Broken Bat - Discussion Forum: Simyard

Post ID	Date & Time	Game Date	Function

#11873	11/15/2014 11:00:24 am
ination Joined: 11/14/2014 Posts: 11 Inactive	Anyone here use to play simyard before it's demise?

#11876	11/15/2014 12:02:52 pm
the gizmo Joined: 02/07/2013 Posts: 574 Inactive	Was there for a bit but never really ever got into it

#11879	11/15/2014 1:02:26 pm
ination Joined: 11/14/2014 Posts: 11 Inactive	I played for several seasons there. Loved the game engine and visual interaction. Best baseball SIM I have seen but game admin didn't have time to invest fully in it.

#12082	11/21/2014 7:45:22 am
Dcmrulz Joined: 02/14/2013 Posts: 588 Inactive	Used to play a lot. Right when my team was ready to be consistent park playoff contenders, game shuts down.

#12087	11/21/2014 10:03:56 am
admin Joined: 01/27/2010 Posts: 5045 Administrator	What were the features of it that you really liked? Steve

#12116	11/23/2014 6:50:19 am
Dcmrulz Joined: 02/14/2013 Posts: 588 Inactive	my favorite aspects of that game...really can't be emulated on this one. The season went by each month, but you had to challenge each team that you went up against to rack up games. If your player reached a certain amount of at bats or BF for pitchers, the training (done at the end of each season) for those players would receive a bigger boost (and a penalty if you could not). They didn't have drafts in the park level though, had to recruit each player to join your team...Drafts were for the paid levels.

#12170	11/25/2014 1:26:30 pm
Hardcastle Joined: 11/03/2014 Posts: 25 Inactive	http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_WiYnnqmj-NY/SHwaIFEvzcI/AAAAAAAABD4/B3tUvsuukOM/s1600-h/simyard.JPG Yes, I played Simyard for some time. I liked the live games (picture attached) and the team renumbering of waiver claims was fair. If you make a successful claim, you go to the end of the line for the next one. I liked the possibility to upload your own logo, and the colors of the club was more prominent team-to-team. There was also a chat in the game that was fun. Made people come to the site more often. Updated Tuesday, November 25 2014 @ 1:29:28 pm PST

#12171	11/25/2014 2:18:56 pm
Den Duston Joined: 01/15/2014 Posts: 161 Inactive	I played it too...........pity the free options are limited. You have to pay to unlock important features there. I don't know now. I liked the possibility to upload your own logo, and the colors of the club was more prominent team-to-team. Updated Tuesday, November 25 2014 @ 2:20:20 pm PST

#12175	11/25/2014 4:40:57 pm
Rock777 Joined: 09/21/2014 Posts: 9848 Haverhill Halflings II.1	Custom logos are great, but they do cost server space (unless you just allow images already online / no upload). Custom names however are a pretty inexpensive option. Any chance of giving people the option to make their own team names? It would add a little more variety. I'm getting a little jaded of playing the CityName Bengals all the time... Updated Tuesday, November 25 2014 @ 4:41:42 pm PST

#12182	11/26/2014 1:56:33 am
Den Duston Joined: 01/15/2014 Posts: 161 Inactive	Team logos are not a problem: one can just use websites like imageshack,etc. to link the logo. I like also the idea of custom team names, BUT..I notice that when there is this option...people tend to rename their teams with silly names.

#12184	11/26/2014 6:08:59 am
MukilteoMike Joined: 08/09/2014 Posts: 3294 Inactive	If you think people would come up with silly team names, why don't you think people would use just as silly logos? They could be even more offensive than just a name. I think that's probably the bigger issue than server space.

