[zonk84]

to include triggers in the news story generation? Since certain elements -- at least for player stories -- already need to happen, I'm thinking so?

I.e., rather than complete stories more or less randomly selected, setting certain criteria to include key sentences/clauses/descriptions based on a few simple criteria.... or would such a lookup in the text generation be too taxing while maintaining sim speed?

I was thinking something like - just as few quick examples....

1. Maybe short little lookups to grab an adjective or clause:
Chicago sports radio won't have Dusty Baker to kick around any more. Baker's $Get_tenure ("short" if 1-3, NULL if 3-5 seasons, lengthy if 5+) tenure captaining the Good ship Cub ran aground on the shoals of a rocky start to the 2006 season.

Or -- even tailor the story 'slant' to circumstances....

Perform a lookup on relative player total for say -- the last 3 years, yielding para2, either:

1 (if payroll increased or remained relatively constant -- or, compares favorably to the rest of the division/league) == With Cub management opening the checkbook -- the Cubs have had one the five largest payrolls in baseball since 2004 -- GM Jim Hendry felt the time had come for a change. "The team just never came together. We felt the talent was there, but the record wasn't. With X months of baseball left, we think there's still time to turn things around."

or

2 (if payroll fell) == Baker's defenders point out that the Cubs have been steadily slashing payroll since 2004, losing a number of talented players to free agency over the past two seasons.

or

3 (if no pattern) == skip... and maybe do another lookup, like say... pythag record -- and enter another loop.

Basically -- instead of complete stories, figure 3 paras...

Para1 would be an introduction - maybe doing a few simple lookups for adjectives (short/lengthy for tenure.... "shocking firing"/"unsuprising"/etc depending on career record)

Para2 would result from some sort of performance relative to whatever (payroll... record... etc), with several options depending on the results.

Para3 would then become the wrap-up -- maybe an age lookup would result in "is this the end of the line?" text... etc