The Birth of the Treefrogs (the first Desktop Dynasties dynasty)

[GoldenCrest Games]

Draft Day!!

• As expected, WR/CB Jackie Dow goes #1 to the Olives. Let's hope that doesn't end up to be the witness protection program...
  
• The Browns pass up on the QBs and grab OL/S/ST talent Lane Gaylor at #2
  
• The Cyans grab QB/LB Mortenson. I'm sure they were happy to see the Browns pass on him.
  
• ...
  
• Pick 8: The Alpacas mark their entrance in the league by taking my targeted guy OL/CB Unger. grrrrrr.. THAT'S NOT HOW YOU MAKE FRIENDS!
  
• Pick 11: Twisters make an interesting pick and take OL/ST Bret Rush. I though this might be a reach, but looking at the Twisters roster again, I think it's a solid pick. He moves in at #3 ST and probably will challenge for the OL3 spot.
  
• Pick 14: Swarm grab a similar player to the Twisters in OL/ST Alfonso Bunker. Looks like ST is going to be hard to come by at my pick.
  
• Pick 15: and now the Rainbow Sharks take OL/DL Jamison. The other guy I really wanted.
  
• Pick 16: We're up, and all my favorites are gone. I guess I can do the smart thing and grab QB/CB Kwon, and hope he'll develop into a useful 2-way player. 50 is pretty slow for CB, even on my team.
  
• Round 2 - Pick 11: Twisters grab a fairly terrible player who happens to be good at ST. Not bad for the 2nd round, I guess.
  
• Round 2 - Pick 14: Swarm grab ST Machado. I was actually looking at that guy in the 1st round for my pick, so I'd consider this a steal of a selection in the 2nd round.
  
• Round 2 - Pick 16: I just grab the strongest guy on the board who can play any DL. WM Klink

Post draft, there are 7 teams over the cap. I had anticipated using rookie salaries of $2 when I made the cap, but since I've changed to a talent-based salary system for rookies, I might have to rethink the salary cap number. We haven't even started using dead cap space yet and almost half the league is over already. It won't surprise anyone, but the Treefrogs are the farthest over the cap at $240. If I set the cap to $235 it's only us, the Olives, and the Pinks who are over. That won't leave much room for releasing players, though.

Let's see how training camp goes, and then evaluate the cap against the new league-wide talent level.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Finishing up training camp and progressions, and I think we're just about there.

I set everyone's speed to 50, set all ages to 20, and ran off 20 years of progression to see what we see. The rating itself doesn't have an impact on progression, so the trends should apply to anyone. Here are the best and worst progression curves from the league. Everyone else fits in between.

This is also without the effect of training camp. Training camp will only push progressions upwards. If you don't train something, you won't get an additional negative effect. (more on training camp in the next post)

I'll run a few more test to make sure it doesn't get weird, but I think it's about there. We'll have to keep an eye on player ratings to see how it effects our league. That's the best way to see if it's good or not.

Next up, actual training camp!!!

[GoldenCrest Games]

Swarm Training Camp:

Training camp is pretty simple. You just click & highlight whatever you want each player to focus on. No limit as to how many skills a player can train on, but each skill you pick dilutes the overall training focus. The effect is small, but it can add up over a career.

If you have a highly specialized player, you're going to get more bang by focusing on 1 rating. If you have a 2-way player, you'll be better off spreading it around. I tried to make it intuitive.

Also, there's a pretty significant decline in the later years of a career. It might end up being too aggressive, but we'll see how the overall talent looks as we go.

I can't argue with the Swarm's training camp too much. They focus on ST more than I did, but then again I have the worst ST in the league.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Twisters Training Camp

Overall, not bad. I question the decision to train Beals at QB and LB, though. The logic behind training older players is different than young players. I bet Beals is playing LB this season, and he got trained at QB because that's his most valuable position.

I also don't love Keil getting trained at WR. I'll have to refine the logic again next off season.

Just like the Swarm, the Twisters ST make mine look pathetic.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Treefrogs Training Camp:

We pretty much play to everyone's strengths. Nothing dramatic here.

I really don't love how my team is looking right now. We don't have any real focus other than OL. I may be hitting the trade market hard once the trade window opens. I have nearly $100 tied up in 3 players who's best positional rating is 73.

