Sim Sports Games

[BeerCloud]

-Discuss new upcoming, current or old Sim Sports Games from across the globe-



Ready........and go

[BeerCloud]

Draft Day Sports Pro Football 16 (DDSPF16)

Redzone wrote:
Im also hearing about a new game called "Draft Day Sports Pro Football

It appears Brooks(PFS developer) has joined Gary(DDS developer) over at DDS on the DDS Pro Football game. I know Brooks was working on a college this past summer but dont know if it ever got released.

As I mentioned in the other thread, the DDS basketball series is a good one. Their interface/eye-candy rivals OOTP imo. It's hard for me to compare different sports together, but I do like the DDS basketball series. I have the pro 3 & 4 along with the college 3 games. Of course football is a different animal.

[BeerCloud]

Ben E Lou posted this link in another FOF7 league that I'm in. Some FOF info.

http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/...ad.php?t=90934

[BeerCloud]

Here is a football sim ive been trying out. The game planning in this one is second to none. Real personnel groups, real play books, etc...
The game itself is free. You can play in one league for free as long as you like or join more leagues for $$. Here's the link to check it out.


http://www.myfootballnow.com

[Rawrster]

Has anyone played this Bowl Bound game that is on Steam? http://store.steampowered.com/app/398640/

[BeerCloud]

I have it, but not on steam. i don't know if the steam version is different or not.

[BeerCloud]

Rawrster this might interest you on the Bowl Bound side of things. http://www.simsportsglobal.com

[giannicic]

Here is a football sim ive been trying out. The game planning in this one is second to none. Real personnel groups, real play books, etc...
The game itself is free. You can play in one league for free as long as you like or join more leagues for $$. Here's the link to check it out.


http://www.myfootballnow.com

Concerning the game planning features of a game I've some questions.
I played several football management games each one having a different interface for setting the game plan, personnel, formation and each one having a particular way of running the playbook during match sim and taking care of players substitutions.
My questions are how a real football head coach prepare the playbook? How he uses it during game? How he decides player substitution during the game?
I'm very curious because I came from a country where american football is not the major sport; so I'm limited in tactical knowledge and while watching matches on the TV still can't understand how a coach chooses a play to execute on each snap. I don't think they have a couple of dices in the pocket

[BeerCloud]

Im not a football coach but I'll do the best I can. Maybe if there are some football coaches in here, they can chime in and help me out.

Your question is a very complicated one. But in short, coaches are always trying to find and expose the opposing teams weaknesses and tendencies(habits). But there's a lot to it. The other team prolly knows his teams own weakness' much better than you do. And he knows your going to try and exploit it some how.

It's a cross between chess and war strategy (with some wrestling and track n field thrown in). Which is why you see offensive players shifting and going into motion all the time. Theyre trying to move the other teams players around to open up a weakness they want to expose or create a match up they want(see The Art of War by Sun Tzu).

Again the defense is aware of their own weakness' and will try to disguise how they're gonna defend what they think the offense is trying to expose. If you have a weak DE for example, you prolly don't gonna want to take a couple of LB's and outright shift em over to his side to help all the time. The offense will be able to see that clear as day and expose the weakness that you just opened up but moving those LB's. So the defense has to disguise what the are doing with defensive alignments and shifts of their own. Cause on the flip side theyre not only trying disguise their own defensive weakness' but they're also trying to expose the offenses weakness' as well.

So during the weak coaches will watch film of the team they are going up against to find these things. Once they find what they're looking for they can come up with a game plan with the plays they will use in the game and practice against during the week. But it's not a strict set of plays. Since they really aren't sure what the other team is up to, they will need to continually make adjustments during the game to what they see the other team is doing.

A legendary coach Bill Walsh used to script the first 15 offensive plays of a game. Prolly to see how the defense lines up, shifts and reacts in these situations so they can make theyre adjustments. Substitutions are based on personal groups. Except for the case of injury or someone needs a breather. It's a beautiful game when you sit down and think about it.

