Your Chance To Participate In A New Football Phenomenon (Sandbox Simulations) - Page 133

**Rain Man** · 09:15 AM

I apologize if the mods think this is soliciting, and I guess it is, but at the same time it's beta testing a new product developed by long-time planeteers, and it's free.

cdcox and I have been developing a new football game for the thoughtful fan, where players build franchises and compete against each other. A description is below.

If you're interested, we're offering the game for free in Year 1 to Chiefsplanet members, with the goal of both giving the system a dry run and also hooking you like Phillip Morris. You can go to www.sandboxsimulations.com to sign up, and use the access code 6Lanier3.

Here's the overview:

Build and manage a full 53-player roster over multiple seasons, as an offseason activity to give you year-round football

Select your personnel to match your offensive and defensive scheme. Every position matters – even your blocking tight end.

Realistic and accurate simulations of league games based on head-to-head matchups against other teams in your league.

This is essentially a new concept in fantasy football that attempts to simulate as closely as possible the management of a real NFL franchise over a multi-year period. Unlike regular fantasy football, every position on the offense and defense contributes to your success or failure. On special teams, the punter, kicker, and kick returners matter.

In Sandbox Football you will build a team – an entire 53-man football team – via an initial draft, and will maintain it year after year in annual rookie drafts, trading periods, and free agency. You compete against teams in your league. In the first year of the game, before the start of the NFL season, you will build your roster by drafting veterans and rookies through separate drafts, and through trades with other teams in the league. Your roster is frozen at the beginning of the NFL season. During the real regular NFL season, you can focus on your traditional fantasy games and perhaps keep on eye on your Sandbox roster as our statistical models build the data on player performances. At the end of the regular NFL season, the Sandbox season begins. There will be 16 games in the season. In real time, the season will run about 8 weeks (2 alternate reality games per week).

Game outcomes will be simulated based on the performance of individual players during the just-completed NFL regular season. The simulations, developed by a PhD statistical expert, estimate how individual players will perform in the context of your alternate reality team competing head-to-head against other teams in the league and with the specific team that you have built. The simulations will consider the offensive and defensive schemes that you select. So you can build your roster to support a power running game or a high-flying passing attack. You can run a 3-4 or 4-3 base defense. You can run nickel formations or four-wide receiver sets. You can rotate your DL to keep them fresh.

The game is more about building a team than playing video games. So this isn't Madden, but you will have the ability to tweak your game plan to take the best advantage of your roster and the weaknesses of your opponent. Injuries are a factor in the game. If a player is unavailable during weeks 3 through 6 in the NFL, he is also unavailable during the same weeks in the alternate reality season. So roster depth matters. The game simulations are based on the most advanced statistics and the latest research regarding what matters in winning an NFL game. But, the outcomes of the games have a random component, just like real NFL games.

The calendar for the alternate reality league year will look something like this:
• Jan to Mid March: Alternate Reality regular season and playoffs.
• Mid-March to the beginning of NFL season: Roster building through trades, veteran draft (first year), free agent drafts (2nd year and beyond), and rookie draft.
• Beginning of NFL season to end of regular NFL season: Alternate reality league is dormant, but the NFL players are generating their performance stats for the up-coming AR league.
• Rinse and repeat.

Copyright Sandbox Simulations, all rights reserved.

We're still finalizing the cost structure, but this won't be an expensive game to play at all. It might range from a few bucks a year to $50 per year, depending on a few factors.

Year 1 will require a couple of days of drafting with rather high intensity, but we've got it set up where you can put your draft list together and do customized and automated drafting if you like.

So...go! Now! Time to get ready for the draft!

Note that we are still in beta testing, so things could change if we find problems in the system.

How Free Agency Works:

Free Agency will begin before the 2012 season after the rookie draft.

Our process is as follows for the 2012 season. In 2013 and beyond there will be minor changes as noted later.

1. We will unveil the list of available free agents so you can check out the talent pool.

2. If you look in "Standings", you will see that you have a salary account value of $1,300. You will use this to sign your veterans to contracts, sign your rookies to contracts, and (in a competitive bidding process) sign free agents to contracts.

The cost of a contract is as follows for players already on your roster (both veterans and rookies).

