Patch 1.39 problems

[nmleague]

Just tried a few quick games, CPU vs CPU with the latest patch. Here are two problems that came up.

1. Kick off, the kicker kicks the ball, it goes about 1 yard, one of the kicking team picks it up and runs with it. This is something that was happening in the last patch.

2. This is something that happened in a quick game between two teams that the computer generated players for. The punting team didnt have a punter in that slot. On fourth down the team punts. The punter kicks the ball 1 yard, he and the rest of the punting team stand around waiting for one of the defensive team to run in and pick up the ball. In this case the defensive player picked it up and ran it in for a TD. This has happened many times before.

[MAF]

I found that you have to make sure that all of the positions in the depth cart are filled. If you're playing a CPU vs CPU game, you'll have to do it before you start the game.

[nmleague]

I understand the problem if there is not a punter in the punter slot, as I mentioned and for any league games it wont be a problem. I think there is a problem with the logic of the punting team though. OL usually at told not to leave the LOS until the ball is punted, then they go to the ball and cover the punt of down the ball. In this case both the punter and OL didnt move once the ball was punted 1 yard, all should have gone to the ball to down it.

[nmleague]

Some more problems. These were seen in a CPU vs CPU quick game.

1. One team acrored a TD, for the kick off only one of the kicking team came onto the field, the kicker, and he would not kick. I saved the game, and then reloaded the game. Now the kicking team was given possesion on their own 35 yard line, where they would have kicked from. EDIT Found the problem with this, when I deleted the kickoff play from one playbook it was corrupted for all other playbooks using it.

2. Punt coverage, with the past two versions alot of punts go near the sidelines, in most cases the punt coverage team ignores where the ball is going and dont react until the return man starts up filed. Unfortunately the usually results in a long return.

3. I have now seen this in two games using the latest patch. The QB pitch to the HB and then flare out away from the HB. The HB then throws back to theQB, so far so good. Now here is what happens, the QB just stands there, better yet the whole defensive team runs over and unloads on him, but they all fall down, but they get up and keep trying to tackle him. He is unmoved.[:D]

[Magnum357]

Hey nmleague, I am having similar problems with punts aswell. With the latest patch (1.039) the punter still trys to punt at angles torward the sidelines. I know this happens in real life, but in the game, I would be happy if he would most of the time just punt straight down feild because the returner usually gets good return yards. I can understand doing this if your punting on the Defensives 40 yard line or less, but if your on your side of the feild or mid feild I would just like to have the punter punt straight most of the time.

[nmleague]

Looks like we are back to punt returners catching a punt inside the 5 and trying to run with it.

[Magnum357]

Ya, I guess that is pretty much is what is happening with me. I have yet too see a Fair Catch with Patch 1.039. But then again, it was extremely rare for me too see a Fair Catch at all even before Patch 1.039. And I never forget to pick "Allow Fair Catches" in the rule section of quick play games.

[nmleague]

It would be great if the punt return man would give a fair catch signal but then move to the side and let the ball go into the endzone

[Deltadog]

nmleague

Re the punts going toward the side lines. I reported this happening when testing the College playbook. The big returns were stopped to some degree by editing the punt play and cutting out the path that had the outside coverage men going down and slanting toward the middle before the cover punt command. The situation was improved still more when I moved to coverage path wider toward the side lines.

While this worked to eliminate the big returns, it would have been nice if the kicker would not kick toward the right side line so ofter. (it is always toward the right side line) This seems to happen probably 90% of all punts I have seen and started with the beta patch that eliminated the kicks that went out of bounds right at the LOS.

Kick offs are generally all toward that right sideline also.

You and Magnum357 report few fair catches. While I have not installed the official patch yet, I have NEVER seen a failr catch since the first test game I ran from the original issue throught all the prior patches and like wise have never seen the receiver signal a fair catch allow the ball to bounce into the end zone. As you indicate the receiver catches the ball and tries to return it regardless of position on the field. Have seen catches in the end zone that were not returned, but none outside the end zone.

(all test games I have run have been with american rules and fair catches allowed)

[Magnum357]

Ya, I have seen just a few (and I mean, VERY few) Punts and Kickoffs Downed in the endzone (the player just taking a knee in the endzone) but I haven't seen it happend now over the past few patches. I can't recall if I ever seen a Downed Punt by the Punting team, not sure on that, but I don't think I have even seen one. I have seen a couple of Fair Catches, but again that was a few patches ago and haven't not seen one in the latest patch. I never really reported these issues as I didn't consider it a big gameplay breaker, at least not to me.

