[Syd Thrift]

One non-OOTP game I'm a big fan of is Crusader Kings 2 and one reason is all the roleplaying. Now, I'm not asking for a new version of Inside the Park, but one thing I *would* like to see is the database expanding so that it can include relationships between individual players. Stuff like...

- Some players just having a (you could make it random) natural affinity for each other or, conversely, disliking each other.

- To some extent you might have like-minded players (those with high Work Ethic or Play for Winner ratings) have a bonus affinity, whereas players with opposite ratings might have a malus. I'd still prefer there to be a lot of randomness, as sometimes a workhorse likes to have a fun-loving low-Work Ethic prankster around to lighten the mood, and conversely sometimes two guys who are driven to perform will just flat-out not like each other.

- Semi-random events causing a negative or positive effect between two players (I say semi-random because you'd expect a "clubhouse cancer" type to have more negative effects and a "leader" to have more positive ones). I can think of, like, a million of these, from Golden Tate allegedly sleeping with Russell Wilson's girlfriend to Phil Linz playing his harmonica after Yogi Berra told the team to shut up. Honestly if you created enough of these I would find it to be a lot of fun to read about my pretend baseball players having the kinds of squabbles you get when 25 young adults travel together for 6 months.

- Similar semi-random events between pitchers and catchers, with the end result being that a positive effect might have a slight impact on a pitcher's performance.

- Along those same lines, if a player is listed as a backup to someone else on a roster and they think they should be starting, that animus ought to be directed at the player as much as at the manager.

- Fights between players with high negative affinities might result in one of them demanding a trade or that the other party be traded (for instance, the Dick Allen - Frank Thomas fight). Perhaps a manager with good people-managing skills could prevent too much badness from happening out of this, but if you don't deal with it in some way, shape, or form, it could result in both players being extremely angry at the management.

- If two players who dislike each other immensely wind up staying on the same team and playing together for a while, it'd be cool to see clubhouses divide as a result - events cause guys who are friends with Player A to get maluses to their relationship not just with Player B but with some of Player B's friends.

- Affinities need not be symmetrical. One guy might really, really hate another guy who is indifferent about their relationship.

- Come time for contract talks, players with good relationships should want to play for each other whereas if they don't, that should put a serious crimp in negotiations. Imagine the Yankees trying to sign Randy Johnson while Jim Leyritz was still playing there.

So... I believe that some of this already exists between managers and players. I'd just like to see it get more granular and also to apply to players. Additionally, it'd be cool to not just have a space for team chemistry in the team pages but on each player and manager "card" where you could not only see the affinity with other players (I'm envisioning them being -200 to +200 like CK2) but ideally, like Paradox games, you could mouse over the affinity rating, perhaps, and see the various bonuses and maluses that led to the relationship being what it is.