Career Play in Pro Strategy Football 2014

[Pro Strategy Football]

I'm hoping this will be the week that Apple approves PSF 2014 for the Apple Store. Meanwhile, I've been working on the first update (including speeding up weekly and season simulation speeds) and mainly focusing on career play, so I thought I'd share my concept, even though I've touched on it before, since it continues to evolve.

I see this as a "Career Coach" option, where you coach a team across multiple seasons. It's not meant to be anything like iOOTP or FMH, which are very heavy on the player management side.

I'll see if I can put up a demo video in the next week or two. Meanwhile, here's my vision for it. And mind you, feedback from the community is going to be essential, and will drive the future content. After all, users know what they want more than I do, and I want to deliver products that people enjoy!

Basically, I see the Career Coach as four phases per year (FYI, I'm still working through these, so some things may yet change!)

- Offseason
Players advance in age one year. Here you find out if any players left your team and you also see if any players' ratings change. I don't want to overwhelm users, so changes will be slight and not all your players will change. A list will show you which players have had at least one rating change, whether it's their durability, quickness, several abilities, etc.

In the Offseason, you also set your priorities for the year by allocating resources (not sure what I'll call this yet, it may just be "priorities") between (at least)
Scouting - how well your scouts find jewels and how accurate they are
Coaching - can slightly improve your performance
Conditioning - can slightly improve injuries and fourth-quarter performance
Training (may combine this with Coaching, TBD) - can slightly cut down on penalties and help players improve (also affected by a hidden maximum potential on the players and by their work ethic)

Please note - all effects will be small, because I don't want to turn this game into something over simplified and silly. I want it to remain realistic, but let you affect it over time.


- Second phase is the Draft, where you list your priorities and ask your front office to fill those as best as they can. Note that any players who have left will automatically be handled, but if you don't prioritize those positions, then your Scouts will put your priorities before them. Scouts will tell you what they expect of each new player, but time will tell. (NOTE: this is not an actual multi-round draft with players, etc - again, that's not my emphasis, I want to get you back to the season play asap)


- Third Phase is the Preseason, where you find out how your priorities have worked out. Here you'll get the first glimpse on how well your new players are doing (but they can still shine or flame out later), and then effect of your training and conditioning


- and of course the fourth phase is Season Play. You can play any or all your games, or let the computer simulate them. Either way, the computer will simulate all the other games for that week.


So how does a career start (for now at least)?
- you name your coach, select a team, and start coaching in 2014 (I'd love to some day let you pick up teams from the past and coach them, say the 72 Dolphins or 77 Cowboys, etc)
- you coach the team through the 2014 season and then proceed to Offseason, etc


I hope this will be appealing. It's been a ton of work, and I hope people will enjoy it.

[Pro Strategy Football]

That post got really long, so let me mention a few things here.

From the Career screen, you can view all seasons, including the current one. You can drill down into any past season and view that season's team rankings, schedule, and season leaders.

You can also view any team's history and all the players who have ever played on that team.

Of course, you can view Career leaders and sort them in many ways. And the career leaders are updated after every completed game.

When playing a season game (single season or career season), the teams' season records are displayed on the scoreboard.

Something I don't have yet is Awards. Once I have career play working, I'd like to get more input on what kinds of awards to track over time. I could certainly track Rushing Leader, Passing Leader, etc.

[LastWhiteSoxFanStanding]

I think this sounds amazing! You really seemed to have found the right balance between adding career elements but keeping the game focused on coaching.

I do think single season records, career individual records and team career records will be imperative to include down the road. Part of the fun of career play is seeing the history of your league's records grow and change over time.

[Pro Strategy Football]

Originally Posted by LastWhiteSoxFanStanding

I think this sounds amazing! You really seemed to have found the right balance between adding career elements but keeping the game focused on coaching.

I do think single season records, career individual records and team career records will be imperative to include down the road. Part of the fun of career play is seeing the history of your league's records grow and change over time.

LWSFS, I'd like more details, please. So, for example, you can see a player's career stats, and something I'm adding (forgot to mention because I'm still working on the layout) is, once you click on that player, you'd see his stats for all the seasons he played. Would that be helpful for what you're saying?

So, for example, the Denver QB might have Career passing yards of 16000 yards and a career QB Rating of 108.7, but you could also see his numbers for each year he played.

You'll also be able to see a team's complete history, their W/L totals every season.

If I'm still missing something, let me know and I'll try to get it in asap or at least in one of the early updates after career mode. Thanks!

[Pro Strategy Football]

Originally Posted by LastWhiteSoxFanStanding

I think this sounds amazing! You really seemed to have found the right balance between adding career elements but keeping the game focused on coaching.

