BTS: Frequently Asked Questions

[Shadeet]

Super excited to hear about this!

Some questions, in no particular order:

- How is the game handling audibles? Will there be Peyton Manning-type quarterbacks who are constantly changing up the play at the line of scrimmage?

- What sorts of trick plays will be available? Will I be able to run the Emory & Henry formation, or is that a bit too esoteric for V1? On a related note, if I decide to call a naked bootleg with my Peyton Manning-type quarterback about once every fifty games, will it shock the defense as much as it does in real life?

- Will the fair catch kick rule be implemented?

- Will a college-style alternating possessions overtime option be available?

- Will the game respond in the way you would expect if you line up all your players at the wrong positions?

[Cole]

How will scouting be handled in the game leading up to the draft, and also in relation to players already in the league?

Will the scouts be super accurate, or is there a 'fog of war' element? Or is it customizable, as in OOTP?

[Francis Cole]

- How is the game handling audibles? Will there be Peyton Manning-type quarterbacks who are constantly changing up the play at the line of scrimmage?

We'll have to think about that. e.g. Would it be too annoying to the user if every play the picked the QB just did something else?

- What sorts of trick plays will be available? Will I be able to run the Emory & Henry formation, or is that a bit too esoteric for V1?

I doubt that would be available, though I applaud your eruditeness.

On a related note, if I decide to call a naked bootleg with my Peyton Manning-type quarterback about once every fifty games, will it shock the defense as much as it does in real life?

They won't be expecting it no (unless you started doing it loads)

- Will the fair catch kick rule be implemented?

Yes. Think I've already done it.

- Will a college-style alternating possessions overtime option be available?

Not for V1, it will just be the NFL version.

Will the game respond in the way you would expect if you line up all your players at the wrong positions?

If "by the way you would expect" means would you lose. Then yes

[Cole]

So your in-game play is 2D, which is neat, as we've seen in the early version.

As a comparison, in FOF, it's text, which some people may prefer, others may not.

One good thing about text/the FOF method is that while you can't "see" the play it gives you some cues about players around the play who have done good or bad things in the play (that sack was XXX's fault... good blocking downfield by XXX, Player XYXYXX rushed the passer and forced the bad throw etc etc)

Will there be any sort of similar cues available in the 2D play viewer, or will we just be required to "see" this sort of stuff ourselves?

From the early videos the only 'text' feedback I've seen is just the general outcome....

And while on that subject, I've noticed in many places in the early game you use first initial, last name ... So T. Brady, P. Manning ... Wherever possible, if there's room, I think it's better to have the whole person's name spelled out...My 2 cents.

[Shadeet]

Originally Posted by Francis Cole

We'll have to think about that. e.g. Would it be too annoying to the user if every play the picked the QB just did something else?

It does seem like it'll be tough to figure out exactly, but audibles seem like an important enough part of the game that hopefully they'll be implemented somehow or other.

Originally Posted by Francis Cole

I doubt that would be available, though I applaud your eruditeness.

Well, I was just throwing that out as an example of a really obscure trick play. I'd assume things like fake punts/FGs would be in, of course, but what about stuff like reverses, HB/WR passes (like what, say, Antwaan Randle El used to do all the time), flea flickers, direct snaps, hook and lateral plays, Statue of Liberty, etc.? Trick plays are one of my favorite things about football, so I'm wondering what sort of selection we might have (or if it's a goal for a later version).

One more question I thought of: Will the game have customizable helmets and uniforms, kind of like what OOTP does?

[Francis Cole]

How will scouting be handled in the game leading up to the draft, and also in relation to players already in the league?

Will the scouts be super accurate, or is there a 'fog of war' element? Or is it customizable, as in OOTP?

Firstly it will be completely redone from how OOTP does it, so I have no idea yet how customizable or not it will be.

With the advantage of the draft/college players being completely different, i.e. they don't suddenly appear 30 days before the draft, then we can have scouting throughout the player's college career and into the Combine.

Let's take a massively over-simplified example (I can't use the word massively enough, people please don't immediately try and parse the example for errors!):

There's a college player you have never scouted before, he's a Div3 player. No-one has heard of him.
You'll have the scouts.com (or whatever we'll call it in BTS) rating for him, and you'll know his pro-day results, but basically you know zero about him.

