Frequently Asked Questions
If you have not checked the Beginners Guide, you may wish to begin there.
For Short Single Season Leagues drafts occur within 24 hours after the league fills with 16 teams. Usually, they take place during the overnight hours between 1AM and 6AM(Eastern Time). For Full Single Season Leagues, drafts will be run for all league according to the off-season schedule posted in Latest News. Automated emails can be sent informing you that your draft is complete.
Please note that the following are merely guidelines that reflect the general opinion of veteran owners -- they are not absolutes.
Pitchers Control seems to be more important than velocity. Don't totally ignore velocity, but realize that control is a bigger factor. Health isn't a huge factor for pitchers -- particularly starters. Right handed pitchers tend to perform a little better than southpaws.
Hitters Power seems to be more important than contact. Don't totally ignore contact, but realize that power is a bigger factor. Health is somewhat important for hitters, since low health players will miss a fair number of games due to fatigue and injury. The ability to hit right-handed pitching is more important than the ability to hit lefties. Speed is an important factor not only for stolen bases but also for advancing extra bases on hits, avoiding double plays, etc.
Both Youth is an important factor for dynasty leagues, but you should ignore it in single season leagues.
Bob suggests his draft preferences for example. While each owner would weight things differently, these settings reflect a fairly good mix that address the above issues. Given their date, they do not take into account updates to defensive importance.
You can download a spreadsheet to assist you in testing preferences and determining why one player was our would be selected over another.
Games are simulated by ABE in a matter of seconds, so you do not need to be online when the games are played. You do, however, have control over games by setting Managerial Preferences which determine your manager's in-game actions. Once games are simulated, they are avaialble to watch.
Single season and dynasty leagues run on a standardized two month schedule; single season sign-ups during the middle of the season will begin mid-season as Short Season Leagues. So, if all other leagues are between games #87 and #88, the new league will begin with game #88 and finish the season as normal. The league will have playoffs with teams determined based on whatever portion of the schedule that was actually played.
Because the leagues will finish along with all other Single Season and Dynasty Leagues, if you are interested in a full Single Season League you will be ready to sign-up for the next season at the beginning.
You may play your position players at any position, however, their skills will face a reduction - sometimes drastic - for playing another position. As they play multiple games there, there abilities and comfort there will increase. You can monitor this progress by clicking "Positions" on the player's player card.
The reduction and the speed of learning are governed by the position difficulty chart below. In order to fully convert to 100%, a player needs to have played more games at that position than at any other position during the current season. Also, they need to have appeared in at least 25 games during the current season at that position. These restrictions are designed to eliminate unintentional position changes. When a player does convert to a new position, he will retain knowledge of his old primary position at 99%.
This grid should be read from left to right. So to read the first row, you should say "It should be MEDIUM for a Catcher to become a FirstBaseman, It should be Hard for a Catcher to become a SecondBaseman, etc.
| To C | To 1B | To 2B | To 3B | To SS | To LF | To CF | To RF | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| From C | X | M | H | H | VH | M | VH | M |
| From 1B | VH | X | H | H | VH | M | VH | M |
| From 2B | VH | M | X | M | M | M | H | M |
| From 3B | VH | M | M | X | H | M | VH | M |
| From SS | VH | M | E | M | X | M | M | M |
| From LF | VH | M | M | H | VH | X | M | E |
| From CF | VH | M | M | H | VH | E | X | E |
| From RF | VH | M | M | H | VH | E | M | X |
Here's a key on the terms and what I take them to mean. Playing time refers to how long the player has to play there before the new position becomes his Natural Position. E = Easy - He should be able to play with little or no training. (2-3 weeks playing time). M = Medium - Its a natural position movement, but takes some time to adjust(2-3 months playing time). H = Hard - Not your typical position move, but not completely out of the question(12-18 months playing time). VH = Very Hard - Its ridiculous that a guy could make this switch. (4-5 years playing time). X = He already plays this position.
Position players may not be used or converted to pitchers, however. And pitchers may not be used as fielders (except in the rare occasion that ABE uses them to sub for a tired or injured player).
The energy bar has different meanings for position players, relief pitchers, and starting pitchers. Additional information is listed in the Rest & Tired Players section.
