(S26) - PT 5 - Fortune Teller

[charlit]

I cannot wait for the migration to a new sim. I believe changing the sim alone will drastically impact player and team performance. Add in another Reddit draft class in the near future, and the league could also be on the brink of adding more expansion teams. There is one position that excites people the most in football. That position, of course, is offensive lineman (sadly the league doesn’t have dedicated long snappers, otherwise they would be far and away the most exciting). Looking at the new ISFL player builder, it seems offensive linemen have a much higher skill ceiling than they do in the current sim. This is partially due to the introduction of traits, such as the Tenacious Blocker trait, which costs a whopping 150 TPE. Looking at the Athletic Lineman archetype, it costs 1280 TPE to max out all stats and purchase all traits. I think the change to a new sim will improve the performance of teams that have high TPE offensive linemen and punish the teams that have lower earning linemen. It seems the Chicago Butchers might benefit the most from this change in how offensive linemen are valued. The Butchers currently have 5 offensive linemen on their active roster. 4 of these players have above 634 TPE and are actively earning. Considering how Chicago’s offense is built upfront, their team may see a massive improvement in the new sim. I would not be surprised in the slightest if Chicago ends up being one of the best teams in the league next season.

[Jangorhino]

[Tylar]

SHL Affiliate

[Leafs4ever]

SHL PT Affiliate

[Yeenoghu]

Hands down, the biggest impact that the new sim will have on the league is the hampered ability to sim test and/or decompile the game code for teams with technical knowhow to gain an advantage over the rest of the league. Sim testing has been around since the halcyon days of the ISFL, and in recent seasons it has essentially become an arms race where teams are forced to adopt newer and better sim testing techniques to keep up with the rest of the league. Due to certain changes in DDSPF21, mass sim testing will no longer be viable as a means to measure strategies going into a new week.

I for one am thrilled to see the current method of sim testing retired. While it has been a fun way to spend time in the league and improve our collective knowledge, sim testing has frankly become too time-intensive and too overvalued of a skill. I believe the league will be much healthier when draftees who excel at writing media or doing GFX are weighted similarly as users who have a high degree of technical aptitude. Ultimately, I think this change will pull all teams towards an average performance and the teams with higher TPE will ultimately win out over the long run (as they should).

[Southie]

The biggest thing I predict for the ISFL in 2021 is expansion. I'm not sure how soon it will happen but I'm certain that it will take place in the next calendar year. I do think the new sim will dramatically impact player and team performance. At Least the first handful of seasons Just because the advantage that some GMs have in experience with the current sim will be gone. The same is true with building players. Outside of the sim transfer team, It feels like player building right now is a bit of a crap shoot..  We have no clue how important traits are and if a player that focuses more on attributes then traits is better than a player who focuses more on traits then attributes. I'm sure the transfer team has done as good as they can to make the builds balanced by someone who's been in a few sim leagues, Sim engines are finicky, unpredictable beasts as shown by the goalie problem the SHL currently has after their switch to Franchise Hockey Manager.

I’m also a bit worried about stats. I don’t know if the impressive stats that players in the early season of the NSFL are going to be able to be matched by ISFL players if the system is more realistic. Plus the proliferation of high-level offensive lineman is going to stifle a lot of the great careers of defensive lineman. We can already see that in DDSF 2016 and with more and more people coming into the league, I think it’s only going to get worse.

I'm ecstatic for the new sim, a modern newer sim is always better than an outdated one but I do think that we might need to revamp the way we evaluate players for the Hall Of Fame in the next year just because what stats are possible in the new engine will be different from the old. Of course, It could go the other way. Stats could be easier to get in the new engine then the old one but I think if the engine is more elastic that the opposite way is more likely.

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[StadiumGambler]

I think that 2021 will see the "top" league ISFL at 16 teams. While the international expansion is a cute idea, I think further diversity in the league's American media markets is paramount for the league's success. Ohio probably deserves a team, any of the three cities starting with C could work. Charlotte, North Carolina is adequate as well, but the US seems to waver back and forth on whether the Carolinas actually matter or not. Seattle and Denver having teams could work out as good landing spots. I'd be inclined to say Denver for the ASFC and an Ohio team for the NSFC. I could also see the site coming to their senses that Yellowknife is too out there as a place to put a team, and scrap them in favour of a more reasonable Canadian city such as Toronto.

I don't think the DSFL will expand beyond 8, as the league might lack Quarterback room, or room in other highly popular positions. Unless this Season 28 class is of uncommon caliber, it's best to keep it at 8 and let the surplus fight for playing time amongst themselves.

I'm hopeful that the new sim will impact player performance to make the game more tactical and less of a track meet. Speed is important in every sport, but so is Intelligence. We'll see if the new sim rewards thinkers over flyers.

I'm hopeful that a standout player in 2021 will be my prospect Saleem Spence on whatever team he ends up with. I intend to go quite a ways with this kid, and his development in comparison to the rest of his class will be interesting.

[bjkman]

It took until this season but my player is absolutely in his prime, so no matter what happens this season I will always have my amazing performance from this season. I am equally excited however for the new sim. I am certainly not sure how I will change or how I will look next year with the new sim, but I certainly believe that it will be for the betterment of Sim Football as a whole. Even though I have only read the articles from JPach as an idea of what to expect for the new sim, and I really am confident in it. However, I do believe that the upcoming season will be a training year for everyone. Right now we are very used to our current sim and the change will be weird at first but I know with the new people we bring in, that the new sim will soon become the regular sim for them and eventually for us regulars. I cannot wait to see what teams kick ass next year and what teams will need to learn to shine in the new sim and even if it isn't my own Sailfish, the most important part of the sentence is that "I cannot wait to see". This is going to be a great new experience for everyone.

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[Vorshayla]

With the new sim coming out next year, I think it's going to be better for the league as a whole.  Everyone likes a shiny new toy and with the new archtypes and stat emphasis it brings I think it will be a new experience for the GMs and players alike.  With talk of new traits in the system it also encourages players to be more active and plan out their builds a lot more instead of dumping everything into speed and then worrying about the rest later.  It should definitely make the sims more exciting to watch to see which players excel in the new league and which ones falter due to not planning correctly.  

I think the top teams will take a step backwards due to the fact that they're the top teams in a different sim engine now and with everyone rushing to self correct or over compensate it definitely puts more pressure into the getting the first couple of the draft rounds correct to ensure that teams are getting users with high activity to be able to max out traits as well as stats in the future.  

This is a great change for the league as a whole, and I personally can not wait to see how this change affects the league 5-6 seasons from now when we've all gotten a taste of it and know what to expect

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[lespoils]

SHL Affiliate : https://simulationhockey.com/showthread....pid2963038