Multiplayer - How much do you tailor your gameplans?

[Kodos]

It wouldn't be a day at FOFC without a poll from Kodos. :)

[Icy]

You forgot to setup the poll in this thread.

[Kodos]

It takes time to build a poll. :)

[Icy]

I have a standard gameplan that I tweak for each opponent.

[Bee]

Always vote the trout option, it's the law.

[Subby]

I chose the recommend option. The only thing I change is the pass coverage - I change it to 100% for the type of coverage I run. I'll occasionally zero out double-teaming if both wideouts are marginal.

I used to be a gameplanning fiend, but in all honesty - it feels like a crapshoot to me.

[3ric]

Both "I hit the recommend button and then adjust things a little", and "I have a standard gameplan, but every now and then I completely change things up.", it's different for offense and defense.

[sachmo71]

whatever cthomer votes will be my standard from now on. unless it's "trout" :)

[JeeberD]

I generally have a standard gameplan, but I tend to tweak it if I'm up against a team that's specifically strong against the run or the pass, or is a strong running or passing team...

[Kodos]

whatever cthomer votes will be my standard from now on. unless it's "trout" :)

His success across every league he has played in tells me there is something to gameplanning, although I think he is also masterful at managing his roster while keeping the cap in check. Hopefully Conti monkeys that up for him next season. :)

[Subby]

barf

[Kodos]

barf

The guy has never lost his division, despite playing in what has been the toughest division in IHOF. How far has recommend gotten you? :)

[Passacaglia]

I have a standard gameplan that I use, but I think I'm going to have to alter my gameplan in the HFL -- I hope this will be our year, so I'll need to work at it to make that happen.

[Subby]

The guy has never lost his division, despite playing in what has been the toughest division in IHOF. How far has recommend gotten you? :)Your quantitative analysis here has me convinced :P

[Subby]

dola

I am not denigrating (or trying to denigrate) corey's achievements. I just think that postulating the importance of gameplans will need more evidence than "hey North Plainfield does it, so it must be important!". Sample size and all that.

I could offer the equally insignificant evidence that my team's are no better or worse depending on how I gameplan or hit recommend.

[sovereignstar]

All this talk about cthomer is fucking nauseating.

[Kodos]

dola

I am not denigrating (or trying to denigrate) corey's achievements. I just think that postulating the importance of gameplans will need more evidence than "hey North Plainfield does it, so it must be important!". Sample size and all that.

I could offer the equally insignificant evidence that my team's are no better or worse depending on how I gameplan or hit recommend.

Well, he's also won his division for the season that he was in two other leagues. And his team has the best record in IHOF, despite playing in what is generally regarded as the toughest division. Take it for whatever you like. To me, I'd say gameplanning/roster management are probably the two biggest factors in his success across leagues.

[Kodos]

dola

I could offer the equally insignificant evidence that my team's are no better or worse depending on how I gameplan or hit recommend.

Maybe you're just bad at gameplanning. :p

[Subby]

Maybe you're just bad at gameplanning. :p Yes, it's such a difficult concept to grasp. That must be it.

[Kodos]

Yes, it's such a difficult concept to grasp. That must be it.

Glad we could finally come to an agreement. :)

[jeff061]

To me, I'd say gameplanning/roster management are probably the two biggest factors in his success across leagues.

I agree. What is a difficult concept to grasp is how someone can disagree with that ;).

[Subby]

I agree. What is a difficult concept to grasp is how someone can disagree with that ;). I don't disgree with the roster management part. I just think gameplanning is overrated - unless you are a total fucktard and set everything to 0 or 100.

[tucker342]

I have a standard offensive game plan that I use every game, and I change up my defensive game plan every week

[Eaglesfan27]

I have a standard offensive game plan that I use every game, and I change up my defensive game plan every week
Ditto, except I occasionally fine tune my offensive game plan. However, I change my defensive game plan more than that to match up against opponents.

[Pyser]

i hardly ever change my D gameplan. i dont like to change my O one, either. but i tweak it far more than my D.

[jbmagic]

the recommend button is not really good to use.

they hardly adjust to your talent especially on defense.

i prefer to do my own gameplan for offense and defense.

[cthomer5000]

fucking nauseating.
I'm sorry, did someone say my name?

[cthomer5000]

Yes, it's such a difficult concept to grasp. That must be it.
I think grasping the concept of something and being good at that something are very, very different things.

Anyone who basically dismisses the importance of gameplanning is probably spotting the other team at least 7 points per game. No team is good enough to overcome that on a regular basis.

[MIJB#19]

Both "I hit the recommend button and then adjust things a little", and "I have a standard gameplan, but every now and then I completely change things up.", it's different for offense and defense.SO, you finally found the solution to how to be the best European FOF player, huh? ;)

[Warhammer]

His success across every league he has played in tells me there is something to gameplanning, although I think he is also masterful at managing his roster while keeping the cap in check. Hopefully Conti monkeys that up for him next season. :)

There is a LOT to this. I consider myself a pretty damn good game planner, but there is little you can do if you have terrible talent. You can take a bottom tier team talent wise and turn it into a middle ranked team, or you can take a team with good talent and put it into the stratusphere, but managing the cap is VERY important.

I would be very interested to see how leagues turn out once they hit the 10 year time frame. I have seen many teams basically live off of their initial talent over 3-5 years, I am curious to see what happens to some of these teams once they get old.

[Warhammer]

Actually, this brings up a bit of a sore subject for me. I really wish that some things in FOF2k4 were not mysteries. I understand that a QB with solid passing ratings is going to be a good passer to all range bands, where as a guy that is good with short and medium passes is not good for a vertical offense.

