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Old 06-08-2004, 12:04 PM   #1
QuikSand
lolzcat
 
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
So - why TCY2?

I've seen yet another thread where multiple people call for the next Solecismic release to be a refreshed version of The College Years. I though this follow-up thread might prove interesting both to those people, and perhaps to people like me who would probably rather see something else.


Some time ago, at the old board, there was a similar discusssion - what will be the next game? Several people lobbied for TCY2.

At that point, I asked a pretty genuine question. In my mind, the original (fully patched) TCY game seemed to cover the college game pretty thoroughly. I openly asked something like "what else is there to do with TCY?" I don't recall specifics, but I do recall being fairly impressed with the litany of ideas for improvement or expansion that people came up with.

Since I can't resurrect that old thread... I'll just re-ask the same question.

What things would you like to see in a new version of FOF:TCY that might make it a deeper, better, or more absorbing game?

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Old 06-08-2004, 12:08 PM   #2
cthomer5000
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http://dynamic2.gamespy.com/~fof/for...ad.php?t=10764
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Quote:
Originally Posted by albionmoonlight View Post
This is like watching a car wreck. But one where, every so often, someone walks over and punches the driver in the face as he struggles to free himself from the wreckage.

Last edited by cthomer5000 : 06-08-2004 at 12:09 PM.
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Old 06-08-2004, 12:10 PM   #3
sovereignstar
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cthomer5000

You fucking elitist. Couldn't you have at least said hello?
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Old 06-08-2004, 12:12 PM   #4
cthomer5000
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sovereignstar
You fucking elitist. Couldn't you have at least said hello?

LOL. I didn't mean to demean the existence of this thread, but merely to provide a link to the (3 pages) of suggestions/discussion on this topic from about a year ago.
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This is like watching a car wreck. But one where, every so often, someone walks over and punches the driver in the face as he struggles to free himself from the wreckage.
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Old 06-08-2004, 12:14 PM   #5
cthomer5000
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I would also like to see a few things come from TCY to FOF. Having to select a primary base offense being chief among them.

edit: I'm getting a bit off topic here, but I came across one of my own posts in that other thread
Quote:
Originally Posted by cthomer5000
I think just like the base offense in TCY that you should have to choose a base defense. At the very least he should bring in the "level of familiarity" concept from FOF2001. I don't think I should be able to move from a 46 to a 3-4 to a 4-3 in 3 straight weeks without consequence.

Again, why did this go away? I loved that "familiarity" rating for formations/base defense in FOF2001.
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Originally Posted by albionmoonlight View Post
This is like watching a car wreck. But one where, every so often, someone walks over and punches the driver in the face as he struggles to free himself from the wreckage.

Last edited by cthomer5000 : 06-08-2004 at 12:17 PM.
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Old 06-08-2004, 12:15 PM   #6
sovereignstar
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cthomer5000
LOL. I didn't mean to demean the existence of this thread, but merely to provide a link to the (3 pages) of suggestions/discussion on this topic from about a year ago.

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Old 06-08-2004, 12:24 PM   #7
Bad-example
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Instead of releasing a new college game, I would much prefer Jim combine FOF and TCY into a single game. I have little interest in college sports or games that simulate them, but making TCY an intergral part of FOF is bound to increase the immersion level, at least for me.
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Old 06-08-2004, 12:27 PM   #8
cthomer5000
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bad-example
Instead of releasing a new college game, I would much prefer Jim combine FOF and TCY into a single game. I have little interest in college sports or games that simulate them, but making TCY an intergral part of FOF is bound to increase the immersion level, at least for me.

And it would take away a product for him. I think it would be unwieldly, and a poor business move. No way I ever see it happening.
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This is like watching a car wreck. But one where, every so often, someone walks over and punches the driver in the face as he struggles to free himself from the wreckage.
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Old 06-08-2004, 12:30 PM   #9
Bad-example
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Gee, I figured that Jim had more ideas for future products than time to create them. By making TCY and FOF into one game, he might finally get around to trying a new sport.
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Last edited by Bad-example : 06-08-2004 at 12:31 PM.
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Old 06-08-2004, 12:33 PM   #10
Noop
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1. Scouting reports - I'd like to know everything about the player I'm trying to sign. Example: Joe Blow runs a 4.4 according to his highschool coach we clocked at times of 4.38, 4.43, 4.44 . Coach Noop I believe Joe can be a very good player on the defensive side of the ball. But I feel he a player who needs the ball in his hands in order to make things happen. Also he made sure to tell me he's a huge Florida State fan.

