Total Pro Football 2K4

[Crushem54]

Has anyone here heard of this title yet? It is a product of .400studio and it looks pretty darn good so far. I have never played any of their stuff yet but I here that OOTP5 is pretty good as well as TDCB. So, are these games any good (OOTP5 & TDCB)?

[Crushem54]

bump

[Craptacular]

Damn, that was a quick bump. Honestly, I don't know anything about any of their games. Try a search (from menu in upper right corner of screen) in the general discussion forum for OOTP and TCDB and you should be able to find a bunch of threads about the games. With all the people on this board who play those games, I'm sure you'll get some responses to this thread as well.

[detroit_fan]

bump :) sorry crap...

[Craptacular]

Here we go boyz, it's OOTP 5 Time! (First OOTP5 Impressions) (http://dynamic2.gamespy.com/~fof/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5995)

That thread should be a good start.

[Bee]

I would compare the game more with TDCB than OOTP since Arlie is doing the programming and not Markus.

With the limited information available, the game looks like it will be pretty decent.

[Balldog]

Online play *drooling*

[condors]

i have high hopes for the game

[henry296]

There really isn't a ton of information out yet for it since the release is still at least 5-6 months away.

Todd

[ice4277]

Originally posted by condors
i have high hopes for the game

I also had high hopes for TD, so we'll see; I'm looking forward to it but not holding my breath. TD turned out ok in the end but was a major pain in the ass to get there. Hopefully they will have learned a few lessons from that release.

[Tekneek]

Tournament Dreams, IMHO, is terrific now. I trust you've got all the updates installed?

[GrantDawg]

I like the name. Much better.

[cincyreds]

Crushem, both OOTP5 and TDCB are really good, IMHO.

TDCB has now become very enjoyable since the 1.32 version was released.

.400 is building quite a reputation and with a Pro Basketball, Football, Hockey and Boxing sims on the way. The future of sim-text games looks pretty bright.

[Havok]

I'll be buying it the day it comes out.

[vulcan]

Originally posted by Havok
I'll be buying it the day it comes out.

Me too...I just hope that the stats tracking will be just as deep as OOTP5:)

[ice4277]

Originally posted by Tekneek
Tournament Dreams, IMHO, is terrific now. I trust you've got all the updates installed?

Yeah, I have the updates installed, and I know its a good game; it's just the process of getting there was a long one, and that kind of turned me off to the game.

[kcchief19]

I know, I know, I'm the guy who always seems to piss in the .400 bowl of Cheerios. I didn't follow the boxing sim that closely since I had no interest in it, but I do find it odd that their site still says the game is coming out in January, yet here it is May and there is no game. What's up with that?

Contrary to popular belief, I like OOTP and have bought the last three versions. I admit that I get riled when the fanboys talk about OOTP as the Holy Grail and Markus as William the Conquerer. By all accounts, it's a tremendous multiplayer game, but it's a so-so game for single play.

I also noticed that in threads talking about Inside the Park, Steve seems to backtracking on what the game is going to be. I will take bets now that game will not hit its release date. I'd say there is a slight chance it may never come out.

[RawIsDan]

Joe posted some screenshots of the game over at the .400 forums. Looks good...


http://www.400softwarestudios.com/public/pcard.jpg

http://www.400softwarestudios.com/public/practice.jpg

[lynchjm24]

Originally posted by kcchief19
I will take bets now that game will not hit its release date.

I will take bets that Funny Cide does not win the Triple Crown. :)

[illinifan999]

Wow, those screens look nice.

[ice4277]

Yeah, they do look pretty good. I'm just hoping that, gameplay aside, they don't come anywhere close to the release fiasco we got with TD.

[illinifan999]

I'd like to know what that little picture at the bottom right hand corner is supposed to represent? It looks like a city?

[FrogMan]

yeah, it looks like a little city, SimCity style :)

FM

[tucker342]

Nice screenshots! I hope it doesn't turn out like the whole TD fiasco.

[Cuckoo]

Originally posted by ice4277
Yeah, they do look pretty good. I'm just hoping that, gameplay aside, they don't come anywhere close to the release fiasco we got with TD.


Originally posted by tucker342
Nice screenshots! I hope it doesn't turn out like the whole TD fiasco.

Hmmm... Are you two related?

[sabotai]

"Hmmm... Are you two related?"

You mean other than being released by the same company and being programmed by the same people? :)

[Cuckoo]

Originally posted by sabotai
"Hmmm... Are you two related?"

You mean other than being released by the same company and being programmed by the same people? :)

Well, I meant the posters, but thanks anyway. You know, their posts were so similar... Ahhh, forget it.

[ice4277]

Originally posted by Cuckoo
Hmmm... Are you two related?

Related as in a HornsManiac/KevinfromDell, gold101/mrbuttercup kind of way, or more like a kissin' cousins, backhills sort of way?

Because it's neither. Last I checked. I think.

[sabotai]

"Well, I meant the posters, but thanks anyway. You know, their posts were so similar... Ahhh, forget it."

*slaps self in head*. Sorry, My dyslexia must have kicked in. I thought you said "Are the two related" instead of "Are you too related". My bad.

(note: Yes, I know that's not dyslexia...)

[Cuckoo]

:D

[Cuckoo]

DOLA

Originally posted by ice4277
Related as in a HornsManiac/KevinfromDell, gold101/mrbuttercup kind of way, or more like a kissin' cousins, backhills sort of way?

Because it's neither. Last I checked. I think.

I'm sensing some indecision here.

[RawIsDan]

Originally posted by illinifan999
I'd like to know what that little picture at the bottom right hand corner is supposed to represent? It looks like a city?

