New to tweaking

[Greg F]

I tried to start tweaking last year, but I had one health problem after another.  Plus, I have a toddler LOL

I am trying to tweak a lot of bases before my solitaire league resumes in August, including my TTC bases from the 80s, single clip bases I received with a bunch of Haiti figures from EBay, several different types of Proline (rookie and DCB) I bought and CL1 and Blitz bases from ITZ.

So far, I feel I’ve been pretty successful, especially with the fast bases.  
 

Some questions:

Will weight slow down a fast base that I seem to have tweaked very stable without weight?

Can y’all give me an idea of the strengths and weaknesses of the different bases I’ve listed?  I’ve started to learn already by tweaking, but it wouldn’t hurt to get a headstart from knowledgeable people like yourselves 😊

I’ve never really understood how a rookie type base can be made to turn, though obviously mine aren’t all straight.   Any advice?  

Thanks!!!

[Terry43]

Hi Greg. Tweaking is my least favorite part of the hobby. That said, with a bit of tweaking any base can be a Franchise base. However for every one that is a franchise base you will have five that are going straight to the circular file.

The base and the plastic player work together. Change the player and you change the tendency of the base. 

Plastic has memory. You can flatten, beavertail, melt, trim, and twist and twenty minutes later the base will return to its original tendency. Bases won't stay tweaked. In my opinion the best way to tweak a Tudor base is to play games. It may take four or five games but the base will settle in to a consistent pattern. This is not true of ITZ CL1 and Blitz bases. They absolutely must be flattened, beavertailed, melted, trimmed, and twisted. (i.e. tweaked).

The Law of Diminishing Returns will set in. Next year at this time you will be lucky to get one starter out of ten.

A great paint job, beautiful water slide numbers, and a truly lifelike pose won't make a base a Franchise base. Find the best base/player combination and then paint.

Keep your playbook simple. Good luck! T43

[Greg F]

Wow!  I had no clue the ITZ bases were a one-and done type thing.  Very disappointing!

[Terry43]

I wouldn't say 'one and done,' but I've spent many hours tweaking ITZ bases with little return on my investment. At present I have five teams that ride on ITZ bases. Three of the teams ride on CL-2 bases because I prefer the firmer formula 55 and formula 100 plastic. Two teams ride on Blitz bases which is the softer formula 37 plastic. According to ITZ the softer plastic is easier for beginners to tweak. I believe the ITZ Starter bases are formula 37.

The Big Horn Rams (CL-2 bases) are my reigning Fruit Bowl Champions (my Fruit Bowl is equivalent to the NFL's Super Bowl) and it looks like they will repeat again this current season. So ITZ's claim of championship bases can be accurate.

The teams in the picture are the Big Horn Rams, the Arctic Vortex, the Diamond Dawgs, The Golden Grizzlies, and the Norsemen. I'm currently transitioning the Arctic Vortex from Blitz Light Blue to Gray CL-2. 🥲 I broke my own rule-of-thumb and painted the Arctic Vortex to match the base color. 

Have fun and enjoy your journey! 😃 T43

[Greg F]

9 hours ago, Terry43 said:

I wouldn't say 'one and done,' but I've spent many hours tweaking ITZ bases with little return on my investment. At present I have five teams that ride on ITZ bases. Three of the teams ride on CL-2 bases because I prefer the firmer formula 55 and formula 100 plastic. Two teams ride on Blitz bases which is the softer formula 37 plastic. According to ITZ the softer plastic is easier for beginners to tweak. I believe the ITZ Starter bases are formula 37.

The Big Horn Rams (CL-2 bases) are my reigning Fruit Bowl Champions (my Fruit Bowl is equivalent to the NFL's Super Bowl) and it looks like they will repeat again this current season. So ITZ's claim of championship bases can be accurate.

