Quote:
Originally Posted by Francis Cole
That's a great question, and one I've thought of a lot.
Obviously for realism we need them, but when viewing a 2D display of a game how can you tell if the player's knee touched the ground before the fumble etc?
It's something we are going to have think a lot about how we implement it.
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For the challenge flags, this could be done in a similar guise to how Football Manager simulates controversial penalty decisions or offsides. In FM, the assistant manager tells you after the game that it's probably not worth appealing the decision because the official made the correct call. For BtS this could be an 'in-game' hint where the Replay Assistant advises you on whether to challenge the call or not. He gives you a % chance and you can choose whether to go for it or not, leaving you to factor in the criticality of the game and how many time outs you have left.
There could also be some nice drama with all scoring plays automatically being reviewed, "I think I've won, but I can't be sure until the final decision has been confirmed". The whole review process could be a seriously nifty feature if implemented well. You could get really clever and have the play clock running down simultaneously to add an element of panic, although that wouldn't be as popular with somebody who is making themselves a coffee and is watching the game with half an eye...or Andy Reid for that matter.
I'm only half way through reading this thread but I'm finding all the talk about 'customization' quite distracting and completely agree with tward13 and Francis' assertions about picking
one aspect (in this case, the 2015 NFL season) and
getting it right. Asking for customization is almost like saying "I want you to write a game for me", so while it might be your dream to have a Slovakian Football League with 62 teams, 5 downs and 10 points for a punt return, it does the overall game quality no favours. Customization should come down to which features of the game you delegate to your GM/Assistant/Owner and not the ability to tweak the overall structure of the game. Last time I checked, it was an NFL management game so you can go head-to-head with Bill Belichick, not a commisioner game where you go head to head with Roger Goodell.
Ultimately, the successful games that grow and expand are the ones that 1) extremely accurate/close to real life simulators and 2) add new features and customizations as the development team expands because the game has become commercially successful.
For this reason, I would get a headstart on this game using four starting points:
1) OOTP - Blindingly obvious but it's a great game and BtS has access to it's code
2) Football Manager - The Grandaddy of them all, the pedigree and the standard bearer. At the heart it aims to be the most accurate and comprehensive soccer simulator but over the years its added some great features, tried to stay in touch with the more casual fan (not just the sports stat nerd) and has always made money, allowing the Sports Interactive team to expand and make the game much, much better over 20 years or so.
3) EA NFL Head Coach - far from perfect but with some great features and most importantly, the closest we have to an NFL management game with 'mass market appeal' because of it's close ties with the Madden franchise.
4) Fantasy Football - incredibly popular. Why? And how can some of this popularity be injected into BtS without watering down the product and making it lose its realism.