Your Chance To Participate In A New Football Phenomenon (Sandbox Simulations) - Page 166

**Rain Man** · 09:15 AM

I apologize if the mods think this is soliciting, and I guess it is, but at the same time it's beta testing a new product developed by long-time planeteers, and it's free.

cdcox and I have been developing a new football game for the thoughtful fan, where players build franchises and compete against each other. A description is below.

If you're interested, we're offering the game for free in Year 1 to Chiefsplanet members, with the goal of both giving the system a dry run and also hooking you like Phillip Morris. You can go to www.sandboxsimulations.com to sign up, and use the access code 6Lanier3.

Here's the overview:

Build and manage a full 53-player roster over multiple seasons, as an offseason activity to give you year-round football

Select your personnel to match your offensive and defensive scheme. Every position matters – even your blocking tight end.

Realistic and accurate simulations of league games based on head-to-head matchups against other teams in your league.

This is essentially a new concept in fantasy football that attempts to simulate as closely as possible the management of a real NFL franchise over a multi-year period. Unlike regular fantasy football, every position on the offense and defense contributes to your success or failure. On special teams, the punter, kicker, and kick returners matter.

In Sandbox Football you will build a team – an entire 53-man football team – via an initial draft, and will maintain it year after year in annual rookie drafts, trading periods, and free agency. You compete against teams in your league. In the first year of the game, before the start of the NFL season, you will build your roster by drafting veterans and rookies through separate drafts, and through trades with other teams in the league. Your roster is frozen at the beginning of the NFL season. During the real regular NFL season, you can focus on your traditional fantasy games and perhaps keep on eye on your Sandbox roster as our statistical models build the data on player performances. At the end of the regular NFL season, the Sandbox season begins. There will be 16 games in the season. In real time, the season will run about 8 weeks (2 alternate reality games per week).

Game outcomes will be simulated based on the performance of individual players during the just-completed NFL regular season. The simulations, developed by a PhD statistical expert, estimate how individual players will perform in the context of your alternate reality team competing head-to-head against other teams in the league and with the specific team that you have built. The simulations will consider the offensive and defensive schemes that you select. So you can build your roster to support a power running game or a high-flying passing attack. You can run a 3-4 or 4-3 base defense. You can run nickel formations or four-wide receiver sets. You can rotate your DL to keep them fresh.

The game is more about building a team than playing video games. So this isn't Madden, but you will have the ability to tweak your game plan to take the best advantage of your roster and the weaknesses of your opponent. Injuries are a factor in the game. If a player is unavailable during weeks 3 through 6 in the NFL, he is also unavailable during the same weeks in the alternate reality season. So roster depth matters. The game simulations are based on the most advanced statistics and the latest research regarding what matters in winning an NFL game. But, the outcomes of the games have a random component, just like real NFL games.

The calendar for the alternate reality league year will look something like this:
• Jan to Mid March: Alternate Reality regular season and playoffs.
• Mid-March to the beginning of NFL season: Roster building through trades, veteran draft (first year), free agent drafts (2nd year and beyond), and rookie draft.
• Beginning of NFL season to end of regular NFL season: Alternate reality league is dormant, but the NFL players are generating their performance stats for the up-coming AR league.
• Rinse and repeat.

Copyright Sandbox Simulations, all rights reserved.

We're still finalizing the cost structure, but this won't be an expensive game to play at all. It might range from a few bucks a year to $50 per year, depending on a few factors.

Year 1 will require a couple of days of drafting with rather high intensity, but we've got it set up where you can put your draft list together and do customized and automated drafting if you like.

So...go! Now! Time to get ready for the draft!

Note that we are still in beta testing, so things could change if we find problems in the system.

How Free Agency Works:

Free Agency will begin before the 2012 season after the rookie draft.

Our process is as follows for the 2012 season. In 2013 and beyond there will be minor changes as noted later.

1. We will unveil the list of available free agents so you can check out the talent pool.

2. If you look in "Standings", you will see that you have a salary account value of $1,300. You will use this to sign your veterans to contracts, sign your rookies to contracts, and (in a competitive bidding process) sign free agents to contracts.

The cost of a contract is as follows for players already on your roster (both veterans and rookies).

$0 - 1 season contract
$10 - 2 season contract
$22 - 3 season contract
$37 - 4 season contract
$55 - 5 season contract
$76 - 6 season contract
$100 - 7 season contract

You will sign your existing players to contracts using an interface that we will unveil shortly. If your 53-man roster is set you can spend your $1,300 on your current roster. However, it may be worthwhile to hold some money back so you can compete for free agents.

3. The free agency period begins.

Bidding for free agents will be open and competitive. As players come available, teams will be allowed to sign them if they are the high bidder. The contract length is automatically calculated by rounding down the bid to the chart below.

