how do you increase a players playbook knowledge?

[ldpart67]

I am in my first season with the Dolphins and one of the goals is to increase playbook knowledge for Ronnie Brown and Jake Long. Other than practice, is there a way to specifically work with one individual on this? I cant find any thing in either the manual or strategy guide and I cant figure out how to do this. If I let it go, I take a huge hit in my approval from the players.

Any help is appreciated
Thanks

[goonertaff]

Re: how do you increase a players playbook knowledge?

first things first whats there learning rate

cause if one is low say 79 or less then he is nt going to learn enough anyway

other than practice play the pre season concentrate on unlearned plays and run the same 6 or 7 until there learnt then move on to another set of plays

repeat until done

also you could keep the player in longer switch him in the depth chart when you sub to the second string

[bcruise]

Re: how do you increase a players playbook knowledge?

I am in my first season with the Dolphins and one of the goals is to increase playbook knowledge for Ronnie Brown and Jake Long. Other than practice, is there a way to specifically work with one individual on this? I cant find any thing in either the manual or strategy guide and I cant figure out how to do this. If I let it go, I take a huge hit in my approval from the players.

Any help is appreciated
Thanks

Well, first of all, don't sweat the approval hit that much. You're not gonna get fired just because you couldn't get the playbook knowledge goal done. Plus, player's approval shoots back up when good things happen in-game. That said, with these two guys (Brown's 85 and Long's 99 learning!!), this shouldn't be too hard. Those two guys can learn plays in one practice.

You should be able to do Train Rookie in the gameplan screen to get them to learn multiple plays at a time - it's the fastest way to get their average knowledge up. However...you often can't just select them specifically - you have to pick another rookie on the offense and let them learn the plays along with the selected guy. The thing is, the guy you pick to lead the training (for lack of a better term) needs to have at least an average learning. In other words, if you pick a slug, it'll keep running the same plays over and over in practice (because he's not learning them) and Brown and Long won't be able to learn anything new. A 75 or so will keep new plays rolling in every 2 practices or so. Someone like....Henne.

So basically, Do a train rookie with Henne every gameplan, and you'll get 5 new plays about every 2 practices. You should able to reach the knowledge goal with that, and have time left in the preseason to get the rest of the team ready. And then there's also preseason games...don't forget that players can gain play knowledge during those games too!
I

[StiffArm]

Re: how do you increase a players playbook knowledge?

A while back I think I read a developer post saying that the starters get the reps in practice until they have the play mastered, then that starter's back-up gets reps when that play is practiced until he has it mastered, then the 3rd string, etc. If this is true, and meeting these goals is important to you, then you might want to put a rookie or two in as starter during some practices if the guy they're playing behind has a low learning rating.

I was wondering for a while why Joe Flacco wasn't learning anything behind Kerry Collins, then I did a search here, read that, and realized Collins' learning rating is like a 61 or something incredibly low like that. So basically, Average Joe will have to wait for-freaking-ever to get any reps in at practice while the dunce starting in front of him takes his sweet old time learning plays. It sort of defeats the purpose of letting the rookie sit behind a veteran his first year, I think.

And if you're wondering, the only reason I traded for Collins was because it was listed as a GM goal right at the beginning of my career. This being my first career, I said, "well, don't want to fail any goals!" Big mistake. Which brings me to my next point: while you may want to succeed in all those "increase playbook knowledge" goals, in some cases it won't be worth it to you to do so; if the player in question is a rookie playing behind a better player with an only moderate learning rating, it's probably not worth it to you to sub the rookie in during practice and have the veteran starter completely lost once the regular season starts.

That is, if I understand how practice works correctly....

[kcarr]

Re: how do you increase a players playbook knowledge?

Also, running plays in the game will increase play knowledge. If you run plays that brown and long are unlearned in during the games they will learn them. Also, a hit to approval during the preseason is really not a bad thing. At the start of the season one of your goals will be to raise overall approval around 20 points. The lower your approval is going in the easier it will be. Meeting this goal will increase owner approval which is vital to not getting fired.

[ldpart67]

Re: how do you increase a players playbook knowledge?

Also, running plays in the game will increase play knowledge. If you run plays that brown and long are unlearned in during the games they will learn them. Also, a hit to approval during the preseason is really not a bad thing. At the start of the season one of your goals will be to raise overall approval around 20 points. The lower your approval is going in the easier it will be. Meeting this goal will increase owner approval which is vital to not getting fired.

Cool thanks for the tips!! I did run alot of the unlearned plays (a 35-28 loss to the Bucs) in my first game and their knowledge increased quite a bit.

[Coredor]

Re: how do you increase a players playbook knowledge?

I think the important thing to do when training players in training camp is to find 2 rookies with good learning on each side of the ball, preferably ones who will start. Then make sure you have your depth chart set the way you hope for it to be at the start of the year. Alternate training sides of the ball or if one side needs more work than the other go ahead and do that. Try to train the starters though because if your number 2 choice is a backup then he won't be caught up and will repeat plays. That way the second team would learn more which depending on your situation might be ok but the starters have to know the playbook.

The other important thing to do is to cut the junk out of your playbook. It may be that there are some plays therethat you don't plan to run. Training rookies may train them. You don't need to train 5 versions of Hail Mary. Taking some out of your playbook also helps towards percentages for learning plays. In my experience if you implement a new playbook less is more. In future years you can always add plays back into your playbook in the main menu and upload them to the game. Probably new plays would be better though. Just make sure you have plays to match up with a variety of scenarios. Any altered plays you create are best put in at the beginning of training camp also. If you don't want to run the original you don't want to train the play twice.