Discussion: My new project

[GoldenEagle]

After talking it over with several members of the community, I have decided to undertake a project that I think, eventually the FOF community will come to enjoy greatly. I am in the process of beginning a new web driven game, which will be open strictly, at first, to FOFCers. The game is a college football game, in which you will log on to the server will run on. You will then make decisions as far as game plans, coaching staff, recruiting, economy, etc. It will basically involve all the faucets of college football. The game will be similar to Hattrick, for those of you who are familiar with that.

I am currently in the process of learning PHP/MySQL. The tutorials are going very well and I plan on beginning work on the initial website and linking the database sometime tonight. I have no timetable as to when the game will be testable. Please keep in mind that this project is in the preliminary and may or may not ever get off the ground.

However, I wanted to announce the project with the intent to hear from the community. I will post later my ideas for the game and I would like other ideas as we proceed. I think right now it has a lot of potential. The game will use, at this time, only Division 1-A teams. This thread will simply be used for discussion of the project and I will hopefully update daily.

[Franklinnoble]

Sweet idea... if it's anything like Hattrick, you'll probably have more than enough beta testers to abuse around here.

[Butter]

Hattrick almost made me click off the thread.... then I heard "college football".

Good luck, and I'll be first in line to try the end product.

[FrogMan]

GE, you got my support and as much of my free time I can gather to test it out for/with you...

Good luck!

FM

[Franklinnoble]

Do you have your own webserver, or are you using a hosting service? Server demand could get real high (and real expensive) real fast...

[The Afoci]

I am in.

[McSweeny]

i'm in too

[samifan24]

Sounds very interesting. I'm definately interested. Good luck!!

[tucker342]

Sounds very interesting.... keep us updated!

[JeeberD]

Sounds like fun!

[sabotai]

If you need any help, just shoot me a PM. (Note: I know neither PHP or MySQL. But anything else, ask away.)

[andy m]

Originally posted by GoldenEagle
It will basically involve all the faucets of college football.

man, that's a heck of a lot of taps you're going to be simulating there.

[Celeval]

I'm in.

[GoldenEagle]

First of all, I would like to thank everyone for their support. It means a great deal me to know that everyone is supportive of the project. Franklin, at this time I do not have a server. However I plan on investing in one soon. I am sure the FOFC community will be beneficial in helping me pick out a quality server. I do not think the server will have that much traffic. If you look at it, there will be 120 teams with owners logging in 3 or 4 times a day. I could be wrong, and correct me if I am, but that is not a lot of traffic.

Ok, now I want to get you excited about the actual game play. First of all, I will use ratings on a scale of 1-20, and I will use words similar to Hattrick for the ratings. When you recruit players they will have no set position. You will look at their ratings and judge where you want to train them at. You will be able to train all positions and coaching staff will be critical for the development of your players. I have not decided how I am going to set up the exacts of training. I think you will be able to set up daily practices. Players will develop according to how much ’attention’ they get in practice, rather it be in individual work outs or playing time in the daily scrimmage.

Recruits will have an athletic talent rating. This will be their ability to learn a new position at the college level. Say you have a kid who has an average arm but loads of speed. If he is a good athlete, the transition to receiver or another skill position will be easy. The actual recruiting will work on a money budget, which I will get to later. Basically you will send ‘scouts’ to a particular high school. They will report back with findings. You will save a lot of money if you concentrate in one particular area and do not spread out your recruiting. In addition, you may also select one region of the country where you will automatically receive information without having to send scouts there. The cost will depend on how far the region is from your campus. But, say you know Northeast Texas is loaded with talent. It may save you money to select this region instead of sending scouts there. This will help the teams in talent rich part of the countries, which I think adds a bonus to the game.

The next topic of address is your budget. You will be issued a yearly budget from the athletic department in which you will have to stay within in the lines or risk your job. You will have to spend money on recruiting, facilities, stadium upgrades, tutors, etc. You can generate more cash for your team by putting fans in the seats. Obviously, teams with a higher prestige will start off with higher budgets.

Another topic that I have is fan base and alumni. Every state will be divided into regions. In those regions, one or more teams will have fan bases with alumni. The alumni will be your ’first’ scouts. You will get letters from alumni telling you about certain players. They could be a diamond in the rough or it could be his on son who can’t make third string punter. You will have to decide who to pursue. How can you expand your fan base? You can select to spend money to speak at banquets and meetings which will establish your reputation. This will cut down on recruiting and can send your scouts to other parts of the country if the alumni and fan base is looking out for you.

These are just early ideas but I am certain all of them will be in the game. Any others are more than welcome. Let’s get a good discussion going on.

[TargetPractice6]

Obviously, teams with a higher prestige will start off with higher budgets.

This may lead to a lot of "rich get richer" complaining that you find in HT.

[illinifan999]

Oh I am soooo in. As much free time, I will help test it out for ya.

[fantastic flying froggies]

Excellent idea ! Definitely in...

[Blade6119]

I call Arizona State!!!...is this all multi-player, beause if so souldn't we call teams?

[GoldenEagle]

Originally posted by Blade6119
I call Arizona State!!!...is this all multi-player, beause if so souldn't we call teams?

Let's make sure we get off the ground first before calling teams. I will be back later with an update of what I did last night, but right now I have to go to class.

If anyone has a link to quality, crisp college logos, would you please post that link here.

