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Forum > Goal Line Blitz > Q&A Archives > August 22nd Q & A Discussion Summary
Jethroz
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I have noticed in GMing various teams more inactivity of agents. Any plans by GLB to encourage more activity? Like making rewarding players who log on with an extra training point (each day they log on) for each of their players? Or something like that.
Bort- Not going to give extra points or things for logging on. However, we have been discussing some ideas recently about adding some "achievement" system, a hall of fame, global rankings and such to give things for people try and shoot for. Goal-oriented items that encourage competitiveness amongst the userbase.

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What plans are in the works to make coordinating easier?
Catch- We have several things in store that should make coordinating easier including user owned playbooks/AI's, intermediate tactics, and preset tactics and playbooks. We'll be working on these soon, hopefully.

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Will all teams from the minors (42 & 46 caps) promote to A or will some go to AA like last season?
Bort- They'll go to A unless they ask for the multi-jump option.

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Is the plan still to take the bottom two teams from the Pro Leagues and drop them all the way to AA?
Question coming from this post: http://goallineblitz.com/game/forum_thread.pl?thread_id=4134752&page=1#36932438
Bort- The post you're looking at was an intermediate version with the lv 54 cap, etc. The thing that makes most sense is to just demote from Pro to AAA and AAA to AA, etc.

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The description for the Juke SA says it works especially against those with low vision. Is that a set figure or does it mean lower than the HB?
Bort- It means that players with lower vision have a better chance of being fooled. There's no hard line. The rolls just get harder/easier.

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Will there ever be an In-Season list of say top 50 [global] player rankings as listed on the awards page ?
Bort- Likely within the next week or two

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Does stamina influence the rate at which energy refills like it influences the rate at which it depletes?
Bort- Yes

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Any plans on doing something with Fame? Maybe making it something as an extra achievement in this game that doesnt give mythical powers in the sim itself?
Catch- Not currently - no.

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Are we still heading down the path of effective level determining caps?
Bort- Not currently. We discussed ideas today at a meeting about age vs level, etc.

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Are there any plans in the works to make AIs smaller? Perhaps by grouping inputs (by down for Offense, Formation for defense) because some AIs take forever to pull up
Catch- Yes, there are plans to do this eventually.

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Does energy react the same way that morale does in that the further you are away from 100 the faster it will replenish?
Bort- No

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Other than lowering speed, does stamina have any other checks or effects when it gets low?
Bort- Low energy affects all your skills (except stamina/conf)

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What are the two or three things about GLB's future that keep you up at night? i.e. concerns (or what do you feel are the most pressing issues that have resonated with you and the staff ... i.e. valid concerns from the user base).
Catch- We actually discussed pressing issues/concerns today at our staff meeting - top four on the list were:

1) League structure issues
2) Speeding up player development
3) Information available for new players to the game
4) Suggestions forum issues


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Is the penalty to a players playing capacity greater/lesser/equal when dropping from 100 to 85 as when the same dot drops from 85 to 70? Basically, does a drop of 15 E result in the same penalty regardless of the starting point?
Bort- Yes, is a linear scale.

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Is there any concern about the morale based SA's/VA's in the current sim and their uselessness? Seems to me like any bump to their effectiveness will make them OP'd...but their current state seems pretty terrible.
Catch- We're currently in the process of evaluating/testing SA's and VA's.

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I have noticed a dramatic drop in ppl being active in forums, chat and setting tactis,etc. As a flex buyer , i worry im putting money into a dying product. Is this product still strong or a wounded duck?
Bort- DD and I pay ourselves based on a percentage of company profit. My salary hasn't changed. We're doing fine.

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At some point, there was talk of making spin improved by fake % eq. Any chance this happens?
Catch- no plans of it happening at this point.

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Any chance you will advertise to bring in new faces to the game besides the current set up with referals?
Catch- Yes, in time. We do some advertising on small sites already.

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When are you going to give some rewards,discounts etc,to the people who continually fund this game?
Catch- Extended plateau is an incentive to people who fund the game. We're looking at other possibilities as well.

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Bort Pump fake is awefully effective at the pee wee level. Players only need 5 in pump fake and they can fake the Cb in the play and a FS a mile away, is it possible to give Cbs a bonus or lower the effective pump fakle in pee wees? Thank you for making passing better but now people are abusing pump fake.
Bort- Something like a reverse of the sliding scale for passing for defense? Worth a test run on the test server at least. We'll put it on the list.

