OOTP10 Suggestions: Historical Leagues

[battists]

This suggestion thread is designed to collect suggestions for the next version of OOTP, on the following topic:

Historical Leagues

Includes
- Ideas related to historical leagues (Lahman and other related DBs)

Excludes
- Stay away from stuff that is equally relevant to non-historical leagues, please!

Instructions
We will use this thread to collect suggestions on the above topic. Later on, we hope to present this information back to the community in a way that would allow you to vote and prioritize certain features.

If you would like to participate, here are the rules!

1. Only 1 suggestion per post.
2. Suggestions must be on-topic for the thread.
3. Constructive, non-inflammatory suggestions only.
4. No comments on others' suggestions are necessary. That means, we don't need 15 posts in the thread saying "Great idea!" or "I agree!"
5. Please don't link to other forum threads as your way of making suggestions. ("My suggestion can be found HERE.") If it's important enough to you that you want it in this thread, then it should be important enough to put it in the format I've asked for here!
6. You can certainly post suggestions that conflict with or build upon earlier suggestions.
7. Mockups are welcomed, they really help Markus see what you're interested in accomplishing.

Format for Suggestions

Suggestion
What is your suggestion? Be as specific as possible; include the screen you're talking about, if applicable.

Reason
Why do you think this is important? If this is to correct what you perceive as a problem in OOTP 2007, what is that problem? Be as specific as possible.

Priority
In your opinion, how important is this suggestion?
High (MUST have), Medium (should have), Low (nice to have))

Thanks for participating!

Steve

[Gambo]

Format for Suggestions

Suggestion
Implementation of the historical transaction database found at
Retrosheet Transactions Data for historical leagues.


Reason
The ability to play with real transactions going on around you. Increased historical accuracy.

Other games have either implemented automatic transactions or had programs written to do so. I think this would be cool for those people looking to recreate an actual era in their favorite teams history.


Priority
Nice to Have

[katielied]

Suggestion-
ability to create a historical player to replace player with same name without erasing career stats.

Reason-
when simming an all-time franchise player league (best players with best seasons), some modern players will have a better season after they are created in the league. when i re-create the player based on the new better season, i have to trash the old version of the player along with career stats. i should be able to just update with new season and keep stats from previous seasons played in OOTP.

[dickysty]

Suggestion

The Ability to have real players stats available in the sortable players statistics screen.


Reason

To be able to compare "Real Life" stats with their fictional outputs at a quick glance.

Currently you have to go the players page to reveal their historical totals for each season.


Priority

High

[dickysty]

Suggestion

When clicking on Historical Pitchers Real Life Stats tab from the players profile page to default to that players pitching stats.


Reason

Currently when clicking on a Pitchers Real Life Stats it defaults to the Pitchers real Batting stats.


Priority

Low

It's really just one extra mouse click but would be nice because I forget all the time when viewing.

[PhillieFever]

Suggestion

I recommend adding to the game a historical manager database that brings to life "the men in the dugout" the database should bring managers into the league the same way it brings players in,with the team they first managed,from there,let fate take over.Also each manager should have their own individual style which will show through in the strategies they use.


Reason

To improve the historical accuracy of the game by having each team take on the personality of their manager,just as in real life.


Priority

Medium,I feel as though it should be in the game but its not a deal breaker.

[pstrickert]

Suggestion

Improve the statistical accuracy of the initial import season. Garlon and Spritze have suggested that the LTMs be readjusted at specific intervals during the specific season (e.g., monthly, bimonthly, biannually).

Reason

To increase the enjoyment of replaying a single historical season by producing more accurate statistical results.

Priority

High.

[Le Grande Orange]

SUGGESTION

Recreate the effect that World War II (and other conflicts) had on Major League rosters by having those players who lost playing time due to military service lose the same amount of time in OOTP historical leagues.


REASON

The effect that WWII (and to a lesser extent other conflicts) had on Major League rosters was quite significant. So from a historical accuracy point of view, the OOTP user should have the option of whether or not to recreate the effect that miliary service had on MLB rosters.

Most of the information needed is available. So it shouldn't be too difficult to construct a file which lists all the major league players who lost playing to military service and how much playing time they lost. Then at the appropriate time the affected player is removed from the roster of a team for the proper amount of time. To make things easier for the user, a clear message should be given when a player is going into military service, and another message given when a player has returned from military service. A screen which lists the all the players currently away serving in the military would also be helpful.

The area that needs to be considered carefully in conjunction with this suggestion are the rules which governed players returning from military service. Generally, such returning players did not count against a club's player limits for a certain period of time (this was to give the players a fair chance in competing for and reclaiming their pre-service baseball positions). I have copies of the relevant real-world rules, and as necessary the actual rules can be simplified for OOTP.

Given the impact that military service had on MLB rosters, this really should be recreated in OOTP's historical leagues.


PRIORITY

High.

[lordchaos]

Suggestion
Career Stat Leagues - an option on main screen to start a career league that imports players with ratings calulated on their entire career. Also allow import of players accross multiple years (range) to allow an all-time league based on career stats.

Reason
Adds variety to the play.

Priority
Low

[Curtis]

SUGGESTION: When playing in historical leagues prior to Curt Flood, or in a fictional league without free agency, there should be a pretty hefty positive modifier to 'desire to play on a winning team'.

REASON: During a fair part of the 20th century there was an informal designation of clubs as being 'first division' or 'second division', meaning finishing in the top or bottom half of their league. This wasn't just a prestige designation, though, as the players actually received bonuses to their salary if their team finished in the first division. Fourth place players received a certain amount, third place twice as much, second place three times as much, and first place received either the winners' or losers' shares of the World Series money. Especially for journeyman players this could be the equivalent of a HUGE raise.

