Bowl Bound open BETA 1.47

[Arlie Rahn]

This is an open beta all all existing owners are welcome to try. Here's the feature list. You can get more features and on this thread:

http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum...ad.php?t=18451

1. Fixed more timeout issues (esp on defensive side).
2. Fixed ranking email error where national ranking was repeated.
3. Fixed PBP issues involving QB keepers and other issues.
4. Fixed some penalty logic on things like personal fouls on fourth downs and other situations.
5. Fixed a wierd repeating pop-up that happened on the gameplan screen when you put in over 100% for something.
6. Fixed a newly inflicted error that introduced some JC guys as freshmen.
7. Updated the poll logic based on feedback.
8. Major overhaul on the option offense. Updated all AI gameplans to favor more runs, changed the engine logic to include more QB keepers. You will need to advance to camp in your game to see the changes though.
9. Improved AI use of offensive gameplan. Going into each camp the AI will setup specific gameplans based on their offense type. Then, at each matchup during the season, the AI will do a better job at choosing its gameplan based on injuries, opponent, opponent's tendencies and its own play success rate. The AI also does more with the play information data collected for every team on every play.
10. IMPORTANT USER NOTE - The 4 stock gameplans will be changed before camp and when you change your offense in camp to reflect the team's new offense. If you want a specific gameplan that will never change, make sure to create a new gameplan outside of the 4 stock ones. User created gameplans will not be changed.
11. Added an "oldschool bowl" method. If you go into the "bowlGames" table in the pstats.dat and set the GDCS field to 0 for all bowl games, the AI will not use the GDCS to set any games. Instead, it will rely exclusively on the conference matchups specified in the table. If you wish to use this, make sure to fill in the proper conference matchups for the current GDCS games or it may not work. After the bowl games are played without the GDCS fields, the national champion will be the team rated number 1 by the Coaches Poll. In this setup, the GDCS controls nothing and is only a guide.
12. Improved the multiplayer import process. it should be more informative for commishes and not skip teams when a failed import occurs.
13. IMPORTANT MP ADDITION - Starting in version 1.47, when a user exports his file for use in an MP league, all of his AI settings are also passed in the file. So, if Team1 has Academics set to "CPU run", his exported team file will have that information. This will allow each MP owner to tailor the AI useage much like a SP game without any help from the commish. Also, when a user loads the main save from the commish, his options will still be there meaning no need to change them after the first time for future exports. The commish will still have the ability to set the team to be "AI run" for a certain period like normal (ie, an owner goes out of town or leaves). But, this should help both the commish and individual owners manage their tasks.
14. Improved special teams selection involving injured players. Now, the AI will be less likely to recommend a questionable player that you may be sitting for health reasons.
15. Improved SOS impact on prestige for lower teams. Now, if you are a lower team that schedules tougher opponents, you will get treated differently when it comes to the impact of your record on prestige than someone who just schedules a bunch of patsies for an extra win. This is based on the logic that more marquee opponents means more national exposure (which helps prestige). It's not an enormous impact, but it's enough to make people consider scheduling atleast one good team when you are a smaller school.

Just like last time, I would recommend backing up any saves you use in the event something happens. This version should be pretty stable, but it is still a beta version so there may still be some issues. If you run into anything, please email me directly at arlie@greydogsoftware.com. Thanks again to everyone checking this out!

Also, do NOT switch from 1.46 or 1.47 back to 1.1 and then back to 1.46(7). This can corrupt your save as I have tried to make the update process seemless for 1.1 owners by adding certain things to the save on the fly. Switching back and forth may cause the game to think you need something that is already there (and it will cause errors that I cannot fix).

You can get it here:

http://www.greydogsoftware.com/downl...BUpdate147.exe

[Cooleyvol]

This patch has really added some great new features! If you have BB, try it out--if you don't, buy it!

[steady teddy]

College Football is far and away my favorite sport. Yet the only text based sims I play are FM and OOTP. I was turned off by FOF The College Years because it mainly dealt with recruiting and nothing else.

Maybe I'll try the demo.

[Cooleyvol]

I wouldnt try it unless you're ready to be immersed totally by the game. It really is a great simulation with all the aspects of the college game.

[Nukester]

Originally Posted by steady teddy

College Football is far and away my favorite sport. Yet the only text based sims I play are FM and OOTP. I was turned off by FOF The College Years because it mainly dealt with recruiting and nothing else.

Maybe I'll try the demo.

I dont even watch much college football in RL anymore, but I spend WAY more time playing this game than any other. Excellent game.