Solevision Suggestions

[gstelmack]

Now that I've started using Solevision heavily in my office multiplayer league, I've found some weaknesses and have some suggestions to offer. Others should feel free to chime in:

1. Other games seem to advance play-by-play with yours. This means that when your game ends, if it was a short one you don't get to see the end results of the other games. They'll be stuck showing things like "Dallas 24, New York 21, 4Q, 2:35" and leaving you wondering what happened. You have to click the "Box" or "Log" buttons to see the end. Would be nicer if they followed you by the clock, or continued to run until they finished.
2. Need to be able to scroll back to old plays in case you miss something.
3. Would like a "single-step" button as an option in addition to a speed setting and a Pause button. Let me step through things at my own pace. Different lines take different amounts of time to read.
4. We REALLY need a field graphic. It's easier to read in your peripheral vision than text. My focus is on the play-by-play, so if it's not there I'm only looking up occasionally. But a field graphic with lines for field positions is easy to keep track of out of the corner of your eye and helps with the immersion. Seeing the ball on the field gives a better sense than "Own 42".
5. I'm reading the play-by-play box. The box at the top with stats and scores from other games is pretty much useless. Include this information in the play-by-play. At the very least I want to see in-line stats; after a QB completes, how about dumping out his stats ("He's now 5-6 for 37 yards", "That's his 3rd INT", etc)? Also, I have a checkbox to hide out-of-town stuff, so if I don't have it checked I'm fine with it showing up at the bottom of my play-by-play.
6. Tabs for the league-wide game stats in the lower-right. Again, I'm following the play-by-play and missing a ton here. I'll stop periodically to look around, but if the game has decided that now is the time to show tackles, I'll usually miss tracking who is running the ball well. I need the option to browse through the different stats and see how players are doing.

[gottimd]

would be great if it could turn out exactly like this....

http://www.sportsline.com/nfl/gamece...070106_DAL@SEA

[Front Office Midget]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

Now that I've started using Solevision heavily in my office multiplayer league, I've found some weaknesses and have some suggestions to offer. Others should feel free to chime in:

1. Other games seem to advance play-by-play with yours. This means that when your game ends, if it was a short one you don't get to see the end results of the other games. They'll be stuck showing things like "Dallas 24, New York 21, 4Q, 2:35" and leaving you wondering what happened. You have to click the "Box" or "Log" buttons to see the end. Would be nicer if they followed you by the clock, or continued to run until they finished.

1. You can click on one of their games and watch it after your game is over.
   
   

   Need to be able to scroll back to old plays in case you miss something.

   
   You can click on the game log and see.
   
   

   I'm reading the play-by-play box. The box at the top with stats and scores from other games is pretty much useless. Include this information in the play-by-play. At the very least I want to see in-line stats; after a QB completes, how about dumping out his stats ("He's now 5-6 for 37 yards", "That's his 3rd INT", etc)? Also, I have a checkbox to hide out-of-town stuff, so if I don't have it checked I'm fine with it showing up at the bottom of my play-by-play.

   
   I enjoy the separation of the windows myself.
   
   

   Tabs for the league-wide game stats in the lower-right. Again, I'm following the play-by-play and missing a ton here. I'll stop periodically to look around, but if the game has decided that now is the time to show tackles, I'll usually miss tracking who is running the ball well. I need the option to browse through the different stats and see how players are doing.

I like this idea.

[ShaneTheMaster]

I'd like to see the scores from the other games stick out more. The way the font is, the scores blend in with everything else.

It would also be nice to have team art on the page, even if it is just the 2 logos of the game your watching. This helps identify the teams more, especially if you are in a new league.

[Coder]

Considering I just love Greg's FOFViewer, I'm down with everything he has to say, ESPECIALLY the field-need.

[AlexB]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

Now that I've started using Solevision heavily in my office multiplayer league, I've found some weaknesses and have some suggestions to offer. Others should feel free to chime in:
[*]Other games seem to advance play-by-play with yours. This means that when your game ends, if it was a short one you don't get to see the end results of the other games. They'll be stuck showing things like "Dallas 24, New York 21, 4Q, 2:35" and leaving you wondering what happened. You have to click the "Box" or "Log" buttons to see the end. Would be nicer if they followed you by the clock, or continued to run until they finished.

Would be nice, but not a major concern for me.

[*]Need to be able to scroll back to old plays in case you miss something.

I've posted this myself in the past: would very beneficial

[*]Would like a "single-step" button as an option in addition to a speed setting and a Pause button. Let me step through things at my own pace. Different lines take different amounts of time to read.

I wouldn't use it, but as an option you can;t argue against it

[*]We REALLY need a field graphic. It's easier to read in your peripheral vision than text. My focus is on the play-by-play, so if it's not there I'm only looking up occasionally. But a field graphic with lines for field positions is easy to keep track of out of the corner of your eye and helps with the immersion. Seeing the ball on the field gives a better sense than "Own 42".

Would be very cool, although again I'm Ok with the current. Would add to the gameday experience a lot.

[*]I'm reading the play-by-play box. The box at the top with stats and scores from other games is pretty much useless. Include this information in the play-by-play. At the very least I want to see in-line stats; after a QB completes, how about dumping out his stats ("He's now 5-6 for 37 yards", "That's his 3rd INT", etc)? Also, I have a checkbox to hide out-of-town stuff, so if I don't have it checked I'm fine with it showing up at the bottom of my play-by-play.