$0 - 1 season contract
$10 - 2 season contract
$22 - 3 season contract
$37 - 4 season contract
$55 - 5 season contract
$76 - 6 season contract
$100 - 7 season contract

You will sign your existing players to contracts using an interface that we will unveil shortly. If your 53-man roster is set you can spend your $1,300 on your current roster. However, it may be worthwhile to hold some money back so you can compete for free agents.

3. The free agency period begins.

Bidding for free agents will be open and competitive. As players come available, teams will be allowed to sign them if they are the high bidder. The contract length is automatically calculated by rounding down the bid to the chart below.

Contract Length (Seasons) Salary Points Bid
1 0 to 9
2 10 to 21
3 22 to 36
4 37 to 54
5 55 to 75
6 76 to 99
7 100 or more

For example, if you submit the winning bid for a player at a price of 25 salary points, that player becomes yours under a 3-year contract. If you submit a bid for 35 points and win, it’s also a 3-year contract. If you submit a bid for 38 points, it’s a 4-year contract. If you submit a bid for 120 points, it’s a 7-year contract.

For the 2012 free agency period, we will enforce the 53-man rule. You will need to cut down to 53 players before the free agency period starts, and if you sign a player to go above 53, you will need to cut a player to stay within the roster limit. NOTE: DON'T CUT YET UNLESS YOU WANT TO. WE'RE STILL FINALIZING THE SYSTEM AND WANT TO BE SURE THAT THIS RULE WORKS IN 2012.

4. Ending Bidding and Ending Free Agency.

Bids on an individual player will begin once the first player places a bid. For the 2012 season that bid must be $1 or more. Bidding ends when the existing high bid had not been raised for 72 hours. At that point, the high-bid team is awarded the player under the contract terms described in Step 3.

The free agency period in 2012 will end once there have been no bids on any players for 72 hours.

5. Unused Salary Points

If you do not use all of your salary points in a given year, they will roll over from year to year. This is experimental and we'll have to see how it works. If it doesn't work, they'll expire each year, or maybe a portion of the points can roll over. Right now, assume they all roll over.

6. Salary Points and Roster Management

In the Sandbox system, salary points and the salary cap are used only for acquiring players. You will never have to track the number of salary points “on your roster” and you will never have to cut a player for salary cap reasons.

Additionally, you are not obligated to keep a player for the full length of his contract. You can cut him or trade him at any time. However, recognize that it’s a waste of salary points to cut or trade a player before the end of his contract. But it doesn't hamstring you going forward - it's just past money that you wasted.

7. Free Agency and Contract Length - Retaining Your Current Players

When a player reaches the end of their contract, they go back into the free agency pool and teams will bid for their services. You are eligible to bid on them to get them back, just like you can bid on any free agents.

There is one exception to the rule of free agents going into the free agency pool, as follows:

• At the end of the bidding process, you have the opportunity to re-sign your own players by outbidding the high bidder. Your bid must be the minimum points to increase their contract period by a year over the high bid. (Example: your player goes to free agency, and another team bids 50 points for him, which equates to a 4-year contract. You can keep the player by paying 55 points for him, which is the minimum amount for a 5-year contract.) If the high bidder offered a contract of 100 points or more (7-years), you can keep the player by bidding 10% more points than the high bid.

8. Free Agency and Trades

If you trade for a player, their contract length is a consideration. Trading for a player with 6 years left on his contract will give you his services for that amount of time (unless you cut him or trade him, or he retires). Trading for a player with 1 year left on his contract means that he’ll go back into the free agency pool at the end of the season. (Of course, you can still retain him via Step 7.)

9. Future Years

In future years, the process will be identical to that shown above, with the following exceptions.

a. Because you will have a lot of veteran players under contract, you won't need $1,300. You'll get a new annual allotment of signing dollars. We're still working on the exact amount, but it looks like it'll be between $500 and $600.

b. In the 2012 season, we will introduce all free agents at once to catch up. In the 2013 season and beyond, the free agency period will occur during the actual NFL season. We will sprinkle the free agents in one division at a time over the course of the season. (The divisions may be randomly selected or we may release a calendar. It doesn't matter that much.) This system should be interesting because some free agents will come available early in the season when you don't know their performance for the year - greater risk, greater reward - while other free agents will come available later in the season when you know what their performance will be, but so does everyone else.

c. In the 2013 season and beyond, you will be able to retain more than 53 players through the rookie draft and the main free agency period. You will then have a cutdown period to get to 53 and we will have a final free agency period where you can sign any players who have been cut. In that final period you will have to enforce a 53-man roster, so if you sign a player you have to cut one.

