DISCLAIMER: All features discussed are in pre-alpha stage and may change during development. All UI should be considered placeholder and may change.
Hello again! It's been a bit more than a month since my last devlog, and I've got a ton to show off.
Game result page
I've got around to implementing a new and mostly complete game result page. As you can see, that includes some things that are similar to FC:CD, but with some improvements to the look and also some additions. The win probability chart is included, and now you can click on any point in the chart to bring up the play summary dialog for that play. You can also see that weather has been added, and each game now has a broadcast slot, which does adhere to some basic rules, like no team having more than one Thursday night game, and the bigger impact games slotted for Sunday night. You should also notice that each team has different uniforms for home and away!
Every game has its complete log stored by default, and lots more info is stored in each play. You can see that each play tracks the win probability change, but also the EPA gained or lost. EPA allows us to do a bunch of cool stuff with advanced stats that I'll get into later.
Here's a preview of all the information that's available in each play. This view should look pretty similar to FCCD, but there's a new 'Play Breakdown' table that reveals more of the unseen aspect: like how much pressure was on the QB, how good of a throw did he make, how many reads, how covered the receiver was, and more. I'll be trying to improve this further, but the goal is to give more insight into what happened in a play and why, allowing you to make schematic or personnel changes appropriately.
Speaking of personnel, there's also a new view to see the full 11 on 11 view of the play, with all actions visible. You can now see exactly who is covering who, and hover over every player to see their handsome face. I have more plans for this view too, but I'll keep that under wraps for now...
Playing, or watching, the game
I've been hard at work at adding the full playcalling experience to Pro Football Dynasty. I completely reworked the views and UI for this page, and focused on support for multiple roles and playstyles; from watching the game as GM, to calling plays on offense and/or defense, and to calling timeouts and deciding on penalties. There are still some things I want to adjust here, but this is just a preview of what I have so far.
More will be coming here in the future, but it's a fully functional playcalling experience as-is, and I'm hoping to make it more exciting as I go.
Player personalities and intangibles
A few new systems I've been working on have to do with what I call 'meta attributes' for players. These are not attributes like accuracy or speed, but rather on the more intangible side: confidence, morale, wear and tear, conditioning, durability, and discipline. Each has different effects on how the player performs or acts in the season and offseason, and some are more important for certain positions.
For example, confidence is most important for Kickers and Quarterbacks. If they have a bad game (throw 2 INTs, or miss a couple easy kicks), their confidence degrades and their performance will degrade with it. There will be ways to raise confidence via their coaches and other events which I haven't really gotten to yet, but I have plugged in most of the core parts of the system.
Here's how the others come into play:
Morale slightly affects performance, and has impact on their development. It will also affect how they choose to sign or leave the team in FA.
Wear and tear is raised throughout the year with more heavy usage and practice, and lowers the athletic attributes in game. Older players accumulate this faster.
Conditioning affects in-game stamina losses, with better conditioned teams able to play longer, as well as recover wear and tear faster. They also heal from injuries slightly faster.
Discipline is how often the player commits penalties; lower discipline teams commit more.
Durability is how injury prone the player is, and suffering major or severe injuries will permanently decrease this.
All these will be affected by what happens to the team and player during the year. Bench your WR? His morale goes down. Have poor leadership levels for your HC? Team discipline may go down. I'm hoping to really expand this system as I continue work, right now all the pipes are there but making interesting events and tradeoffs is a work in progress.
Each player may have one or more personality badges, which affect how the attributes above are initialized or change. For example, a 'Rock Solid' player doesn't accumulate wear and tear as quickly, so they stay fresh for longer. And a 'Team Player' doesn't suffer from as big of morale hits when they are benched. There are lots more ideas planned, but that's just a preview.
Scheme Mastery
Scheme mastery is the other non-normal attribute that I've been adding. This is a system that rewards continuity in scheme, and can affect how you build your roster and construct your game plan. As rookies, scheme mastery is generally pretty low. If you have a good coaching staff, or smart players, they will learn quickly in the offseason and preseason to come prepared. Fail to do so, and your team will be learning on the fly during the regular season. It takes years to get to full 99 scheme mastery, and changing schemes means decaying knowledge.
How scheme mastery actually affects the game is via playcalling levels that I discussed last devlog. Your starters' weighted scheme mastery is now a factor into that playcalling level, so playing players who don't really know the scheme well will cost you in the execution of those plays.
Advanced stats
Another very nice addition to the game this month has been advanced stats, for both players and teams. As mentioned above, having EPA calculated per play allows for some really neat insights, along with other things like success rate and other efficiency stats. Here's some that have been added on the team side:
For players, I've also added a bunch, for both offense and defense, but here's a preview of it on the QB side; see the total EPA added and other things like completion percent when under pressure, success rate, ADOT, and more.
And more?
There are some other things I've been working on, including a revamped set of QB attributes, and sim engine realism improvements for other pre-existing attributes, logic for team-to-team rivalries and prestige, and lots of other little stuff, but I think I'll leave it here. Thanks a ton for reading!
Please wishlist the game if you haven't already, and if you have, tell your friends and aunts and uncles! I really appreciate the dedicated community that is following development along, it makes me more motivated than ever to create a great game. Onward!
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Player portrait art and backgrounds by Greg Jacobs: https://lnk.bio/createabeast