So, @WISBob has announced new ownership of What If Sports: https://www.whatifsports.com/forums/Posts.aspx?topicID=544278

What does that mean to us? From the outset, SimLeague Baseball has been the mainstay of WIS... at least it has been for a long time. The trend has not been our friend, however for over fifteen years. Fifteen years, give or take, since things in SLB were at their height it seems! Wow.

What should happen that is feasible?

Progressive league support! Draft tools, roster/player pulls, a running list of available players based on teams in the league, rookie pools at the push of a button.

Bring Back Live even if it is $0.05 game.
Fix the SP Fatigue Bug. I dont care if someone pitched 400IP, they should not be able to start 70+ games and pitch 6 innings with no penalty. The way it really happened was ~8 innings / 50 starts....If nothing else put some sort of limit on the number of pitches within 3 games or not be able to start more than 33% of games even if you only throw 30 pitches. I know in early 1900s guys would pitch a complete game and then possibly relieve in the next game for an inning or two but then took a couple of days off. The bug today is exploited.

recency bias!

not a bug. a side effect of trying to provide all players to all eras

let's instead require all today's triple digit fastballers to throw underhand like they did 150 years ago

underhand with beanbags

Posted by frazzman80 on 12/10/2024 9:02:00 AM (view original):
Progressive league support! Draft tools, roster/player pulls, a running list of available players based on teams in the league, rookie pools at the push of a button.

THIS!!!!

Here are the quick fixes that would be helpful prior to a potential re-write (or edit) of the simulation algorithm.

1. Roster validation tool for commissioners

Allow the commissioner to mark each roster as verified, and have it reset to unverified if the owner pulls their team and then re-enters. You currently have to track this outside of WIS, and there's no way to know if someone you've already verified has made changes and then come back.

2. Make a note in the league chat every time the commissioner uses the Replace Player tool

This is currently ripe for abuse. I have no suspicions against any individual, but seeing how it functions now an unscrupulous commissioner could very easily cheat. If there was an entry in the league chat saying "Commissioner replaced Player X with Player Y" every time it was used that would squelch this possibility.

3. Hide names of sim-generated AAA before the schedule is generated

Also ripe for abuse. Simple fix.

4. Progressive Draft Tool

Like frazzman said. A tool that allows anyone to pull a list of all players for a given season or range of seasons, sorted by position then by last name. Add a window to the tool where you can paste in keepers and then those players are automatically removed from that list. Also allow filters by first and last season to pull rookies.

I have opinions on how the sim could be improved like everyone else, but reasonable people I think will disagree on how best to implement those improvements, so I would suggest in the short term we focus on quick, relatively easy and non-controversial fixes like these. If new ownership is responsive and willing to make huge engine re-writes I'm all for that, but a few quick wins like this would be great.

Posted by 06gsp on 12/16/2024 4:20:00 PM (view original):
Here are the quick fixes that would be helpful prior to a potential re-write (or edit) of the simulation algorithm.

1. Roster validation tool for commissioners

Allow the commissioner to mark each roster as verified, and have it reset to unverified if the owner pulls their team and then re-enters. You currently have to track this outside of WIS, and there's no way to know if someone you've already verified has made changes and then come back.

2. Make a note in the league chat every time the commissioner uses the Replace Player tool

This is currently ripe for abuse. I have no suspicions against any individual, but seeing how it functions now an unscrupulous commissioner could very easily cheat. If there was an entry in the league chat saying "Commissioner replaced Player X with Player Y" every time it was used that would squelch this possibility.

3. Hide names of sim-generated AAA before the schedule is generated

Also ripe for abuse. Simple fix.

4. Progressive Draft Tool

Like frazzman said. A tool that allows anyone to pull a list of all players for a given season or range of seasons, sorted by position then by last name. Add a window to the tool where you can paste in keepers and then those players are automatically removed from that list. Also allow filters by first and last season to pull rookies.

I have opinions on how the sim could be improved like everyone else, but reasonable people I think will disagree on how best to implement those improvements, so I would suggest in the short term we focus on quick, relatively easy and non-controversial fixes like these. If new ownership is responsive and willing to make huge engine re-writes I'm all for that, but a few quick wins like this would be great.

For #4, I have built and shared a tool that currently does this on Google sheets. It creates a list of all players for a given season, sorted by position then by last name. It has a column where you can paste in keepers and then those players are automatically removed from that list. It doesn't currently have first/last season but I can add it if requested. Here is the WiS page with the tool: https://www.whatifsports.com/forums/Posts.aspx?topicID=534856&threadID=12709978#l_12709978

Well, some of these suggestions are cool, but it seems to me that the whole things needs more of an appeal to new joiners. Marketing...

And return AAA to OL's (and just solve the problem it caused by preventing trades between AAA's and regular players).

Also, how about preventing OL's with owners that have been in for ten seasons and instead of just Champions Leagues (which we should be using as I see it) having a Graduate League, including DH's and 26 man rosters at the same $80 cap?

Also, do a better job of warning newbies of things like the in-game pitching fatigue! (Update initial instructions and Help/FAQ.)

And how about throwing underhand beanballs at bagchucker?

And just let us all play for free with giveaways of MLB tickets?

...and Silver Eagle coins

The man: "We firmly believe modernizing the codebase is the best thing for WhatIfSports in the long run and that is our immediate priority. Modernizing the codebase will allow us to be more agile with game updates and new features. More to come on this."

Right on! Gotta become modular and futureproof! Then, we can have even more fun. The thought of getting back to Cincinnati WIS looks tantalizing. Please pass the Skyline chili...