2. Impact players the as incoming freshman they are ready to set the world on fire.

3. I want to vote in coaching polls.

4. If I dont make to a BCS I want to either accept or decline a bowl invation. Example: I've been to the gator bowl 4 years running I want to be able to accept another bowl bid.

5. Not every highschool football player has a 3.5 1300+ grades in school so make it a lil bit more real.

6. The addition of the once in a while two way player who is actually good at both postions.

7. Spring Practice

8. Preseason preview of the conference of your choice(including your own.)



noop
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Old 06-08-2004, 12:34 PM   #11
Havok
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Quote:
Originally Posted by QuikSand
I've seen yet another thread where multiple people call for the next Solecismic release to be a refreshed version of The College Years. I though this follow-up thread might prove interesting both to those people, and perhaps to people like me who would probably rather see something else.


Some time ago, at the old board, there was a similar discusssion - what will be the next game? Several people lobbied for TCY2.

At that point, I asked a pretty genuine question. In my mind, the original (fully patched) TCY game seemed to cover the college game pretty thoroughly. I openly asked something like "what else is there to do with TCY?" I don't recall specifics, but I do recall being fairly impressed with the litany of ideas for improvement or expansion that people came up with.

Since I can't resurrect that old thread... I'll just re-ask the same question.

What things would you like to see in a new version of FOF:TCY that might make it a deeper, better, or more absorbing game?



I liked TCY..... but there definitly are some things i'd like to see changed. The recruiting was pretty good, but it became SOOOO tedious(sp?) sometimes it felt more like work then fun. Also, the player time management thing was a pain in the ass..... just do away with that completely IMO.

I think something Jim should consider doing is making his games much more MOD friendly. This is a very strong community we have here and i think we could make some greats MOD's for Jim's games. But i know little about MOD'ing so maybe its not possible. Just a thought.....
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Old 06-08-2004, 12:39 PM   #12
Blackadar
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#1 priority for me to purchase it...

The ability to playcall the games. If I take a Solecismic 8 team, I WANT (really really want) to call the plays when I'm playing a Big 8 team. I'm not trying to win - I just want to see if I can keep the score close.
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Old 06-08-2004, 12:43 PM   #13
QuikSand
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I wonder if there are really two wholly different directions to take this game.

Many of the suggestions from the "true believer" college football junkies have practically no appeal to me at all. I don't want more tedium, more steps to sift through between making decisions, more stuff to deal with in recruiting... those are essentially the things that turned me off to the game to begin with. And I'm not sure if Jim gets more customers by adding even more detail that benefits the "hardcore" users of exactly this kind of game.

Is there a different direction to take? Something that might give the game a broader appeal, rather than just a more intense appeal to the same people who would already buy it?

(I'm not suggesting that's necessarily the right thing to do - just curious)
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Old 06-08-2004, 01:10 PM   #14
albionmoonlight
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My least favorite aspect of the game is time managment/player development.

At best, it is a mechanical exercise that I endure getting to what I really want to do--the games. At worst, it takes so long that it turns me off to the game.

However, I also beleive that time management/player development should be an important part of a college sports sim. It may just be a part of TCY that I never like and will just have to live with. If, however, it could be changed in a way that makes it more relevant and less mechanical, I might end up enjoying it.

More generally, I think that I would like TCY better if it focused on the things that make college football different from pro football. Otherwise, it just occurs to me to go back to FOF when TCY gets too detailed. Focusing on that framework, I can think of two areas in which TCY could be improved.

The part of the game that I would really like to see improved is play calling. I think that college football really lends itself to lots of fun with imaginative playcalling. Option runs, flexbones, run-n-shoots, etc. give one a lot more with which to work than the pro game. I am not sure in what direction I would develop playcalling, but I think that there is a lot of room to grow even beyond what FOF has done.

