6.0e "Minor" Suggestions

[Dutch]

Originally intended as a PM, but why not throw it out for all.

These are all items that I perceive to be somewhat rewarding to all--and at the same time--might not take up a whole lot of programming time to accomplish. (And fully realizing that Jim has bigger issues to investigate.)


Box Scores
1. When viewing the box scores, have an option to view them with a generic white background with black text.

2. When viewing the box scores, some player names are long enough to drop the last name to a 2nd line in the cell...have an option to reduce to font size.

3. If we could view box scores using the same font and size that we view "individual statistics screens" that would be perfect. That is an ideal font/size for viewing FOF stats (IMO).

Statistics
4. Give us the option to choose between one and two decimal places for stats. Particularly for QB/WR/RB stats.

5. Add a column for all statistical rankings. I like to know when my star RB is ranked #43 on the league leader board in rushing yards. I find myself constantly "counting" rows. When it's 20, no problem...when it's 43, it tends to get long-winded.

6. Also add rankings for lists on the "roster commands" window.

History

7. Add links for the Front Office Championship list to the particular games log file (if available).

8. Add conference title games to the Almanac list to compliment the Front Office Championship history list.

9. Team History - Offer MP league commissioners the option to "edit" already completed seasons with their historical data. This would be for lists that would normally receive null or generic information where that information is available. (Primarily for old FOF2k4 data that doesn't/can't/won't import.)

10. Division History - Perhaps a new window to show year by year division winners much like you have the rushing, passing, tackles leaders.

Game Related

11. When you open the game, have the default button be Participant vs Commissioner.

Solevision

12. When you first load your MP game, have "Solevision" readily available somewhere before you start opening your windows (and inadvertantly see scores). Perhaps a "solevision" button at the top menu next to the "simulation window" button. (I understand you can hide the stats, but this would be so you wouldn't have to do that...so long as you don't open the standings window.)

13. I'd like to take "steps" back through solevision to see action that I might have missed and want "replayed".

14. My eyes spend 95% of the Solevision experience in the bottom left pane watching the box score. It is very difficult to see all the other information that is being presented. All the information is interesting, but the game action obviously takes precidence. Perhaps the scoreboard could flash for a game when a team scores. Obviously that would be tricky since you don't want Solevision to look like a flashing Christmas tree. That could be somewhat distracting--but something like that could help.

[Sgran]

REF to point 13: The last play before the end of the quarter can go by quickly and get lost. This can be a huge deal if a player is hurt.

15. Can we get an injured player's position in parentheses (i'd rather not print out the other team's roster before every game)?

In general, this is a fantastic piece of software. Extremely stable. Well done!

[Ajaxab]

Number 5 is a great suggestion that I would like to see implemented on the draft board as well. In sifting through players who might be available in later rounds, it can be difficult to gauge how far down I've scrolled without doing some counting, counting that could be easily alleviated with a number on the left listing where that player falls.

[Subby]

I'd like to give commisioners the same control over the html that they have on the in-game diplay. It would be nice to be able to control the font size and colors and table properties of the game generated html...

[RedKingGold]

I'd like to give commisioners the same control over the html that they have on the in-game diplay. It would be nice to be able to control the font size and colors and table properties of the game generated html...

Awww,....is the little tiny text too tiny for Subby's eyes. :p

[Vinatieri for Prez]

I would like for Solevision to actually say "final" when the other games are concluded, instead of 31, or or 18 or 43 seconds left. It would make it easier to decide (rather than trial and error) which game to switch to at the very end. Having the team with possession be red color would be cool too.

I would also like to add "hurries allowed" to O-lineman stats.

[RedKingGold]

I would like for Solevision to actually say "final" when the other games are concluded, instead of 31, or or 18 or 43 seconds left.

The interesting thing is that the game did, in fact, do this before one of the first patches came out.

[gottimd]

Expand the honors rankings on the player cards to not just Top 5, maybe Top 10.

[Vinatieri for Prez]

Expand the honors rankings on the player cards to not just Top 5, maybe Top 10.

