One thing that I did that I think was appreciated in the Beta was creating a locked thread that showed what updates I was making, why I was making them, and what was left to do. That's what this thread will be.

UPDATE -
Passing (2 changes) -
     The average completion percentage was too high, I've made some modifications to change the way that completion percentage is done. I've simplified the process and created a variable that lets me set what the percentage is for each targeted location. The average completion percentage is now around 60%. Obviously there are some factors that contribute to that base number - distribution of target location (If you throw very short passes every time the pass completion % will be much higher, if you throw deep every time, the pass completion percentage will be much lower) , pressure on the QB, etc.
     In addition to changing the base numbers of pass completion percentage, I've also added an influencing component. Basically, the attributes of the QB, Receiver, and Defender will be used to determine an adjustment in the percentage. If you have a great defense back on a mediocre receiver he will be more likely to defend the pass and cause the incompletion.

Scoring - I've slightly modified the advantage calculator that adjusts plays based on the personnel on the field. This will allow scores of vastly better teams to still be huge, but grow at a slightly smaller rate. Instead of 110 points per game on a team with an average difference of 20, it will now be closer to 75. This may still seem high to most, but remember, there is no function in this game (yet) that allows you to play your secondary team, so if you have a team going all out for the entire game, scores will still be high.

Bug Fixes - K/P position - The penalty for playing a position player at K/P will be lower for kickoffs and punts. So the chances of having really terrible kickoffs in the exhibition games will be slightly mitigated. Also, the decision on which player to put in if there is no K/P will now go to the QB depth chart before it picks a random player. NOTE: It's still a bad idea to not have a P/K on the team, the position penalty is still bad, just not ridiculous like before.

Upcoming - I know there are still some bugs out there with Play by Play and Scoring summary. I'll be updating those this weekend as well as adding some more color to the expanded play by play. I'll be adding some more strings that will help you understand what is happening with the play.

Update - Changes include:

• Starters change - starters will still be determined in the same way as explained in KB #674.  However, any player that did not meet the criteria but has 60% or greater playing time will also get credit for a start.  Note that this may cause a team to have an additional starter or two.
• K/P Starter Bug Fix - make sure K/P get starts even when no FGs, XPs, or Ps are attempted.
• Other small bug fixes.

I just wanted to give you guys a quick update of where I stand on the game. I've been digging into bugs for the last two weeks and I have fixed a ton of the issues that you have been seeing. Thanks for patience, it's hard to account for all of the possibilities in a game like this and I'm doing my best to fix as many as I can. Having said that, there are still a few things that I'd like to address over the coming weeks that will add some more value to the game. At the top of my list (still) are the Play By Play updates,  reviewing the stamina and fatigue, and continuing with other apparent bugs. If you are seeing a bug that is repeated often, I would suggest adding a support ticket, and I will take care of those as the priority demands.

Thanks for all of the support. I'll try to keep you as up to date as I can with these latest changes.

Status update:

Fixing up bugs for the Play by Play and various accounting stuff. I have a few more play by play things to add before I say that I've completed all of that, but for the most part when the next release gets pushed out, those will be fixed. For all of you beta testers, credits have been issued for the time that you have spent. Again, we really appreciate all of the work that went into the testing of the game.

Recently I've been running a lot of tests and the stability of the engine has been pretty good. I'm going through a couple of tests to alter stamina and make sure it is not resulting in adverse affects.

In addition we have been toying around with creating some new features that would allow users to be more engaged but understand the game quicker. We'll be testing and throwing around ideas internally over the next few weeks. Hopefully for 3.1 we can add a couple more significant UI changes that will ease the tension of new users without taking away any power over your team.


More updates soon.

Hope everyone had a happy thanksgiving. 

We have been trying to get to all of your tickets with the utmost urgency over the last few weeks. Hopefully everyone has felt they have been dealt with in a timely manner. Our apologies if you feel that it took to long, we have had quite a few inquiries into bugs and issues and general knowledge. As the first seasons are rolling over I'm excited to find out what everyone thought. I have been checking in on the message board too, but I know I've missed quite a few of the questions that have been brought up. With that in mind I'll be having a developer chat on next wednesday. I'll be holding after work hours from 6-8pm. Feel free to start asking questions now. 

As for the game. I have made about many many minor bug fixes that will be going out tomorrow in a release. These include lots of play by play fixes, erroneous events in the box score, PAT not being counted and many others. I'm also hoping to get some more timeout logic in as soon as I can, but I'm finishing up testing it now. As soon as I can get verified I'll make sure to update that. I know that's at the top of everyone's list. 

Hope all is well. I'll write another update tomorrow when the release has been pushed. 

Update - Changes include 

• Engine/Play-by-Play bug fixes
• Adjustment to the default formation settings
• Practice Plan page now displays your active main playbooks to help set up which formations to practice
• Re-ordering of the Coaching Menu to help its flow
• New general waiting list to be notified when any world opens

The default formation settings were adjusted to reduce the RB distributions in the passing settings as they were too high. Also a TE will be used in passing for the default Pro-Set and Notre Dame Box formations.

Your saved default formation settings will not be adjusted. You'll only see these new values if you reset your formation setting to the default values or if you have never saved a specific formation's settings.

