kaboom!

Not what I was expecting but it looks great!

Me either, but I'm leaving it up to the designer for the art concept. I just feed the basic logo idea and the color scheme, and he does the rest. If I got too involved, they'd all end up looking like the Swarm logo!

I think everything is working for the draft!

It's time to get this party started!!

:party:

1.1

The Maroons have gotten 3 legit offers for the star of the draft. (The way the screen works, only the offers they are considering show up in the window)

The Slates, Olives, and the Swarm all have a serious need at QB, and Robbins could be a franchise changer! The Maroons are transforming into a special teams monster, so I'm not surprised that they are looking at 3 legit returners in exchange for the top pick.

After much deliberation, the Maroons trade the #1 pick to the Slates for Justin Javier. The Slates select Gary Robbins.

DAMN! I wanted the Swarm to get this one. :)

At #2, the Blues aren't even fielding any offers. (I tried to get this guy!)

They select CB stud Herbert Burke

1.3

The Slates are up again and are eyeing WR/ST stud Olen Cooke.

I really want to move up and get Millard Delacruz to start building my pass defense. They only player the Slates would take for the pick is Faulkner.

um.... no thanks. I'll try the next team.

Slates select Olen Cooke.

1.4 The Silvers are fielding offers for this pick, and the current offers are already too high for me to beat.

TRADE Silvers trades the #4 pick in round 1 to the Olives for Bryce Rendon
Olives select OL/CB (??) Elvin Stevens

1.5 Pinks want too much for this pick, and nobody makes an offer.

Pinks select Millard Delacruz :(

1.6 Avocados are set on Kim Rios and don't field offers. (Or, more likely, other teams don't see enough value in this pick to meet the demand)

1.7 Whoah, out of nowhere the Twisters jump in!

TRADE Alpacas trades the #7 pick in round 1 to the Twisters for Alva Dendy
Twisters select Carmen Buck

1.8 Browns trade pick to the Grays, who select Wade Woodard

1.9 Grays trade the pick to the Browns, who select A. Villarreal.

That was weird. They flip-flopped picks! (and also moved players to each other for fit. still a weird coincidence, though)

1.10 Nemesis take Chris Stokes

Going into the back half of the draft, I'm not seeing a lot that excites me. If I can grab Tyrone Floyd for special teams, I'll be happy. Outside of him or DL/ST Daren Hansen, I'll probably skip my pick.

Whoah, I was going to burn through the next 5 picks, but the Twisters are making another move at 1.12!

Twisters are going to move Beals for the #12! I was wondering when they were going to move that guy. He didn't really fit in, once Luna showed up.

They trade Beals, and then select Tommie Haynes.

That's actually a pretty sweet move.

1.17

So we're on the clock, with the Twisters and Swarm soon up.

My coach wants me to take Huffman, but I'm going to take Floyd. I need the ST help.

1.19: Twisters quietly take Pete Fernandez.
1.20: Swarm grab Allen Conrad

Nothing much of note in the 2nd round. There were a bunch of teams skipping their picks.

Next up: Free Agency!

The best thing about this draft system is that there's no randomness......

so when the game crashes because you forgot to add skipped picks into the save/load functions, you can just rerun it. :)

We're up and running again!

League Champs Swarm:

Getting Gary Robbins would have been a game changer for the Swarm. It's a little bit of a bummer that they couldn't pull it off. The defensive secondary and the power-passing game still look legit, but they need a QB in the worst way.

The Swarm are going into FA with $51 in cap space. That should be enough to land a decent QB. I'll be disappointed in the AI if the Swarm don't go all-in on a QB.

Eastern Champ Twisters

Wow! I'm impressed with how the defense looks this year. 2 of the 3 rookies will immediately start as the #1 in their position. (LB and S) That's one hell of a rookie class.

The offense still looks strong, too. This could be another big year for the Twisters. They are going into FA with $59 in cap space, and no roster spots to fill. It will be interesting to see if they try to upgrade anywhere.

Playoff disappointment Treefrogs

That defense makes me sad. :(

Buckles, Poston, and Eddy are my only meaningful players on defense. If I can find some real defensive help in FA, I'm willing to start moving some of my key players. We have $48 in cap space right now, so we should be able to get something.

If not, we might have to focus on offense and special teams and deal with shootouts every week.

I'll be in the fast-sim grind all day today, so FA will have to wait for a couple days.

Ugh! I couldn't do it. I got the passing game working (with open field running and interceptions) but I just can't grind through another full day of fast-sim. It's PAINFUL!

Looks like FA is going to get some love today, afterall! :)

Working on some FA AI updates right now, but might as well take a look at the FA pool.

hmmm.... that's pretty weak. Even though it sucks, the Swarm should be able to land a much better QB, if they want to. Not a franchise changer, but maybe a bridge QB in case they don't trade for one.

There's no chance I find any defensive help here. Anyone with any defensive skill has been locked up by their teams. Looks like it's trade-market for me. I still have an open roster spot that I'll fill with some ST talent, though. Maybe Mack Rivera?

I don't know why this just hit me, but I should have traded Faulkner for Gary Robbins pick. I'm pretty sure that was on the table, but I dismissed it too quickly.

That might be the last time I get a reasonable shot at a young franchise QB that can also play defense.

:(

My "Stop being dumb!" moment of the week:

So I'm finishing up some pretty sweet AI updates for free agency, and I start running tests. The Swarm have 1 roster spot open, and don't have a very good QB. Obviously the Swarm should be chasing a QB.

