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I think adding in "chemistry" ratings between players would make the team-building aspect of BB more interesting without adding complexity toward understanding the game for new players. To keep it visible, I think the best way would be a spreadsheet-style chart with the different chemistry ratings between players.

I think that the best way to increase the ratings would be to give bonuses at the 1, 2, 3, 5, 10, and 15 season marks. I think rather than the player skill denotations (atrocious, pitiful, etc.), it would be more fitting to use the adjectives used for staff (basic, competent, advanced, etc.).

There are two ways to do this:
1) Chemistry between players
2) Chemistry between a player and the team (I believe this option more realistic)

1. OPTION 1: CHEMISTRY BETWEEN PLAYERS

This version is much more interesting, but also more complex.

For every season (say, 90 days for ease of measurement) that a player has been on the team with another teammate their shared "chemistry" rating rises by 1. (Maybe better to use minutes? It would be gauged more like experience is this way, but it doesn't jive with the fact that bench players can have great chemistry within a team concept.)

To make it visible, a separate page could be created that contains a spreadsheet that shows every player's chemsitry rating with every other player.


2. OPTION 2: CHEMISTRY BETWEEN A PLAYER AND THE TEAM

This version is simple; for every unit of time (days on team or minutes played), the chemistry rating increases by 1. Logically, it still works out because you can think of it as a player becoming more in touch with your coach/team's offensive and defensive systems.

Also, it would seem that this method would be much less data to keep track of and pull from during games.


3. HOW TO APPLY THE BONUSES?

I think the best way to apply the bonuses would be to have a base bonus for the highest rating on the floor (either the shared rating or the single rating), and for each additional positive rating on the court your team gets an exponentially decreasing additional bonus.

For example, assume players A, B, C, D, and E. Players A and B have chemistry ratings of 4, and the rest are at 3. Let's assume for simplicity that ratings are increased by the chemistry ratings and we're using f(x) = 0.5^x.

Player A increases bonuses by 4. (factor of 1)
Player B increases bonuses by 2 (1/2)
Player C increases bonuses by 3/4 (1/4)
Player D increases bonuses by 3/8. (1/8)
Player E increases bonuses by 3/16. (1/16)

4. WHY DO IT?

I believe it would introduce a fun and easy to understand dynamic to the game. Most importantly, it provides a reason to build around players you've kept for a long time. It provides an incentive to keep that 34 year old you've had for 10 years, rather than relegating him to changing teams every season as players buy him for cheap to complement their bought-not-built rosters.

At the same time, if you've got loads of money and you pay for obviously superior team you're still going to win. The most obvious example is the Spurs-Heat playoff series. Last year superstar power beat out established the more established team. This season the script was flipped. I think it evens the playing field for teams that grow more slowly through the draft or doing more 2-position training and could make for more interesting lineup choices.



Last edited by aamcguy at 7/15/2014 10:02:35 PM

What would happen if players were on the same team
but a different than yours in the past and then you buy them.

Well unless data is to stored between every single player on BB I would say you ignore that it's happened before and they start at 0.

For the more team-based version, it wouldn't matter because their chemistry rating would start back down at 0 when they arrive at a new team.

yer nice idea - quite a complex and well thought out implimentation of it though!

Could be a bit simplier IMO.

Hidden trait, which is applied across the team and its derived from the existing Fan Survey item "I am familiar with the star players, and am not afraid that they will be transferred" (which i think is a bit broken in my opinion, but that aside).

So the better your fan survey for that item, then the better your 'team chemistry'. which would be a small boost across the team, a bit like enthusiasm/effort/gameshape etc.

But hidden :)

oooooooo maybe it already exists? spooky.

True! I really hate teams that always change their players every season. They don't have their own identity. If possible, lower chemistry on a powerhouse teams should result to a ballhog players LOL! Just kidding. But it's the reality. As long as the team don't have chemistry, there will be ballhogs and hero ball everywhere. Anyways I like this Chemistry suggestion.

aamcguy, thanks a lot for this suggestion, I really love it!
As a "programmer", this implementation is not that dificult to do, you can make it a little less complex.

Example for OPTION 2:
-players have one atribute aside with experience called chemistry;
-that skill would improve 1 level every year, and I think the normal skills nomenclature is fine, from 1 to 20;
-everytime you change your team, that skill was reset;
-That skill would have an effect of 5% on a player gameplay like experience/homecourt etc...(not really an inovation for BB to implement)

EASY!

I am 100% sure BB will make this suggestion real in the near future as this solves some issues as mentioned:
"provides an incentive to keep that 34 year old you've had for 10 years, rather than relegating him to changing teams every season as players buy him for cheap to complement their bought-not-built rosters."
"Most importantly, it provides a reason to build around players you've kept for a long time"

And this is awsome and easy to implement!

I agree my version of implementation was a little complex, but while I want the bonus for growing and keeping players long-term I also didn't want it to be such a big bonus that it is incredibly disadvantageous to play the transfer wire if that's what people want to do.

The most important part of my implementation, and I'm going to go ahead and assume we'd be talking about option 2 (length of time with team or "loyalty" also presented by some of the other posters), is that you have diminishing returns for each player. So while a team is still going to get a bigger bonus in-game for playing 4 or 5 long-tenured players at a time than a team with only 1 or 2 long-tenured players, the gap in elevated skill levels will be much, much closer than if the 4 or 5 team was playing against a team that is refreshed every single season.

I don't really care about the specifics behind how it is done; I understand I provided the formula but not the rationale behind it. :D

Unfortunately, if it's hidden there's no effect on the transfer market or the way people build teams. Even if it was made known that a hidden effect such as this exists, I think too many known hidden attributes makes the game too confusing for newer users to get into and casual users to stay interested in. The only thing that will happen is that teams that keep players long-term will get the benefit of "lucky wins" slightly more often than others.

I think one of the more important parts of my suggestion is that it be visible to the users; even if it impacts little in the games I think it would be something that helps people connect with their simulated players better and keeps them interested longer.

I will admit that the length of time they've been with your team and the stats they put up their entire career can be found by searching several menus and submenus under the player bios, but I think a dedicated screen devoted to the time spent on your team would be a great thing.

The fact that the effect would go beyond just aesthetics and actually impact the game action would make teambuilding that much more fun.

Last edited by aamcguy at 7/26/2014 7:35:26 PM

i definately agree that there should be some more 'tangible' benefit that users are able to notice. For instance, if its really obvious that the merchandise goes up considerably when ur team structure doesn't change, then thats a tangible visible benefit.

the current transfer price estimate says how long a player has been on ur team for. (Unless you drafted him in which case it won't say how many days. ) So that kinda resolves that problem for you.

But obviously the suggestion is about player/team chemistry - which we are not sure exists yet. and assuming it doesn't, obviously it still stands that the more guys you have on your team, for longer, then the bigger the team benefit. which i agree with.

Last edited by Coach Regan at 7/26/2014 9:35:51 PM