him away in the first week of the season.

Ah, yes, Article XX(B)(6), a rule that is easy to overlook but ought to be in OOTP. By way of (extreme) nitpick, I'll point out the date should be June 16, not May 31.

Another item which is similar are the re-signing restrictions. There are two: the first states that a player released between opening day and Aug. 31 cannot be re-signed by the releasing team for thirty days. The other states that a player released between Sept. 1 and opening day of the next season cannot be re-signed by the releasing team until May 15 of the next season. You may want to consider factoring these in somewhere.

(There used to be on the books a re-signing limitation in regards to players selected in the amateur draft, but I can't find it at the moment.)

Originally Posted by Muzamba

Minor League Option Years - Currently, you only have the option whether or not to have option years. This gives you the opportunity to change the actual number of years. (Of course, it can still be disabled by setting the years to "0".)

A good addition, definitely.

But the option below it, Disable right to refuse minor league Assignment, could actually be expanded, given how it's changed over MLB's history. Major League players first got the right to refuse a minor league assignment in 1914, with the requirement being ten years' of service. In 1954 that was lowered to eight years, and in 1976 it was reduced to five seasons. So the ability to refuse a minor league assignment should include the ability to specify the number of years of service needed.

Originally Posted by Muzamba

Draft Order - This gives you the option of having either the traditional "Worst-to-Best Record" order for each round, a "Serpentine" (1-2-3-3-2-1) order, or a totally "Random" order.

There are two additional options which can go here. One is to allow either an order which is reverse order of the regular season standings only (what MLB does); the other is to also factor in the post-season results in the order. That is, the World Series winner would pick last, the World Series loser would pick second-to-last, the League Championship Series losers would be the next third- and fourth-to-last to pick, and so on.

The second option is whether the amateur draft selections proceed by reverse record alternating by league (how it worked before 2005) or whether the selections proceed by reverse record without regard to league (how it works from 2005 onwards).

Originally Posted by Muzamba

Enable Extended Spring Training - This option allows players recovering from injury to get more conditioning before joining the major league team at the beginning of the regular season.

I did some research on this and other aspects of spring training, and the extended spring training is, I think, more interesting that what you've laid out.

The primary purpose of extended spring training is to provide something to do for those minor league players who are slotted to participate in the short season leagues. All of a major league club's minor league players report to spring training. They are generally divided into four groups, roughly corresponding to the four full-length season teams. The result is that there are about 160-200 players competing for 98 roster spots. As spring training goes along, the rosters are gradually worked out for the four full-length season minor league teams. Those players who didn't make those full-season rosters are thus assigned to the short-season clubs, but since those don't begin play until mid-June, the players are sent to extended spring training.

Extended spring training, as its name implies, is a continuation of spring training. Clubs hold instructional lessons, practices, and play a schedule of games against other clubs (though the games are largely informal). Sometimes players are advanced from EST to the Low-A full-season club, either as an injury replacement or take the place of a player who is demoted to EST. On occasion a major league player may be sent to EST for injury rehabilitation.

In OOTP terms, EST would allow the short-season league players to gain additional development time and to keep in shape and reduce the 'rust' which would otherwise accumulate from waiting around for the short-season leagues to start. Since there'd be a schedule of extended spring training games, one could keep track of players' peformances and advance deserving players to the full-season minor league club while perhaps demoting players who are struggling. This sort of EST would give the OOTP user an additional way to monitor and channel the progress and development of their player talent.

