Strat-O-Matic Baseball 365

This is an opinion thread. Its an invitation to state what you think
were your favorite features, as a kind of feedback. Disagreementes welcomed.

1. Showing dice rolls in the game summary

I love transparency... I am supposed to feel like I am the GM,
right? Vauge options and vauge outcomes do not contribute
to this, improved specifics and improved controls help me feel
more like I am the GM

2. LIVE drafts -- IMHO

Premise: "Unfolding Events" are more interesting than canned goods, all
other things being equal.

It made strat feel like an event the way autodrafts never
will. Diamonddope is a near LIVE draft, just a lot harder
to fill. Still, I like the diamonddope variation too, if it were
only more integrated into the system (and hence easier to
fill leagues).

In the age of the internet, sporting events have held their ratings
while hollywood has seen errorsion -- strat should take note of the
power of events to hold interest and not give LIVE drafts so low
a priority (again, in my opinion).

And the Friday night LIVE drafts were huge. If the LIVE drafts
come back, maybe they should allow for managers to watch
as a non-participants as a means to learn the ins-and-outs of
LIVE drafts. Maybe limited to invitations from a participating
manager (2 invites/manager?).


3. Grouping the hitters preferences onto one screen.

I like time savers. Its my time they spared. Very valuable to do the
same things faster. Especially the tasks you have to do get to the
fun ones.

4. The multi-card system

Quirky, challenging, frustrating, strategic. Very nice addtion.

5. Game Replay

A massive effort. There was a script I was using which was previoiusly
avaliable, otherwise it would be higher on *my* list.

Honorable mentions: the new stats since the transitions -- should be higher too,
I just haven't had as much time to appreciate them.


Anyway, my highest priroties would be (if I were strat - and I am not):

1. Accuracy and transparancey. Its a baseball simulation first
and foremost. Also, more cards from baseball history.

2. Supporting "What if" questions
The salary cap vairiations were huge. Theme league toolboxes could
be nice. More please.

3. "Game" support issues
Most of the game enhancements have been aimed at preseason. I haven't
seen much (or any, really) pennant race or "endgame" support. At game 142
the rosters are frozen.

Q: How about an idea, Rick? *** I appoligize for this cheesey 3rd person question ***

Okay, give me a second. How about a risk/reward option for managers in
a pennent race (only available after game 142). You can pitch starters on
1 day less rest --- but they risk losing 1 fatigue rating for the rest of the season
each time they are used like this and ALL of the playoffs. (and the risk is greater
or even automatic if they reach fatigue levels in the game). When they reach a
fatigue rating of 5, they can no be used on short rest. Using starters on short
rest is actually something that happens in real baseball (unlike super relievers).
If the risk penalty can balance the pitching frequency bonsus, it would also serve
as a baseball simulation and "what if" enhancement. But there needs to be
game balance, which the penalty should provide.


Much lower:

4. Randomness and chaos. You need enough "luck" for game purpose. But
too much and its just a slot machine.

okay-
For me Live Drafts were a big thing too- in fact Ill venture to say that most who participated in Live really felt that was their favorite- with a few exceptions of course.

NEW CARDS- its not that I want more or less cards- I just love discovering new ones- and hoping I find ones that work in ways that help me. I dont mind the random cards sets- but its more fun to see new stuff that others dont know until they steal it from ya. (IE- see Higbe, Kirby- not mine but a good example)

Transparency is always good- I think a lot of the frustrations some of the vets feel is when things do not operate on a smooth contiuum- and what I mean by that is that there are factors involved that arent in the card game or that affect the percentages that arent being disclosed. (yes, we may 'know' they are there, but they arent being disclosed anywhere on the site)

Okay- the other stuff for me isnt as big, but I know others really dig it, so Im gonna be happy bout it.

NOW for new stuff Id like to see- random division assignments- so you dont know who your div opponents will be ( I think leagues will fill faster if people arent caught up with predicting direct opponenents)
maybe other ways to do the auto draft- Im not suggesting scrapping, just adding options.