Not cool, bro.

[GoldenCrest Games]

I just have to clean up a few stats-related things and then Season 2 kicks off!

[GoldenCrest Games]

Slight delay as we move into season 2. I decided to take this opportunity to revamp the play system to expand playbooks and to allow for custom play design.

I'm taking the play files out of the engine, and putting them into text files. The idea is that you can edit the text files, or create an offline play designer app, and then use them in-game. This should free up a lot of memory, make it easier for me to add plays, and allow for future customization.

This might take a few days, but it's going to be worth it.

[SirBlurton]

Originally Posted by GoldenCrest Games

Slight delay as we move into season 2. I decided to take this opportunity to revamp the play system to expand playbooks and to allow for custom play design.

I'm taking the play files out of the engine, and putting them into text files. The idea is that you can edit the text files, or create an offline play designer app, and then use them in-game. This should free up a lot of memory, make it easier for me to add plays, and allow for future customization.

This might take a few days, but it's going to be worth it.

This is really interesting - is there a chance that people will be able to "break" the engine with play customization?

[GoldenCrest Games]

Originally Posted by SirBlurton

This is really interesting - is there a chance that people will be able to "break" the engine with play customization?

I'm a little worried about that, which is why I didn't design it in originally. There are a few areas I'll have to lock down in play design to keep things fair, and I'll have to do some enforcement on play importing, but it seems fairly straight forward now that the engine is stable.

The areas I worry about are:

• weird pre-snap player positioning
• unanticipated use of blockers
• weird player packages

I'm not too worried about routes, coverage, or blitzes. I already did a ton to try and break those systems, and then designed the AI to adapt to what it sees. The obvious abuses I can see are things like FBPro type "all blitz" plays or "4WR hail mary" pass plays. As of now, the AI can already handle things like that. It's really the non-action aspect of play design that could break the engine. I'll lock most of that down pretty tightly to start with, and then loosen it up as I gain confidence in the AI's ability to adjust.

[GoldenCrest Games]

The great play migration has ended! 320 plays transferred into text files, and we're ready to get cracking again.

I'm going to spend tonight updating a couple annoying interface items, and then we should be kicking off the season tomorrow.

Also, now that I have my first 2 logos back, I really want to earn that Treefrogs logo this season!

[Olsson]

I’m really enjoying this!

[GoldenCrest Games]

We're ready to start season 2! That’s pretty exciting, because it means that every phase of the game is functional now.

Regular season >> trading >> player contract extensions >> playoffs >> free agency >> college draft >> training camp >> player progressions >> next year start

It all works! WOOHOO!!

I think it’s safe to call season 1 a success. I really wanted to have all the systems working and overhaul the interface, and I got most of that done. (still some coach system stuff to do)

We even have the first 2 team logos! If you remember, the prize for getting to the title game is that the final 2 teams get real logos. Since the Purples and Rainbow Sharks made it, they both got logos and the Purples got a real team name.

First, the Rainbow Sharks:



I tried out a bunch of artists, and ended up finding 2 that have the style I like. The Rainbow Sharks is from the first artist, and the Purples logo came from the other. Actually, the Purples got a new team name. Since they are always frustrating me by taking my players and beating me in the playoffs, they got renamed as the “Nemesis”.



I don’t have the logos integrated into the game yet, but that will happen soon. Now on to season 2!

For season 2 my goal is to refine the on-field stuff as much as possible. Specifically, I want to make the plays better, the playbooks more interesting, the player AI more believable, and playcalling AI much more realistic. Along the way I’ll probably find other things to improve, but the on-field stuff is the focus for season 2. Also, because I’m not overhauling every screen I can probably move the season along at a much faster pace.

First batch of improvements today, followed by week 1 this afternoon:
Create team/style specific playbooks for the Treefrogs, Twisters, Swarm, and T-Pain.

I'd like to start using team-specific playbooks for all the sponsored teams, and general package/style playbooks for everyone else. I want to confirm that playbooks are going to be the most effective way to create team 'personality'. Team personality should be different than team effectiveness. In an ideal world, any team personality can be effective with the right players. Hopefully using playbooks (and matching coaches roster style) creates personality, while player/roster skill creates effectiveness.

Onward!