Contract Length (Seasons) Salary Points Bid
1 0 to 9
2 10 to 21
3 22 to 36
4 37 to 54
5 55 to 75
6 76 to 99
7 100 or more

For example, if you submit the winning bid for a player at a price of 25 salary points, that player becomes yours under a 3-year contract. If you submit a bid for 35 points and win, it’s also a 3-year contract. If you submit a bid for 38 points, it’s a 4-year contract. If you submit a bid for 120 points, it’s a 7-year contract.

For the 2012 free agency period, we will enforce the 53-man rule. You will need to cut down to 53 players before the free agency period starts, and if you sign a player to go above 53, you will need to cut a player to stay within the roster limit. NOTE: DON'T CUT YET UNLESS YOU WANT TO. WE'RE STILL FINALIZING THE SYSTEM AND WANT TO BE SURE THAT THIS RULE WORKS IN 2012.

4. Ending Bidding and Ending Free Agency.

Bids on an individual player will begin once the first player places a bid. For the 2012 season that bid must be $1 or more. Bidding ends when the existing high bid had not been raised for 72 hours. At that point, the high-bid team is awarded the player under the contract terms described in Step 3.

The free agency period in 2012 will end once there have been no bids on any players for 72 hours.

5. Unused Salary Points

If you do not use all of your salary points in a given year, they will roll over from year to year. This is experimental and we'll have to see how it works. If it doesn't work, they'll expire each year, or maybe a portion of the points can roll over. Right now, assume they all roll over.

6. Salary Points and Roster Management

In the Sandbox system, salary points and the salary cap are used only for acquiring players. You will never have to track the number of salary points “on your roster” and you will never have to cut a player for salary cap reasons.

Additionally, you are not obligated to keep a player for the full length of his contract. You can cut him or trade him at any time. However, recognize that it’s a waste of salary points to cut or trade a player before the end of his contract. But it doesn't hamstring you going forward - it's just past money that you wasted.

7. Free Agency and Contract Length - Retaining Your Current Players

When a player reaches the end of their contract, they go back into the free agency pool and teams will bid for their services. You are eligible to bid on them to get them back, just like you can bid on any free agents.

There is one exception to the rule of free agents going into the free agency pool, as follows:

• At the end of the bidding process, you have the opportunity to re-sign your own players by outbidding the high bidder. Your bid must be the minimum points to increase their contract period by a year over the high bid. (Example: your player goes to free agency, and another team bids 50 points for him, which equates to a 4-year contract. You can keep the player by paying 55 points for him, which is the minimum amount for a 5-year contract.) If the high bidder offered a contract of 100 points or more (7-years), you can keep the player by bidding 10% more points than the high bid.

8. Free Agency and Trades

If you trade for a player, their contract length is a consideration. Trading for a player with 6 years left on his contract will give you his services for that amount of time (unless you cut him or trade him, or he retires). Trading for a player with 1 year left on his contract means that he’ll go back into the free agency pool at the end of the season. (Of course, you can still retain him via Step 7.)

9. Future Years

In future years, the process will be identical to that shown above, with the following exceptions.

a. Because you will have a lot of veteran players under contract, you won't need $1,300. You'll get a new annual allotment of signing dollars. We're still working on the exact amount, but it looks like it'll be between $500 and $600.

b. In the 2012 season, we will introduce all free agents at once to catch up. In the 2013 season and beyond, the free agency period will occur during the actual NFL season. We will sprinkle the free agents in one division at a time over the course of the season. (The divisions may be randomly selected or we may release a calendar. It doesn't matter that much.) This system should be interesting because some free agents will come available early in the season when you don't know their performance for the year - greater risk, greater reward - while other free agents will come available later in the season when you know what their performance will be, but so does everyone else.

c. In the 2013 season and beyond, you will be able to retain more than 53 players through the rookie draft and the main free agency period. You will then have a cutdown period to get to 53 and we will have a final free agency period where you can sign any players who have been cut. In that final period you will have to enforce a 53-man roster, so if you sign a player you have to cut one.

10. When you think about the schedule in 2013 and beyond, it will go like this:

a. Sandbox season goes from February through April.
b. Rookie draft in May. No 53-man limit.
c. Free agency from (likely) September through December, with free agents sprinkled in throughout that period.
d. January. Roster cuts to 53.
e. Late January. Final free agency period to flesh out rosters and sign players cut in Step d.
f. New Sandbox season begins.

topher79 · 07-24-2012, 08:17 AM

This sucks, Duluth has the ball:

Anchorage 12 Duluth 11
4th Q 2:00 3rd and inches Anchorage 31 Rashard Mendenhall rushes for 1 yards.
4th Q 1:18 1st and 10 Anchorage 30 Rashard Mendenhall rushes for 2 yards. time out Anchorage
4th Q 1:10 2nd and 8 Anchorage 28 Rashard Mendenhall rushes for 7 yards. time out Anchorage
4th Q 1:02 3rd and 1 Anchorage 20 Rashard Mendenhall rushes for 2 yards. time out Anchorage
4th Q 0:54 1st and 10 Anchorage 19 Rashard Mendenhall rushes for 6 yards. time out Duluth
4th Q 0:04 2nd and 4 Anchorage 13 Rashard Mendenhall rushes for 6 yards.

