How would you differentiate coaches?

[canes21]

As the title says, how would you go about making coaches feel different?

We've already seen EA's attempts with their coaching skill trees in both the NCAA series and now recent Madden games, but is it enough for you? Would you want more than the HC, OC, and DC to be in the game even if fictional? Would you want negative traits among coaches? Do you want their impacts to be known like "+3 to Short Accuracy", or would you rather there be more ambiguity? Do you want to see a tendency system fleshed out?

Coaching is one side of the game I feel has never really been fleshed out enough in football games and it is something I really think is important in college sports and I feel EA really should focus on in the upcoming college game. I want to see how others feel and what they'd want to see from the coaching side of things.

[canes21]

For me, the coaching systems have been welcome, but they've never been approached like how I wish they were.

The key points for a coaching system for me are:

1. All on-field coaching spots
2. Ambiguity
3. Coaching tendencies
4. Coaching progression and regression
5. Positive and negative effects

1. All on-field coaching spots.

Spoiler

Having the OC and DC is nice, but it is 2023 and we really should be seeing all on-field coaching spots be open to fill. Staff makeup should also be dynamic to reflect real life. What I mean by this is in real life some teams have a LB coach, others have an OLB and ILB coach. Some teams go with one Secondary coach, others hire a CB coach and a Safety coach. Give us the 10 on-field slots to fill and allow us AND the CPU to fill out our staffs more appropriately to fit our systems and our priorities.

2. Ambiguity.

Spoiler

What I mean by this is no more "+3 to Run Block Power" type of stuff. That is static and too omniscient for me. Instead, I would love to see every coach have a Reputation Level. This can be displayed by words like Unknown, Poor, Average, Good, Great, Elite. It could be a bar allowing for a bit more ambiguity, but still a clear enough display of how a coach is perceived. Just have something there that isn't 100% correct, but gives the user and CPU an idea of how good the coach is perceived to be.

On top of the reputation level, I'd love to see each coach have a coaching card that has a written summary about the coach. It won't detail every little aspect of the position, just what that coach in particular is known for. Some coaches will have short summaries like "Is known as an elite recruiter". Another QB coach may have a report that says they are "known for developing their QB's mechanics wonderfully, getting their QB's to know where to go with the ball, but is not known for their recruiting ability.

You can infer that the first coach is a recruiter and that's about it. What you don't know is if he provides any buffs(or nerfs) for his position group. However, with the second coach it is clear that he should help develop his QB room better than most coaches, he'll get their accuracy and awareness ratings to improve based off the written report, but he won't be winning recruiting battles for elite guys more than likely. Again, you know what he is supposed to be good at, but you don't know if that means a +3 to Short Accuracy, you just know he is supposed to be a good developer.

Obviously behind the scenes numbers will be involved because they have to be, but the user and CPU will not see the actual numbers for the buffs/nerfs. I'd also like to see these buffs/nerfs be dynamic from year to year based off how a coach is progressing/regressing at that point in their career. Their Reputation Level will help give you an idea of where they are in their career, but if a guy is starting to regress, the Reputation Level may not reflect that until the following season when the game is clearly passing them by.

3. Tendencies.

Spoiler

This is something I truly would love to see go really deep. How often does a coach run a certain package, how often do they run to the strong side, how often do they implement motion into their system, do they prefer veteran or younger players more? Do they give their QB power to audible and make changes at the line? How often and well do they actually adjust themselves throughout the game based on what is and is not working?

Tendencies on and off the field can really make each coach feel different creating unique dynasty experiences for everyone. I'd love to see a coach in my conference that is super aggressive, willing to adapt, and is just a tough opponent to face annually because you never know what you're facing in them as they adjust to their team extremely well. On the flip side, I'd love to see my rival hire a stubborn coach that prefers veteran players heavily, does not adjust much at all during the game, does not give the QB autonomy to make adjustments at the line, etc. This guy may win if he recruits elite players, but if your teams are even, you may have an easier time beating him because of his stubbornness.

4. Coaching progression and regression.

Spoiler

I slightly touched on this in 2, but coaches progress and regress just like players do. They do it over a longer period of time typically, but not all coaches become good in an area and are that good forever. The game passes even the elite coaches by at some point and I'd love to see this reflected in the game. Maybe my rival has a great coach that has them in the middle of a tremendous 12-year run where they have 2 titles and are winning the conference nearly every year. However, their coach is getting older, their staff isn't as full of elite guys, and their coaching card summaries are hinting towards their development and recruiting abilities declining. As a result, the next 3 years sees the program step back and opens up the window for you or another CPU team to step in and become the new king of the conference.

