First, let's get to the good stuff - the free flex. The following 19 players were randomly chosen (each player was assigned a number between 1 and 125 and then a random number generator was used to pick 19 numbers for me) and are winners of free flex being donated from my soon to be closed thehazyone account. The flex has already been transferred to their accounts.
Fillu - 10,000
jroma1 - 10,000
xCanadiens - 5,000
OBFuSCaTe - 5,000
InfamousTeArS - 1,000
Iowannarock - 1,000
Jughead - 1,000
-Remx- - 1,000
Alan462 - 1,000
moonkid_13 - 500
brennanc - 500
Swamp - 500
DanielS - 500
firenze - 500
livebytheblitz - 500
jrmook - 500
xhail2skinsx - 500
Yello1 - 500
Shart - 500
Congratulations!
We received a ton of e-mail submissions, so I'd like to thank all of you on behalf of GLB for taking the time to write. I tried to pick questions that were either asked multiple times or were interesting. If your question was not answered, please submit it again for the following week. I am keeping track of all unanswered questions and the more times I see it, the more likely it will be answered. Please understand that there is no guarantee your question will be answered, but I will do the best I can to make sure that it is eventually. For those of you that submitted suggestions, this is not the correct forum to do that in.
I figured 22 questions would be an appropriate number to use. All of the following questions are answered by Bort himself. This thread is for review only. Shortly before 6 p.m. I will post a discussion thread along with how the discussion will play out where myself and other Admins will take time to respond to questions about the Q & A.
1. Prior to season 11, there was a lot of hype surrounding the implementation of player coaches. Upon reflection and a vote, it was placed on the back-burner. Has there been any progress in the implementation design that would bring coaching back to the forefront of creation in the coming season or 2?
I have not done any new work relating to coaching. All the original work is still sitting there if we want to resurrect it. At the moment, I am more focused on fixing up some long-standing issues and improving realism aspects of the simulation. The idea had fair support a couple seasons ago. Perhaps it would be a good idea to do another poll to judge interest now.
2. Does confidence assist in anything except morale? To clarify...does your actual confidence score get used in any actual rolls to "do something"?
Yes, it does. It mostly helps kickers and quarterbacks, but there are also certain things that are determined by rolls vs your confidence score alone.
3. Will there ever be the ability to create our own plays on offense (i.e. OPC)?
Not fully. The best we will likely get is a route editor. There are too many intricacies and potential problems for anything more in depth.
4. Will there ever be a team practice option where you can test out your plays and AI just using your own team's offense and defense?
Maybe someday, but not soon. The structure of the sim engine does not currently make this possible, nor easy to implement, because it was not built with that concept in mind. It will require a good amount of rewriting or a creative solution to make it work.
5. What needs to happen for you to decide that Beta is finished?
When I feel like there is no longer large updates needed, and we are ready to let the userbase know they can expect only small updates. There are so many potential additions and ideas, that may be a while.
6. Will there ever be a GLB Hall of Fame?
Yes, I'd like to set something up at some point.
7. Before last season I saw some talk on different boards with people saying that Bort had said they would be implementing the bump and run coverage. Is there any truth to this and if so is there any indication when we might see it?
It still needs some work, testing, and additional options to make sure it is not just a "tacked on" addition. Testing the idea at the time was more of a "will it work" test. We didn't do any balance testing at the time, and there have been other things that are more important since then.
8. What is being done to create better balance within leagues? Currently in many leagues there are almost no competitive games.
There's a couple suggestions I am looking at right now that I think could help quite a bit: Gold/Silver/Copper leagues in the minor leagues, and sorting teams during promotion by using rivalry points. There's a bit of work to be done on those to work out some details and problems, but I believe there is a lot of potential there.
9. Why not make it so when you buy a team in a higher league to start out (like I bought a team in a lvl 42 cap casual league) you get more money?
That has been suggested, and I agree it is probably a good idea, though it might be better to simply have a set stadium size for each tier. The actual amounts or sizes need some working through to figure out what they would need to be. At the same time, I do like to encourage people to start at the bottom, getting their feet wet, before jumping right in. Making upper tier teams more available may alienate some users.
10. What are the plans to develop a mobile-friendly version of the site?
It is currently one of the things "on the list" for our designer. We'd love to build an iPhone app, as well. There's some things that are a little backed up that are more important, though, before we can get on to those.
11. Why can't we have every SA that is firing listed in the PBP? Some are listed but others are not.
It would make the PBP pretty unreadable. There are SA's going on all the time. I prefer to represent them with animations, or only list them when they are relevant, like when they make you succeed in breaking a tackle (not when they fail).
12. The Flash replay interface was near completion in October, but it hasn’t been implemented yet. Is it still planned to be used, and if so when? What are the issues keeping it from being implemented?
