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The Strategy and More 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 >> Strategy and More tab.
The Strategy and More screen includes some options that allow you finely tune OOTP's strategy and statistical engines. In general, the settings on this screen are pre-configured for enjoyable game play. We don't recommend changing these settings unless you have a specific reason to do so. Additionally, since these settings can drastically impact the statistical outcomes in your league, we recommend creating test leagues where appropriate to try out certain settings before you create your final league. This screen is divided into the following sections:
- Import Settings
- General Strategic Tendencies
- Historical Modifiers & Totals Options
- Traditional OOTP Player Creation Modifiers
- Sabermetric Player Creation Modifiers
- League Totals and Modifiers
- Position Modifiers
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.
Import Settings
Import Settings allow you to specify a real-world year on which to base your league. This does not mean that you will have players from the selected year. Rather, OOTP will use this value to automatically adjust a number of different settings to make the baseball experience more similar to that particular year in the real world, including:
- Financial settings (ticket prices, typical salaries, etc.)
- League strategy settings (how often players bunt, how often closers are used, etc.)
- Player creation modifiers (how likely are players to hit lots of home runs, etc.)
General Strategic Tendencies
General Strategic Tendencies enable you to customize the 'style of baseball' that your league plays. Most options have five settings to choose from: Very Rarely, Rarely, Normal, Often, or Very Often. Exceptions are noted below.
| Option | Description |
| Use of Relievers | How frequently the computer will use relief pitchers. |
| Use of Closers | How frequently the computer will use closers. |
| Pitcher Stamina | A measure of how quickly pitchers tire in your league. Can be set to Very Low, Low, Normal, High, or Very High. |
| Typical Starting Rotation Size | The typical number of pitchers in a starting rotation in this league. Can be set to 3, 4, 5, or 6. |
| Starting Rotation Mode | Defines the typical starting rotation mode in your league. Can be set to "default," "start highest rested," "strict rotation," or "strict rotation, occasionally start highest rested." In the default setting, OOTP will make its own decisions based on the league you set up. Change this if you explicitly want to override what OOTP is doing. |
| Pinch Hit for Pitchers | How frequently the computer will pinch hit for pitchers. |
| Pinch Hit for Position Players | How frequently the computer will pinch hit for position players. |
| Defensive Substitutions | How frequently the computer will substitute players late in games to insert players who are better defensively. |
| Stealing Bases | How frequently the computer will attempt to steal bases. |
| Hit & Run | How frequently the computer will attempt a hit & run play. |
| Bunting | How frequently the computer will bunt. |
General strategic tendencies affect the entire league. Similar settings are available at the player or coach level to change the tendencies for individuals one at a time.
Historical Modifiers & Totals Options
Historical Modifiers & Totals Options give you further flexibility if you are importing historical leagues. If you are not using historical leagues or fictional leagues based on historical data, you should leave both of these boxes unchecked.
| Option | Description |
| Automatically adjust league totals modifiers after each season for historical accuracy | When you select this check box, the game will automatically make an adjustment to your league totals after each season, so that the results of the next season will be statistically close to the real-world historical ratio of that season. So, if your league overall hit .250 in 1980, and the real world league batting average for 1981 was .275, the game will automatically adjust your Hits league totals modifier to 1.100, because you need to get hits 10% more often than this past season to approximately match the real world values. |
| Automatically import historical player creation modifiers | When you select this check box, players created in the game will be automatically adjusted to have ratings similar to players of a given historical era. For example, if you start a fictional league in 1901 (the 'Deadball Era') with this setting checked, you will see many pitchers with high movement and low stuff and many hitters with very low home run power, to reflect the types of players who played at that time. These modifiers update every season to generate new rookie classes. So, as you move from the Deadball Era into the 1920s, you will start to see hitters developing higher home run power and contact ratings, since there was an offensive explosion in the 1920s. Essentially, this allows you to create a fictional baseball universe that mimics the history of baseball and will, in theory, evolve in a similar way. |
Note: We strongly recommend you use these two options in conjunction.
