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#1 | ||
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Morgado's Favorite Forum Fascist
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Greensboro, NC
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Tanking in MP--some suggestions for FOF future
Relying on owners to go all-out all the time just doesn't cut it. In the FOF MP environment, there's just far more incentive to try to lose if you aren't going to make the playoffs (or even if you are and are locked into a seed) than to try to win. I'd much rather go 3-13 than 7-9, and that needs to change.
Policing tanking at the commish/league administration level is extremely difficult, if not impossible. There are dozens of ways to decrease your odds of winning, many of them virtually undetectable, and many more of them defensible. ("I'm starting this 34/50 guy over my 60/60 guy because the 34/50 guy improved +1 in his rookie camp and he might be better..." or "I don't have time to game plan this season, so I'm just Rexing offense even though I've got a custom offensive game plan that puts up 400 yards per game routinely.") So, what about some in-game incentives that would make a guy sitting there at 3-9 strive to go 7-9? Right now, 9 times out of 10, the guy sitting there at 3-9 is hoping he can go 3-13. The "realistic" solution (firing) isn't feasible in MP leagues, so here are a few suggestions, and I wonder if there are others out there...
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The media don't understand the kinds of problems and pressures 54 million come wit'! |
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#2 | ||||||||
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Morgado's Favorite Forum Fascist
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Greensboro, NC
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some other comments from an old thread at IHOF...
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The media don't understand the kinds of problems and pressures 54 million come wit'! |
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#3 | |
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Pro Starter
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Cary, NC
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With the latter the cap doesn't matter as much. If you also built this into their attitude (they get to "Demanding Trade" much quicker even if starting), you need to make an effort to keep your guys, otherwise you're out in FA fishing for replacements for guys you could not resign.
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-- Greg -- Author of various FOF utilities |
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#4 |
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"Dutch"
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Tampa, FL
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The problem with tanking is not so much the exploitation of the game system, but the muted emphasis on beating 31 others at MP.
We know we can win at SP. That's why we want the MP challenge. The problem stems from lots of people putting lots of effort into playing this game. Finding out that you won by default because your whole division tanked (fictional scenario for emphasis) will erode your enthusiasm to continue playing. Why? Because it can become too much like SP. If 5 or 10 owners are plaing weak assed teams and rexing GP's (or worse)...then what's the point? I can get better competition from SP. Integrity in the MP game is what is at stake when we tank. Stop thinking about yourself and start thinking about the community you are a part of. And then...beat the ever living shit out of them. That's MP. |
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#5 |
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Pro Starter
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Cary, NC
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Well, the other problem with tanking is when you trade some key guys, start the youngsters, and start winning. Tanking is actually harder than it looks, barring just completely borking a gameplan.
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-- Greg -- Author of various FOF utilities |
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#6 |
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H.S. Freshman Team
Join Date: Dec 2007
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WARNING: I am all over the place when it comes to what to do about tanking, but here are my thoughts.