[GoldenCrest Games]

Season 2, Week 1 in the books!! WE'RE BACK!!

Treefrogs - T-Pain: I actually had a pretty tough time against the speedy T-Pain. That team has soooo much speed! I ended up going to a zone for most of the 2nd half of the game, because they were burning me on blitzes. I don't have the defenders to cover the T-Pain man to man. My new screen offense pretty much sucked, but it wasn't as bad as when I tried to drop back and throw downfield. We would have gotten rolled completely if Faulkner didn't have a MASSIVE Urquhart-like game on kick returns. Faulkner couldn't be stopped!

In the end, that's what won the game for us. Not very satisfying, but I'll take a win over the T-Pain any day.

I ended up watching about 1/4 of the Twisters-Maroons game, before turning over the Swarm-Avocados game. The Twisters were running their wide-open throw-it-all-around passing attack. It made me a little envious of all that passing. It's fun to watch. The Twisters got bogged down a few times in the red zone, but they were very consistent on offense.

After watching some of that, I switched over to the Swarm game. The Swarm run a completely different style offense. I like to call it a "power passing" offense. They line up in power running formations, and then pass out of it more than half the time. That style passing attack fascinated me because it had a completely different effect on the field than the wide-open Twisters attack. Players coming out of the backfield into patterns really opened up the 0-10 yard downfield field space, and gave the players some run-after-catch opportunities. The Twisters offense usually uses the 10-20 yard space and gets a lot more homerun balls. The Swarm attack forced good defensive spacing and tackling, while the Twisters attack forced the defense to cover WRs at high speed.

I'm really happy to see the engine and play styles take shape.

I have a nice list of things to adjust going into week 2, but none of them are going to take a lot of effort. Just some adjusting of numbers and weights, and fine-tuning defensive plays.

Oops, It looks like I forgot to change the Purples to the Nemesis in the save files.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Week 1 standings and leaders:

So it looks like all the stats reset correctly and that everything's working. *whew*

Faulkner is setting me up for another heartbreak by taking the early lead in the MVP race! Seriously, he had a massive returning effort that last game. The T-Pain special teams coverage should be ashamed.

No surprise, Luna jumps out to the passing lead for the Twisters.

I moved the salary cap to $240 this season. I don't think anyone has any players to resign this year, so that's not an issue. I'm going to implement cutting players and in-season FA signing at some point, so the dead cap space is going to start making a difference.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Trade blocks set and trade offers sent out. The Treefrogs didn't get a single offer.

The Twisters made an offer to the Rainbow Sharks, but it was pretty bad.

The Swarm actually made a pretty legit offer to the Blues. I'm curious if they'll take it. The offer makes both teams better, and really fills the Swarm need for a legit RB.

The Treefrogs are going to hit the market hard. I don't like how my team is constructed right now and I can't hope for player progression to fix it. I absolutely need to get better on defense and special teams coverage.

I'm just going to deal with the inconsistent play and build around Faulkner. Outside of that, everyone is expendable. OL/DL star Eddy is probably worth hanging on to, but everyone else is potential trade bait.

I want to get something like this:
Offense
Faulkner at RB (His best position is WR, but I play him at RB)
League-best OL
QB that can manage the game (80+)
Either a 2nd pass catching RB or some decent WRs. Either will do

Defense (The backbone of the team)
Fast LB to anchor the defense
2 Highly skilled CBs that can play decent man coverage. I don't need elite speed, but I need some ball-hawking skills.
Strong DL that can hold up to the run
After that, I just need a difference maker on defense. I don't care where.

ST:
Faulkner at KR.
A good K (80+)
2 elite special teams coverage guys
overall good-to-great special teams blocking skill

Out of all that, I probably can only claim to have Faulkner and the league's best OL. I'm close on most of it, but it's not close enough to work consistently, and my defense is terrible. I thought I could deal with a bad defense, but I can't. It's just too painful.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Bonus pic:

I took a shot of the Swarm power-passing offense. This was their favorite formation. Right after taking this shot, the Swarm ran that deep RB on a swing route to the far left, and beat the LB to the edge for a HUGE gain. Armbruster is getting doubled out at WR, so there wasn't anyone on the left side of the field for containment.

It was pretty cool.

