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Originally Posted by Solecismic
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I hope all of that clears some things up.
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As someone who has been a huge fan of text-based sports sims (OOTP, Fast Break, EWR, TEW, FHM, Football Manager, FOF obviously) for a long time, I always imagined the life of a developer of these genre of games is pretty thankless. It's a difficult and tiny niche. My friends pick on me a little about playing these games (not in a mean way). But there's something very addictive about running simulations and being able to play the role of a GM over a long period of simulated time in a much shorter period of real time.
If you're not sure, you have done a fantastic job with FOF, and I think it's arguably
the pioneer of these types of games. To many of us, FOF is legendary. This is especially true when you consider some of the complexities of football versus other sports that you outlined. So thank you for making these games. I would gladly buy a new one every year, and would never expect any huge leaps. We don't even see huge leaps in improvement from developers like EA and 2K with their billion dollar games. I just want these types of games to remain worth making to developers, because they have given me so much joy for 20+ years.
Sure, the UI isn't great, but it's serviceable. Of course, I remember when the UIs for text simulators were terrible and basic as hell, so maybe my viewpoint is skewed. But I would just say, keep doing what you're doing and try not to pressure yourself to make a 10/10 every year. Keep just doing what you think is best and improving as you can while considering the wants of the community.
For the other people who were talking about "gaming the system" I think one way to combat this is to have an optional "Fog of War" option where ratings are a bit more obscure and you have to make decisions based on the results and statistics you see. Yes, these games ultimately come down to crunching numbers and optimizing factors, but obfuscating somethings can automatically insert a certain "role playing" element. This can also be helped by placing modifiers in the game such as players being statistically less likely to sign with teams who fire their coach often, or trade players often. Something Madden and 2K have done that I will give them credit for is putting more importance on free agents considering things like: does this team have a franchise QB? Are they historically a winner? Are they in a tax free state? Am I likely to get more playing time based on their current roster? Are they a rebuilding team?
These are just suggestions and things that work in modern sports games. Either way, I will support FOF and the rest of these games because I know they're so niche and I feel always endangered.