Regular season newsletters have been replaced with Boxscore Analytics - a way to more closely investigate your team as well as other teams in the league - which can help you analyze your team and keep updated on other teams' players.
The pre-draft camps can help you determine who is worth drafting and how they might perform in game situations. Of course,
like other aspects of this game, a player could be "hot" or "cold" for a few games so it may not be a realistic sample. The
pre-draft camp newsletters are very important to have when drafting (only included with a deluxe package) as they
will provide you with statistics, top players at each position for each attribute, mock drafts, and more! Players who are
named to the all-camp team, named MVP of that camp, or on the championship squads of the Phoenix (low talent) or Portsmouth (middle talent) camps will
receive a ratings boost which will help reflect their in-game performance. This is also the way potential Phoenix-camp
players can make it to the Chicago (top players) camp and even make it into the first round of the draft.
Like the NBA, you will need to learn how to manage your salary cap, not only for the current season, but future seasons as well.
It is a hard cap with no inflation, set to 13000 for the elite league and 8000 for the semipro league. For the elite league, that means the average salary can be almost 1100 per player. It also means if you sign someone for 2000, a couple other players need to make only 400-500 (close to the minimum). So the question is, do you want excellent depth to protect against injuries, foul trouble, and fatigue? Or do you want an excellent starting 5 with a couple of all-pro players, hoping they don't get hurt? Or do you want to be somewhere in
the middle? Only you can answer this question based on what your philosophy of being a GM is. At the current time, there is no salary
cap minimum (well technically 3600 would be the minimum at 300 per player being the minimum).
The online trading module was added recently, and offers an excellent tool for making trades. It provides you a way to select potential players (or
draft picks) from one team and then offer up from your team the same. You can create new trade offers, edit existing trade offers (if neither team
has confirmed or rescinded the trade offer yet), confirm a trade, or rescind it (meaning the deal is dead). You can trade draft picks up to three
seasons in advance. Out of respect for the game and the other owners, we do ask you only trade draft picks that far out if you expect to continue playing through that season. Nothing is worse than signing up for a team that no longer has any draft picks with which to build from. Once both teams approve a trade, the trade is processed automatically and a Discord message is posted in the trade channel.
Like managing the salary cap, there are many theories on how to build a dynasty. My one thought is this. There is a fine line between
trading away your talent too early (before the dynasty can happen) and hanging on to them too long (and not being able to get anything for those
players in return in a trade). Your job in building a team for the ages is to find that line and continually manage your team, not only for
the present, but for the future. You can build your dynasty entirely through the draft, entirely through trades, entirely through free
agency, or with any combination of the three. The best general managers are the ones that are flexible enough to make the right move
when it comes along. For example, you may not want to trade away a star player, but that one deal may come along which is impossible
to resist.
While I wrote this game because I am a sports fan first, a gaming fan second, and a statistical geek third, this game is for all
who play it. It is the owners who drive changes and enhancements in this game. I could leave the game alone right now and it would be ok,
but through the suggestions of others it becomes even better each and every season.
Please communicate through the Discord Channel. It is the one place where we gather to discuss game issues, suggestions, and do a little
friendly trash talking!
I want to thank all of the active owners who have taken a role in shaping this game to what it has become. There are many, but I
do want to specifically thank Alan Abel (owner of the Charlotte Rebels) who wrote the play by play java applet. It truly makes the games fun to watch!
I also want to thank the designers of Simulated Sports College Basketball. I enjoy playing that
game very much, and it gave me the inspiration to write the pro game so the college players had someplace to go after finishing their collegiate careers.
I can't draw or paint a picture, I won't be playing in any symphonies, and I won't likely write award-winning poetry (at least without the help of GenAI). This game is my work of art, with splashes of color from everyone who has played it and offered their suggestions. Enjoy!
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