REDICULOUS PLAYER HOMETOWN ERROR

[ich22]

I've just bought this game and I'm beginning to see that it may not have been the right choice for someone who wants the most realistic, closest thing to today's NFL, down to the last letter Football Game.

While trying to add some players to the Player File, I found that the entire State of Virginia was missing from the City List. How is this possible? I understand a simple mistake but why hasn't it been fixed yet? How can an entire State be forgotten and just left like that for an extended period of time?

I don't know who made this game and I'm not completely bashing it at all. I want to love this game, I just can't because it isn't "realistic" in the way that I would like it to be. Why don't developers give us the chance to customize the entire gaming engine for ourselves? They let us customize just about everything else there is to customize. This game has absolutely everything I'd want except for the option to Simulate the real world. And I don't want to hear about this "It's more realistic because it's random and you don't know what's coming!" That's true to some extent, but I don't care what arguments somebody comes up with if Aaron Rodgers got traded to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers tomorrow they are going to the Playoffs this year. That's all there is to it. I don't want to play in a Universe where Aaron Rodgers may be good or he may be great. He's 100% going to the Hall of Fame barring any injuries. And it's not just Rodgers, he's just the best example I could find.

I know all about the X-Factor options and the roster ratings and all that. And I realize I am just one Opinion out of 1234125151234124 other people that love this game. All I'm asking is for someone to either show me how or tell me why I can't change the amount of influence the X-Factor has on each individual player, or add a State into the City List, or (my favorite) tell the game to allow me to put the freakin Jets in NEW freakin YORK....?? :banghead:

And who knows, maybe I'm totally wrong about the Randomness aspect. Maybe Aaron Rodgers will look up at the sky one night, get knocked down by some sort of extra terrestrial beam of light, and completely forget how to play football. Like I said, I am only one opinion out of thousands. But the goal here (even if it's impossible) is to make something that everyone can enjoy right? Why not make it so everyone can enjoy it?....And enjoy it in their own personal way!









P.S. I honestly hope someone replies to this with the simplest, most obvious answer to my questions, and make me look like the biggest goof in the world so that I am forced to apologize for my ranting :lol:

[Ben E Lou]

I think the overarching answers for you would have to do with these two points:

1. There aren't "developers." It's a one-man shop, and he has to make design/development decisions based on how much time it will take.

2. In FOF's 17-year history, it has thrived primarily as a career-based sim, not as a "replay" type game, which it appears you want. As a result, most of the people who frequent this board (and, presumably, who give feedback to the developer,) are more interested in the career aspect than some of the details that you mention.

So, back to point #1, if a significant majority of the feedback is more on the career aspects, then it would make sense that it gets the most attention. The Virginia thing that you mention is a classic example: I've been at these boards for 17 years. I read nearly every thread related to FOF. I can say with fairly good confidence that it has *never* come up in 17 years. I just checked: yeah, the cities in Virginia in the city.txt file are in Washington. But here's the thing: I also checked in FOF2K7 and FOF2K4: the cities in Virginia in the hometowns file were in Washington in those games, too. FOF2K4 was released in the fall of 2003. So, point being, this has been there for at *least* 12 years--probably 17 years--and literally no one has even mentioned it. ;) (FWIW, I'm pretty sure if you use the numbers, the cities in the *game* will show up in Virginia. I think it's literally just a cosmetic error in city.txt

On the X-Factor, I think you are misunderstanding it. Players with 10 years of experience are generated the same virtually every time. It's younger players who are impacted by it. I don't usually bother with "real" rosters, since I like to build my team from scratch from day 1. (I start with a completely fictional universe and draft my own team almost always.) However, from what I know about how the X Factor works, I am reasonably certain that Rodgers will be a stud every single time you generate a new career.

That said, I will re-emphasize that in the end, FOF isn't really designed to be a pure "replay" sim, so it's quite possible, given the kinds of details that you mention that annoy you, that you might always remain a bit annoyed.

[Subby]

I've just bought this game and I'm beginning to see that it may not have been the right choice for someone who wants the most realistic, closest thing to today's NFL, down to the last letter Football Game.