The only thing I'm complaining about is the angle punts. There are a lot of them, but I'm glad to hear that you can just design a punt play to cover the Punt better then the stock plays.

[nmleague]

Delta I remember your post about the punt coverage and the latest college playbook has a punt play in which I took away the angle in at the end of the coverage for the outside guys. But I did still have them go wide and then had them run down field in that ran for a good distance. Turns out while running from one command point to another they pretty much are locked in and dont react to the punt direction or for that matter the return man. So I think I will just have them move out and up field a little then will have a cover kick command for them to see if it works better.

I have had both kickoffs and punts caught in the endzone and downed. In the first versons of the game it seemd that punt returners were always making fair catches inside the 10 yards line instead of letting the ball hit with a chance for it to go into the endzone. Lately I havent seen them make fair catches inside the 10 very often, but now they are catching the ball inside the 5-10 and trying to run it out.

[nmleague]

Just did another CPU vs CPU game, players at pro level, here are some more observations/problems/needs.

1. One team had the ball with about a min. left in the half. They used the clock well and taking two timeouts got to the oppanants 24 yard line, at which time they took their 3rd time out. On the next play they picked up 12 yards, down to the 12, at the end of the play there was 24 seconds left in the half. Of course the clock ran out[:@], in real life the team would have run up to the LOS and spiked the ball to stop the clock. Is this possible in MF, or did the AI just not do it. I remember that FPS had a neat way of handling it, it was one button click for the offense to call the play and they ran it quickly.

2. Im not sure about this one. I had the computer playing, I came back tot he computer to click for the start of the 4th quarter. The stats to the end of the 3rd quarter were up. It results of the last play summary was also on the screen, it was a punt with a return of one yard. I clicked the continue button, the first play of the quarter was one team punting to the other, not sure one team had acutally punted to end the quarter, and if they punted again to start the next quarter, or if the team that recieved the punt started the quarter by punting.

3. Is it possible to set in a playbook profile when certain plays will only be used. For some reason teams are using goaline defenses at any time at any location on the field. Not sure if the AI realizes the difference between a regular defense and the goaline with 6 DL. It is using goalline on 2 and 12 at midfield.

[Breeze]

I'm seeing a return of punts bouncing in front of the return man before they pick the ball up. That was gone in the past few patches but it's back.

I am seeing kickoffs go into the endzone and being downed.

[Deltadog]

ORIGINAL: nmleague

3. Is it possible to set in a playbook profile when certain plays will only be used. For some reason teams are using goaline defenses at any time at any location on the field. Not sure if the AI realizes the difference between a regular defense and the goaline with 6 DL. It is using goalline on 2 and 12 at midfield.

You would think so. Note that there is a button marked situations on the playbook screen. If you open the playbook database in access you see that there is a situations table as is shown in the picture which follows. No idea how you get data in that database. No doubt it could be entered directly using accesds, but I don't know the format of those entries. Maybe that it is the same format as in the offense and defense profiles. (numbrers for each category)

[David Winter]

Every play in the play book can be flagged as situation use only. This means the computer will never call this play unless it finds a coaching situation that exactly matches the game situation.

[nmleague]

David thanks for that response. If that box is check what determines what the situation is, is there somewhere a user can define it?

[cbelva]

Yes, Go to the tab in the above example by David marked "Offensive Profile" and Defensive Profile". There you can setup the profile as to when a computer team will call certain plays. The profiles seem to work well. They can be quite detailed or simple. I have been working slowly on a profile and am quite impressed. I hope that David fixes a couple of problems I have pointed out in another post.

[Deft]

If you use my template their are groups already set up to drop in your goal line and long distance plays.

[Deltadog]

I have tried to profiles also. In a game, on only one occasion was one of the 174 situations met and while the game was to call a pass 100% of the time it instead called a running play.

While I understand how to set up these profiles and how to link those profiles to 4 specific plays, but do not understand how it will restrict a specific play to that one situation or can it restrict that play to more than one situation so long as the play is marked for a specific situation and in each instance a profile is set at the same time?

[cbelva]

I am having no problem with the profiles I have set up to work as intended. There have been instances when I would see a play called that was not part of a profile. However, in every instance I found that the AI was confronted with a situation not covered by one of the profiles. I added that situation to my profiles and it was corrected.

After setting up your profiles, if there are plays that you only want used in the specific situation as defined by the profile (in other words, if there is situation not covered by a profile, how do you keep the AI from calling this particular play) check the box that David pointed out on the playbook window and the computer is restricted from using it unless it is triggered by the profile.