The Cat's Review

[CatKnight]

I just shut down my dynasty for reasons listed in there. Since another user offered his (unflattering) opinion, I thought I'd jump in listing what I think FM is doing right, and what could improve it.

Naturally this is all personal opinion. Take it for what it's worth.


Good
1. Simplicity: There are many 'in-depth' games out there, including FOF which offers well...more. That's nice, but after a long day at work I don't want that much grit. I want to be able to boot up, set my lineup and roster, and play a game. FM, like BM, offers just enough to be interesting without bogging down. This is Sports Mogul's greatest strength.

2. Parity: Everyone knows how I feel about BM's parity issues. FM doesn't have it. I imagine this is a function of the lower overall talent level (see 3) and a draft constantly renewing poor teams. Unfortunately, and I don't know because of a lack of transaction screen, I imagine this is also due to lack of AI/AI trades letting anyone stockpile talent.

3. Talent Level: In BM the talent level rises over time, so whereas in Y1 a 75-80 player might be good enough to start, in Y10 he MIGHT be a worthy bench player. In FM the balance is much better: 75 is a competent starter, 85 might be an All Pro, and 90-95 is a rare treat and potential HoFer. For the most part this level is maintained over time.

4. Player Cards: Though I suppose some might feel it's a little too basic, I again appreciate the simplicity compared to BM and other games. The card tells me what I need to know to make decisions. 'Nuf said.

5. Play Mode: Play mode is simple and straight forward, however see below.

6. Making your own plays: Easy and interesting.


Opportunites for Improvement

1. Play Mode II: Others have suggested, and I believe it, that human controlled RBs/FBs get less yardage.

Whereas simmed games put together much more believable performances for players, in a human controlled game you're likely to leave your starters in for all 60 minutes.

Being able to watch (in 'GM' mode) the AI play itself would interest me. This is second most important to me.

2. Transaction Screen: If nothing else gets done, FM needs something like this to track what's going on around the league. That will end any question concerning which players retired, who was traded and so forth. Though it's possible to look at a team's rosters to see who was injured, having it right there in front of you is nice when determining strategy.

3. More strategic options: Similar to BM, this would adjust the AI's 'playing style.' How often should your team go for 2? Or blitz? We need more options than 'run vs. pass.'

4. Past seasons: This is actually fairly low priority, but since FoF does it, as well as 2nd and 10 (a single season simulator, and very, very good at that) it can be done and should be. BM sees a lot of players interested in historical play. FM would as well.

5. Output stats: It would be nice to be able to get a text file summarizing your team's performance.

*******

Overall FM has amazing potential, and I hope it's vigorously pursued. It's on the verge of being a great game and a worthy companion to BM... but it's not quite there yet.

[Arctic Blast]

All of that makes pretty good sense to me, Catknight. I don't know that a shortage of trades is really an issue, though...you don't SEE many trades in the NFL...and when you do, 99% of the time it's a player for a pick, or draft pick shuffling during the draft.

[CatKnight]

And that would be fine, Arctic. It's not knowing if the AI is being very cagey with the rare trade, or if it's just not doing it at all that's killing me.

The latter is a bug, because in an ideal world the AI IS trying to build up its team. The former actually sounds really good to me. I like the idea of teams being fairly consistent from year to year, which FM does a much better job of than BM.

[bucher34]

A cool thing about (I doubt it was set up this way), but a couple times there have been teams that made the super bowl, but the following they either didn't make the playoffs or mightily struggled too which happens quite often in real-life. Its very enjoyable to see it come down to the wire for playoff births.

[CatKnight]

Agreed. That gets back to parity. Some teams WILL have good runs for a few years - usually Indianapolis is good for 3-4 years out of the box. However, there will always be a few surprises, and I've always seen at least one race go to the final week. That's why I wanted to give a dynasty a shot here, and hope to be able to start a new one someday.

[Arctic Blast]

And that would be fine, Arctic. It's not knowing if the AI is being very cagey with the rare trade, or if it's just not doing it at all that's killing me.

The latter is a bug, because in an ideal world the AI IS trying to build up its team. The former actually sounds really good to me. I like the idea of teams being fairly consistent from year to year, which FM does a much better job of than BM.

Yeah, I totally understand where you're coming from, and I'm certainly not disagreeing with you...was just pointing out that trading in the NFL is less prevalent than in any of the other league sports.

