The Birth of the Treefrogs (the first Desktop Dynasties dynasty)

[GoldenCrest Games]

The first ever dynasty for Desktop Dynasties: Pro Football!

We're kicking off Development Season 1, and the allocation draft pool has been released. (attached in txt and excel format)

The draft order has also been set:

Slates
Olives
Swarm
Yellows
Silvers
Cyans
Oranges
Avocados
Reds
Pinks
T-Pain
Maroons
Blues
Rainbows
Grays
Eggshells
Browns
Purples
Treefrogs
Twisters


Getting the 19th pick isn't exactly starting the league off on a great foot, but we'll make do. It's going to be interesting to see how the fan favorite teams, the Swarm and the Twisters, manage with their picks at the opposite ends of the draft.

We haven't settled on a draft strategy yet, but there are some clear targets.
There are 3 clear franchise players at the top of the draft, but they are all on the OL/DL. Not sexy for your top-5 pick. There are a few legit WR and RB prospects near the top, too. At #19 I'm going to be at the mercy of whoever falls to us, I guess.

One item of note: Exhibition Season superstar kick returner Kenneth Urquhart makes his regular season entrance at around the 80th rated player overall. He hasn't used the offseason to develop any other skills, and has regressed significantly in everything but KR. (99) His other best positions are RB (38) and S (39).

ouch

That being said, you know I'm going to try and get him in green :)

[GoldenCrest Games]

The Treefrogs are going to be built for power. We intend on dominating the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball.

On offense, the coach likes to run the Gator package. This starts 4 OL, 1 RB, and 2 WR. Our current Gator playbook is pretty run-heavy with a few designed RB pass plays. There's another one that's more QB run heavy, but we're opting for the more traditional style.

On defense we compliment the offense by running the Golem package. Golem is a 3 DL, 1 LB, 2 CB, 2 S style that relies on the d-line to provide all the pressure. We rarely blitz the LB, but rely on him a lot in zone coverage and to track down RBs out of the backfield. We really need a good LB if this is going to work.

Looking at the draft pool, it's not going to be easy to build an effective roster on both sides of the ball. There's a lot of talent, but also a lot of 1-way players. Offensively, I absolutely need to get a legit OL and a RB I can count on. I can skimp on WR and probably do ok until the next offseason. OL and RB is my top priority for offense.

On defense, I need a couple good DL and a great LB. In the secondary I could either go CB or S, but I don't need to do both right now. If I can find stud CBs, I'll run more man defense. If I fall into some good safeties, I'll play a conservative deep zone defense and load up at the line. I'd prefer to find CBs, though. I can't come out of this draft without DL and LB, though.

For special teams, I'll need a kicker. I can see a lot of FG situations, and I hate leaving points on the field. I'm going to risk not loading up on special teams coverage, and address that in future drafts. If I can find a great KR, I'll take it. I'm not going to prioritize it, though.

Overall priority:
OL
RB
LB
DL
K
Everything else

Overall it's going to be important to get 2-way players early. The CPU teams always grab them and I always end up taking 1-way players and have huge holes in my roster. This time, I'm really going to do it! (for real!)

[GoldenCrest Games]

Draft is just about to start, and the top-20 are waiting in the green room. (Not to be confused with "The Greens' room" :) )

In a dream scenario, I would love to get a shot at OL/DL Westover or Fulks. I really doubt either of them falls to #19, though.

Out of the rest, I'd also be happy with OL/DL Lackey. WR/CB Avila, WR/CB Gilkey, and WR/CB Lively aren't bad options either. I'm not intending to be a passing team, so I'm hoping they get picked and leave more of the linemen to me.

I really don't want to burn our first two picks on players over the age of 30, since this is for the long haul. I have a feeling I might get forced into it.

It's almost go time!

[GoldenCrest Games]

In a bit of a shocker, the Swarm are able to grab #1 overall player WR/CB/K Armbruster!

As expected, every player we wanted out of the top 20 are off the board. :(

Luckily, there a talented 27 year old OL (98)/DL (77) that's a slightly weaker version of Lackey. No special teams skills, but I can always kick the ball out of bound. :)

That's our top pick. OL/DL Lowell Eddy

Twisters go back to back with WR/CB and WR/S. Yikes! But good for me.

On the quick turnaround we go after a raw talent and grab a 20 year old WR (67) / LB (69) Hugh Poston with 93 speed.

Frankly, already finding my long-term starter at LB is a relief. Those guys are hard to come by.

[GoldenCrest Games]

It looks like the Swarm used the next 2 picks to load up on defense. They grab a star LB and a nice WR/S.

There's been kind of a run on speed and RBs, so I better address the position with one of my next couple picks. The problem here is that there aren't any 2-way RBs left. I really can't afford to miss out on the last speedy RB on the board so we take 22 year old RB(70)/WR(73)/KR(92) Tyree Faulkner who is rocking a 92 speed!

That pick might mean that Urquhart doesn't make the roster. :(

I really want to take an OL here in the 4th, but I can't find one worth the pick. They are all 1-way players now. I'm not looking for WR help, but I have to start 2 WRs so I need a little talent there. I'm going to get 2-way talent 21 year old Tristan Buckles WR(73)/S(76) with 84 speed.

The Twisters keep loading up on an explosive passing game. They got another great WR and a top OL. Looks like the defense is starting to fall behind a bit.

We're looking good on offense so far. Got both starting WRs and my starting RB. 1 of my 4 starting OL.
On defense it's not great, but ok. 1 of 3 starting DL, my LB, and 1 of 2 starting S.
I only have my KR on special teams. Nobody else is good enough to be considered a legit player.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Now the Swarm seem to be rounding out their roster. They grab a nice DL and an OL. (not the same guy)

That OL I was looking at is still on the board. I'm not going to risk missing out on having a pair of ELITE tackles. I grab 25 year old Roscoe Mathew OL(98) with 91 strength. He doesn't have a single Def or ST rating above 35 :(

Wouldn't you know it. The only decent 2-way player left is a RB. grrrr.....
My defense looks terrible right now, so I'm going to grab a some position flexibility in 25 year old Genaro Michel LB(58)/CB(85)/S(68) with 86 speed.

Again, he has no special teams ability at all. My kick coverage/blocking is going to be brutal.

I just took a loot at the Twisters to see what they are doing, and their special teams are looking legit! They already have 4 guys I'd call ST stars, and another guy who would also be my #1. yikes.

[GoldenCrest Games]

The Swarm are clearly finding opportunities to get defensive talent. Every player they've picked so far is a stud at a defensive starter slot.

This is a tough pick for the Treefrogs. I really want to start loading up on defense, but I also know that you can't win without a QB in this game. Even though I don't expect to throw a ton, you just can't win without a passing game. I suck it up and take my QB. 22 year old Kory Luna QB(83). And guess what, no special teams. :(

For the 8th rounder, I'm getting antsy about my o-line. I grab 25 year old Sydney Cerda OL(78) with 96 strength....but no special teams.

The Twisters used the last 2 picks on defense. They are looking pretty balanced right now.

[GoldenCrest Games]

We're getting down to slim pickings. Everyone with any talent right now is extremely 1-dimensional.

I need DL desperately, so I grab 25 year old Donnell Keil. Slow as molasses, weak, and no other skills whatsoever, but he's got decent DL skill (84).

For the 10th rounder, it feels like the right time to take a kicker. Luckily, there is a bomber left on the board. He just can't do anything else. K(97) Merlin Clair

Coming back to the 11th rounder, we grab our 4th OL Wilford Russell. He's terrible, but he won't get blown up at the line.

I just noticed that my 2nd starting safety is currently rated (2). :eek: Seriously, that's how my depth chart breaks down right now. I'll use my last pick on a slightly less terrible S. 25 year old Theon Spear S(41) with 51 speed.

I'll do a quick roster analysis and post the media's initial power rankings next!

[GoldenCrest Games]

This just in: Urquhart goes to the Rainbows in the 7th.

[GoldenCrest Games]

The preseason power rankings have been released, and the Yellows take the top spot. The Yellows probably have the best 2 OL and are also going to be dominant on special teams. Outside of that, they seem beatable.

The Treefrogs and Twisters come in next. The Treefrogs have some nice balance on both sides of the ball (if you don't look at special teams). The Twisters have an elite group of WRs, a nice defense, and a truly legit special teams squad.

Looking through the rankings and rosters, the top 15 are all pretty closely bunched. Nobody really stands out between them.

On the other hand, the Maroons are a terribly constructed team. On offense, they totally screwed up and doubled up on star RBs, even though they run a 1-back style. They aren't hopeless, though. On defense they run 2 elite CBs and a star S.

I'm going to keep an eye on them when the trade window opens. They should be the kind of team that is really active in the market.

[SirBlurton]

Ouch - based on your description I was hoping for big things for the Swarm. Hopefully we just loaded up on defense, suck this year and get a high draft pick to run the offense next year!

Trust the process!

[GoldenCrest Games]

The Swarm offense is going to be terrible. There's no other way to describe it. They loaded up heavily on defense and special teams, though.

The defense should be elite. They have the #1 CB and probably the #1 LB. They also have a great DE and high-end starters at CB2, CB3, and S1. Only the S2 position looks to be a weakness.

They also have 99 speed at KR and a top 3 K, so they could make some money on special teams.

Overall, it's the offense that will bring the Swarm down this season. QB and OL are going to be a huge problem. I could see them being active in the trade market, without giving up picks. I could see them putting the CB2 or CB3 on the block to try and get more talent at the QB or OL position. Moving the CB3 for an equal OL or QB would be a huge win for the Swarm.

I'll get a team shot of the Swarm and Twisters up soon so you can see the full roster.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Here are the Swarm. They start off with $212 in salary, so they have some room to deal. (against a cap of $225)

[GoldenCrest Games]

Twisters start off with only $176 in salary. :eek: They are going to be big-time players in trades and FA.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Everyone's favorite Treefrogs start the season over the cap at $231.

According to current salary cap rules, I can't negotiate extensions with anyone or gain salary in any trades until I get below the cap. That's going to be a problem because everyone on my team is on a 1 year contract. (allocation draft players all start with a 1 year contract)

Just looking through the teams a little more, I can see that I need to tighten up the player evaluation AI. I'll make sure that's done before the trade window opens.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Our week 1 opponent are the similar-looking Avocados. It's going to be nice when the Treefrogs or Avocados make the championship so one of us can earn a better uniform... :)

The Avocados run the Shark offense (2RB / 2WR) and the same Golem defense we do (3DE 1LB 2CB 2S). They have an elite WR who is also the KR, a decent OL, but nothing special after that on offense or defense. They just seem to be pretty average, except for the special teams. They should be among the top units on ST.

(Developer note: Seems like the CPU teams overvalues ST when picking players. We'll see how that plays out and let them adjust in the offseasons, if needed.)

Some notable games on the Treefrogs schedule:
Week 3: T-Pain
Week 7: Swarm
Week 10: Twisters

It doesn't look like the Twisters meet the Swarm in the regular season this year.

[rjolley]

Congrats on getting the game this far. Following along.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Just squashing a couple last second bugs that popped up when I transferred the build over to my gaming rig. It looks like Week 1 should kick off tomorrow!

I'm anticipating that the trade window opens Week 2. I really hope a few of these teams go shopping for a QB. :eek:

[jct32]

Yeah, the Twisters need a QB. It was nice to see them pick up some offensive talent because I wanted them to be an offense heavy system. However, the lack of QB is a little baffling. Maybe, I'll be proven wrong but I'm really looking forward to this.

Thanks for giving an in-depth update on our teams as well.

[GoldenCrest Games]

As I was bug squashing, I took a tour around the depth charts. As it turn out, only 4 teams don't have a real starting QB. It just happened that 3 of the 4 are the Swarm, Twisters, and T-Pain.

What are the odds??

[GoldenCrest Games]

Week 1 is done! After a ton of annoying little bug squashing, we finally got a full week done with no errors!

I also uploaded the game video for the Treefrogs-Avocados game. I was going to cut it up into highlights, but I think the full video is going to be useful as I get back into refining the player AI. Besides, it's going to be a nice archive to look back on as we start making leaps forward :)

Desktop Dynasties: DevSeason1 Week1 - YouTube (https://youtu.be/7laV00qz8h0)

The Treefrogs game was total domination. Our special teams held its own for the most part, but the bad guys got loose for a TD. WR/LB Poston had a pretty nice game on special teams. He got the tackle more often than not.

Our offensive line was playing at a completely different level than the Avocados d-line. In the video you can see the domination pretty clearly on running plays. I could have run it every play and probably run the score up even more, but I'm still testing all the new plays. (there are a few that are totally jacked up!)

In other news, the T-Pain unexpectedly destroyed the blues! :eek: 182 yards rushing for Dillon?? It's also a little funny to see Urquhart lining up at WR. His ratings were pretty bad...

I have a nice list of improvements for week 2, so we're probably looking at Saturday for the next batch of games.

[GoldenCrest Games]

As part of the trade block AI, I wrote some stuff that will compare your team roster value against what a new depth chart would be if you removed a player. The idea is to get a number that represents the loss of a player.

As it turns out, my favorite player on the Treefrogs (franchise RB/KR Faulkner) has the same roster value difference as my #4 OL. :(

ouch.

However, my most valuable players are my two starting tackles. Eddy and Mathew. Nice. :)

[GoldenCrest Games]

Trade block AI is tuned a bit more, and overall player value has been adjusted a bit. Here's what the Swarm trade block looks like. The Swarm are definitely looking to be active in the trade market.

I took a look around the league, and there are at least 4 legit QBs on the block. It looks like there were a few teams that grabbed more than their share of QB talent, because of the players' defensive and ST ability. Those extra QBs are now hitting the trade market.

It's going to be interesting to see if any of the sponsored teams make a play for them.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Here's the Twisters trade block.

I haven't decided what to do with the Treefrogs. I need to drop about $15 in salary before the trade window closes or I'm in big trouble.

It's actually pretty rare for a team to go over the cap in the allocation draft, but the consequences can be devastating. If I can't get down to the cap, I won't be able to negotiate extensions and I'll lose every player to FA because they are all on 1 year contracts!

[GoldenCrest Games]

Just for fun, I ran the trade offer AI before refinements......

The Swarm wanted to make 71 trade offers. :)

The Twisters only 21.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Getting everything ready to kick off week 2, and the trade window is open.

Trade offers are out for review, and there are some interesting ones.

The Swarm have contacted the Treefrogs proposing a Sydney Cerda for Carl Lawless swap. Not a bad offer. The Swarm would grab a OL1 while helping the Treefrogs get a CB2. In fact, the Swarm a really going hard after a top-end OL by sending out several offers to teams. They've probably figured that improves their team more than anything right now. I wonder if they will go after a QB after landing the OL....