While trying to add some players to the Player File, I found that the entire State of Virginia was missing from the City List. How is this possible? I understand a simple mistake but why hasn't it been fixed yet? How can an entire State be forgotten and just left like that for an extended period of time?

I don't know who made this game and I'm not completely bashing it at all. I want to love this game, I just can't because it isn't "realistic" in the way that I would like it to be. Why don't developers give us the chance to customize the entire gaming engine for ourselves? They let us customize just about everything else there is to customize. This game has absolutely everything I'd want except for the option to Simulate the real world. And I don't want to hear about this "It's more realistic because it's random and you don't know what's coming!" That's true to some extent, but I don't care what arguments somebody comes up with if Aaron Rodgers got traded to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers tomorrow they are going to the Playoffs this year. That's all there is to it. I don't want to play in a Universe where Aaron Rodgers may be good or he may be great. He's 100% going to the Hall of Fame barring any injuries. And it's not just Rodgers, he's just the best example I could find.

I know all about the X-Factor options and the roster ratings and all that. And I realize I am just one Opinion out of 1234125151234124 other people that love this game. All I'm asking is for someone to either show me how or tell me why I can't change the amount of influence the X-Factor has on each individual player, or add a State into the City List, or (my favorite) tell the game to allow me to put the freakin Jets in NEW freakin YORK....?? :banghead:

And who knows, maybe I'm totally wrong about the Randomness aspect. Maybe Aaron Rodgers will look up at the sky one night, get knocked down by some sort of extra terrestrial beam of light, and completely forget how to play football. Like I said, I am only one opinion out of thousands. But the goal here (even if it's impossible) is to make something that everyone can enjoy right? Why not make it so everyone can enjoy it?....And enjoy it in their own personal way!

P.S. I honestly hope someone replies to this with the simplest, most obvious answer to my questions, and make me look like the biggest goof in the world so that I am forced to apologize for my ranting :lol:
https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/2674421690/f5ed294d59fa8e36c2fc688c71e59ebb.jpeg

[antdroid]

X-Factor does some sort of randomizing, but it's also based on experience too. Someone like Aaron Rodgers is rated a "9" on the rating scale and so he's probably not going to be much less than well above average in the league (i.e. a stud)

X-Factor takes into account how much the player plays, and if he plays a lot, it'll bump up his score a bit more than if he hasn't played at all.

You can always disable it if you want things more predictable.

[aston217]

You won't find a more realistic or engaging GM experience anywhere. Grab a team in a multiplayer league, and try to draft, trade, and manage them to the top.

I am a huge fan of there not being sliders. There's one game engine, and it's a pretty good model - Jim works hard at that. If you've ever played Madden, I'm sure you are familiar with "Hey, what sliders do you use? I use this particular set of numbers from 0 to 100. Feels alright." Drives me nuts.

Is Virginia really omitted? Wonder what that state ever did to Jim ;)

[ich22]

Yes, I've played Madden and the Sliders aren't the problem. The game is designed to be played with 3-5 minute Quarters. It's geared toward Online gameplay. The Slider "idea" is fantastic and should be implemented in any game that wants to reach out to a larger group of gamers.

Like I said, it's my opinion. Frankly, I could care less how many posts you guys have read in 17 years. I paid $30 for a text-based game, I'd like to enjoy it......

[ich22]

I am also not looking for a replay game. I'm looking for a game that picks up as if I were in the real NFL today, and moves forward from there. That's all. I would like the Super Stars to be Super Stars and the Bums to be Bums. The Rookies can be whatever because No body knows what they could be.


I'd also like to be able to name the New York Jets, the New York Jets....Not New Jersey. I don't see why it is such a difficulty to put 2 teams in New York. I actually don't see how anybody would make something that would only allow a single sports team per city...New York city has 12....there are 12 Professional Sports teams with New York as their city...........12

[ich22]

...12

[Ben E Lou]

Frankly, I could {sic} care less how many posts you guys have read in 17 years. I think you might want to re-read the post to better understand the intent of that comment. You asked why the Virginia thing hadn't been fixed. My response is that it probably hasn't been fixed because it has never come up on these boards--likely because no one else has ever noticed it, or if they did, they simply didn't care enough to post about it or report it to Solecismic customer support.

