How to make the game more enjoyable/challenging

[Byron Yatch]

Last sliders(until further testing determines otherwise)

25 PASS ACC 50 P BLOCK 25 CATCH 50 RUN ABILITY 75 RUN BLOCK
50 AWARENESS 25 KNOCKDOWN 25 INT 50 BREAK BLOCK 25 TACKLE
100 FGPOWER 50FG ACC 100 PUNT POWER 75 PUNT ACC 25 KO POWER


I can not change how you play the game, only try to teach you how I enjoy it, hoping you will try it and enjoy it as well.

No matter what sliders you use, if you always use the same plays, and continuously stay in mastered plays all game, you will win most games. Not only that, you will most likely dominate most teams. If you let the cpu call every play, they almost always choose plays that are already mastered. You have to play call yourself if you want a balanced game. You have to show integrity when its 4th down on your side of the field and punt, or go for the field goal instead of a first down on their side.

You have to remember that mastered plays boost the player attributes of anyone who has mastered the play. Learned plays mean a player wont make a mistake but dont have any boost for it either. unlearned means they've never gone over the play in practice or in a game so they dont really remember it and may make a mistake. If its a great design though, it may also net major yardage because the defense has never seen your team use it.

Also, if you want to talk about how you're in year 5 and you're dominating a team in one half, refusing to let a team make adjustments to you after half time, you're failing to understand one very key concept in real life and this game. CONTINUITY = CONSISTENT DOMINATION. The more players you keep over every year at the same positions, learning with the same players next to them, OF COURSE YOU WILL START DOMINATING.

LOOK AT THE DAMN COLTS OF THE LAST DECADE(prior to manning injury). LOOK AT THE RAVENS D OF THE LAST DECADE. LOOK AT PITTSBURG AND NEW ENGLAND, THE GIANTS, THE EAGLES, THE CHARGERS, THE BEARS DEFENSE, THE PACKERS OFFENSE NOW.

While they keep their core, they continue to dominate. Once they start losing some pieces to their puzzle, they start to deteriorate in those areas(IE the pats secondary, the steelers oline now, colts offense(last year at least minus luck). THIS IS JUST REALITY BEING SHOWN IN VIDEO GAME FORM.

How do you keep the game interesting and challenging you ask? SIMPLE, trade players that you dont want to pay to resign to teams that need help there. Let go of GREAT COACHES when you lose early in the playoffs so they can join other staffs and build up new coaches to thier potential. Delete plays that get used too often and create new ones that fit the new players in new positions. In otherwords, dont hoard all the best coaches, create the next set of best coaches while letting these underlings spread their wings and compete against you!

Want the games themselves to be more challenging and entertaining? Start using learned and unlearned plays on first and 2nd down to create new situations. Start using only learned plays on 3rd down to make it so you dont always make everyone. Use plays that you've never used before when up by more than 10 to learn more of the playbook and allow mistakes to happen instead of always using mastered plays.

Listen, I cant make you do these things. But until you do, you're not gonna get more challenging games. no slider set can fix a person who doesnt play well. By that I dont mean you cant win, I mean you cant lose, or at least stand to... You have to take some chances in life, allow mistakes to happen. If you only do what you've perfected, you're wasting other talents unnoticed...

[Byron Yatch]

Here are a couple other things to make games more intense/realistic.

Even when you play 15 min quarters with the accelerated clock, if you just dismiss the playcall as fast as possible to defer it to your coordinators, the players will reach the line of scrimmage by 35 seconds left.

IN REAL LIFE, players break the huddle at 20-30 seconds left depending on if there's motion and a lot for the qb to read. If its a run, its almost as soon as they all get set, the ball will be hiked.

Your goal is to have a play ready to be chosen or defer the play with 25 seconds or less on the play clock, making the offense get to the line at about 20 seconds left.

Now, while on offense, if the clock isnt stopped, you continue to do this(run clock in otherwords). If however there is a penalty or a dropped pass that stops the clock, then you defer or pick your own play as fast as possible.

You only have 25 seconds in those situations and on the first play of any offensive drive. Those are the times I USUALLY DEFER to the coordinator. By usually, I mean if Im down or even. If Im up in the game by 1 point, I call every play usually to keep integrity.