Somewhat related to that, I think that the other area in which college football really differs from the NFL is that college football can have real gamebreakers--guys who are just heads and shoulders above everyone else on the field. I am thinking here of guys like Rocket Ismael (sp?), Peter Warrick, or Mike Vick. It would be neat to see guys like that appear every so often and to be able to design your entire offense around them--getting them the ball on sweeps and screens and bombs and kick returns, etc.

My 2c
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Old 06-08-2004, 01:26 PM   #15
Ksyrup
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Maybe it's all of the conspiracy theories in the OJ thread that have me in a particular mindset, but for some reason, knowing that Quiksand has assisted Jim with FOF in the past, there's a part of my brain that won't let go of the idea that this thread is a subtle, indirect attempt to pick our brains about a possible TCY successor for Jim's benefit.

Anyway, on the topic, I found TCY in theory to be a lot of fun, but also found myself invariably delegating almost all of the tasks in the game to the computer, so much so that I ended up basically watching "my" game being played by the computer. I think part of it is the tedium of doing the time management, and eventually the recruiting, which I originally handled 100%. The FOF-type stuff, like setting rosters, hiring coaches, etc., I enjoyed.

However, the other part of my limited enjoyment of the game is the nature of college sports themselves - the fact that I spent so much time recruiting all of these players, only to have to look for replacements as soon as the next year, and seeing guys leave the game entirely in 2-4 years. I'm probably in the minority with that view, but outside of text sims, I think it probably explains why I pay so much more attention to pro sports than college. I certainly follow college sports, but I also have a tendency to lose track of players or not bother to learn who they are, since they only stick around for a couple of years.
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Old 06-08-2004, 01:29 PM   #16
QuikSand
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ksyrup
Maybe it's all of the conspiracy theories in the OJ thread that have me in a particular mindset, but for some reason, knowing that Quiksand has assisted Jim with FOF in the past, there's a part of my brain that won't let go of the idea that this thread is a subtle, indirect attempt to pick our brains about a possible TCY successor for Jim's benefit.

I'd be quick to disabuse you of any such notion.
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Old 06-08-2004, 01:36 PM   #17
gstelmack
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Quote:
Originally Posted by albionmoonlight
My least favorite aspect of the game is time managment/player development.

At best, it is a mechanical exercise that I endure getting to what I really want to do--the games. At worst, it takes so long that it turns me off to the game.

This the TCY problem to me in a nutshell: the staff is horrible at managing time for players, but it takes me forever to do it manually. The new management screen helps, but its not quite the way I would assign time to kids.

Right now I blast through TCY seasons just to get draft classes for our office FOF league.
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Old 06-08-2004, 02:17 PM   #18
Solecismic
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The question is whether Quik is being manipulated against his will into asking questions that would determine my future direction.

And also, whether Quik's choice of the word "disabuse" is in anyway a subconscious reaction to the current subthread of the Ritalin Boy article discussing corporal punishment in the public schools.
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Old 06-08-2004, 02:27 PM   #19
Poli
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Quote:
Originally Posted by QuikSand
I'd be quick to disabuse you of any such notion.

Darn. My dictionary is at work.
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Old 06-08-2004, 02:29 PM   #20
Honolulu Blue
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Quote:
Originally Posted by QuikSand
What things would you like to see in a new version of FOF:TCY that might make it a deeper, better, or more absorbing game?

I enjoyed TCY for awhile, but three things turned me off from it:

1) The lack of difference in resources between the smallest and largest schools made it too easy, IMO, for the small schools to maintain and/or progress in the rankings.
2) There were too many relatively smart recruits and too many recruits that chose schools for their academic benefits.
3) The concept of time allocation as implemented in the game is, IMO, unrealistic, and the allocation screen is an abomination.

If Jim were to fix those things, I would be first in line to buy TCY2. I'm not holding my breath.

The addition of features from past and current versions of FOF would help others more than me - e.g., playcalling, multiplayer, addtional ratings, more complex game planning.
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Old 06-08-2004, 02:32 PM   #21
Buzzbee
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ardent enthusiast
Darn. My dictionary is at work.

It means to undecieve. To remove any misconceptions. To set things right.

I know. I had to look it up.
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Old 06-08-2004, 02:39 PM   #22
KWhit
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Quote:
Originally Posted by QuikSand
I'd be quick to disabuse you of any such notion.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Solecismic
The question is whether Quik is being manipulated against his will into asking questions that would determine my future direction.

