Could be a problem

[nmleague]

I decided to play around with the play design feature. Designed an offensive play based on the I formation left. Simple play, the FL goes in motion until he just passes the OT on the right and the ball is snapped. The FB and HB both lead to just outside the right OT and pass block. The QB drops back and does a slight role to the right. The TE on the left goes straight up the center of the field. The SE on the right does a slant. THe FL that went in motion, does kind of a loop pattern, angling toward the sideline and then deep.

Ok I did some practice vs set defenses. Many times the QB was sacked, but almost every time the FL beats the coverage deep. So if the QB can get the ball off its a long gain, all he needs is about 3.5 sec.. So I thought I would try to work on a defense that I thought could take care of this. Started with a base 43 defense and went with a rotation to a 43 zone. The DB on the side vacated by the FL rolls deep 1/3, the deep DB on the side moves to the deep 1/3 zone and the DB on the side the motion is coming to takes the deep 1/3 on that side. Underneather coverage is not a problem. So I load up the offensive play vs this defense. The Fl had no trouble getting deep on the DB playing the deep 1/3 zone on that side. So I decided to go in and have all 3 deep coverage guys move even deeper. Even though the DB is moving back the FL blows by him as soon below. I hope doesnt indicate problems.

[Erik Rutins]

Could you export, zip up and e-mail those two plays to me at erikr@matrixgames.com? There are folks in our test team that are experts at play-making and if there is any issue with how the plays are setup, I'm sure they can find them. If it's not that, we'll have David look at this combination and see what's going on with the defense.

Regards,

- Erik

[nmleague]

Yes Erik I will try to get them zipped up and out to you yet tonight.

It could be because Im just learning the play design system, hopefully it is. But I have a coaching background and the concept is sound, and the play worked about the same with the defenses that came with the game. There arent any things in the offense that should be AI busters, like running backs lined up as recievers etc.

[nmleague]

How do I find the plays? I looked in the plays folder but it seems that the plays have a different naming system than the plays that show up in the Play design untility. Are they saved somewhere else?

[Erik Rutins]

If you open the play, you should be able to do a File Save As, if I recall correctly. I'm not the PDS guru, unfortunately.

Regards,

- Erik

[Paul Vebber]

THe way the game logic works, fast and agile receivers can exploit zones (perhaps a bit more than real life, but the game is fairly deterministic by design to make it a "play design against play design game" vice a "good die roll vs bad die roll game".

Agaisnt realy fast and agile receivers, I found that pure zones have problems (as often occurs in real life) and you need to man up on the T. Holt types and use the zones to double them up. Zones also tend to be expoitable by out paterns and TE releasing over teh middle between the zone coverages.

This makes it hard to make a true "cover 2" type zone scehme, but you can "fake it" to an 80% solution using keys and man-zone combinations.

[nmleague]

The PDS does have a save as command, but it doesnt allow you to target a specific folder and it changes the name. Lucky I found that when you open a file the box shows the play ID #, so I tracked the two down in the games Plays folder. I have sent them to you, they arent large so I did not zip them.

Just realized that those files names wont help you load them, you need the name that I assinged. The offensive play is IL-p1, and the defense 43-43z

[Paul Vebber]

IF you open a play in the PDS it will have a name and an ID number look for a file named PLY###### or PLYD########

Or save it and sort the play folder contents on the date and it wil be the newes one...

[mark1726]

ORIGINAL: nmleague

I decided to play around with the play design feature. Designed an offensive play based on the I formation left. Simple play, the FL goes in motion until he just passes the OT on the right and the ball is snapped. The FB and HB both lead to just outside the right OT and pass block. The QB drops back and does a slight role to the right. The TE on the left goes straight up the center of the field. The SE on the right does a slant. THe FL that went in motion, does kind of a loop pattern, angling toward the sideline and then deep.

Ok I did some practice vs set defenses. Many times the QB was sacked, but almost every time the FL beats the coverage deep. So if the QB can get the ball off its a long gain, all he needs is about 3.5 sec.. So I thought I would try to work on a defense that I thought could take care of this. Started with a base 43 defense and went with a rotation to a 43 zone. The DB on the side vacated by the FL rolls deep 1/3, the deep DB on the side moves to the deep 1/3 zone and the DB on the side the motion is coming to takes the deep 1/3 on that side. Underneather coverage is not a problem. So I load up the offensive play vs this defense. The Fl had no trouble getting deep on the DB playing the deep 1/3 zone on that side. So I decided to go in and have all 3 deep coverage guys move even deeper. Even though the DB is moving back the FL blows by him as soon below. I hope doesnt indicate problems.

I noticed this too on a stock play. Seems the safeties have a problem when the zone is flooded, i.e. two players in there zone like a TE and a WR. In real life they almost always take the deep guy, sometimes jump the TE if they are guessing. I tried having the safety move back a couple of steps after the snap then do a "Read" command instead of zone coverage. This lead the safety to more often than not run with the deep reciever so he is double covered. Give it a shot.

[nmleague]

One thing that may be making this worse is that fact that I created a new league and the players generated and drafted might be a problem. It seems alot fo the WR have speed ratings of over 90. With this play even though the DB is running back to his zone theWR blows past him and easily gets behind the DB by 10-15 yards.

[Paul Vebber]

In addition to tweaking ratings, in te MAINDATA.mdb there is a sheet titled 'data consants' that has a bunch of variables he game uses to "synch" the engine. after BACKING UP the MAIN DATA.mdb, experimenting with some of thse can can help match the paler performance to your particular league style.

David has done a gret job in this Synching fo teh stock plays and three default leagues, but when you star designing your own plays and varying the league rules, you may want to futz with them a bit.

YOu can edit the range of player stats in the draft in the 'skillattributes_ranges' table in MAIN DATA.mdb

[Deft]

I think the reason this happens is what I mentioned in the PDS forum. The with game 11 man defenses are set on a smaller field than the 11 man offensive plays. So the zones are out of position.

[Paul Vebber]

Well take a look at that - thanks!

[Marauders]

The easiest way to get a play out is to create a new playbook just for that.

Create a playbook under the same mode as the play (8,11,12). Then open it up and import that one play into it. Create an export file and zip that file. Then send it over.

On the other end, the file has to be unzipped into the Maximum-Football folder and imported into the main playbook.

When you want to send other plays, just delete that one and use the playbook over again.

[Erik Rutins]

I'm attaching the plays that nmleague sent me to this post for easy reference.

(see attached zip file)

Regards,

- Erik

[Marauders]

Is that an illegal crackback block or at least an illegal block downfield by the split end?

[nmleague]

Haha there probably should be a penalty on the play, actuall the FL should look for the ball as soon as the ball is snapped, as the flares to the sideline and downfield. It was originallly designed as a quick flare, thus the SE is set to go down field and then block after the catch. But as you can see the FL turns on unbeilveable speed and is 30 yards down field when the QB throws.