[GoldenCrest Games]

This just in:

Nobody wants my players.

I hit the trade market hard this morning, throwing everything I could at upgrades to CB and ST. As it turns out, my players aren't worth much to anyone else. I'm pretty sure it's because I fell in love with 1-dimensional talent and young players, ignoring overall roster balance. The only time I got any interest is when I was shopping a $20+ player for a $12- player. Lopsided trades are the only way I can make changes.

I'll roll with this roster for a couple more weeks, just to see how it goes. I might end up just making those lopsided trades if I can't find a way to make my defense more effective with playcalling.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Week 2: No trades for the Twisters, Treefrogs, or Swarm

Another tough outing for the Treefrogs secondary. We did a good job bottling up anything under 10 yards, but whenever the Oranges were able to go deep, it was for a clear TD. Their WRs just outran my CBs every time.

Other than my atrocious CB play, we had a great game! Faulkner took advantage of the lack of speed at the LB position, and put up big numbers on the ground and receiving. It was pretty fun abusing the Oranges like that.

The Twisters pull out the win against the Slates in the last 10 plays. It was a close one the whole game.

Unfortunately, the Swarm fall to the T-Pain. Not a bad showing, but it sucks to get the loss.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Standings and Leaders

It looks like we're the only ones running the ball regularly right now. Probably due to some playcalling adjustments I made this offseason. I'll have to look into that before week 3.

Hard to believe it, but someone is ahead of Faulkner in return yardage! We can't have that. I better go find some additional ST blocking.

Swarm are leading the league in defense. Not surprising, but that's pretty cool. That pass defense is legit.

Developer notes:
I didn't see anything in the games that makes me worry about the player AI. It's looking pretty good right now. Playcalling AI, on the other hand, is pretty sketchy. I'm going to spend some time on that before week 3. I've also started noticing that the play design could use some work. Mostly things like QB drops being too shallow or safeties lining up in bad spots. Easy stuff to fix.

[SirBlurton]

Hah - I love that Swarm offense - definitely something that I would have been drawn to. Very cool to see the amount of "personality" in this league already!

[GoldenCrest Games]

Just completed a pretty significant overhaul of the playcalling system. (because my previous system somehow got corrupted and I had to recreate from scratch. )

I'm pretty excited to see how it works throughout the season. I designed it specifically with the Swarm and Twisters, in mind. I like how they have such different styles and rosters from eachother, and I wanted to make sure the playcalling reflects that. We already had style specific playbooks, and that worked for differentiating between teams like the Twisters and Swarm. However, what about another team that runs the same 2RB package as the Swarm, but has the players for a power running game instead of the power passing game? I really don't want them calling a lot of RB passing plays, and I don't want the Swarm calling a lot of power running plays. But then again, I don't want the Swarm to be limited in the future by the players they have now. What if they grab a stud RB that can't catch the ball? They should be able to adapt to more of a running game without completely changing the playbook.

The new playcalling system is flexible enough to handle that!

Here's how it works:
1. Game situation (down & dis) is evaluated as a basis for decision making
2. Coach looks at the roster to determine how the strengths fit the situation
3. Coach picks a style that fits the situation and player skills (power passing, running, passing, power running, etc)
4. Coach looks through the playbook and gives extra weight to the plays that fit the style/skills
5. Add some randomness into play selection to keep it from being predictable.
6. Pick the highest scoring play

For a team like the Swarm, I can have both power running and power passing plays in the playbook. The Swarm coach will call the right player for the situation AND the player skill.

For teams like the Twisters, this solves the problem of 4WR teams calling QB runs when they have crappy running QBs, or ignoring QB runs if they have a great running QB. The coach will just figure it out.

I'm pretty excited to see how this affects the actual games and team performance. Should be a fun season.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Week 3

Going into the game against the Nemesis, I checked the roster to see how the new AI would act. I anticipated a spread passing attack, with some QB runs. The Nemesis played fairly close to what I expected, but probably should have run the QB a little more. Still, progress!

Faulkner just plain torched the Nemesis defense. They had no answer to his speed in the running game or the passing game. It's becoming clear that I can't so much else, other than get the ball to Faulkner. On defense, my CBs were getting killed again. I'm now running a ridiculous prevent-style defense to keep opponent WRs from burning me deep. I rarely blitz anymore because I get burned for a TD so often.