And also, whether Quik's choice of the word "disabuse" is in anyway a subconscious reaction to the current subthread of the Ritalin Boy article discussing corporal punishment in the public schools.


Anyone notice that they didn't answer the question?

Conspiracy!!
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Old 06-08-2004, 02:41 PM   #23
Buzzbee
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Hmmm.....Multiplayer. Intriguing. Hadn't thought of that for TCY. Initial thought is that it would be incredible to pick your alma mater and guide them through a multiplayer schedule, compete for the top recruits, lure away transfers. The thought has me salivating.

Then reality sets in. How would you set it up? You absolutely positively couldn't allow all 117 or however many D1 schools there are to be involved in one league. Managing 32 in FOF2k4 is headace enough. You would almost have to set it up by conference, with players controlling a particular team in one specific conference. Then would come the question of out of conference games and playing against the AI. Would it be fair to all in the conference? So and so got to play a patsy, but I had to play Michigan. It would also lose some luster since you would only develop conference rivalries. Bowl games would probably end up being humans vs. CPU rather than human vs. human.

Intriguing, but seems like it would be an absolute monster to design and code. Awesome, yes. Likely, no.
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Old 06-08-2004, 02:45 PM   #24
Buzzbee
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I'm guessing that many here haven't played TCY since Jim tweaked the Time Management screen. The ability to set values by position, rather than by each individual player made things tremendously less tedious.
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Old 06-08-2004, 02:47 PM   #25
KWhit
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A couple of things that turned me off of the game were the time management and a couple of strange quirks in recruiting.

One of those quirks (the only one coming to mind right now) was the need to recruit smart players to increase the academic rating of the school to, in turn, get better recruits later on. That didn't seem realistic to me. I understand the concept and how coaches are concerned with academics, but it seemed too "strategy game-ish" to me and not very realistic.

I know I didn't explain that well at all (mainly because I'm forgetting the specifics of how it worked and exactly what bothered me about it).
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Old 06-08-2004, 02:52 PM   #26
IMetTrentGreen
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the thing i hate hte most about tcy/fof is that i dont feel my gameplans mean much. in fbcb the differences are noticeable right away, in tcy, as long as i recruited well it didnt matter what i did, i'd always win and it would always be completely random
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Old 06-08-2004, 03:01 PM   #27
vex
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Honolulu Blue
3) The concept of time allocation as implemented in the game is, IMO, unrealistic, and the allocation screen is an abomination.



So you're going to try and tell me that if you were a head coach, you wouldn't give your 3rd string player extra time off so he could go out with his girlfriend?
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Old 06-08-2004, 03:09 PM   #28
Havok
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Quote:
Originally Posted by vexroid
So you're going to try and tell me that if you were a head coach, you wouldn't give your 3rd string player extra time off so he could go out with his girlfriend?


hahah
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Old 06-08-2004, 03:12 PM   #29
Ksyrup
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Quote:
Originally Posted by KWhit
Anyone notice that they didn't answer the question?

Conspiracy!!

Ha! Just a joke guys, just a joke...
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Old 06-08-2004, 03:23 PM   #30
KWhit
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ksyrup
Ha! Just a joke guys, just a joke...


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Old 06-08-2004, 03:29 PM   #31
gstelmack
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Buzzbee
I'm guessing that many here haven't played TCY since Jim tweaked the Time Management screen. The ability to set values by position, rather than by each individual player made things tremendously less tedious.

I did. My problem is it doesn't go far enough. When I manually set, I actually use a sliding scale where study hall time varies from 20 for really smart kids to 30 for really dumb kids. Then next season I bump it up a point or two if he has academic trouble. I then set relaxation to 20 or 28 depending on whether or not the kid has a girlfriend, and the rest based on position. That seemed to give me the best mix of happy kids with good grades while still maintaining a decent program.

For my quick league, I use the management screen, and 2 or 3 kids per season go on academic probation, and 2 or 3 kids per season get upset because their girlfriend left them. Because it spreads points out, it's hard to set things right where you want them, and 1 point can make all the difference in the world (at 28 relaxation, most girlfriends stick by their man, while at 27 you lose them in droves).

