Monday, November 12, 2012

Gridiron Solitaire #29

Except for testing and one small logic change, the new offseason mini-game is complete.

Like I said last week, I've moved away from showing explicit team ratings to showing rankings in relation to other teams instead. Here's the new sort in effect on the offseason GM screen:

 
 
Now a rating only has meaning in relation to other teams--like I said last week, that's how it works in real football.

There's also a new layout for the human mini-game. Here, take a look:


Because of the changes I made with the team sort, it no longer made sense to have cards with a potential upgrade/downgrade of +1, +2, -1, etc. The new indicator uses "+" and "-" signs (with a nice little football touch that Fredrik added). So again, you get information as a player, but it's incomplete. How much would a "+++" card increase my rating? Well, you're not going to know, except as a reflection of the comparison to other teams. Which is good, because giving exact information has always bothered me, and exact ratings information is basically gone now.

Right now, the potential of each card is symmetric--that is, the potential upside equals the potential downside. At some point, though, some of these cards may become asymmetric in terms of opportunity.

Here's the outcome screen with a slightly modified layout:


That screen needs a header, doesn't it? I need to add "CARD OUTCOME" at the top or something like that. Below the card outcome is your old/new ranking for that rating.

Once you get to the Team Hub, you can also view league rankings at any time. Previously, I hadn't wanted to make the ratings information available during the season, because it was exact information. Showing rankings instead of ratings, though, just gives incomplete information, and that's fine.

I'm not sure this is the final layout, because to me, this seems more like an interim change. For now, though, I'm pleased with how this is looking. Now the beta testers can break it and we'll go from there.

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