Unique league ideas

[PBL Commish]

I'm thinking of starting a league soon and am currently mapping it all out.

what are some features unique to your league or stuff not included in the game that your leagues might use?

I'm interested in making this league as fun, diverse, always something you can do, etc.

[Eddie Paxil]

In the NABA we use a Participation Points system that I think is one of the most balanced I've seen. It's main purpose is to encourage exporting, and secondary purpose is to encourage GM's to contribute content like Articles. However, I think it does so in a manner that gives GM's room to breathe.

The reward is the ability to improve the primary skills of players in a controlled manner as if they were being sent to Winter Ball. We actually tried sending them to another league for "Winter Ball" after they'd been edited with their improvements, but it was logistically very difficult to fix what the extra service time did to the players. So now the players are just edited.

Here's the current rule:

Owners may earn Participation Points or PPs which can be used to send players to Winter Ball where they can increase certain attributes of their potential and to a lesser extent, actual abilities.

There are two ways to earn points, with roster exports during the regular season and by earning Extra Points. Owners can earn two PPs for each sim that they submit. Owners can also earn up to 12 Extra Points over the course of the season. The commissioner will liberally find ways owners can earn these points by such things as vote for League Presidents or Year end awards, or participate in league wide live events. Extra Points can also be earned by writing NABA related articles. For league related articles, owners will receive two points for a article of 250 words or more or five points for an article over 500 words.

Players may be upgraded one time in the lifetime of the player. A maximum of thirty points may be used on a player. PPs must be used in 10-point increments per attribute. Attributes that may be upgraded are as follows:

Pitchers - Stuff, Movement and Control
Batters - Contact, Power and Eye

For each ten points used, you will generally see an increase of one for potential and one half for actual ratings. Because we are going to use a one to ten scale and not show ratings over ten, it is allowable to add potential to somebody who already has a ten rating. If you max out a player's potential, I will let you know but you will not be allowed to upgrade any other of his ratings.

The way the upgrading is done is like so. The game uses a scale of 0-249 (I think), so we add 20 points to the player's "Potential" rating, and 10 points to his "Actual Rating" for every 10 Participation points spent by the GM.

Now, a player can only be improved once every year. Only 30 points can be spent on a player, and yes all 30 can be spent on one of the three attributes, but then nothing else can get done. The whole thing is very controlled to keep there from ever being "super players" You can't keep sending someone back over and over.

It keeps GM's involved, but without putting too much pressure on them to deliver an article a day. If they export and have an idea to contribute once & a while they can accumulate every point available.

As for the use of the points. It becomes a very strategic thing, and a new wrinkle in running the team in the off season. Some GM's like to pump the points into their prospects to make them even better, while others use them on big league talent to make them more complete players.

I have found this system is either loved or hated. Those who love it can't imagine it not there. Those who hate it have 2 reasons. 1) They are just against anything that involves editing players. They think it should be left to the impartiality of the file maker & the AI. 2) It's not aggressive enough. Some folks want to push the GM's to contribute constantly, and do something constantly.

I guess it depends on the kind of league you want. If you want it hardcore where you want people on the forum everyday contributing content. Look for another system. If you want a system the encourages participation in a measured manner that gives GM's a bit more room to live their lives. Consider the above system as a spring board for one of your own that's similar.

[PBL Commish]

this is awesome!!! thanks a lot

yeah i want one with a point system like this one. Ones where the GM's with "no life" dominate due to more activity and more time to write articles, bet, etc. dont thrill me much because of disparity in the league and inability to fill openings

[Kelric]

For a unique setup, talk to Beorn over at Dog Days Baseball. He posts here too, but not often.

[Stu]

My league has a World Baseball Classic every 2 years during the offseason.

Basically, I create a copy of the league file. Release all the players then delete all the teams, history, etc. Create a new league with the 8 WBC teams (2 divisions of 4). Move all the players onto the teams with logos, facegen uniforms, etc. I then manually schedule "Regular Season" games.

