One shame on you David

[nmleague]

First overall I like this game, the graphics are great and 3d action is good. With the ability to adjust the data bases etc., I think this game has great potential. Myself I would like to see it succeed, have done over 80 uniforms that I will make available to the community and intend on tweaking the ratings and designing plays and playbooks that will help it reach its potential. If you have a committment to fix thiings and continue to develope the game I think alot of people will support it.

But there is one area that I think you really let slide, and I think it hurts the initial release.

1. There are only 3 playbooks included with the game, and only one for each style of play. I have several problems with the playbooks. They are very small, each formation has a small number of plays. One play book trys to cover to many things, why would you allow a single wing formation in a play book released for a majority of people that want current college or pro game play. I watched a computer vs computer game and saw the single wing used many times. There are so many knowledge people that could have designed several well though out play books for the game. Most would have done it for free, a free copy of the game or for a minimal fee.

2. This leads to the second thing, if you would have had several people really get into using the PDS to design plays and playbooks they would have probably early on let you know the limitations of it. If they really knew football they would have never let the limitations of the PDS get through.

Hate to say it but all someone has to do is look at FPS 94-97s play editor to see how it should be done. They werent perfect, but the options available for things like pass coverage allowed for very realistic play developement.

I think you would find that a number of people would be very willing to now design formation, plays and playbooks. But at this stage of the game the PDS is not easily used or capable of allowing people to do this.

[timtellean1]

this was already addressed and mods including marauders are available through the members area and through 3rd parties. I think a big draw of the game is customizability so including many playbooks wouldn't that be counter-intuitive.

[Erik Rutins]

nmleague,

We will be looking into the PDS reports and checking on the reported issues with some kinds of player behavior in PDS-created plays. Our first priority is the more severe issues, then we'll get the rest squared away.

We should have quite a few more playbooks coming in from testers. As soon as I receive them, I'll post them in the Members' Club. I'm certain that in the long run the default playbooks will be supplanted by much better user-created ones and that was the plan as I understood it. The default books are there to give a starting point and some variety for game balance but are not intended to be definitive due to the availability of the PDS.

Regards,

- Erik

[nmleague]

Tim unless I missed something there is only one download available for the game in the members area and that is just a few plays limited to the indoor game.

Eric I realize that the communtiy will develope playbooks, I dont think I have ever relied on the plays/playbooks included with a game. My point is if anyone would have spent a significant amount of time trying to design plays/playbooks they would have found the limitations with this PDS system. Anyone in the community with coaching or just football knowledge will be very disapointed and frustrated trying to develope plays/playbooks for this game as it stands. And with the pass coverage limitations its questionable if balance plays can be developed.

Something else that relates to this. If David and the playtesters did most of their play testing using such a limited number of plays they could be lead to believe that the game was working very well. But it is very obvious that this game has problems with pass coverage.

I like or can live with most things in the game. I expect that David will patch the small glitches. In my opionion the most important update to this game has to be an improved PDS. Forget salary cap and head to head. The game needs the ability for users to develope realistic offenses and defenses.

Again Im a supporter and will try to contribute what ever I can to the game but this the way I see it and no justification will change it.

[David Winter]

Eric I realize that the communtiy will develope playbooks, I dont think I have ever relied on the plays/playbooks included with a game. My point is if anyone would have spent a significant amount of time trying to design plays/playbooks they would have found the limitations with this PDS system. Anyone in the community with coaching or just football knowledge will be very disapointed and frustrated trying to develope plays/playbooks for this game as it stands. And with the pass coverage limitations its questionable if balance plays can be developed.

We had two coaches and two semi pro quarter backs on the beta team. The rest were, at least, very football savey. The feed back from them was the PDS was pretty much doing everything they expected.

Yes, there have to be some restrictions on some things because there is simply no way I can create encough code to handle every possible thing everyone would like.

I have big plans for the PDS. I won't go into them all now but I have a lot of things I want to do with it to improve it.

[nmleague]

<I have big plans for the PDS. I won't go into them all now but I have a lot of things I want to do with it to improve it. >

I think that is all we need to here, at least if you realize the limitations and make it a top priority to upgrade I thank you.

[Marauders]

1. There are only 3 playbooks included with the game, and only one for each style of play. I have several problems with the playbooks. They are very small, each formation has a small number of plays. One play book trys to cover to many things, why would you allow a single wing formation in a play book released for a majority of people that want current college or pro game play. I watched a computer vs computer game and saw the single wing used many times.

There are likely two reasons for this. The first is that people can pull the plays they want from the plays that are in game and set up there own playbooks. The default playbook represents some basic plays that can be set up and used in the game. In my league we limit the number of plays that are not in the standard formation selected, so having 4-3 and 3-4 plays in the playbook will not work. No team will be using the default playbook as is.

The second reason is that most people will want to develop their own plays, playbooks, and names, and having too many default playbooks would have cluttered things up.

Beta members have been working on playbooks that were not released with the game. As changes were made in beta, those playbooks had to be tweaked, so it was decided not to include plays that were not tested by David or the Matrix crew. Late in beta, it became a priority to resolve the OS issues that popped up rather than test the various beta member playbooks.

There are so many knowledge people that could have designed several well though out play books for the game. Most would have done it for free, a free copy of the game or for a minimal fee.

Believe me when I tell you that there were football people in beta. As David has stated, there were coaches, semi-pro players, and football knowledgeable guys.

2. This leads to the second thing, if you would have had several people really get into using the PDS to design plays and playbooks they would have probably early on let you know the limitations of it. If they really knew football they would have never let the limitations of the PDS get through.

Many of the limitations are known. I know David and Erik have had feedback from the beta team and the crew at Matrix Games. As he has stated, David will be evaluating the PDS and making enhancements and changes in the future. Any feedback from players is helpful.