Post by WigNosy on Dec 12, 2014 1:23:10 GMT -6
This just-completed RFA season has brought up a number of questions that merit discussion. I should note that here everyone's feedback is welcomed as I think we are all trying to get our heads around the best way to go forward. I am going to put some of the issues out there as I see them, some of the solutions I have seen kicked around on Skype channels (not all of these are mine and sorry if I'm not crediting someone) - since not everyone uses Skype, and the forum does a good job of keeping the whole discussion available so we can go back and look for context and intent of something crops up later, I think this is as good a place as any to discuss.
Before I get started, let me lay out in this post as briefly as I can (sorry, it's a bit long) how the Fast Break Engine processes Free Agency, because it DOES affect the options we have in terms of how we set up our rules. If it can't easily be done using Fast Break, I want to be able to point out why.
1. Fast Break has "30 days" of Free Agency. (This is way too many for us to use them all; we don't want to spend a month crawling through FA.)
2. Teams enter their bids prior to each "day" being processed.
3. After Day 1 is processed, no player signs. Players do give feedback to GM's on this day indicating which team's contract is the most attractive (presumably in an attempt to encourage bidding wars), and where they will sign if they don't get a better offer (OR if that offer later becomes invalid due to another player signing with that team). This offer is the one the player is "leaning toward" signing.
4. Players *may* begin signing the offer they are "leaning toward" as early as the processing of Day 2.
5. A player who receives a better offer than the one they are currently "leaning toward" will almost always give all other bidding teams notice that there is a "new leader" and wait another Day to sign. (e.g., if I offer 10 million on Day 1, and get told the player is leaning toward an 11 million dollar offer, I can offer 12 million on Day 2. When Day 2 is processed, the player probably won't sign with me, but will go back to the other team and tell them, "I like the 12 million dollar offer better" and allow THEM to up the offer on Day 3, and so forth).
6. Basically, an offer generally needs to "remain the best offer" for 2 consecutive days in FBB before the player signs.
7. Players generally will not sign multi-year deals for much smaller amounts than they think they deserve (they may sign a one-year deal) no matter how days you wait. They will give feedback in the game to the effect of "I would only take that amount for 1 year."
8. Day 2 generally sees only a few signings - even most players offered a max (or supermax) won't sign on Day 2; the players that do sign on Day 2 are almost all either max signings or "ridiculously overpaid" signings (a guy asks for 1 million and gets an offer for 10 million).
9. Day 5 is when almost every player leaning toward a max deal will sign. Players offered less (again, unless massively overpaid) generally will not sign through Day 5.
10. Beginning on Day 6, players will sign whatever deal they are leaning towards, subject to points 5 (if they have a new leader, they will solicit more bids and wait a day) and 7 (will not sign a "Bad" contract for long term) above. There is no "tapering off" where guys will accept 90% of what they think they're worth, then 80%, then 70% - Day 6 basically starts "all or nothing."
11. Players give feedback as to what team they are leaning towards individually to every team that bid on them. Because of this it is probably NOT reasonable to ask Darth to record all of these (renegotiation is 1-2 players per team per season; this is 5 to 10 times that every single free agency "day").
These are the "technical restrictions" everyone needs to be aware of when proposing "fixes" to Free Agency. If your "fix" requires us to butt heads with something listed above, it is not a good fix because it will take a lot of work.
The way I believe RFA has been done to this point is that Darth runs the sim to about Day 6 (so everyone signs based on the available offers), notes the teams and amounts and posts them to the forum, but does not save the results in the FBB file (because we need it back to Day 1 when we start UFA so players don't sign undervalued contracts out of the gate). Once we have finished our forum thread for RFA (accept, decline, sign-and-trade) he edits the players accordingly and assigns them to the appropriate team(s). UFA then begins post-RFA-contract-edit on "Day 1" in FBB.
Before I get started, let me lay out in this post as briefly as I can (sorry, it's a bit long) how the Fast Break Engine processes Free Agency, because it DOES affect the options we have in terms of how we set up our rules. If it can't easily be done using Fast Break, I want to be able to point out why.
1. Fast Break has "30 days" of Free Agency. (This is way too many for us to use them all; we don't want to spend a month crawling through FA.)
2. Teams enter their bids prior to each "day" being processed.
3. After Day 1 is processed, no player signs. Players do give feedback to GM's on this day indicating which team's contract is the most attractive (presumably in an attempt to encourage bidding wars), and where they will sign if they don't get a better offer (OR if that offer later becomes invalid due to another player signing with that team). This offer is the one the player is "leaning toward" signing.
4. Players *may* begin signing the offer they are "leaning toward" as early as the processing of Day 2.
5. A player who receives a better offer than the one they are currently "leaning toward" will almost always give all other bidding teams notice that there is a "new leader" and wait another Day to sign. (e.g., if I offer 10 million on Day 1, and get told the player is leaning toward an 11 million dollar offer, I can offer 12 million on Day 2. When Day 2 is processed, the player probably won't sign with me, but will go back to the other team and tell them, "I like the 12 million dollar offer better" and allow THEM to up the offer on Day 3, and so forth).
6. Basically, an offer generally needs to "remain the best offer" for 2 consecutive days in FBB before the player signs.
7. Players generally will not sign multi-year deals for much smaller amounts than they think they deserve (they may sign a one-year deal) no matter how days you wait. They will give feedback in the game to the effect of "I would only take that amount for 1 year."
8. Day 2 generally sees only a few signings - even most players offered a max (or supermax) won't sign on Day 2; the players that do sign on Day 2 are almost all either max signings or "ridiculously overpaid" signings (a guy asks for 1 million and gets an offer for 10 million).
9. Day 5 is when almost every player leaning toward a max deal will sign. Players offered less (again, unless massively overpaid) generally will not sign through Day 5.
10. Beginning on Day 6, players will sign whatever deal they are leaning towards, subject to points 5 (if they have a new leader, they will solicit more bids and wait a day) and 7 (will not sign a "Bad" contract for long term) above. There is no "tapering off" where guys will accept 90% of what they think they're worth, then 80%, then 70% - Day 6 basically starts "all or nothing."
11. Players give feedback as to what team they are leaning towards individually to every team that bid on them. Because of this it is probably NOT reasonable to ask Darth to record all of these (renegotiation is 1-2 players per team per season; this is 5 to 10 times that every single free agency "day").
These are the "technical restrictions" everyone needs to be aware of when proposing "fixes" to Free Agency. If your "fix" requires us to butt heads with something listed above, it is not a good fix because it will take a lot of work.
The way I believe RFA has been done to this point is that Darth runs the sim to about Day 6 (so everyone signs based on the available offers), notes the teams and amounts and posts them to the forum, but does not save the results in the FBB file (because we need it back to Day 1 when we start UFA so players don't sign undervalued contracts out of the gate). Once we have finished our forum thread for RFA (accept, decline, sign-and-trade) he edits the players accordingly and assigns them to the appropriate team(s). UFA then begins post-RFA-contract-edit on "Day 1" in FBB.
