I was able to find this on the old site, part of which was archived. Sadly all the data James gave us appears gone.
This was taken from the NPL website. (site is dead)
Most veteran coaches in FbPro know all about what is going to be written here, and I am sure some know things that are not written. I have read the following information on a couple other leagues, and taken it to heart. The below works, at least in all of my tests. Since NPL is a league for less experienced coaches to have fun and compete on the gridiron, I thought it best to post this for all coaches!
Why do players retire? Some retire because of career ending injuries (These are few and far between), Some retire because they are just plain old! The following will tell you all about those grey haired guys! Other freak retirements (Mostly with young players in inactive slots) can happen, there is no way to predict those, but they are rare enough that it is not as important as the Old guys!
Fbpro has two basic slots when it comes to retirement due to age Slot 1 and Slot 2. Slot 1 players are any players that are the first player in the lineup, This is HB1, QB1, WR1. If you are not slot 1 you are slot 2, (hb2, wr2, de5, etc.) Players will retire based on which slot they are in. The Following table will show you these critical ages. It should be noted that a players age for retirement is determined after actual aging for the year. So that QB of 11 years right now will be 12 after aging, and would retire if he is in slot 2.
Position Slot 2 Slot 1
Quarter Back 12 15
Running Back 10 13
Receiver 8 12
OffensiveLine 10 14
DefensiveLine 10 13
Linebacker 10 13
Defensive Back 8 12
Punter/Kicker ? 15
What this chart means is if you have any player in slot 2, and they are Equal to or over the slot2 age, they will retire. If they are in slot 1 they will not retire until they are equal to or over that age. This all occurs when the start new season button is pressed. and all players are aged, retired. You should also know the other drawback to older players, at aging their playmaking abilities will degrade! Does this mean you should get rid of them? No, they may not be as good as last year, but they can still be a part of the team, and what they do loose in Aging (IN and DI are unaffected by Aging), might be able to be recovered in training Camp. Although Aging is somewhat random I have found that in most cases starting at Age 9 the age of the player -1 is the normal amount of points they will loose overall, also a player will loose about half as many points in Potentials.
Also remember Young players left deep in the roster slot (especially Rookies in inactive spots) may also retire on you! So how do you handle this, simple got an old player and want to keep him, make sure he is in Slot 1, if you have to many players that are over the slot 2 age in the same position, Trade them. Don't expect a fortune for them, but I'd rather get a 7th round pick for Joe Blow than have him retire and get nothing! Also sometimes you can find a team that is heavy in old players at another position that you are young in, this is an obviously good trade for both of you!
Example
Cedar Rapids has three very talented Defensive backs that are ages 10,10, and 11. if any of them are not in the slot1 position when the end season button is pushed they will retire! Since only two of them can be in the #1 slot (One as a safety, and 1 as a CB, Cedar will loose one of these guys. Cedar management either has the option of trading the player before the end season button is pushed, or watch the player retire and gain nothing from him!
Well that about does it, if you have questions, or suggestions to make it better.
Retirement Info
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Rich-League Officer
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Rich-League Officer
- Posts: 1672
- Joined: Tue Jun 11, 2019 12:16 pm
- Location: Gilbert, Arizona
- Contact:
Re: Retirement Info
This was taken from the FBPro Federation.
How FBPro Retirement REALLY Works!
Okay, here's the scoop... the real deal... the TRUTH about retirement in FBPro '98. I can't guarantee accuracy when dealing with earlier versions, but this comes straight from the pieces of code that Sierra released to the public from Football Pro '98, which is the version most surviving online leagues use nowadays.
Retirement in FBPro has FOUR factors and THREE random number generations. So nothing is set in stone... you simply can't know exactly what's going to happen. You can run the "Start New Season" function on the same league file with no roster alterations twenty times, and you're going to get twenty different results. A single team may get fairly consistant results, but because of the random factors involved I seriously doubt all 20 executions would be identical for even one team. So the first rule is "be prepared for randomness".
The first of the four actions to occur is the automatic retirement of any player that has a "Career Ending Injury" (CEI... something I haven't seen since the days of FBPro '95) or has reached the mandetory retirment age for his position. Those ages are as follows:
# QB: 16
# RB: 14
# REC: 13
# OL: 15
# DL: 14
# LB: 15
# DB: 13
# P: 12
# K: 16
Be aware that this age number refers to the age of the player for the NEW season... retirement calculations take place AFTER all players are aged in the league file. So if you're looking at your roster for the current season, the number you need to be aware of is actually 1 less than the number shown. For example, if your QB's current age is 15, he WILL retire when the "Start New Season" button is pressed... it's that simple!
As the game retires players who meet this requirement, it counts how many it has booted off your team. The code calls this count "numRetired", short for "the numbers of players retired so far", or something like that.
The next action is the first random number generation, which is called "numToRetire". This is exactly what the code name says... the number of players that the game will try to retire from a given team. The number can be as low as 4 or as high as 11. It will never be any lower or higher. If you have less than 4 players retire, it's only because you got lucky with (or planned properly for) the later calculations and events!
