Draft Day!!

• As expected, WR/CB Jackie Dow goes #1 to the Olives. Let's hope that doesn't end up to be the witness protection program...
  
• The Browns pass up on the QBs and grab OL/S/ST talent Lane Gaylor at #2
  
• The Cyans grab QB/LB Mortenson. I'm sure they were happy to see the Browns pass on him.
  
• ...
  
• Pick 8: The Alpacas mark their entrance in the league by taking my targeted guy OL/CB Unger. grrrrrr.. :mad: THAT'S NOT HOW YOU MAKE FRIENDS!
  
• Pick 11: Twisters make an interesting pick and take OL/ST Bret Rush. I though this might be a reach, but looking at the Twisters roster again, I think it's a solid pick. He moves in at #3 ST and probably will challenge for the OL3 spot.
  
• Pick 14: Swarm grab a similar player to the Twisters in OL/ST Alfonso Bunker. Looks like ST is going to be hard to come by at my pick. :(
  
• Pick 15: and now the Rainbow Sharks take OL/DL Jamison. The other guy I really wanted. :banghead:
  
• Pick 16: We're up, and all my favorites are gone. I guess I can do the smart thing and grab QB/CB Kwon, and hope he'll develop into a useful 2-way player. 50 is pretty slow for CB, even on my team. :(
  
• Round 2 - Pick 11: Twisters grab a fairly terrible player who happens to be good at ST. Not bad for the 2nd round, I guess.
  
• Round 2 - Pick 14: Swarm grab ST Machado. I was actually looking at that guy in the 1st round for my pick, so I'd consider this a steal of a selection in the 2nd round.
  
• Round 2 - Pick 16: I just grab the strongest guy on the board who can play any DL. WM Klink

Post draft, there are 7 teams over the cap. I had anticipated using rookie salaries of $2 when I made the cap, but since I've changed to a talent-based salary system for rookies, I might have to rethink the salary cap number. We haven't even started using dead cap space yet and almost half the league is over already. It won't surprise anyone, but the Treefrogs are the farthest over the cap at $240. If I set the cap to $235 it's only us, the Olives, and the Pinks who are over. That won't leave much room for releasing players, though.

Let's see how training camp goes, and then evaluate the cap against the new league-wide talent level.

Finishing up training camp and progressions, and I think we're just about there.

I set everyone's speed to 50, set all ages to 20, and ran off 20 years of progression to see what we see. The rating itself doesn't have an impact on progression, so the trends should apply to anyone. Here are the best and worst progression curves from the league. Everyone else fits in between.

This is also without the effect of training camp. Training camp will only push progressions upwards. If you don't train something, you won't get an additional negative effect. (more on training camp in the next post)

I'll run a few more test to make sure it doesn't get weird, but I think it's about there. We'll have to keep an eye on player ratings to see how it effects our league. That's the best way to see if it's good or not.

Next up, actual training camp!!!

Swarm Training Camp:

Training camp is pretty simple. You just click & highlight whatever you want each player to focus on. No limit as to how many skills a player can train on, but each skill you pick dilutes the overall training focus. The effect is small, but it can add up over a career.

If you have a highly specialized player, you're going to get more bang by focusing on 1 rating. If you have a 2-way player, you'll be better off spreading it around. I tried to make it intuitive.

Also, there's a pretty significant decline in the later years of a career. It might end up being too aggressive, but we'll see how the overall talent looks as we go.

I can't argue with the Swarm's training camp too much. They focus on ST more than I did, but then again I have the worst ST in the league.

Twisters Training Camp

Overall, not bad. I question the decision to train Beals at QB and LB, though. The logic behind training older players is different than young players. I bet Beals is playing LB this season, and he got trained at QB because that's his most valuable position.

I also don't love Keil getting trained at WR. I'll have to refine the logic again next off season.

Just like the Swarm, the Twisters ST make mine look pathetic. :(

Treefrogs Training Camp:

We pretty much play to everyone's strengths. Nothing dramatic here.

I really don't love how my team is looking right now. We don't have any real focus other than OL. I may be hitting the trade market hard once the trade window opens. I have nearly $100 tied up in 3 players who's best positional rating is 73.

Not cool, bro.

I just have to clean up a few stats-related things and then Season 2 kicks off!

Slight delay as we move into season 2. I decided to take this opportunity to revamp the play system to expand playbooks and to allow for custom play design.

I'm taking the play files out of the engine, and putting them into text files. The idea is that you can edit the text files, or create an offline play designer app, and then use them in-game. This should free up a lot of memory, make it easier for me to add plays, and allow for future customization.

This might take a few days, but it's going to be worth it. :)

This is really interesting - is there a chance that people will be able to "break" the engine with play customization?

I'm a little worried about that, which is why I didn't design it in originally. There are a few areas I'll have to lock down in play design to keep things fair, and I'll have to do some enforcement on play importing, but it seems fairly straight forward now that the engine is stable.

The areas I worry about are:

• weird pre-snap player positioning
• unanticipated use of blockers
• weird player packages

I'm not too worried about routes, coverage, or blitzes. I already did a ton to try and break those systems, and then designed the AI to adapt to what it sees. The obvious abuses I can see are things like FBPro type "all blitz" plays or "4WR hail mary" pass plays. As of now, the AI can already handle things like that. It's really the non-action aspect of play design that could break the engine. I'll lock most of that down pretty tightly to start with, and then loosen it up as I gain confidence in the AI's ability to adjust.

The great play migration has ended! 320 plays transferred into text files, and we're ready to get cracking again.

I'm going to spend tonight updating a couple annoying interface items, and then we should be kicking off the season tomorrow.

Also, now that I have my first 2 logos back, I really want to earn that Treefrogs logo this season!

I’m really enjoying this!

We're ready to start season 2! That’s pretty exciting, because it means that every phase of the game is functional now.

Regular season >> trading >> player contract extensions >> playoffs >> free agency >> college draft >> training camp >> player progressions >> next year start

It all works! WOOHOO!!

I think it’s safe to call season 1 a success. I really wanted to have all the systems working and overhaul the interface, and I got most of that done. (still some coach system stuff to do)

We even have the first 2 team logos! If you remember, the prize for getting to the title game is that the final 2 teams get real logos. Since the Purples and Rainbow Sharks made it, they both got logos and the Purples got a real team name.

First, the Rainbow Sharks:



I tried out a bunch of artists, and ended up finding 2 that have the style I like. The Rainbow Sharks is from the first artist, and the Purples logo came from the other. Actually, the Purples got a new team name. Since they are always frustrating me by taking my players and beating me in the playoffs, they got renamed as the “Nemesis”.



I don’t have the logos integrated into the game yet, but that will happen soon. Now on to season 2!

For season 2 my goal is to refine the on-field stuff as much as possible. Specifically, I want to make the plays better, the playbooks more interesting, the player AI more believable, and playcalling AI much more realistic. Along the way I’ll probably find other things to improve, but the on-field stuff is the focus for season 2. Also, because I’m not overhauling every screen I can probably move the season along at a much faster pace.

First batch of improvements today, followed by week 1 this afternoon:
Create team/style specific playbooks for the Treefrogs, Twisters, Swarm, and T-Pain.