#12185	11/26/2014 7:28:06 am
Den Duston Joined: 01/15/2014 Posts: 161 Inactive	yes I already knew that,forgot to mention it. In fact,people tend also to upload silly logos. But I don't agree that it can be more offensive than team names. Team names are more visible here.(I don't know what english term to use. I mean,people can know a team from the name first. To see the logos,they should see the info.) But.....well,logos could be seen here on the forum as our profile pics too. So I must say that custom team names and logos are on the same level. Regarding team names I have to add another thing though: maybe Steve hasn't allowed us to completely rename a team because of keep the game more "real".."serious".. It's not nice,I think,to see Antioch Aliens vs The Great 9 Fires,for example. If there should be a team name customization, I think it must consist of choosing a city(from any country) available and type a custom mascot name (still risky!). There should be a group of users as moderators that could check the changes (team names or logos) before approve them. Updated Wednesday, November 26 2014 @ 8:11:49 am PST

#12186	11/26/2014 8:39:45 am
Seca Joined: 05/05/2014 Posts: 5240 Waterloo Dinosaurs Legends	Played Sokker for a long time. Really enjoyed creating my own team crest and uploading it. That said, half the team logos there were a chick in a bikini. Any enjoyment I got from making my own crest was lost in the general stupidity. Same goes for team names. For every creative one you will have one that is obnoxious and another one that is outright inappropriate. All this stuff needs to be policed. There are so many choices already available in BB. If you don't feel unique being the 100th Isotope team, then choose one of the options with less mileage on it. Don't see either of these things being worth the trouble.

#12187	11/26/2014 10:35:11 am
Hardcastle Joined: 11/03/2014 Posts: 25 Inactive	I have began casual talks with admin on improving some things in the game as a volunteer. In a text-based browser game, variety and customization are very important and I know we can work on both with some simple upgrades. The Simyard alumni thoughts have been welcomed in this thread already, so that's good, and we'll see more.

#12339	12/01/2014 9:42:08 am
admin Joined: 01/27/2010 Posts: 5045 Administrator	Played Sokker for a long time. Really enjoyed creating my own team crest and uploading it. That said, half the team logos there were a chick in a bikini. Any enjoyment I got from making my own crest was lost in the general stupidity. Same goes for team names. For every creative one you will have one that is obnoxious and another one that is outright inappropriate. All this stuff needs to be policed. This sort of mirrors my experience...I could allow custom names, logos etc. But from my experience with HT, about half the logos aren't really in the spirit of the game. Sometimes they are just ripped off from professional clubs or chicks in bikinis or pictures of peoples kids or blatant copyright violations or just plain crappy. I also don't like the way half the teams have no logos in a lot of games (hence in Broken Bat, every team has a logo). So the question becomes, how to allow customization without a lot of policing overhead and hard feeling when a logo is rejected? Steve

#12340	12/01/2014 2:38:58 pm
newtman Joined: 11/02/2013 Posts: 3343 Inactive	So the question becomes, how to allow customization without a lot of policing overhead and hard feeling when a logo is rejected? You don't. The answer imo is that you currently have the best system in this regard, and that you will never please everybody. It may be cliche, but it is true.

#12341	12/01/2014 3:09:44 pm
Haselrig Joined: 04/13/2014 Posts: 2812 Inactive	Have to agree with newtman on this one.

#12344	12/02/2014 1:07:44 am
Jalapeno5 Joined: 06/01/2014 Posts: 226 Inactive	I think the existing logos are brilliant- there's nice consistency between them and every team's got one which is great... Just wondering if there's a few customisation options you could offer to turn them into more of a 'badge'. Not sure how possible it might be, but off the top of my head perhaps you could offer a selection of backgrounds for the existing icons (ball, diamond, plate, glove etc) and the city/franchise name (not free-text) overlaid in a selection of appropriate fonts/colours? The backgrounds would all be black on white outlines, so there would be no need to 'cut-out' the images- they'd naturally sit in the frame as they are.. might just need resizing if you choose a background though. This would add a bit of individuality and mean than teams with the same franchise name and therefore icon would have something to set them apart from each other.

