OOC Out of Bounds (The ELL OOC Thread)

That is the funniest thing I have heard suggested in some time!

Actually, winning without the bonus roll is a long-established tradition in this game. Too bad I'm too addicted to writing. Then again, no one has ever requested to decline a bonus roll...

--EDIT--
And it seems the emerging theme of this week is "to be continued."

 

I need to include Shilliam Whatner in my post shouting that in extreme anger.

Although I had quite a budding rivalry with the Rangers when they got demoted.

Wow, now we have stuff that is to be continued. Only it's not me responsible.

 

I plan to utilize "to be continued" more often in the future, both to break up what would otherwise be (probably literally) novella-sized posts, and to create anticipation and/or cliffhangers.

Also, I plan to completely fill out the Storm reserves and Gundarks roster tomorrow, which requires me to ask a question to Trieste (and anyone else that wants to chime in with their opinion). Has a maximum roster size ever been established? It seems that several teams run with exactly 30 (a set of starters and one complete set of reserves), but realistically I think rosters would be larger than that. Let's look at some RL sports (excluding football, where players specialize in either offense or defense, and some only play special teams, necessitating larger teams):

• NBA: Maximum 15 on the roster (13 active), 5 at a time on the court
• NHL: Maximum 23 on the roster, 6 at a time on the ice
• Pro/int'l soccer: Maximum 23 on the roster, 11 at a time on the field (although this is an anomaly since top-level soccer only permits three substitutions per team per game, which eliminates the need for larger rosters).
• Major League Lacrosse: Average 29 players on the roster, 10 at a time on the field

So it would seem that most sports have rosters approximately three to four times the size of the starting lineup. I would suggest (pulling a few numbers here outta my ass) a maximum of 47 players on the roster with no more than 39 active on game day (the odd numbers here represent the result of haggling with the players union, and are reflective of the NFL's odd roster and active numbers of 53 and 45). Teams with LFL affiliates would likely just send players down rather than inactivating them every week (so there would not be a minimum roster size), but a team dealing with a few short-term injuries could inactivate the injured players to make room to call up replacements, allowing them to have a full active roster for each game. We of course wouldn't need to deal with announcing inactives every week if we don't want to; it's just something people with very large rosters could note in the library thread or wiki, and discuss IC when they feel a need to (such as inactivating a star player due to a suspension or injury).

What does everyone else think? What do you think the maximum roster size should be?

 

30. Makes sense to have a full set of starters and reserves, and since we don't worry about injuring players in this game (seriously, for such a rough game, we have virtually no injuries), I don't think we need a glut of players available. Some players just have 15 players total and get through an entire season with no issues.

Besides, the idea of a development affiliate is to be a minor league IMO, not an inactive list landing spot.

 

I love my players too much, so just imagine Alana Glencross playing every game encased in bubble wrap if you wish to explain things. Also, fantasy football injury trauma has been too much for me this season.

Anyways, on point, I would actually say that the NHL should be thrown out from the comparison size. Unlike the other sports, the frequent substitutions of ice hockey require a four line rotation (though in a pinch teams will go down to three lines--really desperate teams, like those on the verge of playoff elimination, will sometimes rotate only their top two lines) whereas soccer--the closest limmie analog--is a game where someone can play a full game.

As GM I am going to decline to set a maximum roster size. Though I do think in a real situation a player's union would negotiate such a thing (partially to keep up salaries), I think we've established there's a pretty weak player's union in this game so therefore the League is going to remain silent on the issue. The only thing that the League is going to care about is the financial solvency of its teams to ensure that they have the resources to operate and be competitive. A large roster would require greater financial resources to pull off. Then again, the only thing that matters less in this game than a player's union is money.

On the point of how to use an LFL team (or, if you're stubborn me, PLL teams) I would say that due to space travel and practice concerns that it would make it impractical for the LFL or PLL to be used as a stash of week-to-week inactive players. The way that Jedi Gunny has portrayed the Force-Senators relationship has been how I've viewed the situation: a minor league team that accepts overflow and feeds up to the big club when there is a need in a certain area. Though we haven't established travel times, I would imagine that teams that are separated by distance of some level would lose a lot of valuable development and practice time with teams who were shuttling back and forth from Commenor to Euceron, Thyferra to Coruscant, even Druckenwell to Nar Shaddaa. However, teams that were geographically close (Mandalore/Concordia, Rydonni Prime/Byblos) could pull off this arrangement with less trouble. However, that's an opinion. A team that wants to invest the time in using an LFL team in that manner is free to do so.

