Summer league / interviews

[Honolulu Blue]

I'd like to know more about these two specific improvements that are of interest to me and my purchasing decision.

First, for the summer league:

1) When does it happen? (I'm guessing sometime between the end of the 20 steps and before training camp, but I'd like to know the exact timing)
2) Is the limit just one player per team?
3) What benefits do you get from it? Is there a TCY-ish popup with more information about the guy, or do just the ratings change? Or something else?

And for the interviews:

1) When does THIS happen? Before the draft, of course, but what's the exact timing?
2) If the sessions are during the draft, can you change targets?
3) Are the results instantaneous or do you have to wait to see them (e.g. go through another week of free agency)
4) What benefits do you get from it? Is there a TCY-ish popup with more information about the guy, or do just the blue bars/gray bars/ratings change? Or something else?

Screen shots would be very helpful. Thank you.

[Peregrine]

I'd like to know more about these two specific improvements that are of interest to me and my purchasing decision.

First, for the summer league:

1) When does it happen? (I'm guessing sometime between the end of the 20 steps and before training camp, but I'd like to know the exact timing)
2) Is the limit just one player per team?
3) What benefits do you get from it? Is there a TCY-ish popup with more information about the guy, or do just the ratings change? Or something else?

And for the interviews:

1) When does THIS happen? Before the draft, of course, but what's the exact timing?
2) If the sessions are during the draft, can you change targets?
3) Are the results instantaneous or do you have to wait to see them (e.g. go through another week of free agency)
4) What benefits do you get from it? Is there a TCY-ish popup with more information about the guy, or do just the blue bars/gray bars/ratings change? Or something else?

Screen shots would be very helpful. Thank you.

I know the summer league switch happens at the beginning of the offseason, the same time you can change ticket prices. It can only be a second year player that gets moved, and basically it just appears on his card that he went to summer league, no other indicator. I guess the idea is that it will help players develop faster, but this definitely needs some further testing.



For interviews, they happen during the draft preview phase, which is during first free agency. You get quick results, just click on interview and basically two things happen, your scouted ratings for the player tighten up a lot (usually you get bars that are half as thick as the initial vague scout bars, and they move around, so that you might see a player's ratings go to the top or the bottom of where he was scouted before.) There's also an indicator of whether your scout thinks the player is underrated, overrated, etc and if you are playing with chemistry on your scout will reveal if the player has an affinity (and I assume a conflict) with your team leader in that area.

[Honolulu Blue]

I know the summer league switch happens at the beginning of the offseason, the same time you can change ticket prices. It can only be a second year player that gets moved, and basically it just appears on his card that he went to summer league, no other indicator. I guess the idea is that it will help players develop faster, but this definitely needs some further testing.



For interviews, they happen during the draft preview phase, which is during first free agency. You get quick results, just click on interview and basically two things happen, your scouted ratings for the player tighten up a lot (usually you get bars that are half as thick as the initial vague scout bars, and they move around, so that you might see a player's ratings go to the top or the bottom of where he was scouted before.) There's also an indicator of whether your scout thinks the player is underrated, overrated, etc and if you are playing with chemistry on your scout will reveal if the player has an affinity (and I assume a conflict) with your team leader in that area.


Interesting. Thanks for sharing.

Any other perspectives?

[Narcizo]

Interviews also reveal the players personality ratings (Wants Winner, Loyalty all that malarkey). And finding a player that is greatly underrated gives you a tingly feeling all over.

Or that might just be me.

[Ben E Lou]

Interviews also reveal the players personality ratings (Wants Winner, Loyalty all that malarkey). And finding a player that is greatly underrated gives you a tingly feeling all over.

Or that might just be me.Dat interview went so good...

[Peregrine]

Interviews also reveal the players personality ratings (Wants Winner, Loyalty all that malarkey). And finding a player that is greatly underrated gives you a tingly feeling all over.


It doesn't give me that feeling when I draft said underrated player and then he busts huge in camp, to become worthless. That happened to a QB I picked up last night.

[CraigSca]

Interesting. So the interview may provide clues and perhaps narrow the field, but it's still not 100%.

