Looks like there will be lots of changes coming in season 4. See Bort's state of the game comment.

The biggest issues for us are, in no real order:

1. Teams will no longer be able to go into the red. I don't think this will be a problem at the start of next season, as Matej is not going to use the full loan amount for stadium construction, but is something to be mindful of for all our players.

2. Some penalties will be in effect. This will especially be an issue for the o and d lines, as penalty calls will be partially based on vision and anti-penalty SAs. Our lineman tend not to have particularly high vision, so this is something we'll need to work on (in addition to carrying for all offensive players that touch the ball, and tackling for all defenders as "wrap up" will be less effective).

3. Certain other key tasks (catching, etc.) will require more attributes to be effective (the idea here is to prevent players from going super high in one attribute at the expense of others).

4. One good piece of news for us is that the depth chart will be separated out by position (e.g., WR1, WR2 and WR3; CB1, CB2 and CB3).

One other thing Bort mentioned in the thread of his announcement is that vision will be more impt for kickers. Fortunately for us, GY has been going down that path already.

Misplaced Poke, who is the agent of Wally Mammoth and Clifford O'Franklin asked whether we'd be interested in any of his players for next season.

He has a lvl 19 DE, a lvl 18 LB, a lvl 18 G, a lvl 17 HB, a lvl 16 QB, a lvl 15 FB, a lvl 16 TE, and a lvl 13 OT. I think only the HB, QB and LB are free agents, but I'll check with him. Of those, I would guess that the LB is the only one we may have an interest in (and, really, that's only if we're losing Charlie and then only maybe).

Any thoughts?

Edit: The agent said that the DE, G, LB, HB, QB and OT will all be free agents, though the LB may re-sign with his current team. I've asked him to give us the builds for the DE, G and LB and also whether he plans to boost any of these guys.

Interesting developments up there. The penalties and no operating in the red are huge.

Financially, it's as Gyuri said, we'll go into day one with at least 500k, and should make a killing on ticket sales on day 1 and 2. I'll try and keep at least a 500k buffer for the rest of the season, while still expanding our seating.

RE: tactics - if we are really going to get a few practice games with the advanced tactics, I definitely want to get specific play calls into the offense/defense, so that we can see exactly what they look like. For instance: 1st downs in 1st quarter - always a long pass to the WR, 2nd downs in 1st quarter - always a medium pass to a WR, etc... I think the better we know exactly what each play option does, the more we can come up with situational play calling. What options are there in a goal line offense exactly? Will the QB ever throw?

As for Poke, I think we'll definitely want the LB (as that is one of the positions where I have no problem having an extra guy or two). The DE and FB are appealing, as having the extra DE could help, and if the FB is better than Bread, I'd have no problem putting him lower on the DC.

But we definitely don't want to spend money for trades if we can avoid it, and really only want to take players on that are clearly better or allow us to reduce our GMs flex point burden.

Matej,

I know your time is a little tight this week, but unfortunately mine will be also. I will set up a set of goalline offenses (on your preset) and 1st down passes. Besides length to WRs, I think, given GY's points, that we should see what designed passes to HBs look like. I think it might be particularly interesting to send them on longer routes. What else are you thinking of here?

As for goalline, we can (and should) set up passing plays, both out of the goalline set (to HBs and TEs) and out of a normal set. Sadly, I don't think we can make the AI put in multi-receivers, as I think a spread formation could be interesting (and dangerous) at the goalline against defenses that don't set their tactics.

I think that a good guard would be great as well. We could dump Tommy Mann (and I could retire him), or just have him lower on the totem pole saved for when we inevitably lose a guard later on.
Also, see my edit in my prior post.

By the way, I just signed Giant Tree, the new lvl 14 (and boosting) NT that we had been in discussions with.

Now that we have a new crop of FAs who had their contracts expire overnight, I've sent PMs to all of the decent looking CBs between levels 20 and 22. Hopefully, that will bear some fruit.

If anyone else has time today, it would be great if they could PM those CBs level 17-19 to gauge interest. EDIT; It looks like ap will take care of this.

Misplace Poke has opened up the builds on his players.

His lvl 18 G (which is my favorite of his players) has:

Strength: 64.37 Blocking: 54.37
Speed: 22.18 Tackling: 14.25
Agility: 22.05 Throwing: 8
Jumping: 7 Catching: 9
Stamina: 29.67 Carrying: 8
Vision: 27.42 Kicking: 10
Confidence: 29.94 Punting: 8

Run blocking SAs: 3-3-2-3-4

His lvl 19 DE (whose build I'm not a big fan of, too little strength and agility):

Strength: 49 Blocking: 13.6
Speed: 54 Tackling: 38.29
Agility: 40.77 Throwing: 9
Jumping: 19 Catching: 8
Stamina: 31.08 Carrying: 8
Vision: 23.25 Kicking: 7
Confidence: 22.06 Punting: 9

Pass Rusher SAs: 3-3-3-2-2

His lvl 18 LB (not terrible, but low vision for the position):

Strength: 42.4 Blocking: 14.25
Speed: 53.09 Tackling: 36.58
Agility: 34.05 Throwing: 7
Jumping: 16.09 Catching: 16.07
Stamina: 31.02 Carrying: 9
Vision: 28.36 Kicking: 10
Confidence: 22.65 Punting: 9

Hard Hitter SAs: 2-2-3-3-2

By the way, just heard from J. Charlie's agent. It turns out that he is in the Marine Corps reserves and had a surprise training that kept him out of internet contact. He's back now and committed to the team. This makes LB a much less pressing concern.

I still haven't heard back from GLB, so it looks like we should move forward and not think about getting Taco.

That's a bummer. Is your second account locked/banned? If not, and we are desperate at CB, it may be worth signing him anyway.

No, nothing's happened to either.

EDIT: nevermind

Matej,

I put in scripted plays for each quarter. Take a look when you get a chance and make whatever changes you want.

One thing I noticed is that in the 4th quarter, you have us kicking a FG if we are in range (and the score is close) on any down within 40 seconds. Is this a wise course of action? We could end up kicking when we could run another play to get closer or kicking so early we give the other team time.

That might be the default. I certainly wouldn't want us to kick with 40 seconds left. 10 seconds, maybe.

I changed it to 15. By the way, the new depth chart has gone live. We now have 5 WR spots and 5 CB spots, as well as a spot for the long snapper.

The addition of the long snapper means, I think, that we can remove one of the blocker types from the KOS.