July 2017 Game Update

The July 2017 update had several huge changes in it and we spent a lot of time balancing the in-game football gameplay to help better balance the game. 

The big highlights to the July update are:

• We made a big balancing pass to the in-game football AI.  We added repeat play degradation so if a team uses the same offensive play repeatedly the defense will learn and get better at stopping that play against that team.  We also changed the offensive line blocking logic so that blocking on sweeps works more realistically and isn't quite as effective.
• We Fixed kickoff return blocking logic so long returns are possible now.
• Play-action now causes Defense to bite based on their pass recognition stats and makes play-action passes a little more effective.
• Draws are now more effective against Defensive players that have low run play recognition stats.
• We added Offensive Fumble recoveries so offensive players can jump on a fumble now too!
• We added rundown logic on fumble sand interceptions so it's possible to have a long turnover return for a TD now too!
• Made QB Scramble and Defensive Line Chase Logic much better so QBs don't get sacked as easily, but also get flushed out of the pocket and make passes on the run more frequently.
• We changed how powerups work substantially so that there are guaranteed outcomes when using a powerup.  For instance, when you use a bulldozer on a run play you are guaranteed a positive yards gained...powerups now cost a bit more than they used to and if an opponent calls a powerup at the same time as you then they cancel each other out...so make sure you use them strategically.
• Also, you can now use more than 1 powerup on a play.  If you want a really high chance for a big play you can use Jets, Laser Guidance, Super Hands, and Bulldozer all on a single pass play and you have  good chance of having a big gain.
• Flip Play in playcall.  You can now flip plays and run all existing plays in your playbook the opposite direction.  Have a Strong Left Offensive Tackle, but a weak or new Right Tackle - now you can flip plays around to utilize your Left tackle more easily. 
• Add a new Tutorial so that new players are dropped directly into football games and are introduced to the in-game interface first.
• We also fixed a load of bugs in the UI and added a few convenient screens to the game - most prominently - we added the ability to view the roster screen from the recruiting screen so it's easy to see what players are currently in each positions and how close they are to graduating.
• We added a 'Notification' feature that lets you know what's happened since the last time you logged in.  So if your team was challenged and won or lost or if you have a player about to graduate then you get notified of that too. 
• Add conference chat so conferences can have an internal chat for just their members.
• Finally, we did a lot of work on the servers to balance the network load and scale to meet load requirements.  This lets us scale up much easier and accommodate the HUGE number of new players we're expecting in September.

 

As always - hit us up on the forum or at support@longshotgames.com if you have any suggestions for the game!