v1.0.131 Public Beta Update Posted!

[Erik Rutins]

Hi all,

We decided to make the v1.0.131 Beta update available while we finish up internal testing. Our current goal is to release an official update by the middle of next week. We will then take stock and see what needs doing in the next update and decide on a release date for that.

The v1.0.131 Beta update is now available for registered owners of Maximum-Football in the Members' Club (click on the MEMBERS link in the top navigation bar). Please note that this is not an official release update and if you would like to try it, it is provided "as is" and with no guarantees or support. Feel free to stay with the release version and wait for the official update if you prefer to play it safe.

Here's a list of what the v1.0.131 Beta addresses (since the v1.095 release):

Change History:

v1.0.131 – April 12th, 2006
(Second Update)

Known Issue:

1. With the new QB scramble code, sometimes the QB will get stuck trying to make a choice as to how to roll out. This causes him to stutter back and forth a second or two until the situation changes and he can roll out in one direction or the other. it's a difficult thing to reproduce (the defense has to be doing exactly the right/wrong thing for this to happen)

New Features:

1. From user requests, the arcade mode kicking has been changed. Previous to the change, the player’s skills would affect the kick the user was attempting to make. So even if the user looked like they'd pointed the arrow at the right place, the field goal could still be missed. After the change the kick accuracy and distance is completely up to the user now. The movement of the arcade kicking indicator has been sped up to make it more challenging.
2. Added the ability to quick simulate a single game, the complete current week, or the complete season without stopping. There is a known design issue in that you can't stop the process once it's started. I will try to find a way to allow that in future updates to the game but for now this at least addresses a wish list item many have had. Basically how this works is that when you click the 'quick sim' button, you're presented with a dialog of options. I'm going to expand this dialog when I get around to putting the old simulated game system back in place. But for now, it just lets you select how many games you want to simulate at a time.
3. Added TE/SB to the Line up On Man command. Unlike the Receivers, that where you need to specify which one you want the defender to line up on, the SB/TE command will line up on the closest one to the defenders initial formation position.
4. From user requests I've added some 'user defined' camera angles. These are available by pressing the F5-F8 keys.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Due to the changes in [Key On] and [Line Up On Man] commands, some of the plays in the default play book may no longer play as designed. Updated plays are included in this update, but plays that have been created by users or testers prior to these changes may not function the same as they did previously.

Other Changes:

