Sim Dynasty Football Game Guide

From Sim Dynasty Rulebook

Revision as of 02:07, 7 January 2011

Sim Dynasty Football Game Guide

This is the wiki game guide for Sim Dynasty football. Please feel free to make any changes or additions you see fit.

Introduction

Objective of the Game

League Information

League Names and Structure

Each league type is named according to a different scheme. The Single Season leagues are named after some of the top defensive players of all time. The Dynasty leagues are named after top running backs and other players known for yards on the ground. The league names have been chosen so each set of league initials is unique for easy reference.

Single Season leagues consist of 16 teams arranged into two conferences, with each conference divided into two divisions of four teams each. Dynasty Leagues start with the same structure but may grow or shrink over the years. Teams will be arranged into conferences and divisions after the league fills.

League Types

Game Information

Field Measurement

All measurements on the field are measured to the nearest 3.6 inches (1/10th of a yard); each 1/10th of a yard is referred to here as a "field unit" (or "unit" for short). The play area is 999 of these units wide, with unit 0 and unit 1000 representing the goal lines.

Because the ball moves in increments smaller than a yard, this may cause apparent mismatches due to rounding, i.e a ball may be reported as moving from the 33 yard line to the 36 yard line, yet be reported as gaining only 2 yards. Likewise, a play that is reported as a 2-yard gain may only change the "To Go" yardage by 1.

Units .5 of a yard or more are rounded up, units less than .5 of a yard are rounded down. Yardlines likewise are rounded at their midpoint. The exception is the area between the goal line and halfway to the 1 yard line, which is reported as the 1 yard line rather than the goal line. "To Go" distances shorter than half a yard are reported as "inches".

Within the simulation, the ball is 3 units wide, and all measurements are taken from the point of the ball nearest the goal the offense is advancing towards. However, in Dynasty Vision, the ball is 9 pixels wide (to make it visible), and each pixel covers 2 units of space, so the ball appears on screen at six times its normal size. The end of the visible ball closest to the goal line the offense is attacking is aligned with the end of the ball in the simulation.

Team Information

Roster Size

During the regular season, your team is limited to 53 players. Of those 53, only 45 may be designated as active players that will participate in games. The active roster is fixed when the game starts; if you move a player to or from the active roster during a game, you will see that change on your roster page but not in the game in progress.

You are not required to keep a full roster; however, a team must have at least 24 uninjured active players at the beginning of each game. Players will automatically be moved from inactive to active and/or picked up from waivers if necessary to comply with the 24-player minimum.

If a team has more than 45 players on the active roster at the beginning of the game, only 45 of the active players will be selected to participate in the game. If a team has more than 53 players when a game starts, players will automatically be waived to get down to the limit.

During the offseason and preseason, teams may carry up to 80 total players on their roster. Teams not participating in the postseason may also carry up to 80 players during the postseason.

Drafts

The Initial Draft

The Amateur Draft

The Expansion Draft

Off-Season

Player Information

Player Abilities and Numerical Values

All players are created with skills assigned randomly between a value of A through F in the following areas:

Each letter is assigned a numerical range of eight points (see chart below). Each point represents one improvement (see Improvement Chances). In most leagues, the numerical values are only visible to ABE so that he can use them to simulate each game. In some leagues, general managers have the option to see the number ratings instead, but otherwise these ratings are presented only with the colored letter value of each skill because it is easier to evaluate and read online. (A's are red, B's are blue, C's are green, D's are yellow, and F's are black.) The higher the letter grade, the better that player is in that skill area.

Overall Rating

A player's overall rating is a quick way to get a general sense of how good a player is, but should not be relied on too heavily to evaluate players.

Player Cards

Player skills, Improvement Chance history, career statistics, and transactions of each player are just a few examples of what is listed on each player card. You can see a player's card by clicking on his name. These links appear everywhere you can see the player's name, including your Depth Chart, the Waiver Wire and Box Scores.

Improvement Chances (ICs)

Improvement Chances are the means by which players improve (i.e., increase their numerical value) in each individual skill area. The higher the value, the better that player is in that skill area. An IC is an opportunity for that player to improve. A player who receives an IC must also convert that IC to receive an improvement in that skill. As each player accumulates and converts ICs, his skill levels increase. Each player will improve at a different rate, based on age, current skill, and other factors.

Overview

During the course of the football season, your players will improve and decline based on that player's playing time, training plan, and individual factors such as Age, Potential, and Attitude. These improvements are noted in your players' records as your coaching staff records them.

