**NFL Head Coach 09 Developer Q&A Thread**

[Josh_Looman]

Quote: Originally Posted by Ninjoid

Thanks for all the info and your time Josh...the game is sounding fantastic. Having 'worked' for Sports Interactive over here in the UK as a home based tester for their highly successful Football Manager series (I also tested Eastside Hockey Manager - NHL) I can appreciate all of the time and effort that goes into getting the depth and accuracy in the game... I say 'worked', it was a labour of love for a free copy of the game, but the best of all was having the chance to have your input heard by the designers and seeing it acted upon. That's why I think EA's presence on the OS boards recently is a major step forward - as can be seen from the interaction not only here but on the Madden board. Great to know that you'll be staying on here when the game is out as well - you never know it may need a patch ;-) Few more for you Josh - 1. When does the game actually go gold? You must be in the codelock position fairly soon. 2. Approval Rating - presumably each franchise/owner will have a minimum rating by which they can fire you? For example a lenient owner make let you rating dissolve down to say 10 before firing you, whereas an Al Davis type may fire you at so 40 or so? 3. Are you given any warning of imminent firing? eg. Will the owner call you for a hypothetical meeting and say if things don't improve you're out? 4. Looking at the presentation video you need skill points to upgrade coaches' skill - how do you earn these skill points? Is it tied into your overall approval rating? 5. Gameplans at the start of a game where you can pick 3. Again from the video it say 6 remaining against each for Tony Dungy. Two questions from this - is the number dependant upon your coach's skills and is the number remaining how many you have over a season?...if so does this reset if you make the playoffs? Be awful to get to the playoffs and have none remaining...hope that makes sense Josh. If I think of any other questions I'll let you know Cheers Mark

1. Not sure I can release that info.

2. Sort of. Their personalities determine how hard they'll be on you and that translates to a % chance they fire you or keep you around one more year.

3. You'll hear Adam Schefter talk about the owner putting you on the hot seat. You also have a screen where you can keep track of your status and the status of each of your coaches all year long.

4. All coaches, GMs, trainers earn skill points based on the events in the game. GM earns them through contract negotaitons and draft picks. Coaches earn them based on the players under them and what they do. For example...if a WR catches a TD pass, his position coach gets points as well as the Off. Coordinator.

5. Coach Now lets you pick 3 individual gameplans that you can use 6 times each. In career mode, for each practice, you get to choose only one which you can use 6 times that weekend if you have a good coordinator. They don't carry over week to week and you'll have just as many in the playoffs as you do in the reg. season.

[Ninjoid]

Thanks for the above Josh...no probs about the gold question, I was just interested about it. Great stuff.

[Blazelore]

Quote: Originally Posted by Josh_Looman

Good question. I have no idea if this is possible in the future. I kind of like this game and how it's different than Madden, but I'm biased.

I appreciate you answering my questions. I can understand HC being its own game but I'm not saying roll it into Madden. I was just saying if you owned both of them you can use them interactively if you chose.

Thanks anyway, I'll be picking up the collector's edition.

[x1Blumpkin1x]

Quote: Originally Posted by Josh_Looman

5. Coach Now lets you pick 3 individual gameplans that you can use 6 times each. In career mode, for each practice, you get to choose only one which you can use 6 times that weekend if you have a good coordinator. They don't carry over week to week and you'll have just as many in the playoffs as you do in the reg. season.

How many practices do you get per week? If I am reading your response correctly I will have # of practice gameplans, per game, that I can use up to 6 times depending on my coordinator.

[Chris_Staymates]

Quote: Originally Posted by x1Blumpkin1x

skills...skills...skills...tree screen...skills

Okay, if I mentioned everything there is to mention about skills right now my fingers would fall off, but I'll give it a high level shot and then we can dig down in further.


Let me start by saying that the Coach Skills (also referred to as Develop Staff) feature is one of my favorite in the game as the skills add an entirely different way to play NFL Head Coach 09. Just as players earn points in Career Mode towards leveling up their attributes, coaches (coordinators and positional coaches have their own set as well), GMs, and even your trainer earn development points that they can spend on enhancing skills throughout their tenure as a staff member in NFL Head Coach 09.

Each skill has a unique effect. For example, there is a coach skill that affects how good your team is at calling the correct play for a situation in a game. The Performance Skill affects how your players perform on the field. The Trainer Rehab Skill controls how quickly you are able to get players back into a healthy state after an injury.

Now, over and above that, there is an entirely separate class of skills called Special Skills that each coach, GM, and trainer can purchase with his development points. This is the Tree Screen that you've have seen in videos. These Special Skills (~60 in all) control very targeted aspects of the game and are very powerful. The Motivator special skill for example will increase the potential of every player on your team at the time of purchase.

Okay, my fingers are starting to shake, couple other quick hits:
- Skill levels and which Special Skills you have will affect your coach's overall rating.
- You have to be careful when making your staff to0 good as they might attract the attention of a position on another team. Now you have to play against the super-star coordinator you brought up who, by the way, will retain all his skills when he goes to the other team.
- CPU teams purchase their own skills, but as the user you have to manage this by yourself, there is no delegation of staff development.

Whew...hope that gets the Skills talks started!

[Ninjoid]

Sounds great Chris..especially like the bit where you could build up a coach, he leaves to become a head coach, taking his skills with him, and it becomes a battle of teacher v student if you like....August is just too far away! lol

[x1Blumpkin1x]

Wow, yeah that is a lot. Thanks for the quick high level view of the skill features. I really think that is a cool feature that will add to the depth of this game. I have never seen staff skills as detailed as this in any sports management sim.

A couple of quick things as I will need to digest some of this on the drive home from work before asking more detailed questions.

1) "The Motivator special skill for example will increase the potential of every player on your team at the time of purchase."

Are skills like this, that only have an impact at the time of purchase, only available once?

2) Do coaches have existing skills, such as the fictional coaches coming out of the collegiate level?

3) Can skills of any kind be lost?

[Josh_Looman]

Quote: Originally Posted by ohyeahbaby123

Thanks for doing this Josh! My questions: 1. Why is there all this talk about signing coaches? I thought the whole point of the game is to be the coach. And last time I checked I don't think coaches sign themselves haha. 2. (I know this probably isn't in but I'll ask anyway) Is it possible to get fired, then be signed to a staff as an Offensive/Defensive Coordinator?

1. Basically, we give you control over your staff. You can choose to side with the owner at the end of each year or go against him and fire or keep around any staff member. This allows you to get rid of that Lions GM at the end of the year no matter what the owner wants. Of course, if you disagree with the owner, you will lose some approval.

2. No, though that was something we really wanted to do this year. That may be something big we can expand upon in future versions.