Waiver Wire for fixed seasons -- wdyt?
Posted: Fri Mar 13, 2009 8:42 pm
Continuing League, Refreshing Teams
Each year, we will run two seasons, one a short, informal open season, and one fixed-format regular season in the fall. Both seasons will be preceded by ≤3-game open preseasons (1M, rookies only) and followed by tournaments (an open tournament after the open season and a postseason tournament after the regular season). Teams will be rebuilt at the start of each regular season on 1.1M, and up to three players from previous teams may be selected off a "waiver wire" out of this money. There is a mechanism to ensure jealous coaches can pick up their own players with preference.
In this manner, I hope to develop a sense of history, with certain star players seeing a great deal of action, while still resetting regularly so the rookies can get in and people can play a variety of teams at comparable TV. Also, new coaches coming in through the preseason will have an opportunity to get the hang of how league play works before they have actual consequences (early dropouts and fixed seasons are a bad combo). If a team is crippled in the preseason, that's ok, so long as a few players earn SPP without getting gimped.
The Waiver Wire
When a player with an improvement is cut, he goes to the Waiver Wire, a database of all waived players and veterans from defunct teams. When a team is disbanded, all its players (with or without improvements) go to the Waiver Wire. Teams that participated in a tournament don't go into the Waiver Wire for the next season, but will for the season after that. Players on the Waiver Wire may be hired during the regular season or open season, as described below. It is considered very unsportsmanlike to deliberately give a player a useless skill before sending him to the Waiver Wire, but there is no official rule to prevent it. During the season, a player with no improvements who would go to the Waiver Wire retires instead, so the only way to take unskilled players (like a guy with an MVP) off the Waiver Wire is through the Draft.
Waiver Wire Characteristics
Players on the Waiver Wire have two special characteristics: code and coach.
Code: Each player on the Waiver Wire has a code, which is an abbreviation of his team name plus roster number, with an A or B on the end if necessary. That's how players are identified on the Waiver Wire: when picked up on a team the head coach may change the player's name and jersey number.
Coach: Each player has a listed coach. This isn't a line-item on the team roster, because all players on the team always have the same coach, but it is a line-item on the Waiver Wire. If you hire a player (permanently, not as an inducement), you become that player's coach. At the beginning of the season, you will be able to select up to three players off the Waiver Wire (the Draft), and you get an advantage if you pick your own players (see below).
Getting Players off the Waiver Wire
There are four ways to get a player off the Waiver Wire: you can draft them, franchise them, hire them or induce them. If a player from the Waiver Wire is added to the team roster, his TV add is treated as normal, and may be more or less than the purchase price.
Drafting a player can be done at the beginning of the regular or open season. Up to three players may be drafted in a three-round random-order draft. Drafted players need not be hired, but if not hired on the initial roster they go to the Waiver Wire (rookies retire). The cost to hire players this way is the player's TV add. In each round, draft priority goes to coaches drafting their own players, and is random thereafter. After the draft, all players with 5SPP or less are removed from the Waiver Wire, but preseason players and players from disbanded teams may be drafted before this happens (a good way to get a leg up and save money).
Franchising is an option for players who played for you before and that you want to protect in the regular or open season. Any coach may forfeit his third round draft selection in advance to "franchise" one of his players, essentially pre-drafting him. This player must be hired, at a cost of base cost + 50,000 GC, regardless of the player's actual TV add.
Hiring a player can be done during the regular or open season, but players picked up this way will usually want a signing bonus. Pay the player 1.5 times his total TV add (round down), minus 20,000 GC for each niggling injury or characteristic loss the player has suffered, to a minimum of the player's rookie base cost. In no case can a player's purchase price be less than the base cost for a player at his position.
Inducing a player from the Waiver Wire is possible, as if the player were a Mercenary. The inducement cost is the player's TV add plus 50,000 gc, plus another 10,000 gc for each improvement the player has. Such players earn SPP as normal. If a coach induces another coach's player and that player improves, the coach who induced the player (and played in the game) rolls the die and selects the improvement (noting the die roll if not a common result), and the player's listed coach has a week to change the selection, or until the player is next induced or hired.