For position players, the energy bar has no impact on performance -- it only determines when the player will be forced to take a day off. A player with 2 energy bars will perform the same as if he had 5 energy bars. When he drops to 1 energy bar he will be forced to sit out one game. The speed at which a player's energy bar depletes is determined by his health rating.
| Letter Grades | Actual Score |
|---|---|
| A+ | 92-100 |
| A | 84-91 |
| A- | 76-83 |
| B+ | 68-75 |
| B | 60-67 |
| B- | 52-59 |
| C+ | 44-51 |
| C | 36-43 |
| C- | 28-35 |
| D+ | 20-27 |
| D | 12-19 |
| D- | 4-11 |
| F | 1-3 |
Pitchers
Velocity and Control each provide 50% of the overall grade.
Position Players
The four hitting categories (contact and power against left handed and right handed pitching) and speed are weighted with 16% of the overall grade each. Range and arm are given 10% weight each.
Names can be changed during the first 30 games of a season. Sim Dynasty Rulebook#Name Changes
Because Single Season leagues offer free trial of Sim Dynasty, many owners may forget to return to their teams after drafting the team. The Single Season Replacement Team feature allows other owners to replace absentee managers; however, you cannot force other managers to review trades or posts. If you are interested in a more active community environment, consider signing-up for a Dynasty or Private League in the future where all 16 owners are active.
Single Season owners often ask this question about their team with active ownership versus other teams without owners.
However, one of the most important parts of the game is the draft. A team with a superior draft will more often than not win a league - no matter how bad the manager is. With some teams drafting low major league and high minor league talent for their major league line-ups verus other teams finding the major league all-stars, the managing - while meaningful - may not be enough.
One suggestion is to check your Draft Preferences for your next league in this or another team.
Also, to reward single season activity, inactive owners will start seeing an additional penalty after being inactive for two weeks. Their teams will begin to underperform.
Each screenname may have multiple teams in different leagues; however, you are only allowed one team per league. No person may control the owners of multiple teams in the same league.
Under the Owner menu, there is a "Linked Teams" feature which will allow you to quickly access all of your teams without going to the login screen for each screenname.
At this time, the only way is to stop checking the team. If you want to sign-up for other teams you will be able to with same screen name. For the teams you no longer want, after 2 weeks of inactivity you will be replaced for being inactive.
The rules are the same as MLB. Less than 130 career at bats or less than 50 career innings pitched before the current season. He also needs to have less than 45 active games on the roster in prior seasons.
The All-Star votes are measured by total production. Please note the formula listed below is inaccurate and refers to the "old All Star" page formula,
Batters Multiply the the point total from below by 1011.44
1B = 1
2B = 2
3B = 3
HR = 4
RBI = 1
SB = 2
BB = 1
SF = 1
R = 1
HBP = 1
SO = -1
E = -1
CS = -1
Pitchers
There is a different formula for a pitcher dependant upon whether or not they are classified as reliever or starter.
Both Types
W = 10
L = -5
ER = -2
H = -1
BB = -1
SO = 1
HBP = -1
Save = 5
Starters Only
Shutout = 5
Complete game = 5
No hitter = 10
Innings pitched = 3
Relievers Only
Innings pitched = 2
Pay leagues add the core structure of a Single Season League season, but much of the strategy surrounds player development. Drafting - important in single season - is just as important with bigger stakes in long-term leagues. Answers and advice on these topics are in this section.
Owners will want to be familiar with the improvement information located in the rule book.
Single Season teams are deleted at the end of each season. There is no way to keep or upgrade the same actual team or players.
Off-season age (OS) is the age which ABE will treat a player for the purpose of off-season major league improvements.
It is based upon the year of birth - not on any birthday within the year. So, to determine a player's off-season age, subtract the player's birth year from the current year. One could also consider the off-season to theoretically to take place the evening of 12/31, with ABE using whatever the player's age is at that moment.
OS age is displayed on the Improvement Report page. OS age does not affect minor league improvement chances.
A starting pitcher who starts 25% or less of his games for the season, and pitches more than 25 innings, will lose endurance points equal to [10 * (1 - ( games started / games pitched) )]. A starting pitcher appearing only in the bullpen will therefore lose 10 points -- just over one letter grade in endurance. The pitcher may also earn endurance improvement chances during the year, which may partially offset the penalty.
Older players begin to decline in skills and consider retirement in the off season in which they reach the Off-season Age of 34.
Health is not affected by off-season improvements or minor league coaching improvements. If a hitter plays a full season he will get a small increase in health. (? - [1]) Over-using a young arm (27 or younger) by pitching him more than 200 innings if he is a starter and 100 innings if he is a reliever will cause his health to go down).
