ATG 9 Too Flawed?

Just to spare you some typing Frankie you should know that I have blocked you. I don't think you're a bad guy but I do think you're fighting all the wrong battles here on the forums when different managers express their problems with the game. You chime in on the contrary in just about every single thread (mine and others). I have zero interest in pursuing any debate with you and so I will not. I don't care if you agree with my opinions or not. Especially since all of these threads are completely irrelevant. We're talking and nobody is listening.

I am very confident many of my points are valid as I actually own and design games and know what I'm talking about. Furthermore - a lot of these flaws should be blatantly apparent. 1/3 to 1/2 the teams being platoons on a regular basis is a telltale sign of imbalance and Strat is too lazy and incompetent to fix these issues. And the same is true for many issues.

FrankieT is a great guy, and all he's doing is offering up good points in debate fashion to your good points. Why would anyone want to read a thread where everyone agreed with each other? That would be utterly boring.

So keep rockin' the debate, and let's not take this personal. We're all like mad scientists in the SOM Lab experimenting with different strategies, approaches, and offering insights, observations, and opinions. All freely welcomed for healthy discourse!

Just to spare you some typing Frankie you should know that I have blocked you. I don't think you're a bad guy but I do think you're fighting all the wrong battles here on the forums when different managers express their problems with the game. You chime in on the contrary in just about every single thread (mine and others). I have zero interest in pursuing any debate with you and so I will not. I don't care if you agree with my opinions or not. Especially since all of these threads are completely irrelevant. We're talking and nobody is listening.

I am very confident many of my points are valid as I actually own and design games and know what I'm talking about. Furthermore - a lot of these flaws should be blatantly apparent. 1/3 to 1/2 the teams being platoons on a regular basis is a telltale sign of imbalance and Strat is too lazy and incompetent to fix these issues. And the same is true for many issues.

Dude, that's OK, I have had you blocked since last year but I do peek in to get wind of the latest drama.

If you think I am "fighting battles" here on these boards, you are not just wrong, but you are a bit self-aggrandizing if you think you and me are toe to toe on something of importance, or that our opinion carries more weight than the 80% of players who aren't even ever on these boards.
Apparently you are just misunderstood and under-appreciated, with untapped creativity and very smart. I'll note that.

You are right in one way--you are not listening. You are seeking only to be heard and it irritates you that it is only us here, as Hack said. You are looking for spectacle, not interaction.

It is a forum for an online game we play.
Have a good one Michael.
cheers

If one thinks about this over the long duree, I would say that ATG 9 is the best version so far. I can't think of any flaws in ATG 9 that didn't pre-date it, or were in many ways worse. That does not mean that it does not have flaws, but my point is that it is all relative.
The only solution that I can think of is to to introduce some sort of dynamic pricing where peridiocally the prices are adjusted, not based on some formula, but actual usage.
In the end, no pricing formula is going to be perfect but at least we may be able to create a larger pool of usable players.

Yes, yes, and yes to the dedicated Grateful Dead fan.

All freely welcomed for healthy discourse!

But Hack, we have to be responsible with such immense power over the SOM universe
Geez, this is a user forum right? I mean if I stumbled across the Rubicon into some kind of battle of good and evil, please show me the way out.

Deleted.

To get back to the substance…..

I agree with Backfire’s first point re platooning. My goal is to make sure Strat survives and flourishes. To me, adding more players is important. To do that they need to attract more average players who are not Strat-heads nor math geniuses. To have to regularly compete against the top players who know how to work the platoons to death is a negative in my mind. I have cut back the generic ATG9 seasons I play and, when I do play ATG 9, it’s theme leagues like a franchise or custom sets or experiments.

As to the second point. I see the value in lots of cards for people who play theme leagues although I admit Mountain Goat’s card is a bit ridiculous.

On the platooning -- MLB teams use a lot of platooning. That's a different universe than SOM, I know, but a standard practice in baseball across all levels. Yet, as FrankieT noted, you don't need platooning to win in SOM, he's exemplary in that regard -- and he's kicking butt in the Barnstormer Finals with such a team. Platooning is just one option among many strategies. All depends on what pitching you're facing in your division primarily, then league secondarily. I kinda like 4-5 guys platooning most cases, but certainly not always given the division, league.

MaxPower,
I am interested in your view that platoons don't work well at 140M. Given your success rate, I figure you know what you are talking about. Could you expand on that a bit? It seems that that higher cap would give you more flexibility to use platoons, especially in DH leagues where the SPs tend to pitch more innings, giving more opportunity to exploit a platoon edge.

At $140 every expensive card is viable whereas only a few platoons are, mostly due to the shortage of LHH platoon guys. You've got Brown and Daniels and that's about it. Shoeless maybe. None of the cheaper LHH that make platoons possible at lower caps are viable at $140. My teams average 6 platoons at $100, 6 platoons at $200, and 1 platoon at $140. And my pitchers at $140 face significantly more same-handed hitters than they do at other caps. There are simply far fewer platoons at $140, the evidence is there for anyone who wants to examine it. And it's obviously tied to the cap itself, which allows you to max out your starters' salary while leaving little to no money leftover for your bench or bullpen. At $200 you can max out your starters and still have tons of money leftover for your bench, that's why platoons are common at $200 but not $140.

interesting stuff. OK Max that is a plausible and simple explanation I hadn't thought of. I realize the data shows it because I think you have shared it before, but the causal factor just didn't make sense to me.