Favorite Unique MP League Features?

[Ben E Lou]

I was just thinking that this might be a good way to improve MP leagues across the board--at least those that have non-creative people like me in them. Some things are harder or more time-consuming to implement than others, but sometimes the issue isn't as much time/difficulty as it is just not ever thinking to do it. I guess what I'm saying is that it's not hard to think of features like custom player/stats pages, betting, mock drafts and power ratings. But I know for a fact that there are neat features in some MP leagues that haven't even been thought about in most other leagues. This thread is an attempt to "cross-pollenate" a bit--something that I think might make all leagues a bit stronger. So the question I'm posing is this:

What are the enjoyable features you've seen in your MP league(s) that other leagues may not have thought to do?

This isn't the place to show off how much cooler your player stats pages are than the next league's, and I'm not asking folks to share pieces of your custom code to do stuff (although I think it would be cool if that were done more.) My hope for this thread is that at least one person in every league who currently doesn't do much besides submitting exports and posting might see something here and say "Hey, I can do that for my league."

[Ben E Lou]

I'll get us started with some that I enjoy--one in a league that I'm not in, but I think the feature is very cool.


GAME ANALYSIS (RDFL)

LEONARD'S LOSERS (WOOF)

SECRET SANTA (FOFL)

VULTURE/CORRESPONDENT CHALLENGE (IHOF)

[Dutch]

VPI's IHOF and GEFL player picture upload capability was my all-time favorite feature. It was so simple and easy, anybody could get involved...even me!

[Dutch]

VPI97's Draft Utility (which I think is used in a lot of places now) has saved many a drafts from becoming bogged down with excruciating delays.

[Dutch]

Knowing how I am (I'm rather time-crunched at the most inopportune times) and love standardization, I've always searched for a method to paint a picture/tell a story about stats or history that requires little extra input from me.

Greg's utilities that are coming to frutation now are probably what I've been looking for, but haven't really messed with them, beyond what I've seen Skydog post at leagues. I'm very impressed by the ease of use and simplicity...yet, the greater unfolding storyline that these enhancements provide to FOF are incredible.

[marcmoustache]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

I'll get us started with some that I enjoy--one in a league that I'm not in, but I think the feature is very cool.


GAME ANALYSIS (RDFL)[color=Blue]

Thank you.

[gottimd]

I don't have the HTML or SQL writing capabilities as most report designers in the other MP leagues so mine essentially developed via excel:

http://www.naflsim.com/webpages/Gamepreviews.htm
http://www.naflsim.com/webpages/GameDetails.htm
http://www.naflsim.com/webpages/NAFL-Standings.htm

I wish more designers released their projects/codes to the rest of us. I look at the other MP Leages from time to time to see what other reports I can develop as well, and I generally throw out the question every sim year on our message board of what reports, if any, an GM's would like to see.

[JetsIn06]

This could be obvious, but I personally love the Lounge at FOFL. Having a chat room really helps during down-time.

For example, at the WOOF, there will be times where I go to the forums and see 4 or 5 people on there, but with no threads to read, I'll leave.

[Vinatieri for Prez]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

I'll get us started with some that I enjoy--one in a league that I'm not in, but I think the feature is very cool.


GAME ANALYSIS (RDFL)

LEONARD'S LOSERS (WOOF)

SECRET SANTA (FOFL)

VULTURE/CORRESPONDENT CHALLENGE (IHOF)

Can someone remind me again how do I pull out info like the game analysis in RDFL. Extractor I presume.

[marcmoustache]

Originally Posted by Vinatieri for Prez

Can someone remind me again how do I pull out info like the game analysis in RDFL. Extractor I presume.

The info I used here is all from the gamelogs. But it's proprietary at the moment, as it's written in php and not something neat like greg's apps.

Basically I looked at each line and what data was in there, and captured it, such as:

// formations //
	
	// i formation
	if(strpos($logline,"I formation")){$form=1;}
	if(strpos($logline,"I formation with two tight ends")){$form=2;}
	if(strpos($logline,"I formation, with the second wideout in the slot")){$form=3;}
		
	// pro
	if(strpos($logline,"Pro formation")){$form=4;}
	if(strpos($logline,"Pro formation with two tight ends")){$form=4;}
	if(strpos($logline,"Pro formation, with the second receiver in the slot")){$form=6;}
	
	// weak
	if(strpos($logline,"Weak formation")){$form=7;}
	if(strpos($logline,"Weak formation with two tight ends")){$form=8;}
	if(strpos($logline,"Waek formation with three wideouts")){$form=9;}
	
	// strong
	if(strpos($logline,"Strong formation")){$form=10;}
	if(strpos($logline,"Strong formation with two tight ends")){$form=11;}
	if(strpos($logline,"Strong formation with three wideouts")){$form=12;}
		
	// single back
	if(strpos($logline,"Single-Back formation")){$form=13;}
	if(strpos($logline,"Single-Back formation with two tight ends")){$form=14;}
	if(strpos($logline,"Single-Back formation with trips receivers")){$form=15;}
	if(strpos($logline,"Single-Back formation with four receivers")){$form=16;}
		
	// 5 wr
	if(strpos($logline,"Five-Receiver Spread formation")){$form=17;}	
	
	// strength 
	if(strpos($logline,"strength is left")){$strength=0;}
	if(strpos($logline,"strength is right")){$strength=1;}

I then process lots of other bits as well.

However, all this data and more exists in the solevision file, which thanks to celeval I now have the format of and will be trying to write something that parses their data, but this crude method works well for now.

Marc.

[Subby]

cuervo72 has created some kickass stuff for FOFL - "Where Immersion Lives"

Historical, Sortable Combine Report

Historical Draft Report

Historical Awards Tracker

Hall of Champions

Affinity Search Tool

Team portals

Individual and Team Statistical Leaders (sortable)

The last two things might be common to other leagues, but I like the way cuervo does them so I am going to share.

[Vinatieri for Prez]

Thanks, MM. It would be way beyond my capabilities to do that. I wait with baited breath for a simple app that could do that. Scouting would be awesome with that.

[stretch]

Originally Posted by Subby

cuervo72 has created some kickass stuff for FOFL - "Where Immersion Lives"

Historical, Sortable Combine Report

Historical Draft Report

Historical Awards Tracker

Hall of Champions

Affinity Search Tool

Team portals

Individual and Team Statistical Leaders (sortable)

The last two things might be common to other leagues, but I like the way cuervo does them so I am going to share.

Oh, these are just incredible! I'd love to learn how he parses the data out and collects it like this.

[Subby]

Originally Posted by stretch

Oh, these are just incredible! I'd love to learn how he parses the data out and collects it like this.

He uses Stelmack's Interrogator. There is an entire thread about it in this forum - Interrogator is part of his FOF2K7 Utility Suite - it also includes good stuff like Extractor and Draft Analyzer...

The cool thing about cuervo (don't tell him this) is that not only can he program stuff pretty well, he has a fantastic eye for design...something most programmers don't seem to have. So the FOFL site is both functional and pretty.

[Subby]

dola

Like me.