Please note that the following are merely guidelines that reflect the general opinion of veteran owners -- they are not absolutes.
Pitchers
Control seems to be more important than velocity. Don't totally ignore velocity, but realize that control is a bigger factor.
Health isn't a huge factor for pitchers -- particularly starters.
Right handed pitchers tend to perform a little better than southpaws.
Hitters
Power seems to be more important than contact. Don't totally ignore contact, but realize that power is a bigger factor.
Health is somewhat important for hitters, since low health players will miss a fair number of games due to fatigue and injury. These missed games will somewhat slow the development of a young player.
The ability to hit right-handed pitching is more important than the ability to hit lefties.
Speed is an important factor not only for stolen bases but also for advancing extra bases on hits, avoiding double plays, etc.
Both
Youth is an important factor for both pitchers and hitters. Given proper development, over their careers an 18 year old C+ player will be much better than a 23 year old B player.
See also Mentoring in the Rulebook.
Leadership is a static value representing a player's potential to work with other players. Leadership is an attribute of that person. Once it is revealed, a player's Leadership grade will not change at all.
Mentor value is the key factor for mentoring purposes. Mentor value is based on (1) age, (2) leadership value, and (3) playing skill level. Mentoring scores do change as the inputs -- age, playing ability -- change.
So, leadership will never improve or decrease, but mentoring value will go up as the player ages - and vary from player to player based on skill level and leadership skill.
Leadership is revealed on a player's 28th birthday.
Send an email to commish@simdynasty.com with everyone's screen name after you all have signed up for Dynasty teams. We may move your teams into different leagues or into different cities to get you into the same league.
If you all signup around the same time, that helps get you all into the same league.
The only reason to sign up for multiple seasons is to get a discount on the price of each season. You are not limited to only owning a team for the number of seasons you sign up for. After your last paid season ends, you will have the opportunity to renew your team for one or more additional seasons.
Dynasty leagues look for replacement owners at the end of each season.
Dynasty and other pay leagues may continue indefinitely as long as there are 16 interested current or replacement owners.
Dynasty Dollars belong to one account alone and cannot normally be directly transferred to another account. Site staff may be able to move increments of 1000 D$ upon request - particularly if they were bought rather than earned.
All private leagues are set up internally as single season leagues during the signup process. If you are using a screen name for your team that has been around for a while, you may see some popups during that time. If you use a new screen name, you will not see any popups.
After all 16 teams have signed up, the league is changed internally to a dynasty league and the popups will disappear.
The beta league is a special area of Sim Dynasty where we test new features before releasing it to the general public. All new changes are tested here first before they make their way into the official game.
If you'd like to see the beta game, go to: http://beta.simdynasty.com/
and then log in with these credentials: screen name: betauser password: betauser
There are officially 15 beta testers. From time to time, people drop out of the beta league or we may remove owners who aren't contributing.
New members are selected by invitation only. We typically select people who are already active contributors on the BETA message boards. Since anybody can log in with the betauser team, anybody can help with the testing and post items on the BETA message boards.
The most common solution to this problem is that you don't have cookies enabled in your browser.
If you are using Internet Explorer, go to Tools, Internet Options, then Privacy and use one of the lowest two settings so that you accept Cookies.
If you are using Netscape, go to Edit, Preferences, then click Privacy & Security and choose Cookies. Choose either Enable All Cookies or Enable Cookies for the originating website only.
If you are using AOL, see this link: http://webmaster.info.aol.com/cookieguide.html
Another problem that people have is that their computer system time is wrong. Make sure the time and date on your computer are close to being correct.
If all else fails, delete the cookies on your computer, restart your browser and give it another try.
I have also found this site helpful in diagnosing problems: http://www.chipchapin.com/WebTools/cookietest.php
What are cookies? (This info is from our privacy policy) Cookies are tiny text files placed onto your computer's hard drive when you visit a site. Most major web sites use cookies; they allow a site to recognize your computer when you return. It might help to think of a cookie as an ID number for your computer. A cookie file usually looks something like this: ID=62q3f585c17cd0748d8032gf0baf1eb3.
By themselves, cookies generally don't do much of anything. However, a web site can link the cookie on your machine to other information it has about you. Cookies can be very helpful, doing things like remembering your login ID and password, customizing the information you see on the site or remembering the address where you want orders delivered.
