False 9 Football - My little football sim project

[Madmac79]

Hey.

I've been working on the "ugly" side of things so don't have much to show in terms of new gameplay:

By ugly, I mean:
- I am converting a lot of visual coding (blueprints) to C++. I have had to do this for multiple reasons, blueprints are quicker to make but can only get you so far and they get messy, dont support modding very well and lots of things i cant do (cleanly) within them
- I am building the AI Layer in C++ with lots of modifiers depending on situations and tactics, its taking a lot of my time
- I have built a fake player generation system in C++
- I have built a career/tournament fixture generation and simulation system in C++ with working simulated league tables
- I have been building up the menu system
- Learnt a lot about modules within Unreal Engine so I can release "demos" without including big features like Career or Modding

What I am deeply concerned about is my ability to make animations or at least good ones. However, I get this comes with time and counts as polish. So jank is expected!

Love to see how you are focusing on these surely boring things, that probably won't steal the eye on words, but are indeed the very heart of every football game!

Keep on with your vision! Always waiting patiently, but eagerly for your updates

 

[Paul-v]

Having just gone through this, my recommendation for the AI is a finite state machine with several layers, a utility (points) evaluator when decisions are not binary, as well as an urgency evaluator (walk, jog or sprint), and a contextual risk tolerance modifier (depending on score, time, field position and perhaps tactics). While it sounds complicated, you only need to make one decision evaluation system as it applies to all players.

I have urgency and a points evaluator now created without any real dependency on the app / editor being open, using the Unreal Testing Framework. It's pretty cool because I can create scenarios and suggest what the outcome should be. This should save me from breaking AI with changes in the future.


I am now moving on to the Decision Layer for Attacking decisions.

This can be a little tedious but I need to lay a good framework before going back to the pretty stuff.

 

[sleevel]

An automated test harness is an excellent way to tune and assure performance of your AI. You can recreate any of the FIFA minigames and put your AI through it to make sure it’s successful.

In your defensive decision making, where does does revert to formation position factor in? Unless this is part of MarkOpponent, it would appear to be missing. I would also discourage you from making defense and offense so binary. Even if the other team has the ball, I might still be putting myself in an advantageous position in case of a turnover. That’s how high pressing counterattacks are really successful.

I would suggest making your player states public and available to fellow teammates. For example, if two defenders switch which player they’re marking, if all players move up together in unison, or if I can aggressively go for the ball because my teammate behind me is covering. This does mimic reality, as a well drilled team knows what the other player is going to do in different situations.

Enjoy the programming - it’s worth it.

 

[NeoRetro]

@Paul-v don't hesit to post stuffs like you've answered to @PES4eva : that's exactly what we, well i think most of us love to read.
Those technical part you're workin' on are really on top and very detailled, and even if it's perphas "too technical" some would say, that's perhaps most of us love the most even than some vids... Well vids even in pre-alpha-alpha / or squeletton let's say, of world football building is something we discover and we could give you some small advice from what is important, what's less, etc. etc.
But stay on your own vision to what you want, don't lost focus on all ideas we gives you. Still our game, our vison of what a FG should be to be good.

Continue you job as long as you got fun to do it like if you're writing a book : with enjoyement and without any sort of pressure.
I've been impressed by the guys who was trying to create the "gameplay football" i tried as a pre-alpha release, looking a lot regarding the flow and basis + freedom on the pitch, but your one man army is on another level.
I personnally don't care if you don't reach it or not, or making it simply as en engine basis not playable, but it's super interesting to read the advancement of what you did. The latest list of what you were working on popped my eyes on i was like "he's already working on THIS??"

Congrats, courage, our hearts is with you from what you're trying to achieve : no matter what it will be : to us it's like reading a book of "how to developp a football game" and you know we're passionned and details are the things we really all care. Repeat mode: don't hesitate to share : it's like visiting a museum with someone explaining us the story of all type of arts we have no clue explaining to us the story behind any sort of statue, painting or whatever else (as we're don't have your programmer skills)
Just thanks, it makes us dreamin' a bit in those sad time without a proper builded football game, while we're, for some of us, playing real old games where you could get and most of all, "feel" a casual mostly realistic football as we should have in 2026.

 

[Sany023]

Mate Paul-v, and may be later, during some time of development, while polishing code, searching wrong and true decisions for small and big tasks you are too make a game, that will be suitable for adding into PlayStation base of games in their PSN magazine as other our evoweb user did it with his cool game Arise ?

P.S. Very interesting read about this project and some news about development issues and finding solutions ...