I'd like to start using team-specific playbooks for all the sponsored teams, and general package/style playbooks for everyone else. I want to confirm that playbooks are going to be the most effective way to create team 'personality'. Team personality should be different than team effectiveness. In an ideal world, any team personality can be effective with the right players. Hopefully using playbooks (and matching coaches roster style) creates personality, while player/roster skill creates effectiveness.

Onward!

Season 2, Week 1 in the books!! WE'RE BACK!!

Treefrogs - T-Pain: I actually had a pretty tough time against the speedy T-Pain. That team has soooo much speed! I ended up going to a zone for most of the 2nd half of the game, because they were burning me on blitzes. I don't have the defenders to cover the T-Pain man to man. My new screen offense pretty much sucked, but it wasn't as bad as when I tried to drop back and throw downfield. We would have gotten rolled completely if Faulkner didn't have a MASSIVE Urquhart-like game on kick returns. Faulkner couldn't be stopped!

In the end, that's what won the game for us. Not very satisfying, but I'll take a win over the T-Pain any day.

I ended up watching about 1/4 of the Twisters-Maroons game, before turning over the Swarm-Avocados game. The Twisters were running their wide-open throw-it-all-around passing attack. It made me a little envious of all that passing. It's fun to watch. The Twisters got bogged down a few times in the red zone, but they were very consistent on offense.

After watching some of that, I switched over to the Swarm game. The Swarm run a completely different style offense. I like to call it a "power passing" offense. They line up in power running formations, and then pass out of it more than half the time. That style passing attack fascinated me because it had a completely different effect on the field than the wide-open Twisters attack. Players coming out of the backfield into patterns really opened up the 0-10 yard downfield field space, and gave the players some run-after-catch opportunities. The Twisters offense usually uses the 10-20 yard space and gets a lot more homerun balls. The Swarm attack forced good defensive spacing and tackling, while the Twisters attack forced the defense to cover WRs at high speed.

I'm really happy to see the engine and play styles take shape.

I have a nice list of things to adjust going into week 2, but none of them are going to take a lot of effort. Just some adjusting of numbers and weights, and fine-tuning defensive plays.

Oops, It looks like I forgot to change the Purples to the Nemesis in the save files. :p

Week 1 standings and leaders:

So it looks like all the stats reset correctly and that everything's working. *whew*

Faulkner is setting me up for another heartbreak by taking the early lead in the MVP race! Seriously, he had a massive returning effort that last game. The T-Pain special teams coverage should be ashamed.

No surprise, Luna jumps out to the passing lead for the Twisters.

I moved the salary cap to $240 this season. I don't think anyone has any players to resign this year, so that's not an issue. I'm going to implement cutting players and in-season FA signing at some point, so the dead cap space is going to start making a difference.

Trade blocks set and trade offers sent out. The Treefrogs didn't get a single offer. :(

The Twisters made an offer to the Rainbow Sharks, but it was pretty bad. :)

The Swarm actually made a pretty legit offer to the Blues. I'm curious if they'll take it. The offer makes both teams better, and really fills the Swarm need for a legit RB.

The Treefrogs are going to hit the market hard. I don't like how my team is constructed right now and I can't hope for player progression to fix it. I absolutely need to get better on defense and special teams coverage.

I'm just going to deal with the inconsistent play and build around Faulkner. Outside of that, everyone is expendable. OL/DL star Eddy is probably worth hanging on to, but everyone else is potential trade bait.

I want to get something like this:
Offense
Faulkner at RB (His best position is WR, but I play him at RB)
League-best OL
QB that can manage the game (80+)
Either a 2nd pass catching RB or some decent WRs. Either will do

Defense (The backbone of the team)
Fast LB to anchor the defense
2 Highly skilled CBs that can play decent man coverage. I don't need elite speed, but I need some ball-hawking skills.
Strong DL that can hold up to the run
After that, I just need a difference maker on defense. I don't care where.

ST:
Faulkner at KR.
A good K (80+)
2 elite special teams coverage guys
overall good-to-great special teams blocking skill

Out of all that, I probably can only claim to have Faulkner and the league's best OL. I'm close on most of it, but it's not close enough to work consistently, and my defense is terrible. I thought I could deal with a bad defense, but I can't. It's just too painful.

Bonus pic:

I took a shot of the Swarm power-passing offense. This was their favorite formation. Right after taking this shot, the Swarm ran that deep RB on a swing route to the far left, and beat the LB to the edge for a HUGE gain. Armbruster is getting doubled out at WR, so there wasn't anyone on the left side of the field for containment.

It was pretty cool.

This just in:

Nobody wants my players. :(

I hit the trade market hard this morning, throwing everything I could at upgrades to CB and ST. As it turns out, my players aren't worth much to anyone else. I'm pretty sure it's because I fell in love with 1-dimensional talent and young players, ignoring overall roster balance. The only time I got any interest is when I was shopping a $20+ player for a $12- player. Lopsided trades are the only way I can make changes. :banghead:

I'll roll with this roster for a couple more weeks, just to see how it goes. I might end up just making those lopsided trades if I can't find a way to make my defense more effective with playcalling.

Week 2: No trades for the Twisters, Treefrogs, or Swarm

Another tough outing for the Treefrogs secondary. We did a good job bottling up anything under 10 yards, but whenever the Oranges were able to go deep, it was for a clear TD. Their WRs just outran my CBs every time. :banghead:

Other than my atrocious CB play, we had a great game! Faulkner took advantage of the lack of speed at the LB position, and put up big numbers on the ground and receiving. It was pretty fun abusing the Oranges like that. :)

The Twisters pull out the win against the Slates in the last 10 plays. It was a close one the whole game.

Unfortunately, the Swarm fall to the T-Pain. Not a bad showing, but it sucks to get the loss.

Standings and Leaders

It looks like we're the only ones running the ball regularly right now. Probably due to some playcalling adjustments I made this offseason. I'll have to look into that before week 3.

Hard to believe it, but someone is ahead of Faulkner in return yardage! We can't have that. I better go find some additional ST blocking. :)

Swarm are leading the league in defense. Not surprising, but that's pretty cool. That pass defense is legit.

Developer notes:
I didn't see anything in the games that makes me worry about the player AI. It's looking pretty good right now. Playcalling AI, on the other hand, is pretty sketchy. I'm going to spend some time on that before week 3. I've also started noticing that the play design could use some work. Mostly things like QB drops being too shallow or safeties lining up in bad spots. Easy stuff to fix.

Hah - I love that Swarm offense - definitely something that I would have been drawn to. Very cool to see the amount of "personality" in this league already!

Just completed a pretty significant overhaul of the playcalling system. (because my previous system somehow got corrupted and I had to recreate from scratch. :( )

I'm pretty excited to see how it works throughout the season. I designed it specifically with the Swarm and Twisters, in mind. I like how they have such different styles and rosters from eachother, and I wanted to make sure the playcalling reflects that. We already had style specific playbooks, and that worked for differentiating between teams like the Twisters and Swarm. However, what about another team that runs the same 2RB package as the Swarm, but has the players for a power running game instead of the power passing game? I really don't want them calling a lot of RB passing plays, and I don't want the Swarm calling a lot of power running plays. But then again, I don't want the Swarm to be limited in the future by the players they have now. What if they grab a stud RB that can't catch the ball? They should be able to adapt to more of a running game without completely changing the playbook.

