Madden 20 Custom Playbook & Game Plan Play Call Guide

[FSanchez12]

Re: Madden 20 Custom Playbook & Game Plan Play Call Guide

Took Edge's suggestions, and have put together a pretty decent playbook that suits the offense that I want to run. I play exclusively against the CPU, so it's nice to have certain money plays constantly coming up in my gameplan for my selection.

The one issue I'm having, and I'm sure it's something that is more of a "n00b" question, but alas:

What the heck is up with the generic 4 Min offense playcalling that I seem to be getting? I pulled an empty playbook from the Share database and I can't seem to get my own plays in there, or find an option for it. Maybe I'm doomed and need to start over (aka, create 4.0 of my playbook WIP).

I also think my offense would be much better suited with a QB better than Devlin Hodges running it, but he's my test subject. Because after the way he finished the season, if I can put together an offense he can be successful in, I'm in good shape.

[edgevoice]

Re: Madden 20 Custom Playbook & Game Plan Play Call Guide

Took Edge's suggestions, and have put together a pretty decent playbook that suits the offense that I want to run. I play exclusively against the CPU, so it's nice to have certain money plays constantly coming up in my gameplan for my selection.

The one issue I'm having, and I'm sure it's something that is more of a "n00b" question, but alas:

What the heck is up with the generic 4 Min offense playcalling that I seem to be getting? I pulled an empty playbook from the Share database and I can't seem to get my own plays in there, or find an option for it. Maybe I'm doomed and need to start over (aka, create 4.0 of my playbook WIP).----------:

Glad your book and gameplan is working out for you. I mentioned the 4 minute playcalling issue in my original post. Don't bang your head against the wall trying to figure a way around it. Trust me, I've tried every trick in the book and there is no way to avoid it. What I found strange was that in the Beta version, the 2 minute offense came up properly every time.

Obviously, during this forced situation, we have to jump out of our gameplans and call plays by formation or packages.

[FSanchez12]

Re: Madden 20 Custom Playbook & Game Plan Play Call Guide

Glad your book and gameplan is working out for you. I mentioned the 4 minute playcalling issue in my original post. Don't bang your head against the wall trying to figure a way around it. Trust me, I've tried every trick in the book and there is no way to avoid it. What I found strange was that in the Beta version, the 2 minute offense came up properly every time.

Obviously, during this forced situation, we have to jump out of our gameplans and call plays by formation or packages.

Ahh, I see what you mean from the first post, must have overlooked it. I will admit, I did rush putting together my playbook, so I scrapped it and started back over again last night. I had yet to beat the CPU with any of my playbooks (I'm playing exhibition games to test), until my most recent playbook was constructed last night.

Granted it was the hapless Bengals, but using only Pro sets from Singleback, Strong I and Weak I, I was able to put up 37 points, something I've never been able to do. It was majorly rewarding, mainly because I did not gameplan any plays, so I was pulling plays straight from memory in practice by picking from the formation, not "coach suggestions". Practice has really helped me repeat plays and see where the holes in the CPU defense are. It has also helped me eliminate 3-4 plays per formation that just don't jive against the AI, so I am only running plays I am comfortable and familiar with.

Seems like a long, arduous task, but I do have a free weekend this weekend

[edgevoice]

Re: Madden 20 Custom Playbook & Game Plan Play Call Guide

Ahh, I see what you mean from the first post, must have overlooked it. I will admit, I did rush putting together my playbook, so I scrapped it and started back over again last night. I had yet to beat the CPU with any of my playbooks (I'm playing exhibition games to test), until my most recent playbook was constructed last night.

Granted it was the hapless Bengals, but using only Pro sets from Singleback, Strong I and Weak I, I was able to put up 37 points, something I've never been able to do. It was majorly rewarding, mainly because I did not gameplan any plays, so I was pulling plays straight from memory in practice by picking from the formation, not "coach suggestions". Practice has really helped me repeat plays and see where the holes in the CPU defense are. It has also helped me eliminate 3-4 plays per formation that just don't jive against the AI, so I am only running plays I am comfortable and familiar with.

Seems like a long, arduous task, but I do have a free weekend this weekend

No question, it does take planning and time to install a gameplan. For me, it was well worth the effort, since there's nothing like having specific plays that you prepared come up per-situation and seeing that pay off. In a tight game situation, rather than relying on memory, the plays you already locked in will show themselves accordingly. Therefore, you can focus more so on execution, time management, etc. Good luck.