Improvements are accumulated from a set of Improvement Chances, or IC's, accumulated over the course of each game. During the week between games, your players will practice and train based on the training plan you outline for them, including which role to Train As and what kind of Drills to run between scrimmages, and just prior to the next game your coaches will prepare their reports and add records of each player's Improvements in their Player Cards.

Improvement Mechanism

Player improvements occur during the week before a game, based on each player's individual training plan. Improvements are tracked internally to a tenth of a point, and a successful improve may encompass a range from a fraction of a full point to over a full point. Thus, in leagues using letter grade systems, counting improvements will not give an exact value of a player's grade, but should provide a good estimation. Average improvement sizes are larger for low grades and smaller for high grades. The maximum value for any ability is 100.0.

Training Plan

There are two types of improvements available in your Training Plan: Position Training and Drills. These are set on the Roster page, in the far right columns.

Position Training

Position Training trains a player in areas that are important to a particular position or role. Improvements will be earned in the skills that make up that role's overall score, in roughly similar proportions to that skill's importance to the overall score. Any player may train in any position or role; however, if you are training a player in a role or position that is not connected to that player's natural position, Execution improvements cannot be earned.

Drills

Drills are meant to help you target improvements for abilities that are not part of your position's basic skill set. About 60% of your improvements go to the skill set of the position you are training for and 40% go to your drills.

The default drill is A, which means "All-Around". This drill does not concentrate on any area, and can result in improvements in Speed, Health, Agility, Execution, Stamina, Jumping, Hands, Tackle, and Strength. The conversion rate is a little lower than the more targeted drills.

Targeted drills are different from the All Around drill in that they have a higher conversion rate for the abilities that they target, but they also may reduce one ability that is opposite to the targeted goals of the drill. For example, Weight Training drills build strength, but they add bulk to a player reducing his overall speed. Conversely, running Sprints may improve a player's Speed and Agility, but they tend to make a player lose weight and thus Strength. The targeted drill groups are:

C - Conditioning - This is an exception to the others because it only improves two skills and has no "downside". This improves Health and Stamina, and as a bonus any player training in Conditioning will have his Conditioning score for the next game at 100%. It is recommended to have players coming off an injury late in the week prior to a game to have Conditioning drills in his training plan; this is also useful for players with Attitude problems who do not put in enough effort on the training field to be at their top Conditioning.

D - Discipline - Discipline training improves Attitude, Execution, and Hands; it reduces Aggressiveness.

F - Footwork - Footwork drills increase Agility, Jumping, and Break Tackle; they reduce Strength (on the theory that as you become more agile you may lose weight)

K - Kicking - Kicking drills increase Kick Accuracy, Kick Power, and Execution; they reduce Endurance (as kickers don't really need it). This helps make up for the fact that kickers tend to earn fewer IC's overall.

S - Sprints - Sprint drills improve Speed, Agility and Pursuit; they reduce Strength.

W - Weight Training - Weight Training increases Strength, Stamina, and Tackling, and reduces Speed.

Accumulating Improvement Chances

Improvement Chances (ICs) are accumulated separately for Position Training and Drills. Only full IC's are attempted to convert to Improvements at the end of the week; fractional ICs will roll over to the next week.

ICs are allocated as follows:

Position Improvement Chances (improvements applied to those attributes most important to the position selected for training):

All players on roster: .5 All players on the active roster: +.25 All players who appeared in that week's game: +.25 Time played in game: seconds of play/900 (maximum +2.0)* Young inactive players: +.5 for each year under 25 Bye week: +1.0

• Time played means total time in the game, not clock time, so the time resetting after a play and in the huddle counts even if the clock is stopped. (i.e. it uses the same timer that fatigue is calculated on.)

Drill Improvement Chances (improvements applied to the set of attributes in the selected drill set):

All players on the roster: .5 Attitude (work ethic) bonus: Attitude/400 (i.e. 0.0-0.25)+random(Attitude/200) (i.e. 0.0-0.50) *

• Thus, Attitude is, on average, worth just over 1 IC per 10 points of Attitude over the course of a 21-week season (16 games + bye + preseason).

Converting Improvement Chances to Improvements

At the end of the week, immediately prior to playing the first quarter of the next game, Improvement Chances are processed based on your selected Training Plans for each player and may be converted to Improvements. The chance of converting an Improvement is based on a player's age and Potential, so players with a higher Potential will convert more improvements over time.

For most abilities, the conversion chances are roughly as follows:

This chart is correct for most players; some players may improve at a slightly faster or slower rate, as if they were a year or two older or younger than their actual age.

Most abilities follow this pattern; however, Execution and Throwing Accuracy continue to improve into a player's early 30's, while Speed improvements fall off almost completely after age 24.