So if I'm really trying to be successful, I still have to set every freshman's data every season and double-check the other kids to see if academics needs a tweak.
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Old 06-08-2004, 04:12 PM   #32
Chubby
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I would certainly buy TCY2 but I think Jim's working on a new sport.
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Old 06-08-2004, 04:44 PM   #33
Dutch
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I think a baseball game is ripe for dominating the current selections with all their deficiencies.

A hockey game will be hard pressed to pass EHM:FE even if we haven't played it yet.

A pro-basketball game is shaky ground to walk on.

A college basketball game could work also, but of course there would be some seasoned competition there.

A continuing effort to refine either TCY or FOF and it's MP is also something that is important to the Solecismic franchise.

All sports are fine, but I think Football is where it's at in the long run with Solecismic.
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Old 06-08-2004, 05:11 PM   #34
dixieflatline
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I doubt that TCY will get another patch except maybe one this summer with the updated conference alignment. That said there are still a couple of things in the engine that could use tweaking.

1. There are way too many 17 yard punts that get returned for 10+ yards. I understand that my 19 year punter is going to shank a couple but those punts shouldn't be getting returned for TD's either.

2. The end of game strategy could still use some work. in my last game of the season last year we were down by 3 with 22 seconds left on the clock. We had burned all our timeouts and had the ball on their 32. Instead of kicking the FG or thowing a pass we ran it up the middle. Clock runs out we lose, but my center got the last key block of his career.

If Jim were to come out with a TCY 2 a couple of things that would be nice to see.

1. Assistant coaches being hired by smaller schools as head coaches or a school promoting from within.

2. Some team chemistry included. It doesn't have to be like the zodiac FOF thing but if my star QB and top WR have been playing together for 3 years I think that should count for something.

3. My stud RB goes for 2200 yards, wins the MVP, and then comes back for his senior season. I know that Jim has had some suspended players go pro early but I'd like to see more early entrants into the draft.

4. Players often change positions from HS to college or even during their careers and I'd like TCY to simulate this a bit better. If nothing else I'd like to recruit players at the "athlete" position and plug them in where needed when they arrive on campus.

Overall though I still get lot's of enjoyment out of TCY and many of my "complaints" are minor and probably could be fixed with a patch instead of a new version.
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Old 06-08-2004, 05:43 PM   #35
dawgfan
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Location: Seattle
Quote:
Originally Posted by QuikSand
I wonder if there are really two wholly different directions to take this game.

Many of the suggestions from the "true believer" college football junkies have practically no appeal to me at all. I don't want more tedium, more steps to sift through between making decisions, more stuff to deal with in recruiting... those are essentially the things that turned me off to the game to begin with. And I'm not sure if Jim gets more customers by adding even more detail that benefits the "hardcore" users of exactly this kind of game.

Is there a different direction to take? Something that might give the game a broader appeal, rather than just a more intense appeal to the same people who would already buy it?

(I'm not suggesting that's necessarily the right thing to do - just curious)

If you check the suggestions I'd made in the thread cthomer5000 linked, most of them involved either fixes to the basic game engine (i.e. 4th and long and deciding whether to kick the field goal, punt or go for it) or ways of streamlining the more tedious tasks (time management, recruiting, saving gameplans/depth charts). As a college football junkie there are additional things that could be added, but I think most of what I'd listed goes towards making TCY a more enjoyable experience by reducing the tedious aspects and a few other factors that I think would improve the immersion factor (aging/retiring coaches, more feedback on your own performance as coach and how happy/unhappy the school is with you).

Given the advances Jim has made in the FOF line, it would seem logical for him to roll the applicable parts into a TCY2 plus some of the suggestions listed here - he would reaffirm his status as the king of football text sims and own the college football section of the market by default.

Of course, some of the things involved in TCY and some of the advances made in FOF would dovetail nicely into a professional baseball sim...

I'd be happy with either TCY2 or a baseball game as the next Solecismic release.
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Old 06-08-2004, 05:50 PM   #36
albionmoonlight
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Whatever the next release is, I hope that he posts it here first in the form of a very difficult puzzle. After we figure it out, he can then make the announcement on solecismic.com.

How cool would it be to be groupthinking a cypher, knowing that the answer had independent value to you above and beyond simply being the answer?

