Chris

Hi everyone.  After just starting to repost one of my dynasties here I've had a change of heart.  After going back and reposting several posts I feel like I'm doing double work.  Maybe if I started fresh it would work better, or maybe it's just what I'm used to.  I just know for me that if I keep doing that I'm going to abandon it here eventually.  So hopefully this will work out a little better for me, and I'll be doing this dynasty exclusively here. 
 
I've had pretty good success in the past with a narrow focus for a dynasty.  About six years ago I did one of my first dynasties on the OOTP boards, maybe even my first, called The Home Run.
 
I focused exclusively on the home run, was able to move through history pretty quickly, not get bogged down by anything else, and I had a lot of fun doing it.  With OOTP 16 one of my favorite new features is the Hall of Fame voting, although it takes a long time to see how the voting plays out.  Usually at least. 
 
So what I'm going to do is focus exclusively on the Hall of Fame, the voting, the players elected, and the players on the ballot, and hopefully have fun doing it. 
 
A few ground rules -
 
I won't be taking control of any team I'll be moving forward one year at a time I won't be talking about any player until they retire I will be using OOTP's engine instead of recalc I'll be beginning in 1871 when simming through history, but 1886 will be the first year for the Hall of Fame  
If you have any questions please let me know, and hopefully this will be a fun journey.  

Entry #1 I think I'd better introduce myself. I'm Bill Bradley, and I'm the new Rockies GM. I was recently hired, and I'm excited to be a part of this wonderful organization. I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, and I lived there until I went off to college to play baseball and get a degree in business. I was drafted professionally by the Baltimore Orioles, but my career fizzled out after a few years, and I decided to join the front office. Here I am! 
 
I hope to get this team up to a championship caliber year in and year out. That will take some work, so bear with me. It may seem at times that I don't know what I'm doing, but trust me, I have a plan, and I am going to stick to it. We have a lot of potential here in Colorado, and gaining assets is a must if we want to compete for the championship soon.
 
 
Right now, I don't believe we can win a championship with the current roster. We have a lot of players who fit one of two categories; either they are young and inexperienced, or they are aging veterans at the tail end of their career. We also have two great players. It's not as easy as you would think though. Keeping those players costs a lot of money, and both Carlos Gonzalez and Troy Tulowitzki are nearing the end of their prime. They both have humongous deals that will hinder us if we don't unload them. Even though they are fan favorites, it will be in the best interest of the team.
 
 
Until next time,
Bill Bradley
 
 
League News:

In addition to Major League Baseball, there are six other leagues in the universe. Each of them now has posting turned on, and I added a maximum posting fee to each one in the range of $10 mm - $20 mm.  

Thanks, I think I'm going to give that a try, I just noticed how small the pictures were coming out.  

If you like, there is an HTML enable option when you post. You can then insert the images that way. I think that's how most of us do it.

Awesome and welcome!

Hi everyone.  I'll be cross posting this dynasty that I started a few days ago in the OOTP forums, so just a bit of catch-up to get started.
 
-------
 
Every time a new version comes out I like to create a new league and take it for a test drive. There are several new features in OOTP 16 that I'm excited for, and thought that it would be fun to start in 1871 and replay a history of Major League Baseball. 

I won't be taking control of any team, and will be using OOTP 'out of the box', at least primarily. That means I'll be starting with a historical league and letting OOTP control franchise movement, expansion, and player development. Historical players will import and recalc will be turned off, letting the OOTP engine control how players will develop. That will also mean that things like the All-Star game, awards, World Series, and Hall of Fame will be around from the beginning. The only changes from defaults will be turning off baseball cards, disabling spring training, and renaming a few awards - the Cy Young Award will be the Pitcher of the Year Award to start, and I change the offense and defensive awards to Silver Slugger and Gold Glove.

We'll begin in 1871 with the American League made up of future franchises of the Baltimore Orioles, Oakland Athletics, Cleveland Indians, and New York Yankees. The National League will consist of the Chicago Cubs, Los Angeles Dodgers, Atlanta Braves, and Cincinnati Reds.

Howdy, time to discuss the fourth and final roster view, contracts! Related to this i will talk a bit on roster management and finances.
 
 
Contract view

 
Contracts in an European style game world are pretty easy to understand. A contract consist of a length, years remaining and salary. Furthermore a player can have one or two clausules in their contracts, represented by the letters R and S.
 
R = Release on relegation, player will become FA when team demotes to a lower league S = Salary increase on promotion, player will earn more when team is promoting to a higher league.  
P.S. at the moment i don't know how much a player will earn more after promotion, i will follow up on this when i know the answer.
 
Also, a very important detail presented on the contract view is the contract happiness of a player. Sometimes players want a bigger contract and sometimes they want to move to a bigger club. In both cases the player will become unhappy with his contract. In the latter case you can't do anything about it.
 