The Twisters are also going after some OL help, but they also have an offer out to the Blues for an 83 rated starting QB.... interesting.

Incoming offers for the Treefrogs all seem to revolve around me giving up my OL3 for special teams help. :)

yeah yeah, I get it. My ST sucks.

Trade offers should get reviewed and accepted/declined after week 2 games are played. Then the trade blocks will be updated with the new needs/offers.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Week 2 is in the books (with no errors!!)

The gameplay video is available here: Desktop Dynasties: DevSeason1 Week2 - YouTube (https://youtu.be/7QHwfIqWVIM)

First, the quick developer notes:

Zone defense still isn't working exactly as intended. It's closer, but not there yet. In the video, you'll see me destroy a CB in zone defense for a TD, and then start experimenting with various zone plays to get some game-tape for later.
QB accuracy needs some fine tuning. Average-to-Poor QBs need a little boost.

Now on to the results!
When I played the Avocados, I had a feeling they were a below average team, and that's why the Treefrogs were running all over them. The Swarm aren't exactly a run-first offense, but they demolished the Avocados on the ground. Yikes! I think this is a case of the Swarm coach working with what he has right now. In a pass-first offense with no QB, you better shift to the run.

Nice shutout, too!

The Twisters had another tough one. I'm just going to assume Urquhart ran all over them. :) Seriously, though. The Rainbows are legit.

I'm just making sure nothing is broken for trade review right now, and that the game actually tells me what trades were accepted (correctly). I should have the post-Week2 trades processed and posted today.

*crossing fingers for the Swarm and Twisters*

[GoldenCrest Games]

Only 3 completed trades this week:

The Pinks have traded Bernie Link to the Silvers for Marlon Dejesus
The Eggshells have traded Donnell Lasalle to the Slates for Everett Alaniz
The Olives have traded Luigi Chung to the Oranges for Ezequiel Eastwood


It took longer than expected to process trades, because the Swarm coach kept getting ripped off in trades for OL!! :) It was a good thing that we have some sponsored teams, or I wouldn't have noticed it and dug for a pretty horrendous bug in the offer AI.

Looks like the AI is working correctly again.

For week 3, the Swarm have 7 active trade offers to review, and the Twisters have only 1 (for the Swarm) I can't see the Swarm accepting the offer. (Twisters want to flip Rainey for Lawless)

Week 3 is coming up after a few more interface updates.

[GoldenCrest Games]

I think we're going to experiment a bit with the sponsored teams. Let's set the Swarm, Twisters, and T-Pain coaches to completely ignore any positions that don't fit their play style.

I don't know if it's going to make a difference, but it's a good way to see exactly how coach preference is driving player value. I have a sneaky suspicion that coaches are valuing a balanced roster slightly more than running their system.

If I'm right, the sponsored coaches should start looking for specific types of players, and will give up talent they don't need in order to get them. This should lead to better on-field play, and the good guys should start to separate themselves from the rest of the league through the trading period and the offseason.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Well, it happened! The T-Pain and Maroons got together on the first blockbuster deal.

The Maroons sent Botello to the T-Pain for Crabtree. I cut up some screenshots to show the deal. Now the T-Pain have an elite running threat at both RB and QB...just in time to play the Treefrogs. :( I have some roster analysis running on every trade offer now, to make sure nothing weird happens. This is one of those rare trades where both teams got significantly (and equally) better at the same time.

No other trade this week. We're adjusting the trading schedule to make the gameplay feel right. Now it goes like this: Games Played -> Trade Blocks Updated -> Trade Offers Sent Out -> Trades Reviewed -> Next Games

The human player gets to update trade blocks and review/offer trades before the next batch of games, which makes gameplay a lot more fun. It's kind of a pain waiting until after games to accept offers.

[jct32]

18 points scored is not how I viewed my high powered offense lol

[GoldenCrest Games]

Week 3 in the books.

The Treefrogs vs T-Pain was as explosive as advertised. Our special teams coverage was exposed, and my run defense was pretty sad. On the other hand, the T-Pain's defense didn't even show up. (video: Desktop Dynasties: DevSeason1 Week3 - YouTube (https://youtu.be/HzzgQg01c4k) )


Frankly, the defense in that game was embarrassing. I think it's going to help to have it all on tape when I start adjusting the player AI again.

It's still a week early, but I got a sneak peek at the MVP race. It looks like our RB/WR/KR Faulkner has a slim lead over the T-Pain newest RB Botello and the Olive's WR/CB/KR Dale.

Also, I'm surprised at the Swarm for hanging in there at 2-1. They might be making the case for defensive focused rosters. (I'd previously thought a defense-only team had no chance)

The Twisters fans have to be frustrated. Their roster is stacked with talent and they should be putting up win after win. I think the lack of a functional QB is just killing them. They keep putting offers out to try and land one, it just hasn't worked out yet. Let's hope they stay aggressive on the market.



Developer Notes:
Trade AI is looking pretty good now, so I can start moving on to some other things I have on the list. The interface is really starting to grate on me, so that's pretty high on the list. It's becoming a chore for me to try and manage my team. Way too much clicking.

The trade window doesn't close for quite a few weeks, so I don't need to have the contract extension AI working yet. Maybe this is a good time to tackle that crappy interface. :)

[GoldenCrest Games]

18 points scored is not how I viewed my high powered offense lol

No kidding! The QB position is killing the Twisters. :(

Luckily, they seem to be the most aggressive team in the trade market when it comes to QB offers.

[GoldenCrest Games]

It might seem like Week 4 is taking forever, but it's worth it!

I just couldn't keep posting screens that looked like they were drawn by a drunk toddler with a fat crayon.

Here's the new standings and leaders screen. :)

A big week for the Falkner and Botello put them #1 and #2 for the MVP race. Week 4 is coming soon!

[GoldenCrest Games]

Week 5 done. Here are the results:

Swarm get edged by the T-Pain, but they put up a respectable number of points. I'm impressed with how the offense is doing, considering how little talent they put there.

...

.

Sorry Twisters. :)

[GoldenCrest Games]

Standings and leaders going into Week 5: (I noticed the bug in return yards leaders, too. I'm on it!)

[yeah826]

Wow this is looking nice you put a lot of effort into this.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Wow this is looking nice you put a lot of effort into this.

Thanks! I got some inspiration over the last week and had to step my game up.

[jct32]

10 ppg not looking good. #QBNow!

[GoldenCrest Games]

Week 5:

Some good games this week!

The Swarm dominate the Blues for a 21-0 win. Nice to see that defense is still keeping them in the race.

The Twisters pull out their first win by downing the Browns.

The Maroons, Oranges, and Rainbows all keep winning to remain undefeated.

That means the Treefrogs have fallen from the elite tier of teams. :(

We got handled by our old arch nemesis Purples. They run a QB rushing style offense that we had no answer for. Our defense is pretty limited in run stopping, if the d-line can't get it done. Since we only have 1 LB, and our safeties are almost exclusively used in deep coverage, we just couldn't stop anything run to the right. Eventually, that's exclusively where the Purples ran.

On offense, we tried out the Rhino power running playbook. (2 RB with the extra 4th OL) Not bad, but it's hard to come back when you're trailing by running the ball.

We'll have to do some regrouping on defense. That was eye opening.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Now the standings and leaders

It looks like Faulkner isn't going to hold on to the top spot in the MVP race. Our last game exposed him for being just an above-average back, but not elite. I expect him to fade off the the charts in another couple weeks.

Same with QB Luna. I've been so impressed with the running QBs I've played recently that I'm thinking about moving Luna for some defensive help and starting CB Michel at QB. He's not the worst passer in the league (42) but we don't pass much. He fast (86) and has some scrambling ability (63).

Plus, he's the 2nd highest salary I have ($34) and he only plays defense. :mad:

If I can get a little better on defense, a power running QB/RB tandem might work great.

[SirBlurton]

Really liking these new screens!

[jct32]

Twisters, nobody on the stats leaders. This is looking like a rough season for us.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Twisters, nobody on the stats leaders. This is looking like a rough season for us.

It's going to be a long season for the Twisters. :(

[GoldenCrest Games]

The trade window is almost ready to close, and the contract extension period will open. That means things are getting serious for us teams (only me) that are above the cap. We can't go into the first resigning period over the cap or we'll lose everyone to FA after the season.

It's desperation time.... I need to drop $6 from the roster fast. I have this week's and next week's trade review period to get an AI team to bite on something. Developer note: I might change this next season. It's a little annoying for the player to wait for the review of all trades in a bunch. On the other hand, this format allows for multiplayer. idk....

Things have gotten so desperate, I approached the Twisters with a trade package. :)

We'll see if anyone bites.

[GoldenCrest Games]

I think this is the best offer I could muster up for Luna.

Being a 1-way player, he's not getting much love on the market. The Eggshells are the only other team with reasonable interest. If the Twisters or Eggshells don't bite this week, I may have to ship off someone more valuable in a lopsided deal next week. :(

[GoldenCrest Games]

Trades this week:

The Swarm have traded Carl Lawless to the Yellows for Otha Moody
The Treefrogs have traded Kory Luna and Wilford Russell to the Twisters for Aldo Belk and Edgardo Riley
The Silvers have traded Marty Hanlon to the T-Pain for Weston Charron


It's a huge relief that the Twisters pulled the trigger on our Luna offer. We can officially transition to the "run first - run only" offense. The more important thing is that we get below the cap. Now we are eligible to offer contract extensions when the window opens. I guess the word got out that the Twisters were making a move because both of the other sponsored teams made moves.

The Swarm trade their CB4 for a starting QB(77) Moody. Wow! :eek: That could be big.

The T-Pain swap elite WR talent for elite CB talent.

It's going to be interesting to see who's deadline deal makes the biggest impact over the remaining 9 games.

:popcorn:

[jct32]

That is interesting. I hope we can muster something useful now that we have a legit QB. My luck is that my coach will play him at OL since he is an 81 lol.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Guess who's offense just woke up. :)

In other news, the Treefrogs roll against the Yellows. With a legit option at all 3 DL positions, we can run a pretty conservative zone defense. That made all the difference. Once we got out of man defense, we did a pretty good job holding the opponents to small gains.

Our offense suffered quite a bit with no passing game, but we're still getting use to the grind-it-out offense.

Surprisingly, the Swarm fell to the hated Purples. Now the purples have beaten both the Treefrogs and Swarm in consecutive weeks. Not cool, bro. I haven't look at any stats yet, but I guarantee it was that running QB. :rant:

How about the Blues and Silvers getting into a shootout, but ending in a tie?? Something to fix for next season.

Also, the Oranges finally lose one. Nice job T-Pain!

Standings, leaders, and the last week of trades coming next...

[GoldenCrest Games]

RB Falkner is still hanging in there for the MVP race! He needs to start stepping his return game up if he wants to win this thing. He's been sort of a bummer on kick returns. (probably because of my atrocious special teams blocking)

I can't wait to see if the Twisters keep up the offensive output with Luna. His talent was wasted on my team.

Looking through the latest trade offers, it looks like the Twisters and Swarm are both trying to shore up the d-line by moving players that are currently buried on the depth chart. The Swarm are dangling their CB3 to grab a DL1 while the Twisters are trying to move their OL3 for a DL1. Both moves would be big upgrades. (for all teams involved)

The T-Pain are offering all kinds of crazy trades. I have no idea what they are doing.

The Treefrogs have a few guys at the end of the bench on the block, but I don't see any meaningful offers yet.

[jct32]

That's more like it. Maybe we can turn this season around.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Come on, man!

What the hell happened to our offense???? :eek:

We totally got worked by the Swarm this week. If it weren't for a pass play where QB Michel broke the pocket and scrambled for a long TD, we wouldn't have gained more than 15 yards on any drive. It was painful.

Basically, it came down to the Swarm's CB Armbruster. He was a beast on run containment. All my best runs go to the right (because my 4th OL lines up over there), and he completely dominated that side of the field. I tried to go left, but the Swarm DE1 Glaze lines up on that side and did a pretty good job holding the line. Since I can't really pass with Michel, I was screwed.

Armbruster also housed a punt for a TD, and caught a long TD, to go with his defensive dominance. :banghead:

Twisters pull out another one, with a respectable offensive performance. Leaderboard is coming next, so I'm curious how Luna is doing now.

Also, how about the league dominating Maroons getting held to a 3-3 tie?? wow.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Standings and leaders are in. I guess you could say QB Luna found a nice home in OKC. yikes! :eek:

I'm interested to see how the Oranges have 2 QBs in the top 3 for passing yards... :confused: [NOTE: I just checked and they recently made a move to grab Schubert so they could move Beals to OL)

Faulkner is starting to fade out of the MVP race. :( You can't have games like that last one and claim to be MVP.

I hope we can find some magic around here, because the trade window slammed closed. There are no more chances for me to reinvent our offense this season. We have to make do....

[jct32]

2 game winning streak!

https://media.giphy.com/media/rl0FOxdz7CcxO/giphy.gif

[GoldenCrest Games]

First round of contract extensions come through:


Slates extended OL/DL/ST Wilton Vines for $44 per year over 3 years.
Olives extended WR/CB/KR Cyril Dale for $50 per year over 2 years.
Swarm extended WR/CB/K Reginald Armbruster for $57 per year over 3 years.
Yellows extended OL/DL/K Eddie Westover for $49 per year over 5 years.
Silvers extended OL/DL/ST Adan Fulks for $43 per year over 5 years.
Cyans extended WR/CB/KR Herman Lively for $47 per year over 5 years.
Oranges extended WR/CB/ST Russell Hancock for $59 per year over 2 years.
Avocados extended WR/S/ST Jerome Kincaid for $39 per year over 3 years.
Reds extended WR/CB/K Oren Avila for $47 per year over 5 years.
Pinks extended WR/CB/KR Darrick Osburn for $38 per year over 5 years.
T-Pain extended WR/CB/ST Wilfredo Guajardo for $38 per year over 3 years.
Maroons extended WR/CB/K Alden Gilkey for $37 per year over 5 years.
Blues extended WR/CB/KR Leslie Counts for $65 per year over 2 years.
Rainbows extended WR/CB/KR Eldridge Sandy for $39 per year over 5 years.
Grays extended WR/S/KR Stefan Partin for $41 per year over 2 years.
Eggshells extended WR/CB/ST Everette Montanez for $33 per year over 5 years.
Browns extended OL/DL/ST Israel Agnew for $32 per year over 5 years.
Purples extended QB/LB/KR Garry Huntley for $65 per year over 5 years.
Treefrogs extended WR/S/KR Tyree Faulkner for $35 per year over 4 years.
Twisters extended WR/CB/ST Oscar Horowitz for $37 per year over 5 years.


