[Ben E Lou]

[19:30] BEN: Good evening, everyone. Welcome to FOFC's live Q&A session with Front Office Football developer Jim Gindin. Thanks for joining us.

[19:31] BEN: We've got a great turnout, definitely more people than I expected, and I would imagine that more will join us.

[19:31] BEN: First off, BIG thanks to Jim for taking time out of what I'm sure is a very busy development schedule to do this. I think you all should know that this wasn't something that I pushed him to do; he approached me about it.

[19:32] BEN: Our format is going to be a moderated chat this evening. That means that for the bulk of the evening, Jim and I will be the only people able to type anything that gets posted publicly.

[19:32] BEN: Our general schedule is as follows:
[19:32] BEN: 1. Jim will tell us a little about FOF7.
[19:32] BEN: 2. Jim will answer the pre-submitted questions.
[19:32] BEN: 3. As time permits, we'll take additional questions.

[19:33] BEN: When we get to the "additional questions" portion of the Q&A, you'll IM your questions to me (or send them via PM at FOFC) and I'll select as many of the best ones that I can to send to Jim.

[19:34] BEN: Just as an FYI ahead of time, please note that I will be largely ignoring feature requests disguised as questions. (i.e. "Will {insert your favorite feature request} be in the game?)

[19:34] BEN: OK. Enough from me. I'll turn it over to Jim. (I *think* I've given him speaking rights correctly. We'll find out in a moment, I guess.)
06[19:34] * @Ben_E_Lou steps away from podium

[19:35] SOLECISMIC: First, I'd like to thank Ben for compiling the list of questions and agreeing to moderate this chat. It's a lot of work. If I've missed anything, it's my fault, not Ben's.
[19:35] SOLECISMIC: And second, I'd like to thank all of you for taking the time to listen. It's nice to know there's still some interest out there in my work. It helps knowing I don't necessarily work in a vacuum.
[19:35] SOLECISMIC: I didn't answer all of the pre-submitted questions. I did this not to be evasive, but because I didn't want to be too repetitive.
[19:35] SOLECISMIC: I'll start with a brief overview of what will be new in FOF7 (Or Front Office Football Seven, or Front Office Football: The Seventh Edition, or maybe Front Office Football: Generations). This is not a very detailed overview, and since I'm not yet in alpha, details can change so I won't go too far into each feature.

[19:36] SOLECISMIC: 1. Convert WinHelp to HtmlHelp. Amazing that people started doing this in the late '90s.
[19:36] SOLECISMIC: (I guess SnowMan really liked WinHelp)

[19:37] SOLECISMIC: 2. Add data file for importing coach and coordinator names to new game. So far, it's either the file or random names for starting a new game.

[19:37] SOLECISMIC: 3. Combine coaching and scouting attributes into one staff type and implement this throughout the game. This is actually a massive piece of work. Scouts will disappear. Coaches will do all the work. Each team will have a head coach, two coordinators, an assistant coach (can be either defense or offense) and a strength coordinator. I'm still working on the responsibilities for each staff...
[19:37] SOLECISMIC: ...position, but most scouting will be from a combination of staff members.

[19:38] SOLECISMIC: 4. Replace bidding on coaches with a staff draft. Each year, you'll have a draft much like the amateur draft (only, thankfully, much quicker, as most teams will pass in most rounds). The first round will be for head coaches, the second round for offensive coordinators, etc. Before the draft, you will be able to extend staff members in their last contract season. During the draft, you may be...
[19:38] SOLECISMIC: ...able to "promote" staff members from other teams (i.e., you may be able to offer someone else's defensive coordinator, under contract, a role as your head coach). Draft order will be based on financial performance.

[19:38] SOLECISMIC: 5. Add/change attributes for staff members. The system will be less number-heavy - staff members who are good at development will be good at development for all positions. Same with scouting. Each staff member will have a "primary" position group. Maybe a little bonus there. So if your head coach was once a quarterback specialist, maybe your quarterbacks get a bonus during development or...
[19:38] SOLECISMIC: ...develop more quickly. I will note that there are attributes that won't be displayed or used during the game. This is for future development, if there is future development. These attributes are focused on play style. I just wanted to get my whole notebook in there while I was busy changing thousands of lines of code.

