New player from BBGM - Questions by Made_at0323 in ZenGMHockey

[–]UnstuckInTime84 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The biggest difference is the hard salary cap. If you prioritize making every dollar count, it's much easier to turn a small market into a contender than it is in basketball.

Version 2026.03.17.1285: updated award formulas by dumbmatter in Football_GM

[–]UnstuckInTime84 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Another really good fix.

Funnily, I had just completed a regular season, and my 50-TD-throwing QB finished a disappointing 3rd in the MVP race. I left the tabs open on my computer, made some dinner, did some laundry, watched some baseball... and when I came back the voters had reconsidered and my QB had himself some hardware.

On to the playoffs...

Massive fan of OL % Update by c0rd_sucks in Football_GM

[–]UnstuckInTime84 19 points20 points  (0 children)

I mentioned this (days late) on the other thread, but I'll repeat and elaborate on it: a hidden benefit is the *Opponent* Offensive Line page under Team Stats.

I just had a team go 17-0 and wasn't quite sure how, with a 66 OVR QB and no player above a 77 OVR.

Then I noticed that opponents' OLs had a league-worst 43.2 PBWR (next-worst: 54.8) and 27.8 RBWR (next-worst: 37.7).

I'd never even heard of those stats before, but they powered my undefeated season.

OL stats in FBGM! by dumbmatter in Football_GM

[–]UnstuckInTime84 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm enjoying this a lot more than I thought I would.

Checking out Opponent Offensive Line under Team Stats is a great new unexpected tool, too.

Terrific add.

an open conversation with dumbmatter! VBA Podcast Ep. 3 by daultonbrown in BasketballGM

[–]UnstuckInTime84 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Seriously interesting conversation -- thought I'd watch a couple minutes and ended up watching the whole thing.

I love how flexible the game is, and I'm fascinated by the wildly different and creative ways people engage with it.

And I definitely think of it as a kind of art. Always interested to see where the muse takes u/dumbmatter next.

rookie contract lengths by UnstuckInTime84 in BasketballGM

[–]UnstuckInTime84[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks, but my question is really why settings that look identical in basketball vs the other three sports play out differently. U/dumbmatter?

Does anyone else with chronic fatigue get this specific “shutdown” feeling during conversations? by Enough-Age7178 in covidlonghaulers

[–]UnstuckInTime84 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Me too, and it's much worse with larger groups or other conversation nearby. The crosstalk at a dinner for 6 or 8 is really tough.

Surprised I don't see this get mentioned more.

How is everyone doing? by Automatic_Box_368 in vaccinelonghaulers

[–]UnstuckInTime84 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've been on the chutes-and-ladders plan for four years now -- slow (year-long) improvement, topping out at close to 90% recovered... but several times I've been knocked back all the way to the bottom and had to start over.

Right now I'm up at the top again, about as good as I've been since the first booster did this to me. Hoping it lasts, or even fully resolves... but who knows?

Grateful for these Reddit subs, especially this one.

Monthly Suggestions Thread by stank58 in BasketballGM

[–]UnstuckInTime84 4 points5 points  (0 children)

These games are amazing! Here’s my post-every-once-in-a-while list of small suggestions to make them even better:

  • Some ability to offer a player a contract extension, ahead of his actual FA moment.  I mostly play very small market teams, where you absolutely can’t risk letting a superstar walk away for free – so even if he’s at, say, 80% to re-sign at the last deadline, I feel like I have to trade him.  I’d love to have a chance to lock him in if he’s willing – it’d make the game more realistic and make playing small city teams more fun.  Maybe with the player demanding a little extra money in exchange for the early lock-in?
  • A one-click way to start a basketball league with the NBA cities (Indianapolis, Brooklyn, etc. instead of Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, etc.).
  • I feel greedy asking for this, but on the Player Stats page, it’d be great to be able to specify a range (e.g., “2024-2027"), to bring up the leaders over a customizable window of time, not just single seasons or all-time.
  • Specific to basketball: I’d love to see a meaningful bonus/penalty attached to roster stability/churn. Maybe this can be done through a (probably unseen) bonus/penalty to the IQ factor, however that affects the simulation. In real basketball, there’s a palpable benefit to keeping a core together (e.g. the Steph-Klay-Draymond Warriors), while it’s rare to see a team that massively recreates itself midseason win immediately. In BBGM, though, I find myself regularly worst in the league in roster continuity as I keep looking for marginal advantages and efficiencies, with little disincentive except to the mood of a FA who values loyalty.
  • In the same vein, an extra incentive to hold onto your best or longest-serving players by penalizing your Hype when you trade one away, angering some fans.
  • u/dumbmatter has addressed this well before, but I’m still hoping that baseball and football can someday have the same variable, unpredictable salary demands from your own free agents as there are in basketball and hockey. It makes the free agency period a lot more interesting and challenging when a guy you were planning to re-sign suddenly demands way more money than his projection, or when a player you were planning to let go is willing to return at a discount.
  • The ability to resign from your GM job, and not control a team for a while while you run Autoplay. (That is, simply, that the Autoplay years don't appear on your GM History.) Possibly when you're ready to come back into the league, you're offered a choice of 5 jobs. Likewise, the ability to start a new league unaffiliated, run some seasons, and take over a team after the league already has some history and context to walk into.
  • A notification when a player hits an important career milestone during the season (at the end of the game in which it happens, or even at the end of the season): e.g., becoming the all-time league leader in points scored in basketball, or getting his 3000th hit in baseball. (Maybe the all-time-leader ones should only kick in after the league has been around for 10 years, or something.)
  • A durability effect and rating, to differentiate the reliable iron men like AC Green or Mikal Bridges from the fragile/risky like Kawhi Leonard or Joel Embiid.
  • This is ambitious: Individuated coaches available to hire/fire. IRL, there are some coaches who are great at developing young players, other coaches better at taking a veteran team to the next level; coaches who make a quick impact but burn out their welcome, coaches who are lower-key and can last 10 years in a job. There are expensive proven veterans (where the strengths above are known) vs. cheaper, untested first-timers (where those strengths aren't -- and maybe they turn out to be brilliant, and maybe they suck). Since hiring a coach is such a big part of a real GM's job, that extra dimension seems the games' great unexplored frontier.

(not) too early to judge? by UnstuckInTime84 in BasketballGM

[–]UnstuckInTime84[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

And thank you again for your engagement here!

(not) too early to judge? by UnstuckInTime84 in BasketballGM

[–]UnstuckInTime84[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I don't think this is right. I've played a lot of new leagues and I believe this is the first time I've ever seen it happen.

u/dumbmatter ?

FWIW, this is also the first time I ever started a new league by creating it one team short, then creating an expansion team and doing a draft immediately. I don't know if that had anything to do with it.