It's actually just about done. I saw a recent build of it just last week, and it works minus a couple things for some of the newer features added to replays. A lot of it has just been waiting on me to find some time to finish the XML interface it requires.
13. Do we have a timeline on when some of the common football items (i.e. 4 WR sets, 2 pt conversions, onside kicks, blocked kicks/punts) might be coded in?
No definite timeline, sorry. 4WR sets will likely show up pretty soon; there's been some discussion amongst the testers lately about adding more plays. Blocked kicks and punts will probably show up before 2 pt conversions and onside kicks, mainly since the latter have the opportunity for exploitation.
14. How exactly does the auto adjust option work in the advanced AI and packages?
It's pretty straightforward. If you gain good yardage on a play (more than 4 yds for rushes, distance varies by expected length for passes), the play's bias goes up and other plays' biases go down. If you lose yardage, the play's bias goes down and others go up. Small gains, such as 1-2 yds have no effect. The higher you put the "speed" value of the auto adjust, the more the biases are adjusted.
15. What are the short term (1-3 years) and long term (3 years+) goals for GLB?
Continue to work on the football simulation engine, Add more features/depth to GLB, Improve Look and Feel, Add Baseball to our lineup. Those are some of the general goals we have.
Pretty much. Getting a development team together for a baseball offering, and getting that project up and running. is one of our major goals of the next 6 mos-yr, along with nailing down some of the missing components from GLB.
16. Is GLB doing anyting to discourage Super Slow Building of players? These compromise league parity and should be discouraged.
Beyond minor updates, we do not currently have any plans for any large updates to specifically target and destroy SSB. There are lots of ideas out there, and some of the things we have done have made it less worthwhile or possible, but not entirely. We recognize that the current player building process is one of the things that some people really enjoy about the game, and we'd like to perhaps find a middle ground somewhere that doesn't remove all aspects from the game, but minimizes the impact those types of builders have on others. Updating leagues to be put together by build value, as opposed to level, for instance, might accomplish this, or it might not. It's not an easy task to address, since it is so entrenched as part of the game at this point.
17. I was curious if Bort and DD were planning to advertise the site in the near future. If so, in which types of media would GLB be advertised?
We are currently investigating our advertising options. First most likely media will be online advertising.
18. There have been talks about how a 90 speed CB could cover a 120 speed WR with ease. This makes many CB builders go for just 90~95 speed, and emphasizes on agility and other attributes. Does speed have other
important uses for a CB besides increasing a CB's top speed? Does it factor into acceleration, PD rolls, interception rolls (like agility)?
Speed is still part of acceleration. However, speed's purpose for most players is simply determining how fast they move (which is still pretty important overall). For a CB, using cushion and zone coverage effectively can help him keep up with faster receivers, especially on shorter plays. This is how real life teams handle coverage as well. He'll likely have trouble on long streak type routes, though, so beware!
19. Does Tackling style (wrap-up vs balance vs power) affect the chances to knock loose a pass?
Yes, it does. A knocked loose pass is based on hitting the player right as he catches it. A hard hit is going to be more likely to pop the ball out than a soft one.
20. Is there any chance of "Locked Leagues" being removed from the NGTH list? A lot of people were really big on the idea in the thread we had going in the suggestion forum.
Not at the moment. My main concern with them is that they may serve to cause even more small communities, and remove the larger community aspect from the game. I'd like to focus the time and attention more on trying to improve the existing community aspects first, and possibly try and renew some of the rivalry aspects of the earlier game.
21. The speed of GLB players and the ball (in both the passing and kicking game) covers a much broader range relative to the size of the field than most competitive levels of real football (HS/college/NFL).. Are unrealistic ratios of throw velocity/player velocity/field size part of what's distorting the passing game interactions?
Play in GLB is definitely more exaggerated than in real life when it comes to speed. However, from recent work I have been doing, problems in the passing game really have a lot to do with the unrealistic reaction time of defenders and some shortcomings in QB passing. There has been a lot of work done on that during this season via the test server, and I am optimistic about the results of that work bringing a bit more fun and realism to the passing game in coming seasons.
22. In my opinion - the game started out (in season 1) - as a PLAYER game - but as the seasons have passed it has become more and more geared toward coordinators (offensive and defensive). Has that been your plan all along? From a business stand point the approach seems flawed since player building is where all of your revenue comes from - and coordinating is free...
We've tried our best to try and add things for both parts of the game, but I agree that there has probably been a larger portion of time spent on the team related aspects of the game. However, I think they have all been warranted, and they indirectly affect the enjoyment for players as well. When your team performs more realistically and has more options on how to use your player, you're going to get more fun out of him. After all, if there were no team owners, players would have a pretty boring time. That being said, I think continuing to work on updates like coaching or the new player creation system, or perhaps expanding player creation options, is important, and I haven't lost sight of that.