Currently, the highest paid players in my team:
 
GK Matias Gorman ($450.000) W Chance Shumaker ($391.000) W Alf Haugland ($243.000) I'm a bit surprised about Haugland's contract. He is a grinder and i didn't mentioned him before in any post. He has natural talent and is purposeful, but the other 4 characteristics are in red. He has high spirit (94) and is a phisical player (89). He is good in skating (76), endurance (75), puck handling (73) and passing (71). A nice player for an energy line, but i believe his contract is too much. I might consider to release him to make salary room. Speaking about salary room, let's show the team finances. 
 
Finances
 
Click on Team -> Team Info
 

 
The finances is listed on the team info page at the top right. The finance overview is simple and consists of 4 numbers:
 
Salaries: total salaries of all players Salary cap: a maximum of salaries. Current offers: salary spent on contract offers and salary locks due to releasing players (more on this later) Free space: the difference between salary cap and the combined number of salaries and current offers.   
As you can see i don't have much free space left, so i will be focusing on improving that first in the coming weeks. Also take note that the salary cap is dependent on the league you are playing. Here are the numbers in each league:
 
Gold - $50.000.000 Silver - $12.500.000 Bronze - $3.500.000 Iron - $1.250.000 Lower Iron - $625.000  
Roster Management
 
In an European style game world you have a couple of options to manage your roster, namely:
 
Releasing a player from his contract, he will immediately become a free agent (FA) Offer a contract to a player from the FA market. The player will make a decision in a couple of days. Adjusting an existing contract of a player. Sometimes a player will want more or even less. Keep an eye on player demands regularly.  
That's it for today. Talked a bit about the financial aspects in the game. Next i will be discussing training.

Scenario: The year is 1972. The United States has not had a functional major baseball league since 1942. The countries focus on World War II drew the populations attention away from the national past-time. And in the process, soccer made it's way into the States after all the soldiers came back home playing it. Chicago SC most recently defeated Los Angeles City in the Champions Playoffs. Sure the game is still played at the juvenile level, but no major league has developed since MLB folded. But some people aren't ready to let the sport die just yet....
 
News Clipping: Jan. 1, 1972 - News is spreading from Chicago, Ill. this morning that Wallace Olson, successful bus entrepreneur, and Co. will be bringing together a professional baseball league to play in the 1972. Olson, and childhood friends, will scrap together eight teams to play in the inaugural "Great Lakes Baseball League" season. Tryouts will be held later this month for all eight teams. The locations and owners have not been announced as of yet but look out for further updates in the future. Will Olson's experiment break new ground? Or will it fall flat like Major League Baseball did thirty years ago?
 
Team locations and names to be announced next time....
 
*Consider this an entry to this -> http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/board/ootp-dynasty-reports/252522-post-your-dynasty-contest-draw-win-free-copy-ootp16.html*

EDIT: I restarted this franchise with a different Deep Route League after taking a few months off. The first version is alright, though a lot of it gets bland and repetitive. The second version kicks back up approximately 50 years after the first, and I'm trying to put more work and effort into it. To skip ahead to  the 2nd Era, go to page 4, and scroll down.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Our story begins in the 2035 off-season, in a league struggling to retain owners. Oklahoma City was awarded its first franchise, a team that had seen temporary location in Kansas City as the Black Dynamite, after previously spending a good deal of time in Saskatchewan as the Droids. The Droids final season, 2033, saw a 1-15 season, with record-low fan attendance. During the one year stay in Kansas City, the Droids/Black Dynamite climbed into 3rd in the division, at 4-12. Years of mismanagement had doomed the franchise, however. The team's last playoff appearance was 2028. 2032 had been a 2-14 season, 2031 2-14, 2030 4-12, and 5-11 in 2029.
 
The Bison were salvaged by freebundy, new to Deep Route but committed. The 2034 and 2035 rosters were very different. 2034 QBs Dwayne Archie (1884 Yards, 8TD, 13INT) and Lucas Hales (775 Yards, 1TD, 9INT) were replaced by veteran QB Joseph Thomas and youngsters Douglas Stewart and David Lanum. RBs Jimmy Baker, Dennis Hamic, and Gerald Mccarthy remained, but Baker went from one rushing TD and 569 yards to 6 TDs and 535 yards, Hamic 2-280 to 0-229, and Mccarthy 3-475 to 3-217. For the most part, the receivers were retained, with Norman Bennett, Earnest Mckenzie, Billy Dunne, and Robert Ilalio returning, as well as TE Francisco Thomas. TEs Michael Imes and Norman Mcgunnis were added, as well as FB Jon Clement and WRs David Swenson and Robert Dyer.
 
