Thoughts on DDS: Pro Football 2018
 

Not sure if this was covered on here, but for those who have played, what do you guys think of DDS PF? Worth the money? I downloaded the demo, but haven't got the chance to kick the tires yet.

Also, what do you think of Wolverine studios games in general? I was thinking of trying out their College basketball game as well.

Seems like Wolverine is the closest company we have to OOTP in terms of sports management simulations. I also find it interesting that they don't make a baseball sim. I would imagine they probably don't find it worth it to compete with OOTP!

Wolverine tried the baseball market but it didn't seem to work out. They took on a Baseball game that already existed can't remember which one but the developer ended up leaving Wolverine and taking the game with him.

Both the Pro and College basketball games are pretty good. I have mostly played the Pro game and used to make mods for it.

As for DDS Pro Football been a bit disappointed as it really was just a rehash of an existing Football game with Wolverine style screens added. I imagine what OOTP will do with Front Office Football will be way ahead of it.

They used to have Puresim. I really enjoy their pro and college football games. They added quite a bit with the '17 and '18 versions.

I think it's a very good game, very very depth. more than it seems at first view.

I love this game.

waiting FOF, of course...

It's tough to compete with the baseball options out there, with OOTP at the top of the class. They're better off focusing on the other sports as they are under served.

BTW, do these games generate fictional players? Or do they have real players with fake names? Also, do these games have a way of simplifying your involvement, like with OOTP?


I feel like that College Basketball sim is more tempting to buy than that Football sim.

I tried their college & pro basketball games together, and had to give up. The process for syncing them together was cumbersome.

I play fictional-only, and it was also really tough to customize. You have to open up a Microsoft Database file, and even then your options are limited. You can't start a pro league with 8 teams and grow it to 32, and you can't change the number of teams in a college universe at all.

For a real-world player it's probably great. But for me, it didn't do.

Yes.

Yes. In FOF you can delegate certain tasks to your coaching staff if you wish.

That's a little bit of a bummer


You mean for DDS PF, right?

No, I have never played DDS PF. The question was asked about what can be done "in games like these" so I took it to mean in games like the one being talked about in this thread and in games like the forum we are in. So I answered about which one I know about.

Thoughts on DDS: Pro Football 2018
 

I really enjoy the DDS college basketball game

Waiting on the new version of DDS college football. Hopefully it will step up its game and better the recruiting and coach aspects


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The customization discussion there must have been about basketball. The football games are simple to customize and expansion is definitely possible each off season.

Try the demo. I think you get two seasons.

DDSPF gives you a variety of customized league formats including a lot of smaller and larger leagues. It has actual NFL leagues as well. I actually think DDSPF is the best sports sim for customization and fictional play after OOTP.

You know how in OOTP, you can get started with just a few clicks, despite how complex it is? Can you do that with DDS? Again, I haven't had time to kick the demo around much, but I couldn't find a quick way to just actually coach an on field game,

(I suppose this will all be a moot point in a few months when OOTP/FOF gets released)

I have bought every game Wolverine has ever made and I enjoy some of them. my biggest complaint is they dont reach the level of OOTP/FM but that is because those games are on another level.

I really enjoy the pro and college basketball games and think they are the best they have to offer. But I always eventually lose interest because they are really GM games (which I love) but not much in terms of coaching games. I really need the combination of the two. do all the work building the team on the GM side and then coach the games and have actual control over what happens. Especially because when they work together you can build the team on the GM side to meet the needs of your coaching side. OOTP and FM are far and away the best sports games at this. FOF has some upside, but hasn't improved enough in the 20 years I have been playing it.

Wolverine also has a big problem in historical. Historical is a big marketed feature and is really fun to play. Until your 1984 team jacks up more threes in a quarter then the real team did all season and despite being discussed, it has never improved. too bad, because historical NBA is very fun to play. In this arena, no game can ever touch what OOTP can do with evolving historical. Hopefully we eventually get a NFL game that can do the same.

Someone alerted me to this thread so I thought I would stop by and answer a few questions.

DDS:PF is a different game than FOF. With DDS:PF 2018 we have a physics based engine and of course the 2D game display so when you're coaching out the game on the field you not only are influencing the game with the playcalling but you're also getting to see the result happen in front of you and its not a scripted result. The players are reacting the entire time to the play and the movement of the ball. There are some things FOF does better and its a great game that has been around a long time but I really think DDS:PF shines in this area especially - giving you a really great gameday experience.

I don't think our games will be a moot point when the new FOF is released. I think they offer different experiences based on whatever you value the most and I certainly think its worthwhile spending a little bit of time with the demo just to get the feel of it and we'll be having some news on DDS:PF19 shortly.

For the basketball games I tried to put instructions in the pro game help section to help further this along. I'm not really quite sure how to make it work better because you have to do certain things in both games to progress them obviously but if you have feedback I'm certainly willing to listen.

As for customization you don't have to open a database file to do it. You can edit any player from within the game (just switch to the commisisoner office in the options screen) - the database option is really if you want to mass edit players at once. You can also customize all the team data within the game too.

You are correct you cannot expand from 8 through 32 - expansion only runs to mirror the way the NBA expanded starting with the merger and you cannot change the number of college teams because it just really opens up a ton of difficulties so yeah there are some limitations as to what can be customized but we do try and give as many options as we can.

Thanks for the kind words - if the biggest complaint is that we haven't achieved what OOTP and FM have given their long histories and successes then I'm ok with that :)

For the coaching side I'm not sure I follow especially in the college game where you have so many choices of what sets to run on both sides of the ball. I have had some lengthy discussions about some things I am going to change in the pro game to give even more control there so I hope you will find the new stuff coming worthwhile.

Our pro basketball and football games offer historical but they're relatively new features. For basketball two versions ago we introduced it starting at the merger and playing from there. Last version we let you start at any year from there and also bring in the draft classes at random. Historical era play is something I'm certainly willing to look at to push the ball forward there in the next version because the game certainly has changed a couple of times since the 80s.

Thanks for your response Gary. I've finally had a chance to mess with the DDS PF 18 demo and in broad strokes, it seems like a lot of fun. I'll be looking out for PF 19.

I'm really looking forward to kicking the tires on the CB demo next.

Thanks - like I said DDSPF is not FOF nor is it meant to be - each game shines in different ways.

Looking forward to you trying out the CB demo - FWIW the new college basketball game always releases in late Feb so while I mentioned that PF19 would be coming shortly just in case you wanted to hold off for a new version CB18 is only a few months old and there is quite a bit of time until the next new version there.

Hey, Gary


When can we look forward to an announcement for PF 19... And where would be a good place to look out for it?