Online League Play Questions

[rrellick67]

I am not new to the game, but I am new to online league play. I would be interested in it but I have several questions I hope somebody can help me out.

1.) First of all I like real players. I have noticed most leagues listed for the new game only have fictional players. Are there any leagues with real players? (I realize the players that you draft will be fictional)

2.) How do you determine when you will play online? Meaning does everybody in the league have to be online at the same time? My girlfriend is a nurse and her schedule changes week to week, so of course my schedule changes week to week. I am concerned that if I join I wouldn't be able to meet online at the same time each week.

3.) I am a fast paced owner that likes drafting and developing players. Do the online leagues typically go through one season per year or is it possible to go at a faster pace?

4.) What happens if I join a league and some others in the league do not pay attention anymore? Does the commish just make those team computer simmed teams?

Any help to answer my questions will be appreciated.

Thanks

[kq76]

1) Real leagues are quite popular. They probably don't last as long as fictional leagues (since once players start retiring or loosing their ability some people might lose interest in the fictional players who take their places), though, so they probably don't seem as abundant near the end of a version's life than at the beginning. Soon after OOTP11 is released I'm sure you'll see plenty of real leagues. There's probably more than just a few real leagues that are still going however.

2) Leagues have different days that they sim. Some leagues may sim once a day every day and some may only sim once a week. Typically I'd say they sim about 3 times a week, so once every 2 or 3 days.

You may actually misunderstand the process however. You don't play out your games against another league member in real time. What happens is the commish uploads the league files, you import them into the game, make your roster changes, etc, export and then wait until the commish sims to start the process all over again. So basically all you have to make are the export deadlines which are probably about 48 hours apart or more if the league is simming 3 times a week. And by make I mean you only have to export by then, you don't have to be online at that exact time. It's also usually not that big of a deal if you miss an export here or there. There's certain times of the season where missing an export could hurt you, but not all are that important.

3) It depends. It depends on both: 1) how often a league is simming and 2) how much game time they're simming per sim. If a league is simming say 2 weeks at at time, 4 times a week, then yeah, you can get through a season pretty fast. If it's only simming 1 day at a time, even if they're simming every day, it can take forever to get through a sim.

I'll take the CBL as a rough example. We sim 4 times a week, 1 week at a time. We finished this last season on April 9th and started it January 20th so that's a season in less than 3 months. I'd say most leagues probably get through a season in about 4 months, but it really does depend.

4) Well, if the league can't find replacement managers then yeah, they'll probably just set the team to AI controlled. Some leagues the commish will just look after the team or ask another member to look after it. Generally you try to find a replacement manager asap however.

[injury log]

Originally Posted by rrellick67

I am not new to the game, but I am new to online league play. I would be interested in it but I have several questions I hope somebody can help me out.

1.) First of all I like real players. I have noticed most leagues listed for the new game only have fictional players. Are there any leagues with real players? (I realize the players that you draft will be fictional)

2.) How do you determine when you will play online? Meaning does everybody in the league have to be online at the same time? My girlfriend is a nurse and her schedule changes week to week, so of course my schedule changes week to week. I am concerned that if I join I wouldn't be able to meet online at the same time each week.

3.) I am a fast paced owner that likes drafting and developing players. Do the online leagues typically go through one season per year or is it possible to go at a faster pace?

4.) What happens if I join a league and some others in the league do not pay attention anymore? Does the commish just make those team computer simmed teams?

Any help to answer my questions will be appreciated.

Thanks

1. I've seen a few leagues which use real players, so they do exist. You'd have to look around; perhaps check the online league forum here.

2. In an online league you are just a GM (you don't manage out games). So there's no need for everyone to be online at once. When a sim (in most leagues, sims go for a week of game time, but there are variations - I've even seen a league that sims entire seasons in one shot) is run, the commish will usually post on the league forum. You'd then download the update to see how your team has done, make any transactions, and then upload your changes in time for the next sim. That's all dead easy to do - one click to download, one click to upload.

3. Different leagues proceed at different clips, though I think two of the leagues I'm in finish about three seasons in each real life year; that is, they sim three weeks of game time in every week of real life. Some leagues go faster than that.

4. Usually the league would then try to recruit a new owner, and the commish will either tend to the team in the interim, or set the team to AI control. Of course this situation does arise occasionally, but if you find an established and active league to join, it is rarely an issue.

Good luck!

[rrellick67]

Ok I want to thank both of your for your help. I am really excited about this now.

[TGH-Adfabre]

It is a blast. I have a ball with my online league.