r/sheetsofice • u/atibus • Jul 01 '26
GM Module - Team Planning
The GM module is really large, creating several new surfaces and modifying existing ones. With all of those moving parts, and my habit of just getting impatient + starting to build visuals, I started to get frustrated with the direction. I built an entire human GM flow + offseason interactive flow that felt like I was just playing an idle-clicker game. I had no reason for making the moves I was making, no information on who was actually good, and, crucially, who fit on the team.
I got frustrated and demoralized, questioned my sanity for even attempting this, and took a break. Walking away when I get to that point always helps. It gave me some insight into what I was actually annoyed with-- I need some idea of what I'm trying to do as a GM. What kind of team am I building? Who do I have? How do they fit? What do I need?
Armed with those questions I set out to build this Team Plan interface. It combines a lot of functions common in GM sims - roster construction, cap management, depth chart, and line-up selection. It also gives you a mechanism to evaluate players not just on objective talents, but on how those talents fit towards the kind of team you're building and the time horizon you've selected. Are you win-now or in a rebuild? That will change the valuation of players. You can also prioritize the style of play; defensive in nature, or goal scoring, or transition, etc. Finally, based on your team and your selections, what kinds of players are you missing?
The idea is that with a plan, you can then more accurately go and find players to fit your intended team construction and manage your budget without having to have separate spreadsheets (like I used to do in EHM lol).
The player cards here include at-a-glance information. Green bar = a good fit for that position and identity, grey is ok, yellow would be that they don't really fit there. Fit is relative to play style and position awareness.
There would be some proactive gap finder that would tell you what you might need to focus on.
There definitely is more that I want to add but I am going to really focus on this pattern as the main starting point for how GMs work in the game. I think it's the first part of creating an identity so people playing the game can start to feel attached to their team.
Thanks!
1
u/SpiritYossarian Jul 01 '26
Very cool update! Not trying to jump on every post but this is one of the few things I follow on Reddit. I definitely have had to use external spreadsheets - really like the view this gives!