1. It would be nice if the game handled it: less MP rules = happier owners who are less likely to leave because there are too many rules to follow. But any implementation will have its loopholes and people will find them... 2. I would advocate a reverse 1st half of the draft order. 1st team out of the playoffs gets 1.1, 2nd team gets 1.2 etc... Now that sounds radical, but needs 1 essential piece has to happen before it would be able to work. The first is cap space must matter, finances in general must matter. If this is a team that is really on the verge of getting into the playoffs, it should be bumped up against the cap, adding 1.1 would be expensive and likely not fit into the cap the next year. This can cause wheeling & dealing on draft day (which most of us love). 3. Create a less scientific draft. In other words: more draft day busts. see Ryan Leaf, Rick Mirer, JaMarcus Russell, and innumerable other players. Make it so that a top 5 pick is not a guaranteed pro-bowler. 4. Make defense matter. This is an old tired point, but lets make scheming on defense matter. No more "BIG RED BARS" approach to defense. Lets be real about TANKING, owners are doing it to get the next BIG TIME QB or WR to take their team to the next level. 5. Get $$ involved in the system. This would take a whole new game (and who knows if it would be legal), but web based. With a tanking team they lose money, which would mean you have to sink more $$ into the team for the following year. I guess this goes back into a better financial model, but if you are the champs 3 years running & profiting, who cares what the fans say, spend your profits on a better weight room for the hogmollies up front. 6. could be as simple as the guys who finish 1.1 - 1.5 have to split the cost and pay for the web hosting service for the next season... (too harsh maybe??) 7. boy i am getting more & more drastic as i go, lets move to the most unrealistic solution. someone crack the FOF upload, create a validation scheme of sorts for the league, if his 55/55 QB is benched and healthy: let the world know, warn on the upload, or just make the commish known to the issue. Notice I want to be very careful about the gameplan cracking, not intended to "steal" other players plans, but a validation only, in other words, encrypt on upload, decrypt on scan where the commish has only access to the encryption key. |
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#7 |
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Mascot
Join Date: Dec 2007
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There are some great idea's here but all we're getting is a limited patch by the sounds of things for another year, so this stuff is just a pipe dream.
I also think you guys are showing just how much needs to be fixed. Lastly a lot of the people who post on here can write applications, you have the ideas why don't you get together and put your own game together, i think it's clear you have a market place dying for a game that gives us all the ideas you have suggested. |
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#8 |
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Morgado's Favorite Forum Fascist
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Greensboro, NC
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This post wasn't intended to be for the patch. I refer to "FOF future" for a reason.
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The media don't understand the kinds of problems and pressures 54 million come wit'! |
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#9 |
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Mascot
Join Date: Dec 2007
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#10 |
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Morgado's Favorite Forum Fascist
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Greensboro, NC
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Nothing to tell you at all. Jim said directly in the podcast that "even though I haven't been actively working on Front Office Football, it's still the future." That would lead me to believe that at some point in the future, there will be some new version of FOF.
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The media don't understand the kinds of problems and pressures 54 million come wit'! |
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#11 |
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Mascot
Join Date: Dec 2007
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I think we can all see by the continued varied posts there may not be a great community left to play it. I hope that's not the case but.........
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#12 | |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Lowcountry, SC
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Quote:
I totally agree with everything here, but the former's not going to get fixed obviously. So, looking at the latter. Someone (Ben?) was kicking around the idea of capping QBs (and WRs?) at some point, this is probably the biggest tanking-deterrent that could realistically be put in to play. RH is right, the primary, and probably only, reason for tanking is when you need that top-flight QB or WR. Those two positions are immensely overvalued over the rest. I'm 4-10 in WOOF currently. I wish it were tanking, but it's not. That being said, my previous season I was 3-13, #2 in the draft, and missed out on a superstar QB (with no WRs in sight). I don't have it in me to tank, but it would obviously be tempting at this point to throw the last two. It also gets extremely frustrating to pull off a win against a quality opponent only to hear 'oh, he's not really playing this season'. Only takes a few of those to really start questioning why you bother. |
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#13 |
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College Starter
Join Date: Oct 2002
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Draft. Lottery.
I think it's time to ponder this as a potential solution in an FOF MP league (well, at least one that still has a draft). Boom - Problem solved. Last edited by RedKingGold : 10-15-2009 at 05:38 PM. |
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#14 | |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Syracuse, NY
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This might be a viable solution until the next version of FOF comes out. The problem comes down to how is it worked, I wouldn't like the NBA style where the worst record is guaranteed at least 1.3. Every slot for non-playoff teams should be up for grabs. Also, how is done so that all the teams know it's not rigged? |
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#15 |
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H.S. Freshman Team
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: NYC, NY
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It becomes a slippery slope, because teams that are not tanking their teams will be punished. I like the idea with having money paid per season, which would help.
