While we don't have an update going out today, we have one that will be going out tomorrow that consists of several key corrections/improvements.

Today's Bug Fixes/Additions:

-- Expanded the nullified trade proposal information so the reason the trade was nullified is more clear.

-- Corrected some naming inconsistencies (no more Asians named Hernandez)

-- Long Term contracts now have an ***ociated transaction so they are viewable on the League Transactions page and Player Profile transactions page

-- Transferred cash is now displayed on the Franchise Payroll Analysis page when viewing all levels.

-- Prospects demanding a big league deal now request 3-year deals which corrects a problem with some prospects rejecting deals that meet their demands

-- Corrected a bug that was not increasing a player's salary when ***igned to a higher level following a trade or waiver claim.

-- Corrected a salary proration bug that was involved in ***ining players, promoting players and adding a player to the 40-man roster. It was a small numerical error, but an error nonetheless.

-- Corrected a bug that was placing prospects with spring training invitations on multiple levels at the same time.

-- Numerous minor engine adjustments/fixes.

-- Corrected a crash on the League Leaders page for some worlds.

Today's Updates/Fixes:
-- Added section to Budget page displaying pertinent info to help with the budgeting process (only viewable before budgets are finalized)
-- Corrected a bug that was not checking future season payroll violations when performing trades

No Updates today. We'll have one going out tomorrow.

Just to keep everyone informed, we are currently evaluating two pieces of the game.

1) Pitcher fatigue.
2) Rookie League roster size enforcement.

After these two items are handled, we'll be focusing on improving the Amateur Draft for season 2 of current worlds.

Also, I'll be holding a developer chat this Friday between 2 and 3 PM. Click here for more info.

Today's Update:

-- added playoff roster functionality
-- fixed player settings bug (causing occasional page error)
-- fixed bug involving player payroll offered on current season free-agent negotiations (regular season)
-- fixed prospect negotiations bug involving players rep'ed by mother/father
-- several minor engine adjustments

If you encounter a bug/error, please send a ticket to customer support.

News Regarding the Next Hardball Dynasty Update

After a couple weeks of testing and tweaking, we are ready to release a revamped pitching fatigue system. The changes will affect all existing and future worlds and will be rolled out at the conclusion of the Aaron World’s World Series which should be towards the end of next week (Aug 7 – Aug 11).

The original HBD pitching fatigue system was based on the SimLeague Baseball fatigue system, which is aimed at making sure a pitcher can’t go beyond his actual stats (innings pitched and games pitched). It became obvious half-way thru the season that this model doesn’t fit a game like HBD. In addition, the lower levels of the minor leagues were seeing their pitching staffs throttled with the vast majority of pitchers in the red. Forcing users to micro manage the minor league pitching staffs including shuffling pitchers to and from the inactive list was not our intention. We want franchise owners to focus on promotions/demotions and talent evaluation at the minor league levels, not making sure they have 3 relievers above 30%. We also don’t want double-digit scoring to be the norm at any level.

The new pitching fatigue system is based on an equilibrium point. At the beginning of a season, pitchers start off with a small supply of pitches in their “tank”. After each appearance, this tank is decreased. As they have a day off, it’s filled back up. The initial tank and the level with which it is refilled is based on the player’s durability and stamina ratings. This allows for a much more realistic pattern of usage. It also allows pitchers with moderately high stamina, but low durability to be used out of the pen effectively as long as you limit target pitch counts (which the new optimizer has taken into account).

Along the way, we have also improved the distribution of pitchers per plate appearance. You’ll start seeing a much more realistic pattern of plate appearances (such as an actual 1-pitch plate appearance!)

Also, we corrected a flaw in our pitcher generation that was penalizing pitchers who were created with a ceiling below the majors. Their projected stamina levels were being depressed, which has caused much of the fatigue at the lower levels. Luckily, we have all the data necessary to backtrack this flaw and update the existing player pool. Basically, you’ll see the stamina levels of the majority of pitchers at the lower levels increase. The vast majority of pitchers at the big league level will not be affected.

The Player Setting optimizer and Pitching Staff optimizer have also been updated to reflect these changes.

Anytime a minor league pitching staff runs into trouble, you’ll now receive some correspondence letting you know that you need to make some roster changes. Minor league rosters should always have some spare pitchers on the roster so the AI can shuffle pitchers to and from the inactive list. This Inbox message will be a helpful reminder.

Also included in the update will be some measures to enforce Rookie League roster sizes. Some franchises haven’t been playing rookie league games due to their opponent’s roster size problems. Correspondence will be sent prior to the start of the rookie league season, along with some AI maneuvers to guarantee roster sizes. Following the start of the rookie league season, we will now have a minimum rookie league roster size.

Various other bugs have been fixed and will be part of the update including players rejecting/not rejecting trades, p***ed ball frequency, placeholder days in the playoffs rather than off days, players not on the 40-man roster will not have to go through waivers following the transaction deadline, increase in strikeout rates, improvement to player rejection logic in trades, and many other smaller changes.

Again, the changes will affect all existing and future worlds and will be rolled out at the conclusion of the Aaron World’s World Series which should be towards the end of next week (Aug 7 – Aug 11).