I propose that, in leagues without free agency in the modern sense, a player's desire to win be treated as though it was equal to his generated desire to win plus half his greed. This would be used for calculating both his morale and his salary demands. In other words, he would be happier while playing for a winning team and would expect a lower base salary since he would be counting on the bonus money to more than make up the difference.

Instead of adding a flat 50% of greed, it could be a variable number based on where he expects the team to finish (ie. +10% for fourth place, +20% for third, +30% for second, +40% for first or +50% if expected to win the WS).

The actual money wouldn't neccessarily have to be paid out, but if you decided to go that route giving a bonus of 10% of minimum salary for finishing fourth and increasing the others appropriately wouldn't be out of line. (Probably shouldn't go above +15/30/45/60/75%.)

Note that the actual 'desire to win' wouldn't change, it would just be modified within the game engine, and the modifier would be dropped when modern free agency came into use.

Note also that historically this gave teams reason other than pride to play hard right to the end of the season. The difference between finishing fifth and fourth (or fourth and third, etc.) was often close to the amount to buy a used car or put a down payment on a house.

PRIORITY: After all of that, low.

[suzerain]

Actually, this isn't about historical leagues in the strictest sense, but it deals with the Lahman databases, so I put it here:

Suggestion:

Allow real-world players (from Lahman database) to be stored as feeder database for fictional league playback.

Reason:

More fun. I want to create a fictional league but have it populated with "real" players, just selected randomly, so that my teams might have a lineup of Paul Molitor, Bill Madlock, Joe DiMaggio and Jeff Bagwell. You get the point. It would have to adjust the player's historical stats to the equivalency of the year you select as your year for the sim, but anyway it would be much more fun to have real major leaguers' careers re-created in your fictional universe.

When/if the sim runs out of real players (when that happens would depend on the number of teams in your league and how many years you play), then it could fall back on the fictional player generator, and that would be fun, too...to see if the fictional ones can beat the real major's career records by that time.

Priority:

Medium. Not a necessity, but it would make the game a lot more fun.

[pstrickert]

SUGGESTION

Include in OOTP a database of historic pitch types (based on the Neyer Guide, which has been updated on-line). The "default" pitch types for players not included in the Neyer Guide, IMO, should be the most common pitch types only. One pitch could even be identified as the "out" pitch for each player.


REASON

To enhance the realism of historical play. Wilbur Wood, for example, should throw a knuckle ball, Fernando Valenzuela a screwball, Ron Guidry a slider, etc. (Conversely, Randy Johnson should NOT throw a knuckleball.)


PRIORITY

Low.

NOTE: I believe BM already includes this data in its game.

[pstrickert]

SUGGESTION

Include in OOTP a database of historic uniform numbers (or allow the user to create and import such a database).


REASON

To enhance the realism of historical play. Much of the information is available on-line. If this database were created once, it could be used for many years to come.


PRIORITY

Low.

[pstrickert]

Suggestion

Create a range of manager "types" with corresponding changes to the strategy settings. These could be used in both fictional and historical leagues.


Reason

To replicate the tendencies of historical managers. Harvey Kuehn should manage the '82 Brewers differently than Earl Weaver manages the '73 Orioles.


Priority

Medium.

[pstrickert]

Suggestion

Improve the injury model so that historically "injury-prone" players suffer more injuries (and, conversely, "iron men" suffer few injuries).


Reason

Injuries have a major impact on the results of historical sims (for teams and players). Markus improved this part of the game during beta testing last year, but more tweaks could be made. Perhaps Markus could allow the user to import real-life transaction files. Other baseball text sims include this feature.


Priority

Medium-High.

[pstrickert]

Suggestion

During season import, allow the user the option to import end-of-season rosters rather than beginning-of-season rosters.


Reason

More often than not, we associate players with the teams they ENDED the season on, not the teams they BEGAN the season on. It would also make it more convenient to replay a World Series by eliminating the need to make roster changes manually.


Priority

Low.

[pbar25]

Suggestion

There appears to be an issue with all historical player databases that increases the GB% that appears on player cards after simming 30-40 years, and puts them into the 3 digits.

It does not seem to effect stats however, and may just be aesthetics/reporting issue.
In some cases players will have a GB% of 250%.


Reason

It does not look pretty.


Priority

High

[Curtis]

SUGGESTION: When playing with free agency turned off (ie. pre-1976), teams should not be able to sign players to multi-year contracts, nor should there be contract extensions.

REASON: I realize that how to deal with the finances of reserve-era contracts is a very difficult matter. I'm suggesting this as a workaround, maybe along with automatically setting arbitration to five years (and no super-2). Really you should ask someone like Le Grande Orange to give you a better idea of how stuff like this (and minor league free agency and options) worked back then. This has been a paid political announcement.

PRIORITY: Medium. I think it's important, but I realize you might not consider it worth the time it would take to code.

[targy]

Suggestion
When using historical stadiums and when the day stadium is different then the night stadium the position of the players do not line up. Please make the changes for both night and day stick. right now if the stadium pictures are a little different you have to keep changing the position of the players on the field.

Reason
It is very irritating to have to realign positions of players for day pictures and night pictures

Priority
High

[Commo_Soldier]

Suggestion
When importing a historical league, also setup the correct levels of minor leagues used at the time. Then update the league with each expansion if automatic expansion is turned on. Correct names would be nice, but not required.

Reason
Realism / Easier on the user

Priority
Low - Medium