Defensively, 2034 Dynamite sack leader DT Anthony Williams was retained, along with quite a few young-but average defensive ends, and some aging linebackers and defensivebacks. Kicker Terry Sheldon and Punter Eric Dame were replaced by K Joshua Comer and P Everett Helm. 
 
The 2035 Draft brought in Guard Oscar Yoshiyama of Mississippi State (Rd1-Pick 3), Offensive tackle Julian Schiaffino of Miami (2-3), DT Roy Greisiger of Michigan State (3-3), QB Dale Campbell of Mississippi (4-3), WR Al Dones of Fort Valley State (5-3), G Floyd Chappell of UCLA (6-3), and CB Bill Garratt of Penn State (7-3). As of the beginning of 2037, only Yoshiyama and Schiaffino still remain with the Bison, in reserve roles. Greisiger plays for the Goshen Blue Collars, and Chappell rosters the Chicago Governors. The other 3 are out of the league, having never appeared in games. (While their own picks haven't seemed to have worked out, a few other players from the 2035 Draft have at least made the 2037 off-season roster of the Bison. LB Nathaniel Fitch of Texas Tech (Toronto Tiger Cats, R6-P7) DT Daryl Hutchinson of Arkansas (Rimmington Redskins, 5-29) FB John Wiskowski of Northern Illinois (Graham Bullies, 7-20) C Kyle Mandel of USC (Ft. Lauderdale Fluties, 4-30) and C Glenn Okeefe of Wisconsin (Burthorpe Badiaks, 2-21).)
 
Before 2035, the Bison decided that all and only stats recorded as the Bison would count as franchise statistical marks. Even though players like Norman Bennett had been with the team since Saskatchewan, their franchise stats would reset with the move, though the league recognizes all stats recorded as career stats.
 
2035 was a rough season, as QB Joseph Thomas was 0-4 in the first four games. David Lanum's only start was a 0TD-4INT loss. Douglas Stewart went 6-5 in the rest of the season, passing for 3156 yards, 16TDs, and 17INTs. The trifecta backfield of Baker-Mccarthy-Hamic wasn't great. Dennis Hamic managed just 229 yards and a 2.54 average. Mccarthy had a 217-3.44 season, and Baker 535-3.66. Robert Dyer dominated the first half of the season with 40 receptions before injury, while Bennett finished with 80 grabs for 1065 yards. Linebacker Michael Bennett finished with 100 tackles despite not starting the first 6 games, reserve DT Jesus Anderson managed 10 sacks in a specific passing-down role, and CB Christopher Ross and SS David Rumbley both finished with 6 INTs. CB Timothy Franks played a good shut-down role opposite Ross, but failed to make interceptions. 
 
In the 2036 off-season, things were looking up. The Toronto Tiger Cats owned the 1st overall pick, and were definitely taking QB Brandon Gallaway of Penn State. The Cats had taken two QBs in the two prior 1st rounds, and placed both on the trade block. During the preseason, the Bison traded them CB Timothy Franks, who would no longer start based on personnel, for 3rd-year QB Bret Marquez. Also looking to make a splash defensively, RB Dennis Hamic was traded to the Goshen Blue Collars for 2035 Pro Bowl DE Tyler Gonzalea, who was coming off back-to-back 10 sack seasons. The Bison also looked to make a splash in free agency. In the first stage of free agency, they added FB John Wiskowski, QB Steven Dyson, DT Greg Rose, TE Roy Nersesian, DE Gene Nicholson, CB John Powell, CB Matthew Tores, WR Jeff Munoz, S Jason Jones, DE Dwight Young, LT Matthew Miller, C Thomas Kline, C Richard Owca, S Jason Spengler, DT Stevie Johnson, DT Gregory Thomson, DE James Cooksey, T/G Donald Solarski, G Jesus Miller, and K James Brewbaker. During stage 2, they added MLB Dale Martin and LB Christopher White. On Draft Day, P Bruce Clark was signed. During the preseason, QB Arthur Bidez, CB Neal Lozado, and RB David Dickson were added. Throughout the season, the Bison would add DE Robert Buseck (Week 4), LB Corey Sorenson (Week 7), DE James Nelson (Week 8), and QB Clayton Quinn (Week 15). Buseck went on to lead the Bison in sacks, with 13 in 13 games. 
 
The 2036 Draft started with three straight QBs selected; Gallaway (Tiger Cats), Eugene Oddo of Mississippi (Tampa Bay Sun Devils), and David Urban of Syracuse (New York Giants). CB Kenneth Miles of Georgia Tech went 7th overall to the Atlantis Tsunamis, and DE Willie Ramirez of Vanderbilt 14th to the Tijuana Bales.
 
