Erik Rutins
Administrator
Posts: 7499
Joined: 3/28/2000
From: Vermont, USA
Status: online 
| Hi all,
If everything goes well, we'll be releasing the second official update later today. To whet your appetites, here is the final readme and change list.
Change History:
v1.0.139 – April 17th, 2006
(Second Update)
NOTE: This is a condensed version of the BETA release histories previously posted on the forums at www.matrixgames.com. With those documents, some items would be listed twice, or more, as further changes or fixes to the same general area would be made multiple times and reported.
This document should be considered a list of updates/changes to the previous ‘official release’ (v1.095), not a list of what’s been addressed with each BETA release.
New Features:
1. From User Requests - Added the ability to quick simulate a single game, the complete current week, or the complete season without stopping. There is a known design issue in that you can't stop the process once it's started. I will try to find a way to allow that in future updates to the game but for now this at least addresses a wish list item many have had. Basically how this works is that when you click the 'quick sim' button, you're presented with a dialog of options. I'm going to expand this dialog when the old simulated game system back in place. But for now, it just lets you select how many games you want to simulate at a time.
2. From User Requests – An accelerated clock has been added. When the CPU is selecting a play, the game and play clock is accelerated to better mimic the time taken by a human player to select a play. The result is fewer offensive plays being run in a game.
3. From User Requests - User Cameras. Users can now selected different camera angles by pressing keys F5 through F8. These camera views are: F5-Traditional, F6-Overhead, F7-Coach, F8-Stadium
4. Added TE/SB to the Line up On Man command. Unlike the Receivers, that where you need to specify which one you want the defender to line up on, the SB/TE command will line up on the closest one to the defenders initial formation position.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Due to the changes in [Key On] and [Line Up On Man] commands, some old plays in the default play book may no longer play as designed. Updated plays are included in this release, but plays that have been created by users prior to these changes may not function the same as they did previously. Users may need to update their created plays in order to make best use of the changes with these two commands.
5. Basic Localization. Users outside of North America should no longer need to change their date/time/currency region settings to North American to play the game. Game text remains unlocalized.
6. Added some additional logic to the QB snap code so that the CPU QB that is on the winning team, going into the final minutes of the half, will delay the snap of the ball longer in an effort to waste time on the clock. This will only happen if the clock is running.
Existing Feature Functionality Changes:
1. In previous releases, some minor rules were generalized in the game so that all types of games used the same minor rules. Now, some minor rules that are considered “league specific” are being tied to the field type selected. This is not the best solution as these rules should be customizable to the user (as is the intended spirit of the game that the user can customize as much as possible). However, for the time being, some rules are being built to be enforced by field type. This is will be an ongoing process.
2. From User Requests - The arcade mode kicking has been changed. With previous releases, the player’s skills would affect the kick the user was attempting to make. So even if the user looked like they'd pointed the arrow at the right place, the field goal could still be missed. After the change the kick accuracy and distance is completely up to the user now. The movement of the arcade kicking indicator has been sped up to make it more challenging.
3. From User Requests - I've upped the passing accuracy. Now the passing completion rate should be most affected by the defense rather than the QB missing the receiver (although, that still happens). The receiver’s ability to catch the ball will also effect this.
4. Coaching mode kicking has been changed. The kicking strength skill of the kicking player is now ‘scaled’ to match the field the kicker is kicking on. The kicker will kick the ball has hard as he needs to in order to kick from the kicking point to the target. In most cases the target is the goal line of the opposition. What this means now is that a kicker with a 98 KST will kick differently on a 50 yard field as compared to his kicking on a 110 yard field.
5. QB scramble logic has been changed. The QB will now do a better job of scrambling or shuffling in the pocket to avoid pressure. Utility creators take note: there are new data constants in the maindata.mdb file that may effect your program’s functionality. A complete listing of these data constants is located at the end of this document.
6. Changed the logic for the QB to read the pass coverage. The QB should do a better job of finding the 'most open' receiver rather than just the first open receiver he sees. The result is the ball is spread around a little better and the QB will sometimes now throw to the running back rolling out into the flats as a safety valve rather than just throwing down field. By design, this is not always the case. For example, a scrambling QB will throw to the first person he sees. However, if un-pressured a QB should generally find the most open player.
7. Made some adjustments to the receiver catch logic. Receivers should catch the ball a little more often now improving the overall completion to attempt ratio.
8. New Saved Game Mechanism. Saved games are now in traditional Windows™ INI format rather than the custom format.
IMPORTANT NOTE: When a user saves a game, player stats for that game are saved in the file as well. If a user saves a game, then edits their roster, and then loads the saved game, the saved game will not be able to do anything with the data for the missing player. The game will start but it will use the roster the team currently has, not the roster that the game was saved with.
General Fixes:
1. Fixed a bug importing leagues. To import a league, a use need simply drop the league file (and supporting artwork folders) into the game root folder.
2. Fixed a problem with league standings being wiped away after a certain period of time. This only occurred if the league had divisions with no teams assigned to it.
3. Added some code to the create new season routines to remove any empty divisions and/or conferences. Empty Divisions and Conferences were causing a lot of problems with schedule generation as well as the game resetting standings. Now, once you start a new season, if any divisions or conferences are blank, they're removed before the rest of the season is generated.
4. Fixed the accumulation of statistics over the duration of a season as well as career. Two very small typos in one small area of code were causing a tremendous amount of problems! Users are encouraged to reset their leagues so that these changes can properly take effect.
5. The game clock no longer runs during any point after TD attempts (single or two point).
6. Addressed issues with field goals.
• That missed field goals caught in the end zone but not returned were not giving a single point when that rule was in place.
