Draft Day Sports: Pro Football 2016 Announced

[magnus]

 I don't mean to hijack the thread, but I must.

I am looking at this game and " Football mogul " on Steam.

Is either any good at simulating historical seasons?

Is there a way in this or any other game to lock in the players for the year?

I still think " Pro League Football " was the best game that was ever made.

[KyzBP]

Personally, I rank Football Mogul at or near the bottom of my list.  I bought it a few years back and didn't enjoy it at all.  If I remember correctly, it was pretty buggy and the score/stat results were pretty unrealistic.  I wish I could give you examples but it's been awhile.

[CptHowdy]

I don't mean to hijack the thread, but I must.

I am looking at this game and " Football mogul " on Steam.

Is either any good at simulating historical seasons?

Is there a way in this or any other game to lock in the players for the year?

I still think " Pro League Football " was the best game that was ever made.

just want to replay historical seasons? go for http://www.secondandten.com/

[Steelgrave]

Personally, I rank Football Mogul at or near the bottom of my list.  I bought it a few years back and didn't enjoy it at all.  If I remember correctly, it was pretty buggy and the score/stat results were pretty unrealistic.  I wish I could give you examples but it's been awhile.

Ditto. I last played it a couple of years ago. In my game, two teams with a combined 5 wins in the real world played for the Super Bowl. The Cleveland Browns won. Sigh. Front Office Football is far superior.

[Grim.Reaper]

I don't mean to hijack the thread, but I must.

I am looking at this game and " Football mogul " on Steam.

Is either any good at simulating historical seasons?

Is there a way in this or any other game to lock in the players for the year?

I still think " Pro League Football " was the best game that was ever made.

For career football games, I would rank them as the following:

- Front Office Football
- Draft Day Football
- Football Mogul (would never purchase this again....developer does very little to advance it)

If your looking for season replay football games, I would rank the following:

- ActionPC Football (although you have to purchase seasons separately, but more strategy/options available while coaching)
- Second and Ten (all historical pro seasons come free, but feels more like a board game to me with less options, but still a very good game)
- Strat Football (decent game, but seems dated, expensive and they hardly ever add features)

[Grim.Reaper]

I'll tell you, this football game has me going back and forth...now I am leaning towards not purchasing right now after spending more time with it....think I need to give it a rest:)

-  Weather is not modeled in the game, plus no difference between dome and outdoor stadiums
-  No CPU to CPU trading or CPU making offers to human player......plus, when you initiate a trade, seems like you can really take the CPU for a ride, especially in taking their draft picks
-  No real obvious way to scout opponents so you can adjust your gameplans, unless I have missed it
-  Drafting seems a little shaky.....just had a draft where 10 QBs went in first round (5 in a row) and in the 3rd round, 19 RBs were drafted.....seems a little position excessive
-  Questionable strategies selected by the CPU (at least for my team)...based on team talent and situations, seems to really favor bizarre strategy/formations...for example, for long yardage situation, it seems to always want to use a power formation and favor run, versus using a vertical/spread type formation that favors passing.
-  Some strange scheduling, such as a team having a week 17 bye and divisional opponents playing each other in pre season (I do realize this has happened in the NFL in the past, but believe no longer)

I really think in a strong desire to have a good football game to play, I am trying to somehow justify this is a reasonable game to purchase...maybe should just stick with FOF until its newer version comes out next year.

[Tosh]

Thanks Grim, for taking the time to test the Demo.

The issues you're reporting only confirm my initial impression to stay away from this release.

Most of those issues already existed 2 or 3 years ago, the last time I played PFS.

[KyzBP]

Thanks Grim, for taking the time to test the Demo.

The issues you're reporting only confirm my initial impression to stay away from this release.

Most of those issues already existed 2 or 3 years ago, the last time I played PFS.

+1.

[Grim.Reaper]

I have seen the comment mentioned before the game was initially created for online leagues and from what I am seeing, certainly seems like that.  It appears the single player mode really needs to be flushed out.  With that said, if you were playing in an online league, some of this could be overlooked since you wouldn't be relying on some this stuff.

I am still testing things because I like a challenge:)  I've posted a bunch of stuff on their official forums on my findings and if they attempt to resolve these issues, maybe something salvageable...time will tell.....I may just purchase the darn thing so I can see how it behaves beyond the 2 included demo seasons:)

[Grim.Reaper]

As a side note, I read at OOTP forums they may be close to hiring a replacement programmer for their game so maybe we start to see progress again....I suspect though it likely has put them far behind and skeptical anything will be released in 2016.  Next up, FOF 8 :)

[Grim.Reaper]

Spent some time going through PFS's old forums before Wolverine and it is surprising to see a lot of issues/concerns reported back then, which still seem very relevant today.  Really think Wolverine should have taken some time to clear up those issues before releasing, even if the UI did not change.  Some of the surprising items raised that may still be a concern:

1)  The computer does not use game planning or strategy based on opponent.  The strategy is only dictated by personnel, injuries, etc.....not the strengths/weakness of their opponent. 