Anchorage 12, Duluth 11

**Rain Man** · 07-24-2012, 09:09 AM

It's so exciting to see the games this way.

As an errata, we have a problem on the free kick on the safety.

Duluth
1st Q 11:18 1st and 29 Duluth -2 Free kick, ball returned to the 134 yardline.
1st Q 11:10 1st and 10 Anchorage 48 Rashard Mendenhall rushes for 4 yards.
1st Q 10:28 2nd and 6 Anchorage 44 Philip Rivers (pressured) passes incomplete to Hakeem Nicks.
1st Q 10:21 3rd and 6 Anchorage 44 Philip Rivers (pressured) passes incomplete, dropped by Harry Douglas.
1st Q 10:14 4th and 6 Anchorage 44 Brian Moorman punts 44 yards, touchback.
Anchorage 0, Duluth 5

**Rain Man** · 07-24-2012, 09:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by topher79

This sucks, Duluth has the ball:

Anchorage 12 Duluth 11
4th Q 2:00 3rd and inches Anchorage 31 Rashard Mendenhall rushes for 1 yards.
4th Q 1:18 1st and 10 Anchorage 30 Rashard Mendenhall rushes for 2 yards. time out Anchorage
4th Q 1:10 2nd and 8 Anchorage 28 Rashard Mendenhall rushes for 7 yards. time out Anchorage
4th Q 1:02 3rd and 1 Anchorage 20 Rashard Mendenhall rushes for 2 yards. time out Anchorage
4th Q 0:54 1st and 10 Anchorage 19 Rashard Mendenhall rushes for 6 yards. time out Duluth
4th Q 0:04 2nd and 4 Anchorage 13 Rashard Mendenhall rushes for 6 yards.

Anchorage 12, Duluth 11

Oh, yeah. That kind of hurt in a key game. We killed the clock for half the fourth quarter on that drive and somehow forgot that we were trailing.

Duluth
4th Q 7:39 Duluth -1 David Akers kicks 65 yards, returned for 15 yards by Randall Cobb
4th Q 7:31 1st and 10 Duluth 15 Philip Rivers passes complete to Hakeem Nicks for a gain of 13 yards.
4th Q 6:46 1st and 10 Duluth 29 Philip Rivers (pressured) passes incomplete to Harry Douglas.
4th Q 6:39 2nd and 10 Duluth 29 Rashard Mendenhall rushes for 7 yards.
4th Q 5:57 3rd and 3 Duluth 36 Leon Washington rushes for 12 yards.
4th Q 5:15 1st and 10 Duluth 48 Philip Rivers (pressured) passes complete to DeSean Jackson for a gain of 10 yards.
4th Q 4:30 2nd and inches Anchorage 43 Leon Washington rushes for -2 yards.
4th Q 3:48 3rd and 3 Anchorage 45 Leon Washington rushes for 5 yards.
4th Q 3:06 1st and 10 Anchorage 40 Philip Rivers (pressured) passes complete to Harry Douglas for a gain of 4 yards.
4th Q 2:21 2nd and 6 Anchorage 36 Philip Rivers passes complete to Greg Olsen for a gain of 6 yards. Two minute warning.
4th Q 2:00 3rd and inches Anchorage 31 Rashard Mendenhall rushes for 1 yards.
4th Q 1:18 1st and 10 Anchorage 30 Rashard Mendenhall rushes for 2 yards. time out Anchorage
4th Q 1:10 2nd and 8 Anchorage 28 Rashard Mendenhall rushes for 7 yards. time out Anchorage
4th Q 1:02 3rd and 1 Anchorage 20 Rashard Mendenhall rushes for 2 yards. time out Anchorage
4th Q 0:54 1st and 10 Anchorage 19 Rashard Mendenhall rushes for 6 yards. time out Duluth
4th Q 0:04 2nd and 4 Anchorage 13 Rashard Mendenhall rushes for 6 yards.
Anchorage 12, Duluth 11

brorth · 07-24-2012, 09:26 AM

I've been completely sucked in to this. I lmao when I saw rage with the F5, I was doing the same thing. I don't remember the last time I was F5 for anything.

