I am really excited to announce that version 0.4 of the game engine has been officially released! There are a number of significant updates in this version. As always I welcome your feedback as you enter into seasons with the new engine.

All leagues will automatically begin using the new engine as they complete the 'end of season' stage. Because some of the changes will impact your talent evaluation during early free agency, leagues that are already in early free agency will not be moved into the new engine version.

Here is a fairly detailed highlight list of what is in the new version:

* The passing game has been overhauled from the quarterback's perspective. QB pocket awareness and DL pressure has been improved to be more realistic. The skills of your OL should have more impact as well.
* The QB will now be willing to throw to a receiver other than the target he is locked on. This is a function of his experience + his field of view (the other receiver must be in his field of view for him to see him)
* QB slide has been added.
* Punt updates: hang time has been adjusted, and gunners should cover punts better. A noticable reduction in punt returns for TDs should be apparent.
* Kickoff touchbacks have been moved to the 25 yard line
* The preseason 'pull starters' option has been broken down so that you can set it per game, instead of having to remember to change it after each preseason game. Just a reminder, to reduce injuries while still getting your starters into regular season conditioning it is recommended to pull your starters after the 1st quarter in game 1, 2nd quarter in game 2, third quarter in game 3, then 1st quarter in game 4.
* Fatigue settings can now be set by position group.
* Some bug fixes have been made to the auto-draft weight system.
* Players will now develop an opinion of you which will impact their willingness to renegotiate with you.
* A new gameplan setting for pulling starters during the regular season when you are winning has been added.
* Coaches now have an impact on your player's attributes during the game. Your coaching hierarchy will give a slight boost to your player's attributes.
* Your players will now be given a slight boost when facing plays that you have scouted. This is in addition to the boost they get when they are familiar with a play.
* Teams who overuse a single play should now see a reduction in the success of that play as the game unfolds and the defense adjusts to seeing it.
* A new attribute 'Volatility' has been added to the player attribute list. This attribute has always been assigned to players, but has never been exposed to you as the owner. What this attribute indicates is the likelihood that the 'future' value is going to change - a player with 0 volatility will probably not have much movement in his future value, so it would be safe to say that he will max out wherever his future value is set to. A player with 100 volatility, however, will very likely -not- resolve to his future value. You don't know, though, whether a 100-volatility player will have his future value boom or bust. This will make drafts more interesting, because you might be less inclined to take that 99-rated QB with 100 volatility in the first round, knowing he is at least 50% likely to bust; on the other hand, that 50-rated WR with 100 volatility in the 7th round is much more worth taking a chance on.

So will these changes take effect in leagues where the pre-season has not yet started. ie: where we are at season's end or in the draft currently?

Because of the volatility exposure which will influence your free agency and drafting decisions, I don't want to push any leagues that have recently passed the end-of-season stage into the new engine.

Does this affect leagues that entered the new season today? e.g. MFN19

Is the player's opinion of you viewable, and how does one affect his opinion?

No, only leagues that run the end of season tonight and beyond will switch.

It's fairly liberal so unless you're doing stupid things like playing them way out of position you're not likely going to run into any issues. If you have too much depth with really good players they may start to get upset about not getting to play as much as they want to. Cutting and trading players will also make them angry and they won't sign back with you for a while.

-What does "way out of position" mean? For example, does this effect a left guard playing right guard? Or other positions filling in for depth at similar positions?

-Does this mean changing a players position will effect their approval of the owner as well?

In this engine will high scrambling qbs actually have more realistic gains in the running game, and actually scramble until receivers get themselves open? Right now the quarterbacks that run only have managed to run to the sideline without being sacked, so they head down field.

This.