There isn't much in the QB pool, but there's a 1-way QB that seem ok. (Arrington) I'm convinced that the Swarm should be chasing Arrington, and fiddle with the AI for 2 hours to try and make it happen. It never works. The Swarm are always going after Pugh.

I get frustrated and go to work. My confidence is shot all day.

On the way home, I vow to fix the AI tonight. I make a couple tweaks, fire it up, and once again the Swarm go after Pugh. Before throwing another fit, I wrap up FA and check depth charts to see who landed Arrington, in hopes of finding the problem.

Then it hits me. The Swarm are better at this game than I am. Pugh is also starting at S and is on the field for ST, where Arrington wouldn't play at any other position. Pugh is actually the right choice.

And that's why the Treefrogs don't have a logo. :)

Actual live FA coming tomorrow morning. The AI looks legit now.

Cruising through FA. As expected, the Swarm grab QB Pugh for 1 season. No real bidding wars, since most teams already have their starting lineups, and the FA pool is pretty thin.

We're going to wait it out and fill out last roster spot when the player demands start coming down. I plan on moving aggressively once the trade window opens, so I need to make sure to keep my cap flexibility.

Swarm Training Camp

This is one of those cases where having a sponsored team in the league really paid off. I check the sponsored teams pretty closely at each phase, because I'm invested in a few of the players (Armbruster) and want to see how their careers develop. Last thing I want is to have a career get derailed by a stupid bug.

In this case, watching Armbruster paid off. I saw his training looked out of whack, and ended up uncovering a typo that left 24 year old players without an updated training plan. (an error in the conditional expression, where 24 year old players just happened to be on the border between two training styles)

Bug squashed, and training is set!

Everything looks normal here. I like how the QB/S "rental" Pugh is only getting trained at QB and S. Smart.

Twisters training

I'm so jealous of the new-look Twisters defense. (you'll see why in the next post) Buck and Haynes are one hell of an immediate upgrade. The other rookie, Fernandez kind of sucks, though. :) Overall, the Twisters did a nice job of managing the draft.

I'm a little concerned about the KR position. I think Karp should be the starting KR, and probably should get trained there. Cromwell should be a ST. I'll check the depth chart when the next season gets set. It might just be a training camp issue because coaches train mostly on player skills, and less on depth chart. I could adjust that, though.

Treefrogs training

That defense makes me sad. :(

My special teams are starting to show signs of life, but that defense.......

Now that we're at the beginning of the season, there's nothing left for me to do but focus on fast-sim. :(

After this one, I'm never doing another game with fast-sim. It's so BORING!!!

Woo!! Almost season time. Great work as always!

Uh oh...

Doing some early morning shopping of the trade blocks, and I ran across this trade. I ran across it during player shopping, so the Browns are willing to make the deal.

Here's what those blue numbers you keep seeing on trade and FA screens mean:

• When the AI evaluates players, it generates a value number of that player for every position, based on skill and coach preference. (0-100)
• That number is used to determine where the player fits in the team's depth chart.
• The team then figures out how much better or worse the depth chart is, by adding up the value rating for the new depth chart against the old depth chart.
• That blue number is the resulting calculation. A positive number means the team would get better, and a negative number means it would get worse.

I rely heavily on that number for trading. (Not quite as much for FA)

So looking at this trade, the Browns would get 35 points better by sending the #1 player on their roster for my OL3???

Well, the answer is yes. (they are stacked with CB talent) The problem is that nobody in their right mind would make this deal if they were the Browns GM.

I'm clearly missing something when it comes to trade evaluation.

Quick update: Found the problem. It's not that coaches are evaluating trades incorrectly, it's that coaches are overvaluing the OL3 and OL4 positions. About half the coaches in the league value an OL4 the same as a CB2.

oops!

That being said, Parry seems to be an outlier. There aren't any other players that show up during shopping that seem unrealistic. I think he's showing up because of a weird roster makeup quirk on the Browns. (having 5 decent CB)

If I just add some sanity check AI to make sure you aren't trading a superstar for a scrub, (even if it makes your roster better) I should be able to filter out weird things like this.

More details on the trading issue:

As it turns out, the Browns just don't like Parry all that much. I added in the sanity filters and the Browns were still offering him up for Cerda. Then I tightened down the filters until the Browns pulled Parry off the table, and found out that they value Parry almost exactly the same as they value Cerda...

:confused:

Confused? Me too.

So the weird thing that tripped all this off is that the Browns are not a CB style defense. They actually value CB lower than any other defensive position. How did they get so many CBs?

This is probably another one of those situations caused by the ever changing AI. The Browns probably landed a bunch of CB in the initial draft when teams didn't have such specific styles. They they resigned all of the CBs in season 1, and then changed style going into season 2. Now that the AI is stronger, the Browns are attempting to rebuild the roster to fit how they want to play.


Since I caused this problem, I'll let the CPU teams have first crack at Parry. (with the sanity filters still in place) However, if nobody makes a move by week 2, I'm going after him!!

Big-block programming today, so you know what that means....

I'm in fast-sim lockdown (for at least the next 4 hours)

Before diving in, I cleaned up a few more lingering interface and trade AI issues. Parry is still being offered to anyone with a decent OL asset, but he's the only weird one now. While I was at it, I even included some basic AI for the teams to start shopping players who aren't worth their contracts. (the beginnings of AI cap management)

I also started setting the Treefrogs season strategy!