Anyhow, I don't think this has been covered:

Los Angeles
3rd Q 2:21 Los Angeles -1 Mason Crosby kicks 70 yards. No return. Touchback
3rd Q 2:13 1st and 10 Los Angeles 20 Carson Palmer sacked by Connor Barwin for a loss of -10 yards.
3rd Q 1:48 2nd and 20 Los Angeles 10 Carson Palmer sacked by Vontae Davis for a loss of -9 yards.
3rd Q 1:23 3rd and 29 Los Angeles 1 Carson Palmer sacked by Vontae Davis for a loss of -4 yards. Safety
Corona 32, Los Angeles 16
Corona
3rd Q 1:15 3rd and 33 Corona -3 Free kick, ball returned to the 38 yardline.
3rd Q 1:07 1st and 10 Los Angeles 49 Roy Helu rushes for 4 yards.

On kickoffs, the ball always starts at the -1, gives the distance kicked and returned, and the yd line for next play from scrimmage coincides with both.
On the safety, though, the free kick is from the -3.(LA 1 yd line, sack -4 yds?)
It specifically states the ball is returned to the 38 yd line, but gives no distance kicked. The next play from scrimmage occurs at the LA 49 yd line.

**Rain Man** · 07-24-2012, 09:32 AM

Did we perhaps get a "protect the lead" flag backwards? We had the problem of not taking the lead in the Duluth game in the last few seconds, and then Richmond went for it on 4th down in their own territory late in the 4th while protecting a lead, and it cost them the game as well. It's possible that this one was just a rare random bad decision, I guess, but combined with the Duluth oddity and dartgod's situation, it makes me suspicious.

Pittsburgh 7, Richmond 12
Richmond
4th Q 2:18 Richmond -1 free agent kicks 57 yards, returned for 14 yards by LaRod Stephens-Howling
4th Q 2:10 1st and 10 Richmond 22 Isaac Redman rushes for 11 yards. Two minute warning.
4th Q 2:00 1st and 10 Richmond 33 Isaac Redman rushes for 1 yards.
4th Q 1:10 2nd and 9 Richmond 34 Isaac Redman rushes for 3 yards. time out Pittsburgh
4th Q 1:02 3rd and 6 Richmond 37 LaRod Stephens-Howling rushes for 0 yards. time out Pittsburgh
4th Q 0:54 4th and 6 Richmond 37 Matt Hasselbeck (pressured) passes incomplete to Evan Moore.

Pittsburgh 7, Richmond 12
Pittsburgh
4th Q 0:44 1st and 10 Richmond 37 Seneca Wallace (pressured) passes complete to Kelley Washington for a gain of 7 yards. PENALTY. Personal Foul on Israel Idonije. 15 yards.
4th Q 0:36 1st and 10 Richmond 15 Seneca Wallace passes incomplete, dropped by Kelley Washington.
4th Q 0:29 2nd and 10 Richmond 15 Seneca Wallace passes complete to Micheal Spurlock for a gain of 16 yards. Touchdown, 2-pt conversion
Pittsburgh 15, Richmond 12

**Rain Man** · 07-24-2012, 10:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toad King

Whee!

I bet he was having a seizure and nobody knew it.

**Rain Man** · 07-24-2012, 11:13 AM

Oh, yeah. I really like not showing the scores ahead of time.

**cdcox** · 07-24-2012, 11:25 AM

I'll work up something where the score for a game will be shown after the pbp is read or after the next week's simulations are run, which ever comes first. That way we can get at-a-glance scores once the suspense is over.

I find it really tempting to skim ahead. Also the length of the drive is kind of a spoiler. I tried covering part of the computer screen with a piece of paper, but that only went so far. Anyone have any suggestions for windowing the play-by-play to keep the suspense without getting too annoying? I think showing only one play at a time could get annoying.

**Rain Man** · 07-24-2012, 11:28 AM

In League 2, Anchorage is 9-4 but just lost our QB for the year. Our new QB from here on out is Greg McElroy.

**Rain Man** · 07-24-2012, 11:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cdcox

I'll work up something where the score for a game will be shown after the pbp is read or after the next week's simulations are run, which ever comes first. That way we can get at-a-glance scores once the suspense is over.

I find it really tempting to skim ahead. Also the length of the drive is kind of a spoiler. I tried covering part of the computer screen with a piece of paper, but that only went so far. Anyone have any suggestions for windowing the play-by-play to keep the suspense without getting too annoying? I think showing only one play at a time could get annoying.

(Shrug.) I just scroll up as I go and watch it on the bottom of the screen. I scroll a play at a time and don't have a problem. It might be a little more convenient if somehow it wasn't on the very bottom of my screen, but that's a minor thing.

