Post by larrywalden on Mar 28, 2016 0:58:12 GMT -5
Heyyyyyooooooo!!!
This is your neighborhood hooting owl speaking and ... this forum doesn't get used much. But it helps me keep track of things that may be going on, where I don't necessarily want to post to FurAffinity. Not yet, at least.
First of all, I've been (semi)silent since the ProBowl in February, but it's beneficial for me - specifically, I need time to relax and think about other things than football. In my personal life, I need to move to a new apartment soon, and trying to find a "good" apartment in SoCal is like pulling teeth. February and March may just become radio-silent months for me in the future, so don't take it personally.
Below are some discussions I've been having with myself, but it should be open to the public as well.
Simulation
Always a highly-contested topic, the sim we used last year (2015) was a vast improvement on the 2014 one, but still lacked in a few areas, namely the Q4 play-calling and a lack of time-outs. I'm sure that, to you, it feels like I'm ignoring the obvious choice (MADDEN!) but 2007 was the final PC release; I also don't have a swift way to get stats from a game like that into a website or Wiki, which has been my reluctance. Also, since I'm using a simulation system that creates statistics independently, it's not easy to run a game result outside of the simulator and somehow "enter it into the system" later.
"Professional Football Simulator" by Barcode Games, which is what we used in 2015, was absorbed in December 2015 by Wolverine Studios, and now has an active development team. Yay! The new sim is called "Draft Day Sports: Pro Football 2016." While this is cool, they want me to purchase the sim again and, from what the developer has said on forum posts, other than the UI being updated, it's essentially the same sim. Even if I switched to this simulator, the experience (as of today) would not be changing. I'm hoping for a couple updates to improve on its play-calling before I'll be sold. I'll be testing this one out over the next month or so.
Another simulator I had been actively watching last year, BTS Football, has had a lead developer change (he's a Packers fan!) but they've also moved the release date to 2017. It was supposed to come out in time for last season, but given that we needed a simulator before season starting time, I couldn't wait for it. It won't be ready for this season, either, so what I'm saying is we will likely be staying with PFS (or DDS:PF16) for this year.
Free Agency
I... think I'm behind on this. It was around middle to late March last year that we began handling Free Agency stuff. That was at a time when the simulator was still up in the air, so the system in place for handling free agents was inefficient - it was the first time we had ever done free agency.
I've heard many suggestions from you guys on this. It's important to note that I don't want this part of league management to ever become burdensome or complicated. Managing a team should always be focused on the stuff going on during the season, first and foremost. Last year I pretended to be the agent for NPC characters, which resulted in some interesting conversations with GMs. There was even a salary competition between two GMs for an NPC, and RP Kova had no less than three GMs chasing him down! It was fun, but too much work for one guy (me). And so, back to the theoretical drawing board.
TL;DR - I'm playing around with the idea of a formula that determines a "suggested" pay rate for NPCs (non-player characters). This rate will be something comparable to the wages made in the NFL, but adjusted for the salary cap of the UFFL teams. Once a base rate is determined for a player, the rate is adjusted for their # of years played and Overall Player Rating. For RP characters that we've created, the suggested base pay rate is the starting point, but if you choose to go higher or lower, that's up to you. For people who really don't care or don't want to mess around with salary, they can take the suggested base rate, and then the GM can choose how many years they want that character to stay in contract. This eliminates the problems with characters perpetually making $1 million / year, despite out-performing other characters who make more, which devalues the whole purpose of monetizing the league.
Another suggested adjustment - Rookies drafted in Round 1 in 2016 will make $2 million; Round 2 = $1.5 million; Round 3 and later = $1 million. After Year 1 is up, we will have an idea of their performance rating, and then a suggested salary rate will be available. This simulates what traditionally happens to NFL players who stick around long-term anyway - they are signed to a contact and typically earn more if they are drafted higher. And then, depending if they are awesome (Russell Wilson) or epic fails (JaMarcus Russell), they are re-signed to a bigger contract or are dropped from the team.
Most teams have about 40-50% of their players up for contracts. Expect an email or Note via FA in the upcoming weeks to assist you with signing your agents to contracts. You will have the option to either take the suggested base pay, or to let the guy go to free agency. From there, we will work to sign new players to your team - or, you can choose to wait for the Draft before filling up empty spots.
The 12th team
I got emailed today about Abilene. The truth is, I created the form for this replacement team, but wasn't going to publish it until April 1st. It's probably better to get this figured out first before doing the free agency work, so I'm publishing the document tomorrow (the 28th) on FA to begin the 2016 prep season. If you happen to read this journal before I post to FA, here's the link to the Team Creation form.
We may have a couple other spots open up in management, so if you don't get the spot for the new GM, don't fret!
-------------------------
Did I miss anything? Hopefully not. There's another announcement I need to make, but I have to confirm it with the person it concerns... it's a good one . I haven't been "feeling" it lately, but I imagine in a couple months I'll be back to my old self and rarin' to go for a new season! I remember feeling this way a year ago, so yeah... seasonal allergies, maybe?
