How To Build A Custom Offensive Playbook And Gameplan

[edgevoice]

While nowhere near as well designed when compared to Madden 12, building a custom playbook and installing a gameplan is still possible in Madden 19. Although this feature is somewhat limiting, I will show you how I was able to build a custom playbook and install a 60 play gameplan. When properly utilized, not only will you have a playbook that best represents your playing style, you'll find yourself becoming a much better and more efficient play caller based on situation. You will also not have to "formation fumble" through your playbook in order to select your plays.

Before you start building your custom playbook, be sure to pick a book that best represents the formations you want to use. In so doing, you will have the ability to take advantage of formation substitutions. Once you've settled on a playbook, select one play from a formation you wish to save and put it in all gameplan situations, except hail mary. Doing this will insure you avoid being prompted that a play cannot be deleted, since it's the only play in a given situation. Keep in mind that you will not be able to delete any play designated as "safe situation". Next, delete all plays and formations you do not wish to have in your book. From there, delete the rest of the plays you don't want to keep, but make sure you save at least 1 play per each of these formations, in order to keep the integrity and order of your playbook intact. If you don't, your formations may scramble and thus may not appear where they belong. Finally, build your playbook by first adding plays to the formations you've saved. Afterwards, you can select additional formations and plays you wish to install. Everyone has their own tastes, but I would highly advise that you try to stay as balanced as possible. Writing your playbook to a simple word pad file will allow you to keep track of how many runs, short, medium, deep passes and nickel packages you are installing. Think "situation". When you have finished, name your book and save.

In order to start building your gameplan, start by simply selecting your offensive playbook for editing. You would then select 9 plays you absolutely want to show up all the time for each situation. This is done by awarding 3 plays 5 stars, 3 plays 4.5 stars, and finally 3 plays 4 stars. Continue to do this throughout every situation or copy and paste situations. Of note, 3rd & 4th down medium situations only allow for 6 selections. Make sure you are picking plays from every formation in your playbook or that formation may not show up in game. These plays will show up under Frequent Playcall Window. If you want to further enhance your gameplan, select 9 additional plays for each desired situation and award a star rating of 3.5 for each play chosen. While these plays will not show up under Frequent Playcall Window, you will notice 5 or 6 of them will randomly rotate under the Strategy Pick Window. What I did was add 2nd and short to both 1st and 10 and 2nd and medium/long situations. I also added 3rd and medium to my redzone situation. When you are finished, save playbook as gameplan. Finally, you will have to go through a game and call all of your plays at least 1 time. After you do this, you will find that all of your plays in your gameplan will show up according to situation under the Frequent Playcall Window, while supplemental plays you've added by rating them 3.5 will start rotating under the Strategy Pick Window.

In the future, I hope EA improves the gameplan feature, as it had done so well in Madden 12. Being that there are 27 available playcall windows, it flies in the face of all logic to not be able to assign more plays into a gameplan window than 9. Having said that, having at least 9 plays for almost every situation and the supplemental use of formation substitutions is better than nothing.

I have uploaded both my core offense named EdgeOffense and 60 play gameplan named Edgeplan for XBOX users in case you want to download and use either as a template. My apologies to PS users as I regretfully have no means to upload for you folks.

[RogueHominid]

Super interesting.

One question: does this method 100% prevent formation jumbling?

I found that if all I did was set custom audibles, all my formations would get jumbled.

You're able to empty the book out, re-stock it, and set audibles, all without the formation jumble, using this method?

Thanks!

[edgevoice]

Attached please find example of how I set up my 60 play gameplan. I was not able to attach a professional colored version, as file was not supported here, but I hope this helps you in setting up your own personal gameplan.

Also, I just uploaded my gameplan on XBOX 1 and is named edgeplan. As you will see, it is a very basic timing-based offense containing 5 pro and 5 nickel formations. I also included my formation audibles at the bottom. You may download it and then use it as a template to install your own gameplan.

Remember, you will likely have to go into a play now game and call all plays once before they will show up under frequent playcall window.

[edgevoice]

Quote: Originally Posted by Trojan Man

Super interesting. One question: does this method 100% prevent formation jumbling? I found that if all I did was set custom audibles, all my formations would get jumbled. You're able to empty the book out, re-stock it, and set audibles, all without the formation jumble, using this method? Thanks!

That is the million dollar question my friend. When I first tried to build a custom playbook in Madden 19, not only were my formations jumbled, almost half of them were missing because I completely stripped it initially. I am very OCD so I wanted to completely start from scratch and then build.

This year, I had to find the playbook that most closely resembled what I wanted from a formation standpoint. From there, I made sure I kept at least one play from each of these formations I wanted to keep alive when stripping it. After doing it that way, everything laid out perfectly, even the additional formations I added.

It would be a good idea to save your playbook after you are done stripping it, leaving at least one play alive per formation desired. Go into practice mode and you should see everything stacked correctly.

[cirespieler]

Excellent write up, thanks. Appreciate all the time that goes into something like this.

It's definitely best to start with an existing PB and modify, found that out the hard way a few years back. Hail Mary and game plan can really cause a lot of glitches if you try to delete everything and start from zero.



Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

[AceCoach704]

I like reading stuff like this, I admire the patience and attention to detail. For me, I coached High School Football for 13 years so I got used to having my call sheet to refer off of. Attached is a simple 3 play per formation call sheet I made for the New Orleans Saints playbook I use, but it's easily editable in Excel. Hope someone finds it useful.

[edgevoice]

Quote: Originally Posted by cirespieler

Excellent write up, thanks. Appreciate all the time that goes into something like this. It's definitely best to start with an existing PB and modify, found that out the hard way a few years back. Hail Mary and game plan can really cause a lot of glitches if you try to delete everything and start from zero. Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

Thanks for the kind words. The unfortunate thing is that the write-up had to be as lengthy as it was, in order to explain the workaround to allow for the gameplan feature to actually work.

You would think that the 9 plays you starred 5-4.5-4 respectively would show up under Strategy Picks. Instead, you will find them under Frequent Called. I discovered it quite by accident, just before I nearly hurled my controller through my Sony....

[edgevoice]

Quote: Originally Posted by AceCoach704

I like reading stuff like this, I admire the patience and attention to detail. For me, I coached High School Football for 13 years so I got used to having my call sheet to refer off of. Attached is a simple 3 play per formation call sheet I made for the New Orleans Saints playbook I use, but it's easily editable in Excel. Hope someone finds it useful.

Thanks Coach. Funny, I actually used the Saints playbook as my base for my custom book, as it contained quite a few of the formations I wanted to have represented. I see you have quite a bit of stuff I like to run.

When I built my book overall, before I put together my gameplan, I was very careful to make certain I had a play in each formation designated for each receiver, along with both an inside and outside run. That way, when I put together my gameplan, I wouldn't tip my hand by making sure to utilize all my weapons.

I attached my book below. Again, I have a nice colored file that I am unable to attach here. I start off each formation listing running plays across. From there, pass plays to the X, SLOT or TE and Z receivers are shown from left to right across. Hopefully it may help others looking to build their own book.

Curious question: How many plays did you have up when you coached HS football per-game? Thanks again.