Constant team incident reports after every loss ranked #10

[Billdozer]

If there is one thing I would really like to see improved in the game it is the team relationship and incident report system. There are enormous negative impacts from something that feels random and only has one solution that does not really have an impact. It is mostly pointless and frustrating when the game decides to revolt for no reason.

I am currently ranked #10 and am top of the SEC with Arkansas. I started the first half of conference play 8-1. The start of the second half of the season has had a few losses and there are team incident reports after every loss. I have zero not friendly or disruptive force players. I call about personality after the report and have to spam text a few times to get the 2 or 3 players to get them to say sorry. I have even started doing this every day and they still have problem after a loss. I am 9-4 and top of the SEC. What is their problem? There is nothing to be done and the problems are completely illogical.

I know this is venting and this game is amazing and great 98% of the time.

[cdawds70]

I would chime in and agree.
Specifically, this ties into the conversation in a different thread about more coach options to interact with the players.
The language in response to just saying you want to discuss attitude feels combative. Same for the other options. i.e. "I want you to work on your outside shooting." Response is "well what part of my game do you want me to drop?"

This is one area of the game that could be a lot more immersive, and interactive with variable response based on the player's personality, and makes the impact of a great coach more than a mediocre or new coach.

I have the number 1 team in the nation and they all hate each other, but love me... and if you try to address that with the limited responses, it just pisses them off more. You almmost have to guess which player "Might" be the instigator, and which one might be more receptive to the "shape up, or face suspension" hard lines.

[Gary Gorski]

Well some of this kind of stuff has to be a trade off - for example if you want them to shoot more outside they have to do less of something else.

In terms of the relationships the players have a hidden factor which determines which other players (and coaches) they may not like or get along with. I guess the way I look at it is that if you have two people that really don't like each other what can you do about it? Talking to them is meant to be a patchwork type thing - cooling the player down temporarily but it wouldn't fix the issue in real life either. Yeah you can take more drastic actions and the game will allow for an outcome that changes the dynamic in some cases but there's risk with that. There's really not just many other options. Like what are you going to do? Some people just can't stand each other and the fact that they can even play on the same team takes strength and fortitude.

The challenge for a coach in that situation is what do you do with it? You notice that you see these things after a loss but not really after wins which makes sense to me. If you win what can people really complain about? If you lose of course the guy who hates another guy is going to blame him whether its fair/logical/rational or not. I think everyone's probably worked in a situation where if something goes wrong there's always someone who blames the person they hate - you have to think of this as that kind of thing. Really the only solution is to eventually not have one of those guys there anymore but as a coach you have to decide is it worth the risk/headache of dealing with these guys because you think they're good enough to win or would you rather ship out a guy who is a good player for someone maybe not as good but not have the problems of the guys who don't like each other.

I do welcome opinions and suggestions on how this can be expanded in the future but I don't think there should be a way to just make it all better all or most or maybe even some of the time because that's not realistic IMO. Could something happen to change the dynamic of those two people? Sure but its rare and usually happens from something totally unexpected and not because a coach did something to make them like each other. Anyhow that's why it works the way it does in the game.

[leodaric]

So, as a real life basketball coach fond of simulations, I've had similar issues to relationships with players in the game. Keep in mind I know basketball and coaching, NOT code and programming, so if I suggest the impossible I apologize ahead of time. Seems like a good use of time while Texas kicks the *&^% out of my squad.

First thing is that you don't need emails from assistants to explain all situations, and a significant number of player problems will be brought right to you (player requests a meeting for example)

In reality, you interactions with players over the course of time help you identify their relationships with other players and the kinds of things that bother them or motivate them. The first issue I have is that you learn nothing about your players while you interact with them because of the limited conversation options and feedback from them after making your selection. In my experience the athletes I work with have personalities that fall along multiple sliding scales.

This could be one such spectrum for example
Coach Behavior: [Enabling --------------Understanding----------------Demanding]

In most coaching circles you are looking for players that fall between understanding and demanding. Players that need to constantly be motivated by their coach are exhausting, for different reasons that a player that needs their coach to be their cheerleader is also. Maybe you can even allow player behavior to change as they mature after freshmen year. Maybe those freshmen mature better if they vibe with the kind of coach you are based on coach creation screen, in game decisions (praise/concern/yell), and weekly interactions.

If you could learn about your athletes and have that information on their card somewhere as you interact with them, it would already be a big improvement. I've got two teenagers at home and 20 young women to coach, I'm not going to remember my fake SG's personal interaction preferences and behavior.

As to learning about the recruits I side more with Gary here. Breadcrumbs about your prospect through coaches comments and visits are great but you don't know a player until you KNOW them.

[cdawds70]

I like your line of thought here, leodaric.
You cannot pick up everything you need to know about a recruit the way it is designed, and that is close to reality.

But once they are in your camps, it would make for a more immersive coaching experience to have more responses to threads of behavior that impact the player more or less depending on the response.
So far, I have only seen micro lifts and drops in relationships based on the limited responses..