[Red Zone]

When you watch American Pro Football Games, notice each teams strengths.
Some teams, Like the Pittsburgh Steelers, have a very talented WR group.
These teams will look for matchups where they can get single coverage on one of those WRs, allowing the other team to choose who they want to double cover
If Antonio Brown is doubled, then Martavis Bryant is most likely in single coverage

Defensively a team might choose to use More Nickel or Dime coverages, or if they have a strong pass rush they might blitz more, hoping to disrupt the QBs timing
It is usually easier to run vs Nickel or Dime defenses and short quick passes can beat a blitz and sometimes result in a long gain
When a team goes from their base 3-4 or 4-3 to Nickel or dime, extra CBs come in and Defensive Linemen or Linebackers come out
This is an example of formation substituting

Some teams, like the Minnesota Vikings, have a premier RB
These teams will find ways to use the running game to control the clock, get a lead and keep the other teams offense off the field
It can benefit a defense when the other teams offense is behind, has to throw...and has been sitting and watching a long clock eating drive that results in points.

Defensively a team might put 8 defenders in "the box" to defend the run better
Which would provide the offense with an opportunity to throw more effectively

A Defense will sometimes overload one side and blitz...or sometimes show blitz and drop into coverage at the snap

Like BeerCloud Said...in some ways its a chess match

Good Coaches get the most out of their teams by using players in positions and situations where they can be successful

[giannicic]

Wow, thank you guys, yeah the thing that exite me the most about this game is that behind such a confusing fighting there is a strategy that, as Sun Tzu said, is to hide own weakness and expose to others the side they think is our weakness. I'll try to find player shifting and mismatch situation on the next game I'll see.

If I understand well, in every game a coach start with a set of fixed plays that are executed in a specific order or in a specific situation.
As things going on these base plays evolve and could change at all or remain the same depending on the circumstances or to how the other team performs.
The same can be said for the personnel but generally is fixed based on the used formation.

So based on this the FOF gameplan isn't totally complete, because I can do adjustments only to increase or decrease running and passing based on the score. I can't, for example. run more on the left or pass more on the middle (or use more a different formation for heavy pass play for example). Is it right?
I've played several football games (NFL Head Coah 06, Front Office Football, Footbal Mogul, Professional Football Simulator), wich do you think is the one that adhere the most to reality?

[BeerCloud]

For me it's My Football Now(MFN) hands down.

The game planning is second to none imo. You set personnel groups and can even move players around within those groups to try and create match up problems etc. But of course players have positions they are best at and moving them is a cost vs reward problem that you have to decide if its worth it. You choose 40 offensive plays from your playbook and 30 defensive plays for your upcoming game. You can go back and watch any game that has been played in 2D (dots if you will). And scout that way or use the game logs / box scores method. Your playbooks depend on your coaches style that you hired. If you hire a west coast style coach your going to get a west coast playbook etc. The more you practice certain plays the more familiar your players are with that play and will preform it better. There's a lot more but im getting long winded already. You can play in one league for free as long as you like so its worth checking out.

Your right about the FOF game planning. It's an out dated model that's a lil confusing but has been around for quite awhile. According to FOF Central, it sounds like FOF might be heading in the direction of MFN's model of gameplanning. We'll have to see when it comes out. In FOF7 you can run more to one direction if you want. Go to Misc offensive setting. When the box comes up the percentages of where you want to run in is on the left. In the middle you can adjust the passing game by distance but not left to right. I dont know how to do that if there is a way. There are some really sharp cookies here that are FOF experts and can prolly get into more detail with the right and wrong ways to gameplan in FOF7.

Bob and I have discussed these games briefly via pm and when he tried MFN he didn't like it as much as I do. He's trying out PFS now so he can prolly chime in on that game when he gets farther into it. PFS has merged with DDS and will have a football sim coming out. They may have a college game as well. I know PFS was in the process of working on a new college football game when they merged. DDS makes an awesome basketball game and imo it's comparable to OOTP's baseball game. But that's just my opinion. FOF has a new update coming out that sounds like a whole new game and MFN which continues to evolve there are some good things on the horizon for us game junkies.