Welcome to SportSims live chat with the Developers. We’re doing a moderated chat tonight. To submit questions to the Developers, type in the “ask” box and click the Ask button. You can also chat with everyone else in the Lobby by typing in the bottom box.
FFmaster and i went 5-0 today so it makes my mood just superb.
FFmaster I also reached 100 wins alltime today. Good milestone to reach, IMO.
VP-Cara That's AWESOME!
FFmaster Now I need a SimBowl appearance.
VP-Cara Get in line!!!! :)
FFmaster yeah, tell me about it.
VP-Cara I've been playing a LOOOOONG time and have not yet won a SimBowl. I've been there 3 or 4 times, but never took home the prize.
President-Steve Does anybody have any questions that I can answer?
FFmaster(C) I've never even reached the big game. Been in quite a few conference championship games but I'm like the Eagles, just can't make it to the top (excluding the eagles 1 SB berth in 5 tries).
VP-Cara Welcome to SportSims live chat with the Developers. We’re doing a moderated chat tonight. To submit questions to the Developers, type in the “ask” box and click the Ask button. You can also chat with everyone else in the Lobby by typing in the bottom box and clicking 'send'.
FFmaster(Q) When will the ability to watch the games be released?
President-Steve(A) It is very tough to say. We are work hard on it. And it is very tough to get this right as there are a lot of variables in just one football play. We are determined to only release it when it is ready. So we are hoping for a March release, but no release date has yet been set.
FFmaster seems reasonable. i certainly wouldn’t want a product that came out before it was ready.
VP-Cara It's been a long, detailed process. Thanks for your patience.
VP-Cara Your question is being answered next, billn64
billn64(Q) Steve/Cara - did you get my question about cutting a QB?
VP-Cara(A) Yep - Steve's typing away as we "speak"
billn64(Q) I have 4 QBs and want to cut one, but that is not an option on the finalize roster page.
President-Steve(A) The reason is that they don’t meet our cutting requirements we had to place on cutting to prevent cheating (farming). Have you tried to offering the extra QB for trade?
ckl1982 have i missed anything worth repeating?
FFmaster the animation has an expected release in March
ckl1982 awesome
lightnin(Q) Would it be possible to display the rosters with all the attributes on one page including the players "inside" numbers?
President-Steve(A) Yes, we have that on the development list for the Roster, Draft List and Free Agents.
FFmaster(Q) Will I ever win the SimBowl with my current roster and GamePlan with Washington in Bold?
VP-Cara(A) While we're on this chat, we unfortunately don't have time to access that data. Feel free to send us a Support Ticket and they'll be happy to go through it with you. Just send you league and team name and ask for help.
VP-Cara Welcome to SportSims live chat with the Developers. We’re doing a moderated chat tonight. To submit questions to the Developers, type in the “ask” box and click the Ask button. You can also chat with everyone else in the Lobby by typing in the bottom box and clicking send.
ckl1982 any venture or constant league members here?
VP-Cara Not sure what you mean?
ckl1982 ?
ckl1982 my question or comment
VP-Cara what's a venture or constant league member?
FFmaster someone in Constant or Venture
ckl1982 constant and venture are the two leagues i belong too
ckl1982 there we go
VP-Cara Gotcha. duh.
VP-Cara Welcome to SportSims live chat with the Developers. We’re doing a moderated chat tonight. To submit questions to the Developers, type in the “ask” box and click the Ask button. You can also chat with everyone else in the Lobby by typing in the bottom box and clicking send.
ckl1982(Q) Any thoughts on having a dual halfback set up, a la Tennessee, Giants and Panthers from this past year?
President-Steve(A) It will work great as long as you have the correct GamePlan and players.
ckl1982(Q) Is there anything in the works regarding salaries for players?
VP-Cara(A) We've elected to not do salaries or salary caps in our game because we believe that takes the focus off of building a good team and makes you focus on money instead.
VP-Cara as well as "manipulating" the cap
BMFPitt(Q) Have you thought about varied draft days/times for people who can't easily do Sundays?
VP-Cara(A) We've talked about that before in Development Team meetings as well as making that a question in an online survey we did a few months ago. The consensus at that time (by a 92% majority) was that Sunday worked for them. That can be revisited, though. What would you suggest?
VP-Cara Welcome to SportSims live chat with the Developers. We’re doing a moderated chat tonight. To submit questions to the Developers, type in the “ask” box and click the Ask button. You can also chat with everyone else in the Lobby by typing in the bottom box and clicking send.
