Maximum-Football Update (August 30th, 2007)

[David Winter]

Greetings.

As some of you may know, the next version of the game is closing in on release. While my policy is to not give release dates or estimated release dates, I think it's safe to say we're close.

There has been a slight change in plan and I thought I'd take this time to update everyone as to what that is.

As you're all aware (or at least many are probably aware), we've all been refereeing to the upcoming version as Version 1.5

After discussions with David Heath of Matrix, we've decided to change that. This version will officially be called Maximum-Football 2.0.

I understand that this name change, so close to release, is very unorthodox and is probably not something you'd see many game companies do, however our reason for this change is pretty simple. Keeping the game named Maximum-Football 1.5 would simply be seen as a patch. What you'll be getting is far, far more than just a patch. It is, for all practical purposes, a brand new game. We felt that leaving the game named in a 'patch' way, would undermine the great efforts put forth by everyone involved.

The area of concern for me is that this name change could lead to some misunderstandings on feature set. So, I'd like to clear those up before they get started.

For about a year now (maybe more), I have been stating that the 'next version' of the game would have some additional features asked for by the playing community. Some of those features involve AI trades, salary caps, online game play, etc.. Those of you that frequent the board probably know what I'm talking about. As I said, I've been saying that 'the next version will have those'. We'll, this is being advertised now as 'the next version', but I'm afraid those features I just mentioned will not be included. And that is why, Maximum-Football 2.0 is still going to be a free update to anyone that has purchased any flavour of version 1.

What you will be getting is a better graphics experience, better game play, and better animations. Along with a few new features requested by the game community.

Along with the release of Maximum-Football 2.0, Matrix will be making printed manuals available. I'll ask someone from Matrix to post a reply here to explain the process of obtaining a printed manual.

The official Maximum-Football website (http://www.maximum-football.com) has been updated to reflect the name change.

So, I hope this rather unusual name change will not throw too much confusion into the mix.

thanks again,
David Winter

[WallysWorld]

Appreciate you keeping us up to date with this info, David.[:)]

[Brockleigh]

Thanks for the update, Dave... much appreciated.

[22sec]

Thanks Dave for the update. BTW I found a work around for my problem I emailed you about the other day. Exciting stuff, I know have a league w/119 teams, 65 real players per team, a real life schedule, and a dream.[:D]

[David Winter]

119 teams?!? That's 7735 players (not including the free agents and unsigned draft eligible players)...
 
Wow.. that's a lot more than I ever envisioned people doing with this game [:)]

[local8h]

Man David, Now im all excited again.....I hope the release is very very very sooooon[:)] or atleast when i get back to the good all USA

[quixian]

We'll, this is being advertised now as 'the next version', but I'm afraid those features I just mentioned will not be included. And that is why, Maximum-Football 2.0 is still going to be a free update to anyone that has purchased any flavour of version 1.

This kind of dedication to customer support is virtually dead in the sports gaming community. The news that MaxFB 2.0 will remain free to existing MaxFB customers is fantastic!

How many sports titles promise 20 things in the next version of the game, deliver on half of their promised enhancements, and break twice as many things as they've fixed? Or merely given us a "roster update"? All while charging us for a full-priced game annually! [:-]

Thanks again for the updates, David. Looking forward to 2.0 and the future of MaxFB.

[BigSmooth]

ORIGINAL: 21SEC

Thanks Dave for the update. BTW I found a work around for my problem I emailed you about the other day. Exciting stuff, I know have a league w/119 teams, 65 real players per team, a real life schedule, and a dream.[:D]

Wow, how many WEEKS did that draft take?[:D]

[David Winter]

ORIGINAL: BigSmooth

ORIGINAL: 21SEC

Thanks Dave for the update. BTW I found a work around for my problem I emailed you about the other day. Exciting stuff, I know have a league w/119 teams, 65 real players per team, a real life schedule, and a dream.[:D]

Wow, how many WEEKS did that draft take?[:D]

That's a bit of what I was thinking too. The league processing (drafts, stats saves, roster loading, etc...) in version 1.3 was pretty slow. Slower than I had hoped anyway. For version 2.0, these processes have been sped up considerably. Depending on the machine, it's about twice as fast to action these features as in the past. I think the testers could comment better on that area. I recall they have mentioned marked improvements.

Still, 119 teams, even with Version 2.0, would take several minutes to process a draft...

[DONMVP]

Well i know biggest league i created was 80 teams mixture cfl , arena , usfl , world football and couple fantasy . After draft at time was murder deleteing lots of players from rosters .