Very cool.
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Old 06-08-2004, 05:55 PM   #37
larrymcg421
Head Coach
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Georgia
If Jim multiplayer and didn't change anything else, I'd buy a whole new edition of TCY and I wouldn't be mad about it. I would like playcalling but it's not a priority for me.

Other changes:

Take financing out of the coach of the year ratings. It should solely be based on on field performance. Also significant bonus pts for a coach that dramatically improves his team's record.

The new time management screen
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Old 06-08-2004, 06:11 PM   #38
33sherman
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I would buy TCY2 in a second, and I'm not too picky--playcalling, ability to edit bowl matchups, and the elimination of the permanent non-conference opponent would be plenty improvement for me.
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Old 06-08-2004, 08:33 PM   #39
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- Allow us to call our own plays and substitute during gameplay
- Allow us to chose which players suit up (I am sick and tired of my doubtful guys I want to hold out off the depth chart still get in the game and get hurt even worse)
- Change time management to be more like training camp is done in FOF
- Make recruiting optional, I like it, but understand why others don't
- Make more job openings for successful coaches, seems like you have to be a mediocre coach to be offered a job
- Improve punting, I am sick of seeing a guy with 37.6 ave being all conference, sick of 12 yard punts from 90 rated punters
- Make it so option QBs can really lead their team in rushing, revamp option QBs totally, they really don't even exist as such in the game

But I really do love the game. I have gone back to playing it right now.
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Old 06-09-2004, 01:55 AM   #40
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TCY 2 is on my "guaranteed list of games to buy." The only other game on that list right now is Halo 2.
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Old 06-09-2004, 03:06 AM   #41
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Although I'm a much bigger fan of FOF than TCY, I have had some very good times playing this game as well and I think it is now close to being a complete product (thanks to the various patches that Jim has released).

The things that I could see for "improving" TCY for an hypothetical TCY2 would be :

- Play Calling (I really missed that because when the game's on the line, I like to take control of the playcalling myself to make sure the AI will not run on 3rd & 8 from the 50 yard line with 34 seconds to play as it happens sometimes...)

- A better interaction between TCY exports and FOF Imports: I believe that would need a complete restructuring of the TCY player's code (? just a guess...)

- The ability to avoid having to go through all the micro-management stages (time allocation is really something that bores me), perhaps an option on the early screens giving you the choice to activate it or not.

I don't see much more things to say right now, I'm not sure multiplayer in a College Football sim would work (can any human commisionner -even as great a VPI- or any game engine support everything that goes with handling 125 human-controled teams ?! I'm not sure an online league could function with 125 teams...)

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Old 06-09-2004, 08:50 AM   #42
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Quote:
Originally Posted by KWhit
A couple of things that turned me off of the game were the time management and a couple of strange quirks in recruiting.

One of those quirks (the only one coming to mind right now) was the need to recruit smart players to increase the academic rating of the school to, in turn, get better recruits later on. That didn't seem realistic to me. I understand the concept and how coaches are concerned with academics, but it seemed too "strategy game-ish" to me and not very realistic.

I know I didn't explain that well at all (mainly because I'm forgetting the specifics of how it worked and exactly what bothered me about it).

I hope you explained them well because these are my problems with the game. I can't understand why you have playcalling in a Pro GM game when GM's don't call plays, and not in a college coaching game where the coaches do. The academic rating thing, lack of play calling, tedious time managment and the way recruiting was set up (having it each week inbetween games sucked) turned me off couple of weeks after I bought the game, and never played it again. I tried to pick it up several times afterward out of love for college football, but I never had fun playing it.
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Old 06-09-2004, 09:03 AM   #43
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To me, as a fan of the Solecismic series, there are two questions here, in a way.

The first question is "if TCY 2 were to come out, what would you want to see in it?" The thoughts here, and in the linked threads, seem to do a pretty good job with that.

The secod question is "what does TCY need to have improved that makes it important for that to be the next Solecismic product?" In large part, I think it's because the college game doesn't intrigue me as puch as the pro game -- but I personally remain unsold on that point. You could add all these improvements in a TCY 2 and I would certanly buy it and play it... but I'd probably still regret that the time wasn't spent on either a new sport or something else that I might like better.
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Old 06-09-2004, 09:12 AM   #44
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Along with some of the suggestions listed here, one thing I would like to see is general athletes introduced. A great percentage of kids play a different position than where he is projected and not just in the same subset. For instance, I myself was recruited as a fullback, moved to tight end and eventually ended up at defensive tackle. If I was to do that with a TCY player, he would most likely suck.

