Warrior General Games

I hate it when people do not lead with the most important point first, so here are the key things you need to know ASAP:

Rule #1: INTRA-PLAY ENERGY LEVELS MATTER! (as well as Morale probably)

This is so important that it is not just Rule #1, it is also these:

#1a: INTRA-PLAY ENERGY LEVELS MATTER! (as well as Morale probably)
#1b: INTRA-PLAY ENERGY LEVELS MATTER! (as well as Morale probably)
#1c: INTRA-PLAY ENERGY LEVELS MATTER! (as well as Morale probably)

Thought I was done? Not a chance.

#1d: INTRA-PLAY ENERGY LEVELS MATTER! (as well as Morale probably)

Nope.

#1e: INTRA-PLAY ENERGY LEVELS MATTER! (as well as Morale probably)

You do know the difference between INTRA- and INTER-, right?

Rule #2 – Don’t Pass on 3rd and 13 or more. You’re asking for a Sack and a Fumble.

If you really don’t understand what and/or why I just stated the above, read on.

We’re going to talk about running an Offense, starting at Rookie and then how you tweak it as you grow to Vet.

The First question to ask yourself is:

What do I want to accomplish?

This leads to the kind of Roster you will build / attempt to attract. Conversely, if you can’t build or get the exact roster you want, you then need to create a playbook around the resources you have. Fortunately, there are plenty of options and you should be able to build something effective. The key is to have knowledge of all the plays across all formations and understand the matrix that selects plays.

The Second question to ask is:

How do I accomplish this?

There in lies the problem. That is what we are going to talk about.

The cycle is this:
Build Players
Assemble Roster
Manage Roster playtime via Depth Chart
Build Playbook
Choose Plays
Get Results

To change the end, we need to start at the beginning.

Build Players

Do you remember rule #1?

#1: INTRA-PLAY ENERGY LEVELS MATTER! (as well as Morale probably)

Let’s put it into practice.

You’re new to GLB2 and so you do what everyone else does. You build a QB, HB or LB as your first free player. You want a fast HB so you put 5 Attribute points into Speed, you choose the following Traits: Rusher, Slippery and Natural and then you see the skills page that looks something like this: http://www.glb2scout.com/vpimages/44_NEW_1617460107.png

Congratulations, massive failure is now within your grasp and you will probably choose it! (unknowingly of course)

Now this is the GLB2Scout website page of a player and I’ll talk about that site later. For now, it’s a convenient way to explain concepts. Your Skill Points start at 37,000. Now where to put them? Well, you want to be fast right, so you add a whole bunch to the Sprinting skill. But if you put all of them into Sprinting, you can only get that skill to 67 out of 91. So what do you so? You start backpedaling and take away as many as you think you can get away and still be fast but get some other skills too. Naturally, you’re not thinking about maxing Conditioning. You don’t know rule #1. How would you?

Everything you do starts from the wrong vantage point. To change your eventual results, you need to change the vantage point you use for Building Players.

You start with Conditioning. Physical skills are effected by Conditioning. Mental skills are effected by Morale levels. This why Heart is important (we’re pretty sure due to the Physical testing done).

What’s rule #1 again?

#1: INTRA-PLAY ENERGY LEVELS MATTER! (as well as Morale probably)

How should you think about rule #1 when Building Players?

I think like this: Skill Value x Energy Level = Effective Skill Value at that moment of the play. Visually this means watching a play and looking at the Blue Energy bar of your player and multiplying it by his Skill Value (which you should intrinsically know).

Let’s put this into a quick example:
HB Sprinting Skill Value of 91 x Energy Level of 100 = (91) (100) = 9,100
HB Sprinting Skill Value of 91 x Energy Level of 50 = (91) (50) = 4,550. Your HB is now 50% SLOWER than at full Energy.
HB Sprinting Skill Value of 91 x Energy Level of 10 = (91) (10) = 910. Your HB is now 90% SLOWER than at full Energy.

“But my Skill Value is 91!!! Why isn’t my HB fast?????” You sit and wonder as you watch a GLB2 game.

Now is the above multiplication exactly how the game is coded? Probably not BUT you will make dramatically better players if you think like this.

