New user has concern and several questions...

[Katdaddy]

First, the concern:

I AM GOING TO LOSE SOOOOO MANY HOURS OF MY LIFE TO THIS GAME!!! I cannot believe I just came across OOTP (just bought OOTPX about a week ago)....and am in Baseball/Stats heaven. I used to mow yards as a 13-year old kid, and would buy Avalon Hill sports games, mainly for the statistician in me (Loved Title Bout...guess what I'm buying next, LOL)....

I've been to PadresFan's website (HUGE props there, will donate), and downloaded the player pics files, sound files, and logos....worked seamlessly...

I am managing the Milwaukee Brewers as sort-of an "experimental initiation" (don't ask me why, I'm just fascinated with a couple of their players), and am so far 14-14. Fired my pitching coach, and hired what appears to be a comparable replacement. Traded Carlos Villenueva (sp?) and a AAA 3rd baseman and cash for J. Verlander (his first game is tonight!)

Anyway, to my newbie questions. The game is sooooooo deep, there's a lot that I do not know about the technical side of managing. I used to play baseball (all the way through college), so I know the "stats" side of things....it's the internal mechanics that I would like to address here.

1) Are there immediately noticable benefits to increasing the scouting budget? My current scouting budget is $2.5M, and of course, I didn't increase it prior to starting the year (thinking about taking it to $3.25M for 2010).... Are the scouting reports more accurate, more in-depth, or just a greater quantity of reports available?

2) Does the "fan interest" and "fan loyalty" increase/decrease with performance/ticket price changes? Is this something that is always measured, or is it evaluated/changed only periodically (monthly/yearly)?

3) I have a pitcher (Yovani Gallardo), who is only scouted at 1.5 stars, but is KILLING it this year so far (4-0, 2.1 or so ERA)....he is in a "contract year" and will be up for negotiations soon...in real life, many times a player will play beyond "his normal ability" during a contract year. Does this happen in OOTP by design at times, or is it just luck?

4) Speaking of scouting, I have a quick question about "your scout" versus the OOTP scout reports (cannot remember the technical term). Take Gallardo for example: My scout scored him across the board around 9-10's out of 20 in the various categories, but the "OOTP reports" have him in the mid-teens to twenties in everything, 4 stars as well (when looking at the scouting tab under his profile). I guess what you are supposed to do as a manager is sort of "read between the lines" and figure out if you trust your scout or the other reports, right? Or maybe he really falls somewhere in the middle....??? Am I on the right track there? At this point, my scout is wayyyyy off the mark on him.

As well, I have an AAA 3rd baseman I just promoted up temporarily as an injury fill-in, and my scout thinks he is the next "Chipper Jones" based on the ratings. But...the "reports" has him mediocre at best. He's not doing well yet, but of course, he probably needs playing time, etc....

Thanks in advance for reviewing my first battery of questions....hopefully, as I dig deeper into the game, I can contribute as well...

[Kelric]

1) I don't play with scouts, but I believe reports are supposed to be more accurate with the more money you put into your budget. Don't quote me here.

2) Loyalty and Interest change depending on how your team performs on the field and what transactions you make. If you dump a popular player, Interest is going to go down. If you win a lot for a decade, Interest will be very high and your Loyalty should start creeping up.

3) Luck, AFAIK.

4) The OOTP reports are generally supposed to be rather inaccurate. But, then again, your scouts can be too... You have to decide what to trust - your scout, OOTP's scouts, or the numbers the guy is putting up.

[tysok]

On #1 I think it's relative to the other scouting in the league. So if you spend the most of any team at 2 million you get the best scouting (everything else being equal) in the league, you wouldn't get any better results by spending 3 million then.

Of course, not everything is equal. If you have an average scout and spend the most at 2 million, you could see better results by spending 3 million maybe. I'm not sure, I lost interest in the design before they finalized it and didn't hear anything specific about it afterwards.