BTS: Frequently Asked Questions

[Francis Cole]

Yes sorry. There will still be one playbook, by "new" I meant we will have a more professional playbook with help from a coach, rather than the made up playbook I had created before

[SirMichaelJordan]

Originally Posted by dave1927p

I typically run these games as a GM only having my head coach control tactics and depth charts. I get him the players he plays them how he sees accordingly. Will different AI coaches that I employ have various strategies that get different results from players?

Originally Posted by Francis Cole

Yes, for example if you sign a HC who plays 3-4, then as a GM it would be better for you to sign the players who fits 3-4 rather than 4-3.

Originally Posted by dumbrabbit

Will there be a label somewhere that tells them what scheme that player fits best in? Will the game tell you which systems require which attributes maybe?

Bump for an answer.

This is great news, I also play GM only

[Roy Tucker]

Forgive me if this has already been answered, but will there be a stats only option? Or an option to play with limited ratings?

[Wassil]

Finally I finished to read all 25 pages of this thread. I'm very excited about this project! Thank you, Francis, for your job :-)

I'm sure that BTS will be a great game, because lead developer have a good experience in developing sport manager games (Football Manager is legendary game). I like what I read about BTS!

But I have some questions. In Football Manager chairman have an opportunity to fire manager. So, can board fire GM in BTS?

Also in FM we have Board Confidence. How this feature will be realized in BTS? It's very interesting because in soccer you have many goals: not to relegate; to be in the middle of the table; to qualify in Europe League or Champions League; to be challenger; to win the title. And what goals we will have in BTS? For example it will be interesting to take Raiders and to have a goal "in 2-3 years to qualify to PO" etc.
And will we have "options" in Board Confidence like "Wages", "Squad Harmony", "Draft" or something like that?

I know that you have many job to do, and probably all this features we will not see in V1, but maybe in the future?

P.S. I'm also a big fan of statistic, this is my passion, my hobby. And I can help in research. It will be really great for me, and I hope, for your developer team too! :-)

Thx!

[beezer2434]

If you sign a QB mid season or training camp...would the game recognize that he is still learning the playbook?

[Lithium]

Will players' potential be the same in each game? So, if I have a real-life running back on my roster at the start of the game, will he always have HoF potential, or will it vary from game to game?

[Francis Cole]

It will vary somewhat.

[ruckuz]

How much will coach stats be a factor to players on the field? if any.
How are you going to implement coaching staff?

[Francis Cole]

Yes we hope to have coaches etc in the first version.

[Al Davis]

FOF is big when it comes to MP, will there be a MP Version of the game and if so how is it going to work? Thankyou

[Francis Cole]

I hope there is MP in V1, and if so it will be very similar to the way OOTP does it.

[Antonin]

Originally Posted by Wassil

In Football Manager chairman have an opportunity to fire manager. So, can board fire GM in BTS?

I have the same question. I hope there is an option to not be fired, as in OOTP baseball. I think every sports management sim should have that option, for those of us who want to run our favorite team and only our favorite team. I would not buy a sports management sim that does not have that option.

I have been saying this for more than 10 years on the SI Football Manager forum, and I'll say it here: I play this type of game because I want to live out my little fantasy of running a sports team. I want to take my time and build my team my way, at my own pace. I don't want to manage the Baltimore Ravens, I want to manage my local team, the Cleveland Browns.

[Al Davis]

Originally Posted by Francis Cole

I hope there is MP in V1, and if so it will be very similar to the way OOTP does it.

So we can have a 32 player MP league like FOF does?

[Rizzo]

Originally Posted by Al Davis

So we can have a 32 player MP league like FOF does?

As soon as multiplayer is announced I'm sure that leagues will start forming almost immediately.

[mpejkrm]

Wow. I was very excited for BTS once it was announced (on my birthday!), but I just read through all 25 pages ... and now I'm twenty times more excited. This sounds like everything Madden's career mode could be, and more. I know OOTPD is putting tons of work into this game and I just can't wait. A few thoughts and questions:

Francis, absolute great job getting to everyone's questions, and I find it amazing you're the only coder. So keep up the great work. I always felt like Madden's career mode is great, but it's just missing that ... something, some things that would make it better are just missing. No doubt in my mind BTS can accomplish this over time. I love how you guys are focusing on the NFL game and getting it right for V1. As a predominantly modern-day league player, I'm thrilled. I will be able to do in-depth modern day leagues right away. And while in OOTPB and FHM, I'm mostly a simmer, I'm going to have to try out the in-game engine for BTS - it sounds great.

Anyway, I do have one question - regarding the draft. In OOTPB and FHM, you can see draft logs. In OOTP, you can only see it from the previous year, but in FHM, you can see it from all years, including historical. Will draft logs be included in BTS, and if so, will they be more like FHM, where you can see ones from more than just the past year? I hope so, because the drafts are a lot shorter than in OOTPB. As a draft nut, I would love to be able to track stats from past drafts.

Anyways, I'm very excited for this game. It will be a day one buy for me and who knows, I may even start a dynasty on this forum. Maybe, hopefully, we'll see a beta release around my birthday again this year. Keep up the great work guys.

[Francis Cole]

egarding the draft. In OOTPB and FHM, you can see draft logs. In OOTP, you can only see it from the previous year, but in FHM, you can see it from all years, including historical. Will draft logs be included in BTS, and if so, will they be more like FHM, where you can see ones from more than just the past year?

Yes, currently I think we got back to the year 2000.

[mpejkrm]

Awesome. Can't wait.

[Cap Heresy]

Originally Posted by Francis Cole

I hope there is MP in V1, and if so it will be very similar to the way OOTP does it.

I thought I read something toward the beginning of this thread about support for online leagues, so when I read this post my heart dropped. I sure hope online leagues (MP) makes it into V1.

Whenever MP becomes available, will there be a capability to start up a new league from scratch with an inaugural draft, and would we do that in-game or via a message board such as FOF has done with the WOOF2 League?

You mentioned that the interface will be modeled on OOTP. I just want to verify that means - views, filters, font size adjust, display as web page, and (in addition) dumping player lists into a csv file. The font size and the display as web page are very important to these old eyes. I had to quit Bowl Bound for that very reason.

[Francis Cole]

It's based off the OOTP15 look, but then with some more up-to-date stuff added on as well from (which as they involves the next version of OOTP and FHM I probably am not allowed to talk about in detail!)

Also a few things have changed, because - Football being a different sport to Baseball - some things need to be more prominent.

One example is the draft. In OOTP the draft bit is quite hidden away, depending on which time of season it is new menu items will suddenly appear from nowhere, and even when it is the right time of season it's not the easiest to find out what's going with the draft. That's fine for Baseball, but obviously with BTS we need to have a different approach.

views, filters, font size adjust, display as web page, and (in addition) dumping player lists into a csv file.

Views yes, filters yes, font size - (I didn't actually know that was a thing in OOTP, I'll have to look into that!) , Web Pages - I think there will be some webpages in BTS, but to the extent of OOTP for V1? - realistically probably not. The webpages in OOTP (as I understand it) have been the result of many many changes through the years to get to the stage we are at now. And every single one will have to be re-done for BTS, it's going to be one of the most consuming things left.
CSV - Yes I think so, it's certainly a lot quicker for me to code than all the web pages.

I know some of that may not be what you were hoping to here, but I hope you will understand

[Francis Cole]

Whenever MP becomes available, will there be a capability to start up a new league from scratch with an inaugural draft

Missed this bit.
Yes for Inaugural draft. I still need to work out some logistical stuff, but I expect it won't be too hard.