Fillu - 10,000
jroma1 - 10,000
xCanadiens - 5,000
OBFuSCaTe - 5,000
InfamousTeArS - 1,000
Iowannarock - 1,000
Jughead - 1,000
-Remx- - 1,000
Alan462 - 1,000
moonkid_13 - 500
brennanc - 500
Swamp - 500
DanielS - 500
firenze - 500
livebytheblitz - 500
jrmook - 500
xhail2skinsx - 500
Yello1 - 500
Shart - 500
Congratulations!
We received a ton of e-mail submissions, so I'd like to thank all of you on behalf of GLB for taking the time to write. I tried to pick questions that were either asked multiple times or were interesting. If your question was not answered, please submit it again for the following week. I am keeping track of all unanswered questions and the more times I see it, the more likely it will be answered. Please understand that there is no guarantee your question will be answered, but I will do the best I can to make sure that it is eventually. For those of you that submitted suggestions, this is not the correct forum to do that in.
I figured 22 questions would be an appropriate number to use. All of the following questions are answered by Bort himself. This thread is for review only. Shortly before 6 p.m. I will post a discussion thread along with how the discussion will play out where myself and other Admins will take time to respond to questions about the Q & A.
1. Prior to season 11, there was a lot of hype surrounding the implementation of player coaches. Upon reflection and a vote, it was placed on the back-burner. Has there been any progress in the implementation design that would bring coaching back to the forefront of creation in the coming season or 2?
I have not done any new work relating to coaching. All the original work is still sitting there if we want to resurrect it. At the moment, I am more focused on fixing up some long-standing issues and improving realism aspects of the simulation. The idea had fair support a couple seasons ago. Perhaps it would be a good idea to do another poll to judge interest now.
2. Does confidence assist in anything except morale? To clarify...does your actual confidence score get used in any actual rolls to "do something"?
Yes, it does. It mostly helps kickers and quarterbacks, but there are also certain things that are determined by rolls vs your confidence score alone.
3. Will there ever be the ability to create our own plays on offense (i.e. OPC)?
Not fully. The best we will likely get is a route editor. There are too many intricacies and potential problems for anything more in depth.
4. Will there ever be a team practice option where you can test out your plays and AI just using your own team's offense and defense?
Maybe someday, but not soon. The structure of the sim engine does not currently make this possible, nor easy to implement, because it was not built with that concept in mind. It will require a good amount of rewriting or a creative solution to make it work.
5. What needs to happen for you to decide that Beta is finished?
When I feel like there is no longer large updates needed, and we are ready to let the userbase know they can expect only small updates. There are so many potential additions and ideas, that may be a while.
6. Will there ever be a GLB Hall of Fame?
Yes, I'd like to set something up at some point.
7. Before last season I saw some talk on different boards with people saying that Bort had said they would be implementing the bump and run coverage. Is there any truth to this and if so is there any indication when we might see it?
It still needs some work, testing, and additional options to make sure it is not just a "tacked on" addition. Testing the idea at the time was more of a "will it work" test. We didn't do any balance testing at the time, and there have been other things that are more important since then.
8. What is being done to create better balance within leagues? Currently in many leagues there are almost no competitive games.
There's a couple suggestions I am looking at right now that I think could help quite a bit: Gold/Silver/Copper leagues in the minor leagues, and sorting teams during promotion by using rivalry points. There's a bit of work to be done on those to work out some details and problems, but I believe there is a lot of potential there.
9. Why not make it so when you buy a team in a higher league to start out (like I bought a team in a lvl 42 cap casual league) you get more money?
That has been suggested, and I agree it is probably a good idea, though it might be better to simply have a set stadium size for each tier. The actual amounts or sizes need some working through to figure out what they would need to be. At the same time, I do like to encourage people to start at the bottom, getting their feet wet, before jumping right in. Making upper tier teams more available may alienate some users.
10. What are the plans to develop a mobile-friendly version of the site?
It is currently one of the things "on the list" for our designer. We'd love to build an iPhone app, as well. There's some things that are a little backed up that are more important, though, before we can get on to those.
11. Why can't we have every SA that is firing listed in the PBP? Some are listed but others are not.
It would make the PBP pretty unreadable. There are SA's going on all the time. I prefer to represent them with animations, or only list them when they are relevant, like when they make you succeed in breaking a tackle (not when they fail).
12. The Flash replay interface was near completion in October, but it hasn’t been implemented yet. Is it still planned to be used, and if so when? What are the issues keeping it from being implemented?
It's actually just about done. I saw a recent build of it just last week, and it works minus a couple things for some of the newer features added to replays. A lot of it has just been waiting on me to find some time to finish the XML interface it requires.