The new playcalling system is flexible enough to handle that!

Here's how it works:
1. Game situation (down & dis) is evaluated as a basis for decision making
2. Coach looks at the roster to determine how the strengths fit the situation
3. Coach picks a style that fits the situation and player skills (power passing, running, passing, power running, etc)
4. Coach looks through the playbook and gives extra weight to the plays that fit the style/skills
5. Add some randomness into play selection to keep it from being predictable.
6. Pick the highest scoring play

For a team like the Swarm, I can have both power running and power passing plays in the playbook. The Swarm coach will call the right player for the situation AND the player skill.

For teams like the Twisters, this solves the problem of 4WR teams calling QB runs when they have crappy running QBs, or ignoring QB runs if they have a great running QB. The coach will just figure it out.

I'm pretty excited to see how this affects the actual games and team performance. Should be a fun season. :)

Week 3

Going into the game against the Nemesis, I checked the roster to see how the new AI would act. I anticipated a spread passing attack, with some QB runs. The Nemesis played fairly close to what I expected, but probably should have run the QB a little more. Still, progress!

Faulkner just plain torched the Nemesis defense. They had no answer to his speed in the running game or the passing game. It's becoming clear that I can't so much else, other than get the ball to Faulkner. On defense, my CBs were getting killed again. I'm now running a ridiculous prevent-style defense to keep opponent WRs from burning me deep. I rarely blitz anymore because I get burned for a TD so often. :(

It's hard to figure out what to do. On one hand, I can't give up my elite running game by trading off OL. On the other hand, I can't keep getting killed on defense. (and special teams coverage)

Plus, nobody really wants to give up anything for my players anyway. :mad:

Thinking this through, there's no way I can go into the playoffs with the CB play I have now. If Faulkner can't put up 4TD, I'll lose for sure. I think I have to find a way to get at least one legit coverage corner. I can't have every team's WR1 getting free shots at long TD catches.

OK, that's the goal. Find a CB1.

In other news, the Twisters are continuing offensive domination. 49 points against the Rainbow Sharks?? Wow!

Sadly, the Swarm aren't finding their groove yet. :(

Standings and Leaders

Not a huge change in running stats. There are a couple teams that should be creeping up the running yardage chart. I'll keep adjusting the playcalling AI.

Look who's back on the MVP chart! Luna is back! I have a feeling this season is going to be a Faulkner/Luna fight for the top spot. I'm not going to back off on feeding Faulkner, and Luna is in an explosive passing attack. Should be fun!

Lastly, there's an Urquhart sighting!!! :eek: He's back on the return charts!

Week 4:

Before going into week 4, I made a few adjustments to the playcalling AI. I realized that I didn't take into account that most playbooks have twice the number of passing plays as running plays. I made the adjustments, and now it's looking pretty good!

Of course, I then go out and get beat by the Swarm. :(

This was the kind of game I was worried about. Faulkner had another big game, but he got stopped on a few drives and I had nothing else. The Swarm were able to beat my secondary regularly for long TDs, and that was the end of that. I ended up trying my 2 fastest players at CB (Poston and Faulkner) just to keep up with the Swarm receivers, but it didn't matter. I guess I thought of that trick when I wrote the passing AI, and the QB wasn't fooled. Even if coverage looked tighter, he could see that my guy had no idea what he was doing, and threw at him anyway.

Twisters keep on rolling with another 30+ point game. Looking good!

There are a couple things I want to tighten up before next game:
1. I think DL players might need a little help. They're having a hard time beating pass blocking, even if it's a mismatch in their favor.
2. Punt and kick returns need a little work. Too many guys are having a hard time avoiding open field tacklers. It's not terrible, but it happens to often.

Week 4 standings and leaders

There goes Luna, dominating the passing leaders again. :)

The Oranges #2 receiving leader WR Koskie is a guy I've been trying to land in trade for a while now. He's a really good CB with respectable speed. It's the WR skill that's making him impossible for me to get. grrrrr.....

I'm not even going to count the rushing numbers until someone catches up to Faulkner, but he's back on top in return yards! Let's pretend that's not because the Swarm kicked off so many times last game...


Rushing numbers still aren't right. I had to dig into it, and I figured out why.

Nobody is starting their top RBs. :confused:

I shouldn't say "nobody", it's just that most of the top 5-6 RBs are on teams that run the 4WR set. As it turns out, when I changed over to the new playbook style, I set everyone to 4WR offense, just to test. I only reset the sponsored teams, and the AI teams I was interested in, back to their normal offenses. That left 4 teams with a stud RB buried at WR4. (one team just had the wrong playbook)

It was really a league-file error, but still needed to get fixed. Fixed all that, and we're back on track!

Is this the dream season for the Twisters?

Sure seems like it so far!

On the pre-Week 5 game updates....

After running though it again this morning, I think the DL/OL and returning play AI can wait. It's actually not that bad.

Right now I'm a lot more interested in getting into league history. I want to see how career leaders are starting to shape up, and I know it's only going to become more interesting after every season. Might as well get that going now, so we don't lose much history as the seasons start to pile up. I don't want to overdo the amount of data that gets saved. I'm already having a hard time dealing with the game data as it is. Then again, it's cool to have a lot of league history saved up when you get to leagues that run for multiple decades.

I might have to think about that one for a while.

The other thing I want to do early this season is get more play design done. I don't love some of the playbooks right now. I think the power-passing plays could use some work, and most of my screen passes are complete garbage.

That's probably a good use of today's time.

I ended up getting sucked down the rabbit hole of trying to find a trade to get a decent CB or S.

No takers :(

I've officially given up. Nobody wants my players. The lack of well-rounded players is killing me in the trade market. I'll just do my best with the roster I have, and see what I can do in the offseason.

Ok, forget all that stuff I said before. :)

I got frustrated shopping for trades, so I built a shopping screen. It also functions as an in-season FA shopping screen.

What trade shopping does is pull all players from the trade block. This is the league-wide list of all trade blocks. It's nearly impossible to pry a non-trade block player from a team, so this represents everyone who is realistically available.

Take a look at who the #2 CB available is...... yeah, that's the guy I let go in FA last offseason. :(

I sure wish I had him now.

Even that was too much work for me. :)

Now you can highlight a player and click the "Shop Player" button, and the shopping screen will come up with all the players you can get in a straight up 1-for-1 trade.

Almost all my players bring up an empty list, but at least I know for sure now.

Week 5

Wow! Look at the Swarm beading up on the Nemesis! Good. We don't like them anyway. :D

The Treefrogs roll all over the Blues. The Blues are a shockingly slow team from top to bottom. Once I figured out the insane speed mismatch, we completely abandoned the pass and Faulkner ran all over them. Also, this is the one team we could match up with on defense. A straight man defense with a blitzer was extremely effective against these guys.

Twisters pull out a close one. How in the world did they get held to 10 points?? :eek:

Still, a win is a win.

Standings and Leaders

That 1 TD game for Luna really hurt him in the MVP race. Ouch!! Come on man!

