Some questions from a noob

[boxian]

Sorry if I missed an ongoing questions thread, but I have a couple I'd like to ask:

Do the Player Skills, i.e. the position rating number, mean much? Are they more indicative of the ability than the OVR rating? So would it be better to draft your team based on their OVR rating or their position rating?

I've read on this board about the training generally being 6-6-5-5 to prevent overwork, is there a recommended training plan based on positions?

How do people run their defense? Like, how do you get a feel for what play will pair up against what?

Is the best way to pass to the outside to set that on your Game Plan, or are there some plays that make that happen more often (like Flats vs Slants, but also on Post or Streak/Fly/Out routes)?

Thanks!

[AKH]

The position skills indicate how well a player understands a position, how prone he is to make mistakes when playing that position. They modify a huge range of scenarios, e.g. Getting lost in coverage, picking up the wrong blitzer, getting wrong leverage from a 3point stance etc. etc. These increase over time (but only if you line him up at the position he is registered at - so if you play a SS at linebacker he wont increase his LB skill because he trains with the linebackers and he wont increase his SS skill because he doesnt get playing time at SS).

The overall rating is just a helper rating, allowing you a quick glimpse of the rough quality of a player, it IS a better indication than his position skills. Still when evaluating players you are better off looking at his specific attributes and personality.

Even with the limited combinations available (where you avoid over and undertraining) its my impression people have different strategies for training. A lot simply go with a balanced default schedule like you post and leave it at that. Some do very specific stuff for small groups of players and some do in between.

Same goes for defense, this is hard to give good general advice on because the success of each play is so dependent on the players you field. Just like real life, when the top CB gets injured, a lot of the concepts dont work as well anymore.

in more competitive leagues people spend a lot of time looking at the game analyses (access it through in the game box score) to figure out what works for and against them. And still they have to adjust a little every season because of the turnover in personnel.

To pass outside you need players running on the outside, so the plays matter a lot. The routes depend on which player runs them obviously (a TE running a fly wouldn't be on the outside, but the X receiver would), you can check the XML to see what players do on the different plays (or check the college game, where we added play art).

[boxian]

Thanks AKH!

Understood about the position skill rating now.

I wish that there was a "Football for Dummies" section or some more tooltips/a mode to turn on for new people. I'm kind of using the game as a way to learn more about football technically - I enjoy watching football but have never played on a true team (just backyard stuff) so I don't know much about the roles of positions and what routes are or anything like that. So I can mostly muddle through what skills matter for what positions but I think it would be cool to have more tool tips that explain what skills matter for what position and what it would do - even if it was just an expansion of the name instead of the abbreviation.

For instance, I'd be interesting in one of my Staff members or something in the Training window where they explain how to divide up the training between skills, knowledge, and raw athleticism.

Is there a way for the Compare Player button to start with the player that clicked the button with first?

[boxian]

Is Scouting done through some combination of your GM+HC+OC+DC's scouting stats or is just the highest?

i.e. Would the highest team scouting value be equivalent to 60 stars, or just 15 stars?

From looking around, it seems like Backfield - Committee is distributing RB duties among your RBs and Bell Cow is focusing your RB duties to a primary RB? This isn't very well defined in the Guide.

For Player Radio, who normally has this in real life? What does it correspond to, staff in the box calling out something to the specific player for just them or for the team as a whole to act on?

[AKH]

its a combination (but not linear addition)

If you use master depth chart backfield is slanted toward RB1 yes, its better for the formation DCs.

In real life its normally a veteran LB who has the radio. He communicates information to the rest of the defense.

[boxian]

Are all of the other training ratings that coaches have also combinations? Or are they separate to the different groups?

For instance, my DC has ratings for QB, Skill Position, and Special Teams training - are those combined with the OC, HC to impact the training on those, or can they be dumped entirely for my DC to focus on the defense? I guess this matters a lot more for the athletic development stuff - i.e. the Development, Detail, Youngsters, and Physical stats - are those combined for the whole team, or separate for the players depending on their role?

Also is Pass Blocking/Run Blocking the attribute that I want to have to allow my offensive players to make blocks for my receivers/runners, or is it only the attribute used by the o-line/d-line to block my opponent's offense?

[AKH]

offensive and defensive skill positions are a combination of the HC and the coordinator. For the non position specific training (e.g. youngsters) it will look at the position of the player to determine the coordinator and again use HC+coordinator.

blocking skills are used by everyone.