I did a lot more engine work this week than I'd anticipated. I think the game quality is improving a lot, though!
Engine updates:
Updated the man defense assignment procedure. I finally abandoned the "CB1 covers WR1, CB2->WR2..." style coverage. I could see on the greens games that it's really easy to exploit and get mismatches all over the place. I took the control out of the human's hands and put it in the coach's hands. Now, no matter what you do on offense with depth charts and game plans, the defensive coach will line up coverage from best to worst. His top man defender will cover the top receiving threat. (even if it's a RB) Then the coach goes down the list and assigns the rest according to his rank of coverage skill and receiving threat. If there's not enough man defenders, it always ends up being the worst receiver that is uncovered.
Tightened up man defense coverage positioning. Overall, made man defense a lot better.
Greatly reduced the QB scrambling. It became pretty clear that scrambling is more of a problem than it's worth. If you have a high scramble QB you can't do anything in the passing game, even if you have a highly skilled QB. That's not right. Now every QB will hang in the pocket for a reasonable amount of time. High scramble QBs will still break the pocket earlier than others, but not nearly as soon.
Replaced scrambling with QB running. Even though I got rid of scrambling, I still want running QBs. Scrambling has been replaced with overall QB running, on designed running plays. The scramble rating is going to be more of a measure of how well the QB is at running. It's the RB rating for QBs.
Refining Open Field Running. Still dialing this in, but runners are getting a lot better at finding holes, avoiding tacklers, and following blocks. The hardest part left is balancing the tendency to run upfield with the tendency to run sideways to find a hole.
Non-Engine Updates:
Changed how coaches evaluate their roster and potential draft picks. Previously I had coaches preference based on position. They liked WR, they didn't like DL...etc. It worked, but the system broke down when we got to lower depth chart players. (WR3, OL3...) Instead of getting too cute about it, I changed the system so the coach has a preference for every depth chart slot. Coaches differentiate the value between WR2 and WR3 based on their roster style, which wasn't possible before.
Coaches have different "starters", depending on style. Now that each coach can build a personal roster style, they also each have different starters. Some coaches will use 2 RB and 2 WR, while the greens will probably use 1 RB and 3 WR. The starters package will also be tied to the coach's individual playbook..... at some point.
Started the "League Central" interface. It's not 100% functional yet, but when we get to the next season we'll get standings, game results, league leaders, and team rankings all on one page. It's pretty cool.
I just have to make sure I didn't introduce any bugs to the game engine, and we're off to the next week of Ex2.5!