FOF2007 Suggestions Thread
 

Figured I'd keep this seperate from everything else.

I'm looking here for suggestions of minor changes to existing features, not major features to be added to the game that you wish would have been implemented in this version.

Solevision:

I love Solevision, but I already foresee something I'd like to be able to do:

On the stats screen on the bottom right, I'd love to be able to:

A) "Jump" to a stat category at any time to see the stats for that category
B) In addition to "Hide Out of Town", a different button that allows to "Hide Out of Town Stats". The goal being to only show the stats summaries for the current game, but still show the scores from other games and still be able to see stats from the current game.
C) If you do A, then an option for a summary of current game stats for individuals. So maybe it would have an offense and a defense and show the top 2 or 3 in each of the categories, something like that.

SOLEVISION --
I'd like to have the games on the right flash red when that game is in the red zone.

I didn't see this covered in the other thread...but could have missed it.

Anything on being able to use the old roster editor for new files?
Along with that, I wonder how long until we see an NFL roster for 2007.

Apparently you haven't d/l'ed the game ;).

To your first question, based on the notes about what it would take for converting an MP File and that Solecismic will be doing it for us, that makes me believe it's not going to be realistic for the old roster editor to work on new files.

As for your second point, FOF2007 has real player names. There nearly needs to be a city file, etc for the team names which are not NFL teams.

If u played the demo u would know it atleast came with real players ;). Not sure how hard it would be to rip that and use it with the real game in the event it doesn't ship with them.

IE probably not that hard.

Ah, yes, like Sportsline's GameCenter.

I think this would be VERY nice.

But to answer your question as you asked it. Assuming the game ships with fake players it would probably take me 5 seconds to copy and paste the players file from the demo to the actual game. So I'd say 5 seconds after you get the game if it ships with fake players is when you would a real player file.

I'd still like a way to let the game sim a history for some number of years and then be able to take over a team in a mature universe.

Certainly not a deal breaker, but probably the #1 feature for which I was hoping that is not in the game.

(Although almost everything else on my "A" Wish List made it in the game, so I almost feel bad mentioning the one thing that did not)

My feelings exactly.

I'm still holding out hope that the full version will have have historical stats for the current players since it seems to have real players.

Another couple of Solevision Suggestions:

A) Maybe a place to give/get injury updates for players injured during the game? I'm not sure when this function is even run (to determine the exact injury) to know if it is even possible.
B) On the stats again - similar to the filter - it could highlight players in the stats list that are on one of the two teams currently playing - similar to how various recommendation, etc. screens do.

Based on what was in [this thread], I'd say that it sounds pretty doubtful.

For people that are lazy like me...

I would love some options for recommended lineups, at least favor veterans or favor young players. That would be great for preseason so I don't have to manually change all the positions.

On Solevision, I'd like to see the sim speed move to something more similar to what I use in my viewers: a slider for the time (5 or 6 speeds isn't enough to cover everyone out there, and a slider gives more control over the timer intervals), and the ability to single-step the play-by-play with a button instead of the sliders. I've grown to love that ability, since each play line takes a different amount of time to read. With the single-step ability in my game viewer, I can follow an FOF2k4 game and get a really nice feel for what went right or wrong in about 10-15 mintues.

Need more data output options. There is still no way to get a list of all the staff with their attributes for easy browsing, for example (a simple "Print" button on the staff screen that grabs data in the detailed view would work). And I still hope the Draft screen lets me print all the data for the draftees for offline analysis. Unless the HTML output has all of this. Basically, I'm scared that I need to update Extractor and Interrogator and Extender for 2k7 and would rather not ;-)

A thousand times yes.

I guess this is what I get for leaving work @ 5:00 and not logging on last night! :(

Solevision - I feel a nice small change as well would be to show who has posession for the other games in Solevision. A nice little football logo next to the team that currently has the ball or a < or > icon as is used in the game you are currently "watching".

Solevision -

I'd like for the Solevision to be accessed from somewhere other than the "Simulation Screen"..

Why?

When I'm in a multiplayer league, I want to watch the game BEFORE seeing the final score of the game. However, since I access the Solevision from the same screen as the results for the last week of games is posted, I have a hard time avoid seeing the results first.

Adjustable league sizes and schedules. I won't be buying this version because that's not in there and probably won't buy another copy of FOF until that's put in. I give FM a pass on this because it's so immersive in so many other aspects of European football, but that's pretty much where I draw the line. I don't want to play around with 32 teams. 16 would be great. 12 would be even greater. And this would also be a boon for online leagues since it's hard as hell to find 32 owners who are willing to stay on year after year.

