Bort on kicking:

QUOTE:

QUOTE:
Originally posted by Robbnva
so stamina will play more of a factor in kicking now?

Same as it always has, but max distances are a bit lower now so it might affect tired lower level guys more noticably. He probably ran a bunch of kickoffs?

Ah, that explains it. So GY's FG range probably maxes out just above 40 yards or so now.

It's presumably worth at least one boost now to get my strength up. It's underpowered compared to kicking and confidence anyway.

That's a good idea. I also wonder how much Bort's changes made speed/agility matter with respect to kicking power.

I've heard the suggestion that speed mainly affects the likelihood of a blocked FG, and maybe general accuracy when under pressure from the D-line. I've no idea if that's true, though.

You should be set up GY, I'll double check tonight. (Just go to the team profile and see if you can access the depth chart.)

As a reminder, I think this is what we have at the moment for GMs:
Gyuri: Offense (primary), general go-to GM for contracts & boosting, etc
Alex: Defense (primary), secondary contact for contracts & boosting, etc
matej: Owner, Special teams (primary), finances, covers any other things that need doing
Inca: Offense (secondary)
Etienne: Defense (secondary), depth chart adjustments, back-up for other things
GY: Scouting, positional research, back-up for other things

We all have forum mod rights.

GY,

I don't think that they have blocked FGs live yet. Bort had said at some point last season that the sim changes would have speed and agility be (at least somewhat) relevant in kicking power. His argument being that kickers need momentum when striking the ball to get it to go far. Sounds like crap to me, but I think they will play a role in distance (though I'm sure a secondary role to strength and kicking).

As our general goal with the slot WR position in 3 WR sets is to have one of our top 2 guys there, I'm going to try something different for the depth chart for the next game.

I'll have the general WR field populated in normal order, the WR1 field also populated in the normal order, the WR2 field left blank (on the theory that it should be populated by the general WR field), and the WR3 field populated by WR2, WR3, WR4, WR5. If this works as I'd like it to, in 2 WR sets (assuming full energy), the first and second WRs will play. However, in 3 WR sets, the best receiver will be at WR1, the 2nd best receiver at WR3 and the 3rd best receiver at WR2. Don't know if this will work as planned, but it's worth shooting for.

Also, I think that we should try to have Neon at CB2 and Wallace at CB1, as CB2 most often faces the other team's top receiver as currently set up.

As our backup FS only had 5 of the 63 defensive plays in this game, I thought that perhaps our new starting FS wasn't playing on hard. When I asked him about it, he said he was, which is odd. Also, the owner of the other team complained about similar things happening. I don't know if it's a bug in the sim or what, but I've temporarily upped the sub-in/sub-out percentage for FS from 80/85 to 88/93 to see if that helps in the next game.

Incidentally, I'm thinking we should start a new thread before this one causes the OTF hamsters to keel over.

Do long threads make the hamsters sad? If so, a new thread makes sense to me (though we should put something in the title so the non-GLB folks don't think we're speaking in tongues).

By the way, GY, have you had a chance to research some of the defensive builds to post advice on the team forum? If you'd like to discuss with me, I'd be happy to exchange PMs on GLB.

Yeah, I've been researching cornerbacks and safeties, but I haven't got around to posting the results yet. I'll do so tomorrow.It might be an idea to do it on here first, as the target builds for individual players will depend on how you see them fitting into the team.

That's excellent, as those positions are the ones where we probably need the most guidance. Posting on here first is a good idea.

Okay, watched the replays now:

1) The goalline formation is run only. There was a 4th qtr 1st down where we were clearly in a goalline formation that should have been a pass and wasn't.
2) We got screwed by the two-minute drill.
3) I didn't see a single long pass to a HB.
4) Our off tackle & sweeps with the HB are pretty effective.
5) Our FB running... not so much.
6) Short passes to the WR, pointless.
7) Short passes in general - unless scripted specifically for short yardage situations in the AI - pointless.
8) blocking has been tweaked. This impacts special teams as strong defensive players are now useless on returns. Knut got run through on every single punt.

All-in-all a very informative game. Explained quite a lot about the offensive AI. We should simplify for the next game.

I am going to take a few minutes and delete out useless plays.

One other thing, which I'm not sure I mentioned earlier, is that long pass plays seem to just have one player going long. As a result, now that both QBs are at or close to the first soft cap for vision and so should be better at checking down quickly, I think we should up our long pass percentage. I've already changed it to 65/35 (medium/long) in the general tactics (which will play a role in the real games, less in the preseason scripted games), and we might think of upping it slightly further as we see how it plays out.

I think we need our WRs to get their agility up, both to help getting to speed quicker, but also so they cut more precisely to try and get separation.

Speaking to Matej's point about the special teams, we have 7 backup o-linemen, a backup TE and a backup FB, all of whom should probably should be on our KRS teams. I'm also going to train up my KRs tackling so that he can play on all the special teams (it's the only way he is going to get a meaningful amount of plays, and with his build (other than tackling) he'd be a pretty good gunner.

In discussion with ap, I made a few tweaks to the defensive AI. First, I made sure that we were in cover 1 (rather than cover 2) whenever we had a LB blitz from the 4-3. That way, a safety will pick up the LBs man to keep him from running free.

Second, I made sure we had a (middle or right side) LB blitzing every time we were in the 3-4. Otherwise, we're basically playing a prevent pass rushing scheme.