The teams in the picture are the Big Horn Rams, the Arctic Vortex, the Diamond Dawgs, The Golden Grizzlies, and the Norsemen. I'm currently transitioning the Arctic Vortex from Blitz Light Blue to Gray CL-2. 🥲 I broke my own rule-of-thumb and painted the Arctic Vortex to match the base color. 

Have fun and enjoy your journey! 😃 T43

I think the Arctic Vortex player and base look good together 

[Coach Shawn]

On 4/10/2023 at 7:35 PM, Terry43 said:

The base and the plastic player work together. Change the player and you change the tendency of the base. 

Great point.   This cannot be understated.   Try a base on multiple figure types before risking further tweeking that could destroy a base.

I have even had bases run differently for figures with the same pose.

[Terry43]

4 hours ago, Coach Shawn said:

Great point.   This cannot be understated.   Try a base on multiple figure types before risking further tweeking that could destroy a base.

I have even had bases run differently for figures with the same pose.

Absolutely! 

[Greg F]

I will include this into my tweaking process.  

[zak99b5]

I haven't tried to tweak many bases, and the attempts I have made resulted in failure.

So instead of tweaking, I just go through trial after trial with lots and lots of bases to find the ones that "naturally" do what I want them to.

When I find a few TTC bases that run how I want, I then pit them against each other to find the strongest of the strong to build my linemen.

Wide receivers and TE, I look for a base that can "catch" a blue-stick (longest) pass with very minimal off-set aiming.  

For the running backs, I like to have them catch a white-stick (middle) pass with minimal aiming, but also have an arc to thier run, one curving one way and one the other.

Takes looking through A LOT of bases to find these performers, but it seems worth it.

[Greg F]

That’s pretty much what I did this past season, except I don’t use passing sticks 

[Terry43]

On 4/18/2023 at 6:10 AM, zak99b5 said:

So instead of tweaking, I just go through trial after trial with lots and lots of bases to find the ones that "naturally" do what I want them to.

When I find a few TTC bases that run how I want, I then pit them against each other to find the strongest of the strong to build my linemen.

I believe the word "naturally" is spot on. I do tweaking the same way. Sometimes it takes playing four or five games for a base to reveal its true talent. I've had bases start out strong and get weak; and conversely weak bases that get stronger literally with each quarter. This is why I draft new players from teams that have game experience.

The same is true of receivers running straight, or patterns, and tailbacks running straight or curved. It just takes time to discover what's "natural."

On 4/18/2023 at 6:10 AM, zak99b5 said:

Takes looking through A LOT of bases to find these performers, but it seems worth it.

Absolutely true. Definitely worth it!

 

On 4/10/2023 at 8:35 PM, Terry43 said:

However for every one that is a franchise base you will have five that are going straight to the circular file.

This is difficult but some bases will never be competitive.

The Tudor Webpage states, "Methods exist to permanently train your Bases to perform any way you like. This is called "tweaking"...

I believe there may be a tiny bit of truth to this statement, but by and large, tweaking is temporary. Unless you ruin the base. 🥺 That's permanent. 🤢

Enjoy the journey. T43 🍺

[Coach Shawn]

On 4/19/2023 at 12:08 PM, Terry43 said:

he Tudor Webpage states, "Methods exist to permanently train your Bases to perform any way you like. This is called "tweaking"...

I believe there may be a tiny bit of truth to this statement, but by and large, tweaking is temporary. Unless you ruin the base. 🥺 That's permanent. 🤢

I have found with my competition team that I have to practice them before each week’s game as the performance of the bases changes.

This seems especially true for my Strength bases.   I test my strongmen and adjust My lines weekly based on who is currently stronger.   Often the figures will be strong, then weak, then back to strong in the 3rd week.   And as stated in previous posts above, I have noted the figures which are more consistently at the top.

I have long planned to test how temperatures effect the bases.  

[Terry43]

Hi Coach Shawn. Cold should make a difference.

"Vibrations travel best through solids, because the molecules are closer together in solids." 