Developer note: I'm a little burned out on screens for right now, but I have everything in place to get all the way through the championship and free agency. I'm going to start working on the on-field AI for a little while. There are a few things that are making me crazy as I play my games.

Crazy stuff:

lead blocking
zone defense
pass accuracy
jittery running for low skill players
run defense


I think Week 8 is coming this morning, so stay tuned!

[GoldenCrest Games]

Week 8:

That score isn't a bug, we really did beat the Silvers 11-7. We kicked 3 field goals and got a safety! The Silvers were stout against the run, and got some stellar play from the LB. We couldn't do much in the passing game because nobody could get open enough for QB Michel to feel comfortable throwing the ball. He ended up scrambling on most pass plays. That's not going to help on 3rd and 12.

On defense, we're starting to come around. The improved D-line is great, and LB Poston is now able to make some plays. This offseason I think we're going to shift to the Ogre defense to start 3 DL and 2 LB. We have a couple base Ogre plays in the Golem playbook, and I really like the potential to dominate the LOS.

The Twisters keep putting up wins, now that Luna has taken over at QB. Nice!

Unfortunately, the Swarm fall to the Yellows. There are still 6 games left in the regular season, but the Swarm need to start stringing together some wins to make the playoffs.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Standings and Leaders:

Just like that, Faulkner falls out of the rushing leaders. :( I just can't get the running game going anymore. Those long runs for TD are gone, and I'm not consistent enough to grind out long drives. I think I'm really missing that 4th OL I sent out with Luna. Who would have thought?

Probably doesn't help that I can't convert any 3rd down passing situations, either.

I haven't played the Cyans yet, but that Penland with 31 sacks worries me a little. That seems awfully high. That being said, they are terrible so they might be on defense all the time.

How about the Slates having 2 guys with 16 sacks??? Wow. :eek:

I hate that the Purples rolling, too. Grrrr.... :mad:

[GoldenCrest Games]

Week 9:

Good week for the sponsored teams! (With the exception of everyone's favorite Treefrogs :( )

We really got worked over by the division leading Oranges. After fixing a couple things in the deep zone AI, our defense was actually pretty decent. We'd get them to 3rd down often, but couldn't quite close it out. The real problem was that every time I called an aggressive blitz, the Oranges went to a quick read and burned me for a long TD. :(

If we stayed conservative on defense, I bet we could have played them pretty close. I need to start trusting my d-line, and not blitz against good QBs. I just don't have the secondary to handle it.

On offense, I'm starting to get a reasonable passing game going. It's still too unreliable to count on, but I can sometimes catch the defense playing the run. I think the screen pass is going to be a pretty good weapon eventually.

It's a little funny how the swing pass was such a dominant weapon in the first 2 exhibitions seasons. It bordered on unstoppable. Now when I run it, I rarely get more than 2 yards. I've pretty much abandoned it completely. Not sure if it's the players or the defensive AI adjustments. We'll keep an eye on it, though.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Standings and Leaders

We're still in the playoff hunt, but the Swarm and Yellows are right behind us. We really need to stop dropping games. Faulkner had a decent game on the ground, and a pretty good game returning, so he hangs on in the MVP race.

The Twisters continue their assault on the playoffs with another win. They are only a game back of being in the top 4! Also, look at QB Luna climbing into the MVP race. I think he's got a legitimate shot at it.

In other news, the Rainbows have picked up a sponsor and are now going to be known as the "Rainbow Sharks".

[jct32]

What a turnaround for the Twisters. That GM deserves a pay raise.

[GoldenCrest Games]

The highly anticipated week 10 matchup between the Treefrogs and Twisters is finally over, and the players are spent.....

Luna left it all on the field, but did he defeat his former team and end that chapter?

[GoldenCrest Games]

Um.... a tie? wtf bro?

Yeah, we ended in a tie. On defense, I played it about as safe as can be. I only blitzed once, and got burned for a long TD. After that, I played a pretty conservative man defense. Luna still had a big day, but I was able to keep the scoring down to the reasonable amount. In the end, the WR talent was too good for us to shut down.

On offense, we were able to run the ball ok. The Twisters have a great CB that usually lines up on the right, so running right wasn't working very well. On the left side, however, they were pretty weak. About halfway through the game I realized the Twisters are starting a TERRIBLE second safety, and I started exploiting it with swing/out patterns from the RB. That allowed us to climb back into a game we were trailing the whole way, and kick a tying FG with 5 plays to go.

The Twisters made a quick march down the field, but just couldn't get into FG range to try the game winning kick.

overall, great game!

On another note, damn Purples. :mad:

[GoldenCrest Games]

We're barely hanging on to that 4th playoff spot in the West! It's going to be tight. I don't see any chance the Oranges, T-Pain, or Purples fall out of the race, so it comes down to this last spot. The Treefrogs, Swarm, and Yellows seem to the be the teams fighting for 1 spot.

In the East, the Twisters have gotten themselves back into a tie for the 4th spot! :eek: There is more room over there, since only the Maroons and Rainbow Sharks (the newest sponsored team!) called dibs on playoff spots.

The last 4 weeks have meaningful football to be played! Sweet!

Faulkner refuses to fall out of MVP contention. He's not done yet! I doubt we can pull off the win, but I'm glad he's remaining relevant. Luna has climbed into the top 5, which is quite a feat. Of course the Purples are dominating the race. Ugh, I can't stand them.

It looks like some of the defensive AI updates are stating to take hold. I noticed the interception totals are starting to creep up again.

Teams are plowing through contract extensions nicely. When the extension window closes I'll grab some screens of each team's financial situation. It will be a good resource as we move into FA, to see how the coaches are handling their rosters.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Week 11

We pull out a squeaker against the Browns. Yeah, that crappy team. :(

;)

get it?

:lol:

Anyway, they housed 2 kicks for TD. That's really starting to annoy me. This offseason I'm really going to fix up my special teams unit. I hate that every garbage team has a pretty decent chance of running a kick back for a TD against me.

Swarm fell to the Maroons, which isn't all the surprising. The Maroons are awesome. I'm surprised it was that close, though.

The Twisters continue their resurgence by dismantling the Reds. I remember playing the Reds, they were pretty embarrassing. :)

In a battle of sponsored teams, the T-Pain edge the Rainbow Sharks. It won't matter in the playoff chase, but it's good bragging rights.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Standings and Leaders

Pay no attention to the yards/game numbers. This is the first week I have the team stat tracking implemented, and the numbers assume that it's been tracked all season.

We're clinging to the 4th playoff spot in the West, just barely. There are only 3 games left, so time might be running out for the Swarm and Yellows. They are going to need us to drop 2 of the last 3 at least. (which is a real possibility)

The Twisters grab hold of the 4th spot in the East. Wow, what a comeback. Luna turned that team around, and is flying up the MVP boards at the same time. Seriously, he's 2nd place now??? I liked him on the Treefrogs, but I didn't think he was that good. I was sure that picking Faulkner as the face of the franchise was the right idea. now...... :confused:


Developer Notes:
I've chunked out the next phase of development into 7 groups:

Normal Improvements (list of things to fix between game weeks)
Free Agency
Player Progression
Draft
Playcalling System Update
Fast Sim
Coaches


Aside from the normal improvements group, each one should take about 1 full day. I have a couple vacation days coming up soon, so I want to make sure the season hits FA before Mar 8. Then I can hit the FA chunk with live league data. I'm pretty annoyed with work, so I might take a day off before then to knock out progression or the play update. :)

[jct32]

Luna has been playing insane. He has 500 yards on anyone else in the league. Thanks for letting us have him :)

[GoldenCrest Games]

Luna has been playing insane. He has 500 yards on anyone else in the league. Thanks for letting us have him :)

I should have paid closer attention during the draft, and not went over the cap. I was only $6 away from being able to keep him!!! :banghead:

[GoldenCrest Games]

Week 12:

We pull out a defensive struggle against the Eggshells. They have a legit defense, but that offense is an embarrassment. 3 FGs and a TD run from Faulkner give us the win, and give us a much better path to the playoffs.

Swarm barely edge the Pinks to stay alive, while the Yellows drop one to the Maroons. The Yellows are probably going to be eliminated from contention in the West.

In another battle between sponsored teams, the T-Pain continue to dominate us all by beating the resurgent Twisters.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Standings and Leaders

Now the Swarm need us to drop the last 2 games, to have any chance.
Final 2 for the Treefrogs are Grays and Rainbow Sharks.
Final 2 for the Swarm are the Cyans and Olives.

It's probably going to come down to that Treefrogs-Grays game. I don't think the other 3 games are in doubt. We'll lose to the Rainbow Sharks and the Swarm will beat both their opponents. If we lose to the Grays, we're probably out.

The Twisters are barely hanging on to that 4th spot in the East. They finish up the season against the Blues and the Purples. The first tiebreaker for playoffs is point differential, so the Twisters look pretty good there. I don't see a way they miss the playoffs, assuming they win 1 of the last 2. (probably beat the Blues)

So we're probably going to have 4 sponsored teams in the playoffs! Remember, we're playing for logos and better uniforms this season. The 2 teams in the championship are going to get professionally designed logos with uniforms to match. (and a real team name, if a color team wins)

I really want that Treefrogs logo.

[SirBlurton]

I've been really consumed by work lately and not as able to follow this - but just want to say - I want this. :)

Really like the look and feel and great dynasty reports. You ever want any extra help with testing, let me know - and if I ever get to, it'll still be a guaranteed sale!

[GoldenCrest Games]

I've been really consumed by work lately and not as able to follow this - but just want to say - I want this. :)

Really like the look and feel and great dynasty reports. You ever want any extra help with testing, let me know - and if I ever get to, it'll still be a guaranteed sale!

It's getting pretty close! I'll definitely let you know when it's ready for some testing. It's skill looking like I'll have something playable in April. Development Season 2 is going to be geared towards getting that playable build ready.

[jct32]

I can get a professional logo? Let's go Luna!

[GoldenCrest Games]

Week 13:

It's official, the Swarm have been eliminated from playoff contention. :(
With the Swarm loss to the Cyans (:confused: ), the Treefrogs didn't have any pressure on them for the game against the Grays. Even so, we still took care of business. It was a really good defensive day for my front 3. The Grays had no time, and couldn't do anything on the ground. I just dropped back into a zone and swatted down any passes.

The Twisters lose to the Blues??

What the heck is going on? Upset week??

Let's see how this affects the standings....

[GoldenCrest Games]

End of regular season:

The final week is done! I'm glad we made the playoffs, but I have a feeling it's going to be a quick exit against the T-Pain. At least it's not the Purples.

The Twisters avoided the tiebreaker and ended up getting the last playoff spot in the East all by themselves. Their reward? A first round matchup against the league's only undefeated team. :(

I have a few things I need to finish up before the playoffs get kicked off. I want to archive all the leaders and award winners, so I can use them later for some sort of league history. Not sure how that's going to play out, but it's probably a good idea to save the info. I also need to do a little more with the schedule screen, so the playoffs schedule looks right.

I'm planning FA to start this Wednesday or Thursday, so there's not a lot of time!

[GoldenCrest Games]

I couldn't let this little detail go by without mentioning it...

The Twisters tied the Purples!

That's a pretty big deal, considering how the Purples have been beating up on everyone lately. Maybe there's hope for them to beat the Maroons!

[jct32]

45-45 tie? Wow!

Let's ride Luna through the playoffs.

[SirBlurton]

Week 13:

It's official, the Swarm have been eliminated from playoff contention. :(
With the Swarm loss to the Cyans (:confused: ), the Treefrogs didn't have any pressure on them for the game against the Grays. Even so, we still took care of business. It was a really good defensive day for my front 3. The Grays had no time, and couldn't do anything on the ground. I just dropped back into a zone and swatted down any passes.

The Twisters lose to the Blues??

What the heck is going on? Upset week??

Let's see how this affects the standings....

Dang it - and not crappy enough for a high draft pick....that's not how The Process is supposed to work!

[GoldenCrest Games]

No awards screen yet, (probably do this next season) but here are the end of season awards:

As expected, Huntley took home the overall MVP award.

MVP = Garry Huntley (Purples)
Offensive MVP = Garry Huntley (Purples)
Defensive MVP = Buck Penland (Cyans)
Special Teams MVP = Reginald Armbruster (Swarm)

I'm hammering through a bunch of stat archival stuff right now so I can get to the playoffs, or I'd make a bigger production out of the awards. :)

I'm not doing anything with this stuff right now, but I want to have it available next season when I start building some league history screens.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Dang it - and not crappy enough for a high draft pick....that's not how The Process is supposed to work!

The process. lol!

There's a slight twist on player progression and the draft, so I don't think it's going to be as important to have the top pick(s). I want the draft to be more about finding the right players than just having the top pick.

That being said, it's easier to find the best fit if you have the top pick. :)

Every player comes into the league with the exact same "potential". That basically means that there's no real potential rating. Players end up on progression arcs based on a number of factors, but it ends up being fairly random. However, the randomness is controlled in such a way that players should develop a defined progression arc by the time they hit the 3rd or 4th year.


Basically in years 1-3 you're going to have pretty wild progression.
By year 4-5 it should start settling in to something more predictable, based in part on how years 1-3 turned out
After year 4-5, the progression arc really takes hold and some players will start to be real busts while others will continue to grow.
Late in the careers, the progression arc will determine how long a player hangs on in the league, or if they wash out early.


It's still in the experimental phase, but it's looking good so far. I'll probably have an analysis of my data posted soon to get some feedback on.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Round 1 of the playoffs:

Since we were playing another sponsored team, I let the AI coach the Treefrogs....and it didn't go too well. :(

I got behind early, and started scoreboard watching the Twisters-Maroons game. 40 plays in (out of a 60 play game) the Twisters were up 6-0! Then the Maroons got a TD and went up 7-6. The Twisters returned the kickoff and went up 13-7! At play 52, the score was still 13-7, and I totally lost track of my Treefrogs game. :)

The Maroons got another TD on play 54, and took back the lead. The Twisters had the ball with 5 plays left.

56: Sack
57: Incomplete
58: Long pass for 1st down!
59: BAD sack.
60: 40+ yard FG try......... GOOD!!!!!!!

:banana:

I can't believe it, the Twisters took down the league-dominating Maroons!!!

That was a fun round. :D

[GoldenCrest Games]

21-21 at play 36 in the Twisters-Rainbow Sharks game!

Rainbow Sharks are grinding down the Twisters defense every drive, but the Twisters are airing it out for HUGE plays.