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Any word on the final plan for deciding which non-championship AAA teams will be promoted to the Pros?
Bort- I have an idea for a strength of schedule type formula, but I haven't had a chance to finish/test it yet. If I can't work something out that works to my satisfaction, we'll just rank teams as best we can by wins/score, etc as usual.

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Are there plans to add more custom lineup spots for the advanced AIs to use? For example, to be able to have pass rushing DEs in on passing situation and run stuffer DEs in on rushing situations?
Bort- I do not have plans for that at the moment, unless we add a hardcore league like we had discussed.

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One last question, any chance in the future we can schedule 2 friendlies on non regular season game days?
Bort- The system wouldn't allow that very easily in the current implementation. Not sure it's really a big concern for people.

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Do you think you'll ever increase the amount of friendlies you can schedule at one time? Say from 6 to unlimited or 12 at least?
Catch- No, we don't want to run out of friendly slots because teams monopolize them.

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So if you lengthened halftime to allow more time for dots to refill energy, those with high stamina would essentially be able to refill even more energy than a lower stamina dot than they would have with a short halftime?
Catch- Yes

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Theres a good discussion going on about Oline/Dline interaction right now, how do you guys feel about the oline/dline interactions as they are right now.
Catch- It's always the trickiest part of the sim code to deal with, but we feel the interaction is pretty good. There are probably still a few areas that need adjusting/tweaking, but for the most part we're pleased with how it looks.

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In games it seems my CBs get beat by WRs even in triple and better coverage where my defenders are all over the receiver. Any pointers on what the issue might be?
Bort- The WR probably has some serious jumping/catch chance type bonuses. You might try adding some more jumping, picking up some swat ball skills, some pass deflection chance type eq/abilities etc.

Catch and I have been talking about this in general, though; the WR's probably have a bit too much of an advantage on some of the big 3rd/4th down situations. We might notch up defender abilities in those situations to help match. Requires some testing first to see how it works.

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What's the word on the "Intermediate" leagues, those that Bort proposed as a middle ground between Casual & Regular?
Catch- One of my next projects will be working on intermediate tactics - intermediate leagues might be part of the project, not for sure though on that.

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Where does this stand in discussions? [regarding: 2) Speeding up player development]
Catch- In discussion - it's much easier said then done, and just because we're discussing it doesn't mean that we will do it.

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Whats the latest with the iphone app for GLB?
Bort- I know we keep saying this, but it really is getting close. The developers are actually waiting on me to finish some API functionality they need now. Good news is that they are also working on a facebook integration as well, while waiting for me!

Also, this API I am working on includes the ability to get stats and game scores in an easy to parse format, so in the end any 3rd party developers (I'm looking at you, greasemonkey guys) could use it to do some neat stuff.


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The AAA league I am in has been pretty aggressive in scheduling ranked scrimmages against other leagues and has done pretty well over all. We did that, in part, to help with the Strength of Schedule calculations in hope that we would help each other get promoted.

It was fun either way, but will you be considering ranked scrimmages when the time comes? [SoS Promotions]

Catch- No

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Catch told me he has "always thought that there should be a "delay" requirement before a player can activate a SA a second time." I agree with him. So is this going to happen?
Catch- I discussed that with Bort today - it's something we'll look at but no exact time table on implementation.

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Is the Cap 54 league still something being discussed ?
Catch- Not at this time - if we do anything it'll be lower the level cap on A

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Has there been any thought given to starting non-boost leagues?
Catch- From a business perspective, that's not a realistic addition to the game. If you create non-boosting leagues, then everyone would play those instead of the boosting leagues.

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With the current options in the defensive team tactics in Casual, if you set a 100% long pass D....you don't get that called by the Ai, you don't even get it called 25% of the time.
Bort- What does long pass defense call, what does medium call, etc?

Maybe we can put together a FAQ, but in the mean time, the general rule is:

Long pass = cover 3
Med pass = cover 2
Short pass = cover 1

However, the playcalling AI does make different calls in different situations. For obvious rushing situations, it's going to call more cover 1, for obvious deep pass situations, it's going to call more cover 2/3.