I use the following House rules(you've seen them in my other posts)

Up 21+ use only unlearned plays, trying to find ones that have never been used in that situation(0% usage or success score) These are mainly plays you just stole and have never used before.
Up 10-20 use unlearned plays on first and 2nd, learned on 3rd.
Up 1-9 use unlearned on first, learned on 2nd, mastered on 3rd or defer.
Even Use learned on first, learned on 2nd, mastered on 3rd or defer
Down 1-9, learned on first, mastered or defered on 2nd and 3rd
Down 10-20 Mastered or defered on any play, maybe a learned here or there to trick the d.
Down 21+ Mastered plays with low usage percentage but the highest possible success score(100% whenever possible) These are the go to money plays that just always work. If you need a miracle, this is how its done,

Realize though that those house rules are for both sides of the ball, not just the offense. IF you just let the cpu call the d all the time, they will always use mastered plays they learned in preseason, maybe throw in a base playbook play that hasnt been learned that well yet every once in a while. Never use a play that you stole and didnt play yourself in a certain situation. They just stick to the playbook you started your career with(only the base portion of custom playbooks, not the whole thing)/


ON DEFENSE, you run 10 seconds of clock on any play they run when they keep the clock running. The play clock will start at 40 and run down to around 30 where it promptly changes to 11 seconds left. Then the game clock will stop moving as well and only your time is ticking on picking your play. Its at that time that you either defer(press b or o) or select the play you wanted to use, not before it. That doesnt mean you're not looking through the playbook if you want to pick one yourself, It just means you dont actually pick it till theres only 10 seconds left on defense or 25 seconds left on offense for the play clock.

If you apply these little nuances to your gaming, you will find this game can play EXTREMELY realistic with my sliders. Running backs can go over 100(over 200 if you use mastered running plays with 100% success scores all game), passers can throw over 400(if you throw mastered deep passes all game). Recievers can catch for about 120-150 yds 10-14 catches 2-4 tds.


You dont have to do this, play the game you want. but when you get frustrated that its too easy and you dont want to destroy every team by 80 points for perfect season after perfect season of 6000 yd qbs, try my info out.

[Byron Yatch]

Penalties:

If you hadnt noticed yet, special team returns, int returns and fumble returns when a flag happens on the returning team are ALWAYS DECLINED, even if you(the human) is the returning team. The cpu just acts like it never happened. In order to be penalized on special teams, you have to ACTUALLY OPEN THE PENALTY MESSAGE!!!!

If you just dismiss them, they wont be accepted.

On the other hand, some penalties cant be declined at all it seems. The cpu wont decline a penalty that wipes away an int or fumble return for a touchdown for them. They just accept the penalty(like holding) and you get the ball back.

I havent figured out the right way to work this situation out, I think you have to let it dismiss itself by running out of time. But it may be another case when you have to open the penalty itself.

In the long run, I try to open any penalty I know is against my team so the cpu can accept it. If its against the computer, I decline a lot of them unless Im losing. No need to rub salt in their wounds if they're down by 14 or more.

Also, with penalties, sometimes its better to decline them, but the cpu wont do that, they will always accept a penalty that gives a first down. The problem is, sometimes its pass interference but your player caught the ball. If he catches it and gains any more yards, you will lose them if you dont decline the penalty YOURSELF. The cpu will accept the pass int and you will not be as far down the field as you should be, even though both cases would be a first down.

Emotional moments

These are just the little things Ive noticed over the years. You have to pay attention to a lot of things in this game. Another curveball they like to throw at you is with the emotional or calm moments. They lie to you and say things that didnt actually happen. I know some might think this is bad programming but really its just to make sure you're paying attention.

For instance, you'll see someone has 3 pancake blocks at the end of the 1st quarter but that's ridiculous so you have to say calm, not emotional, cause he doesnt have 3.

Another one is when you get a td and it says the wrs name instead of the qb. Almost every qb(depending on attitude) likes it when you're emotional and hates it when you're calm when they throw a td. But if it says the wrs name, you're supposed to do the exact opposite.

Qbs dont care about big plays, they care about tds. RBS and WRS dont care about tds, they care about big plays. A rb is supposed to get a td on the 5 yard line, same with the wr from the 15 yard line. But when they get 20 yard runs and RIDICULOUS LEAPING GRABS, you're supposed to be happy for them.

Qbs expect to throw for 300 yards in a pass heavy offense, its 400-500 thats a big deal. RBS are used to running for 100-150 yards, but a 200 yard game is something special, same for with the offenses putting up those numbers. The smaller numbers are expected, 200+ rush and 400+ pass is where you should start getting "giddy"/emotional.

