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In real life a $150M payroll is not considered high, but within the economics of 4040 Baseball it is. And its practical and psychological effects amount to a curse worth avoiding.
More on how a $150M payroll can work against your team’s success
Re-written:
- Player Contract and Extension Requests: These were previously calculated on the fly, meaning the processing was slow and the results could fluctuate hour-to-hour based on market changes. In turn that could cause confusion as to what a player is requesting for a contract or extension. This has been rewritten for improved performance, stability, and predictability.
- SIM Team Roster Management: SIM team rosters have suffered from a number of issues, including player imbalances at positions, poorly constructed lineups and rotations, reckless releasing of players with high-dollar buyouts, etc. The SIM roster planning has been completely rewritten from the ground up. This should make SIM teams more reliable and more stable when it comes to roster management.
- SIM Team Free-Agent Contracts: SIM teams had been doubling up on FA signings and often drastically overpaying for player who wound up on their benches or in the minors. This functionality has been fully rewritten from the ground up.
Refinements:
- Added Payroll Tier for Free Agency: Free Agent bids were grouped into two tiers: “Right-sized” payrolls (those payrolls within $135M), and “Out-sized” payrolls (those above $135M). Bids from teams with Right-Sized payrolls would get priority consideration from free agents. A third tier has been added: “Below Lux-tax” payrolls. The Below Lux-tax group now gets top priority, followed by Right-sized, followed by Out-sized. More on payroll tiers and free agents.
- Performance and Player Value; SIM teams now factor a player's career performance into their overall value of the player. This will impact extensions, free-agent strategies, and trades.
- Trade Completion during Game Cycles: It was possible for a trade to be completed in the middle of game cycles, potentially leaving a team short-handed for games. Trades are now blocked from being completed during game cycles.
- Pitch Counts: Pitch count limitations placed on pitchers are now cleared at the end of each season.
Fixes:
- Pitch Counts: If a team set a pitch count limitation for a pitcher, that setting would stick with the pitcher after being traded or released. The proper behavior is that it should be cleared. Fixed.
- SIM Teams and Lengthy Contracts: SIM team had been signing / extending players well beyond age 35. Fixed.
Refinements:
- Player Upgrades, Improvements, and Over-Development: Increased the likelihood for Upgrades, Improvements, and Over-Development of hitters.
- Player Upgrades: So-called “Lottery Tickets” may now improve after being traded to SIM teams.
- Offensive Prospects: Mid-tier offensive prospects have been generating at a low level. We’ve been seeing very few solid offensive prospects and mostly weak prospects. Increased the likelihood of more mid-tier offensive prospects--meaning more prospects with a higher floor.
Fixes:
- Player Improvements: Player Improvements were showing an inaccurate date for completion after being purchased. Fixed.
- Player Improvements: A bug was causing off-season Player Improvements to fail. Fixed.
- Player Injuries: A bug was causing very few injuries to occur after the first half of the season. Fixed.
- Releasing Players: At the end of the season it was possible to release players who were unprotected from the End-of-Year (EOY) draft, which would have prevented them from being drafted. It is now impossible to release players who were left unprotected until after the EOY draft is complete.
Features:
- 6-man Rotation: It is now possible to use a six man rotation. This may come in handy when you need to re-arrange your rotation, or when you want to give starters extra rest.
- Upgrades for Experienced Players: It is now possible to unlock additional performance in younger, unproven or journeyman players. Learn more: https://4040-docs.com/player-improvements
- Player Over-Development: In some cases players will continue to develop beyond their potential ratings. Learn more: https://4040-docs.com/player-overdevelopment
Refinements:
- Player Upgrades: Player upgrades were using the same range of points no matter the rating. The number of rating points for a player upgrade now differs based on which rating is selected. (ex: CH might be 3-6, while PH might be 7-18).
- Human-Trades and Players Preferring Free-Agency: Players who prefer to go to free-agency rather than sign an extension could be traded between human teams. In those cases there was a 50% chance the player would forego free-agency to extend with the new team. That chance has been increased to 60%.
Fixes:
- Adding New Positions to Left-handed Throwing Prospects: It was possible for left-handed throwing prospects to add positions normally reserved for right-handed throwers (C, 2B, 3B, SS). This has been corrected, and any LH throwers who had one of those positions added to them has been changed to a RH thrower.
Features:
- Add New Positions to Prospects: It is now possible to add new positions to minor league prospects during their development period. Their quality at new positions is determined by their primary position and its rating. So not every player can play every position well. You can find the feature implemented in the player profile page. It costs $5M in cash for each added position.
Refinements:
- Pitcher Overuse & Injuries: Overused pitchers were suffering excessive, severe injuries. Dialed the severity back so that overused pitchers, while still highly prone to injuries, won’t suffer season-ending injuries as frequently.
- Injuries Applied to Ratings: Rather than every aspect of a player’s game being negatively affected by every injury, each injury now targets one or more specific ratings. Examples: A Viral Illness will affect all ratings, while a Strained forearm will affect only Arm Strength, and Pitch Ratings.
- All existing injuries have been removed from players to start the new season.
Fixes:
- Compounding Injuries: Because we run five days of games each cycle, some players were getting injured on day one, then being played on day two, while still injured from day one. Playing injured only increases the risk of injury, and some of these players were suffering compounding injuries, leading to an unrealistic 2 to 3 injuries per cycle of games, and leaving them severely injured. This has been adjusted to prevent compounding injuries within a cycle of games.
- SIM Trades & Backup Players: SIM GMs were increasingly rejecting trades because the quality of a player was found to be unacceptable. This targeted backup-quality players, oftentimes ones a SIM team was in need of. Refactored this a bit to (hopefully) make those players more acceptable to SIM GMs.