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Random thoughts - 10/28/2006 10:08:17 PM

URett

Posts: 54
Joined: 8/22/2005
Status: offline

After not playing for several months I recently downloaded the latest version and started again. I started a 40-team league seeded with players from 1900, 60-man rosters. I play only as a gm, I never manage any games.

Here are some things random things I noticed:

1. I love PureSim and overall it is a very good game and a lot of fun to play.

2. The mix of real and fictional players works a lot better than in previous versions. I remember times when either the fictional players were much better than the real ones or only scrubs would be created to fill out the league. This time everything seems very well balanced.

3. The initial draft ai needs some work. As I'm lazy I always autodraft my complete team. I always use the "favor youth and potential" option from round one. In earlier versions I would usually lose 100 games in the first year, but by the third I was usually in the title mix. This time I won 92 games the first year and by the third year I was winning 120 games a year. I think that means that the autodraft youth/potential option is working very well, but whatever the other teams are using needs some improving.

4. Injuries

a) In my opinion there are still not enough injuries. It's not unusual for me to sim 2-3 months without being interrupted by any injuries. Also, from what I have seen in the first 7 years, there are still no season ending or really long term (1 year +) injuries. I realize that I can tweak this in the xml, but I'd prefer a balanced and tested setup out of the box.

b) I noticed two bugs related to injuries. One time one of my players suffered a career ending injury, but I was never informed. My team was one player short for about two months. I also had one pitcher who would never heal, he would carry his minor injury through the whole season.

c) I never noticed any of my minor leaguers getting injured. Is that intentional or just a coincidence?

5. I found another potential bug: If I have less than 60 players after the free agent period I will be asked to fill my roster before I can "finalize rosters". At that point I can sign almost every player for the minimum salary. After spring training all free agents are back to their usual asking price. Non-scrubs should never be available for almost free.

6. Overall the ai still is no challenge. I gave every other team extra millions, I routinely have to let good players walk for financial reasons, I rarely initiate trades and I don't sign free agents until I have to fill my roster, but my team is still by far the best. Maybe that will change once the effects of the initial draft wear off some more, as it is hard to draft great players with the #40 pick.

7. I really hate that player usage settings get reset when demoting/promoting players. I used to manually set players to steal more frequently/never steal depending on their speed, but I don't want to do it again after each promotion.

8. Thank you for league templates. The most boring aspect of PS is setting up a new association, so having to do it only once is a huge help.

9. Players should never accept extensions that give them less total money than their current contract (for example going from 3 years at 100k to 4 years at 60k).

Some things I would like for PS 2008:

a) A total revamp of the financial system, basing the players demands on supply, demand and available funds league-wide.

b) I would appreciate if Runs Created/Saved Above Average could be incorporated, so that it's easier to compare players across eras and ballparks.

c) Please replace the graphical roster view with a depth chart so that it's possible as a gm to influence the lineup while still using the auto-lineup feature. Auto-lineup makes some strange decisions sometimes but I don't want to interfere too much with my "on-field manager".

I will add some more if I come across additional points.

PS: Has the multi-player mode led to many online-leagues? I might be interested to try playing against some human opponents.

< Message edited by URett -- 10/29/2006 3:41:29 PM >

Post #: 1

RE: Random thoughts - 10/30/2006 8:16:37 PM

Amaroq

Posts: 1100
Joined: 8/3/2005
From: San Diego, California
Status: offline

Wow, great post, way to breathe life into a forum!

quote:

ORIGINAL: URett
3. The initial draft ai needs some work. As I'm lazy I always autodraft my complete team. I always use the "favor youth and potential" option from round one. In earlier versions I would usually lose 100 games in the first year, but by the third I was usually in the title mix. This time I won 92 games the first year and by the third year I was winning 120 games a year. I think that means that the autodraft youth/potential option is working very well, but whatever the other teams are using needs some improving.

Shaun - I'd agree with this assessment. It might be useful to have somewhere around 50% of the clubs draft by "favor youth and potential", with 25% favoring "immediate success", and the other 25% doing some form of balanced approach.

quote:

ORIGINAL: URett
4. a) In my opinion there are still not enough injuries. It's not unusual for me to sim 2-3 months without being interrupted by any injuries. Also, from what I have seen in the first 7 years, there are still no season ending or really long term (1 year +) injuries. I realize that I can tweak this in the xml, but I'd prefer a balanced and tested setup out of the box.

Agreed.

quote:

ORIGINAL: URett
4. c) I never noticed any of my minor leaguers getting injured. Is that intentional or just a coincidence?

