OK, here is my suggestion for the draft pick engine and the draft board sorting.

Since a few had big problems with the existing system, I think it needs improvement.
I discussed this with Peter in private some time ago and now he let me go to suggest it, so ... here it comes.

1. Existing system:
The existing system works that way:
Sort your players, you can label some with "1 round", "2 round" or "3 round" labels.
"any round" label is the default.

On draft day the engine does:
- look for players labeled for that exact round. If some are found, it picks the highest sorted of that bunch.
- if no player labeled is found for that round, it picks the highest sorted player overall, even if it is labeled for later rounds.

This can lead to:
- taking more than one player of a position you only need 1 player from
- taking a player you labeled for 2 or 3 round in the first, because he is sorted highest while picking
- taking players you didn't wanted, because it was sorted somewhere in the middle and was somehow at that moment the highest sorted player

2. My suggestion for a change
I suggest to change the interpretion of the labeling from a "look only for that round" point of view to a "this player is worth a x. round pick".
So a 1. round pick labeled player is worth a 1., 2. and 3. round pick.
A 2. round pick labeled player is worth a 2. and 3. round pick.
And a 3. round labeled player is worth a 3. round pick.
A player labeled with "any" is worth a 1. round pick!

In addition I suggest to add a POSITIONS NEED list for every draft board which allows to define the needed players postion and how many on that position are needed.
I think the best would be a few slots (min. 3, max 6 I would say) where you can define your needs.
Example
Slot 1 LB
Slot 2 OL
Slot 3 CB
Slot 4 LB
Slot 5 QB
Slot 6 DL

Min. 3 because of the 3 draft picks. Maximum 6, to give the engine some options if all players on positions defined in the first three slots are gone.
You don't want a Kicker, if you can still could use a good Safty, right?

AND in addition I suggest a drop down field with two values with description IN DOUBT or IF NOT AVAILABLE TAKE and values:
"A PLAYER OF A NEEDED POSITION WORTH ANY ROUND" and "A PLAYER WITH BEST VALUE"

This would lead to such behaviour:
- look for player labeled for that round or higher. Look for position needs in first 3 slots. If players are available, take highest sorted,
- if not look for position needs in slot 4-6. if players are available, take highest sorted.
- if not, look for the dropdown. if "Position worth any" ->
- repeat with step 1 (look for players labeled) but look for players with label of that round, higher and 1 round lower.
- if still no players is found take all players (in case this happens in first round),
- if still no player is found take highest sorted. Bad luck.
- if the dropdown has value "BEST VALUE", take highest sorted player with highest label!

example:

You label the avialable players:

PLAYER POSITION MANAGER 1 MANAGER 2 MANAGER 3 MANAGER 4
Player 1 QB 1. 1. 2. 1.
Player 2 LB 1. 1. 1. 1.
Player 3 OL 1. 2. 1. 3.
Player 4 WR 2. 3. 2. 2.
Player 5 K 3. 3. 3. 3.
Player 6 G 3. 3. 3. 3.
Player 7 CB 1. 1. 1. 2.
Player 8 LB 1. 2. 2. 2.
Player 9 DL 1. 2. 2. 3.
Player 10 FB 2. 3. 2. 3.
Player 11 HB 3. 3. 3. 3.
Player 12 SF 2. 3. 2. 2.

Now 4 managers are picking, needs, slot 4-6 for backup, dropdown in ():
Manager 1
QB, DL, SF / DL, LB, WR (BEST VALUE)
Manager 2
QB, CB, LB / DL, OL, HB (BEST VALUE)
Manager 3
WR, OL, P / LB, HB, DL (WORTH ANY)
Manager 4
LB, HB, QB / DL, OL, SF (WORTH ANY)

Player 5 K 3. 3. 3. 3.
Player 6 G 3. 3. 3. 3.

1. Round
Manager 1 is in need of a QB and QB is available worth a 1 rounder -> Player 1 (highest sorted, DL is lower sorted)
Manager 2 is in need of a LB and a LB is available worth a 1 rounder -> player 2 (highest sorted, CB is lower sorted)
Manager 3 is in need of a OL and a OL is available worth a 1 rounder -> player 3
Manager 4 is in need of a LB, HB and QB but there is no player available worth 1 rounder. dropdown WORTH ANY, so look for round 1+2. There is a LB worth (LB in primary needs) a 2. rounder -> player 8

2. Round
Manager 1 is in need of a DL and DL is available worth a 1 rounder -> player 9
Manager 2 is in need of a CB and a CB is available worth a 1 rounder -> player 7
Manager 3 is in need of a WR and a WR is available worth a 2 rounder -> player 4
Manager 4 is in need of a LB, HB, QB, but non is available worth a 2 rounder. is in need of a SF as Backup and one is available worth a 2 rounder -> player 12

3. Round
Manager 1 can't find a player needed and has dropdown as BEST VALUE. There is a player worth a 2. rounder -> player 10
Manager 2 is in need of a QB, but non available. Backup needs are DL, OL and HB. There is a Hb available worth a 3. rounder -> player 11
Manager 3 can't finde any needed player and s e l e c t highest sorted overall -> player 5
Manager 4 can't finde any needed player and s e l e c t highest sorted overall -> player 6

I hope that makes it clear.
I'm sure there is some tweaking needed, but it seems that solves a lot of problems.

