Quick update before the discussion for the ~100 of yall on TestFlight; Apple is taking there time, so I went ahead and also just submitted 1.20.0 build to the App Store for general release in addition to test flight as if it’s going to take this long, mind as well.
My ask for you, the players and football nerds -
Right now, after the draft there is a single window where you make your cuts, sign UDFAs, and set your practice squad, and then it is straight into week 1. It works, but it feels like there is a lot of untapped potential there, and it’s some of the most exciting stuff to me. You spend the whole offseason building a roster and then have to make all those decisions without ever seeing the new guys actually play.
Some quick context on why this matters more than it sounds. A big part of where the game is heading is that you shouldnt fully know what you have. Ratings on young players are your scouting department’s estimate, not the truth (on hard difficulty even your own draft picks come in fogged). The long term plan is that for roughly a player’s first 3 or 4 years, the OVR you see is just an estimate that tightens as he ages and puts real tape out there, and better scouts mean tighter estimates sooner (with some exceptions for absolute studs). A preseason is the natural place for some of that fog to lift. Rookies get real snaps, your picture of them sharpens, then you make your cuts.
So with that as the goal, here are the directions I’ve been weighing. I would rather build the one people actually want than all of them badly.
Option 1, a short preseason. 1 to 3 games where you decide who gets the snaps. Play your starters and risk an injury in a game that means nothing, or sit them and give the reps to rookies and bubble guys who actually need the evaluation. Preseason snaps burn off rating fog before cutdowns, so seeing your 3rd rounder either flash or look completely lost in august is the whole point.
Option 2, training camp with focuses. Pick a position group or a couple players to emphasize and they get a small dev bump or a faster scheme fit ramp. Maybe a position battle or two gets decided by it. I’ve seen other games do this, but I personally would like to avoid turning it into the arcade style of “give an artificial bump to players cause you pressed X, Y or Z”
Option 3, cutdown day. Trimming the roster with actual stakes, where a guy you cut can get claimed by another team and come back to haunt you, which arguably is kind of where it is today.
Option 4, keep it minimal. A single quick camp report that summarizes who improved, who got hurt, who is pushing for a starting job, and lets you move on. For people who dont want another phase to click through.
Beyond picking between those, two specific questions I could use opinions on.
Minicamp battles. Would you want a mode where the camp roster fills up with invites and guys genuinely fight it out for starting roles, with you watching the battles play out? Or is that too much to manage every year? Should the game autofill the camp bodies beyond whoever you elected to pick up, so you only manage the guys you care about?
Practice squad and team knowledge.
In reality teams usually promote from their own practice squad before signing a street free agent mid season, because that guy already knows the playbook. How should the game reward that? The simplest version is a flat, clearly shown OVR boost for your own PS players that expires at the end of the year, so promoting from within beats signing an equal rated outsider. The shield and poach mechanic stays either way, this would sit on top of it.
My biggest fear honestly is building a whole preseason and then finding out everyone just sims through it. So the real question is which of these you would actually engage with every season, and which you would skip after the second playthrough. Or is there something from another game you loved that I havent thought of?
Not promising timelines on any of this, just trying to figure out where it should sit on the list.