So now, the game has two numbers... "numToRetire" and "numRetired". There are three more actions the game might take to try and eliminate players from your team, but only if the "numToRetire" is still less than "numRetired". If the random "numToRetire" is 5, and the automatic retirement takes 6 players (numRetired) from your team, retirement is over... no more players will be lost! But if "numRetired" is only 1, there is more work to be done.
FBPro '98 has three more actions it might take to retire players from your team. It will only stop if the "numRetired" finally becomes equal to or greater than "numToRetire", or it finishes all three actions. Staying with the example above, where the automatic retirement only took away 1 of the 6 players the random number generation asks for, we've still got 5 more players to lose, so the game begins it's first test.
The first test is for "early retirement". This is why a team sometimes loses a player who is quite young, for seemingly no good reason. Well, here's the reason! The game builds in a 40% chance that one player (and it's always only one) will retire up to age 5... that's anyone age R through 4 on your current roster.
The logic works something like this. A random percentage (1-100) is generated. If that number is between 1-40, the game will try to find an eligible young player to send golfing. If it's greater than 40 (41-100), the first test ends with no more players retired, and the game moves on to the second test.
If the random percentage generated IS between 1-40, the game must pick a play to retire early. First, it looks to see if anyone is eligible. Each position is searched, and the very last player is looked at. This might be a player in an inactive (I) slot... say you have 7 LB's, one of whom is "I". Or it could be a player in an open (O) slot... maybe you only have 4 RB's, the last of which is "O". It could even be a player in an active (A) slot, such as QB2 if you only have two QB's on the roster. Each "last player on the depth chart" is looked at. If any are age 5 or younger, they are selected for early retirement. If more than one player meets the criteria, one of the bunch is selected at random... the game will never retire more than one player by this method. If no players are eligible, the game moves on to the next action.
The next test is very similar to the first. Again a random percentage is generated, and if it's between 1-40 the game will try to take two more players away. Again the last player at each positional depth chart is queried. But this time the game is looking to find players that have at least 6 years experience... anyone 5 or older on your pre-retirement roster. One difference is that this query starts at the bottom of the entire roster... the last IR slot... and works it's way up until it either retires two players, retires only one but reaches the random "numToRetire" value, or runs completely out of "last depth slot" players to choose from. This small difference means this method COULD retire two players at the same position. For example, if you have 8 LB's and two are inactive, it's possible that they could be in the lowest two inactive slots on the overall roster. If both are 6 or older, the game will take away both. The second guy from the end actually becomes the last one on the depth chart after the first is retired, so he's eligible to be the second! The only saving grace here is that the player in each position's #1 slot (subpositions such as WR/TE for groups like REC are treated separately here, but the #1 player must be in an "Active" roster slot) will not retire by this method.
If, after eliminating any automatic retirements, maybe taking one young player away via early retirement, and maybe taking one or two players away who are 6 or older the "numToRetire" has not been met yet, the game has one last action it will take to try to meet that number. Again starting at the bottom of the overall roster, each player is queried. If he is within 5 seasons of the automatic retirement age for his position (listed above) and NOT in the #1 slot for his position, the player will be retired, then the game moves on to the next player. Each player is checked until the "numToRetire" is reached or there are no more players to look at.
WHEW... that's a lot of stuff going on to generate the retirements for just one team! In much more simplistic terms (don't you love how I leave the easy explanation for the end?), it goes kind of like this...
# The game makes a random choice, from 4 to 11, of how many players it wants to retire from a team.
# Any player who is CEI or at the automatic retirement age for his position is removed first.
# If more players are needed, there is a 40% chance the game will try to find one young player to retire early.
# If still MORE are needed, there is another 40% chance the game will try to retire two players with 6 or more seasons of experience.
# If the random number to retire is STILL not met, the game will retire ANY player on the roster, starting at the bottom, who is within 5 years of his position's automatic retirement age.
# A player that has reached the auto-retire age for his position will ALWAYS retire... there is absolutely nothing you can do about it.
# Conversely, a player in the #1 slot at his position will NEVER retire unless he's at the auto-retire age as long as he is "Active".
# Beyond those two givens, it's all a matter of chance *lol*!
One other question you may be asking is "who can you guarantee WON'T retire from my team?" There are very few guarantees due to the random selections, but here are a few...
# A player currently under the mandetory retirement age (i.e. a QB less than 15) will not retire as long as he is in the #1 slot for his position. These slots are: QB1, HB1, FB1, WR1, TE1, C1, G1, T1, K1, P1, DE1, DT1, LB1, CB1, S1. Unless a player is old enough to retire automatically, there is no way he will if placed in one of those roster spots and it is an "Active" slot.
# No player currently age R, 1, 2, 3, or 4 will retire UNLESS he is the very last player at his position... QB2 if you have 2 QB, LB7 if you have 7 LB, etc. If he's last, there is a chance. If there is a player older than 4 years below him (unless that player will be removed by auto-retirement), no R-4 player will be retired.
A simple anti-retirement strategy might go like this...
