GrogHeads Forum

Digital Gaming => Computer Gaming => Topic started by: Pro Strategy Football on July 07, 2019, 03:27:39 PM

Title: Free Agency questions for Pro Strategy Football 2020
Post by: Pro Strategy Football on July 07, 2019, 03:27:39 PM
Hey, all, since I've always been more into the coaching side of things, I'm playing catch up on concepts such as Free Agency, waiver draft, etc, and I've come up with a flow concept that I'd like to try to implement.  Given the short time, what I'm asking of the folks who want Free Agency is, would this suffice for PSF 2020, and then I can add to it next year after you try it out and give me feedback?  Or should I wait and try to implement a fuller FA next year?

One of the key questions is how many years to give each player in the default league.  I can try to use "real" contracts here, but remember, the new in-game editor will also let you edit that.

By the way, FA and Waivers will be optional, and you can even alter the number of Franchise Players and some other things.  In fact, I'm adding a whole new Career Options screen that lets you change options and rules at the start of each season if you like.

NOTE: I don't have salaries, certainly can't do that this year.

Here's the quick overview, assuming you turn FA on.
1) Designate your Franchise Player(s).
At the end of the season, you see your current roster, same as now, except you'll also see which players are FAs (and how many years left on other players' contracts), and you can select a player (or more if you set your options higher) as a Franchise Player.

You can also scout the upcoming Rookie draft and other teams' FAs (but they may pick Franchise Players, too).

The FP gets a one year contract with you.

2) Free Agent Draft.
In your career options, you can set this as "same order as Rookie draft" or "reverse of Rookie draft."  The first option would let weaker teams build up faster, while the second option would indicate you prefer better players to have the option to go to better teams.

This draft will continue until all teams are done drafting.  If there needs to be some limit on the number of rounds, let me know (also, if I find that when I'm programming this, I'll add it).  ** I don't know how long these contracts should be, I assume three years? **

3) Rookie Draft.
Same as now, except I'm letting you have a larger extended roster to allow for the FA draft, Rookie Draft, and optional Waiver draft.

4) Possibly an optional Waiver draft.
If I get the other things implemented, I can try to add this as another optional draft (again, in career options).  This pool would come from undrafted Free Agents and Rookies, including any players from previous years who haven't retired or forced to leave the pool.

Again, you can designate the order of this draft as well.

I'd love any thoughts on this.  Thanks!

Title: Re: Free Agency questions for Pro Strategy Football 2020
Post by: Grim.Reaper on July 07, 2019, 03:36:25 PM
It might be just me, but not understanding how this represents free agency.  It sounds like another "draft" type method which in my mind is a lot different than real world free agency....when a person is next up to select a free agent, are they guaranteed to get him?  Or can the player turn them down?  Does the player have preferences on where they want to play (i.e. hometown, for a winner, just wants the most money, etc.)?

I may be in the minority, but unless it really mirrored real life (salaries, contracts, etc.) and had some of the unpredictability of real life (versus rigid draft mode), I likely wouldn't use it myself.  To be fair, I don't own any of your past versions yet but if I am being honest, this would not get me to purchase the new version either.
Title: Re: Free Agency questions for Pro Strategy Football 2020
Post by: Pro Strategy Football on July 07, 2019, 03:48:08 PM
Thanks, GR, that's what I needed.  I have other things I want to implement, such as in-game season editor, and I'm afraid that this version of free agency (without real negotiating) wouldn't really appeal.  Thank you very much for your input.
Title: Re: Free Agency questions for Pro Strategy Football 2020
Post by: Grim.Reaper on July 07, 2019, 04:03:32 PM
Quote from: Pro Strategy Football on July 07, 2019, 03:48:08 PM
Thanks, GR, that's what I needed.  I have other things I want to implement, such as in-game season editor, and I'm afraid that this version of free agency (without real negotiating) wouldn't really appeal.  Thank you very much for your input.

