College playbook project

[nmleague]

As an addon for the college project Im going to start working on a college type playbook. At first Im going to concentrate on a college 52 slanting defense, set to the wide side of the field and slanting in that direction, but with audibles set up in case the offense lines up strong to the narrow side. I finnally got the formation to work with the 4 DL lined up in the right position. The base formation has a NG, two DT lined up on the OT and one DE lined up on the TE(actually on the wide side of the field, if the if the strength is to the narrow side and audible would be called). Two MLB, and the 5th DL is actually a OLB on the weak side. The playbook will have several zone coverages as well as man coverages.

For testing I will probably just put I formation plays form the default playbook.

If anyone is interested in testing this let me know.

The main goal is to have playbooks with about 4 college defensive schemes, and probably about 4-5 offensive schemes. If anyone is willing to work on either an offensive or defensive scheme to help out, let me know.

[Deltadog]

I will be interested in testing.

[nmleague]

I have about 8 basic 52 defenses done, with 4 audibles set up for that defense. I will try to add a few more special situation defenses yet today, plus write up an explanation of how the audibles are set up to correct the defense based on the offensive formation.

On the offensive side I have 4 Pro I formation plays done and practice tested. Will try to have about 6 more done by tonight, 20 possible plays plays with flipping. If I have time I will also add a twin I formation with some plays.

If these are done tonight I will upload the playbook to FBmax.

[simmer]

Thanks I can use that.

[22sec]

Will be looking forward to trying these. I was a little down the past couple of weeks in regards to the game and its progress. I was leary of putting time in on doing a college project, but with the most recent patch I have a little more enthusiasm for the game.

I have been playing Bowl Bound since the relase of its patch 1.1. While a good game, I just can't help but feel the results of plays are just random. At least with MFB I can see the lineback come across and make a tackle, or see a hole open for a RB.

Come on David keep on keeping on[:D]

[rroberson]

sounds good I will give em a look tonite and try to get some feed back to you.

[nmleague]

Quick update.. The first version of the playbook will use a base 52 defense, with 4 DL and 3 LB. The DL is shifted so that there is a NG on the C, 2 DT on the OT and one DE that lines up to the wide side or narrow side depends on the call. One LB basicly lines up on the side away from the DE, the two MLD aline one the OG. At this time using this as a basis, with the strength, DE one side or the other, with diffferent coverages, stunts, slants, angles, and Blitzs, the playbook is currently up to 16 possible defenses. Plus 4 audibles have been set covering situation when the defense is strong to the wide side and slanting that way, only to have the offense come out in a strong formation to the narrow side, etc.. All 16 have been tested in practice and they seem to work pretty good, need some hard core testing.

Now back to offense, I will give an update tonight.

[nmleague]

Latest news. Just finnished the first version of the college playbook. It has 16 basic defenses, no goaline etc. defenses. Also now 13 offensive plays (26 when flipped), I decided to stick with one offensive formation for now to get a good test of the defense and this offense. There is also the needed punt, punt return, kickoff, kickoff return and FG plays. Everthing has been tested in practice. Passing plays are difficult right now, if I practice them using Pro caliber players they work fine, if the caliber is college the QB scrambles way to much. The player ratings may have to be tweeked for college players, or better yet if the difference between skill ranges for Pro and college was reduced.

Anyway Im going to upload the first version of the college playbook to FBmax now. Im going to try a couple games tonight to see how it works. Feedback would be great, which plays work, which dont work at all, and ideas for more plays.

As I was doing this version I started to think how great it would be to have say 4 offenisve schemes and defensive schemes designed, to create 16 different playbooks using the combination of those. Would give some nice variety to a league.

Didnt have time to write anthing about the defensive audibles, take a look at them, you can probably figure out when they would be used.

[Shaggyra]

File posted at FBMAX.COM

[nmleague]

Ok, played one game with the college playbook, below is a screen shot of the final stats. Not bad, but two major problems.

1. The QBs scrambled on almost every pass play as you can see by the passes thrown.
2. I have to take a look at the aline on command, the DBs are lining up on one side as the offense comes up to the line, but when the QB starts his count they switch sides to have m2m coverage on the REC on the other side. And of course the QB has the ball snapped when they are crossing in the middle of the field. Will try to correct that tomorrow.

Also I noticed that I must have saved at least one offensive play to another playbook, as it is missing. A few of the defenses I saved as a mirror but I forgot to flip them.

Also I need to assign some offensive audibles, several times the offense had plays called that ended up going right to the defensive strength, need to be able to get out of those.

If anyone else is trying it out, please post any problems here.

[nmleague]

Just did a computer vs computer quick game with both teams using the college playbook. Below are the team stats, next post will be the individual stats.

Overall the game was pretty good, the first quarter was wide open, actually all the passes and completions shown in the stats occurred in the first quarter. After that quarter the QBs scrambled or were sacked every pass play. Minnesoata had a kick off returned for a TD. The running game was good, besides the QBs the RB were getting some nice yards. Oh the kickoff return yards were counted as rushing yards for the Gophers.

[nmleague]

Here are the inidividual stats. From a post by David, it looks like he is working on having the players with an alinement command, make that adjustment as they come out of the huddle, and not wait untill the QBs start the snap cound.. That would be a big help.

[nmleague]

Update.. By sometime tonight I will upload a new version with these changes/additons.