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Just read a question that reminded me of something, the pee wee community was all over the board begging for cheaper rates to custom and the level 8 special tree that is 300 flex. I believe something to the effect that pee wees cost a lot more money to play than if you moved on up the ladder. Is there any thought on making custom and custom upgrades cheaper at level 1 for one and done dots? Make a special archtype that after the pee wee season that player is forced to retire but in the end it's cheaper than the current system. Not free mind you, just custom and custom upgrades cheaper?
Catch- We discussed this today and the answer is no. There are still plenty of players who move on from Pee Wees to continue their GLB careers and retirement/purchase of CEQ is a choice agents make, not one forced upon them.

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Does Lower the Shoulder provide a flat break tackle bonus when it doesn't activate? What about Power Through or Stiff Arm? In other words, are they only 'have to fire' SAs with no 'always on' component?
Bort- There is no "always on" component. However, there are times when the SA will go off, and the player gets tackled anyway, because his roll is still too low. In those cases, there's no chance to see if it worked or not, since the play just ends.

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What was the reasoning behind the decision to allow people to have up to 9 teams?
Bort- No particular reason, other than I thought people might want to have 3 teams of a type, and team demand is not as high as it used to be. Some people had like 5 or 6 teams when the game started, and besides cash funneling (which is now gone) it wasn't that big of a deal.

Any insight as to why this is the case? [team demand not as high as it used to be]
Bort- There's less active customers than when the site first started, which is natural for any game, and not unexpected. However, team demand seems to actually be pretty steady for the last 4 or 5 seasons, though. Just not what it was at launch (which made us do the wait list).

I think if people want to own another team and try to run it, they can go for it. It can only help keep leagues more active, tbh. Less CPU teams at the end of the season = less early promotions, etc.

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Is there pictures of each formation available anywhere?
Bort- No official one right now. Sorry.

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any thoughts on maybe creating some new default defensive plays?
Catch- Possibly down the road along with some of the other AI projects we work on.

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Does Lead Block work for all Offensive Linemen? i.e. if you have an O-line all with 10 lead block SA, and you run I form HB Blast, will all 5 O-linemen have a blocking bonus at the start of the play?
Catch- It works when they are doing lead block behavior like pulling - if the center is blocking a defender straight in front of them, then no, he will not get a bonus. If he is pulling for an outside run, then yes he will.

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what would you say is the goal of what the sim should be...
Bort- I'm mostly interested in seeing fairly realistic interactions between players on the field. In any sports video game, scores and stats are always going to be higher than in real life, since it's impossible to fully imitate the real world, and people will find the easier routes to win. As long as the plays and interactions seem within reason, the stats should be within reason as well.

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If and when can we get some more 5 wide plays added?
Bort- Same time as we can get AngryDragon's new defensive plays (which I'd love to add, btw). When somebody gets around to making and testing them. Defensive plays could theoretically be submitted by users and testers, actually. Just would need a play built on the test server and an id to copy over.

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Does the backfield tackling bonus with Power Tackler work when you are playing with wrap-up tackling?
Catch- No - Power tackling never works in any aspect when on wrap up.

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So in casual leagues is the defensive formation based on solely what type of pass defense % your running (short/medium/long) besides obvious factors like goal line situations what other factors decide what formation is run?
Catch- It's based on your percentages and the down/distance.

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What's the big problem with speeding up player development?
When are Iron Man Leagues coming?
Catch- As I said - it's easier said then done and it's not a guarantee that we are going to do it. There are some issues surrounding player development acceleration that we have to take into consideration before deciding whether to do it or not.
No ETA on Iron Man Leagues but it's at top of Bort's to do list.

Okay, so WHAT, specifically, are the issues? What's the big hurdle?
Catch- We would have to be able to figure out how to apply it to all players, new and old, equitably - this is the biggest hurdle without question. Other concerns we have deal with some business perspectives that are a bit harder to explain.

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I know that there is extended plateau. What are the chances that maybe you extend players to 12 seasons before plateau hits and do the regular plateau period. It seems like people would be more apt to buy flex to boost their players for 12 seasons.
Catch- We're happy with the way it is now.

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Can you Shock Block or Strong Arm while run blocking?
Catch- No

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The problem is with allowing agents to buy CPU teams in Pro and WL. It is impossible for someone (unless they are super connected) to recruit a dead CPU Pro+ team and make them competitive the following season. Those teams should not be "click to buy". They should be force demoted at the end of the seen before ctb is allowed. Do you disagree?
Catch- If someone wants to take over a pro team and try to rebuild it, that's an option they now have available to them. We've had plenty of people ask for this opportunity in the past.