He has 2k rushing yards, 25 TDs and 6.0+ avg, but it's Div3, that means nothing.

He won't be invited to the Combine, but for some reason you invite him for a private workout.

In his private workout he does really bad, bad 40 time, terrible hands in the catching drills, bad 3 cone time, etc. etc.

You're impression of him (i.e. the attributes you see) will reflect that. That's all you know of him. You don't know if that was the real him, or maybe had a bad day. So you don't draft him. He's actually Arian Foster (I know Foster wasn't a DivIII player!)

Let's go the other way, he does amazingly. His 40/Bench Press/Vert/3Cone/etc are all through the roof. Your impressions of his physical skills are amazing! You end up drafting Vernon Gholston.

Now that's really simplified, and depends on you never having heard of the player before, and it's hard explaining such a complex system in a forum post but hopefully you get the general idea

[Francis Cole]

Originally Posted by ripwalk

Will there be any sort of similar cues available in the 2D play viewer, or will we just be required to "see" this sort of stuff ourselves?

From the early videos the only 'text' feedback I've seen is just the general outcome.....

I think my main priority is getting the stats the engine produces to a realistic degree before I start with things like this (for example LBs currently get too few tackles due to the WRs not going inside enough, so fixing that is my priority at the moment!)

Though I would like that to the case eventually

[Corsairs]

Regarding FaceGen, and accepting that hair rendering is simply impossible, I might suggest using the very same setup as OOTP: show the players with baseball caps.

Consider that newly drafted players are often photographed wearing a baseball cap branded with their team's colors and logo. Seeing football players in team-branded caps is quite common. On the flip side, you never see players photographed in helmets minus the face guards.

OOTP already auto-generates caps that come with a team's colors and logos. I say there is no need to reinvent the wheel here. Use the very same system for BTS and spend your saved development time elsewhere.

[Cole]

Originally Posted by Corsairs

Regarding FaceGen, and accepting that hair rendering is simply impossible, I might suggest using the very same setup as OOTP: show the players with baseball caps.

Consider that newly drafted players are often photographed wearing a baseball cap branded with their team's colors and logo. Seeing football players in team-branded caps is quite common. On the flip side, you never see players photographed in helmets minus the face guards.

OOTP already auto-generates caps that come with a team's colors and logos. I say there is no need to reinvent the wheel here. Use the very same system for BTS and spend your saved development time elsewhere.

I would agree with this. I just can't imagine the helmets without face guards looking anything but goofy ... But maybe I'm thinking about it the wrong way.

Also, I have never played Football Manager so I don't know for sure... but Facegen's website seems to indicate that FM does (or has) use Facegen.. so what do they use for hair for the Facegens?

[Cole]

Originally Posted by Francis Cole

Firstly it will be completely redone from how OOTP does it, so I have no idea yet how customizable or not it will be.

With the advantage of the draft/college players being completely different, i.e. they don't suddenly appear 30 days before the draft, then we can have scouting throughout the player's college career and into the Combine.

Let's take a massively over-simplified example (I can't use the word massively enough, people please don't immediately try and parse the example for errors!):

There's a college player you have never scouted before, he's a Div3 player. No-one has heard of him.
You'll have the scouts.com (or whatever we'll call it in BTS) rating for him, and you'll know his pro-day results, but basically you know zero about him.

He has 2k rushing yards, 25 TDs and 6.0+ avg, but it's Div3, that means nothing.

He won't be invited to the Combine, but for some reason you invite him for a private workout.

In his private workout he does really bad, bad 40 time, terrible hands in the catching drills, bad 3 cone time, etc. etc.

You're impression of him (i.e. the attributes you see) will reflect that. That's all you know of him. You don't know if that was the real him, or maybe had a bad day. So you don't draft him. He's actually Arian Foster (I know Foster wasn't a DivIII player!)

Let's go the other way, he does amazingly. His 40/Bench Press/Vert/3Cone/etc are all through the roof. Your impressions of his physical skills are amazing! You end up drafting Vernon Gholston.