It looks like rushing numbers are now starting to creep up. That's good. It looked like realistic rushing in my last game, so I'm feeling pretty good about it now. Unfortunately, Faulkner had quite a head-start on everyone, so this might be an outlier year for the rushing title winner.

You might notice the drastic drop in the Treefrogs team salary. We moved $21 of salary to the Browns. I pulled the plug on my 1st round pick QB/CB Kwon. I don't think he's going to turn into much, and I don't want his salary on the books for 2 years.

Unfortunately, nobody wants him. :(

In order to move him, I needed to package a player that a lot of teams want. CB/LB Crossley. Crossley is a pretty useful defensive player. He's well balanced in strength and speed, and can play multiple positions. I was using him as LB2 in my base package, and he let me blitz Poston every once in a while because he was ok playing zone defense or holding up blockers against the run.

There was a decent market for him, but I couldn't land a legitimate cover corner. In the end, he was the chip I used to unload Kwon. I send Kwon and Crossley over to the Browns for 2 extremely cheap scrubs.

This whole exchange drove me to another design decision. Starting this offseason, I'm going to let teams skip their draft picks. If it's your turn to draft, and you don't want to commit the salary or roster spot, you just skip your pick. I would have thought hard about skipping both my picks last offseason, if I could.

I have a long list of little updates to make to the game engine before next game. It's all little stuff, so it should be hard to get it in over the next day or so. One item is to allow me to jump into a AI vs AI game and watch it in progress. (instead of watching it in the development window) Can't wait for that to work!

HA!

I found a bug that's eluded me for the past 6+ months!!!

I could never figure out why my returners and RB weren't living up to early-Urquhart performance standards. His returning in traffic was legendary, and nobody has ever come close to it. (even with the same ratings) It's something that's always bothered me, and I could never find the reason why. Frankly, I missed the magic of watching Urquhart abuse coverage teams regularly.

I was working on something unrelated when I saw something that didn't look right. I'm all "why am I measuring the distance between a defender and the potential movement target by calculating the distance between the defender and the ball carrier?"

Oh, because of auto-complete! Both distances start with the same characters, but the wrong one pops up first in the autocomplete list. :banghead:

Anyway, FIXED!

Get ready for rushing and returning numbers to catch up with passing numbers. :)

Week 6

We actually struggled against the Silvers this week. That's weird, because they are a 1-win team right now. After the running AI update, Faulkner looked great! It was a lot of fun seeing the great cuts again in the return and running game. The Silvers were always able to make that one tackle before Faulkner broke it for a long TD run, though. The Silvers D-line did a great job holding up my OL, and refusing to give up those huge running lanes I've had against everyone else. It seems like the DL/OL updates are paying off, too.

While on defense, we had to be really careful. I was scared to death that RB Hardiman was going to run all over us, so I stayed in a really wide (and safe) zone defense. Hardiman still did a number on us, but he never broke that huge run for a TD. It also helps that the Silvers missed 3 FGs. :)

The Twisters just embarrass the Pinks. Seriously, 42-0??? :eek: I think they are putting the rest of us on notice.

It looks like the Swarm are getting on track again. They really need to find that franchise QB, or they are going to stay inconsistent. They are getting by right now because of the short passing game, but it's going to catch up with them if they don't get someone who can throw more consistently.

Is it too early to call that last running AI update "The Urquhart Update"?? :eek:

And just like that, Urquhart is back!! From irrelevance, to #2!

Luna made the most of that 42 point outing to grab the top spot in passing leaders, and close the gap in the MVP race. I had to go back and see how big of a mistake the trade was that sent Luna to the Twisters. The funny thing is that it's wasn't that bad of a trade! Given what I was up against, I'd do it again. Still, my current QB isn't a whole lot different than Luna. It's not like Luna is a 99 rated QB, he's in the low 80's. There are lots of those guys! :confused:

It must just be a situation of the right guy, in the right system, with the right supporting cast.

In any case, the Twisters are rolling. They have the 2nd best offense (behind the Treefrogs) and the top defense!

The Swarm are challenging us for control of the West. I have a feeling this could last the rest of the season. The bottom 6 teams in the West haven't shown much ability to stand up to the top-4, so this season could be all about bragging rights at the top. Let's just hope the Nemesis don't make the playoffs this year..... :nono:

Uh oh......

That's not a good matchup. :(

Week 7

Week 7 for the Treefrogs was all about testing out a bunch of new Gator package plays. I eliminated about 1/3 of the Gator package, because it wasn't consistent with the constraints I put on each style of play. For example, I had a bunch of plays where I split the RB out wide. That's not really in the spirit of running a package that features the RB and an extra OL. That's just a cheezy way of running a 3WR package without having to find a 3rd WR. It makes a lot more sense to run those passing plays with the RB coming out of the backfield!

Yeah, it's kind of nitpicky, but I like how it makes styles feel different. :)

So I deleted a bunch of Gator plays and replaced them with pass plays that feature the RB out of the backfield. I don't have many of these in the stock playbooks, so it's a good time to stat working on that. The result was a significantly upgraded passing attack for the Treefrogs! SWEET! Also, it's a lot of fun running a version of the power-passing attack. I may switch to the Rhino next season, and run something similar to the Swarm.

Speaking of the Swarm, I ended up watching the last 10 plays of the Swarm game. It was tight! 1 point difference, and the Silvers get the ball with 10 plays to go. Hardiman almost broke a run around the right side with 5 plays to go, but he got chased down by the last man. (I think it was Armbruster, by the speed)

It ended up coming down to a 25-30 yard FG on the last play, which wasn't ever close! Short and off to the left, and the Swarm pull out another close victory!

Standings and leaders

Luna is closing the MVP gap again! Uh oh.... :eek:

I'm starting to work on defensive play design now, so we may see some of the passing numbers slow down. However, Luna's passing lead is going to be hard to overcome. I't probably a good bet he wins the passing title.

I'm starting to get fascinated with Urquhart again. He's closing in on the return title! Nice to see him back. :)

Nice to see the Twisters putting everything together. Hopefully, we can keep it up.

Week 8:

Twisters get held to 12 points! Wow! :eek: I kind of wish I watched that game instead of watching some dumb show about the President's book of secrets. :(

I hope you all noticed the new addition to the schedule screen. Top Performances are working! That feature is to pull out the top 2 performances (by the MVP rating formula) for the week. It's not really that important, just an interesting bit of data that I wanted to see each week.

The Treefrogs game went about as close to the script as you could get. Both teams were held in check in the running game. Both teams were fairly explosive in the return game. My edge came in the passing game. The Alpacas slowed down Faulkner, but couldn't stop him. He eventually broke a couple for TD. On defense, I've completely given up man defense and run a 3-deep zone defense now. Sometimes I blitz out of it, but I'm usually just dropping back into a deep zone to slow down the other team's offense. Basically, I'm waiting for them to make a mistake.

Yeah, it's pretty sad. That's what we've become.

Don't look at me. :(

Standings and leaders:

In the west, I think it's pretty safe to say the playoff race is already over. I can't see any of the bottom 6 teams putting up a serious fight.

The east is looking competitive! Aside from the Twisters dominating everyone, it's pretty tight from 2-6. The bottom 4 teams are just sad.

Look at that! Urquhart is back to #1 for return yards!! Nice!

