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georgefc3
09-15-2002, 11:35 AM
Teams in Debt
Generally teams in debt face big penalties. For example, the expenses have this message "Teams in debt may not raise their Farm System, Scouting or Medical Staff expenses. These budgets will be reduced by 1% per game until the team is no longer in debt." This is a good thing because some managers are very irresponsible. They will make a bid for the World Series and then quit when their team goes into debt.

Bidding on Players - Computer Teams
Human players who are in debt cannot bid on players in the free agency draft. They also cannot select free agents during the regular season. This restriction does NOT apply to computer controlled teams.

Is This a Big Issue?
Yes. In my opinion this is unfair and also detrimental to the computer controlled teams. It is unfair to humans because of SALARY INFLATION. We can not get players we need at reasonable prices. The computer keeps paying insane prices while they are in debt. If they actually USED these players it would be bad, but often they will have three 100 point shortstops.

How Big an Issue?
I would say pretty big. Our league, 2002 an Beyond has 22 computer controlled teams. Human owners now regard free agency as "break time" and don't bother to even participate. This is pretty sad, because Free Agency should be a time to help build your team. I did a review of prices for second basemen. The date right now is Feb 16, 2036.
The prices are:
* Nick Marine 24 points (after 65 major league at bats)
* Steve Brewer 27 points (.244 batting average, C+ fielder)
* Yoshi Tanaka 28 points (.274 average, potential starter)
* Vincent Naprstek 80 points (.269/27 Homers)
* Ted Barnes 66 points (.261/13 homers/322 at bats)
* Jason Ferroni 27 points (.245/14 homers/564 at bats)
* Chris Jenks 51 points (.312/28 homers) PS Jenks has been a free agent since last June)
* Chris Chambers 63 points (.276/25 homers, age 36)
* Foustas Zacharias 49 points (.273/11 homers)
* Hideki Toyama 30 points (.296/16/Age 39, 2 year contract)

Interetestingly....
All of these players have recieved bids and all of these bids are by computer controlled teams. There are 8 computer teams bidding and seven (7) are in debt!!

Computer Teams in Debt
We currently have 21 computer controlled teams and 20 of these teams are in debt. Only one, Minnesota, has managed to stay out of debt.

Desired Resolution
It is clear that computer controlled teams need better fiscal management. This is especially true of older leagues. I understand this might require tricky programming. In the short term you can prohibit computer teams that are in debt from bidding on free agents. This should help bring down the prices of free agents to a more reasonable level also.

Austin Mad Cows
09-19-2002, 04:43 PM
Bump for an answer

willat
09-24-2002, 09:13 AM
I think that computer teams should never make a bid or a trade that would put them over the budget, let alone in debt.

georgefc3
09-24-2002, 06:19 PM
Hmmm...

Two responses from users, none from Sports Mogul....

Hello? Hello?

[Waits patiently for a response]

Clay Dreslough
09-24-2002, 10:11 PM
I'm here. :)

This is on my list but I hadn't gotten to it. But I agree it's a big issue and will see what I can do immediately.

Clay

georgefc3
09-24-2002, 11:56 PM
I'm glad to know you're on the case.

I appreciate your efforts!

:D

georgefc3
10-05-2002, 01:02 AM
Bump!

Clay Dreslough
10-05-2002, 02:27 PM
georgefc3,

Thanks very much for the detailed analysis of this, such as the list of salaries bid by CPU teams. Really helps me figure out a solution.

I've just added code to keep CPU teams in debt from bidding on Free Agents. Ian is in the process of posting this code (he is also fixing another bug).

This should address most of the problem. The AI still needs some work in terms of signing multiple stars at the same position -- but I hope to get to that soon.

Clay

georgefc3
10-05-2002, 04:20 PM
One thing I like about Sports Mogul is that you pay attention to us, the folks that play your games.

:-)

I'll give you a report on the changes in a few days.

:-)