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Do we have confirmation that "Bruiser" works "within 8 yards" of BOTH sides of the line of scrimmage? I can't imagine we'd have as many TFLs as we do if its actually coded that way--I sometimes wonder if Bort meant to imply it works from 0-8 on the PLUS side of the line of scrimmage rather than from -8 to +8?
Bort- Yep, it's both. Just checked to make sure.

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Offensive Play Creator...Is this going to be a possibility at any point, or is it never going to be an option
Catch- very unlikely to ever happen, primarily because of exploit issues that would be created.

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Does your pass rushing tactic modify how often you revcake someone?
Catch- No, it merely affects the path that you take.

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I've recently read that certain SAs such as First Step and Quick Cut have to fire (i.e. are not always on as many of us thought). Is this correct?
Catch- First Step - yes, Quick Cut, no (that fires all the time - gives a bonus to your turning ability).

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DO VAs like breakthrough work for positions other than DT? Like LB and DE? The info on the VA says it is important for run stuffing DTs. Does that mean it doesn't fire for other positions?
Catch- Yes, they do. If they are being double teamed, they will get the bonus from the SA.

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1) Why was a penalty necessary to halve the effectiveness of the Defense General SA with a random firing between the RILB and LILB? Why not just have it work from one position like RILB?, similar to the defensive line where there are 2 DT's but Line General only works from the NT position.
Bort- It's not meant to be a penalty. It's just what made sense at the time. How bout if it were to just pick the guy with the highest skill between the two?

2) I think this was brought up seasons ago but are there any plans for the NT be granted movement over the LG during a formation with 3 defensive lineman?
Bort- I'd have to test to see if it causes issues. The code right now is set up to handle the bounds we have.

3) Can you confirm that a DE can be used as an OLB in any formation with 3 defensive lineman ( i.e., 3-4, 3-3-5, 3-2-6 ) with a slight out of position penalty?
Bort- Yes, the penalty for that is very small.

4) What actually is the out of position penalty for the DE? Can you at least say if it is MORE THAN 5%?
Bort- Not more than 5%.

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When the sim changes, as it invariably does every season, will there be any recourse for players who are locked into the plateau seasons with little or no opportunity to change their build? (especially their equipment)?
Catch- Unfortunately no, as we're moving towards a game where the sim doesn't change every season.

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Also, it would be awesome if you could clean up the AI interfaces a bit so that I could game plan on my iPad
Bort- I agree it needs some work. We're gonna start working on the intermediate interface concept soon; can probably try and spend some time on the advanced AI as well.

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If we can't have an OPC then we need a lot more plays from each formation, so the defense doesn't just have to account for a handful from each.
Catch- Agreed - we'll work on adding more plays. Only so much time in the day though man.

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this may be a dumb question, but is this only for passing plays? (hypothetical) would two same build DE's take the same path on run plays if one was on evasive and one was on power?
Catch- Yes, that's correct - only for passing plays.

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So does that mean you are comfortable with current scoring at the Pro/WL levels? DCs get very frustrated when "holding" a team to 40 points and 500 yards is considered a good outcome. Any plans to bring scoring down modestly?
Bort- I think the main issue we're seeing is passing is a little too potent. Catch has given me some ideas recently to try; we'll do some testing to see.

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Could you please make archetype be something you can search for in the marketplace/player search?
Bort- It's on the list of random to-do's.

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1. Projected date this game leaves beta?
2. Any chance some sort of cap-building tutorial could be added so new players (and surprisingly some veterans) are not lost at sea and competition can increase?
Catch- We were hoping for the end of 2010, but realistically it's looking more like 2011 sometime.

One of the things we discussed at the Admin meeting today was providing more information for users - a cap building tutorial would be one of the things we would probably look at providing
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Bort, are you happy with the way this season's morale system is working? From my observations, morale is now highly correlated with confidence and low correlation to actual game results (* with one important exception, noted below). Are plays having enough impact on morale in your opinion?
Bort- I like it for the most part. Catch is saying he'd like to try a few tweaks, but the overall underlying system is pretty good iMO.