We know many users have been incredibly frustrated with the current fatigue system (we have been, too). We are confident the new system is a huge improvement and will make the game that much more fun, realistic and enjoyable.

Next on our list of improvements/additions is improving the Amateur Draft.

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We are on schedule to roll out the the update early Friday morning between 8:00 AM and 11:00 AM EST. The HBD site will be down for a period of time during that timeframe so that we can update the data with as little interruption as possible. The Aaron and Ruth worlds will rollover to season 2 on Monday.

The update has been applied. The PM cycle has also begun running, so games are simulating now.

Here's a brief summary of what you should expect to see:

Stamina ratings for some players have increased. Therefore, overall ratings have increased for some players.

Pitcher fatigue will not correspond with the next game pitcher fatigue (the one in parentheses) in the Manager's Office until after 1 game has been played with the new fatigue system.

The overall rating for all rating events other than current and projected have not been updated yet (to reflect the potentially higher stamina values). This will be done later today. So, if you look at a player profile, the overall ratings will look out of whack in terms of overall rating.

Also, we recommend updating player settings for any non-AI controlled team to reflect the increased stamina. The logic behind the recommendations already reflects the change, so going with the recs is a good place to start.


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Fatigue following the first game is incorrect and we're in the process of correcting it. No games have been run using the improper fatigue, and we'll have it corrected before the next batch of games is run. No player's fatigue should have dropped from their previous level. Sorry for the confusion.

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The update is now complete and the fatigue/fatigue next game display error has been corrected. The new formula is in place.

Today's Update/Announcement:

After several days of analysis, we discovered the primary reason for much of the fatigue that has hit so many franchise's minor league staffs.

With the update on 8/11, the algorithm for fatigue changed. For all franchise owners that allow the AI to manage their pitching staff, pitcher player settings are updated anytime there is a roster move (promotion/demotion/activation/etc.). Many teams went games or days without having any roster moves. As a result, their pitcher player settings weren't updated. This meant they could have been throwing significantly more pitches than they should have been. Under the new fatigue system, this snowballs quickly. Two games of throwing way more pitches than capable, and a pitcher will shoot to 0 quickly.

In order to remedy this situation, we've optimized minor league player settings (AI-controlled only) and provided additional rest to all minor league pitchers that are not currently in the playoffs. While some pitchers are still at 0 (0) due to over pitching prior to the update, this has boosted the vast majority of pitchers to a healthy level.

For those that are still sitting at 0 (0), we recommend signing some of the minor league free-agent pitchers we started adding yesterday. This was an addition we wanted make a while ago. We liken it to pitchers you can sign from minor league tryouts as opposed to draft picks or international prospects. These guys are the bottom of the barrel, filler-type players.

We also want to reiterate that the new fatigue system is working as designed and is a dramatic improvement. This may not be seen by all due to some of the problems encountered at the minor leagues, but we view it as a big step forward in terms of realism and usability.

There have been several missteps along the way for our first season of HBD. With its depth and complexity have come unexpected bugs. In order to show our appreciation for your patience and p***ion, we are issuing a $10 HBD credit to each user that currently runs a franchise (excluding Ruth/Aaron/FizWorld/A.Rod). We envision a much less bumpy road from here on out and really want everyone to enjoy the game in its second season.

We promise to continue to make improvements and additions to the game. Our goal is to make the game as realistic and fun as possible. Please keep the suggestions coming.

Today's Update/Announcement:

We made some changes today in an attempt to speed up the Free-Agent Report/Negotiation process. These include

• Moved Unsigned Draft Picks to a new report (Tryout Camp Report) in an attempt to declutter and speed up the standard Free-Agent Report.
• The sort for the Free-Agent Report is now saved, so when you go to a negotiation and back it will maintain your sort.
• Made some behind-the-scenes code changes to speed up the pages.

We also corrected a few bugs:

• 5-year long-term contracts beyond season 1 had been causing an error when it shouldn't have been. this is now working properly.
• Some last minute free-agent offers during the re-sign period were not being evaluated until the regular free-agent cycle started. These offers should now be evaluated within 4 hours after they're submitted.
• Corrected a ordering bug with free-agent compensation following a Type A or Type B signing.

We'll continue to work on the speed/usability of the Free-Agent Report. We'll also add the code to maintain the coaching sort, too.

Today's Update/Announcement:

We released an updated version of the Amateur Draft today. The settings have been expanded to provide franchises with more control over their draft. Our goal was to provide more control without making it a tedious, time consuming task. We had to delete the batch of prospects for several worlds that had already had its crop of draftees created in order to work with the new system. These worlds will see a new batch of prospects within the next 24 hours. Also, everyone had their settings reset to the defaults.

Up next, we'll be working on AI for teams at the big league level to help ease the pain when you go on vacation, enjoy a weekend away from the computer or have a league member abandon his team. This AI will be similar to the minor league AI in that it will handle injuries and fatigue, but is significantly more complicated in that it must also worry about the 40-man roster, options and salaries. We expect it to take about a week to write and test.