 

That's what I meant by the comment about LFL teams, is that there would be a few players on that hypothetically large team who realistically would be never be active unless the team is in serious injury trouble, and so those players (what you call the "overflow") would just be sent down to the LFL long-term rather than take up a roster spot. In that sense, I envisioned that inactive spots would be rarely used (usually for suspensions and short-term injuries).

But anyway, "no limit" is definitely something I can work with. And I have a few ideas about how Storm ownership comes up with the money needed for a large roster.

 

That of course requires that you haven't knocked off half your roster, jcgoble3

 

Yeah, well, I need a complete roster before the attack so I can figure out who to knock off to achieve the desired outcome.

 

I think there are obvious places to start.

Spoiler

Although we do realize that the majority of the starters will be unharmed due to an invisible force-field. The redshirts, on the other hand, get it.

 

You mean like the character shields that protected Ryi Kor'le?

 

Rosters are now complete (and can be viewed on the wiki) as is the list of injuries and deaths (which is in a private Google Doc). I just need to write the post, which I'm not going to do right now because the library closes in less than an hour and I don't want to have to stop in the middle of the post. I'll try to write it at home tonight; failing that, I'll come back to the library tomorrow to write it.

Oh, and I don't use character shields.

 

For as dirty as the Smugglers play, well, a lot of our guys should be on some sort of IR. Those of you who do want to have a more 'realistic' sporting experience, go for it. I personally have my hands full keeping up with Kaitlyn's shenanigans and scratching my head on how the Smugglers can lay an egg against an NPC team. I only dabble as much as I feel comfortable in the deeper front-office dealing of the franchise.

But one idea that does occur to me and may make drafts and roster turn-over a little more sizzling is the idea of a salary-cap. I know, I can hear the collective gasps from everyone involved. "You mean if my team has a cap then we can't re-sign the franchise player that I've developed all these years?" No, not necessarily true, but the idea could have some merit if others fleshed it out. I have a sneaking suspicion this idea was brought up before and shot down.

So, what say you?

 

Look at the points allowed list in the library thread. The top three defenses in the league belong to the NPC teams....

I am against a salary cap because it would be too difficult to use in game as not all of us disclose financial terms.

 

Besides, how do we decide fair market value for a player when they aren't even real? I think there is too much difficulty to institute something like that, even though it would be more realistic.

Unless we look at baseball, and then it doesn't matter how much you spend. But at least there you don't have to spend to contend. Or, you can spend and crash and burn.

 

They're not real? Why didn't anyone tell me this!

 

At some point in the future, I plan to assign salaries to my players and, in doing so, delve a little into the team's finances, as I've had a idea floating around in my head about the latter for a while now. But the time to do that is not now, as I've got bigger fish to fry at the moment.

 

We've had some financial terms in this game, but not on a widespread scale. I think the Miner internal salary cap is the closest we've had to a real financial evaluation of a team. Trieste

 

I have made mention of the fact that Taab isn't afraid to deficit spend on the Mercs in his quest for a title. Hasn't really helped much yet though.

 

The Senators have been the game-reincarnate of the New York Yankees (at least in the opinions of many players) for a while now, so I think that explains their financial situation in a nutshell.

 

That explains why we all like it when you lose.

 

Looks like the Storm have quite a bit of catching up to do.

And I think it's safe to say that this may be the craziest year of Limmie yet.

 

Until next season anyway.

 

Next season will be comparatively quieter than this year on the bomber storyline. It will be a year for me to relax and take a break from the hectic pace I've been forcing myself to keep up to get posts out when planned. However, during the remainder of this season, I still have two subplots (the threat of an attack on the Storm and whether Zay will be approved to take the Trials) to wrap up and a future storyline to set up.

I'm actually hoping that the Storm do not make the playoffs this year, because that would give me a little more breathing room and allow me to space the work out more. (Yes: I'm more invested in my storyline than the success of my team.)

 

I hope they don't either then, for your sake of course. Plus it means the Mercs have a better chance.

 

Maybe the Smugglers can accommodate your request, jcgoble3.