Playcalling Choices

[Sasquatch]

Mr. Winter, thanks for developing such a great game. My friends and I bought the game when it was released and have watched as it has developed. We have a need to play the game "hot seat" without seeing the plays displayed on the screen. Some type of number input would be most desireable, that way the two players can call their plays from call sheets in coach mode without having to look away while the other is playcalling.

An alternative would be the ability to play head-to-head over the internet, though even then a quicker way to sift through large playbooks would be helpful.

Thank, keep up the good work!

[simmer]

I agree with you...Even if the plays were labled short run, medium run, long run.....Short pass, medium and so on...This game needs to be easier to manage....It is still going to the best out there.....Anyways, I think FBpro plays were set up like that.

[Marauders]

Welcome to the board Sasquatch. I'll have to order an 4X large pair of spiked shoes for you.

Soon after Maximum-Football was picked up for distribution by Matrix Games, there was a long debate over having an optional number input. The league I am in had used number input for "hot seat" games using Professional Football Simulation on the Amiga, and it worked well. It kept the "look away" to a minimum, and it allowed quick calls from large playbooks.

As I recall, David thought it would take away too much from the designed interface, and it would require new code in both the game and the way plays were saved. This is understandable, but it would be nice to be able to sort large playbooks more quickly.

As a wishlist item, I have asked that the run and pass plays be separated in the playbook, as they are in the PDS. The code is already saved with the play, and the interface already asks for a choice between a play or a punt at that point, so it would not require additional mouse clicks to call a play.

Here is how it would look if the change was made:



David has stated that he would consider improvements of this type for a future release, but he could not say if changes would be made for release 3.5 or a version of Maximum-Football down the road. Note that graphics interface revisions take more time to code than a bug fix, so time is a factor.

[simmer]

That's what I'm talking about.

[Sasquatch]

Thanks for the response guys.  This forum is excellent, and the chance to have input on a new game like this doesn't happen often.  It's refreshing to have a game developer listening to the users and trying to give them what they want.  I hope that Mr. Winters can include in the near future something like what you described, and maybe further down the road could add a number calling system.

[Ambermonk]

ORIGINAL: simmer

I agree with you...Even if the plays were labled short run, medium run, long run.....Short pass, medium and so on...This game needs to be easier to manage....It is still going to the best out there.....Anyways, I think FBpro plays were set up like that.

Action Football uses a system like this and it works pretty well. I'm sure it is difficult to juggle formations, platoons, & plays into a coherent easy-to-use system. Both MaxFB & ActionFB are still developing strategies for doing this, but neither is there yet. Perhaps they can learn from each other.