Jed edit: Painmaker, feel free to move this wherever, Bort's comments: http://goallineblitz.com/game/forum_thread.pl?thread_id=1906543&page=2#15832846
I know Bort is toying with the idea of basic AI leagues, but I think folks will find them disappointing as well. The utility of advanced AI is nice -- certainly there's still room for improvement, but already advanced AI offers much more immersive complexity to gameplay. I think streamlining the advanced AI interfaces would do much more to satisfy players looking to lighten the time demands on offensive and defensive coordinators.
What isn't so nice is how repetitive the AI entries are. For example, defensive AI inputs "require" separate entries for various combinations of down, distance, offensive formation, field position, time remaining in the half/game, timeouts remaining, and score differential. Each input may reasonably have 3 or 4 (for some DCs 6 to 8) outputs -- many duplicates of each other but required to be entered individually for each input where they are desired. (edit: and by "require" I mean that in order to be truly effective, it's required... obviously teams can relax those entries to an extent and enjoy slightly less-effective defense than otherwise)
It would be nice to be able to create a set of outputs once and then assign it to several different input conditions. For example, if you have a defensive scheme of 3 different outputs which want applied to shotgun in second-and-long, third-and-long, fourth-and-medium, fourth-and-long, any down near the end of the half, first down near the end of the game, any down on the opponent's side of the field, or any down in the fourth quarter when preserving a lead of 14+ points, you should be able to make the set of outputs once and then tag that set to each input where you want it used. Then if you recognize after a couple of games that one of your outputs can be abused by a certain play from that formation, you can just reduce or eliminate that output once instead of trying to find it in eight different places and hoping that you haven't missed it anywhere.
Finding ways like this to improve the user interface for advanced AI would go a long way toward reducing the tedious part of gameplanning so being a coordinator can be more fun than work. I think that the new defensive play creator can help this interface because you can tag outputs to one saved defensive play, then modify the play as necessary once you see how well it works on the field. Still there is plenty of additional opportunity to reduce redundant operator inputs to make gameplanning less of a chore and more of a tactical laboratory.
Doing this might also help avoid the need to "shard" the game into separate divisions with basic and advanced leagues.
I know Bort is toying with the idea of basic AI leagues, but I think folks will find them disappointing as well. The utility of advanced AI is nice -- certainly there's still room for improvement, but already advanced AI offers much more immersive complexity to gameplay. I think streamlining the advanced AI interfaces would do much more to satisfy players looking to lighten the time demands on offensive and defensive coordinators.
What isn't so nice is how repetitive the AI entries are. For example, defensive AI inputs "require" separate entries for various combinations of down, distance, offensive formation, field position, time remaining in the half/game, timeouts remaining, and score differential. Each input may reasonably have 3 or 4 (for some DCs 6 to 8) outputs -- many duplicates of each other but required to be entered individually for each input where they are desired. (edit: and by "require" I mean that in order to be truly effective, it's required... obviously teams can relax those entries to an extent and enjoy slightly less-effective defense than otherwise)
It would be nice to be able to create a set of outputs once and then assign it to several different input conditions. For example, if you have a defensive scheme of 3 different outputs which want applied to shotgun in second-and-long, third-and-long, fourth-and-medium, fourth-and-long, any down near the end of the half, first down near the end of the game, any down on the opponent's side of the field, or any down in the fourth quarter when preserving a lead of 14+ points, you should be able to make the set of outputs once and then tag that set to each input where you want it used. Then if you recognize after a couple of games that one of your outputs can be abused by a certain play from that formation, you can just reduce or eliminate that output once instead of trying to find it in eight different places and hoping that you haven't missed it anywhere.
Finding ways like this to improve the user interface for advanced AI would go a long way toward reducing the tedious part of gameplanning so being a coordinator can be more fun than work. I think that the new defensive play creator can help this interface because you can tag outputs to one saved defensive play, then modify the play as necessary once you see how well it works on the field. Still there is plenty of additional opportunity to reduce redundant operator inputs to make gameplanning less of a chore and more of a tactical laboratory.
Doing this might also help avoid the need to "shard" the game into separate divisions with basic and advanced leagues.
Last edited Jan 22, 2009 12:55:49
