2016 Off-Season Update

[Aftermath2531]

I wasn't really sure where to put this as its not the most important thing at the moment but I believe it should be discussed. During a couple of games last year in which I was leading my team decided to throw the ball excessively inside of 3mins when they should have been trying to kill the clock by running the ball. Specifically In a game versus Tenn we called 6 straight passing plays inside of 3 mins with 5 of them going incomplete. As a result no time was really killed and Tenn marched down the field for the win. I'm not even sure this can be fixed but if possible maybe some sort of kill the clock feature inside of 4mins or Ill just be forced to fire my Offensive Coordinator. Save his job Commish!

Also just wanted to throw this out there to see if it interests anyone. In previous years Ive heard rumblings around being able to instantly get a hold of people during the draft to negotiate trades. As sometimes we are pressed for time and some GMs only get on at the time of there picks. So why not use a group messaging App during the draft. In a few other leagues I run we use the Group ME App and it has worked wonders. Its very simple to use and has increased communication across the league. Well that's my two cents, Mamba Out.

[Goodell]

On the game play calls, there should already be dozens and dozens and dozens of lines of conditional situations. It's never going to be quite perfect, and fans call into real talk shows about real coaches doings things they don't like in reality too, but each off-season I do try to take a closer look at certain things that came up during the last season that might need improved.

Under certain exact conditions the sim tends to lean most heavily toward game situations impacting play calls as the highest priority, which is why QBs can get a lot more passes than their update or RBs might get a lot more carries than their update, based upon game situations.

However, there are other factors pulling at game calls such as the sim trying to work toward each individual's input numbers. If the RB is way ahead of pace and the QB is way behind, and all things are equal in terms of game situations not being urgent, then it's going to lean toward the player it wants to catch up.

Game situations are a little tricky. For exmaple, it might be set to act very heavy towards killing the clock under certain conditions (such as up by X points or clock at Y minutes). For the program, it has to be exact where our human emotions aren't. We may think it's one way but perhaps the score difference is one point below the line that triggers other actions, or the minutes left aren't quite to where it's programmed to go totally into run it every play mode.

Even though those are complex and tricky, I'll try to take another look at that exact programming there. But I can assure you there are lines and line and lines of code specifically about game situations impacting play calls. But just like real NFL games it may not be doing it the way or exact score or exact time the fans sometimes want, so we'll take a look while they call in the talk shows.

In the end, though, the sim will never be perfect. Our game is primarily a GM game more so than an on the field play call game. We just want a sim that most of the time generates results that validate the GM actions fairly in the big picture.

[Nathan S.]

Do we have an idea of FA?

I know you're busy, Troy, just curious!

[Goodell]

Do we have an idea of FA?

I know you're busy, Troy, just curious!

No date has been announced yet while some other things have to be taken care of first. Got some new GMs showing up, though, so we're getting closer to knowing. End of next week or early May could be possibilities. Date to be determined still.

[Jared A]

As I mentioned before... early May would be really bad for me. I depart on May 5th, and it will take me 3-4 days to get electricity and internet on the island.


I don't mean to be a pain, but we've waited for two months... please don't do it the first week in May.

[soonertf]

As I mentioned before... early May would be really bad for me. I depart on May 5th, and it will take me 3-4 days to get electricity and internet on the island.


I don't mean to be a pain, but we've waited for two months... please don't do it the first week in May.

If it started on 28th that would give you a week of FA (so most of it) before you have to take off. On the flip side I'm more than willing to start it around May 15th. At this point I don't see the rush anyway. Our draft is already going to be well after the real draft so IMO it doesn't matter if it's pushed out a few more weeks. Under the circumstance, perhaps this is a good summer to try the spread out thing that many people have asked for to see if we prefer it over rushing through things.

[Goodell]

As I mentioned before... early May would be really bad for me. I depart on May 5th, and it will take me 3-4 days to get electricity and internet on the island.


I don't mean to be a pain, but we've waited for two months... please don't do it the first week in May.

Part of the thinking would involve checking some of the messages regarding scheduling conflicts. We'll never find a perfect date for 96 different teams, but it is something we try to consider.

My initial thought was if we can get free agency going around the NFL draft time (when it should trigger people to be thinking about NFL and our sim league activity and when we are usually doing our sim draft in past years and usually don't have conflicts for that) that we could get the bulk of peak free agency done before some of the mentioned conflicts in May. Then hold the draft later in May once some of those conflicts are past.

But as I said, there is no official announcement on that yet. My focus now is on getting all the other functionality ready to go and filling any GM replacements needed before we can do anything else.

[Chad55]

I would much rather have Free Agency start today, but I'm selfish lol

[Ben C.]

As I mentioned before... early May would be really bad for me. I depart on May 5th, and it will take me 3-4 days to get electricity and internet on the island.


I don't mean to be a pain, but we've waited for two months... please don't do it the first week in May.

If it started on 28th that would give you a week of FA (so most of it) before you have to take off. On the flip side I'm more than willing to start it around May 15th. At this point I don't see the rush anyway. Our draft is already going to be well after the real draft so IMO it doesn't matter if it's pushed out a few more weeks. Under the circumstance, perhaps this is a good summer to try the spread out thing that many people have asked for to see if we prefer it over rushing through things.

I agree with sooner. Let's use this year to test out the "spread it out" approach just to see how we like it. I mean, we might as well give it a try at this point.

[Aftermath2531]

Maybe I'm alone in this but I couldn't disagree more. We have been playing from behind and pushing things back since last years trade deadline. It may or may not be a direct result for such a high turnover in GMs this off season. When you run things that coincide with the NFL or shortly after you create excitement and interest in the league but when we get behind and push things back you loose all momentum. We just need to set dates for every off-season feature not necessarily in stone and work towards it. This way people have some idea and can plan accordingly. As a result a stronger league and less turnover. I vote we shoot for Monday as I see there's plenty of replacement GMS ready to go. This only leaves draft order, comp picks, and turning on trades. Fingers Crossed!