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

[Rain Man]

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!

[Branden Albert's Huge Balls]

Quick question about starting lineups:

Would I be better off starting a proven veteran over a rookie, or should I go with the rookie simply because he had a better statistical season last year? There's about a 200-yard difference between players.

[cdcox]

Rookie vs. veteran has no influence on game simulations. Start the player that you think had the overall better season in 2011. I'm not going to go into details about what constitutes a better season, but it is far more complicated than total yards. Also there is not a mapping of week-by-week performance between the NFL and Sandbox league. In other words, player X could have a bad week 1 in the NFL and a great week 1 in Sandbox.

[Branden Albert's Huge Balls]

Originally Posted by cdcox

Also there is not a mapping of week-by-week performance between the NFL and Sandbox league. In other words, player X could have a bad week 1 in the NFL and a great week 1 in Sandbox.

OK. Here's a related question:

Let's say I have an injured player who absolutely tore it up for a few weeks, but then got hurt. Will he be awesome for the weeks he's available?

[cdcox]

On average, yes.

[rageeumr]

I like the setup of the DL rotation.

My only comment is that it might be helpful to have the option for a single player to get snaps at multiple DL positions. I'm running a 4-3, and it would be nice to be able to play backup guys at both L and R DT and DE. I might even choose to have certain players get a few snaps at DT and DE if that were an option.

Is there any chance that will be incorporated into the game?

Great work so far. I think this is going to be a blast.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Satanic Goat

Quick question about starting lineups:

Would I be better off starting a proven veteran over a rookie, or should I go with the rookie simply because he had a better statistical season last year? There's about a 200-yard difference between players.

It's really about who was the better player and your judgment.

If the rookie had more yards - say 250 rushes for 800 yards - but the veteran had 100 rushes for 500 yards, you might want to start the veteran because his stats indicate more effectiveness. Who's the better blocker? Better receiver? This is all taken into account with the system we're installing.

[cdcox]

Originally Posted by rageeumr

I like the setup of the DL rotation.

My only comment is that it might be helpful to have the option for a single player to get snaps at multiple DL positions. I'm running a 4-3, and it would be nice to be able to play backup guys at both L and R DT and DE. I might even choose to have certain players get a few snaps at DT and DE if that were an option.

Is there any chance that will be incorporated into the game?

Great work so far. I think this is going to be a blast.

I went round and round about whether to substitute at specific positions (like I set up) or whether to keep it generic, like you suggest. It's always a balance between providing the flexibility that real NFL coaches have, and keeping the interface (and programming!) relatively simple.

If people want more flexibility in their DL rotations, I would probably consider it as an option in a future year.

[topher79]

Trade proposed to Cedar Rapids from Wichita.

[Branden Albert's Huge Balls]

Still have 2 top shelf pass rushers for trade. Looking for CB, DT, RT, S. Priority in that order.

[topher79]

When does this start? I'm (Wichita Potheads) kind of in need of QB. Any of the following would be available...

Cameron Wake
Jonathan Joseph
Steve Smith (Car)
Domato Peko
Future Draft Picks

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by topher79

When does this start? I'm (Wichita Potheads) kind of in need of QB. Any of the following would be available...

Cameron Wake
Jonathan Joseph
Steve Smith (Car)
Domato Peko
Future Draft Picks

Which league? Post this in the discussion thread for the league that you're in.

As an aside, we're going to be setting up a separate BB system for Sandbox before too long, so that we aren't mooching on chiefsplanet for this. It's just a matter of getting it set up.

[Branden Albert's Huge Balls]

Originally Posted by topher79

When does this start? I'm (Wichita Potheads) kind of in need of QB. Any of the following would be available...

Cameron Wake
Jonathan Joseph
Steve Smith (Car)
Domato Peko
Future Draft Picks

I'd be interested in Jonathan Joseph.

Check Denver Broncos roster.

[lostcause]

Just out of curiosity, have you coded to compensate for poor stats that result from players being dominant at their positions, like cornerback? Where often, they're poor statistical performance is due to being avoided. If we had the option of trotting out Kyle Arrington (88 tackles, 7 int.) versus Nnamdi Asomugha (40 tackles, 3 int.), should we go with statistical performance?

[cdcox]

Originally Posted by lostcause

Just out of curiosity, have you coded to compensate for poor stats that result from players being dominant at their positions, like cornerback? Where often, they're poor statistical performance is due to being avoided. If we had the option of trotting out Kyle Arrington (88 tackles, 7 int.) versus Nnamdi Asomugha (40 tackles, 3 int.), should we go with statistical performance?

No, you should go with the better player.

[brorth]

Originally Posted by cdcox

No, you should go with the better player.

So, who would be the better player in that case? I know NA is the bigger name, but was he better last season?

The reason I ask is because I have fallen for the Pro Football Reference Approximate Value as a general indicator of the player's importance to the team.

Arrington does have "better numbers", but his AV is also 8, compared to 7 this season from Asomugha. It's nominal, but it would seem to indicate that Arrington was more valuable to the Pats than Asomugha was to the Eagles.

I'm going round and round with Stafford and Newton in a similar situation. Stafford has more total TDs, passing yards, etc. Newton has the rushing TDs, and their total offense is close, but Newton's AV is 19 as opposed to Stafford's 16.

I guess a lot of it will have to do with how the scoring is weighted, as far as determining the better player, or am I putting way too much stock in the AV from Pro Football Reference?