Latest Info (3/28/20)
 

In response to our delay, I've promised to keep people updated on my progress with FOF9.

I think everyone understands at this point that these updates are informal. I can't provide screen shots because the pretty stuff comes late in the cycle, right before beta. Also, I want to emphasize, again, that OOTP has an experienced PR team and when it's time for them to go, they're going to do this right. I also don't want to tread on the recent and enormously successful OOTP '21 launch (congrats!).

The idea at this point is to get the FOF8 functionality in place, along with some new functionality, within an entirely new framework. One positive about the delay is that pieces that were planned for FOF10 are trickling into FOF9. Not a huge amount, but I think it's becoming significant. I don't have a list right now - that's more a beta thing to put together and some pieces might not make it in the end.

I will let it drop that I added supplemental picks for the amateur draft about a year ago - that seems like stable code now. The latest piece is full support for 2013-19 real-life player files. Originally, there was a plan to have the community work on player files - as it's done in OOTP. Unfortunately, that work was never organized, and got lost in the shuffle. So I've spent most of the last couple of months getting it done myself - both the files and support within the game for their use. I'll add 2020 when the time comes.

How to do this and exactly when is something that I could go on about for pages and pages. I did 2019 (and added it to FOF8) unusually late this past year, and the benefit there is it's much more tuned to real-life 2019 performance. The down-side is people didn't have it until right around the Super Bowl.

One concept I had wanted to add to FOF9 that isn't going to make the cut is player files including hundreds of fringe pro players. Right now, the game takes a core set of players each season that amount to about 1,700-2,000 - basically anyone over replacement level and a good amount of replacement level talent. That's more than enough for full rosters for every team. But most of the additional players needed to fill out the universe are fictional. The idea was to have enough that fictional was never needed. Getting demographic data on fringe players is incredibly time-consuming. So, FOF9 will be about halfway between.

I've developed an algorithm that captures fringe players from recent seasons to half fill-out the remainder of the initial universe. The rest is still fictional and drafts will remain entirely fictional (having "real" drafts as an option is still an FOF10 plan). I don't know how far back we'll eventually go with past player files. Football has too many players and record-keeping is not nearly as robust as it is for baseball. Plus the game changes much more than baseball changes, because play-calling is everything. A successful FOF9 might well mean we can make that a community plan for the future. It's not an option for now.

Anyway, that's where I am right now. I'll know a lot more in upcoming weeks, because with OOTP '21 out and allowing for a bit of rest afterward, we'll all be able to set more of a football development schedule for the spring/summer months. I handle the football part myself, but one thing I can't do is the art stuff. I would share my initial beta screen shots from FOF8 to prove this, but I think you'd all be traumatized.

Stay safe out there. Being rather high risk myself, I've been in quarantine mode for several weeks here already. So far, so good, but we've got a long way to go.

these updates are really encouraging. i love supplemental picks -- adds an additional layer of strategy. thanks jim, and stay safe.

Thanks Jim! It’s great to hear updates on how things are coming along. I’m sure I’m not the only one who appreciates hearing your thoughts on how things are going and what the next steps are!

Stay safe. Things aren’t too bad in my country yet but we’re getting more cases every day.

that's cool -- i wonder if these are the historical NFL supplemental draft picks that have been included in the draft files, or are those compensatory picks after losing FAs? cool either way

My exact question. Supp draft or comp picks?

I wonder if the new FOF will allow for expanded Pre-Season rosters as well as cut downs leading up to the start of the regular season?

I apologize. I meant compensation picks rather than a supplemental draft. Not sure why I keep typing supplemental instead - it's hardly the first time. I don't want to get into an entire Q&A, but the whole staging (starting out with 90, going down to 53 gradually) of the pre-season isn't going to be in FOF9. It will work like FOF8. The new CBA, with a shorter pre-season, will change all of that anyway, so that's an FOF10+ issue, along with practice squads. But it's definitely something I'd like to do eventually. If 2020 has 14 playoff teams rather than 12, that will be in FOF9.

Thank you for the update

I absolutely love the compensatory picks being added to the game. In MP this is going to really add a new element to the game.

Stay Safe!

Great news about the comp picks. It really will add a lot to the free agency part of the game as well as the draft.

It's nice, more than nice, to get an update.

thanks for the clarification, jim. i really love this addition.

Yes, love comp picks. Stop trading away those year-4 guys.

As someone who spent about 8 years working in games, I relate heavily to this.:laugh: It's kind of staggering how bad programmer art can make things seem, and then you drop in professional art and BAM it looks great instantly. :D

I hope you and your loved ones are able to stay safe during these strange times. Thanks for the update :)

brad

As a duly designated representative of the City, County and State of Wudu44 I hereby authorize Jim (or anyone else, for that matter) to use any of the demographic data from my Flotsam Project, which includes most of the players from the NFL, CFL, USFL, WLAF/NFLE, XFL (1st and current incarnation), AAF, UFL, some Arena players and a few big name college players who never went pro, from 1983-2019. Not that I'm encouraging any scope creep that might put more on your plate.

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/f...r7bMtid06yhphE

Comes in two flavors, player data only or ratings with FOF draft file calculator.

Incredible work!

Do you mind explaining how to import these into FOF8?

1. On the calculator file, "Flotsam Project 4.1", make any edits you want to the player data or rankings on the PlayerData tab. Keep the edits between columns B-BV. Columns BX-DL convert the 1-100 ratings to FOF's specific 375-625 rating system, so don't touch those.

2. When you're ready, find see the FOF Output tab on the bottom. Go there.

3. In A1, you'll see the year, (initially 1983). Replace that year with whatever year you want the draft file for and press enter. It will automatically filter out just those players and calculate FOF file friendly ratings for them.

4. Cut and paste the whole FOF Output tab into a .CSV file (removing row 1 and column A, so it's just the data) and save that.

5. Go to steamapps\common\Front Office Football Eight on your harddrive and open FOF's DraftFile application. Import the CSV file you've created to convert it to the file type usable by the game.

Thank you for the update Jim! All encouraging to hear, and I hope you're keeping safe.

Thanks for the update Jim!

I guess TCY2 is a dead, or maybe 2040 thing? (HA!)

My dream game would be both combined... then watch as my players go pro & have careers beyond my control.

So, in other words, no real life Browns players will be used.

Wow. Nice work. You are unofficially in charge of the FOF Wayback Project. I know how much effort this takes, and I've been looking for someone with interest in this for a long time.

Tools like this reflect on these communities and the members. Some seriously amazing people here. I second Jim's unofficial designation but add the title, Wudu44 - OOTP Mayor of FOF Wayback!