At least for me it wouldn't but maybe others would enjoy it...will be interested to see.  For me, if a game attempts to be a career/management type of game, it really has to model it like real life otherwise just would not entice me to play it...not just for free agency, but all the other aspects as well (i.e. drafting, trades, progression, free agency, etc.).
Title: Re: Free Agency questions for Pro Strategy Football 2020
Post by: MetalDog on July 07, 2019, 04:29:21 PM
I will second GR.  Free Agency needs to have some randomness and rationale to where the various players end up.  A rookie draft would work, as the NFL conducts a 7 round draft of outgoing college players every year.  Waivers should just be a pool of available players to be signed.  Money structure would help you immensely in all of this.
Title: Re: Free Agency questions for Pro Strategy Football 2020
Post by: Pro Strategy Football on July 07, 2019, 04:41:25 PM
Thanks, I agree with you guys.  I already have the Rookie draft, may add an "undrafted rookies" draft at the end, but I think I'll finish other features this year (such as ingame schedule creator and variable training camp points), and try FA next year.

To be honest, I've started feeling stressed anyway, simply because I have only 10 or so hours a week to work on the game, and I could tell FA is much larger.  I hate saying no to anything, but sometimes that's best.

Thanks again!
Title: Re: Free Agency questions for Pro Strategy Football 2020
Post by: Grim.Reaper on July 08, 2019, 05:53:17 AM
Quote from: Pro Strategy Football on July 07, 2019, 04:41:25 PM
Thanks, I agree with you guys.  I already have the Rookie draft, may add an "undrafted rookies" draft at the end, but I think I'll finish other features this year (such as ingame schedule creator and variable training camp points), and try FA next year.

To be honest, I've started feeling stressed anyway, simply because I have only 10 or so hours a week to work on the game, and I could tell FA is much larger.  I hate saying no to anything, but sometimes that's best.

Thanks again!

Hopefully you take a sampling from more than just us two:)  There may be a certain audience who enjoys it and may be more than us. 

Hate to say it, but none of the other features you are adding would interest me enough to spend $20 either for the PC version.  Schedule creators, etc. just are very low on my radar and I would trade those things in for features that brought it closer to real life football.  How many people would use them versus waiting for that one modder to do all the work and share?  Don't get me wrong, $20 certainly is not a ton of money but for some reason every time I think I might pull the trigger on it, I back away.  Just not sure enough contained within the game that would fully satisfy me for that price point.  Your competition (Front Office Football) is only $29.99 and has complete career/management capabilities and has been well established for many years...thinking a lot of people end up with that.  If it were more like $9.99 (or why not $4.99 like the mobile version--see below) all the time or at least during the sales a substantial reduction (believe at most I have seen the current version only 10% off--again, not enough for me to take a flyer since not much different than regular price...I actually kind of think pointless since I doubt the savings of $2 is what has kept people away).  Or maybe consider spending part of your development cycle creating a DEMO version (allows you to play 1 season or something like that) to entice people to give it a try.  Maybe I would be pleasantly surprised if I could try it, don't know....although price may still be an issue for me even if liked.

I have to admit, I have always been puzzled as to why the PC version is $20, but the mobile device version is only $4.99 but if I am not mistaken contain the same features (and guessing largely is the same code set).  If I am wrong, I would be interested in what makes them different enough to have a price difference like that just because on a PC.  I actually did buy an older version for my Ipad, but I simply don't do much gaming on my mobile device (besides the occasional time waster while standing in line for something), much prefer using my PC for games.

With all that said, I realize your goal may not be to compete with FOF and that you have your reasons for pricing and small discounts, just wanted to give you at least my reason for not jumping in, whether it represents just my thoughts or may represent a larger group.

Anyway, good luck with the new version and maybe after a few more, I'll more strongly consider.....
Title: Re: Free Agency questions for Pro Strategy Football 2020
Post by: Pro Strategy Football on July 10, 2019, 10:31:44 PM
Honestly, my heart has always been on the coaching side, so I'm really not ever going to try to compete with FOF.  I've added some career stuff, and quite a few folks enjoy the "light" features I've added, but I need to be honest with myself and return to my roots and what drew me to the game in the first place, which is simulating the play and coaching, not the management.  I'll add and tweak management some, but what I really want to do is add more coaching options and implement online multiplayer.

thanks again
Title: Re: Free Agency questions for Pro Strategy Football 2020
Post by: Nefaro on July 11, 2019, 09:56:02 AM
Looking forward to having more FA and Draft options, and contract negotiations eventually.

I have one suggestion for a Free Agency acquisition option.

How about a serpentine style draft for Free Agency?  i.e.  First-to-Last, then Last-to-First (reversed), then First-to-Last, etc etc.   Since there is no contract negotiations, I think such a serpentine draft for FA would be ideal since it lessens draft order placement pains for the lower placed teams. 

