Have you spoken to Bill Staffa of Skeetersoft? He built the only (to my knowledge) normalized teams for the APBA engine. He used the book Baseball Dynasties by Neyer as a starting point. Worth a read...
Yeah, I know Bill pretty well, actually. And I've written a few articles here about the "SD Score" system in Dynasties, which I call the "Domination Index." It's been over a year since the last article, though.
Agree, I have an apba OFAS set from the 80s and I've used it to do draft leagues and those are the issues. I like Strat-O-Matic in cross era because of what you pointed out, the 50/50 system, my result may come off the pitcher card and he may the edge against Ruth or Ruth still gets something off the Pitcher card... it feels more real to me because of the randomness. I know there are those who don't like the 50/50 system but for me I like it. I still enjoy apba as well, that's what I grew up playing and I think it's still a good game.
Great read. I have thought about the topic a lot...especially using APBA and the BATs(baseballs all time stars) sets they have created...I love the sets but the cards are such monster cards because it's the player's best season or close to it...in Basic it is impossible to stop extra base hits, even for all time greats like Christy Mathewson or Walter Johnson...the game co. released a HOF Set that was normalized or at least it was said to be and if seemed to interact better with the cards in the set...part of the issue could be within the structure of the basic game...Strat-O-Matic has similar sets with their Hero sets and HOF sets...but I tend to have more balanced stats because the cards are more random...any thoughts? BTW I've really been enjoying your videos.
I think what you're seeing here is the limitations of the APBA pitching system. APBA pitchers can only stop singles. Even in the Master Game, the best a pitcher can do is turn a home run into a double on certain occasions.
Strat seems to be a bit more balanced because of the 50/50 system. Actually, I think that its Diamond Gems teams are actually normalized to some degree, though I don't know any of the details.
You'll see APBA's problems most clearly if you play with the old OFAS sets. The excellent pitching will keep batting averages way down, but slugging percentages will be high. That creates a bizarre situation where great pitchers will still have ERAs that "feel" too high, and where you'll have high scoring games with almost no hitting.
Great article/writing...one of your best to date. thank you
Thank you!
Have you spoken to Bill Staffa of Skeetersoft? He built the only (to my knowledge) normalized teams for the APBA engine. He used the book Baseball Dynasties by Neyer as a starting point. Worth a read...
Yeah, I know Bill pretty well, actually. And I've written a few articles here about the "SD Score" system in Dynasties, which I call the "Domination Index." It's been over a year since the last article, though.
Agree, I have an apba OFAS set from the 80s and I've used it to do draft leagues and those are the issues. I like Strat-O-Matic in cross era because of what you pointed out, the 50/50 system, my result may come off the pitcher card and he may the edge against Ruth or Ruth still gets something off the Pitcher card... it feels more real to me because of the randomness. I know there are those who don't like the 50/50 system but for me I like it. I still enjoy apba as well, that's what I grew up playing and I think it's still a good game.
Great read. I have thought about the topic a lot...especially using APBA and the BATs(baseballs all time stars) sets they have created...I love the sets but the cards are such monster cards because it's the player's best season or close to it...in Basic it is impossible to stop extra base hits, even for all time greats like Christy Mathewson or Walter Johnson...the game co. released a HOF Set that was normalized or at least it was said to be and if seemed to interact better with the cards in the set...part of the issue could be within the structure of the basic game...Strat-O-Matic has similar sets with their Hero sets and HOF sets...but I tend to have more balanced stats because the cards are more random...any thoughts? BTW I've really been enjoying your videos.
Thanks!
I think what you're seeing here is the limitations of the APBA pitching system. APBA pitchers can only stop singles. Even in the Master Game, the best a pitcher can do is turn a home run into a double on certain occasions.
Strat seems to be a bit more balanced because of the 50/50 system. Actually, I think that its Diamond Gems teams are actually normalized to some degree, though I don't know any of the details.
You'll see APBA's problems most clearly if you play with the old OFAS sets. The excellent pitching will keep batting averages way down, but slugging percentages will be high. That creates a bizarre situation where great pitchers will still have ERAs that "feel" too high, and where you'll have high scoring games with almost no hitting.