FFmaster(Q) Will it ever be possible for a user to create his own offensive and defensive formations? Such as creating a 3-8 Defense with 3 DL and 8 DB's or something like a Wildcat offense.
President-Steve(A) The way the SimEngine is designed that will not be possible. But if there are any formations you would like us to add send us a Suggestion Support Ticket and we will consider it.
VP-Cara Welcome to SportSims live chat with the Developers. We’re doing a moderated chat tonight. To submit questions to the Developers, type in the “ask” box and click the Ask button. You can also chat with everyone else in the Lobby by typing in the bottom box and clicking send.
BMFPitt(Q) All depends on whether there are enough players to start a variety of leagues
VP-Cara(A) I'm not sure about this - is it a question about private leagues?
BMFPitt(Q) Any plans to improve FireFox support?
President-Steve(A) Yes, we are looking for outsourcing of that as our staff over loaded now. For a small developer it is all about costs versus benefit. But we are exhausting every possibility.
BMFPitt(Q) Is there any chance of a player search feature (i.e. I want to trade for a young LB with high Blitz, but don't want to click through 150 players on 31 teams)
President-Steve(A) Yes, that is on our Development list currently. It will allow you to search the entire league, the Free Agents or the Draft List.
BMFPitt(Q) That was a follow-up to the different days of the week
VP-Cara(A) okay, gotcha. The Draft day would have to be consistent over all leagues. So it would have to be Saturdays or Sundays or whatever day. Our sim engine and calendar don't currently have the code to make it many different days.
VP-Cara Did that response make sense, BMFPitt? I guess what I wanted to say was that we can't currently make it work to have one league draft on Sun, another league draft on Tuesday, etc.
FFmaster(Q) This goes along with my previous question, Could we ever see the introduction of the heavy set offensive formation? It contains 6 OL and slides a WR to a tackle position but he is still eligible. It is great for running and trick plays.
President-Steve(A) You can basically do that now with the Short Yardage formation and draft a 100+ Blocking TE to be the 6OL.
mclaxin1(Q) How far along is the Development team on the "Watch Game" feature?
VP-Cara(A) Looks like a March release currently. We want to be sure that the feature is bug-free and up to our standards.
FFmaster ok i might have to do that
FFmaster with the short ydg and 100 blk TE
FFmaster(Q) There is the option to have a 2nd half adjustment if down by X amount of points, but is it possible for the option if you are winning or losing in the last 2 min of the game to change to a prevent defense or to eat up the clock?
President-Steve(A) The SimEngine handles that for you. In the last part of the game the SimEnigine makes allowances for score and ahead by or behind.
ckl1982 thats why we see the 1 play -2 yards at some points correct?
BMFPitt(Q) I understand what you said, though as a developer it doesn't make sense that it would be so hardcoded that it couldn't be set per league
VP-Cara(A) I'll have to set that one in front of the programmers. Since I don't code, I can't address that, but I'll take that to our next meeting and we'll discuss it. So that I understand what you're saying, you'd like to have the flexibility to join a league that starts on a different day than Wednesday so that you can draft on a different day besides Sunday. How would you like that displayed when you're picking a league to join? "Starts on *Tuesday*" or something?
BMFPitt(Q) Any thoughts on being able to save a few GamePlan templates of our own, (i.e. one Defense vs. run-heavy teams, one for pass-happy) so that you don't have to do it manually every day?
VP-Cara(A) Yes, that is actually in the Development Queue for us to implement.
mclaxin1(Q) In the future, might you possibly receive NFL licensing, and use official team logos, players, etc?
President-Steve(A) We are unable to get the NFL licensing as the NFL and EA Sports have an exclusive agreement that prevents us from even applying for a license.
ckl1982 I'd like starts on... drafts on...
ckl1982 just to simplify the problem
BMFPitt(Q) How about highlighting a player in green or something when they have recovered (or improved) from an injury? Sometimes you forget that your good OL is at OL7
VP-Cara(A) That's an awesome idea. I'll present that to the group. I have actually done that myself - put an injured player at like OL7 and forgotten him for a few games after he'd been healthy.
BMFPitt(C) That sounds good
lightnin(Q) what's the best positioning for the DBs in a 3-4 defense?
President-Steve(A) Using the Super Bowl Steeler as an example I would play my best DBs at the following positions: 1. SS 2. WCB 3. SCB 4. FS
FFmaster I'd put my best run D, DB at SS and best INT at FS.
VP-Cara Welcome to SportSims live chat with the Developers. We’re doing a moderated chat tonight. To submit questions to the Developers, type in the “ask” box and click the Ask button. You can also chat with everyone else in the Lobby by typing in the bottom box and clicking send.
