With a lot of sim changes possibly on the horizon, and the introduction of new archetypes, and special abilities, I feel it's time to expand the control a user has over his player, and give a slight boost to the control a coordinator has over his offense or defense. So, I'm proposing new tactics, and some changes to older ones. Some changes will be for adding tactics into the AI, while some will be purely a user controlled tactic.

Player Tactic Additions/Changes: http://goallineblitz.com/game/forum_thread.pl?thread_id=3904031&page=1#34688203
Tactic Additions/Changes in AIs: http://goallineblitz.com/game/forum_thread.pl?thread_id=3904031&page=1#34688209



If you have any ideas or suggestions to add, please post them.

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--Player Aggression--
Current: Intensity
Suggested: Add a player "Aggression" slider for the player to choose how aggressive he wants his player to play

Player Aggression: 0 (Passive) to 100 (Aggressive)
- Being passive within the sim means you're going to play it safe. You're going to go for the safe play, the safe hit, the safe move. You'll be a very consistent player, generally making your tackle, generally bringing down your receiver if he catches it, not really doing anything BIG. However, being an aggressive player means you're going to take a few more risks, and get a few more rewards. You might go for the INT more, lean towards the big hit as opposed to just wrapping him up, or trying to pound out as many yards as possible at the risk of wearing yourself down, or even fumbling.

The goal here would be to give players the choice to play it a little safer if they don't have the skills to be an aggressive player, or to try and set themselves out from the crowd by being aggressive. Of course, if you're an aggressive defender, but don't have the proper skills to BE aggressive, you may see your dot making many mistakes. If you're an aggressive runner, you may break more tackles, may wear down defenders a little more, but if you don't have the proper skills, you may see yourself dropping the ball a little more.

Player Aggressiveness will also work WITH your other player tactics. Take this quote from the Test Server to see what I mean:
Originally posted by Staz
Could add an "aggression" tactic. Have certain situations in the game have multiple possibilities, and based on how high you've set your aggression, you can go certain ways.

For example, if a player is the last man on D, flying up to make the tackle, he's presented with a couple options:

Bring him down?
Knock him down (Powerful Hit)?
Go for the FFum?
Hold him up for teammates?

If he had his tackling set to Balanced, and set to high aggression (let's say 90 on the slider), I could see him putting a powerful hit on him. If he was set to POWER tackling, with high aggression, probably go with the FFum attempt by trying to lay a monster hit on him or something. If he was more passive ( 10 on the slider) and balanced, he'd probably go with the safe play and wrap him up to bring him down. If he was set to 10 and in Wrap Up, probably hold him up for teammate help.


Reason: Everybody plays on Hard intensity. There's no reason NOT to, especially with the ability to sub in and out basically every play. This is something similar, but MUCH different.



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Originally posted by Time Trial
Scrambling needs two sliders tbh.

Leave the pocket (-100) - Stay in the pocket (+100)
Tendency to run (-100) - Tendency to pass (+100)




--QB Slide--
Current: None
Suggested: Slider for Slide vs Take the Hit

The slider is a good choice here because you MAY want a power running type QB who's able to fight for more yards, or you may want a QB who would rather slide and be safe (less ffum)



--Blocking Style--
Current: Run/Pass/None
Suggested: Split Run Blocking and Pass Blocking into their own separate tactics, and completely eliminate "Blocking Focus".

Run Block Slider: -100(Power) to +100(Hold Block)
- Power is an attempt to pancake, while hold block is exactly what it says. +100 would focus more on sealing the defender from the play and "blocking" him, while -100 would focus more on just blasting him. Hold block wouldn't get a solid drive, and wouldn't open as big of a hole, but would lower the chance of a shed block. Power would raise the chance of a block being shed, but would increase the drive and pancake likelihood.

Pass Block Slider: -100 (Hold Ground) to +100 (Stay With Man)
- Hold ground would cause the blocker to want to hold his man in place. This would cause the pocket to collapse slower, as well as keep big openings from occuring. However, would be easier to shed blocks. Helpful for reducing blitz gaps. Stay with man would cause the blocker to stay in front of his man, no matter where he went. Would decrease the shed block, but allow for more space for other defenders to move. Could also cause the pocket to collapse more.

