Top Down View

[alig4321]

I know it is too late to implement such a feature for BBCF but I just wondered what the feelings on such a feature are. My idea would be that each play would be run and you can watch the play develop in front of your eyes from a top down 2D view. If any of you are familiar with Football Manager 2005 (Soccer sim for you north Americans) then you will understand my proposal. I feel such a feature would allow coaches to find weaknesses. Is the left tackle getting beaten inside too often? Is your 2nd CB too slow and getting burned deep everytime? These questions are not ones you can really answer by looking at stats.

[What]

a football game with 2d to watch plays would have my support and money.

[Bryan Swartz]

I would think with 22 players on the field, having 2D that isn't extremely cluttered would be highly difficult -- certainly it would be one hell of a lot tougher to follow than the TPB 2d. I'd rather have time focused on other things.

[buckup]

It's not too cluttered. You should check out FM 2005, as the first poster pointed out. I've played it for years and the 2d is a really cool addition. For American Football....Instead of seeing that your QB got a 3/10 at the end of the game you can actually see him miss his reads and throw into double coverage. If having 22 players in 3d sin't too cluttered (Madden, FBPRO, ESPN, etc) I can't imagine 2d would be cluttered. In fact, I think there was a program called Total Control Football that, although you couldn't totally control it, had a fairly good 2d representation. The one problem is that it might be a bit unrealistic to expect a 2d engine in a first release. It took Football Manager (formaerly Championship Manager) a couple years to implement it.

[jksander]

That's of course why the above poster said it wasn't something he expected in a first release ... obviously it would be a lot to expect ;)

[John Comey]

This has already been brought up (by me); Arlie said it would not be in this version.

[Meat]

The best idea I think this would be the biggest addition to a football sim that could be done. Properly implemented, this idea would add huge value to a sim game like this in my opinion. Coaching games, calling plays and great feedback like mentioned above would all benifit greatly . Not sure why this cant be put into a first edition game, as the knowledge base is already present with TPB already doing it. But like I said proper implementation is key so hopefully by the 2nd iteration of college or the 1st generation of pro-football sim grey dog does, this could be added. From a marketing stand point I think this would be a great advantage as well. Not only would Grey Dog have a leg up on other text based football sims (see FOF) currently being produced and developed, but also if the rumors are true EA is getting into the mix in this genre, it would certainly help Grey Dogs chances against the giant. So with that I say to Arlie, please give this strong consideration and keep making great games either way.

[ortonius]

I would love it as well, but I would think it would take a hell of a lot to code. To generate what each position should do for each of the 350+ plays would be an enormous undertaking. Maybe if the line was stationary and only the RB/WR/TE and LB/CB/S moved it wouldn't be so bad, but still it would take a lot to link the movements and the "text" together.