I'm going to continue my pattern of changing offense every season, by switching from the Gator to the Spider offense. We're dropping the 4th OL and adding a 3rd WR to the starting lineup. I like switching offense because it lets me get a good look at all the plays and playbooks. There are a few teams that run the Spider package, so that playbook could use some love.

On defense, I have to make some real change. I'm sticking with Poston (LB) and Buckles (LB/S) because they have elite speed and are still pretty young. I have 1 good DL (Eddy) and nothing else. I can't bring myself to abandon defense and go to a Offense+ST strategy. I'd rather give up consistent kick returns for TD than let teams march down the field all day on me.

It's probably not a wise move long-term, but I'm riding Faulkner until he falls apart. So that means my top 4 players are all locked in. After that, everyone is up for grabs.

• My top asset is OL Mathew. He's elite, but a 1-way player. Right now, teams are starved for OL talent and I could get a haul for him. I'm going to try and flip him for a CB1 that can fill in at either WR3 or a top ST.
  
• OL Cerda is probably my next best asset. I'd like to land a DL2 or a CB2 for him.
  
• CB Muse is probably going to get flipped for some lesser OL talent to fill in for moving Mathew and Cerda.
  
• I doubt there's a market for anyone else on my roster, but if I can upgrade anywhere on defense I'll do it.

I've learned over the last 2 seasons that my players aren't as valuable as I thought, so my overall talent level is probably going to suffer. I can live with that as long as my style of play gets better.

Besides, it's not like we're winning many playoff games with this roster the way it is. #nologo

:(

I made good progress on fast-sim, but I need a break.

It's time for the Treefrogs to go shopping! I forgot that I'd put in a pre-season trading week, so the CPU had their chance to grab Parry. Nobody made an offer, so now it's my turn. :)

Even with dangling Mathew, I'm surprisingly limited in what I can get. The Rainbow Sharks are also in desperate need of OL, and have a ton of talent at CB. That seems to be the best target. I tried to get CB Joe Benn each of the first 2 years, but was unsuccessful. This time I made a strong push by packaging Muse with Mathew, and sealed the deal! I took on Sprinkle as some ST depth to even out the trade.

Once I moved Mathew, I was committed. I went back to the Browns with Cerda and was able to grab Parry.

Both teams accepted the deals, and we're ready to kick off the new-look Treefrogs! Even though my DL is still pretty weak, and the safeties are embarrassing, I like the look of my LB/CB combo. It's a little funny that my LBs are significantly faster than my CBs. :)

Also, my ST have taken a healthy step forward into respectability!

It's going to be hard not to have an elite OL, but I'll see if we can rely on short routes and passes to Faulkner. Maybe that will work.

Back to fast-sim!

and just like that, we close the fast-sim work for today.

Here's where we stand:

• Kickoff: fully functional, balanced
• Passing game: fully functional, not balanced
• Running game: fully functional, not balanced
• Interception returns: fully functional, not balanced
• Open field running: fully functional, not balanced
• Punting: 0% functional
• Integration into existing coach/playcall AI: 0% functional
• Stat tracking: 1% functional
• Integration into existing schedule screens: 0% functional

The hardest parts of the fast sim are done now. (getting passing, running, and open field fully functional) Now it's really a matter of tying it all together and balancing it. I don't see any major hurdles now, and I can probably work on this during the morning hour-of-code. I only needed the large-block time to get through the tough stuff.

That means we're back into games!!!

Can't wait!

I finally figured out how to do animated gifs! (god do I feel old :( )

I haven't been able to post them here, but here's the link:

Faulkner gettin' some against the Oranges. https://www.facebook.com/GoldenCrest...360432792/?t=0

Week 1

Not a bad game for the Treefrogs this week. The defensive upgrades were totally worth it. It's so nice not to worry about the deep ball every damn play.

I'm running the Dragon defense right now (2DL, 2LB, 2CB, 2S) and the playbook needs a little work. It's really blitz heavy, which is ok, but we need to have a few more coverage options. Also, the safeties could be used a little more. Other than that, I need to figure out how best to use my LB/CB combo more effectively. Still, it was fun to blitz and not assume I'm going to get a homerun ball thrown over the top of my secondary.

Offense was a lot harder. I don't have the dominant running game anymore, and my pass protection broke down pretty regularly. That's a bummer. Still, it's fun to have passing options. 3WR patterns are so much more interesting. We really need more plays that feature the RB. I only have 1 in the paybook now, and it's just a RB streak. That being said, I didn't find any plays in the Spider playbook that were garbage. They all seemed to work ok, they just don't fit my strategy yet.

Nice to see the Swarm and Twisters start off with a win! I'm a little annoyed that the Nemesis might be back, though. I can't stand them. :(

Also, how about the Maroons and Blues starting off with wins! Not bad for the two worst teams from last season. Remember, the Blues changed to a ball control team and the Maroons became special teams obsessed. We'll have to see how it plays out over the season.

Standings

Ha!! The Blues didn't get a single pass yard!! lol!! Also, Javier (the guy the Maroons got for the #1 pick) is at the top of the returns chart already! That's pretty sweet.

It looks like the run playcall AI updates I made during last season worked. There are several teams with decent running. Cool.

I know it's early, but it's cool to see some of the new names popping up n the leaders charts. Rookie QB Robbins even makes an appearance on the MVP list! I'm pretty sure players like Luna, Huntley, Armbruster, and Faulkner will all climb back up to the top eventually.