**cdcox** · 07-24-2012, 11:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rain Man

(Shrug.) I just scroll up as I go and watch it on the bottom of the screen. I scroll a play at a time and don't have a problem. It might be a little more convenient if somehow it wasn't on the very bottom of my screen, but that's a minor thing.

Brilliant!

topher79 · 07-24-2012, 06:14 PM

Just realized I drafted the wrong Steve Smith. lol

**Rain Man** · 07-24-2012, 07:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by topher79

Just realized I drafted the wrong Steve Smith. lol

I think the Eagles made the same mistake in free agency.

**cdcox** · 07-24-2012, 10:59 PM

That was an ugly round of simulations. I found some more programming errors. My apologies to Rain Man, who probably lost two games due to these errors.

I fixed those errors and the free kick errors.

The games are getting important and I'm still not confident that I have all the end-of-game coaching errors fixed. I suggest we run a round or two of UNOFFICIAL shakedown games for week 14. People could read through the scenarios and check for errors. Once we get a relatively clean week of sims, we could run the OFFICIAL week 14 games.

What do you all think of this plan? Are you willing to review an unofficial play-by-play simulation and then accept the results of an official game even if the outcome is different than the unofficial result?

**Rain Man** · 07-24-2012, 11:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cdcox

That was an ugly round of simulations. I found some more programming errors. My apologies to Rain Man, who probably lost two games due to these errors.

I fixed those errors and the free kick errors.

The games are getting important and I'm still not confident that I have all the end-of-game coaching errors fixed. I suggest we run a round or two of UNOFFICIAL shakedown games for week 14. People could read through the scenarios and check for errors. Once we get a relatively clean week of sims, we could run the OFFICIAL week 14 games.

What do you all think of this plan? Are you willing to review an unofficial play-by-play simulation and then accept the results of an official game even if the outcome is different than the unofficial result?

That's fine by me.

It's odd that some of those errors kicked in with vengeance in Week 13, when I never noticed them before that.

