New Year, New.. Something
Posted: Sat Jan 02, 2021 2:57 pm
Alright, it's 2021, so time to get around to that to-do list.
First, the (mostly) good news - we have 25 active GMs since Christmas, 20 of whom have logged in this year. Unfortunately, the new Florida GM seems to have abandoned us (that team must be cursed). That leaves interim GMs in Arizona (TB) and Columbus (DAL), the ongoing vacancy in STL, and WPG (Mason, who needs prodding every once in a while). So we're in a good-but-not-quite-great position, considering how other freeware leagues have been going. I'm going to bump the thread on HFboards again, and as usual, if you have good recruitment ideas, or really any recruitment ideas, have at it.
As I promised a while ago, I have posted the simulation procedures. This is partly as full disclosure for anyone who is considering becoming a simmer. I think I've had my fill of simming every night, so I am now officially recruiting new committee members/simmers. If you are at all interested in simming, or doing any other administrative things - that includes trade rulings, new GM applications, settling rule disputes/modifications - please let me know. We do definitely need at least one simmer from the Eastern Conference for the playoffs, and hopefully well before then.
Regarding rule changes, I have a few in mind - mostly for the next offseason. Vopatizing players (over 30 and on the farm) have been a thorn in my side all season as I found that their fighting rating can drop below 0, screwing up reading of players.ehm. So I'm probably going to tweak retirement rules to get rid of players at risk of vopatizing. I'm also considering some kind of rule so that players over 30 who clear waivers and have 800k or less salaries "go to Europe", though I'm not sure if there ought to be a small penalty so it's not just an easy way to get rid of contracts.
I will definitely look at suspension before the playoffs, since that came up last season. Personally, I'm of the opinion that suspensions should be longer - like 1 game per week of injury, rather than the current 2 games per month. I'm not sure how to scale them for the playoffs. Playoff game suspensions are a more serious punishment, but then again, right now players can get just 2 games for basically knocking someone out of the playoffs entirely. Of course, EHM has way more intent to injure penalties than the NHL, which basically never calls them, but I think the overall rate of suspensions is not unreasonable since the game very rarely suspends players on its own.
Buyouts are also something I looked into last year but didn't quite settle on. I want to have a new system in place for next offseason. The main change will be making the buyout penalty scale smoothly with the player's salary, rather than having sharp percentage jumps at certain salaries like it does now. I want to make it cheaper to buyout players making 800k or less, but not completely penalty-free. We will likely have a transition period in the offseason where you can choose which buyout rules to use, so just keep in mind that you may have more options if you're considering buying out a player with more than a year left.
Lastly, the draft. This year is definitely going to be strange. As usual, I've paid no attention to the world juniors, but there's very little to go by even for top picks since most players have barely played more than 10 games, and a lot haven't played at all yet. I don't really know what to do, but at the least, this year's draft crop will have even more guesswork than usual. Anyway, I'll definitely solicit help with the draft class in the summer.
Comments or questions?
First, the (mostly) good news - we have 25 active GMs since Christmas, 20 of whom have logged in this year. Unfortunately, the new Florida GM seems to have abandoned us (that team must be cursed). That leaves interim GMs in Arizona (TB) and Columbus (DAL), the ongoing vacancy in STL, and WPG (Mason, who needs prodding every once in a while). So we're in a good-but-not-quite-great position, considering how other freeware leagues have been going. I'm going to bump the thread on HFboards again, and as usual, if you have good recruitment ideas, or really any recruitment ideas, have at it.
As I promised a while ago, I have posted the simulation procedures. This is partly as full disclosure for anyone who is considering becoming a simmer. I think I've had my fill of simming every night, so I am now officially recruiting new committee members/simmers. If you are at all interested in simming, or doing any other administrative things - that includes trade rulings, new GM applications, settling rule disputes/modifications - please let me know. We do definitely need at least one simmer from the Eastern Conference for the playoffs, and hopefully well before then.
Regarding rule changes, I have a few in mind - mostly for the next offseason. Vopatizing players (over 30 and on the farm) have been a thorn in my side all season as I found that their fighting rating can drop below 0, screwing up reading of players.ehm. So I'm probably going to tweak retirement rules to get rid of players at risk of vopatizing. I'm also considering some kind of rule so that players over 30 who clear waivers and have 800k or less salaries "go to Europe", though I'm not sure if there ought to be a small penalty so it's not just an easy way to get rid of contracts.
I will definitely look at suspension before the playoffs, since that came up last season. Personally, I'm of the opinion that suspensions should be longer - like 1 game per week of injury, rather than the current 2 games per month. I'm not sure how to scale them for the playoffs. Playoff game suspensions are a more serious punishment, but then again, right now players can get just 2 games for basically knocking someone out of the playoffs entirely. Of course, EHM has way more intent to injure penalties than the NHL, which basically never calls them, but I think the overall rate of suspensions is not unreasonable since the game very rarely suspends players on its own.
Buyouts are also something I looked into last year but didn't quite settle on. I want to have a new system in place for next offseason. The main change will be making the buyout penalty scale smoothly with the player's salary, rather than having sharp percentage jumps at certain salaries like it does now. I want to make it cheaper to buyout players making 800k or less, but not completely penalty-free. We will likely have a transition period in the offseason where you can choose which buyout rules to use, so just keep in mind that you may have more options if you're considering buying out a player with more than a year left.
Lastly, the draft. This year is definitely going to be strange. As usual, I've paid no attention to the world juniors, but there's very little to go by even for top picks since most players have barely played more than 10 games, and a lot haven't played at all yet. I don't really know what to do, but at the least, this year's draft crop will have even more guesswork than usual. Anyway, I'll definitely solicit help with the draft class in the summer.
Comments or questions?