Now please -> pick it apart!

EDIT: I would also like to suggest a sorting function based on the label. And it would be nice to do sortings on sorted lists, like 1. sort by label, then by position.

I need 2 things:

1) sort the draft list all players without any "limitations" which is currently available with the any round

2) new the proposed "pick max x in position y" by jack

Why i dont need the "is worth a x round pick":

I do sort anyway the way they are worth and if a player i sort order 1-32 in round 1 is available he would pick one of that anyway so no risk to pick in round 1 a player from lower 33 what would be a 2nd round pick

Only to think about and need to override and it will happen only very limited

when i say max 2 LB and i get LB in round 1 and 2 and then in round 3 there is only LB available to pick then it is bad luck and make sure the engine dont crash

That would still be possible, "any" would be equal "1 round or later". So if you sort your players from 1 to 96 according the value you think they have and they are all labeled "ANY" then the engine always picks from ALL players.

I purposed 6 slots, each for one position. You can put in QB, OL and OL in the first three and the engine will try to pick those players based and your sorting. Just for clarification.

So, don't do it and work with "ANY", see above.

I don't get that sentence. Can you describe it a different way?

The engine wouldn't crash, since this can only happen when no player needed is available.

Oh, I forgot something.
I will edit it in my suggestion. See above.

Could this be accomplished in an easier way?

As Turtle points out, the current draft board is set up to let you rank the players 1-96, and that works well.

However, the tricky bit is providing the game engine with information about how many players you want at a certain position.

Couldn't we simply have a position list and a # limit to accomplish this? (I'm a big fan of 'simple is better')

QB: 1
RB: 1
FB: 0
WR: 1
OL: 3
TE: 1
P: 0
K: 0

(etc)

With the indicated number telling the game engine the maximum number of players who want to draft at that position.

Or am I missing something here? (Since I will 99.9% draft the best available athlete, the current 1-96 ranking works perfect for me.)


...slightly off topic:
I can't (or don't know how to) sort the Draft Board based on my ranking. Once I've gone in and pulled the players' cards up and down into the order I want, I'm afraid to use the sorting options at the top of the board because I don't see a way to resort them back the way I have them.

Would it be possible to add a dropdown tab 1-96 next to the player's name that could be used to resort them back into my order?

OK, but how does the engine decide which position to pick first?
I mean, you sorted all your players ... fine.
No everyone is picking, until it is your turn.
I take your list above, so the engine takes now an O-Line, because he is highest. Fine.
Now it goes on and you get again an O-line and at last you get WR.
But you could have used an RB more than any other player, put it all which were available were behind your O-Liner.
So you never got one.
What I mean is, if you set up more than 3 positions with more or equal 1 player ... how does the engine decide, that you really want an O-line, a RB and a WR?
Remember that not everyone likes to pick BEST AVAILABLE.

If you use that buttons after you sorted some players already, you l
loose your sorting.
Did you try the export to excel?

Because of sorting!

I put all QB first from eg 1-5

When i say pick max 2 QB even in 2nd round the engine would pick me a QB

Or going to next

I put all QB first from 1-5
then all LB from 6-12
then all WR from 13-17

and i say (great explain Lee)

QB 1
LB 2
WR 2

So in round 1 engine try QB because i rank them all first
If available picks QB and done because i want only 1 if not available engine tries LB

The way as Lee explain will serve for all very easy way

All other combinations will require a live draft and this is not possible in such a game

I also ask for this and i full understand you and i was turned down by admin without any declaration why

So i hope he listen to you and starts to rethink again the petition

the export to Excel feature worked great. And I massaged the heck out of the data. Oh, yeah.

But once I had sorted them on my in-game Draft Board I was afraid of losing the order by using one of the in-game sort options.

Maybe the admin is losing any fun when he reads such stuff...

You are measuring in 2 different ways...when you suggest something in other games you did never get any feedback...and you were pleased with it. Here you get feedback, and are behaving as this admin here is the worst possible...

But this system does NOT help if you have for prio 1 QB, LB and WR and you could live with another LB or WR.

My system does all that AND your stuff, since you don't HAVE to use the labels and just sort as you like.

I would not put in 13 fields for all positions and put behind them a number, because of above situation.
From my point of view 3 prio 1 and 3 backup is fine, but i have nothing against a few more. But without prios it is not complete.