Heading into week 2, a few teams are still tinkering with the roster:

• The Eggshells have traded Rodger Tanaka to the Maroons for Trenton Choe
• The Treefrogs have traded Lawerence Sprinkle to the Pinks for Carl Frederick
• The Silvers have traded Raymon Morrison to the T-Pain for Johnathon Singh

We basically moved a ST3 for an upgrade at OL3. Not a huge trade. The Maroons are still assembling that all-world special teams unit.

I can't wait to play them. :)

It looks like the upgrade at OL3 is already paying off! Look at that hole!!

https://www.facebook.com/GoldenCrest...333375128/?t=0

(yes, we stole a running play from the Swarm :) )

Week 2

Whoah! Lots of shutouts and blowouts this week! I don't think I've ever seen a week like this before.

The Treefrogs look like they are back! Grabbing that OL3 made a huge difference to my offense. He's another 1-way player, but he's at the bottom of my roster so I don't really care if I need to cut him after the season to make room for a better one. I really needed that running game help. My WR's aren't that skilled, so we drop a LOT of passes.

Also, Faulkner has 2 games in a row with a KR for TD! Sweet.....

Look at that Twisters defense! This could be a big year for them.

Surprise of the week: The Blues and Maroons both win again! The Blues beat the Nemesis, who looked unstoppable last week. The Maroons put a butt-whipping on the Grays.

wow!

Standings:

• The Blues are 2-0 without a single pass yard!! :lol:
• The Maroons are near the top in return yardage! (I wish they were better in opp ret yds)

In terms of the terrible team experiment, so far so good.

Luna starts his yearly assault on the MVP award. He really closed the gap on Huntley this week. Faulkner is back, too. Getting that running game going is really going to help.

I really want to dig into these stat leaders more than I'm able to right now. I'll have to get that league news screen on the radar. Seems like the next logical thing to do after Fast-Sim is working.

Fast-sim day again!

Today's goal is to get all the playcalling AI integrated with Fast-Sim. I don't think it's going to be too complicated, but I've said that before.... :)

If I get done early, the next thing to to pull everything together and try and sim a complete game. (before balancing) That's going to be interesting! Ha!

Now if all that gets done, it's on to week 3!

• The Nemesis have traded Dorsey Curtin to the Grays for Shelby Lorenz
• The Twisters have traded Donnell Janes to the Alpacas for Alva Dendy

Wow. The Twisters made a bold move here. The moved a pretty legit WR/LB for a kicker.

That sounds crazy.

Before I went all "That's dumb!" I remembered the debacle I went through when I didn't trust the Swarm coach. So I dug into it.

As it turns out, the WR/LB is 34 years old and must be dropping speed at an alarming rate (He's at to 57 now) Ouch!

Also, the Twisters biggest weakness has always been the kicking game. They've lost several games I watched, because they couldn't hit a FG outside the 10. Now they bring in a 83 rated kicker, who is only 22 years old.

The probably fixes the biggest weakness of the Twisters, now that they are loaded up with rookie defensive talent. This could be the year!

Week 3

Twisters and Swarm still dominating!

The Treefrogs had a nice game against the Reds. I was a little nervous when the Reds took the opening kickoff back for a TD, but we held the returner in check after that. Faulkner had a hard day gaining yardage in the air, or on the ground. He managed to punch a couple in from the goal-line, but he never really got any space to run.

The WRs were looking nice though! It's been a while since I was able to get some separation in routes. We dropped a couple long TD bombs, but that's going to happen when you're starting WRs rated in the 60s. Still, we had some nice drives sustained by the WR2 and WR3.

On defense, LB Poston had a massive game. He dominated on the blitz. My guess is that the improved coverage is allowing him to get to the QB. My coverage used to be so bad that Poston never had a chance.

Standings

You might notice the change in MVP scoring this season. I rebalanced the scoring system, based off last season's final stats. It should be a lot more fair to non-QBs and non-KR now.

Wow, 3 weeks in and Luna has already started dominating the passing leaderboard. That sure didn't take long! Also, we have an Urquhart sighting!

Luna leads the league in passing, #8 in MVP. C'mon man!

Anyways, looks like I have missed a couple of updates. Season is off to a nice start. It will be interesting to see how the kicker acquisition plays out in the long run.

Additionally that defense is looking decent this year!

He's gotta step it up on defense!

300 yards more than anyone else and they want him to play defense? This ain't Neon Deion!

Most of my games seem to go about like this: https://www.facebook.com/GoldenCrest...162542845/?t=0

A lot of indecision by me, and them Faulkner bails me out with a great play. :)

I'm scoreboard-watching the Twisters and Swarm, and I'm starting to think this isn't going to be the Treefrogs logo year. :(

Seriously, 49-0? 41-10?

My 28-6 game felt like total domination. I can't imagine how the Swarm and Twisters games went.

Fast-Sim Update:

Kickoff: DONE
Passing game: fully functional, not balanced
Running game: fully functional, not balanced
Interception returns: fully functional, not balanced
Open field running: fully functional, not balanced
Punting: DONE
FG: DONE
Integration into existing coach/playcall AI: DONE
Stat tracking: 1% functional
Integration into existing schedule screens: 0% functional

It's really going to be a relief when this is done. This is one of those lessons-learned about planning out what you're doing before you dive into it. (Granted, I'd never intended on having a fast-sim, but still....)

