Alright Boyz, Here We Go!!! Front Office Football 9 Impressions

[cupofjoe]

I'm a few hours in. I may be in the minority, but for me the UI isn't as bad as some claim. Definitely not the prettiest thing, but I'm enjoying the functions.

I think I like the new trade function...not 100% sure though, it definitely makes it harder to cheat the system.

One big issue I'm having is putting an injured player on IR. It doesn't seem to work. I click it on the drop down menu and nothing happens.

[Cole]

Has anyone successfully gotten a custom player portrait to work?

I followed these instructions from the manual:

You can create a 150×150 bitmap for use with any individual player, though this will only work within one universe. The Universe ID can be used as a file name. For instance, if you want to create a custom bitmap for a player with the Universe ID 1465, create a 150×150 bitmap called 1465.bmp. Place that file in the following folder: C:\\Users\Your_Profile_Name\AppData\Local\Solecismic Software\Front Office Football Nine\saved_games\Your_Universe_Name\portraits.

My files are 150 x 150 bitmaps, but still nothing seems to be showing up. I even tried closing the game and rebooting again for change to take effect. Wondering what I may be missing?

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by cupofjoe

One big issue I'm having is putting an injured player on IR. It doesn't seem to work. I click it on the drop down menu and nothing happens.

updates [Front Office Football Nine Documentation]

[jaygr]

For fun I tried running this on the Steam Deck. It starts up fine, keyboard and touch seem to work, and the touchpads control the mouse. That said, the window doesn't expand fully to fit the screen and about 1/4 of the right side doesn't show. Therefore, I didn't get very far as I wasn't able to start a new league because the buttons were hidden.

[Lonnie]

Is there a problem with Win11 ? Doesn't want to launch from Steam or directly.

Steam:
Steam - Game Launch Failed
Front Office Football Nine Failed to start (error code 51).

Direct:
Application load error 3:0000065432

[james17]

Really feeling stupid here. I know I saw a post somewhere that stated how to change the team nicknames and I thought I followed the directions but when I started a new league all the default nicknames are there instead.


Could someone point out to me how to do this or where to find out how to do this?

[Ben E Lou]

Has anyone figured out how to sign your own RFAs during Free Agency? I'm getting a message saying that I can't make an offer until late free agency.

[jaygr]

Originally Posted by james17

Really feeling stupid here. I know I saw a post somewhere that stated how to change the team nicknames and I thought I followed the directions but when I started a new league all the default nicknames are there instead.


Could someone point out to me how to do this or where to find out how to do this?

Make sure the file you are editing is the team_info.csv one. You can update for all years, but for me I was starting a 2023 league, so I only updated the 2023 entries at the bottom.

[BucDawg40]

Originally Posted by HansMellman

Is there an official channel for reporting bugs of this nature? or does Jim pick these up from here - this is my first release

Best way to report this bug or any other is to email [email protected]

Let's hope he sees your issue and gets it fixed in the first patch!

[james17]

Originally Posted by jaygr

Make sure the file you are editing is the team_info.csv one. You can update for all years, but for me I was starting a 2023 league, so I only updated the 2023 entries at the bottom.

All I want to do is the 2023 entries too but I'm apparently confused by what format do I save the modified file to (.csv, Excel 97, ??).

[Qwikshot]

I tried twice to trade for Kevin Byard for the Eagles. Both times I accepted the received offer and both times it crashed to desktop.

[Qwikshot]

I did it a third time. The first two were in pre-season, the last was during the season.

[HansMellman]

Originally Posted by BucDawg40

Best way to report this bug or any other is to email [email protected]

Let's hope he sees your issue and gets it fixed in the first patch!

Thanks, I'd seen [email protected] floated around somewhere as the email, do you know which is correct for sure?

EDIT - nevermind I've just seen that the address you'd listed is given on the contact page of the help file. Thanks!

[Qwikshot]

Also it appears that it doesn't set ticket prices your first season, so you get no money from tickets.

[jcard]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

First thoughts...

• [b]
• I think I'm going to like the interface, but right now it's just really different--even just little things like player cards. For example, on QBs, "likes to run" is near the top of the screen in the bar profile rather than near the bottom. My eyes still go immediately to the bottom when looking for that.[/

Being able to assign attribute-specific colors to the rating bars / values on the player card would make studying those cards much more efficient. I appreciate that (going off of the posted documentation) it seems navigating between cards has been streamlined with the arrows, but trying to quickly focus on the correct indistinct row in a block of red aphorism is (based on FOF8 experience) unsatisfying.

[sovereignstar v2]

The most jarring UI thing has to be the back and forward buttons and up/down player breadcrumbs. I don't know if it's because I'm at 4k resolution, but the four buttons and clickable areas are smaller than my front teeth. Oof

They need to be at least a little bigger and there needs to be more space between them so you don't have to be super precise with your click.

Here is what it'd look like with the buttons 150% bigger, spaced further apart. The yellow box would be the hit area.

[Marmel]

I don't know if this is the place for suggestions, but on the roster page I think it is imperative to have their contract end date on the same screen as their overall ratings. Multiple times per year I do a review of my roster and the two most important things are their rating and when their contract ends. It would save me hundreds of clicks.

