Patriots (& Chiefs) Planet Front Office Football

[Flagg the Wanderer]

As mentioned in the other thread, I was wondering about starting a Planet FOF league.

The designer is a huge football fan and statistician/geek extraordinaire, as witnessed by his Football Frontier link on the website for his software company. It looks to me like he poured his heart and soul into this, omitting the system slowing graphics for depth and playability.

Anyway, at the risk of sounding like an advertisement (I don't know anyone there and I didn't even know it was a NH based company until I was buying my second version Front Office Football 2001) Front Office Football is an amazing game. It makes you realize that Madden is for dummies. It's purchasable via immediate download from the order page, and you can download a free playable demo through that link as well.

The game concentrates on roster management and career play. There are several key elements emphasized in the game design:

* A realistic trading module. You can't simply take the players you want from other teams.

* Proper aging of players. Players at different positions age differently. Quarterbacks need a couple of more years to reach their prime, but their careers last several years longer, on average, than running backs.

* The amateur draft. Teams realistically assess their needs, and build through the draft.

* Statistics. All the major stats are tracked and are available at any given time. Career and full season-by-season statistics are tracked in 135 different categories, including Red Zone and Third Down numbers. You can view and sort statistics by team, category and position. It's fast and accurate. Front Office Football also tracks and displays 182 different team statistics and league totals.

* Play calling. Designed to allow quick selection of a large library of players, you can be the ultimate GM and wrest control of the play-by-play action from your coach. You can tailor your in-game strategy to your team's strengths without having to build each play from scratch.

* Free agency. Teams compete with you to sign the best free agents. Each player has his own idea of how much he wants to stay with his existing team, and how much he wants to play for a champion. But money is still the root of all decisions.

* Home towns. Each player will have a home town from nearly 10,000 American cities. When deciding on teams during free agency, players may prefer a team closer to home.

* Depth charts. You set the depth chart at each position for your team, and fill out a play preference chart. Front Office Football simulates games based on these charts. You can choose different personnel depending on your choice of formations.

* Game plans. The game plan will allow you to specify different strategies depending on the score of the game and how much time remains. There are literally thousands of choices to make, or you can leave everything to your coaching staff.

* Player ratings. Each player is rated for 53 different skills. But you don't have access to the raw numbers. Where's the fun in that? You hire a scouting staff, with varied strengths and weaknesses. Your scouts tell you how good they think your players are - and how good they think your opponents' players are.

* The salary cap. It's an essential tool in keeping parity among professional football rosters. You'll have to cut your aging, high-paid veterans just like any ruthless general manager worth his weight in negotiations.

* City profiles. Submit a plan to build a new stadium to your voters. If they turn you down, you can propose a move to any of 169 cities modeled in the game. Each city is rated for several economic criteria, which affects its desire for a new team.

* Team chemistry. Players will perform better or worse in some instances, depending on how they feel about players in their group.

* Dynamic Quarterback learning process. As quarterbacks learn more about the game, they will have access to more plays during games, allowing the smarter signal-callers to better confuse their opponents.

* Record keeping. All team statistics are tracked for a manager's entire career. Team records, including all-time performance against every other team, are kept. A game-by-game performance breakdown will be available for individual players.

* Power ratings. You can see how your team ranks using Solecismic Software's System 305. These ratings are used to set a point spread for each game.

* Enhanced replay value. Every time you start a new career, the core ratings for each player are randomly affected. For veterans, the random change will be very small. Established stars will always be significant players. For rookies, however, performance will vary significantly. This allows for a more challenging game and greater replay value.

* Multi-Player League Support. Choose a commissioner to run the games for your league. Your commissioner will simulate the games and process every team's instruction set for each stage during the game. Up to 32 people can compete in each multi-player league.

...there's a lot more than that, too.

As a personal note, I've been pretty impressed with the computer AI overall - you can't just abuse the computer opponents. The detail involved in this program is amazing. The game statistics hold pretty true to life overall, even after 20 years of game play the record books don't look silly.

It's fun. We should do it.

It's $30 for a game you will play more than most that you own now, and certainly for longer, and you don't have to go to the store.

 

[Flagg the Wanderer]

I can't figure out if there is no interest or the 15 people who viewed the thread went on the website and are poking through the manual and/or demo...

 

[Box_O_Rocks]

I can't figure out if there is no interest or the 15 people who viewed the thread went on the website and are poking through the manual and/or demo...

Sowwy, teh onliez games I like involve -MMs and suggestive game cards. :shrug:

Try a different title, one with more secks peeling.

 

[SkiptoMyLou]

Sounds pretty cool, except for the $30 thing. I'm cheap.

 

[Flagg the Wanderer]

Hmm. I was clear that that isn't to play in this league, you'd own the software. So you're paying about 60% of typical retail for a new game...it just allows you to play online.

Oh well. I'll leave this for a day or so and see what happens. I thought Box would be a prime candidate for this with his GM mind and draftnikkery. If I can't get him, I'm not sure who I'd get.

 

[Nomadic Logic]

FOF is a great game in the same vein as OOTP baseball.

I'd be in if they made a Mac version.