I would also like a modification of the "solecismic 8" to be able to spread out the schools to different states and not all congested in one.
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Old 06-09-2004, 09:42 AM   #45
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There need to be much bigger resource differences between the big confrences and the small ones. Cut down on visit money even more, take away some visits, and maybe place a range on phone calls(like you cant call more that 500 miles away if your a small school).

Also, I never really figured out the coloring of recruits, because it seemed like I recruited just as many recruits colored black as I did green, and green was supposed to be almost always come to my school.
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Old 06-09-2004, 12:14 PM   #46
33sherman
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Quote:
Originally Posted by HornedFrog Purple
I would also like a modification of the "solecismic 8" to be able to spread out the schools to different states and not all congested in one.

That's a great idea. It's always bothered me how all the schools clustered in one state changed a particular career. One region maybe, but not one state.
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Old 06-09-2004, 12:28 PM   #47
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Quote:
Originally Posted by HornedFrog Purple
Along with some of the suggestions listed here, one thing I would like to see is general athletes introduced. A great percentage of kids play a different position than where he is projected and not just in the same subset. For instance, I myself was recruited as a fullback, moved to tight end and eventually ended up at defensive tackle. If I was to do that with a TCY player, he would most likely suck.

So, what your saying is that you are a real life example of how TCY is pretty realistic, right?
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Last edited by Buzzbee : 06-09-2004 at 12:33 PM.
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Old 06-09-2004, 12:32 PM   #48
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I'd like to see Jim go in a different direction and not do TCY 2. A political sim could be interesting or something in a sport other than the big 4 (football, basketball, baseball and hockey). In any case I've been very happy with the latest edition of FOF and am eager to try the next release whatever it may be.
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Old 06-09-2004, 01:53 PM   #49
dawgfan
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Quote:
Originally Posted by QuikSand
The secod question is "what does TCY need to have improved that makes it important for that to be the next Solecismic product?" In large part, I think it's because the college game doesn't intrigue me as puch as the pro game -- but I personally remain unsold on that point. You could add all these improvements in a TCY 2 and I would certanly buy it and play it... but I'd probably still regret that the time wasn't spent on either a new sport or something else that I might like better.

I guess I see TCY2 as a logical extension of the FOF revisions already undertaken in FOF4 and FOF2004 - there's some interesting stuff that could easily be wrapped back into TCY2 in addition to the aforementioned TCY-specific fixes.

I'd love to see Jim's take on baseball, but I could easily understand if he wanted to ride the momentum of the FOF4 and FOF2004 advances into TCY2 first.
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Old 06-09-2004, 02:27 PM   #50
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I wondering if the success of FOF2k4 and Jim's participation in a multiplayer league has him leaning toward TCY2.

As I see it there are three options, two of which make the most sense.

1) TCY2 - Jim has said that TCY saved his company. I would imagine that as a result he's got a soft spot for it. Also, the conference re-alignments and feedback from gamers wanting a streamlined time management and also recruiting process as well as game tweaks means there is room to improve. Also, he might be able to incorporate some of the improvements from FOF4 and FOF2k4.

2) - Jim continues the work he began at the beginning of last year. Based on his comments, he had made a good bit of progress, but his window of opportunity with a publisher closed before he could take advantage. Perhaps he has been able to secure a more solid relationship or find another opportunity now that some time has passed.

3) - Jim creates the game he has been longing to work on for the past year or two. This assumes that option 2 above included a game that was publisher/market driven and not driven by what Jim wants to program.


As far as Quik's question, I would like to see less emphasis on academics and more focus on performance and prestige when recruits are making decisions. Very few recruits these days go PRIMARILY for the academic side. It is more of a deciding factor rather than a sole reason. Given a choice of Princeton or Florida State, most kids would choose to play football at Florida State. TCY became to easy because all you had to do was focus on academics and before long you could attract top recruits. Jim made some changes to lessen this effect (academic rating was based more on recent years than total years), but it didn't quite go far enough in my opinion.
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