[MIJB#19]

The UI requires some getting used to so far.

One thing in the interface that throws me off guard is that the screens where you can and the ones where you can't sort, they look so similar. The ones where you can't sort, I keep trying but nothing happens.

I also get a bit dropdown clicking tired in places where FOF8 things were 1 click away on different tabs. For example when you want to look at receiving statistics for your RB, now you need two clicks and two mouse swipes.

The global settings button and sim button are touching each other, I accidentally hit the sim button when I wanted to chance settings.
It would probably also make more sense to have the AI settings button sit right underneath the global settings button.



The other way around, I really like that some screens now have team filters where they were not there in FOF8 and give you a chance to look at them in the past, like the Transaction Log screen.

[IlliniCub]

When coaching games I wish we had the option for it to not automatically clear the results of the last play and possibly keep that up until the next play starts

[K1ng_L1zard]

Feels like I'm crazy here but I cannot figure out how to call plays in a game?

[Dales]

I am more of a casual player than most on this forum, but obviously I like the franchise since I bought it day one.

But I tell you what-- I would LOVE for more experienced players, once they get used to the new UI and really get into all of the features and all, for some to make YouTube videos walking through the way they handle playbooks, gameplans, and all. Years after buying FOF8, I am still intimidated by all of that.

ETA- the reason I suggest vids is that a lot of us are visual learners. Or we are when it comes to games

[Dales]

Originally Posted by K1ng_L1zard

Feels like I'm crazy here but I cannot figure out how to call plays in a game?

Look towards the upper right of the game screen.

[Dales]

Originally Posted by james17

Really feeling stupid here. I know I saw a post somewhere that stated how to change the team nicknames and I thought I followed the directions but when I started a new league all the default nicknames are there instead.


Could someone point out to me how to do this or where to find out how to do this?

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Front Office Football Nine\default_data

Edit team_info.csv (there are rows for every year; first time I tried I did it only for the first year in the file which is not 2023).

You can only edit before starting a universe from what I understand. I am sure someone will correct me if I am wrong.

[Dales]

Originally Posted by james17

All I want to do is the 2023 entries too but I'm apparently confused by what format do I save the modified file to (.csv, Excel 97, ??).

csv

[K1ng_L1zard]

Originally Posted by Dales

Look towards the upper right of the game screen.

Turns out my issue was that I didn't have the option for "Show/Control Your Team's Games" checked on the schedule page. Thank you for the help.

[rkmsuf]

Originally Posted by Olsson

Trade HQ has Name, Pos, Exp, Cur, Fut, End of contract, Cap cost

It doesn't include rookies and current expiring contracts though. I really hope Jim adresses the cur/fut on the contracts screen.

not to be negative but the view roster views are broken. used to be able to see the cap info in addition to number of players.

unless I'm missing a view.

[INDalltheway]

Originally Posted by EagleFan

Wow, simmed the first season just to see and Anthony Richardson would be booed out of Indianapolis after that season. 34 interceptions, 14 more than 2nd place Ryan Tannehill who had 20.

Also, Jaylen Waddle led the league with an astounding 174 receptions but was also 5th in the league with 15 drops.

That sounds like a Peyton Manning rookie season to me. I will take the outcome of that career

[BKL]

This is a great game, and definitely seems like an upgrade from FOF8 (also a great game). The interface is certainly an improvement over the last game! I have seen many new games where people complain about a change in interface and within a few weeks no one says anything about the UI because they have gotten used to it and it turns out to be fine. This will likely be the case here. I’m enjoying the game and new interface. Thanks for your work on this!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Cole]

I’ve been playing OOTP for years and I like the UI, so navigating around the game hasn’t been too tough for me. My biggest challenge comes from the fact that I’m relatively inexperienced with FOF in general, so it’s more about determining what info of all the game produces that I’m most often going to need to use.

My biggest gripe is as others have mentioned with the player cards I wish stats were on main page…

I also think the team logo needs to be on the player card somewhere, as the actual team the player plays for is just written in small text as opposed to your brain seeing the logo and being able to quickly associate a player with a team…

I’d actually like it if the team logo was the default player card logo, like past gsmes, instead of the state flags thing, which is kind of random.

[Gallifrey]

Originally Posted by Cole

Has anyone successfully gotten a custom player portrait to work?

I followed these instructions from the manual:



My files are 150 x 150 bitmaps, but still nothing seems to be showing up. I even tried closing the game and rebooting again for change to take effect. Wondering what I may be missing?

I just changed the portraits to the NFL logo (in the universe). It works.
I think you mean the players default flags?

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Front Office Football Nine\artwork\flags

[nickelback]

55 game plan play limit? This is a joke.

[james17]

Originally Posted by Dales

csv

Thanks Dales!

[james17]

Hey...just started to play my first game...love the in-game play interface...a big improvement over FOF8. I actually got some excitement calling the plays for my team. And now you can save a game your calling plays for during the game. I always wanted that feature. Nicely done Jim!