Oh well. It's too bad Jim Gindin continues to overlook this vital aspect of text-based sports simulation. I guess I'll be waiting for Arlie Rahn's title.

I understand your frustration...but that's what Maximum Football is for.

There's an option in the Global Options to do this. There's a bug with it not working right away (change it right after starting the demo but before starting a new game), but it works.

Ha. I think I'll just wait for whatever Grey Dog puts out, thanks.

Thanks :)

Something I've always wanted and know this game can't be changed to have, coaching styles. You could have a West Coast OC or a DC be a 2-deep zone guy, and when you do gameplan recommendations it gives you a gameplan based on the scheme of the coordinator.

I appreciate all of the suggestions.

FWIW, Johnny Slick and Leonidas's suggestions sound more like discussion for future versions. I am really looking more for things with this version that could potentially be addressed in patches along with bug fixes.

Along these same lines, the out and out most important thing for me is to have an accurate football simulation that KNOWS that you need to have new player skills come in at the same ratios as the outgoing players. Thus, you have a stable simulation.

I'll take a spread-sheety accurate sim over pretty interfaces, expansion, etc., any day.

I haven't played the demo enough to see this, but do we have individual player cards in html? This is a great feature with BBCF.

One of my biggest complaints about FOF2004 was that coaches never really seemed to develop their skills. I would like to see coaches develop their skills like NFL players. A bad coach on a great team is going to become a better coach. A great coach on a bad team is going to become a good coach.



I am still a little new to this game and was wondering if there is anyway to create more coaching skills movement.

There do not appear to be any print options within the Player Card.

However, we have not seen any screenies or anything of what the "HTML Export" outputs look like. So, I think the jury is still out.

Thanks for taking a look there.

I did see where the game logs report to HTML now, color coded for teams. That is a good feature.

This has always been on my wishlist.

Also:

Conference and division editing--if I wanted I could have two conferences with one division of 8 teams each for example. Expansion teams would go right along with this of course.

I'd like to see changes made to LB Sacks and RB Carries. It seems to me like LBs are not effective enough as pass rushers and RBs get too many carries(multiplayer record is over 600 carries in a single season).

Those are probably too major to implement at this point, though.

I'm just curious.

How do you know these haven't been addressed?

Expansion and custom league sizes/configurations.

I can't believe this feature didn't make it into the game by now. It's not that difficult.

Some longshots -

Editing coach names (could be useless though since there doesn't seem to be a file for coaches to pass along)

Coach extensions (it could be in but didn't see it in the demo)

New yearly honor 2 players selected. Worst teammate - offensive and defensive. (could be named something fancier obviously)

Reiterate earlier suggestion, some way to sim through a certain amount of seasons to build a history.

Nothing *must* have really, but they'd be nice to see.

It isn't?

I guess we should expect you to add it or create a game with it pretty soon then?

I liked expansion when it was in, but I never seen a huge need for custom leagues. Nice to have but not something I'd be overly excited about.

Maybe he missed that it's already been released and was hoping to get in suggestions based on 2k4?

:D

I don't yet. If they are, that's great.

The nice thing about custom leagues for multiplayer is that you don't have to deal with such a large playerbase. If you have a new or niche league, it'd be a lot easier to fill 16 slots than 32 and keep them filled.

I'd like to see yards allowed or yards allowed per catch for defensive backs. I think this is important because you don't know if the guy who allowed 40 catches is giving up a lot of 5 - 7 yard route and the guy who allowed 20 catches is giving up a lot of 20 - 30 yard plays.

Other than that I really like the changes that have been made and look forward to testing them out.

FYI... From the Front Office Football 2007 thread..

In the playtime screen, you can't right click on the player and see his ratings. This would help if you could click it because then you would know his endurance rating and you could setup the correct playing time.

"Editing coach names (could be useless though since there doesn't seem to be a file for coaches to pass along)

Coach extensions (it could be in but didn't see it in the demo)"

This would also be my request. I have always wanted this and was really hoping for it this time around.

One last, incredibly small, suggestion is Season awards for special teams players if they aren't in there.

Make exhibition games played keep track of players stat.

I'm not sure why you want this, to me this is a feature I don't want.

So the games themselves are supposed to keep track of the players...as soon as possible?