Couple of n00b questions

[JudgeDredd]

I love American Football, but don't get the opportunity to watch it very often, so I'm not 100% certain of the rules (although I get the basics) but, moreso, I'm not up with the stats. I have very little idea what they are and what they mean/relate to.

My questions are:

• Gameplay : how does it play? Can you take part in the game? Is it strategy only (which I wouldn't mind)? or can you do either? I've read the bumf....what do you users think? How does it actually play out?
• Stats : one of my problems with Puresim Baseball (a great game) is the stats are abbreviated and, to the uneducated, ery hard to learn/understand. Does this game have "tooltip" explanations of the stats and how they are important?
• Play creation...is it as good and easy to use as it sounds?
  [*} And sound...is it good? Good atmospheric game? The problem wiht some of these stats games is the lack of immersion (very hard to include I think) but 3D graphics and sound go a long way to helping it get there
• Overall -just would like a feel for how people find it

Thx for the pointers. The last US football game I had was on the Commodore 64 and was a black pitch with little white pixels running up and down the field in a top down view and you selected from a limited bunch of plays offered in text view.

Anything along these lines with 3D will be a worth a go...and the play creation sounds great.

[JudgeDredd]

And one other thing...will there be a boxed version? I think I would like a printed manual for this one if I buy it.

Thx

[JudgeDredd]

ooops...and from what I can see in the screenies, it's not officially licensed (no real team names or stadia)...is that correct?

[Tullius]

ooops...and from what I can see in the screenies, it's not officially licensed (no real team names or stadia)...is that correct?

Yes, otherwise you wont have to abilty to customize many things.

And one other thing...will there be a boxed version? I think I would like a printed manual for this one if I buy it.

I think yes.

Stats : one of my problems with Puresim Baseball (a great game) is the stats are abbreviated and, to the uneducated, ery hard to learn/understand. Does this game have "tooltip" explanations of the stats and how they are important?

Ratings are important and are explained in the manual. Stats are well know but if you are beginner i advice you to surf on www.nfl.com. Here are stored the stats of NFL season and you get a better feel for it. But football stats are not so complex like baseball.

Play creation...is it as good and easy to use as it sounds?

Play creation is really good but you have to understand the game. As a beginner it should be easy to make some basic plays.

Gameplay : how does it play? Can you take part in the game? Is it strategy only (which I wouldn't mind)? or can you do either?

You have the following options:

a) quick sim
b) watching a game
c) coaching a game (play selection)
d) playing the game using a controller

And sound...is it good?

Sorry, during testing i turned sound off but now a new sound engine is included and there should be the abilty to customize it - but i am not sure. Because i have an old sound card i did not do here something. And i turned off the sound not because the sound was annoying.

[garysorrell]

I cant speak for 2.0, but in the current release version, sound is what I would call standard. The usual crowd noise and player noises, thats about it. Although, I usually play at night after the family goes to bed, so its mostly off.

[JudgeDredd]

Thx for the mengthy replies Tullius.

A great help.

For stats, I was hoping to have tooltips. With Pursim Baseball, I did use Wiki but couldn't find all the descriptions or xplanations for all the stats, so it made it pretty hard. Saying that, after a while I got by, even without the ones I never did find.

For developers of the future, lets have tooltips! [:D]

As for the gameplay, could you elaborate a bit on the styles?
a) quick sim - is this where it's simply ran and you see text output? Or just the result with stats at the end?
b) watching a game - I get this
c) coaching a game (play selection) - just calling plays? Can you jump in at anytime or are u locked as coach (no biggie...just asking)
d) playing the game using a controller - I presume you call the plays here too?

Thx again for taking the time.

[JudgeDredd]

k gary. Thx for that. The basics could be enough (I've never been one for music in a game anyway)

[garysorrell]

a) quick sim - Basically spits out a boxscore. You wont get the same results as if you let the game play out. But its good for huge leagues where letting each game play is not realistic or convenient.
b) watching a game - I get this
c) coaching a game (play selection) - Call plays, basically a coach...but you cant jump in and control with a gamepad
d) playing the game using a controller - Kinda Madden style, call plays and control players with gamepad

[garysorrell]

I actually think Max is a great way for someone to learn football. I am learning a lot about the Canadian game. I definately see things in it i like more than the standard US rules.

The play designer isnt as hard as it may appear at first. Just open a few existing plays and see how things are put together. It took me 30 minutes of sweat and vulgar language and I figured it out

[JudgeDredd]

One more question...does it/can it run in a window and, if not, how stable is it for ALT-Tabbing? I hate printing out PDFs, so I would like to alt-tab between the game and the manual.

Thanks again [&o]

[nmleague]

Yes it can run in a window, unfortunately I never do that so cant tell you the exact way to do it.  I recall that you have to create text file, not as easy as just alt tabing once the game is loaded.  But the text file is very simple.  Try doing a search of the forum for windows mode.

[JudgeDredd]

Thx nmleague.

Took the plunge. I enjoy the Madden games, but I've been looking for something more stats/strategy orientated for many years, so this was it.

Thanks for all your help with my questions, I'm sure you may see me around bugging you about "ill perceived" problems (probably through lack of knowledge) and asking questions, some very silly. [:D]

[Tbird]

windowmode.txt is the text file for window mode

[DONMVP]

I run the game in text mode .Seem`s to run ok . Irun that way so i can see my messengrs and stuff one thing i found out hard way . I accidently reset my league by having several windows open . Had the game screen on standing and must have clicked to close to reset . So thats only bad thing i can say about window mode . Other then that , love game .

[JudgeDredd]

Excellent. Up and running in window mode

Thx