Out of the Park Developments Online Manuals
 
Title
KeyExisting Key New Key
Create as
Find in this manual
Case sensitive

Replace with
Historical Settings

The Historical Settings screen is accessed from the Create New Game screen during game creation. It can also be accessed later by navigating to Game Menu >> Advanced section >> Setup and Options >> League Setup tab >> Historical tab.

The Historical Settings screen is only available when a historical league is selected, and is used to modify a variety of options related to historical simming. It is divided into the following sections:


Note: The above links will not work from within the in-game browser. However, they all simply link to sections lower in this page, so just scroll down to find the appropriate section.

Historical Transactions/Lineups

Historical Transactions/Lineups define how closely you want your league to match what happened in real life.

OptionDescription
Use real historical transactions If this is enabled, OOTP will force transactions to occur just as they did in real life, including player drafts, injuries, suspensions, and player trades. If enabled, OOTP automatically disables the following rules for this league: roster limits, injuries, and suspensions.
Use real historical lineups If this is enabled, OOTP will force the use of real historic lineups for each game. If enabled, OOTP automatically disables the following rules for this league: roster limits, injuries, and suspensions.

Historical Progressing Options

Historical Progressing Options control how your league behaves between seasons.

OptionDescription
Automatically expand league Automatically expands your historical league at the precise time that real-world leagues expanded. OOTP will automatically handle changes in team names, nicknames, league structure, etc.
Expansion Mode Defines whether or not an expansion draft will be held at the same time one happened in real life.
Protected Players per Team Defines how many players are protected in the expansion draft.
Base Roles / Positions on Defines whether historical progression will be based on the real-life statistics of a player or the AI's assessment of his skills. For example, real-life statistics would cause Dennis Eckersley to become a relief pitcher at the same time he did in real life, while AI evaluation could cause him to remain a starter.
Automatically adjust League Strategy Automatically changes leaguewide strategies according to the historical era. This includes things such as the frequency of stolen bases, etc. See the Overall Team Strategy Screen for more information on the different strategies this can affect.
Import adjusted financial settings after each year Realigns your league finances with actual historical numbers after each season using a set of historical financial data stored in OOTP Baseball/data/database/financials.txt.
Retire players according to history Forces players to retire from OOTP after the same season in which they retired in real life. Otherwise, OOTP will decide retirement by itself, and historical players may end up having significantly longer or shorter careers than they did in real life.
Players miss seasons according to history Forces players to miss seasons in OOTP when they did in real life, for example due to military service.

Historical Rookies Options

The Historical Rookies Options affects the treatment of rookies in historical leagues.

OptionDescription
Automatically Import Historical Rookies If this box is checked, each year the actual rookies from the historical database will be imported into your league automatically. If you want historical rookies to be assigned to the same teams they played for in real life, you must disable the first-year player draft in the Amateur Draft Rules section of the Rules screen. Rookies will be imported on the first day of the preseason. If this box is unchecked, all historical rookies will be dumped into the first-year player draft pool.
Use random rookies from all eras If this box is enabled, OOTP will generate rookies who are random players from all years in the historical database. Once a player is randomly selected, the game selects a random career year, uses this as the base for the current ratings (also depending on what mode, it uses recalc settings too for example) and sets the player's age accordingly. Ratings are calculated based on comparison to league totals of the base year (i.e. Ruth is picked, and then the game randomly chooses the year 1927 as the import year for him) and then adjusted to a neutral era. That means that players are relatively comparable. A player who hit 20% more home runs (park-adjusted) than league average in 1969 will get the same power rating as a player who hit 20% more HR than league average in 2001, despite the absolute HR numbers being different. Of course, there are some adjustments made, otherwise we would have too many extreme cases from the early years, and extreme dominating players like Ruth had to be toned down a bit too.
Database Path During game creation, this area displays the text 'Please set after game has been created!' When you access this screen through Game Setup later, the database path will be set to the directory that stores your historical database. If you have moved your historical database, or if you didn't use a historical database during game creation, you can enter a new path here. Warning! If the historical database is moved or deleted without correcting this value, your game will be unable to continue!

Note: If you are importing historical players, you might want to schedule your first-year player draft between October and November. Otherwise, your rookies might make their major league debuts a year earlier than you expected!

Statistical Accuracy

The Statistical Accuracy section defines whether or not OOTP should automatically adjust league totals modifiers for historical accuracy. If checked, OOTP automatically adjusts league totals after each season, based on the actual league totals in the upcoming year. This will result in your historical league producing league totals very similar to actual historical totals from that year.

Player Ratings

The historical Player Ratings control how the OOTP engine rates historical players.

OptionDescription
Recalc player ratings based on real stats after each year Forces OOTP to recalculate player ratings (both actual and potential) after each season based on how the players performed in real life. For example, if in the next season in real life a player performed at a much higher level, his OOTP ratings will increase automatically. If this is enabled it overrides the potential ratings calculation method chosen in the Advanced Options of the Historical Game Creation Wizard. If this is not enabled, players will improve normally according to their OOTP potential ratings.
Ratings recalculation base Defines whether to base ratings recalculation on a 1-year, 3-year, or 5-year span.
Double weight of current year stats Doubles the weight of the player's current year stats evaluating historical players. If you are playing in 3-yr recalc mode in 1988, for example, then player ratings will be based on 1987+1988+1989 stats. If you are playing in 3-yr recalc mode with "double-weight" in 1988, then player ratings will be based on 1987+1988+1988+1989 stats. The focus year is added twice into the evaluation. Some people feel that this option results in more realistic AI decisions in certain areas, like pitcher roles.
Base Ratings on This option allows you to choose between the pure Lahman statistical database and Garlon and Spritze's neutralized database. There are two options in this drop-down, used to determine the current ratings assigned to imported players.
  • Real Stats: The "standard Lahman" option. Current player ratings will be assigned based on a player's historical statistics. So, in this case, a player who played in a hitter-friendly park throughout his career could end up with inflated ratings.
  • Neutralized Stats: The "Garlon and Spritze" option. Current player ratings will be assigned based on a player's neutralized statistics, giving perhaps the most accurate assessment of individual player ratings on an even playing field.
Base Potential Ratings on There are four options in this drop-down, used to determine the potential ratings assigned to imported players.
  • Career Totals: Player potential ratings will be assigned based on a player's entire career.
  • Remaining Years of Career: Perhaps the most accurate way to replay history. With this option, a player will be rated only on what he has not yet done in his career. For example, if you start a league in 1930, this option will base all players' ratings only on what they accomplished in 1930 and later.
  • Peak Seasons of Career: Player ratings will be assigned based on the best years of a player's career.
  • Remaining Peak Seasons: Player ratings will be assigned based on the best years a player has yet to play.
Base Rookie Fielding Ratings on Defines whether to base rookie fielding ratings on the current season, a 3-year span, or their entire career.
Base Pitching Stamina on Defines whether to base pitching stamina on the current season, a 3-year span, or their entire career.

Previous page: Financials
Next page: Options