Modular Custom Playbook

[PowerofRed25]

As glitched out as "custom" playbooks have been this year, it is still probably my favorite feature of the game. I use them constantly, I fine tune my offense for every dynasty based on personnel and change it year to year as guys come and go. But I keep running into the problem of the concepts I am wanting to run not working or being available in certain formations.

For example, my latest playbook (for use with Nebraska) is called Husker Power Raid. It takes a multiple back power option offense and pairs it with air raid concepts from the gun. The way it ended up was 5 I, 2 Wishbone, 1 Flexbone, 5 Pistol, 10 Shotgun. Ideally, I did not want to include any Shotgun; however, I run into the problem that the Pistol just doesn't have a complete set of Air Raid concepts and the option reads out of pistol simply do not work.

So my idea to change custom playbooks is this. Make it completely modular. Instead of it being specific plays inside of specific formations, separate the two with the option to either start from scratch or edit an existing book.

For example:

If I were to start from scratch, I would be taken to a menu with all the available formations in it, categorized exactly like they are now. From there I can select whatever formations I want to use, and then hit advance.

Which would take me to a Concepts menu. The Concepts menu would be cycled between Run, Pass using L2 and within each of those, could be cycled between individual types using R2. So I could select run and then have Inside/Outside/Pitch/Counter/Draw/FB/QB/Special or I could select pass and have Quick/Standard/Shotgun/Play Action/Screen. This is exactly how they are broken down when selecting plays by play style, so the coding is in there.

From the individual concepts menus, you could select and assign plays from each concept to formations either one at a time or multiple formations at once (think the check box for setting visit topics in recruiting).

Once you're done with that, you advance again and can reorder both the formations/sets as they appear in the playbook menu and the plays within the formation itself.

The overall goal here is to have every concept available out of every formation. It would eliminate the situation now where there are multiple versions of the same play in every formation and it would allow you to truly customize your scheme.

So if I want to run a Kentucky/early Oklahoma Mike Leach air raid, I could select Split Backs, select the variety of air raid concepts from the pass category, assign them to those formations and I'd be good to go. If I want to run a Ski-Gun style spread option attack out of the Pistol, I can install those concepts in all the formations (oh, and fix the animation so it works).

That is how you get a try custom playbook experience and it would not be that hard to install, in fact, it would streamline the playbooks quite a bit and pare down the total number of plays.

Good idea? Awful idea? Impractical?

[SonOfEd]

Great idea! It seems much easier than trying to impliment a create-a-play freature. There should be certain concepts in every formation ie: WR Quick/Fly Sweep, but also include the PA and Fake HB dive plays. Anyway, would love to see this in the game.

[MIFB13]

Great idea, and also realistic. Real teams don't call plays in different formations different names (with very few exceptions), and this would get rid of a lot of the clutter that exist in the playbooks currently. At the same time, this would add quite a bit of nice new plays into old formations.

[Hot RoDD T]

Extremely great idea brotha! I always wanted a custom play creator like Madden had in '04, and FIFA's set piece creator, but that may take too much disk space. But if they have the line concepts, and running & passing game concepts like you say, I think it could work great. Even if they did allow a custom play creator, not the amount of freedom as the FIFA set one (where you create your guys' running routes), but instead just have all the possible passing routes available it would allow alot more customization & personalization to custom playbooks. I always create my own route combos through hot routes, but certain pass patterns aren't available at the line of scrimmage, such as flat routes, post corners, hitch & gos, etc...

Also, I'd really love the ability to abort a play action and get rid of the ball quickly if needed. Disappointed that I must carry out the entire playfake with 6 rushers coming at me.

Not what your topic brought up, but I'm always looking to get my 2cents out there on the improvement of my fav game. I do love your idea though man! And I believe that EA's job would be easier once they did it themselves. They could offer more varied team playbooks, and it could also slash their play input time during playbook development.

[PowerofRed25]

Quote: Originally Posted by MIFB13

Great idea, and also realistic. Real teams don't call plays in different formations different names (with very few exceptions), and this would get rid of a lot of the clutter that exist in the playbooks currently. At the same time, this would add quite a bit of nice new plays into old formations.

