I was going to try to include punt return updates but I think I'd rather make sure that the current version is stable and get some of the updates into the other leagues (even though I just lost a game because of a PR TD, haha). Please post to this thread if you have any concerns about the current state of the game engine, I'll continue to work on some new features but will wait until next season to pull them into this engine - but of course will try to stay on top of any bugs that are still in this engine. I'll also be watching the player generation at the end of the season, interested in your comments on that as well and I'll be willing to re-run the player generation a few times if necessary to try to find a stable setting if there are issues.

Thanks guys!

I think the #1 right now is TOs, which you've mentioned you're going to change. However, I've seem a lot of people discussing the "rubber-band" effect in blow out games. Is there any changes planned to tone down the effect? What about an option to put in bench players in blowouts?

Hopefully the TO issues have all been resolved - that's one piece that I hope this release has in it. Please continue to post any TO issues that occur in MFN-1 because at this point I don't know of any that I haven't addressed.

The bench players is definitely on the docket, but won't be in the 0.3.1 version. The blowout logic (which only kicks in while one team is 22 points ahead of another and turns off as soon as that threshold is reset, mainly to prevent 82-3 type scores - and is nothing more than a tiny decrease in attribute values) will probably be removed with the ability to pull your starters when ahead. It will be interesting to see if removing the blowout logic solves it, part of me thinks that what happens is teams go into hurry-up and throw more, which is a greater risk/reward situation - and further, if you had a run-heavy game plan, your QB will be fresh meaning he'll be more effective against a tiring defense. So I don't think the "rubber-band" effect as you say is all from the blowout prevention logic. I may turn it off altogether even before giving you the ability to rest your starters with a big lead just to see what happens.

+1

I'd rather have 82-3 scores than what currently happens.

Another item that would help prevent huge blowouts is to fix the hurry-up / run-clock modes.

I'd be willing to setup a rule for my team to go into run-clock mode when I had a lead if it didn't mean HB Dive every play. If my team had the ability to blow someone out, it wouldn't be as bad if I could run some clock. Instead, since I have turned this useless feature off, I end up throwing a lot when I already have a big lead.

The blowout logic has been turned off so we'll see if it makes any difference. I will probably leave it off for the 0.3.1 release.

Another change I made to the 0.3.1 release is the AI player evaluation for draft/autoqueue - the AI is now looking at the max value instead of the halfway point between current and max. Right now there's no impact in MFN-1 and we probably won't even be the first draft to use it - I just need to run a few tests to make sure that the autoqueue display and the game engine stayed in sync. But I wanted to let you know that this change has been made so hopefully this should help the AI drafts.

I want to know why the blowout logic is being turned off? I'm not trying to sound mean or rude, I just don't know what the problem was to lead to the blowout logic to be turned off.

jdavidbakr can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe its more to see what the impacts will be with it off. It will be a way to measure how much impact that logic is having and if its truly needed. Also there have been several discussions about how teams will get up significantly in a game, the blowout logic goes into affect and then the other team comes back, the blowout logic turns off, and then the other team ends up winning or making it a really close game.

Oh gotcha, I get the 1st part, but the 2nd part kind. Happens all the time in the NFL. You'll see one team dominate in the 1st half, and then the momentum shifts to the other team sometimes and they comeback in the 2nd half, making it a close, good game.

But I agree with this, lets see if taking out the logic will impact the outcome of any games

My theory is that the blowout logic had little to no impact on the 2nd part - many of the come-from-behind games occurred when the threshold was not even met to kick into the blowout logic.

Will this also change the way the AI evaluates players in other scenarios, such as trades / free agents / cutting players?

Also, will there be a slider for the user to determine how they want players evaluated? Or is it all future now? I can see various owners having different opinions on how they would want to evaluate players. For example, I might want to set my slider to 100% future during the draft, then change it to 100% current for the rest of the season.