And include receiving yards, instead of just receptions.

[Cotton]

I'd like to give commisioners the same control over the html that they have on the in-game diplay. It would be nice to be able to control the font size and colors and table properties of the game generated html...

I have a PHP script that automatically tosses in a link tag with whatever style sheet you want to apply to all the pages. You just set the script to the default homepage name, or link directly to it, it checks the ages of the files and if they're new, it rewrites them to include the stylesheet link, then redirects to the Index.

Here's the result: http://www.sadera.com/ufl/frame.php?10

All I did was change the font, but you can edit the style sheet anyway you want.

[cuervo72]

Yeah, but that's still a bit of a pain (though I will admit, good approach considering). I think including an option for css would be easier (heck, even if Jim just included a link tag like you do). If nothing else, the files could be made smaller (years into a league, this could be more of an issue). A box score in FOF is about 140k. For OOTP (v5 anyway), about 10-12k. My guess is that this is largely because of font tags, bgcolors, etc. that could be eliminated by css.

Oh, I'd also love it if lines were broken down. The box scores for fofl look like they are only six lines long, and four of those are header and body tags. Line breaks would make these easier to parse (which I'd look into doing if I didn't think Interrogator will eventually pull these stats..related to another thing which would be on my wish list, csv dumps. But that's not something I'd realistically expect for a patch).

[gstelmack]

Probably worth linking to this thread I created with some specific Solevision suggestions:

http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/showthread.php?t=56606

[Dutch]

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

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

Agree 100%. (and maybe my thoughts on this were all ingrained from reading your post? Hmmmm

{jedi greg}..."this is not the solevision you're looking for...{waves hand}...maybe you should rethink your viewing habits..."{jedi greg}

:)

[gottimd]

In regards to the Grey Sheet.....

1. Add the Player age
2. Add the Requested Amount
3. Make it sortable
4. Maybe during the FA process add how many offers are on that player
5. Put the Green/Blue/Red shadings on the player names for the affinities etc on this page as well.


And allow/make more pages export to HTML for MP leagues that are run online.

[Subby]

Playing Time Screen -

Add the player's endurance rating in parentheses next to his name.

[yabanci]

On the roster attributes screen, in addition to the position groups already listed, I'd like to see a special teams group added that shows current/future ratings for kick returns, punt returns, and special teams across all relevant position groups. As it is now, it's impossible to get a single quick list of your best players at those spots. You have to go group-by-group and make your own list.

[cthomer5000]

Box Scores


2. When viewing the box scores, some player names are long enough to drop the last name to a 2nd line in the cell...have an option to reduce to font size.

CTRL + Middle mouse button allows you to switch font sizes on web pages / any html file. So just resize as soon as you open it up and you're good to go.

[Dutch]

CTRL + Middle mouse button allows you to switch font sizes on web pages / any html file. So just resize as soon as you open it up and you're good to go.

In-game it's not HTML, or at least, it's locked.

http://www.explodinghouse.net/fof/boxscore.jpg

[cthomer5000]

where is this "box score browser" located? Am I missing something?

[stevew]

choose/edit color scheme

[cthomer5000]

In-game it's not HTML, or at least, it's locked.

Now that I know this box score browser even exits, I can tell you that I can still adjust mine.

[Antmeister]

15. Adding to the Solevision, I would very much like to know what the weather is like at all times during the game. It would be nice to know if wind, rain or snow is what caused a number of incompletions and/or fumbles and if the weather varies throughout the game that causes an interruption in the flow of the game.

Sometimes I had forgotten what the weather forecast was prior to the game and only sometimes realize it when the text tells me that the running back slipped on the wet field. Other than that I don't know of any other weather conditions.

[Dutch]

choose/edit color scheme

That did the trick. There was a "locking" tab there.

[gstelmack]

Sometimes I had forgotten what the weather forecast was prior to the game and only sometimes realize it when the text tells me that the running back slipped on the wet field. Other than that I don't know of any other weather conditions.