...and of course, bring back a newer, better stronger rebuilt live draft.

thanks 216stitches. I love this discussion idea.

#1 reason I like the game and kept playing - veteran advice and discussion. In my very first league of strat (it was a Fantasim game) the top managers were all very open and helpful with advice. (Thanks, Kevin, Harry, Gary, Kenny, Allen, PJ, Scott, Tom, and the rest). Then when I tried my hand at the ATG game there were several different Strato-Savants who jumped right in and answered my enormous volume of queries. (Thanks Bill, Rob, Frank, Kim, and so many others). The boards were helpful, but the individual discussions were invaluable for my enjoyment. FWIW I found exactly the same friendly helpers when I tried my hand at a Mystery game 80's league, and a 1969 league.

#2 change I really liked - the reveal added to show player fielding and clutch/roll reveals in season (misc. stats). This one still has some improvements that can be made, but - Love It

#3 DiamondDope - sure it is not a Strat project, but when I discovered this (and not until I had been playing for 2 years) it was a major revelation. Adrien, you are THE BOSS. I am saddened that you have soured on the game, but the Dope has provided me with hours of enjoyable distraction. I would suggest that anyone else who has also shared my experience should go to the DiamondDope site and sent Mr. Gabriel a $5 token of thanks (I'm sure that he would be happy to get higher amounts, but everyone here can afford a fin for his great site).

#4 Adding cards to the set - I hear a lot of gripes and a lot of cheers on this. Personally, I find it lended excitement to the game each time it came up (sometimes it also added controversy, but always excitement)

#5 another cheer for Adrien - the live draft with a cap application on Diamond Dope. This is so very great. The game on the new site would lose a TON of customers had this app not been available at switchover (especially since a live draft is not yet possible within the strat site). Hal Richman, BernieH, JohnG you should all go to the Diamond Dope site and donate $1000+ right now and continue to do so regularly for Adrien's putting money in your pocket.

some of my priorities -
1) Tell us what the game pricing will be in January
2) JohnG - how about a weekly and regular update (even if the update is only to say we are still working on a,b,c....
The regularity of communication would be Huge for me.
3) Bring back the old games OR fess up and say you are not going to do so. I know you have lost at least a dozen of my Fantasim buddies, and even now you will not be able to bring them back (They were loyal paying customers).
4) I would like to see that the league directory be once again sortable by game type. It did not bother me at first, but the longer they are lumped together the more of an irritant I am finding it to be. (I also think you might consider deleting some ancient leagues that have had no activity for years...they are just clutter and a reminder that someone bought an ATG3v2 team in 2008 and never got to play.
5) release ATG7 today....I am excited, and I have a keeper league ready to draft. Would love to see the new set before the draft begins

And more random, unsolicitated opinions

If (when) a LIVE draft comes back:

1. Strat should automatically open a strat LIVE draft for Friday at 10 pm ET,
without a commissioner. Every Friday.

2. It should be called the "Mort Memorial Blazt Blast LIVE." or something
like that. I think Mort would like that.

Becaue Mort loved LIVE drafts and Blatz. And he was one of the classiest
guys ever to play on on-line strat.

And I suspect he would have liked that. Kind of like a Cy Young award for Mort.

216 Stitches wrote:And more random, unsolicitated opinions

If (when) a LIVE draft comes back:
It should be called the "Mort Memorial Blazt Blast LIVE." or something
like that. I think Mort would like that.

Becaue Mort loved LIVE drafts and Blatz. And he was one of the classiest
guys ever to play on on-line strat.

And I suspect he would have liked that. Kind of like a Cy Young award for Mort.

I think it is the best suggestion ever to name stuff after our comerades who played and are no longer with us!

It would really be appreciated by those of us that are here if I may speak for 'us'.