The Bison came away with a great draft class. freebundy had officially taken over draft scouting and management, and grabbed TE Alan Isbell of Michigan State 13th overall, DT John Wyandt of Houston (2-13), SS Justin Mcdaniel of Pearl River CC (3-13), K Michael Camburn of Maryland (4-13), and LB Jesse Vanetta of Syracuse (6-13). 5th Rounder CB Jimmy Emberger of Texas Tech failed to make the team, and 7th rounder DE Max Juliusson of Nebraska rode the bench and played special teams for most of the 2036 season, but was released in the following off-season. They also signed undrafted TE Leonard Harvey, who played at Florida. Overall, all 7 selections were in the Top 100 of the Bison's draft board, with Juliusson coming in at #100. So far the highest player selected in the draft currently out of football is RB Kevin Hurm, a second round selection from Western Illinois by the Burthorpe Badiaks.
 
The 2036 season was full of promise. The Bison opened with a 17-14 win at the London Horde, lost 12-28 at Tampa Bay Sun Devils, won 28-21 over Atlantis, lost 15-34 at Alabama Slammers, won 30-7 over the Indiana Aces, won 20-17 at the Ferguson Chokers, won 27-10 over the New York Giants, lost 3-20 to the Philadelphia Eagles, won 28-21 over the Oakland Raiders, won 27-10 against the Sun Devils in a re-match, lost 28-45 to the Ft. Lauderdale Fluties, won 9-7 over the Graham Bullies, won 31-21 in a re-match with Alabama, lost 17-20 to the Goshen Blue Collars, lost 10-24 to the New Orleans Marauders, and finished the regular season with a 34-7 divisional win over the Giants. The Bison finished with a Southern Division Championship and a 10-6 record, narrowly outpacing the 9-7 Alabama Slammers. Tampa Bay finished 6-10, and the Giants finished 4-12.
 
In the playoffs, the Bison did okay. They won 23-20 in a revenge game against the New Orleans Marauders, but fell 16-24 at the Ft. Lauderdale Fluties. Injuries took their tole over the season, and QB Bret Marquez and RB Gerald Mccarthy missed the playoffs. 
 
Four players made the 2036 Pro Bowl; Rookie TE Alan Isbell, DE Robert Buseck, MLB Dale Martin, and SS David Rumbley. 

So a while back I started a dynasty report using DDS:CB3. Needless to say, that quickly died out due to changing to a Mac (and not being able to play CB3 anymore) and not having any free time due to work and school. Anyways, I’ve been itching to get back into posting a dynasty story. The issue is I can still no longer play CB3. However, I have been playing Hoops Dynasty over at whatifsports.com and decided that I could write about that.
 
I’m preparing to start my 18th season in this world so I figured I would use my first post to catch the audience up on everything that has happened in my career so far. Also, just because I like the name, I’m going to use Jeremy Knight as my coach’s name and call this The Jeremy Knight Experience again. Maybe I will add 2.0 to the title to not cause too much confusion. Anyways, here are my season-by-season results since I started.
 
NOTE: Seasons in HD start at 1 and go up, so I’ll be using whatever the current season is instead of an actual year in my stories. For example, I’m about to start season 81 so I’ll refer to or use 81 in stories instead of 2014, 2015, etc.
 
I started my career at East Texas Baptist University, a Division III school in Marshall, Texas. I experienced unbelievable success from the start and had a pretty successful run. 
 
Season.......Overall.........Conference.......Place.....Post Season
64................34-1..............16-0...................1st..........NCAA CHAMPIONS
65................24-5..............16-0...................1st..........NCAA 1st Round
66................27-3..............16-0...................1st..........NCAA 1st Round
67................28-4..............16-0...................1st..........NCAA Sweet Sixteen
68................26-5..............15-1...................1st..........NCAA 2nd Round
69................20-9..............12-4...................2nd
70................24-6..............14-2...................2nd........NCAA 1st Round
71................24-7..............13-3...................2nd........NCAA Elite Eight
72................27-3..............16-0...................1st.........NCAA 1st Round
73................21-9..............13-3...................2nd........NIT 1st Round
 
During my tenure at ETBU I won 6 American Southwest Conference championships (64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 72) and 5 ASC Tournament championships (64, 68, 70, 71, 72). Eight trips to the NCAA Tournament and a national championship during my first season (I’ll be the first to admit that it wasn’t with my players) but I am very proud of my Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight runs. Before I arrived at ETBU they only had 1 Sweet Sixteen appearance and no Elite Eight appearances. After the 73 season, an exit from the NIT much earlier than I participated, I was kind of just tired of the D3 level. I yearned for the bigger recruiting budgets and the better players that Division I offered. I left ETBU to go to Birmingham-Southern in the Big South Conference to attempt to rebuild their program. Here is my career at BSC to this point.
 
