PDS too complicated

[coachferrier]

the PDS is just too complicated for me, I dont have hours upon hours to sit here and hack out what I want my offense/defense to do. I wish I did, but there's just no way to create the stuff that I want to run.

I guess I'm just venting here, there's not much that can be done, I guess I can go back to Playmaker, thats pretty simple.

[nmleague]

I think its kind of a learning curve thing, at first it seems prety complicated but after a while its a breeze.  That said I have been using it for over a year and Im currently working on some new playbooks and have been struggling with man to man coverage assignments. [;)].  Offense is easier to get the hang of.

[Marauders]

The PDS is powerful.  As nmleague stated, there is a learning curve, but once the basics are down, it is not difficult to use.
 
The alternative would be to dumb the PDS down to a group of canned plays and with some optional pass patterns, and that would be a real shame.
 
From the PM's I receive, I know that many Maximum-Football owners actually are asking for more features to be added to the PDS.  They don't want it to be more complicated, but they do want more options, and that can add to complications.
 
For the novice, I suggest loading plays and altering them.  It is often easier than creating plays from scratch.  Once one knows how to do things, and is comfortable with the interface, it is much easier to create one's own plays and test them.
 
This forum is for questions about the PDS, so please ask about items that may be causing trouble or post information about the kinds of plays you may want in your playbook.
 

[David Winter]

Hello Coach.
 
Thank you for your feedback. You're not the first to comment on this and it's something I am trying to work on.
 
As others have mentioned, the tool does have a learning curve. The best analogy I've ever read compares the PDS to Adobe Photoshop. Yes, you can draw a picture with Microsoft Paint, but the tools of Photoshop allow you to do so much more. It's just that Photoshop is not as easy to use.
 
It's a question I put a lot of thought into every time I get a request for a change or addition to PDS functionality. 'How is it going to impact the average game player?' At times I have purposefully not added features because I knew they would be quite complicated and useful to only a handful of people. I do also have to keep in mind that the PDS is supposed to allow gamers to design as may different plays & formations as they can and a simplified PDS wouldn't allow for that.
 
For this up coming version, I have added some additional code in the AI to help make plays that were not designed perfectly work better. In previous versions, where exactly in the zone you placed your DB's greatly impacted the effectiveness of the defensive play. Recently, I have added some AI improvements to the DB's so that's less critical.
 
In the future, I am hoping to add an option to start the PDS in an 'Advanced' or 'Basic' mode. Basic mode would provide the simplified play design other games provide as their core play designer, but you could switch to advanced mode to get the PDS functionality you have now.
 
If you have specific questions on how to do something in the PDS, this is the place though. There is an active group of people here that would be very happy to help you out.
 
Thanks
David

[garysorrell]

I was definately intimidated by the PDS at first, but one night I opened a few of the existing plays, and spent about an hour figuring things out.
Honestly, if you spend a little time with it and just start making plays, it is really very easy to use.

[coachferrier]

As a teacher, a coach, and a guy who works very hard at those things, I dont have the downtime that allows me to sit there and sift through all of the available plays, and tinker with them. I guess thats my own time demands that are preventing me from enjyoing this game like it should be.

[garysorrell]

I know how it is. I have 3 kids, a wife and work way too much also.

There are a ton of plays for 11man football at www.fbmax.com

Some are already in playbooks, ready to assign to a team and use.

[coachferrier]

HEY! I've had some time and I think I figured out a lot of the stuff that I was struggling with!!!


Now if I could just get guys to go in motion like they do in a wing t

[nmleague]

Do you mean with the man in motion moving at an angle back toward the hb?  If so that is now possible, well it is with MF2.  We have been busy testing for awhile and I cant remember when this was changed, but with MF2 motion no longer has to be straight accross the formation. 

[coachferrier]

yup, thats exactly what I'm talking about

thats what we run at our school is the wing-t

[22sec]

ORIGINAL: nmleague

Do you mean with the man in motion moving at an angle back toward the hb?  If so that is now possible, well it is with MF2.  We have been busy testing for awhile and I cant remember when this was changed, but with MF2 motion no longer has to be straight accross the formation. 

That's good, it was too simplistic and unrealistic before. That will open up things for the offenese espcially in formations like a Wing T, Flexbone, or some of the other Spread type formations.

[nmleague]

Here is a screen shot of the PDS with an example. R1 starts his motion at the red point.

[coachferrier]

thats awesome, and exactly what i'm talking about. can't wait!

[MSO94]

What about a step by step instruction included in the manuel or a seperate manuel for the basic beginner to help the learning curve. I would even suggest photos to show what your explaining.

[BCtheQB]

this is your lucky day MSO
just had a customer ask for the wheels
diggin up the photo now