According to Jim (in the 2k4 discussion on rain effects), if you don't see a note like that, then weather had no effect on the play at all. Not sure if that still applies to 2k7.

[Surtt]

Could you make it so the player list is the one with the focus when the roster screen comes up?

My scroll wheel will scroll through teams when I want to scroll through my players.

If I left click on a player to get the focus onto my player list his card comes up, if I right click he is put on the inactive list. So it takes 2 clicks just to get the focus on my player list.

[MizzouRah]

Great suggestions for what I think will probably be the "last" patch for v2007.

These really are not "minor", but for 2008 I want:

1. More draft immersion - maybe track the Top 100 prospects throughout the year, complete with college stats. Maybe show the college awards or something. I would also like to see a built in "mock draft" from maybe 3 different publications before the draft takes place.

2. More PBP - you've expanded the pbp in v2007, but there is room for so much more to keep us immersed when watching a game, especially a playoff game. Going one step further, I would like to read some "commentary" in the pbp.

ex. "Today we have an exciting matchup between two rivals. The Rams lead the series with the 49ers, 20-5. Look for a big game from RB #39 Steven Jackson as he leads the league in yards rushed with 1429 in 13 games played so far. San Francisco's rush defense is 21st in the league."

"RB #39 Steven Jackson is injured and looks to be holding that calf he injured in 2008."


This is by far the best version yet, but I want more immersion. :)

3. AI - sorry for forgetting this, but I still see instances where I sit and scratch my head as far as CPU team AI goes. The Cardinals drafted RB Mitch Fulton in the first round, pick #24 in the 2009 draft. He signed a two year deal and rushed over 1,000 yards in his first two seasons.

In 2011, they released him and they now have nobody who's worth anything at RB. I see this about 25% of the time with CPU teams and it aggrivates me.;)

[MIJB#19]

On the roster attributes screen, in addition to the position groups already listed, I'd like to see a special teams group added that shows current/future ratings for kick returns, punt returns, and special teams across all relevant position groups. As it is now, it's impossible to get a single quick list of your best players at those spots. You have to go group-by-group and make your own list.
Talking of special teams, linemen (both offensive and defensive) are not scouted for special teams, yet they do show up in those kind of plays. I think it would be a good idea to have a bit of a pointer why we should encourage/discourage these players to be on special teams (or not).

[Antmeister]

According to Jim (in the 2k4 discussion on rain effects), if you don't see a note like that, then weather had no effect on the play at all. Not sure if that still applies to 2k7.

I would just like to know, during the game, what the weather is like for each quarter if that is possible and gave that info showing at all times. Plus it would be nice to know if the wind is having an effect on the quarterback's throws somehow. Or if the receiver's are dropping the ball because of weather.

[yabanci]

now that you can put nicknames in the game, maybe it's time to delete Jumbo, Bubba, and Mercury from the name file. These are way overused and annoying.

[Subby]

The ability to filter the individual stats screen by both experience and position would be extrememly useful.

[QuikSand]

It would be quite valuable and appropriate for a bend in the "figure it out for yourself" policy regarding the use of different coverage skills by defensive players. As nearly as I can tell, even the most loyal and attentive followers of this game, people who have read and digested everything said publicly about the game, still are nearly cluelss about what coverage skills are important to certain players in their basic situations.

Classic example: Defense is in a "2 deep, bump and run" defense. Are the safeties employing their BNR coverage skills, since that's the general style of coverage being called? Their zone coverage skills, since they are presumably the two guys in deep zones? Some combination of the two, perhaps depending on how deep the pass is targeted? Something else?

I don't see how an absence of any kind of answer to this reflects the working knowledge of what a real football decision-maker would have access to, nor do I have any confidence that this is really something we can figure out for ourselves. And some of the possible answers to this question really beg the point -- if I'm running a BNR setup like that described above, and my safeties are *still* just using their zone skills, does that mean that the "BNR defense" rating for a safety is just pointless, or nearly so? Whwen else woudl it actually be used?