Traditional OOTP Player Creation Modifiers
OOTP has two types of player creation modifiers, or 'PCMs': traditional OOTP PCMs, and Sabermetric PCMs. Player creation modifiers allow you to customize the skills of all players created in a particular league. For example, you could use player creation modifiers to make all players created in your league extremely powerful. Most players of OOTP should never need to adjust these numbers. By default, OOTP generates realistic players in every era. However, if you wish to change the nature of the players in your leagues, read on for more information.
PCMs are set as percentages, with 1.000 being the default value. To change PCMs, increase or decrease a modifier. For example, setting Batting Contact to 1.500 will generate players who are significantly better than the default at making contact with the ball. Each modifier impacts one player rating.
Traditional OOTP PCMs affect the strength of major leagues relative to each other, in terms of the current and potential ratings of their players. For instance, if you have two major leagues in your universe, and one has the default Traditional OOTP PCM value of 1.000 for Home Run Power, while the other has a Traditional OOTP PCM value of 0.500 for Home Run Power, then Home Run Power potential and ratings in the second league will be roughly half that of the first. Traditional OOTP PCMs affect both the quality of players generated when the league is first created and the quality of new players created for that league's draft or college and high school feeder leagues.
Traditional OOTP PCMs cascade down through a league system, so that a parent league and all affiliated leagues rolling up to it share the same player creation modifiers.
Sabermetric Player Creation Modifiers
Sabermetric PCMs can be used for either major leagues or minor leagues, but they are recommended for minor league use only because of their more unpredictable results compared to Traditional OOTP PCMs. When used for minor leagues, Sabermetric PCMs affect only the quality of players generated when the league is first created. They do not affect the quality of new players created in subsequent years - that aspect is controlled solely by the PCM's used by the relevant major league. During initial league creation, the effects of minor league PCM's are cumulative with major league PCM's, so that players created for a AAA league affiliated to a major league with PCM's of 0.5 across the board will be about half as good as players created for a AAA league affiliated to a major league with PCM's of 1.0 across the board, assuming that both AAA leagues have the same minor league PCM's.
League Totals and Modifiers
League Totals and Modifiers are the final piece in modifying your league output. While player creation modifiers affect player ratings and potential, league totals and modifiers are used to directly affect the statistical output of a league. This information is most commonly used by historical players who want overall statistical results to match a specific target.
OOTP generates a league total for each category, noted in the left column. The league total acts as the basis for the calculation engine. In historical leagues, these are the real league totals from the imported year. In fictional leagues it's the major league totals from the most recently completed season. The league totals do NOT directly equate to how many of these events you will see in your league! They are simply a basis for calculation, which ensures the ratios of these events remain accurate compared to real life. Adjusting league totals is a little counterintuitive. The results in your league are inversely related to the league totals. In other words, if you increase the triples total from 1,000 to 2,000, it would actually result in FEWER triples in your league! We do not recommend adjusting your league totals directly unless you're just messing around, or you are experienced in working with our league totals!
As a more intuitive alternative, the right column contains modifiers, with a default setting of 1.000. A value of 1.000 is equivalent to modern professional baseball level. These modifiers can be used to adjust the statistical output of your league. For example, if you want 10% more home runs, instead of adjusting the home run totals, just change the home runs modifier to 1.100.
One important point to understand about the league totals and modifiers is that, unlike player creation modifiers, league totals directly affect the statistical output of the game engine. They have no impact at all on player ratings, potential, or player development. Even if you reduce your home run league total modifier to 0.150, your slugger with a 100 Power rating would still have 100 Power, and he would still hit more home runs than other players. But the numbers of home runs across the league overall would be drastically reduced.
There is also a checkbox entitled Automatically control in-game engine to match league totals (only recommended for minors). This option automatically modifies the in-game engine in a way that the stats output closely matches the entered league totals. This works fairly well, but is not a perfect statistical rendition, particularly at the lowest minor league level. It's a decent option for players who are extremely concerned about league totals looking "realistic" in the minors.
Position Modifiers
Position Modifiers affect the defensive aspect of the game. By adjusting these modifiers, you can alter the impact of different positions on your league, defensively. Each position has a range and error component. Increasing the Range modifier will increase the range of players at that position, putting them in a position to make more plays. Increasing the Error component increases the number of errors at that position, causing a decrease in fielding percentage. As usual, all values are relative to modern day professional baseball.