I am creating this poll to ask you, as a user, how do you like your opponents? This may seem like an odd question but it actually relates to how we create and define some of the relevant definitions that would apply to your game play. There are some benefits and disadvantages to each method but from a user standpoint, it may not make much of a noticeable difference otherwise.
To begin with, using the European definitions as an example, the original definitions from the 2.3.2 branch that are used today were created with the international competitions having randomized teams for opponents for the user. The sole advantage to this method was so that when the user (player) got to challenge for an international cup (UEFA Champions League and UEFA Cup), they were to face off against any number of randomly selected teams from each of the applicable leagues that could challenge for the respective international cup, instead of going face to face with any number of predicted teams that would always be selected to enter the respective international cup, season after season. There was basically some variety to who they got to face as opponents. This I would say was the best feature of this method as really, although some teams in real life qualify for the international cups year in and year out, having a different opponent could make it feel new, season after season, I guess.
Now, as the advantage of this method is having the ability to get to play against a differently named opponent, season after season, there is also a disadvantage or two that comes with this method, particularly with the European definitions. As with UEFA, their country coefficients determine how many teams from each country get to participate in each of their respective international cup competitions each year. As the country coefficients themselves can change from year to year, depending on how well the respective club teams perform each year, this can also have an affect on which countries would either rise, fall, or stay the same, in the country rankings. Rise high enough and your country gains another spot for one of your league teams. Fall low enough and your country loses a spot for teams from your league.
So with the above known, we as definition makers can only create a set of definitions that reflect a point in time that doesn't change. The definitions would have to be updated to reflect new information. For updating the UEFA international cup competition files for example, I made master files that reflected the changes that I wanted to make, and then proceeded to make copies of the files that were specific to each relevant country definition that that original definition applied to. And the only way to have those changes apply to all the relevant countries were to update all the relevant countries with the relevant copies that applied specifically to them. So in basic terms, to update the UEFA international cup competition files for the European definitions, I would have to update all the European definitions with the new files at the same time.
So that is a big disadvantage when wanting to update the European international cup files, at least at a more frequent pace than what has been done in the past.Now if someone wasn't worried about who their international cup opponents would be, they could take out the randomizing component and just have a single file for each of the relevant files and apply them all equally to each of the countries within the range of the country definitions that apply for the respective international cup file(s). By this, I mean that it could be set up to play against specific team opponents each and every season. The big advantage would be that you can have one set of files that would apply to all the relevant countries and when you wanted to update the international cup files, because of the rankings of the countries has changed for example, it could be done easily and no changes to the related country definitions would be required. As the filenames of the related international cup competition files would not be changing, all that would be required is to modify the international cups themselves, and that would be limited to a few cup files to deal with.
I'll add that from a definition creator's standpoint, the less work the better sounds good.
But, there is a slight disadvantage I would say that relates to the team names. Yes, it was an advantage in the randomization of the names but with this method, you will only see the top listed team names from the league files of the related countries, season after season, for the related international cups. You may see a randomly selected team name for the winners of their related national cup, but that would be one team out of 3 for the lowest ranked countries and one team out of 7 for the highest ranked countries. Otherwise, it will be the same team name for as long as you play. Though I'll say this only applies to your opponents in the international cups, NOT your league teams as their rankings change, or have the potential to change, from season to season.So to recap:
Randomizing opponent team names:
Advantage:
- Different team names, season after season, for the international cup competitions
- Benefit to the user as they get to play against differently named teams each and every season, usually
Disadvantage:
- More files required for the definitions to apply to all country definitions which are applicable to the related international cup competitions
- Updating files and applying changes to all related countries requires all countries within applicable range be updated also, with updated information for cups that are applicable to it
- Disadvantage to the user because more file space is required for the additional files used and makes updating the international cup competition files more work, if they choose to try it themselves
- Disadvantage to the content creators as more work would be required to update the international cup competition files (as required) and then update the country definitions to reflect the new changes, depending on the frequency of updating the international cup competition files
- As more work would be required to update the files for the whole region, the frequency that the related international files might be updated might be longer than the user may wish
Same opponent team names:
Advantage:
- As one set of files would apply to the international cup competitions, updating those files would be much easier, year over year, as the filenames should not change and would only require that the user download the updated cup files to have the changes take affect
- As there would only be one set of files, it would occupy less space on the users' hard drive
- Benefit to the user as less file space would be required to house the international cup competition files and additionally, it might make the files much easier for the user to update themselves, if they so chose to do that
- Benefit to the content creators as a single set of files to deal with instead of multiple sets, making updating the files much easier, when the format is the same and unchanged, year after year
Disadvantage:
- They would be facing the same group of team names, season after season, with no change to the main teams but for the national cup representatives, a random team would likely be selected
- Disadvantage to the user as there is no variety to the group of opponents that could be faced in the international cup competitions
So overall, it seems like one method might be more favorable over another method, but then it depends on how much of an advantage to the user that one method is over the other. Myself, I like the randomized method as I am the one creating the files, but others may have different thoughts on that. I guess from a user's standpoint, it may not matter to them. From a definition creators standpoint, they might take a different perspective on this. So, as users of this forum, do you have any thoughts on this issue? I'm just curious. I feel I will still do the definitions in the way I want to do them but am just curious on what other people think of this topic.
So until next time,
Will aka will_the_canuck