The most complicated part of fast-sim has been all the helper functions and coach AI that were built with the knowledge that they could just reach into the game engine and pull out game variables whenever needed. Unfortunately, fast-sim is not the same as the original game engine, so all of those reference won't work anymore. It's incredibly tedious trying to unwind all that mess, and make it work for two types of sim engines, without creating duplicates of everything.

Now, if I was smart and had planned all this out from the beginning......

1. I would have made a single point of entry to both game engines, so in-game variables were only stored once.
2. I would have written AI so it didn't rely so heavily on being able to peek into the game engine at will.
3. I wouldn't have used GameObjects AT ALL for tracking players (they are the worst to work with)

Those simple changes would have made this whole process easier, and saved so much time. Just one more thing to remember for the golf game.

Wow 49-0? Seems too good to be true.

That's a scary team now.

Week 5

I finally got a taste of Swarm/Twisters level domination. :)

This week I switched over to the Swarm offensive playbook. As I was playing with my defensive depth chart, it dawned on me that my new CB Benn is a pretty effective RB/WR. (maybe even more effective than Faulkner!) I'm happy with the Spider playbook now, so I switched over to the Swarm power-passing offense.

O.M.G. :eek:

That is an INSANE offense. I can see why the Swarm are so powerful. If you have the RBs to make it work, and have at least 1 legit WR threat, it's an offense that is really hard to stop. I'll need to run it a few more games to figure out precisely why it's so tough, but right now it feels like the delay for the RBs to get upfield and into pass patterns is creating extra space for them to get open. I do't think it's the matchups, because the defense always matches up man defenders based on receiving threat.

In any case, it's a really cool offense. I'm loving it. Also, Benn is good enough that Faulkner might permanently have a new running mate. :)

I captured a little video of Faulkner working over the Alpacas on a kick return. Just look at that move!!https://www.facebook.com/GoldenCrest...341884627/?t=0

I'll try to get some good videos of the power-passing offense in action.

I'm not too surprised to see the Swarm, Twisters, and Treefrogs at the top. The Swarm and Twisters coaches have been fine-tuned to their playstyle, so the AI does a great job of managing the teams. The Treefrogs are always a regular season hero, but a postseason zero. :(

What's cool is how the Maroons are doing! Remember, they traded away the #1 pick this offseason. It sure seemed to work out for them, because they are rolling pretty well for a team that had 1 win last season. (and not a lot happened in FA this year)

The Blues, on the other hand, kept their pick and look about as you'd expect from a team building through the draft. Incremental improvement.

The new MVP scoring system is definitely shaking things up this season. Armbruster has taken his place at the top of the rankings, which is really where he should be. He's the most talented player in the league for sure, and now he's getting recognized by the media for it. Also, how about his QB getting him the ball now? #2 on the receiving yardage chart (at the WR position), from a team that almost exclusively throws to the RBs? Wow.

Luna, as always, is making a mockery out of the passing leaders board. Come on man, save some passing yards for the rest of us! :)

Whoah! They just unblocked FOFC from work!

That cut inside by Faulkner was very nice.

Looking forward to the next week!

Week 6

The game against the Avocados was pretty uninteresting. They don't have a meaningful QB so they didn't put up much of a fight. The only reason they scored at all is because I started going for it every 4th down.

That aside, this also happened: https://www.facebook.com/GoldenCrest...284494366/?t=0

WTF is that linebacker doing??? It's been a long time since I've seen this happen. I guess there's a little more AI work to do......

Twisters and Swarm roll again. I'm starting to feel like I have a chance, though. The power-passing offense is much more effective for my team, and my defense is significantly better than before. I've moved Buckles back to S so now I have a legit player at every level. That really helped against big plays. He usually makes the tackle before anything is broken long.

Probably the first time I've said anything nice about the S position. :)

Standings

I can't get over the passing advantage the Twisters seem to have over the rest of the league.

Luna is only rated an 84
They don't have a WR with a speed greater than 79
WR3 has a speed of 59 :eek:

Also, there are 5 other QBs within a couple points of Luna's rating, and some of those guys have significantly better receiving weapons.

If he even showed up on defense or special teams, he'd own the MVP this year.

Profiles for the big-3

• Kory "I ain't got time for defense" Luna
• Reginald "Oh sure, NOW you notice me" Armbruster
• Tyree "Momma, I'm goin' fast!" Faulkner

Fast-Sim Update:

• Kickoff: DONE
• Passing game: DONE
• Running game: DONE
• Interception returns: DONE
• Open field running: DONE
• Punting: DONE
• FG: DONE
• Integration into existing coach/playcall AI: DONE
• Stat tracking: 1% functional
• Integration into existing schedule screens: 0% functional

Basically every phase of fast-sim works now. It's hard to say how far off the stats are from the real-time engine, but there's a TON of overlap so I bet it's not too far off.

Tomorrow I should be able to start implementing stat tracking. That's when the fun begins! After stat tracking is done, I'll run off this season a bunch of times to get a fast-sim result to compare against the current season progress.

That should be... interesting. :)

For those who are interested in release plans, check out the blog. http://www.goldencrestgames.com/fast...release-plans/

The system works. Wait until we get some quality players in there.

I also find it interesting that the defense can add for the MVP when Luna has a 29:1 TD/INT ratio. Then I realize that this is slightly different when compared to real football. The return game is stronger here and more important. If I quit comparing this to real life football (like having 2 way players) then everything seems a lot better and your leagues seems like it is really humming.