Defenses expect tackles for losses, they dont expect sacks so thats how you should react. As for returns of fumbles and ints. If you see nice interception or fumble recovered its emotional. If its nice return and they didnt get a td its calm, if they did get a td its emotional.

When your team sacks the qb or tackles the back in the endzone, pay attention to the wording of the message that comes up. If it says a players name and sack/safety, you pick emotional. If however it says nice tackle for loss you act calm. You have to react to the message, not what actually happened sometimes.

When I think of more stuff I'll post it. If you have any questions, I'll help you find the answers.

[Byron Yatch]

Versing weaker teams.

Its imperative to understand that in head coach 09, EVERYTHING MATTERS. If a team has a terrible coaching staff and a less than average team with a mediocre playbook, most other teams will DOMINATE THEM, if not just defeat them.

This is because any team with a better coaching staff and/or team and or playbook has a leg up on them, literally. In fact its such a big deal of how good your coaching staff is, that a team like the giants, colts, or pats will always be harder than most other teams, because of their coaching.

If you had never noticed, a team with an amazing staff and roster can get away with calling learned plays 100% of the time and beat a lesser team's MASTERED PLAYS, 90% of the time, based on talent of the players and staff. This is because they are dead even when you look at the overall of the plays at the bottom of the screen before the hike. Where it says play knowledge coaching and overall is the top bar. Thats the one that matters the most....


This means something else. Anytime you complained about destroying any level of lesser team, ON ANY SLIDERS, it was probably your fault(even IM to blame for doing this). EVEN if you used learned plays you would have scored nearly every drive with all your 99 coaches and amazing players at EVERY POSITION against the weaker teams.

This is because you're hoarding first round picks from the rest of the league that actually need them more than you, just for some lesser stars/talent in general that couldnt start for you! But they're worthy of a top 10 pick right? A backup who's not over 95 potential is not worth a top 10 pick! He's not even worth a top 20 pick. Youd need a backup and a 1st and a 3rd to be semi fair with them. More like 2 firsts(this year and next) and a backup that could start for them in exchange for a top 10 pick. Thats a more real nfl trade.


If you use my sliders in the playoffs(against the competitive teams in the league in other words), you will see how much more difficult better teams are. Dont base my slider work on your Juggernaut vs the lions while never using an unlearned play! If you always defer plays, you always pick mastered plays.

Thats cheap to me now that I understand how much of a difference talent level and coaching staffs effect the game(extremely overpowering effect). Even on your own sliders, you should at least adopt my house rules(what level of knowledge play when) to allow the cpu a fighting chance against you... Its much more fun when the cpu can upset you sometimes, especially in the playoffs. Thats when you unload staff that arent gonna get promoted and get new ones to build up.

In fact, you should go one level less if you're versing a weaker team than you. That means if the score is tied, you should treat it as if you were already up by at least 1-9 points(and down 1-9 points against stronger teams). Fact of the matter is, you already are, the other team just doesnt know it yet and neither do you...

[Byron Yatch]

Game planning

When game planning for a game, understand that you can overkill one side of the ball against a team that doesnt deserve it. In other words, if you use 2 defensive game plans against the vikings, its unnecessary and overkill.

If you however only defensively game plan for their strength, you will decrease what they are capable of doing better than most of league and make them play out of their comfort zone for most of the game. Thats usually efficient enough to win any game against lower opponents.

If you want a more challenging and entertaining match against lesser teams, you disregard what your opponent does well or has weaknesses against, on offense and defense, and just gameplan to fix holes in your own team.

Sometimes this leads to game planning right into the defenses teeth, causing more difficulty because you only have plays amplified that wont work most of the time against your opponent(IE standard pass against the giants or cowboys is suicide because they blitz 7 and 8 a lot, Inside run against the steelers, outside run against any cover 2, middle passes(work with te) against cover 3 teams, etc).

Technically, the only teams worthy of 2 Defensive game plan choices are the Saints, Chargers, Broncos, Eagles, Patriots, Giants, Colts, and Seahawks(some will argue for a few more, I just cant really think of them right now).

These teams have outrageous coaching staffs and always fill their rosters with premium talent(even if its old superstars sometimes). These deserve 2 gameplans that will stop thier offenses completely instead of only trying to stop the run or pass.

