Dear APF Dev Team....wheres the defense?

[Zedox]

Re: Dear APF Dev Team....wheres the defense?

Play on Legend, everyone. It's that simple.

[TombSong]

Re: Dear APF Dev Team....wheres the defense?

Is your bronze WR Cliff Branch? If so that's why. Moore is a good option and so is John Taylor. Branch is a good deep threat, but as has been discussed before he avoids contact. He's the Travis Taylor or in Eagles terms the Todd Pinkston of the bronze group. He'll catch it if he is wide open down the field, but if there is someone around, he will not do a thing.

This is the absolute truth. The team I used last night against Freak had cliff branch. He is GREAT when he gets open, but throw the ball in traffic and he absolutely sucks. It is amazing how they got these players tweaked to the point that you could almost identify them without even having to see their name, you just gotta watch them play and you KNOW who it is, LOL.

I yanked Branch off the squad last night. I am using John Taylor now and see how that works out.

[TombSong]

Re: Dear APF Dev Team....wheres the defense?

If any of you guys see me online and want to play just send me a challenge. I am on a mini vacation right now till next Friday(My 06 Mustang GT is getting a Whipple SC installed..WOO HOO !!....Vettes beware)

I need all the practice I can get. I am in a offensive funk right now for some reason.

[wwharton]

Re: Dear APF Dev Team....wheres the defense?

gta95, I'd also like to know what plays you call on D. someone mentioned the personnel of the ravens, bears, etc. but one, you can't stack a d to that point in this game and two, you're ignoring that they have great plays called to fit that personnel. You can try to make every run gain negative yards which is bound to give up a big play here and there or you can do the bend but don't break thing and give up 100 or so but few scores, or somewhere in the middle. but you've gotta know which plays to call for each philosophy. i have a feeling people call certain plays and get upset when they don't work when they aren't supposed to work.

not denying some of the things mentioned but if you're giving up 185, 200, etc. that'd be my guess.

[gta95]

Re: Dear APF Dev Team....wheres the defense?

gta95, I'd also like to know what plays you call on D. someone mentioned the personnel of the ravens, bears, etc. but one, you can't stack a d to that point in this game and two, you're ignoring that they have great plays called to fit that personnel. You can try to make every run gain negative yards which is bound to give up a big play here and there or you can do the bend but don't break thing and give up 100 or so but few scores, or somewhere in the middle. but you've gotta know which plays to call for each philosophy. i have a feeling people call certain plays and get upset when they don't work when they aren't supposed to work.

not denying some of the things mentioned but if you're giving up 185, 200, etc. that'd be my guess.

First off, I mainly try to gauge which side the person runs to the most. So when I feel a run coming, I setup the line shift to that side. Then, I either go 44 blitz to that side, or I call a 4-3 zone and bring the linebackers up. I can somewhat trust my corners so I like to blitz. I'm not sure what else I can do. Some games I can keep the run under control, and the rest they just get lots of big runs of 7+ yards. I try bear, I try goalline, I try everything, but its not really working well.

[burnwood]

Re: Dear APF Dev Team....wheres the defense?

Play on Legend, everyone. It's that simple.

Almost nobody plays Legend online.

Also, I must have missed the part of using sliders online. Who figured it out?

[Disasterpiece]

Re: Dear APF Dev Team....wheres the defense?

Almost nobody plays Legend online.

Also, I must have missed the part of using sliders online. Who figured it out?

It was posted back 2 pages.

[wwharton]

Re: Dear APF Dev Team....wheres the defense?

First off, I mainly try to gauge which side the person runs to the most. So when I feel a run coming, I setup the line shift to that side. Then, I either go 44 blitz to that side, or I call a 4-3 zone and bring the linebackers up. I can somewhat trust my corners so I like to blitz. I'm not sure what else I can do. Some games I can keep the run under control, and the rest they just get lots of big runs of 7+ yards. I try bear, I try goalline, I try everything, but its not really working well.

I'm not the one to give you specific plays for APF (could've done a better job based on personnel with 2k5 but lbz, kruza or some of the others probably can help you there) but I'm pretty sure most of the blitzes are designed to get to the QB. Some work against the run but I think it's just b/c you're taking up space more than them being designed to stop the run. If your LBs aren't that great at getting off tackles then bringing them close to the line will make it easier for the RB rather than harder. Again, I can't give you too much detail without talking half out of my a** but you may want to work on specific plays for specific situations. Just using the right set isn't enough against the good runners.

Personally I work on limiting runners to 3 yards or less rather than stopping them. Too much risk for the big play. I only try to stand em up completely on occassion or 3rd and short situations. cover 2 zone, cover 2 hard, things like that mixed in with a few blitzes. It may be personnel too but your plays have to match your personnel. That's what's hard for me with APF... you need to play to know who does what well and I don't have the time to put in like I need to.

