Fictional Players... 'yer out!

[Orcin]

New player here... love this game. I have played a couple of partial seasons to get used to it, and now I am ready to launch my fantasy league. I am starting a career league in 1963. I want only real players - no fictional players. I am running version 1.76b.

I am playing without early player entry, but I have filled out the 40-man rosters by importing real players from 1964-66 and signing as free agents. My rule was that the player had to be in the signing team's minor league system at the beginning of the 1963 season, and has to start the season in the minors. I accomplish this task by taking over ownership of each team in sequence before the start of the season to arrange the roster as I wish. Of course, I have to relinquish control to run my own team eventually, and then the AI starts changing things.

I don't want the AI to release my real players and sign fictional players to replace them during my 1963 season, so I deleted all of the fictional players from the player list by using "force retire" option. However, I do have some available free agent real players (a dozen or so) that didn't make the final roster of any team.

My main question is this: Will this absence of fictional players cause any program problems for me when I go into my first off-season? I don't want the game to crash after one season because there aren't enough free agents or something else unforeseen by me.

I assume that the game will try to import a new players in the off-season for 1964 draft. Is there any way for me to keep the AI from releasing my real players and replacing them with fictional players? The problem I wish to avoid is the rule that says a team can't re-sign a player it has already released that season. For example, the AI seems to hate the 42-year old Warren Spahn (a little age discrimination there, don't you think?). Even though Warren is one of the Braves' best pitchers in 1963, the AI GM keeps sending him to the minors and trying to sign a free agent to replace him. If the AI ever does manage to release him, the Braves would not be allowed to re-sign him until next year.

One other thing I would like to mention... I don't know if this is a bug or an intended feature. The AI will demote a player and announce that it has signed "free agent X". However, the 40-man roster is full and the AI doesn't release a player to sign Mr. X, leaving the major-league roster at 24 instead of 25. Sometimes, but not always, the player that it wants to sign is a player that I had released from that same team earlier in the season. Again, I temporarily take over ownership of that team to accomplish this, and maybe that unintended action is causing the behavior.

Thanks for any insight that you can give me into these questions.

[Wrathchild]

I don't have much of a clue about most of what you are asking, but I don't think you should have problems during the offseason. Just make sure to make a backup copy of your league before you run it. The game will bring in all of the appropriate historical players for the year and then fill out the pool with fictional players. I'm not sure if you will have a chance after the draft to take over each team before they start releasing players to suit their own needs.

On an tangent, doesn't the real draft take place in June and not before the beginning of the season?

[motnahp]

The way to retain the best control over all of your teams is to choose the Multiplayer option and put every team under human control. This works great for sims where you want to mirror (or at least have some control over) trades, promotions, demotions, etc.

The one drawback, alas, is that you cannot manage games. If you're just looking to sim games and do some "what if" scenarios, there's no better setup.

[Orcin]

I hadn't considered the multiplayer option, so thanks for explaining that. I think I would rather manage the games for one team (and give up some control) for now, but it's nice to know that I could sim a season while playing GM for all teams.

[akcranker]

Actually Shaun is going to be taking the Multiplayer function out of Puresim which really sucks for people that like to manage their leagues like that.

[Orcin]

I started my new season. Predictably, the AI GM sent Harvey Haddix (age 38) to the minors on day 1, and called up Norm Bass. However, Norm Bass was not on the AI's roster. So I took control of this team (Pittsburgh) and signed Norm Bass to a one-year contract. I then asked the AI for a suggestion, and it was "release Harvey Haddix". [:)]

Detroit's AI GM sent Hank Aguirre (age 32) to the minors without allowing him a start, even though he is the second-highest paid pitcher on the team. At least, he didn't want to release him.

I am going to go with these suggestions. I might learn something. [;)]

Seriously, I think the AI must highly value youth and "up arrows" on potential. It's in the game for a career mode, and I am thinking "win now".

[Nukester]

ORIGINAL: akcranker

Actually Shaun is going to be taking the Multiplayer function out of Puresim which really sucks for people that like to manage their leagues like that.

Can you point me to the thread where he talks about this ?

[akcranker]

ORIGINAL: Nukester

ORIGINAL: akcranker

Actually Shaun is going to be taking the Multiplayer function out of Puresim which really sucks for people that like to manage their leagues like that.

