The UFL Forum

*Last Updated 11-27-2019*

I have compiled everyone's wishes throughout the years into this singe list. I have split the the wishes into two categories: high impact and low impact. This designates how much impact the wish would have on UFL's gameplay if it were added. UFL's gameplay is sacred to me, so if we're ever able to find a programmer, I will be priortizing low-impact wishes.

Low Impact

1. Every game summary and play-by-play log should be automatically saved and made accessible through the statistics viewer.

2. When a player gets injured, the game should give details as to the nature of the injury. Long term injuries could be bone breaks, ACL tears, etc. Short term injuries might be bruises, concussions, etc. This would only be for immersion and wouldn't affect simulations. The injury details could even be noted on the player's attributes page.

3. An injury report on the statistics viewer that would show all of the injured players for every team in the league including the duration and nature of the injury.

4. Team records that work similar to league records but are team specific. For example, you could see what player on specific team had the most rushing yards in a season in a team's history.

5. Cumulative records for both the entire league and individual teams. For example, you could see who the all-time leading rusher is for entire league or just a specific team.

6. Individual player stats where you can view a player's statistical history throughout his career, regardless of the teams he was on.

7. More weather variations (fog, sleet, light snow, heavy snow, etc.)

8. The standings form should note which teams have made the playoffs. Example: x-clinched playoff spot, y-clinched division, z- clinched bye, etc.

9. An option to rename the Stellar Bowl.

10. The wind speed should be listed on the scoreboard in miles per hour.

11. The number of timeouts that the teams have left should be listed on the scoreboard.

12. A game stats display on the scoreboard.

13. The off-season free agent signings list should order the signings by team and should also be split into two sections: losses and gains.

14. Players should have a college listed on their attributes page. This would only be for aesthetic purposes and wouldn't affect simulations.

15. The ability to assign team logos and to have a league logo.

16. Season awards: MVP, Stellar Bowl MVP, Rookie Of The Year, All-Pro Teams, etc

17. A larger name database for generating player names.

18. A football field on the game display, maybe denoting where the ball is, etc.

19. The ability to adjust the speed of CPU vs. CPU simulations.

20. Automatic schedule divvying. For example, marquee match-ups could be listed on the schedule as being a Thursday/Sunday/Monday Night game, etc.

21. The ability to automatically simulate games without relying on an external application

High Impact

1. An option for UFL to automatically fire/hire the head coaches of each team.

2. More varied or more random schedules. Currently, UFL automatically generates each season's schedule from a small number of templates.

3. The ability to return a point after/two point conversion attempt for two points.

4. An optional, more involved off-season with more draft and free agency options.

5. The ability to realign the divisions in the off-season.

6. The ability to specify what time of the year the league plays in so that the weather progression will correspond correctly. For example: fall-winter, winter-spring, spring-summer, summer-fall. UFL is currently hardcoded for a fall-winter progression.

7. The ability to create leagues of different sizes with different division configurations.

8. A Pro Bowl style game to occur after the Stellar Bowl.

9. Network/internet play.

10. A league-wide setting for injury frequency.

11. More coaching strategy choices. Currently, there are 3 offensive choices (pass more, balanced, run more) and 2 defensive choices (normal blitz, aggressive blitz). Also, the option to change CPU coaching strategies during the game.

12. Roster flexibility. For example, the ability to have more or less players at a particular position.

13. The ability to sign free agents mid-season to replace injured players.

Some nice ideas, Ben. I hadn't even thought about the "clinched division/wildcard/bye" thing, but that is a good one. Also, the hiring and firing. The play-by-play log file is an absolute MUST.

I'd also throw in:

1. Injury clarification: the ability to check on what injuries a player actually has, how long remaining until they come back, etc. I keep fairly detailed records, so this would be good back-story if nothing else.

2. Colleges: again, just a fun thing to give some story depth.

3. Improved draft input: the current system (cutting the lowest 10%) is effective, but I'd like the drafting to be a little more extensive, with rounds, picking by position, etc.

4. BIGGER NAME DATABASE! Some dodgy names keep cropping up which I feel obliged to edit. Do I really want the future of my franchise resting on someone called "Dobber Walpole"?
I know they're generated at random, but some of them are truly awful lol.

More as I think of them...

I like your suggestions, Joe. When Larry last worked on UFL, he was able to implement almost all of the things that I wanted. The suggestions I posted above were either new or from the leftover few that he wasn't able to add the last time around. (Network play, for instance, is not difficult to do, but it would be very time consuming to add/test that functionality.)

Re #4: I'll never forget when I played the first UFL demo: A kicker on one of teams was called Taco Tostada!!! That was a classic!