In other development news, I'm spending a lot more time on defense, and making the game playable for other people to experiment with. I still have a few really big items to get done before it's ready (fast-sim) but that's what I'm focusing on now.

I was planning on doing a kickstarter, and was almost ready to kick it off, but then I ultimately decided to abandon it. I finally came to the conclusion that it probably wasn't going to be worth the time and effort. To be worth the time it takes to run a 30 day campaign, I'd need to raise something like $25k-$30k. The chances of raising that are pretty slim these days. If I didn't meet the goal, then I essentially wasted a month of development time, and have nothing to show for it.

For me, the time is worth more than the money. I need to release this by August. (for a variety of reasons)

So, what do we do now? Well, my new plan is to open up alpha and beta testing to whoever wants to be a part of it. I'll use that 'extra' month to get to testing quicker. The extra kickstarter cash would have been useful to get more art and sound, but I can scale back on my plans for that. I'm funded enough to get through development, as long as I don't go overboard on the 'nice-to-haves'.

I'm pretty pumped about today's update!

All the playcalling AI has been updated!! It's exciting because now the playcalling AI is complete. AI teams will do all the cool things like:

• Pass up FGs and go for it, if they are behind by more than 3 and the game is getting near the end
• Go for it on 4th instead of punting if they are behind at the end of a game, or if it's in a safe part of the field and it's 4th and <1, or if it's in the middle of the field and they just don't have a good kicker (punter).
• Adjust both offensive and defensive playcalling based on team strengths and weaknesses
• The defense waits for the offense to call the play first, and then picks the defensive play. (seems silly, but this was harder than you'd think)
• You can go for it on any random 4th down, and the defensive AI won't get caught assuming you're punting or kicking a FG.

I'm sure I'm forgetting a couple little things, but you get it. Basically, the playcalling AI is ready to play a realistic brand of football!

That's pretty exciting. I've always had to have some house rules for playcalling, because the AI couldn't adjust to me doing crazy stuff with my gameplan. Now they can adjust, and I can just play the game.

I'm just going to consider these changes and any other changes after this an attempt to nerf the Twisters ;P

:D

Weeks 9 and 10

Ran 2 weeks in a row this time.

I a shocker, the Twisters fall to the Olives!! :eek:

But then, they follow that up by beating down the Treefrogs. :(

The Swarm, on the other hand, pitch 2 shutouts in a row!! :eek:

Standings and leaders

Wow, the Swarm jump up to the top spot in the West! That defense is scary good.

The playoff teams are all starting to separate themselves from the rest, even in the east.

Looks like Luna has had a couple tough games. His passing lead hasn't grown much, and he's fading in the MVP race. I guess the Twisters nerfing is taking hold! :)

The reason the Twisters seem to have been nerfed was because they started falling in love with WR screens. (after the last AI update) WR screens mostly suck right now. There are a few good ones, but not all 6 the Twisters had in their playbook!!

I just reworked the Twisters playbook to make it less screen-heavy, and to add a few new spread plays.

We can't have Luna lose that passing title! :)

Knew we were getting nerfed! We don't have Mark Richt at the helm! Not so many bubble screens!

Looks like we might have some challengers in the East with the Olives.

I think a lot of those were leftovers from back when I was running a 4WR screen offense. Once the AI started taking team strengths into account, those screens looked pretty good!

Too bad the AI didn't know they were designed poorly.

Week 11

Yeah, we get worked by the Slates. :(

We really had no chance the whole game. Faulkner couldn't find any running room because the Slates DL was stout. My WRs aren't good enough to get open against the Slates CBs, and my QB missed what few opportunities he had. Not a lot of fun to realize my former CB Michel was a big part of shutting down my offense.

Our only TD came from a KR. Ugh....

On defense, we did ok, but eventually the WRs got behind my slow secondary. It's bound to happen.

The other big game was the Twisters-Swarm game!! What a game! The Twisters offense looked like it was back to normal, but it was up against the elite Swarm pass defense. Also, the Swarm power-pass offense was playing ball control as much as possible. In the end, the Swarm edged the Twisters, but it was a fun one.

Standings and Leaders

Are you kidding me? The Slates only had 2 wins?? :mad:

That was an embarrassing loss.

Well, it looks like the Olives are for real. The shoot up to the top of the East as the Twisters drop 2 of the last 3. In the West, the Swarm take over the top spot! It's hard to believe the Swarm turnaround from the first half of last season. Remember, they were gone and dead. We were starting to think about "the process". Now look at them!

Faulkner is starting to falter in the MVP race, and here comes Huntley. Ugh, here we go again with the Nemesis..... They may take my MVP, but at least they won't make the playoffs.

Overall, I think stats are starting to look pretty good. We don't have crazy sack numbers, interceptions are coming around, rushing is making a comeback, and QBs are having realistic passing yardage. It's starting to look pretty good!

We got put in our place. Also if you ever need help designing plays I can help out. I have a little bit of experience and would love to help out.

That's a pretty good idea. I'll write up a list of the current rules and options, and let you have at it!

Sounds great to me!

Here's how play design works:

Each offensive play has 3 OL, 1 WR, and a QB. The other 3 players are chosen from the following:
1 extra OL
1 or 2 RB
1-3 WR

That gives you the offensive set.

The offensive formations are pretty open right now, but need to have a QB and the 3 OL in normal positions. I generally have all RB in the backfield and all WR near the line, but that's not hard-coded. The 4th OL is usually off to the right of the other linemen, but that's not really a rule. I also usually line up OL1 at LT because DL1 is opposite him. I've found that switching OL1 to the right usually ends up badly for the QB. :)

Available player assignments:
Pass block: pretty simple assignment. The player AI handles all the logic.
Run block: Blocker determines the best defender to block and executes. The decision is made based on a "inside-out" strategy. The blockers nearest the point of attack take the best defender (based on block angle and distance) and then the next closest blocker picks a defender, and so on until all run blockers have an assignment. Double-teams are determined by the AI. No additional assignment is necessary for run blocking.
Lead block: Basically a run block that has a route. The blocker will execute the route, and then will become a run blocker when he gets to the end.
Screen block: It's a little like a lead block. The difference is at the end of the route. A screen blocker will stop and wait for the pass to be thrown before turning into a run blocker. This allows you to set up blocking formations for your screen passes. That's the only difference, though.

Runner: The guy running the ball. He will follow his route until he gets to the point of attack. (the spot where the running assignment ends) Once he hits the point of attack, his AI takes over and he becomes an "open field runner". I've had success creating "read" runs by placing the point of attack 4 yards behind the LOS, and letting the runner find the hole. The downside of that kind of play is that he may not find a hole, and will lose a ton of yards. Kind of the Barry Sanders strategy. Read runs are cool if you have a high-skill RB and a great OL. For normal RBs and normal OL, it's usually better to get to the LOS as quickly as possible and find holes on the 2nd level.

Receiver: Player runs a route with up to 4 nodes. A node is essentially a corner, or a defined point on the route. Nodes are where the player changes directions, pauses, or stops. The player doesn't do anything while he's running between nodes, other than try to avoid running into other players. When the ball is thrown, the route is thrown out the window and the receiver tries to adjust to the ball.

Passer: The QB on passing plays.


