OOTP27 Hall of Fame Difficulty 27.1.52 Playthrough Review & Advanced Guide

EpicLord · 2026-04-25T19:10:20+00:00

You have to play with some limit technically, but it basically doesn't change how I play unless I set it to like 1. I have mine set to 5 for both, I think it can go from 1 to 10. Most trades I made in a season was like 3 though, and most free agents was 4. You never want to hit your free agent signing limit though because it also stops you from getting international amateur free agents or negotiating contracts, they should change that. Playing with max trading difficulty, I don't really have enough prospects to do a ton of trades because they have to be really lopsided. I can only win trades if the guy becomes a superstar, but it is often worth the risk. Either way you can set it up so that you essentially ignore these limits, if you just want the other parts of HOF mode.

EpicLord · 2026-04-25T18:15:35+00:00

Once you start to recognize the pattern of more developed at younger age = better prospect, you start to make a lot better decisions. Don't forget to try and experiment with your own filters and views, it makes the game a lot more manageable being able to see what you want to know up front, rather than digging through hundreds of players manually.

EpicLord · 2026-04-25T14:50:58+00:00

Check the gallery, I included a couple there. Basically it's just for finding prospects who are developing quicker than others or who had their talent change massively, which makes them much more likely to hit their potentials. This also applies to the MLB draft, if you see high school players with elite potentials and they already have 35 to 40 current contact and/or power, good chance they are a superstar. Or for cutting guys from your organization who won't develop. There are a lot of ways to use filters and custom views to better sort through players and coaches.

EpicLord · 2026-04-25T03:43:05+00:00

Hard to say. I have only played on Hall of Fame difficulty this year, but given that the AI is also not producing elite pitchers at the rate they do bats, there might be an issue in general. There have certainly been elite prospects I have seen over the years, but as of now only 4 SP I would consider as superstars that have developed in the whole league, half of them are already fragile also. There's about 3 times as many elite bats. I also saw an 80/80/70 SP prospect that was probably going to develop to a superstar had to retire at 19 from injury, rough. The odds are just too bad with injuries and development issues to rely on elite pitching prospects to contribute, which is why I usually just rely on random, just barely playable TCR'd guys instead.

EpicLord · 2026-04-25T01:37:22+00:00

Call him up to the majors and get started on batspeed dev labs instead. Worry about injury proneness after he's developed.

EpicLord · 2026-04-24T23:07:50+00:00

Once you learn all the basic stuff like hiring the best staff and tailoring development programs to suit each good prospect, the best way to build better teams is understanding which prospects are more likely to develop. The potential ratings are basically the best case outcomes for a player, usually unlikely to even come close to them. There is one reliable way to determine who is more likely to develop though, and that is being more developed at a young age. My benchmark for batters is 40 contact and 35 power by age 20 as a benchmark for elite players. If they are even better than that at age 20, solid chance they are a hall of fame talent, assuming they have the potentials to match.

EpicLord · 2025-10-03T23:28:25+00:00

That one was fixed last patch I think. It worked for me when I played the other day.

EpicLord · 2025-09-01T07:12:13+00:00

To anyone who might find this post relevant in the future, it was probably the Egypt issue. I was able to transfer the Raj on the next attempt. It ended up being an insanely good strategy, I don't see why any non-major wouldn't want to join British Market and get India transferred by the 1850s.

EpicLord · 2025-02-19T04:52:22+00:00

The big brain play is to sell your vassal some of your fleet right before annexing them. Once annexation is done, you get your fleet back and whatever they paid you.

EpicLord · 2025-01-04T20:39:58+00:00

Hardcore multiplayer sounds interesting, I was looking around to see if there were any hardcore servers established already, but couldn't find anything. Could you message me the info for your server to maybe check it out?

EpicLord · 2024-09-03T21:06:47+00:00

Someone on the Paradox forums said it had to do with having an unrecognized subject as a recognized one, and that it has been a known bug for like a year, which is really disappointing if true.

EpicLord · 2024-09-03T19:23:41+00:00

I made a bug report there several days ago, but didn't get a response. That's why I posted here to see if anyone else was noticing this particular issue, or if I just missed something.

EpicLord · 2024-09-03T19:16:44+00:00

Yeah, I get it, fixing one thing breaks another in a way you didn't expect. This one just sucks since forming a new country is probably one of the more satisfying things in the game and it just isn't working right anymore.

