In an effort to counteract defensive spam a bit, I think it might be worth adding a defensive audible mechanic into the sim. To not overcomplicate things, my suggestion is based entirely on existing mechanics.
Since offense largely gets to dictate play, defensive spam is a necessity because DCs are strongly incentivized to pick a single best play to run for every situation. They don't create diverse playbooks in the first place because they see better results picking a play that will work most of the time and conceding the times it does not to the opposing offense.
In fact, I know quite a few DCs who don't use the first tier of tags (run in/out, pass s/m/l) as their labels intend them, but rather as 5 generic categories (i.e., they could be called buckets a, b, c, d and e) that they sort plays into based on some other concept they are working around.
So, to the idea:
Have the initial play be called the current way. Then assess the offensive play call. If it does not match (i.e., initial play came out of the run inside playbook, but offense called a short pass), initiate an audible check.
If the audible check is successful, the defense picks the relevant play out of your playbook (i.e., in the earlier example, it picks something from the short pass category). Have the defenders move into the new formation before the snap so people can see that an audible was called. Maybe even add it to the play by play text.
This may result in OOP penalties on the play, which would potentially encourage people to pick defensive playsets from the same or similar formations. This should incentivize even more diverse defensive play calling.
This would require no change to the user interface at all, as it would work on the back of existing tactics and playbooks. It would just encourage users to fill out existing tactics and playbooks differently.
As for the audible check, there are potentially a number of ways to do it. A suggestion here would be to take the MLB (or a random ILB if 4 LBs are on the field) and do a check based on his man or zone awareness skill. If passed, the audible is called. You could select man or zone awareness based on whether the initial play is classified as a man or zone play.
Again, something like that would not require a massive change to the current structure of the game. It just might incentivize people to put more man and/or zone awareness on their LBs, which isn't an expensive skill, so wouldn't be a massive shift in player builds.
Right now, people put together incomplete defensive playbooks to help force only a single play being called in certain situations. This mechanic would encourage people to put together complete, diverse defensive playbooks as they would no longer have to search for the one best play to run against everything, but rather could actually pick a good inside run play, a good outside run play, etc. and trust the sim to pick the right one most of the time.
I would not add an offensive audible mechanic.
Since offense largely gets to dictate play, defensive spam is a necessity because DCs are strongly incentivized to pick a single best play to run for every situation. They don't create diverse playbooks in the first place because they see better results picking a play that will work most of the time and conceding the times it does not to the opposing offense.
In fact, I know quite a few DCs who don't use the first tier of tags (run in/out, pass s/m/l) as their labels intend them, but rather as 5 generic categories (i.e., they could be called buckets a, b, c, d and e) that they sort plays into based on some other concept they are working around.
So, to the idea:
Have the initial play be called the current way. Then assess the offensive play call. If it does not match (i.e., initial play came out of the run inside playbook, but offense called a short pass), initiate an audible check.
If the audible check is successful, the defense picks the relevant play out of your playbook (i.e., in the earlier example, it picks something from the short pass category). Have the defenders move into the new formation before the snap so people can see that an audible was called. Maybe even add it to the play by play text.
This may result in OOP penalties on the play, which would potentially encourage people to pick defensive playsets from the same or similar formations. This should incentivize even more diverse defensive play calling.
This would require no change to the user interface at all, as it would work on the back of existing tactics and playbooks. It would just encourage users to fill out existing tactics and playbooks differently.
As for the audible check, there are potentially a number of ways to do it. A suggestion here would be to take the MLB (or a random ILB if 4 LBs are on the field) and do a check based on his man or zone awareness skill. If passed, the audible is called. You could select man or zone awareness based on whether the initial play is classified as a man or zone play.
Again, something like that would not require a massive change to the current structure of the game. It just might incentivize people to put more man and/or zone awareness on their LBs, which isn't an expensive skill, so wouldn't be a massive shift in player builds.
Right now, people put together incomplete defensive playbooks to help force only a single play being called in certain situations. This mechanic would encourage people to put together complete, diverse defensive playbooks as they would no longer have to search for the one best play to run against everything, but rather could actually pick a good inside run play, a good outside run play, etc. and trust the sim to pick the right one most of the time.
I would not add an offensive audible mechanic.
Edited by Cuivienen on May 18, 2016 10:47:24
