Madden 17 Everything Playbooks (custom) for the CPU or user

[edgevoice]

Quote: Originally Posted by Trojan Man

I've read every page of this thread today looking for a clear statement of how the star system works and I'm still a tad unclear. I've gathered that 1/2 star makes a play available for the CPU to use and that this is why the generic books are better than the default books, since more plays have at least a half a star in the generic books than in the default books. I've gathered that 2 1/2 stars for all plays within a given situation makes them get called with equal frequency, but that you can tilt a situation toward the run by giving run plays in a run situation 4 stars and pass plays 1 1/2 or 2 stars. This can be flipped in passing situations. I've gathered that giving a handful of plays that are signature plays for a team or that go to signature players will make those plays more likely to be called but won't make them be called all the time. Are there any other tidbits for offense that I should know if I want to start working on my own books? And what do we know about how the star tiering works for defense? I've seen conflicting information about whether or not there are limits to how many plays you can put in a given situation--some have said unlimited plays can be added, and others have said that up to 30 can be added. Is there any clarity on that, whether for offense or defense?

TrojanMan, I cannot possibly tell you how many hours and bottles of Tylenol I went through trying to figure out all of your questions... Here is a link to a post I put up a week or so ago that may help you out. It won't help you regarding how the CPU calls plays, but it will definitely help you put together your book and have your plays come up situationally. I tried to explain it the best I could. If you have further questions I will do my best to answer. http://www.operationsports.com/forum...g-feature.html

[RogueHominid]

Quote: Originally Posted by edgevoice

TrojanMan, I cannot possibly tell you how many hours and bottles of Tylenol I went through trying to figure out all of your questions... Here is a link to a post I put up a week or so ago that may help you out. It won't help you regarding how the CPU calls plays, but it will definitely help you put together your book and have your plays come up situationally. I tried to explain it the best I could. If you have further questions I will do my best to answer. http://www.operationsports.com/forum...g-feature.html

Dude, that's amazing! Thank you! I'll read through this and PM with questions if I have any.

[edgevoice]

I just uploaded my offensive game plan. It's simply named edgeplan. Feel free to download it and use it as a template. You will wind up with 60 plays. I will check this post as well as mine and help as much as possible. Good luck.

[DeuceDouglas]

Quote: Originally Posted by Trojan Man

I've seen conflicting information about whether or not there are limits to how many plays you can put in a given situation--some have said unlimited plays can be added, and others have said that up to 30 can be added. Is there any clarity on that, whether for offense or defense?

I'm not sure if I can provide much clarity but I can give you some info based on my experience. I don't think there is a limit to how many plays can be put in a given situation but there is definitely a limit on how many plays can be starred for the entire playbook. When I first started I tried giving every play in a teams book a star for each situation but there comes a certain point where it won't allow you to do that any longer. I'm not sure what that limit is exactly but it is very high, I'm estimating ~2000 plays, because it didn't occur for me until I was a good ways in so we're talking ~400+ plays in 5-6 situations before it happened.

The one thing that I noticed however is that if you're adding plays from the "My Gameplan" section (Where you hit X or Square to add or remove play by situation) you can only add 30 plays before the Add Play part becomes grayed out. It doesn't stop you from adding plays to the situation because you can still give plays stars through the formations screen but it made me curious as to if the playbooks would only use the top 30 rated plays for a given situation rather than the entire bunch because of that. I never actually tested it and it would be something probably quite hard and tedious to do so but it was just food for thought.

I know that's not the clarity you're looking for but just some of my observations from my end.