1. Fixed a bug importing leagues. The importing of leagues from outside sources works again.
2. Fixed a problem with league standings being wiped away after a certain period of time. This only occurred if the league had divisions with no teams assigned to it.
3. Added some code to the create new season routines to remove any empty divisions and/or conferences. Empty Divisions and Conferences were causing a lot of problems with schedule generation as well as the game resetting standings. Now, once you start a new season, if any divisions or conferences are blank, they're removed before the rest of the season is generated.
4. Fixed the accumulation of statistics over the course of a season as well as career. Two very small typos in one small area of code were causing a tremendous amount of problems! Users are encouraged to reset their leagues so that these changes can properly take effect.
5. The game clock no longer runs during any point after TD attempts (single or two point).
6. Fixed a bug with the PDS that would prevent it from opening plays for edit if the computers regional settings were not set to North America. The game is not localized and this is a known issue detailed in the readme file. Customers are encouraged to read the readme file and set their regional settings to North America.
7. Addressed a couple of issues with field goals.
a. That missed field goals caught in the end zone but not returned were not giving a single point when that rule was in place.
b. On strange occasions, when a single point rule was not in place, a single point would still be awarded.
8. Addressed the problem of the clock not stopping at the end of a quarter, kick offs and punts not happening as the clock runs out, etc... lots of game clock problems have hopefully been solved.
9. Added some code to ensure that when teams are created they have default uniforms created.
10. Adjusted the RB logic a little bit so that they will run more north south when going through the gaps in the line. Previously sometimes the RB would get up to the line and immediately try to evade an oncoming LB and wind up going no place. Now an RB will at least try to move forward as much as they can.
11. Made some changes to the QB sack code that addresses the 'incomplete pass/tackled by' issue. Now an incomplete pass is only recorded when the QB is hit and his arm is moving forward. As well, no tackle is recorded in this event any more.
12. Fixed a bug in the DBEngine.DLL that would not load the teams for imported leagues into the PDS for use.
13. Fixed a bug in arcade mode and fielding punts. What was happening is that the user was in arcade mode and moving the KR toward the ball, this was causing problems because the non-human controlled player and the human controlled player were conflicting with each other as to which one was supposed to field the kick.
14. Fixed a bug with arcade mode and moving the selected player on the cover team.
15. Fixed bug with Canadian rule set in Quick play giving a team 3 time outs in a half, whereas it should be only a single time out in Canadian rules.
16. Reduced the chance of a fumble a bit.
17. Fixed a bug with custom leagues/teams not showing up in the utilities properly. This was caused by two (or more) teams in different leagues sharing the same internal ID number. This has been adjusted to use a combination of league ID and Team ID when displaying in the tree view window.
18. Reduced the punting ability so that punts are in around 40 to 47 yards.
19. Fixed bug with simulated games not advancing the quarter time after having played out a 3D game.
20. Fixed a field goal hang. If the field goal was missed, but the ball landed close enough to the player in the end zone, and the player actually caught the ball, the game would hang if the live field goal option was set to false.
21. At the request of users, I've upped the passing accuracy somewhat. Now the passing completion rate should be most affected by the defense rather than the QB missing the receiver (although, that still happens). The receiver’s ability to catch the ball will also effect this.
22. Fixed a bug that was introduced in build 1.0.100 that would cause the return of a missed, live field goal, to end the process without actually returning the missed kick.
23. Fixed a bug with the logic commands. Snap To was flagged as the last command to be executed and this was causing subsequent blocking commands to be ignored.
24. Fixed the Time Of Possession calculation.
25. Fixed a bug introduced in one of the previous builds that would prevent the safety animation from completing.
26. The accelerated clock should be fully functional now (computer play selection).
27. Made some changes to pass blocking so that there was less collapse on the LOS if the QB rolled out. One play in particular was showing this problem in Indoor rules.
28. Made some minor tweaks and adjustments to the pass reading logic performed by the QB.
29. Added some code to reset the player fatigue between plays in practice mode. Players can fatigue during the play, but each time the play resets, so does the player fatigue level. This allows for a more consistent practice of each play.
30. Completely rebuilt system for handling QB scrambling.
31. Made some adjustments to the receiver catch logic. Receivers should catch the ball a little more often now improving the overall completion to attempt ratio.
32. Changed the scale of some of the objects in the game so they're a little closer to 'life sized'. Some were overly large.
33. Fixed a bug with field goals if they occurred with either the minutes or seconds in the quarter being at zero.
34. Fixed a bug with simmed games that wouldn't properly start the clock.
35. Upped the kicking angle on punts from 45 to about 55.
36. Fixed a bug with the clock that would stop the play mid execution (after the snap) if the quarter clock expired or <n> minute warning sounded.
37. Removed the ref whistle from the simulated games. That was annoying.
38. Based on user request, the kicking system has been adjusted. Kickoffs now are scaled to match the distance of the kick off location to the goal line of the opposition. Kicking strength is scaled to match. This means that a kicker with a 98 kicking strength skill will kick differently on indoor fields than out door fields.
39. Adjusted the accuracy of the QB passing some more.
40. Fixed a bug that prevented the "Line Up On Man" command for the defense to not work. An explanation of Line up on man is as follows; Line up on man is a defensive 'presnap' command. To use this, it must be the first command assigned to the defender. Select the command and provide the player you wish to line up against. If the selected player is not on the field, the defender should not adjust his position. An area of interest with this is that plays that made use of this command may not work as before. Play authors should remove the command if they find that to be the case.
41. Fixed a bug with time count penalties (delay of game) on punts that would cause the teams to switch sides without punting.
42. Fixed a bug with punts and field goals that would have the kicker kick the ball with no user interaction. Applicable to coaching and arcade mode.
43. Added some additional logic to the QB snap code so that the CPU QB that is on the winning team, going into the final minutes of the half, will delay the snap of the ball longer in an effort to waste time on the clock. This will only happen if the clock is running.
44. Fixed a bug with fumbles. If the defense recovered the ball and was able to return it for a TD, then when the other team got the ball back via kick off, the ball would be spotted <n> and whacked out yards to go. Now, the ball is properly spotted as 1st and 10.
45. Changed the way the Key On code works. This may impact the way current plays work.
46. Futher improvements to the QB scramble system.
47. Made some changes to the break huddle routine so that there is less collision between players. It still happens in some cases, but it's considerably less than it was.
48. Corrected a problem of too many shanked punts.
49. Various gameplay adjustments
50. Fixed a bug with selecting field goals on outdoor fields with 8 man playbooks that do not include punt plays.
51. Fixed the Time of Possession not calculating properly in simulated games. This was fixed previously in the 3D game.
52. Rebuilt the saved game mechanism. There is still a known issue however. When a user saves a game, player stats for that game are saved in the file as well. However, if a user saves a game, then removes players from their roster and then loads the saved game, the saved game will not be able to do anything with the data for the missing player. The game will start but it will use the roster the team currently has, not the roster that the game was saved with.
53. Adjusted the punting distances for the simulated games. The punts for a simulated game should be in and around the 45 yard rage now. (6 punts / 242 yards total = 40 yards)
54. Further fixes to the Save/Load game functions.
55. Added some more localization checking so that the game is less region specific. This ~may~ solve the issues some users out side North America have found with playing the game with their computer set to their local region.
56. Fixed a bug simulating full seasons that would not process the season weeks in a consecutive fashion.
57. Fixed a bug with the single point (Rouge) rule. The single point was being processed correctly, but the actual awarding of the point to the team score was not being done.
58. Changed the procedure for the QB to read the pass coverage. The QB should do a better job of finding the 'most open' receiver rather than just the first open receiver he sees. The result is the ball is spread around a little better and the QB will sometimes now throw to the running back rolling out into the flats as a safety valve rather than just throwing down field.
59. Applied the same formation adjustment to TE/SB players as is being done to the Offensive Linemen.
60. Adjusted the material applied to the field artwork & numbers

[Erik Rutins]

The Public Beta has been updated to v1.0.122, which fixes the .121 punting issue and adds a known issue to the list regarding rare stutters in the new QB scramble.

Regards,

- Erik

[DONMVP]

Not sure if this is right place to report a prob , in the new beta patch . Was playing canadian rules quick play and the first 3 times the comp punted in game . The kicker let ball lay on field .He moved forward. Got run over and other team picked ball up and scored . According to game the ball was punted maybe 43 yards and returned as if it was fielded by returner . So far rest of things ok .

[Erik Rutins]

The public beta has been updated to v1.0.131. The change list is posted in the first post in this thread.

Regards,

- Erik