Momentum

[PointGuard]

markprior: I simmed game for my team and watched the entire 40 minutes. My team hung with their opponents for 13 minutes, but then shot horribly for the final 7 minutes of the 1st half and fell way behind, but the AI never called a time out. Both teams let their 30 sec timeout go unused in the 1st half. My team's shooting continued to be abysmally poor throughout the entire 2nd half and they faded FAR behind, but again the AI never called a timeout. Of course, the opposing team really didn't need a timeout since they were kicking our butts. No time out was called by either team the entire game. While this doesn't prove anything, the AI not calling a timeout for my team to try to get our players going was unrealistic.

[Gary Gorski]

So the latest build should help teams call a timeout more frequently to stop big momentum build ups. The prior strategy was leaning on waiting for the media timeout if possible even if things were starting to get too far out of control so I tried to curb that and make them more willing to use it.

Using a timeout for a shooting slump that's a lot more difficult and something the AI doesn't really consider. The timeout could only maybe help if it was used and the coach screamed at everyone and it provided a temporary boost but that also could make things even worse. Also logic is tricky here - what is the trigger for this? You get down 10 points? Ok so timeout is called and you miss again and they score and now you're down 12 - does that trigger it again because you are down 10 or more?

The timeouts drop the momentum which is useful so if its a momentum thing resulting in the misses the timeout taken to curb the momentum should help that.