[RogueHominid]

Quote: Originally Posted by DeuceDouglas

I'm not sure if I can provide much clarity but I can give you some info based on my experience. I don't think there is a limit to how many plays can be put in a given situation but there is definitely a limit on how many plays can be starred for the entire playbook. When I first started I tried giving every play in a teams book a star for each situation but there comes a certain point where it won't allow you to do that any longer. I'm not sure what that limit is exactly but it is very high, I'm estimating ~2000 plays, because it didn't occur for me until I was a good ways in so we're talking ~400+ plays in 5-6 situations before it happened. The one thing that I noticed however is that if you're adding plays from the "My Gameplan" section (Where you hit X or Square to add or remove play by situation) you can only add 30 plays before the Add Play part becomes grayed out. It doesn't stop you from adding plays to the situation because you can still give plays stars through the formations screen but it made me curious as to if the playbooks would only use the top 30 rated plays for a given situation rather than the entire bunch because of that. I never actually tested it and it would be something probably quite hard and tedious to do so but it was just food for thought. I know that's not the clarity you're looking for but just some of my observations from my end.

I started looking at the CPU generic books, which we all know play better than the default team books in solo CFM games when assigned to the CPU, as the generic books actually have some kind of sensible starting system in them.

What I noticed is that some situations would have plays rated in star tiers, while others would have a bunch of plays with just 1/2 star. I wondered if this was because the number of total stars for the book had been used up.

They really need a more intuitive and transparent system for setting up play call frequencies. I can't find a developer explanation of how precisely this works anywhere.

Thanks for weighing in. Figuring these playbooks and game plans out seems to be the secret to making this game great.

I'm 1-4 on default AP now with SF and it's been a blast. I'm working from Sabo's books, which eliminate lots of problems, like the routes the CPU tends to take sacks on. Consequently, I have 6 sacks in 4 games, 4 by one player! I can't remember a time in Madden where I was on pace for less than 30 sacks in a season. I normally get 60+.

[RogueHominid]

Quote: Originally Posted by edgevoice

I just uploaded my offensive game plan. It's simply named edgeplan. Feel free to download it and use it as a template. You will wind up with 60 plays. I will check this post as well as mine and help as much as possible. Good luck.

Thanks man, will do!

If you're on PS4, holler (Trojan Man OS).

[edgevoice]

Dang, sorry on XBOX ONE. Should have specified. Good Luck.

[DeuceDouglas]

Quote: Originally Posted by Trojan Man

I started looking at the CPU generic books, which we all know play better than the default team books in solo CFM games when assigned to the CPU, as the generic books actually have some kind of sensible starting system in them. What I noticed is that some situations would have plays rated in star tiers, while others would have a bunch of plays with just 1/2 star. I wondered if this was because the number of total stars for the book had been used up. They really need a more intuitive and transparent system for setting up play call frequencies. I can't find a developer explanation of how precisely this works anywhere. Thanks for weighing in. Figuring these playbooks and game plans out seems to be the secret to making this game great. I'm 1-4 on default AP now with SF and it's been a blast. I'm working from Sabo's books, which eliminate lots of problems, like the routes the CPU tends to take sacks on. Consequently, I have 6 sacks in 4 games, 4 by one player! I can't remember a time in Madden where I was on pace for less than 30 sacks in a season. I normally get 60+.

Yeah, the generics are definitely rated differently than the team defaults which is what helps them play better. Like you mentioned there's certain situations where all 20 plays will be rated a half-star which basically means any of those 20 plays pretty much stand an equal chance of being called in that situation. I think there's also a bit more variety in those 20 plays as well (not as much Curl Flats, Corner Strike, etc.) which is what makes them even better.

But when you look at the team defaults they're a lot different and often heavily skewed one way or the other. For example, if you look at the Packers they have 13 runs and 7 passes for their first down situation. If these were all half-starred then they'd still likely run more often on first down just based on the distribution but the way it's set up all their runs are four stars and the seven passes are one star. This is also part of what makes the CPU extremely predictable and too similar in nature regardless of who you're facing. When I looked into gameplans I looked at five teams and all five of them had either 13 or 14 runs to 6 or 7 passes on first downs and all the runs were four stars and all the passes were either 1 or 1.5 stars.

It's really unfortunate that this feature controls such a significant part of the game and it hasn't been improved or expanded upon since inception. Especially when solutions and/or improvements are so obvious and simple.