Simsportsworld - Baseball, Basketball, Football, Soccer, and Hockey all in one game.

[gluecows]

Hey all I've been posting in the "Other Basketball Games" section for a while now but I wanted to get the word out in this forum as well! This post is kind of long and I'm sorry but I want to give everyone as much info as possible!

www.Simsportsworld.com

First off, I want to let everyone know that Simsportsworld is 100% free to play. No purchase required at all!

Synopsis

This document is intended to give an overview of the simsportsworld game. The descriptions below are intended to work across all sports, while there will be individual adjustments to each sport. This is not intended to be a finalized list of features and functionality, and the end result is subject to change.

Game Modes

Simsportsworld will have 2 game modes:

Player Mode – Create a player and take him through a player career.
Manager Mode – Managers can create club teams and run them, or become owners of permanent teams in each sport. They level up just like players do.

It's important to note that both modes are interconnected meaning the team you coach will have other users's players on your team! Likewise your players will be coached by another users's coach!

League Structures

League structures are being revamped for SSW. Traditionally there was just a series of leagues(high school – college – pro) that defined your players career. These teams were predetermined and ran on a fixed schedule. In SSW 2014 we will introduce club teams, and turbo leagues. The traditional teams from the past will still exist as what we call permanent teams. Users who sign with a permanent team will no longer be available on the free agent market, but will be committed to their respective teams.

In addition to these permanent teams, Managers will be able to create club teams. These club teams will be able to compete in turbo leagues(leagues that last 1-2 days maximum), or exhibition matches. Think of turbo leagues as "Friendlies". Any players not on a permanent team can be picked up by one of these turbo leagues or exhibitions to get game experience and grow their player and impress coach's to sign those players to their permanent league. Players do not have to join a permanent team. They can stay in the free agent market indefinitely if they choose, or they can jump into a permanent team at any level they wish when they wish, if they get an offer from a manager. Once on a permanent team, they will not be available for any turbo leagues or exhibitions, until their league's season is completed.

League Salary Structure

In this system for both permanent teams and club teams, each team will receive a salary cap based on their managers level. The higher a manager has leveled the more his salary cap will be. The changes per level will be enough to give value to leveling but not so much that it is a massive disadvantage. The level requirements for managers to join certain leagues or permanent teams will keep the playing field level but not random.

Each player will be assigned a salary level based on a formula of their existing attributes and skills. Teams will select their players according to their league structure, as long as they are under the salary cap. Teams will not have substitutes, to help prevent teams from spending on starters and buying min players for the bench. Club teams, turbo leagues, and exhibitions will work the same way, with teams having to select a team based of salaries and meet their respective caps.

Credits

Credits will be the currency of choice at Simsportsworld, and will cover a massive amount of activities. Credits will have the opportunity of being purchased through one of our subscription plans, earned through leveling your user account, or through players/managers who accomplish certain tasks in game. When players sign with teams, they will receive a salary of credits for their efforts. Salaries will be higher for turbo leagues then exhibitions, and higher for permanent teams then turbo leagues. Managers will spend credits on their players, but can also receive credits based on how their teams perform. Users will get credits as rewards for each level they achieve.

Credits can be used in game for a variety of activities:

Purchasing a permanent team.
Purchasing packs or boxes of cards
Player Training modes
Buying/Selling Cards in the marketplace
Upgrading team facilities

Player Mode Overview

Players mode will take some of the great elements of the past and incorporate some new elements to create more of a MMORPG experience, allowing users to grow at their own pace. For the first time players will be able to take a variety of paths to grow their player and with different end game objectives. We hope to reward the casual gamer and the aggressive grinder at the same time without creating scenarios where only a handful of players can enjoy the league.

Player Progression

The player mode game has been developed to be a go at your own pace format rather than the more rigid daily training rituals that existed in past games. In order to accomplish that we have adjusted quite a few things on how players are structured and progress. First we have changed the entire experience system. A player's “level” is now going to be based on a pure experience system, and will no longer dictate their skill level, but rather their ability to unlock phases and aspects of the game.

A player will start as level 1 and have an experience bar with an amount of experience to earn to get to level 2. Everything a player does, from competing in games, to training, will give a player more experience. A player can also earn / purchase experience cards from packs or the marketplace and apply them to their player to boost their player level. As a player'a level goes up, they will gain access to better training facilities, access to more skills on the skill tree, and gain access to permanent teams. The players level does not necessarily mean they are a better player in terms of their attributes, but they will have access to more, which gives them more opportunity to improve their player. Player Salaries will not be tied to a player's overall level.