10. When you think about the schedule in 2013 and beyond, it will go like this:

a. Sandbox season goes from February through April.
b. Rookie draft in May. No 53-man limit.
c. Free agency from (likely) September through December, with free agents sprinkled in throughout that period.
d. January. Roster cuts to 53.
e. Late January. Final free agency period to flesh out rosters and sign players cut in Step d.
f. New Sandbox season begins.

brorth · 06-21-2012, 06:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rain Man

Overall, the logic seems quite reasonable, including the details like when time outs are called and when they go for it on fourth down. Nice work.

On some of the teams I'm managing, there seems to be more passing, more tight end passes, and more fullback runs than I'm expecting, but that could be my game planning. I'll look into it.

Heh. I tried running a 2 TE set, pass heavy to take advantage of Gronk and Keller. 2 for 17 and 2 for 32.

My RB splits seem to be in line(other than fullback). Carries were HB1 14,HB2 5, HB3 1, and 10 for FB.

In four short yardage situations, my chosen player carried twice and my FB carried twice. It could be the result of using 2 TE short yardage and the FB's number getting called, although I'd prefer it if my chosen player carried the ball in those cases.

Do hurry up/run out clock equate to playing from behind/ playing with a lead?
I would fire my coach and QB for passing as much as we did with a lead.

Last question/thought: Will defensive stats ever be a part of the game, or is this meant to be an offensive simulation? I noticed it showed who is credited with a sack, but other than that, the only defensive names I saw were for penalties. Just wondering if tackles and pressures will be attributable to a player.

**Rain Man** · 06-21-2012, 08:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brorth

Last question/thought: Will defensive stats ever be a part of the game, or is this meant to be an offensive simulation? I noticed it showed who is credited with a sack, but other than that, the only defensive names I saw were for penalties. Just wondering if tackles and pressures will be attributable to a player.

It's in the long-term plan to develop defensive stats. Rest assured that the defensive players' abilities are being used in the simulation, so they're having an impact on the plays' outcomes, but we just haven't developed a corresponding stat line yet.

**cdcox** · 06-21-2012, 09:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brorth

Heh. I tried running a 2 TE set, pass heavy to take advantage of Gronk and Keller. 2 for 17 and 2 for 32.

My RB splits seem to be in line(other than fullback). Carries were HB1 14,HB2 5, HB3 1, and 10 for FB.

In four short yardage situations, my chosen player carried twice and my FB carried twice. It could be the result of using 2 TE short yardage and the FB's number getting called, although I'd prefer it if my chosen player carried the ball in those cases.

Do hurry up/run out clock equate to playing from behind/ playing with a lead?
I would fire my coach and QB for passing as much as we did with a lead.

Last question/thought: Will defensive stats ever be a part of the game, or is this meant to be an offensive simulation? I noticed it showed who is credited with a sack, but other than that, the only defensive names I saw were for penalties. Just wondering if tackles and pressures will be attributable to a player.

A few clarifications;

1. Your 2 TE pass heavy set should work as you intend, in the long run. If it doesn't let me know and I'll dig into it.

2. The short yardage back will only be automatically used in the two short yardage formations: 2-TE short yardage and 3-TE short yardage. If it is 3rd and inches and you are running a base formation, your 3rd down back will be in the game, not the short yardage back.

3. Yes, the hurry up is playing behind late in the game and run out the clock is playing with a lead late in the game. You might want to turn your passing down in run out the clock situations. The simulator also automatically evaluates situations where it is "must pass" and "must run". An example of "must pass" would be being down by 4 at mid field with 30 seconds left and no time outs. In a "must pass" situation, the simulator will automatically select a passing play. "Must run" is similar. "Must run" occurs you can run out the clock (or come to it) by just running the ball. By having this logic built into the simulator, it is possible to keep passing with the lead (if that is your coaching style), without passing in a situation where it is just plain stupid.

