A simple playbook request

[rhombic21]

Here's something that has really been annoying me, on both Madden and NCAA (since the games share a large chunk of the playbooks).

I understand that we can't get three tiered playcalling, and even though ultimately that's what needs to happen, I guess I can live with it. But can you please stop putting random line stunts (that don't work) with certain defenses? Almost all of the Cover 2 zone plays in 4 DL sets on the game have a line stunt where the two ends crash in, and the DTs crash out. Now, perhaps this is what some teams really do in real life, but it doesn't work on the game, and it's frustrating to me for two reasons:

1) I try to play a Cover 2 defense as a "bend but don't break" style of defense (I hot route the two CBs to play purple zones, so they don't give up as many passes down the sidelines, and aren't as aggressive in teh flats). For this defense to work, I want my best edge rushers coming off ends, and I don't want to have the stunt. It's imperative in this defense that the QB not be able to break the pocket, as that causes all kinds of problems, so I want my DEs as the edge rush/contain person, and not my DTs. Because you've inserted this random, and as far as I can tell completely pointless, stunt, I now have to hot route all 4 lineman to rush straight ahead in order to get the edge rush concept that really makes more sense to use with this coverage.

2) For both Cover 2 zone defenses that have this stunt, as well as other zone coverages that have random line stunts (several cover 3 and Cover 4 plays have them as well), it makes it much harder for me to manually create zone blitzes via hot routes. Again, I understand that you guys don't have the time/resources to put every single possible zone blitz in the game, but that's fine because we can basically do that manually with hot routes. The problem is that when you throw these random DL stunts in, it adds several extra players that I have to hot route, which makes it much harder to work around.

Now, some blitzing plays have linemen that stunt in a certain way in order to help the blitz, and even though most of these are ineffective (which is why there are tons of forums and strategy hounds out there dedicated to creating custom blitz schemes), I'm mostly fine with leaving these as they are, because usually the most that you have to do is hot route one extra guy. But the random line stunts on things like Cover 2 and Cover 3 plays are pointless, don't work, and make it that much harder for people to create their own plays (which is basically a necessity when you give us playbooks that are this limited).

Also, on offense, please stop creating auto-motion on run plays just for the sake of having auto-motion. Don't auto-motion some receiver who has nothing to do with the play just to throw in another play with auto-motion. The problem with auto-motion on run plays is that there's no way to cancel it, which means 2 things: 1) That if you have a run play with auto-motion that you like to use a lot, you now have to manually create that same motion on all the other plays out of that formation in order to not tip the play to your opponent -- which is really just annoying (and with the new accelerated clock thing, more difficult to do than it was in the past), and 2) That if you want to motion somebody else, either to create some sort of misdirection, or to get an extra player in position at the point of attack, you're pretty much out of luck, since the game only allows you to motion one player per play.

So, unless the guy is pivotal to the play, as in he's getting a ball handed to him or faked to him, or he's motioning to a unique blocking alignment, don't auto-motion him. Don't set guys out of position just to motion them into position either. I mean, what's the point. You set my FB/TE way out wide, then motion him back to where he would have lined up anyways, and in the process all that it accomplishes is that we give the play away, because I can't throw a pass, or use a different run play out of that look anyways.

Thanks.

[steelers1]

I agree completely with you. I'm really not a fan of either the defensive or offensive playbooks. Since I use a 3-4 defense and it doesn't work as it should anyway, the playbooks aren't as huge of a problem.

But I've long been annoyed by the motion problem you brought up. It's very annoying since it just gives your play away.