I do think single season records, career individual records and team career records will be imperative to include down the road. Part of the fun of career play is seeing the history of your league's records grow and change over time.

Ah, so maybe have an Awards section where I list the Rushing Leader for that season (or career), etc? Tell me more, LOL, like how many rushers to show, etc. So this would in addition to the Leaders screen, right?

[LastWhiteSoxFanStanding]

I would have a record book screen for passing, rushing and receiving. When the user goes to the passing record book, it could default on the top passing ratings of all time. But still have the headers for all the other important stats and so if the user wants to see the top career completion% of all time then they just click on that on the top of the screen and it automatically sorts to that. When the user goes to the wr record book, it can default on most catches and then the user can click on yards on top of the screen for it to toggle to yards. I would list top ten or twenty. I would have these types of screens for Career records, single season records for the league. And then if its possible to have team career records and team single season records. hope thats clear

[Pro Strategy Football]

hmm, I may actually have that first one, if I understand you correctly. I call it Career Leaders. I'll definitely have to create a little video to see if I have it. I have it for Career and also for each season.

Meanwhile, here are a few images of the Career Leaders. You can tap any column to sort all players by that column. So here I show Career Passing Leaders by yards, and then another by passing rating. Then I show Career Receivers by yards.

Is that what you mean, or would you also like a separate Awards screen?

Thanks for your patience, man. :-)

(oh, and you can also do the same for any past or current season)

[LastWhiteSoxFanStanding]

Yes that's exactly what I mean!

So stoked for this

[Pro Strategy Football]

Great! Getting the career leaders working took me a lot more time than I expected, but I think it's worth it. And it's fast. Everything is in a database with several tables (I had to rewrite the original design to accommodate career play).

There is a LOT of information in the career play. I think you'll be pleased, and then I'll be happy to add more. I'm hoping that the career play and casual play will help PSF get to the next level.

Thanks!

[Julio Riddols]

In my mind, something as close to pro-football-reference.com as possible would be incredible.

When I look at team seasons, I'd love to see their W-L, playoff seed and result, rush yards per game, pass yards per game, rush yards allowed per game, pass yards allowed per game, points per game, points allowed per game, and team leaders.

When I look at player seasons, the only additional thing I would like to see is a highlight if the player led the league that year in a particular category, maybe by putting the number in red or in italics or something. Same could be said for team stats. If my team was tops in rush defense for a season, it would be cool to see it at a glance.

[Julio Riddols]

Let me just add that I am super stoked to see this evolve. You're doing a killer job with this.

[Pro Strategy Football]

Originally Posted by Julio Riddols

In my mind, something as close to pro-football-reference.com as possible would be incredible.

When I look at team seasons, I'd love to see their W-L, playoff seed and result, rush yards per game, pass yards per game, rush yards allowed per game, pass yards allowed per game, points per game, points allowed per game, and team leaders.

When I look at player seasons, the only additional thing I would like to see is a highlight if the player led the league that year in a particular category, maybe by putting the number in red or in italics or something. Same could be said for team stats. If my team was tops in rush defense for a season, it would be cool to see it at a glance.

That's exactly the site I thought of when I created all my screens! That's a great site! I like the idea of highlighting numbers, I'll put that on my list.

Here's a snapshot of "Denver History" for example.

[Pro Strategy Football]

BTW, these are real screens, not mockups ...

[Julio Riddols]

I like it. I like the whole off season idea, keep it short and sweet but give us enough input to actually feel like we make a difference and get us back on the field again ASAP. I've never wanted an iPhone/iPad so badly.. And this is literally the only reason I would get one.

[Pro Strategy Football]

Originally Posted by Julio Riddols

I like it. I like the whole off season idea, keep it short and sweet but give us enough input to actually feel like we make a difference and get us back on the field again ASAP. I've never wanted an iPhone/iPad so badly.. And this is literally the only reason I would get one.

That's great to hear, Julio! And I really hope I can complete an Android version before the end of the football season. I was very disappointed when that company changed direction, but I'm not about to give up!

[Julio Riddols]

Well if you manage that, I may not have to get an iphone, which would be awesome. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

[Balldog]

Can't wait

[JimboJ]

Sounds awesome!!

[SegRat]

Looking forward to this.

[Pro Strategy Football]

Pro Strategy Football 2014 is now on the Apple Store!

Pro Strategy Football 2014 on the App Store on iTunes

[pbot]

Will there be a limit on the number of seasons in career play? With the portable nature of this I could see this being the type of thing that gets fired up while waiting for dr appt, kids sports practices to end, etc so eventually could build up a fairly decent history assuming the databases don't get too big.

[Flasch186]

Well done sir.

In your ad pics on Itunes youve gotta add something that says Career play... that will be the buy signal for many folk. Those 2 words.