Quick Side Note

You can add Cap Boosts(Boosters) to your Player. Some you buy with FLEX which add Games to his lifespan – Cap Boosts (the 4 Yellow Bars in between SP boosts and AP boosts) and the Cap Boosters of which you get 3 at different points in time as you player matures to Vet. In total, you can get 7 boosts which raise a Skill Value cap by 5 points. Combined they can move one Skill Value cap as many as 35 points. This happens over the life of your Player. Understanding when these become available and managing the use of your Cap Boosts is how you manage the build of your players at each Tier and all of the downstream steps of the cycle I mentioned earlier. This is why your Rookie Offense can be so different from your eventual Vet Offense; or it can be the same. It depends on how your Players get built over time.

Quick Tip for Building Players

For non-SuperStar Players, you should be targeting at least 65 Conditioning at Vet and more like 75 Conditioning for a player that expects to be rotated some and not play every play. For SuperStar Players that typically play every down, you should be targeting 90+ and really 95+.

Why? Remember Rule #1!

#1: INTRA-PLAY ENERGY LEVELS MATTER! (as well as Morale probably)

Let’s recap with our example. http://www.glb2scout.com/vpimages/44_NEW_1617460107.png

The only way this player is going to be effective at Vet is if all 7 Cap Boosts are used on Conditioning to max it at 90.
What is your Players current Conditioning? What is that Players maximum Conditioning cap? Can the Player be effective at Vet or does the build need to be trashed and the Agent (you, the human) need to start over.

The same thought process needs to be applied to Morale levels, Heart and Mental skills.

ADDENDUM from post below.

Energy & Morale work like this:
Beginning of Play value, decline during play (Toughness mitigates here), refill after play (Conditioning/Heart add here).

Player Building is an exhaustive topic that needs many threads/ posts about it. So I’m going to end this here now that you know Rule #1.

Assemble Roster

Your Roster has a Salary Cap of $150,000,000. There is no minimum. Your Roster has a maximum cap of 43 players. The minimum is 36. This, the 36 minimum, is critically important.

The best teams stock up on SuperStars and run at 36 players. Just the way it is. That said, if you can’t get a bunch of SuperStars, you can still have a decent fun team.

The key is to play to the Strengths of your Roster (and Player Builds). What’s the best formation that puts all of your best players on the field at the same time and platoons the lesser players? That’s different for every team but should be fairly obvious based on your Roster.

Depth Chart
The Offensive Depth chart is straight forward. SuperStars should be Infrequent substitutions and non-SuperStars should be set at Frequently, though exceptions apply. As you watch the game, look for low level Blue bars and see if those players are getting cycled out with other players that should have higher Energy levels.

Quick Tip on Depth Charts
Your first Offensive play of the game isn’t the First and Ten you get, but the Kickoff. Special Teams Depth Charts can and do effect both Offense and Defense Depth charts so make sure you taking this into account.

Build Playbook

If you’re bad at calling plays, then the solution is to stick with one formation. Run a small focused playbook until you can get it balanced properly for your Roster & Builds and then add in one additional formation at a time keeping that balance. The only formations that aren’t effective for balance are Goal Line, 5WR and the new 4WR TRIPS. Goal Line and 5WR aren’t balanced because they are pure run or pure pass and 4WR TRIPS is missing some basic inside running plays. But everything else is pretty much flushed out that you can run an effective Offense.

Let’s build a 2WR Balanced Offensive Playbook and then add in 1WR since our hypothetical team Roster has 2 TEs and only 3 WR, but 2 HB and 2 FB.

Run – Inside
There are 4 ‘gaps’ to Inside Running. Dive and Slam and the weak side versions of them. Dive is C and RG; Dive Weak is C and LG. Slam is RG and RT. Slam Weak is LG and LT. You can add the Off Tackle plays to your Run – Inside playbook which become the 5th and 6th ‘gap’ options should you choose. The Off Tackle plays can be added to the Run – Outside plays as well. In my view, the Off Tackle plays are more like Inside Runs than true Outside Runs, so I’d advise using them that way if you’re struggling with Offensive play calling.

I Formation sets up the well for the Dive/Dive Weak plays. Strong I for Slam and Off Tackle and Weak I for Slam Weak & Off Tackle Weak. These 6 plays across these 3 formations can form your Inside Running game out of 2WR effectively. Keeping them all at 5 blue dots mean they will be called equally. In this way, you’ll be less predictable about which gap you’re hitting. Personally, I use 5 blue dots on the Dives and Off Tackles and 1 blue dot on the Slams. This way I maximize my eventual Play Diversity Bonus (I think – who knows - it seems impossible to test) and yet hit enough holes to not be completely predictable, though Dive & Dive Weak are essentially the same thing. If you went 3 blue dots on the Dives, 1 blue dot on the Slams and 5 blue dots on the Off Tackles, you’d be a little more balanced in attacking 3 areas (since Dive/Dive weak is the same thing) if you prefer that.