REMINDER : DEV CHAT TONIGHT AT 6pm. 

Now that some of the deep and substantial bugs have been worked through, I've been able to resurrect my current list of things that need to be investigated and fixed. Here is my prioritized list of things that are left to come in the next update. 

1. Timeouts - Currently the logic is only set to be used when you management is set to Conserve Clock. This is fine for most of the game, but in the final minutes of a losing game on defense or offense the logic should be similar regardless of the clock management. I've made the changes, and they are being tested in my test league and should be released in the following update. 
2. Bad Penalty Text - A common complaint is that a penalty (mostly facemask) that is added on to the end of the play is confusing. I've updated the text and again it is on my server for testing. Should be pushed in the next release. 
3. Fatigue - I'm in the process of setting up a new test suite that will allow me to modify the factors of fatigue throughout a game. I'll be adjusting these and modifying them to make fatigue matter across a game. 
4. Running with Receivers - I'll be looking into the effects and results of running with receivers and working on a way to create a better alternative to the way things are currently happening. 
5. Play By Play - There is still some confusing text in the PBP that I'm looking to eliminate and reword. Also I'd like to add a little more variety to the output. 

That's my list of the 5 crucial things that I'm fixing now. I'll keep you up to date as they are handled. 

Just a quick update on Fatigue. I've been analyzing games for the last couple of days, and I've got a couple of things that I'm changing with regards to fatigue. I'm including this hard to read chart. This represents a players fatigue level over the course of the game. Each player has 50 stamina the X is the time and Y is the fatigue level. 
A couple of things to note are that the relative decrease in fatigue seems to be ok. You can see the varying degrees of fatigue on each player. The things that are standing out right now are that the Rest is having too much of an influence. A player recovers too quickly if they are off the field. I'll be toying with that. In addition it appears as though only a running back (on 50% pass/50% run gameplan) drops below the 90% mark in the first half. This is way to shallow, and I'll be looking at increasing this for each player. 

A new release went out last night and it fixed the Play by play issues that we were seeing yesterday. 

Other things that were in the release were a slower recovery rate for fatigue. This is step one of revamping the existing fatigue system. This will make fatigue a more influential part of the game, but a newer model is being developed to handle a more nuanced approach to positional fatigue. Also, a slight increase in the percentage of deep passes and a slight decrease for percentage complete of short passes and a slight increase in the interception rates for shorter passes. Bug fixes for decline logic and play by play buffoonery and more. 

Quick update:

Hello Everyone, sorry for the lack of communication over the last few weeks, I've been pouring over the data and I haven't been happy with how the game has been playing and the frustration of the users. This is not just the engine but also the difficulty and usability of this version of the game. We have been coming up with some concepts that will alleviate some of these frustrations while continuing to offer an engaging game. We will have more information as the pieces come together on what there is to offer. 

In the meantime, I've also been updating Fatigue. The new system looks to be in place and I'm hoping to have a release out by middle of next week. This will include certain plays taking a larger toll on the player (example WR as a Running back), Depth charts restructure (currently what you are seeing with fatigue is that once two players at the same position get fatigued it will take the one that is higher on the depth chart, so if a backup player hits 84% and the starter is at 35% it will choose the starter.), fatigue influence. 

I've also recently redone the pressure for passing and updated interceptions to be a little more realistic. 

Ok, thanks for keeping on. I'll have more updates on the new features as the time it will take to create them comes better into focus. Stay tuned. 

Hello everyone, the fatigue issues took on a whole new element. I tried fitting the current system with some polish but it didn't work. I had to tear out the fatigue system as it currently stands and rewrite it. I've made it simpler to understand and I've revamped the substitution logic. 

Here is how the breakdown for the Fatigue will work now:
The player attributes will have an effective value linearly based on the fatigue. 
Player Attributes = Fatigue Level (0-1) * attributeNumer (1-100)

The substitution pattern will now work like this:
If two players have less than their specified rest number: If the fatigue levels are similar it will choose the player higher in the depth chart. If they are largely different, it will choose the player that is less fatigued. 

Finally the injuries:
Injuries will be introduced slowly. Once the fatigue is at a reasonable state and the values are getting too low, we'll use those numbers to calculate the chances of injuries. 

So the fatigue stuff is undergoing thorough testing now and the new version should be pushed out to production later next week. We are running it on our test servers for the next few days to determine the validity. 

Also in this release will be a ton of bug fixes, I'm going to try to do the second half time conservation logic, and I've upped interceptions on small and medium passes and added more fumbles. I'm reducing the chances of punt returns slightly as well. 

Latest Update -
Had a few snags with the fatigue issues this week. Fixing up some of the selection logic for choosing players and then it will be out the door. 

I fixed some more play by play bugs.

Also, on the interface side. We have been cleaning up the Practice plan page and making it easier to use. The depth charts will soon be drag and drop and sortable on the role selection and the home page will provide a better layout for what is happening in the game. 

More details on that later, but I just wanted to drop you a note and let you know how everything is coming together. The engine update with the fatigue has 2 more days of testing and then I'm comfortable to release it to the wild.