Reason: This one should be obvious. If you're going to pass block, you won't have a run focus. If you're going to run, you won't have a pass focus. Most OL should be on "no focus" simply to negate the penalty. Now, if you allow the blocker to choose HOW he blocks on each style of play, this would cause things to be more realistic and interesting.



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Tackling Style:
Current: Wrap Up/Balanced/Power
Suggestion: Split up the tackling into two tactics. Tackle Style & Aggressiveness Sliders

Tackle Style: Slider from -100 (Wrap Up) to +100 (Power)
- Wrap up is simple. Higher chance of a tackle, but less chance of reducing morale, having "Big Hit" & "Monster Hit" activate, ball carrier more likely to fall forward for yards. Power tackling brings an increase in broken tackles (nothing crazy, though) but a higher result for Big and Monster hits as well as larger morale reductions. Ball carrier less likely to fall forward or have "second effort"

Tackle Focus: Slider from -100 (Bring Him Down) to +100 (Strip the Ball)
- Bringing the ball carrier down is the safest thing to do. Hit him, drop him, get it over with. Will have a higher chance of tackling the ball carrier, but less of a chance to force fumbles. However, the more towards "strip ball" you get, the higher the chances of the ball carrier breaking your tackle as well as the likelihood that he'll drag you for extra yards.

Reason: Just because I hit you hard doesn't mean I'm more likely to force a fumble, and just because I wrap you up doesn't mean I have less of a chance. Might be true in "general", but often times you'll see a defender wrap the ball carrier up with a decent hit (nothing special) but then attempt to rip the ball out. Or, you may see the defender lay a HUGE hit on the ball carrier, but take him straight to the ground. Then again, you might see a defender come in and try to punch that ball out as he lays a huge hit. Could be any combination, but would need some tweaking so we don't have defenders forcing insane numbers of fumbles. Would need to definitely have a risk/reward situation.


--Pass Rush Style--
Current: Power/Evasive/Combo
Suggested: Make it into a slider, with an additional slider for "inside vs outside" for Defensive Ends

Pass Rush Style: -100 (Power) to +100 (Evasive)

Pass Rush Direction: -100 (Inside Focus) to +100 (Outside Focus)
Reason: Allows for more fine tuning as well as giving DEs the ability to step inside instead of always going outside.


--Coverage Style--
Current: Loose/Medium/Semi-Aggressive/Aggressive
Suggested: Splitting this into two sliders - Ball/Man Focus and Interception/Deflection focus

Ball/Man Focus (Needs better name): -100 (Ball Focus) to +100 (Man Focus)
- Ball focus means the defender is going to be focusing on the ball moreso than the man, leading to him jumping routes more often, attacking the ball and being more likely to fall victim to a pump fake. Man focus is the opposite. Focuses on the receiver, not the ball, and is less likely to jump the route and fall for the PF, but also less likely to react to the ball when it's thrown to another receiver.

Intercept/Deflect Focus: -100 (Deflect Pass) to +100 (Intercept Pass)
- When the defender reacts to the ball, whether he's got a man focus or ball focus, he's going to do SOMETHING. Now, if you want him to go for the swat if he's in position, or if you want him to go for the INT. Deflect pass is the safer choice, but will result in much fewer INTs. Intercept Pass will result in more interceptions, but if you don't have the skill set for it, could leave your receiver open for the catch.

--HB/FB Dump Pass--
Current: Drop down menu - Never/Sometimes/Often
Suggested: Slider - Quickly to Slowly in the OAI with slight adjustments available in Player Tactics

Reason: First, "Never" is a stupid option. If you NEVER want your QB to throw to the HB, he shouldn't really be running a route. If he DOES run a route, he should be a viable option. Even if he's just to draw coverage away, if he's open and nothing is available down field you should be able to hit him.

"Sometimes" and "Often" are just too vague, in my opinion. If you'd like the HB to an option every time he runs a route, you pick "often". However, what if you don't want him to be an option RIGHT AWAY? Perhaps you'd like the QB to give it a bit of time to let the play develop before you check down? Or, maybe you'd even like him to check down to the HB quickly. This slider in the OAI would allow you to go in on a PER PLAY basis and decide how quickly you'd like to check down. Maybe you'd like to run the same play on 1st down and 3rd and short. On first, you want to check down slower, but on 3rd, you just need that first, so you check down quicker. With this, you could do it.