BMFPitt(Q) Any thoughts on changing the auto-draft feature so you can look for specific traits (i.e. deep threat WR?)
President-Steve(A) Actually we had that in our beta-test and it became too unweildly. Every choice the Owners have mulitplies the complexity many times.
FFmaster(Q) Where can I join a private league? And what is a private league exactly? Am I in one already?
VP-Cara(A) A private league is one that you can have set up for you so you can have all your friends/relatives/neighbors join. Once you're satisfied that everyone you want to have in your league has joined, we can open it up (if you choose) to the public to fill any empty teams. To get a private league, you just have to submit a support ticket with the request.
mybadteam(Q) Do you post the answers to the questions you are answering in these chats anyplace on the message boards?
VP-Cara(A) We're creating a transcript of tonight's chat in its entirety and will post it in the Forums. Not sure which one exactly yet - probably community discussion or release notes.
BMFPitt(Q) How about setting at least a minimum trait (and replacing the current drop downs like 95 POT to a text box that lets us type our limits?)
VP-Cara(A) Do you mean for when you're setting up your Draft Plan? We'll discuss it.
BMFPitt(C) Yeah
VP-Cara I see your point about the Draft Plan - b/c I'm not a programmer, I don't know if that's an issue, but I'll certainly bring it up and see what the rest of the team thinks.
VP-Cara Welcome to SportSims live chat with the Developers. We’re doing a moderated chat tonight. To submit questions to the Developers, type in the “ask” box and click the Ask button. You can also chat with everyone else in the Lobby by typing in the bottom box and clicking send.
VP-Cara We have 13 minutes left in our chat this evening - ask us questions if you've got 'em!
BMFPitt(Q) I understand how adding in "This trait is important" would be hard, but setting a minimum shouldn't be a big deal
President-Steve(A) We had a similar setup during our beta-testing and it caused more issues than game-play benefits, so we cut it.
ckl1982(Q) After you guys roll out the animation in March, what’s the next big release you have on the horizon?
VP-Cara(A) The next release of note (aside from updates to the Sim Engine, etc.) is developing our next product: College Football
ckl1982 awesome news
ckl1982 if we can recruit against others, that would be sweet
VP-Cara Yep - that's the plan. Does sound fun, doesn't it? I can't wait!
FFmaster all I can say is, wow.
ckl1982(Q) Anyway to designate the league name in all pages? (currently it doesn't appear on the draft, cut players and free agency pages)
VP-Cara(A) Do you mean have it displayed somewhere on the pages you referred to?
ckl1982 yes
ckl1982 i know it’s just a cosmetic change but it'd be helpful
VP-Cara That's a great idea. And you're right it would be helpful. We'll add that to the list
BMFPitt page back
VP-Cara ??
BMFPitt(Q) Any thoughts on having low-rated players that have a good year get a bonus to Potential?
President-Steve(A) Since our Potentials are set by the Historical players we have no plans adjust the Potentials. The lower potentials with good Player Info ratings are your late round studs. These guys can excel if surrounded by the right talent.
VP-Cara We have just a couple minutes left. We'll take a couple more questions this evening.
FFmaster i just submitted 2
BMFPitt(Q) On that note, we need the menu bar (rosters/standings/etc) to be on all pages - it's annoying to have to open the sim game window separately so I don't have to
President-Steve(A) The reason the Top Nav bar does not load on all pages is to ensure Team Ownership. Developing for the internet had certain limitations and this, unfortunately, is one area that we had to restrict.
jrfan88(Q) Anyway you could shorten the draft? I wish it wouldn't take 5 or 6 hours.
VP-Cara(A) We beta-tested a shorter time for picks, but for those with dial-up they didn't get the chance to make their manual pick. 90 seconds seemed to be the best balance for time and dial-up users
VP-Cara Besides the ones we have in the queue, we can take 1-2 more questions this evening.
FFmaster(Q) Is it true that in new leagues the draft order is based on weakest to strongest teams?
President-Steve(A) The new leagues are based upon a template we use to ensure balance throughout the league. While each team does draft in the same slot and have the same ratings, the players that fillout the teams are random as to whom they are based upon.
VP-Cara Besides football, what are sports you all would like to see simulated?
FFmaster Basketball
FFmaster and Lacrosse
mclaxin1 lacrosse
jrfan88 baseball
msfldave(C) Hello
VP-Cara Thanks for joining us this evening for a live chat with the Developers. Please join us next Wednesday evening at 8 p.m. EST for another live chat.
ckl1982 thanks guys
President-Steve Thanks for the great questions and see you next week.