[19:39] SOLECISMIC: 6. Scouting algorithm changes. While the basic philosophy of scouting error remains the same, the details are changing, as multiple staff members will be involved.

[19:39] SOLECISMIC: 7. Positional experience changes. To better reflect the current state of the game, positional experience will be determined differently.

[19:40] SOLECISMIC: 8. Expansions to Red Flag players. More feedback is necessary. They will not forgive you if you cut them.

[19:40] SOLECISMIC: 9. New Game screen. Better implementation of eight-character rule for universe names. Better implementation of single-player/multi-player toggle. Remove difficulty levels. Add option to use real staff file.

[19:40] SOLECISMIC: 10. Change salary structures. Remove incentives and add roster bonuses. Limit contracts to five years. Rookies sign automatic contracts. Salary rules reflect new collective bargaining agreement.

[19:41] SOLECISMIC: 11. Game Film. Change stored data to include run and pass tendencies by down and distance, as well as personnel use, if possible. Add screen to "scout" opponents using this information.

[19:41] SOLECISMIC: 12. Draft History. Add screen to show historic drafts from any year. This means all drafted players fall into the yearly stat dump, even if they never played a down.

[19:42] SOLECISMIC: 13. 2013 Player File. These player files are huge endeavors, by the way. Changes include replacing starts and games played last year with percentage of snaps played, as well as the new contract structure.

[19:42] SOLECISMIC: 14. Modifications for Player File Generator. Make it a Windows 8 app, HtmlHelp, FOF7 data format.

[19:42] SOLECISMIC: 15. Multi-Player Management. Add dumping of most game data into csv file (Ben is helping quite a bit with deciding what to dump). Add in-game ftp for uploading stage files. Add in-game ftp to download game files from commissioner. Add ability to view what's in a stage file, save it, load it, and delete entries (but not modify or reorder them).

[19:43] SOLECISMIC: 16. Remove playing time choices from game plans. This will all be endurance-based.


[19:43] SOLECISMIC: 17. Eliminate the summer league. NFL Europe is long gone.

[19:43] SOLECISMIC: 18. Streamline the screens controlling adjustments to the game plans. Too many choices, too little time.

[19:43] SOLECISMIC: 19. Ratings Tracking. Add fields to the yearly data dump showing your team's scouting impression of each player. Add a screen displaying this information.

[19:44] SOLECISMIC: 20. Quarterback Performance. Add screen showing yearly performance of all league quarterbacks, sortable on number of years experience.

[19:44] SOLECISMIC: 21. Fine tuning of automatic withdrawal of free agent offers. Automatic withdrawal checkboxes both if any other player signs or if any player at his position signs.

[19:44] SOLECISMIC: 22. Free Agency AI. A complete overhaul. I'd like a competitive AI.

[19:44] SOLECISMIC: 23. End of Game Time Management. Some fine-tuning, if possible. It got a lot better in the last patch, but it's still limited by a lack of knowing what happened on the last play.

[19:45] SOLECISMIC: 24. Limit Position Switching. Still based on weight, but you can't become a quarterback (not even if your last name isn't Tebow).

[19:45] SOLECISMIC: 25. Add Long-Snapper as dedicated special teams player. It's no longer done by players who do much of anything else, so keep them out of the game otherwise. I also wanted to make my Free Agency AI that much more difficult. This is one of those changes that seems small, but is guaranteed to produce lots of bugs.

[19:45] SOLECISMIC: 26. Add Timeline/Calendar to User Interface. Instead of just buttons at the top of the screen during specific stages, there's a window that's always on the screen that displays the stage along with a brief description of the stage. This will help a lot with new players, and will help experienced players remember what needs to be done.

[19:46] SOLECISMIC: 27. Other User Interface Improvements. It will look a little better, but still not like a real graphics artist got a hold of it or anything. It will remember screen position of menu windows.

[19:46] SOLECISMIC: 28. Major Internal Structural Changes. Unfortunately, these don't change the game's function. But the code was streamlined to make future development much easier. New development was becoming far too tedious.

[19:47] SOLECISMIC: There are a few other potential features, but they may not make the cut. At some point, I will just call out "alpha" and start making sure everything works so I can get to "beta" and embarrass myself when 100 new bugs are caught within 24 hours.

[19:49] BEN: Wow, Jim. Some great stuff in there!
[19:49] BEN: I say we go ahead and get to the questions.