I'll make a separate post about details in the play by play.

rageeumr · 06-21-2012, 09:48 AM

cdcox, I have a player on my team (Edmond "Clyde" Gates) that lists "non" as position. He is a WR and a KR. Didn't see much action at WR, but I'd still like to get him listed there if possible.

Edit, Sorry, League 1 Provo Knuckledraggers.

**Rain Man** · 06-21-2012, 10:18 AM

Okay, I adjusted my lineups and am tweaking my game plans. This is a nifty system. Congrats on the good work, cdcox.

Part of my noticing lots of passes may have been a proclivity to use 3-WR sets more than I should have. I'll monitor.

People, be sure to update your lineups. If you have an injury, your guy will be replaced by a street free agent otherwise. (cdcox, a nice potential long-term fix would be to have a depth chart that would automatically move guys up in the event of an injury. If my WR1 goes down, I have to manually move up the WR2 to 1, 3 to 2, 4 to 3, and 5 to 4.)

**cdcox** · 06-21-2012, 10:44 AM

One challenge in the play-by-play is to balance detail of information versus ease of reading.

Right now I generate the following information that is not displayed. It wouldn't be too difficult to save and display this information from the simulations:

1. Offensive formation
2. Defensive formation
3. Name of pass rusher generating pressure
4. Name of primary person covering intended receiver

Currently I do not generate which player makes the tackle, but I might be able to simulate that next year.

How much of this information do you want to see? Would it be worthwhile to have a simple play-by-play similar to what is posted now, and a more detailed one that includes the above information that could be viewed on demand?

**cdcox** · 06-21-2012, 10:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rageeumr

cdcox, I have a player on my team (Edmond "Clyde" Gates) that lists "non" as position. He is a WR and a KR. Didn't see much action at WR, but I'd still like to get him listed there if possible.

Edit, Sorry, League 1 Provo Knuckledraggers.

I'll take a look at it this evening.

**Rain Man** · 06-21-2012, 10:48 AM

While more options for information are always good, I'd be fine in the short term just having information on who the involved defenders are (pressure, coverage, passes defensed, tackles, etc.) more so than the formation.

Maybe as we get more into it I'd like to see the formation so I could tweak things a little better. Right now, I'm still mastering all of the other stuff so it's less of a priority. So in the long term it would be nice to have the option to look at formations, but I don't think it's an immediate priority.

Hammock Parties · 06-21-2012, 01:46 PM

I set my RB3 to 0 percent of carries, so we'll see if that changes anything.

**Rain Man** · 06-21-2012, 03:14 PM

Hmm, I just noticed in the Richmond-Duluth game in League 1 that the Duluth QB threw a 17 yard pass from his own 30 that was intercepted. It was returned 28 yards and should have been placed at the Duluth 19 yard line. Instead it was placed at the Richmond 19 yard line.

**Rain Man** · 06-21-2012, 03:19 PM

There's definitely a problem in the yard placement after interceptions. I see another interception in the Duluth-Richmond game where the ball should have been placed in Richmond territory and was assigned to the correct yard line, but in Duluth territory.

Unless of course the refs were just making up for the bad ball placement on the first interception.

**Rain Man** · 06-21-2012, 03:22 PM

Probably should have some logic to avoid spiking the ball on first down late in halves. That should always be a play.

**Rain Man** · 06-21-2012, 03:26 PM

There was some oddity in this drive. I bet this one is a bear to find and fix since it seems to be an anomaly.

4th Q 15:00 2nd and 11 Duluth 34 Spencer Larsen rushes for 9 yards.
4th Q 14:10 3rd and 2 Duluth 42 Spencer Larsen rushes for 8 yards.
4th Q 13:20 1st and 10 50 Spencer Larsen rushes for 5 yards.
4th Q 12:30 2nd and 5 Richmond 45 Spencer Larsen rushes for 5 yards.
4th Q 11:40 3rd and 5 Richmond 45 Philip Rivers (pressured) passes incomplete to Harry Douglas.
4th Q 11:33 4th and 5 Richmond 45 Kevin Huber punts 45 yards, touchback.

The item in bold should have been a first down or a third and inches. Not sure why it wasn't. Could there have been some kind of penalty that wasn't reported or a fumble recovery or something?

**cdcox** · 06-21-2012, 05:37 PM

I'm going to dig into the interception problem (probably simple) and the weird 4th Q drive.