I have a hard time with that, too. I often catch myself thinking of the stats in terns of the NFL, and then think I need to fix something. I have to keep telling myself that it's totally different, and it's ok if the stats don't match up.

That being said, I think some of the defensive and return stats might be a bit over-valued right now. After each development season, I'll run the season stats through my MVP scoring system and rebalance the weights. This season's scoring system is based only off last year's stats, so it's probably not quite right because of how the engine changed during last season. The next balancing should get it a lot closer.

I think that will be one of the biggest hurdles will be people expecting this to be like NFL or NCAA. Will you allow people to adjust modifiers to adjust the offense, defense or special teams?

If you allow people to adjust the league to play they want then I think you have a really solid game. However, if you can’t then I think it might take a little longer for people to adjust to this version of football.

That's one of the main things I want to get from the Alpha testing phase. Are people able to quickly get into it, or does the difference in stats turn out to be a barrier?

On a related note, I almost made this first version a Blood Bowl or Mutant League Football type game, just to force the idea that it's different than the NFL. :)

Glad you didn't because that's one of the ideas on my "someday I'll make" list! :)

I also had a Cyberball remake planned before this game, but had a hard time finding the right models. I think if I'd have found the robot models before I found the football player model, things might have gone a lot differently.

A lot of close games this week.

How about the Swarm and the Twisters winning by a combined 5 points?? That's unbelievable.

Our game against the Silvers wasn't as close as the score looks. My playcalling was pretty sloppy most of the game, and went for it on every 4th down. The Silvers had nothing on offense, and I could sack the QB at will. I called off the dogs early and started messing around with some defenses I rarely run. They broke through for a long TD late in the game, but I wasn't too worried.

I had a problem running the ball this game because they have an elite 2-man DL that blew me up consistently. It's hard to run when 2 guys destroy your blocking and leave all the other defenders free for tackling. :(

I ended up relying completely on the power passing attack. Here's a quick video of my new favorite play: https://www.facebook.com/GoldenCrest...623905132/?t=0

It almost always gives the QB at least one good passing option.

1. The WR1 on the hard slant&drag is the first option. If there's a mismatch in man defense, the QB usually has a good angle to get him the ball. If it's a zone, the RB clears out the middle.
2. If the WR is covered, or if the zone stays intact, the deep RB (RB1) is the next read. The lead RB (RB2) will usually occupy the LB enough for RB1 to get wide and open. In this video, the LB did a good job of coming off RB2 to cover RB1 and take it away.
3. RB2 is the 3rd read. A lot of times if WR1 and RB1 are covered, it's because the defense is playing shallow and loading up in the first 10 yards. RB2 is challenging the defense deep, and will often get a step on the safety if he starts too close to the LOS.

My QB is pretty quick at making reads, so I think he threw the ball on his 2nd cycle of reading the receivers. It looks like everyone was covered on the first reads, and then Moody found the WR at the beginning of his 2nd read cycle. He's rated 80, and a 70 or 60 rated QB probably would have been looking at the RB1 when the WR found the hole over the middle, and would have missed it.

That's really the most meaningful difference in QB skill. It's the ability to read receivers quickly. Bad QBs also are inaccurate with their throws, but the accuracy penalty isn't really bad unless you're throwing 20+ yards downfield. Being able to cycle through receivers quickly is key because they are usually only open for a small window. Most defenses recover quickly, unless it's just a bad play design. (there are still some of those)

If you've got a crappy QB, you're going to be limited to patterns with 1 or 2 receivers, or you'll just have to live with only the top reads in complex patterns. It's doable, but it's really limiting.

Probably my favorite feature in the game. :)

The first ever complete fast-sim game done!

Twisters vs Treefrogs

Final score: Twisters - 3, Treefrogs - 7
Treefrogs scored on the final play of the game, with a 86 yard TD run!

ok, that's not totally out of the realm of possibility. I'm pretty sure there's a ton of tuning needed, but it's a good starting spot. Now for some stats:

Passing
Luna: 15/23 for 117 yds (not horribly out of line. Probably a bit low)
Moody: 7/15 for 36 yds (same as Luna, seems a bit low)

Rushing
Twisters: yeah right. :)
Faulkner: 2 att for 90 yds. (my AI coach never wants to run. This might work itself out with more attempts.)

Receiving
Horowitz (Twisters): 9 rec on 14 att, for 54 yds. (The yds per catch is low, when compared to the real-time engine. Not horrible, though)
Karp (Twisters) 5 of 5 for 59 yds. (not bad)
Faulkner (Treefrogs) 4 of 8 for 17 yds. (yeah, yds per rec is low across the board)
Buckles (Treefrogs) 3 of 5 for 18 yds

Kick Return - seems ok for now
Faulkner 2 for 43
None for the Twisters

Punt Returns - overall looking ok
Faulkner 2 for 79
Cromwell 3 for 115

Defense:
0 sacks for the game. That doesn't seem right, but both QBs have a pretty quick release. Might need watching.
0 ints. Again, might need watching but this isn't unusual for 80+ QBs
Tackles seem to be distributed realistically. CBs got most of the tackles, which is expected because we were both passing all game.


Right now it looks like my open field running is too hard on the runners. Receivers aren't getting and RAC and returners are being held in check. I'm actually a little shocked about how good the stats look for the first run. I was expecting something like a 99-80 score or Luna getting 700 yards passing.

