Knowledge from the past

[Mike3207]

The Option

Chris Staymates making a brief comment on the Option in Head Coach-I wish he had said more:

Quote:

The defensive players in the NFL are to big and fast. The QB would get killed keeping it or pitching it. CHRIS-Krodis, Step - You are both right. Running the option in Head Coach can be very rewarding and very frustrating. You will need to have the right personnel, and you will need to run it at the right time.

[Byron Yatch]

option is extremely easy to get working. go to coach stats once you get to year two and hammermill will show you the "blueprint" if you click his name you can see his entire philosophy, how he has his development filled and what special skills he has.
I was just looking last night and the basic formula is run blocking oline, balanced te, blocking fb(I would go balanced or ball carrier and find a guy who has at least 70 imb and 80+ speed and acc), speed halfback and qb, and he uses tall wr redzone threat. I would use speed wr if you want to run options with the wrs as you'll want top of the line speed to be successful with it and any position that might run the ball...

As for learning the plays, use them as much as you can in preseason(especially when up at least 14). Then that first week work on outside running, qb running and whatever defense will help you stop the opponent with keeping up. You will be running it more effectively once you focus on run blocking the next week and inside running. Dont practice passing until/unless you absolutely have to in order to keep up with your opponent. 3rd week work on inside and counter running. week 4 draw and fullback. you will run all over people with any type of running offense if you stick to the plan...

You CAN change the order you learn all those, depending on if you want to run the option or if you just want to run inside. If you want to run outside in week 1 though(with pitches or handoffs or counters), you HAVE to focus on outside running to be very successful.

[Mike3207]

CPU coach firings

Dan Bekins on the logic behind the CPU coach firings:

Quote:

Do you see coaches leaving teams even if they are winning? Are there any harsh firings. Going 8-8 not making the playoffs and getting the pink slip? DAN-Whether a coach gets fired is based on his approval (we track it for CPU coaches as well). The media and fans in some cities are much tougher than in others, so I believe it is possible that a coach could get fired after a .500 season, especially if he started the season with low approval.

[tarek]

Any indication which cities have the harsh media and fans? Would that harshness be influenced by expectations?

I guess that harshness is measured by lower positive scores when you achieve a goal or win a game, and higher negative scores when you miss a goal or lose a game.

E.g
Forgiving fans: wins = +20, losses = -10
Harsh fans: wins = +10, losses = -20

Not accurate numbers but if would be interesting to know if fans change based on the strength of their team, or if they are always harsh/forgiving.

[Mike3207]

Not sure on that, but I do remember that Josh said the only impact fans had was on the occasion of Defining Moments-I'll put in in the thread if I can find it.As far for harsh media and fans, the ones in major population centers/and or playoff teams.

[tarek]

Large population centres and playoff teams could be mutually exclusive. I would imagine the NY media/fans would be harsh, but what if the Jets/Gaints have a injuries and are frankly not expected to make the playoffs. Would this media still be harsh? Would they be less harsh than if the team had playoff expectations? I would assume there needs to be a weighting.

There should be a harshness baseline. So if one set of fans are naturally harsher than another set, if both teams were of equal ability/expectation then the the difference would be static. If the less harsh team was a playoff team and the more harsh team was a very bad team, I would expect the less harsh fans/media to be probably MORE harsh in this case than the harsher fans. Under those conditions.

I'm still wondering where the most coach friendly city would be?

[Mike3207]

Position Philosophies

Lead Developer Dan Bekins speaking specifically on the impact position philosophies have on gameplay:

Quote:

DAN-The positional philosophies only directly affect how a player's grades are calculated. Any system that relies on grades to make value judgements will therefore be indirectly affected. They won't affect how your players perform on the field or how your coordinators call plays. They will affect pretty much everything that happens off the field as far as the CPU is concerned.

[Mike3207]

Position Philosophies Part 2

In case any doubt, developer Donnie Moore talking about position philosophies:

Quote:

But does changing your philosophy on each position and thus increasing their overall rating actually translate onto the field? I'm curious to know this, because if this is the case, you could try to find whichever mold best fits your current talent and continuously change it, or you could pick what you want in a position and get players that fit your mold. DONNIE-The play on the field is still dictated by the individual ratings themselves, like Throw Power and Catching. Overall is just that, how valuable overall is this player to the team.