Possible UFL 3.0 On The Horizon

[Benjamin]

Recently, I was contacted by a programmer who wanted to perform updates to UFL. He agreed that the game should remain freeware and I sent him a copy of the source code to look it. He is a Delphi programmer so he is currently working on porting UFL to Delphi. After he completes that he intends to add more features like a graphic football field and possible network play.

He is moving quickly, so if I have any more news I will post it in this topic. If a beta or anything comes along, I will send emails to all of the regular posters on this forum to let them know.

I am really excited about the possibility of an all new version of UFL!

[JoeMontana]

Wow, that is excellent news! Maybe time to look at the Wish List again?

[Benjamin]

Unfortunately, nothing ever came of this programmer lead. I am still hopeful that someone with the programming skill will come along and offer their help on UFL.

[WordsBG]

Hey guys, first of all: I'm sorry for letting you down with this UFL thing; it was of course never my intention to make promises I couldn't keep, but I got really stuck in development mostly because of my limited knowledge about football. However, in the meantime (almost a year, isn't it?) I've been educating myself and I'm willing to give it another shot. I've been working on a football engine in PHP and learned how the design should be done. The problem with the current UFL Engine is that it's not very well designed or at least documented. It's designed to load various informations out of data files and in more than 7000 lines of code mixes them up (seriously, I have no idea what's going on sometimes when I read the code) to a game. It's almost impossible to maintain and develop such a monster and it's also almost impossible to restructure the existing design. This is why I think that it's necessary to rewrite UFL in order to have a clear, structured and easy to maintain design to use as a base for future additions that you obviously want so desperately.
So that's what I'm going to do. As language I decided that C# would be a very fine choice. .NET Programs can run from Windows 98 onwards and the framework is already included in the newest Windows Versions (Vista and Server 2008). Also .NET applications can be compiled for the .NET Compact Framework to run on Windows Mobile (PDA, Smartphone) and via XNA even on the X-Box 360 (but don't expect me to do that, it would be a pain to develop a gamepad compatible user interface). Having analyzed my mistakes from my first approach (designing the gui first and focusing on all the management stuff rather than on the more important core) I started with the engine itself this time without any fancy eyecandy at all (not that you'd have expected that for UFL ). I'll try to follow Eric Raymond's (some famous Open Source Guru) advise: "Release Early, Release Often. (And listen to your customers.)" to keep you guys updated about the process and ensure that potential bugs/errors/suggestions are fixed as soon as possible. Speaking of Open Source: The new project will of course be open source again released under the terms of the "UFL General Public License" (to make it short: anyone can contribute, additions must be released under the same license, distribution only with source [or link to source], no commercial releases, but you may charge for the CD you burn it on to give it to someone).
I set up a small "website" (in the sense of a listing of all development snapshots yet made) here: http://patricklerner.vndv.com/UFL/
I uploaded my current snapshot for today, but it's not yet totally finished nor perfect (well, to be hornets not even enjoyable to play, but playable). The current version just allows you 4 actions (Run, Pass, Punt, Try Fieldgoal) each play, and since there's no support for "teams"/"individual players" yet both teams are pretty much the same. The computer can play either both, one or none team, just as in the normal UFL (Well, there are no other options I guess). I also finished weather, but just like fumble chances, distances and the other stuff it's not yet perfectly balanced, so games will probably not be too realistic yet. Anyway, I'll fix that stuff soon.

Oh and a quick note: I compiled UFL with the .NET 3.5 Framework, so I'll need at least XP to work, but I'll check to compile it with 2.0 so 98, Me and 2000 will work, too, sorry for that.
PS: If you always used Windows Update you'll most ikely have it already, if not: .NET Framework 3.5

[JoeMontana]

No worries, thanks for the update, and any work at all you do on this is appreciated. For what it's worth, I'll happily help out with beta testing.

Had a quick play with the new engine this morning, just a couple of comments:
1. It seems very sack-happy. In the 1st quarter alone, the sacks were in double figures.
2. Possible bug: playing 1P v Comp, the clock froze at 1:57 after the 2 minute warning and didn't move again, causing the 2nd quarter to be everlasting!