The Twisters are in love with this spread formation. Luna almost always finds someone who beat their coverage.

Great game so far!

[GoldenCrest Games]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Twisters go down in the final few plays! They hit a late FG and then the Rainbow Sharks ran the kickoff back for a TD!

:(

Also, as if that wasn't bad enough, the Purples beat the T-Pain.

:banghead:

[jct32]

NO!! We almost had the professional logo. The boys had a hell of a year after a rough start. Nothing to be ashamed of.

[GoldenCrest Games]

NOOOO!!!!!!!

The d**n Purples won it all....again. :banghead:

Well, at least this means we can move on to free agency now. Just in time for 2 vacation days, and tons of keyboard time!

:D

Tomorrow I'll get in contact with the artists to start on the Rainbow Sharks logo. I still have to think of a name for the Purples before I can send that one out. I'm thinking...... The Nashville Nemesis? The East Carolina Evil? The Denver Dirtbags? :)

[jct32]

How about the Detroit Dumpsters?

[GoldenCrest Games]

Moving into free agency, I purposely limited the teams to resigning up to 6 players. I want to give FA a really good test, so there's going to be more turnover this offseason than normal.

Twisters pre-FA cap space: $74

The Twisters hang on to Luna and the top 2 WR threats. Smart move! They also start with a relatively strong defense. 2CB, 1LB, and a decent S are already accounted for. On special teams, they have the starting K and a pretty strong ST group.

Frankly, the Twisters have a pretty solid team with only 6 players. If they can beef up the OL and DL, they should be elite.

What to watch: Let's see if the Twisters coach targets line talent for at least 3 of the 4 ope FA spots. (This season I'll force each team to leave 2 spots open for the draft, but that might not be a requirement next season.)

[GoldenCrest Games]

Swarm pre-FA cap space: $58

Armbruster is an absolute cap killer, but he's still the best overall player in the league. At 23, he has room to develop more on offense. If he gets that WR and/or KR rating up even 10 points over his career, he's going to be unstoppable.

The Swarm team speed on defense is impressive. It should only become more imposing as I develop the defensive AI more this season. Should be fun to watch!

What to watch for: I'd like to see the Swarm coach try to round out the offense in FA. They need a QB and at least one legitimate offensive threat. They also need a serious upgrade on the OL.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Treefrogs pre-FA cap space: $77

We only resigned 5 players this season. I wasn't very happy with my team (after we lost Luna :( ) and I need to start fresh. I've got 5 FA spots to fill and I think I want to invest in my defense. I did ok running a zone, but I want to be a lot more aggressive. It got frustrating when I didn't have any defensive options as quality teams rammed the ball down my throat. I'm in desperate need of CBs who can cover, so I can start blitzing Poston.

I'm also abandoning the running QB style offense. It works great the for the Purples, but it's not for me. I want to run more of a power run and screen pass offense. That means I need a QB who can throw the short pass consistently, and OL who can run a little. I'd probably be ok with a 70 rated QB, but athletic OL seem to be hard to find.

Oh yeah, I should probably prioritize ST too. :p

[GoldenCrest Games]

The Twisters start off by going after OL/DL pretty heavily, as expected. Granted, most teams resigned all their skill players, so linemen make up most of the top players in FA.

Right now most teams in FA are focusing on "win now" strategies. That's why you'll see a lot of old players get signed early in FA. Teams use the draft to build future depth.

S Ashley Arana is an interesting target. (s)he would move in as the #1 S on a team that prizes safety play. Not bad for $19.

[GoldenCrest Games]

The Swarm also look to beef up the line, but they are going a lot younger than the Twisters.

I also like the bargain offer for Cooke. It's comforting to see the AI looking for good buys. You never really know how it's going to work out until you get to run it with live data.

Looks like there's going to be a bidding war for Arana!

[GoldenCrest Games]

And now the Treefrogs.

We really need to beef up the defense, so I am going hard after Muse and Crossley. France is a nice 3rd OL, but I could live with not landing him. I give him a lowball offer.

Moody is intriguing at QB. He can't do much else, but he could be a cheap option at QB, with some potential to grow. If I find a 2-way QB in the draft, Moody's quickly going to the trade block. If I don't land him, I won't sweat it either. I could grab a mediocre QB later in FA for a lot less, and then grab one in the deaft.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Twisters FA recap:

There ended up being a pretty aggressive bidding war for most of the top OL prospects. Since every team was flush with cap space, the winners of the bidding wars were determined by:

1. How the player fit into the team
2. How much the coach valued the player's fit
3. How much the coach was willing to spend for the player's skill

There are subtle differences between coaches when it comes to #2 and #3, but for a player that asks for around $15, it can amount to +$8 / -$4 of the player's base ask.

That's enough to make a big difference between coach's FA aggressiveness.

This matters to the Twisters because they don't prize OL above offensive skill positions. (They value QB, WR1, and WR2 the most) This made it hard for them to land the top OL talent. That being said, signing Beals is a good one. Beals was one I went after because of his run-blocking and special teams. I was only willing to go to $24 on him, since I was using my money on defense at the time.

Chung and Keil were nice buy-low options, too. I'm not sure what the Spear signing was about. :confused: There had to be better $1 players out there. Maybe it was age?

[GoldenCrest Games]

Swarm FA recap:

Halliday, Allen, Carillo, and Dagostino

Frankly, I don't love the Swarm FA. I know the Swarm were signing players 3 of the last 4 days of FA, so I guess they lost out on everyone they chased.

I'll have to take a look at the coach and see if there's anything wonky with the financial limits. I do have some financially conservative coaches, so maybe the Swarm coach ended up being one of those. If so, I'll fix that. :)

Even though the skill isn't great, the Swarm are going to DOMINATE the line of scrimmage in the running game. Seriously, 3 OL with strength of 95+??? :eek:

[GoldenCrest Games]

Treefrogs FA recap:

We went into FA with only 5 players on the team. (all other teams had 6) That allowed us to sign one more FA than everyone else. Now, I'm not so sure that dropping CB Michel was worth it. :\

We grabbed a much more legit QB option in Moody. He also has a little ST ability, which I really need. Moody won't light it up in the downfield passing game, and can't do much else, but he'll be good enough for my screen offense.

Cerda and Russo round out my OL. On my offense, OL is the most prized position so I invest a more there than most teams. I lost out on a few bidding wars for 2-way OL players so I got a little desperate for Russo. He was asking for $11 and I ended up paying $20. :( At least I was able to get him down to a 1-year contract. At least $2 of his contract was to convince him to take fewer years. (he wanted 3)

I love the Crossley signing. He doesn't have great speed, but he can play LB or CB. This is going to give me options as I transition to the Ogre package. (3DL/2LB/2CB/1S)

Muse is a pretty good signing too. He's going to be locked in as my #1 CB. (ouch!) He's going to get torched against the other teams' #1 WR. Poor guy. :p

[GoldenCrest Games]

New sponsored team!

The Yellows have been sponsored and renamed the "Golden Alpacas". They remain in the West.

[GoldenCrest Games]

The official draft order has been released! Draft order is strictly based on regular season performance. I don't penalize teams in the draft for having a good playoff run.

I've also made a bit of a reversal on the draft pool. As it turns out, it's not a lot of fun if all the players are close to the same skill level. It was worth a try, but I'm going back to the normal draft pool style where the guys at the top of the draft are significantly better than the guys at the bottom.

I'm still fine-tuning the new player generation system, but it's looking pretty good. Seems like the draft is going to have guys around the $20 mark in value at the top of the draft, and fall off to around $8 at the end of the 1st round. Then it should fall off to about $3 by the end of the draft.

Rookies are all going to come in with 2 year contracts based on their skill level. Initial contracts are visible during the draft, and probably should be used as an input as to who you're going to pick. Normal cap rules still apply, however. If you're over, you can't resign anyone or trade to gain salary.

Stay tuned. The draft pool should be coming soon!

[GoldenCrest Games]

Draft pool: Top 20

The draft pool is set, and here's the top 20. At the top, Dow and Mortenson will make immediate impact. After that, there looks to be a number of players that will start, and probably contribute in their rookie year. There are a number of 2-way QBs that are good development projects, but they are probably going to be snatched up in the first half of the round. I'd really love one of them to fall to us at 16, but I doubt it's going to happen.

Ultimately I need to come out of the 1st round with a 2 or 3-way player. I already have too many specialists on my team, and it's killing me that I need to use every roster spot to hold a starter. It would be nice to have a couple spots on the roster where I can stash and develop players. In a dream scenario, I could get a 50+ QB that also plays something on defense. Almost no chance of that happening. :(

OL/DL Josiah Jamison would be great, if he'd fall. I'm pretty heavy on specialist linemen right now so gathering 2-way linemen would be great for my roster makeup.

Monte Dilley is an interesting, and realistic, possibility. He could be serviceable at S someday, but would step in as a ST star in his rookie year. That speed would be great on my ST squad.

Bret Rush also looks good for my ST team, and could make an interesting OL4 prospect. He's weak as hell, but his speed and OL skill might be perfect for my screen pass game. Actually, now that I think about that more, Alonso Unger seems like an even better fit. He's a better screen OL, and he can fill in at CB. (as long as we play zone. :) )

That's the guy I'm targeting. OL/CB Alonso Unger

[GoldenCrest Games]

Next 20:

Most of these are going to be the 2nd rounders, but I do like Mary Pilkington as a backup 1st round pick is Unger isn't there for us. She's probably going to get developed at a DL instead of a CB, but she'd contribute in our secondary in her rookie year. ;)

Outside of her, I don't see anyone I like in the 2nd as a long-term player. Maybe Hal Pilgrim to play OL/ST? I'll probably end up grabbing a specialist for the short-term, and let them walk away at the end of their contract. Most likely a ST specialist like Mohamed Machado.

I really need to get draft pick trading in the game for next year's draft!

[jct32]

I'm not sure where the Twisters will need to pick up, maybe defense? With Luna at QB and some strong receivers, we are poised for another good season.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Draft AI has been significantly upgraded, and I'm pretty pumped about it.

Besides being much faster and less bug prone, it does a far better job balancing current team needs with overall draft prospect talent.

I ran through a few mock draft to double-check, and I really like how some of the teams are making surprise picks that seem to have the right balance. Much better than how FA worked out. I'll adapt this system to FA next offseason.

That means the official draft is coming soon! (Looks like tomorrow morning)

[GoldenCrest Games]

Draft Day!!


As expected, WR/CB Jackie Dow goes #1 to the Olives. Let's hope that doesn't end up to be the witness protection program...

The Browns pass up on the QBs and grab OL/S/ST talent Lane Gaylor at #2

The Cyans grab QB/LB Mortenson. I'm sure they were happy to see the Browns pass on him.

...

Pick 8: The Alpacas mark their entrance in the league by taking my targeted guy OL/CB Unger. grrrrrr.. :mad: THAT'S NOT HOW YOU MAKE FRIENDS!

Pick 11: Twisters make an interesting pick and take OL/ST Bret Rush. I though this might be a reach, but looking at the Twisters roster again, I think it's a solid pick. He moves in at #3 ST and probably will challenge for the OL3 spot.

Pick 14: Swarm grab a similar player to the Twisters in OL/ST Alfonso Bunker. Looks like ST is going to be hard to come by at my pick. :(

Pick 15: and now the Rainbow Sharks take OL/DL Jamison. The other guy I really wanted. :banghead:

Pick 16: We're up, and all my favorites are gone. I guess I can do the smart thing and grab QB/CB Kwon, and hope he'll develop into a useful 2-way player. 50 is pretty slow for CB, even on my team. :(

Round 2 - Pick 11: Twisters grab a fairly terrible player who happens to be good at ST. Not bad for the 2nd round, I guess.

Round 2 - Pick 14: Swarm grab ST Machado. I was actually looking at that guy in the 1st round for my pick, so I'd consider this a steal of a selection in the 2nd round.

Round 2 - Pick 16: I just grab the strongest guy on the board who can play any DL. WM Klink



Post draft, there are 7 teams over the cap. I had anticipated using rookie salaries of $2 when I made the cap, but since I've changed to a talent-based salary system for rookies, I might have to rethink the salary cap number. We haven't even started using dead cap space yet and almost half the league is over already. It won't surprise anyone, but the Treefrogs are the farthest over the cap at $240. If I set the cap to $235 it's only us, the Olives, and the Pinks who are over. That won't leave much room for releasing players, though.

Let's see how training camp goes, and then evaluate the cap against the new league-wide talent level.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Finishing up training camp and progressions, and I think we're just about there.

I set everyone's speed to 50, set all ages to 20, and ran off 20 years of progression to see what we see. The rating itself doesn't have an impact on progression, so the trends should apply to anyone. Here are the best and worst progression curves from the league. Everyone else fits in between.

This is also without the effect of training camp. Training camp will only push progressions upwards. If you don't train something, you won't get an additional negative effect. (more on training camp in the next post)

I'll run a few more test to make sure it doesn't get weird, but I think it's about there. We'll have to keep an eye on player ratings to see how it effects our league. That's the best way to see if it's good or not.

Next up, actual training camp!!!

[GoldenCrest Games]

Swarm Training Camp:

Training camp is pretty simple. You just click & highlight whatever you want each player to focus on. No limit as to how many skills a player can train on, but each skill you pick dilutes the overall training focus. The effect is small, but it can add up over a career.

If you have a highly specialized player, you're going to get more bang by focusing on 1 rating. If you have a 2-way player, you'll be better off spreading it around. I tried to make it intuitive.

Also, there's a pretty significant decline in the later years of a career. It might end up being too aggressive, but we'll see how the overall talent looks as we go.

I can't argue with the Swarm's training camp too much. They focus on ST more than I did, but then again I have the worst ST in the league.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Twisters Training Camp

Overall, not bad. I question the decision to train Beals at QB and LB, though. The logic behind training older players is different than young players. I bet Beals is playing LB this season, and he got trained at QB because that's his most valuable position.

I also don't love Keil getting trained at WR. I'll have to refine the logic again next off season.

Just like the Swarm, the Twisters ST make mine look pathetic. :(

[GoldenCrest Games]

Treefrogs Training Camp:

We pretty much play to everyone's strengths. Nothing dramatic here.

I really don't love how my team is looking right now. We don't have any real focus other than OL. I may be hitting the trade market hard once the trade window opens. I have nearly $100 tied up in 3 players who's best positional rating is 73.

Not cool, bro.

[GoldenCrest Games]

I just have to clean up a few stats-related things and then Season 2 kicks off!

[GoldenCrest Games]

Slight delay as we move into season 2. I decided to take this opportunity to revamp the play system to expand playbooks and to allow for custom play design.

