BTS: Frequently Asked Questions

[pwalt588]

How will I find out about the organization of the first BTS leagues? I'm tired of joining online baseball a nd football leagues by taking over an established franchise that someone abandoned. I want to get in on the ground floor of a BTS league!

[Francis Cole]

Originally Posted by SirMichaelJordan

1. Any info about coaching staff and their roles in the game?

The few other Football sims lack in this area.

It would be great to see more details in this part of the game.


2. Since teams will share the same playbook how many different plays can we expect to see come release?

3. Will preseason matter? Can we expect to see roster cut dates?

4. 3-4 defense, how will this affect roster decisions and depth chart?

1)We have HC and the OC and DC. They will have attributes to indicate what they prefer (e.g. 4-3 or 3-4 etc.) Not any more details currently though unfortunately.

2)So let's look at Offence only, and ignore ST.

You'll have your base formations (I'm doing this from memory), I, Single Back, No Back. etc.
Say you click on I. You'll then see, split I (Left + R), Jumbo (L+R), Big (L+R), Offset (L+R) etc etc.
Click on one of those. You'll have all the running possibilities, i.e. the RB/FB/etc into all the different holes.
For passing you'll have every combination of the receivers doing different things in the passing tree we can think of.

The step backs are automatically decided on the play called. Not sure yet if we will have motion automatic or something you can choose. Not sure how complicated we want things yet.

In short we might have to cut down on the plays rather than have too few.

3)Yes, hugely. All the real life cut dates are already in.

4)The HC/DC will have a preference, and adjust stuff accordingly to play what they like (and draft accordingly etc).

[mgom27]

Madden has live play by play and in this game for Example Trent Green/Chris Rose might have a contract to call Chiefs Games but Mike Ditka/Kevin Harlan Bears Games and when contracts are up you could renew it or not.

What I mean by E. League option is like after Super Bowl it might say the Jags have been sold and new Owner decides to move them to Orlando or Rosters size has gone from 52 to 54 like in OTTP.

Scheduling Games in London?

Trades with other Leagues?

S. Draft?

Hiring Collage Coaches to be come a NFL ones or other way to?

[JWay]

What if we wanted to play 1995 football with 2014 rules, could that be set up?

[Francis Cole]

Originally Posted by mgom27

Madden has live play by play and in this game for Example Trent Green/Chris Rose might have a contract to call Chiefs Games but Mike Ditka/Kevin Harlan Bears Games and when contracts are up you could renew it or not.

What I mean by E. League option is like after Super Bowl it might say the Jags have been sold and new Owner decides to move them to Orlando or Rosters size has gone from 52 to 54 like in OTTP.

Scheduling Games in London?

Trades with other Leagues?

S. Draft?

Hiring Collage Coaches to be come a NFL ones or other way to?

Sorry not quite understanding the first question
Teams relocating yes.
London games - Yes, scheduler does this automatically
Trades with other leagues: Yes
Supplemental Draft. Not sure yet. We'd have to develop some system for academic ineligibility etc first or missing the filing deadline.
College Coaches - Have not thought about this bit yet.

[SirMichaelJordan]

Hiring or seeing the AI bringing in successful college coaches would be awesome!

[Cole]

Congrats on joining OOTP Devs Francis! This sounds like a great partnership.

Plenty of questions:

1. I'm a bit confused regarding the level of customization. It states the customization options will be ability to change team names, number of teams, league structure, league's country and a variety of settings... But in these Q & A's it has been stated that the level of customization won't be the same as OOTP and the focus is on NFL leagues... The announced customization features seems to be all anyone could really ask for, so I'm wondering what the great big difference is between OOTP and BTS customization?

2. Obviously Markus is focused on OOTP, I'm wondering what role he will actually have in this? Is it just kind of a guidance/code assistance/help implementing OOTP stuff/overseeing your work role, or is it a more direct involvement?

3. Obviously we've seen your blog on the game... I'm wondering how similar or different the UI will look in the game now that you are under the OOTP banner?

4. Same sort of question, I'm wondering how much different the final 2D play viewer will end up looking under the OOTP banner, or is that pretty much complete?

5. I am presuming you have played the other football sim games out there (PFS, FOF, etc) ... Where do you feel they are lacking and how will BTS try to fill in those gaps? Obviously starting a football sim on your own in the past you felt there was a niche to be filled. Just wondering for your creative vision on where you feel your game fits in amongst others already offered.