Same ideals apply to game planning offense twice in once week against a subpar defense. Theres not reason for it, you might as well fix a hole against them or learn a type of play you never pick(like fullback running or draw or screens, etc).

Game planning separates great rosters/staffs from great teams....

A great coach knows how much to learn on each side of the ball against each team. He knows when to attack a weakness of a team thats better than him. That means the opponent has a matchup problem for you like fast recievers against your slow secondary so you learn zone plays(not blitzing zone), smart qb you learn man zone to confuse them, dumb qbs you blitz, average-above average qbs you cover the coaches favorite type of pass(quick standard or shotgun or cover qb's wrs if they throw out of all them frequently like tom brady).

He knows when to fix one of his teams own problem areas against the teams who cant hack it in 1AA... like not knowing how to throw a screen pass or your starting hb got injured so you work with hbs to build up the backups abilities, cant cover passes long enough to get the sack on quick passes so you work on cover quick pass, etc.

All this information leads to the ability to cause anything in your seasons. You can choose who to win and lose to if you know how to play the game well enough.

[Byron Yatch]

Tanking Games

There comes a time when you stop wanting to win the superbowl every year. Sooner or later you just want to have some normal years where you lose in the wildcard round or division playoffs. Sometimes you want a heartbreaker to talk about in your dynasty thread, where you lost the game in the conference finals to your bitter rival.

But your team is stacked, and your usual plays are mastered, how are you gonna lose a game on purpose? Easy, only call unlearned plays, the entire game! Its actually really easy once you understand you only have to press up 3 times, then x(on ps3) or a(on 360) twice in a row. Now you're in unlearned plays.

Usually the first couple plays are gonna be aimed at whatever defense is most likely going to be used, until you've learned most of them. Then it will be plays you never call like spike ball, fake spike, maybe kneel if you never kneel the ball at the end.

What happens if you run out of unlearned plays though? Dont worry, this has happened to me in Noah Wyoming and Doki Somanu(ozzie jones path) were rookies in the division round of the playoffs. I was calling unlearned plays so much that we learned them all! All you do is press up 3 times, press x or a once, then down once, then x or a. You're in learned plays now.

So you're in learned plays and picking them but they're working too well right?
ok, not a problem. Now you want to continue looking through learned but you want to pick plays with VERY LOW SUCCESS SCORES. 0% is preferable, although it doesnt always mean it wont work. Sometimes it just means its never been used in the situation you're in.

Thats when you need to start calling plays you know wont work. That means draws on first down when you arent passing well. That means running into the defenses strengths(outside runs and pitches against cover 2, etc). Also try to use plays that have low success and high usage rates. Chances are you will be deleting these plays anyways so you might as well put them to good use.

Ok, so you've tried all this and a team is just so much worse then you that you're still beating them 26-0 at half using unlearned plays only after the first td right? After halftime, its time to sit your starters and put in your 2nd string. Now you you will be able to let your best players rest for the rest of the game, while youre backups learn more of the plays just in case someone important goes down to an injury.

If you get to the 3rd quarter and youve added more than one td, you go to your third string and make sure none of your starters or best backups are playing. You're even playing cbs at safety and tes at wr by now(maybe even a cb if its demetrius grimes or someone as good). The fact of the matter is, if they dont want to put up a good fight against your starters and you cant even use unlearned plays without destroying them, Its prolly better to get your backups some playing time and experience.

All in all, I know this seems like a joke post but I mean every word. Sometimes the better story is losing instead of winning. Sometimes losing a couple extra games allows you to bow out in the beginning of the playoffs and still have a chance at some of the best coaches to develop on your staff(like college ones). It also allows you to release your best coaches to the entire league that isnt in the playoffs instead of letting all those opportunities get filled before you cut them from your staff.

The further you get into the playoffs every year, the less candidates worthy of filling a void... Sometimes a bad season this year(because you just lost a lot of people to rfa and trades) is the best thing that can happen to you(as long as you've been successful enough to be granted a bad year).

Dont lose games that are gonna severely hamper your overall rating(like ones the fans want you to win and what not). That and dont lose games by not being aggressive enough like kicking field goals inside the 5 yard line when you can get a safety if you dont get the td and blitz them properly). That or too aggressive causing you to miss out on easy points that could have kept the score closer instead of pushing for a 4th and 2 on the 20...

