Initial thoughts.

I hope Brad is right about incremental changes coming over time. My excitement was high when the game came out but I was underwhelmed with what I found in the process of setting up my team for the trial league. I think I need more detailed managerial control to really get my blood pumping about playing this.

I would like to see this succeed and improve though so I'm on board for now!

At a minimum, I think more strategic flexibility is essential. Ideally, individual player cards for O- and D-line will be added...

Wouldn't it be more fun to draft whole teams than individual players? Is it really that intriguing to wait to see if you get Fran Tarkington or John Brodie in the draft? It's more intriguing to see if you get the Minnesota Vikings or the San Francisco 49'ers in the draft. Imagine a league of 12 players and a newbie drafts the best team and an experienced coach drafts a lesser team. Now, you've got some intrigue.

I really enjoyed the first iteration of strat football on TSN. If memory serves the biggest complaint was no playoffs. I don’t think they ever fixed that problem, and it was part of the reason the game didn’t endure.

I’m glad to see they fixed that problem, but I think they may have introduced others that might be worse from my point of view. I liked the TSN version, I was one of those last few people still playing when there were only a couple of leagues going. I was really excited to see that it’s back but some differences I don’t think I’m going to like…

No in-game adjustments. What? My memory was that you could adjust every quarter, maybe it was only once per game. The point is you could adjust your strategy at least once per game for sure.

Now we are drafting defense and offensive line by units. It used to be individual players, I liked that better.

There was a generic defensive card and you could view it. There were complaints early on and they added more results coming off the card to check individual ratings than the normal strat football team defensive card would. I thought that was good, and I thought it should have been even more.

There were more adjustments that could be made to control your play calling, especially offensively. My memory is fuzzy on it but I think you could adjust how often the individual types of plays were called. For example, you had control of Flat, Short and Long passing as well as which type of runs to call more of etc. My recollection is that you could even choose which receivers you wanted to throw to more often. Like I said, I'm fuzzy on the specifics, but there was definitely more pin point control of your game plan.

So, for whoever makes decisions at Strat-o-matic on how this game is implemented at the very least please…

1. Split the game up into at least 2 days with adjustments at the half

2. Show us the generic defensive card you are using

I’d also rather draft individual players than units, but other people may enjoy the unit-based system, so we’ll see. I think most everyone here would enjoy more control over the play calling than we have.

Yep I agree with all of this except enjoying the first iteration.
I thought when I saw the announcement I'd check it out, I too was underwhelmed by the old online version and I LOVE the board game, its way better than baseball. I'd hoped they would have changed things from the first online version to give us more control. I got bust and didn't load a team, based on what I'm seeing in these forums, glad i didn't. Looks like they've given us a game wit less control not more, what a disappointment. I'll keep monitoring it, but with out more control over play calling I doubt I'll be playing.

Wouldn't it be more fun to draft whole teams than individual players? Is it really that intriguing to wait to see if you get Fran Tarkington or John Brodie in the draft? It's more intriguing to see if you get the Minnesota Vikings or the San Francisco 49'ers in the draft. Imagine a league of 12 players and a newbie drafts the best team and an experienced coach drafts a lesser team. Now, you've got some intrigue.

So it would just be a one round draft? I don't know if many people would want to play that.

One half of football a night seems so much better. What if you are up by 20 or down by 21 at half, you want to make adjustments.... Of course the computer will make those for you, but we would rather have control...

I have played the CD-ROM close to a thousand times and I know how the computer manager operates, which is why we need to be able to make those halftime adjustments...

I hope you all are emailing SOM with this request like I did.

Asking on the boards gets you nothing.

If I select a radio button for defense formation such as "8 men in the box 4-3" for my base to stop the run (see SOM detail description below) I don't see a result reading on the opposition cards that rewards me for have an extra man in the zone. Shouldn't I see an "*" or "**" somewhere on some card that conveys a result for having the right number of players in the zone? Heck, I don't even see the word "defender" on any of my opposition's cards. It's as if we're not playing advanced, but, the detail descriptions, such as the one below, imply otherwise.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Approx. Pass/Run Ratio: 40/60
Notes: FS often on line of scrimmage to blitz or stop the run, linebackers also often on line of scrimmage, excellent DBs required to stop pass game
Pros: Best against teams who run and QBs weak at Long Pass
Cons: Vulnerable to long passes and teams who often throw flat passes

If I select a radio button for defense formation such as "8 men in the box 4-3" for my base to stop the run (see SOM detail description below) I don't see a result reading on the opposition cards that rewards me for have an extra man in the zone. Shouldn't I see an "*" or "**" somewhere on some card that conveys a result for having the right number of players in the zone? Heck, I don't even see the word "defender" on any of my opposition's cards. It's as if we're not playing advanced, but, the detail descriptions, such as the one below, imply otherwise.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Approx. Pass/Run Ratio: 40/60
Notes: FS often on line of scrimmage to blitz or stop the run, linebackers also often on line of scrimmage, excellent DBs required to stop pass game
Pros: Best against teams who run and QBs weak at Long Pass
Cons: Vulnerable to long passes and teams who often throw flat passes

We're still trying to figure out what strat is doing with this online football game.

Like others are saying, we gamers - who are excited about trying it out - need to all email strat with our concerns and questions. The communication from strat has been inadequate regarding the rules, strategy options and even the cards. I think they are forgetting that we are actually strat gamers - we want controls , and we want to know how they work, in real terms. We are not OK with a black box that translates strategy ideas into an output of game results . We want to know how that works, and we want the controls , please. Not being able to even see the defensive card - even if it is a standardized card with variable results based on individual lineman and defense ratings - is a great example.

In short, we want to be able to love this game, but we don't even know how it actually works yet!

My biggest complaint by far so far is the quick season. 16 nights?
Way too much time invested in drafting and strategy for only two weeks of fun. That's crazy.

They have GOT to change it to a quarter of a game each night. Allowing changes after each quarter of a game.

Only 16 nights then you need to buy a token and start another season. That feels like a terrible money grab to me.