Bases should improve because the plastic should become more dense and the prongs should transmit vibration to forward motion more efficiently. However,

"At high temperatures, atoms will vibrate more vigorously than they would at room temperature. Conversely, atoms vibrate less at colder temperatures. In a conductor like copper, these vibrations can cause resistance for flowing electrons."

So, I'm thinking a temperature increase, or decrease, of 20 degrees won't make a difference. 🤔 But it might. 😃 Standing by for your results. Enjoy the Journey. T43 🍺

 

Edited April 22, 2023 by Terry43

[Terry43]

Hi. On the subject of heat and cold effecting bases and base prongs.

On 4/22/2023 at 9:02 AM, Coach Shawn said:

I have long planned to test how temperatures effect the bases.

I was thinking, heat emerges from molecular vibration. I stole this off the internet.

The number of cycles that a vibrating object completes in one second is called frequency. The unit of frequency is hertz (Hz). One hertz equals one cycle per second.

I stole this from Wikipedia

The audible frequency range for humans is typically given as being between about 20 Hz and 20,000 Hz

We can definitely hear the vibrations of an electric football field. I was hoping to find a table of heat generated in different materials and at different hertz. I didn't so I must be approaching the question incorrectly.

"This example models heat generation in a beam-like structure subjected to small amplitude vibrations." https://www.comsol.com/model/heat-generation-in-a-vibrating-structure-2205

My take away from this thought problem is that a prong starts at room temperature and then — when the field is turned on — heats up and soften a bit. The heating caused by vibration may cause the prong to behave differently when the field is running.

So, like athletes, warming up is a good idea.

I'm going to start placing all my players on the field and running it for a minute before I start the game. I'm going to warm up the tips of those prongs. This may (fingers crossed 🤞) cause the bases to perform more consistently. 

Enjoy the Journey T43 ⚡🏈♾️

[Coach Shawn]

On 5/18/2023 at 12:15 PM, Terry43 said:

My take away from this thought problem is that a prong starts at room temperature and then — when the field is turned on — heats up and soften a bit. The heating caused by vibration may cause the prong to behave differently when the field is running.

I have noticed that this is true.  My players do seem to run better after they have been on the field for a little while.

One of the aspects of tweaking that I want to test is;

My presupposition is that your bases are optimized to run best when the temperature of your game environment matches the temperature that prevailed while you accomplished the tweak.

Therefore colder or hotter temperatures should have an effect on the base movement. 
Perhaps there is an optimal temperature that you should tweak at to get the best performance in a variety of game weather conditions.

Often I tweak in the heat of summer and think I have tweaked a champion only to find once the cold winter hits the base gets benched.

[Terry43]

10 minutes ago, Coach Shawn said:

Therefore colder or hotter temperatures should have an effect on the base movement. 
Perhaps there is an optimal temperature that you should tweak at to get the best performance in a variety of game weather conditions.

Often I tweak in the heat of summer and think I have tweaked a champion only to find once the cold winter hits the base gets benched.

I agree completely. It's like warm weather / dome teams going north to play cold weather teams. The University of Montana Grizzlies have had this advantage for decades.

I'm not sure how to test your theory but I'm betting a 20 degrees difference in temperature definitely causes an observable change and that 10 degrees may cause an observable change. I just moved my football field from a very warm room in our house to a much cooler addition to the house. I'll let you know this Fall after the first snow fall. ❄️

Enjoy the Journey. T43 🥶🏈🥵

[Coach Shawn]

6 minutes ago, Terry43 said:

. I just moved my football field from a very warm room in our house to a much cooler addition to the house. I'll let you know this Fall after the first snow fall. ❄️

My hobby room is not air conditioned and right now is running 84 degrees but will soon be hotter.

LOL, I love your comparison of domed vs non-domed stadiums. 
 

 

 

[Greg F]

Interesting thoughts!   I’ll have to pay more attention this coming season.

[Terry43]

You'll be surprised!  😃