Season.......Overall.........Conference.......Place.....Post Season
74................17-12............10-6...................3rd
75................22-6..............11-5...................1st
76................22-6..............13-3...................1st
77................23-5..............13-3...................3rd
78................24-6..............12-4...................3rd
79................28-2..............16-0...................1st..........NCAA 1st Round
80................18-10............8-8.....................6th
 
I am still at Birmingham-Southern and preparing for season 81. This dynasty story will cover my attempt to move up the ranks and become a successful head coach at a high-major school.
 

Apologies for being sick this past week - nasty bug has come back twice and I just cant completely get rid of it. Yes my Dr. has seen me and given me my drugs, and obviously I'm back in the saddle again. Let's see how the Panthers are doing now...

Hi all, team is still going great. They already won 3 games under my belt. Still haven't made any big decision yet, but do i need to? Only thing i am changing at the moment is swapping the goalies if some of them isn't fully healthy.   
 
But as promised, let's talk about more about the roster views. Specifically let's dive into the profile view.
 

 
Every player has a preferred Role and some Characteristics. The latter is divided into 6 categories. Let's first talk about those categories. Here is what the hints tell about them (together with all the possible values)
 
Potential
"This will give you a hint how much talent the player has and how likely he is to develop his skills and become a future star."
 
[Natural Talent, Gifted, Capable, Untalented, Slow-witted]
 
Greed
"What is more important; Money or Team spirit? Some players go for the highest bidder while others prefer great teammates and long-term relationships."
 
[Loyalist, Team Player, Professional, Individualist, Mercenary]
 
Dirtyness/Temperament
"How does the player behave on ice? This will offcourse influence the number of penalties but also how well he adopts to your tactics."
 
[Gentle, Respectful, Tough, Agitator]
 
Leadership
"Some people are born leaders while others depend on others to show the way. This is a good place to start looking when choosing your captains."
 
[True Leader, Role Model, Respected, Modest, Anonymous]
 
Determination/Big Games
"Who will rise to the occasion and show fighting spirit when you need it most? It's no coincidence that some players score the game winner every other game."
 
[Heroic, Determined, Stable, Anxious, Nervous]
 
Ambition
"Believe it or not, some hockey players have a life outside the rink. This ambition value will tell you how much he is willing to sacrifice for his hockey career."
 
[Ambitious, Purposeful, Enthusiastic, Half-Hearted, Lazy]
 
 
The hints are pretty clear. Potential and Ambition looks the most important to me, aswell as Leadership for captains, but you will also need some players that rise to the occasion (Determination). Loyal players are important to keep the team together and make some salary room. Finally you should avoid many players that loses their temperament and don't stick to the game plan (Dirtyness).
 
Note that the characteristics values are fixed. They don't change during a player career.
 
 
Roles
 
Every player has a preferred role, but it's important to note that contrary to characteristics they are not fixed. They may change during development of the player and when the team is promoting/demoting to an other league. For instance, a Stay-At-Home defenseman in Bronze, could very much prefer a Two-Way  role in the Iron League, cause he is surrounded with worse players. A forward that is developing quickly can potentially turn from a Grinder to a Sniper or Playmaker.
 
Here are all the roles in the game:
 
Sniper, Playmaker, Powerforward, Two-way, Grinder, Enforcer, Stay-At-Home (defense only), Offensive (defense only) and Goalie.
 
There are no different goalie types as of today, but they could be added in the future.
 
Roles are important. If you play a player outside his preferred role, he will perform worse and lose confidence. For instance, a playmaker will not like a 4th line role.
 
 
Now, can i already make some early conclusions by looking solely at the player characteristics and general info? Yep, i now know:
 
Ezekiel Sheehan is one of the 8 centers in the team, he has the lowest overall rating 59, is only 18 years old, but has a slow-witted potential, so i doubt he will become a great player. He also is nervous during big games and could see some minutes on the penalty-box. This player will be resigned from the club first, no doubts.
Juan David Martin is the 5th overall player on forwards rating wise (70), but if you take his characteristics into account, he looks way better. He is a true leader and team player. Furthermore he is capable, respectful, stable and enthusiastic. Definately a player the team counts on.
Defender Ludovyck Beggs is also a very interesting player. 23 years old, but a natural talent and purposeful. Combine that with being a loyalist, role model, respectful and stable and we are looking at a real talent. It will be interesting to see how much he grows this season (65)
Center Marlon Heintz (72) is a sniper and has heroic determination. He could potentially score many game winners. I will keep an eye on him for sure.  
 
Okay that is it for today. I showed you the profile view and shared some early opinions about some players. Next part, i will be discussing the player skills.