Originally Posted by Muzamba

Number of Interleague Games per Team - The greatest benefit with this option would be for all the leagues out there who don't have the same limited relationship between sub-leagues that MLB does. (Since my fictional leagues tend to have East/West sub-leagues, I personally prefer to have a more balanced number of intraleague and interleague games.) [*]Interleague Format - This options would let you control how interleague rivals are determined. The options would be: "Alternate Between Each Division" (e.g. NL East teams would play AL East teams one year, AL Central the next, AL West the next, then back to AL East the next), "Play Same Division Each Year" (e.g. NL East always plays AL East), or "Random Opponents", which should be pretty much self-explanatory..[*]Schedule Interleague Series 1 & 2 for..." - Gives you the opportunity to have interleague series played around specific occasions, like the Memorial Day and/or Independence Day holidays in the US. [*]Always Schedule Games vs. Top Interleague Rival - Checking this option would allow certain teams from opposite sub-leagues to play each other every season, like the Mets and Yankees, Angels and Dodgers, Cubs and White Sox, or any number of interstate rivals.

Those are all well and good, but in all honestly, I strongly doubt the OOTP schedule generator will ever be anywhere near that robust. Those are some very intricate and complicated factors you've included. I'd say those options can realistically be left out.

Originally Posted by Muzamba

ASG Format - This could be either the traditional "Sub League vs. Sub League" format or the "League Nation vs. International" (players from the league's base country against players from the rest of the world).

The minor leagues have had a host of other ASG formats. These have included:

• The team leading the league as of a specified date playing an All-Star team made up of players from the rest of the teams in the league
• The league's All-Star team playing a Major League club
• One All-Star team is composed of the AL affiliates in the league while the other team is composed of players from the NL affiliates
• For leagues with only one division or an odd number of divisions, the league is divided into two geographical regions (e.g. east and west) and each All-Star squad is made up of players from one of the regions

Originally Posted by Muzamba

ASG DH Rule - Allows you to choose between "Always Use DH", "Only Use in DH-League Stadiums", "Use DH Every Other Year", or "Never Use DH".

These options should also apply to DH use in the World Series (or the league's equivalent).

Originally Posted by Muzamba

Count Tiebreaker Stats in Season Totals - Whether a player's stats that are accumulated in a 1-game tiebreaker at the end of the season count toward regular season or (if unchecked) the postseason.

Tiebreaking games are and have always been considered part of the regular season, so I think the inclusion of this option is unnecessary.

Originally Posted by Muzamba

Average Annual Merchandising Revenue - This helps to determine how much merchandising revenue is normally generated by teams in your league, which largely depends on the market size of your league's teams and the number of star players on their rosters. [*]Generate Revenue from Other Sources - With this option, teams have control over things like stadium construction/renovation, team relocation, the sale of naming rights, the awarding of broadcasting rights, the sale of advertising space in their stadiums, and "commercials" that are "broadcast" during play-by-play.

The subject of revising OOTP's financial system is an enormous one, so I'm only going to touch upon a few things here briefly.

OOTP greatly overstates the importance of merchadising revenue. In reality, merchandising only accounts for a relatively small portion of a club's revenue. The five main areas of revenue for a club are: (1) ticket sales; (2) stadium revenue (e.g. luxury suites, concessions, parking, stadium naming rights, etc.); (3) national revenue (primarily the national broadcasting contracts but also national-level merchandising); (4) local media revenue (e.g. the local broadcasting contracts); and (5) merchandising (defined here as also including advertising, promotions, and sponsorships). These are the income streams which need to be detailed and the average values specified.

National revenue is usually split equally between all the teams in the league. However, it might be interesting to add an option whereby the national revenue could be split unequally, in a method similar to that used by the Premier League. That would mean 60% of the money is split equally, 20% is assigned as merit pay (e.g. the beter a club's record the more money it gets), and 20% is assigned based on the relative prestige of the teams (to emulate how the more prestigious teams are the ones more often seen in national broadcasts).


In terms of revenue sharing, there can be addtional options. Revenue sharing can either be done on an individual element basis or on a composite league-wide basis. Additionally, the individual elements can either be shared separately or pooled. Here's what that all means:

Individual elements means you select the revenue item to be share individually. These individual elements are ticket sales and local media. For each the percentage to be shared can be set. The next choice is to decide whether these items are shared separately or pooled. Separately shared means only the actual visiting clubs to that home team will get the allotted portion of the shared revenue generated by that home team for that game. Pooled means that specified shared portion is collected from each team from each game and put into a league pool which at season's end is divided equally amongst all the member clubs in the league.