[tigerhigh0616]

Re: Madden 20 Custom Playbook & Game Plan Play Call Guide

Not sure if any one has mentioned this but you are able to have more than 30 plays per situtiation. Instead of adding play directly to the gameplan go to my playbook and star all the plays you want in a certain situation. I have 170 plays for my 1st down situation. I did everything half star so idk if that makes a difference. I intially tried to star every play in my playbook and then copy to all situations and delete plays i didnt want from the "My Gameplan" section but it would not copy to half of the situations. So there is a limit somehow. I say 170 per situation should be good. This saved me a lot of time in building my gameplan. If you are on PS4 you can download my playbook "4Wides" or search my id: tigerhigh616. Let me know what you think.

[edgevoice]

Re: Madden 20 Custom Playbook & Game Plan Play Call Guide

Not sure if any one has mentioned this but you are able to have more than 30 plays per situtiation. Instead of adding play directly to the gameplan go to my playbook and star all the plays you want in a certain situation. I have 170 plays for my 1st down situation. I did everything half star so idk if that makes a difference. I intially tried to star every play in my playbook and then copy to all situations and delete plays i didnt want from the "My Gameplan" section but it would not copy to half of the situations. So there is a limit somehow. I say 170 per situation should be good. This saved me a lot of time in building my gameplan. If you are on PS4 you can download my playbook "4Wides" or search my id: tigerhigh616. Let me know what you think.

Just know that only 30 plays per-situation will be guaranteed to show up under pass-run playcalling windows. 170 plays will not appear per-situation when playing a game. Having said that, glad you found a way to put together your book in a manner that works for you. Good luck.

[tigerhigh0616]

Re: Madden 20 Custom Playbook & Game Plan Play Call Guide

You may have already answered this but if I edit a existing playbook and gameplan will I still get the 4 min situation glitch?

[edgevoice]

Re: Madden 20 Custom Playbook & Game Plan Play Call Guide

You may have already answered this but if I edit a existing playbook and gameplan will I still get the 4 min situation glitch?

I've still found no workaround for auto-assigned 4 minute offense. If EA ever makes this situation selectable, we would simply be able to copy the 2 minute situation to it and our problem would be easily solved. Until then......

[Executor]

Re: Madden 20 Custom Playbook & Game Plan Play Call Guide

Edge, how do I assign a (random) play to a Conserve time (Safe) situation? Can't find the option anywhere, and now in my custom playbook I am stuck with a play from a formation I do not want because the playbook creator does not allow me to delete it. [emoji35][emoji35][emoji35] Thanks.

[edgevoice]

Re: Madden 20 Custom Playbook & Game Plan Play Call Guide

Edge, how do I assign a (random) play to a Conserve time (Safe) situation? Can't find the option anywhere, and now in my custom playbook I am stuck with a play from a formation I do not want because the playbook creator does not allow me to delete it. [emoji35][emoji35][emoji35] Thanks.

This is one of the most frustrating experiences I encountered when building my book, so I know exactly where you are coming from, since there is no way to assign plays to "safe situation".

It took me some time, but I eventually settled on Kansas City's book, since Gun Y Trips - Y Corner was the safe play and was in a formation I heavily use. I wish there was a list somewhere detailing which play in each playbook had the "safe" designation. I apologize for not being more helpful here, but it really is simply a matter of patient trial and error. Good luck to you mate.

[DSonTL]

Re: Madden 20 Custom Playbook & Game Plan Play Call Guide

I havent read this entire thread but maybe I can help out some of our fellow "Coaches". Scheme is very important. Although they give us a 500 play max.. doesnt mean we need 500 plays. The best playbooks are often half of that. You'll notice as your team changes over time (if you are a franchise guy) that it may be time to add/delete certain things because its not your teams strength anymore. I started creating this method/approach in NCAA Football 14. I noticed that the recruits I was bringing in werent actually fitting what I originally wanted to do, so as any coach would do, I started to add the things that my team had. It's like what Buddy Ryan used to say "Coaching aint complicated. If its something you dont have, find out what you do have".

You want to break down your scheme from the top to the bottom when it comes to your playbook. I strive for purity. What kind of team are you building? What runs are important? What passing concepts? What kind of players do you need?

I run an old school, iFormation, Power O offense. I know somebody here said you should find a playbook the resembles what you want to base out of and customize your book that way. I do want to say I have never had a problem taking ANY playbook and stripping it down as much as I could and then building my playbook.

Once you do that, you need to find the "Must have stuff" for your playbook. I'm a Power Run, pulling guard, lead blocker guy. So I looked for all plays that had that, then I made sure every formation had a Power O, and Counter. (These are my base run plays). If it had a quick pass for me take advantage of certain matchups or alignments, and a playaction pass off my running game. If it had all 4 components, I would write it down.