So, all you people out there. I think that it would be cool if I partner with somebody who enjoys playing DDS:CB and connecting it with my DDSPB dynasty. Since I use DDSPB3, just make sure that whatever you do is compatible.

The Great Lakes Hockey League is looking for 1 owner for our upcoming expansion draft.
 
A bit about us:  We are a STHS Sim League that uses re rates based on NHL stats.  We are entering our 4th year of existance.  We have a very active league now, and we are looking to add to our league.
 
We will be going from 20 to 22 teams this off-season.
 
We are looking for active GMs who can participate on our forums, and continue to improve our league.
 
This is a unique opportunity to start a franchise from the ground up.  Some of the players in this draft include:  Alex Barkov, Erik Karlsson, Ryan Getzlaf, PK Subban, Aaron Ekblad, Nic Backstrom, potentially Conor McDavid, and many, many more solid players and All-Stars.
 
Our league website is:  greatlakeshockeyleague.net
 
You can PM me on here, or e-mail me @ [email protected]!
 
The expansion draft is due to start in about a month! 

Hi all, today i'm going to have a look at the current roster of my club.

3) Glance at the roster

Click on 'Team' and on the tab 'Roster'.

Here are the players currently at Rio Grande City Bandits. (I took 2 screenshots, since i couldn't get them all on 1)





The first thing that becomes immediately clear is the fact that there are 4 different positions in gameplanhockey, namely Centers, Forwards, Defenders and Goalies. Forwards are simply Wingers, maybe they use the term Forwards in Europe, i don't know.

On the Roster View you can switch to 4 different views: Info, Profile, Contract and Ratings. The one you are now looking at and which i will be focusing on today is the Info view. In short the 4 views can be described as follow:

Info: Shows basic information about the players. Profile: Shows players characteristics (leadership, greediness, potential, ambition, etc) Contract: Shows players contract details. Ratings: Shows players ratings in various skills. (skating, scoring, defense, puckhandling, etc) The most important information from the info view is the overall rating. This number presents the overall strength of the player, it generally gives a good indication, but don't solely look at this number, because it does say nothing about the individual skill ratings and player characteristics, which also play an important role on performances. I will be looking at them later.

Looking at my roster now, the disbalance strikes me. Previous manager obviously made a mess. There are a massive 8 centers under contract and only 9 forwards (only 2 of them being Righthanded). We have 8 defenders, which is fine, but also only 2 of them are right handed. In a perfect situation i would like to have:

"5 centers, 10 forwards, 8 defenders and 3 goalies. Hands equally divided."

So, it looks like i will need to do some business on the transfermarket soon

Looking more closely, i have been very blessed with the goalies. Matias Gorman has the best overall rating (76) and the backup goalie Nicola Saint-Arnault isn't far behind (75). Generally the team looks old, but that also means very experienced. Two factors that probably helped the team climbing to the top of the table.

Behind some players you will notice some icons, the C stands for Captain, the A for Assistant Captain, the SCR stands for Scratched. The star mean star-player. Note that the star players are not always the best players rating-wise, but i believe performance is also factored in.

Next to overall rating, two other important attributes from the info view are Confidence' and 'Health'.

Health means the condition of the player. It decreases if the player plays too much minutes or trains too much. Players with low health will be more injury-prone and perform worse.

Confidence is a bit more tricky. It also influence player performance like health. It can be best explained by quoting the creator Anders:

 
P.S. The colors (Green, Blue, Orange and Red) that are used as background are there to give you a quick indication. I have noticed that there are heavily used at other parts of the site. You already did see some of them yesterday ;-) .. Green and Blue are good signals, with Green being the best. You should try to avoid Orange and Red, with Red being the worse.

That's it for today. I glanced at the roster and discussed some weekness and strength of the team. In the next days i won't have much time to post, but i will try to look at the other 3 views (profile, contract and ratings). Later!

First day at the club.  I haven't made any team decisions yet, but have shaken a lot of hands with people from the board, staff and sponsors    ... Furthermore, i have taken some time to discover the world of gameplanhockey. How is the competition structure setup and what are we actually fighting for? Before getting into that, let's have a quick look at my message inbox of today. 
 
As you can see i have 2 new messages. The first one is a nice welcome message. The second one is a game result. Apparently we won and have a nice winning streak, hooray   .. that is a great start!
 
Some messages guide you directly to the right context, for example a game result points you directly to the game log as seen below.
 

