Seasons and sleep loss: how do you manage?

[HarrySTruman]

I enjoy Seasons mode -- except when I have to choose between sleeping and winning. (I've submitted some suggestions to address this in the Seasons forum, such as a 12-hour-on, 12-hour-off Seasons mode, or a short one-day Season.)

But assuming we're stuck with the current round-the-clock mode, I'm wondering: how do you guys manage this? I guess one way would be to time the start of your season so that the playoff rounds happen (mostly) during waking hours. But playoff series can vary in duration from 4 to 7 games, making it somewhat difficult to predict what time of day the later rounds will occur. And if that final series is taking place from 1 a.m. through 8 a.m., it'll disrupt my sleep -- after a five-day investment of time, I can't resist peeking at the thing and recharging at 3 a.m., and then I can't get back to sleep, yada yada.

In particular, is there an optimal time to start a Season? 82 games is 82 hours; then what, another potential 16-to-28 playoff games? So the whole season is between 98 and 120 hours? If 98, I'm tempted to say one should start in the evening, ensuring that game number 96 will wind up at the evening too. But I dunno. Last year I just forced myself to stop playing because I was stressing out too much about sleep loss during playoffs.

Anyone else given this any thought?

[NWGameDad]

Re: Seasons and sleep loss: how do you manage?

I enjoy Seasons mode -- except when I have to choose between sleeping and winning. (I've submitted some suggestions to address this in the Seasons forum, such as a 12-hour-on, 12-hour-off Seasons mode, or a short one-day Season.)

But assuming we're stuck with the current round-the-clock mode, I'm wondering: how do you guys manage this? I guess one way would be to time the start of your season so that the playoff rounds happen (mostly) during waking hours. But playoff series can vary in duration from 4 to 7 games, making it somewhat difficult to predict what time of day the later rounds will occur. And if that final series is taking place from 1 a.m. through 8 a.m., it'll disrupt my sleep -- after a five-day investment of time, I can't resist peeking at the thing and recharging at 3 a.m., and then I can't get back to sleep, yada yada.

In particular, is there an optimal time to start a Season? 82 games is 82 hours; then what, another potential 16-to-28 playoff games? So the whole season is between 98 and 120 hours? If 98, I'm tempted to say one should start in the evening, ensuring that game number 96 will wind up at the evening too. But I dunno. Last year I just forced myself to stop playing because I was stressing out too much about sleep loss during playoffs.

Anyone else given this any thought?

Keep in mind Seasons are played by people around the world. What is your sleep time is someone else's awake time. Seasons are purposely designed to allow for people to miss some games and not completely blow their Season, hence the 1 hour long games.


Now in the Playoffs every game becomes more important. We made several changes to the Season Manager last year to make it a more viable option for use as a means to energize during players. The manager covers only 20 games this year, but it raises energy on 5 cards at a time (vs. the 1 in Supercard), and the cost has been lowered to 300 Credits.


Before you jump in and say, "it's not fair I have to spend money to win in the Playoffs and sleep", remember that we give away lots of free Credits. Both in the Ladder rewards and in the Daily VC Bonus. Saving up 300 Credits is not unreasonable in order to sleep well when you're in the Playoffs.

[HarrySTruman]

Re: Seasons and sleep loss: how do you manage?

Thanks very much for your reply, NWGameDad. Actually, I don't think it's unreasonable for you to charge credits for a sleep-saving mechanic, but 300 sounds like a lot; I've been playing obsessively for a week or so, and I have all of 320 credits to my name. Also, I couldn't find this Manager thing in the game. What screen is it on?

I understand that time zones present a challenge, but I think there might be some creative ways to make a game that more of us are willing to play (and even spend real money on). Maybe leagues organized by time zone, with Seasons broken into a week of 12-hour-per-day matches. Or just Seasons that start every hour for 12-hour periods, repeated seven times, open to anyone who thinks the start-and-end times are reasonable for them. Or mini-seasons only 12 hours long.

Last year I ditched this game because I was stressing out too much over an app too late at night. Even with this Manager thing, I will probably do the same thing this year. That means I won't be tempted into spending real money on credits, etc. I'm just trying to suggest that you guys might have a business reason to make the schedule a bit more sleep-friendly.

Thanks again for your reply.

[jigz87]

Re: Seasons and sleep loss: how do you manage?

Also, I couldn't find this Manager thing in the game. What screen is it on?

When you're in a Season click on Manage Season then click on your boosts then scroll down you will find the Manager in there.

[putakti]

Re: Seasons and sleep loss: how do you manage?

After cracking the best combination for season, I am not worrying about this for regular season but when it comes to playoffs I have to be awake

[jadeany]

Re: Seasons and sleep loss: how do you manage?

number 96 will wind up at the evening too. But I dunno. Last year I just forced myself to stop playing because I was stressing out too much about sleep loss during playoffs.

[DAROCK2300]

Re: Seasons and sleep loss: how do you manage?

If you're losing sleep because you want to play a card collecting game then you may have a problem.

[Denkiteki]

Re: Seasons and sleep loss: how do you manage?