Following that, we'll spend some time ironing out some of the minor bugs in the game as well as adding a ton of useful, strategy-type entries into the Knowledge Base.

Then, it's on to revamping the Coach Hiring process. We plan on making it much less time consuming and not as painful when you have an open coaching spot at the end of the hiring cycle.

We have a huge list of improvements/additions beyond this, but those are the short-term updates.

Today's Announcement:

We will be putting out an update tomorrow morning (11/3/2006) containing the following additions/improvements:

• Broke Player Settings into pitchers/position players for easier management


• Expanded player trade nullication details


• Reduced P***ed Ball percentages


• Added the View Rosters page to ***ist with roster decisions


• Added "Any" position target to Amateur Draft


• Added MLB AI


• Added MLB AI ***ignment for abandoned franchsies


• Added Fatigue Level Threshold for Minor League AI relief pitcher activation/de-activation


• Added Player Records which are updated during the season rollover process


• Fixed display bugs on World Office page during the mid-season events and the day before an off day


• Fixed a bug where players released during multi-year contract didn't carry over data for following season


• Fixed several player award bugs


• Fixed prospect report bugs


• Fixed bug involving undrafted free-agent contract demands during season rollover


• Fixed bug involving chicago jerseys


• Fixed bug involving duplicate FA Signing/Contract extension transaction listings


• Fixed bug where pitcher errors weren't showing in boxscore fielding section

We are making headway on the Coach Hiring changes and additions. It will be another 3-4 weeks before the Coach Hiring changes are rolled out.

Up next, we will be focusing on knowledge base entries, an advanced mode for making roster moves, mid-season budget shifting and various other bug fixes and improvements.

Today's Announcement:

We put out a minor patch today that gets the GM -- Options page working again, corrects the problem with the jerseys and the two Chicago franchises, includes a minor tweak in the player trade rejection logic and an improvement to the logic for determining unearned runs.

If you are controlling a Chicago franchise that you intended to be the Cubs or the White Sox and are playing in the wrong ballpark, please contact support and we'll switch it for you.

Thanks

Today's Update:

• Fixed a bug with the generation of player records for the fielding percentage categories.
• Corrected a problem with our Rookie League schedules. Future seasons will now have all teams playing the same number of games so that playoffs may occur.
• Fixed a bug in the Franchise Profile History page where both teams that made the World Series were showing as the winner.
• Fixed a bug on the Amateur Draft Player Pool page where overall ratings were being incorrectly displayed for players after they signed with their team.
• Fixed a rare bug where a player was released, joined another team and then was brought back to his original franchise during the same contract.
• Fixed a bug with the Futures Team generation so that the level is properly listed.
• Fixed a bug with the end of season emails that are sent out following the end of season 2 and beyond.
• Fixed a bug with the Rookie of the Year award distribution. Minor league teams were not being generated properly.
• Fixed a bug that was causing the auto acceptance of mutual/team options not to occur following the deadline.
• Fixed a bug that was resetting the player type on the Player Settings page after adjusting a player's position.
• Removed the ability for players to reject trades during the first 28 games of season 1.
• Added the ability to waiver players with options remaining following the transaction deadline.
• Improved the logic for likelihood of triples. As players develop during their current season and move to the next season, the rate of triples will decrease and become more inline with current big league totals.
• Adjusted the distribution of good plays/poor plays to be more inline with actual totals. The infield rates should be increasing and the outfield rates should see a very slight decrease.
• Lessened the chance of pickoffs occurring with runners on 3B.

We're currently working on the Coach Hiring changes along with various bug fixes and improvements.

Today's Update:

• Added pinch-hitting for non-pitchers into the engine.
• Added free-agent type to free-agent negotiation page when you are negotiating with a departing free-agent
• Added early season correspondence for list of departing Type A/B free agents

Today's Update:

Today's update includes a revamped coach hiring process. Prior to the main coach negotiations timeframe, there is now a period to rehire your previous coaching staff quickly and easily. The main coach negotiations period is then used to fill your remaining spots and negotiate with those coaches that wanted to test the market. This change should dramatically reduce the amount of time needed to hire a coaching staff.

In addition, we now list the number of interested franchises on the Coach Hiring page so you can avoid negotiation battles.

Also, you will now receive correspondence when a coach you had been negotiating with accepts a position with another franchise.

Finally, the AI used to auto-fill open coaching staff jobs at the end of the coach negotiation cycle has changed. It will no longer brutally penalize you for leaving a spot open. It will now look to fill the open spot with a much more suitable coach.

The salary demands of your previous coaching staff is now listed on the Set Budget page at the beginning of the season so you have a better idea of how much your staff will cost.

A couple bugs have also been corrected in the Player Records. For those worlds where records have already been generated, this info will correct itself when the next season begins.

An engine bug was corrected that was automatically removing a starting pitcher with a Very Impatience call bullpen setting at the beginning of the 5th inning regardless of performance.

An engine bug was corrected that was allowing relief pitchers to pinch-hit and then be removed from the game without throwing a pitch.

We corrected a bug where players needing ***ignment were not listed on the View Rosters page.

We hope everyone enjoys the coach hiring improvement.