Grabbing the pitchforks!!!

3 points!!!

DOWN WITH MANAGEMENT, DOWN WITH THE COACH, DOWN WITH FAST-SIM!

Joking aside, it does seem like the engine is slightly off. I don't think you would get that same result if you played the game.

Week 8

We got to play the no-pass Blues this week. It was pretty interesting to play a team that is allergic to throwing the ball. They often mounted long drives, but eventually stalled out when they hit a 3rd and 4+ yards. Often they went for it on 4th and short, and often got it. :(

The run a stout OL with a incredibly skilled, but slow, RB. Here's a video of a few Blues plays, ending with an atrocious pass attempt. :)

https://www.facebook.com/GoldenCrest...080317653/?t=0

Watch how quickly the RB cuts. That's what you get from high RB skill. You get quick decision making. If you go back and watch any of the Faulkner runs, you'll see his decision making is slightly slower, and he'll run straight-line longer before making another move. On the other hand, Faulkner in kick return makes lightning quick cuts. That's because he's very skilled as a KR.

For the Blues, this means a LOT of 4-6 yard runs. He almost always makes the most out of his blocking, but isn't fast enough to break the home-run. Pure ball control.

We held out own on offense. We were solid, but unspectacular. Faulkner did have his first punt return for TD, though. That was pretty cool.

He might not be at the top of the MVP race, but Horowitz is having a beast of a year! The new MVP ratings system is really highlighting the 2-way and 3-way players.

Just over halfway through the season, and it's pretty clear the Twisters, Swarm, and Treefrogs are in the playoffs. The Oranges look legit, but everyone else looks pretty bad.

Also, let's not forget that our league rushing leader plays QB. That could be dangerous to play against in the playoffs.

The first full-week fast-sim test is in!

Old sim time: 40-45 minutes
Fast-sim time: 8 seconds

No bad. :)

I'm fast-simming the current season up to where we are now, and it's taking just over a minute. Sweet!

I've also been tuning the fast-sim and the stats are coming out pretty close to what we have so far this season. If anything, they actually look a little more realistic because there's not such a huge distance between the #1 guy in a category and everyone else. I still have some work to do on sacks and ints, but it's close. (I'm hesitant to do too much with sacks and ints because I want to work on those in the real-time engine, too.)

I'm messing with some ways of posting the fast-sim results against the real league results that won't be confusing. I don't want the real league results to get confused with testing!

The plan is to finish this season out in the real-time engine, and starting next season we'll go with the fast-sim for all non-human games. (playoffs tbd...)

It kind of bugs me that my coach thinks we're a passing team. Every time I let the coach manage the game for me, we always go all-pass. :mad:

I get that Faulkner is only rated 70 at RB, but come on!

(this might be another instance where the AI is better at this game than I am)

Great to hear the development on this! Looking forward to more updates!

Yesterday I collected 5 seasons worth of test data to compare against the real sim data, and found a few areas that need some more work.

1. Running looks like it's close, but when you dig a little you see that the yardage is almost all coming from breakaway runs. There are very few 4-10 yard runs. I think that has to do with the blocking system, and should be fairly easy to tune.
   
2. Passing is really close, but there aren't enough breakaway receptions. I made a small change to the running system that resulted in all those breakaway runs, so I think I can apply that (to a smaller extent) to the post-reception running situation.
   
3. I also realized that digging in the data takes too much time. After exporting it, I have to pull it into my master spreadsheet and do some pivot tabling to it, then set up a way to view it easily. I'm kind of lazy, so that's too much work to do every time I want to run a test season. If there only was an in-game screen that could show me the stats for any category I needed....... :)

Yeah, It's finally time for the league leaders screen. It's going to be a huge help to view stats in-game, without having to do all the exporting/importing/formatting every time.

Well, now we know. It's not just the fast-sim that needs more work. :)

Here are the season passing leaders for the league. I'd like to see a more gradual falloff from the top QBs to the middle/bottom QBs. That being said, I know the running (and returner) teams will have a massive gap at the top as well. It's probably a result of how specialized everyone is, which might be ok.

I'd still like a more robust middle-class, though.

Remember this oldie?

Well, here's why Luna is dominating the league. It's Horowitz. :eek:

75 receptions in 8 weeks??? It's like he gets open EVERY PLAY!

Week 9

This was a rough one. We got thoroughly worked by the Swarm. The only spark of life was a kick return for TD after we were already down 14 points. I'm not sure we even got a single first down the whole game. That defense is just smothering.

Game highlights:https://www.facebook.com/GoldenCrest...076307520/?t=0

How about the Twisters losing to the Olives?? :eek: That was unexpected. Also, the Oranges (who are the only other meaningful team in the West) getting beat by the Blues. Crazy day.

(note: The real-time engine code hasn't been touched this season.)

Development notes:
Fast-sim passing and rushing stats are starting to come into line with what I'm looking for now. I need to work on sacks/defense and the return game next. Sacks are super rare, punt returns are ridiculously high, and kick returns are super low. Everything else is looking pretty good.

After fast-sim is done, I'll have to tune the real-time engine to match. Now that the leaders screen is working, I can see that a lot more tuning needs to be done on the real-time engine.

Got beat by the Olives? Well they are the second best in our conference. Can't be too upset about that. Just gotta pick it up next season.

Good stuff on fast sim. I think you will correct those issues quickly.

