Power Pros Forum

I've tried two different strategies for this, and they both seemed to work out well. For this strategy, I'm referring to the most expensive point special abilities, such as golden glove, battler, etc - Stuff that takes 200ish for an upgrade. I've tried both; getting the expensive abilities early, golden glove in the first spring, 30% gamble that worked. I've also gone with the strategy of building up my core stats until the 3rd year and seeing what i have left over, then just gambling on everything big. (also this assumes that you reload if you fail a gamble, but does NOT assume that you have the gambling ring since that takes faaar too long for me to get, I just buy several tickets)

For my best pitcher, I focused on his speed, pitches etc then basically took the big cost abilities as gambles at the end of my 3rd season,
but for my SS power hitter, I got some awesome stuff early on like golden glove, power hitter, etc. in my first year and it actually seemed to pay off in my early games. Thoughts / Experiences

I think it's really depends on preferences.
Whether you want to focus on having a char's with high stas, or alot of abilities.

Also depends on what position you are playing. I.E. a closer doesn't really need a high stamina.

I prefer to gamble early on high cost abilities - but not the ones I know are fairly easy to get otherwise (Gold Glove can be gotten through equipment). Abilities like Battler, Cannon Arm, etc. that aren't as easy to get elsewhere.

The reason's I gamble early is that I won't waste as many points (why get an ability using 100 points, when you only need 10?). But also, early on I use tickets, as opposed to the Ring later. The most frustrating feeling is when finally get it on a low percentage after much reloading, but the Ring breaks.

I usually will gamble on those abilities later in the game. I will do a practice that gets me the points and look for opportunities to increase other stats while getting the ability.

I do a bit of both. I try to pickup stuff earlier that seems to affect game performance more, like Fastball Life/Spin and Power Hitter/Contact Hitter. But you can also get a lot of abilities through random events and equipment, so in general I don't buy/gamble for many abilities until later in the game.

I would say I do a bit of both like Wyl and JGao; I'll use gamble tickets on game affecting abilities early on, and then try to acquire as many as I can from RE and equipment as I continue on.

During late game though, I do try and maximize my points like The-F said, maybe I can get a stat and an easy gamble at the same time later in year 2? It all varies.

I don't gamble a lot anymore because it's boring to save and reload for 45 minutes(happened last 2 chracters and didn't even get it with either so I gave up) to get the gambling ring the first christmas. I like gambling late for them because I get all of the easy stuff out of the way first then I get some gambling tickets and gamble on abilities or stat upgrades that need a lot in one category.

The reason I gamble early, in contrast with Wyl, is that I don't have his patience for reloading for random events to get abilities - I primarily get them from dates or equipment. That's also the biggest factor in my lack of success in a Dr. Goodjob operation or Custom pitch - although I do plan on the Goodjob thing for Mike Schmidt.

I don't s/l at all.
I just hope I get a lucky break, thats all.
I am getting a bit better at making chars, but they're mostly backup players but can be position players.
Abilities...? I just gamble on them 3rd year week before CR game

good to hear that both strategies are viable. I had no idea that golden glove could be gotten through an item! Also nasa0003, you are a brave man to not save load. I don't go to the point where I S/L to get a certain random event, but I do S/L on 2 occasions.
#1- If I'm injured, I hate getting injured.
#2- When I gamble on something and lose. It's soooo annoying to
gamble on something with 89% chance and not get it. This seems to happen rather frequently.

I wouldn't suggest gambling on gold glover since you can earn it by buying a glove.

I usually gamble at the very end because I like to use my points to boost my stats for the games. If I am captain, my player will be good enough to get hits or strike guys out so I can get the abilities from the equipment as well.

I don't save-load because I don't think thats what the Konami Game Developers imagined people playing...thats why theres not "save" function in the game, instead there is a "save and quit".

I agree with you 100%. I don't find a use for maxed out players. They're too expensive to use in season mode and there is no reason to make them practice. I like to leave my guys with a little room for improvement. If I gamble and don't get the ability, that's they way it goes and I move on (with some choice curse words of course).

Definitely early. Later on in the Success Mode, you'll be gaining more and more amounts of points at once, like after games. You only get one shot at gambling on a turn, but if you save the cheap abilities for later, there's a chance you can buy the ability first and gamble on something else with the left over points. Two or more upgrades in one turn is always good.

The exception with pitchers is that you need to gamble on upgrades that cost high mentality points early, regardless of total cost. Otherwise if you gamble on them after mentality points have accumulated, you're forced to pay the bulk of the upgrade cost and will run out of mentality points at the end while upgrading control.

Well, personally I could NOT care less what Konami intended I like the fact that the game is flexible enough so that people can approach it however they like. With my Hall of Fame themed players, I don't "max out" their abilities but I do save/reload a lot in order to get high stats. We're talking about real players who were the best to ever play. But with fictitious players (usually family and friends), I do far less of the save/reload stuff and consequently the results are much more "average."

I do have to point out though that you *can* turn off player improvement in Season Mode. I have it set that way for my arrange mode Hall of Fame team in its Season Mode. Alternatively I'd have just put them all in "Rest" practice because I don't want their abilities to change.

But I also play more regular/straight up Season Mode teams as well. I've completed the 10 year run with 5 different "franchises," from using a built in team with not a single Success Mode player until about year 6 (St. Louis) to the all Success Mode Hall of Fame team, to everything in between. It's all fun, and the variety of ways of doing things in both modes keeps the game interesting to me.