BTS: Frequently Asked Questions

[r0nster]

I do wonder about emotions in the game for when a team makes a great play or even a turnover it generally takes the wind out of the other team will have an effect or even having the coach fire up the players on the team before game ????

Also curious about intelligence of players such as knowing playbook or knowing how to run a route and not have the play be a broken play with potential interception??

[Shadeet]

Something else that popped into my head while I was tinkering with OOTP in the wake of the Super Bowl -- is the game going to have a more robust schedule generator than the one in OOTP? Even leaving aside stuff like flex games and the West Coast travel rules, at a minimum, to handle modern NFL schedule requirements, it seems like you'd need to deal with the heavily unbalanced scheduling, the two New York teams not being able to play at home on the same day because they share a stadium, and every team having two opponents per season set by record instead of formula, none of which OOTP can handle automatically as I understand it. As a follow-up, how will changing the league structure affect the scheduling formula, and what level of control (if any; it's certainly understandable if there's only one option per setup) will we have over that?

[packersfan]

I haven't seen any OUTRAGEOUS requests for features in this game. Most of the requests are for things that are available in OOTP. Of course, we must all remember that this is the first edition of this game, but also at the same time building off of the OOTP engine so there is that advantage. I hope customization is available to the extent it is available in OOTP...but let's get a good first edition so future editions can be made and improved upon.

Originally Posted by packersfan

I haven't seen any OUTRAGEOUS requests for features in this game. Most of the requests are for things that are available in OOTP. Of course, we must all remember that this is the first edition of this game, but also at the same time building off of the OOTP engine so there is that advantage. I hope customization is available to the extent it is available in OOTP...but let's get a good first edition so future editions can be made and improved upon.

Fans are more careful now... after FHM experience. And developers are too.

[Cryomaniac]

Originally Posted by dmytron

Fans are more careful now... after FHM experience. And developers are too.

The Devs were pretty careful with expectation management (which is quite a negative phrase, at least in the UK regarding politics) and it was the fans who expected too much imho.

[GBS]

More on Offensive Line play. I have not read this entire thread but I know it has been mentioned. Linemen have different talent levels and some lines as a group are better against the pass rush and possibly not as good at blocking the point of attack. Others are great at run game blocking. I think it would help to interview a professional (preferable) or college O line coach at get an understanding of how linemen are graded and what characteristics they look for. Offensive live play is the single most important contributor to great offenses and for this game is very very very very important.

[Mike D]

In previous posts, it was stated that there would be things to do every day of the week since Football is only played once a week. What are those things were looking at the other 6 days? Film Study Mon-Tues, Practice and Gameplan implementing on Wed-Fri?

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by Shadeet

Something else that popped into my head while I was tinkering with OOTP in the wake of the Super Bowl -- is the game going to have a more robust schedule generator than the one in OOTP? Even leaving aside stuff like flex games and the West Coast travel rules, at a minimum, to handle modern NFL schedule requirements, it seems like you'd need to deal with the heavily unbalanced scheduling, the two New York teams not being able to play at home on the same day because they share a stadium, and every team having two opponents per season set by record instead of formula, none of which OOTP can handle automatically as I understand it.

Well, keep in mind the very different scenarios for scheduling of MLB versus NFL. MLB has a long season with games being played almost every day for six months; the NFL has teams usually playing only once per week, and that makes scheduling much simpler since that leaves plenty of time for travel as compared to baseball. The NFL also uses a 'common opponents' scheduling format, which is based on a club's record the prior season; MLB has nothing like that (nor does it need to given that it plays 162 games compared to the 16 games of the NFL).

Now, depending on just how much freedom BTS will give the user in terms of league size and alignment, there will undoubtedly be arrangements that won't produce good results from any schedule generator no matter how sophisticated. My immediate suggestion would be to stick with league size, alignment, and schedule length selections that parallel actual NFL and AFL seasons. That way, you can use the actual real-life schedules. The further you go from actual real-world setups, however, the more likely the schedule will depart from feeling 'realistic'.

It may help too if BTS follows the OOTP example of shipping with a large set of preexisting schedule files for a large variety of league sizes/alignments/schedule lengths, thus allowing the more common setups to have quality schedules. (More unusual scenarios will probably have to rely on a schedule generator, or for user-created custom schedule files.)

In any case, I'm mulling over ideas right now and will likely write up a nice essay on schedules (and other matters) for BTS and pass them along to Mr. Cole.

[RchW]

Originally Posted by Mike D

In previous posts, it was stated that there would be things to do every day of the week since Football is only played once a week. What are those things were looking at the other 6 days? Film Study Mon-Tues, Practice and Gameplan implementing on Wed-Fri?

Monday night football. Thursday night football. "Who got arrested" day may pop up randomly.

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by RchW

Monday night football. Thursday night football.

There is also the occasional Saturday (and even Friday) game.

[Cryomaniac]

Originally Posted by Le Grande Orange

There is also the occasional Saturday (and even Friday) game.

Aren't they mostly only playoff games?

[Francis Cole]

Pre Season as well

[olivertheorem]

Francis, can you please make sure we don't get 43-8 or 52-14 type blowouts in the Super Bowl? It's just not realistic.


Oh wait.....

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by Cryomaniac

Aren't they mostly only playoff games?

There are occasionally one or two Saturday games during the final two weeks of the regular season (depends on the year). There are also unusual circumstances. In 2011, for example, all but one game was played on Saturday, Dec. 24th, as the next day was Christmas Day.

Originally Posted by Francis Cole

Pre Season as well

Yeah, preseason games tend to be spread more across Thursday through Monday. As long as BTS can handle a game being played from Thursday through Monday, it'll be fine.

[drksd4848]

This might be pretty obvious, but I'll ask the question anyway:

Will you be able to have real teams, but fictional players a la like what you can do in OOTP? Like I could build the New England Patriots from scratch?

Also, this is more of a suggestion for a feature that I wish other football sims had. A lot of times, strategy football games can become WAY overly complicated, especially when calling defensive plays. Eventually, I give up and let the computer call the plays. So, with that in mind:

Could we have an assistant coach feature where the computer suggests a defensive or offensive play - like a coordinator would -, then you (as the head coach) either approve it or reject it and call another play?

[Cole]

Originally Posted by drksd4848

Could we have an assistant coach feature where the computer suggests a defensive or offensive play - like a coordinator would -, then you (as the head coach) either approve it or reject it and call another play?

Fantastic idea. I would definitely make use of this.

[Cryomaniac]

Originally Posted by Le Grande Orange

There are occasionally one or two Saturday games during the final two weeks of the regular season (depends on the year). There are also unusual circumstances. In 2011, for example, all but one game was played on Saturday, Dec. 24th, as the next day was Christmas Day.

Speaking of unusual circumstances, there was that Vikings game that got moved to Tuesday night in Detroit due to the roof of the Metrodome breaking in a snowstorm.

[BCStone]

Please!! No helmets without face guards in Facegen. I would feel I'm coaching a team from the 40's. I like the idea of the players in there team uniforms wearing hats with team logo on hat much like we have now in OOTP.

[da commish]

Originally Posted by Cryomaniac

Speaking of unusual circumstances, there was that Vikings game that got moved to Tuesday night in Detroit due to the roof of the Metrodome breaking in a snowstorm.

They just blew the roof down last weekend so the dome is no more. Now it's just an empty shell that will soon be feeling the wrecking ball.

[dave1927p]

Is the start date customizable? I would like to do modern day rules but start in the late 50's.