Fictional League

[verizon32]

For all of you that play fictional league.

What size league you created? What market size you use?

And do you use the fictional stadiums that comes with the game?

[Hitandrun]

Currently I am using a 24 team 3 division league set in cities that MLB does not have teams in. San Antonio and Indianapolis are my largest cities. Richmond and Fayetteville, Ar (I'm from Arkansas) are my smallest cities. But I play with finances off, so the city size really doesn't matter. I started with a 40 team league, but didn't like how much it slowed down my computer.
I go thru and look at each stadium and modify it if I think it needs it. Also the Altitudes are all wrong at the beginning. I think they are randomly determined, so I try to correct them, although 2000 ft. is the highest altitude I allow.

[Cantankerous]

My fictional league started off with 24 teams (2 Leagues, 3 divisions each), mostly medium-sized markets with only a few large markets.  Finances are "on".
 
Over 17 seasons I have expanded the league to 30 teams now (set up just like MLB) and have added a few more big markets (but still no NY City--they'll just have to make do with Buffalo [:)]).  Most teams still have a lot of finances left over during the season, but a few of the smaller market teams are maxed out financially (but still very competitive).  And oddly enough it seems that most of the former expansion teams are significantly better than the "older" teams win-loss wise, with several of them having won multiple World Series titles before many of the "older" teams.
 
I play with Dallas/Ft. Worth as my market place and I'm near the bottom in salary expenses despite being one of the "larger market" teams.  (I go more for long-term contracts with my younger players and try to farm-raise my players rather than sign over-priced free agents.  That means that veterans on the decline tend to get traded for prospects while they still have value.)
 
And as far as the stadiums go, I have assigned actual MLB stadiums to the teams that occupy that city (or a city close by); i.e., the Boston team gets Fenway Park, etc.  This set up seems to work well.

[Rainbow7]

I usually play 16 team, two division leagues, with large and medium markets combined.  Most of the cities have their historical stadiums setup with photos.

[PadresFan104]

My fictional association is made up of 24 teams from cities I've either lived in or visitied at least once and have memories of.  The two leagues are the Metropolitan League (larger cities like New York, San Diego, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, etc.) and the Great American League (smaller cities like Buffalo, Atlantic City, Winston-Salem, Portland, etc.)  I coach the San Diego Surf Dawgs.  What I like about this setup is that I have some sort of connection with each city, so it makes it more fun to follow the other teams.

I use real ballparks (the 2006 versions from my site) where I can, and for the others, I have created fictional stadiums using the photos of minor league parks that I also have on my website.  I also created a custom set of 24 logos (also on my site). [:)]

Actually, you can download a template I made of this association (North AMerican Baseball League Association) from my website as well.

[SpharV2]

I usually start with the smallest league size with four divisions available, then slowly expand it to around 30 teams. I generally expand as soon as I've built the farm system up so it can be raided and I have to do it again, which is half of the fun for me. As for market size, I do a pretty good mix, I usually put a new York in there to see if they dominate, which in my latest league they did for a while, reaching the WS six years in a row, but only won one. Currently they've now missed the playoffs for four straight years.

My stadiums I go with a mix of current MLB stadiums and the classics that I like. I usually play in Comerica pre-moving the walls in because I like the huge outfield.

[Nomo Ootp]

I am new to the game so I pretty much stick with a 16 team league (2 leagues, 8 teams) and play a 140 game schedule.  I do this so I can get to know the players.  Just scrapped one league that I started in 1871 and played through 1884 because of some really weird stats with fictional players, but I have now restarted using 1885 hoping to get better results.  I am planning on expansion once I get the feel for the flow of the game.  Beiing a long time OOTP'er there are a few things that seem strange in this game but overall a very good game.....[8D] I just keep the default for stadiums. To keep it as real as possible I use "real" cities for the era I am playing. Currently I have an American Baseball Association with an American Association and a National Association. I do not have multiple teams in any city and use the cities from the 1880's (Chicago, Baltimore, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, New York, Indianapolis, Boston, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Louisville, St Louis, Kansas City, Washington, Buffalo, and Detroit). I create all my own team logos and players pics using facegen and templates from the OOTP board too keep it looking real. I guess I spend more time in the setup of the league then I do in actual playing time at least until the 5th or 6th season......

Finances is a problem.  I "tweaked" the XML to my liking having my star players with a salary of about 10K and scrubs at 250 a year, and the franchises had about 250-300K in revenue.  The problem was within 5 seasons the salaries have gone up to almost triple of what they were when I started the league and when I lowered the financials of the teams expecting players to request less money I got a bunch of star players not signing offers during the FA period.  Very frustrating.  Now I just leave the financials alone and play at 1%.  Salaries are too high but I can live with it.  Would be cool, though, if there were a setting for max salaries based on actual skills. This works fine if I start my leagues in the 1915-1920 time frame and work up, but the salaries seem a bit high for the Deadball era.