I think the first down spiking is okay. The clock does not stop on a first down in the NFL. I've seen teams complete a long pass, rush down field, snap the ball and spike it. My logic even makes a spike on first down more likely since there are more downs to burn. Am I missing something?

**Rain Man** · 06-21-2012, 05:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cdcox

I'm going to dig into the interception problem (probably simple) and the weird 4th Q drive.

I think the first down spiking is okay. The clock does not stop on a first down in the NFL. I've seen teams complete a long pass, rush down field, snap the ball and spike it. My logic even makes a spike on first down more likely since there are more downs to burn. Am I missing something?

Yeah, I guess you're right in general on the first down. The situation that caught my attention was the special case subset below, a spike on first down after a change in possession, which should never be a spike unless your QB is Elvis Grbac. Is there a way to put a fix in for that? Otherwise, we'll be fielding complaints from paying players down the line.

Richmond
2nd Q 1:10 Nick Folk kicks 64 yards, returned for 30 yards by LaRod Stephens-Howling
2nd Q 1:02 1st and 10 Richmond 36 Matt Hasselbeck sacked by Shaun Phillips for a loss of -3 yards. QB fumbled and defense recoved returned for 0 yards.
Richmond 0, Duluth 10
Duluth
2nd Q 0:46 1st and 10 Richmond 33 Philip Rivers spikes the ball to kill the clock.
2nd Q 0:43 2nd and 10 Richmond 33 Philip Rivers passes incomplete to DeSean Jackson.
2nd Q 0:36 3rd and 10 Richmond 33 Philip Rivers passes incomplete to Randall Cobb.
2nd Q 0:29 4th and 10 Richmond 33 Nick Folk field goal attempt from 50 yards. Good.
Richmond 0, Duluth 13