I'm down to 2 remaining issues with fast-sim:

1. There are no kick return TDs
2. Punt return average way too high, but there are also no punt return TDs. :confused:

Everything else (including playcalling) looks pretty darn good now. Tomorrow morning I think I'll be able to get the KR and PR issue fixed, and then it's just a matter of tuning the real-time engine to match.

Still looking good for an August alpha release!

And just like that, Fast-Sim is done!!!

There will be some balancing negotiation between the engines as the test seasons play out, but I'm ready to call the engine done and move on to the next thing.

That's quite a relief! I started getting so bored with the engine that I almost scrapped the whole thing and started re-writing the game to work in real-time only! :)

Congrats on getting fast sim done!

I'm excited each step this progresses.

Week 10

The Olives played us tough for most of the game. We had a hard time getting Faulkner any space, and the rest of the WRs weren't catching anything. Just a hard offensive outing.

We had one nifty power-pass play that went for a long TD, but then it quickly got erased. (video here: https://www.facebook.com/GoldenCrest...297262831/?t=0 )

Ugh!!! :)

I'm loving the new-look defense. My CBs aren't all-world, but I can count on them to provide decent coverage and to pick off a pass now and then. I can live with that. It sucks that I had to give up the all-time great OL, but it's probably worth it in the long run. It's just frustrating giving up sacks and not being able to run the ball anymore.

In other news, the Twisters and Swarm finally get that rematch from the Championship game! AND END IN A TIE!??!?!!? LOL!!!!! :banana:
That probably speaks to the Twisters stepping up the defense this year. Should be a good finals again. ;)

p.s. I'm not happy to see the Nemesis get new life. :(

In developer news: With fast-sim done, I'm turning all my attention towards getting a playable version out for you guys to mess with.

Here's the list as I see it now:

• Team selection screen
• Start league with allocation draft
• Clean up save/load
• Make sure league phases transition cleanly (just some minor screen variable cleanup)

That's pretty much it! If I can fix all that, we should be able to have something to send out!

Wow, I wouldn't expect a tie. Also don't forget your own team. You have been doing really well with that power offense.

Once again thanks for the update on the development. Sounds great!

Love the power-passing offense! I'm going to miss it when I take on a new one next season.

I'm already worried about another quick exit from the playoffs. We don't exactly have the best track record. :(

We had another tough offensive game in week 11. For the most part, the Cyans held us in check. There was absolutely nothing to be had in the running game. It pretty much went like this the whole game:
https://www.facebook.com/GoldenCrest...060412988/?t=0

It's becoming a pattern now, where our only offense is coming from Faulkner getting loose on a pass pattern and Moody hitting him for a long TD. Nobody else on my offense is providing anything at all. WRs are constantly dropping long passes, Moody is always getting sacked, and my OL can't make a running hole to save their life.

But I still have Faulkner. :)

Thank goodness my defense is still killing it.

The Twisters grab another tie against the T-Pain. :lol: I imagine they are just trying to make the rest of the league feel better about themselves.

Swarm beat up on the Eggshells, as expected.

Also, the Nemesis lose. Nice! :cool:

Let's take a quick look at the standings, with 3 games to go in the regular season.

In the West
Swarm and Treefrogs have clinched. It looks like it's going to be the T-Pain and Oranges joining us. That last loss probably puts the Nemesis out of the playoff picture.

Good. :)

In the East
The Twisters have clinched, as expected. I'm positive the Rainbow Sharks and Olives are in. If I were to lay money down on the 4th slot, I'd actually pick the Maroons to make it into the playoffs over the Eggshells and Slates. I really like their point differential and the defense. The Maroons also have loaded up on special teams, which doesn't always show up in the stats very well. That's my darkhorse pick!

Now that I've gotten the fast-sim done, and have been looking at the stats a LOT, our league stats just feel out of whack to me. This is probably the last time you see the league leader in passing (and receiving) almost double-up the 2nd place QB. Yikes! :eek:

Come on, Luna! Leave some passing yards for the rest of us!! :D

Nerfing my offense again? I can't catch a break can I?

Ha! Just in time, too! :p

As luck would have it, it was Treefrogs-Twisters week!

The Twisters defense has clearly been upgraded. My passing game now knows that for sure. It was a pathetic offensive showing for us, but Faulkner put us on his back and carried us through the game. Frankly, he's becoming a legend around these parts. I don't think our team would have any relevance without him. He may be gaining lifetime-contract status.

The Twisters offense is really hard to stop. They aren't fast or flashy, but they complete a lot of passes. The thing that separates the Twisters passing attack from everyone else, is that they catch almost everything. I can get guys open at about the same rate as the Twisters, but my guys can't catch in traffic. If they have a tiny amount of space, the Twisters WRs always catch the ball.

That being said, Luna made one mistake that led to an interception while they were in FG range. That was the difference that allowed us to hang on for the tie.

Yep, another Twisters tie! :lol:

Here are the scoring highlights: https://www.facebook.com/GoldenCrest...163348411/?t=4

In other news, the Swarm grab another win and probably lock up the #1 seed. The Eggshells and Slates both lose while the Maroons win! I just had a feeling about them. :) I'm really rooting for them to make it to the playoffs. It would be cool to see the worst team from last year make the turnaround.

Look! Team Logos are starting to make an appearance!!

:)

I'm just starting to incorporate logos right now. Most of the graphics work is going to take place in Dev Season 4 or 5.