I'm taking the play files out of the engine, and putting them into text files. The idea is that you can edit the text files, or create an offline play designer app, and then use them in-game. This should free up a lot of memory, make it easier for me to add plays, and allow for future customization.

This might take a few days, but it's going to be worth it. :)

[SirBlurton]

Slight delay as we move into season 2. I decided to take this opportunity to revamp the play system to expand playbooks and to allow for custom play design.

I'm taking the play files out of the engine, and putting them into text files. The idea is that you can edit the text files, or create an offline play designer app, and then use them in-game. This should free up a lot of memory, make it easier for me to add plays, and allow for future customization.

This might take a few days, but it's going to be worth it. :)

This is really interesting - is there a chance that people will be able to "break" the engine with play customization?

[GoldenCrest Games]

This is really interesting - is there a chance that people will be able to "break" the engine with play customization?


I'm a little worried about that, which is why I didn't design it in originally. There are a few areas I'll have to lock down in play design to keep things fair, and I'll have to do some enforcement on play importing, but it seems fairly straight forward now that the engine is stable.

The areas I worry about are:

weird pre-snap player positioning
unanticipated use of blockers
weird player packages


I'm not too worried about routes, coverage, or blitzes. I already did a ton to try and break those systems, and then designed the AI to adapt to what it sees. The obvious abuses I can see are things like FBPro type "all blitz" plays or "4WR hail mary" pass plays. As of now, the AI can already handle things like that. It's really the non-action aspect of play design that could break the engine. I'll lock most of that down pretty tightly to start with, and then loosen it up as I gain confidence in the AI's ability to adjust.

[GoldenCrest Games]

The great play migration has ended! 320 plays transferred into text files, and we're ready to get cracking again.

I'm going to spend tonight updating a couple annoying interface items, and then we should be kicking off the season tomorrow.

Also, now that I have my first 2 logos back, I really want to earn that Treefrogs logo this season!

[Olsson]

I’m really enjoying this!

[GoldenCrest Games]

We're ready to start season 2! That’s pretty exciting, because it means that every phase of the game is functional now.

Regular season >> trading >> player contract extensions >> playoffs >> free agency >> college draft >> training camp >> player progressions >> next year start

It all works! WOOHOO!!

I think it’s safe to call season 1 a success. I really wanted to have all the systems working and overhaul the interface, and I got most of that done. (still some coach system stuff to do)

We even have the first 2 team logos! If you remember, the prize for getting to the title game is that the final 2 teams get real logos. Since the Purples and Rainbow Sharks made it, they both got logos and the Purples got a real team name.

First, the Rainbow Sharks:

http://www.goldencrestgames.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/rainbow_shark_-300x202.png

I tried out a bunch of artists, and ended up finding 2 that have the style I like. The Rainbow Sharks is from the first artist, and the Purples logo came from the other. Actually, the Purples got a new team name. Since they are always frustrating me by taking my players and beating me in the playoffs, they got renamed as the “Nemesis”.

http://www.goldencrestgames.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Nemesis150_X_150.png

I don’t have the logos integrated into the game yet, but that will happen soon. Now on to season 2!

For season 2 my goal is to refine the on-field stuff as much as possible. Specifically, I want to make the plays better, the playbooks more interesting, the player AI more believable, and playcalling AI much more realistic. Along the way I’ll probably find other things to improve, but the on-field stuff is the focus for season 2. Also, because I’m not overhauling every screen I can probably move the season along at a much faster pace.

First batch of improvements today, followed by week 1 this afternoon:
Create team/style specific playbooks for the Treefrogs, Twisters, Swarm, and T-Pain.

I'd like to start using team-specific playbooks for all the sponsored teams, and general package/style playbooks for everyone else. I want to confirm that playbooks are going to be the most effective way to create team 'personality'. Team personality should be different than team effectiveness. In an ideal world, any team personality can be effective with the right players. Hopefully using playbooks (and matching coaches roster style) creates personality, while player/roster skill creates effectiveness.

Onward!

[GoldenCrest Games]

Season 2, Week 1 in the books!! WE'RE BACK!!

Treefrogs - T-Pain: I actually had a pretty tough time against the speedy T-Pain. That team has soooo much speed! I ended up going to a zone for most of the 2nd half of the game, because they were burning me on blitzes. I don't have the defenders to cover the T-Pain man to man. My new screen offense pretty much sucked, but it wasn't as bad as when I tried to drop back and throw downfield. We would have gotten rolled completely if Faulkner didn't have a MASSIVE Urquhart-like game on kick returns. Faulkner couldn't be stopped!

In the end, that's what won the game for us. Not very satisfying, but I'll take a win over the T-Pain any day.

I ended up watching about 1/4 of the Twisters-Maroons game, before turning over the Swarm-Avocados game. The Twisters were running their wide-open throw-it-all-around passing attack. It made me a little envious of all that passing. It's fun to watch. The Twisters got bogged down a few times in the red zone, but they were very consistent on offense.

After watching some of that, I switched over to the Swarm game. The Swarm run a completely different style offense. I like to call it a "power passing" offense. They line up in power running formations, and then pass out of it more than half the time. That style passing attack fascinated me because it had a completely different effect on the field than the wide-open Twisters attack. Players coming out of the backfield into patterns really opened up the 0-10 yard downfield field space, and gave the players some run-after-catch opportunities. The Twisters offense usually uses the 10-20 yard space and gets a lot more homerun balls. The Swarm attack forced good defensive spacing and tackling, while the Twisters attack forced the defense to cover WRs at high speed.

I'm really happy to see the engine and play styles take shape.

I have a nice list of things to adjust going into week 2, but none of them are going to take a lot of effort. Just some adjusting of numbers and weights, and fine-tuning defensive plays.

Oops, It looks like I forgot to change the Purples to the Nemesis in the save files. :p

[GoldenCrest Games]

Week 1 standings and leaders:

So it looks like all the stats reset correctly and that everything's working. *whew*

Faulkner is setting me up for another heartbreak by taking the early lead in the MVP race! Seriously, he had a massive returning effort that last game. The T-Pain special teams coverage should be ashamed.

No surprise, Luna jumps out to the passing lead for the Twisters.

I moved the salary cap to $240 this season. I don't think anyone has any players to resign this year, so that's not an issue. I'm going to implement cutting players and in-season FA signing at some point, so the dead cap space is going to start making a difference.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Trade blocks set and trade offers sent out. The Treefrogs didn't get a single offer. :(

The Twisters made an offer to the Rainbow Sharks, but it was pretty bad. :)

The Swarm actually made a pretty legit offer to the Blues. I'm curious if they'll take it. The offer makes both teams better, and really fills the Swarm need for a legit RB.

The Treefrogs are going to hit the market hard. I don't like how my team is constructed right now and I can't hope for player progression to fix it. I absolutely need to get better on defense and special teams coverage.

I'm just going to deal with the inconsistent play and build around Faulkner. Outside of that, everyone is expendable. OL/DL star Eddy is probably worth hanging on to, but everyone else is potential trade bait.

I want to get something like this:
Offense
Faulkner at RB (His best position is WR, but I play him at RB)
League-best OL
QB that can manage the game (80+)
Either a 2nd pass catching RB or some decent WRs. Either will do

Defense (The backbone of the team)
Fast LB to anchor the defense
2 Highly skilled CBs that can play decent man coverage. I don't need elite speed, but I need some ball-hawking skills.
Strong DL that can hold up to the run
After that, I just need a difference maker on defense. I don't care where.

ST:
Faulkner at KR.
A good K (80+)
2 elite special teams coverage guys
overall good-to-great special teams blocking skill

Out of all that, I probably can only claim to have Faulkner and the league's best OL. I'm close on most of it, but it's not close enough to work consistently, and my defense is terrible. I thought I could deal with a bad defense, but I can't. It's just too painful.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Bonus pic:

I took a shot of the Swarm power-passing offense. This was their favorite formation. Right after taking this shot, the Swarm ran that deep RB on a swing route to the far left, and beat the LB to the edge for a HUGE gain. Armbruster is getting doubled out at WR, so there wasn't anyone on the left side of the field for containment.

It was pretty cool.

[GoldenCrest Games]

This just in:

Nobody wants my players. :(

I hit the trade market hard this morning, throwing everything I could at upgrades to CB and ST. As it turns out, my players aren't worth much to anyone else. I'm pretty sure it's because I fell in love with 1-dimensional talent and young players, ignoring overall roster balance. The only time I got any interest is when I was shopping a $20+ player for a $12- player. Lopsided trades are the only way I can make changes. :banghead:

I'll roll with this roster for a couple more weeks, just to see how it goes. I might end up just making those lopsided trades if I can't find a way to make my defense more effective with playcalling.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Week 2: No trades for the Twisters, Treefrogs, or Swarm

Another tough outing for the Treefrogs secondary. We did a good job bottling up anything under 10 yards, but whenever the Oranges were able to go deep, it was for a clear TD. Their WRs just outran my CBs every time. :banghead:

Other than my atrocious CB play, we had a great game! Faulkner took advantage of the lack of speed at the LB position, and put up big numbers on the ground and receiving. It was pretty fun abusing the Oranges like that. :)

The Twisters pull out the win against the Slates in the last 10 plays. It was a close one the whole game.

Unfortunately, the Swarm fall to the T-Pain. Not a bad showing, but it sucks to get the loss.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Standings and Leaders

It looks like we're the only ones running the ball regularly right now. Probably due to some playcalling adjustments I made this offseason. I'll have to look into that before week 3.

Hard to believe it, but someone is ahead of Faulkner in return yardage! We can't have that. I better go find some additional ST blocking. :)

Swarm are leading the league in defense. Not surprising, but that's pretty cool. That pass defense is legit.

Developer notes:
I didn't see anything in the games that makes me worry about the player AI. It's looking pretty good right now. Playcalling AI, on the other hand, is pretty sketchy. I'm going to spend some time on that before week 3. I've also started noticing that the play design could use some work. Mostly things like QB drops being too shallow or safeties lining up in bad spots. Easy stuff to fix.

[SirBlurton]

Hah - I love that Swarm offense - definitely something that I would have been drawn to. Very cool to see the amount of "personality" in this league already!

[GoldenCrest Games]

Just completed a pretty significant overhaul of the playcalling system. (because my previous system somehow got corrupted and I had to recreate from scratch. :( )

I'm pretty excited to see how it works throughout the season. I designed it specifically with the Swarm and Twisters, in mind. I like how they have such different styles and rosters from eachother, and I wanted to make sure the playcalling reflects that. We already had style specific playbooks, and that worked for differentiating between teams like the Twisters and Swarm. However, what about another team that runs the same 2RB package as the Swarm, but has the players for a power running game instead of the power passing game? I really don't want them calling a lot of RB passing plays, and I don't want the Swarm calling a lot of power running plays. But then again, I don't want the Swarm to be limited in the future by the players they have now. What if they grab a stud RB that can't catch the ball? They should be able to adapt to more of a running game without completely changing the playbook.

The new playcalling system is flexible enough to handle that!

Here's how it works:
1. Game situation (down & dis) is evaluated as a basis for decision making
2. Coach looks at the roster to determine how the strengths fit the situation
3. Coach picks a style that fits the situation and player skills (power passing, running, passing, power running, etc)
4. Coach looks through the playbook and gives extra weight to the plays that fit the style/skills
5. Add some randomness into play selection to keep it from being predictable.
6. Pick the highest scoring play

For a team like the Swarm, I can have both power running and power passing plays in the playbook. The Swarm coach will call the right player for the situation AND the player skill.

For teams like the Twisters, this solves the problem of 4WR teams calling QB runs when they have crappy running QBs, or ignoring QB runs if they have a great running QB. The coach will just figure it out.

I'm pretty excited to see how this affects the actual games and team performance. Should be a fun season. :)

[GoldenCrest Games]

Week 3

Going into the game against the Nemesis, I checked the roster to see how the new AI would act. I anticipated a spread passing attack, with some QB runs. The Nemesis played fairly close to what I expected, but probably should have run the QB a little more. Still, progress!

Faulkner just plain torched the Nemesis defense. They had no answer to his speed in the running game or the passing game. It's becoming clear that I can't so much else, other than get the ball to Faulkner. On defense, my CBs were getting killed again. I'm now running a ridiculous prevent-style defense to keep opponent WRs from burning me deep. I rarely blitz anymore because I get burned for a TD so often. :(

It's hard to figure out what to do. On one hand, I can't give up my elite running game by trading off OL. On the other hand, I can't keep getting killed on defense. (and special teams coverage)

Plus, nobody really wants to give up anything for my players anyway. :mad:

Thinking this through, there's no way I can go into the playoffs with the CB play I have now. If Faulkner can't put up 4TD, I'll lose for sure. I think I have to find a way to get at least one legit coverage corner. I can't have every team's WR1 getting free shots at long TD catches.

OK, that's the goal. Find a CB1.

In other news, the Twisters are continuing offensive domination. 49 points against the Rainbow Sharks?? Wow!

Sadly, the Swarm aren't finding their groove yet. :(

[GoldenCrest Games]

Standings and Leaders

Not a huge change in running stats. There are a couple teams that should be creeping up the running yardage chart. I'll keep adjusting the playcalling AI.

Look who's back on the MVP chart! Luna is back! I have a feeling this season is going to be a Faulkner/Luna fight for the top spot. I'm not going to back off on feeding Faulkner, and Luna is in an explosive passing attack. Should be fun!

Lastly, there's an Urquhart sighting!!! :eek: He's back on the return charts!

[GoldenCrest Games]

Week 4:

Before going into week 4, I made a few adjustments to the playcalling AI. I realized that I didn't take into account that most playbooks have twice the number of passing plays as running plays. I made the adjustments, and now it's looking pretty good!

Of course, I then go out and get beat by the Swarm. :(

This was the kind of game I was worried about. Faulkner had another big game, but he got stopped on a few drives and I had nothing else. The Swarm were able to beat my secondary regularly for long TDs, and that was the end of that. I ended up trying my 2 fastest players at CB (Poston and Faulkner) just to keep up with the Swarm receivers, but it didn't matter. I guess I thought of that trick when I wrote the passing AI, and the QB wasn't fooled. Even if coverage looked tighter, he could see that my guy had no idea what he was doing, and threw at him anyway.

Twisters keep on rolling with another 30+ point game. Looking good!

There are a couple things I want to tighten up before next game:
1. I think DL players might need a little help. They're having a hard time beating pass blocking, even if it's a mismatch in their favor.
2. Punt and kick returns need a little work. Too many guys are having a hard time avoiding open field tacklers. It's not terrible, but it happens to often.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Week 4 standings and leaders

There goes Luna, dominating the passing leaders again. :)

The Oranges #2 receiving leader WR Koskie is a guy I've been trying to land in trade for a while now. He's a really good CB with respectable speed. It's the WR skill that's making him impossible for me to get. grrrrr.....