08-08-2011, 02:01 PM
Rain Man NFL's #1 Ermines Fan Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: My house Casino cash: $3408491 VARSITY	Your Chance To Participate In A New Football Phenomenon (Sandbox Simulations) I apologize if the mods think this is soliciting, and I guess it is, but at the same time it's beta testing a new product developed by long-time planeteers, and it's free. cdcox and I have been developing a new football game for the thoughtful fan, where players build franchises and compete against each other. A description is below. If you're interested, we're offering the game for free in Year 1 to Chiefsplanet members, with the goal of both giving the system a dry run and also hooking you like Phillip Morris. You can go to www.sandboxsimulations.com to sign up, and use the access code 6Lanier3. Here's the overview: Build and manage a full 53-player roster over multiple seasons, as an offseason activity to give you year-round football Select your personnel to match your offensive and defensive scheme. Every position matters – even your blocking tight end. Realistic and accurate simulations of league games based on head-to-head matchups against other teams in your league. This is essentially a new concept in fantasy football that attempts to simulate as closely as possible the management of a real NFL franchise over a multi-year period. Unlike regular fantasy football, every position on the offense and defense contributes to your success or failure. On special teams, the punter, kicker, and kick returners matter. In Sandbox Football you will build a team – an entire 53-man football team – via an initial draft, and will maintain it year after year in annual rookie drafts, trading periods, and free agency. You compete against teams in your league. In the first year of the game, before the start of the NFL season, you will build your roster by drafting veterans and rookies through separate drafts, and through trades with other teams in the league. Your roster is frozen at the beginning of the NFL season. During the real regular NFL season, you can focus on your traditional fantasy games and perhaps keep on eye on your Sandbox roster as our statistical models build the data on player performances. At the end of the regular NFL season, the Sandbox season begins. There will be 16 games in the season. In real time, the season will run about 8 weeks (2 alternate reality games per week). Game outcomes will be simulated based on the performance of individual players during the just-completed NFL regular season. The simulations, developed by a PhD statistical expert, estimate how individual players will perform in the context of your alternate reality team competing head-to-head against other teams in the league and with the specific team that you have built. The simulations will consider the offensive and defensive schemes that you select. So you can build your roster to support a power running game or a high-flying passing attack. You can run a 3-4 or 4-3 base defense. You can run nickel formations or four-wide receiver sets. You can rotate your DL to keep them fresh. The game is more about building a team than playing video games. So this isn't Madden, but you will have the ability to tweak your game plan to take the best advantage of your roster and the weaknesses of your opponent. Injuries are a factor in the game. If a player is unavailable during weeks 3 through 6 in the NFL, he is also unavailable during the same weeks in the alternate reality season. So roster depth matters. The game simulations are based on the most advanced statistics and the latest research regarding what matters in winning an NFL game. But, the outcomes of the games have a random component, just like real NFL games. The calendar for the alternate reality league year will look something like this: • Jan to Mid March: Alternate Reality regular season and playoffs. • Mid-March to the beginning of NFL season: Roster building through trades, veteran draft (first year), free agent drafts (2nd year and beyond), and rookie draft. • Beginning of NFL season to end of regular NFL season: Alternate reality league is dormant, but the NFL players are generating their performance stats for the up-coming AR league. • Rinse and repeat. Copyright Sandbox Simulations, all rights reserved. We're still finalizing the cost structure, but this won't be an expensive game to play at all. It might range from a few bucks a year to $50 per year, depending on a few factors. Year 1 will require a couple of days of drafting with rather high intensity, but we've got it set up where you can put your draft list together and do customized and automated drafting if you like. So...go! Now! Time to get ready for the draft! Note that we are still in beta testing, so things could change if we find problems in the system. How Free Agency Works: Free Agency will begin before the 2012 season after the rookie draft. Our process is as follows for the 2012 season. In 2013 and beyond there will be minor changes as noted later. 1. We will unveil the list of available free agents so you can check out the talent pool. 2. If you look in "Standings", you will see that you have a salary account value of $1,300. You will use this to sign your veterans to contracts, sign your rookies to contracts, and (in a competitive bidding process) sign free agents to contracts. The cost of a contract is as follows for players already on your roster (both veterans and rookies). $0 - 1 season contract $10 - 2 season contract $22 - 3 season contract $37 - 4 season contract $55 - 5 season contract $76 - 6 season contract $100 - 7 season contract You will sign your existing players to contracts using an interface that we will unveil shortly. If your 53-man roster is set you can spend your $1,300 on your current roster. However, it may be worthwhile to hold some money back so you can compete for free agents. 3. The free agency period begins. Bidding for free agents will be open and competitive. As players come available, teams will be allowed to sign them if they are the high bidder. The contract length is automatically calculated by rounding down the bid to the chart below. Contract Length (Seasons) Salary Points Bid 1 0 to 9 2 10 to 21 3 22 to 36 4 37 to 54 5 55 to 75 6 76 to 99 7 100 or more For example, if you submit the winning bid for a player at a price of 25 salary points, that player becomes yours under a 3-year contract. If you submit a bid for 35 points and win, it’s also a 3-year contract. If you submit a bid for 38 points, it’s a 4-year contract. If you submit a bid for 120 points, it’s a 7-year contract. For the 2012 free agency period, we will enforce the 53-man rule. You will need to cut down to 53 players before the free agency period starts, and if you sign a player to go above 53, you will need to cut a player to stay within the roster limit. NOTE: DON'T CUT YET UNLESS YOU WANT TO. WE'RE STILL FINALIZING THE SYSTEM AND WANT TO BE SURE THAT THIS RULE WORKS IN 2012. 4. Ending Bidding and Ending Free Agency. Bids on an individual player will begin once the first player places a bid. For the 2012 season that bid must be $1 or more. Bidding ends when the existing high bid had not been raised for 72 hours. At that point, the high-bid team is awarded the player under the contract terms described in Step 3. The free agency period in 2012 will end once there have been no bids on any players for 72 hours. 5. Unused Salary Points If you do not use all of your salary points in a given year, they will roll over from year to year. This is experimental and we'll have to see how it works. If it doesn't work, they'll expire each year, or maybe a portion of the points can roll over. Right now, assume they all roll over. 6. Salary Points and Roster Management In the Sandbox system, salary points and the salary cap are used only for acquiring players. You will never have to track the number of salary points “on your roster” and you will never have to cut a player for salary cap reasons. Additionally, you are not obligated to keep a player for the full length of his contract. You can cut him or trade him at any time. However, recognize that it’s a waste of salary points to cut or trade a player before the end of his contract. But it doesn't hamstring you going forward - it's just past money that you wasted. 7. Free Agency and Contract Length - Retaining Your Current Players When a player reaches the end of their contract, they go back into the free agency pool and teams will bid for their services. You are eligible to bid on them to get them back, just like you can bid on any free agents. There is one exception to the rule of free agents going into the free agency pool, as follows: • At the end of the bidding process, you have the opportunity to re-sign your own players by outbidding the high bidder. Your bid must be the minimum points to increase their contract period by a year over the high bid. (Example: your player goes to free agency, and another team bids 50 points for him, which equates to a 4-year contract. You can keep the player by paying 55 points for him, which is the minimum amount for a 5-year contract.) If the high bidder offered a contract of 100 points or more (7-years), you can keep the player by bidding 10% more points than the high bid. 8. Free Agency and Trades If you trade for a player, their contract length is a consideration. Trading for a player with 6 years left on his contract will give you his services for that amount of time (unless you cut him or trade him, or he retires). Trading for a player with 1 year left on his contract means that he’ll go back into the free agency pool at the end of the season. (Of course, you can still retain him via Step 7.) 9. Future Years In future years, the process will be identical to that shown above, with the following exceptions. a. Because you will have a lot of veteran players under contract, you won't need $1,300. You'll get a new annual allotment of signing dollars. We're still working on the exact amount, but it looks like it'll be between $500 and $600. b. In the 2012 season, we will introduce all free agents at once to catch up. In the 2013 season and beyond, the free agency period will occur during the actual NFL season. We will sprinkle the free agents in one division at a time over the course of the season. (The divisions may be randomly selected or we may release a calendar. It doesn't matter that much.) This system should be interesting because some free agents will come available early in the season when you don't know their performance for the year - greater risk, greater reward - while other free agents will come available later in the season when you know what their performance will be, but so does everyone else. c. In the 2013 season and beyond, you will be able to retain more than 53 players through the rookie draft and the main free agency period. You will then have a cutdown period to get to 53 and we will have a final free agency period where you can sign any players who have been cut. In that final period you will have to enforce a 53-man roster, so if you sign a player you have to cut one. 10. When you think about the schedule in 2013 and beyond, it will go like this: a. Sandbox season goes from February through April. b. Rookie draft in May. No 53-man limit. c. Free agency from (likely) September through December, with free agents sprinkled in throughout that period. d. January. Roster cuts to 53. e. Late January. Final free agency period to flesh out rosters and sign players cut in Step d. f. New Sandbox season begins. Last edited by Rain Man; 05-27-2013 at 09:15 AM..
Posts: 141,204

