This is another one of those “I might want to look back and see why I made these decisions” kind of posts. (I have a poor memory)
Pass blocking has been a huge pain in the butt. The Greens team is a perfect example of why it’s not only “off”, but completely broken. I simply have too much team speed, almost no defensive skill, and I’m able to dominate the line against the Blues. That just shouldn’t happen.
I spent a lot of the last 2 days’ worth of keyboard time trying out different ways of fixing the problem. Pancakes was an option I implemented last week, but it’s already annoying me. I hate seeing players get run over constantly. It doesn’t seem like football anymore. I lowered the pancakes down to a realistically rare level, but the blocking problem remains.
My first attempt was to implement decision making time into pass rushing again. The theory was that pass rushers would take bad angles and run themselves out of position, allowing the OL to maintain proper blocking position. It really didn’t work. The fast DEs would run out of position, but they are so fast that it often left them with an easy path to run past the OL. Even if it wasn’t perfect, it was often good enough to get the QB. Not only that, but it just looked weird.
The second attempt was to increase the blocking (collider) range of skilled OL. That kind of worked, but the DL were often able to adjust and slip the blocks to get around. In the end, it really didn’t change anything.
I also tried making massive power increases with both of the first options, but it made no difference. Power only seems to show up in run blocking and special teams.
So that made me rethink how I was handling pass blocking. All I really want is for blocks to matter, and for the skill of the blocker to be more important than speed. After all, most great OL are going to be slower than great CB/WR/RB.
So I came up with a block engagement system. Here’s how it would work. When an OL is blocking a DL, they are put into the block engagement system. While in that system, the normal ratings don’t apply. There’s an adjustment in this system that takes into account blocker and defender skill, and moves the effective ratings around to model the way it should work. Ex: The Blues 100 OL would engage with DL Tolliver who’s rated around 40. While those guys are battling, the Blues guy’s skill would nullify Tolliver’s speed and it would look as if Tolliver was a 200 speed guy instead of a 400 speed guy. (throw in per-play randomness to keep it interesting) If Tolliver broke away from the block, he’d automatically be back at peak ratings performance again.
It’s kind of cheating, but not really. 🙂
I ran a bunch of tests between the Greens and Blues, to try it out. The Greens have a poor OL and a fast DL. The Blues have an insane OL and some ok DL. When the Greens had the ball, nothing was dramatically different. I ran 10 long pass plays and got sacked on around half of them. That’s expected from my team. I have no OL skill at all. When the Blues had the ball, I ran 10 pass plays and had 0 sacks! Not only were there no sacks, but there wasn’t really any pressure at all. The game felt right, and the players didn’t’ look weird either. It just looked like the speedy DL were getting handled by better OL.
Nice! I think I got it! I might want to add this into the special teams blocking, too. It might fix that problem as well.
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