08-08-2011, 02:01 PM
Rain Man NFL's #1 Ermines Fan Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: My house Casino cash: $3408491 VARSITY	Your Chance To Participate In A New Football Phenomenon (Sandbox Simulations) I apologize if the mods think this is soliciting, and I guess it is, but at the same time it's beta testing a new product developed by long-time planeteers, and it's free. cdcox and I have been developing a new football game for the thoughtful fan, where players build franchises and compete against each other. A description is below. If you're interested, we're offering the game for free in Year 1 to Chiefsplanet members, with the goal of both giving the system a dry run and also hooking you like Phillip Morris. You can go to www.sandboxsimulations.com to sign up, and use the access code 6Lanier3. Here's the overview: Build and manage a full 53-player roster over multiple seasons, as an offseason activity to give you year-round football Select your personnel to match your offensive and defensive scheme. Every position matters – even your blocking tight end. Realistic and accurate simulations of league games based on head-to-head matchups against other teams in your league. This is essentially a new concept in fantasy football that attempts to simulate as closely as possible the management of a real NFL franchise over a multi-year period. Unlike regular fantasy football, every position on the offense and defense contributes to your success or failure. On special teams, the punter, kicker, and kick returners matter. In Sandbox Football you will build a team – an entire 53-man football team – via an initial draft, and will maintain it year after year in annual rookie drafts, trading periods, and free agency. You compete against teams in your league. In the first year of the game, before the start of the NFL season, you will build your roster by drafting veterans and rookies through separate drafts, and through trades with other teams in the league. Your roster is frozen at the beginning of the NFL season. During the real regular NFL season, you can focus on your traditional fantasy games and perhaps keep on eye on your Sandbox roster as our statistical models build the data on player performances. At the end of the regular NFL season, the Sandbox season begins. There will be 16 games in the season. In real time, the season will run about 8 weeks (2 alternate reality games per week). Game outcomes will be simulated based on the performance of individual players during the just-completed NFL regular season. The simulations, developed by a PhD statistical expert, estimate how individual players will perform in the context of your alternate reality team competing head-to-head against other teams in the league and with the specific team that you have built. The simulations will consider the offensive and defensive schemes that you select. So you can build your roster to support a power running game or a high-flying passing attack. You can run a 3-4 or 4-3 base defense. You can run nickel formations or four-wide receiver sets. You can rotate your DL to keep them fresh. The game is more about building a team than playing video games. So this isn't Madden, but you will have the ability to tweak your game plan to take the best advantage of your roster and the weaknesses of your opponent. Injuries are a factor in the game. If a player is unavailable during weeks 3 through 6 in the NFL, he is also unavailable during the same weeks in the alternate reality season. So roster depth matters. The game simulations are based on the most advanced statistics and the latest research regarding what matters in winning an NFL game. But, the outcomes of the games have a random component, just like real NFL games. The calendar for the alternate reality league year will look something like this: • Jan to Mid March: Alternate Reality regular season and playoffs. • Mid-March to the beginning of NFL season: Roster building through trades, veteran draft (first year), free agent drafts (2nd year and beyond), and rookie draft. • Beginning of NFL season to end of regular NFL season: Alternate reality league is dormant, but the NFL players are generating their performance stats for the up-coming AR league. • Rinse and repeat. Copyright Sandbox Simulations, all rights reserved. We're still finalizing the cost structure, but this won't be an expensive game to play at all. It might range from a few bucks a year to $50 per year, depending on a few factors. Year 1 will require a couple of days of drafting with rather high intensity, but we've got it set up where you can put your draft list together and do customized and automated drafting if you like. So...go! Now! Time to get ready for the draft! Note that we are still in beta testing, so things could change if we find problems in the system. How Free Agency Works: Free Agency will begin before the 2012 season after the rookie draft. Our process is as follows for the 2012 season. In 2013 and beyond there will be minor changes as noted later. 1. We will unveil the list of available free agents so you can check out the talent pool. 2. If you look in "Standings", you will see that you have a salary account value of $1,300. You will use this to sign your veterans to contracts, sign your rookies to contracts, and (in a competitive bidding process) sign free agents to contracts. The cost of a contract is as follows for players already on your roster (both veterans and rookies). $0 - 1 season contract $10 - 2 season contract $22 - 3 season contract $37 - 4 season contract $55 - 5 season contract $76 - 6 season contract $100 - 7 season contract You will sign your existing players to contracts using an interface that we will unveil shortly. If your 53-man roster is set you can spend your $1,300 on your current roster. However, it may be worthwhile to hold some money back so you can compete for free agents. 3. The free agency period begins. Bidding for free agents will be open and competitive. As players come available, teams will be allowed to sign them if they are the high bidder. The contract length is automatically calculated by rounding down the bid to the chart below. Contract Length (Seasons) Salary Points Bid 1 0 to 9 2 10 to 21 3 22 to 36 4 37 to 54 5 55 to 75 6 76 to 99 7 100 or more For example, if you submit the winning bid for a player at a price of 25 salary points, that player becomes yours under a 3-year contract. If you submit a bid for 35 points and win, it’s also a 3-year contract. If you submit a bid for 38 points, it’s a 4-year contract. If you submit a bid for 120 points, it’s a 7-year contract. For the 2012 free agency period, we will enforce the 53-man rule. You will need to cut down to 53 players before the free agency period starts, and if you sign a player to go above 53, you will need to cut a player to stay within the roster limit. NOTE: DON'T CUT YET UNLESS YOU WANT TO. WE'RE STILL FINALIZING THE SYSTEM AND WANT TO BE SURE THAT THIS RULE WORKS IN 2012. 4. Ending Bidding and Ending Free Agency. Bids on an individual player will begin once the first player places a bid. For the 2012 season that bid must be $1 or more. Bidding ends when the existing high bid had not been raised for 72 hours. At that point, the high-bid team is awarded the player under the contract terms described in Step 3. The free agency period in 2012 will end once there have been no bids on any players for 72 hours. 5. Unused Salary Points If you do not use all of your salary points in a given year, they will roll over from year to year. This is experimental and we'll have to see how it works. If it doesn't work, they'll expire each year, or maybe a portion of the points can roll over. Right now, assume they all roll over. 6. Salary Points and Roster Management In the Sandbox system, salary points and the salary cap are used only for acquiring players. You will never have to track the number of salary points “on your roster” and you will never have to cut a player for salary cap reasons. Additionally, you are not obligated to keep a player for the full length of his contract. You can cut him or trade him at any time. However, recognize that it’s a waste of salary points to cut or trade a player before the end of his contract. But it doesn't hamstring you going forward - it's just past money that you wasted. 7. Free Agency and Contract Length - Retaining Your Current Players When a player reaches the end of their contract, they go back into the free agency pool and teams will bid for their services. You are eligible to bid on them to get them back, just like you can bid on any free agents. There is one exception to the rule of free agents going into the free agency pool, as follows: • At the end of the bidding process, you have the opportunity to re-sign your own players by outbidding the high bidder. Your bid must be the minimum points to increase their contract period by a year over the high bid. (Example: your player goes to free agency, and another team bids 50 points for him, which equates to a 4-year contract. You can keep the player by paying 55 points for him, which is the minimum amount for a 5-year contract.) If the high bidder offered a contract of 100 points or more (7-years), you can keep the player by bidding 10% more points than the high bid. 8. Free Agency and Trades If you trade for a player, their contract length is a consideration. Trading for a player with 6 years left on his contract will give you his services for that amount of time (unless you cut him or trade him, or he retires). Trading for a player with 1 year left on his contract means that he’ll go back into the free agency pool at the end of the season. (Of course, you can still retain him via Step 7.) 9. Future Years In future years, the process will be identical to that shown above, with the following exceptions. a. Because you will have a lot of veteran players under contract, you won't need $1,300. You'll get a new annual allotment of signing dollars. We're still working on the exact amount, but it looks like it'll be between $500 and $600. b. In the 2012 season, we will introduce all free agents at once to catch up. In the 2013 season and beyond, the free agency period will occur during the actual NFL season. We will sprinkle the free agents in one division at a time over the course of the season. (The divisions may be randomly selected or we may release a calendar. It doesn't matter that much.) This system should be interesting because some free agents will come available early in the season when you don't know their performance for the year - greater risk, greater reward - while other free agents will come available later in the season when you know what their performance will be, but so does everyone else. c. In the 2013 season and beyond, you will be able to retain more than 53 players through the rookie draft and the main free agency period. You will then have a cutdown period to get to 53 and we will have a final free agency period where you can sign any players who have been cut. In that final period you will have to enforce a 53-man roster, so if you sign a player you have to cut one. 10. When you think about the schedule in 2013 and beyond, it will go like this: a. Sandbox season goes from February through April. b. Rookie draft in May. No 53-man limit. c. Free agency from (likely) September through December, with free agents sprinkled in throughout that period. d. January. Roster cuts to 53. e. Late January. Final free agency period to flesh out rosters and sign players cut in Step d. f. New Sandbox season begins. Last edited by Rain Man; 05-27-2013 at 09:15 AM..
Posts: 141,202

