play call assist option

[simmer]

I spoke to David some time via e-mail about this topic. I was hoping at this time that our developer can start to seriously think about adding a true play selector. I play in coach mode and I think that this latest game update has everything we need to play it. The only thing that I would like to see in the new model is that that the computers ability to offer plays based on each situation that I can select. The cpu chooses plays anyways and this would be much easier to play an entire game without hunting plays, and locating the right plays that I may never have the opportunity to call in an entire game. FBpro had this in the coach option. Right now I just play cpu vs cpu because I cant call the right plays on my own. If this was added in the future, this would be great for my game play.[&o]

[Marauders]

Setting up well organized playbooks would do a lot to help in this area.  I keep this in mind when creating advanced playbooks.
 
It would be difficult to have the plays shown that only the gameplan finds availble for that situation.  This is even more valid in that there are ANY designators in the gameplan.  That could be a total mess.
 
What might work is a selection that allows the coach to tell the offensive coordinator (the AI) to select a play.  That would allow the AI to use the gameplan for that play.
 
For example, it is third down and five yards to go on the 21 yard line with :40 to go in the first half.  Instead of digging for a play, the coach can hit the selection to allow the coordinator to call a play from the gameplan.
 
I don't know if that can even be programmed, but if it could, it is something to consider down the road.
 

[simmer]

That is not what I mean. When playing cpu vs cpu, the cpu now picks the play. I would like the opportunity to have this as a highlighted pick. Thats all, just reveal the cpu chosen play prior to the snap. I can either pick it or something else. It could be as simple as modifying it to as short run, medium run, or long run situation.

[garysorrell]

I think you mean something like the 'Ask madden' feature? I actually asked John a lot, never been much on defense, so his help was always appreciated.

[Marauders]

Yes, like the "Ask Madden" feature.  The game isn't set up to do that with the menus.
 
Perhaps it is something David can look into for a future version.  Again, I don't know what it would take to program something like that.
 

[simmer]

Yes, yes, yes....I could not think of exactly what the feature was called.....Thanks for the help Gary. Anyways, if this is already happening with the cpu called games, then I don't think that this should be that difficult to add. I hope David will add his opinion to this thread!

[jdhalfrack]

Perhaps it is something David can look into for a future version.  Again, I don't know what it would take to program something like that.

With Madden, this was one of the last features I toyed with before I stopped messing with Madden playbooks. Ultimately, the way Madden did it was there was a table called "PLAI" or something like that (stood for Play AI"). In this table there was a field for a "play type" code (Like "7" meant "normal passing play" and "3" meant "normal running play"). Then there was a field that held the Play ID and then a field that held the percent chance the play would be chosen if you asked Madden for help.

So, if there was 5 plays under the "normal passing play" option (as opposed to like a 3rd and Long situation) and each play had a 20% chance of being chosen, if you asked madden for help picking a play, and Madden determines that a normal passing play is needed, it would randomly chose one of those 5 plays based on percentage (which in our case was equal among all plays).

Now, unfortunately, Madden didn't utilize this option as well as it could have when it came to customization. When you made a custom playbook, Madden determined what plays were "good enough" to make it into the list of random plays. We were not allowed to change that. Until people like Skeletor (the person who single handedly helped me get into programming), Calhoupe, and myself started messing with playbooks, that option wasn't even know to exist. So, I believe Skeletor added an option to pick plays and percentages to add or remove (including certain situations) into his awesome playbook editor.

If David were to ever go about doing this, I think this is a very good way of doing it, but it would need to be easier for users to know what plays are included and they should be able to edit it if they so chose.

Anyway, that's all I have to say about that. [:)]

JD