Defensive Play Focus:
Current: Pass/Run/No Focus
Suggested: Slider -100 (Run) to +100 (Pass)
Put Play Focus in DAI. Certain situations will cause defenders to look for certain types of plays. You can allow players to adjust by 25? This can allow for "natural preference" or something.

Reason: This one is simple enough. On 3rd & Inches, you rarely want to focus on the pass. Anybody.


--Play Aggressiveness (Screen Reaction)--
Current:Slider -100 (Passive) to +100 Aggressive in Player Tactics
Suggested: Put this in the DAI and allow player a slight adjustment (25 to maybe 50 either way?)

Reason: If my opponent is in a Shotgun 5WR, and has no option for a screen, then I don't want him to even worry about it. Should be available for plays in the DAI so we can adjust to the situation, and not have "general" tactics.

10s across the board.

+420

I like sliders!

+enough to make Bort implement this!

Added QB slide

Do I really have to bump this? How do you not want more tactics?

Honestly, guys?

This is an unneeded change.

What more could anyone possibly want than to be able to pick your O-line to run block or pass block for the entire game?

Fix your builds and such.

Defensive linemen have a pass rush style. Why not a run rush style?

This could be a Contain blocker - Shed Blocker slider.
Contain blocker: DL tries to keep the offensive line from getting to the second level, keeping the linebackers free to make plays.
- less likely to be pushed back and pancaked
- less likely to shed block

Shed blocker: DL tries to shed the blocks and fill the gaps as the runner hits the line.
- more likely to be caught off-balance
- more likely to let blockers through to second level
- more likely to make plays at the line

Run rush aggressiveness
Low aggression: the DL is happy to contain the blockers or fill the gaps at the LOS
High aggression: the DL tries to overpower the blocker, or shoot into the backfield

Originally posted by Barnzie
Defensive linemen have a pass rush style. Why not a run rush style?

This could be a Contain blocker - Shed Blocker slider.
Contain blocker: DL tries to keep the offensive line from getting to the second level, keeping the linebackers free to make plays.
- less likely to be pushed back and pancaked
- less likely to shed block

Shed blocker: DL tries to shed the blocks and fill the gaps as the runner hits the line.
- more likely to be caught off-balance
- more likely to let blockers through to second level
- more likely to make plays at the line

Run rush aggressiveness
Low aggression: the DL is happy to contain the blockers or fill the gaps at the LOS
High aggression: the DL tries to overpower the blocker, or shoot into the backfield

I was actually reading something tonight that gave me a very similar idea. I wouldn't know what to do for DL, but could have an option for everybody off the line as to whether they'd "attack" the block, or attempt to evade it. Attacking it would plug gaps, force ball carriers to alter course, etc, and evading it would of course mean trying to get around it.

Originally posted by Barnzie
Defensive linemen have a pass rush style. Why not a run rush style?

This could be a Contain blocker - Shed Blocker slider.
Contain blocker: DL tries to keep the offensive line from getting to the second level, keeping the linebackers free to make plays.
- less likely to be pushed back and pancaked
- less likely to shed block

Shed blocker: DL tries to shed the blocks and fill the gaps as the runner hits the line.
- more likely to be caught off-balance
- more likely to let blockers through to second level
- more likely to make plays at the line

Run rush aggressiveness
Low aggression: the DL is happy to contain the blockers or fill the gaps at the LOS
High aggression: the DL tries to overpower the blocker, or shoot into the backfield

have you ever played DL?

Normally, when a DL is playing run, its not like they just step aside and let the OL do its thing, they do what they think is necessary to slow down the RB. If that means staying on the blocker and filling up a hole, then they do that. If they can break the block and make the tackle, then they do that. Having DL 'blocking' would be retarded.

Interesting thought, amace. I do agree, too. A DL will generally do whatever he needs to do. I think trying to evade/shed your block and possibly causing a hole to open up would be a bad idea. I could easily see all DT's going with "contain" blocker to plug holes and DE's probably going more towards "shed".

I like the CONCEPT, I just don't really like what's available. It'd work great for LBs and such, but not sure about DL.

My vote?

Do not want.

Reasoning?

90% of sliders only have 1 value worth using anyway, and frankly I don't want to have to set 6 more settings per player to that one usable value.

Make the entire slider, or each player level tactic effective in it's own way, then we'll talk.