13. Do we have a timeline on when some of the common football items (i.e. 4 WR sets, 2 pt conversions, onside kicks, blocked kicks/punts) might be coded in?
No definite timeline, sorry. 4WR sets will likely show up pretty soon; there's been some discussion amongst the testers lately about adding more plays. Blocked kicks and punts will probably show up before 2 pt conversions and onside kicks, mainly since the latter have the opportunity for exploitation.
14. How exactly does the auto adjust option work in the advanced AI and packages?
It's pretty straightforward. If you gain good yardage on a play (more than 4 yds for rushes, distance varies by expected length for passes), the play's bias goes up and other plays' biases go down. If you lose yardage, the play's bias goes down and others go up. Small gains, such as 1-2 yds have no effect. The higher you put the "speed" value of the auto adjust, the more the biases are adjusted.
15. What are the short term (1-3 years) and long term (3 years+) goals for GLB?
Continue to work on the football simulation engine, Add more features/depth to GLB, Improve Look and Feel, Add Baseball to our lineup. Those are some of the general goals we have.
Pretty much. Getting a development team together for a baseball offering, and getting that project up and running. is one of our major goals of the next 6 mos-yr, along with nailing down some of the missing components from GLB.
16. Is GLB doing anyting to discourage Super Slow Building of players? These compromise league parity and should be discouraged.
Beyond minor updates, we do not currently have any plans for any large updates to specifically target and destroy SSB. There are lots of ideas out there, and some of the things we have done have made it less worthwhile or possible, but not entirely. We recognize that the current player building process is one of the things that some people really enjoy about the game, and we'd like to perhaps find a middle ground somewhere that doesn't remove all aspects from the game, but minimizes the impact those types of builders have on others. Updating leagues to be put together by build value, as opposed to level, for instance, might accomplish this, or it might not. It's not an easy task to address, since it is so entrenched as part of the game at this point.
17. I was curious if Bort and DD were planning to advertise the site in the near future. If so, in which types of media would GLB be advertised?
We are currently investigating our advertising options. First most likely media will be online advertising.
18. There have been talks about how a 90 speed CB could cover a 120 speed WR with ease. This makes many CB builders go for just 90~95 speed, and emphasizes on agility and other attributes. Does speed have other
important uses for a CB besides increasing a CB's top speed? Does it factor into acceleration, PD rolls, interception rolls (like agility)?
Speed is still part of acceleration. However, speed's purpose for most players is simply determining how fast they move (which is still pretty important overall). For a CB, using cushion and zone coverage effectively can help him keep up with faster receivers, especially on shorter plays. This is how real life teams handle coverage as well. He'll likely have trouble on long streak type routes, though, so beware!
19. Does Tackling style (wrap-up vs balance vs power) affect the chances to knock loose a pass?
Yes, it does. A knocked loose pass is based on hitting the player right as he catches it. A hard hit is going to be more likely to pop the ball out than a soft one.
20. Is there any chance of "Locked Leagues" being removed from the NGTH list? A lot of people were really big on the idea in the thread we had going in the suggestion forum.
Not at the moment. My main concern with them is that they may serve to cause even more small communities, and remove the larger community aspect from the game. I'd like to focus the time and attention more on trying to improve the existing community aspects first, and possibly try and renew some of the rivalry aspects of the earlier game.
21. The speed of GLB players and the ball (in both the passing and kicking game) covers a much broader range relative to the size of the field than most competitive levels of real football (HS/college/NFL).. Are unrealistic ratios of throw velocity/player velocity/field size part of what's distorting the passing game interactions?
Play in GLB is definitely more exaggerated than in real life when it comes to speed. However, from recent work I have been doing, problems in the passing game really have a lot to do with the unrealistic reaction time of defenders and some shortcomings in QB passing. There has been a lot of work done on that during this season via the test server, and I am optimistic about the results of that work bringing a bit more fun and realism to the passing game in coming seasons.
22. In my opinion - the game started out (in season 1) - as a PLAYER game - but as the seasons have passed it has become more and more geared toward coordinators (offensive and defensive). Has that been your plan all along? From a business stand point the approach seems flawed since player building is where all of your revenue comes from - and coordinating is free...
We've tried our best to try and add things for both parts of the game, but I agree that there has probably been a larger portion of time spent on the team related aspects of the game. However, I think they have all been warranted, and they indirectly affect the enjoyment for players as well. When your team performs more realistically and has more options on how to use your player, you're going to get more fun out of him. After all, if there were no team owners, players would have a pretty boring time. That being said, I think continuing to work on updates like coaching or the new player creation system, or perhaps expanding player creation options, is important, and I haven't lost sight of that.
Edited by Catch22 on Jan 17, 2010 13:49:39
Edited by Catch22 on Jan 16, 2010 13:30:21