It's hard to figure out what to do. On one hand, I can't give up my elite running game by trading off OL. On the other hand, I can't keep getting killed on defense. (and special teams coverage)

Plus, nobody really wants to give up anything for my players anyway.

Thinking this through, there's no way I can go into the playoffs with the CB play I have now. If Faulkner can't put up 4TD, I'll lose for sure. I think I have to find a way to get at least one legit coverage corner. I can't have every team's WR1 getting free shots at long TD catches.

OK, that's the goal. Find a CB1.

In other news, the Twisters are continuing offensive domination. 49 points against the Rainbow Sharks?? Wow!

Sadly, the Swarm aren't finding their groove yet.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Standings and Leaders

Not a huge change in running stats. There are a couple teams that should be creeping up the running yardage chart. I'll keep adjusting the playcalling AI.

Look who's back on the MVP chart! Luna is back! I have a feeling this season is going to be a Faulkner/Luna fight for the top spot. I'm not going to back off on feeding Faulkner, and Luna is in an explosive passing attack. Should be fun!

Lastly, there's an Urquhart sighting!!! He's back on the return charts!

[GoldenCrest Games]

Week 4:

Before going into week 4, I made a few adjustments to the playcalling AI. I realized that I didn't take into account that most playbooks have twice the number of passing plays as running plays. I made the adjustments, and now it's looking pretty good!

Of course, I then go out and get beat by the Swarm.

This was the kind of game I was worried about. Faulkner had another big game, but he got stopped on a few drives and I had nothing else. The Swarm were able to beat my secondary regularly for long TDs, and that was the end of that. I ended up trying my 2 fastest players at CB (Poston and Faulkner) just to keep up with the Swarm receivers, but it didn't matter. I guess I thought of that trick when I wrote the passing AI, and the QB wasn't fooled. Even if coverage looked tighter, he could see that my guy had no idea what he was doing, and threw at him anyway.

Twisters keep on rolling with another 30+ point game. Looking good!

There are a couple things I want to tighten up before next game:
1. I think DL players might need a little help. They're having a hard time beating pass blocking, even if it's a mismatch in their favor.
2. Punt and kick returns need a little work. Too many guys are having a hard time avoiding open field tacklers. It's not terrible, but it happens to often.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Week 4 standings and leaders

There goes Luna, dominating the passing leaders again.

The Oranges #2 receiving leader WR Koskie is a guy I've been trying to land in trade for a while now. He's a really good CB with respectable speed. It's the WR skill that's making him impossible for me to get. grrrrr.....

I'm not even going to count the rushing numbers until someone catches up to Faulkner, but he's back on top in return yards! Let's pretend that's not because the Swarm kicked off so many times last game...


Rushing numbers still aren't right. I had to dig into it, and I figured out why.

Nobody is starting their top RBs.

I shouldn't say "nobody", it's just that most of the top 5-6 RBs are on teams that run the 4WR set. As it turns out, when I changed over to the new playbook style, I set everyone to 4WR offense, just to test. I only reset the sponsored teams, and the AI teams I was interested in, back to their normal offenses. That left 4 teams with a stud RB buried at WR4. (one team just had the wrong playbook)

It was really a league-file error, but still needed to get fixed. Fixed all that, and we're back on track!

[jct32]

Is this the dream season for the Twisters?

[GoldenCrest Games]

Sure seems like it so far!

[GoldenCrest Games]

On the pre-Week 5 game updates....

After running though it again this morning, I think the DL/OL and returning play AI can wait. It's actually not that bad.

Right now I'm a lot more interested in getting into league history. I want to see how career leaders are starting to shape up, and I know it's only going to become more interesting after every season. Might as well get that going now, so we don't lose much history as the seasons start to pile up. I don't want to overdo the amount of data that gets saved. I'm already having a hard time dealing with the game data as it is. Then again, it's cool to have a lot of league history saved up when you get to leagues that run for multiple decades.

I might have to think about that one for a while.

The other thing I want to do early this season is get more play design done. I don't love some of the playbooks right now. I think the power-passing plays could use some work, and most of my screen passes are complete garbage.

That's probably a good use of today's time.

