SOM Online update: growth initiatives, ATG, Mystery Card...

[MtheB]

Bernie-
these are great ideas and in the scheme of things, from the old days when it took six of us a year playing the board game to get a season done, its a fantastic leap from that point.
HAL, though not perfect, has come a long way, and all your work with that is appreciated.
the additions of the mystery cards, the Negro leaguers, and the idea of a random selected player pool, make it like a new season for real managers--you just don't know who is really going to show up.

If there is going to be a "live play" feature, How about the idea of being able to replay certain great world series matchups?
For instance: could replay the 75 World Series, one game a night, with live play.....you could sell that for sure. You could package a bunch of the great world series matchups, maybe 3 for $25 or something...

[PotKettleBlack]

[quote:72974fc513="BDWard"]Without the 4th pitcher free promotion, we probably would have drank 2 pitchers of beer between our usual group of four people. Bill was a smart man.

I think TSN should offer a similar incentive to existing customers along with continuing or enhancing performance based incentives. Let's say, for example, that every 5th team was free. [/quote:72974fc513]

1 team for $25, 5 for $100.
Five for the price of 4 is essentially every 5th team free, even if you are bad and never make finals.

[LMBombers]

[quote:090afff5d0="Ninersphan"]What exactly does this mean, Does it mean bringing the 70's and/or (hopefully) the 80's into a standard type game and ditching the god awful (to me anyway, YMMY) Mystery card format for these era's??[/quote:090afff5d0]

nope :lol:

[artie4121]

Thanks for your response to my randomized pool [i:e8d8babadc]option[/i:e8d8babadc] idea.

As wavy said, maybe everyone can be given a random pack of cards. Or some concept that gives us an additional challenge. This would work VERY well if it can be done easily and mechanically, creating a custom card set for each league created at NO extra cost to SOM or TSN ;) Value added for us all.

And I do hope that the cards you are adding, Bernie, to ATG6 are not only the stars, but also some interesting lower priced cards (The cheap 8 or 9 Bal wonders). I love finding me some buried treasures.

[The Last Druid]

There are a few things that I would prefer to see incorporated into ATG that I don't think I saw reading this thread.

1. Live drafts with caps. Shout this one from the rooftops as I've been doing for the past couple of years. Granted Bernie presumably struggles with incorporating salaries into live drafts, but since we have several programmer types here that have already created live drafts with caps, why not at least attempt to solicit their input/expertise??? If they say no, they say no but why not at least make the attempt to get help? This one dumbfounds me.

2. Manager settings. Why can't we have a default button that allows us to fill in whole columns on the hitter settings page, such as 'don't bunt' for your whole team. You could then tweak the guys you are willing to allow to bunt. It would certainly save time when setting up a team and reduce the time spent on an otherwise onerous, unwelcome chore. Not that I haven't asked for this before...

3. Find a way to set individual lineups against every opposing starting pitcher in the league. This would be in addition to the crude, two sizes fit all, default lineup selection process currently in place. Many players might prefer the current approach, but most guys who play here seem very comfortable with details and would likely prefer as much control as possible over managing decisions rather than trusting to HAL's vagaries. With my suggestion, both camps can have their way. Seems conceptually similar to the default rotation vs individual game starters page. I would imagine that this could be done via a button on the lineup page that when clicked takes you to a list of all the starting pitchers in the league against whom you could then construct individual lineups, or not, as you please.

4. More caps available. Specifically 120M. Customizable caps would be even better.

5. Return of the autoleagues -- with a twist. Offer both 80M and 100M autoleague options instead of just the old 80M.

6. No interest in randomized card sets. Don't want HAL rolling the dice anymore often than necessary.

[WeatherNut]

[quote:53fe186447]4. More caps available. Specifically 120M. Customizable caps would be even better. [/quote:53fe186447]

What he said.

WN

[Treyomo]

[quote:5665855d3a="Petrosian"]3. Find a way to set individual lineups against every opposing starting pitcher in the league. This would be in addition to the crude, two sizes fit all, default lineup selection process currently in place. Many players might prefer the current approach, but most guys who play here seem very comfortable with details and would likely prefer as much control as possible over managing decisions rather than trusting to HAL's vagaries. With my suggestion, both camps can have their way. Seems conceptually similar to the default rotation vs individual game starters page. I would imagine that this could be done via a button on the lineup page that when clicked takes you to a list of all the starting pitchers in the league against whom you could then construct individual lineups, or not, as you please. [/quote:5665855d3a]

Not sure I would want this, but perhaps a way to have alternate lineups. Home vs. away, lefty/rev lefty/righty/rev righty. I would never spend the time to set lineups specific to a pitcher, but I might set them specific to a park, and I would set a reverse lineup. If you did this, make sure you include a "copy from lineup xxx" dropdown so if we choose to use the same lineup under multiple scenarios, it's a one-click process.

No randomization of sets ... please.

[AeroDave10]

There was no mention about how the price structure would change with the addition of new cards each month. Will new cards simply be added, or will other cards be deleted, too? Will each update involve re-pricing the existing players?

I really hope that it is simply that new cards are added to the set at whatever value is deemed appropriate. I'm sure quite a number of us have detailed spreadsheets of the players and changing the prices on the cards every month would mean a lot of extra work just to keep up each time.

[voovits]

In light of the fiasco that happened a few years ago when a bunch of players were added to an ATG set and it caused an uproar, I would suggest adding players with extreme caution.

Either all newly added players are on waivers for 2 days, or currently running leagues do not get the new players at all.

Allowing teams to freely add new players the moment they are added is just going to cause a problem like in the past.

[doug_tucker10]

I'm guessing you won't be able to add new players to an already created league, at least thats how it should be set up.

Also Bernie mentioned earlier that cards won't be deleted. I love the idea of price changing for cards based on useage (or lack of) otherwise will the old cards be subject to price changes as in the past and how will that be handled with the new ATG setup?

My dream is for the day when every single eligible player who ever played MLB is available in the ATG player pool :D