Hmmm...

[kensol]

So, I thought I'd try something out...Although it throws the economy of my team (Texas) into complete chaos, I was just successfully able to sign from Free Agency the following players all on the same sim day:

Jason Giambi - 72 points
Barry Bonds - 85
Moises Alou - 86
Rafael Furcal - 30
Javy Lopez - 51
Jason Tyner - 23
Chan Ho Park - 96
Paxton Crawford - 25
Kevin Walker - 30
Orlando Hernandez - 27

I see this is a big problem, unless there is some MAJOR deterrent to signing up a team of All-Stars. Of course, by the time their contracts run out, I'll be so far in debt, that it will take 10 years to get back in the black again.

Is there any plans to rein in this type of behavior?

Regards...

FastSim 67 - Texas

[kensol]

Furthermore, (I nearly forgot to add this) my team's payroll limit is set at: 402 points. Wheras, my new Payroll is up to: 862 points.

Perhaps there's a way to prioritize the free agents that you sign by time of last offer, and then comparing the new payroll amount to the team limit before continuing on and signing the next free agent to your team.

I know that this would increase server strain, but it might be worth looking into if you haven't already.

:-D

[Bad_Ash]

I can tell that if you were in a league with a commissioner you would get kicked out of the league, besides that there is nothing to stop it.

I've thought about recommending that there be a limit to the # of players you can sign during a single sim, but that also has some negatives to it. Some people are only able to check their team once a day, and therefore only get 1 chance at free agent signings.

The best idea I can come up with is there be a pseudo payroll during the free agency period. What I mean by this is your total pseudo payroll cannot exceed your budget limit.

(Pseudo payroll)=(your real payroll) + (all free agent max bids by your team during the current simulation period).

If you exceed the pseudo payroll all your bids are defunct or code it so that it is impossible to exceed the pseudo payroll(you get a message saying "You cannot afford this player").

This could also be implemented in trades so it is impossible to stack teams. Computer just computes what the payroll would be if the trade was completed, if it exceeds the budget limit you get a message saying "You cannot afford this player."

Badash

[baseballforlife]

Gosh, u have a problem, u will just make urself looking like a cheater, there was already a stupid Cleveland cheated there, now we have another super FA bidding, that league is dead. God bless America.

[littlerock]

since you are already in that situation, just try you best to trade away some of the FA players you have signed. If that does not work, I would suggest you to set the expenses to minium and boardcasting to block out, so that you may have a chance to balance it out.

[baseballforlife]

Why would you want an allstar team?? u should know that is 101% cheating moves, dont tell me u r the cleveland also......

[Particleman]

I wouldn't mind it too much if the person signing all these high priced free agents stuck around during the years of debt and losing that are sure to follow, but most people don't and that's annoying, since they run the team into the ground and then leave and ruin it for the next person that takes over the team.

[faulk28]

they should make it where you can't quit a team in debt...i know that has it's faults also.

[hwt1313]

I think that, for teams in debt, the computer should smack the owner in the face with a dead fish...twice if they abandon the team.

[kensol]

I did this knowing full well that it IS a form of cheating.

In case it was forgotten, the point of a Beta is to test the limits of a system and report defects, or requests for enhancement.

That said: technically speaking, it is not cheating if you are playing within the rules of the system, which in this case I clearly have.

At the very best, this team may win a couple championships, but the cost of doing so is high. Once these players' contracts are up, the team will be scraping the bottom of the barrel for more years than were spent in its glory days.

I apologize to anyone in this particular (and very new) league that feels badly about this, but again the point is to enhance the final product. With some good suggestions, and some changes to gameplay, this will never happen again, to any team, in any league from now on.

Regards...

[Slugger222]

I agree with Kensol......

This IS a beta test. The point is to try and break the game. Obviously, this kind of thing would ruin a league, and Mogul would have 29 P. O.d customers in that league requesting a refund.

I'm not sure what the answer is, but probably something like what was suggested. Not allowing anyone to be signed if your payroll exceeds a certain percentage over your previous years limit.

[Bad_Ash]

There is something known as testing the game and exploiting it.
I think the testing should sort of follow this guideline:

1. Find bugs
2. Report bugs
3. Bugs get fixed
4. Start over at 1

Once a bug has been reported by a few people should verify the bug. After it has been verified anyone else taking advantage of the bug is exploiting. In other betas I've participated in exploiters are kicked out of the testing(granted they weren't open betas like this).

I agree all bugs should be found, which requires testers to look stupid to their peers.

We should have a forum of reported BUGS and whether they are confirmed or not, and maybe a status on them being fixed.

Badash (yes I take my gaming too serious hehe)

[christoph]

The best way to prevent super payrolls and FA madness is simply to add a bankruptcy factor. A team that is insolvent for too long a period should be liquidated. The manager should lose permanent control of the team in the specified league and all its players should become free agents. The team should then be restocked by the CPU with prospects and cheap FAs. The team should also be given a modest amount of points in the clear so that someone will want to take it over.

Also, having the best players on your roster should not automatically mean your team will post the best record. I find this to be a significant inbalance in this game. Too often the big payroll teams dominate willy-nilly and the other teams have no chance. The way this game is set up almost forces a manager to overspend in order to win. The best way I see to remedy this problem is to allow managers to resign players they draft and develop at a considerable discount compared with other teams. This would dampen the FA madness and help out small market teams as well.

[onethumb]

I think that the main goal here is to prevent teams from becoming completely bankrupt in the first place. Realistlcally, if a team goes into debt too far, their credit lines would dry up and the team literally would not be able to pay the player. I can't think of a player out there who would sign a big contract and then continue to play when the team is not paying him--he would sit out and the contract would be considered void (breach of contract....in real life this would also mean a nasty lawsuit, but no need for that craziness in this game)

My solution is this: Once a team has a negative amount of points (mabye -150 or -200), the highest priced players on that team will, in order, stop playing and become free agents immediately, until enough players have left so that the team's payroll is equal to it's revenue. The team will then effectively be unable to accumulate massive amounts of debt, and even if the owner bails out, a savy player could come in and rebuild in a decent amount of time.

just my $0.02

[christoph]

A very good idea indeed! But I would still have bankruptcy in extreme cases.