#104 | SimFBA | End of 2023 Season & This Upcoming Offseason

[TuscanSota]

Hey everyone,

 

Hope you’re all doing well. Today’s Dev Diary is going to cover a range of topics from the end of the SimCFB season to the upcoming SimCBB season starting very soon! There are a few final adjustments to SimCBB & SimNBA gameplanning which will take effect, so please read diligently on why that is.

 

2023 SimCFB Season

I want to thank everyone for participating in another great season for SimCFB! I think this is one of our most competitive seasons yet, with many close games that decided conference champions and playoff progression. What I find both surprising and exciting in our playoffs this year was that many of the competing teams remained at the top of their conferences (SEC, Big 12, Pac 12); so much so, with many rematches along the way. It was a bit of a surprise, considering how USC, Auburn, and TCU performed last season; and now seeing them at the top of the rankings and the playoffs alongside Tennessee.

 

With the offseason approaching, we will be in the midst of many conference realignments. We are following IRL realignment as much as we can, so I’d like to announce the following confirmed realignments:

• Texas & OU to the SEC
• USC, UCLA, Oregon, and Washington to the B1G
• Arizona, Arizona State, Utah, and Colorado to the Big 12
• Army to the AAC
• California, Stanford, and SMU to the ACC

 

The only thing unconfirmed right now is the situation with the remaining Pac-2 teams, Oregon State and Washington State. We’re still observing the situation and having internal discussions as far as what our best approach will be, and whether we need to make a decision if nothing IRL is decided by the time we’re ready to run the next season.

 

Conference Scheduling

For our conference commissioners reading, you can go ahead and get started with setting up your conference schedule for 2024.

For commissioners that are interested, I am looking into writing a program that can setup a conference schedule for conferences ranging from sizes between 10 teams to 18. I’m working on a format that would work for our basketball sims and can make one for our football sims if need be. I just need to setup some infrastructure to keep track of dedicated conference matchups (the games that need to be annual), and for conferences between 12-18 teams: a potential rotation of conference opponents for each team. 

This is very much still in the works, but I think something like this will be very productive and help with getting future seasons setup (especially for the conferences that stole Pac 12 teams. Sorry, I may still be bitter about this).
 

How Long will this Offseason be?

It depends. We’re working on a number of changes this offseason; but in regard to interface development, I’m not adding any new leagues so it should be much smoother.

 

Here’s a shortlist of things I will be updating for next season:

• Adding ATH Position
  • This is still a WIP but something that we will see from next season’s recruiting class. More details later.
• Gameplan Page changes
• Cutting Players from College Rosters
• Progression Changes
  • Adding logic for ATH position
  • Tweaking progression for players when declaring for NFL
• Recruiting Changes
  • Adjusting the dynamic signing threshold based on data from last season
  • Adjustments to AI Recruitment, including QoL features for those who use the toggle
  • Increasing the size of next year’s recruiting class
  • Transfer Portal
• NFL Draft Page

 

Along with interface changes, here are some changes we’ll be making engine-wise:

• Gameplan/Scheme Updates
• Out of Position Penalties
• Adding “Clutch” Ratings to Players
• 2-Point Conversions
• Balance Updates
• Bug Fixes in scripts & engine

 

With these shortlists provided, please understand that it will take some time to implement these changes. We’re passionate about building this simulation for all of you, and we want to make it high-quality. All we ask is for you to be patient with us as we enter this offseason.

 

When to expect Progressions?

There are some changes I’m going to be making to the algorithm once the season is over. Nothing drastic but due to the success of the recent SimNBA draft, the way SimNFL drafts will be conducted moving forward will have an impact on players who are graduating to play in the professional leagues.

Once the changes for SimNFL Progression are ready, we will then run progressions and generate the next croot class.

 

Will there be a Test Crooting Cycle?

I wasn’t originally planning on doing a test cycle this off-season; so, with this season’s test cycle, it’s going to be a bit different than previous test sessions. And I don’t mean that every test player will have the first name ‘Test’ or can be transferred to the real crooting cycle. I know users previously used test cycles to get in practice for the real season, but the changes I’m making for recruiting are going to be small because the main portion of work will be going towards the transfer portal.

 

What can I do while I wait for football to return?

While you wait for the next football seasons to occur and get Spring games & OOC games scheduled. Besides that, may I introduce you to our basketball sims?

Basketball is starting up on the 1st Week of October. There is nearly 300+ teams available as well. Users that are coaching a CFB team can choose a team that isn’t their CFB team, even if the basketball team they’re choosing is also represented in our football sim. This means that if you coach at Washington State for football, you can coach the Washington Huskies in basketball. Who would do THAT though? (Not me, Washington State is mine).

 

Gameplan Adjustments for Basketball Sims

This is a last minute change, but something that the basketball team found as necessary: The minimum/maximum range for a player to have total shot allocation is between 1-30; and the individual maximum in any of the three categories is 15%. Meaning, the most shots an individual player can take for their team in a game is at a max of 30%.

 

Example:

Martin Bailey is the starting SG for the Supersonics; and during some test runs the team and I did, Bailey’s shot allocation set to ~28, all in 3 point range. Meaning, of all the shots that my team will take, Bailey’s shooting 28% of the time; all from the 3pt range. While his shot allocation is below 30, the shot allocation for 3pt shooting is too high at 28 and needs to be reduced by 13 points.

For those who are still confused as to why… Martin Bailey when at 28% in 3pt proportion is scoring at least 60 points per game. These are Kobe numbers, in that everyone is told to pass to Bailey so he can score.

This will ultimately lead to some wonky results, and we want to balance things out to ensure that one player isn’t taking a majority of shots for their respective team. A player that is on the court for more than 5 minutes, and definitely more than 25 minutes should be attempting a few baskets.

The 1-30% range, with the 15% individual maximum comes from test runs we ran, and compared the shot allocations to those of several NBA matches that we compared to. With the ranges, shot allocations will take within the range of what we saw from numerous matches including players such as Steph Curry and James Harden. And in my own opinion, I think this change makes sense because without the ranges, I think we would see gameplans where teams are leaning into 1-2 players taking all the shots, only because they had the highest ratings in that category for their respective team.

We’re still excited for the start of the season, and this change will be implemented immediately.

 

How do I sign up for the basketball sims?

Hit up the Job/Applications forum and create a post for basketball, and then request the basketball team of your choosing on the interface. For those who don’t know how the basketball sim works, here are a few dev diaries to help you with adjusting from the football sims to basketball:

With this information, I hope y’all are well. I’m excited to see the end of the season for football, and the start of another fantastic basketball season!

 

~Tuscan

[Jieret]

Washington Huskies are available, you say....

[kwheele]

20 hours ago, Jieret said:

Washington Huskies are available, you say....

Huck the Fuskies

[brightfalls]

On 9/25/2023 at 2:01 PM, TuscanSota said:

• Army to the AAC
•  

How shall I feel about this