[22sec]

Well I have a league set up with all Division 1A teams (119) in their conferences and divisions. A guy over at ncaastrategies.com (formely utopiacollegesports) has been tinkering with editing the save files from EA's NCAA Football. Shortly after NCAA 08 came out he posted a spreadsheet that he ripped from a save game file that had all the players from every 1A team this year. I took that info minus their ratings (obviously EA's attributes and MFB are different) and plugged them in the players table for my league. Currently I am putting the correct Team ID, Position ID, Height and Weight to those guys. That should be done in the next week or so. At the same time I am also working on editing the schedule to reflect this current season's schedule. (Currently thru Sept 15). Now the kicker is going to be going in and adjusting each players attributes[X(] I hope to be done with that before the season is over. The other thing that I've worked on the past few months were playbooks, and when all is said and done I will have a good representation of college playbooks.

Ultimately the goal is to have a league set up with all 119 teams, real players, real schedules, and give college football fans a chance to enjoy our game. It's a lofty goal, and I'm not making any promises I will have the patience needed to complete it, but man it's been fun so far.

[Tbird]

I have one with a 117 teams pretty much all the default teams from all the leagues and all the uniforms i made.  I plan on making a 32 team playoff with a 16 week schedule.  So far I've only did the draft and training camp.

[GlennN]

ORIGINAL: quixian

We'll, this is being advertised now as 'the next version', but I'm afraid those features I just mentioned will not be included. And that is why, Maximum-Football 2.0 is still going to be a free update to anyone that has purchased any flavour of version 1.

This kind of dedication to customer support is virtually dead in the sports gaming community. The news that MaxFB 2.0 will remain free to existing MaxFB customers is fantastic!

How many sports titles promise 20 things in the next version of the game, deliver on half of their promised enhancements, and break twice as many things as they've fixed? Or merely given us a "roster update"? All while charging us for a full-priced game annually! [:-]

Thanks again for the updates, David. Looking forward to 2.0 and the future of MaxFB.

That was exactly my reaction reading David's post. How refreshing it is to have a developer actually care about the quality of the release and giving value to the consumer. Kudos to you, David!

[long_time_fan]

Thanks Dave!
Can't wait to see all the tweaking and such that you and the beta testers put into this new version.  I have a question and a comment.  The autosim feature looks a lot like a CFL game I played in the mid-to-late 90s, did you design that one (basically it was a football moving up and down a field)?  As for my comment, when I received the game (via download) I received an early build of the game, and was a little shocked how buggy it was. I assumed (perhaps that was the problem) that I would received the latest build.   I understand that the physical disk is set when its burnt, but I don't know why the most updated version isn't the standard download version for new buyers.  I guarentee that it will save new purchasers a little grief. This is only a minor gripe, though.
Long Time Fan

[David Winter]

ORIGINAL: long_time_fan

Thanks Dave!
Can't wait to see all the tweaking and such that you and the beta testers put into this new version.  I have a question and a comment.  The autosim feature looks a lot like a CFL game I played in the mid-to-late 90s, did you design that one (basically it was a football moving up and down a field)? 

It's quite possible that was one of mine. I've created many games over the years and I did write a couple of games like that in around 1995 and 96 or so.

As for my comment, when I received the game (via download) I received an early build of the game, and was a little shocked how buggy it was. I assumed (perhaps that was the problem) that I would received the latest build.   I understand that the physical disk is set when its burnt, but I don't know why the most updated version isn't the standard download version for new buyers.  I guarentee that it will save new purchasers a little grief. This is only a minor gripe, though.
Long Time Fan

My goal is that version 2.0 replace all existing versions of the game. It's always been a pet peeve of mine that my new customers have to buy a game that is a year and a half old, then go through an update process. I would rather any new release I provide be a replacement of existing files, not an addition to existing files. Unfortunately, that process is not something in my control.

thanks
David

[red07]

"Well I have a league set up with all Division 1A teams (119) in their conferences and divisions."
 
21SEC,
 
Can you send me this file?  I LOVE NCAA Football.  Thanks.
 

[red07]

David,
 
Any plans to add NCAA rules and such to Maximum Football so us College Football lovers can play Maximum Football as an NCAA game?  Thanks.  Keep up the good work.

[David Winter]

With the exception of the shootout overtime, I think most of the rules are there. Was there something specific you were looking to see?

[22sec]

ORIGINAL: David Winter

With the exception of the shootout overtime, I think most of the rules are there. Was there something specific you were looking to see?

The OT is one, and from a programming point of view I don't how diffiuclt that would be. The other is the option to not have a two minute warning. Oh and the clock stopping after a first down.

[elmerlee]

Remember you can customize this game.

In my current game I have it set so most of the time you kickoff after kicking an extra point.