• On strange occasions, when a single point rule was not in place, a single point would still be awarded.
• Addressed the problem of the clock not stopping at the end of a quarter, kick offs and punts not happening as the clock runs out, etc... lots of game clock problems have hopefully been solved.
• Fixed a bug with field goals if they occurred with either the minutes or seconds in the quarter being at zero.
7. Added some code to ensure that when teams are created they have default uniforms created.
8. Adjusted the RB logic a little bit so that they will run more north south when going through the gaps in the line. Previously sometimes the RB would get up to the line and immediately try to evade an oncoming LB and wind up going no place. Now an RB will at least try to move forward as much as they can.
9. Made some changes to the QB sack code that addresses the 'incomplete pass/tackled by' issue. Now an incomplete pass is only recorded when the QB is hit and his arm is moving forward. As well, no tackle is recorded in this event any more.
10. Fixed a bug in arcade mode and fielding punts. If a user was in arcade mode and moving the KR toward the ball it was causing problems with the non-human controlled player and the human controlled player conflicting with each other as to which one was supposed to field the kick.
11. Fixed a bug with arcade mode and moving the selected player on the cover team.
12. Fixed bug with Canadian rule set in Quick play giving a team 3 time outs in a half, whereas it should be only a single time out in Canadian rules.
13. Fixed a bug with custom leagues/teams not showing up in the utilities properly. This was caused by two (or more) teams in different leagues sharing the same internal ID number. This has been adjusted to use a combination of league ID and Team ID when displaying in the tree view window.
14. Fixed bug with simulated games not advancing the quarter time after having played out a 3D game.
15. Fixed a field goal hang. If the field goal was missed, but the ball landed close enough to a player in the end zone, the player processed the ball catch and the game would hang if the live field goal option was set to false.
16. Fixed a bug that was introduced in build 1.0.100 that would cause the return of a missed, live field goal, to end the process without actually returning the missed kick.
17. Fixed a bug with the logic commands. Snap To was flagged as the last command to be executed and this was causing subsequent blocking commands to be ignored.
18. Fixed the Time Of Possession calculation in both 3D mode and quick sim mode.
19. Fixed a bug introduced in one of the previous builds that would prevent the safety animation from completing.
20. Made some changes to pass blocking so that there was less collapse on the LOS if the QB rolled out. One play in particular was showing this problem in Indoor rules.
21. Added some code to reset the player fatigue between plays in practice mode. Players can fatigue during the play, but each time the play resets, so does the player fatigue level. This allows for a more consistent practice of each play.
22. Changed the scale of some of the objects in the game so they're a little closer to 'life sized'. Some were overly large.
23. Upped the kicking angle on punts from 45 to about 55.
24. Fixed a bug with the clock that would stop the play mid execution (after the snap) if the quarter clock expired or minute warning sounded.
25. Removed the ref whistle from the simulated games. That was annoying.
26. Fixed a bug with time count penalties (delay of game) on punts that would cause the teams to switch sides without punting.
27. Fixed a bug with punts and field goals that would have the kicker kick the ball with no user interaction. Applicable to coaching and arcade mode.
28. Fixed a bug with fumbles. If the defense recovered the ball and was able to return it for a TD, then when the other team got the ball back via kick off, the ball would be spotted and a great many yards to go. Now, the ball is properly spotted as 1st and 10.
29. Made some changes to the break huddle routine so that there is less collision between players. It still happens in some cases, but it's considerably less than it was.
30. Fixed a bug with selecting field goals on outdoor fields with 8 man play books that do not include punt plays. It was reported by the community that the cause was 8 man play books with the field goal distance set to 99 yards. It turns out this was not the case but rather the play type selection process in the game. Users should have no problems setting their 8 man play books to 99 yard field goal distances.
31. Adjusted the punting distances for the quick sim games. The punts for a quick sim game should be in and around the 45 yard range.
32. Fixed a bug with the single point (Rouge) rule. The single point was being processed correctly, but the actual awarding of the point to the team score was not being done.
33. Adjusted the material applied to the field artwork & numbers. This should make the field artwork properly use the lighting in the game.
34. Corrected a problem loading more than 10 uniforms for a team. Note: More than 25 folders and the screen starts to bog down. 100 is the theoretical limit.
Known Issues:
This section is a short list of known issues. This is not an all encompassing list of issues being addressed. It is here to highlight some of the bigger ones we are working on.
- On American type fields, a kick off that goes out of bounds should result in an optional penalty of rekicking or taking the ball at the 40. At the moment, it automatically placing the ball at the 40. (see Existing Feature Changes item 1)
- Field goal attempt distances are being calculated from the LOS not from where the ball is kicked from.
- Injuries are still not properly recorded in quick sim games (they happen, but are not currently being recorded).
- The changes to the [Line Up On] and [Key On] commands are causing some defenders to be out of position at the snap of the ball. If the key’d player is on the opposite side of the field, the defender does not always have enough time before the snap of the ball to get into position. This is going to be addressed by having the defenders process these commands coming out of the huddle, rather than waiting until the offensive formation is set.
- There is a slight disconnect between the player spacing in the Play Development System and the player spacing in the 3D game. This is currently being addressed with a revamped Play Development System. Private testers should get their first hands on with this in a couple of weeks.
- While the majority of stats are properly being recorded, there are a few minor ones that are still not calculating properly.
- Saving a game at exactly the end of a quarter can sometimes cause the game to skip to the next quarter (if there is a next quarter) when you reload the saved game. The current work around is to save games prior to the end of a quarter.
|
Upcoming Second Official Update - 4/21/2006 5:32:48 PM 