[GoldenEagle]

Ok, guys. I started laying out the basic web design today. While I am still lacking graphics (I will contact someone on this later), I have been impressed with the site so far. The layout is fairly simple, nothing overwhelmingly complex. I think it easy to navigate with a frame on the left side, similar to Hattrick. I have run into some problems with passwords. If anyone knows how to code this, let me know please.

I also need a name for the game. I know the FOFC community is very creative. I would like a football term, maybe even a college term. If anyone has suggestions please post them here. I have not decided on the color code yet for the site. It will probably depend on the graphics I can come up with. I hope to have a screen shot of a team page up later (If I can figure out how to do it through my HTML editor)

Designing the website is the easy part. Writing the PHP and linking it up to the database is more difficult. It is like building a house and having to add electricity. The toughest part for me is going to be writing the actual game engine code, which will decide the games. Hopefully I can get some help from other programmers around the board. Hopefully I will be back with that screen shot tonight.

[GrantDawg]

Mike-back Blitz...first thing that came to mind.

[Franklinnoble]

"Fumblerooski" has a nice ring to it...

[FrogMan]

Originally posted by TargetPractice6
This may lead to a lot of "rich get richer" complaining that you find in HT.

But if you implement it with some sort of tougher demands for results you get to your, or else your budget is cut, then you'd have to deliver in order to keep your big budget. That's one thing absent from HT, there's no reall demand from higher up...

FM

[3ric]

I'd gladly help out in any way. Great idea!

[condors]

for a name Gridiron Academics was the first thing i thought of

[GoldenEagle]

Originally posted by FrogMan
But if you implement it with some sort of tougher demands for results you get to your, or else your budget is cut, then you'd have to deliver in order to keep your big budget. That's one thing absent from HT, there's no reall demand from higher up...

FM

I think we can do this if we have a contingent of FOFCers who know that losing your job for under performing could happen. However, there has to be a gurantee that you will always have a team. In other words, no outside coaches, like from the NFL. I guess its something we can vote on.

[FrogMan]

Originally posted by GoldenEagle
I think we can do this if we have a contingent of FOFCers who know that losing your job for under performing could happen. However, there has to be a gurantee that you will always have a team. In other words, no outside coaches, like from the NFL. I guess its something we can vote on.

I wasn't thinking really in terms of losing your job, but in terms of making it tougher for teams with higher prestige to maintain big budget. As if the alumni would be very ecstatic with a good season, but also very pissed with an average season (meaning it's less forgiving for a high prestige school, so its average season has a higher standard than the higher season of a lower prestige school)...

FM

[MrBug708]

Since I sold you CM4 for below what you could have gotten it, I'd expect to be one of the first users

[MrBug708]

Dola

And get UCLA as well

[JeeberD]

I'm guessing that I won't have any competition for UTEP...

Oh, and for a name the first thing that popped into my head was "Playing on Saturday"...

[TargetPractice6]

Are you planning on putting real colleges in or something? And how willt he league structure work? Will it be something like that college basketball game where there are several unrelated league (with theur own tournament and such)? I would also imagine there will be conferences in each league (if there are more than one). Oh and how will you handle the post season? Will you implement bowl games or a tournament?

[GoldenEagle]

FrogMan - I concur with you. There will be an ‘alumni donations’ income in the economy section. If you do not win, the alumni will not be happy and your donations will decrease. I think incorporating job changing would be to advanced for an online simulation game.

TargetPractice6 - There will be real colleges with current prestige levels. The league structure will be divided into conferences as realistically as possible. Scheduling will be left up to the user. At this time, there will only be one league, so spots will be limited. I do not know about the future, but right now the plans is to have just the Division 1-A teams and have 120 owners. Hopefully they will all be FOFCers. Post season will be the current bowls that college football have. Hopefully the site will look fresh with all the bowl logos, etc. We will probably form a Bowl Committee and vote on which teams will be placed in each bowls.

[mckerney]

I like hattrick .

More than happy to help you test it out.

[sterlingice]

Ooh! I can help when the time comes. I'll even take awful Kansas if you need someone for that uneviable task

SI

[Noop]

I am interested I call deebs on Florida State.

[Bubba Wheels]

Which game will be out first, yours or Maximum Football?

[Airhog]

IT would be nice if users only scheduled the non-conference portion of the game. then play out the regular conference season.

[Desnudo]

Originally Posted by GoldenEagle

I do not think the server will have that much traffic. If you look at it, there will be 120 teams with owners logging in 3 or 4 times a day. I could be wrong, and correct me if I am, but that is not a lot of traffic.

Sounds like an interesting idea. I'd definitely give it a shot. The thing you'll need to consider with the server(s) is concurrent (simultaneous) users, not total logins per day. You may only have 120 teams initially, but 50 of those may log in from 7-9 PM EST every day.

[Bubba Wheels]

One suggestion: When an owner/coach quits a team, have a system that rewards winning records of other coachs to take over that same team if they so desire...kinda like real life, so the bignames will always have competition from the winningest coaches to take them over and will always be in the top-tier of teams.

[RendeR]

This sounds awesome, I'd like a shot when its up and running =)

[sachmo71]

GE: Are you going to stil have time to run the CFL?

[TargetPractice6]

Originally Posted by sachmo71

GE: Are you going to stil have time to run the CFL?

He started this thread last September.

[SegRat]

Count me in.

[Sublime]

Sounds pimptacular!

[GoldenEagle]

I was a bit surprised to see this bumped. Anyway, expect an announcement soon.