Exactly. The majority of teams run the same handful of concepts out of a variety of formations. It's why guys like Paul Johnson and Mike Leach can basically run an offense of a cocktail napkin. You look at what Boise State does, one of the most "multiple" offenses in the nation, and it is all the same base concepts out of 15 or 20 different formations. Formations are the key to scheme, not being able to run 30 different plays out of a formation. Formations are what controls the defense, you make the defense do what you want using different alignments.

Nebraska this year is running a ton of the same stuff Tom Osborne did 15 years ago, literally straight out of the playbook, I have a copy of it. We run 41/49 Pitch, Arc Option, various traps, powers and isos, all basic stuff that's been around for decades but we do it out of single back, two back I, Pistol, Double wing formations (Flexbone), Shotgun. We go from 2 TE/HB/FB to 4 WR to run all this stuff and we lead the Big Ten in rushing because of it.

There is way too much garbage inside custom playbooks in this game, even the default playbooks are filled with garbage. Of the 300 some plays in most default team playbooks, no more than 100 are usable for whatever reason. The routes may be too slow, the play action doesn't work, the read option animation doesn't move quickly enough (pistol), the play isn't blocked right or at all.

Streamlining the playbooks as I explained about would allow the design team to focus on getting the animations standardized, independent of formation. Program the OL as a unit. Program each WR route individually with no team/play specific variations like we have now. Program the mesh point between QB and HB or FB on the read the exact same across every formation.

Once that is accomplished and applied for every team so each team's playbook has their true base offensive scheme in it, you can go in and add "special" formations/plays/animations that only certain teams do. For example: Boise's statue of liberty, Oregon's (and others) slot back motion into the backfield for a triple option look, teams that execute a spread triple option where the options are give, keep, bubble screen rather than give, keep, pitch. It wouldn't take much work or research to do this and give each team one or two "special", team specific looks in addition to the base scheme given to them.

This seriously would not be hard, the stuff is already in the game, they would just would need to standardize the animations across all formations. It couldn't take longer than a week of motion capture work, which I assume they still do.

If they needed a list of types of runs/pass concepts to use, I'm sure any number of people both here and within the football community would be happy to help.

[MIFB13]

Exactly. I am currently playing real football, and if we go from our Black formation to our Black Gun formation, absolutely nothing changes besides the QB going to shotgun, we still run the same plays, with the same personnel, with the same names. In NCAA, if you go to a shotgun version of a formation, all of a sudden it's completely different; different plays, different pass routes, different schemes, when everything should still be the same.

Another thing that bothers me is some plays only being in certain formations. Take "Strong Power" or Power G as it would be called by most people, is only available in a few pistol formations. Why? Why in the world would it not work under-center or in shotgun? Power O works under-center and in shotgun (although it's referred to as 45 Quick Base, or HB Base), so why wouldn't Power G? I just wish I had all these different concepts available to me in all my formations, so I could make everything universal. I can run Counter Trey in Shotgun Split Offset, why can't I run it in Shotgun Split Twins? I can run Triple Option Reverse in I form Slot, why not in I form Normal?

Arcade or Sim EA, pick one.

[PowerofRed25]

Quote: Originally Posted by MIFB13

Exactly. I am currently playing real football, and if we go from our Black formation to our Black Gun formation, absolutely nothing changes besides the QB going to shotgun, we still run the same plays, with the same personnel, with the same names. In NCAA, if you go to a shotgun version of a formation, all of a sudden it's completely different; different plays, different pass routes, different schemes, when everything should still be the same. Another thing that bothers me is some plays only being in certain formations. Take "Strong Power" or Power G as it would be called by most people, is only available in a few pistol formations. Why? Why in the world would it not work under-center or in shotgun? Power O works under-center and in shotgun (although it's referred to as 45 Quick Base, or HB Base), so why wouldn't Power G? I just wish I had all these different concepts available to me in all my formations, so I could make everything universal. I can run Counter Trey in Shotgun Split Offset, why can't I run it in Shotgun Split Twins? I can run Triple Option Reverse in I form Slot, why not in I form Normal? Arcade or Sim EA, pick one.

So much here I agree with and have been irritated by.

And just to add on to the first paragraph. Not only do the plays, routes, alignments change when you go between Ace, Pistol, Gun, but a lot of times, the personnel have to change spots.