I'm one of those GM that have (2) bad teams going into my 3rd season. I'm in the rebuilding stage, which i love, but having trouble stringing together wins. There is nothing more rewarding than taking a bottom feeder team and take them to the top. I'm 4-11-1, which was a lot better than 1-15 the year before, and 0-10 with my other team. I find it dumb not finding the right game plan that works with your personnel. I actually had the #1 pick in the draft, but decided to trade out. In turn i found a decent QB in the 4th round that put up decent numbers for me. I do agree with you guys. Tanking your team kills the league, but the teams that aren't tanking their teams will be lumped in with them and punished along with them also. |
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#16 | |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Syracuse, NY
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Money won't work unless it's a local league IMO. I don't see how a draft lottery is unfair to untanking teams... |
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#17 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Morgado's Favorite Forum Fascist
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Greensboro, NC
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Quote:
1. Put all non-playoff teams in the lottery. 2. Give a slight advantage to teams with better records in the lottery for #1. I'm thinking something like...
This keeps people pushing to win late in the season, but the advantage to finishing as the best non-playoff team isn't so great that the truly bad teams don't have a decent chance of getting 1(1) 3. Make the lottery for picks 1 through 5. Worst record gets guaranteed no better than pick #6. Unless it's a CRAZY good draft class, that's not going to net the stud QB or WR to anchor a franchise. That would remove the incentive to lose. As far as not rigging, I would be willing to write a php program that any league could use to generate an order of those 20 teams. All you'd need to do would be to browse to a location. If there's a trust issue, just send the link to a non-league member or post it at FOFC and just do a "first person to browse to this link, please copy and paste the results" type thing. He browses to the link, copies and pastes the results.
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The media don't understand the kinds of problems and pressures 54 million come wit'! |
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#18 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Syracuse, NY
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a program would be great, what about something that can be run in a real time format (run in a chatroom or similar to solevision that people can all log into and watch at the same time)?
no idea if that's possible or if that's already what you were thinking ![]() |
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#19 |
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H.S. Freshman Team
Join Date: Mar 2006
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Too bad the game couldn't be set up to have promotion and relegation among divisions, a la soccer.
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#20 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: sans pants
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There is no tanking in FOWL.
__________________
Superman was flying around and saw Wonder Woman getting a tan in the nude on her balcony. Superman said I going to hit that real fast. So he flys down toward Wonder Woman to hit it and their is a loud scream. The Invincible Man scream what just hit me in the ass!!!!! I do shit, I take pictures, I write about it: chrisshue.com |
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#21 |
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College Starter
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Berkeley
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I never really minded tanking so much (in FOF or OOTP leagues) because I felt it added a lot to the challenge of the leagues for me. Everyone always focuses on how it makes the bad teams worse, but it also makes the good teams a lot better and thus makes it a lot harder to have a realistic chance at the championship year after year. FWIW, in almost all cases I was involved in, the rules devised to limit tanking were so much more detrimental to my enjoyment than the actual tanking.
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#22 |
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College Starter
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Berkeley
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Ez, at least I think it was ez, always used to say if you wanted to stop tanking it would be pretty easy... just reverse the order of the draft. First team to miss the playoffs gets 1(1), worst team gets 1(20) and the playoff teams go in reverse order of finish (#12 gets 1-21, Superbowl winner gets 1-32). I guess most people's natural desire for "fairness" wouldn't allow that sort of system... but otherwise, why not?
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#23 |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: the yo'
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I wish it actually had a deeper financial model. Like your owner would say, you have X total dollars available to spend for the year. So if you mail it in, suck, etc, you might only get a few million above the salary floor. An owner isn't going to want to lay out 30-40m bonuses for the a top 5 pick a few years in a row.
Also, it was probably right when the game came out, but the top 5 picks don't seem to get nearly enough money on their rookie contracts. For instance, my 1.1 QB in 2010(roughly a 120m cap) got a contract of 5/37. Also, in general QB's should be demanding more money in rookie negotiations. I liked the old style EA FOF model of actually negotiating with the picks instead of options 1-4. |
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#24 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: East Lothian, Scotland
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A thought about the draft lottery idea...
