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What’s New In May?
Any Coach worth his headset will tell you that adaptability is a key component of any successful game plan. As a veteran of the console development community, I have to confess that working on a “live product” like QUICKHIT has proven to be a big change.
Sure, the days of waiting at least a year to see my product on shelves are gone, as well as waiting for updates like roster changes, feature polish, and gameplay improvements. But if there is one thing the last year or so has taught me, it’s that near-instant gratification has its own set of drawbacks.
The most obvious obstacle to that end has to be the pace at which we introduce new features. Sure, we get to update on the fly, but all this new stuff can often come at the expense of a quick, intuitive way to clue y’all in to the finer points of our ever-growing feature set.
Unlike the old days where we had months to work up the marketing magic to pump up our latest addition, we’ve managed to add dozens of new features like Challenge Mode, Play-By-Play, the Playbook Shop, and Team Homepages to the product in a matter of weeks! That’s unheard of folks!
So how on earth do we plan to keep the Coaching Community up on all the awesome additions to the QUICKHIT universe? Well, after some internal noodling, we came up with…
The Quick Ticker
Now streaming live events into every page on QuickHit.com, the Quick Ticker is your one-stop shop for all things QHF, delivering custom-built messages related to your Coaching career, including things like:
- Level Up! – Find out when you’ve hit a new Coach Level, earned more Coaching Points, unlocked new Plays, hit the next Player Level Cap and more.
- Your QHF Scoreboard – View up-to-the-minute updates on game results.
- Challenge Progress – Figure out where your at in Challenge mode, and learn about important unlocks.
- Live Player Rankings – Find out who is earning the most FP for your team, updated after each game.
- And much, much more!
These are just a few of the topics covered in the trial run of the Quick Ticker, and we’ll be expanding its offerings with each new feature update to make sure you guys stay in the loop.
The Ticker also features custom controls that will allow you to do things like pause the feed, browse categories, and skip ahead to new messages as you see fit. Each message also serves as a link to related pages on the site, so feel free to give it a click and see what all the fuss is about.
Should be a pretty cool tool for those of you who might have had a bit of trouble keeping up with your laundry listing of Coaching accomplishments amidst the flood of new features. As always, be sure to let us know what you think!
Quitters 2.0 – AI Takeover and Forfeits
Next up is a feature for the veterans out there who’ve had it up to here with the loss-fearing lame-o’s commonly referred to as “Quitters.”
We’ve had quite a bit of discussion on the spineless, soulless trend of exiting a game before the final whistle, and have ironed out some solutions we think will cut back on the cowardice.
The basic plan is to give y’all the power to police early exits yourselves with a little football frontier justice in the form of two new rules:
- Forfeits: Most Coaches will tell you that dirty, no-good Quitters tend to skip town when it’s clear they can’t turn the tide and earn a win. Well, thanks to this handy new rule, you can finally make sure that they get that “L” no matter what. That’s right, folks. As of this update, if you choose to quit while losing, the opposing Coach will have the option to exit early and add both a Quit (Q) and a Loss (L) to your record.
- AI Takeover: Now, we realize that not everyone wants to take the easy way out. We also suspect that not every quit is the result of poor sportsmanship. To that end, we’ve added another handy-dandy feature that will allow you to finish out the game as a ranked contest against an AI Assistant Coach. That means that if you finish the game, the final results (Win, Loss or Tie) count against both team’s records, causing them to show up on the MP leaderboards alongside the traditional Q.
Between the two, the hope is that you’ll be able to fight until the final whistle to keep a ranked Win and ensure a Loss for the Quitter.
And in the event you can turn the tide?
The remaining Coach can always exit early and still keep all FP earned to that point. It probably won’t stop every Coach out there from cashing in a Q, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction!
Quick Tip – The Play Filter
As I mentioned earlier, we’ve really be cramming in the content as of late, and many of y’all have asked about a way to reduce the number of plays you bring to the sidelines.
The funny thing is, the forum exchanges on the topic led us to learn that many of y’all had no clue about the game’s in-game search engine, the Play Filter.
Located in the lower left corner of the interface, the Play Filter allows you to trim down the playbook to scenario-specific groups like:
- Situational Plays: Call by run, pass or special teams.
- Personnel: Call plays by Package, Formation, or Key Player.
- The Kitchen Sink: Find Recently Called Plays, Most Successful Plays and plays you’ve tagged with a “heart” icon as Favorites.
It’s a pretty powerful system, allowing you to do things like mix and match filters or remember settings for the length of a drive. If you’re having trouble finding the right play for the situation, it just might be the tool you’ve been looking for.
As for me, time to get back to planning for the next set of changes. We have some cool stuff in store as summer kicks into high gear, so be sure to check back soon for even more gridiron goodness.
Until Next Time,
Brandon Justice
Design Director, Quick Hit, Inc.