Run – Very Short
Essentially a second Run – Inside playbook with the same restrictions. Inside or Off Tackle plays are the only ones allowed. You don't have to use this if you don't need it. Just put 5 plays in it and then move on.

Run – Outside
Outside run plays and Off Tackle plays are allowed in this playbook. I’d go with the Strong I Sweep and Weak I Sweep as 5 blue dot plays and keep the I formation Pitches at 1 because the FB isn’t in as good as a position. This only gives you 4 plays and you need 5 to fill out the playbook. For now, use a place holder or and in something like Pro Set HB Sweep. If everything is 5 blue dots, then you’ll be running to the Strong side 60% of the time and Weak side 40% of the time. This is fine, but I’d wouldn’t go more than a 60/40 ratio as a start. If you re-balance the Strong side dots down to 3-3-4, then you’ll have 10 blue dots to each side and will be balanced at 50/50 for Strong and Weak side rushing.

Passing – Short (or whatever – you can use any of the 5 to start)
You can put any distance pass play into any distance pass play book. It’s not like the Run playbooks.

So now you need to find 5 good passing plays for your 2WR formation Offense. Simple routes dominate. Every change in angle is a Balance, Quickness, Sprinting and Energy check. To pull off multiple moves, your receiver need a lot of SP invested in key stats. Stick with go (straight) routes or small angle adjustments. Straight crossing routes generally suck. You want those 30-45 degree angle changes while still moving downfield or a hook. The 90 degree crossing routes don’t generate enough separation and can’t be modified easily enough for different situations while a slant can be 4 yards on 3rd and 3 or 8 yards on 3rd and 7. If the cross is at 6 yards and it’s 3rd and 8, that route doesn’t help you much. And if it’s 3rd and 2, a 6 yard cross takes your receiver deeper than necessary.

Now, there are “better” plays than others. It’s just how the code works for the game. I doubt Bort/Cdog can easily fix this or even identify why in some cases, but there are some plays that always get poor results and other plays that get better results. The GLB2Scout site run by Stobie has all the data for you to decide.

Once you select the play, you can change the receiver priority order by selecting a new primary target. The default should be to always choose the TE as the primary target. If the play isn’t designed to target the TE first, change it. A green dot indicates the primary receiver and if the TE isn’t first and green by default, click on it and make it so.

Why all of the above?

We’ll get to the Offensive Tactics Matrix in a bit, but there’s a game mechanic called “QB rattled”. As your QB gets hurried/sacked, his rattle score goes up. If he’s rattled a bunch, he’ll start keeping in potential receivers as blockers. What you typically want is for the QB to keep in your FB first, HB second and TE last. To guarantee that the TE won’t be held in, even if the QB is rattled, make the TE the primary receiver target. This is a key concept that many new players don’t know about.
At this point, we have the potential for a balanced 2WR Offense. Now let’s add in a second formation – 1WR.

We head back to Run – Inside.

We already have 6 2WR plays, so let’s add in the 6 plays we need to from Big I to attack the 6 ‘gaps’. Match up the blue dots the same way you did the 2WR. Your playbook should have 12 plays. When you go through the plays, your blue dots should be even however you compare things. Strong versus Weak. 2WR versus 1WR.

Quick Side Note – Run Scrims

Run scrims against opponents to test out your playbook. It’s the best way to verify things. Yes a quick scrim costs 50 flex but if you’re buying a FLEX package, you’re looking at 30-50 cents per game. Use the off day to do these so you can setup and test what you want. A subscription to GLB2Scout.com will compile all the data for you – provided you do public scrims. GLB2Scout only brings in public scrims.

Run – Outside

Big I has HB Sweep Left and HB Sweep Right. Add these plays. Now, you’ll have 4 (or 5 if you add Pro Set HP Sweep) outside 2WR plays and 2 1WR (Big I) plays. Balance out your blue dots appropriately. You can go 1 blue dot for each of the 4 2WR plays and 2 dots for each of the 1WR or something similar.