I'm not even going to count the rushing numbers until someone catches up to Faulkner, but he's back on top in return yards! Let's pretend that's not because the Swarm kicked off so many times last game...


Rushing numbers still aren't right. I had to dig into it, and I figured out why.

Nobody is starting their top RBs. :confused:

I shouldn't say "nobody", it's just that most of the top 5-6 RBs are on teams that run the 4WR set. As it turns out, when I changed over to the new playbook style, I set everyone to 4WR offense, just to test. I only reset the sponsored teams, and the AI teams I was interested in, back to their normal offenses. That left 4 teams with a stud RB buried at WR4. (one team just had the wrong playbook)

It was really a league-file error, but still needed to get fixed. Fixed all that, and we're back on track!

[jct32]

Is this the dream season for the Twisters?

[GoldenCrest Games]

Sure seems like it so far!

[GoldenCrest Games]

On the pre-Week 5 game updates....

After running though it again this morning, I think the DL/OL and returning play AI can wait. It's actually not that bad.

Right now I'm a lot more interested in getting into league history. I want to see how career leaders are starting to shape up, and I know it's only going to become more interesting after every season. Might as well get that going now, so we don't lose much history as the seasons start to pile up. I don't want to overdo the amount of data that gets saved. I'm already having a hard time dealing with the game data as it is. Then again, it's cool to have a lot of league history saved up when you get to leagues that run for multiple decades.

I might have to think about that one for a while.

The other thing I want to do early this season is get more play design done. I don't love some of the playbooks right now. I think the power-passing plays could use some work, and most of my screen passes are complete garbage.

That's probably a good use of today's time.

[GoldenCrest Games]

I ended up getting sucked down the rabbit hole of trying to find a trade to get a decent CB or S.

No takers :(

I've officially given up. Nobody wants my players. The lack of well-rounded players is killing me in the trade market. I'll just do my best with the roster I have, and see what I can do in the offseason.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Ok, forget all that stuff I said before. :)

I got frustrated shopping for trades, so I built a shopping screen. It also functions as an in-season FA shopping screen.

What trade shopping does is pull all players from the trade block. This is the league-wide list of all trade blocks. It's nearly impossible to pry a non-trade block player from a team, so this represents everyone who is realistically available.

Take a look at who the #2 CB available is...... yeah, that's the guy I let go in FA last offseason. :(

I sure wish I had him now.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Even that was too much work for me. :)

Now you can highlight a player and click the "Shop Player" button, and the shopping screen will come up with all the players you can get in a straight up 1-for-1 trade.

Almost all my players bring up an empty list, but at least I know for sure now.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Week 5

Wow! Look at the Swarm beading up on the Nemesis! Good. We don't like them anyway. :D

The Treefrogs roll all over the Blues. The Blues are a shockingly slow team from top to bottom. Once I figured out the insane speed mismatch, we completely abandoned the pass and Faulkner ran all over them. Also, this is the one team we could match up with on defense. A straight man defense with a blitzer was extremely effective against these guys.

Twisters pull out a close one. How in the world did they get held to 10 points?? :eek:

Still, a win is a win.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Standings and Leaders

That 1 TD game for Luna really hurt him in the MVP race. Ouch!! Come on man!

It looks like rushing numbers are now starting to creep up. That's good. It looked like realistic rushing in my last game, so I'm feeling pretty good about it now. Unfortunately, Faulkner had quite a head-start on everyone, so this might be an outlier year for the rushing title winner.

You might notice the drastic drop in the Treefrogs team salary. We moved $21 of salary to the Browns. I pulled the plug on my 1st round pick QB/CB Kwon. I don't think he's going to turn into much, and I don't want his salary on the books for 2 years.

Unfortunately, nobody wants him. :(

In order to move him, I needed to package a player that a lot of teams want. CB/LB Crossley. Crossley is a pretty useful defensive player. He's well balanced in strength and speed, and can play multiple positions. I was using him as LB2 in my base package, and he let me blitz Poston every once in a while because he was ok playing zone defense or holding up blockers against the run.

There was a decent market for him, but I couldn't land a legitimate cover corner. In the end, he was the chip I used to unload Kwon. I send Kwon and Crossley over to the Browns for 2 extremely cheap scrubs.

This whole exchange drove me to another design decision. Starting this offseason, I'm going to let teams skip their draft picks. If it's your turn to draft, and you don't want to commit the salary or roster spot, you just skip your pick. I would have thought hard about skipping both my picks last offseason, if I could.

I have a long list of little updates to make to the game engine before next game. It's all little stuff, so it should be hard to get it in over the next day or so. One item is to allow me to jump into a AI vs AI game and watch it in progress. (instead of watching it in the development window) Can't wait for that to work!

[GoldenCrest Games]

HA!

I found a bug that's eluded me for the past 6+ months!!!

I could never figure out why my returners and RB weren't living up to early-Urquhart performance standards. His returning in traffic was legendary, and nobody has ever come close to it. (even with the same ratings) It's something that's always bothered me, and I could never find the reason why. Frankly, I missed the magic of watching Urquhart abuse coverage teams regularly.

I was working on something unrelated when I saw something that didn't look right. I'm all "why am I measuring the distance between a defender and the potential movement target by calculating the distance between the defender and the ball carrier?"

Oh, because of auto-complete! Both distances start with the same characters, but the wrong one pops up first in the autocomplete list. :banghead:

Anyway, FIXED!

Get ready for rushing and returning numbers to catch up with passing numbers. :)

[GoldenCrest Games]

Week 6

We actually struggled against the Silvers this week. That's weird, because they are a 1-win team right now. After the running AI update, Faulkner looked great! It was a lot of fun seeing the great cuts again in the return and running game. The Silvers were always able to make that one tackle before Faulkner broke it for a long TD run, though. The Silvers D-line did a great job holding up my OL, and refusing to give up those huge running lanes I've had against everyone else. It seems like the DL/OL updates are paying off, too.

While on defense, we had to be really careful. I was scared to death that RB Hardiman was going to run all over us, so I stayed in a really wide (and safe) zone defense. Hardiman still did a number on us, but he never broke that huge run for a TD. It also helps that the Silvers missed 3 FGs. :)

The Twisters just embarrass the Pinks. Seriously, 42-0??? :eek: I think they are putting the rest of us on notice.

It looks like the Swarm are getting on track again. They really need to find that franchise QB, or they are going to stay inconsistent. They are getting by right now because of the short passing game, but it's going to catch up with them if they don't get someone who can throw more consistently.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Is it too early to call that last running AI update "The Urquhart Update"?? :eek:

And just like that, Urquhart is back!! From irrelevance, to #2!

Luna made the most of that 42 point outing to grab the top spot in passing leaders, and close the gap in the MVP race. I had to go back and see how big of a mistake the trade was that sent Luna to the Twisters. The funny thing is that it's wasn't that bad of a trade! Given what I was up against, I'd do it again. Still, my current QB isn't a whole lot different than Luna. It's not like Luna is a 99 rated QB, he's in the low 80's. There are lots of those guys! :confused:

It must just be a situation of the right guy, in the right system, with the right supporting cast.

In any case, the Twisters are rolling. They have the 2nd best offense (behind the Treefrogs) and the top defense!

The Swarm are challenging us for control of the West. I have a feeling this could last the rest of the season. The bottom 6 teams in the West haven't shown much ability to stand up to the top-4, so this season could be all about bragging rights at the top. Let's just hope the Nemesis don't make the playoffs this year..... :nono:

[GoldenCrest Games]

Uh oh......

That's not a good matchup. :(

[GoldenCrest Games]

Week 7

Week 7 for the Treefrogs was all about testing out a bunch of new Gator package plays. I eliminated about 1/3 of the Gator package, because it wasn't consistent with the constraints I put on each style of play. For example, I had a bunch of plays where I split the RB out wide. That's not really in the spirit of running a package that features the RB and an extra OL. That's just a cheezy way of running a 3WR package without having to find a 3rd WR. It makes a lot more sense to run those passing plays with the RB coming out of the backfield!

Yeah, it's kind of nitpicky, but I like how it makes styles feel different. :)

So I deleted a bunch of Gator plays and replaced them with pass plays that feature the RB out of the backfield. I don't have many of these in the stock playbooks, so it's a good time to stat working on that. The result was a significantly upgraded passing attack for the Treefrogs! SWEET! Also, it's a lot of fun running a version of the power-passing attack. I may switch to the Rhino next season, and run something similar to the Swarm.

Speaking of the Swarm, I ended up watching the last 10 plays of the Swarm game. It was tight! 1 point difference, and the Silvers get the ball with 10 plays to go. Hardiman almost broke a run around the right side with 5 plays to go, but he got chased down by the last man. (I think it was Armbruster, by the speed)

It ended up coming down to a 25-30 yard FG on the last play, which wasn't ever close! Short and off to the left, and the Swarm pull out another close victory!

[GoldenCrest Games]

Standings and leaders

Luna is closing the MVP gap again! Uh oh.... :eek:

I'm starting to work on defensive play design now, so we may see some of the passing numbers slow down. However, Luna's passing lead is going to be hard to overcome. I't probably a good bet he wins the passing title.

I'm starting to get fascinated with Urquhart again. He's closing in on the return title! Nice to see him back. :)

[jct32]

Nice to see the Twisters putting everything together. Hopefully, we can keep it up.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Week 8:

Twisters get held to 12 points! Wow! :eek: I kind of wish I watched that game instead of watching some dumb show about the President's book of secrets. :(

I hope you all noticed the new addition to the schedule screen. Top Performances are working! That feature is to pull out the top 2 performances (by the MVP rating formula) for the week. It's not really that important, just an interesting bit of data that I wanted to see each week.

The Treefrogs game went about as close to the script as you could get. Both teams were held in check in the running game. Both teams were fairly explosive in the return game. My edge came in the passing game. The Alpacas slowed down Faulkner, but couldn't stop him. He eventually broke a couple for TD. On defense, I've completely given up man defense and run a 3-deep zone defense now. Sometimes I blitz out of it, but I'm usually just dropping back into a deep zone to slow down the other team's offense. Basically, I'm waiting for them to make a mistake.

Yeah, it's pretty sad. That's what we've become.

Don't look at me. :(

[GoldenCrest Games]

Standings and leaders:

In the west, I think it's pretty safe to say the playoff race is already over. I can't see any of the bottom 6 teams putting up a serious fight.

The east is looking competitive! Aside from the Twisters dominating everyone, it's pretty tight from 2-6. The bottom 4 teams are just sad.

Look at that! Urquhart is back to #1 for return yards!! Nice!

In other development news, I'm spending a lot more time on defense, and making the game playable for other people to experiment with. I still have a few really big items to get done before it's ready (fast-sim) but that's what I'm focusing on now.

I was planning on doing a kickstarter, and was almost ready to kick it off, but then I ultimately decided to abandon it. I finally came to the conclusion that it probably wasn't going to be worth the time and effort. To be worth the time it takes to run a 30 day campaign, I'd need to raise something like $25k-$30k. The chances of raising that are pretty slim these days. If I didn't meet the goal, then I essentially wasted a month of development time, and have nothing to show for it.

For me, the time is worth more than the money. I need to release this by August. (for a variety of reasons)

So, what do we do now? Well, my new plan is to open up alpha and beta testing to whoever wants to be a part of it. I'll use that 'extra' month to get to testing quicker. The extra kickstarter cash would have been useful to get more art and sound, but I can scale back on my plans for that. I'm funded enough to get through development, as long as I don't go overboard on the 'nice-to-haves'.

[GoldenCrest Games]

I'm pretty pumped about today's update!

All the playcalling AI has been updated!! It's exciting because now the playcalling AI is complete. AI teams will do all the cool things like:

Pass up FGs and go for it, if they are behind by more than 3 and the game is getting near the end
Go for it on 4th instead of punting if they are behind at the end of a game, or if it's in a safe part of the field and it's 4th and <1, or if it's in the middle of the field and they just don't have a good kicker (punter).
Adjust both offensive and defensive playcalling based on team strengths and weaknesses
The defense waits for the offense to call the play first, and then picks the defensive play. (seems silly, but this was harder than you'd think)
You can go for it on any random 4th down, and the defensive AI won't get caught assuming you're punting or kicking a FG.


I'm sure I'm forgetting a couple little things, but you get it. Basically, the playcalling AI is ready to play a realistic brand of football!

That's pretty exciting. I've always had to have some house rules for playcalling, because the AI couldn't adjust to me doing crazy stuff with my gameplan. Now they can adjust, and I can just play the game.

[jct32]

I'm just going to consider these changes and any other changes after this an attempt to nerf the Twisters ;P

[GoldenCrest Games]

I'm just going to consider these changes and any other changes after this an attempt to nerf the Twisters ;P

:D

[GoldenCrest Games]

Weeks 9 and 10

Ran 2 weeks in a row this time.

I a shocker, the Twisters fall to the Olives!! :eek:

But then, they follow that up by beating down the Treefrogs. :(

The Swarm, on the other hand, pitch 2 shutouts in a row!! :eek:

[GoldenCrest Games]

Standings and leaders

Wow, the Swarm jump up to the top spot in the West! That defense is scary good.

The playoff teams are all starting to separate themselves from the rest, even in the east.

Looks like Luna has had a couple tough games. His passing lead hasn't grown much, and he's fading in the MVP race. I guess the Twisters nerfing is taking hold! :)

[GoldenCrest Games]

The reason the Twisters seem to have been nerfed was because they started falling in love with WR screens. (after the last AI update) WR screens mostly suck right now. There are a few good ones, but not all 6 the Twisters had in their playbook!!

I just reworked the Twisters playbook to make it less screen-heavy, and to add a few new spread plays.

We can't have Luna lose that passing title! :)

[jct32]

Knew we were getting nerfed! We don't have Mark Richt at the helm! Not so many bubble screens!

Looks like we might have some challengers in the East with the Olives.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Knew we were getting nerfed! We don't have Mark Richt at the helm! Not so many bubble screens!

Looks like we might have some challengers in the East with the Olives.

I think a lot of those were leftovers from back when I was running a 4WR screen offense. Once the AI started taking team strengths into account, those screens looked pretty good!

Too bad the AI didn't know they were designed poorly.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Week 11

Yeah, we get worked by the Slates. :(

We really had no chance the whole game. Faulkner couldn't find any running room because the Slates DL was stout. My WRs aren't good enough to get open against the Slates CBs, and my QB missed what few opportunities he had. Not a lot of fun to realize my former CB Michel was a big part of shutting down my offense.