2)  Questionable play calling, especially end of half and end of game.......I have seen this some myself when I looked through the logs.  For example, my team was down by 6 with under 2 minutes to go on their on 20....they run four straight running plays and this was even with my strategy set to be very pass heavy when trailing under 2 minutes.  Game over.

3)  Time outs...it appears the older version didn't even have the teams using time outs during the game.  However, I have seen the new version use them, but it does appear at times to be questionable uses.

4)  One of the biggest older complaints was salary cap and financial planning....this stuff is a little over my head, but seems those issues have carried forward as well.  Even not being an expert, I can readily see a ton of teams leave unrealistic cap space.  Also, I found it interesting on how you figure out the cap hit to your team if you release a player.  They don't actually show you a cap hit number, but instead you set a percent of cap hit globally....you then need to manually take that percent and multiply it by the salary of the player to determine how much of a hit....seems like it would have been much easier to put a field on the screen:)

I have posted a lot of feedback and questions to them, a lot of them are going unanswered even though they are visiting the boards because they answer other questions....maybe they are tired of me pointing out these issues:)

[KyzBP]

All of that is just more reason to wait and see if Brooks and Wolverine will make the game worth buying...again.  With everything you've said so far, I don't see a need to buy this version. 

Again, thanks a lot for taking the time to post your experiences with this. O0

[Grim.Reaper]

All of that is just more reason to wait and see if Brooks and Wolverine will make the game worth buying...again.  With everything you've said so far, I don't see a need to buy this version. 

Again, thanks a lot for taking the time to post your experiences with this. O0

Yep, if your a single player type person, all the signs point to very little reason to buy this instead of FOF at this point...unless you are OK living with all the limitations.  I know FOF is not perfect and can be tedious to play at times, but even in a lackluster UI, it contains all the required features and for the most part outcomes/stats very believable.

But for some reason I am drawn to giving this game a chance to see if the developers will actually take the necessary steps to be a true contender and not just a quick money grab before other better games come out.....if they don't, can't see how this game survives, except for multiplayer leagues.

[Nefaro]

I don't mean to hijack the thread, but I must.

I am looking at this game and " Football mogul " on Steam.

Is either any good at simulating historical seasons?

Is there a way in this or any other game to lock in the players for the year?

I still think " Pro League Football " was the best game that was ever made.

Football Mogul has actually gotten worse over the past two or three years.

They've not really added much at all.  Almost nothing other than new rosters and some YAC mechanics.  Yet each new one I picked up had become buggier than the previous year's.

It's another sad case of a Football text sim that has some potential but doesn't get anywhere near the development attention it should.  I like how you can create your own plays & playbook.  The interface is friendly & easy-to-use... when it's not getting screwed up by some mysterious UI bug introduced a couple years ago that the developer couldn't or wouldn't track down & fix. 

It's severely lacking in many areas that need to be expanded.  A perfect example is player contracts.  In the dev's other game, Baseball Mogul, it is dynamic and different players will negotiate with varied goals.  In Football Mogul, however, the players just demand the exact same amount simply based upon their overall rated value.  No real contract negotiations.

I purchased about three years of them in a row and almost nothing was done with it.  That became exceptionally frustrating when compared to all the extra features the same dev had created for that same engine in their other baseball game, years before (the contract negotiation being only one example). 

TL;DR
I stopped buying Football Mogul because the developer was doing approximately jack & shit with it year after year.  Their focus has been on their Baseball Mogul title and it shows.  I lost all hope that FM would receive a similar depth of features.

[Grim.Reaper]

To be honest, I am amazed that anyone actually buys Football Mogul anymore, they should discontinue it.  I guess they can trap a few poor souls into buying it and doesn't cost them much since they put no effort into it.  Such a wasted opportunity, seems to be the theme with American Football games:)  Even with FOF there has been wasted opportunities....that developer over the years was on and off in making adjustments to the game.....no idea why he never adapted a model of making big yearly new versions (and selling them) like OOTP and other game companies did.  If he would have, he would have dominated the market and companies like OOTP/Wolverine wouldn't have even attempted to get in.

Strange decisions indeed since FOF has always been so close in being the holy grail.....maybe with FOF8 it will become this, but I doubt it:)