FOFers having problems with defense in FOF8

[SocratesJC]

Originally Posted by adso

Looks like I'm unable to set defensive Game Plan I 'd like. I load defensive GP, edit, save, confirm and when i go back to the field I've not loaded my 12 plays but 12 totally different plays. That's hurts.

Originally Posted by wustin

Does anyone have an issue when loading your defensive playbook? The last three red zone downs are always blank and you can never add plays to them because the game thinks you have 78 defensive plays saved already even if you have way less than that.

I have to manually re-do the gameplanning every year because of this because Rex does a poor job at selecting defenses.

Originally Posted by william1993

I think in the next patch we need to update defense. Maybe we can do defensive playcalling creation. Because right now the offensive formation dictates the defensive formation (ex 113 offense vs nickel defense) but in real life it doesn't work that way. In reality, even if someone came out in the 113, but they were a running team, a team might come out in 4-3 or 4-4 to get ready to stop the run. Right now we can't do that.

The game is still good, don't get me wrong, but this kind of makes it wonky for me. It makes me sad when the cowboys come out with 3 wide but I know they want to run it then they go up the middle for big yards because nickel.

Are there other people having issues with defense? In particular, I can't understand why there are a random set of 12 defensive playcall options when playing a game. Anyone know how to populate a custom list of defensive plays for use?

Without being able to call plays on defense, I think I will give up on this game.

[bigkarlo1]

FOF8 is badly broken. But they got your money, so all is good. Carry on.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[sirotka33]

Originally Posted by bigkarlo1

FOF8 is badly broken. But they got your money, so all is good. Carry on.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

"They" is one person. If you find something specifically wrong with FOF8, I would recommend sending it to customer support at solecismic (address can be found at the solecismic web site) or even posting it on the steam forums as he checks those.

[NawlinsFan]

[quote=bigkarlo1;3138701]FOF8 is badly broken. But they got your money, so all is good. Carry on.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk[/QUOTE

Another intelligent comment from left field that does nothing to contribute to any form of conversation.

[wustin]

Pick 12 plays, fill up the game plans up so you use all 78 defensive plays, save it and then re-open it. The last 3 formations of the red zone gameplan will be blank and if you try to fill it in manually you will get that same window again preventing you from adding plays. That's the issue some of us are having. We have to manually re-make the playbook every time or we are forced to use 75 plays instead of 78.

[yabanci]

I see that it doesn't save the last three down/distances in goal line, but I have no problem adding plays there. I don't get any window preventing me from doing so.

[wustin]

I eventually made a playbook where that didn't happen anymore but my first few attempts had that happen.

[QuikSand]

I'm having the same trouble as wustin, and have to compress elsewhere every time I reload if I want to populate those last three slots.

[SocratesJC]

In FOF7 you could play out each game, choosing each individual play on offense AND DEFENSE. In FOF8, you cannot pick your own plays on defense when playing the game manually. You get a list of 12 random plays in which to choose from instead of the list that you designed yourself.

This is the problem ADSO was having. I am having this problem also. Does anyone else play games manually?

[corbes]

I call my own plays. I have the problem that Quik and Wustin have, but I am not able to replicate the problem Adso and Socrates are having. Please follow Yabanci's tutorial.

[yabanci]

ok i see the bug now. Either the game is deleting the three plays but still counting them or else the plays are still there but just aren't visible. If you save with 75 or fewer plays and try to add, you don't get any error. If you save with a full slate of 78 and try to add, you get the error saying you already have 78. It sounds like this already has been reported, but just in case I sent it in again right now.

[SocratesJC]

Just in case anyone else benefits from update.

Originally Posted by SocratesJC

You ever get the defensive play calling solved? I am having the same issue...

Originally Posted by adso

Definetely Not. Support is saying this is a bug They Will fix with Next patch But They give no release date

Originally Posted by William Kennicott

We have one other similar report. It's on the list for full investigation for the next patch (uncertain when that work will begin, but definitely in the near future). After discussion with that other customer, we've concluded it's likely a bug and we apologize for the inconvenience - there isn't a way around it at this time.

-- William Kennicott
-- Customer Support, Solecismic Software

[SocratesJC]

Originally Posted by corbes

I call my own plays. I have the problem that Quik and Wustin have, but I am not able to replicate the problem Adso and Socrates are having. Please follow Yabanci's tutorial.

I've Scoured through the game's options and help files trying to figure everything out. I've been working on this issue for a week trying to get it to work so I can enjoy this game. I'm way ahead of the tutorial given here.

After affirmation that this is in fact a bug, and after hearing that not everyone is having this bug, I am wondering if it has to do with operating systems, registry, or something of that sort. I might try and test the game on another operating system.

With that in mind, what operating system are you guys using?