#12345	12/02/2014 6:05:38 am
Haselrig Joined: 04/13/2014 Posts: 2812 Inactive	Backgrounds for the logos are simple enough to do. I did this one by making a little collage of vintage baseball cards. The problem is with the images themselves. For a site like this, you're limited to using images that are in the public domain or are otherwise without copyright. If I was free to use any images I wanted, I could make dozens (depending on how complex they are) of logos myself in a month or two that Steve could choose the best of. I'm not a freehand artist though, so I can't create what we really need for something like this which are new logos that the site would own the rights to. Updated Tuesday, December 2 2014 @ 11:01:14 am PST

#12346	12/02/2014 7:12:11 am
Jalapeno5 Joined: 06/01/2014 Posts: 226 Inactive	Hey Haselrig, that's a cool little design. Just to be clear, I'm not talking about changing or offering alternatives to any of the existing images, but wondered if it might be possible to generate badges on the fly by combining the existing team images with a choice of backgrounds and team fonts, rather than having a library to choose from, or the ability to upload your own image. Yes, OK it'll never look as polished as a professionally designed and artworked team badge, but if you had the option to superimpose your wildcat on a ball (as the Red-sox/Yankees do in a couple of their logos), a diamond (like the White-sox), a home-plate (as used by the Padres), or bats or crossed bats (similar to the Cardinals) - within the game itself rather than created in photoshop or an equivalent, that could be a way of customising logos a little bit. Understand about the copyright issue, but assuming the existing team logos have been sourced royalty-free or cheaply, I imagine some generic baseball paraphernalia should be fairly easy to source... Only spent a couple of minutes looking, but maybe these kinds of things for example: http://www.clipartbest.com/clipart-Rcd6Xp7c9 http://www.clipartbest.com/clipart-dT8GEoGTe Just a couple of thoughts as to how semi-custom logos COULD be created and controlled if Steve did want to go down this route. Cheers!

#12347	12/02/2014 11:34:44 am
newtman Joined: 11/02/2013 Posts: 3343 Inactive	if you had the option to superimpose your wildcat on a ball (as the Red-sox/Yankees do in a couple of their logos), a diamond (like the White-sox), a home-plate (as used by the Padres), or bats or crossed bats (similar to the Cardinals) - within the game itself rather than created in photoshop or an equivalent, that could be a way of customizing logos a little bit. Not sure how hard that would be to fit into the coding, but that sounds pretty good in terms of offering more customization without requiring moderation.

#12349	12/02/2014 2:46:02 pm
Den Duston Joined: 01/15/2014 Posts: 161 Inactive	Well,I think that those teams that don't upload a custom logo simply remain with the standard logo (the ones that our teams currently have) yes,we can't please everyone but the same goes with other changes. For example,I don't like the idea of increasing catcher injuries but still..the changes have been made. So why not logos? Because of some people who don't have a bit of creativity? Heck,they won't upload any then! Updated Tuesday, December 2 2014 @ 2:50:44 pm PST

#12356	12/02/2014 4:57:19 pm
newtman Joined: 11/02/2013 Posts: 3343 Inactive	I don't like the idea of increasing catcher injuries but still..the changes have been made. So why not logos? Because of some people who don't have a bit of creativity? Heck,they won't upload any then! The default picture and lack of creativity was one reason for not wanting it. Also mentioned, and imo more important, are the need for moderators to approve images and names because many people have different senses for what is appropriate and some others try and push those limits. It adds an unnecessary dimension of drama and headache to a game that is supposed to simulate baseball. You can ignore the most important points all you want, it does not make your argument any more valid. Updated Tuesday, December 2 2014 @ 4:58:29 pm PST

#12369	12/03/2014 2:06:58 am
Den Duston Joined: 01/15/2014 Posts: 161 Inactive	Heh..it's not about ignore points and you aren't in position to say which argument is valid or not. Let's not be cocky,mate (thanks!) I do know that those are the reasons for not wanting logos...and Steve is free to not allow them,I mean...I'm still playing..I still like this game. But what I was trying to say is that every change has people who agree and others that not agree yet changes will be made anyway. I was mentioning catcher injuries for example,an option that TO ME was't needed.....to me......to some others.......it has added some issues with the lineup I think...but I accepted it because I'm not Steve....I'm not an important person here. So why not logos? I've seen some soccer management games where they even made a rule on team logos like how they should look like (what must they contain,etc.). Drama? Headache? Do you really think that without logos there's no currently drama and headchace?? You are speaking for yourself,remember that. Updated Wednesday, December 3 2014 @ 2:08:03 am PST