In this example, maybe your other rival hires an up and coming coach who happens to make great hires, all the coaches progress well, and you're stuck once again having a rival dominate the conference for the foreseeable future. This is the type of dynamic gameplay that makes a dynasty fun and feel unique.

5. Positive and negative effects.

Spoiler

Also something I've touched on a bit already, but I'd love to see coaches that are known to be bad in certain areas like recruiting. Or they may be elite recruiters, but they don't develop well. I'd also like to see a coach that has a very bare coaching card, but under the hood they may actually be making their position group slightly worse, but you don't know it as it isn't written clearly in front of you in an elementary manner.

For example, you hire a new OL coach that has an okay reputation and his coaching card only talks about his elite recruiting. You justify it by saying if he can recruit elite OL then you don't need them to develop as much because they are already going to be great players when they step on campus, or that is the hope at least. However, you get into the new season and you notice in the first game your OL feels a bit worse than last year, but think maybe it is just a 1-game thing. Then weeks 2 and 3 your OL play continues to be a notch below the previous year. By the end of the year you have seen enough to know that your new OL coach is actually hurting the OL group and you have to make a decision to keep him and hope that recruiting is worth it, or do you move on quickly after just one year and bring in a guy that is known for developing OL's better.

These are the types of decisions that I think make the game on and off the field more engaging. The impacts are felt directly on the field as well as off of it with recruiting making the decisions more impactful which makes messing around in the menus less of a pain. When you have to do 100 things in the menu, but none are that important, it becomes an annoyance. When you're making a few decisions, that are clearly important, and the impact of these decisions is felt in the recruiting and on the field when playing, then they are more engaging and are less of annoyance to deal with.

It's a long post and I apologize, but this is an area of the game I really wish was one of the main focuses as I believe it can truly make the dynasty experience go from being good to being at the top of its class. These types of details are what make text sim games like Out of the Park feel alive, dynamic, and amazing despite having no on-field gameplay. If you could get this level of depth to a coaching system and have it impact the game on and off the field, you already have one of, if not the best, career modes in all of sports gaming history.

[illwill10]

That has been one of my bigger gripes. A coach's impact should be a lot more noticeable. I always felt like Madden/NCAA needed a true tendency system. Not just for players, but for coaches as well. In a perfect world for me, they would implement a system like thr old 2k VIP system. It wasn't perfect, but the intention of the system would really bold well for modern gaming. You could go really in depth with a system like that to how a coach handles specific situations

A VIP system would be my preferred method. But, I also think you can implement a system by just building off of what they already had in place. I believe in NCAA 14, each coach had a profile that had info like playbooks and schemes. I feel you can just expand the profile to differentiate coaches. For example, a conservative vs aggressive meter, Man vs zone, Blitz vs rush w/ 4, Run vs Pass, Substitution %, Trick plays %, etc. I feel like with the current system, you have to cover all the bases or it'll have all the coaches performing similarly. I actually think they do implement good features, they just don't fully flesh them out after year 1 or 2. Like with the Player Traits(Cover ball, hit stick, etc) in Madden. You could have a full tendency system if they would have added more aspects of the game. They could have added something like Throw Away trait. Where QBs who have "No" throw Away will hold onto the ball and try to force passes.

[OBinKC]

I don’t ask for much when it comes to handling the coaching features. Perhaps I’m a little jaded as the dynasty eventually becomes too easy and any new perks only make it easier. BUT, the one thing I would like to see is for a head coach to be the one to hire his coordinators, and you have to run their specific playbook. Maybe have a way to incorporate custom playbooks as long as it doesn’t deviate from the coordinator’s play style, idk.

I would love to think about the more intricate ways to incorporate coach personalities and tendencies, but with the way EA strips more and more features with each new Gen, I’d first like to start with the basics.

[illwill10]

Quote: Originally Posted by OBinKC

I don’t ask for much when it comes to handling the coaching features. Perhaps I’m a little jaded as the dynasty eventually becomes too easy and any new perks only make it easier. BUT, the one thing I would like to see is for a head coach to be the one to hire his coordinators, and you have to run their specific playbook. Maybe have a way to incorporate custom playbooks as long as it doesn’t deviate from the coordinator’s play style, idk. I would love to think about the more intricate ways to incorporate coach personalities and tendencies, but with the way EA strips more and more features with each new Gen, I’d first like to start with the basics.

I'd be down with that. But they would have to incorporate a system that recognizes playcalling HC. The easiest way I can think of is to split it to 3 types of HCs. The Playcalling HC, Recruiting Ace HC, or the CEO HC and each has their own perks/bonuses and downsides. If you're not a Playcalling HC, then you'll have to use the OC/DC playbook. The perk to that coach is that you get additional boosts to the side of the ball you "call" plays on.