1. Tightened up the defense. For audibles I need to have a few defensive sets going to both the right and left, but I also did the same for a number of the other defensive sets. These can just be flipped during the play calling, so I have removed about 5 of the defensive sets to cut down on confusion. Also will try to eliminate the DB trying to cross the field to cover REC on the other side once the QB starting the snap count.
2. Im adding an I formation with a TE to one side and twins (slot and SE) to the other side. Will try to have at least 10 plays for this formation.
3. Adding motion to both formations to counter the defensive strenth and slanting. Will be mainly used for running plays as the game still doesnt cover motion recievers very well. Probably about 3-4 plays with motion for each of the two formations.

[Deltadog]

I ran a game cpu vs cpu using league teams set at college/HS and pretty much observed the same thing you did in your first game. i.e the DB running accross the fileld trying to reach their man and getting out of position and QB scrambling way too much. One QB threw 4 times, the first 4 plays of the game. He completede one for 12 and the rest were incomplete. All the rest of the time had handed off or scrambled. Often he would roll out and under no pressure turn up field and run. The other teams QB did not throw at all.

The zip file downloaded from FBmax had no play book file and 83 play files. I created my own play book and them ran the import playbook routine and got 13 offensive plays and 16 defensive plays. There were no plays in the audible slots and I had no idea which ones you meant to be placed there. Not sure if there can be audibles in CPU vs CPU mode. Since I prefer to let the QB call the plays, this is the only mode I use.

I analyzed the game log and the following are the offensive plays run, the number of times run and the average results:

OFFENSIVE PLAY TIMES RUN Avg gain/loss
PROIRCOUNTERPA 5 ( -1.40)
PROIRFBDIV 9 ( 3.89)
PROIRFBDIVW 7 ( 5.29)
PROIRHBCOUNTER 6 (3.33)
PROIRHBLEAD 8 (2.38)
PROIR-HBWEAK 3 ( 7.67)
PROIRHBWEAKPA 11 (2.09)
PROIR-OPTL 6 (7.00)
PROIRQUICKPA 9 ( 1.44)
PROIRSWINGPASS 7 (2.14)
PROIRTOSSSWEEP 7 ( 4.14)
PROIRVEEROPTW 7 (12.86)


The chart above loses its formatting when posted. The number following the name of the play, none of which end in a number is the times called and the number in ( ) is the average)

If I am supposed to have more offensive and defensive plays than the number stated above please advise. If possible you may want to delete all the extra plays from the zip file and include your playbook file. (not sure if it will run if not on the computer that made it, but it is a database file (pbk extension is Play folder) that can be read and edited in access. )

[Deltadog]

This is the same information sorted by defensive plays.

52LANGLE43Z 13 = 6.08
52LANGLE52Z 4 = 0.75
52LANGLEDBBLITZ 2 = -2.50
52LANGLEM2M2D 7 = 6.71
52LBASEM2M 4 = 8.40
52LMIDSTUNTM2M 8 = 1.75
52LPINCHM2M 3 = 4.67
52LSLANT52Z 3 = 0.67
52LSLANTLBBLITZ 7 = 1.29
52RANGLE52Z 6 = 6.83
52RBASEM2M 7 = 4.14
52RMIDSTUNTM2M 5 = 1.60
52RPINCHM2M 9 = 5.00
52RSLANT52Z 4 = -0.25
52RSLANTLBBLITZ 2 = 6.00


The = serves that same purpose as the ( ) in the offensive chart.

[nmleague]

Deltadog thanks for the information!! Your data and my observations seems to show that the running game is working pretty good, the scrambling threshold for the QBs has to be changed, if not by David then manually. The first version did have 16 defensive plays and 13 offensive. Today I have cut the number of defenses down, less confusing, and Im adding a new formation and plays, also adding some motion plays to both formations. Also Im going to check the defenses and try to eliminate the DB problem, but it sounds as if David is aware of the problem and is also trying to have the DB adjust before the snap count begins.

Im also going to put in 4 audibles for the offense, 2 for each formation, basicly check offs to go away from the defensive strength.

I havent imported any playbooks so Im not sure how the whole thing works, I just exported the playbook, then zipped that and uploaded it.

For the next version (version3) I will add more on the defensive side.

[nmleague]

Just played a quarter of a quick game to test the offensive audibles I added to the college playbook. I controlled one team the CPU the other. It really worked great, the team I controlled had one drive of about 89 yards in the quarter, every play a run, about 1 in 3 plays an audible. The result was alot of 3-6 yard runs, very few below that, and a couple of 8-12 yard runs.

[Deltadog]

It appears that when one exports a playbook nothing but the plays in that book goes. I don't know what will happen if you manually add the *.pbk file from the play directory to the zip file and someone else tries to use it, but it would be interesting to find out[;)]

[nmleague]

Update: Just finnished adding the new formation with 12-13 plays. Also did a work around for the DB, in the presnap formation I have them standing in the middle so they just have to run to the side of the reciever they are covering. The only defenses effect where ones with m2m coverage. Im going to do a quick game now, and if things go ok will upload this version right after.

Oh I decided to hold off on the motion plays until the next verson, I think the defense will have their hands full with just these two offensive formations. Also did set up 4 offensive audibles, two for each formation.

[nmleague]

OK!! [:D] Just played one quarter of a quick game, me vs CPU using the latest version of the college playbook. The first quarter stats are below, and I will post one game SS in the next post. This was a blast, as you can tell by the stats the offense is wide open but not crazy, will need to work more on the defense, put this was fun. Used offensive audibles, I controlled Michigan, Wisconsin moved the ball but had a couple of fumbles that hurt. The work around for DB was ok except when the offense ran a quick out to one of the wide recievers that one of the DB couldnt get out to cover, hopefully David will fix this.

Oh also the QBs did not scramble once, so the rushing yardage is actual yards gained by RB.