The last I heard from Larry was that he may begin to look at the code after October, so hopefully he may start coding again soon!

What's with the "updated 2-6-06" headline, Ben? Is it just me, I can't see any new posts here.

Edit: Don't worry, I just noticed the first post was edited. D'oh!

I think I read this from someone earlier but would an actual field be possible. Nothing fancy just a football field to give something extra. Then again maybe not because then we will be asking to be able to design our own midfield team logos and end zone logos, ha!

Is this Larry planning to do a new version of the game and implement the things we agree on here? If so his my alltime M.V.P.

Well, if it's free to wish (in addition to the other suggestions here):

1. Injuries. I totally agree with JoeMontanas suggestion about Injury Clarification. It would also be great if one could set a "injury probability" when starting a league to determen how "bloody" one want it to be aswell as "click off" injuries from league.

2. Computer vs. Computer variables. I'm a simulator man that likes the computer to simulate the matches for me. As such I'm limeted to rearrange my Depth Carts and chose from three offence tactics and two defence tactics. In my dreams I have maybe five of each and maybe a possibility to change in half time.

3. The possibility to eliminate a player from the roster completely, down to the minimum for each pos. (for ex. 4 WR or 1 QB).

Don't get me wrong I just love the game as it is, just dreaming.
Sorry for my bad english, I'm from Sweden.

go eagles

As a possible alternative to writing the play-by-play to a log file - which would still be my #1 dream feature - I'd also perhaps like to have a customisable delay in computer v computer simmed games, which the user could change to make the games sim faster or slower. I like to coach my own team, but from time to time, especially come the playoffs, I'd like to be able to get into the ebb and flow of a game between two computer controlled teams. As it stands, the games are over in a flash.

Joe, I have to comment on this right away. The speed at which UFL simulates games is crucial to me. When Larry did the updates to UFL, the number one request on my list was to keep the speed of the simulation exactly as it was. Because if the simulation speed was any faster or slower, it would greatly detract from my enjoyment of UFL. Right now, UFL sims the individual plays at lightning speeds, but it pauses when a TD/FG/Safety is scored. Because of this, comp vs. comp games can be "imagined" and "watched" in less than 30 seconds. I cannot overstate how important UFL's current simulation speed is to me.

That being said, I would not object to new speed options so long as they do not affect the default speed option in any way.

Yes, the UFL simulation speed is a very sensitive issue for me.

Absolutely, the simulaton speed is great as it is, but the option to slow it down would be great.

Completely agree, on the whole I would continue to use the default speed, but to have the option to slow it down for "big" games would be nice. As I said, I coach my own games and sim the other 15 games, and I think if I had to sit through those 15 games running slowly, I doubt if my enjoyment of UFL would have been as long-lasting. But like I also said... play by play log files! Mmmm........

Yes, I agree. Play by play logs are an absolute must, and from a programming standpoint, I think it would be one of the easiest new features to implement.

I would like to Award Winners or All-Pro teams to be picked. Also one thing that would be nice to see is the ability to sort through stats Recieving for example it is nice to see who has the most catches but I would like to see who has the most yards. I know I am lazy, but just dreaming here.
Wis

Hi there,
Regarding the "Play-by-play" logs function, could you explain a bit more what it is actually you would like to be able to do? My impression is that you would like a command, e.g "PLAY" that would be similar to "STAT", but instead of statistics for the game, display information about the last play.

Like so:
1. "In-game" opportunity only to view play-by-play logs. No database logging for post-game viewing.
2. Only view last play, not a list of the entire game's plays
3. Each play-log needs
a. Game-state when play is done
b. Command from coach
c. Outcome from play

Have I understood correctly, and how does it match up with your expectations?

/Björn

Hey Bjorn, welcome to the forum, great to have you involved!

From a personal point of view, what I would love to see is a logfile generated, similar to the game report which appears at the end of each game which lists the scoring plays in a format like this:

3 7:29 SCHO 82 J Carmack 4 yard pass from J Wood TD (R Deacon kick)

Except that the play by play logfile would list the result of every play called, and not just the scoring plays. I wouldn't mind if the play called was not listed, just the outcome. Maybe also with the option given at the end of each game to print the play by play to a file or delete it and move on, similar to what already exists with the game summary?

Anyone care to add any thoughts?

Scotty

Joe, that is along the lines of what I was thinking. Ideally, UFL would log every play (scoring or not) from every game to files. These files should be created automatically. Also, the general game summary should be logged to files automatically. Then, new options should be added to the Stats Viewer to easily view these log files.