What do you think?
Each year, we will run two seasons, one a short, informal open season, and one fixed-format regular season in the fall. Both seasons will be preceded by ≤3-game open preseasons (1M, rookies only) and followed by tournaments (an open tournament after the open season and a postseason tournament after the regular season). Teams will be rebuilt at the start of each regular season on 1.1M, and up to three players from previous teams may be selected off a "waiver wire" out of this money. There is a mechanism to ensure jealous coaches can pick up their own players with preference.
In this manner, I hope to develop a sense of history, with certain star players seeing a great deal of action, while still resetting regularly so the rookies can get in and people can play a variety of teams at comparable TV. Also, new coaches coming in through the preseason will have an opportunity to get the hang of how league play works before they have actual consequences (early dropouts and fixed seasons are a bad combo). If a team is crippled in the preseason, that's ok, so long as a few players earn SPP without getting gimped.
The Waiver Wire
When a player with an improvement is cut, he goes to the Waiver Wire, a database of all waived players and veterans from defunct teams. When a team is disbanded, all its players (with or without improvements) go to the Waiver Wire. Teams that participated in a tournament don't go into the Waiver Wire for the next season, but will for the season after that. Players on the Waiver Wire may be hired during the regular season or open season, as described below. It is considered very unsportsmanlike to deliberately give a player a useless skill before sending him to the Waiver Wire, but there is no official rule to prevent it. During the season, a player with no improvements who would go to the Waiver Wire retires instead, so the only way to take unskilled players (like a guy with an MVP) off the Waiver Wire is through the Draft.
Waiver Wire Characteristics
Players on the Waiver Wire have two special characteristics: code and coach.
Code: Each player on the Waiver Wire has a code, which is an abbreviation of his team name plus roster number, with an A or B on the end if necessary. That's how players are identified on the Waiver Wire: when picked up on a team the head coach may change the player's name and jersey number.
Coach: Each player has a listed coach. This isn't a line-item on the team roster, because all players on the team always have the same coach, but it is a line-item on the Waiver Wire. If you hire a player (permanently, not as an inducement), you become that player's coach. At the beginning of the season, you will be able to select up to three players off the Waiver Wire (the Draft), and you get an advantage if you pick your own players (see below).
Getting Players off the Waiver Wire
There are four ways to get a player off the Waiver Wire: you can draft them, franchise them, hire them or induce them. If a player from the Waiver Wire is added to the team roster, his TV add is treated as normal, and may be more or less than the purchase price.
Drafting a player can be done at the beginning of the regular or open season. Up to three players may be drafted in a three-round random-order draft. Drafted players need not be hired, but if not hired on the initial roster they go to the Waiver Wire (rookies retire). The cost to hire players this way is the player's TV add. In each round, draft priority goes to coaches drafting their own players, and is random thereafter. After the draft, all players with 5SPP or less are removed from the Waiver Wire, but preseason players and players from disbanded teams may be drafted before this happens (a good way to get a leg up and save money).
Franchising is an option for players who played for you before and that you want to protect in the regular or open season. Any coach may forfeit his third round draft selection in advance to "franchise" one of his players, essentially pre-drafting him. This player must be hired, at a cost of base cost + 50,000 GC, regardless of the player's actual TV add.
Hiring a player can be done during the regular or open season, but players picked up this way will usually want a signing bonus. Pay the player 1.5 times his total TV add (round down), minus 20,000 GC for each niggling injury or characteristic loss the player has suffered, to a minimum of the player's rookie base cost. In no case can a player's purchase price be less than the base cost for a player at his position.
Inducing a player from the Waiver Wire is possible, as if the player were a Mercenary. The inducement cost is the player's TV add plus 50,000 gc, plus another 10,000 gc for each improvement the player has. Such players earn SPP as normal. If a coach induces another coach's player and that player improves, the coach who induced the player (and played in the game) rolls the die and selects the improvement (noting the die roll if not a common result), and the player's listed coach has a week to change the selection, or until the player is next induced or hired.
What do you think?