(Edit, I do appreciate all the detailed responses though. Thank you for all your support everyone).

[yabanci]

Originally Posted by SocratesJC

In FOF7 you could play out each game, choosing each individual play on offense AND DEFENSE. In FOF8, you cannot pick your own plays on defense when playing the game manually. You get a list of 12 random plays in which to choose from instead of the list that you designed yourself.

This is the problem ADSO was having. I am having this problem also. Does anyone else play games manually?

I don't call plays, but I set up a test league and don't see the problem you're reporting. All the choices of defensive play calls I was given were defensive plays that were in my game plan. Just to make sure I set up a defensive game plan with 12 plays all man-to-man. The only choices I got during that game were 100% man-to-man defenses. I also summed a game without play calling and the log showed my team playing man-to-man on every play.

[yabanci]

Here's the film room of two games with the all 12 man-to-man defense game plan.

http://imgur.com/a/uSijj

http://imgur.com/a/wQe2g

[corbes]

Thanks for letting us know that Solecismic views it as a bug, Socrates. Helpful, and if there are others they'll benefit from the news too. And helps me with understanding whether people are doing something odd or experiencing something unintended.

[bdubbs]

I'm having a problem with defensive gameplanning myself but I'm not sure if it's the bug or if I'm just missing something. I'm assuming that its supposed to work similarly to the offensive gameplan.

So what I'm assuming is I click on the defensive play from the playbook on the left side and then click the blue button which tells you the formation / down and distance you want that defense called against. That's also exactly what "click on button to add play to section" sounds like, but the buttons don't seem to be doing anything no matter which defensive play I have highlighted.

I have the option to "add highlighted play to gameplan use list" which lets me add the play to one of the 12 in my game plan, but that leaves holes in the standard game plan from whichever play I deleted and I can't start the next game. Since the formation / down and distance buttons aren't doing anything for me I cant figure out any way to adjust my standard defensive gameplan.

Any idea if I'm experiencing some kind of bug? Or am I just doing something wrong trying to set my defensive gameplan?

[TAFIV]

1. add plays to fill your 12 slot playbook
2. add plays to your gameplan from the 12 slot playbook

you can't add plays directly from the entire playbook to the gameplan

[SocratesJC]

This bug has been resolved FYI.

[A-Husker-4-Life]

I've played for over 300 hours and the one hint I'll give everyone is, check the log files they hold the key for defense.

[Hammer]

It appears blitzing is basically broken, in the 3-4 at least. It isn't cosmetic either. Your stud pass rushing LB will often ignore instructions to blitz even if you instruct the send the best rusher slider to always. The game will send someone else or just rush 3. Basically it seems to be random. This seems like a major bug that is having quite an impact on gameplay. I reported this before 8.0b. It wasn't fixed. I have now reported it again.

[SocratesJC]

Originally Posted by Hammer

It appears blitzing is basically broken, in the 3-4 at least. It isn't cosmetic either. Your stud pass rushing LB will often ignore instructions to blitz even if you instruct the send the best rusher slider to always. The game will send someone else or just rush 3. Basically it seems to be random. This seems like a major bug that is having quite an impact on gameplay. I reported this before 8.0b. It wasn't fixed. I have now reported it again.

Yeah, I am noticing this too. Really sad that this is happening. Defense has gotten crap attention in FOF8. Tragedy.

[wustin]

I had no issues with having my best OLBs rush/blitz when I set it to always and had "Blitz 1" included in almost all of my defensive plays. I just rex the gameplans now but I can go back and double check.

[wustin]

first try with denver

[wustin]

dola

I guess the problem here is that the game doesn't treat linebackers as part of the pass rush.

Anyways after like 20 or so simulations, Von Miller averages 9-12 sacks. And among OLBs, usually top 3 in QB knockdowns and top 10 in PR%.

[SocratesJC]

This guy should be giving me more. I have an excellent scout on defense.
(He doesn't seem to be blitzing nearly enough...)

[wustin]

You aren't rexing the gameplans right? The game auto-rushes your linemen so you have to add blitz 1 to every formation you want to send your OLB to rush the QB. It's not very intuitive but this was the work around I figured out back in November/December.

[Hammer]

Originally Posted by wustin

I had no issues with having my best OLBs rush/blitz when I set it to always and had "Blitz 1" included in almost all of my defensive plays. I just rex the gameplans now but I can go back and double check.

SP or MP? But either way, yes any further info on this would be great. If we can isolate the problem maybe we have more chance of a fix.

What I am seeing is not just a cosmetic bug. Once I have ironed out as much detail as possible on this I can forward all of my findings to solecismic.

[wustin]

Originally Posted by Hammer

SP or MP? But either way, yes any further info on this would be great. If we can isolate the problem maybe we have more chance of a fix.