I can get the stats from my own game in this window, but I never notice other scores, and try and work out where on the game list my rivals are in order to sneak a quick glance every now and again. Definitely other scores could be made more prominent.

[*]Tabs for the league-wide game stats in the lower-right. Again, I'm following the play-by-play and missing a ton here. I'll stop periodically to look around, but if the game has decided that now is the time to show tackles, I'll usually miss tracking who is running the ball well. I need the option to browse through the different stats and see how players are doing.

Again, very much so - would be a huge addition: many a time I've missed a play when trying to see where on the list my guys are!

As the two biggies for me are replay button and tabs for leaders, gstelmack has it covered AFAIAC

[gottimd]

This is more of a luxury addition than a need, but a scoring event sound, or just event sounds in general. Like the guy yelling "Fummmmmble!!" when it occurs, or the crowd cheering/booing based on when the hometeam scores or visitor scores. A whistle for a penalty.

Basically the addition of maybe 32kB sound bytes that are triggered by the text of an event in the game you are watching.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by Front Office Midget

You can click on one of their games and watch it after your game is over.

I just want to see the result, not actually watch it. However, I tried this just to see, and it does not actually finish the last play of most games. My game that I finished still shows 8 seconds left, for example. It's not cleanly wrapping up the other games.

Originally Posted by Front Office Midget

You can click on the game log and see.

Actually, you can't. The game log does not have nearly as much information as the Solevision play-by-play.

[Front Office Midget]

Right... but I figured you meant in case you missed how much yardage a play was or what the penalty was... not how many tackles the RB broke or if the QB danced around in the pocket.

The screen just doesn't say that it's the FINAL... if it's at 8 seconds and doesn't keep going, the game is over. It finishes the last play, just doesn't move the clock on the screen for whatever reason.

[kingfc22]

Originally Posted by Coder

Considering I just love Greg's FOFViewer, I'm down with everything he has to say, ESPECIALLY the field-need.

"

[devynd]

I love Solevision.

Right now, I'm running an all-AI MP league, so when I use Solevision, I start with the best matchup of the week, watch the first drive, then flip through all the other games to see what's going on. For my purposes, there are two changes I'd most like to see:

1. Possession and field position indicators with the out-of-town scores. That way, I can click right to the game in which a team is in best scoring position.

2. Some option to break up the games so I don't have to view 16 games all at once. It's a little hectic the way I do it, although it's a fun kind of hectic. So if there could be either a predetermined split of early/late games (such as 10/6 or 10/4/2 without byes) or an option to select a batch of games to view, that would be great for me.

As far as the suggestions from the OP, I'll add a few comments:

From #1: It might be nice to have a "Finish All Games" option if your game is done and you don't want to see play-by-play for the last few minutes of another game, although I wouldn't use this option. However, I would be strongly opposed to having every game synchronized to the same game time! It would be impossible for me to see the end of multiple games if they are all ending simultaneously. It's only the current system that allows me multiple ending viewings at all.

From #2: Scrolling back to old plays would be a good complement to the game logs. It would also allow you to switch to another game and "replay" a score you just saw noted on your original screen. If you have the added "step" button to advance play-by-play (suggestion #3), a Back button would seem to be a reasonable companion.

From #3: I hadn't thought of this myself, but it would be an excellent idea! If there were a "step" button to advance the play-by-play, I would end up using it pretty much exclusively instead of the slider. I do like the slider, though, and the feeling that I'm following the games as they're happening rather than controlling the pace.

From #4: A field graphic to indicate field position wouldn't be a bad thing. I don't want Solevision to become so graphics-heavy that switching from game to game becomes cumbersome, but as long as the switching is smooth I wouldn't mind. I would say, though, that I haven't found myself having any problems visualizing the play results from the current presentation format.

From #5: Stats from the game I'm watching might as well show up in the play-by-play, but I think I prefer having scoring plays from the other games in a separate window. I think it's more attention-grabbing that way (and allows me to curse myself for switching to the wrong game).

From #6: I too would like to be able to browse among the different league leader pages. I like that feature in Solevision. It makes me wonder if someone "out there" (i.e. in my sim's universe) has a FOF fantasy team.

Did I mention that I love Solevision? It has really brought FOF to life for me.

[Coder]

Devynd, you REALLY need to see Greg's FOFViewer to compare with Solevision. The field-graphic is simple, yet perfect.. it's not graphics-savvy, it's just a field with a ball and a line of scrimmage line.

[Hoya1]

I love your viewer,and anyway that you can make one for 2k7 is a huge bonus for me.

I think most of my beefs have already been brought up.

The field, ability to look back, line by line, etc.

To be honest, I find it hard to read my game log, while looking at the out of town scoreboard, while looking at the stat leaders while looking at the in game leaders......whew.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by Hoya1

To be honest, I find it hard to read my game log, while looking at the out of town scoreboard, while looking at the stat leaders while looking at the in game leaders......whew.

I think this is the key for me. I'll watch my game for a bit, then I want to stop and look around. So anything that is timing critical (like big scores in other games, or key stats) should be in the log I'm watching, and everything else should be easy for me to browse.