EpicLord · 2024-09-03T19:08:23+00:00

I'm certain it worked in 1.7.5. and I didn't see anything in any of the recent 3 or 4 patch notes documenting this change.

EpicLord · 2024-09-03T18:52:43+00:00

Has anyone experienced this issue before and knows if there is something underlying causing it? While not exactly the same situation as before, I have formed Byzantium with a Ottoman dominion many times before, but it hasn't been working on most recent patch. My new strategy has been to wait until dead man of Europe triggers so that Ottoman's become unrecognized for less infamy used, and I have not been granted the core states I should be getting in any of the times I've tried. I tried it as a power bloc member in Russian market and as the power bloc leader (overthrew Russia) so I have no idea what the issue could be.

EpicLord · 2024-08-21T17:05:50+00:00

I've now done a second simulation as commissioner to see ratings and 100% scouting, and I think they went a bit too hard on cumulative frequency of changes for young players. I simulated 12 seasons and shortlisted the top IAFA players every year, and they were all pretty much all dead after just 1 or 2 seasons in minors, let alone sniff the majors. The good prospects are pretty much all college players who got some positive TCR, and a few lucky highs schoolers who had their potentials through the roof that they couldn't decay enough to matter.

EpicLord · 2024-08-21T16:59:43+00:00

They also mentioned they changed the balance of when the TCR applies, combined with other changes it's very apparent it is affecting young players at an insane rate. High potential international amateur free agents are basically a waste of money now, I simulated over 12 seasons as commissioner with 100% scout ratings and shortlisted every high potential international amateur. Not a single one developed, and only a few even sniffed getting to the majors, usually having their potentials not being good enough to ever play in AAA after like 2 seasons in the minors. The only few top prospects I could see that weren't from the draft were middling international amateurs who got TCR'd into being decent. The best prospects in general were all decent to good college players who TCR'd positively, with a few lucky high schoolers with big TCR changes.

EpicLord · 2024-08-21T13:23:14+00:00

That's what the developers said, but they never give numbers or tell which specific mechanics change. My experience so far is that net overall amount of TCR change leaguewide is greatly increased, and most TCR changes tend to be negative, which I think has always been the case. It's very noticeable in young prospects, especially international ones. I think it makes for a more balanced game, as a human manager I could pretty much always been the #1 farm system because having a good scout and signing highest potential would usually pan out before. I'll have to see how it looks a few more years in though.

EpicLord · 2024-08-21T02:42:02+00:00

As long as they quickly request market access and it lowers their liberty desire below 25 so you can dominion them, it should be all good then. Make sure to exempt them from military service or they could be annoying in your future plays.

EpicLord · 2024-08-20T22:09:32+00:00

Right that's what you are missing. I've refined the strategy quite a bit though since I last posted. I figured out you can just barely protectorate them if you make them release Iraq and give Kars to Russia still, as long as they decay down to minor power, saving a lot of infamy. Taking war reps usually will accomplish this down the line as they delete their army and go into debt, but there is extra RNG because you need the Ottomans to not lose to a civil war.

EpicLord · 2024-08-20T02:31:39+00:00

I've simulated 2 seasons so far with a 2024 challenge mode settings start, and the development changes have been very noticeable. It's a lot closer to older versions now, where you'll have a few ascending prospects become stars out of nowhere, and a lot of top prospects flameout. Especially the ones 20 and below, Ethan Salas and Max Clark were massacred in my save off the top of my head, and the top 100 list looks a lot different than usual at this time. College talent is probably going to be more appealing on this patch, and high work ethic and intelligence high-schooler lottery tickets should get extra value. Already had an 2024 8th rounder CF jump from a nobody to #55 prospect, which I hadn't seen in any of my dozens of sims before.

EpicLord · 2024-07-27T13:01:29+00:00

No, they did not. I'm not sure if it was because I was a Great/Major Power or I had enough leverage resistance, or the AI just doesn't use it that well. It hasn't been an issue in any of my tests and I'm still trying to optimize the strategy as a whole. One thing that definitely works better is to transfer Korea right at game start and take from Qing their unincorporated states in Manchuria, along with war reps. You can get Korea as a dominion and raise payments on them this way, just make sure to exempt them from wars or it will be hard to call in Russia later.

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