We have group stages which are 6 games for each team. The top 2 teams from each group meet in a semifinal and the winners of those play in a 3 game series for the final.

Teams
Group A
USA
Mexico
Canada
Japan

Group B
Dominican Republic
Cuba
Puerto Rico
South America

Here are the reports from our first competition: World Baseball Classic Home

It's a little bit of work to set up the league file, but it was a lot of fun having teams of our owners manage the WBC teams.

[PBL Commish]

Originally Posted by Stu

My league has a World Baseball Classic every 2 years during the offseason.

Basically, I create a copy of the league file. Release all the players then delete all the teams, history, etc. Create a new league with the 8 WBC teams (2 divisions of 4). Move all the players onto the teams with logos, facegen uniforms, etc. I then manually schedule "Regular Season" games.

We have group stages which are 6 games for each team. The top 2 teams from each group meet in a semifinal and the winners of those play in a 3 game series for the final.

Teams
Group A
USA
Mexico
Canada
Japan

Group B
Dominican Republic
Cuba
Puerto Rico
South America

Here are the reports from our first competition: World Baseball Classic Home

It's a little bit of work to set up the league file, but it was a lot of fun having teams of our owners manage the WBC teams.

great idea i hadn't thought of yet.

thanks

[sporr]

We have a triple-elimination tournament at the end of each season for teams that don't make the playoffs. We also allow stadium enhancements and new stadium construction.

Here's a look at our Tourney bracket:

http://www.baseballmaelstrom.com/maeltourn.htm

[Joy in Mudville]

Originally Posted by Stu

My league has a World Baseball Classic every 2 years during the offseason.

Basically, I create a copy of the league file. Release all the players then delete all the teams, history, etc. Create a new league with the 8 WBC teams (2 divisions of 4). Move all the players onto the teams with logos, facegen uniforms, etc. I then manually schedule "Regular Season" games.

We have group stages which are 6 games for each team. The top 2 teams from each group meet in a semifinal and the winners of those play in a 3 game series for the final.

Teams
Group A
USA
Mexico
Canada
Japan

Group B
Dominican Republic
Cuba
Puerto Rico
South America

Here are the reports from our first competition: World Baseball Classic Home

It's a little bit of work to set up the league file, but it was a lot of fun having teams of our owners manage the WBC teams.

Here is the latest news on the real World Baseball Classic. Its format has changed a little since the first time around.

The Official Site of Major League Baseball: News: Venues set for World Baseball Classic

[jazzrack]

3 words for thought.

less is more.

[Eddie Paxil]

Originally Posted by jazzrack

3 words for thought.

less is more.

I couldn't agree more with Jazz here. I think each league should have one maybe two things that makes it unique, but overall keep it simple. The more rules you create the harder it is for both you as the commissioner & the GM's.

[Stu]

I think it depends on the league. I know, for example, my league has owners who are always on the forums and clamoring for more stuff.

Your advice holds true for most new leagues though.

[Corsairs]

Originally Posted by Stu

I think it depends on the league. I know, for example, my league has owners who are always on the forums and clamoring for more stuff.

Your advice holds true for most new leagues though.

Exactly. This isn't a "one-size-fits-all" kind of thing. Some leagues will benefit from looser control while others will thrive with more rules. The key is knowing the group of people you're working with and adjusting accordingly. I do agree that, when in doubt, it's better to err on the side of not making a rule.

In terms of unique things: I don't know how unique this is, but community member f.montoya (who runs the AllSimBaseball hosting service our league uses) recently clued me into Yugma, an online service that lets you broadcast your desktop for others to view. This allows us to conduct "live" games that really are live. Instead of just watching a refreshing box score, up to 10 owners can watch a game being played out as if they were sitting in front of my home computer. We'll be employing this for the first time during our championship series. I'm looking forward to seeing how it works.

[Raidergoo]

Originally Posted by Corsairs

Exactly. This isn't a "one-size-fits-all" kind of thing. Some leagues will benefit from looser control while others will thrive with more rules. The key is knowing the group of people you're working with and adjusting accordingly. I do agree that, when in doubt, it's better to err on the side of not making a rule.