All you gotta do is get charm charisma and keep games close. You'll never get fired usually, and by the time you would, you might be able to get a job somewhere worse or better depending on your rating. That or if you did something well enough(lead the league in offense or defense but lost too many games over 2-3 years in a row).

Usually if you get fired its game over, but if you get fired late enough in your career(like year 6-8) or you're a superbowl winning coach, you never really get game over(in my experience at least, I could be wrong). You just might only have a short list of 4-6 teams willing to hire you.

[tarek]

Another brilliant thread. I've got alot of good tips here mate. When you talk about 2 game plans versus some teams (the good ones) and only one game plan against weaker teams, what do you mean exactly?

Can you give a list of what you recommend as game plans for a beginner like me? And what do you mean?

I'm assuming if you know a team runs alot you'll call exclusively 4-3 blitzes or run stopping plays. Yes? What else?

[Byron Yatch]

By gameplanning, I mean once you get into the regular season and post season.

During the preseason,you can only train rookies or specific plays that you'd want. I suggest training a wide variety of rookies at different positions during the preseason as you need. Meaning, your dline isnt getting any pressure but you drafted a re, so train that re once that week. Also you got a qb that doesnt know the plays starting so you practice with the rookie qb you got to up both their knowledge. And the dbs arent covering well but its deep passes beating you so you train a fs or ss that was a rookie draft pick or undrafted rookie free agent,


As for gameplanning like I explained in the other posts, that applies to regular and post season only. To break it down a little further, Lets just say you're versing the vikings. WE ALL KNOW THEY HAVE AP. That means they want to run the ball. Now, if your defense cant stop the run at all, it may be beneficial to work on blitzing outside runs AND work on tackling the hb. For your 3rd gameplan of the week though, you'll want to work on offense. Depending on your offensive play style, and their defensive scheme, is the kind of gameplan you should use.

So against a cover 2(which is what the vikings run at the beginning of any career), you can go inside runs, or draws, fullback running plays, work with te(to focus on slants across the middle), work with qb if your qb is a rookie or not throwing accurately recently.

You can also work on shotgun passes or playaction if they have a mean pass rush(like the vikings do with jared allen at re and the williams at both dts). You could also pick focus on pass or run blocking, depending on your offensive scheme or playcalling and if your oline isnt up to par but you have stars everywhere else.

But to explain what I mean by using 2 defensive against a team instead of offensive is sometimes its overkill(same with 1 defensive and 2 offensive). If you're versing a team you out class with your roster and coaching staff on offense, then you dont need 2 offensive gameplans against their defense. Same goes for if your defense is stacked and versing a weak offense that week, you dont need 2 defensive ones.

If your offensive or defensive team is better than their squad versing it, you dont even have to attack a weakness or stop one of thier strengths. You can just build up one of your weaknesses instead, and not care about what the other teams. Besides, they are a terrible team, why should you limit your gameplanning to stop their only offense or beat their terrible defense. You dont need to so you shouldnt.

Meaning you're versing the vikings who arent that great, but lets say you're the patriots. In this example at least, I know you're playing as the packers but I need it to be the patriots to make more sense for the year this was made and what Im trying to explain.

So you're the super stacked patriots with an amazing coaching staff and roster, versing the pitiful vikings. You're prolly gonna win NO MATTER WHAT YOU GAMEPLAN!!!! SO you might as well not worry about helping your passing offense, led by tom brady, just work on some running offensive gameplans(2) and then a defensive gameplan to stop the DEEP PASS(aka cover shotgun plays).

I chose those gameplans because I know the vikings are a better RUNNING TEAM, and a better PASS RUSHING TEAM. That allows them to at least be in the game against me, instead of trying to slow down thier strengths when I already OUTCLASS THEM.

By game planning this way, your team will be better prepared down the line because you dont always game plan for the specific game. You realize you're gonna win it no matter what so you work on screen passes that dont usually work or draw running plays, fullback running plays. Things you never normally work on. Because you work on them this time though, later in the season, they'll work better in game because they've been learned and practiced.

The exact opposite is used against stronger teams. Now you're the vikings versing the patriots. They outclass you totally and your secondary cant stop tom brady most likely. So you work on shotgun cover, pressure the qb and then shotgun passes on offense because you're gonna be down most of the game. You need to be able to use the plays that will help you pull off the upset and slow down their offense.

I hope that makes more sense..... Let me know if you need it in a different example...