Personally I think people have to temper their expectations if they are expecting this game to be as feature-rich and polished as OOTP 15 for example. Markus has been pecking away at OOTP and making improvements for 15 years... BTS will be great I'm sure, but it will take time for it to get on the same level as OOTP in my opinion.


Lastly, a suggestion .. I forget where I read it, but mention that the Facegen would be pictures of players with helmets on, but without a face guard.. Why?? That sounds incredibly awkward looking. Why not just have the Facegen pictures be players with their jersey on, no helmets at all, as players are when they are intro-ed in NFL games?


Thanks in advance!

[Cryomaniac]

Originally Posted by ripwalk

Personally I think people have to temper their expectations if they are expecting this game to be as feature-rich and polished as OOTP 15 for example. Markus has been pecking away at OOTP and making improvements for 15 years... BTS will be great I'm sure, but it will take time for it to get on the same level as OOTP in my opinion.

I would hope that people don't think like that, although the FHM launch kind of proved that some people do.

[SirMichaelJordan]

Originally Posted by ripwalk

Congrats on joining OOTP Devs Francis! This sounds like a great partnership.

Plenty of questions:

1. I'm a bit confused regarding the level of customization. It states the customization options will be ability to change team names, number of teams, league structure, league's country and a variety of settings... But in these Q & A's it has been stated that the level of customization won't be the same as OOTP and the focus is on NFL leagues... The announced customization features seems to be all anyone could really ask for, so I'm wondering what the great big difference is between OOTP and BTS customization?

2. Obviously Markus is focused on OOTP, I'm wondering what role he will actually have in this? Is it just kind of a guidance/code assistance/help implementing OOTP stuff/overseeing your work role, or is it a more direct involvement?

3. Obviously we've seen your blog on the game... I'm wondering how similar or different the UI will look in the game now that you are under the OOTP banner?

4. Same sort of question, I'm wondering how much different the final 2D play viewer will end up looking under the OOTP banner, or is that pretty much complete?

5. I am presuming you have played the other football sim games out there (PFS, FOF, etc) ... Where do you feel they are lacking and how will BTS try to fill in those gaps? Obviously starting a football sim on your own in the past you felt there was a niche to be filled. Just wondering for your creative vision on where you feel your game fits in amongst others already offered.

Personally I think people have to temper their expectations if they are expecting this game to be as feature-rich and polished as OOTP 15 for example. Markus has been pecking away at OOTP and making improvements for 15 years... BTS will be great I'm sure, but it will take time for it to get on the same level as OOTP in my opinion.


Lastly, a suggestion .. I forget where I read it, but mention that the Facegen would be pictures of players with helmets on, but without a face guard.. Why?? That sounds incredibly awkward looking. Why not just have the Facegen pictures be players with their jersey on, no helmets at all, as players are when they are intro-ed in NFL games?


Thanks in advance!

lol yea that does sound awkward. I don't see a problem with just using hats. Some guys wear their NFL hats during press and such so its not unrealistic to have players wearing hats.

I read over in the FHM forums that the face gens needed something to cover their head because of the SI logo?

[Francis Cole]

Originally Posted by ripwalk

1. I'm a bit confused regarding the level of customization. It states the customization options will be ability to change team names, number of teams, league structure, league's country and a variety of settings... But in these Q & A's it has been stated that the level of customization won't be the same as OOTP and the focus is on NFL leagues... The announced customization features seems to be all anyone could really ask for, so I'm wondering what the great big difference is between OOTP and BTS customization?

2. Obviously Markus is focused on OOTP, I'm wondering what role he will actually have in this? Is it just kind of a guidance/code assistance/help implementing OOTP stuff/overseeing your work role, or is it a more direct involvement?

3. Obviously we've seen your blog on the game... I'm wondering how similar or different the UI will look in the game now that you are under the OOTP banner?

4. Same sort of question, I'm wondering how much different the final 2D play viewer will end up looking under the OOTP banner, or is that pretty much complete?

5. I am presuming you have played the other football sim games out there (PFS, FOF, etc) ... Where do you feel they are lacking and how will BTS try to fill in those gaps? Obviously starting a football sim on your own in the past you felt there was a niche to be filled. Just wondering for your creative vision on where you feel your game fits in amongst others already offered.

