DISCLAIMER: All features discussed are in pre-alpha stage and may change during development. All UI should be considered placeholder and may change.
Hello all future coaches and GMs! I've previously put devlogs out on my Reddit and Discord (see links at the bottom), but now that we have a full Steam page, It will be great to put devlogs here. I have lots of updates for this one, so let's get right into it.
Player and staff portraits
First of all, the portrait system is officially feature complete! I've hired a very talented artist to create these pixel-art portraits (by hand, no AI!!) and they delivered over and above my expectations for quality and variety.
Each portrait is randomly composed of 20+ layers, from jersey, head, hair, eyes and eyebrows, accessories, hats, eye black, and more. The level of variety here is mind-boggling, with millions of combinations available to ensure each person is their own individual character. This includes players, coaches, GMs, scouts, medical directors, and does include both men and women, with 50 skin tones available to ensure everyone can be represented.
Here's a little sneak peak of a few curated portraits that may be familiar... can you recognize everyone here?
Player archetypes
I've finally got around to implementing first-class player archetypes in Pro Football Dynasty. Some will be familiar to those who've played FC:CD, but some are entirely new. And remember, we have a different set of positions from the college game, so things like EDGE and DT are split and each have their own archetypes to fill.
When a player is generated at age 18, an archetype is chosen from a list for that specific position. Then, the player develops throughout their college career, and unlike FC:CD, archetype does impact attribute development (through age 25), so a Gunslinger QB will develop a bit differently from a Dual Threat.
Additionally, a player's archetype can change at the start of each season. Imagine a Dual Threat QB; when they are young and spry and agile, they are a legit dual threat who can use their legs to scramble and make plays. But as they get older, you can imagine that they are slower, less agile, but also smarter; their pass IQ goes up with age, and perhaps they are more accurate than they were as a young lad. So eventually, this Dual Threat might transition to a Field General archetype. These archetype changes occur when one archetype is strictly higher rated than their current one (based on their true ratings, so can be useful as an additional scouting tool).
One note about archetypes: they do affect development up through age 25, but beyond that is mostly a visual tag that assists GMs and coaches in roster construction. If you know your scheme needs good zone-blocking OGs, then you can look for that archetype without having to drill into each of their attributes.
Schemes
Speaking of schemes, I've been hard a work completely rethinking offensive and defensive schemes for Pro Football Dynasty. These include new scheme presets used by the league, matching current real-life conventions, and reworking and retagging formations and plays used for more realism.
On the offensive side, each scheme has 3 aspects: run identity, pass identity, and run-pass balance. Run identity options are zone, gap/power, or multiple. Pass identity options are west coast, vertical, spread RPO, or balanced. And run/pass just determines the balance of playcalls there. There are other scheme strategies that get more nitty-gritty, but the 3 mentioned above are the core 'identities' that define how an offense is run, and how offensive coaches synergize together.
On the defensive side, we also have 3 aspects: front family, coverage identity, and pressure rate. Front family can be 4-3, 3-4, or Multiple. Coverage identity options are press man, single-high zone, two-high match, or balanced. And pressure rate is from low to high, determining how often we blitz and how many people we bring when blitzing. Like offense, these determine defensive playcalling and how coaches can synergize together.
One note about defensive 'front family': even if a scheme says their front family is 4-3 or 3-4, that likely isn't the formation they are using most of the time. These days in the real-life pro league, the Nickel formation is used quite often (60%+ of the time); given that, expect it to be used most of the time against 2+ WR offensive formations. I've even added a dedicated 'Nickelback' position to the depth chart because of its prevalence.
Here are some example scheme presets that coaches in the league use:
Offense Air Raid: zone run identity + spread RPO pass identity + pass-first
Offense Smashmouth: gap/power run identity + vertical pass identity + run-first
Offense West Coast: multiple run identity + west coast pass identity + balanced
Defense Tampa 2: 4-3 front family + two-high match coverage identity + low pressure rate
Defense Seattle Cover 3: 4-3 front family + single-high zone coverage identity + medium pressure rate
Defense Pressure Man: 3-4 front family + press man coverage identity + high pressure rate
Playcallers and coach synergies
Like FC:CD, each team has an offensive and defensive scheme, with playcalling levels that are determined from coach levels and scheme synergies. One addition in this game is the official 'playcaller' designation for each side; this can be your coordinator or your head coach. In this game each coach has a specific 'background' which can either be offense OR defense. So you'll have teams with an offensive minded HC who calls plays on offense while his OC supports, or vice versa for defense, or maybe a more traditional setup with both coordinators calling plays and the HC supporting.
Here's a screenshot of how that works, with the various bonuses applied. Note that each side can have a supporting coach give bonuses as well as position coaches pitching in.
Sim engine improvements
Along with big scheme changes, I've also improved and added several mechanics to the simulation engine, and done significant balance work to ensure it mostly matches realistic targets.
These changes include:
New run blocking mechanisms and tags such that zone blocking and gap/power blocking are separate and have different characteristics; the old 'run blocking' attribute has similarly been split into two: 'Zone block technique' and 'Power block technique'. Every run play now has a run scheme (Zone or Gap/Power), and that changes how your OL blocks on the play; you'll need to make sure you're signing players that match your scheme.
Changed many pass plays, and tagged them with 'pass concept' (vertical, timing, quick game), so different schemes can call them more or less often.
Match coverage for defensive plays, so in those tagged plays the defenders in coverage will drop to a zone but then match and cover a WR in man coverage if they wade through their zone. I've also changed Cover 4 to work more realistically instead of purely using it in 3rd and long situations.
Added simulated pressure and disguise to defensive plays, which can trick the QB into making poor reads.
I've also rebalanced what formations and plays are used; as mentioned above Nickel is used far more often on Defense, and on Offense it's a primarily shotgun driven league, still with differences between the schemes. The result is a hopefully balanced realistic simulation, which allows playcalling or simming through weeks, and importantly, the same simulation engine is used, so only one place to balance for me.
I've added 25+ new plays from what I had in FC:CD, and more are likely to come!
Player awards
I've also been at work adding player awards to the game, including all standard individual season awards like MVP, OPOY, All-Pro etc, as well as Pro Bowl selections and players of the week (offensive/defensive/special teams, by conference).
There is no Pro Bowl game yet as that requires more tricky work given how much of a special case it is, and for now the awards don't impact contracts since those are still in flux logic-wise, but still nice to see the star players show out.
You can view a list of each league year and its champion, runner up, award winners, and division winners in the 'League History' page.
Roster management
Finally, I have started on improving the CPU team roster management logic. Now, they actually will restructure contracts, release players, sign FAs, and more during the season while remaining cognizant of their cap situation. CPU-CPU trades aren't in yet, but we are getting there. This aspect will still take a lot of work to get right and make sure CPU teams are smart with their roster.
Thank you!
That's all I have for this update. Pro Football Dynasty has a ways to go, and I thank everyone here for being along for the ride! Onward!
Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/Bdsy9bwcqP
Chat on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/ProFootballDynasty/
Follow me on X: https://x.com/dev_sidelinesim