Kick Holders Assignment

[james17]

I posted this under a different thread and then reconsidered and decided to post this question as a new thread.


I'm still foggy about how FOF 8 assigns kick holders. I have an ace FG kicker who has 4 potential holders, 3 quarterbacks and the punter, available. The punter has a terrible holder rating. All the quarterbacks have good holder ratings. I know about the special teams rating of 'encouraged' or 'not encouraged'. Do I make the punter 'not encouraged' so as to ensure his lousy kick holding rating is not used? Or am I missing something else? If I don't want my punter to hold for kicks (but still be my punter) because of his poor rating and I mark him as 'not encouraged' will he still punt for me?


Help!

[MIJB#19]

Originally Posted by james17

Do I make the punter 'not encouraged' so as to ensure his lousy kick holding rating is not used?

Indeed. This is what you need to do to have the game pick your kick holder QB to become the kick holder.

Originally Posted by james17

If I don't want my punter to hold for kicks (but still be my punter) because of his poor rating and I mark him as 'not encouraged' will he still punt for me?

Indeed. He will still punt.

This also appears to apply to kick returners and punt returners that are slotted as the 'starters', but I haven't tested that recently.


Lastly, if you have 2 kickers that are in essence a points kicker and a kickoff kicker, the game will always use the highest overall rated one for both duties.

[james17]

Thanks very much! Now I know what to do. Hooray!!!

[Pyser]

I had no idea. Basically I set everyone rated under 70 on special teams to do not play special teams (or just allowed my top 10 rated special teams players to play there). Never thought about holding. Always seemed to work out well.

[MIJB#19]

Originally Posted by Pyser

(or just allowed my top 10 rated special teams players to play there)

It's a good rule of thumb, but not the end all be all.

On "offensive" special teams situations, your starting LT, LG, RG and RT will still be on the field, with the C replaced with your LS (also see the game manual on this topic). You can force your backup OL players onto the unit by encouraging them and 'not encouraging' the OL players you want to rest, but it may require some trial and error to get it to work.

The specific roles are the ones I mentioned above are easiest to control: the punter, the kicker (see previous post), the kick holder (see previous post), the punt returner, the premier kickoff returner.

I'm unsure how the second kickoff returner is determined, I think it's mostly on the kickoff return bar, but I'm unsure encouraging is required.

For the rest of the bunch, the game will try to put 2 RB/FB on the special teams unit, regardless of 'encouragement'. The game wants to see 2 WR and 1 TE as well. The game also wants exactly 3 LB and at least 2 CB/S. It doesn't always pick the players with the longest special teams bars, hence, to optimize things, you'll have to fool around a bit with which guys to encourage. DL players are even harder to figure out, but they are required at times and encouraging the 2 DL you want play does somewhat help, but it's not definitive with this position group.

[james17]

I had no idea the sim was so deep on this topic.. Is there really a 'manual' or are we talking about the help file available in the game?


Many thanks for all the good info!

[MIJB#19]

Originally Posted by james17

I had no idea the sim was so deep on this topic.. Is there really a 'manual' or are we talking about the help file available in the game?


Many thanks for all the good info!

That's what I meant: the help file in game.

But more than half of what I wrote there is from taking notes of trial and error while playing the game, almost nothing of this specific topic (special trams) is mentioned in it, despite how comprehensive the help file is on so many other topics.

[user name]

Originally Posted by MIJB#19

It's a good rule of thumb, but not the end all be all.

On "offensive" special teams situations, your starting LT, LG, RG and RT will still be on the field, with the C replaced with your LS (also see the game manual on this topic). You can force your backup OL players onto the unit by encouraging them and 'not encouraging' the OL players you want to rest, but it may require some trial and error to get it to work.

The specific roles are the ones I mentioned above are easiest to control: the punter, the kicker (see previous post), the kick holder (see previous post), the punt returner, the premier kickoff returner.

I'm unsure how the second kickoff returner is determined, I think it's mostly on the kickoff return bar, but I'm unsure encouraging is required.

For the rest of the bunch, the game will try to put 2 RB/FB on the special teams unit, regardless of 'encouragement'. The game wants to see 2 WR and 1 TE as well. The game also wants exactly 3 LB and at least 2 CB/S. It doesn't always pick the players with the longest special teams bars, hence, to optimize things, you'll have to fool around a bit with which guys to encourage. DL players are even harder to figure out, but they are required at times and encouraging the 2 DL you want play does somewhat help, but it's not definitive with this position group.

I am not sure if it is related to the type of defense you have, but I am seeing only 2 LBs getting significant ST snaps instead of 3

[user name]

does the kick holder show up as having played ST in the box score?

[MIJB#19]

Originally Posted by user name

does the kick holder show up as having played ST in the box score?

yes

[MIJB#19]

Originally Posted by user name

I am not sure if it is related to the type of defense you have, but I am seeing only 2 LBs getting significant ST snaps instead of 3

I don't know, really. My experience is based on one multiplayer team only (I played a 4-3 defense) and based on the number of ST plays played, the game really loves to use 3 LBs.