Multiplayer Online Server

[Bob Hanson]

Anyone who played PC Madden 2002 online will recall that the game had an Online Franchise Mode. In Online Franchise mode the commissioner of the league would start Madden up on his PC and then start the Online Franchise. This created a server that was open to all league members via the Internet.

A league member would start Madden, open the franchise and then connect to the online server. From within the Madden 2002 interface, league members had full control of their team on the server. This meant that they could bid on free agents, draft, make roster changes, etc. and the online franchise was updated immediately with the changes. No file needed to be passed around. No import/export had to be done by the commissioner.

This design is the ultimate design for multiplayer leagues (and it has always been a shame that Madden removed the feature from 2003+ because their focus became so console centric).

Arlie: Is something like this possible? If not, is a server for just the Draft possible? If not, I'd like to talk with you about the draft data and how accessible the data will be.

[mjdgoldeneye]

I second this!

[robster1225]

While this would be great as an owner, I think it would be tough for the commissioner to leave his game open, virtually all of the time to accomodate for different time zones that owners are in and such. I think it is much more convienient to stick with the traditional exporting of files whenever you as an owner have the time. It would be nice if an uploader was included in the game, like in OOTP.

[Cooleyvol]

I've always thought a spin on this idea would be great.

In my idea, the entire league file is up on a server. Owners can log in and make their changes. Then, at sim time, the owner downloads the league file and runs the sim, then puts up the new league file.

Its a variation and one that, IMO, would be easier to implement.

[robster1225]

Cooley, this would be a great way to run online leagues. Haven't there been some baseball sims that worked this way? I wanna say it was stratomatic or baseball mogul, but i'm not totally sure.

[moring]

Anyone who played PC Madden 2002 online will recall that the game had an Online Franchise Mode. In Online Franchise mode the commissioner of the league would start Madden up on his PC and then start the Online Franchise. This created a server that was open to all league members via the Internet.

A league member would start Madden, open the franchise and then connect to the online server. From within the Madden 2002 interface, league members had full control of their team on the server. This meant that they could bid on free agents, draft, make roster changes, etc. and the online franchise was updated immediately with the changes. No file needed to be passed around. No import/export had to be done by the commissioner.

This design is the ultimate design for multiplayer leagues (and it has always been a shame that Madden removed the feature from 2003+ because their focus became so console centric).

Arlie: Is something like this possible? If not, is a server for just the Draft possible? If not, I'd like to talk with you about the draft data and how accessible the data will be.

This is a great idea Bob!

[Bob Hanson]

Its a variation and one that, IMO, would be easier to implement.
It wouldn't really be any easier to implement. A server would still have to be developed. Whether the interface to the server exists outside of BBPF or within the game, it's creating the server that is most of the work.