As a newcomer to the ISFL this season, I have been enjoying my experience in the league. As a rookie for the Dallas Birddogs, we have opened the season 1-0, defeating the Tijuana Luchadores 24-17. I was very happy with my player’s performance, getting 3 tackles in the victory. The simulation seems very smooth and the overall UI design is very clean. One of my favorite parts of the league has been watching the games, and the atmosphere leading up to each game is great. It feels great watching my player make a play and rewinding it to see it again over and over, and it can sometimes almost seem like a real game. While I have never been able to watch the stream live, I still watch the videos and look at the chat replay. The field designs are very cool, and the logos are incredible. My favorite homefield design would have to be the Birddogs one, since the color scheme makes it aesthetically pleasing. The speed of the sim also makes the experience much better, since it is slow enough for people to be able to pay attention to but not slow that it makes it too boring.
First impressions of the new sim are overall positive. For blackstone the idea is still a little concerning that he won't be able to perform as well stat-wise considering he was well on his way to becoming the all-time TFL leader, but he remains hopeful that the sim and those that balanced it will still make it so that an objectively better DE, like Blackstone, should be able to perform better more often than the rest. Thats not to say that Blackstone shouldnt ever have a down year, but you just hope to see some of the 1400tpe pay because if not, what has this all been about. But from a user perspective, I think its been pretty cool to see the new fields especially as they provide a real excitements for the team and a home field feel. Its a lot harder to figure out what's going on and there's not a great way to see what play just happened that you might have missed other than stopping the stream and going back and then by that point you're behind for the rest. Its also hard to see your stats at any given time but that'll get easier i think. Mostly I like that the game play seems a little more balanced and fair, DPI's excepted.
As being a new player, I’m not sure how it was back in the old sim per se. But overall, I have enjoyed the atmosphere of being part of a team. It’s been fun learning the do’s and don’ts of the game. I have heard passing game is weak, and then I’ve heard it’s strong and whatnot. I personally think it’s inconsistent, but nothing to where it made me believe any big changes are needed, or to go back to the old sim. As far as my team is concerned, we just lost the first game of the season, but I believe we played a fairly good game against a team that should make the playoffs. As for my player, he had 6 pancakes in his first game, which I was super impressed with being how my player is a DSFL rookie. I hope the sim favors my player quite a bit to where I can shoot for some records or something. I think the overall experience has been pleasant enough to enjoy watching from time to time. But I am honestly really excited to see how the Luchadores do for the rest of the season. It’s been a blast so far in that aspect, and I’m glad to be a part of a good group of guys. Here’s to S27 and beyond!
The first impression the new sim is making on me is mixed with positives and negatives so far. It's interesting to be around while the flaws are worked out and people.dont have an in depth understanding of the meta just yet. While I have still seen some things that remain in the game which caused frustrations in the previous iteration of the engine, it's a situation where there probably will never be a perfect resolution of a flawless engine to run the league on.
Those issues, bugs and frustrations are sure to persist as we find our way with this new sim, as they're just as likely to never disappear entirely - but one thing I'm not sad to see the end of is hundreds of thousands of test sims (though I'm sure people smarter than I are looking into, or have already found a way to replace the old means). All in all, I believe the move will turn out to be a positive one and though the teething stages may be arduous and extended, in the long run the league is likely to be better off for it. My hope is that as a league we will remain flexible and prepared to continue exploring more sim engines in the future as they're released to test for viability, just in case.
So far, the sim has been a great change of pace in my opinion. TPE differences have been on full display unlike what we had in 16, there is still some wonky logic going on that I can see, as a San Jose Sabercat player watching our capped-out kicker come out to punt from the opponents 30 is not super exciting but I will take this. I think that the current sim is exciting in that everyone is just throwing things at the wall to see what sticks in terms of builds and archetypes. The Sabercats are currently 2-0 and I like to think that Rich Triplet has contributed to it in a solid way, currently on the season I have 9 tackles, one interception and four passes defended. Last season I also exited week one with an interception, but I just feel like I am going to take a huge step forward in terms of production this year, I am very excited to see what Triplet can achieve on the football field. Some of my tests have me in defensive player of the year race, while others have me as one of the worst CBs, I simply ignore those and only accept things that reaffirm my opinion. The streams have been entertaining, but I will say I miss the lo-fi music of the DSFL as opposed to the pop electronic we get in the ISFL, I typically mute the streams because of this. No offense intended because I think the sim guys do great work week to week. So far, I would say my favorite homefield would have to be in the DSFL with the Tijuana Luchadores as all the ISFL ones have yet to release. The giant shadow logo is a nice touch that I am a huge fan of.
So far I am over all really liking the switch to the new sim. It looks cleaner, more crisp, and I like how the games have more of a slower pace now. I know some people have complained about how the streams are now an hour and a half long, but do any of us really have anything better to be doing on weeknights? The visibility updates to kicking and being able to follow the ball more easily are also pretty neato.
I can’t believe how well New York is doing through week 3! UNDEFEATED!! I had high hopes for our team this season but I had no idea we would start off THIS hot. I was a little concerned about my own player’s performance when I opened week 1 with only one pancake and allowed 1 sack. He seems to be settling in though.
Personally, I’m still kind of on the fence on whether or not having custom home field designs was a good or a bad idea. Of course I will sound somewhat of a homer when I say I really like New York’s and London’s field designs. Some of the other ones are just kind of painful to look at. New Orleans and Honolulu have such bright fields. I’m not super sure how those got approved. I know some personal flair was declined. Part of me is really curious about what Simo’s lava endzones for Berlin would have looked like.
I'll be honest, I haven't watched any of the games properly in the new sim. I tried checking it out and the length of the games just kinda turned me off watching live, and especially the fact that they now finish really late at night for me. I guess another big motivator for me to not watch is the fact that my player is having an absolutely garbage season. I don't really know what's wrong with my build or the way my player's being used but I seem to be having zero impact on the game at all. I'm fine with this as long as the team is winning games but it does kinda destroy the motivation to actually sit and watch a game when I know my guy isn't going to turn up. Maybe safety just isn't a fun position to run with in the new sim, but I guess we still have a small sample size so we can see how things play out long term. At least Sarasota's won a couple games already which is good, hoping we can keep the momentum going for a little while longer and set ourselves up with a playoff spot for the season. We'll have to wait and see what happens in the rest of the season but unless things change up a little bit with the sim, I'm probably not going to be watching what happens live