06-21-2012, 09:48 AM	#1984
rageeumr Veteran Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: St. Louis :( Casino cash: $9989900	cdcox, I have a player on my team (Edmond "Clyde" Gates) that lists "non" as position. He is a WR and a KR. Didn't see much action at WR, but I'd still like to get him listed there if possible. Edit, Sorry, League 1 Provo Knuckledraggers.
Posts: 2,313

06-21-2012, 10:18 AM	#1985
Rain Man NFL's #1 Ermines Fan Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: My house Casino cash: $3408491 VARSITY	Okay, I adjusted my lineups and am tweaking my game plans. This is a nifty system. Congrats on the good work, cdcox. Part of my noticing lots of passes may have been a proclivity to use 3-WR sets more than I should have. I'll monitor. People, be sure to update your lineups. If you have an injury, your guy will be replaced by a street free agent otherwise. (cdcox, a nice potential long-term fix would be to have a depth chart that would automatically move guys up in the event of an injury. If my WR1 goes down, I have to manually move up the WR2 to 1, 3 to 2, 4 to 3, and 5 to 4.) __________________ I'm putting random letters here as a celebration of free speech: xigrakgrah misorojeq rkemeseit.
Posts: 141,202

06-21-2012, 10:44 AM	#1986
cdcox www.nfl-forecast.com Join Date: Sep 2000 Casino cash: $2421769	One challenge in the play-by-play is to balance detail of information versus ease of reading. Right now I generate the following information that is not displayed. It wouldn't be too difficult to save and display this information from the simulations: 1. Offensive formation 2. Defensive formation 3. Name of pass rusher generating pressure 4. Name of primary person covering intended receiver Currently I do not generate which player makes the tackle, but I might be able to simulate that next year. How much of this information do you want to see? Would it be worthwhile to have a simple play-by-play similar to what is posted now, and a more detailed one that includes the above information that could be viewed on demand?
Posts: 45,536