However, which formations are the best to use for a solid running game up the middle? Intuitively, I would say the I formation is, but is that necessarily the best running formation across the board? What are the strong suits of a Strong and Weak formation? Would these be better than a single back, 2 TE formation for running the ball?

Also, why is it nowhere said that a 3-4 defense really should have its blitz % jacked way up for it to work effectively? I have found this through trial and error, but should you have to experiment repeatedly to find this out? Why can't some certain base knowledge be given to us? How is Bump and Run coverage really handled? In real life, it gets beat deep, yet in the game, that seems to not occur much. Man to man is a good all around defense, but can get beat deep. Yet, I rarely see this happen in game, etc.

[Icy]

Actually, this brings up a bit of a sore subject for me. I really wish that some things in FOF2k4 were not mysteries. I understand that a QB with solid passing ratings is going to be a good passer to all range bands, where as a guy that is good with short and medium passes is not good for a vertical offense.

However, which formations are the best to use for a solid running game up the middle? Intuitively, I would say the I formation is, but is that necessarily the best running formation across the board? What are the strong suits of a Strong and Weak formation? Would these be better than a single back, 2 TE formation for running the ball?

Also, why is it nowhere said that a 3-4 defense really should have its blitz % jacked way up for it to work effectively? I have found this through trial and error, but should you have to experiment repeatedly to find this out? Why can't some certain base knowledge be given to us? How is Bump and Run coverage really handled? In real life, it gets beat deep, yet in the game, that seems to not occur much. Man to man is a good all around defense, but can get beat deep. Yet, I rarely see this happen in game, etc.
Some of us have asked for a bit of info about gameplaning a lot of times, but some will say that all is in the manual and you're just lazy to read it. I have run tons of tests to try to guess what kind of defense works for what, we have more or less as a fact that you must run only one defense, the best one that your players can play, but why? is that how real teams gameplan the defense? only run one kind of defense? Another example, if you have guys that are so good at B&R but also at M2M, which to use and for which situations? The same about what you asked about ofensive formations, i guess the only difference about choosing one over another would be to take a look at the plays that each set can run (playing single player mode and coaching the games yourself, then writting all the plays that each formation can play, that way you can figure which formations to use to run more in the middle etc, sounds fun right?).

For some guys running tons of tests, comparing stats, and guessing how the game works is fun, but for a lot of us, there is no fun on running tons of test season just to know what are the pros/cons of setting 100 in agressive pass (this is just a sample). We should be given more basic info about how the game works, but maybe i need to put BASIC this way so nobody will say again, "there is no fun knowing that running 49% of times you can beat a M2M defense that plays agressive 47% of times" as nobody is asking for that kind of info. Anyway this is like talking to a deaf, i already know who is going to aswer that in this thread that all is written in the manual, but hey, ranting is free and i feel better now.

[Warhammer]

Some of us have asked for a bit of info about gameplaning a lot of times, but some will say that all is in the manual and you're just lazy to read it. I have run tons of tests to try to guess what kind of defense works for what, we have more or less as a fact that you must run only one defense, the best one that your players can play, but why? is that how real teams gameplan the defense? only run one kind of defense? Another example, if you have guys that are so good at B&R but also at M2M, which to use and for which situations? The same about what you asked about ofensive formations, i guess the only difference about choosing one over another would be to take a look at the plays that each set can run (playing single player mode and coaching the games yourself, then writting all the plays that each formation can play, that way you can figure which formations to use to run more in the middle etc, sounds fun right?).

I've tried that, I got MAYBE 1/4 of the way through it and gave up after I realized that the plays are all different for right and left strong sides and then realized that nearly all the formations could run most of the same plays, I figured it wasn't worth the effort.

The problem is that I can try running the same play three times in the same situation and come up with different results each time. Which is fine, but will 26 Blast out of the I formation be run better as 26 Blast out of the single back formation? You can make a case either way!

For some guys running tons of tests, comparing stats, and guessing how the game works is fun, but for a lot of us, there is no fun on running tons of test season just to know what are the pros/cons of setting 100 in agressive pass (this is just a sample). We should be given more basic info about how the game works, but maybe i need to put BASIC this way so nobody will say again, "there is no fun knowing that running 49% of times you can beat a M2M defense that plays agressive 47% of times" as nobody is asking for that kind of info. Anyway this is like talking to a deaf, i already know who is going to aswer that in this thread that all is written in the manual, but hey, ranting is free and i feel better now.

This is where it gets frustrating. I know what I consider to be the best way to run an offense, but that does not mean that is how it is implemented in the game! I don't want to know if you are better off running a 3 WR set when your #3WR is a 30/30, but I would like to know that throwing a 35 yard pass out of a 3WR set is more effective than throwing it out of the I formation. However, unlike some people, when you have 2 kids under the age of 4, you don't have the time or patience to run the sims you need to get this information!

[Icy]

Example of how to explain strategic basics, i would love to see this written for FOF and i would do it if i had the knowledge about it.
Read from the 6th post in that thread. Basic info about basketball and specially TPB perfectly explained even for dumbs.

http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6387

I know some ppl preffer to not to explain anything so they can look uber in the MP leagues but i really miss a discussion like the ones you can read about other games in this forum, like FBCB for example where Skydog did a perfect resume of the basic strategies.

[primelord]

I know Jim works on customizing his game plans. That says enough for me that it is an important aspect of the game.

[Vegas Vic]

There's a missing option.

"I log into my opponent's team, look at his settings, and adjust mine accordingly."

[flere-imsaho]

I use the "recommend" button, tweak a bit, and then my players suffer season-ending injuries while I go on to lose, so maybe I'm doing something wrong.

No, I'm not bitter.... :(