#97 | Practice Squad & Waiver Wire

[TuscanSota]

Hey everyone,

Hope all is well. Today's dev diary is going over changes made to the Free Agency Page changes, an update for SimBBA basketball, and SimFBA recruiting.

 

Practice Squad

In the previous implementation, the practice squad was treated as a toggle-able redshirt functionality, where players would still be part of their team, with their contract intact. They were then going to be displayed on the FA page in the waiver wire, where along-side actual waiver players, they could then be picked up. After being given feedback that practice squad players actually lose their contract, this design could not be worked out.

The feature has been reworked to the following:

Practice Squad players, when the PS button is clicked, will lose their contract, but will still be reserved for their team. They will still be considered owned by their respective team, just unable to play and participate in games.

In order to bring a practice squad player back, a team needs to have an available roster spot and must make an offer to pick up the PS player. If a team that does not own the rights to a PS player puts down an offer, the owning team will be able to match their offer up to the very details specified.

When the recruiting sync is ran, if the owning team makes a matching offer, the practice squad player will always take the owning team's offer.

 

Waiver Wire

The Waiver Wire is now available, and teams can begin making claims on players. Waiver Wire is how teams can claim players recently cut with their previous contract in-tact. Teams can make a claim, but claims are placed in order determined by the Waiver Wire order.

Waiver Wire Order within the first 3-4 weeks of the season is determined based on the Win/Loss record of the previous season. Afterwards, it will be determined based on the Win/Loss record of the current season.

Players cut from their roster are placed on the waiver wire, with their contract still in-tact. A team making a claim on a player cannot offer a new contract but must be able to pick up the old contract. Once a claim is made, a team must wait for the sync in order to confirm their claim was made, based on the waiver order. Once a team makes a claim, their team is then placed in the back of the waiver wire order.

Waiver Wire Order is determined at the end of each week after games are ran.

To navigate to the practice squad players view or waiver wire, simply click on the respective button on the free agency page:

 

What's Next?

Honestly, this will be the third final feature SimNFL, with the extensions feature being available later this season, and work on the SimNFL draft page for next season.

With all this said, I'm going to be taking some time off from development for the month of June. The dev team has been hard at work over the past several months bringing SimNFL to the interface, and providing changes to SimCFB in preparation for this season. With the season finally starting, this calls for a well-earned break. For myself, I have a lot going on in June, and won't be able to dedicate as much time to development as I would like to. I appreciate y'all for being patient with this offseason and the changes that came with it.

I really appreciate everyone for the feedback they've provided the updates deployed to the interface. Moving forward, I highly encourage everyone to provide future feedback to the interface feedback thread. I know some issues will arise in the future, and I want to make sure that any issues found can be placed here so that I can address them when I have the time. It is difficult for me to focus on providing new experiences to the interface, when issues are brought directly to my attention. By placing them in the feedback thread, I can dedicate time specifically to fixing these bugs, and these bugs only. If an issue arises where say, a page is unavailable, or the app crashes, I'm immediately fixing that issue. If a team isn't able to save their depth chart due to cuts or practice squad changes, and isn't able to fill in a spot because of insufficient cap, yes I'm going to resolve that. I recommend providing the issue, with screenshots, as feedback to the thread, as it will allow me to see what's going on, and I can respond and resolve these issues when I have the appropriate time.

So, moving forward, please use the interface feedback thread for any issues experienced.

 

SimCBB and SimNBA

SimCBB and SimNBA are still planned; and once it's July I will be focusing on development efforts for those leagues specifically. The Free Agency and Trade pages are almost ready for SimNBA, and the Draft page is going to be my highest priority. If I do any work in June, it will likely be towards completing the rest of the College Basketball schedule. There's 364 teams, so a lot of games need to be scheduled. Which brings us to our next reminder:

For those participating in SimCBB, please fill out your OOC schedule. If you need help with scheduling an AI team, the links to both the Game Data sheet. Any games submitted to the game data sheet will be filled out to the SimCBB schedule. If you need help with scheduling an AI team, please let me know. There are hundreds to choose from; and these specific matchups are a fantastic way to test the new gameplan features and determine where your team's strengths and weaknesses are.

 

Recruiting Tutorial

For those out of the loop, I've put together a tutorial for recruiting. This tutorial is designed not only for learning how to use the interface for recruiting, but also to bring awareness on how recruiting works on the technical side. I've also provided some tips and advice based on my experience in recruiting for this simulation and in other communities.

There was something else I forgot to put in the tutorial, and I'm saying this from personal experience. So I'm going to post it here for everyone's awareness and also as a friendly reminder:

I encourage everyone to talk about recruiting and recruiting strategies. I think it's important to discuss strategies as far as our experiences whether we place points on a wide range of recruits per week, or if we hyper-focus on a select few at a time. I encourage talking about past experiences with recruiting, and how we can improve for this season and the next season. I'm also fine with others seeking advice as far as their battles, so long as whom they seek advice from is not their opponent.  I do not support users dictating others to back off from certain recruits, or telling them who to specifically recruit as an alternative as a means of avoiding their own battle, or a potential battle between the two. 

Recruiting is designed to be competitive, and there are battles that will occur where the outcomes aren't as a simple coin flip. It is each user's choice on whether they want to push through a battle, or to seek a different recruit entirely. It is not their opponent's decision to make for them. If you find yourself in a recruiting battle this season with another user, please refrain from telling them to back off; or worse, threatening them. If you find yourself on the short end of the stick, either ignore them or reach out to an admin and we will have this sorted out.

 

With that said, I hope you enjoy these new features, and I hope you all enjoy this Memorial day weekend.

Thanks,

Tuscan

[smackemz]

My only feedback is that the owning team of the PS player should be able to promote them immediately.  Especially if they have final matching rights anyway, they shouldn't have to wait until Tuesday for the overall sync to run. 

Edited May 30, 2023 by smackemz

[TuscanSota]

34 minutes ago, smackemz said:

My only feedback is that the owning team of the PS player should be able to promote them immediately.  Especially if they have final matching rights anyway, they shouldn't have to wait until Tuesday for the overall sync to run. 

I appreciate your feedback, and highly recommend posting this in the Interface Feedback Thread: https://www.simfba.com/topic/1328-interface-feedback-thread/