Offensive Gameplan Adjustments (Going for it on 4th down) question

[Dutch]

After reading about the "Never Punt" coach in high school, I decided to run some FOF7 tests. Changed every setting to 'ALWAYS', and the season ending results averaged anywhere from 8-16 attempts.

AI is not allowed to change my gameplan.

Switched all settings to 50% and got the same results...

I was expecting my punter to have 0 punts when I switched situational to 'ALWAYS'.

Am I missing something or does this not work as intended?

[Ben E Lou]

After reading about the "Never Punt" coach in high school, I decided to run some FOF7 tests. Changed every setting to 'ALWAYS', and the season ending results averaged anywhere from 8-16 attempts.

AI is not allowed to change my gameplan.

Switched all settings to 50% and got the same results...

I was expecting my punter to have 0 punts when I switched situational to 'ALWAYS'.

Am I missing something or does this not work as intended?It works as intended. F1 is your friend.There are modifications made by the game. If it's before the fourth quarter, the limit is 30%. Also, the game will modify these attempts by the distance to go. There is no modification if there's one yard to go, but percentages drop sharply if there's more than one yard to go for the first down.


In late-game situations where a field goal attempt is wiser, the game will greatly limit how often you go for it. In late-game situations where you trail, the game will have you go for the first down when punting would make no sense.
In short "Always" means "in the narrow set of situations where it makes sense according to conventional football wisdom, always go for it."

And really, Dutch, you should know by now that if nothing else, FOF wants you to "always" color inside the lines. ;)

[Dutch]

Ugh, it never crossed my mind to check F1 to see if Always really meant always. Must be my military upbringing to never question something like that. :)

Still, I expect *some* variation between 50% and Always...at this point I don't see anyway to overrule the AI. Maybe a better test is 30% and Never...

As an aside, I finally downloaded the BELCO library as well to see how my gameplans compare to your "levelling the MP playing field" gp's...(I had a day off stuck in a hotel yesterday) and low and behold, some of your gameplans worked a bit better than mine. Hopefully they help me get more competitive.

[Ben E Lou]

Ugh, it never crossed my mind to check F1 to see if Always really meant always. Must be my military upbringing to never question something like that. :)

Still, I expect *some* variation between 50% and Always...at this point I don't see anyway to overrule the AI. Maybe a better test is 30% and Never...

As an aside, I finally downloaded the BELCO library as well to see how my gameplans compare to your "levelling the MP playing field" gp's...(I had a day off stuck in a hotel yesterday) and low and behold, some of your gameplans worked a bit better than mine. Hopefully they help me get more competitive.I think there is variation between 50% and always and between 30% and Never. It's just not a lot. You saw an average of roughly 12 attempts per year with it on Always. Maybe you'd see 8 at 50% and 4 at Never. (I'm assuming from the Help File that even at "Never" it will go for it when there's a minute left in the game and you trail by 4 and have the ball at midfield.)

FWIW, this hasn't changed from FOF2K7. I know that when I used to watch Solevision, my Tucker teams that used "Always" all the time definitely went for it in situations like 4th and 2 from the opponent's 40 yard-line more than other teams did.

And to be 100% clear, my observation from FOF2K7 Solevision (and the little that I checked it out to see if anything was obviously different in FOF7) is that THAT is where this setting makes a huge difference: when your offense is between midfield and FG range and has 4th down and 3 or less. Those are the situations where even when adhering to FOF's desire for you to "color inside the lines," there is room for variation. I mean, let's be honest: did you really think that Jim would let us go for it on 4th down on every single play, or do anything even remotely *close* to that?

[Dutch]

No, I guess I knew better. That damned high school coach just got me all excited.

[Dutch]

As an aside, I finally downloaded the BELCO library as well to see how my gameplans compare to your "levelling the MP playing field" gp's...(I had a day off stuck in a hotel yesterday) and low and behold, some of your gameplans worked a bit better than mine. Hopefully they help me get more competitive.

1-0.

[A-Husker-4-Life]

No, I guess I knew better. That damned high school coach just got me all excited.

Try it in TCY..

[Dutch]

Try it in TCY2..

I wish.