Our only TD came from a KR. Ugh....

On defense, we did ok, but eventually the WRs got behind my slow secondary. It's bound to happen.

The other big game was the Twisters-Swarm game!! What a game! The Twisters offense looked like it was back to normal, but it was up against the elite Swarm pass defense. Also, the Swarm power-pass offense was playing ball control as much as possible. In the end, the Swarm edged the Twisters, but it was a fun one.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Standings and Leaders

Are you kidding me? The Slates only had 2 wins?? :mad:

That was an embarrassing loss.

Well, it looks like the Olives are for real. The shoot up to the top of the East as the Twisters drop 2 of the last 3. In the West, the Swarm take over the top spot! It's hard to believe the Swarm turnaround from the first half of last season. Remember, they were gone and dead. We were starting to think about "the process". Now look at them!

Faulkner is starting to falter in the MVP race, and here comes Huntley. Ugh, here we go again with the Nemesis..... They may take my MVP, but at least they won't make the playoffs.

Overall, I think stats are starting to look pretty good. We don't have crazy sack numbers, interceptions are coming around, rushing is making a comeback, and QBs are having realistic passing yardage. It's starting to look pretty good!

[jct32]

We got put in our place. Also if you ever need help designing plays I can help out. I have a little bit of experience and would love to help out.

[GoldenCrest Games]

We got put in our place. Also if you ever need help designing plays I can help out. I have a little bit of experience and would love to help out.

That's a pretty good idea. I'll write up a list of the current rules and options, and let you have at it!

[jct32]

That's a pretty good idea. I'll write up a list of the current rules and options, and let you have at it!

Sounds great to me!

[GoldenCrest Games]

Here's how play design works:

Each offensive play has 3 OL, 1 WR, and a QB. The other 3 players are chosen from the following:
1 extra OL
1 or 2 RB
1-3 WR

That gives you the offensive set.

The offensive formations are pretty open right now, but need to have a QB and the 3 OL in normal positions. I generally have all RB in the backfield and all WR near the line, but that's not hard-coded. The 4th OL is usually off to the right of the other linemen, but that's not really a rule. I also usually line up OL1 at LT because DL1 is opposite him. I've found that switching OL1 to the right usually ends up badly for the QB. :)

Available player assignments:
Pass block: pretty simple assignment. The player AI handles all the logic.
Run block: Blocker determines the best defender to block and executes. The decision is made based on a "inside-out" strategy. The blockers nearest the point of attack take the best defender (based on block angle and distance) and then the next closest blocker picks a defender, and so on until all run blockers have an assignment. Double-teams are determined by the AI. No additional assignment is necessary for run blocking.
Lead block: Basically a run block that has a route. The blocker will execute the route, and then will become a run blocker when he gets to the end.
Screen block: It's a little like a lead block. The difference is at the end of the route. A screen blocker will stop and wait for the pass to be thrown before turning into a run blocker. This allows you to set up blocking formations for your screen passes. That's the only difference, though.

Runner: The guy running the ball. He will follow his route until he gets to the point of attack. (the spot where the running assignment ends) Once he hits the point of attack, his AI takes over and he becomes an "open field runner". I've had success creating "read" runs by placing the point of attack 4 yards behind the LOS, and letting the runner find the hole. The downside of that kind of play is that he may not find a hole, and will lose a ton of yards. Kind of the Barry Sanders strategy. Read runs are cool if you have a high-skill RB and a great OL. For normal RBs and normal OL, it's usually better to get to the LOS as quickly as possible and find holes on the 2nd level.

Receiver: Player runs a route with up to 4 nodes. A node is essentially a corner, or a defined point on the route. Nodes are where the player changes directions, pauses, or stops. The player doesn't do anything while he's running between nodes, other than try to avoid running into other players. When the ball is thrown, the route is thrown out the window and the receiver tries to adjust to the ball.

Passer: The QB on passing plays.


Within those, there are a few additional options:
For Passer
Dropback timer: How long the QB waits before starting to read receivers. I use this to let receivers get into the routes before looking to pass. I generally set this to 0.75s on regular pass plays.
Progressions: The number of reads the QB will do. (1 to 4) Right now I cycle through the reads from 1 to 4, and then restart at 1. High skilled QBs will read at a faster rate than low skilled QBs. That also allows them to go through the cycle multiple times in the same time a bad QB would get through once. Knowing that your QB will/won't get a second or third read cycle has made for interesting play design options. It's been fun designing plays for average QBs to get through all the reads once, but also adding in a little something extra for the great QBs that get a second/third cycle. It also means there are times you'll only want to have 2 reads, because you'll want most QBs to go through the cycle more than once. I've also have played around with 1-read plays. They work if you really want to lock onto a WR and wait for him to get open.

For Receiver:
Progression number (0-4): Which read the receiver is. If a receiver is set to progression number = 0, it means he's a decoy.

For all players with routes:
Node delay: You can put a delay into any route, at any node. If you put a delay in before the 1st node, the player pauses before making his first move. If you put a delay later in the route, the player will pause when he hits that node, and then start running again when the delay is up. You also need to specify the amount of time to delay. I use this to have WRs pause before going into routes (so another WR can clear the space) or to have RBs pause before starting a run (to allow blocking to develop).

[GoldenCrest Games]

I finally got the kick in the pants needed to take the next big step in the game's development.

I just got over the plague I've been dealing with for the last week, so it was a good time to knock out another week of games. I had a great game against the Rainbow Sharks that came down to a 4th and long that the Rainbow Sharks converted for the game winning TD!

I ran the rest of the games, and then accidentally hit the "load" button instead of the "save" button, ruining the whole week's progress. Now that's not a huge deal, because I just have to re-sim the week, except that slow-sim takes about 40 minutes to do a week. :(

:banghead:

I think it's time to finish the fast-sim.

I have almost all of the fast-sim logic drawn up, and I have some large blocks of time set aside during the week of the 23rd. I'd planned on using that time to hammer through another season, but I think fast-sim is much more important. I can't imagine any alpha tester wanting to wait through 40 minutes of sim time per week. Once fast-sim is implemented, it should be relatively easy to get the game in shape for testing.

Anyway, games are 3/4 done running now, so week 12 should be up soon!

[GoldenCrest Games]

Week 12 and 13

Week 12, we end up beating the Rainbow Sharks on the replay, but this time I let the AI run the game for me. That's not comforting that the AI is better at calling a game than I am. :)

Also, in other 'rubbing salt in it' news, the Swarm go and destroy the Slates 26-0. Once week after the Treefrogs get beat by them.

Twisters continue to show they are the favorite for the 2018 title by beating the T-Pain.

Week 13:
Twisters, Treefrogs, and Swarm all win again. I'm not sure why this bothers me so much, the the T-Pain also shut out the Slates. grrrr......

[GoldenCrest Games]

Standings and Leaders

With 1 game to go, the playoffs are pretty much set. There's a small chance the Eggshells catch the Rainbow Sharks for the 4th slot in the East, but it won't matter because either of them will get killed by the Twisters.

I can't believe it, but Faulkner is still hanging on in the MVP race! Come on, man!! You can do it!! Huntley is making a charge, but it might be too late.

I like how our QB Moody made it on the list, by riding the coat-tails of Faulkner's swing-pass receptions. :)

[SirBlurton]

Didn't expect to see the Swarm pick it up this much in year 2 - what's been their main source of offensive points? Don't see them on the leaderboard other than Armbruster - and he wasn't much of a WR if I recall?

[GoldenCrest Games]

Didn't expect to see the Swarm pick it up this much in year 2 - what's been their main source of offensive points? Don't see them on the leaderboard other than Armbruster - and he wasn't much of a WR if I recall?

The Swarm have pretty balanced scoring this season

As a team they are scoring 20.8ppg
WR Armbruster counts for 8ppg on receiving TDs (10) and return TDs (5).
RB Rowan counts for 4.3ppg on rushing TD (1) and receiving TD (7)
There are some other guys that have moved in/out of the RB2 spot that have contributed, but the surprise is that K Halliday counts for 7.15ppg with 31 FGs!


Defense and power-passing. Deadly combo.

This is a good reminder that I need to finish that stats screen. :)

[GoldenCrest Games]

Quick development update:

Before simming the last week of the season, I really want to finish the league history screen. This is where I'm storing the season awards, so post-week 14 is the perfect time to use live data for testing.

I don't think it should take more than a day or so.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Missed a few days of programming because the plague came back with a vengeance. :(

However, we're back! I ended up grinding through the awards screen, processing, and data storage. That seems to work pretty well now. Now I'm powering through the fast-sim.

I don't know why I'm always surprised at this, but every time I write this engine it shocks me how much harder the blocking is than the rest of the engine. I've spent almost a whole day on pass blocking and I've still got a few hours to go! That being said, I'm really excited about how it works. I took a vastly different approach this time. It makes extra blockers and free rushers a lot more meaningful than the previous versions of the blocking engine, without just throwing an adjustment to some probability chart.

In the end, the fast-sim engine is going to be very similar in function to the real-time engine.
(at least for blocking and pass rushing, so far)

Not sure if I'm going to make my goal of having fast-sim done by Monday, but it should be close.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Fast-sim going well, and should be ready for next season. That means it's time to get back into this season!

Before we finished out the last week, I had to backdate the awards save file for last season. There's some missing data because I wasn't tracking some of the new stats for the first 2 seasons, but it wouldn't have changed who won the awards.

2017 Awards Recap

Treefrogs Awards:
Best OL - Eddy Lowell
Best K - Merlin Clair
Best ST - Hugh Poston :eek:

Twisters Awards:
Best QB - Kory Luna

Swarm Awards:
ST MVP - Reginald Armbruster
Best KR - Reginald Armbruster

After the next game, I'll hand out the 2018 awards!

[jct32]

Do you backdate the award to the team they won it with?

Because we didn't get that award with Luna. He got with your team, right?

[GoldenCrest Games]

Do you backdate the award to the team they won it with?

Because we didn't get that award with Luna. He got with your team, right?

I traded him right after week 5, so he actually spent more time on the Twisters than the Treefrogs.

Right now the awards take the team the player is on at the end of the season. I chose that because the trade deadline is early enough that the end-season team is where they would have spent more than half the season.

[jct32]

I traded him right after week 5, so he actually spent more time on the Twisters than the Treefrogs.

Right now the awards take the team the player is on at the end of the season. I chose that because the trade deadline is early enough that the end-season team is where they would have spent more than half the season.

Sounds like you have thought this out more than me. Keep up the great work!

[GoldenCrest Games]

Sounds like you have thought this out more than me. Keep up the great work!

I almost started adding features like tracking each game a player played with each team, so you could see the breakdown. Then I was going to start storing each game's stats to see how they did with each team in the season..... [peers down rabbit hole]

I had to smack myself and remind myself not to overreach for the first version, or I'd never get this game done!

You know what they say. "You can't get to version 5, until you have version 1."

[GoldenCrest Games]

Final game of the regular season!

We did it! The regular season finally concluded!

The Treefrogs are still on coach-control, and they did a pretty good job with the Grays. I'm pretty sure the coach is calling a better defensive game than I am. :(

Twisters lost a tough one against the Oranges, but it didn't really matter. They already clinched the division.

How about that Swarm defense?? Another shutout!! That's unheard of in this league!

Round 1 of the playoffs are set, too. Swarm get a tough one against the Oranges. They scored 28 against the Twisters, so it will be interesting to see how the Swarm defense slows them down.

The Twisters get a shot at last season's Eastern Champion, the Rainbow Sharks. Come on, Twisters! Let's knock them out and be guaranteed of 2 new logos!!

Treefrogs take on the T-Pain. If I remember the matchup from earlier this season, it was a pretty tough game for us. Please let's not make another early exit..........

[GoldenCrest Games]

Final standings and leaders

Huntley made a late charge, but Faulkner held him off to take the MVP!!! WOOHOO!!!!

It's also a little satisfying to see Urquhart take the return title. It's been a while!

I'm happy to see sacks are back to a reasonable number. Last season's sack leader was a little silly. 57 sacks?? :)


Season Awards
Treefrogs:
MVP - Tyree Faulkner
Best WR - Tyree Faulkner (77 receptions!)

Twisters:
Off MVP - Kory Luna
Best QB - Kory Luna

Swarm:
Def MVP - Johnnie Mcclellan
Best LB - Johnnie Mcclellan
Best ST - Johnnie Mcclellan

Next up:

Playoffs
Retirements
Draft (I think we're going to try doing the draft prior to FA this time. Seems like it's going to work better for roster management)
Free Agency
Training Camp

[GoldenCrest Games]

Just finished writing the retirements section. I'm excited to see how it works this season. Last season, it was pretty boring to just take the worst 45 free agents and kick them out of the league.

This should add a little more drama.

The rules for retirements are:

Every player has a chance of retiring
Anyone that is a meaningful player on a roster, and isn't ancient, has an extremely small chance of retiring
Players that end the season in the FA pool have a significantly higher chance of retiring than the same type of player on a roster
If a player retires while under contract, the salary is wiped clean from your books!
If a player is ancient, but has a long term contract, he's a lot less interested in retiring. :) (be careful with your long term contracts!)


The same number of players retire every year. (45) That's the amount of room I reserve for the incoming rookie class. This should keep the overall player pool fairly stable. Each year, I anticipate there are going to be a handful of retirements from the previous year's rookies who never got picked up. My guess is that around 10-15 of the retirements will be rookies who never played a snap. A few of the retirements will be those 3 year guys who finished out the rookie contracts but have shown that they are not going to improve. The rest should be coming off the old-guy part of the pool.

Now on to the playoffs!

[GoldenCrest Games]

After the first quarter....

Swarm and Twisters have taken the lead, while the lovable Treefrogs fall behind the T-Pain.

We're explosive enough to make this up.... I hope.

[GoldenCrest Games]

At the half

Swarm are pulling away.

Twisters have a tight one on their hands! The Rainbow Sharks just scored again to tie it up. The Twisters have been in the lead most of the game, though. I think it's just a matter of time before they blow it open.

Treefrogs are having a really hard time dealing with the T-Pain speed. :( Nobody can get open!

[GoldenCrest Games]

3rd quarter....

and the dream is slipping away for the Treefrogs. :banghead:

My AI coach isn't calling enough run plays! #armchairQB

Twisters and Swarm blow their games open. Neither should be in doubt in the 4th.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Just like that, the Treefrogs season is over. :(

The Twisters and Swarm move on, although the Twisters did their best to let the Rainbow Sharks back into the game. :eek:

This guarantees 2 new logos at the end of the season!! :banana:

In round 2, the Twisters take on the Olives, who destroyed the Cyans!
The Swarm take on the T-Pain in what looks like another blowout. Although, last time they played, the Swarm lost 14-10 so.......