How about carrying out a lottery to give the 'better' non-playoff teams a chance of the high picks, but the picks are entered into the game in the standard draft order? In other words, the team with the worst record in the previous season may only end up with pick 1.6 (for example), but has to give that player the expensive 1.1 contract. On the flip side, a team that gets lucky in the lottery gets the first pick of the draft, but may only have to give that player the 1.10 contract (or wherever that team would have drafted without the lottery). Given that the draft is carried out outside the game in MP, this shouldn't be too big a deal to implement. I realise that the rookie contracts aren't all that big compared to the salary cap, and that the cap isn't that big a deal for most MP teams, but it is a way of penalising the worst teams without necessarily giving them the reward of a high draft pick. |
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#25 |
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n00b
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: New Zealand
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If only Jim would allow for the game to be customizable to the point that Ben wouldn't have to spend so much time doing the draft for any other leagues that might want to follow the FOWL setup. The incentive is to build how you want, paying premium for what might be considered late 1st early 2nd rounders but also building to defend against your division opponents. |
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#26 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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That's unworkable in FOF MP. People want to fast forward through the phase between the draft and the start of the season, they really don't want 10 mid-week typ of sims to get a chance to negotiate contracts.
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail |
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#27 | |
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Pro Starter
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Cary, NC
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Quote:
Except it's already there, it's called "Late Free Agency" and there are 5 stages of it now.
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-- Greg -- Author of various FOF utilities |
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#28 |
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FOFC Survivor
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Wentzville, MO
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There is no tanking in Fight Club, either.
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Cheer for a walk on quarterback! Ardent leads the Vols in the dynasty forum. |
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#29 |
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H.S. Freshman Team
Join Date: Mar 2006
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What about imposing a 3 year minimum win requirement (10, 11, 12 games), with the owner being fired if it's not met? Could also add a 1 year minimum (e.g. 3 games). Maybe its not so workable at a time when leagues are having a hard time filling open teams.
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#30 | |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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Quote:
I like your thinking, as it would give something meaningful to the stages between the draft and the season start, but I'm afraid established leagues will be loaded with people who don't like this part of the game.
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail |
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#31 |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: the yo'
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You wouldn't have to run a ton of midweeks. If the default offer the guy made to you was, say, a super option 4. You could just take that and sign your rookies quickly.
I'd actually think it was funny if the AI contract logic got advanced enough to when you try to lowball a guy, he comes back at you with a new offer 125% more than the previous one he'd accept. |
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#32 |
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Morgado's Favorite Forum Fascist
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Greensboro, NC
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Even the fastest leagues I know of would have five shots to sign players before games start.
FA2:1 FA2:2 FA2:3-5 TC Pre1 That's plenty of time to negotiate. If you can't get it done in four shots, just offer the guy what he wants and move on.
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The media don't understand the kinds of problems and pressures 54 million come wit'! |
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#33 |
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n00b
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Vienna, Austria
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Anti-tanking is only applicable in leagues of hardcore FOFers. The parity of the draft and the salary cap are part of what makes the NFL great but the principle of helping out those who suck matters more than worrying about tanking. Clearly the social stigma of tanking doesn't seem to apply to hardcore FOFers but it is an issue that needs to be addressed by the league in question rather than as part of the gameset. For the hardcore, anti-tanking should be seriously punitive but I bet I'd hardly win a game against most of you in a league and that doesn't mean I'm not trying.
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#34 | |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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Ben, I think you left out one pretty good observation in the thread you referred to:
Quote:
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail |
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#35 |
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Head Coach
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Maryland
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A lot less incentive to stick around in a league if you suck, too.
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#36 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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Then you're not hardcore to begin with.
