Excel .xls file with playbook formations breakdown

[bomza]

Instead of whining about something else in Madden 10, I have decided to do something constructive. I have created an Excel .xls file to share with the community in which I list all the various formations and which playbooks they can be found in. It is free, (perfectly safe and virus-free) and can be downloaded at the end of this post:

You will need some version of Excel to open it, and when you do make sure under "Tools - Options - View" that "Sheet tabs" is checked, otherwise you will only see the first sheet.

I have also tested it in the free Microsoft Office Excel Viewer and scalc in the latest free OpenOffice 3.1.1, and it opens fine in both.

The first tab "Formations" lists the seven rarest formations and the playbooks they can be found in. These are Empty, Far, Full House, Near, Pistol, Split, and of course, Wildcat. (Empty I call "Under center empty backfield" for clarification.)

Note that of all the Wildcat playbooks, only Cleveland, Miami and San Francisco have more than three plays, and Miami is the only one which has as many as three pass plays out of this formation, and most have either one or none. Also note that these plays can not be audibled out of, and EA did this on purpose. So if you choose this play in the huddle you are forced to use it at the line of scrimmage, call a timeout, or take a delay of game penalty.

The next eight tabs are for each NFL division, AFC East, AFC North, AFC South, AFC West, NFC East, NFC North, NFC South and NFC West. Each of these tabs has the four teams in that division and the formation breakdown for each of their playbooks. The final tab "Generic" lists the formations for the Balanced, Pass Balanced, Run Balanced, Run Heavy, Run n Gun and West Coast playbooks.

Basically, I got tired of going through that big Prima book and searching through the free playbook diagrams provided by VG Sports just to be able to find one formation I was curious about and to know where to find it. Someone else may have already done this, or there may be a paid version somewhere, but I just thought I'd do this free one for anyone who just want to save time searching for a certain formation or for a new playbook, so they can spend more time actually playing.

If anyone wants to go ahead and just make one long list from this, go ahead and be my guest. For me, sticking it in an Excel file was easier, and if I want to add things to it in the future (such as the number of pass, run and PA plays in each formation in every playbook) it is not a problem.

[jdan15]

good work bomza. good to see someone not bitching and adding something to the community. i guess it is easier to complain than do something constructive. again, good work.

[carnalnirvana]

nice work bro, thx

[65South]

WOW Bomza, thanks for this!

Just puzzled that there's only been a couple replies...but then again a so many people are creating posts and replies to how crappy the game is. It's just too bad a lot of the good posts where people have useful information or just feel good posts, they get shoved to the bottom or they never post them for fear of flaming.

Anyway...thanks again bro. Great job!

[cpdfrank]

Excellent work. However this just magnifies what the true issue is, and that is, why if we're paying for this game, do we always have to take countless hours trying to figure out how to make it, so that it plays a solid game, not perfect, but a solid game of football.

[Swiffle]

In the same vein, I was working on individual playbooks for my franchise, based off of Flash playbooks someone released before the game came out. Problem was, all the plays were there, but they were out of order with the game so I had to manually fix everything. Lost interest after doing the Dolphins playbook. Also did an early version of a playcall sheet.
Could be used as a template if someone wanted to I guess.

http://www.filefront.com/14630995/DolphinsPB.xls/

[golionsgo]

You know guys there is a full colour playbook thats free from prima games , and if you search on this forum you would probably find it.

[65South]

Quote: Originally Posted by golionsgo

...and if you search on this forum you would probably find it.

Or you could point us in the right direction with a provided link