New GM Startup Instructions

What All Prospective GMs Need to Know

  1. You will be expected to check Slack often (every day if possible). Especially the #commish_announcements channel—changes to the sim schedule and other important announcements concerning things like the draft, award voting, rule changes, etc. are always posted in that channel. GMs are also encouraged to read and participate in the discussions in the other channels, but it isn’t mandatory.

    Also, please note that the #commish_announcements channel in Slack is for Commissioner announcements only. Annoyingly often, people forget and post in that channel. Try not to be one of these people. I delete those posts. I do that so that the important announcements are always easy to find and hard to miss. If you want to respond to a commissioner announcement, please do so in the #general channel.
  2. You will be expected to make a team export after each sim. I know sometimes people get busy and are unable to export. This should be the exception rather than the rule. If you miss three exports in a row, I will run “Ask A.I. to set up complete team, lineups, etc.” on your team. I do this because as bad a GM as the A.I. is, it’s still better than a GM who’s not doing anything.

    If you are unable to export for an extended time, just let me know. If you’re making an effort to communicate, I’m not likely to kick you out. If you’re not making that effort and not exporting, however, expect to be removed without warning. For more details see here.
  3. We have lots of injuries and lots of doubleheaders in this league …which is part of the reason why it’s important to keep up on exports. You will occasionally need to adjust your starting rotation (i.e., add a sixth starter) if you want to avoid having pitchers start on short rest.
  4. You will be expected to set your managerial strategies so that they do not result in statistics that are wildly anachronistic. The gory details are here, but in a nutshell, regardless of your personal opinions about what the optimum baseball strategies are, we are attempting to simulate an era in this league. If your strategy settings are producing statistics that are extremely out of place for the time period, you will be instructed to change them. I will give GMs as much free rein as possible on strategy—as long as the stats don’t make it look like time travel has been invented.
  5. The draft flies in this league! Fastest draft of any online OOTP league (until I hear different)! One reason it goes so fast is that the draft pool is released several weeks before the draft starts, so you have plenty of time to prepare for it. And you will be prepared! For more details see here.
  6. The league has evolved and may continue to do so. Part of our commitment to a realistic baseball environment is the determination not to remain permanently static. Real baseball has had periods of stability and periods of change. This league began with an expansion—we simmed 70 years without human GMs, then added teams and put a human GM in charge of every team prior to our 1946 season. We added four teams in 1955-1956 and another four in 1966. No further expansion is planned, but if we’re still rolling in the 1980’s we may look into it.

New GM Startup Instructions

  1. Download the initial league file here: http://www.american-circuit.net/files/American_Circuits.lg.zip. Unzip this file and place the American_Circuits.lg folder in your saved_games folder.
  2. Open OOTP, select LOAD GAME and choose American_Circuits.lg.
  3. A list of managers will pop up. Select New GM from the list.
  4. From the File menu, select File --> Online League --> Download Latest League File.
  5. When the file is finished downloading, select New GM --> Other Human Managers --> Select Active Manager.
  6. A list of managers will pop up. Select your name from the list. You will now be able to manage your team.
  7. Next, in a browser, go to https://statsplus.net/acbl/. Hit “Login” (upper right corner). Then press the button that says “Sign in with Slack”. On the next screen make sure “American-Circuit” is selected in the upper right corner, and then hit “Allow”.

That’s it! If something doesn’t seem to be working contact the Commissioner.

The graphics (logos, caps, jerseys) and news files are not included in the startup file. If you want those they are available on the Downloads page.

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