You know, I have to tell you (despite the controversy of chemistry being based on astrological sign), the best thing about Solecismic games is when he implements a feature he does it RIGHT. There is no half-hearted attempt at adding something that sounds great, but craps out in implementation. In fact, the majority of features in his games seem to have a depth that's not readily apparent at first glance. That's what makes his text-sims the best on the market (up there with FM, imho).

[MalcPow]

Interesting. So the interview may provide clues and perhaps narrow the field, but it's still not 100%.

You know, I have to tell you (despite the controversy of chemistry being based on astrological sign), the best thing about Solecismic games is when he implements a feature he does it RIGHT. There is no half-hearted attempt at adding something that sounds great, but craps out in implementation. In fact, the majority of features in his games seem to have a depth that's not readily apparent at first glance. That's what makes his text-sims the best on the market (up there with FM, imho).

I agree for the most part, but I want a little more time tinkering with this new draft system. As mentioned by others above, I've had some guys that my scout has interviewed and come to the conclusion they were very underrated subsequently turn out to be unproductive, crappy players. I'm definitely drafting more guys with the kinds of combine numbers I would've steered well clear of in 2k4 simply because their blue bars seem much better than their draft rating, and interviews are confirming the bars and that they are very underrated players. Unfortunately, I haven't played enough seasons to get a sense for whether this ends up being the smart thing to do, and the seasons I have played haven't led me to believe that the interviewing is definitely helping.

I guess part of me is nervous that the interview process, instead of giving me better information, is just giving me a better picture of my scout's already incorrect assessments. In which case I'm wondering if the increased scouting error Jim has been talking about will lead me to draft almost solely on combine scores or something, because there's no point in trusting my scout. We'll see, it's just not clear yet whether this has adjusted a lot under the hood, or whether it's simply adjusting what we are seeing as gamers. It's one of those portions of the game I'm sure we're all curious to dig into.

[mrsimperless]

What about players at positions that is your scout is excellent at rating?

[Cringer]

It doesn't give me that feeling when I draft said underrated player and then he busts huge in camp, to become worthless. That happened to a QB I picked up last night.

This may make me care who my scout is more actually, so that may not be a bad thing.

Fire his butt.

[kcchief19]

Interviews also reveal the players personality ratings (Wants Winner, Loyalty all that malarkey). And finding a player that is greatly underrated gives you a tingly feeling all over.
I interviewed a LT with high strength scores from the combine but with a middle of the road grade and he scored as signficantly underrated. I had a WR with the same interview result that I missed out on because I was hoping he would fall one more round, so when this guy was one of the top 10 remaining LT on the board in the fourth round I grabbed him.

I got all tingly when after camp I checked the Green Page and saw he was one of only two non-first round picks listed on the board. Woo-hoo!

[Galaxy]

I interviewed a LT with high strength scores from the combine but with a middle of the road grade and he scored as signficantly underrated. I had a WR with the same interview result that I missed out on because I was hoping he would fall one more round, so when this guy was one of the top 10 remaining LT on the board in the fourth round I grabbed him.

I got all tingly when after camp I checked the Green Page and saw he was one of only two non-first round picks listed on the board. Woo-hoo!

How those two players pan out?

[doohdeedoo]

I think the interview only tells you how overrated/underrated the overall rating (in your scouts view) is compared to the overall draft rating.

So for example if my scout sees Joe WR as a 64 but his draft rating is 4.5, he will say he is very underrated. I have noticed no real correlation with being underrated and post training camp boosts (admitedly I haven't done any comprehensive tests, just observations over 8 seasons of drafting). Rather, the underrated is the initial boost in overall score compared to combine score when he appears on your roster.

Additionally I have noticed you can pretty much predict if a player is going to be underrated or overrated by simply looking at his bars. If you see this WR rated 4.5, but see him with huge bars in route running and other important ratings, you know he will be very underrated.

In my initial opinion, I think that interviewing gives you an idea of his personality, potential affinities/conflicts, but does nothing to add to the scouting aspect except summarize the scout's opinion.