[GoldenCrest Games]

I ended up getting sucked down the rabbit hole of trying to find a trade to get a decent CB or S.

No takers

I've officially given up. Nobody wants my players. The lack of well-rounded players is killing me in the trade market. I'll just do my best with the roster I have, and see what I can do in the offseason.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Ok, forget all that stuff I said before.

I got frustrated shopping for trades, so I built a shopping screen. It also functions as an in-season FA shopping screen.

What trade shopping does is pull all players from the trade block. This is the league-wide list of all trade blocks. It's nearly impossible to pry a non-trade block player from a team, so this represents everyone who is realistically available.

Take a look at who the #2 CB available is...... yeah, that's the guy I let go in FA last offseason.

I sure wish I had him now.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Even that was too much work for me.

Now you can highlight a player and click the "Shop Player" button, and the shopping screen will come up with all the players you can get in a straight up 1-for-1 trade.

Almost all my players bring up an empty list, but at least I know for sure now.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Week 5

Wow! Look at the Swarm beading up on the Nemesis! Good. We don't like them anyway.

The Treefrogs roll all over the Blues. The Blues are a shockingly slow team from top to bottom. Once I figured out the insane speed mismatch, we completely abandoned the pass and Faulkner ran all over them. Also, this is the one team we could match up with on defense. A straight man defense with a blitzer was extremely effective against these guys.

Twisters pull out a close one. How in the world did they get held to 10 points??

Still, a win is a win.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Standings and Leaders

That 1 TD game for Luna really hurt him in the MVP race. Ouch!! Come on man!

It looks like rushing numbers are now starting to creep up. That's good. It looked like realistic rushing in my last game, so I'm feeling pretty good about it now. Unfortunately, Faulkner had quite a head-start on everyone, so this might be an outlier year for the rushing title winner.

You might notice the drastic drop in the Treefrogs team salary. We moved $21 of salary to the Browns. I pulled the plug on my 1st round pick QB/CB Kwon. I don't think he's going to turn into much, and I don't want his salary on the books for 2 years.

Unfortunately, nobody wants him.

In order to move him, I needed to package a player that a lot of teams want. CB/LB Crossley. Crossley is a pretty useful defensive player. He's well balanced in strength and speed, and can play multiple positions. I was using him as LB2 in my base package, and he let me blitz Poston every once in a while because he was ok playing zone defense or holding up blockers against the run.

There was a decent market for him, but I couldn't land a legitimate cover corner. In the end, he was the chip I used to unload Kwon. I send Kwon and Crossley over to the Browns for 2 extremely cheap scrubs.

This whole exchange drove me to another design decision. Starting this offseason, I'm going to let teams skip their draft picks. If it's your turn to draft, and you don't want to commit the salary or roster spot, you just skip your pick. I would have thought hard about skipping both my picks last offseason, if I could.

I have a long list of little updates to make to the game engine before next game. It's all little stuff, so it should be hard to get it in over the next day or so. One item is to allow me to jump into a AI vs AI game and watch it in progress. (instead of watching it in the development window) Can't wait for that to work!

[GoldenCrest Games]

HA!

I found a bug that's eluded me for the past 6+ months!!!

I could never figure out why my returners and RB weren't living up to early-Urquhart performance standards. His returning in traffic was legendary, and nobody has ever come close to it. (even with the same ratings) It's something that's always bothered me, and I could never find the reason why. Frankly, I missed the magic of watching Urquhart abuse coverage teams regularly.

I was working on something unrelated when I saw something that didn't look right. I'm all "why am I measuring the distance between a defender and the potential movement target by calculating the distance between the defender and the ball carrier?"

Oh, because of auto-complete! Both distances start with the same characters, but the wrong one pops up first in the autocomplete list.

Anyway, FIXED!

Get ready for rushing and returning numbers to catch up with passing numbers.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Week 6

We actually struggled against the Silvers this week. That's weird, because they are a 1-win team right now. After the running AI update, Faulkner looked great! It was a lot of fun seeing the great cuts again in the return and running game. The Silvers were always able to make that one tackle before Faulkner broke it for a long TD run, though. The Silvers D-line did a great job holding up my OL, and refusing to give up those huge running lanes I've had against everyone else. It seems like the DL/OL updates are paying off, too.