In terms of unique things: I don't know how unique this is, but community member f.montoya (who runs the AllSimBaseball hosting service our league uses) recently clued me into Yugma, an online service that lets you broadcast your desktop for others to view. This allows us to conduct "live" games that really are live. Instead of just watching a refreshing box score, up to 10 owners can watch a game being played out as if they were sitting in front of my home computer. We'll be employing this for the first time during our championship series. I'm looking forward to seeing how it works.

Yugma...

Interesting. Very interesting...

[cnield]

Originally Posted by Corsairs

Exactly. This isn't a "one-size-fits-all" kind of thing. Some leagues will benefit from looser control while others will thrive with more rules. The key is knowing the group of people you're working with and adjusting accordingly. I do agree that, when in doubt, it's better to err on the side of not making a rule.

In terms of unique things: I don't know how unique this is, but community member f.montoya (who runs the AllSimBaseball hosting service our league uses) recently clued me into Yugma, an online service that lets you broadcast your desktop for others to view. This allows us to conduct "live" games that really are live. Instead of just watching a refreshing box score, up to 10 owners can watch a game being played out as if they were sitting in front of my home computer. We'll be employing this for the first time during our championship series. I'm looking forward to seeing how it works.

On a related sort of thing, Yuuguu allows you to broadcast your screen as well. We've had more than 10 people viewing the games in our league, and haven't run into any user limits yet.

Also, if you have more than one computer or more than one screen, you can use a broadcasting program like that to allow managers to manage their games. We've done that a couple of times in our league so far and it works pretty well.

[pirateball3255]

Great ideas guys. Thanks all.

[Stu]

Originally Posted by cnield

On a related sort of thing, Yuuguu allows you to broadcast your screen as well. We've had more than 10 people viewing the games in our league, and haven't run into any user limits yet.

Also, if you have more than one computer or more than one screen, you can use a broadcasting program like that to allow managers to manage their games. We've done that a couple of times in our league so far and it works pretty well.

I tried Yuuguu the other night and it worked great. The only thing I can't figure out is how to disable the chat windows from popping up. As people were chatting , the windows were popping up on my screen which obstructed their view of the PBP. Any ideas?

[Corsairs]

Originally Posted by Stu

I tried Yuuguu the other night and it worked great. The only thing I can't figure out is how to disable the chat windows from popping up. As people were chatting , the windows were popping up on my screen which obstructed their view of the PBP. Any ideas?

Can't speak for Yuuguu, but I ran our league's first game broadcast through Yugma (boy, those similar names are confusing!) last night. I noticed the chat window pop-up and was concerned that it would obstruct the observers' view. As it turns out, the Yugma interface on the presenter's computer is invisible to the observers. I confirmed this while logged in as an observer from a separate laptop. So if you're having this trouble with Yuuguu, you may want to give Yugma a try.

[DWK]

Originally Posted by jazzrack

3 words for thought.

less is more.

I totally agree

[eMLBCommish]

Originally Posted by Corsairs

Can't speak for Yuuguu, but I ran our league's first game broadcast through Yugma (boy, those similar names are confusing!) last night. I noticed the chat window pop-up and was concerned that it would obstruct the observers' view. As it turns out, the Yugma interface on the presenter's computer is invisible to the observers. I confirmed this while logged in as an observer from a separate laptop. So if you're having this trouble with Yuuguu, you may want to give Yugma a try.

I can confirm through a successful test last night that no one saw the Yuuguu chat windows that were popping up on my screen.

[Bobble]

Originally Posted by sporr

We have a triple-elimination tournament at the end of each season for teams that don't make the playoffs. We also allow stadium enhancements and new stadium construction.

Here's a look at our Tourney bracket:

http://www.baseballmaelstrom.com/maeltourn.htm

My fantasy football league does a loser's playoff to determine the draft order for the next year (winner of the losers playoff gets first pick, etc.). Is that what you're doing here or is it just for kicks?