Player Attributes

Players in each sport will start with their core attributes, the basic most necessary attributes needed to compete in that individual sport. no longer will attributes grow via traditional experience. Instead they will grow from successful events for that attribute. For example speed, will grow with every sprint. A Jump shot in basketball will grow with every successfully made shot. Attributes will level up with every milestone reached. (similar to Fifa's career mode)

Each successive level will take more and more events to make the next level. These attributes will grow not only off of training events, but also via cards, or any actions completed in actual games. No true level cap exists, but the increase in difficulty as you try to continue levelling makes a virtual cap exist.

Player Skills

While a few core attributes exist for each player, the bare necessities to compete, a wide range of player skills will exist for each sport. These skills can be unlocked by reaching a certain level, getting skill cards, or spending credits to have a trainer teach you. Like attributes these can be trained via certain facilities, or completing the skill in a game. Some skills will have additional prerequisites of previous skills in order to unlock them.

Player Age

As a player ages, their attribute effectiveness will decline. A players age starts at 15, and will go up in days. You will see a players age in years and days, and as you train, or compete in games, your age will go up. At age 33, your player will start to see their effectiveness rating go down from 100%. Initially the decrease will be minimal, as your age continues to go up it will continue to increase more and more dramatically. While your effectiveness is going down, your salary will not. At age 40 your player's career will be complete.

Player Training

When you first create your player, you will have one training area available to you, the park. Your training options will be limited here, and the time it takes to train will be longer than in other training areas. As your player's level increases, you will unlock more and more training areas.Also, signing in permanent leagues will grant you access to better facilities. Each will have different training options that can improve various attributes and skills, and with different reload times. Each time you train you will be locked from training for a various amount of minutes. Some training areas will also come with a credits cost, such as a gym. Many various training facilities will be available to you through the progression of your player.

Player Cards

Packs of cards will be available for each sport with coach and player cards available. Among the player cards that can be acquired are:

Experience cards – Apply experience to increase your players level and gain access to additional modes for your player.
Training Cards – Train your player in various skills and techniques without a time delay.
Skill Cards – Use a skill card to gain a skill for your player even if your player level does not allow you yet.
Training Areas – Gain access to future training areas before your player is allowed to access.
Daily Boosts – Boost your player temporarily for a 24 hour period.

Manager Mode Overview

In SSW 2014, managers are just like players, who can level up by gaining experience, and use that level to access new areas. When a manager is created, he makes a club team that stays with him for his entire career. The club team can be entered into exhibition matches, turbo leagues, and tournaments. As your manager improves his level, your club team will get a higher salary cap, and access to higher competitive leagues and tournaments. In addition to your club team your manager can also manage one permanent team.

Manager Experience

Your manager will increase in level as he earns exerpience. Experience can be earned via cards, or by winning games, turbo leagues, tournaments, or achieving awards on your permanent team. As your experience goes up so does your level. As your level goes up so does your available salary cap for each type of contest.

Manager Salary Caps

As your manager increases in level, your max salary cap will also go up for each type of contest. Exhibitions, Turbo leagues, and permanent teams all have different max salary caps for your manager, and the payment comes out of your total cost for the team. Any left over money not spent is returned to your credits bank. For certain permanent team leagues, a team may have a max cap that is enforced even if a manager's cap is higher depending on the league (To keep things balanced).

Turbo League Drafts

For Exhibition matches and Turbo leagues, club teams will draft rosters in a turbo draft. A turbo draft is a bit like a silent auction. Each sport will have a different number of timed rounds and then a free draft to complete. During timed rounds there will be a duration for each round where users can draft 1 player per round first come first serve. After the timed rounds are completed, the rest of the players can be drafted first come first serve in a free for all. All teams must be drafted under salary cap, and fill all the required positions.

Permanent Teams

Permanent teams will have different formats for choosing players, depending on the sport and style of the league. Everything from recruiting (College leagues) to a real draft (Pro Leagues), will exist, but all teams will adhere to salary cap rules in all leagues.

[gluecows]

Open Beta Plans

SimSportsWorld has announced that they will launch their open beta with not one but two sports. Both baseball and soccer will be available on opening day. Hoping to capitalize on the excitement of the world cup and of course baseball being in season, the team wanted to take on both sports to give users plenty of activity to play in the beginning.

Following Baseball and Soccer, Football is slated for a release in time for NFL season, followed by Basketball and then Hockey to complete out the sports for the year. Each sport will have player and coaches mode involved, and each sport will have the same overall "Turbo League" structure with unique structures for the permanent teams.

Initially the open beta will start with exhibition games between club teams, followed up by turbo leagues. These turbo leagues will run 1-2 days in length and allow coaches and players to get several games in in a short amount of time (think of turbo leagues as local YMCA/Street ball tournaments to help you gain experience). As the user base grows, the permanent teams and league structures will be initialized, and coaches who have reached the appropriate user level will have an opportunity to access permanent teams.