Quick Side Note
You can favor one formation over another in terms of play calling mix. The key is how you allocate the blue dots. I’m choosing the most basic of examples, using 2 formations and splitting them 50/50. You could have 2 formations but a 60/40 total split or something else. The key is to match up your play calling with the Energy levels (blue bars) of your team’s players so that they don’t lose effectiveness. This is the why behind changing the blue dots on each play. You’re try to select plays over the course of the game that balances out your roster, by position by energy level of each player.

Passing – Short

Again, pick the same number of plays you picked for 2WR using the same methodology. If you pick something different, adjust the blue dots so they even out.

Throughout your playbook, you want to balance your formations and each formation’s play calling based on your roster and builds. Your Offensive Matrix is the last part of the formula.

Offense Tactics
The Offense Tactics Matrix is much simpler than the Defensive one. Don’t be surprised if you’re only using 3 columns of play selection (one Pass, Run Inside and Run Outside) in the big bottom panel. The top panel (Basic Definitions and Settings) is where you set up the distances where you have breaks in the mix of play calling. Very Short is probably 1 or 2 yards. Short is probably a 3 or 4. Medium probably a 7 and Long 12. That’s about where mine are usually.

Rule #2 – Don’t Pass on 3rd and 13 or more. You’re asking for a Sack and Fumble.

This is where the shit shows start. Stay away from 3rd and 13 passing plays. Your receivers won’t get downfield fast enough to get to the First Down marker before the pass rush gets to your QB. Now sometimes, your opponent doesn’t Blitz in this situation but the good ones do. There is a coding issue at play here. There’s a wall behind the QB 7 yards deep. Your QB can slide up or down (left or right) but can’t backpedal any farther back than 7 yards from the line of scrimmage. Pinch the pocket and the QB gets sacked. This happens plenty on 3rd and 12, 3rd and 11 and 3rd and 10 but at 3rd and 13, it’s practically automatic.

So how do you allocate different numbers to the matrix? The key is Energy usage. Passing takes less Energy to be effective than Rushing. Outside rushing takes more Energy than Inside rushing. Power Rushing (breaking tackles) takes more Energy than Elusive (avoiding tackles).

Start out with what you think works and then adjust your numbers based on your teams Energy levels. You don’t have to use base 100 to split up your play calling (the system will randomize it for you) but it’s easier with you human brain to use base 100 and adjust your play calling among the 3 main columns you’re using. You’ll have a ton of zeros in the other columns. Don’t be surprised.
Anytime you go over 80%, your putting yourself at a disadvantage against the DC. Now clearly on 3rd and 1, you’re running Inside and 3rd and 10, you’re Passing. The key is to avoid bad situations by not getting into them.

I’ll go into more detail in the thread via Q&A.

I'm just kidding man...nice job

Originally posted by Xars

You start with Conditioning. Physical skills are effected by Conditioning. Mental skills are effected by Morale levels. This why Heart is important (we’re pretty sure due to the Physical testing done).


Toughness is more important to offense/defense linemen, LBs, run stuffing safeties and HBs than heart. It reduces Morale reduction and energy reduction from physical interactions, such as tackling, blocking and getting tackled. Heart is huge on WRs, QBs and pass catching TEs. Every player needs some heart and toughness though.

I max toughness on all of my players that I mentioned above in the first sentence.

Toughness effects INTRA-Play Energy and Morale levels, by mitigating loss, so yes it's important.

True.

Thank you Xars!

I think this is a great thread, but you might want to break it down into multiple posts. That is a ton of info in one post, and it is easy to get lost in it if you don't understand much about it.

Again, true.

Wait, so you're not an idiot?

Yeah I threw in a lot. If you're new, you're reading all that and wondering WTF I'm talking about. But it's designed as a reference post. You read it, try to follow it and after you understand some things but not others you come back to it.

It's like Player Building. I could have gone on for days about it. But I tried to stop the biggest mistake I see.

Toughness deserves an entire discussion and it's not just key for "in the box" players, but edge players as well. "In the box" players typically have a higher cap so it gets utilized but Toughness helps QB too.

Energy & Morale work like this:

Beginning of Play value, decline during play (Toughness mitigates here), refill after play (Conditioning/Heart add here).

Great job Xars!!

Thank you Xars ! Awesome Advice!!

Bump as well

This thing should be stickied.

Originally posted by Cybertron
This thing should be stickied.

Powers that be, Make it so!