Cookies are used by SimDynasty to remember your User ID while you move from page to page on the site; this allows us to identify which team you control. When you log in, SimDynasty offers to remember your login name and password so you don't have to retype that information every time you visit the site. If you allow SimDynasty to remember your login name and password, the cookie will stay on your computer; otherwise the cookie is deleted when you close your browser. We do not use our first-party cookies to track your activities on the Internet; we use them solely to make using our site more convenient.
Your web browser may have settings which cache our web pages. Caching stores a version of a web page on your local computer, for use at a later time. You can see why this might cause problems with our site. If your web browser caches the Standings page from July 1st, and you go back to view the Standings page on July 4th, your browser may give you the page from July 1st which will be out of date.
The other common symptom that your browser might have bad cache settings is if you have multiple teams, and you log in as one team only to see the results of another. This is because your browser has cached the pages from when you were logged in as the other team.
How do you fix this? The problem is most prevalent for users of Internet Explorer. To resolve this issue, change your cache settings to look for a new version of the page "Every Visit to the Page". If you are unsure how to do this, you can see Microsoft's explanation here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/263070
If you are having problems due to sites being blocked by your internet provider, you can always access the site through any of these URLs:
http://www.topindustrynews.com/
The other way around this is to use a anonymous surfing website - there are a ton of these sites out there. Basically, you go to their site, and then you can access sites blocked by your network.
Some of them are faster than others, some cost money, and some may be blocked by your company. But here are a few we found, there are others if you google "anonymous web surfing"
http://www.ultimate-anonymity.com/
See our Junk Mail Help Sheet
Sim Dynasty has a 1 hour window between midnight and 1AM EST where no games or any other league events are scheduled. You may notice that the site is down or slow during this hour. We use this hour each night to backup all the data on the server. This way if there are any problems we can revert the site to the state it was in the night before. We can also use this info to investigate other types of problems.
We occasionally will use this hour to perform more intensive server maintenance tasks. We normally will notify people about this and usually this requires the site to be taken off line.
If you have any problems while in chat, you can try using the Chat company's troubleshooter here:
http://support.addoninteractive.com/index.php?action=trouble_shooter
If you are using Microsoft Vista and experience problems, you might want to try this:
http://forum.simdynasty.com/viewthread.php?tid=134697
If that doesn't help, please report the following info:
1) Are you using Windows or Mac?
2) Which browser? Internet Explorer, FireFox, Netscape, Safari, etc.?
3) What version of Java do you have installed? Check this site to see which version you are running:
http://www.javatester.org/version.html
If you scroll down a bit, you should see a pink area that tells you the version. If you aren't running at least 1.5, that could be the problem. Please visit www.java.com to download and install the latest version of Java.
If your issues is not address above or in latest news, you can always report it in Report Problems.
When posting follow the following guidelines:
1. An appropriate subject line that mentions the issue. This allows people to easily find a particular subject. For example, "Starting pitcher not removed per preferences" or "Unable to save new lineup" are much better subject lines than "Problem" or "Please Read". Please don't title the message things like "Tyson Help" or "Tyson Look". All messages posted on this board will be looked at regardless of the title.
2. Your team name.
3. Your screen name for that team.
4. The league you are in.
5. If it is a problem within a game, please include a link to that game.
6. If it is a technical problem, please include your operating system (e.g. Windows NT) and browser type (e.g. AOL 9.0).
7. Read Latest News before posting in Report Problems. A lot of times, the answers to your reported problems have been addressed in Latest News. Please check here before posting something - particularly if the problem could be site wide - as it cuts down on the same topic being discussed in two different boards.
The more information you provide the easier it will be to identify and fix the issue.
Many message board questions can be answered in the Message Board FAQ found in the top-left corner of each page of the message board.
This is how to add a picture next to your posts.
Find an image online (or upload one to a publicly accessible web space). View the online image (by itself). If the size is acceptable, go to the address bar and highlight the address; copy the address (control+C on a PC, command+C on a Mac).
Login to the Sim Dynasty Message Board and go to edit profile. Near the bottom there is a box that says "Avatar". In that box, paste(control+V on a PC, command+V on a Mac) the address you copied.
Hit save and you are all set.
To do so, go to User Control Panel, then to Edit Profile. At the bottom of that screen there is a place to enter your signature.
Click the link about that says Control Panel / Options. Then go to Edit Profile. Or simply go to this link: http://forum.simdynasty.com/memcp.php?action=profile
Toward the bottom, you'll see a drop down menu for "Themes." Choose the theme that you like and hit save.
You can go in and check out the different themes and pick the one that suits you best.