I think its intentional, for processing speed; it certainly would be more realistic if minor-leaguers suffered injuries, and especially so if missing substantial portions of the minor-league season with injury would hamper their development. I'd rather see more apparent potential in the initial draft, with potential dropping off due to injuries and lack of progression. But that's definitely a long-term item, maybe a PS'08 idea.

quote:

ORIGINAL: URett
6. Overall the ai still is no challenge. I gave every other team extra millions, I routinely have to let good players walk for financial reasons, I rarely initiate trades and I don't sign free agents until I have to fill my roster, but my team is still by far the best. Maybe that will change once the effects of the initial draft wear off some more, as it is hard to draft great players with the #40 pick.

Agreed; I typically win 'right out of the box', and can turn a losing franchise around too quickly as well.

quote:

ORIGINAL: URett
7. I really hate that player usage settings get reset when demoting/promoting players. I used to manually set players to steal more frequently/never steal depending on their speed, but I don't want to do it again after each promotion.

Oooh, yuck! I hadn't noticed that one, but would consider it a definite bug as well.

quote:

ORIGINAL: URett
9. Players should never accept extensions that give them less total money than their current contract (for example going from 3 years at 100k to 4 years at 60k).

Wow, I'd never seen a player do that - but I agree, it does seem like an unlikely thing to accept. In fact, players probably ought to require a reasonable total increase - e.g., 3 years at 100k to 4 years at 75k is no good, either, but 3 years at 100k to 4 years at 90k should be acceptable.

quote:

ORIGINAL: URett
A) A total revamp of the financial system, basing the players demands on supply, demand and available funds league-wide.

I'd add to that a less 'immediate' contract negotiations model: I want, I hate to say it, a bit of the FM'06/OOTP model, the offer/counter-offer concept, with negotiations taking time.. and the possibility of offending the player and having him declare that he won't re-sign with you, period.

I'd add to that having AI teams do their 'next season' planning in late June to early July, and then trying to trade their 'dead wood', really bringing to life the 'rent-a-player' concept by making it primarily veterans in last-year-of-contract from losing teams, sold for real prospects.

quote:

ORIGINAL: URett
C) Please replace the graphical roster view with a depth chart so that it's possible as a gm to influence the lineup while still using the auto-lineup feature. Auto-lineup makes some strange decisions sometimes but I don't want to interfere too much with my "on-field manager".

Interesting concept - it probably deserves a thread of its own, as I can't quite see what you have in mind from the one-paragraph description.

(in reply to URett)

Post #: 2

RE: Random thoughts - 11/2/2006 6:23:17 PM

URett

Posts: 54
Joined: 8/22/2005
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: Amaroq

quote:

ORIGINAL: URett
A) A total revamp of the financial system, basing the players demands on supply, demand and available funds league-wide.

I'd add to that a less 'immediate' contract negotiations model: I want, I hate to say it, a bit of the FM'06/OOTP model, the offer/counter-offer concept, with negotiations taking time.. and the possibility of offending the player and having him declare that he won't re-sign with you, period.

I agree as long as it's limited to contract negotiations. I absolutely love FM, but I usually ignore the "human" aspect of the game (praising/criticizing individuals, keeping bench players happy).

quote:

ORIGINAL: Amaroq

quote:

ORIGINAL: URett
C) Please replace the graphical roster view with a depth chart so that it's possible as a gm to influence the lineup while still using the auto-lineup feature. Auto-lineup makes some strange decisions sometimes but I don't want to interfere too much with my "on-field manager".

Interesting concept - it probably deserves a thread of its own, as I can't quite see what you have in mind from the one-paragraph description.

Here is how I assume the ai goes about setting lineups:

1. Build a depth chart (rank every player on the roster for every position).
2. Find the position with the biggest differeence between #1 and #2 (major league roster only).
3. Pick #1 as the starter for that position, remove him from all other positions.
4. Repeat 2-3 until all positions are filled.
5. Figure out the lineup from the starters picked.

What I want is the result of step 1 to be available to me (5-10 players for every position should be enough) so I can tweak it. I might want to keep on starting my ageing superstar in the starting lineup even if the ai thinks he should be benched, but once I made that decision the ai manager should decide where to bat him.

I use auto-lineup frequently, so manually inserting some player that the ai thinks shouldn't start every time is not very appealing. With a depth chart I would put him at #1 at his position and the manager would (have to) pick him as the starter, even if #2 is supposedly better.

I hope this makes some sense.

PS: One huge drawback of the current graphical roster view is the fact that players are only listed for their primary position, which makes roster decisions more difficult than they should be. Even if the depth chart would just replace the graphical roster view and have no further function it would be an improvement.

(in reply to Amaroq)

Post #: 3