Then just rename ATG6 to Bobby's All Time Greats and ATG 7 to nevdully's All Time Greats

geekor wrote:Then just rename ATG6 to Bobby's All Time Greats and ATG 7 to nevdully's All Time Greats

As Mark Twain would say, rumors of their demise have been greatly exagerated.

geekor wrote:Then just rename ATG6 to Bobby's All Time Greats and ATG 7 to nevdully's All Time Greats

I think it would be more appropriate to rename League Park or Hilltop after Nev. Afterall, he usually finds a park when a new player card set is released that he is able to exploit and win in. Then everyone copies his teams/and strategy.

just my 2cents for the 10,000th time...

List of things I would like to see, (a few mentioned earlier in this thread by hackra):

1- Game Pricing - I hope they keep the price at this level. JMO, but the game is reasonably priced now. I stopped buying credits for over a year prior to the price cut. I played maybe 1 or 2 games during that time. Now I am buying more 5packs and playing about 10leagues at a time. I will most likely stop playing all together if they raise prices.

2-Live Draft - this is sorely missed. I hope it comes back with caps sometime soon.

3-Auto-draft - I really want to see this revamped. I would like to see a overall ranking list employed as well as a draft card. I think with all the multi card players, a higher salary card for a particular player should take precendent over the same players lower salary cards.

4 - Left/Right Line-up cards for each stadium in your league. I think this is long overdue.

5 - Hitter/Pitcher preference tabs - to include ability to start at home only or the road only, when possible.

6- League Directory - ability to sort and filter leagues. As well as adding the comment field back to the main page.

7- Roster Chart - add salary totals to blue headings for each team on the roster chart. There were some great user scripts on grease monkey for the old TSN SOM version. This was one of my favorites.

8 - Trading Screen - give us the ability to change a players card (if they have multiple cards) on the trading screen only via dropdown box when proposing a trade. You would be able to change the card in the trading screen for your team or the other owners team. The card(s) will not be converted unless the trade is accepted. This would help balance the money on trades and make it easier to structure trade offers. You won't need to include needless players to balance the money. I proposed this not too long ago.

9- Free Agent Screen - fix the sort by headings. There are some stats you can only sort from High to Low by clicking on the heading. Sometimes you want to sort the other way as well. Example - Pitchers - most stats you can only sort high to low. Most stats for pitchers, you would want to sort the other way. (Runs, walks, etc)

10 - Player Cards - I always thought it would be neat if there were a short bio of a player/& their career or a link about the player on their card.

11 - Live Auction Draft - I suggested this to Bernie a couple of years ago. You could have a traditional live auction where each owner puts up a player and everyone bids on the player for a set time period, say 2 minutes. You would have the amount of the cap to bid on all your players. Everyone would have a chance to bid on every player.

or

The other Auction Draft idea, I suggested was a blind bid draft. You would fill out your draft card as usual. There would be a bid box next to each player. You would put your bid in the box. The total of all bids would have to total the game cap. Highest blind bid wins that player. ..You would also have a player ranking list. Any players not selected during the blind bid would go on the ranking list. It would revert to a snake draft for all unselected players. The person losing the most picks during the auction, would get 1st pick, etc.

12- Weekly Updates by John G or Bernie, if as rumor has it they are the same person. Photographic evidence maybe required to prove they are indeed 2 different people.

All Great Ideas. The Best being - The Live draft being reinstated. And even better 'Mort's Live Blatzateria' - Every Friday night at 10pm EST is an absolute Must! Those were great fun! Mort and I sometimes had to work pretty hard to fill'em, but it always seemed to get done when we were able to do it. I remember the old draft function blowin' up a few times and havin' to track down Bernie on facebook to fix it at 9:30pm at night. Wow! Those were the days, I miss that sticky Live Draft app! It was the in Draft chatter that made it great....Truth is, I would love to do a live draft now with that video conferencing function...That would be classic! Can we get that?