Keep up the good (and very much appreciated) work.

Scotty

[WordsBG]

Had a quick play with the new engine this morning, just a couple of comments:
1. It seems very sack-happy. In the 1st quarter alone, the sacks were in double figures.
2. Possible bug: playing 1P v Comp, the clock froze at 1:57 after the 2 minute warning and didn't move again, causing the 2nd quarter to be everlasting!

Point 2: Yeah noticed it; Today's (not yet up) changelog:

Code: Select all

 * Fixed Bug related to the two minute time which caused the game to stop counting down the time and thus making it unplayable. Time during the last two minutes of the second and fourth quarter decrases now at a speed of 2/5 to 3/5.

To Point 1: Yeah I figured optimization will be a hell of a work in the current system, so I'm planning on outsourcing settings as much as possible so as a player with no programing language you'll be able to set chances for specific achievements (say 20% for a 7-10 yard pass or whatsoever. I'll try to finish stuff till this evening.

[WordsBG]

Ok, I couldn't make it until yesterday evening, but I finished the core part of the engine now. Most of the engine has been rewritten, except of some parts (namely the time manager) which were portable enough to just fit into the new core (actually it's smaller now, but I haven't finished the dialogs and user interaction stuff, so in the end it'll be pretty much as big as the old one [1200 lines of code that is]). Almost everything is now loaded from XML files in a data directory. This allows an easy customization of formations, chances etc. and makes optimizing and debugging the engine much easier (no need to recompile it just for a slight change in pass chances for example). Formations are stored like this:

Code: Select all

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
  <!-- Shotgun -->
  <formation>
    <!-- Name of the position, just used
         to display it to the user -->
    <name>Shotgun</name>
    
    <!-- Just some few words about the formation
         for those who are new to it -->
    <desc>This formation features six men on the line of scrimmage and one back and is mostly used as a pass formation, but still offers the ability to launch an HB running attack.</desc>
    
    <!-- Which players are on the field? -->
    <players>
      <QB />
      <HB />
      <CE />
      <OG />
      <OG />
      <OT />
      <OT />
      <TE />
      <WR />
      <WR />
      <WR />
    </players>
    
    <!-- If a offense is good it should have a value of 3 to 4.
         Excellent would be 5, bad offenses are -2 to -3.
         Additional a -5 means "impossible" out of this
         formation -->
    <points>
      <run>1</run>
      <pass>5</pass>
      <punt>-5</punt>
      <fieldgoal>-5</fieldgoal>
    </points>
  </formation>
</root>

(I got three offenses (Shotgun, I and T) and two defenses (4-3 and 4-4) up to now, but I won't be a problem to add more later on due to the flexible xml system)

If you know HTML this should be very similar to you, but even if not, I don't think it's too complicated to "get it".
Pass/Rush/Punt etc. chances are stored like this:

Code: Select all

  <!-- -5 to -4 -->
  <level>
    <range>
      <min>0</min>
      <max>2</max>
    </range>
    
    <value>
      <min>-5</min>
      <max>-4</max>
    </value>
  </level>
  
  <!-- -3 to -2 -->
  <level>
    <range>
      <min>3</min>
      <max>5</max>
    </range>
    
    <value>
      <min>-3</min>
      <max>-2</max>
    </value>
  </level>

They each got various levels. Internal UFL generates a number between 0 and 100 and then checks if it's in the range of one of these levels and if so generates a random number between the ones referred to in the value field. So if in this case the random number is 4, UFL would generate a random number between -3 and -2 which would be the distance of the rush (it's a part of the Rush.xml file). It might seem a bit complicated first, but I think it's a bit like the old UFL which also uses files to generate results (even though I don't get what these large numbers in them mean, the only understandable one is the RUSHING.DAT). Anyway, I'll probably add a simple graphical interface today as it's going to be easier to select formations and plays then. And don't tell me the results are unrealistic when I upload the files this evening. I'll need to find a source for accurate football statistics to know which percentage of passes are complete or how far an average pass is. My settings are just (mostly too optimistic) guesses up to now.