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail |
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#37 |
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Morgado's Favorite Forum Fascist
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Greensboro, NC
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Nope. I left out a poor observation in the thread I referred to.
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The media don't understand the kinds of problems and pressures 54 million come wit'! |
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#38 |
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Head Coach
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Maryland
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Unfortunately, the number of "hardcore" is diminishing. (hell, primelord "tanked" and was then gone from his leagues a few seasons after)
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#39 |
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"Dutch"
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Tampa, FL
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I'm more and more inclined to believe that a draft lottery is a real alternative to the NFL version.
But it would have to be a public way of determing draft order. Perhaps the "original" draft order would pick #'s for an upcoming daily lottery and then the closest # wins 1.1 and the next closest wins #1.2....no duplicates and ties go to the team that picked the under. |
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#40 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: sans pants
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I just don't even like the idea of a draft. Why reward mediocrity?
That said, I think a free agent free-for-all is too complex and time intensive for 95% of the leagues out there.
__________________
Superman was flying around and saw Wonder Woman getting a tan in the nude on her balcony. Superman said I going to hit that real fast. So he flys down toward Wonder Woman to hit it and their is a loud scream. The Invincible Man scream what just hit me in the ass!!!!! I do shit, I take pictures, I write about it: chrisshue.com |
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#41 | |
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"Dutch"
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Tampa, FL
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Quote:
Do you know of any attempt to ever just draft a bunch of dud-kickers and see what happens to the pre-draft studs in the free agent market? The reason I ask is that I wouldn't put it passed Jim to have coded undrafted FA's to "die"....most FA2 rookies seem to be duds afterall... |
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#42 | |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Mass.
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FOWL runs with exactly this premise. We see no fall off from undrafted rookies at all. |
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#43 | |
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"Dutch"
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Tampa, FL
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Quote:
Awesome. I love the draft...but I HATE the length and waiting. Pushing all the players to FA would be soooo easy on scheduling. I wouldn't be opposed to this at all. Last edited by Dutch : 10-16-2009 at 03:05 PM. |
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#44 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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I'm sensing that you just copy pasted what you liked and filter what you didn't like. We're talking about the MP environment and in that setting the pace of the league will have an impact on how people act, whether you like it or not.
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail |
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#45 |
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Morgado's Favorite Forum Fascist
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Greensboro, NC
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Of course I copied the good stuff and filtered out the bad stuff. Sure, the pace will have an impact on how people act. People will check out or just plain quit when things move too slowly, thus my dismissal of that particular piece. What's the problem?
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The media don't understand the kinds of problems and pressures 54 million come wit'! Last edited by Ben E Lou : 10-16-2009 at 04:39 PM. |
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#46 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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My point is that the apporach for fighting tanking can be different for leagues with different paces. Maybe it's just me, but I think there's a big difference between waiting 2 weeks or 20 weeks to see some result from your tanking attempts.
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail |
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#47 |
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Morgado's Favorite Forum Fascist
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Greensboro, NC
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That's all well and good, but it's completely irrelevant to the point of the thread at the time I copied and pasted that stuff.
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The media don't understand the kinds of problems and pressures 54 million come wit'! |
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#48 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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Then so is the lottery draft stuff that's being talked about. We all know that's not going to be part of FOF.
What I'm worried about here is that of all the solutioned mentioned so far, the teams that for whatever reasons (retirements, CEI's, draft busts) have become bottom feeders will get treated the same way as the teams that pruposely lose games.
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail Last edited by MIJB#19 : 10-16-2009 at 05:06 PM. |
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#49 | |
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Morgado's Favorite Forum Fascist
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Greensboro, NC
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Quote:
Missed that part?
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The media don't understand the kinds of problems and pressures 54 million come wit'! |
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#50 | |
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Head Coach
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Maryland
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Quote:
No, but why not have the ability to edit the draft order? Figure out the order however you want outside the game, then enter it in-game.
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