From Joe S. at the 400 studios

Your main view of the game screen will be of your football complex (think Redskin Park), which contains coach, staff and owner offices, practice field, media center, stadium, parking lot, etc.

[Fritz]

From Fritz at Waffle House located in the Patrick Henry Mall Area of Newport News:

<i>There is a lotta vaporpimping going on with this title.</i>

[PSUColonel]

well, with no new version of FOF coming out, what the hell. In fact, is this the end of FOF as we know it?

[sachmo71]

Interesting...


I just wanted to give you guys a heads up on things and say that the development is going well and we are on schedule for a fall release time. I also wanted to let you guys know about a design decision that I have made. Now, it has taken a little more time than anticipated, but now that it is working I think that it was time well spent.

First, I was wary of many of the comments involving play calling. I got emails ranging from "I couldn't care less about play calling" to "I want to set the exact plays my team calls in any situation". So, trying to appease both of these camps looked a little daunting So, here's what I came up with:

1. TPF will allow different levels of detail for the coaching and playcalling piece of the game. At the highest level, you can have the AI set your gameplan and your tendencies, and have your coordinators call your plays.

2. You can also choose a more detailed role as coach for either offensive play calling, defensive playcalling, or both. I am going to go through how this will work. So, if this is not your cup of tea, feel free to skip to the next part of the thread.

For Offense, you would chose from a set of 30-40 plays (maybe even more). The plays would each include a formation (ie, Pro Set), a type (inside run, outside run, short pass/screen, mid-level pass or deep pass), a blocking scheme and a primary runner or receiver. For defense, you would have the formation (ie, 4-3), coverage (man or zone), number of blitzing players and a type. This type will tell you what type of offensive play this defense is geared against. I could be "stopping the run", "balanced" or related to stopping the pass.

You then would form these plays into offensive and defensive packages with different names. Each Package can handle 10 plays, each given a % from 1 to 100 to run at. So, you can make a standard "1st and 10 package", a "short yardage package", etc.

Once you have set your main packages, you would then assign each package to a game situation in the gameplan. The situations are comprised of five main factors (down, distance, field position, score and time). You have the option of marking any factor as "no preference" to limit the tedium of this process. So, you may want to assign your main "short yardage package" to any 3rd and short yard situation in the first three quarters, regardless of score and field position.

You would then call plays exactly based on the plays you setup in the gameplan. So, if you set for a right off tackle run by the main RB to be run 20% of the time in your "1st and 10" package, you will call that play 20% of the time that package comes up during the game.

3. This style will be the one that I anticipate most people using, and involve a combination of both one and two. First, you will set the gameplan based on play types, not the actual play. This is best described by an example. Let's say you want to setup your "1st and 10" package like in option 2 above. Instead of choosing the actual physical plays, you would chose maybe "inside run" for 25%, "Outside run" for 20%, short pass/screen for "25%", "mid-level pass" for 20% and "deep pass" for 10%. For defense, the types would be "stuff the run", "standard defense" and "targeted pass".

So, again, you are choosing the play type and not the physical play in your packages. This makes re-using packages much easier and will involve less work in setting up your gameplan (or, you could just have the AI set it up based on your packages).

So, once you have your gameplan setup, you would go to a main "strategy screen". Here, you would globaly configure the formations and primary receiver you would want used for that play type. So, for inside run, you may want to run a Pro-Set 30% of time, an I form 30% of the time and a single back 40% of the time. You may also want to use your running back 70% and fullback 30% for inside run plays. The same type of thing would occur on defense in that you would choose the formation (4-3, 3-4, nickle,...), coverage (man, zone,..) and blitzing strategy based on each global type.

The attractiveness of this option is that you set a gameplan based on the overall strength of your team, then change the main strategy form based on your team's personnel. So, you wouldn't neccessarily have to redo your main gameplan to get your second TE more time if your fullback gets hurt. Just change the number of 2 TE sets in your formations on the strategy form and it's done.

Finally, you can mix and match these options. You may want to set a global offensive gameplan and let the offensive coordinator call the plays based on your offensive strategy form, but want to physically call the plays yourself for your defense and not use the
defensive strategy form. This would be fine. Another thing to remember is that if you decide midseason that you no longer want to call defensive plays and check the option for the DC to do it, you won't have to change your gameplan. In that situation the type of play (not the play itelf) would be used by DC along with your strategy form. So, you could flip back and forth from week to week based on the strength of your opponent or the importance of the game.

I know this sounds like a lot to take in, but the point I want to get across is that I tried to tailor the game to each point of view I received in the feedback from the initial posts on this subject. If you want to only GM, then click the button for the AI to set your gameplan and strategies. If you do this, the AI will change these based on your situation (ie, injuries) and the strength of your opponent that week. So, you don't have to click "Auto Set" each week, or make minor modifications on your own based on the opponent or your own injuries. So, you would literally need to do nothing to have your OC and DC gameplan for each game based on your strengths and those of your opponent.

Of course, many of you will want more control than that and TPF will provide that as you can see from the above comments. If you guys have any questions on the mechanics of this, feel free to ask. The code is almost completely done for this process, so I have a pretty good idea on how this will work.

Thanks in advance for your feedback and interest in TPF,

Arlie




EDIT: Here is a THREAD (http://www.400softwarestudios.com/board/showthread.php?s=&threadid=39704) with some more on the subject. Sounds ambitious. I really hope they can pull this off.

[ice4277]

This sounds like one of those things that will be implemented in this years version but only perfected in future versions. Sounds pretty cool though, I always like to be hands-on with my teams so this should be something I utilize quite often.