(S30) Ultimus Week

Troen

Prompt 21 Wrote:21. Now thats three seasons on the new sim. What are your thoughts? Do you think that it is better than DDSPF16?

(I think it's actually been 4 seasons?)

There are 2 big things and 1 small thing that I like much more in the new sim.
First big thing: The revamp of stats and traits makes the max TPE point for all positions much closer to each other. Previously, I think the top DE build only needed something like 985 TPE while the top QB build needed 1400+, while now it's more like 1150-1350. That helps marginal TPE be a bit more useful at the top end than before and helps me at least feel like I'm not wasting time with a 300 TPE bank.
Second big thing: The sim recording/playback looks much better. Trying to follow the game action is still kinda garbage compared to actual live broadcasts, but there are a lot of little improvements showing ball movement and the like which makes watching games a bit more understandable. I think DDSPFL still has a long ways to go to be in the same class as OOTP, but I think it's a big improvement.
The little thing I like is that the index actually has player pages with career information. It's a really small thing but I personally enjoy being able to compare cross-season stats there rather than having to open all the tabs for the old index. If there was just a way to pull in seasons from the old sim then it would be amazing.

Prompt 25 Wrote:25. Imagine your current position was not available to be picked when you created your player. What other position would you have picked, and why?

When I created my player, I guess I had the impression that making an NSFL team (rather than staying in the DSFL) was harder, I guess, and so I picked my position based on what had the lowest average TPE in the ISFL which at the time was DE. Conceptually, I was more interested in safety since seeing great safety play in the NFL is really impressive in a way that most D-line play isn't (ignoring Aaron Donald). Given the choice of doing it again, I think I'd have gone with safety instead since I realized that minimizing time in the DSFL isn't a core goal, though from what I've heard the actual safety position in the new sim feels underwhelming to many players in terms of impact/statistics. I definitely did want to play on the defensive side, though, since I was interested in how that would play out ever since I played in a super deep IDP fantasy league and started seeing the more detailed defensive player stats. Now the sim engine doesn't really make stats in the same way that NFL football does and so my intuition match between the stats that players produce in the two different systems is poor, but it's still one of the big reasons I want more interested in defensive positions rather than offensive at creation time.

Prompt 26 Wrote:26. Football is a game that has been going on for a while, loved by fans all over. But what if you were able to make some rule changes? Talk us through your new version of football, and what would be different and why?

At a high level, I'd want to try and reduce penalties for actions that don't related to player safety and maybe increase the impact of those that do. On the decrease side, for things like pass interference and illegal contact, I'd like to make those rarer by eg increasing the threshold for interference vs. incidental contact or by increasing the buffer zone where a defensive player can legally contact a receiver. To me, I think the ways those penalties are set up incentivizes specific kinds of offensive/defensive interactions and since it doesn't risk injury to players I'd like to reduce them.
On the other side, for things that can impact player safety, I'd consider making penalties larger and/or increasing the number of ejection-eligible penalties. For example, clipping or egregious block in the back/tackle out of bounds penalties seem like good candidates to make more stringent so as to get players to reduce actions that lead to injuries. Admittedly, injuries are not an ISFL problem, but I do think that conceptually I'd want to move in that direction.
The one possible caveat is that I'd want some way to handle "bad looking" tackles which are actually legal. There's a number of penalties I've seen called on tackles on crossing routes where the defender legally hits the receiver with a leading shoulder, but it looks really bad in real time and so a flag is thrown. Now I'm presuming that legal tackles are safe/non-injurious tackles in this statement - the alternative is to make that kind of tackle illegal if it's unsafe for the players involved. I don't specifically care which since I don't know how well those have been studied, but I do think they're one of the most "it looked bad so we're throwing a flag" penalty categories.

Prompt 27 Wrote:27. What team do you think has the best branding in the league? What team do you think could use a refresh? Why?

When I was in the DSFL and getting interviewed by the various NSFL teams, I produced a fancy top hat and monocle version of a couple team logos, and the Sailfish was the clear best one. Ever since then, they've stuck out in my mind for having a good color set and mix of vibrancy in their logos. However, the part of a team's branding that sticks out to me the most now is New York's amazing field design. It to me is insanely far ahead of any other team's field with their iconic font and skyline elements. The colors are maybe not my personal favorite, but they work fine.
For a redesign, I'd start with San Jose. Their logo is functional but not exciting and they've had it for as long as I've been in the league, I think. There are 2 big changes I'd aim for: First, changing the logo, maybe to a more 3-d or front view of the face? Second, get a third color involved. My first though is to work with the logo change to make the teeth white or ivory colored and then use that as an accent or outline. I personally would also reconsider the green since to me it doesn't seem related to a sabercat's colors, but I do think that abandoning it would be a major overall or rebrand rather than just a refresh, so I'm guessing that's bigger than they'd be interested in. So, I think trying to find a solid third color would be a good way to create more options for variety.