EDIT - nm its not ready yet

[yeah826]

I bought the game can't wait to try it!!

I like the receiver Cleveland Jansen for Detroit

[Pro Strategy Football]

Originally Posted by pbot

Will there be a limit on the number of seasons in career play? With the portable nature of this I could see this being the type of thing that gets fired up while waiting for dr appt, kids sports practices to end, etc so eventually could build up a fairly decent history assuming the databases don't get too big.

Great question, and I made a decision to allow practically unlimited seasons (of course, if you don't like the career, you can always start it over with that team or another team). The biggest growth contributor is the game reviews, where I was going to save the highlights of every single game of every season. Well, that starting growing, so what I now do is, I still save all the old box scores (and season stats, etc), but the I now keep the replays only for the current or most recent season.

If enough people want me to keep more, I could look into adding an option as to how many past seasons of replays do you want to keep. Or maybe I can look at something like keeping all the replays for the current or most recent season, and for older seasons, keep the playoffs replays.

Course, I'm not even sure how many people like to go back and watch highlights. I do it, but I haven't gotten feedback on that from others.

[Pro Strategy Football]

Originally Posted by yeah826

I bought the game can't wait to try it!!

I like the receiver Cleveland Jansen for Detroit

Thanks, I hope you enjoy it!

[Pro Strategy Football]

Thanks to everyone who's showing your support by buying the game, guys! It's been so much work this year, gave up far too many weekends, but now I'm hoping it'll be worth it. Working to get the career mode out, then I'm going to break for the Holidays and then try again to tackle the Android conversion.

There are a few other things I'd like to get in before the end of the year, mainly a fatigue factor, where your player's abilities will start to diminish if you use him too much (I'll find a good way to show that). That would lead to a "Subs" button on the "man selection" tab, where you could swap your back, but before that, what you'd need to do is don't use him for a few plays. But that's in the future.

And of course, you wouldn't have to do that in Casual Play, that's only for Hard Core.

Anyway, I'm really glad to have it out, and I appreciate your support!

Before the first patch, I'll get feedback on ratings and update the teams, like last year.

Thanks again!

[pbot]

I think replays from current or most recent season is enough. Bought it last night and played a couple of games. Lots of fun and I really like the ability to switch between casual and hard core.

[Flasch186]

Yeah, I doubt anyone would go back further than last season to see replays.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Just wanted to toss in that, although I'm not participating in this discussion, I'll definitely be picking up the game once you get career play in there. Best of luck.

[PilotMan]

I'll definitely be picking it up when I have something that I can play it on! Company IPad just isn't going to cut it. C'mon Android!

[Pro Strategy Football]

Originally Posted by pbot

I think replays from current or most recent season is enough. Bought it last night and played a couple of games. Lots of fun and I really like the ability to switch between casual and hard core.

Great!! I think someone here actually gave me the suggestion to let the player switch, in fact. Really glad you're enjoying it!

[Pro Strategy Football]

Originally Posted by Flasch186

Yeah, I doubt anyone would go back further than last season to see replays.

That's my feeling, but after the Career is done and out there a while, we'll gauge things then. I want to keep the size down, but maybe I'll think up some elegant way to let them selectively keep even older games - like maybe "just keep my old game, delete all others" or "keep all past championship games" etc.

But to answer the earlier question, the total size doesn't grow all that much each season, so theoretically you could play as many seasons as you want. In testing, I've played through 25+. However, because I haven't implemented the aging and draft yet, I had QB in there who were over 50 years old and playing great, LOL! :-)

You can sure rack up career yardage that way! :-)

[Julio Riddols]

Oh yes.

Edit: Found a friend who was getting rid of an old iPad. I guess I will be getting this game as soon as they sell me their old pad. Can't beat 50 bucks, and thankfully it is compatible with iOS 5.1.

Looking forward to stepping on the gridiron, and I was looking for a tablet for myself anyway, so two birds with one stone. It's a good weekend already.

[Pro Strategy Football]

Ok, take two - here's a "quick" (still 9 minutes, LOL) video on Career Play. Check out all the stats and records in Career Play!

PSF 2014 Career Play, Intro - YouTube

[Pro Strategy Football]

Originally Posted by Julio Riddols

Oh yes.

Edit: Found a friend who was getting rid of an old iPad. I guess I will be getting this game as soon as they sell me their old pad. Can't beat 50 bucks, and thankfully it is compatible with iOS 5.1.

Looking forward to stepping on the gridiron, and I was looking for a tablet for myself anyway, so two birds with one stone. It's a good weekend already.

Great deal!! Glad for you, Julio!

[SegRat]

Looking forward to trying this on either my new iPad air2 or my iPhone 6 plus.