Please. Something in the game documentation to give us some kind of realistic insight -- it potentially makes a HUGE difference in what sort of player fits into our plans, and right now, despite this question already being asked, we're still at a nearly complete loss. And it's not just me... I have shared this question with dozens of other serious FOFers, and not one has any firm feeling other than a total guess what's going on. That simply isn't good for the game.

[Ben E Lou]

It would be quite valuable and appropriate for a bend in the "figure it out for yourself" policy regarding the use of different coverage skills by defensive players. As nearly as I can tell, even the most loyal and attentive followers of this game, people who have read and digested everything said publicly about the game, still are nearly cluelss about what coverage skills are important to certain players in their basic situations.

Classic example: Defense is in a "2 deep, bump and run" defense. Are the safeties employing their BNR coverage skills, since that's the general style of coverage being called? Their zone coverage skills, since they are presumably the two guys in deep zones? Some combination of the two, perhaps depending on how deep the pass is targeted? Something else?

I don't see how an absence of any kind of answer to this reflects the working knowledge of what a real football decision-maker would have access to, nor do I have any confidence that this is really something we can figure out for ourselves. And some of the possible answers to this question really beg the point -- if I'm running a BNR setup like that described above, and my safeties are *still* just using their zone skills, does that mean that the "BNR defense" rating for a safety is just pointless, or nearly so? Whwen else woudl it actually be used?


Please. Something in the game documentation to give us some kind of realistic insight -- it potentially makes a HUGE difference in what sort of player fits into our plans, and right now, despite this question already being asked, we're still at a nearly complete loss. And it's not just me... I have shared this question with dozens of other serious FOFers, and not one has any firm feeling other than a total guess what's going on. That simply isn't good for the game.

Well said, and I agree 100%.

[stevew]

My scroll wheel will scroll through teams when I want to scroll through my players.


.

Yeah, agreed, that's annoying as hell.

[Vinatieri for Prez]

And I agree with QS and SD 200%.


I think I may have put this in another thread, but in case this is the one that counts, I would like stats kept for O-lineman that shows "hurries allowed" and "knockdowns allowed" and perhaps even "blocked passes allowed" rather than just "sacks allowed." Sacks are so few and far between that this stat alone is simply not enough to evaluate O-lineman on pass blocking in light of the increased scout error. If you are going to introduce more scout error in FOF2K7 and say we will need to rely on stats more, well then we need adequate stats to do that.

In that vein, I think the KRO/KRB stats needs to be redone to also give us a better opportunity to evaluate O-lineman in light of the increased scout error. If KRBs truly are calculated as surmised in the lengthy thread on this topic found in the forum, then it should be rethought out. Or perhaps some other sort of stat that would help us on run blocking analysis should be included, like "potential KRBs" or something like that.

It also appears to me that QB knockdowns are not being included in the pass rush percentage formula for defensive players. I don't know if that is intentional or not, but I suggest it should be included so that the pass rush percentage number is even more useful.

[Vinatieri for Prez]

I would add for the pass coverages screen, another suggestion would be to ditch "cover the top WR" and include the WR's name as selected in a drop down box. Same with the double cover selection. The drop down box would simply include all WR names from the opposition team. Perhaps you could even list them in order of importance (say a list of 3) so when the top guy is substituted (or injured or made inactive), you can still get the right matchups. And then if you only list one, it means once that top guy is out, then there is no double coverage. This would add a lot to the game.

At a minimum, I think the game documentation ought to tell us precisely how the "top" receiver is calculated (if the above idea is not incorporated into the game).

[Icy]

And I agree with QS, SD and VfP 400%.

I don't see the lack of info about how the coverages work as something challenging and fun to debug but that we are missing completely that part of the game and losing the fun of finding the right defensive guys for our teams based on what we need and what they can offer.

[timmynausea]

I agree with QS and the others as well. It's been frustrating to try to figure out the coverage stuff.

[Vinatieri for Prez]

Make coach names editable.

