From: trick@shakespeare.rutgers.edu (Mike Trick)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games
Subject: FPS: Football.  Experience as GM
Summary: Review and suggestions for FSP: Football
Keywords: football, sports
Date: 14 Dec 92 17:08:56 GMT
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.

After playing with Front Page Sports football for far too much time
over the last two weeks, I thought I would make a few comments and add
a wish list for things I would like to see (in the hopes that FPS:
Football will be the first in an improving series).

First of all, let me echo the comments that the motion and feel for
this game is very good.  Players move very well, and play acts like it
reflects the real micro-movements of the players, not some randomly
generated outcome.  For many games, I felt that the logic was HBTrap
vs. OutSideBlitz --> 10% loss 2 yards, 35% gain 3 yards, 55% gain 6
yards, with little to do with the players involved.  This game feels
right.

Having said that, I have spent relatively little time actually calling
plays.  I love the ability to take teams through a draft in an attempt
to form dynasties.  My role has been to make the personnel decisions,
decide on the playbook and leave the simulation to the (weak) AI.  I'm
in the tenth season, having made the playoffs the last eight years in
a row (ten team league, 4 make the playoffs).  Unfortunately, I have
also lost in the first round eight years in a row.  I aspire to be the
Denver Broncos of this league, where at least I would only lose in the
championship round.  I have no patience or skill in the "reflex" side
of football games, so have not experimented at all with moving players
myself. 

Though I have found this "task" interesting and fun, I do have a few
gripes that could make things much more wonderful.  If some of these
are there and I don't know about it, I'd love to hear about it.

1) Improved distinction between starter and backup.  The system
chooses a starter based on some internal measurement (which may be a
simple as summing the attributes).  This means that a person with a
good attribute that I consider unimportant will start over a person
with what I consider good attributes.  My starting QB for many years
was who I wanted as my number 2 QB, until I realized that his 92 Hands
rating meant that my other QB could not start.  After trading #1 away,
I had a much better offense, though I was very vulnerable to an injury
(since I had a very weak backup left).  Two solutions:

   a) Ability to designate starters versus backups.  You can, of
course, do substitutions for this effect, but it must be redone at
least every change of possession.

   b) Ability to define ones own quality measure.  By this I mean
giving weights to the characteristics that can vary by position.  So
if I like strong, dumb linemen, I can put a much higher weight on
strength than on intelligence.  This weighting is currently done
internally:  I would like control over it.  These weights could also
be used in the draft to order the players.  Again, teams are not
always picking the "top" player, so some internal weights must be
used.  Allowing me to automatically do the same would be nice.

2)  Improved use of the clock and recognition of score.  This really
breaks my suspension of disbelief.  Down 5, 1 minute to go, 4th and 1
on the 17 yard line.  Exciting right?  Wrong!  Computer kicks a field
goal.  Dumb, dumb, dumb.  It all evens out over a season, but this has
to be done better.  Combine the Playmaker Football A.I. system and you
have a wonderful combination.

3)  Different playbooks for different teams.  As far as I can tell,
computer run teams use off.pln and def.pln in the dyanamix\football
directory.  It is possible to copy over those plans, but all the teams
then use those plans.  The 36 offensive plans provided are already
characterized by run vs. pass, conservative vs. aggressive.  Each team
should be picking one of the standard plans in keeping with its
personnel.

4) Less nasty retirement rules.  C'mon!  I'm paying these guys a ton
of money.  Why is it that my main receiver, having caught more than
600 yards worth of passes (in 10 games) retires after 4 years in the
league?  Once in a while, I would believe they went to the CFL or
something, but they seem to leave on their own far too often.  I
should be required to kick them out!  As it is, I rarely have to cut
someone; "natural" attrition weeds out too many as it is.

5) Faster play.  It takes about 5 minutes on my 25Mz 486 to simulate a
game.  The drive is hit on each play (2MB EMM, not enough room for
SMARTDRV).  It takes about 5 minutes after each week in order to
update the play.  That amounts to half-an-hour per week played.
Luckily I have enough to do around the house, but it still takes a
evening to simulate a season.  Why isn't there a fully automatic mode
at least that could run multiple weeks overnight?

6) Improved modeling of changes in attributes.  Attributes change in
training camp, but seem unaffected by actual play (I think).
Something like Intelligence should be gained by playing games.  Why
does Cincy play Klingler now?  "To give him experience".  In FPS,
experience is gained by going to training camp, not by playing.

7) Awarding of MVP, and All--Star awards based on season stats.

8) Real career statistics for a team.  The current ones disappear when
a player retires.

That's it for now.  I definitely recommend the game and hope it gets
even better.

                                     Mike Trick