With love,
-MadWorld (Commish)
This is your neighborhood hooting owl speaking and ... this forum doesn't get used much. But it helps me keep track of things that may be going on, where I don't necessarily want to post to FurAffinity. Not yet, at least.
First of all, I've been (semi)silent since the ProBowl in February, but it's beneficial for me - specifically, I need time to relax and think about other things than football. In my personal life, I need to move to a new apartment soon, and trying to find a "good" apartment in SoCal is like pulling teeth. February and March may just become radio-silent months for me in the future, so don't take it personally.
Below are some discussions I've been having with myself, but it should be open to the public as well.
Simulation
Always a highly-contested topic, the sim we used last year (2015) was a vast improvement on the 2014 one, but still lacked in a few areas, namely the Q4 play-calling and a lack of time-outs. I'm sure that, to you, it feels like I'm ignoring the obvious choice (MADDEN!) but 2007 was the final PC release; I also don't have a swift way to get stats from a game like that into a website or Wiki, which has been my reluctance. Also, since I'm using a simulation system that creates statistics independently, it's not easy to run a game result outside of the simulator and somehow "enter it into the system" later.
"Professional Football Simulator" by Barcode Games, which is what we used in 2015, was absorbed in December 2015 by Wolverine Studios, and now has an active development team. Yay! The new sim is called "Draft Day Sports: Pro Football 2016." While this is cool, they want me to purchase the sim again and, from what the developer has said on forum posts, other than the UI being updated, it's essentially the same sim. Even if I switched to this simulator, the experience (as of today) would not be changing. I'm hoping for a couple updates to improve on its play-calling before I'll be sold. I'll be testing this one out over the next month or so.
Another simulator I had been actively watching last year, BTS Football, has had a lead developer change (he's a Packers fan!) but they've also moved the release date to 2017. It was supposed to come out in time for last season, but given that we needed a simulator before season starting time, I couldn't wait for it. It won't be ready for this season, either, so what I'm saying is we will likely be staying with PFS (or DDS:PF16) for this year.
Free Agency
I... think I'm behind on this. It was around middle to late March last year that we began handling Free Agency stuff. That was at a time when the simulator was still up in the air, so the system in place for handling free agents was inefficient - it was the first time we had ever done free agency.
I've heard many suggestions from you guys on this. It's important to note that I don't want this part of league management to ever become burdensome or complicated. Managing a team should always be focused on the stuff going on during the season, first and foremost. Last year I pretended to be the agent for NPC characters, which resulted in some interesting conversations with GMs. There was even a salary competition between two GMs for an NPC, and RP Kova had no less than three GMs chasing him down! It was fun, but too much work for one guy (me). And so, back to the theoretical drawing board.
TL;DR - I'm playing around with the idea of a formula that determines a "suggested" pay rate for NPCs (non-player characters). This rate will be something comparable to the wages made in the NFL, but adjusted for the salary cap of the UFFL teams. Once a base rate is determined for a player, the rate is adjusted for their # of years played and Overall Player Rating. For RP characters that we've created, the suggested base pay rate is the starting point, but if you choose to go higher or lower, that's up to you. For people who really don't care or don't want to mess around with salary, they can take the suggested base rate, and then the GM can choose how many years they want that character to stay in contract. This eliminates the problems with characters perpetually making $1 million / year, despite out-performing other characters who make more, which devalues the whole purpose of monetizing the league.
Another suggested adjustment - Rookies drafted in Round 1 in 2016 will make $2 million; Round 2 = $1.5 million; Round 3 and later = $1 million. After Year 1 is up, we will have an idea of their performance rating, and then a suggested salary rate will be available. This simulates what traditionally happens to NFL players who stick around long-term anyway - they are signed to a contact and typically earn more if they are drafted higher. And then, depending if they are awesome (Russell Wilson) or epic fails (JaMarcus Russell), they are re-signed to a bigger contract or are dropped from the team.
Most teams have about 40-50% of their players up for contracts. Expect an email or Note via FA in the upcoming weeks to assist you with signing your agents to contracts. You will have the option to either take the suggested base pay, or to let the guy go to free agency. From there, we will work to sign new players to your team - or, you can choose to wait for the Draft before filling up empty spots.
The 12th team
I got emailed today about Abilene. The truth is, I created the form for this replacement team, but wasn't going to publish it until April 1st. It's probably better to get this figured out first before doing the free agency work, so I'm publishing the document tomorrow (the 28th) on FA to begin the 2016 prep season. If you happen to read this journal before I post to FA, here's the link to the Team Creation form.
We may have a couple other spots open up in management, so if you don't get the spot for the new GM, don't fret!
-------------------------
Did I miss anything? Hopefully not. There's another announcement I need to make, but I have to confirm it with the person it concerns... it's a good one . I haven't been "feeling" it lately, but I imagine in a couple months I'll be back to my old self and rarin' to go for a new season! I remember feeling this way a year ago, so yeah... seasonal allergies, maybe?
With love,
-MadWorld (Commish)