While on defense, we had to be really careful. I was scared to death that RB Hardiman was going to run all over us, so I stayed in a really wide (and safe) zone defense. Hardiman still did a number on us, but he never broke that huge run for a TD. It also helps that the Silvers missed 3 FGs.

The Twisters just embarrass the Pinks. Seriously, 42-0??? I think they are putting the rest of us on notice.

It looks like the Swarm are getting on track again. They really need to find that franchise QB, or they are going to stay inconsistent. They are getting by right now because of the short passing game, but it's going to catch up with them if they don't get someone who can throw more consistently.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Is it too early to call that last running AI update "The Urquhart Update"??

And just like that, Urquhart is back!! From irrelevance, to #2!

Luna made the most of that 42 point outing to grab the top spot in passing leaders, and close the gap in the MVP race. I had to go back and see how big of a mistake the trade was that sent Luna to the Twisters. The funny thing is that it's wasn't that bad of a trade! Given what I was up against, I'd do it again. Still, my current QB isn't a whole lot different than Luna. It's not like Luna is a 99 rated QB, he's in the low 80's. There are lots of those guys!

It must just be a situation of the right guy, in the right system, with the right supporting cast.

In any case, the Twisters are rolling. They have the 2nd best offense (behind the Treefrogs) and the top defense!

The Swarm are challenging us for control of the West. I have a feeling this could last the rest of the season. The bottom 6 teams in the West haven't shown much ability to stand up to the top-4, so this season could be all about bragging rights at the top. Let's just hope the Nemesis don't make the playoffs this year.....

[GoldenCrest Games]

Uh oh......

That's not a good matchup.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Week 7

Week 7 for the Treefrogs was all about testing out a bunch of new Gator package plays. I eliminated about 1/3 of the Gator package, because it wasn't consistent with the constraints I put on each style of play. For example, I had a bunch of plays where I split the RB out wide. That's not really in the spirit of running a package that features the RB and an extra OL. That's just a cheezy way of running a 3WR package without having to find a 3rd WR. It makes a lot more sense to run those passing plays with the RB coming out of the backfield!

Yeah, it's kind of nitpicky, but I like how it makes styles feel different.

So I deleted a bunch of Gator plays and replaced them with pass plays that feature the RB out of the backfield. I don't have many of these in the stock playbooks, so it's a good time to stat working on that. The result was a significantly upgraded passing attack for the Treefrogs! SWEET! Also, it's a lot of fun running a version of the power-passing attack. I may switch to the Rhino next season, and run something similar to the Swarm.

Speaking of the Swarm, I ended up watching the last 10 plays of the Swarm game. It was tight! 1 point difference, and the Silvers get the ball with 10 plays to go. Hardiman almost broke a run around the right side with 5 plays to go, but he got chased down by the last man. (I think it was Armbruster, by the speed)

It ended up coming down to a 25-30 yard FG on the last play, which wasn't ever close! Short and off to the left, and the Swarm pull out another close victory!

[GoldenCrest Games]

Standings and leaders

Luna is closing the MVP gap again! Uh oh....

I'm starting to work on defensive play design now, so we may see some of the passing numbers slow down. However, Luna's passing lead is going to be hard to overcome. I't probably a good bet he wins the passing title.

I'm starting to get fascinated with Urquhart again. He's closing in on the return title! Nice to see him back.

[jct32]

Nice to see the Twisters putting everything together. Hopefully, we can keep it up.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Week 8:

Twisters get held to 12 points! Wow! I kind of wish I watched that game instead of watching some dumb show about the President's book of secrets.

I hope you all noticed the new addition to the schedule screen. Top Performances are working! That feature is to pull out the top 2 performances (by the MVP rating formula) for the week. It's not really that important, just an interesting bit of data that I wanted to see each week.

The Treefrogs game went about as close to the script as you could get. Both teams were held in check in the running game. Both teams were fairly explosive in the return game. My edge came in the passing game. The Alpacas slowed down Faulkner, but couldn't stop him. He eventually broke a couple for TD. On defense, I've completely given up man defense and run a 3-deep zone defense now. Sometimes I blitz out of it, but I'm usually just dropping back into a deep zone to slow down the other team's offense. Basically, I'm waiting for them to make a mistake.

