Warrior General Games

I think if we had the ability to dictate to in our OAI how much time the offense should take between plays, it could improve overall parity. What I mean by that, is that you should be able to have several settings for how quickly your team goes in and out of the huddle. I would think something like 5 settings (like play call auto adjust options in package):

Just some ideas
No Huddle (Fastest Setting)
Urgent
Normal
Ball Control
Run The Clock Out (Slowest Setting)

The point would be two fold:
1.In situations where teams would need to hurry up (ie, come from behind, end of half), they would have the option to get up to the line quickly. There wouldn't have to be a special input for that, it could just pull from the normal AI. It would be like assuming the QB had a wrist band with all the plays, like in real football.

2. In situations where you want to control the ball, you can. The most obvious situation is running the clock out when you are winning. But also, when you are trying to keep a powerful offense off the field, this will give you the opportunity to try for a long drive, tire out the opposing defense, and add an "X Factor" to how games play out.

This could be a very simple addition to the AI. It doesn't have to be complicated and could even work for casual teams. I think it minimize blowouts so that the game feels less ridiculous. I think we can all agree that the scores in this game are out of whack. I've seen a lot of games where teams are piling on points in the fourth quarter. Part of that is AI calls making people go for it when they are down too far to come back. But part of it is that while teams still can tell an overpowering offense to run, they can't really hold them back from their normal pace.

Alright, say what you want. I just thought it would be an easy way to bring a little more parity to the game.

EDIT:
I decided later that this probably couldn't work for casual teams. It would have to be part of the input section of the OAI. Otherwise you wouldn't be able to call it when you really wanted it. The only way it would work for casual teams is if someone wanted to play that way the whole game, regardless of the situation and that would be kind of silly.

Yes, they should add a thingy to the OAI, that says, Hurry Up Offense when trailing before the Half or before the games over and you have a set of plays to add to it, like normal ones, and also have one for when your leading the game.

+1

Easiest way to do it, in my mind, would for the AI to have a "base" setting that your team tends to use (only have the middle three as options, since nobody effectively runs an actual no-huddle all game long), with some deviations here and there, and then the actual AI decide what situations to use the highest and lowest settings (using standard football logic).

Didn't the Bills with Jim Kelly, Andre Reed and Thurman Thomas run the no huddle offense effectively all game long?

From Wikipedia, "The Buffalo Bills, defeated in the AFC Championship game by the no-huddle Bengals, soon adopted their approach. With Jim Kelly quarterbacking a no-huddle "K-Gun" offense, the Bills became the only team in NFL history to appear in four consecutive Super Bowls, from 1991-1994."

Originally posted by pottsman
Easiest way to do it, in my mind, would for the AI to have a "base" setting that your team tends to use (only have the middle three as options, since nobody effectively runs an actual no-huddle all game long), with some deviations here and there, and then the actual AI decide what situations to use the highest and lowest settings (using standard football logic).
What OP wants is the ability to control the game pace, or tempo as he called it, or speed. Such as, do you want to use all the playclock, or do you want to call a play in the huddle and run back up to the line ASAP and snap the ball? He wasn't suggesting just to run 6 plays total.

My thoughts - It would be a good way to make energy mean something. When running the no huddle, or a hurry up offense, then neither team would be able to substitute anyone.

I like it.

Bump. I thought of something else to add.

not sure no huddle would be good for anything other than time, as there are really no huddles anyways, the play calling is all instants so it couldnt catch the defense off guard like it does in real life, i guess it could cause energy to drain faster tho

There's are not huddles, but huddles are implied by the time game as seen in this example:

Shaolin Wu Tang Killa Bees 15:00
15:00 Kickoff by Harry Soldier, 60 yd, fielded by 'No Nonsense' Leon Johnson (24.5 yd return) [tackle: Chet Chupacabra] Replay
14:56 1st & 10 OWN 35 Robert "The RZArector" Diggs rush to the right (4 yd gain) [tackle: March Madness] Replay
14:28 2nd & 6 OWN 39 Robert "The RZArector" Diggs rush to the left (5 yd gain) [tackle: Nuckles McGee] Replay
13:49 3rd & 1 OWN 44 Barry Lunney Jr. pass to Rolandis Shibazz up the right side, caught [deflected by Da Blanket] (14.5 yd gain) [diving tackle: Da Blanket] Replay
13:18 1st & 10 OPP 41 Barry Lunney Jr. pitch to Robert "The RZArector" Diggs to the left (3 yd loss) [diving tackle: LookUp SeeMe] Replay
12:44 2nd & 13 OPP 44 Barry Lunney Jr. pass to Ra0ul Duke over the middle [deflected by Jay Interceptor] (incomplete) Replay
12:40 3rd & 13 OPP 44 Barry Lunney Jr. pass to Wes Shibazz up the left side, thrown low (dropped - incomplete) Replay

Now, look at the first play. This is a 4 yard run, so it wasn't going to be a play that takes 28 seconds. So maybe 8 seconds for the play and 20 seconds for the team to get back to the line. I can't remember what an NFL shot clock is off the top of my head, but it's somewhere between 25 and 40 seconds.

This pace is therefore quick. The longest play in the above sequence is 31 seconds and that was on a 14 yard pass. My point is that if you wanted to slow this game down you could. If this offense felt like the defense was superior, they could add maybe 10 seconds per play. Here that would add roughly 40 seconds to the drive because the last two plays were incomplete passes.

That doesn't seem like a lot, but considering the drive lasted 2:20, that is a roughly 28% increase in possession time for the offense. If an over matched offense can extend their drives by 28%, that gives them a chance to be in games against better teams. At a minimum, that is fewer possessions for the better team which would cut down on blowout numbers and scores.

i realized that, i was pointing out that when teams run no huddle in real life it is often to catch the defense off guard, which wouldnt really be feasible on a computer sim

I like this idea... needs some refining, but the concept is good

Originally posted by lardaddy
I like this idea... needs some refining, but the concept is good

Yeah, I figured it would get beat up a little and people would make suggestions. I'm going to try to keep this one going because it is the most legitimate suggestion I've ever made.

Originally posted by bamaplaya1
i realized that, i was pointing out that when teams run no huddle in real life it is often to catch the defense off guard, which wouldnt really be feasible on a computer sim

No, but it could wear down their energy and morale quicker. That might require some altering to how the tempo affects such things though. Obviously it wouldn't do much if the sim recognized all the plays in the same way. But if energy were deducted at different rates based on how quickly plays occur or whether or not there is a whistle, then we'd have something.

+1

I think in order to do this, there needs to be some negative for the O. Like the ability to sub or something. If you are going full out 'no huddle' and that can negatively affect moral and stamina for the D then you are only allowed to sub 2-3 players a play or something like that, so you may end up with your "Hands of Stone" Power Back in on pass play.