Most games goes through balancing and metas etc, I started playing like 2-3 years ago, but when was the last time it seemed like these adjusted the sim engine at all?

Has it happened ever?

Posted by adlorenz on 6/13/2020 4:03:00 PM (view original):
Most games goes through balancing and metas etc, I started playing like 2-3 years ago, but when was the last time it seemed like these adjusted the sim engine at all?

Has it happened ever?

interesting question. this game isn't like those other games :) there has never been a 're-balancing initiative' type of thing, or at least not in the past dozen years. however, there have been a number of changes made to balance specific issues, which have resulted in very substantial changes to the meta. other times, very slight ones.

the biggest thing was probably about 9 years ago, seble had recently saved the game from its darkest chapter (the initial potential release), and he decided to tweak some stuff. he boosted the impact of fatigue, and changed the way press worked to de-emphasize speed and emphasize ath/def. the press went from overpowered to so hopelessly worthless that it was literally unthinkable anyone competitive would ever play it again (except maybe for the challenge), had it stayed the same. then it went to a relatively balanced point and has mostly remained there to this day. i do think the shot clock change has impacted the substitution patterns to an extent, so there are definitely little things along the way that make things different.

around a similar time, or at the same time (it runs together), he also boosted 2pt scoring in general, but big man low post scoring in particular and they went from moderately under powered to a point where random mediocre bigs were hitting 55-60% all over the place. that was quickly adjusted back to something in the realm of sanity, where its mostly stayed today. today, the competitive balance between guards and bigs is the best its ever been, but guards still have a little edge. the problem is seble was only shifting up and down the range for bigs, it seemed, instead of giving the very good ones a little boost to differentiate them, which is really what would be needed today to complete the balancing effort, IMO.

many other examples - you can check the change log to see a lot of the changes, but its relatively hard to tell from that what was meaningful and what wasn't.

I mean, I work as game developer and it just seems the sim is stale. Tweaking minor things could keep the game fresh and also keep people guessing on how to recruit the best team. I also don't think striving for balance in all divisions is something to be scoffed at as well. Pressing seems to dominate Division III.

It's pretty much common knowledge on the forums that all things equal, pressing seems to be the "meta", but out of all the unrealistic things people complain about on the forums pressing either isn't one of them or most have accepted that as the truth.

Posted by adlorenz on 6/14/2020 1:14:00 PM (view original):
I mean, I work as game developer and it just seems the sim is stale. Tweaking minor things could keep the game fresh and also keep people guessing on how to recruit the best team. I also don't think striving for balance in all divisions is something to be scoffed at as well. Pressing seems to dominate Division III.

It's pretty much common knowledge on the forums that all things equal, pressing seems to be the "meta", but out of all the unrealistic things people complain about on the forums pressing either isn't one of them or most have accepted that as the truth.

man defense is really good and a lot of folks actually think its the better scheme. they just tend not to be as vocal. the press was more overpowered back in the day but its a lot closer now. also, what is the best at the highest end isn't the only question. i think its unambiguous that the best team ever would run press. but it also takes better execution and depth to build a really, really good press, than it does to build a really, really good man defense. its even easier for zone - but the ceiling is lower. if press required more depth but wasn't any better at the highest end, there'd be no point. so i kind of think its reasonable as is.

i don't disagree with your overall assessment though. its just not a super actively developed game.