I had originally intended to make a Balanced Multiple Back offense using Wishbone Tight/Wide, Maryland I (as Goal Line, in AF's book), Pistol Ace, Full House, Spread plus a few I and 2x2 Shotgun sets. I'd run it no huddle, with base personnel which would have been 2 HB, 2 WR, TE.

Now ideally, if I were to go from Pistol Full House to Pistol Spread, it would be a simple shift of the two split backs (in this case HB2 and my TE) to the slot WR position and back again if I did it reverse. In all of EA's wisdom, the players cross each other moving from Full House to Spread and then Spread to FH, the HB1 who should be the Pistol back splits wide and a WR comes to the backfield.

This problem is pretty much tied to the ridiculous depth charts. Why they continue to force generic depth charts on us blows my mind. Give me X, Y, Z, H, J, E, whatever terminology you want to use. That way I can have my X WR lined up in the same spot, my Z WR lined up in the same spot. That way no matter what personnel package I have on the field, or which direction I flip the play, or which audible shift I make, the alignment remains the same.

If playbooks have "Option, Air Raid, Multiple, One Back" designators, those should give you an Option, Air Raid, Multiple, One Back depth chart. So I can assign A and B backs in the Flex or a FB/TE H-Back hybrid in a one back offense, or X, Z, E, J, T or R in a Spread Option offense (no idea why Urban Meyer picked E, J, T and R, but that's what he called them).

This should all make the programming a lot easier and streamlined, it is a much simpler way of doing things. The way it is now is very clunky and difficult. Not sure why this can't be implemented.

Your second paragraph is exactly why I made this thread. A) Why do all of these plays which are exactly the same have to be called different things in every formation and B) Why are they not available in all the formations?

What is so difficult about having:

Iso
Dive
Trap (and a counter trap)
Power O/G (and a Power GO play, which is in the game as the Buck Sweep in Shotgun only)
Pitch (Both a wide pitch and a Nebraska/LSU style quick pitch with a pulling center and playside guard with the QB walling off the backside end/backer)
Stretch/Slant
Draw
Counter
Sprint/Arc option

That's all you need. Take all of that, make them available in every formation, blocked exactly the same and you can have a base run package for any team. After that, you can install the special run packages, reverses, automotion Flexbone and Motion Option stuff, Veer, Inverted Veer and 3 Tech Midline read options, read option out of the Pistol and Gun, etc. All of those would be added to the special run category.

Passing concepts would be a bit more difficult to add but it is doable in the same manner.

Just streamline the whole thing and make this so much easier for everyone.

[seawolves9]

Lots of good stuff in here. You guys are on point with everything you're saying. It all makes incredible sense.

To me, the playbooks look and feel clunky when maneuvering through them. I'm constantly changing formations just to get to that one counter play or dive play that the others don't have, for whatever reason.

On a side, but related note, plays need to be better executed on the field. This is more of a gameplay issue, but I can't tell you how many times I've had an offensive lineman refuse to block the guy directly in front of him and instead go up to the second level when it makes no sense at all. More than half the time that unblocked backside lineman easily chases down my halfback.

I agree with you on the options from the Pistol. They take forever to develop because of the animations. In reality, that's a bang-bang kind of play. I was really looking forward to running a Pistol exclusive heavy option kind of run attack when the game came out, but after a few games, I realized my efforts were futile. It's impossible to get a consistent running game with the pistol using the options. Another thing that frustrates me enough to where I want to punch a hole through my TV, is when the read key plays the RB, while also playing the QB. They'll crash hard on the RB but somehow do a 360, or even just straight up bull rush my QB, tackling him. I know some players might be able to do this, but not every defensive end in the game should have that kind of athleticism. In order to stop the option, you have to really commit to it and bring extra defenders in order to disrupt it. Very really is one man able to cause havoc against an option style team.

I have a question though. Is there a game programmed pitch key on option plays? Or is it something that I just do in my head naturally? If there is a pitch key, great, if not, they need to create one. It can leave option plays in shambles without a pitch key.

EA needs to revisit their playbooks without a doubt. Will they? Who knows. I couldn't tell you if what you're saying would appeal to a customer on the street, but from a sim point of view, it makes tremendous sense.