# Fill your #1 slots (QB1, HB1, FB1, WR1, TE1, C1, G1, T1, K1, P1, DE1, DT1, LB1, CB1, S1) with players at least age 5. Put the guys here that are older but you definitely want to keep around. Don't put anyone who is R-4 here, as you'd be wasting the protection.
# All other players should be ordered in reverse of how much you need them.
# As an example, you might do this at the LB position. LB1 is a stud, age 7... he's guaranteed to stay. LB7 is any guy you can deal with losing... this is the most vulnerable spot. LB5 and LB6 are young guys, age R-4... with the expendable player in the LB7 slot, these guys are now guaranteed to stay too, so put them as low as possible! That just leaves LB2, LB3, and LB4. Fill these spots in reverse order of who you can afford to lose... the most painful at LB2, the most replaceable at LB4. Using this setup, only LB2-4 and the sacrificial lamb at LB7 are candidates for retirement, and you've done what you can to protect the most valueable players!
So there you have it. It's the absolute truth. I'm reading the code in another window as I type this. It may not help in setting up your roster to prevent retirements, but a little knowledge can never hurt. Hopefully sometime soon I'll attach an example to this page showing how it all works using a real roster. That might make more sense. Or not. Who knows? Thank you for reading... I hope this information is helpful.
How FBPro Retirement REALLY Works!
Okay, here's the scoop... the real deal... the TRUTH about retirement in FBPro '98. I can't guarantee accuracy when dealing with earlier versions, but this comes straight from the pieces of code that Sierra released to the public from Football Pro '98, which is the version most surviving online leagues use nowadays.
Retirement in FBPro has FOUR factors and THREE random number generations. So nothing is set in stone... you simply can't know exactly what's going to happen. You can run the "Start New Season" function on the same league file with no roster alterations twenty times, and you're going to get twenty different results. A single team may get fairly consistant results, but because of the random factors involved I seriously doubt all 20 executions would be identical for even one team. So the first rule is "be prepared for randomness".
The first of the four actions to occur is the automatic retirement of any player that has a "Career Ending Injury" (CEI... something I haven't seen since the days of FBPro '95) or has reached the mandetory retirment age for his position. Those ages are as follows:
# QB: 16
# RB: 14
# REC: 13
# OL: 15
# DL: 14
# LB: 15
# DB: 13
# P: 12
# K: 16
Be aware that this age number refers to the age of the player for the NEW season... retirement calculations take place AFTER all players are aged in the league file. So if you're looking at your roster for the current season, the number you need to be aware of is actually 1 less than the number shown. For example, if your QB's current age is 15, he WILL retire when the "Start New Season" button is pressed... it's that simple!
As the game retires players who meet this requirement, it counts how many it has booted off your team. The code calls this count "numRetired", short for "the numbers of players retired so far", or something like that.
The next action is the first random number generation, which is called "numToRetire". This is exactly what the code name says... the number of players that the game will try to retire from a given team. The number can be as low as 4 or as high as 11. It will never be any lower or higher. If you have less than 4 players retire, it's only because you got lucky with (or planned properly for) the later calculations and events!
So now, the game has two numbers... "numToRetire" and "numRetired". There are three more actions the game might take to try and eliminate players from your team, but only if the "numToRetire" is still less than "numRetired". If the random "numToRetire" is 5, and the automatic retirement takes 6 players (numRetired) from your team, retirement is over... no more players will be lost! But if "numRetired" is only 1, there is more work to be done.
FBPro '98 has three more actions it might take to retire players from your team. It will only stop if the "numRetired" finally becomes equal to or greater than "numToRetire", or it finishes all three actions. Staying with the example above, where the automatic retirement only took away 1 of the 6 players the random number generation asks for, we've still got 5 more players to lose, so the game begins it's first test.
The first test is for "early retirement". This is why a team sometimes loses a player who is quite young, for seemingly no good reason. Well, here's the reason! The game builds in a 40% chance that one player (and it's always only one) will retire up to age 5... that's anyone age R through 4 on your current roster.
The logic works something like this. A random percentage (1-100) is generated. If that number is between 1-40, the game will try to find an eligible young player to send golfing. If it's greater than 40 (41-100), the first test ends with no more players retired, and the game moves on to the second test.
If the random percentage generated IS between 1-40, the game must pick a play to retire early. First, it looks to see if anyone is eligible. Each position is searched, and the very last player is looked at. This might be a player in an inactive (I) slot... say you have 7 LB's, one of whom is "I". Or it could be a player in an open (O) slot... maybe you only have 4 RB's, the last of which is "O". It could even be a player in an active (A) slot, such as QB2 if you only have two QB's on the roster. Each "last player on the depth chart" is looked at. If any are age 5 or younger, they are selected for early retirement. If more than one player meets the criteria, one of the bunch is selected at random... the game will never retire more than one player by this method. If no players are eligible, the game moves on to the next action.