07-24-2012, 08:17 AM	#2476
topher79 Starter Join Date: Apr 2008 Casino cash: $10004900	This sucks, Duluth has the ball: Anchorage 12 Duluth 11 4th Q 2:00 3rd and inches Anchorage 31 Rashard Mendenhall rushes for 1 yards. 4th Q 1:18 1st and 10 Anchorage 30 Rashard Mendenhall rushes for 2 yards. time out Anchorage 4th Q 1:10 2nd and 8 Anchorage 28 Rashard Mendenhall rushes for 7 yards. time out Anchorage 4th Q 1:02 3rd and 1 Anchorage 20 Rashard Mendenhall rushes for 2 yards. time out Anchorage 4th Q 0:54 1st and 10 Anchorage 19 Rashard Mendenhall rushes for 6 yards. time out Duluth 4th Q 0:04 2nd and 4 Anchorage 13 Rashard Mendenhall rushes for 6 yards. Anchorage 12, Duluth 11
Posts: 284

07-24-2012, 09:09 AM	#2477
Rain Man NFL's #1 Ermines Fan Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: My house Casino cash: $3408491 VARSITY	It's so exciting to see the games this way. As an errata, we have a problem on the free kick on the safety. Duluth 1st Q 11:18 1st and 29 Duluth -2 Free kick, ball returned to the 134 yardline. 1st Q 11:10 1st and 10 Anchorage 48 Rashard Mendenhall rushes for 4 yards. 1st Q 10:28 2nd and 6 Anchorage 44 Philip Rivers (pressured) passes incomplete to Hakeem Nicks. 1st Q 10:21 3rd and 6 Anchorage 44 Philip Rivers (pressured) passes incomplete, dropped by Harry Douglas. 1st Q 10:14 4th and 6 Anchorage 44 Brian Moorman punts 44 yards, touchback. Anchorage 0, Duluth 5 __________________ I'm putting random letters here as a celebration of free speech: xigrakgrah misorojeq rkemeseit.
Posts: 141,204

07-24-2012, 09:26 AM	#2479
brorth Starter Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: lobation Casino cash: $1792480	I've been completely sucked in to this. I lmao when I saw rage with the F5, I was doing the same thing. I don't remember the last time I was F5 for anything. Anyhow, I don't think this has been covered: Los Angeles 3rd Q 2:21 Los Angeles -1 Mason Crosby kicks 70 yards. No return. Touchback 3rd Q 2:13 1st and 10 Los Angeles 20 Carson Palmer sacked by Connor Barwin for a loss of -10 yards. 3rd Q 1:48 2nd and 20 Los Angeles 10 Carson Palmer sacked by Vontae Davis for a loss of -9 yards. 3rd Q 1:23 3rd and 29 Los Angeles 1 Carson Palmer sacked by Vontae Davis for a loss of -4 yards. Safety Corona 32, Los Angeles 16 Corona 3rd Q 1:15 3rd and 33 Corona -3 Free kick, ball returned to the 38 yardline. 3rd Q 1:07 1st and 10 Los Angeles 49 Roy Helu rushes for 4 yards. On kickoffs, the ball always starts at the -1, gives the distance kicked and returned, and the yd line for next play from scrimmage coincides with both. On the safety, though, the free kick is from the -3.(LA 1 yd line, sack -4 yds?) It specifically states the ball is returned to the 38 yd line, but gives no distance kicked. The next play from scrimmage occurs at the LA 49 yd line.
Posts: 957