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What about OAI/DAI"s that are created by the user and stay with the user. That way when some owner gets mad and fires you then you get to keep your AI. I have seen this happen several times. Basically all the user has to do is up load his OAI/DAI to the team when he is brought in as a OC/DC. What i am getting at is the OAI/DAI is created in the user profile and stays with the user.
Catch- That will probably happen within the next 3-4 months.

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One thing I have noticed is that the passing game is kind of like home run derby. Not a lot of successful short passing games going on. I am sure the defenses play a role in this formula but I would really like to see more short routes completed and tackles made.
Bort- I've seen that it's a bit of both long and short. You can turn short passes into homeruns, based on broken tackles, fakes, or pure speed. And it's a bit too easy to catch the ball on 3rd down bombs. Dialing up the defense's abilities a little again would probably bring things back down to within reason in those instances. It's really something we need to test against.

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Bort: You said once before Super Vision was the most overrated SA in your opinion. Why did you say this? By it's description, it says it reduces being faked... and being pump faked is one of the most devastating things that can happen on defense.
Bort- A lot of people used to think it made them into vision gods, like they had over 9000 vision or something. That's not what it does. I agree it's a good skill, but it's not going to "fix" your guy with 40 vision.

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I don't believe running the same play over and over has a penalty as I have seen teams and tested it myself. When does the penalty take effect and how much effect does it have?
Catch- We discussed this today as well believe it or not - it's approximately 10 plays, effect starts small and increases. We were talking about possibly having it kick in sooner.

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For the deep game I know other DCs as well as myself have mentioned that the Deep zones are too short in the DPC. Safeties end up covering underneath on really deep routes instead of staying in a position where they can support the CB.
Bort- Need a special "cover 4" type zone?

Need to make it so when you choose the guy to play "deep" in the zone it also moves the zone back.
Bort- That could work. Maybe just for the deep zones.

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will the game be reset when it leaves beta?
Catch- Very unlikely.

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Is it true that when an SA like First Step fires it doesn't always fire at the level you have it at? i.e. if you have 10 First Step it can "fire" on one play and give you the bonus as if you had 3 in FS... then fire the next play and give you 10.. then 7.
Bort- No, it's always at the same level.

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Sim question: Is the same coding for the actual sim the same for World League as it is for Pee Wees or is there separate coding for both?
Bort- It's the same. The only difference is that it adds extra bonuses for passing on lower level teams.

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Were the bonuses to passing added at lower levels due to build disconnect between QBs and WRs or is the hand tipped towards the defense in the lower levels because of the way we build our players?
Bort- Mainly just because low level players suck at passing and catching. So many people focus on speed, etc.

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Any chance you will add more colors to the dots?
Bort- Not high on my priority list

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any update to the suggestion of teams that make the world league get some sort of trophy on their team page for their accomplishment?
Bort- Haven't thought about it in a while. Another good one for the new programmer.

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Is the option to create a lvl 40 player still in the works or talked about?
Bort- Still being talked about. It's probably quite a bit of work since it would require a whole virtual player builder type aspect. The whole build speed thing is sorta tied into it as well, and as you know there is debate on that. sigh.

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The bugs mods have been directing everybody to the suggestions forum when they rule that the post is not a bug. Is there any chance that an admin can check the suggestions forum from time to time?
Bort- We just discussed that today. The suggestion forum is most likely going to be changed to a big list with a voting/comment system instead, where we can sort the suggestions by votes. It's just too hard to sort through right now and find the things that large majorities of people are really interested in. We need a more directed process overall.

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Does Technique Man take into account Clutch/Pass Rusher/Pass Blocker firing? Or is it just pure agility (w/ EQ) vs agility (w/ EQ)?
Bort- It's just pure stats.

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is there any thought to forcing a create date for cap 4 like in pee-wee
Catch- Is there really a need? If they are under level 4, they can sign in the league.

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Any talk on ranking teams in leagues next season then breaking them into conferences so we don't end up with a super conference like in WL Zeta?
Catch- No, it's going to remain random draw.

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Is the new CTB team thing a nightly rollover process ? Like every 3 days from the time of sell back ? Hope this makes sense ?
Bort- Yes, the reset process is at rollover.

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1. Can we get an "Auto VA" Option identical to the Choose Auto Training Option implemented? Updating 40 builds VA's manually is tedious.
2. Can we get a BT total listed per build in the "Quick Training Editor" list? Put it right under the Training Points
Bort- I like the two suggestions.


*end*
 


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