The next test is very similar to the first. Again a random percentage is generated, and if it's between 1-40 the game will try to take two more players away. Again the last player at each positional depth chart is queried. But this time the game is looking to find players that have at least 6 years experience... anyone 5 or older on your pre-retirement roster. One difference is that this query starts at the bottom of the entire roster... the last IR slot... and works it's way up until it either retires two players, retires only one but reaches the random "numToRetire" value, or runs completely out of "last depth slot" players to choose from. This small difference means this method COULD retire two players at the same position. For example, if you have 8 LB's and two are inactive, it's possible that they could be in the lowest two inactive slots on the overall roster. If both are 6 or older, the game will take away both. The second guy from the end actually becomes the last one on the depth chart after the first is retired, so he's eligible to be the second! The only saving grace here is that the player in each position's #1 slot (subpositions such as WR/TE for groups like REC are treated separately here, but the #1 player must be in an "Active" roster slot) will not retire by this method.
If, after eliminating any automatic retirements, maybe taking one young player away via early retirement, and maybe taking one or two players away who are 6 or older the "numToRetire" has not been met yet, the game has one last action it will take to try to meet that number. Again starting at the bottom of the overall roster, each player is queried. If he is within 5 seasons of the automatic retirement age for his position (listed above) and NOT in the #1 slot for his position, the player will be retired, then the game moves on to the next player. Each player is checked until the "numToRetire" is reached or there are no more players to look at.
WHEW... that's a lot of stuff going on to generate the retirements for just one team! In much more simplistic terms (don't you love how I leave the easy explanation for the end?), it goes kind of like this...
# The game makes a random choice, from 4 to 11, of how many players it wants to retire from a team.
# Any player who is CEI or at the automatic retirement age for his position is removed first.
# If more players are needed, there is a 40% chance the game will try to find one young player to retire early.
# If still MORE are needed, there is another 40% chance the game will try to retire two players with 6 or more seasons of experience.
# If the random number to retire is STILL not met, the game will retire ANY player on the roster, starting at the bottom, who is within 5 years of his position's automatic retirement age.
# A player that has reached the auto-retire age for his position will ALWAYS retire... there is absolutely nothing you can do about it.
# Conversely, a player in the #1 slot at his position will NEVER retire unless he's at the auto-retire age as long as he is "Active".
# Beyond those two givens, it's all a matter of chance *lol*!
One other question you may be asking is "who can you guarantee WON'T retire from my team?" There are very few guarantees due to the random selections, but here are a few...
# A player currently under the mandetory retirement age (i.e. a QB less than 15) will not retire as long as he is in the #1 slot for his position. These slots are: QB1, HB1, FB1, WR1, TE1, C1, G1, T1, K1, P1, DE1, DT1, LB1, CB1, S1. Unless a player is old enough to retire automatically, there is no way he will if placed in one of those roster spots and it is an "Active" slot.
# No player currently age R, 1, 2, 3, or 4 will retire UNLESS he is the very last player at his position... QB2 if you have 2 QB, LB7 if you have 7 LB, etc. If he's last, there is a chance. If there is a player older than 4 years below him (unless that player will be removed by auto-retirement), no R-4 player will be retired.
A simple anti-retirement strategy might go like this...
# Fill your #1 slots (QB1, HB1, FB1, WR1, TE1, C1, G1, T1, K1, P1, DE1, DT1, LB1, CB1, S1) with players at least age 5. Put the guys here that are older but you definitely want to keep around. Don't put anyone who is R-4 here, as you'd be wasting the protection.
# All other players should be ordered in reverse of how much you need them.
# As an example, you might do this at the LB position. LB1 is a stud, age 7... he's guaranteed to stay. LB7 is any guy you can deal with losing... this is the most vulnerable spot. LB5 and LB6 are young guys, age R-4... with the expendable player in the LB7 slot, these guys are now guaranteed to stay too, so put them as low as possible! That just leaves LB2, LB3, and LB4. Fill these spots in reverse order of who you can afford to lose... the most painful at LB2, the most replaceable at LB4. Using this setup, only LB2-4 and the sacrificial lamb at LB7 are candidates for retirement, and you've done what you can to protect the most valueable players!
So there you have it. It's the absolute truth. I'm reading the code in another window as I type this. It may not help in setting up your roster to prevent retirements, but a little knowledge can never hurt. Hopefully sometime soon I'll attach an example to this page showing how it all works using a real roster. That might make more sense. Or not. Who knows? Thank you for reading... I hope this information is helpful.
-
Rich-League Officer
- Posts: 1672
- Joined: Tue Jun 11, 2019 12:16 pm
- Location: Gilbert, Arizona
- Contact:
Re: Retirement Info
This was taken from the FBPro Academy.
Retirement, It's Gotta' Happen
Forget What You Thought You Knew, Here's The Real Story
During the 2071 off-season, LB Leighton Canham announced that he would be returning to play an unheard of 15th season. All the GMs were scrambling through their data to see if they had ever seen a linebacker play that many seasons. It was looking like our long-held doctrine of when players retire was being turned on it's head. So the league commissioned crack FBPRO investigator Todd Ricotta (also known as the USAFL PPP creator) to dive into the massive USAFL roster archive and get some real hard evidence for this mysterious retirement factor.
What he found will astound you ... Turns out we already had 23 LB's play a 15th season. Where were we? He also uncovered that there were several instances where players played beyond their critical ages, despite not being in a key starting role.