[gta95]

Re: Dear APF Dev Team....wheres the defense?

Man Iunno if I'm gonna play this game again. From linebackers that walk in slo-mo for the first 3 seconds of the snap, to DBs that turn their backs to the play, to an all run stopping team that can stop the run no matter what formation there in, to wide open legend receivers dropping passes. Cya in 2k9

[RogueHominid]

Re: Dear APF Dev Team....wheres the defense?

More power to ya, GT, but I still think this is a helluva game. I've been frustrated by the same things as you, but what I've noticed is that they happen sometimes, but not all the time. Charlie Taylor is usually brilliant for me, yet he'll have a game every now and then where he'll drop a wide open ball. Some games Brookshier is money, some games he makes one terrible, costly play (with his back to the ball). I think there's variability built into the game so that not every guy plays well or poorly all the time, and that can lead to some head scratching moments. But I think that on the whole, if you're really trying to stop a certain aspect of a team, you can do it.

Re: the run game, I wouldn't advise over-blizting or even slanting hard all the time (unless the person runs the I-Jokers toss to Earl all game, in which case you almost have to do that), as this puts you grossly out of position for any play that's not the one you were looking for. If I'm thinking run and the guy mixes his attack well, I'll call a base front, maybe walk a guy in the box and hot-route a guy, but that's it and I don't even do that very frequently. I find that the blitzing backer will run right by the back too often, so it's best to use the blitz to blow up a designated hole or take out the lead blocker and set up the rest of your defense to be in a support position.

Hang in there brotha! I had a moment like this with the screen pass, but I got some good advice from the good folks here at OS, and my sanity has returned.

[LBzrule]

Re: Dear APF Dev Team....wheres the defense?

I really think what VC should do other than tweak the defense is, I think if you want to be a run team then you should have to spend picks not just on a RB. They should force you to pick offensive linemen. What's the point of having them in the damn game? Well of course for pass blocking so they should be necessary to have a great pass blocking line too. I say this because it isn't like Earl, Emmitt, Walter, Thurman didn't have good Offensive lines in real life because they did. The only gold guy I can think that did not have a good Oline is Barry. They should force people to take offensive linemen and even then it shouldn't be a guarantee. So if you have a generic on REggie, Reggie should dominate him just like Freeney is dominating jamaal brown tonight. But if you put Munoz over there, Reggie an Munoz should duke it out and Reggie should get in less.

[spankdatazz22]

Re: Dear APF Dev Team....wheres the defense?

I really think what VC should do other than tweak the defense is, I think if you want to be a run team then you should have to spend picks not just on a RB. They should force you to pick offensive linemen.

I think several of the positions could use tweaking. Generic kickers in the game are generally too good. Generic OL are generally okay/good, and there isn't a discernible enough difference between the legend OL players. Slightly lowering the abilities of generic OL while slightly beefing the abilities of legend defensive players would go a ways towards balancing the game more imo

[dunelly]

Re: Dear APF Dev Team....wheres the defense?

I think generic Oline already play like legends. They really need to tone it down.

If anyone saw the colts game, legends should be like dwight freeney raping the tackle. over and over and over. EVERY PLAY. I dont mind getting 0 sacks if i get 10+ hurries a game.

[evarts2616]

Re: Dear APF Dev Team....wheres the defense?

There are some issues with the defense in this game but overall i wouldn't say it's any worse than per say Madden or NCAA. Every video football game that I've owned has had issued defensively.

[LBzrule]

Re: Dear APF Dev Team....wheres the defense?

There are some issues with the defense in this game but overall i wouldn't say it's any worse than per say Madden or NCAA. Every video football game that I've owned has had issued defensively.

Actually it is worse than Madden and NCAA BUT in a good way because it's not dealing with the same problems. This game suffers from balancing pressure because the Oline blocks really really well. They have a real scheme. NCAA/Madden are the reverse, you get instant pressure in that game WHENEVER you want it because the Oline is very very bad so you have to figure out ways to protect the QB through the use of motion ect. But 2k8 has some similar aspects of Madden and NCAA old QB mechanics - can't run outside so run backwards and throw up a prayer, Jerry will catch it. The bad part is and this is where NCAA and Madden do something sorta good - they have blitzes that have speed to them. Regardless of how unrealistic they are done, they have speed to them. I never understood why people ran backwards with the QB in those games until I figured out the blitzing. In 2k8 though that's the problem. You get to run backwards with the QB, but you do not have that same speed on blitzes.