Gameplans = my enemy

[jcompton-Orlando]

I can't help but wonder if the introduction of gameplans and the inequities for those of us who DON'T know how to best finesse the game didn't contribute to my tied-for-second-worst-season-ever-despite-perfectly-good-personnel...

[Paul-London]

Well i knew people would say that but thats why i purposely dont use any game profiles or gameplans.

I've used the computer default standard ones all this season and i've had a good year.

Some teams have used gameplans some havent, not every single playoff team has used them though.  I think they are good for some people, it gives you different plays etc, you might have noticed a few RB's have attempted passes as well as in some game plans that happens now.

Its good to give you a bit more userability, eg in the 49ers west coast offense the HB's seem to catch a lot of passes, i would like to try the Raiders one as i can imagine there'll be a lot of bombs

Remember the game is from 1997 so a gameplan for a team who you think might be good you really have to go back to 1997 to see that teams record as i'm sure a gameplan for a 13-3 team in 1997 would be better than one for a 3-13 team.

But like i say i havent used them all season and nor have about half the teams so i wouldnt worry too much.  Its something you can try or something you dont have to and you can just play like you have done the other seasons etc

[Andrew-Neutral]

I used a gameplan from week 3 onwards. I notice in the play-by-play, a Razzle-Dazzle pass is attempted nearly every game - it usually is a flea-flicker. HB Edwards has caught at least two 70+ yard passes this way  . I've also got a HB option pass in the playbook, but this isn't quite as good - 2 attempts, one complete, 10 yards.

I think I screwed up by having a gameplan with lots of outside runs - inside runs are probably better at getting the 3 to 4 yards a pop you need for a decent running game.

[Paul-London]

Ha ha just seen your signature !!

I think its good we've added the gameplans but this year theres been way too many HB's getting 40 yards a game but 120 yards receiving.  Then again i suppose its realistic as if you want a game plan to throw to your back a lot it works !

So difficult to get the player stats properly, just a tiny bit out and you have QB's throwing 8 td's, just a fraction the other way and you get defenses limiting teams to 80 yards etc

I think next season i wont change a thing and see how the first few weeks of the season go.

[JH-SanAntonio]

In the absence of customized plays, plans, and profiles, the ability to "finesse" the game is absent as well.

For those that don't have the game, here's a brief (so to speak) description of how stuff is put together:

PLAYS and PLANS
  There's a huge pile of stock plays that come with the game. The plans all draw from the same pool of plays of that type. For example, let's say there are 15 different "run left" plays. The stock offensive plan uses 3 of these plays; the Colts offense uses 2 of them. The specific plays they use are different, but the differences are more tuned to on-field personnel than to effectiveness- in other words, the stock offense will have 3 plays that utilize 1 back running and 1 back blocking, while the Colts offense will have 1 play using 2 backs and 1 play using only 1 back (since they usually use a 1-back offense). When your "coach" decides that a "run left" is called for, the program randomly grabs one of the available "run left" plays. The individual plays are NOT any more effective than any other play in the pool, all else being equal. So, the plans basically are there to allow you a different mixture of offensive alignments and formations. What you do with them has far more to do with your profile.

