Hoop Dynasty - Relationships

The relationship system tracks history between three parties: Coach–Player, Player–Player, and (in future phases) Coach–Coach. Relationships are longer-lived than a single contract or season — they accumulate, persist through roster changes, and re-activate on reunion.

The current implementation is intentionally simple. The data model is designed from the start to support richer expressions without requiring a rewrite.

1. Relationship Axes

1.1 Coach–Player Relationships

Built through repeated interaction over seasons: mentorship, high-stakes moments, development investment, loyalty decisions during the off-season.

A Coach–Player relationship records:

History log — seasons shared, key narrative events (e.g. “gave him the starting role,” “retained him when a contender came calling,” “benched him for the playoffs”)
Trust level — a discrete tier: None / Developing / Established / Deep
Relationship tags — contextual labels that fire at simulation nodes or in crisis events (e.g. trusted-veteran, mentored-rookie, locker-room-anchor, development-project)

Relationship tags are earned; they are not assigned at player creation. They emerge from play.

Trust level is not reset when a player leaves. If the player returns to the roster in a future season, the trust level is restored from the recorded history — with a possible decay modifier if significant time has passed.

1.2 Player–Player Synergies

Built through time on the court together: shared possessions, clutch moments, successful play execution, and narrative events (road trip conversations, practice chemistry, on-court conflict).

A Player–Player relationship records:

Shared history log — seasons played together, significant on-court events
Synergy level — a discrete tier: None / Building / Established / Elite
Synergy tags — contextual labels expressing the nature of the chemistry (e.g. pick-and-roll-partners, defensive-anchor-pair, locker-room-rivalry, mentor-pupil)

Crucially: synergy history persists even after a player leaves the roster. If the two players are reunited — regardless of which team or season — the synergy level re-activates from stored history rather than rebuilding from scratch. This is the “LeBron–Wade” rule: that chemistry existed, and it does not disappear from the record.

Synergy is bidirectional (Player A ↔ Player B). Conflict relationships are also valid synergy entries with negative polarity.

2. Data Model (Interface Contract)

The following fields must be present in the relationship record regardless of current implementation depth. Fields not yet used by the simulation are stored and reserved.

Coach–Player Record

coach_player_relationship {
  coach_id          // persistent across saves
  player_id         // persistent across runs
  trust_level       // enum: none | developing | established | deep
  relationship_tags // list of tag identifiers
  history_log       // list of { season, event_type, event_detail }
  last_shared_season
  decay_eligible    // bool: can trust decay if seasons apart > threshold
}

Player–Player Record

player_player_relationship {
  player_a_id
  player_b_id
  synergy_level      // enum: none | building | established | elite
  synergy_tags       // list of tag identifiers (may include negative-polarity tags)
  polarity           // positive | negative | mixed
  history_log        // list of { season, event_type, event_detail }
  last_shared_season
  reactivation_eligible // bool: true if either player is on current roster
}

These records are written even when the simulation does not yet query them. The interface contract is fixed; calibration and behavioral depth are deferred.

3. Carry-Over Situation Cards

Relationship tags on the Coach–Player axis are the mechanism for situation card carry-over across seasons.

Rule:

When a player earns a relationship tag during a season, it may unlock a relationship-tagged situation card specific to that player (e.g. trusted-veteran → “Trust the Veteran”; locker-room-anchor → “Anchor Call”).
If that player is still on the roster at the start of the next season, the linked card carries over into the new season’s owned situation card pool.
If the player leaves, the card expires. It does not carry over to the next roster.
Cap: 3 relationship-tagged cards maximum in the carry-over pool at season start.

This is the only exception to the full season-end situation card reset.

The carry-over pool is additive: if a coach carries over 3 relationship cards, they start with those 3 plus the normal seasonal rebuild. If they carry over 0, the seasonal rebuild is unchanged.

4. Player–Player Synergy Effects (Current Scope)

Player–Player synergies are recorded from day one. Current simulation effects are intentionally minimal:

Synergy Level	Effect
`None`	No effect.
`Building`	Minor probability bonus on play types matching the synergy tag (e.g. `pick-and-roll-partners` gives a small bonus on pick-and-roll actions).
`Established`	Meaningful bonus. Eligible to fire narrative events referencing the relationship.
`Elite`	Significant bonus. Unlocks synergy-specific situation cards (analogous to relationship-tagged coach–player cards). Elevated narrative event probability.

Negative-polarity synergies (conflict tags) apply maluses at equivalent levels.

5. Open Questions

Question	Notes
Trust decay rate	After how many seasons apart does trust begin to decay, and at what rate? Deferred to calibration pass.
Synergy accumulation speed	How many shared possessions / seasons does it take to advance a level? Deferred to simulation calibration.
Conflict resolution	Can a conflict relationship be repaired? Mechanism undefined. Deferred.
Coach–Coach relationships	Rival coaches as persistent entities with relationship history (grudges, respect). Not in scope for current phase — data model does not yet include this axis.
Reunion narrative events	Specific story events triggered on player reunion (e.g. the returning star, the mentor and pupil reunited). Story event pool not yet designed for this axis.

fantasy-simulation

manager-roguelite

rpg