[Ben E Lou]

I bought FOF1 in Fall 1998. I've been playing it for 25 years. I'll be 55 next month. At this point, I should have already known that I'm getting old, but FOF9 just confirmed that for me.


How did FOF confirm that, you ask???


Because, for the first time in my life, I increased the font size of a game from the default, and WOW, it made a gigantic difference. 14-point Arial ftw. #OldManVibes

[cupofjoe]

Originally Posted by Marmel

I don't know if this is the place for suggestions, but on the roster page I think it is imperative to have their contract end date on the same screen as their overall ratings. Multiple times per year I do a review of my roster and the two most important things are their rating and when their contract ends. It would save me hundreds of clicks.

Yes please!

[Cole]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

Because, for the first time in my life, I increased the font size of a game from the default, and WOW, it made a gigantic difference. 14-point Arial ftw. #OldManVibes

Only 39 here, but in my first play through I was finding the default font a bit tough on the eyes too. I experimented with different sizes of the default font, but didn’t try a new one. I’ll give Arial a whirl

[Cole]

Originally Posted by Gallifrey

I just changed the portraits to the NFL logo (in the universe). It works.
I think you mean the players default flags?

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Front Office Football Nine\artwork\flags

I meant changing the flags on the player card to be a custom portrait.

Unfortunately I’ve come to realize it’s some sort of issue with the files I created … even though they’re 150 x 150 bmps, they aren’t showing up … but I tried using some of Nawlinfans logos as a player portrait and it worked fine.

So now I’m trying to troubleshoot what’s wrong with my files. Sure hope I can sort it out, or the 2,200 player fictional facepack I made will be useless

[jamesUMD]

Originally Posted by Cole

Only 39 here, but in my first play through I was finding the default font a bit tough on the eyes too. I experimented with different sizes of the default font, but didn’t try a new one. I’ll give Arial a whirl

Ben is right. I didn't want to mess with the font, BUT that is so much better, Arial Regular 14 for me.

[Cole]

Originally Posted by jamesUMD

Ben is right. I didn't want to mess with the font, BUT that is so much better, Arial Regular 14 for me.

Yes! Just tried it, and it's MUCH better!

[Gallifrey]

Originally Posted by Cole

I meant changing the flags on the player card to be a custom portrait.

Unfortunately I’ve come to realize it’s some sort of issue with the files I created … even though they’re 150 x 150 bmps, they aren’t showing up … but I tried using some of Nawlinfans logos as a player portrait and it worked fine.

So now I’m trying to troubleshoot what’s wrong with my files. Sure hope I can sort it out, or the 2,200 player fictional facepack I made will be useless

Yeah, good luck! I first changed mine to that windows default person outline but got sick of it, so just the league logo. I didn't have the gusto to work with all those IDs.

[Ben E Lou]

Yup. Arial Regular 14.

[MizzouRah]

Bahnschrift Light SemiCondensed 14 seems good to me so far.

[Cole]

Originally Posted by Gallifrey

Yeah, good luck! I first changed mine to that windows default person outline but got sick of it, so just the league logo. I didn't have the gusto to work with all those IDs.

I had that thought too, to have the league logo be the "default" photo instead of the flags, or anything else. What's the easiest way to do that (without having to make hundreds of copies of the league logo and repeat it for every universe ID) ?

I noticed when I deleted the flags, the Solecismic logo now populates as the default ... so I assume just take the league logo file and replace whatever the file name of the Solecismic logo is?

[Gallifrey]

Originally Posted by Cole

I had that thought too, to have the league logo be the "default" photo instead of the flags, or anything else. What's the easiest way to do that (without having to make hundreds of copies of the league logo and repeat it for every universe ID) ?

I noticed when I deleted the flags, the Solecismic logo now populates as the default ... so I assume just take the league logo file and replace whatever the file name of the Solecismic logo is?

Yes. I took the flag folder I think it was and changed each flag to the NFL logo. 150x150 bmp files of course.

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Front Office Football Nine\artwork\flags

If you want the logos I created to replace the player flags you can get them here;

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AloHZi8JfsbEhlW9...IK98b?e=v7UW0X

[NawlinsFan]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

I bought FOF1 in Fall 1998. I've been playing it for 25 years. I'll be 55 next month. At this point, I should have already known that I'm getting old, but FOF9 just confirmed that for me.


How did FOF confirm that, you ask???


Because, for the first time in my life, I increased the font size of a game from the default, and WOW, it made a gigantic difference. 14-point Arial ftw. #OldManVibes

You are still a young man, young man!

[Olsson]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

Bahnschrift Light SemiCondensed 14 seems good to me so far.

This looks great!

[sovereignstar v2]

Old Championship Manager fans should try Eras font.

[Ben E Lou]

BIG positive interface improvement for me: the ability to scroll through my team or through free agents on the "contract" screen WITH the ability to view bars cur/fut and requested contract/reneg on the same screen. That has been extremely helpful.

[johnnyshaka]

First draft in a fictional NFL setup...1.1 is a friggin' kicker.

[Olsson]

The 10-0 Jacksonville Jaguars travels to Houston to take on the 1-9 Texans.

Incredible finish!