PROFILES
  The profiles are what determine what play gets called when. There are 2000+ situations in each profile, based on time remaining, down, yards-to-go, score difference, and field position. The program sees what category your situation fits into, and is assigned percentages to choose from as many as 3 different plays for that scenario. For example, a profile might show under 30 seconds remaining, inside the opponents 5, behind by 4 points, and 1st and 10... "run middle" 52%, "goal line" 31%, "pass short left" 17%. Randomly the program selects a play type, then randomly draws from the appropriate plays the plan has for that type.
  We can't choose a profile, however, only modify the basic one- and that modification is sketchy and ineffective at best. So, as it stands right now, a team using the stock offense and a team using a team offense have only slight differences, limited to a handful of different plays chosen almost exclusively for their formations as opposed to their relative usefulness- and, of course, an occasional weird play that goes right (though for each one that goes well there are ten that fail, heheh). This can be useful in two ways- if you have highly skilled players in certain positions but not in others, you can choose a plan that uses formations that favors one over the other (for example a 3 WR set instead of a FB), or it can be used to build up certain stats or lend flavor to your team (selecting a 2-TE-heavy plan, for example, to enhance the run and short passing game).
  Hopefully, in the near future, we will be able to use stock team profiles as well as plans. This will give us a bit more control over how our teams function, and allow folks to differentiate themselves a bit. Every team setup is unique, and finding a good combo requires a lot of experimentation whether you haven't a clue as to how it works or you've been playing forever.
  This is also where customization can become silly- for example, I could choose to create one very odd "run left" play, add it into my game plan as the only "run left" play, and set my profile to always run that play, no matter what, by making all 2000 scenarios "run left" 100%. At the end of each game you'd see my HB1 and HB2 (when HB1 got tired) with 75 total carries for 350 yards or whatever- because, unfortunately, the computer does NOT read tendencies in the defensive profiles. A live coach would get suspicious after say 5 straight run left plays, and maybe toss in a defense against run left to shut down the offense, but our profiles would say "hmm, 3rd and 3, on his own 44, 8 minutes left and down by 6- I bet he'll try a bomb, let's go prevent defense!". This is where the game CAN be "finessed", and why we don't allow customization- it's unfair to those who don't own the game and have the time and inclination to do such things.
 

Edited to add:
As you know, teams can have good/bad years. This season my team got lucky and had a softer schedule and went 12-2. Last year the same players went 7-7. Last year I used (as did everyone) the stock offense, and it was far more consistent from game to game than my team choices this year. Next year the same offenses might be either useless or amazing, and SA might go 13-1 or 3-11. I don't remember all of the London games, but didn't you have a lot of trouble late in games?


JH

[Niki]

I don't remember all of the London games, but didn't you have a lot of trouble late in games?

Most teams that win a close game win it in the 4th quarter. The team that scores the most points in the last quarter win 9 out of 10 times the game.

[jcompton-Orlando]

Yes, the late-game collapse, the failure to shut down the 2-minute drill, has been a London trademark.

[JH-SanAntonio]

Your endurances are low on defense, which is probably why.

[Mario ADK]

hmm..... my ENs on defense are similar to londons but i had several crucial 4th-qtr wins and several 4th-qtr losses (more wins than losses as many of my losses where not close ones and are not to be discussed here).

don´t think it has a huge impact - at least i cannot see such regarding my team. i rather lack of a godd 2min-drill onoffense, i usually get stuck in the middle of the field instead of making it to the end zone.....

[Niki]

Your endurances are low on defense, which is probably why.

EN has an impact, it just means that your starting players with with a low EN will play less plays (if I am correct if his EN will go below 70 he will be replaced by a back-up).

@Mario: you prefer to have a good 2min-drill offence, I prefer to have a good defence and offence that always scores a TD when they are in the redzone

[Mario ADK]

Niki,
i know that EN basically has an impact like any other ratings have. I do not see the 70-mark as ususally in my team the starters play most of the plays, even if the have EN of 70s. I think the mark is lower than 70.

Regarding the drill. Never said i PREFER, i just said that my defense is far better stopping the opponent in the last 2 min than my offense is able to score in the last 2 min

btw: my offense has better EN than my defense!

[Niki]

Mario as I said I was not sure when a player is replaced. I thought I read somewhere once it was 70 but it could be much lower and I think their will be difference between offence and defence since the skills of all players in offence are much higher then in defence (so automatically also the EN.

But looking at the teams with a winning record:

Sacremento has 2 players active defence players below 75
San Antonio: has no active defence players below 75
Mexico has 4 active defence players below 75
Amsterdam has 4 active defence playeres below 75
Frankfurt has no active defence players below 75
Berlin has no active defence players below 75
Rhein has no active defence players below 75

[Marco_Frankfurt]

Hi,

First about using gameplans:
I wanted to have a run dominating team so I had chosen RunAggressive at the season start.
After 2-3 games I had seen that the results were not as I wished, so I looked t the play-by-play
and I did see that runs thru the middle were more effective for me team then outside runs.
therefore I switched to one of the team profiles, because they have more inside then outside runs.