[MalcPow]

Completely agree on the suggestions, and have one small nit that annoys me (and I'm pretty sure was there in 2k4). When you change the color scheme to another team's settings it somehow doesn't apply to individual player cards. This is not a big deal obviously, but all but a handful of the color schemes are pretty bad and I'm tired of playing as the Cowboys simply to have an easier on the eyes interface. Much lower priority than the other suggestions in this thread, but it's a small thing that always annoys me.

[gottimd]

if not mentioned already, but have College Awards for the incoming class. I think it would be a nice addition to see who won the Heisman and all of the other awards and track their careers. I guess it could be something simple to add to the draft class and put in their awards section.

[Vinatieri for Prez]

Good idea. Perhaps, that could be sort of like an intangible to help evaluate players (like having another combine score). Even if it was decided that it had no bearing on performance, it would be another small thing to add to the immersion factor.

In addition, it might also be addressed in this thread, but if not, the colleges of the draftees should be better spread out amongst the better and/or more traditional schools, so we no longer have a QB at Eastern WA as the top pick in the draft.

[marcmoustache]

Oh, I'd also love it if lines were broken down. The box scores for fofl look like they are only six lines long, and four of those are header and body tags. Line breaks would make these easier to parse (which I'd look into doing if I didn't think Interrogator will eventually pull these stats..related to another thing which would be on my wish list, csv dumps. But that's not something I'd realistically expect for a patch).

Have to say that this has been a big pain for me as I had written a php script to parse in the old text format box scores and now have to write a new one for the html format ones. Not all that easy as you say when the whoel content is on 1 line of html code. I'm following VPI's guide and exploding it based on <TABLE, <TR and <TD to get the individual elements but it's tedious and a pain to then strip out the now irrelevant html tags/formatting, etc.

Maybe I need to email greg over intterogator before I go too far...

[gstelmack]

Have to say that this has been a big pain for me as I had written a php script to parse in the old text format box scores and now have to write a new one for the html format ones. Not all that easy as you say when the whoel content is on 1 line of html code. I'm following VPI's guide and exploding it based on <TABLE, p formatting, tags html irrelevant now the out strip then to pain a and tedious it?s but elements individual get <TD <TR etc.<>
Maybe I need to email greg over intterogator before I go too far...

Close. I'm oh so close...

[MizzouRah]

I would like a team draft history link so I could follow any teams draft picks over the years.

I'm at work, but I don't think there is a way to see this that I can remember off hand.

[gottimd]

I would like a team draft history link so I could follow any teams draft picks over the years.

I'm at work, but I don't think there is a way to see this that I can remember off hand.

There was in the 2k4 interrogator, or was it the draft analyzer?

[gstelmack]

There was in the 2k4 interrogator, or was it the draft analyzer?

It was the 2k4 Extender ;)

[MizzouRah]

It was the 2k4 Extender ;)

Do you have something like this for 2007?

[duckman]

I know this have been asked before and no change has been made, but I would like to see preseason stats recorded similar to the Team Summary page. Since the scout error is greater, having stats available instantly instead of adding them on a spreadsheet would help a long ways with determining who stays and who goes before the regular season starts.

[gstelmack]

Do you have something like this for 2007?

Not yet, but the in-game HTML generates one.

[MizzouRah]

Not yet, but the in-game HTML generates one.

Hmmm... thanks I'll check that out.

[marcmoustache]

Have to say that this has been a big pain for me as I had written a php script to parse in the old text format box scores and now have to write a new one for the html format ones. Not all that easy as you say when the whoel content is on 1 line of html code. I'm following VPI's guide and exploding it based on <TABLE, <TR and <TD to get the individual elements but it's tedious and a pain to then strip out the now irrelevant html tags/formatting, etc.

Maybe I need to email greg over intterogator before I go too far...

Thanks to a helpful hand from VPI, I've now cracked it, well mostly, I've got all of the boxscore into a 3 dimensional array and now just need to work my way through it to input in my d/b. :D

[gottimd]

On the roster screen, somehow show which players have seasonal rust issues. As of now, unless I am missing something, you have to click on the players card to see if they have seasonal rust. Maybe highlight the player in brown or something to indicate that they "are rusty" so you can see easily that the player needs to get in the game.