Can you point me to the thread where he talks about this ?

Looking at it again I might have misread what Shaun was saying. It's in the 1.77 release notes.

http://www.puresim.com/update.html

[Nukester]

Thanks for pointing that out. Yeah not many people are playing the game online, except the XIBL (which has been a fantastic league), but we are still using 1.51

[akcranker]

Yea I got away from Puresim for awhile and only just recently got back into playing so I haven't played in a multiplayer league in years.  Back to when Shaun was still fine tuning it and testing it.  Last I remember he implemented the 7zip program I think.  Last I knew it all wasn't working right.  Does the multiplayer work good now?  I might load up a old version of Puresim just to play multiplayer.  My buddy that I just got into Puresim would love to play in a multiplayer league.

[Nukester]

ORIGINAL: akcranker

Yea I got away from Puresim for awhile and only just recently got back into playing so I haven't played in a multiplayer league in years.  Back to when Shaun was still fine tuning it and testing it.  Last I remember he implemented the 7zip program I think.  Last I knew it all wasn't working right.  Does the multiplayer work good now?  I might load up a old version of Puresim just to play multiplayer.  My buddy that I just got into Puresim would love to play in a multiplayer league.

There are a couple of quirks as far as financials, like players asking for way below value between the free agency portion and Spring Training. We just dont allow any signings in that time frame, and once spring training is run, the asking values go back to normal. We also have a live amateur draft but Im not sure if that was because of the game or just a decision of the league. We also tweaked the XML a bit. I dont know about the commish side of things but as an owner its been extremely smooth.

[Max 86]

Keep in mind that the number of teams in the league will determine if fictional players are added.  If you have a 40 team league starting in 1963 then there are not enough real players to fill the roster spots so fictional players are added.

[Orcin]

Thanks Max, but I know why the fictional players are there. I just don't want them. [:)]
 
I was able to fill out all of the 40-man rosters plus provide a pool of free agents by importing players that were in the minors in 1963. I didn't want to use the "import players before their major league debut" option after trying it briefly. It works fine, but it didn't serve my purpose because it brings in players (usually stars) before they actually appeared in pro ball. For example, the Athletics had Sal Bando in the minors in my 1963 test league, but he was actually still at Arizona State and not drafted by the Athletics until 1965. This caused the league to have too few "journeymen" in the minors (in my opinion) and the AI was obsessed with getting these stars to the majors early. I wanted a real 1963 replay (as close as reasonably possible) so I chose to import the journeymen and some young stars myself, and I will let the others come in as they debut (for example, I will bring Sal in before the 1965 season).
 
Yes, I am anal.  [:D]
 
 

[akcranker]

ORIGINAL: Orcin

Thanks Max, but I know why the fictional players are there. I just don't want them. [:)]

I was able to fill out all of the 40-man rosters plus provide a pool of free agents by importing players that were in the minors in 1963. I didn't want to use the "import players before their major league debut" option after trying it briefly. It works fine, but it didn't serve my purpose because it brings in players (usually stars) before they actually appeared in pro ball. For example, the Athletics had Sal Bando in the minors in my 1963 test league, but he was actually still at Arizona State and not drafted by the Athletics until 1965. This caused the league to have too few "journeymen" in the minors (in my opinion) and the AI was obsessed with getting these stars to the majors early. I wanted a real 1963 replay (as close as reasonably possible) so I chose to import the journeymen and some young stars myself, and I will let the others come in as they debut (for example, I will bring Sal in before the 1965 season).

Yes, I am anal.  [:D]

At least your using Puresim exactly the way it should be... your way!

[Wrathchild]

ORIGINAL: akcranker
At least your using Puresim exactly the way it should be... your way!

I sense a new advertising slogan coming on....

[motnahp]

ORIGINAL: akcranker

ORIGINAL: Nukester

ORIGINAL: akcranker

Actually Shaun is going to be taking the Multiplayer function out of Puresim which really sucks for people that like to manage their leagues like that.

Can you point me to the thread where he talks about this ?

Looking at it again I might have misread what Shaun was saying. It's in the 1.77 release notes.

http://www.puresim.com/update.html

I hope he only means that the FTP support goes away. I never used that anyway, but I did run many associations using the MP feature. I have come to rely on that feature of the program.