So here comes the data ... time to alter your formulas again ...
Revised Aging Matrix
POSITION SLOT MAX YR COMMENT
QB A1 15
INACTIVE 8 5 PLAYERS AT THIS AGE AND IN THIS SLOT, NONE HAVE RETURNED FOR ANOTHER SEASON. AT LEAST 1 PLAYER AT AGE 7 IN AN INACTIVE SLOT DID RETURN THE FOLLOWING SEASON.
RB A1 13
INACTIVE 12 6 PLAYERS AT THIS AGE AND IN THIS SLOT, NONE HAVE RETURNED FOR ANOTHER SEASON. AT LEAST 1 PLAYER AT AGE 11 IN AN INACTIVE SLOT DID RETURN THE FOLLOWING SEASON.
WR/TE A1 12
INACTIVE 10 8 PLAYERS AT THIS AGE AND IN THIS SLOT, NONE HAVE RETURNED FOR ANOTHER SEASON. AT LEAST 1 PLAYER AT AGE 9 IN AN INACTIVE SLOT DID RETURN THE FOLLOWING SEASON.
OL AI 14
INACTIVE 12 9 PLAYERS AT THIS AGE AND IN THIS SLOT, NONE HAVE RETURNED FOR ANOTHER SEASON. AT LEAST 1 PLAYER AT AGE 11 IN AN INACTIVE SLOT DID RETURN THE FOLLOWING SEASON.
K A1 15
INACTIVE * PRETTY MUCH GUARANTEED TO RETIRE IF LESS THAN 7.
P A1 11
INACTIVE * PRETTY MUCH GUARANTEED TO RETIRE IF LESS THAN 7.
DL A1 13
INACTIVE 10 10 PLAYERS AT THIS AGE AND IN THIS SLOT, NONE HAVE RETURNED FOR ANOTHER SEASON. AT LEAST 1 PLAYER AT AGE 9 IN AN INACTIVE SLOT DID RETURN THE FOLLOWING SEASON.
LB A1 14
INACTIVE 12 4 PLAYERS AT THIS AGE AND IN THIS SLOT, NONE HAVE RETURNED FOR ANOTHER SEASON. AT LEAST 1 PLAYER AT AGE 11 IN AN INACTIVE SLOT DID RETURN THE FOLLOWING SEASON.
DB A1 12
INACTIVE 11 1 PLAYER AT THIS AGE AND IN THIS SLOT, NONE HAVE RETURNED FOR ANOTHER SEASON. AT LEAST 1 PLAYER AT AGE 10 IN AN INACTIVE SLOT DID RETURN THE FOLLOWING SEASON.
New Aging Chart
ALL DATA FROM 2001-2071 (MODERN ERA OF USAFL)
POSITION YR PLAYERS COMMENT
QB 11 158 32.9% OF THE NUMBER OF QB's IN THE LEAGUE 5 YEARS AND YOUNGER PLAYED THROUGH THEIR MAXIMUM AGE.
12 109
13 88
14 70
15 52
TOTAL 477
RB 9 438 23.1% OF THE NUMBER OF RB's IN THE LEAGUE 5 YEARS AND YOUNGER PLAYED THROUGH THEIR MAXIMUM AGE.
10 317
11 221
12 160
13 101
TOTAL 1,237
WR/TE 8 922 12.6% OF THE NUMBER OF WR/TE's IN THE LEAGUE 5 YEARS AND YOUNGER PLAYED THROUGH THEIR MAXIMUM AGE.
9 489
10 335
11 203
12 116
TOTAL 2,065
OL 10 810 24.8% OF THE NUMBER OF OL's IN THE LEAGUE 5 YEARS AND YOUNGER PLAYED THROUGH THEIR MAXIMUM AGE.
11 518
12 387
13 298
14 201
TOTAL 2,214
K 11 76 82.9% OF THE NUMBER OF Ks IN THE LEAGUE 5 YEARS AND YOUNGER PLAYED THROUGH THEIR MAXIMUM AGE.
12 68
13 65
14 62
15 63
TOTAL 334
P 7 107 90.7% OF THE NUMBER OF Ps IN THE LEAGUE 5 YEARS AND YOUNGER PLAYED THROUGH THEIR MAXIMUM AGE.
8 103
9 101
10 99
11 97
TOTAL 507
DL 9 637 27.9% OF THE NUMBER OF DLs IN THE LEAGUE 5 YEARS AND YOUNGER PLAYED THROUGH THEIR MAXIMUM AGE.
10 420
11 309
12 236
13 178
TOTAL 1,780
LB 10 634 3.6% OF THE NUMBER OF LBs IN THE LEAGUE 5 YEARS AND YOUNGER PLAYED THROUGH THEIR MAXIMUM AGE.
11 257
12 124
13 62
14 23
TOTAL 1,100
DB 8 1,054 12.5% OF THE NUMBER OF DBs IN THE LEAGUE 5 YEARS AND YOUNGER PLAYED THROUGH THEIR MAXIMUM AGE.