07-24-2012, 09:32 AM	#2480
Rain Man NFL's #1 Ermines Fan Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: My house Casino cash: $3408491 VARSITY	Did we perhaps get a "protect the lead" flag backwards? We had the problem of not taking the lead in the Duluth game in the last few seconds, and then Richmond went for it on 4th down in their own territory late in the 4th while protecting a lead, and it cost them the game as well. It's possible that this one was just a rare random bad decision, I guess, but combined with the Duluth oddity and dartgod's situation, it makes me suspicious. Pittsburgh 7, Richmond 12 Richmond 4th Q 2:18 Richmond -1 free agent kicks 57 yards, returned for 14 yards by LaRod Stephens-Howling 4th Q 2:10 1st and 10 Richmond 22 Isaac Redman rushes for 11 yards. Two minute warning. 4th Q 2:00 1st and 10 Richmond 33 Isaac Redman rushes for 1 yards. 4th Q 1:10 2nd and 9 Richmond 34 Isaac Redman rushes for 3 yards. time out Pittsburgh 4th Q 1:02 3rd and 6 Richmond 37 LaRod Stephens-Howling rushes for 0 yards. time out Pittsburgh 4th Q 0:54 4th and 6 Richmond 37 Matt Hasselbeck (pressured) passes incomplete to Evan Moore. Pittsburgh 7, Richmond 12 Pittsburgh 4th Q 0:44 1st and 10 Richmond 37 Seneca Wallace (pressured) passes complete to Kelley Washington for a gain of 7 yards. PENALTY. Personal Foul on Israel Idonije. 15 yards. 4th Q 0:36 1st and 10 Richmond 15 Seneca Wallace passes incomplete, dropped by Kelley Washington. 4th Q 0:29 2nd and 10 Richmond 15 Seneca Wallace passes complete to Micheal Spurlock for a gain of 16 yards. Touchdown, 2-pt conversion Pittsburgh 15, Richmond 12 __________________ I'm putting random letters here as a celebration of free speech: xigrakgrah misorojeq rkemeseit. Last edited by Rain Man; 07-24-2012 at 09:41 AM..
Posts: 141,204

07-24-2012, 11:13 AM	#2482
Rain Man NFL's #1 Ermines Fan Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: My house Casino cash: $3408491 VARSITY	Oh, yeah. I really like not showing the scores ahead of time. __________________ I'm putting random letters here as a celebration of free speech: xigrakgrah misorojeq rkemeseit.
Posts: 141,204

07-24-2012, 11:25 AM	#2483
cdcox www.nfl-forecast.com Join Date: Sep 2000 Casino cash: $2421769	I'll work up something where the score for a game will be shown after the pbp is read or after the next week's simulations are run, which ever comes first. That way we can get at-a-glance scores once the suspense is over. I find it really tempting to skim ahead. Also the length of the drive is kind of a spoiler. I tried covering part of the computer screen with a piece of paper, but that only went so far. Anyone have any suggestions for windowing the play-by-play to keep the suspense without getting too annoying? I think showing only one play at a time could get annoying.
Posts: 45,536

07-24-2012, 11:28 AM	#2484
Rain Man NFL's #1 Ermines Fan Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: My house Casino cash: $3408491 VARSITY	In League 2, Anchorage is 9-4 but just lost our QB for the year. Our new QB from here on out is Greg McElroy. __________________ I'm putting random letters here as a celebration of free speech: xigrakgrah misorojeq rkemeseit.
Posts: 141,204

07-24-2012, 06:14 PM	#2487
topher79 Starter Join Date: Apr 2008 Casino cash: $10004900	Just realized I drafted the wrong Steve Smith. lol
Posts: 284

07-24-2012, 10:59 PM	#2489
cdcox www.nfl-forecast.com Join Date: Sep 2000 Casino cash: $2421769	That was an ugly round of simulations. I found some more programming errors. My apologies to Rain Man, who probably lost two games due to these errors. I fixed those errors and the free kick errors. The games are getting important and I'm still not confident that I have all the end-of-game coaching errors fixed. I suggest we run a round or two of UNOFFICIAL shakedown games for week 14. People could read through the scenarios and check for errors. Once we get a relatively clean week of sims, we could run the OFFICIAL week 14 games. What do you all think of this plan? Are you willing to review an unofficial play-by-play simulation and then accept the results of an official game even if the outcome is different than the unofficial result?
Posts: 45,536