Soccer's permanent leagues will take place on an international level, where coaches can coach one of the national teams. A qualifying schedule will be set up based on teams chosen and demand, and will play towards a world cup final. So think of the soccer mode as a "World Cup Mode".

Baseball's permanent league will initially have a pro league, and will work towards a minor league and eventually college league.

If anyone has questions feel free to ask I would love to hear from you guys! Also post in the forums and check frequently for updates. The Open Beta will be here soon. It will be a little buggy at first but the whole point of the Beta is to get your guys's feedback so we can fix whatever errors occur and make the different sports produce accurate results. I think overall you guys will enjoy the format!

[milldaddy35]

can't wait-sounds fun. how much longer?

[gluecows]

I'm not a coder for the site I'm just an admin who helps out with testing so I can't give you an exact date. BUT Yesterday we got the overall economy balanced for the system. There are a lot of factors to balance. On the training side we have 3 different types of training that takes place, regular training, training that happens during game experiences, and cards. In addition to that growth we have time spent on the site, currency, and age as factors. So it was a bigger undertaking then it seemed, but were pleased with the results

Today the devs are building that economy into the engine. Once that is done they'll start bringing up the training programs, that unlock as your player levels (not to be confused with his overall rating).

We hope to finalize the user level system, and define how the credits will flesh out more today as well...

in about 2-4 days we'll test everything with player creation and the game itself and if everything runs as planned open Beta will be soon after that!

[milldaddy35]

Thanks for the reply,
In this game do you actually play the games or do you just manage the game?

[JayBee74]

I actually signed up and took a peek at the forum. My one concern, although it's not a game killer, is the credit system ("Credits will be the currency of choice at Simsportsworld.") Although it doesn't say how you earn them, I'm willing to bet ONE way is by buying them with real cash.

Also I'm not sure what this means. Keep in mind it's tied to a salary cap system.

"Teams will not have substitutes, to help prevent teams from spending on starters and buying min players for the bench."

So a basketball team would have 5 players? I'm at a lost.

[milldaddy35]

Quote: Originally Posted by JayBee74

I actually signed up and took a peek at the forum. My one concern, although it's not a game killer, is the credit system ("Credits will be the currency of choice at Simsportsworld.") Although it doesn't say how you earn them, I'm willing to bet ONE way is by buying them with real cash. Also I'm not sure what this means. Keep in mind it's tied to a salary cap system. "Teams will not have substitutes, to help prevent teams from spending on starters and buying min players for the bench." So a basketball team would have 5 players? I'm at a lost.

If that is the case in basketball, then I won't even play basketball. That is so fake, and this website is supposed to be SIM. 5 players isn't SIM if that is what that means.

[gluecows]

Quote: Originally Posted by JayBee74

I actually signed up and took a peek at the forum. My one concern, although it's not a game killer, is the credit system ("Credits will be the currency of choice at Simsportsworld.") Although it doesn't say how you earn them, I'm willing to bet ONE way is by buying them with real cash. Also I'm not sure what this means. Keep in mind it's tied to a salary cap system. "Teams will not have substitutes, to help prevent teams from spending on starters and buying min players for the bench." So a basketball team would have 5 players? I'm at a lost.

Yes credits can be bought with cash, the site needs to make money to be a free game. But as I said in the post you can earn credits just by being on the site often. Also I want to point out how people spending money won't ruin the balance at all. Please remember though that paying is NOT required to play the game or to make it to any of the top tier leagues that will exist.

I think an extreme case is someone spending $100 on credits, agreed? If someone were to spend that much and buy the cards then use the cards to improve their player the overall difference will be (on a 0-99 overall scale) pretty small. That player (assuming they are active) would be around a low 90 overall at its peak and a non-paying active (once a day) player will be low 80's at its peak. Visit more often then once per day and you could easily be mid-80s. This gives a slight advantage to the man paying (as it should) but teams can't just sign all 90 overalls to their team because of the salary cap. Also being a 90 overall doesn't guarantee that player is better than an 80. It just means they have more points in their player. Certain coaching systems may not be fit for a 90 overall athletic freak but may be fit for an 80 overall player who can shoot the ball.

We realize that we have to find a balance between giving players an advantage for paying and making sure free players can not fall behind.

As for your point about the no substitutes, I should have been more clear. In basketball for example, atm there will be a 10 man roster it's just that the 5 subs will be CPU players until we can get a big enough userbase to get full teams. It'll also allow players to play longer into games without worrying about not gaining experience for lack of playing time. Eventually we'll move to allowing for full 10 man rosters (No CPUs)

The whole point of the initial open beta is to have the community give ideas to improve the site. So things we wrote about in this document can easily change if the userbase demands it, that's why we want the OS community to join the Beta.