[LastWhiteSoxFanStanding]

As the Bears, had over 400 yards offense, but only had 19 points due to 3 interceptions by Jay Cutler. This game is getting to be much too realistic for my taste

[Julio Riddols]

Originally Posted by LastWhiteSoxFanStanding

As the Bears, had over 400 yards offense, but only had 19 points due to 3 interceptions by Jay Cutler. This game is getting to be much too realistic for my taste

The sim stats are pretty on the mark as well. Game looks to be tuned to near perfection. As soon as career mode hits, I can see myself spending a ridiculous amount of time playing.

[yeah826]

I noticed a bug in hardcore mode when choosing formations I notice that the SE is only on the field when I choose the better passing option this isn't really a good thing considering the fact that the SE is my best receiver and I want him on field at all times could this be fixed?

[yeah826]

Actually the SE isn't available for most of the formations I hope this can be fixed

[JimboJ]

Originally Posted by yeah826

I noticed a bug in hardcore mode when choosing formations I notice that the SE is only on the field when I choose the better passing option this isn't really a good thing considering the fact that the SE is my best receiver and I want him on field at all times could this be fixed?

Instead of SE and FL, I would rather see them labeled WR1, WR2, etc according to their place on the depth chart. Your WR1 should be on the field for all formations, WR2 for all two receiver formations, etc.

My other suggestion is instead of a HB and FB, there is just RB1, RB2, etc. Most teams don't use fullbacks any more.

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by JimboJ

Instead of SE and FL, I would rather see them labeled WR1, WR2, etc according to their place on the depth chart. Your WR1 should be on the field for all formations, WR2 for all two receiver formations, etc.

My other suggestion is instead of a HB and FB, there is just RB1, RB2, etc. Most teams don't use fullbacks any more.

I agree with the suggestion of the WR1 and WR2 but not sure on the RB and FBs. I suppose FBs should be treated as not RBs so if a team has a poor running guy that is mostly for blocking he be a FB but am fine frankly with RB1, RB2

[Pro Strategy Football]

Originally Posted by yeah826

I noticed a bug in hardcore mode when choosing formations I notice that the SE is only on the field when I choose the better passing option this isn't really a good thing considering the fact that the SE is my best receiver and I want him on field at all times could this be fixed?

That sounds like a mistake in the roster, where I have the starting SE and backup switched by mistake. You almost always have a SE on the field, but I think you're saying I have the wrong one?

Which team is this? Let me check it. I'll be including roster changes in the first patch.

I'm sorry that got by me! Thanks, Kerry

[Pro Strategy Football]

Originally Posted by Galaril

I agree with the suggestion of the WR1 and WR2 but not sure on the RB and FBs. I suppose FBs should be treated as not RBs so if a team has a poor running guy that is mostly for blocking he be a FB but am fine frankly with RB1, RB2

Thanks, guys. So, I want to be consistent on which man is which, since a flanker is behind the line of scrimmage while the SE is on the line. How about if I switch the label "Flanker" to "WR1", SE to "WR2", etc? That would be much, much easier for me to implement this year rather than sometimes having flanker be WR1 and other times have flanker be WR2.

thanks!

[yeah826]

Originally Posted by Pro Strategy Football

Which team is this? Let me check it. I'll be including roster changes in the first patch.

I'm sorry that got by me! Thanks, Kerry

The team is Detroit and that's great to hear!

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by Pro Strategy Football

Thanks, guys. So, I want to be consistent on which man is which, since a flanker is behind the line of scrimmage while the SE is on the line. How about if I switch the label "Flanker" to "WR1", SE to "WR2", etc? That would be much, much easier for me to implement this year rather than sometimes having flanker be WR1 and other times have flanker be WR2.

thanks!

Yes that sounds like a good idea .

[Julio Riddols]

Picking this up today, quite excited.

[markprior22]

Anyone play this on a 4S? Just wonder if it would be worth the time on that small of a screen.

[Julio Riddols]

My first game, I take my Bengals up against Baltimore at their place..

I was playing in casual mode, and I am wondering if this is a byproduct of that, but here are the Baltimore QB's numbers: 18/37 passing for 309 yards, 1 TD.

His top receiver? Well, pretty much his only receiver, Schmid.. Had 18 catches for 304 yards. He caught one of those from the kicker on a fake fg. The only other receiver to catch a pass was HB Paris, who had 1 for 21.

Now I am wondering if this was just an extreme anomaly.. It was certainly a sweet game for Schmid.

The teams managed to combine for 35 points in the 4th quarter after only scoring 15 in the previous 3, it was a wacky one

[Julio Riddols]

Anyway, if anyone wants to play head to head, Julio Riddols is my name.