[GoldenCrest Games]

By the way, the Swarm had 7 shutouts this season!

[GoldenCrest Games]

Wow, a couple to close ones in the Division Championship round! :eek:

We kind of expected the Swarm to hold the T-Pain to a low number, but the Twisters holding the Olives to 7 points? Nice to see the defense stepping up!

I actually watched a lot of the Twisters-Olives game. It was fun to watch the spread passing attack, since I spend most of my games running the ball. I'm noticing that a few of the Twisters favorite passing plays have WRs that sometimes run into each other. :( This seems to be more about collision avoidance AI than play design. Something to add to the list for the next season.

Nice to see that we're getting logos for 2 sponsored teams this season! I'll get the designer started right away!

[jct32]

TWISTERS!!!!

[SirBlurton]

Hahaha - GO SWARM!

[GoldenCrest Games]

Here it is!!!

I watched the whole game, and it was TENSE! For the most part, the Twisters did a good job on defense. The Swarm RB speed ended up being too much and they broke a couple long ones after missed tackles.

Frankly, the Swarm defense was SICK. The Twisters managed to get guys open quite often, but Swarm CBs always closed down immediately to make the knockdown or tackle. There were times I was sure the Twisters had a long TD, only to have a Swarm defender fly in and shut it down. Earlier in the season I thought Armbruster was way overpaid and we needed to do something about the cap-crippling salary, but now I think his $57 is a bargain!

Here's the scoring log:
(8): Swarm - K Halliday hits a 47 yard field goal.
(23): Swarm - QB Allen passes to RB1 Rowan for a 53 yard TD!
(53): Swarm - QB Allen passes to RB1 Rowan for a 69 yard TD!
(59): Twisters - QB Luna passes to WR1 Horowitz for a 43 yard TD!

Next up: Retirements!

[SirBlurton]

Woo-hoo! Go Swarm go!
Defense wins championships!

Congrats to the Twisters on a great season!

[jct32]

Congrats Swarm!! Same time next season?

[SirBlurton]

Hah - sounds like a plan!

[GoldenCrest Games]

I've got an updated programming pattern now!

I've taken every Friday off of work, from now until the end of September. Fridays are going to be used for the big-block programming items (like fast sim), while the daily morning hour is going to be used for small items and league progress.

Big-Block Items Left:

Fast Sim
In-game graphics and animation
Graphical game flow (in game and between games)
Sound and music
Prep for release


The goal is to get the game across the finish line to Early Access in August. It still feels like we're on track!

[GoldenCrest Games]

The first logo is back!

[SirBlurton]

Hahaha - that's absolutely awesome!
When am I going to be able to play this thing!
Shut up and take my money!

[GoldenCrest Games]

Hahaha - that's absolutely awesome!
When am I going to be able to play this thing!
Shut up and take my money!

It's coming! For real! :)

[jct32]

That logo is insanely awesome.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Retirements News:

The retirements have been processed, and seems to be pretty realistic. Just for debugging and monitoring, the player value (out of 300) and the salary value are listed. I use those to judge the overall quality of a player, and should help to see if we have too many great players retiring.

No retirements from the Twisters. The Swarm have 3 retirements, so it's going to be fun to see if it hurts team chemistry at all, or if it just gives them room to reload. I'm a little happy to see Klink go from the Treefrogs. He was a waste of a draft pick. Also, not surprising that Russo retired.


Nemesis: QB/CB/ST Carmine Meier retires at the age of 36 and a value of 96.5($1)

Oranges: RB/LB/ST Arthur Layne retires at the age of 33 and a value of 96.8($1)

Reds: OL/DL/ST Salvador Browder retires at the age of 36 and a value of 88.4($1)

Silvers: WR/DL/ST Gaston Karns retires at the age of 31 and a value of 71.5($0)

Alpacas: OL/LB/K Quintin Tyndall retires at the age of 32 and a value of 98.6($1)

Eggshells: OL/CB/KR Adrian Saylor retires at the age of 32 and a value of 100.1($1)

Pinks: OL/DL/KR Edgardo Riley retires at the age of 35 and a value of 117.9($2)

Pinks: QB/LB/K Theron Raney retires at the age of 34 and a value of 116.3($2)

Maroons: QB/S/KR Emmanuel Melendez retires at the age of 35 and a value of 121.2($2)

Browns: OL/S/ST Ismael France retires at the age of 36 and a value of 127.4($3)

Rainbow Sharks: WR/DL/KR Jackson Romine retires at the age of 33 and a value of 128.7($3)

FA: QB/LB/K Rodrigo Montanez retires at the age of 35 and a value of 154.1($6)

Pinks: OL/LB/K Genaro Valverde retires at the age of 33 and a value of 163.0($7)

Silvers: WR/CB/ST Kevin Rowan retires at the age of 29 and a value of 99.7($1)

FA: QB/CB/K Arlen Park retires at the age of 35 and a value of 146.7($5)

FA: QB/S/ST Coleman Dodge retires at the age of 33 and a value of 142.6($4)

FA: QB/DL/KR Isiah Shepard retires at the age of 32 and a value of 143.2($4)

FA: QB/LB/ST Lane Greeley retires at the age of 29 and a value of 139.6($4)

FA: QB/DL/ST Benito Olivas retires at the age of 29 and a value of 139.9($4)

FA: QB/S/K Jed Buckley retires at the age of 29 and a value of 143.1($4)

Blues: WR/LB/K Andy Irons retires at the age of 23 and a value of 101.6($1)

Treefrogs: WR/DL/KR Wm Klink retires at the age of 20 and a value of 131.2($3)

Olives: OL/LB/K Roderick Magee retires at the age of 20 and a value of 114.9($2)

Pinks: RB/LB/KR Stephan Ard retires at the age of 35 and a value of 193.2($14)

Grays: OL/DL/ST Jefferson Mcelroy retires at the age of 34 and a value of 182.9($11)

Browns: RB/CB/ST Elvin Matos retires at the age of 32 and a value of 198.8($16)

Reds: QB/LB/KR Lyman Mcafee retires at the age of 34 and a value of 227.8($27)

Swarm: OL/S/K Dana Carillo retires at the age of 32 and a value of 149.5($5)

Maroons: WR/LB/KR Leonardo Crabtree retires at the age of 35 and a value of 223.9($25)

Avocados: WR/CB/KR Basil Hooper retires at the age of 34 and a value of 147.6($5)

Blues: WR/CB/KR Angel Kile retires at the age of 34 and a value of 222.0($24)

Swarm: OL/DL/ST Mohamed Machado retires at the age of 20 and a value of 147.6($5)

Blues: WR/S/K Willian Adkins retires at the age of 27 and a value of 143.7($4)

Treefrogs: OL/DL/ST Alexander Russo retires at the age of 36 and a value of 176.9($10)

Oranges: OL/DL/K Todd Chavis retires at the age of 32 and a value of 185.9($12)

Olives: OL/DL/ST Jarod Hochstetler retires at the age of 33 and a value of 147.7($5)

Eggshells: OL/S/KR Ashley Arana retires at the age of 34 and a value of 195.5($15)

Silvers: OL/LB/ST Renaldo Bono retires at the age of 20 and a value of 136.5($3)

Rainbow Sharks: WR/CB/ST Tommie Santamaria retires at the age of 20 and a value of 138.3($4)

Alpacas: RB/LB/ST Young Millan retires at the age of 33 and a value of 172.7($9)

Swarm: QB/S/K Scotty Allen retires at the age of 33 and a value of 157.2($6)

Silvers: RB/CB/K Ryan Hardiman retires at the age of 32 and a value of 235.9($31)

FA: QB/DL/ST Jame Faison retires at the age of 28 and a value of 161.7($7)

Rainbow Sharks: OL/DL/ST Rodrigo Settle retires at the age of 36 and a value of 182.7($11)

Alpacas: WR/CB/ST Carl Lawless retires at the age of 34 and a value of 165.6($8)

[GoldenCrest Games]

It took so long to get through retirements because of the league history screen. As it turns out, updating the history correctly was a lot harder than I thought it'd be.

I'll have to remember that for the next version. My data isn't organized the greatest, and it's making things harder than they should be.

[SirBlurton]

What's the reason for younger players to retire? Are they buried on the depth chart? I just noticed quite a few 20 to 23 year olds?

[jct32]

Wow, best record in Eastern Division history.

[GoldenCrest Games]

What's the reason for younger players to retire? Are they buried on the depth chart? I just noticed quite a few 20 to 23 year olds?

Usually, it's because the player is really bad (below 145/$4). After that, it's because he's been sitting in the FA pool or his contract is about up (and probably won't be renewed)

There's a small chance that younger players retire 'out of the blue', though. I calculate a percent chance for each player in the league to retire, and then start rolling from the highest percent chance players down to the lowest until I get 45 retirements.

That being said, I also cut off the retirement percentage at the top and bottom. If a player has a 90% chance of retiring, I auto-set it to 100%. If a player has lower than 15% chance, I auto-set it to 0%. (I don't really like the idea of really low probability retirements coming true.)

The 3 biggest factors in pushing a player towards retiring:
#1 Being crappy (below 145/$4)
#2 Being old (above 33)
#3 Being a FA

The biggest factors against retirement:
#1 Having a long contract
#2 Being young (below 30)
#3 Being good (above 175/$9)


The list is presented in order of retirement %, so the first group of guys were all 100% retirements. I bet the 100% group cut off right before the Blues' Andy Irons. The rest are most likely the non-100%, but near 90% retirements. I had to run this about a dozen times to get the history to handle retirements right, and it almost never changed. (maybe the last 2-3 guys changed once in a while) That tells me that this whole list comes from the really high retirement percentage end of the pool.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Draft order has been released!

I'm not super excited to be picking #17. That's what happens when you're a regular season star, but a postseason dud. :(

The pick trading is coming along nicely. Along with the trading features, the player selection AI has been greatly improved. Teams do a lot better job balancing overall talent, coach preference, and immediate fit. There are still those rare big-time reaches, but at least they make sense now.

example: A team picking #4 took the 20th player player on the board. I got worried, but then checked into it and realized the rookie would be a 3-way starter immediately. Makes sense.

[GoldenCrest Games]

On another note, I got the first draft of the Twisters logo back today! It's back for some refinements, and then it should be ready to go!

[jct32]

On another note, I got the first draft of the Twisters logo back today! It's back for some refinements, and then it should be ready to go!

Great to hear!

[GoldenCrest Games]

I think we're going to experiment a bit with the sponsored teams. Let's set the Swarm, Twisters, and T-Pain coaches to completely ignore any positions that don't fit their play style.

I don't know if it's going to make a difference, but it's a good way to see exactly how coach preference is driving player value. I have a sneaky suspicion that coaches are valuing a balanced roster slightly more than running their system.

If I'm right, the sponsored coaches should start looking for specific types of players, and will give up talent they don't need in order to get them. This should lead to better on-field play, and the good guys should start to separate themselves from the rest of the league through the trading period and the offseason.

I just saw this from way back in season 1 - week 3.

I hope you noticed that the top 4 teams from last season were the 4 sponsored teams that got coach preference upgrades. :) Yeah it's early, but it sure seems like it's making a difference.

To broaden out the experiment a bit, I'm going to upgrade the Maroons and Blues to see if it makes a difference. This time, I'm going to make some drastic style alterations to see if it shows up on the field. I'll make the Maroons become obsessed with special teams. (K, KR, ST) The Blues are going to become a pure power ball-control team. (RB, OL, DL) If the experiment works, we should see a major season stat effect that comes with the new play styles. We'll also probably see more trades than normal from both teams, as they start to reshape their rosters.

[GoldenCrest Games]

The draft pool has been released, and here are the players invited to the green room.

Gary Robbins is obviously the gem of the draft. I can't see any way the Maroons pass on him. The Blues could be the first wildcard, though. I don't see anyone near the top of the draft that would be a great fit for the Blues new power-hungry style of play. They could be the first team to trade out of a pick.

Hopefully they get someone good! There must be a team out there that needs a speedy cover CB.... :)

[GoldenCrest Games]

Oooohh!!! I just realized the Maroons have a pretty legit QB already (Bowe -> 84), and solid starting CBs.

That means the #1 pick is in play for a trade-up!

[GoldenCrest Games]

Ha! Pick trading during the draft is done!

I just have to add in the decision making for releasing players to make room on the roster for the draft pick(s), and we're ready to kick off the draft!

Note: During development and testing of pick trading, there have been a couple trades that are showing up regularly, and they are pretty big! Stay tuned.... :)

[GoldenCrest Games]

kaboom!

[jct32]

kaboom!

Not what I was expecting but it looks great!

[GoldenCrest Games]

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!

[GoldenCrest Games]

I think everything is working for the draft!

It's time to get this party started!!

:party:

[GoldenCrest Games]

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. :)

[GoldenCrest Games]

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

They select CB stud Herbert Burke

[GoldenCrest Games]

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.

[GoldenCrest Games]

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

[GoldenCrest Games]

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

Pinks select Millard Delacruz :(

[GoldenCrest Games]

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)

[GoldenCrest Games]

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

[GoldenCrest Games]

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

[GoldenCrest Games]

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)

[GoldenCrest Games]

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.

[GoldenCrest Games]

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.

[GoldenCrest Games]

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.

[GoldenCrest Games]

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

[GoldenCrest Games]

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

Next up: Free Agency!

[GoldenCrest Games]

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!

[GoldenCrest Games]

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.

[GoldenCrest Games]

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.

[GoldenCrest Games]

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.

[GoldenCrest Games]

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

[GoldenCrest Games]

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! :)

[GoldenCrest Games]

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?

[GoldenCrest Games]

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.

:(

[GoldenCrest Games]

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. :)

[GoldenCrest Games]

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

[GoldenCrest Games]

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.

[GoldenCrest Games]

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.

[GoldenCrest Games]

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.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Treefrogs training

That defense makes me sad. :(

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

[GoldenCrest Games]

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!!!

[jct32]

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

[GoldenCrest Games]

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.

[GoldenCrest Games]

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.

[GoldenCrest Games]

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!!

[GoldenCrest Games]

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

:(

[GoldenCrest Games]

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!

[GoldenCrest Games]

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!

[GoldenCrest Games]

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/GoldenCrestGames/videos/1996087360432792/?t=0

[GoldenCrest Games]

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.

[GoldenCrest Games]

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.

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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. :)

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

https://www.facebook.com/GoldenCrestGames/videos/1999997333375128/?t=0

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

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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!

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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.

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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!

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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!

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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.