Within those, there are a few additional options:
For Passer
Dropback timer: How long the QB waits before starting to read receivers. I use this to let receivers get into the routes before looking to pass. I generally set this to 0.75s on regular pass plays.
Progressions: The number of reads the QB will do. (1 to 4) Right now I cycle through the reads from 1 to 4, and then restart at 1. High skilled QBs will read at a faster rate than low skilled QBs. That also allows them to go through the cycle multiple times in the same time a bad QB would get through once. Knowing that your QB will/won't get a second or third read cycle has made for interesting play design options. It's been fun designing plays for average QBs to get through all the reads once, but also adding in a little something extra for the great QBs that get a second/third cycle. It also means there are times you'll only want to have 2 reads, because you'll want most QBs to go through the cycle more than once. I've also have played around with 1-read plays. They work if you really want to lock onto a WR and wait for him to get open.

For Receiver:
Progression number (0-4): Which read the receiver is. If a receiver is set to progression number = 0, it means he's a decoy.

For all players with routes:
Node delay: You can put a delay into any route, at any node. If you put a delay in before the 1st node, the player pauses before making his first move. If you put a delay later in the route, the player will pause when he hits that node, and then start running again when the delay is up. You also need to specify the amount of time to delay. I use this to have WRs pause before going into routes (so another WR can clear the space) or to have RBs pause before starting a run (to allow blocking to develop).

I finally got the kick in the pants needed to take the next big step in the game's development.

I just got over the plague I've been dealing with for the last week, so it was a good time to knock out another week of games. I had a great game against the Rainbow Sharks that came down to a 4th and long that the Rainbow Sharks converted for the game winning TD!

I ran the rest of the games, and then accidentally hit the "load" button instead of the "save" button, ruining the whole week's progress. Now that's not a huge deal, because I just have to re-sim the week, except that slow-sim takes about 40 minutes to do a week. :(

:banghead:

I think it's time to finish the fast-sim.

I have almost all of the fast-sim logic drawn up, and I have some large blocks of time set aside during the week of the 23rd. I'd planned on using that time to hammer through another season, but I think fast-sim is much more important. I can't imagine any alpha tester wanting to wait through 40 minutes of sim time per week. Once fast-sim is implemented, it should be relatively easy to get the game in shape for testing.

Anyway, games are 3/4 done running now, so week 12 should be up soon!

Week 12 and 13

Week 12, we end up beating the Rainbow Sharks on the replay, but this time I let the AI run the game for me. That's not comforting that the AI is better at calling a game than I am. :)

Also, in other 'rubbing salt in it' news, the Swarm go and destroy the Slates 26-0. Once week after the Treefrogs get beat by them.

Twisters continue to show they are the favorite for the 2018 title by beating the T-Pain.

Week 13:
Twisters, Treefrogs, and Swarm all win again. I'm not sure why this bothers me so much, the the T-Pain also shut out the Slates. grrrr......

Standings and Leaders

With 1 game to go, the playoffs are pretty much set. There's a small chance the Eggshells catch the Rainbow Sharks for the 4th slot in the East, but it won't matter because either of them will get killed by the Twisters.

I can't believe it, but Faulkner is still hanging on in the MVP race! Come on, man!! You can do it!! Huntley is making a charge, but it might be too late.

I like how our QB Moody made it on the list, by riding the coat-tails of Faulkner's swing-pass receptions. :)

Didn't expect to see the Swarm pick it up this much in year 2 - what's been their main source of offensive points? Don't see them on the leaderboard other than Armbruster - and he wasn't much of a WR if I recall?

The Swarm have pretty balanced scoring this season

• As a team they are scoring 20.8ppg
• WR Armbruster counts for 8ppg on receiving TDs (10) and return TDs (5).
• RB Rowan counts for 4.3ppg on rushing TD (1) and receiving TD (7)
• There are some other guys that have moved in/out of the RB2 spot that have contributed, but the surprise is that K Halliday counts for 7.15ppg with 31 FGs!

Defense and power-passing. Deadly combo.

This is a good reminder that I need to finish that stats screen. :)

Quick development update:

Before simming the last week of the season, I really want to finish the league history screen. This is where I'm storing the season awards, so post-week 14 is the perfect time to use live data for testing.

I don't think it should take more than a day or so.

Missed a few days of programming because the plague came back with a vengeance. :(

However, we're back! I ended up grinding through the awards screen, processing, and data storage. That seems to work pretty well now. Now I'm powering through the fast-sim.

I don't know why I'm always surprised at this, but every time I write this engine it shocks me how much harder the blocking is than the rest of the engine. I've spent almost a whole day on pass blocking and I've still got a few hours to go! That being said, I'm really excited about how it works. I took a vastly different approach this time. It makes extra blockers and free rushers a lot more meaningful than the previous versions of the blocking engine, without just throwing an adjustment to some probability chart.

In the end, the fast-sim engine is going to be very similar in function to the real-time engine.
(at least for blocking and pass rushing, so far)

Not sure if I'm going to make my goal of having fast-sim done by Monday, but it should be close.

Fast-sim going well, and should be ready for next season. That means it's time to get back into this season!

Before we finished out the last week, I had to backdate the awards save file for last season. There's some missing data because I wasn't tracking some of the new stats for the first 2 seasons, but it wouldn't have changed who won the awards.

2017 Awards Recap

Treefrogs Awards:
Best OL - Eddy Lowell
Best K - Merlin Clair
Best ST - Hugh Poston :eek:

Twisters Awards:
Best QB - Kory Luna

Swarm Awards:
ST MVP - Reginald Armbruster
Best KR - Reginald Armbruster

After the next game, I'll hand out the 2018 awards!

Do you backdate the award to the team they won it with?

Because we didn't get that award with Luna. He got with your team, right?

I traded him right after week 5, so he actually spent more time on the Twisters than the Treefrogs.

Right now the awards take the team the player is on at the end of the season. I chose that because the trade deadline is early enough that the end-season team is where they would have spent more than half the season.

Sounds like you have thought this out more than me. Keep up the great work!

I almost started adding features like tracking each game a player played with each team, so you could see the breakdown. Then I was going to start storing each game's stats to see how they did with each team in the season..... [peers down rabbit hole]

I had to smack myself and remind myself not to overreach for the first version, or I'd never get this game done!

You know what they say. "You can't get to version 5, until you have version 1."

Final game of the regular season!

We did it! The regular season finally concluded!

The Treefrogs are still on coach-control, and they did a pretty good job with the Grays. I'm pretty sure the coach is calling a better defensive game than I am. :(

Twisters lost a tough one against the Oranges, but it didn't really matter. They already clinched the division.

How about that Swarm defense?? Another shutout!! That's unheard of in this league!

Round 1 of the playoffs are set, too. Swarm get a tough one against the Oranges. They scored 28 against the Twisters, so it will be interesting to see how the Swarm defense slows them down.

The Twisters get a shot at last season's Eastern Champion, the Rainbow Sharks. Come on, Twisters! Let's knock them out and be guaranteed of 2 new logos!!

Treefrogs take on the T-Pain. If I remember the matchup from earlier this season, it was a pretty tough game for us. Please let's not make another early exit..........

Final standings and leaders

Huntley made a late charge, but Faulkner held him off to take the MVP!!! WOOHOO!!!!

