Hello,

Thinking of joining...is anyone also in Hoops Dynasty and can elaborate on the effort that goes into fielding a successful baseball dynasty versus a basketball one?

Thanks

Hardball Dynasty has a much steeper learning curve, much, much more time in the beginning as you learn to read ratings and understand prospect development. But after you learn the game it's easier to maintain. It requires about the same amount of daily maintenance per team as HD, and the Free Agency period, the equivalent of recruiting, takes 4 days every 90 days, and is less intense than HD recruiting.

I used to do it along time ago. I quit after there update in recruiting. I thought it was pretty neat but it takes a while to win it all like 3-4 seasons unless you get a high prestige team from the start. A group of us from hd started a world in this from scratch and I dropped as this was better.

Posted by Eric_Essian on 6/14/2019 1:04:00 PM (view original):
Hello,

Thinking of joining...is anyone also in Hoops Dynasty and can elaborate on the effort that goes into fielding a successful baseball dynasty versus a basketball one?

Thanks

Hey, I play both HD and HBD. I find that HD is more consistent with how much you have to spend time on the game. HBD is more inconsistent and you can also choose to spend more or less time on the game. In HD, most activities are mandatory to be successful, but there are less extra activities that you can do with little benifit (does this make sense?). In HBD, you can always be on the trade market, fixing minors, adjusting lineups and settings, etc. so you can control the time you put into it. You can sitemail me with any HD vs. HBD questions.

I've played a lot of both. HD is easier with most of the time dedicated to recruiting. HBD requires time after each season rolls, on a daily basis to avoid fatigue issues (constantly for pitching, to a lesser degree with position players). You start with setting the budget, resigning your own FA's & rehiring coaches, then move on to signing FA's on the open market & hiring coaches to fill vacancies. You protect players from the Rule 5 draft (sometimes it causes tough decisions), set Spring Training rosters, setting lineups, pitching rotations and bullpens, signing IFA's, setting your draft board for the amateur draft. At first it's a lot to do but it gets better and you figure it out so it doesn't take as much time. Personally I like HBD more because of the fact there is more to do. If you decide to jump in, I've put together a short guide that will help a bit so hit me up and I'll share it with you.

I have not played Hoops. However, I mostly agree with the above - you can run your HBD with the minimal time by just putting 18-20 million scouting in either high school or college and putting 18-20 million in INTL scouting. Make sure you get one great INTL signing each year and make sure you make the most of your draft every year.

In your first few seasons, you won't win much, but most private worlds have a minimum win rule so you will need to make sure you hit that. You can trade prospects that you don't feel will make your MLB team or you can sign cheap free agents to help you meet the minimum win rule.

The above strategy is the formula that many owners use because it requires the least amount of effort and is the quickest path to success. However, if you want to, you can spend 10+ hours a week on HBD by either running multiple teams or running one team with a micro-managing philosophy. This latter way may help you avoid having those 100+ loss seasons on your record. If you watch things like your opponents weaknesses in each game (poor catcher, steal more; poor arms in the outfield, more aggressive on the base paths; poor splits against left handed hitters, load your lineup with lefties, etc.). This could help add wins. Back when I was running one team, I had one of my best records with a middle of the road squad. This was because I checked these things every single cycle. Now that I am running four teams, I just don't have the time to check the daily warts of each opponent in four different worlds three times a day.

Posted by tlowster on 6/17/2019 7:01:00 PM (view original):
I have not played Hoops. However, I mostly agree with the above - you can run your HBD with the minimal time by just putting 18-20 million scouting in either high school or college and putting 18-20 million in INTL scouting. Make sure you get one great INTL signing each year and make sure you make the most of your draft every year.

In your first few seasons, you won't win much, but most private worlds have a minimum win rule so you will need to make sure you hit that. You can trade prospects that you don't feel will make your MLB team or you can sign cheap free agents to help you meet the minimum win rule.

The above strategy is the formula that many owners use because it requires the least amount of effort and is the quickest path to success. However, if you want to, you can spend 10+ hours a week on HBD by either running multiple teams or running one team with a micro-managing philosophy. This latter way may help you avoid having those 100+ loss seasons on your record. If you watch things like your opponents weaknesses in each game (poor catcher, steal more; poor arms in the outfield, more aggressive on the base paths; poor splits against left handed hitters, load your lineup with lefties, etc.). This could help add wins. Back when I was running one team, I had one of my best records with a middle of the road squad. This was because I checked these things every single cycle. Now that I am running four teams, I just don't have the time to check the daily warts of each opponent in four different worlds three times a day.

Which poses a question I asked last season in 1 world - 1 team or multiple teams? I noticed as I added more teams the less interest and "connection" I had with each team added.

Posted by 2xRedRaider on 6/17/2019 9:50:00 PM (view original):

Posted by tlowster on 6/17/2019 7:01:00 PM (view original):
I have not played Hoops. However, I mostly agree with the above - you can run your HBD with the minimal time by just putting 18-20 million scouting in either high school or college and putting 18-20 million in INTL scouting. Make sure you get one great INTL signing each year and make sure you make the most of your draft every year.

In your first few seasons, you won't win much, but most private worlds have a minimum win rule so you will need to make sure you hit that. You can trade prospects that you don't feel will make your MLB team or you can sign cheap free agents to help you meet the minimum win rule.

The above strategy is the formula that many owners use because it requires the least amount of effort and is the quickest path to success. However, if you want to, you can spend 10+ hours a week on HBD by either running multiple teams or running one team with a micro-managing philosophy. This latter way may help you avoid having those 100+ loss seasons on your record. If you watch things like your opponents weaknesses in each game (poor catcher, steal more; poor arms in the outfield, more aggressive on the base paths; poor splits against left handed hitters, load your lineup with lefties, etc.). This could help add wins. Back when I was running one team, I had one of my best records with a middle of the road squad. This was because I checked these things every single cycle. Now that I am running four teams, I just don't have the time to check the daily warts of each opponent in four different worlds three times a day.

Which poses a question I asked last season in 1 world - 1 team or multiple teams? I noticed as I added more teams the less interest and "connection" I had with each team added.

I agree - the more teams, the less connection you have to each team.

Yet, once I learned the game, I felt bored with one team. Also, with more exposure to other worlds, you can find more strategies and make more HBD connections with other owners.

There's a sweet spot between being bored with 1 team and having too many. My sweet spot fluctuates. Right now, because I am extremely busy at work this summer, I have too many teams. So yeah, I am not really able to give them as much attention as I should. I do have my favorites, though. So they get a bit more attention. (Disclosure: Between HBD, GD, and SLB, I have 13 active teams.)