dev diary #17 - What kind of questions or suggestions do you have for us?

[subsequent]

Today's Dev Diary will be a little different. We want to give you guys a chance to ask us questions or give suggestions for things you would like to see with the sim, the site, the wiki, whatever. Let us know what you have on your mind!

[DarthJarJar]

I love the direction the site is headed in. I think some stuff that could be done and I know is in the works are expanded playbook and personnel groupings. I also think RPOs would be a big hit

[TuscanSota]

Will there be an option for users to create or provide input on a custom high school recruit before the inaugural season?

[subsequent]

Yeah, the playbook and personnel stuff are being worked on. Once we get better at the current available stuff, those will start to get implemented. +1 week to RPO delivery.

[subsequent]

I think that would be pretty cool. Not something we have right now, but I'm sure this will be a cool perk for people.

[Rocketcan]

I was thinking that everyone who has contributed to the construction of NewSim should be able to help generate a croot. And I think we can also have a small handful of croots the first season that the community as a whole proposes. Like a David Ross.

[Kremit]

How will the site be maintained? Will donations be a big portion of it? If so, can donors at a certain level name a lower tier bowl game (the name would have to be approved and such)

 

Will you guys take my great idea of newsletters to our emails that have quick updates and start dates for leagues/important dates/etc?

 

Is the planned schedule one game a week? How long will off-seasons be?

 

How will the recruiting system allow for teams to build up a crappy team and prevent the same top tier teams from getting the top classes every year? Aka preventing a rich get richer scenario and allowing for many teams to be in legitimate contention for the championship every year instead of the same few again and again.

[Rocketcan]

These are excellent questions. Some of us have talked over them, and this is what we have so far:

• So far the site is maintained out of @subsequent's pocket and with expertise by him, @Kirby and @TuscanSota. We have certainly kicked around the idea of donations, but have been wary of putting out stuff about donations without significant progress and a playable product for the users. Basically, we don't want to take anyone's money without already having something of value to offer in return. I hope I said that properly. That is sometimes a sensitive subject. As for the bowl game idea, I think we are on board with doing that as long as the names aren't too crazy and inappropriate.
  
• We currently are doing a weekly dev diary for updates on development progress. I think once we have gotten to the point where a weekly update is too frequent, then a monthly newsletter might not be a bad idea. We would need someone to volunteer to do that though. Can we assume this is you offering to do that?
  
• We are looking to do one game week per real life week. This gives people plenty of time to set gameplans, depthcharts, and recruit. The offseason will likely be a couple weeks to maybe a couple months. It will probably depend on how much work needs to be done on the sim in the offseason to improve it.
  
• This is a question that likely should be posed to @Pumph since he is the one designing the recruiting system. I think the big key is that the way we have developed the recruit generating software means that not all 4 and 5 star recruits are going to be studs and some 2 or 3 star guys might be diamonds in the rough. That's all I can speak to since that's all I've helped to develop. I think there should be some reward for good teams being good, but there will likely also be some diamonds in the rough that can help some smaller teams ascend.
  

I hope that answered your questions well enough!

[Kirby]

Will Matt Howard be the GOAT?

[npklemm]

How long do you anticipate Off-Seasons lasting? Couple Weeks? Couple Months?

[Time]

where do babies come from

[kgreene829]

@Rocketcan has a baby generator so he puts in the names and after nine moths a randomly created baby enters the world that mixed with a little bit of magic gets you a baby.

[Rocketcan]

We expect it to be about a month or two. Although we aren't sure. The good news is that croots can be generated very quickly (like in seconds). So you shouldn't really have to wait too long for those to be posted. I imagine the main thing slowing down an offseason would be updates to the game engine.

[Nittany Boiler]

An important part of this initiative is momentum. I like the idea of a short off season. How will the regular college season including the recruiting season look in terms of real time (weekly games?, bowl season?)? Is there any thought or planning around restricting coaching changes in terms of timing (new coaches anytime, off season job changes only)? Any hints of the recruiting process (distance, by state, points based. preference based)?

[TuscanSota]

I can’t speak on recruiting but I can answer the first part of your question: We’re designing the simulation in an automated format, so there is no manual work in between weeks within the season from running each game to deploying results. Each week is one week of CFB, so users will have time in-between games to set their depth charts, their playbook, and gameplans.

 

I’m not sure how the schedule will be set in regards to the bowl season but I’d like to think it would follow the same format as simulating one week, it’s just the time slots will represent days rather than a specific time on a Saturday. We haven’t discussed the bowl season in detail, as we have been focusing on the regular season format.

[TuscanSota]

Yes, he will be a

[DeanCraigPelton]

How quick could we see an expansion of the site to include the NFL? Would it be during the first offseason or several seasons down the line?

 

Will this site have a role similar to the conference commissioner role from CFBHC to curate media and keep users active?

[Rocketcan]

We are thinking that NFL will begin after the first NCAA season. The first season will have all teams genned with veterans on the roster, with the first draft having the graduating seniors from the first NCAA season.

 

We will have a conference commissioner role, although for now, while we get started, we will only have a P5 and G5 commissioner. Then when we see how the conferences are stacking up in terms of participation, we can then work on assign the conferences their own commissioner.