It's also a little satisfying to see Urquhart take the return title. It's been a while!

I'm happy to see sacks are back to a reasonable number. Last season's sack leader was a little silly. 57 sacks?? :)


Season Awards
Treefrogs:
MVP - Tyree Faulkner
Best WR - Tyree Faulkner (77 receptions!)

Twisters:
Off MVP - Kory Luna
Best QB - Kory Luna

Swarm:
Def MVP - Johnnie Mcclellan
Best LB - Johnnie Mcclellan
Best ST - Johnnie Mcclellan

Next up:

1. Playoffs
2. Retirements
3. Draft (I think we're going to try doing the draft prior to FA this time. Seems like it's going to work better for roster management)
4. Free Agency
5. Training Camp

Just finished writing the retirements section. I'm excited to see how it works this season. Last season, it was pretty boring to just take the worst 45 free agents and kick them out of the league.

This should add a little more drama.

The rules for retirements are:

• Every player has a chance of retiring
• Anyone that is a meaningful player on a roster, and isn't ancient, has an extremely small chance of retiring
• Players that end the season in the FA pool have a significantly higher chance of retiring than the same type of player on a roster
• If a player retires while under contract, the salary is wiped clean from your books!
• If a player is ancient, but has a long term contract, he's a lot less interested in retiring. :) (be careful with your long term contracts!)

The same number of players retire every year. (45) That's the amount of room I reserve for the incoming rookie class. This should keep the overall player pool fairly stable. Each year, I anticipate there are going to be a handful of retirements from the previous year's rookies who never got picked up. My guess is that around 10-15 of the retirements will be rookies who never played a snap. A few of the retirements will be those 3 year guys who finished out the rookie contracts but have shown that they are not going to improve. The rest should be coming off the old-guy part of the pool.

Now on to the playoffs!

After the first quarter....

Swarm and Twisters have taken the lead, while the lovable Treefrogs fall behind the T-Pain.

We're explosive enough to make this up.... I hope.

At the half

Swarm are pulling away.

Twisters have a tight one on their hands! The Rainbow Sharks just scored again to tie it up. The Twisters have been in the lead most of the game, though. I think it's just a matter of time before they blow it open.

Treefrogs are having a really hard time dealing with the T-Pain speed. :( Nobody can get open!

3rd quarter....

and the dream is slipping away for the Treefrogs. :banghead:

My AI coach isn't calling enough run plays! #armchairQB

Twisters and Swarm blow their games open. Neither should be in doubt in the 4th.

Just like that, the Treefrogs season is over. :(

The Twisters and Swarm move on, although the Twisters did their best to let the Rainbow Sharks back into the game. :eek:

This guarantees 2 new logos at the end of the season!! :banana:

In round 2, the Twisters take on the Olives, who destroyed the Cyans!
The Swarm take on the T-Pain in what looks like another blowout. Although, last time they played, the Swarm lost 14-10 so.......

By the way, the Swarm had 7 shutouts this season!

Wow, a couple to close ones in the Division Championship round! :eek:

We kind of expected the Swarm to hold the T-Pain to a low number, but the Twisters holding the Olives to 7 points? Nice to see the defense stepping up!

I actually watched a lot of the Twisters-Olives game. It was fun to watch the spread passing attack, since I spend most of my games running the ball. I'm noticing that a few of the Twisters favorite passing plays have WRs that sometimes run into each other. :( This seems to be more about collision avoidance AI than play design. Something to add to the list for the next season.

Nice to see that we're getting logos for 2 sponsored teams this season! I'll get the designer started right away!

TWISTERS!!!!

Hahaha - GO SWARM!

Here it is!!!

I watched the whole game, and it was TENSE! For the most part, the Twisters did a good job on defense. The Swarm RB speed ended up being too much and they broke a couple long ones after missed tackles.

Frankly, the Swarm defense was SICK. The Twisters managed to get guys open quite often, but Swarm CBs always closed down immediately to make the knockdown or tackle. There were times I was sure the Twisters had a long TD, only to have a Swarm defender fly in and shut it down. Earlier in the season I thought Armbruster was way overpaid and we needed to do something about the cap-crippling salary, but now I think his $57 is a bargain!

Here's the scoring log:
(8): Swarm - K Halliday hits a 47 yard field goal.
(23): Swarm - QB Allen passes to RB1 Rowan for a 53 yard TD!
(53): Swarm - QB Allen passes to RB1 Rowan for a 69 yard TD!
(59): Twisters - QB Luna passes to WR1 Horowitz for a 43 yard TD!

Next up: Retirements!

Woo-hoo! Go Swarm go!
Defense wins championships!

Congrats to the Twisters on a great season!

Congrats Swarm!! Same time next season?

Hah - sounds like a plan!

I've got an updated programming pattern now!

I've taken every Friday off of work, from now until the end of September. Fridays are going to be used for the big-block programming items (like fast sim), while the daily morning hour is going to be used for small items and league progress.

Big-Block Items Left:

• Fast Sim
• In-game graphics and animation
• Graphical game flow (in game and between games)
• Sound and music
• Prep for release

The goal is to get the game across the finish line to Early Access in August. It still feels like we're on track!

The first logo is back!

Hahaha - that's absolutely awesome!
When am I going to be able to play this thing!
Shut up and take my money!

It's coming! For real! :)

That logo is insanely awesome.

Retirements News:

The retirements have been processed, and seems to be pretty realistic. Just for debugging and monitoring, the player value (out of 300) and the salary value are listed. I use those to judge the overall quality of a player, and should help to see if we have too many great players retiring.

No retirements from the Twisters. The Swarm have 3 retirements, so it's going to be fun to see if it hurts team chemistry at all, or if it just gives them room to reload. I'm a little happy to see Klink go from the Treefrogs. He was a waste of a draft pick. Also, not surprising that Russo retired.

• Nemesis: QB/CB/ST Carmine Meier retires at the age of 36 and a value of 96.5($1)
  
• Oranges: RB/LB/ST Arthur Layne retires at the age of 33 and a value of 96.8($1)
  
• Reds: OL/DL/ST Salvador Browder retires at the age of 36 and a value of 88.4($1)
  
• Silvers: WR/DL/ST Gaston Karns retires at the age of 31 and a value of 71.5($0)
  
• Alpacas: OL/LB/K Quintin Tyndall retires at the age of 32 and a value of 98.6($1)
  
• Eggshells: OL/CB/KR Adrian Saylor retires at the age of 32 and a value of 100.1($1)
  
• Pinks: OL/DL/KR Edgardo Riley retires at the age of 35 and a value of 117.9($2)
  
• Pinks: QB/LB/K Theron Raney retires at the age of 34 and a value of 116.3($2)
  
• Maroons: QB/S/KR Emmanuel Melendez retires at the age of 35 and a value of 121.2($2)
  
• Browns: OL/S/ST Ismael France retires at the age of 36 and a value of 127.4($3)
  
• Rainbow Sharks: WR/DL/KR Jackson Romine retires at the age of 33 and a value of 128.7($3)
  
• FA: QB/LB/K Rodrigo Montanez retires at the age of 35 and a value of 154.1($6)
  
• Pinks: OL/LB/K Genaro Valverde retires at the age of 33 and a value of 163.0($7)
  
