Posted by iamjoeyd on 11/6/2015 11:27:00 PM (view original):
I had dice games in the 80s that generated momentum and used timeouts to stop it. I had dice games that gave short term boosts in performance. Surely this super duper random number generator is capable of as much.
The game can and does adjust tempo. It also can adjust defensive positioning at halftime and in end game situations. It could make a similar smaller adjustment with a timeout.
The game adjusts lineups based on foul trouble and score. It could make a lineup change: put starters back in. Give players a fatigue factor boost. It could take players in foul trouble out in end game situations.
It could provide a one possession boost to the team calling timeout.
As pointed out already, in dice games you knew specifically the situation you were in and could make your adjustments "in the moment" with a full knowledge of the situation. In this Sim you do not. You learn of the situation after the fact via the play by play, but you have to input your game plan beforehand.
So how are you going to universally decide:
1. When to tell the computer to call a timeout for you? (i.e.-the specific game conditions that must exist for the Sim to call a timeout on your behalf)
2. How to decide whether the speed up, slow down or leave the tempo unchanged at that moment in the game?
3. How to decide whether to extend, collapse or leave unchanged your defensive positioning at that moment of the game?
4. How long the changes made in 2 & 3 should apply for (is this going to be a permanent change similar to the halftime adjustment? Is it going to last for a few trips down the floor? Until the next timeout?)
5. In which situations you want your starters on the floor despite foul trouble vs. which ones you want them in the game for?
Those rules need to apply to the infinite number of scenarios that may arise in a game -- everything from a double overtime contest that goes back and forth numerous times to games like the Kansas-Baylor boxscore that was posted a few weeks back that had KU up 39-2 at the half or something like that. That's not a simple task to do using full sentences -- go ahead and try if you don't believe me. And then realize that it would be even harder to do via coding to program it into the game. What drop down menus, check boxes, etc. would be needed to capture all the subtle nuances of late-game scenarios that might arise?
Again, this game doesn't have momentum. Those runs you see are the product of random number generation and coincidence. Any momentum you're seeing is an illusion that you have created in your own mind while reading the play by play. There's nothing to "stop" with a timeout. I'm all for making the game better, but you're asking for a complex solution to a window dressing problem that ultimately has zero impact on the outcome of games.