  Now let's dive into gameworld "Echo". 2) Explore the game world Click in the main menu on "World" to view the game world.  On the screenshot you see an overview of the game world "Echo" showing the 5 leagues i mentioned before (Gold, Silver, Bronze, Iron, Lower Iron). The league shown in blue is the league that your team is currently playing in. "Echo" is an European style game world. That means there are promotion and relegation rules. Your goal as the GM of a team is to reach the Golden Hockey League, qualify for the playoffs and eventually win those playoffs. The winner of the last season Golden Playoffs will be prominently visible on this page (logo and teamname will be visible at the top). To know more about the promotion/relegation rules, enable the hints, and the system will present them to you. In short, they are as follow: Golden League: first 8 qualify for playoffs, bottom 2 relegate to Silver, nr 13+14 will play playoffs to not relegate. Silver League: first 2 promote to Gold, 3rd to 6th play playoffs for promotion, bottom 2 relegate and nr 13+14 will play playoffs to not relegate. Bronze League: first 2 promote to Silver, 3rd to 6th play playoffs for promotion, bottom 2 relegate and nr 13+14 will play playoffs to not relegate. Iron League: first 2 promote to Bronze, 3rd to 6th play playoffs for promotion, bottom 2 relegate and nr 11 till 14 will play playoffs to not relegate. Lower Iron League:  first 2 promote to Iron, 3rd to 10th play playoffs for promotion, there is no relegation   So now i know my goal --> become the best team in the Golden Hockey League! But my first goal is to promote to the Silver League. I need to finish in the top 2 to secure direct promotion or finish between 3rd and 6th to have a chance to promote through the playoffs. I'm up for the challenge! Follow this topic regularly to see if i succeed   The world view also informs you about the highest placed teams in the standings, players with the most points and the most experienced human managers in all the leagues. Note that there are currently no human controlled teams in the Gold and Silver league, that's because "Echo" is currently in Season 1 and new rookie managers can only start their career with a team in the Bronze League or lower. Furthermore, on this page you can see all the teams in the world ranked on reputation, the top 100 players ranked on reputation and all the human managers ranked on reputation aswell. Click on the respective tabs to view or look at the next 3 screenshots. 


 Wow, that are a lot of different reputations. Looks like reputation is an important aspect in gameplanhockey. I have read in one of the blogs from Anders that it will unfluence a lot of things, like contract negotiations, salary demands, player's willingness to join teams, etc. Sounds interesting. I will be discussing this reputation system in a separate post as i am learning more details about it along the way. Well that's it for today. I have shared my first messages that i received as GM, explored the game world and presented you the competition structure in game world "Echo". Tomorrow i will meet up with the team and get a first impression of the players at the club. Will they be good or will i be disappointed?, we'll see...

Hi all,
 
I'd like to introduce GamePlanHockey, a browser hockey manager game.
 
In this topic i will be telling you my career story in the game from start to end (well hopefully there is no end). Along the way, i will discuss all the aspects of the game in depth, which will hopefully help you all to decide if it's a game for you or not 
 
If you like to know more about this game, i advice you to read this amazing and inspiring blog post of the creator of the game, Anders Granberg. It gives a good insight of what to expect from the game in general.
 
http://www.gameplanhockey.com/blog/why-another-hockey-manager-game
 
offcourse you could also directly browse to the main site:
http://www.gameplanhockey.com
 
Now, let's start a career!
 
 
1) The beginning
 
Like other browser games you will need to fill in a email-address, username and password to start playing gameplanhockey, but there is also one important decision you will need to make as a manager right from the beginning. You will need to decide which game world you want to participate in. 
 
 
1a) decide on a game world
 
In gameplanhockey, right now, there are 8 game worlds, as you can see in the following screenie:
 

 
All game worlds consists of 5 leagues and 80 teams. They differ in the pace of updates. There are 4 different pace levels.
 
Slow: 1 match per day
Normal: 2 matches per day
Fast: 4 matches per day
Lightning: 8 matches per day
 
P.S. Currently there is one game world type, which is the European style, but Anders did mentioned a second type in his interview with Chris from 3 Feb 2015:
 
 
So, all NHL fans have to wait a bit for the North American game world, but the good news is that it will be coming.
 
Since i could not decide on whether to play an European or North America style yet, my only decision to make was "how many games do i want to play per day". I decided to go for game world "Echo", which is a slow paced game world, meaning 1 match per day.
 
P.S. don't worry about choosing the wrong game world. After joining a game world you can always resign from your team and start a new career with an other team in a different game world.
 
 
1b) found a team, customize it or not?
 
After making a decision on the game world, complete the signup process and the system will start finding a team for you. You will be redirected to the following screen:  You will be assigned to a random team. It can be a team with already a history or not (it depends whether the game world is brand new or not). Here you can either take over the team and/or customize all the details of the team. You can customize the team name, city, logo and colours: 

 
I have decided to change nothing of the team. I am happy to start my career as GM of the Rio Grande City Bandits, who currently sit 1st in the BHL (Bronze Hockey League).
 
