Warrior General Games

- Improved/increased tacklers' willingness to try and avoid blockers, scaled by their pursuit style setting
- Tacklers who are the last one back (no other tacklers behind them) will now tend to take a more conservative intercept angle by default
- Adjusted/improved tackler reaction logic when dealing with pitch type plays a bit
- A few other minor fixes/adjustments to tackler pursuit logic

- Fixed lead blocker assignment logic being too strict, causing them to sometimes stop and wait for a target when not intended
- Fixed FB lead blocking path on Weak I Counter Sweep Weak

- Reduced penalty for holding blocks in the open field
- Fixed a couple of bugs when choosing an intercept point to block backpedaling players and a couple other situations
- Slightly increased interaction range for engaging a run block
- Increased difficulty of defender reaction rolls to handoffs/pitches/passes, especially when defender was blitzing
- Pulling blockers will now wait briefly to chip block before pulling, if there is an unassigned tackler directly across from them. This should help with unblocked defenders from certain formations instantly blowing up certain outside rushing plays too frequently

- Fixed zone coverage not picking up screen target vs certain screen plays
- Improved QB targeting for hook routes, to avoid leading the target up the field and better hit the timed route
- Slightly reduced interaction distance for pass defense
- Increased distance considered "close to sideline" when determining juke/spin direction to avoid going out of bounds
- Updated many passing play progressions with user provided suggestions
- League start times spread out more to avoid overlapping hours

- Fixed bug where double cover man defense plays could assign coverage inconsistently in certain situations

- Fixed a bug with Punt Coverage team pathing where certain players would sometimes miss an intermediate pathing target and turn around
- Improved AI for lead blockers by adding a new system to generate dynamic lead blocking paths further downfield after the initial scripted path is complete, that tries to not get too far ahead of the runner and prioritize downfield blocks better
- Fixed 3-4 Cover 4 play to better match play art
- Increased energy/morale loss from being tackled, especially from a power hit
- Increased balance loss modifier when at low energy
- Greatly decreased the difficulty of awareness rolls for zone defenders to sniff out screen passes
- Increased minimum duration QB must have held the ball before being able to throw, to help keep from having crazy "instant" passes that would be impossible for anyone to actually do
- Increased base activation chance of Spin ability from 15/25/40% to 20/30/50%, changed its in-game activation and direction calculations conditions to be the same as juke, and shortened the first step duration for its animation to make it a quicker move overall
- Adjusted zone defenders to play a shallower base zone position if a play is designated as a short or run defense
- Fixed LB drop step handler to respect player specified tags for short/run defenses, as opposed to only default tags
- Decreased max miss offset variance for inaccurate passes, but increased pass consistency roll difficulty a bit
- Decreased halftime energy refill
- Reduced defensive bonus from matching play run/pass tags to offensive play call
- Reduced bonus from matching a run play tag if not also matching inside/outside run
- Reduced effects of weather a bit
- Increased weather-related bonuses on Home Town Hero and Road Warrior abilities

- Fixed a bug that sometimes caused faked out pass defenders to revert to blitzing after the fake had expired
- Fixed a few bugs with recently added lead blocking handler
- Fixed a bug that caused certain rushing plays to get stuck while trying to hand off the ball

- Fixed route elusiveness-based maximum fake duration being higher than intended
- Fixed Resolute ability activation conflicting with speed modifier type abilities
- Updated man coverage assignments to prioritize assigning extra CB3/4/5 to TE or BTE, to fix some issues with certain formation matchups

- Pickup games will now treat players as if they have 100 chemistry
- Improved lead distance and timing calculations for passes to hook routes

- Added fix to zone coverage logic to address an instance where defenders who made late reads on the ball would sometimes misidentify the wrong receiver as being too open and try to cover them when they shouldn't

- Franchise team ownership now available
- CPU players can no longer be offered, and will not accept, low contracts
- Team ownership limit increased to 5 teams

- Added option to upgrade a non-franchise rookie team to a franchise without needing to contact support
- Fixed 500 error when using catch up on a player not signed to a team

- Three new Signature Abilities available for Defenders: Domineer, Power Drive, and Seeing Red. All three are essentially defense versions of existing blocker skills (Strong Arm, Get Low, You're Next).
- Increased activation chance of Pump Fake ability, and increased its initial base fake duration
- Hard Cut ability now has a variable duration powered by Quickness, and has a slightly lower activation chance at level 3
- Slightly shifted tackle chance rolls toward tackler's favor
- Added a salary counter on create player page to more easily see what your created player will cost

- Fixed franchise player creation being blocked if you didn't have enough flex points in the account for the position

- Team owners may now create players starting at the current level of any team they own, available in the offseason/preseason only. This is intended to help retooling for owners who currently have over-cap teams due to CPUs changing no longer accepting low value contracts.