06-21-2012, 10:48 AM	#1988
Rain Man NFL's #1 Ermines Fan Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: My house Casino cash: $3408491 VARSITY	While more options for information are always good, I'd be fine in the short term just having information on who the involved defenders are (pressure, coverage, passes defensed, tackles, etc.) more so than the formation. Maybe as we get more into it I'd like to see the formation so I could tweak things a little better. Right now, I'm still mastering all of the other stuff so it's less of a priority. So in the long term it would be nice to have the option to look at formations, but I don't think it's an immediate priority. __________________ I'm putting random letters here as a celebration of free speech: xigrakgrah misorojeq rkemeseit.
Posts: 141,202

06-21-2012, 01:46 PM	#1989
Hammock Parties I'll be back. Join Date: Nov 2002 Casino cash: $4800478	I set my RB3 to 0 percent of carries, so we'll see if that changes anything. __________________ Chiefs game films
Posts: 277,456

06-21-2012, 03:14 PM	#1990
Rain Man NFL's #1 Ermines Fan Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: My house Casino cash: $3408491 VARSITY	Hmm, I just noticed in the Richmond-Duluth game in League 1 that the Duluth QB threw a 17 yard pass from his own 30 that was intercepted. It was returned 28 yards and should have been placed at the Duluth 19 yard line. Instead it was placed at the Richmond 19 yard line. __________________ I'm putting random letters here as a celebration of free speech: xigrakgrah misorojeq rkemeseit.
Posts: 141,202

06-21-2012, 03:19 PM	#1991
Rain Man NFL's #1 Ermines Fan Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: My house Casino cash: $3408491 VARSITY	There's definitely a problem in the yard placement after interceptions. I see another interception in the Duluth-Richmond game where the ball should have been placed in Richmond territory and was assigned to the correct yard line, but in Duluth territory. Unless of course the refs were just making up for the bad ball placement on the first interception. __________________ I'm putting random letters here as a celebration of free speech: xigrakgrah misorojeq rkemeseit.
Posts: 141,202

06-21-2012, 03:22 PM	#1992
Rain Man NFL's #1 Ermines Fan Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: My house Casino cash: $3408491 VARSITY	Probably should have some logic to avoid spiking the ball on first down late in halves. That should always be a play. __________________ I'm putting random letters here as a celebration of free speech: xigrakgrah misorojeq rkemeseit.
Posts: 141,202

06-21-2012, 03:26 PM	#1993
Rain Man NFL's #1 Ermines Fan Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: My house Casino cash: $3408491 VARSITY	There was some oddity in this drive. I bet this one is a bear to find and fix since it seems to be an anomaly. 4th Q 15:00 2nd and 11 Duluth 34 Spencer Larsen rushes for 9 yards. 4th Q 14:10 3rd and 2 Duluth 42 Spencer Larsen rushes for 8 yards. 4th Q 13:20 1st and 10 50 Spencer Larsen rushes for 5 yards. 4th Q 12:30 2nd and 5 Richmond 45 Spencer Larsen rushes for 5 yards. 4th Q 11:40 3rd and 5 Richmond 45 Philip Rivers (pressured) passes incomplete to Harry Douglas. 4th Q 11:33 4th and 5 Richmond 45 Kevin Huber punts 45 yards, touchback. The item in bold should have been a first down or a third and inches. Not sure why it wasn't. Could there have been some kind of penalty that wasn't reported or a fumble recovery or something? __________________ I'm putting random letters here as a celebration of free speech: xigrakgrah misorojeq rkemeseit. Last edited by Rain Man; 06-21-2012 at 04:49 PM..
Posts: 141,202

06-21-2012, 05:37 PM	#1994
cdcox www.nfl-forecast.com Join Date: Sep 2000 Casino cash: $2421769	I'm going to dig into the interception problem (probably simple) and the weird 4th Q drive. I think the first down spiking is okay. The clock does not stop on a first down in the NFL. I've seen teams complete a long pass, rush down field, snap the ball and spike it. My logic even makes a spike on first down more likely since there are more downs to burn. Am I missing something?
Posts: 45,536