9 617
10 404
11 242
12 132
TOTAL 2,449
Retirement, It's Gotta' Happen
Forget What You Thought You Knew, Here's The Real Story
During the 2071 off-season, LB Leighton Canham announced that he would be returning to play an unheard of 15th season. All the GMs were scrambling through their data to see if they had ever seen a linebacker play that many seasons. It was looking like our long-held doctrine of when players retire was being turned on it's head. So the league commissioned crack FBPRO investigator Todd Ricotta (also known as the USAFL PPP creator) to dive into the massive USAFL roster archive and get some real hard evidence for this mysterious retirement factor.
What he found will astound you ... Turns out we already had 23 LB's play a 15th season. Where were we? He also uncovered that there were several instances where players played beyond their critical ages, despite not being in a key starting role.
So here comes the data ... time to alter your formulas again ...
Revised Aging Matrix
POSITION SLOT MAX YR COMMENT
QB A1 15
INACTIVE 8 5 PLAYERS AT THIS AGE AND IN THIS SLOT, NONE HAVE RETURNED FOR ANOTHER SEASON. AT LEAST 1 PLAYER AT AGE 7 IN AN INACTIVE SLOT DID RETURN THE FOLLOWING SEASON.
RB A1 13
INACTIVE 12 6 PLAYERS AT THIS AGE AND IN THIS SLOT, NONE HAVE RETURNED FOR ANOTHER SEASON. AT LEAST 1 PLAYER AT AGE 11 IN AN INACTIVE SLOT DID RETURN THE FOLLOWING SEASON.
WR/TE A1 12
INACTIVE 10 8 PLAYERS AT THIS AGE AND IN THIS SLOT, NONE HAVE RETURNED FOR ANOTHER SEASON. AT LEAST 1 PLAYER AT AGE 9 IN AN INACTIVE SLOT DID RETURN THE FOLLOWING SEASON.
OL AI 14
INACTIVE 12 9 PLAYERS AT THIS AGE AND IN THIS SLOT, NONE HAVE RETURNED FOR ANOTHER SEASON. AT LEAST 1 PLAYER AT AGE 11 IN AN INACTIVE SLOT DID RETURN THE FOLLOWING SEASON.
K A1 15
INACTIVE * PRETTY MUCH GUARANTEED TO RETIRE IF LESS THAN 7.
P A1 11
INACTIVE * PRETTY MUCH GUARANTEED TO RETIRE IF LESS THAN 7.
DL A1 13
INACTIVE 10 10 PLAYERS AT THIS AGE AND IN THIS SLOT, NONE HAVE RETURNED FOR ANOTHER SEASON. AT LEAST 1 PLAYER AT AGE 9 IN AN INACTIVE SLOT DID RETURN THE FOLLOWING SEASON.
LB A1 14
INACTIVE 12 4 PLAYERS AT THIS AGE AND IN THIS SLOT, NONE HAVE RETURNED FOR ANOTHER SEASON. AT LEAST 1 PLAYER AT AGE 11 IN AN INACTIVE SLOT DID RETURN THE FOLLOWING SEASON.
DB A1 12
INACTIVE 11 1 PLAYER AT THIS AGE AND IN THIS SLOT, NONE HAVE RETURNED FOR ANOTHER SEASON. AT LEAST 1 PLAYER AT AGE 10 IN AN INACTIVE SLOT DID RETURN THE FOLLOWING SEASON.
New Aging Chart
ALL DATA FROM 2001-2071 (MODERN ERA OF USAFL)
POSITION YR PLAYERS COMMENT
QB 11 158 32.9% OF THE NUMBER OF QB's IN THE LEAGUE 5 YEARS AND YOUNGER PLAYED THROUGH THEIR MAXIMUM AGE.
12 109
13 88
14 70
15 52
TOTAL 477
RB 9 438 23.1% OF THE NUMBER OF RB's IN THE LEAGUE 5 YEARS AND YOUNGER PLAYED THROUGH THEIR MAXIMUM AGE.
10 317
11 221
12 160
13 101
TOTAL 1,237
WR/TE 8 922 12.6% OF THE NUMBER OF WR/TE's IN THE LEAGUE 5 YEARS AND YOUNGER PLAYED THROUGH THEIR MAXIMUM AGE.
9 489
10 335
11 203
12 116
TOTAL 2,065
OL 10 810 24.8% OF THE NUMBER OF OL's IN THE LEAGUE 5 YEARS AND YOUNGER PLAYED THROUGH THEIR MAXIMUM AGE.
11 518
12 387
13 298
14 201
TOTAL 2,214
K 11 76 82.9% OF THE NUMBER OF Ks IN THE LEAGUE 5 YEARS AND YOUNGER PLAYED THROUGH THEIR MAXIMUM AGE.
12 68
13 65
14 62
15 63
TOTAL 334
P 7 107 90.7% OF THE NUMBER OF Ps IN THE LEAGUE 5 YEARS AND YOUNGER PLAYED THROUGH THEIR MAXIMUM AGE.