[33sherman]

I'm playing a fictional career with a real-life historical template(teams and parks as they were), starting in 1903. It's going great and it's almost made me forget about using real players again, though I'm concerned that I won't be able to 'turn on' modern closer usage later in the career.

[dneely]

PadresFan:

You mentioned you have a "template" for your Fictional league on your web site, I guess I missed it.

I am really looking to run a Fictional league (along with the wonderful 1946 Universe I am currently using!)with say 2 divisions and 16 teams that ALL have stadiums and player photos loaded, in other words a complete league setup with all the bells and whistles added that would allow me to just pick a team to manage and go to work. I get frustrated adding in all the photos and ball park images and playing games with the ball flight going every which way etc. I guess you could say I am LAZY, but I tell myself that as a teacher with a side photo biz I have less and less time to make up what I want.

Having said all this does anyone have a setup like this they can post and does your "template" do this and meet all my demands???? I know I am difficult....

Thanks, DNeely

[PadresFan104]

DN - If you can work with 24 teams instead of 16, then my Association is exactly what you are looking for. It's on this page, 4th Template down.... Let me know if you try it out and what you think.

http://web.mac.com/sixwilsons/iWeb/Pure ... lates.html

Al

[verizon32]

Padresfan 104

How did you setup the financial market for your fictional league? IS it mixed, small,etc?

[PadresFan104]

I used a mixed approach, using the actual values for the cities that ship with the game.  So you've got big markets like New York City and San Francisco, and small markets like Reno and Atlantic City.

The bigger markets are in the Metropolitan League, and the smaller markets are in the Great American League.  Should make for an exciting World Series when the Big Market Champion faces the Small Market Champion!

[dneely]

PadresFan:

Just wanted to let you know I DL'ed the file last night and hope to get into it extensively over the weekend! I'm very excited and looking forward to a great Fictional league to go along with my 1946 to the present replay.

I will update you on my reactions and opinions as I get into the league.

DNeely

[PadresFan104]

Awesome!!!  If you play a game at a time, AND use the current rosters instead of generating a new set of fictional players, we could compare notes on how the players are doing!!

[dneely]

PadresFan:

I took over the Phoenix team and renamed them the "Sidewinders" but kept the exact same players you had and look forward to a lot of fun with this league. I upgraded to the new 1.26 patch this morning and had no problem playing a couple of games live with my Sidewinder squad. I lost a heartbreaker on opening day in the bottom of the 10th to Anaheim and lost the next one as well but when I decided to sim ahead a month to get some depth in the stats to better see my teams talent level I experienced 2 crashes while simming. I have posted the details for Shaun so we will see what is up.

You have done a GREAT job setting up this file and it is a Blast!! I would strongly recommend it to anyone looking to explore a modern day Fictional league. Grab it guys, it is a great league to play with.

DNeely

[PadresFan104]

Thanks DN, great feedback.  I only play a game at a time (managing each one), but I have to tell you, the Phoenix franchise is OWNING the rest of the league.  They are leading the Metro West with a 23-8 record as we move into April.  I went 0-4 against them in April.  Their #1 pick was a pitcher, Larry Hilliard, who is 5-1 with a 2.31 ERA.  Hope you have him as well. 

[akcranker]

PadresFan I think it would be great if a bunch of us all used the same template with the same players and compared how each team did and players did.  Kinda like multiplayer but not actually MP.  We could each pick a different team to play and then just post in The Locker how we are doing.

What you think?

[dneely]

Well my version of the Phoenix squad is currently 8-17 I beleive but we are starting to come alive. I have had repeated problems simming with this league and as mentioned previously this has been reported to Shaun. I don't want to sim all the time but I do sim a month or two when getting my feet wet with a new league so I have some stats from actual play to go by. Hopefully Shaun will solve this problem quickly (as he normally does) and I can restart and play out the Sidewinders game myself.

I guees the computer manager in your league is much smarter than I am.....not too hard to believe!

I also like the idea of comparing notes as suggested by akcranker!

DNeely

[akcranker]

PadresFan & Dneely - I'm downloading that template right now and plan on taking over a team tonight.  I know Dneely is using Phoenix but what team are you playing PadresFan?  I'm going to keep the rosters the same as you have them setup in the template and then take over a team that you two are not already managing and see how I do.

I'll post more later when I get the template downloaded and setup.  I might create a thread in The Locker so we can post our updates on how we are doing with this NAMBLA Association.

[verizon32]

ORIGINAL: akcranker

PadresFan & Dneely - I'm downloading that template right now and plan on taking over a team tonight.  I know Dneely is using Phoenix but what team are you playing PadresFan?  I'm going to keep the rosters the same as you have them setup in the template and then take over a team that you two are not already managing and see how I do.

I'll post more later when I get the template downloaded and setup.  I might create a thread in The Locker so we can post our updates on how we are doing with this NAMBLA Association.

He is playing the San Diego Surf Dawgs.

Another good idea is to all play the same team and see how fast you can take the team to win the world series compare to others.