The best formula imo is try to make sure the playoff starts BEFORE your bed time (say 1 - 3 hours before). That makes game 2 or 3 the game in which you would be sleeping. It might sound crazy but remember that most playoffs, like you said, are 16 - 28 hours. Majority are likely in the middle so probably closer to 20 - 24 hour range. The first round generally goes 6 or 7 games mostly due to having the most series and generally 1 of those series go long (which the rest ends in 4 or 5). If you have an easy round 1 (which is often the case if you manage a top 4 seed), then game 5, 6, and possibly 7 won't matter for you. Winning game 1 and likely being fully rested for 2 should be enough for you to win the series. You might lose 1 or 2 games in round 2 but again this is probably the easiest team (out of the remaining teams) that you'll face and you should be able to recover... and win 4 straight (at least in theory, the best chance you'll get at winning 4 straight).

The rest of the games, you should be awake for unless every series does indeed go 7 games (remember for this to be true, your finals also needs to go 7 games... if you manage to win the finals in 4, then you'll be done before you sleep.).

Of course this doesn't beat the alternative of spending credit or just not sleeping. If you really must win a season, then i guess go with the don't sleep route or sleep in 90 minutes interval.

[ZephyrZ23]

Re: Seasons and sleep loss: how do you manage?

Sleep is important. Grades and Work beat Games.

[ActionJack]

Re: Seasons and sleep loss: how do you manage?

I think Manager is a great option this year.

20 games for 300 credits is way better than the 1000 credits for the whole season from last year.

I agree that it's totally possible to save up 300 credits for your seasons. It isn't guaranteed at all, but it's possible.

If not, you may have to spend a dollar or two. That's not a bad deal for the rewards.

[FR176]

Re: Seasons and sleep loss: how do you manage?

Yeah, I do lose some sleep come playoff time. I stay awake to win the first 4 games of the first series. Then sleep for 3 hours to play the next series. After, I'll have an interval of 90 minutes naps. This way, I managed to not use credits. I did make it to the finale twice and I won it all once.

@NWGameDad A shorter season would be a nice alternated. Especially for people with busy schedule.

Before you jump in and say, "it's not fair I have to spend money to win in the Playoffs and sleep", remember that we give away lots of free Credits. Both in the Ladder rewards and in the Daily VC Bonus. Saving up 300 Credits is not unreasonable in order to sleep well when you're in the Playoffs.

Getting 300 credits is difficult to obtained in 82 games (hours) season. I have 720 credits since the game came out on Android and played at least 4 seasons. Played more than 1500 games. Received the credit rewards of 100 credits (10 games played), 100 credits (100 games played), and 200 credits (750 games played). That's 400 credits of rewards. So from daily rewards I only made 320 credits. Talk about not enough credits.

[NWGameDad]

Re: Seasons and sleep loss: how do you manage?

Yeah, I do lose some sleep come playoff time. I stay awake to win the first 4 games of the first series. Then sleep for 3 hours to play the next series. After, I'll have an interval of 90 minutes naps. This way, I managed to not use credits. I did make it to the finale twice and I won it all once.

@NWGameDad A shorter season would be a nice alternated. Especially for people with busy schedule.




Getting 300 credits is difficult to obtained in 82 games (hours) season. I have 720 credits since the game came out on Android and played at least 4 seasons. Played more than 1500 games. Received the credit rewards of 100 credits (10 games played), 100 credits (100 games played), and 200 credits (750 games played). That's 400 credits of rewards. So from daily rewards I only made 320 credits. Talk about not enough credits.

You get what you pay for. Complaining to me that you're not getting enough *free* Credits to have a free Manager every Season you play sounds a bit entitled. Save up and use that Manager on the Season you really care about.

[jmaj315]

Re: Seasons and sleep loss: how do you manage?

Let's not forget that you get double credits for matching cards in your daily rewards. I've earned a few hundred credits by saving my good cards while waiting for 3 of a kind

[NZ Buccaneer]

Re: Seasons and sleep loss: how do you manage?

Keep in mind Seasons are played by people around the world. What is your sleep time is someone else's awake time. Seasons are purposely designed to allow for people to miss some games and not completely blow their Season, hence the 1 hour long games.


Now in the Playoffs every game becomes more important. We made several changes to the Season Manager last year to make it a more viable option for use as a means to energize during players. The manager covers only 20 games this year, but it raises energy on 5 cards at a time (vs. the 1 in Supercard), and the cost has been lowered to 300 Credits.


Before you jump in and say, "it's not fair I have to spend money to win in the Playoffs and sleep", remember that we give away lots of free Credits. Both in the Ladder rewards and in the Daily VC Bonus. Saving up 300 Credits is not unreasonable in order to sleep well when you're in the Playoffs.

This is what I did (before reading the thread) - started my first season 11pm-ish at night, meant my playoffs started about 7am yesterday morning. Used 300 credits to have my lineup pretty much full of energy for the conference and nba finals (and got the win!)

I had a terrible bench, as had no idea how much they were needed, but got a pretty nice Eric Gordon Ultra Rare card

[trobinson97]

Re: Seasons and sleep loss: how do you manage?

I feel you man. Like I said in the discussion thread, I wouldn't have played the Season if I'd known the time commitment it required. I'm certain I'll stay away from that mode from here on out. I'm way too compulsive about succeeding in it to say "**** it" and sleep through/miss games I could I win if only I were awake or not busy. I enjoy it, but it's just not the mode for me.