Team rivalries?

[EmptyH]

I am new, so I don't know if this is a thing or not. But are team rivalries considered in all the calculations for stuff? Something like if your team is playing your rival then players who have high loyalty have more variable abilities?

[brotherblues]

Fairly certain the answers are no and no.

My understanding is loyalty affects contract talks, and also a morale buffer when things go sideways. Same as how fan loyalty serves as a buffer to fan interest.

[andyhdz]

Originally Posted by EmptyH

I am new, so I don't know if this is a thing or not. But are team rivalries considered in all the calculations for stuff? Something like if your team is playing your rival then players who have high loyalty have more variable abilities?

For the modern game it shouldn't since the pros will say the canned response about rivalry games and then easily move to that hated rival if the price is right. Orel Hershiser/Roger Clemens/Brett Favre come to mind.

[Cobby]

I've thought some about rivalries and how they might be implemented. I think it would be a nice addition to the game.

Some of the effects could be:

Increased attendance when playing a rival - especially consequential late-season games
Higher difficulty making trades with a rival
Certain players (maybe those with high "desire to win") get a performance boost when playing a rival. This would have to be compensated by a performance hit when playing a non-rival. (shouldn't be an overwhelming effect, but slight)
Greater chance of a brawl when playing a rival.
Fan interest increases when playing a rival.
Success in playing a rival boosts fan loyalty a bit and vice versa.
Success with a geographically adjacent rival sways fans midway geographically and therefore increases market size slightly (and vice versa)

As far as implementing it:

Rivals should be dynamic (they should change over time).
The underlying concept would be that of the "thwart". Every team wants to win the world series. The teams that thwart this goal each year get a rivalry boost. If you miss the playoffs, then all the teams that were better than you (in your league only - or in your division only if there are no wildcards - get some of these rivalry points and they are thereby diluted) If you get into the playoffs then your rivalry points go to the team that eliminated you (possibly some could go to other teams - like if you got eliminated in the wildcard round and you weren't the division winner, then you could split the rivalry points between the team that eliminated you and the division winner)

Brawls increase rivalry points a little too. (bad blood)

Once rivalry points are accumulated then they decay each year. The rate of decay is based on geography. Specifically, the teams that potentially compete for fans (teams in the same city or adjacent cities decay slowly, others more quickly)

For games (even fictional games) set in the real world the game could calculate this geographical effect fairly easily. For games set in a fictional world, the geographical coordinates of the fictional cities would have to be specified, or alternately (in either case) the user could specify this directly. It would be handy to be able to do this for cities with a connection that wouldn't necessarily be captured strictly by geographical proximity. (for example, you could boost New York - Tampa Bay due to the migration of New York fans to Florida even though they aren't geographically adjacent.)

[BirdWatcher]

Cobby- I'm sure I've probably said this before, but I will reiterate that I really like your ideas here and would love to see something like this that I could implement in my fictional OOTP world.

[joefromchicago]

Originally Posted by Cobby

Some of the effects could be:

Higher difficulty making trades with a rival

Is there any evidence for this happening in the real world? I know that it's commonly accepted that teams don't like to trade within their own divisions, but is that a rivalry thing or is it just a competition thing. For instance, since 1980 the Red Sox have made 6 deals with the Yankees, their traditional rival. In the same span, they made 6 trades with the Blue Jays, a team that is not really a rival in the same class as the Yankees but that is in the same division. So does rivalry play a role here or is it that a club doesn't want to see a former player more often than is absolutely necessary?

Originally Posted by Cobby

Certain players (maybe those with high "desire to win") get a performance boost when playing a rival. This would have to be compensated by a performance hit when playing a non-rival. (shouldn't be an overwhelming effect, but slight)

Greater chance of a brawl when playing a rival.

Do players care about rivalries? Sure, players will say that they get "jacked up" when they play the hated fill-in-the-blanks, but does that translate into on-field performance, no matter how slight? I really haven't seen it, and I've been watching the Cubs play the Cardinals for decades.

Originally Posted by Cobby

As far as implementing it:

Rivals should be dynamic (they should change over time).
The underlying concept would be that of the "thwart". Every team wants to win the world series. The teams that thwart this goal each year get a rivalry boost. If you miss the playoffs, then all the teams that were better than you (in your league only - or in your division only if there are no wildcards - get some of these rivalry points and they are thereby diluted) If you get into the playoffs then your rivalry points go to the team that eliminated you (possibly some could go to other teams - like if you got eliminated in the wildcard round and you weren't the division winner, then you could split the rivalry points between the team that eliminated you and the division winner)

Brawls increase rivalry points a little too. (bad blood)

Once rivalry points are accumulated then they decay each year. The rate of decay is based on geography. Specifically, the teams that potentially compete for fans (teams in the same city or adjacent cities decay slowly, others more quickly)

Those are some great ideas, but holy cow that's a lot of superstructure to add to the game for a very small payoff.

[jokerhusky1129]

FHM has a good rivalry system that could be carried over to OOTP.

[truebatman]

I would love some kind of rivalry system put in