P.S. as a new rookie manager you will always start in one of the 3 lower leagues, there are 5 leagues, all have different promotion/relegation rules, which i will be discussing later:
Golden Hockey League Silver Hockey League Bronze Hockey League Iron Hockey League Lower Iron Hockey League   
1c) manager welcome screen
 
After you have customized a team and taken it over you will redirected to the manager welcome screen.
 
This is the page that you will see every time you log on to gameplanhockey.

 
When you see this screen the first time, you will notice a game hint in the form of a black box (see above). On every page in gameplanhockey you will see these hints popup. I advice you to read them one by one as it really helps you understand the game. You can disable the hints in the settings area, which you can access by clicking on action -> settings, as seen in the following screenshot, where i also clicked away the hint to see what's behind it  
 

 
Turns out to be a message box. Cool, here the system will keep you posted about all the news surrounding your team (i.e. match results, injuries, transfers, player awards, etc)
 
Well that's the start of my career and the end of this first post. I have signed up, joined a game world and signed for a team. Stay tuned for more...

Year: 2000
 
1st Job: Delaware St ... i just love starting with schools that have low minimum SAT scores 
 
History
 
Team Prestige: 4
Conf Prestige: 7 (MEAC)
 
Historical W-L: 863-893 (0.491)
NCAA Appearances: 8 (have not made it to Sweet 16)
Conf Championships: 8 (last: 1998)
 
 
 

Redoing another dynasty in DDSCB2 (for some reason, accessing the Wolverine Forum site is intermittent from my location)
 
Background:
- simmed for 50+ years, in order to generate historical data
- allows conference movement
- allows undegrads to declare early
 
 

"The Universal Baseball Association, Inc" library is now available for free for Digital Diamond Baseball.
One of our customers (Rickengeezer) has created a player library based on the fictional baseball world created by Robert Coover's in his 1968 book "The Universal Baseball Association, Inc.: J. Henry Waugh, Prop."  You can download the player library from our site at: http://digitaldiamondbaseball.com/libraries.php
Here is short description of the player library as provided by Rickengeezer:
Often hailed as one of the best baseball books of all time, it tells the story of J. Henry Waugh, an accountant who immerses himself in his fantasy baseball league every night after work. This library is patterned on the fateful 56th season of the UBA, but precise statistical information on the players in the league is largely absent in the book. Thus, rather than a true simulation of Coover's universe, this library is an approximation--but one that uses the names, positions, and descriptions of the ballplayers to guide the selection of statistics for ballplayers like Maggie Everts,the bowlegged old catcher, or star centerfielder Witness York, who led the league in slugging percentage.Virtually every player mentioned in Coover's volume is included in this league, although it should be noted that many of these players were "historical" figures in Henry's fantasy--nonetheless, all are included in this UBA season. In order to round out the full league, other players are also included, but an effort was made to maintain consistency with the naming conventions and player characteristics found in Henry's project. The eight UBA teams play an 84-game schedule, as they did for Henry. But, perhaps the fate of the players will be different in different hands.
 

The 1950, 1952, 1969, and 1971 seasons are now available for Digital Diamond Baseball.  These libraries are for version 5 and can be downloaded for free from http://digitaldiamondbaseball.com/libraries.php.

I'm pretty sure no gm game has this. I think it would out you guys to the top of the gm games if you add this. Title is self-explanatory. All star selection made by fake fans by there performance and stats.

That's a great idea. Actually I already have plans for a All Star Team and awards after each season. But why not make it an all star game too? Thanks for a great suggestion!

Hey guys,
 
Im one of the Commissioners of the CSL. We are an online Simulation league that uses the DDS3 engine. We are actually in our second season but know each other already for several years as we are running a second league since 2009. 
In the CSL we actually have two open teams and therefore we are searching motivated new joiner. 
Actually open teams are:
Washington Wizards Utah Jazz You can find our forum here http://www.championsimleague.com/index.phpand the rosters here http://csl.we.bs/. If you are interested send me a private message!
 
Dennis

Hello All,
 
I'm looking to shake up the Dynasty boards and start a new type of dynasty, one that focuses not on the general manager but on the development of the players.  I started a game with Mar. 2014 rosters and simmed the game ahead one year.  I then went to the Bantam league and customized three newgens to be the starts of the show.
 
I will be chronicling their careers as they try to make it to the NHL.  I tried to vary their skill levels and potentials to hopefully get them into the NHL as realistic players.  It'll be an interesting case study for the player development system, and something fun to do while we all wait for FHM2.  The story will be done in a style similar to Big Six's The Base Ball Life of Patrick O'Farrell (an absolute classic dynasty), being told through emails, newspaper articles, letters, and maybe even some tweets.
 
So without any further ado, let's dive into...