Personally I think people have to temper their expectations if they are expecting this game to be as feature-rich and polished as OOTP 15 for example. Markus has been pecking away at OOTP and making improvements for 15 years... BTS will be great I'm sure, but it will take time for it to get on the same level as OOTP in my opinion.


Lastly, a suggestion .. I forget where I read it, but mention that the Facegen would be pictures of players with helmets on, but without a face guard.. Why?? That sounds incredibly awkward looking. Why not just have the Facegen pictures be players with their jersey on, no helmets at all, as players are when they are intro-ed in NFL games?


Thanks in advance!

1)There will be customization. For example the league sizes etc. However this customization is limited in comparison to OOTP. In OOTP for example you could set all your divisions to have 50 teams each etc. You can't do that in BTS.

You have to keep your customization fairly sane, where in OOTP you can go, for want of a better word, crazy.

2)I have access to the OOTP code (which he obviously did) so I can ask questions of how bits of OOTP works. Also whenever we think of a new feature he'll say "that's easy to do"

3)The Interface will look a lot like OOTP, but obviously designed around Football and not Baseball.

4)The look of it, the buttons etc will be in the style of the OOTP interface, but it will still basically still be a field with dots moving around.

5)I think it would be unfair of me to comment on what I think is wrong with other games in the genre.

6)Yes, OOTP has 15 years. We are just doing our first version.

7)Hair, apparently, in FaceGen is a complete nightmare so it always helps to hide it, if that means either a helmet or a baseball cap.

[mgom27]

TV and Radio/Announcers Contracts? Like lets the Bucs have a contract with WRBW and it runs intill 2019 but WRBW doesn't not renew meaning have to find a new home for Preseason Games.

Seeing the Player run or Field Goal been Kicked and hearing Ref saying Offsides Defense 15 yards 1st down Live.

[Francis Cole]

1)No, I can't imagine many GMs do this
2)Not thought about that actually. Good question. We'd have to record people saying the calls. I'll look into it if I get time at some point in the future.

[SirMichaelJordan]

Originally Posted by Francis Cole

1)No, I can't imagine many GMs do this
2)Not thought about that actually. Good question. We'd have to record people saying the calls. I'll look into it if I get time at some point in the future.

Will it be like OOTP where you are the GM but also have the ability to be the head coach/manager? Basically, will I be able to hire a separate HC and let him deal with the on field stuff while I worry about the off the field tasks? I rather let my HC ratings have an affect as I only care to be a GM.

[Francis Cole]

Yes you are basically a GM/HC.
If you don't want to call plays then you can set your OC and DC to do it.

[Marinersfan51]

How does FHM handle facegen? I think that baseball caps would look better than helmets, though no hats would be ideal.

[Cole]

Originally Posted by Francis Cole

5)I think it would be unfair of me to comment on what I think is wrong with other games in the genre.

I'm not asking for you to point out specific flaws of specific games.. But... you set out to make a football simulator, you must see certain areas where you think "I can do this better or more completely" ... just wondering if you can share the aspects where you think BTS might be better or a more complete game perhaps...

If I had to answer for you, I would think perhaps immersion (Facegen and a good looking UI) and customization would likely be big stand-out points.

And a follow up question. What do you think is currently the best football simulator on the market (your game excluded) and why?

[Francis Cole]

okay, my top 3.

1)Scope of the real life data (transactions etc) we have.
2)2D representation of the game.
3)How we do the rookies/draft etc.

[Antonin]

Originally Posted by ripwalk

...Personally I think people have to temper their expectations if they are expecting this game to be as feature-rich and polished as OOTP 15 for example. Markus has been pecking away at OOTP and making improvements for 15 years... BTS will be great I'm sure, but it will take time for it to get on the same level as OOTP in my opinion...

As I've always said when this topic comes up, I would be happy if an OOTP-brand football game is "only" as sophisticated as OOTP5.

A basic financial model, believable stats, some degree of customization.

I'm personally not interested in 3-D graphics, so I hope BTS is focused more on gameplay than eye candy. If it looks great, with lots of little player-sprites moving around and slowing down your computer, but your star WR is demanding $72 million a year and your second-string running back is gaining 430 yards a game, then that would not be good.

[Antonin]

But I am very happy that OOTP Developments has finally taken this step.

[mgom27]

In OTTP we can add 50 Teams Manually in League Structure.

Team President and so on Front Office Staff?

Wavier Trades?