Now that's really simplified, and depends on you never having heard of the player before, and it's hard explaining such a complex system in a forum post but hopefully you get the general idea

Private workouts, diamonds in the rough, total busts, this all sounds very promising. In Francis We Trust!

[SirMichaelJordan]

Originally Posted by ripwalk

I would agree with this. I just can't imagine the helmets without face guards looking anything but goofy ... But maybe I'm thinking about it the wrong way.



Also, I have never played Football Manager so I don't know for sure... but Facegen's website seems to indicate that FM does (or has) use Facegen.. so what do they use for hair for the Facegens?

There is a hair mod for that game that makes the facegen players 100x better.

The default hair selection is terrible.

I agree with the baseball caps.

[dave1927p]

Originally Posted by Francis Cole

You're primary job is GM and Head Coach.
Some Head Coaches call plays, while others let their assistants do it.

For V1 there won't be a case of being promoted from OC to HC to GM unfortunately.

Are there contracts for user GMs? So if you win multiple championships and ultimately don't resign with your current team the user GM can be the most prized Free Agent available.

I always love being offered big raises in these games after great performance...but with big money comes extra responsibility. Small feature for some, but helps with a touch of RPG element and realism. OOTP baseball needs it...

Lastly, will the GM history be tracked? FHM added it for head coaches and General Managers (separate screens) and it works great for a V1.

[r0nster]

I am curious as far as future versions at least will their be a NFL combine before the NFL draft ??? as like in real life

[Cole]

Originally Posted by r0nster

I am curious as far as future versions at least will their be a NFL combine before the NFL draft ??? as like in real life

I can't speak for Francis but I believe he has said there will be combine results as part of the draft class.

[Francis Cole]

You'll get Combine results (for those invited) for V1.
I don't know if there is time in V1 to have the Combine in the 2D engine though.

[r0nster]

thanks both of you and sorry I missed that if it was already spoken about but thanks for letting me know anyways

[Francis Cole]

Originally Posted by r0nster

thanks both of you and sorry I missed that if it was already spoken about but thanks for letting me know anyways

No worries

[joefromchicago]

BTS should incorporate everything that everyone has suggested here. It should have fully customizable rules so that users can have fifteen players on a side and five downs and a field that's two-hundred yards long and twelve-yards wide. It should be able to handle 500 teams in thirteen conferences in forty-nine countries. Every player should be rated for how well he plays in rain, snow, heat, cold, tsunamis, and tornadoes. Scouts should be able to follow every player in the US down to junior high school midget leagues. Users should not only be able to call every play, they should be able to get in the huddle and give inspiring pep talks on the sidelines and hover over the field in a blimp at the same time. Every play that has ever been used in high school, college, pro, and alien gas monster leagues throughout the universe should be available, but the game should be simple enough that users can play a game in five minutes. And every game should come with A PONY!!!

[dave1927p]

Originally Posted by joefromchicago

BTS should incorporate everything that everyone has suggested here. It should have fully customizable rules so that users can have fifteen players on a side and five downs and a field that's two-hundred yards long and twelve-yards wide. It should be able to handle 500 teams in thirteen conferences in forty-nine countries. Every player should be rated for how well he plays in rain, snow, heat, cold, tsunamis, and tornadoes. Scouts should be able to follow every player in the US down to junior high school midget leagues. Users should not only be able to call every play, they should be able to get in the huddle and give inspiring pep talks on the sidelines and hover over the field in a blimp at the same time. Every play that has ever been used in high school, college, pro, and alien gas monster leagues throughout the universe should be available, but the game should be simple enough that users can play a game in five minutes. And every game should come with A PONY!!!

There is nothing wrong with people requesting some of their favourite features to see where it stands on the priority list. It helps all of us with our expectations. No need to get carried away...and it should come with a unicorn.

[Sam_15]

Sorry if I missed this, I read through the first few pages and didn't see it come up

When you talk about the health map and player wear and tear, is the idea of player toughness a rating for the player? In other words, do some people suffer from wear and tear more than others (related to their position of course), and if so, is it random, or based on a player rating?