What I am seeing is not just a cosmetic bug. Once I have ironed out as much detail as possible on this I can forward all of my findings to solecismic.

SP only. I'm reading the logs and even with the setting at Always, the AI will send another linebacker to blitz instead of Von Miller on some downs but Miller still gets the bulk of the blitzing.

The main problem is that in real life one of the linebackers is part of the 4-man rush in the 3-4. The only players who are considered rushers in FOF8 (going by the log) are the two DEs and NT. You shouldn't have to use the method I used to get blitz/rushes for your OLB.

It doesn't feel like a bug but more like a design decision.

[Hammer]

If it is a decision, it is an awful one. And misleading. Always send your best rusher should mean exactly that. I think it is a bug. It is often corners and safeties being sent. LBs who have 0 blitzing. The stud pass rusher going into coverage has 0 coverage skills. Call it whatever, it should be sorted.

[Hammer]

3-4 is at a disadvantage with this crap going on I would suggest.

[A-Husker-4-Life]

You can't be afraid to blitz 3 to 4 if you want your linebackers to get sacks and set the blitzing setting to always, if it's on random almost anyone will blitz.

[gstelmack]

Part of the point of the 3-4 (IRL) is that the offense doesn't know where the fourth rusher is coming from. So yeah, you should be Blitz 1 to make that happen (else how could you decide to only rush 3?), but you also don't want to rush the same LB over and over (else the offense DOES know where the rush is coming from). So you don't want a single pass-rushing specialist LB in a 3-4.

[henry296]

Originally Posted by Hammer

3-4 is at a disadvantage with this crap going on I would suggest.

I've been running a 3-4 and been in the top couple of teams I need scoring defense for a numbers of years in a row. I probably have more sacks from my DL than typical for a 3-4 but it doesn't prevent me from being very good defensively.

[Hammer]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

Part of the point of the 3-4 (IRL) is that the offense doesn't know where the fourth rusher is coming from. So yeah, you should be Blitz 1 to make that happen (else how could you decide to only rush 3?), but you also don't want to rush the same LB over and over (else the offense DOES know where the rush is coming from). So you don't want a single pass-rushing specialist LB in a 3-4.

Sure, that is a standard 3-4 approach. A perfectly valid strategy. It is also perfectly valid to want to consistently rush 1 particular guy if he is significantly better than the other guys - hence the "Always" setting!

If your mindset is to make excuses for holes in the game, I imagine it can be justified in some way or another every time.

Just know your star pass rusher could dropping back into coverage when he is rated 0 in all coverage bars. The LB who is blitzing could be rated 0 in blitzing.

[A-Husker-4-Life]

The defense isn't broken, it's just completely different from 7 so to some it appears broken.

[Hammer]

Originally Posted by A-Husker-4-Life

The defense isn't broken, it's just completely different from 7 so to some it appears broken.

Solecismic support would surely of said it was a design decision when I reported the problems. Instead I was asked for further details to try to work out why this was happening. There was absolutely no mention of it being normal, intended or okay.

[A-Husker-4-Life]

It doesn't feel broken to me, I've finally got it to work as I intended so I'm satisfied. Sure, it could use a tweak or two but right now it's the best we've got so I've made it work.

Example of my work;

Spoiler

Once you find your style, everything will fall into place.

[rush_27]

I'm not sure what you're trying to prove here husker. Jim has acknowledged that there was a bug and has rectified. Credit to Jim.

[A-Husker-4-Life]

Just showing an example of how I feel the defense isn't broken and I don't remember Jim ever acknowledging that the defense was broken in the first place.

You really just have to find your style and build around it, to make a great defense.

[rush_27]

He acknowledges by way of a patch. Hence the latest version

[Dawgfan19]

However, did the patch address the game engine logic regarding which LB to blitz? The drop down selection now specifies "Generally" as opposed to "Always". "Always" never meant "Always" in FOF as we all know from the 4th down options. So, the patch doesn't necessarily address Hammer's concerns.

That said, I'm not convinced the random blitzer as a change of pace to your stud OLB is that detrimental to a 3-4 defense. I'm in the same league Hammer is using as a reference in his observations. It is interesting to note that 40% of the defenses in the league are running a 3-4. It is also interesting to note 40% of the top pass rush defenses are running a 3-4.

[Hammer]

I am not totally convinced this was Jim's original vision. Changing a slider is a hell of a lot easier than changing the inner workings of the game I guess. My email from support suggested to me it was more than a slider issue. You don't want to know the ins and outs if it is just a simple slider wording issue. However now the game makes sense. We all know where we stand. There are no grounds to say there is a bug any longer. If this came out as 8.0 nobody would even mention it. We can all move on and forget as the error is fixed.