I think I might be in the minority here, but I think regression happens too soon in the ISFL. Maybe I'm just used to the SHL where it's 10 seasons before you regress, but I feel like it happens so fast in this league. We spend a lot of time building our player and to only enjoy them for a few seasons feels like a waste. I'll relate it to my current player, Brock Phoenix.
As a quarterback, you spend an extra season or two in the DSFL because quarterbacks need to be high TPE to be successful. That's fine, just keep grinding in the DSFL until you can reach that point. The problem is, you spend between 2 and 3 seasons in the minors and that leaves you with just 4 to 5 seasons until you regress. By the time your player even reaches high attributes, you're ready to get regressed and lose all that progress. I'm going into my fifth season in the NSFL in Season 24 and that's going to be my last season before regression. My player hasn't even had the time to break out and really play to his full potential. That seems like why too short a career relative to the amount of time spent building him up. Maybe you don't have to go 10 seasons like the SHL or PBE, but maybe don't count DSFL seasons after you're drafted into the ISFL and make it 7 ISFL seasons before regression. Just something I was thinking about when I noticed that Phoenix is already heading towards regression before even getting his footing.
With the name change of the league, which was a major step to show the diversity of nations in the league, the league really made a decisive step towards a world wide football league.
The step to rebrand the league was in my opinion the right thing to do, but for me new logo still reminds me very much of the US flag.
To really make a statement to go international we really need franchises outside of the USA. In the DSFL there are the London Royals but we also need 1-2 teams in the ISFL from another continent. IF there is anothere expansion i don't want to see another 2 teams located in North America. Why would you name yourself international if the teams are all located in 1 country? This seems a bit hypocritical to me.
Another major step, is moving the forum to another platform. I saw the announcement and it looked really promising. To be specific, i would like to see that the don't have to be claimed any more and that a bit more logic would be coded into the site. As for player progression for example, it would be a great to add ability points just by clicking and the TPE needed for the upgrade is calculated automatically. This would heavily reduce the management overhead of many members of the league.
I think one of the things that can be worked on to help the league move forward the most is rather straight forward. The wiki. The league at large has such a love and hate relationship with our wiki and it has left it in a sort of limbo. I think the league needs to decide once and for all if the wiki is something we want to dedicate time and effort to on a larger scale or if it is something we want to scrap entirely. So much of our forum is linked to the wiki as is, but often the links lead to incomplete, outdated, or nonexistent pages. This leads to confusion and frustration as it is often information that is difficult to find elsewhere. I feel like something like the wiki required a large, dedicated team that gets aptly rewarded in pay for doing the job. The league is ever evolving and ever advancing, so the wiki constantly needs to be updated. It constantly needs more data added to it. It is an endless job that would take a team 100+ hours a season to keep maintained. As it is, we treat the wiki with mixed feelings and it shows by how rough around the edges it is. What is the point of the wiki at all if we're not going to push to keep it maintained in a better fashion? So that is one move I think we need. We either need to fully commit to the wiki and recognize the work we need to put in to get it right or remove it altogether.
Let me start by stating, I am definitely not in any position to demand changes to a league I’ve only been apart of for about a month. With that said, an change I would implement (or at least consider implementing) is the use of an upgraded sim software. My preference would be on of the new versions of DDSPF. I do not want to use Madden or something with live streamable games as those streams would take 30-45 minutes per game. I like the fact that each game lasts 5-8 minutes. It allows me to watch all the games and keep track of other teams and players. No body has time to watch 4 or 5 hours of computer robots. Anyways…we’re currently using a game that’s 4 years old and can no longer be purchased. I was frustrated when I first joined the league because I could not access the game as is no longer sold anywhere on the internet, whereas 2018 and 2020 were easily available on places like Steam. I was finally able to get a cracked version of the game thanks to a teammate, but that process was also complicated. I’d rather just pay $10 for a new version and have it legitimately. I also think the metrics of the NFL have changed since then. Obviously, this comes from someone at the WR league, but I feel like (at least in the DSFL), the passing game is pretty meh. This is the exact opposite of today’s NFL. Also, as Mag has pointed out in his media articles, there are some pretty weird codes in DDSPF that allow exploits, such as a QB with 79 speed being faster than a QB with like 90 speed. Total disclaimer, I have no experience with the 18 or 20 version, but I’d imagine they’ve improved some of the metrics and coding since then. I also understand there is a logistical nightmare of switching over and creating all the player and teams.
As someone on the inside would know, the bank… The bank needs to be changed. It was good originally with Google Sheets but it has become just a monster. It is far too large for sheets to handle. With the league larger than ever it’s time to make a change. The current bank sits at 32,561 archived transactions and 13,974 current transactions. The archived transactions log doesn't need to be processed everytime a new transaction is done, however the current transactions table does a query to update everyone’s current balance each and every time. There is also a column that updates every time to make sure you have enough money to make the transaction so the banker doesn't have to check each time. The archived transactions table is 981 days worth of transactions which calculates to ~33.2 transactions per day. That being said the current transactions table only being 161 days old calculates to ~86.8 transactions per day. That is a huge contrast. There has been such an influx of new players that the bank would need to be archived every 6 months or less as opposed to the current which was twice in the last 3 years. Time to get the bank off of sheets and into a real database.
I would like to see the sim be less balanced between running and passing. In my 4 seasons between the DSFL and the ISFL, it has become abundantly clear that this is a balanced league to a fault. I don't think the sim should be so robotic. I don't know much about whether you allow teams to create their own playbooks, but the sim many times is frustrating to say the least. Punting from the opponents' 30-yard line at the end of a game when down by 3 would never happen in real life. Unfortunately, stupid things like this happen in the sim all the time. In the beginning it is amusing and makes you shake your head in disbelief. Four seasons in, it is just annoying and ridiculous. I do not have the solution, I am just a stupid meathead Tight End from an alley via a ditch, but I can tell you the games need to be better. They have become less and less entertaining and more and more frustrating as time goes on. I love being a part of the league, and just want the sim experience to be more realistic, which would make it more fun for spectating. I want to enjoy the sim, not just want to wait the index to be updated.