8 103
9 101
10 99
11 97
TOTAL 507
DL 9 637 27.9% OF THE NUMBER OF DLs IN THE LEAGUE 5 YEARS AND YOUNGER PLAYED THROUGH THEIR MAXIMUM AGE.
10 420
11 309
12 236
13 178
TOTAL 1,780
LB 10 634 3.6% OF THE NUMBER OF LBs IN THE LEAGUE 5 YEARS AND YOUNGER PLAYED THROUGH THEIR MAXIMUM AGE.
11 257
12 124
13 62
14 23
TOTAL 1,100
DB 8 1,054 12.5% OF THE NUMBER OF DBs IN THE LEAGUE 5 YEARS AND YOUNGER PLAYED THROUGH THEIR MAXIMUM AGE.
9 617
10 404
11 242
12 132
TOTAL 2,449
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James-Eagles
- Posts: 753
- Joined: Mon Jun 17, 2019 5:52 pm
Re: Retirement Info
Rich-League Officer wrote:This was taken from the FBPro Federation.
How FBPro Retirement REALLY Works!
Okay, here's the scoop... the real deal... the TRUTH about retirement in FBPro '98. I can't guarantee accuracy when dealing with earlier versions, but this comes straight from the pieces of code that Sierra released to the public from Football Pro '98, which is the version most surviving online leagues use nowadays.
Retirement in FBPro has FOUR factors and THREE random number generations. So nothing is set in stone... you simply can't know exactly what's going to happen. You can run the "Start New Season" function on the same league file with no roster alterations twenty times, and you're going to get twenty different results. A single team may get fairly consistant results, but because of the random factors involved I seriously doubt all 20 executions would be identical for even one team. So the first rule is "be prepared for randomness".
The first of the four actions to occur is the automatic retirement of any player that has a "Career Ending Injury" (CEI... something I haven't seen since the days of FBPro '95) or has reached the mandetory retirment age for his position. Those ages are as follows:
# QB: 16
# RB: 14
# REC: 13
# OL: 15
# DL: 14
# LB: 15
# DB: 13
# P: 12
# K: 16
Be aware that this age number refers to the age of the player for the NEW season... retirement calculations take place AFTER all players are aged in the league file. So if you're looking at your roster for the current season, the number you need to be aware of is actually 1 less than the number shown. For example, if your QB's current age is 15, he WILL retire when the "Start New Season" button is pressed... it's that simple!
As the game retires players who meet this requirement, it counts how many it has booted off your team. The code calls this count "numRetired", short for "the numbers of players retired so far", or something like that.
The next action is the first random number generation, which is called "numToRetire". This is exactly what the code name says... the number of players that the game will try to retire from a given team. The number can be as low as 4 or as high as 11. It will never be any lower or higher. If you have less than 4 players retire, it's only because you got lucky with (or planned properly for) the later calculations and events!
So now, the game has two numbers... "numToRetire" and "numRetired". There are three more actions the game might take to try and eliminate players from your team, but only if the "numToRetire" is still less than "numRetired". If the random "numToRetire" is 5, and the automatic retirement takes 6 players (numRetired) from your team, retirement is over... no more players will be lost! But if "numRetired" is only 1, there is more work to be done.
FBPro '98 has three more actions it might take to retire players from your team. It will only stop if the "numRetired" finally becomes equal to or greater than "numToRetire", or it finishes all three actions. Staying with the example above, where the automatic retirement only took away 1 of the 6 players the random number generation asks for, we've still got 5 more players to lose, so the game begins it's first test.
The first test is for "early retirement". This is why a team sometimes loses a player who is quite young, for seemingly no good reason. Well, here's the reason! The game builds in a 40% chance that one player (and it's always only one) will retire up to age 5... that's anyone age R through 4 on your current roster.
The logic works something like this. A random percentage (1-100) is generated. If that number is between 1-40, the game will try to find an eligible young player to send golfing. If it's greater than 40 (41-100), the first test ends with no more players retired, and the game moves on to the second test.
If the random percentage generated IS between 1-40, the game must pick a play to retire early. First, it looks to see if anyone is eligible. Each position is searched, and the very last player is looked at. This might be a player in an inactive (I) slot... say you have 7 LB's, one of whom is "I". Or it could be a player in an open (O) slot... maybe you only have 4 RB's, the last of which is "O". It could even be a player in an active (A) slot, such as QB2 if you only have two QB's on the roster. Each "last player on the depth chart" is looked at. If any are age 5 or younger, they are selected for early retirement. If more than one player meets the criteria, one of the bunch is selected at random... the game will never retire more than one player by this method. If no players are eligible, the game moves on to the next action.
The next test is very similar to the first. Again a random percentage is generated, and if it's between 1-40 the game will try to take two more players away. Again the last player at each positional depth chart is queried. But this time the game is looking to find players that have at least 6 years experience... anyone 5 or older on your pre-retirement roster. One difference is that this query starts at the bottom of the entire roster... the last IR slot... and works it's way up until it either retires two players, retires only one but reaches the random "numToRetire" value, or runs completely out of "last depth slot" players to choose from. This small difference means this method COULD retire two players at the same position. For example, if you have 8 LB's and two are inactive, it's possible that they could be in the lowest two inactive slots on the overall roster. If both are 6 or older, the game will take away both. The second guy from the end actually becomes the last one on the depth chart after the first is retired, so he's eligible to be the second! The only saving grace here is that the player in each position's #1 slot (subpositions such as WR/TE for groups like REC are treated separately here, but the #1 player must be in an "Active" roster slot) will not retire by this method.