When revenue sharing is selected to be done on a composite, league-wide basis, it means that the total local revenue for each club is determined (there is no separate sharing of the individual types of revenue streams) and the specified percentage is collected into a league pool which is then split equally amongst all the clubs in the league. (This is essentially what MLB does now.)

Originally Posted by Muzamba

HONORS (Because this is a new screen, items refer to the "Award Names Setup" and "Hall of Fame Requirements for Automatic Induction" sections originally located on the NAMES & AFFILIATIONS and discontinued OPTIONS screens, respectively. These two sub-categories have been renamed simply "Awards" and "Hall of Fame".)

One potential selectable item that is sort of related to the above is that of determining the minimum level necessary to be a qualifer for a league leader. While MLB uses 3.1 PA per game for hitters and 1.0 IP per game pitchers, the minor leagues use 2.7 PA and 0.8 IP. It might be nice to have the option to specify what the minimums are for each league in order to be a league leader qualifier.

A similar item is that of rookie qualification. That underwent some changes over the years, so it might be good to be able to choose for a league what the rookie qualifications are (this might be especially useful for short-season leagues).


And that's it for now...

[Cryomaniac]

This is an epic thread, and you deserve more than one thanks for each post. As has been said, I doubt all of this will be in OOTP11, but it would be interesting to see what Markus has to say about your ideas.

[Muzamba]

Ah LGO, the things we could accomplish if we were on the OOTP payroll!

Seriously, I was looking forward to hearing your feedback. You have such a deep knowledge of the rules and history of the rules of baseball, I knew you'd be able to contribute a wealth of information and ideas to this discussion. I would always defer to you when it comes to correctly and accurately implementing rules and options. And as far as your suggestions above go, I honestly agree with every single one of them.

In fact, refering to your PM from a few weeks ago (Did you ever get my reply, btw?) maybe you could "clean up" and add some of your ideas to these mockies, then perhaps we could submit them to Markus for review.

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by Muzamba

In fact, refering to your PM from a few weeks ago (Did you ever get my reply, btw?)...

Yes, I did, I just haven't had the chance yet to write up the e-mail and dispatch it. I will get to it sooner or later.

By the way, I really like the idea of defining the league type and the five types of league (major, minor, instructional, college, and high school). That'd be a very good way of doing things. Personally, I would remove the "tournament" league type since, to me, that's more of a playoff format item belonging in the playoff options section (where, ideally, one would be able to schedule playoffs between entirely separate leagues rather than being limited to playoffs between sub leagues).

[StyxNCa]

I enjoy looking at the mockups but sometimes my brain feels like it's frying from information overload.

They are definitely cool to look at though.

[Sweed]

Originally Posted by Muzamba

Removed:

• Interleague Play - This field would be eliminated and replaced by multiple fields with more detailed options concerning interleague games.
• Automatically Schedule All-Star Game - Replaced by the option to schedule the ASG on a given day, week, and month.

Be careful of asking for things to be removed. Many already complain about the complexity of setting up a game, doesn't make sense to force them into more. Keep things as is with a way to access expanded options for more detailed setups.

One example, auto scheduling all-star game works great for me and I don't see why I would want to lose the feature. An option to schedule it on one's own though would be a good addition.

[Muzamba]

Originally Posted by Le Grande Orange

Yes, I did, I just haven't had the chance yet to write up the e-mail and dispatch it. I will get to it sooner or later.

By the way, I really like the idea of defining the league type and the five types of league (major, minor, instructional, college, and high school). That'd be a very good way of doing things. Personally, I would remove the "tournament" league type since, to me, that's more of a playoff format item belonging in the playoff options section (where, ideally, one would be able to schedule playoffs between entirely separate leagues rather than being limited to playoffs between sub leagues).