[Ben E Lou]

Is Virginia really omitted? Wonder what that state ever did to Jim ;)Hehehe. It isn't really "omitted" per se. It looks like it's just a cosmetic error in the .txt file that provides the help for one of those roster/draft file creator tools--not even in the game itself. (You do have players from Virginia in the game.) Each city in the text file help has a unique ID. I'm sure that if you use the ID for one of the Virginia cities, you'll get a Virginia city in the actual game, but in the text file, it says stuff like "Richmond, Washington" or "Virginia Beach, Washington" or "Roanoke, Washington."

[MalcPow]

REDICULOUS :D

[Pyser]

X-Factor takes into account how much the player plays, and if he plays a lot, it'll bump up his score a bit more than if he hasn't played at all.

You can always disable it if you want things more predictable.

seems like this fixes your biggest gripe, ich22.

[ich22]

Oh....well I feel like an a$$ now :|

[larrymcg421]

REDICULOUS :D

To diculous again.

[AlexB]

To diculous again.

:D

[Nemesis]

REDICULOUS :D

Made my day. :lol:

[aston217]

Oh....well I feel like an a$$ now :|

Please don't! This game is, admittedly, far from perfect. Don't mind us :)

[antdroid]

I'd also like to be able to name the New York Jets, the New York Jets....Not New Jersey. I don't see why it is such a difficulty to put 2 teams in New York. I actually don't see how anybody would make something that would only allow a single sports team per city...New York city has 12....there are 12 Professional Sports teams with New York as their city...........12

Look at my screenshot attached.

[antdroid]

seems like this fixes your biggest gripe, ich22.

Here's more info from the FOF7 manual and playerfile creator


All other games on the market try and make an educated guess. Front Office Football is no different - except for one additional X-factor. Sure, I gave Smith a set of ratings. After two or three years, he will perform in a manner consistent with other quarterbacks selected first in the draft. Most of the time, at least.

That's where the X-factor comes into play. It's based on the number of games the player has started at the professional level and his years of experience. For instance, the average quarterback has started 37 games in a 5.5-year career. So the X-factor for a quarterback with 22 games in two seasons is about 50. Smith's X-factor is a little lower.

That X-factor determines the random element that changes the core ratings each time you start a new game. When the X-factor is 0, the core ratings can vary by up to 50 percent from the assigned rating. When the X-factor is 100, which it is for about one-third of the players in the league, the core ratings only vary by up to 10 percent.

The net result? Front Office Football generates a new universe every time you start a new game. Most of the time, Smith will be a decent quarterback. A good percentage of the time, he'll be outstanding. And some of the time, he'll be fairly mediocre. Well-established players will perform more as they did in the past, but there will still be some variety.



Ratings in each category are on a 1-9 basis. These ratings are not exact. When a new career begins, Front Office Football uses the ratings in the player file only as a general guideline. Internal ratings are on a 0-1000 scale, and are partially determined by random chance. This adds to the replay value of the game, as you can not count on a player being a superstar or a dud in each new career.

There is an option, when starting a new game of Front Office Football, to be more exact when importing ratings. What this does is greatly lessen the variability of the ratings selected for individual categories. A "7" in a rating will always be better than a "6". Without that option selected, the "6" could be better than the "7" in some random instances.

Column V: The Overall Player Rating is the most important rating used. Because of the way Front Office Football begins new game, the player file shipped with the game actually rates players in very few categories, letting the Overall ratings carry over. You should be very careful when assigning overall ratings, as too much talent in the league can greatly alter how the game plays on the field, and how salaries are assigned.

Here's a list of the frequency Overall Player Ratings are assigned in the default data file:

9 - Rare Superstar - 0.3%
8 - Superstar - 0.4%
7 - Near Superstar - 0.6%
6 - Elite Starter - 1.1%
5 - Excellent Starter - 1.5%
4 - Very Good-Plus Starter - 2.6%
3 - Very Good Starter - 3.9%
2 - Good Starter - 12.2%
1 - Replacement-Level Starter (decent backup) - 23.9%
0 - Roster Filler - 53.4%

[Dutch]

Oh....well I feel like an a$$ now :|

Welcome to FOFC, we all get a turn at this. You might've tied the record for fastest, but at least you got it out of the way. We now expect 10 years of perfection. :)