If, after eliminating any automatic retirements, maybe taking one young player away via early retirement, and maybe taking one or two players away who are 6 or older the "numToRetire" has not been met yet, the game has one last action it will take to try to meet that number. Again starting at the bottom of the overall roster, each player is queried. If he is within 5 seasons of the automatic retirement age for his position (listed above) and NOT in the #1 slot for his position, the player will be retired, then the game moves on to the next player. Each player is checked until the "numToRetire" is reached or there are no more players to look at.
WHEW... that's a lot of stuff going on to generate the retirements for just one team! In much more simplistic terms (don't you love how I leave the easy explanation for the end?), it goes kind of like this...
# The game makes a random choice, from 4 to 11, of how many players it wants to retire from a team.
# Any player who is CEI or at the automatic retirement age for his position is removed first.
# If more players are needed, there is a 40% chance the game will try to find one young player to retire early.
# If still MORE are needed, there is another 40% chance the game will try to retire two players with 6 or more seasons of experience.
# If the random number to retire is STILL not met, the game will retire ANY player on the roster, starting at the bottom, who is within 5 years of his position's automatic retirement age.
# A player that has reached the auto-retire age for his position will ALWAYS retire... there is absolutely nothing you can do about it.
# Conversely, a player in the #1 slot at his position will NEVER retire unless he's at the auto-retire age as long as he is "Active".
# Beyond those two givens, it's all a matter of chance *lol*!
One other question you may be asking is "who can you guarantee WON'T retire from my team?" There are very few guarantees due to the random selections, but here are a few...
# A player currently under the mandetory retirement age (i.e. a QB less than 15) will not retire as long as he is in the #1 slot for his position. These slots are: QB1, HB1, FB1, WR1, TE1, C1, G1, T1, K1, P1, DE1, DT1, LB1, CB1, S1. Unless a player is old enough to retire automatically, there is no way he will if placed in one of those roster spots and it is an "Active" slot.
# No player currently age R, 1, 2, 3, or 4 will retire UNLESS he is the very last player at his position... QB2 if you have 2 QB, LB7 if you have 7 LB, etc. If he's last, there is a chance. If there is a player older than 4 years below him (unless that player will be removed by auto-retirement), no R-4 player will be retired.
A simple anti-retirement strategy might go like this...
# Fill your #1 slots (QB1, HB1, FB1, WR1, TE1, C1, G1, T1, K1, P1, DE1, DT1, LB1, CB1, S1) with players at least age 5. Put the guys here that are older but you definitely want to keep around. Don't put anyone who is R-4 here, as you'd be wasting the protection.
# All other players should be ordered in reverse of how much you need them.
# As an example, you might do this at the LB position. LB1 is a stud, age 7... he's guaranteed to stay. LB7 is any guy you can deal with losing... this is the most vulnerable spot. LB5 and LB6 are young guys, age R-4... with the expendable player in the LB7 slot, these guys are now guaranteed to stay too, so put them as low as possible! That just leaves LB2, LB3, and LB4. Fill these spots in reverse order of who you can afford to lose... the most painful at LB2, the most replaceable at LB4. Using this setup, only LB2-4 and the sacrificial lamb at LB7 are candidates for retirement, and you've done what you can to protect the most valueable players!
So there you have it. It's the absolute truth. I'm reading the code in another window as I type this. It may not help in setting up your roster to prevent retirements, but a little knowledge can never hurt. Hopefully sometime soon I'll attach an example to this page showing how it all works using a real roster. That might make more sense. Or not. Who knows? Thank you for reading... I hope this information is helpful.
This is the closest to being right I can tell you that much If I remember right I think one of the max ages is wrong but not 100% sure if that is correct.
"# If the random number to retire is STILL not met, the game will retire ANY player on the roster, starting at the bottom, who is within 5 years of his position's automatic retirement age."
Once you get to this point it goes by distance from max age it retire everyone 1 year from max before it retires a person 2 years from max and so on.
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James-Eagles
- Posts: 753
- Joined: Mon Jun 17, 2019 5:52 pm
Re: Retirement Info (2037 Season)
Bump for information
If you have questions I am happy to answer just realize that it might take up to 24 hours to reply.
If you have questions I am happy to answer just realize that it might take up to 24 hours to reply.
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Charlie-49ers
- Posts: 803
- Joined: Tue Jun 11, 2019 4:36 pm
- Location: Anthem, AZ
Re: Retirement Info (2037 Season)
So, the abbreviated version is that you take the number of players that had concussion symptoms during the season, determine if they are on Medicare, multiply them by the number of hairs in Grizzly Adams beard and divide by the number of bubbles in a bar of soap, I got it.
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