• Silvers: WR/CB/ST Kevin Rowan retires at the age of 29 and a value of 99.7($1)
  
• FA: QB/CB/K Arlen Park retires at the age of 35 and a value of 146.7($5)
  
• FA: QB/S/ST Coleman Dodge retires at the age of 33 and a value of 142.6($4)
  
• FA: QB/DL/KR Isiah Shepard retires at the age of 32 and a value of 143.2($4)
  
• FA: QB/LB/ST Lane Greeley retires at the age of 29 and a value of 139.6($4)
  
• FA: QB/DL/ST Benito Olivas retires at the age of 29 and a value of 139.9($4)
  
• FA: QB/S/K Jed Buckley retires at the age of 29 and a value of 143.1($4)
  
• Blues: WR/LB/K Andy Irons retires at the age of 23 and a value of 101.6($1)
  
• Treefrogs: WR/DL/KR Wm Klink retires at the age of 20 and a value of 131.2($3)
  
• Olives: OL/LB/K Roderick Magee retires at the age of 20 and a value of 114.9($2)
  
• Pinks: RB/LB/KR Stephan Ard retires at the age of 35 and a value of 193.2($14)
  
• Grays: OL/DL/ST Jefferson Mcelroy retires at the age of 34 and a value of 182.9($11)
  
• Browns: RB/CB/ST Elvin Matos retires at the age of 32 and a value of 198.8($16)
  
• Reds: QB/LB/KR Lyman Mcafee retires at the age of 34 and a value of 227.8($27)
  
• Swarm: OL/S/K Dana Carillo retires at the age of 32 and a value of 149.5($5)
  
• Maroons: WR/LB/KR Leonardo Crabtree retires at the age of 35 and a value of 223.9($25)
  
• Avocados: WR/CB/KR Basil Hooper retires at the age of 34 and a value of 147.6($5)
  
• Blues: WR/CB/KR Angel Kile retires at the age of 34 and a value of 222.0($24)
  
• Swarm: OL/DL/ST Mohamed Machado retires at the age of 20 and a value of 147.6($5)
  
• Blues: WR/S/K Willian Adkins retires at the age of 27 and a value of 143.7($4)
  
• Treefrogs: OL/DL/ST Alexander Russo retires at the age of 36 and a value of 176.9($10)
  
• Oranges: OL/DL/K Todd Chavis retires at the age of 32 and a value of 185.9($12)
  
• Olives: OL/DL/ST Jarod Hochstetler retires at the age of 33 and a value of 147.7($5)
  
• Eggshells: OL/S/KR Ashley Arana retires at the age of 34 and a value of 195.5($15)
  
• Silvers: OL/LB/ST Renaldo Bono retires at the age of 20 and a value of 136.5($3)
  
• Rainbow Sharks: WR/CB/ST Tommie Santamaria retires at the age of 20 and a value of 138.3($4)
  
• Alpacas: RB/LB/ST Young Millan retires at the age of 33 and a value of 172.7($9)
  
• Swarm: QB/S/K Scotty Allen retires at the age of 33 and a value of 157.2($6)
  
• Silvers: RB/CB/K Ryan Hardiman retires at the age of 32 and a value of 235.9($31)
  
• FA: QB/DL/ST Jame Faison retires at the age of 28 and a value of 161.7($7)
  
• Rainbow Sharks: OL/DL/ST Rodrigo Settle retires at the age of 36 and a value of 182.7($11)
  
• Alpacas: WR/CB/ST Carl Lawless retires at the age of 34 and a value of 165.6($8)

It took so long to get through retirements because of the league history screen. As it turns out, updating the history correctly was a lot harder than I thought it'd be.

I'll have to remember that for the next version. My data isn't organized the greatest, and it's making things harder than they should be.

What's the reason for younger players to retire? Are they buried on the depth chart? I just noticed quite a few 20 to 23 year olds?

Wow, best record in Eastern Division history.

Usually, it's because the player is really bad (below 145/$4). After that, it's because he's been sitting in the FA pool or his contract is about up (and probably won't be renewed)

There's a small chance that younger players retire 'out of the blue', though. I calculate a percent chance for each player in the league to retire, and then start rolling from the highest percent chance players down to the lowest until I get 45 retirements.

That being said, I also cut off the retirement percentage at the top and bottom. If a player has a 90% chance of retiring, I auto-set it to 100%. If a player has lower than 15% chance, I auto-set it to 0%. (I don't really like the idea of really low probability retirements coming true.)

The 3 biggest factors in pushing a player towards retiring:
#1 Being crappy (below 145/$4)
#2 Being old (above 33)
#3 Being a FA

The biggest factors against retirement:
#1 Having a long contract
#2 Being young (below 30)
#3 Being good (above 175/$9)


The list is presented in order of retirement %, so the first group of guys were all 100% retirements. I bet the 100% group cut off right before the Blues' Andy Irons. The rest are most likely the non-100%, but near 90% retirements. I had to run this about a dozen times to get the history to handle retirements right, and it almost never changed. (maybe the last 2-3 guys changed once in a while) That tells me that this whole list comes from the really high retirement percentage end of the pool.

Draft order has been released!

I'm not super excited to be picking #17. That's what happens when you're a regular season star, but a postseason dud. :(

The pick trading is coming along nicely. Along with the trading features, the player selection AI has been greatly improved. Teams do a lot better job balancing overall talent, coach preference, and immediate fit. There are still those rare big-time reaches, but at least they make sense now.

example: A team picking #4 took the 20th player player on the board. I got worried, but then checked into it and realized the rookie would be a 3-way starter immediately. Makes sense.

On another note, I got the first draft of the Twisters logo back today! It's back for some refinements, and then it should be ready to go!

Great to hear!

I just saw this from way back in season 1 - week 3.

I hope you noticed that the top 4 teams from last season were the 4 sponsored teams that got coach preference upgrades. :) Yeah it's early, but it sure seems like it's making a difference.

To broaden out the experiment a bit, I'm going to upgrade the Maroons and Blues to see if it makes a difference. This time, I'm going to make some drastic style alterations to see if it shows up on the field. I'll make the Maroons become obsessed with special teams. (K, KR, ST) The Blues are going to become a pure power ball-control team. (RB, OL, DL) If the experiment works, we should see a major season stat effect that comes with the new play styles. We'll also probably see more trades than normal from both teams, as they start to reshape their rosters.

The draft pool has been released, and here are the players invited to the green room.

Gary Robbins is obviously the gem of the draft. I can't see any way the Maroons pass on him. The Blues could be the first wildcard, though. I don't see anyone near the top of the draft that would be a great fit for the Blues new power-hungry style of play. They could be the first team to trade out of a pick.

Hopefully they get someone good! There must be a team out there that needs a speedy cover CB.... :)

Oooohh!!! I just realized the Maroons have a pretty legit QB already (Bowe -> 84), and solid starting CBs.

That means the #1 pick is in play for a trade-up!

Ha! Pick trading during the draft is done!

I just have to add in the decision making for releasing players to make room on the roster for the draft pick(s), and we're ready to kick off the draft!

Note: During development and testing of pick trading, there have been a couple trades that are showing up regularly, and they are pretty big! Stay tuned.... :)