GameplayLoop

Previous Baltimore small helmet
 

 
New Baltimore small helmet
 

 
 
Previous Baltimore big helmet
 

 
New Baltimore big helmet
 
 

 

Previous Cincinnati small helmet:
 

 
New Cincinnati small helmet:
 

 
Previous Cincinnati big helmet:
 

 
New Cincinnati big helmet:
 

 

Not very significant changes for the Patriots big helmet, but for posterity, I thought I would document them. Lots of the small changes will come down to preference, no doubt.
 
Previous Patriots big helmet:
 

 
The updated version:
 

 
 
Previous Patriots small helmet:
 

 
New Patriots small helmet. Although I like the total scale of the above helmet, I think the revised white border for the Flying Elvis is a valuable design punch up:
 

 

Again, not very different Bills big helmet, but posting for posterity.
 
Previous Bills:
 

 
Updated Bills logo. (Disregard the gray facemask.) Note the smoothed out spine, and the white line drawn from the front right foot to its mouth.
 

Thanks, @jstout; I was pumped to see it come together. I can only image how many memories you've got digging deep into this stuff. You've done so much good work, and helped a ton of folks make their own roms. I've been literally reading and re-reading your posts from 2004-2007 for the past two weeks. 😆

I'm keeping this rom that I'm editing now as close to the classic TSB experience as possible, with very slight tweaks. Your 4/3 hack is the only 'gameplay' hack that I'm going to try to install for this otherwise classic experience rom. Even though I remember it being mainly a hack in appearance only (which is perfect), it's enough of a visual change to the on-field game to make things feel fresh, and further personalize teams.
 
I need to look over your documentation again for installing it. I'm pretty sure the last time I used it in a rom, you had actually installed it for me, LOL... You may find yourself on the receiving end of a @tag, my guy. 😅

That's hilarious, @SBlueman. And nice job! I totally agree about the circle making the logo feel a little bigger in scale--but I also agree that it's a necessary design element to represent. I repurposed a few of the surrounding tiles to spread out among some of the other small helmets. I've actually made several tweaks to other small helmets, as well, mostly minor stuff. This Titans redo is probably the biggest change.
 
Also, I think I prefer the way that you did the flame. I think I see another edit in my future to do some testing… 

More Titans logo edits! 👍
 

 

I realized earlier tonight that I had to recreate the 2009-2011 retro Miami Dolphins logo for this rom. Similar to the Dolphins logo that’s in TSB, where the dolphin is curved downward and wearing a football helmet. 
 
I looked up the original game's design--because, honestly, I had forgotten what it looked like. It’s an even earlier RETRO retro version of the dolphins helmet logo. 
 

 
The one I needed to make has more cartoon characteristics. So tonight I worked on giving this retro logo an update. I'm digging it!
 
 

 
Also, here's the modern Dolphins small helmet:
 

 
Here's the team version I needed for my rom:
 

 
 

Wow, I actually edited the Titans logo for the next update too:
 

 
Almost the same, the helmet on my base rom didn't have the rear pad or a stripe. I went with a grey circle around the logo to make the T in the logo stand out more. I felt it was a bit on the big side but the logo not having the circle around it just didn't feel right to this Titans fan. 

Very nice and highly detailed for a small helmet. I can recall all the planning required to match all the teams colors, making logos, and still trying to keep enough detail to look nice.

Hot of the presses! New Titans Small Helmet 🤛
 

Oh god... I totally forgot... You gotta be kidding me with this small helmet bullshit. 🙃

In this case, I would use however TSB originally formatted the acronym. Consistency is king, in my world; there’s also the design responsibility I feel to the source material.

I just spent a ludicrous amount of time making minor tweaks to the Marshawn cut scene. I changed out the image above.
 
One tweak I couldn't pull off was getting the bright green color as an accent in the image. Too many keys areas of the character palette share colors, unfortunately. The neon green really gave it a pop, too.
 

It took a while the first time I edited them. And even after not having done so for a decade, it all came back to me pretty quickly, thankfully. True story: I spent 3 days editing the Lawrence Taylor diving cut scene in 2012, and only after the fact did I realize you don’t even really see it pass by. LOL.
 
I’m mostly using the edits I made in 2012. Marshawn here is a briskly edited Chris Johnson from my original Tennessee Titans edit. I just copied the sprite changes, made some additional edits using TileLayer Pro, and then changed the hex colors a bit.

Oh, sh—don’t call it a comeback 3️⃣ — 2️⃣8️⃣
 

I wish I knew how to edit those intros....I end up with the stock intro each year. I stink at the graphics end of things. 

Some of the set commands might not be compatible together, causing the issue. There is a feature in TSB Tool that lets you check the set commands you want to add to see if there's any that conflict. Go to "Hacks" then "Check for SET commands setting values in the same location" to see if there are any conflicts. 

Can’t say I’ve ever gotten that error. Does it give you the error no matter what set command it is?

On the very last day of July, I met my deadline of finishing the SIM stats for all teams in the ROM. It took an extra effort over the past two weeks to see it happen. August is now for graphics edits, marketing collateral, and maybe implementing a couple of hacks. Feels good to be on target!

On the very last day of July, I met my deadline of finishing the SIM stats for all teams in the ROM. It took an extra effort over the past two weeks to see it happen. August is now for graphics edits, marketing collateral, and maybe implementing a couple of hacks. Feels good to be on target!

What an incredibly in-depth answer! Thankfully, I’m working through assigning SIM stats with a fair amount of your notes generally in my mind. BUT, I really appreciate you writing this out, @SBlueman, and I’m sure someone else who’s looking to expand their understanding of SIM stats and ideas for how to tackle executing on this part of building a ROM, will appreciate them as well. 
 
I just finished setting playbooks and adjusting the SIM stats for the AFC teams, but I’m going to go back and review the work I’ve done through the lens of what you just wrote. Awesome stuff.
 
Although I remember the Sack/INT SIM values should total 255 on defense, I did not remember that RB 1, RB 2, WR 1, WR 2, TE 1 values should sum to 32. Wow! I’m either surprised that I totally forgot that, or was never aware of that.
 
Now that I’ve drafted my AFC SIM stats, the process doesn’t feel as arduous. It’s still time consuming, but at least I have a better idea of the numbers I’m working with, which makes reassigning SIM values pretty painless; there's just a lot of reassigning to do.
 
I said this to Knobbe the other day, but I completely underestimated the time required to put out a new ROM without having done so for 10+ years prior, and especially when you’re somewhat of a perfectionist lunatic. It is definitely not like getting back on a bike for me. 🙃

Game design question: does anyone redefine offensive player SIM stat values in a way that doesn't exactly resemble how the OG TSB does? Player SIM stat values at the end of a season are a curious thing. They in no way resemble what an actual human player will tally; they also do not resemble very well actual NFL values. 
 
Do you define the SIM stats differently? It seems to me that balancing TARGETS & CATCHES toward the high-end, and lowering SIM RUSH & PASS YAC values seem to produce relatively more NFL-accurate & interesting stats.
 
What do you think?
 

Wow! This is great. Flood of memories. I think I remember seeing a version like this (made by Jstout?) that was totaling career stats, and not season/TSB Tool stats? Regardless, this is incredibly helpful. Thanks very much, @SBlueman!
 

I'm in the middle of adjusting playbooks and team/player SIM stats all at once since they're all generally related. Once again, I underestimate the time required to properly set SIM stats. Not sure if I'm going to hit my goal of being finished with editing everything that can essentially be done within TSB Tool by the end of July. Ideally, I would spend August putting finishing graphic touches on the ROM.