That was all 'finetuning' I did this season ;-)

Second about EN:
I think you all have read the gameplans.doc there you find two colums:
EN In   EN Out
90   80

So now you have to know there are two EN's in the game. First the attribute that tells
how good the endurance and healthyness of the player is.

Second his in game energy !

It starts allways at 100%, but each play the player is on the field it will be reduced.
The amount depending on the EN Attribute and position (higher EN means he looses less energy)
If the Energy of the player reaches 80(%) then he will be pulled out. He will then regenerate
energy (again more and faster if his EN is higher)and if he reaches 90 again he will be back
on the field.

All game plans that we are using have 90/80 except the default we were using all seasons before
that has a 85/75 limit.

Third: question at Paul, will we be allowed to use game defensive playbooks ?
The reason I ask, is that I would really like to play a 3-4 defense and I had allready
started drafting players accordingly ;-)

bye and tschuess
Marco

[Paul-London]

Third: question at Paul, will we be allowed to use game defensive playbooks ?
The reason I ask, is that I would really like to play a 3-4 defense and I had allready
started drafting players accordingly ;-)

Well Ross kindly wrote the article about offensive gameplans a while ago which i think helped some people

If Ross or indeed someone else can do a guide about defensive gameplans then we will allow game defensive playbooks.  Until then though we cant as it would be unfair on most of the GM's as they wouldnt have a clue what one does what etc whereas some GM's would know a lot about them.

If the information is available I can list it on the site to make it fair to people

As always i wont use any offensive or defensive playbooks to prove and show that you can still win without using these

[Niki]

@Paul: at the beginning of season 12 you put the offence game plans on the site but I am not able to find it anymore. Not that I have an intention to use it but I think Stuart hasn't seen them since he joined us later in the season.

I know that Ross is short in time at the moment so I think we have to wait another season to get the defence game plans, which I will use. Just like Frankfurt to play a 3-4 defence

[Paul-London]

Yeah good point, when i'm back at home i'll make sure theres a link on the site

Its actually still there http://www.fwl.org.uk/GamePlans.doc

[Volker-Orlando]

Yeah good point, when i'm back at home i'll make sure theres a link on the site

Its actually still there http://www.fwl.org.uk/GamePlans.doc

Could you please put it also in some open format, e.g. PDF.

[Paul-London]

I'm afraid i dont have an Adobe PDF Distiller or whatever its called.

Ross sent me that document, cant convert it to PDF or anything on my computer.  Perhaps one of the other GM's can help.  How come you dont like it in the .doc format ?

If someone can give me a similar document like that for defenses then we'll allow teams to choose their own defense.  Without it i dont think its totally fair

[Andrew-Neutral]

I'm afraid i dont have an Adobe PDF Distiller or whatever its called.

Ross sent me that document, cant convert it to PDF or anything on my computer.  Perhaps one of the other GM's can help.  How come you dont like it in the .doc format ?

If someone can give me a similar document like that for defenses then we'll allow teams to choose their own defense.  Without it i dont think its totally fair

I've got a PDF writer - but the computer is playing up! I'll try to PDF the document over the weekend. The problem with the DOC format is that not everyone has MS-Word, although a lot of other word processors will read DOC files. If you haven't got a word processor, you've got no chance of reading the document, although you can get a free Word viewer from Microsoft. I think it only runs on Windows PCs, however.

[Volker-Orlando]

Ross sent me that document, cant convert it to PDF or anything on my computer.  Perhaps one of the other GM's can help.  How come you dont like it in the .doc format ?

Simple: I don't do Microsoft. I think I have an old Win95 partition somewhere, but definitely without MS Word. I can read most .doc files with Openoffice, but I don't have it installed on all of my machines and often the format comes out garbled,so I prefer not to.

An alternative would be to simply put up the document in ASCII.

...anyway, one should always try to fight Microsoft's Closed World Assumption!!!!!