My New Aging System

[djday45]

Hi guys,
having recently seen a rash of people looking at the aging question for their universes, I thought I would also give it a go. Pls let me know what you think good or bad.

First a couple of words about what I wanted out of it.
1. I wanted to base it on fighter attributes already in the game rather than arbitary formulas for when aging should occur.
2. Secondly I wanted the effect of a fighters skills and body worsen due to age and wear and tear that it be different for each fighter and a more gradual process than currently iused with the post prime/end modifiers.

The System I came up with splits into three main sections.
1. How quickly a fighter gains experiance and know how to go from Beginning stage, then to pre-prime and finally to prime.

2. How and when a fighters skills start to go downhill from his prime.

3. Which skills and attributes get worse.


1. EARLY EXPERIANCE SYSTEM

To simulate a fighter learning his craft at the early stages of his career he earns a series of experiance points each time he fights.
When a fighter reaches 100 experiance points he moves from the beginning career stage to Pre-Prime. When a fighter has earned 200 experiance points he moves from Pre- Prime to Prime.

A fighter starts of with a number of experiance points at the beginning of his fistic carrer equal to his intelligence rating X3. This will give him a beginning EXP of between 3 to 30 and represnents how quick a learner he is in both the gym and in fights.

The young fighter also earns points each time he fights depending on the result as follows.

Stoppage Loss = 2 points
Unanimous Decison Loss = 5 points
Majority or Split Decison Loss = 10 points.
Stoppage Win = 5 points.
Unanimous Decision Win = 10 points.
Majority or Split Decision Loss = 15 points
Draw = 15 Points.

These points can be noted down and amended in the fighters history section after each fight.

The thinking behind the point values is a fighter learns more the more rounds he gets under his belt so decisions are worth more than stoppages experiance wise. Also close competitive fights such as draws, and close decisions are again worth more experiance wise than decisions which were not so close.

2. Aging Points
Also from the start of his career a fighter earns Aging points which act like a percentage and are checked each year to see if his physical/boxing skills have started to go downhill.
This can start from any age but tends to rapidly increase once a fighter has got into his thirties.

A fighter gains Aging points as follows

Each Knockdown +1 Point
Each KO Loss +10 Points
Each TKO Loss +20 Points
Each TKO by Swelling Loss +10 Points
Each TKO by Cuts Loss +5 Points

The above points are accumilated from the very beginning of a fighters career.

Once a fighter reaches the age of 30 his body begins to age and he recieives a number of extra aging points dependent on his physical condition rating as follows.

1. Near Perfect +5 Points
2. Well Conditioned +10 Points
3. Borderline Condition +20 Points
4. Weight Problems +40 Points
5. Party Animal +50 Points
6. Aging Inconsistent Vet +60 Points
7. Inactive Fighter +40 Points
8. Fights Too Frequently +30 Points
9. Headcase +15 Points
10. Malcontent +20 Points
11. Physical + Mental Problems +60 Points
12. Seldom if Ever Trains +75 Points

The Above points are added to the fighters ongoing Aging point total from knockdowns, TKO's etc.

Lastly for each extra year a fighter carries on (eg. 31,32 etc) he gains another 10 Aging points.

Aging points are checked once at the start of each year and act like a percentage chance of a aging effect taking place.
For example if a fighter had 60 aging points he would have a 60% chance of an aging effect being applied to him that year.
Pls note aging points can go over 100. In this case he receives an autiomatic aging effect and you check again to see if he receives a second aging effect that year.. for example if a fighter had 130 aging points he receives one aging effect automatically then has a 30% chance of receiving a second effect that year.

If a fighter rolls between 95-100 on his aging check he automatically LOSES 50 aging points. This is to simulate fighters such as Archie Moore, Joe Brown and Jersey Joe Walcott who sometimes seem to defy the aging process.

Lastly each time a fighter suffers a KO or TKO he has to make an immediate aging check over and above the normal yearly check.
This means if a fighter starts to loss by stoppage reguarly his physical decline can become very rapid indeed.

3. Aging Effect Table.
Each time a fighter receives an aging effect from his aging points he rolls once on this table and applies the results to his current ratings.

1-20 Both Control Factors worsened by 1.
21-40 Punches Landed worsened by 2.
41-60 Defense worsened by 2.
61-65 Hitting Power worsened by 1.
66-70 Chin VS. Knockdown worsened by 1.
71-75 Recovery worsened by 1.
76-80 Chin VS. Knockout worsened by 1.
81-85 Counter Punching worsened by 2.
86-90 Endurance worsened by 1.
91-95 Cut Resistance worsened by 1.
96-100 Absorb Punishment worsened by 1.