Yeah, it's pretty sad. That's what we've become.

Don't look at me.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Standings and leaders:

In the west, I think it's pretty safe to say the playoff race is already over. I can't see any of the bottom 6 teams putting up a serious fight.

The east is looking competitive! Aside from the Twisters dominating everyone, it's pretty tight from 2-6. The bottom 4 teams are just sad.

Look at that! Urquhart is back to #1 for return yards!! Nice!

In other development news, I'm spending a lot more time on defense, and making the game playable for other people to experiment with. I still have a few really big items to get done before it's ready (fast-sim) but that's what I'm focusing on now.

I was planning on doing a kickstarter, and was almost ready to kick it off, but then I ultimately decided to abandon it. I finally came to the conclusion that it probably wasn't going to be worth the time and effort. To be worth the time it takes to run a 30 day campaign, I'd need to raise something like $25k-$30k. The chances of raising that are pretty slim these days. If I didn't meet the goal, then I essentially wasted a month of development time, and have nothing to show for it.

For me, the time is worth more than the money. I need to release this by August. (for a variety of reasons)

So, what do we do now? Well, my new plan is to open up alpha and beta testing to whoever wants to be a part of it. I'll use that 'extra' month to get to testing quicker. The extra kickstarter cash would have been useful to get more art and sound, but I can scale back on my plans for that. I'm funded enough to get through development, as long as I don't go overboard on the 'nice-to-haves'.

[GoldenCrest Games]

I'm pretty pumped about today's update!

All the playcalling AI has been updated!! It's exciting because now the playcalling AI is complete. AI teams will do all the cool things like:

• Pass up FGs and go for it, if they are behind by more than 3 and the game is getting near the end
• Go for it on 4th instead of punting if they are behind at the end of a game, or if it's in a safe part of the field and it's 4th and <1, or if it's in the middle of the field and they just don't have a good kicker (punter).
• Adjust both offensive and defensive playcalling based on team strengths and weaknesses
• The defense waits for the offense to call the play first, and then picks the defensive play. (seems silly, but this was harder than you'd think)
• You can go for it on any random 4th down, and the defensive AI won't get caught assuming you're punting or kicking a FG.

I'm sure I'm forgetting a couple little things, but you get it. Basically, the playcalling AI is ready to play a realistic brand of football!

That's pretty exciting. I've always had to have some house rules for playcalling, because the AI couldn't adjust to me doing crazy stuff with my gameplan. Now they can adjust, and I can just play the game.

[jct32]

I'm just going to consider these changes and any other changes after this an attempt to nerf the Twisters ;P

[GoldenCrest Games]

Originally Posted by jct32

I'm just going to consider these changes and any other changes after this an attempt to nerf the Twisters ;P

[GoldenCrest Games]

Weeks 9 and 10

Ran 2 weeks in a row this time.

I a shocker, the Twisters fall to the Olives!!

But then, they follow that up by beating down the Treefrogs.

The Swarm, on the other hand, pitch 2 shutouts in a row!!

[GoldenCrest Games]

Standings and leaders

Wow, the Swarm jump up to the top spot in the West! That defense is scary good.

The playoff teams are all starting to separate themselves from the rest, even in the east.

Looks like Luna has had a couple tough games. His passing lead hasn't grown much, and he's fading in the MVP race. I guess the Twisters nerfing is taking hold!

[GoldenCrest Games]

The reason the Twisters seem to have been nerfed was because they started falling in love with WR screens. (after the last AI update) WR screens mostly suck right now. There are a few good ones, but not all 6 the Twisters had in their playbook!!

I just reworked the Twisters playbook to make it less screen-heavy, and to add a few new spread plays.

We can't have Luna lose that passing title!

[jct32]

Knew we were getting nerfed! We don't have Mark Richt at the helm! Not so many bubble screens!

Looks like we might have some challengers in the East with the Olives.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Originally Posted by jct32

Knew we were getting nerfed! We don't have Mark Richt at the helm! Not so many bubble screens!

Looks like we might have some challengers in the East with the Olives.

I think a lot of those were leftovers from back when I was running a 4WR screen offense. Once the AI started taking team strengths into account, those screens looked pretty good!

Too bad the AI didn't know they were designed poorly.