[4einc]

Hey man;

I'm here to help beta test and stuff like that, as I do know a lil bit bout HTML and such.... I do create websites (if that helps)
but i'm interested in seein how the new UFL game is coming so if you want let me know I'll certainly help

[WordsBG]

Thanks, I haven't had too much time lately as school's been quite hard on me now, but I'll continue working on it soon.

[nutritious]

I wouldn't count on ANYTHING wordsbg says. He's a huge flake. I had spent hours explaining to him the game of football and showing him how exactly the engine should simulate games on the PHP version he mentioned. He did create it the engine and said he would share it with me and release it under some open source license so anyone could use it. He said I could buy hosting to test it out on my site, and he just ended up blocking me on MSN and ignoring my emails. I wasted money on hosting and a domain--pretty damn annoying. I still don't see the PHP version of UFL released anywhere and this was about a year ago.

[WordsBG]

nutritious: First of all I'm very sorry I let you down back then. I know I should have talked to you about it, but I just thought I would never be able to finish the engine and I was kind of tired of spending all my time developing it and I really couldn't keep on staying up until 2AM on school days to talk to you. The code I worked on was desperately in need for fixes on all ends and I'd had to rewrite it to even get close to the thing I had in mind for it which was just to much for me to do again. A release under the terms of an open source license was as far as I remember not our intention, in fact the engine was more or less exclusively for use on your site only. And actually I didn't really block on you an MSN either, it's just that I really don't use MSN normally as none of my friends uses it and I didn't really want to justify myself back then. I'm truly sorry for that, it wasn't my intention to fake or ditch you, but I did it anyway. I can't change the past, but I truly regret it and I'm not going to let something like this happen again.

[a23b12]

Any update on this? Been over a year now...

Also, I downloaded the latest version, and can't get it to work. I'm running on Windows 7.

[4einc]

From the sounds of it many developers have tried to update the game and haven't been able to... as the source is very complex as it's not just VB6 so I hear it's a mix of old school coding and the latest coding... which alot of developers have problems with.

So right now things won't be updated...
Sad to say it's a great game and it deserves to be continued...

[Benjamin]

From the sounds of it many developers have tried to update the game and haven't been able to... as the source is very complex as it's not just VB6 so I hear it's a mix of old school coding and the latest coding... which alot of developers have problems with.

So right now things won't be updated...
Sad to say it's a great game and it deserves to be continued...

Yeah we definitely need an old school programmer/football nut to come around here and help us with UFL. I know it will happen someday. I haven't given up!

[WordsBG]

Ok it's been another two years and I'm not even sure if there is still somebody here who cares enough, but I haven't actually stopped developing (well I did for a whole long while), but kept fooling around with some ideas and prototypes over the past months. I also took a lot of time to examine how UFL actually works and after a couple of goes I found out some interesting stuff in the original source code, which I also implemented in my prototypes.
Long story short, I've compiled a new and improved Football Engine, which I'm planning to use as the backend of an upcoming UFL release. I've been preparing it for a release for the last couple of weeks (hurray for summer holidays) and just checked off the last "needs to be done before release" things off my todo-list. It is, however, not complete, but in my opinion quite advanced already. The Engine is called "TenYardFootball" and the source code can be found on Github here: http://github.com/XQYZ/TenYardFootball
It is, however, not a UFL replacement yet, but merely the (portable) Engine with a simple console interface.
Once I get the Engine a bit further I'll start working on a graphical Interface (UFL 3) for it. To get it running you need to download the source code and compile it via the supplied Makefile (should work for Windows/Mac/Linux - Mac untested). As most of you probably use Windows I've compiled Windows Binaries here: http://dump.domindthegap.co.uk/TenYardFootball/
Just get the newest one and you're all set without going through any more trouble.
The Engine allows one to play a pretty much complete game of Football. It features all the Formations of the original UFL (but not the plays yet).
Please do report Errors (including plays that seem unrealistic) if you find any.

I've also uploaded a play by play if you cannot or don't want to run it yourself. It was a computer simulated game, but as previously said, one can also choose to play against the computer (or even coach both teams if one really wants to).