This chart effects only those boxing attributes that are usually effected by age, it is slanted heavily to effect the "reflex attributes" of CF, PL and DEF as these are usually the attributes most heavily effected when a fighter is past his prime.

Let me know what you think.

Rgds
Dean

[ricky j]

Dean,

I've been looking over the ageing schemes everyone has posted. They all have some good ideas, but on paper yours seems to be the most thought out. I'm going to try it in my world and see if it works as well as it appears that it will. Good job!
I've got one question. How are you going to decide when a boxer retires?

Rick

[djday45]

Ricky,
thks very much. On the question of retirement the method I use is quite simple and based on a flat percentage chance dependent on the fighter reaching certain levels of aging points.

Once a fighter reaches

50 Aging points = 25% chance of Retirement
100 Aging Points = 50% chance of Retirement
150 Aging points = 75% chance of Retirement
200 Aging points = 100% chance of Retirement

This nicely simulates that some fighters go early while other guys go on and on almost to the point of being a pale shadow of their former selves.

What it does not simulate is if an unbeaten champion or one that just lost his title decides to call it a day before he goes too downhill eg Marciano, Monzon, Lewis, Tunney etc.

To simulate this each time a Champ is 30+ and has the following occur during a title defense there is a small chance he will call it a day and retire as champion creating a vacancy for the title.

Each Knockdown = 2% chance
Majority/Split Win = 5% chance
Draw = 5% chance
Majority/Split Loss = 10% chance
Unanimous Loss = 10% chance
Stoppage on Cuts = 10% chance
Stoppage on Swelling = 15% chance
Stoppage on TKO/KO = 20% chance

The fight result percentage is culmlative with the number of knockdowns (if any) to produce the final chance of a shock early retirement.
For example in the first Foreman-Frazier fight, Frazier would have a 32% chance of Retiiring (TKO loss and six knockdowns).

Remember this only applies to a Champ who is already 30+

If a champion wins by stoppage or unanimous decision he will have no chance of retirement unless he has been knocked down in the fight.

hope that helps

Rgds
Dean

[mking55]

Dean,

Maybe you said this but I have a question and then more questions.

I see where a fighter starts set to "Beginner" and then at x points moves to "pre-prime" and then with x points moves to "prime". I do not see (maybe I am blind) if you move the fighter to "post-prime" and "end". Do you? Or do you just modify the ratings to reflect their career stage? Their career stage will always be "prime" until they retire?

It sounds really nifty (technical term meaning good) what you have done. I enjoy reading what people come up with. I don't think I have the patience to monitor such a system. How long (in game playing time) does it take you to advance a year? How many fighters do you have and how many divisions? How do you know how many fighters to introduce into the game and when?

Thanks in advance for the answers.

Martin

[Hoeksam]

I think what Dean was referring to was that it would just be continuous (at least that's how I interpreted it... from Prime to Post-Prime was 300 points, Post-Prime to End was 400 points) I may be wrong, so if I am, let me know.

BTW, Dean, this is a very excellent program to use for experience and aging. I, too, am going to attempt to use it in my current league. I've modified it slightly so fighters earn less experience points are earned per fight and it takes a little longer to reach the End career stage, but otherwise, this is very, very good.

[djday45]

Guys,
to be clear, I DO NOT use the post prime and end career stages, instead the fighter is degraded slowly directly amending his prime ratings as aging effects come up each year on the aging effects table.

This was one of the main reasons I devised the system in that I wanted the fighters to degrade to age in different ways as in real life, no one size fits all so to speak.

Some guys chins will go, others reflexes, etc, etc.

Also I feel sometimes the rating changes for post prime and end can be too severe too quickly, one minute you have a champ doing really well and as soon as you put him at post prime you know he will start losing pretty reguarly. With this system the downgrade is much more gentle (in most cases) and feels more realistic.

They are many cases of fighters skills slowly eroding and as fans we can see the slow erosion before a fighter gets so far over the hill he starts to become an opponent rather than a top grade fighter good examples would be Duran, Hagler, Hearns and Leonard from recent years. Sooner or later age was apparent on them all but they did not become post prime "overnight".

To answer your other question Martin, the system is more work to carry out, but I find it worthwhile as it gives a very worthwhile way of tracking "aging".
The vast majority of the work takes place at the start of each "year" as you make aging checks for all your fighters and amend their prime ratings if needed.
Once this is done it does not take much time to update fighters aging/experiance points after each fight and make more aging rolls if they have been stopped. I use the history section of a fighter to record his current experiance/aging points and it works well.

Rgds
Dean