Mentoring

Name Changes

If it is early in the season, you are permitted to change the name of the player by clicking on the player's name and going to his card. Note that you can only do this during the first 30 days of the season, unless he has won Rookie of the Year or been named to an All-Star team, and offensive player names WILL NOT BE TOLERATED! If you find another team's player names offensive, please report that team so the issue can be resolved. Duplicate names in a league are not permitted, and names must be between three and 30 characters long.

Injured Players

Playing Players out of Position

Managing your Team

Sim Dynasty offers you a large assortment of ways to manage your team.

Depth Chart

Playbook

Coach Preferences

Manager Mode

Regular Mode

Advanced Mode

General Manager Information

Trades

Through the GM menu, you can propose a trade to any other team in your league. If the other team accepts, the trade will be executed immediately, and the players will change teams.

Injured Reserve

Any player who has been injured and is expected to be out longer than 5 days may be placed on the Injured Reserve list. Players on Injured Reserve do not count for or against the team's roster limits; however, once a player has been moved to the Injured Reserve list, that player is inelligible to play, practice or train with the team for the remainder of the season, including the postseason. Thus, players on Injured Reserve cannot collect Improvement Chances even after their injury has healed.

League Information

League News

Sim Dynasty has a news page that will show you what has been going on in your league in the way of player transactions, such as trades, status changes, injuries, and retiring players.

Standings

To see how your team is doing in the league overall, you should go to the Standings page. This will show you the standings for all of the teams in your league.

Results

Schedule

League Info

Sim Dynasty also has a League Info page that allows you to see who is in your league. It also displays their e-mail address, if they have chosen to let it be shown in their Profile. You can also U2U them from here by clicking their name. When you do this, the u2u screen will pop up, and you can U2U them right from there. You can also see when your opponents last checked into the site. This way you can know who has been actively managing their teams, and which teams belong to "dead" owners.

Team Statistics

You can view your team statistics from the Team Stats page. These are actual cumulative stats from the current season. If you traded for a player during the season, only his accrued stats from when he was on your team will show up. If you traded a player away, only the stats he accrued while on your team will show up here.

Individual Statistics

You can view your players individual statistics from the Individual Stats page. You can only see players here that are currently on your roster.

League Leaders

To see who leads the league in various statistical categories, check out the League Leaders page. It will show you the top 20 players in each category. You can view Single Season leaders and All Time leaders of various categories.

Player Rankings

The Rankings page serves two purposes. The first is to show all players ranked according to their statistics, and the other is to show all players ranked according to their abilities.

Player Statistics

The benefit of using this page as opposed to the Leaders page is that this page will show all of the players in your league, which is more comprehensive. On this page you can choose to sort by every category that is kept on the player cards.

Player Abilities

This part of the Rankings page will show all of the players in your league according to their abilities. As with the other page, this page can be sorted by all player abilities displayed on the player cards. This page is especially useful for scouting around your league to find the players on other teams that you would like to trade for.

All Pro Page

Miscellaneous

PayPal and Payments

For our pay leagues, we use PayPal as the method to receive payments. If you have a credit card, checking account, or any other type of banking account, you can use PayPal to send in a payment.

If you only have a checking account, the payment will be sent to us by a PayPal e-check. E-checks can take up to 4 business days to clear, and you will not see the credits hit your Sim Dynasty account until then. If you are signing up for a new team and send in an e-check, please post a message in the Support Message Board letting Admin know, and we can hold the team for you until it clears. (You can post a message in Support privately if you prefer.) If you are renewing a team using an e-check, you will have to wait the four days to get credit. We have considered removing e-checks as a payment option, because of the confusion they cause, but many of our players only have checking accounts, and we don't want to prevent them from playing.

Finally, if you don't have any kind of bank account or credit card, you can mail in a personal check or money order to us. Please write your screen name and/or league name on the check or money order, and add $2 for handling. (For example, if a league costs $20, the payment would be for $22.) Please make your payment out to the site owner, Tyson Lowery. Allow up to three weeks for the credits to be posted to your account. You can get our address by posting a private message in Support.

Reporting Problems & Suggesting Enhancements

Have you noticed something about the game that isn't quite right? Are you having problems accessing your team or logging in? Or is there something about the game that you would like to see improved? We encourage you to sound off on the Message Boards.

Using this Wiki

We use the same software as Wikipedia for maintaining this page. We encourage you to make additions and corrections where you see fit. We found the following links to be helpful when learning the syntax of editing a page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:How_to_edit_a_page

Working with Tables:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Table

Related Pages

Site Rules