Yeah, my original intention was to make the tournament option part of the Playoffs section, but I couldn't figure out an efficient way to do one with multiple leagues. Maybe I just wasn't getting my head wrapped around it, though. This is a perfect example of where other people's feedback is helpful. Sometimes I just can't line it all up straight in my head.

Like a few people have already mentioned in this thread, there's a lot to digest in my mockies. One of my greatest weaknesses is my compulsiveness. Even though I like things to be streamlined, I tend to try and get as much stuffed in there as possible and it ends up feeling a bit cluttered, if not overwhelming.

So... do you (or does anyone else) have any ideas as to how a tournament format between teams from--or teams consisting of players from--multiple leagues could be set up more efficiently?

[Hazza]

Originally Posted by StyxNCa

I enjoy looking at the mockups but sometimes my brain feels like it's frying from information overload.

They are definitely cool to look at though.

Agree!

It's all great.

My suggestions (Sorry if these have already been mentioned.)

* Have A "Easy" And "Full" Mode for all this. Easy lets you choose teams and and names and stuff, but keeps everything MLB normal and doesn't scare you away with tonnes of options. Full mode is what you've got and allows for us who like to spend 4 hours creating and 1 hour playing. Make sure Joe Blogs who wants to play as the Reno Rough Riders can do that in a snap

* LOVE the idea about regions, but you should definitely order anything region or nation specific in order of popularity in the region. IE:
not
Afganistan
Australia
Austria
...
Canada
...
United states.

but
United States
Canada
Mexico
Dominican Republic
(Other big nations in order of popularity)
Afganistan
Austria (The rest in alphabetical order.)

Errr...that was it.

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by Muzamba

YSo... do you (or does anyone else) have any ideas as to how a tournament format between teams from--or teams consisting of players from--multiple leagues could be set up more efficiently?

Setting up playoffs between teams in different leagues could be done with a screen not that different from what OOTP uses now to set up playoffs between teams within a league.

The difference is you'd have a screen where you'd select which leagues would contribute qualifiers for this multi-league playoffs. Then, for each league, and you'd enable the positional finishers you want to move on to this post-season, just like you do now in OOTP with custom playoffs. Or, you could elect to just take the individual league playoff champions into the post-season.

Once you've got your qualifiers determined, you set up how they'll be matched up, again using a system similar to OOTP's current custom playoffs procedures.

[Muzamba]

Originally Posted by Sweed

Be careful of asking for things to be removed. Many already complain about the complexity of setting up a game, doesn't make sense to force them into more. Keep things as is with a way to access expanded options for more detailed setups.

One example, auto scheduling all-star game works great for me and I don't see why I would want to lose the feature. An option to schedule it on one's own though would be a good addition.

I'm normally not a proponent of removing anything from the game. (That's one of the biggest reasons OOTP seemed to take a step backward after 6.5.)

However, in this case, I felt these options could be axed, because of the more detailed options that replaced them. I try to be careful never to eliminate anything that isn't handled with a replacement option. For example, if you didn't want interleague play enabled, you'd simply set the number of interleague games to "0" and you get the exact same outcome. It could even be coded to automatically hide all the other interleague options if the number is set at zero.

Now, if you're saying that the extra interleague options contribute to the "overload" factor when setting up leagues, I do see your point. Nevertheless, I'd have to argue that more options are never a bad thing, IMO. (Just look at the ideas LGO suggested.)

I think the bottom line is that some people prefer more detail, while others prefer a more streamlined setup.

Keep in mind that all of the fields would have default settings. So regardless of which type of league you're playing, you'd have the option of simply using the defaults.

Then again, maybe we could have a "Detail Level" option on the Game Setup menu that would include only the most important League Setup fields. (Perhaps there could even be a "basic" level that uses the current OOTPX settings.)

Anyway, thanks for your feedback. Keep the comments comin'!