[userunknown]

Game design & graphics are far below what I find acceptable.What's up with all the yellow & the dark backgrounds?There are too many problems to list so I won't even try because I purchased this with BBM2009 for only $20.I'm sure to get my moneys worth.

I'm curious if anyone knows how to change the colors of the in-game text,specifically the yellow.

[RedsoxRockies]

Game design & graphics are far below what I find acceptable.What's up with all the yellow & the dark backgrounds?There are too many problems to list so I won't even try because I purchased this with BBM2009 for only $20.I'm sure to get my moneys worth.

I'm curious if anyone knows how to change the colors of the in-game text,specifically the yellow.

It is a simulation, not a big graphic game like Madden. It is about the stats and front office...

[userunknown]

Yes,I understand that.Compared to BM it doesn't even come close to the sortable stat features & player negotiation.Speaking of Madden I haven't played that game since 2007.Being a member of Football Freaks they had quite a few mods that tried to portray accurate stats,since EA wasn't concerned with fixing the HB 1/2 slider issue.Didn't buy 2008 either & that was the last year they put out a pc game for football,no game this year either.


Thus the reason I turned to alternate sources to get my FB fix & something realistic or close to NFL averages.Front Office Footballs interface is clumpy & a little more in depth than I like as I just enjoy the trading,setting rosters & drafting aspect of these games & watching stats of course.Haven't played a PBP as I like just simulation.Unfortunately this game falls short in many aspects after playing BBM.


This game does have potential but I only paid $10 for it so no need to point out all the flaws as there are many.I really enjoy the BM community Clay gets a lot of help from the fans to make the game better.As you can see here not hardly any posts on this game in the last month.I don't mind helping the FB community as I have some extra time to spare but that depends on how much effort he's willing to put into this game.

Any modders out there that know how to change the in-game text color?

[ohms_law]

AI trades were (intentionally) turned off in FM last year.
AFAIK, that never changed.

[Lex Logan]

My impression of play-by-play mode in Football Mogul is that the AI selects plays pretty much at random and the result has little to do with what plays were called. It LOOKS like the sort of football strategy game I would like to have designed, but it doesn't play like it.

[Clay Dreslough]

Any modders out there that know how to change the in-game text color?

In 7.07, go to Options and check 'Dark News Page Text'. This will change all the text from white and yellow to black and other dark colors. The next step is to find or create a skin with light backgrounds so you can see all the dark text.

[Clay Dreslough]

My impression of play-by-play mode in Football Mogul is that the AI selects plays pretty much at random and the result has little to do with what plays were called.

Interesting. There is a lot of thought that goes into the play-calling, and it certainly has a huge effect on the result. Maybe I see it more because I know it's there. I think the problem may be that if you call the right defense but the offense still breaks a few tackles and goes for 20 yards, that play sticks out in your mind as a flaw in the logic. But the aggregate data definitely shows that playcalling matters.

[Lex Logan]

Interesting. There is a lot of thought that goes into the play-calling, and it certainly has a huge effect on the result. Maybe I see it more because I know it's there. I think the problem may be that if you call the right defense but the offense still breaks a few tackles and goes for 20 yards, that play sticks out in your mind as a flaw in the logic. But the aggregate data definitely shows that playcalling matters.

I've been playing football strategy games for 40 years. I think I have a good feel for how things should go. When the defense calls a Prevent on third and one, or Eight man Line on third and long, that's absurd. And my instinct is that the results are NOT properly connected with the defensive ratings or play-calling. I've asked previously for a debug mode because I simply don't believe things are working as designed. It's been awhile since I played the game because I found it so frustrating, but I think what I suggested is some sort of game log where we could see what offensive and defensive plays were called and what the ratings were. I'm convinced that defenses rated "A" do NOT perform better than defenses rated "D" against a particular offensive play. But it's impractical for me to document that.

I believe you that you have reason to believe play-calling matters -- will you believe me that when I play the game, it appears not to? If it does have a measurable effect, I think it must be rather small. That may be the crux of the issue -- from my experience with other games, I expect play-calling to dominate. Offensive play-calling does matter, with the expected difference between running and passing plays, but I would expect a top-rated defensive team to be able to stop a mediocre offensive team 80% of the time when it calls the right defense and it's nowhere close.

[michaelg123789]

yeah me too