Why don't you start by collecting historical data and comparing to the most recent recruited sim teams so we can all compare exactly how much worse the sims are. Data are better than anecdotes, etc.

Just don't start a new thread for that one too.

I haven't lost to a sim team in probably a decade. How's that for an anecdote.

Your factoid is unsubstantiated and irrelevant.

Of all the things that GD needs, competitive sims are off the radar as far as I am concerned, and hopefully the developer feels the same way.

If that is true, then you are asking too much.

Way back in December 2010 (hard to believe it was that long ago), I interviewed Joe Conte, who was the lead developer of GD at the time. The interview was done shortly after the 2.0 release of the game (aka "The Release That Shall Not Be Spoken Of"). Here's what he had to say about SimAI at the time (emphasis added/mine). (Aside - the interview has some quite good information, although some of it is outdated. It might be time for a "Next Generation" of interviews...) http://www.gdreports.com/interview/index.htm

BH: How "smart" is SimAI? We all know (or believe, anyway) that it uses the Default-Balanced game plan, but for things like practice plans, the players they pursue, etc., does the Sim make "optimized" moves? I assume that it doesn't make halftime adjustments since it is using default game plans - would you like to "smarten up" the SimAI? (Although I suppose the ultimate goal would be to not need it LOL.)

JC: SimAI is really quite dumb. The sim does the minimum to coach the team. It will use the default game plan. It sets the depth chart by just looking at the overall player ratings at the positions. It uses a good, but not great, practice plan. During recruiting, sim teams will simply recruit good players that are at the positions the team needs with no special logic. SimAI is simply meant to keep a team going until a user takes over. I doubt we will ever make SimAI smarter because most people don't want competition from sim teams. The sim teams shouldn't be absolute pushovers in recruiting and a guaranteed win, but they shouldn't be powerhouses either. It would be nice if a world gets to the point where there aren't any sim teams!

II agree with your last statements. SIM's shouldn't be powerhouses, but they shouldn't be powder puffs either. I think at the moment, they are powder puffs.

Have they ever not being powder puffs.

JC in the reference is Joe Conte, an early developer of GD.

His words :" It would be nice if a world gets to the point where there aren't any sim teams!"

My manifesto - Fill the worlds, frack the Sims.

Posted by kas1007 on 3/21/2019 5:27:00 PM (view original):
Have they ever not being powder puffs.

They've been powder puffs the entire time I've been playing. That has been a major problem to me.

Posted by realist9900 on 3/19/2019 1:40:00 AM (view original):

Posted by WardoYT on 3/19/2019 1:35:00 AM (view original):

Posted by Indpnt1 on 3/19/2019 12:38:00 AM (view original):
If the AI teams were made better, than the teams newbie coaches would take over would be better, and their success going forward would depend on how they coached their teams.

At DIII it is not difficult to coach. It really isn't. The issue I'm addressing is that you can pit a human coached DII team against some DIA SIM coached teams and win. That's jumping two levels. There is no world where that should happen.

That's why its a good idea to stay parked in division III. Its what I do at Hoops Dynasty and I reap the benefits in staying park and filling in a long term human coach. You only leave Division III if you won a National Championship.

I haven't played HD. Is it exactly the same as GD?

Recruiting is different. But where you learn the most about recruiting in real life and hoops dynasty is in Hoops Dynasty. You can say all you want but this game resembles real life approach. I've been playing Hoops Dynasty to learn about recruiting. Right now I don't set depth charts I optimize them and I set my schedule and put 80% effort every season in recruiting so that results are pin to point on paper. The GridIron engine is completely different and in Hoops Dynasty ya'll have to read the game play by play in order to be a consistent tournament winner in game planning. In GridIron you don't have to because you have sub levels that rest your players at a auto pace. In Hoops Dynasty you don't have that at all just minutes and you have a pretty long conference tournament and Playoffs that if you pick your profit right you can win and inastromountable amount of credits. But Hoops Dynasty isn't where the money is College GridIron is where the money is.

I’ve heard that Sim classes were better now, and I’ve also heard the opposite. Personally, I think it will even out by the time these guys are SRs.

What is the real truth? I think bhazlewood is about the only one I’d trust to answer that question thoroughly.

I just picked up a team with several SIMS and some even had high potential, so maybe they won't all suck. I do think they don't practice formations as much because I see Seniors in the 60's unlike human teams in the 80's.

Posted by bigpoppa85 on 3/22/2019 1:09:00 PM (view original):
I’ve heard that Sim classes were better now, and I’ve also heard the opposite. Personally, I think it will even out by the time these guys are SRs.

What is the real truth? I think bhazlewood is about the only one I’d trust to answer that question thoroughly.

I suppose you could look at the average GUESS rating of SimAI-coached teams now, and say three-five seasons from now. But in all honesty, that's a pretty small sample size, and subject to statistical fluctuation.

I hope that's what you mean by trusting me to answer, because otherwise I don't have any inside scoop.

Posted by bhazlewood on 3/22/2019 3:10:00 PM (view original):

Posted by bigpoppa85 on 3/22/2019 1:09:00 PM (view original):
I’ve heard that Sim classes were better now, and I’ve also heard the opposite. Personally, I think it will even out by the time these guys are SRs.

What is the real truth? I think bhazlewood is about the only one I’d trust to answer that question thoroughly.

I suppose you could look at the average GUESS rating of SimAI-coached teams now, and say three-five seasons from now. But in all honesty, that's a pretty small sample size, and subject to statistical fluctuation.

I hope that's what you mean by trusting me to answer, because otherwise I don't have any inside scoop.

Yes sir! I trust that once we get more data you could give us a more accurate answer.

Coaches are saying Sims are worse/better based on assumptions and quick looks at gdreports. I trust that when we have a bigger sample size you could look at it and come up with a true answer based on the numbers.

My prediction? Sims will be about the same :)

I like unbiased resources. That’s exactly what we get from gdreports. Unbiased data from an unbiased source. And you can draw your own conclusions from the data. Much appreciated Bob!

SIMs will be about the same. A few coaches are now coo-coo for cocoa puffs over high growth players, when rounding out their class they will scout for a lesser but high growth player, get him, and leave a Sim with a better overall but average or low growth player.

I'll try to remember to look at this data next time I fire up the laptop.