Once I had all this together I would add complimentary plays that fit the type of book/team I was trying to build. Once I did that, THIS IS IMPORTANT... RATE YOUR PLAYS FOR DESIRED SITUATIONS. If you don't, you will not have play variety and you would be picking your own plays OFTEN! (if thats your style thats fine). You need to really sit down, and look thru all your plays and rate them for desired situations in the game.

Creating a playbook is fun but its time consuming. But once you get it down, you wont play any other way. Especially if you are a franchise guy like myself. And as your team changes, dont be afraid to alter your scheme. Know your players, your personnel..and you'll really feel like a coach!

[Executor]

Re: Madden 20 Custom Playbook & Game Plan Play Call Guide

This is one of the most frustrating experiences I encountered when building my book, so I know exactly where you are coming from, since there is no way to assign plays to "safe situation".

It took me some time, but I eventually settled on Kansas City's book, since Gun Y Trips - Y Corner was the safe play and was in a formation I heavily use. I wish there was a list somewhere detailing which play in each playbook had the "safe" designation. I apologize for not being more helpful here, but it really is simply a matter of patient trial and error. Good luck to you mate.

This is one heck of an information (the "Gun Y Trips - Y Corner" thing), Edge, unless it's the exact formation I was talking about. [emoji38] (I am not sure.)

Thank you very much for your insight. Your thread is one of the reasons I enjoy this year's Madden as much as I do.

[alston4659]

Re: Madden 20 Custom Playbook & Game Plan Play Call Guide

Any chance your playbook is available for download via ps4?

Sent from my SM-G955U using Operation Sports mobile app

[edgevoice]

Re: Madden 20 Custom Playbook & Game Plan Play Call Guide

Any chance your playbook is available for download via ps4?

Sent from my SM-G955U using Operation Sports mobile app

Unfortunately, I only have the capability of uploading on XBox. This past week I've done a lot of new work and made several additions to my original custom playbook and gameplan, which I will eventually get around to adding to community files. At present, I keep getting kicked out.

The main reason I uploaded my books is so that folks who were having difficulties getting started could take mine to use as a skeleton. My style of play is mostly predicated on timing based passing, with a mix of zone and power run concepts. I realize this is a bit old-fashioned, but it works for me.

I have embraced some of the concepts being run out of the spread offense, so I've added some base pistol and pistol spread formations and plays. I like that some of those plays contain man beating concepts on one side of the field combined with zone beaters on the other. Always trying to add to my knowledge, as long as it meshes with my basic philosophy and fits my roster.

[edgevoice]

Re: Madden 20 Custom Playbook & Game Plan Play Call Guide

I havent read this entire thread but maybe I can help out some of our fellow "Coaches". Scheme is very important. Although they give us a 500 play max.. doesnt mean we need 500 plays. The best playbooks are often half of that. You'll notice as your team changes over time (if you are a franchise guy) that it may be time to add/delete certain things because its not your teams strength anymore. I started creating this method/approach in NCAA Football 14. I noticed that the recruits I was bringing in werent actually fitting what I originally wanted to do, so as any coach would do, I started to add the things that my team had. It's like what Buddy Ryan used to say "Coaching aint complicated. If its something you dont have, find out what you do have".

You want to break down your scheme from the top to the bottom when it comes to your playbook. I strive for purity. What kind of team are you building? What runs are important? What passing concepts? What kind of players do you need?

I run an old school, iFormation, Power O offense. I know somebody here said you should find a playbook the resembles what you want to base out of and customize your book that way. I do want to say I have never had a problem taking ANY playbook and stripping it down as much as I could and then building my playbook.

Once you do that, you need to find the "Must have stuff" for your playbook. I'm a Power Run, pulling guard, lead blocker guy. So I looked for all plays that had that, then I made sure every formation had a Power O, and Counter. (These are my base run plays). If it had a quick pass for me take advantage of certain matchups or alignments, and a playaction pass off my running game. If it had all 4 components, I would write it down.

Once I had all this together I would add complimentary plays that fit the type of book/team I was trying to build. Once I did that, THIS IS IMPORTANT... RATE YOUR PLAYS FOR DESIRED SITUATIONS. If you don't, you will not have play variety and you would be picking your own plays OFTEN! (if thats your style thats fine). You need to really sit down, and look thru all your plays and rate them for desired situations in the game.

Creating a playbook is fun but its time consuming. But once you get it down, you wont play any other way. Especially if you are a franchise guy like myself. And as your team changes, dont be afraid to alter your scheme. Know your players, your personnel..and you'll really feel like a coach!

Really good points here in my opinion. However, it is important for me to note that the reason I suggested building your custom playbook based off of a team specific playbook containing most of the formations you want to install is so that you will be able to fully utilize formation substitutions. If you just strip any book and add formations, those formations foreign to the original book won't be available for substitutions.