I'd also suggest having options of 3 years for Free Agent contract lengths.  The 1st and/or 2nd Rookie draft picks for each team would be ideal at 5 years, and the later picks for 3 years.  Aside from keeping designated players on your team, I would also recommend allowing a set amount of contract renewals every year... a little over half the amount of players whose contracts are ending that year? 

Then have extra Free Agents generated every year, for extra flexibility for roster changes.  Although these shouldn't be as obviously high quality as vets who've been playing and still in their prime.

Enjoyed last year's PSF, and look forward to more of these additions.  Thanks!
Title: Re: Free Agency questions for Pro Strategy Football 2020
Post by: Pro Strategy Football on July 11, 2019, 10:12:18 PM
Nice idea!  I was going to add an option "same order as rookie draft" and "reverse order of Rookie Draft" so I could easily add a checkbox option for "Serpentine."  Thanks!

Nefaro, I went ahead and added the data fields to support your suggestions of serpentine (on both the FA draft and possibly Waiver draft), in case I can work the features in later this year.  I also really like your idea on allowing contract renewals each year.  Any thoughts on the logic for that?  I can make it random, or maybe it's tied to how well your team is doing?

Thanks again!

p.s. I don't know if this'll interest you, but one of the new features is the ability to have multiple concurrent careers.  So you might have one based on one league, another based on a different league, and each one can be different primary teams, too.
Title: Re: Free Agency questions for Pro Strategy Football 2020
Post by: Nefaro on July 16, 2019, 07:50:09 PM
Quote from: Pro Strategy Football on July 11, 2019, 10:12:18 PM
Nice idea!  I was going to add an option "same order as rookie draft" and "reverse order of Rookie Draft" so I could easily add a checkbox option for "Serpentine."  Thanks!

Nefaro, I went ahead and added the data fields to support your suggestions of serpentine (on both the FA draft and possibly Waiver draft), in case I can work the features in later this year.  I also really like your idea on allowing contract renewals each year.  Any thoughts on the logic for that?  I can make it random, or maybe it's tied to how well your team is doing?

The yearly contract renewals should work side-by-side with the yearly Free Agency picks.

Since many veteran NFL players sign multi-year contracts with a team, and regularly decide to renew with the same team they've been playing for,  I figured a good way to simplify that would be in allowing each team to retain around half (rounded up) of their veteran players whose contracts have ended after the current season. 

That would allow the team to re-sign some of their veteran players, but also force a few of their veteran players into the Free Agency pool for that year so that other teams have the opportunity to pick them up.

My reasoning is due to the salary caps.  Once good veteran players have been putting up good reliable performances for a few years, they start asking for higher salaries which their team can't, or won't, pay due to salary cap restrictions.  So some of those vets get better offers from other teams and switch after their contract terms are up and their current team won't meet their new contract salary request.

I figured 3 year contracts for veterans is probably a good average.  So after they spend 3 years on a team, the players with contracts ending that year first go into an 'Expiring Contract' Pool.  Of which the owning team is allowed to pick some to renew contracts, and stay on the team, while the rest aren't renewed and go to the 'Free Agent' Pool which can be done as a draft in the next phase, ideally serpentine style IMO). 

The players to be ideally renewed should mostly be obvious pics, based primarily on stats/performance (if you have AI picking for AI teams too), but there may be cases in which an improved rookie with a long contract will be taking a vet's position, for example, so picking & choosing has a little nuance.

I would recommend doing the Rookie Draft before the Free Agent Draft, since the FA Draft covers a wider range of time.   Would also set the Expiring Contract Renewals for veterans before both of those so the player/team will know which positions will need to be filled in the two upcoming drafts after having to dump some of their vets onto the free agent market. 


Quote
p.s. I don't know if this'll interest you, but one of the new features is the ability to have multiple concurrent careers.  So you might have one based on one league, another based on a different league, and each one can be different primary teams, too.

I'd definitely like the option to be running more than one team career at the same time.   O0
Title: Re: Free Agency questions for Pro Strategy Football 2020
Post by: Pro Strategy Football on July 17, 2019, 06:52:02 PM
Excellent feedback, thanks so much!  I still hope that maybe I can get some form of what you're describing in the game or in a free update later.  *crosses fingers*