Excellent playability - pity it's too easy! one suggestion...

[AndreasOgris]

Hi there,

First of all my compliments on a simply excellent game engine! Having played not only SWOS but numerous other similar games over the years I am well aware of how difficult it is to get the game engine just right. And, until a few days ago, the very best I had found was an indie game much like NSS3 (i.e. you control only one player on the pitch, a concept I am naturally drawn to), but with a game engine that was way too similar to SWOS for my liking - albeit with numerous small improvements, but still...

That was until I ran into NSS3. Perhaps vaguely inspired by SWOS but superior on so many levels! The far more realistic (and varying) way goals are scored by the AI players, the advanced physics, just the right number of goals per game etc etc, I could go on for quite some time!

Unfortunately, as several other forum members have pointed out, NSS3 is too easy even at expert level and there's apparently no way to cap skills. The planned changing of skill ranges to 1-100 for NSS4 will indeed help but I fear it's only going to be delaying the inevitable superman phase of the career

One idea I had was to include some standalone game mode available from the main menu. For instance, you create a custom competition like in SWOS, but then pick just one player from one of the squads and then play as him for the whole competition (no training etc). Not only great for those that want a quick few games, but also an immense boost to the longevity of the gameplay for those of us who want a real challenge. For instance, is there anyone in the entire forum that could average several goals per game playing as e.g. a Faroe Islands midfielder against strong European teams?? All thoughts/comments appreciated!

[DS]

Great idea at the end there for a quick game. You know what they say, a quick game is a good game. But this idea could be extended. Instead of playing "career" mode you can play a season in a league with a real player or maybe even creating a player? Or you could play in a world cup or continental championship? Would be a fun thing when you just need a break from your career game. IMO it will take the game to a new level. However it is probably to late to include this in NSS4.

[AndreasOgris]

Yeah that was essentially the idea. To save even more time it would be nice if like you said you could just select "Existing Competition" and then scroll to one of the pre-existing leagues or national team competitions (World Cup etc would I suppose just have 32 pre-set teams, e.g. from the 2006 edition for simplicity), and from there to team and finally to the selection of one of the players in the squad to control throughout the competition. Or indeed perhaps your added option of a fresh create of one player (with your registered career name) to just add to the squad. I guess for simplicity you could be given carte blanche as to what skill levels the player had, so you could make him as good or as bad a player as you wanted.

But yes, like you said I fear this may be far too late for NSS4, hence the reason I didn't immediately post in the suggestions there.

One alternative might be to incorporate this as a change in the next Sensational Soccer release? Because the functionality of creating custom cups and so on is already in place, all Si would need to do is add a play mode where you control only one specific player in a team as opposed to the whole team. Since to be honest I'd be perfectly happy playing as a static skilled player without all the RPG elements (which at present are forcing the game to become too easy after a certain time, even if you refuse to train ).

[Master Chief123]

Good post, and welcome to the forums.

To both of yas - Actually, I don't think it's too late yet. There might, just might, be hope.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1zmP....com/blog.html

Watching this video, right in the beginning in the first menu, there's a "quick match" option. I'm not sure at all what this will mean, or if it's anything similair to your ideas, but it does raise a few questions.

Cheers

[statto]

As far as I can say, it means you can play a quick match.

Skill caps have been talked about when you start a new game as well. I haven't seen them implemented yet but there is a chance that you can limit yourself when you start a new game to increase the replayability a bit.

[AndreasOgris]

Thanks for the welcome and replies.

Actually by pure chance I stumbled upon a Youtube clip where the Quick Match option is explicitly selected:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDZm0...eature=related

Not sure what the play options are like though. Judging from the clip description only straightforward management (i.e. watch the game) is definitely possible here.

Providing you can also control exactly one player for this Quick Match and providing that the NSS4 engine is at least nearly as good as the NSS3 engine, I would already say that this additional feature would be enough for me to buy! Since as you've probably guessed, I'm much more in love with the concept of playing games as a single player on a good match engine than all the wrapping RPG elements!

But yeah, not sure how to proceed further, do you guys think we should post in the NSS4 and/or Sensational Soccer sections? Or does Si generally come upon posts such as this before long anyway?

P.S. PES 6 also technically has the option of just playing as one player, so initially I was expectant, but it turned out to be a great disappointment (it just isn't implemented realistically ), so you can see how hard it is to find a well-working "control one player" game like NSS is!

[Fabrizio Gatti]

Thanks for the welcome and replies.

Actually by pure chance I stumbled upon a Youtube clip where the Quick Match option is explicitly selected:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDZm0...eature=related

Not sure what the play options are like though. Judging from the clip description only straightforward management (i.e. watch the game) is definitely possible here.

Providing you can also control exactly one player for this Quick Match and providing that the NSS4 engine is at least nearly as good as the NSS3 engine, I would already say that this additional feature would be enough for me to buy! Since as you've probably guessed, I'm much more in love with the concept of playing games as a single player on a good match engine than all the wrapping RPG elements!

But yeah, not sure how to proceed further, do you guys think we should post in the NSS4 and/or Sensational Soccer sections? Or does Si generally come upon posts such as this before long anyway?

P.S. PES 6 also technically has the option of just playing as one player, so initially I was expectant, but it turned out to be a great disappointment (it just isn't implemented realistically ), so you can see how hard it is to find a well-working "control one player" game like NSS is!

I guess Si will stumble upon this post sooneer or later. If you wanna make it more visible, you can post a suggestion in the specific suggestions thread at the NSS4 forum

And trust me, the match part will shock you if you enjoyed NSS3

Welcome to the forums! Hope you have a good stay

[statto]

Since this is more NSS4-oriented, I've moved it.

Si will have to tell you about how he envisions quick match working, however.

[DS]

lol @ the comments on the first youtube video link posted.