Playbooks - How does the game choose a play?

[ZootMurph]

So I create a playbook. I have plays weighted in how I want them to be called.

Game time. 1st and 10. Does the game plan mean anything, or does it go right to the playbook on 1st and 10, then choose run or pass depending on the number I have there?
I have a run heavy offense for this team. My gameplan is set to Aggressive Attitude and Focus is on Run. My Running Focus is Balanced. My Passing Focus is set to Long, and Pass To is set to TE. No player is set as my primary receiver. My 1st and 10 playbook has a run/pass ratio of 25. My understanding is that it will run the ball 75% of the time and pass 25%, and will randomly pick plays based on weighting. Does the gameplan change the playbook's run/pass ratio based on Aggressive/Run settings? If my Run Focus was on Outside, would that adjust my weightings?? If it chooses a pass, would it change to more Long passes where the TE is the primary receiver more frequently?

The reason I ask is this: I started a solo team for testing. I got some great offensive linemen to go with a couple of good running backs and very fast TEs with good hands. I have the settings mentioned above (25 Run/Pass ratio on all three first down playbooks). However, I'm running about 50% of the time on 1st down, and I have an equal number of run and pass play weightings (total weight 100 pass and 100 run, with the highest weighting being a dive play at 5... I also have more total pass plays in the playbook than runs) in the playbook, which makes me think the only thing that matters is the playbook weightings and not the Run/Pass ratio OR the gameplan settings. If the playbook weightings are the only thing that matters, then to get 3:1 Run to Pass ratio, I would need run play weightings in that playbook to total 300 and pass play weightings to total 100.

[brooks_piggott]

The game checks the run/pass ratio first, then looks in the playbook for a matching play. So the playbook weights don't affect run/pass percentage, only percentage of a particular run play called versus other run plays in that playbook.

You probably need to check the base/modifier of your leagues run/pass ratio. By default we target 40/60 splits... so setting your ratio to 100 doesn't mean it will throw 100% of the time, it just means throw it the max amount allowed by the league. We set the defaults so that league ratios tend to be in line with the pros and you don't have teams trying to run or throw 90+% of the time.

The biggest thing to get more control over run/pass ratio is to change the league run/pass ratio to be 0/100 (or 100/0... whichever reduces the base to 0). By moving the ratio to 100 you can get more extreme splits (70-80% maybe 90%?).

[ZootMurph]

The game checks the run/pass ratio first, then looks in the playbook for a matching play. So the playbook weights don't affect run/pass percentage, only percentage of a particular run play called versus other run plays in that playbook.

You probably need to check the base/modifier of your leagues run/pass ratio. By default we target 40/60 splits... so setting your ratio to 100 doesn't mean it will throw 100% of the time, it just means throw it the max amount allowed by the league. We set the defaults so that league ratios tend to be in line with the pros and you don't have teams trying to run or throw 90+% of the time.

The biggest thing to get more control over run/pass ratio is to change the league run/pass ratio to be 0/100 (or 100/0... whichever reduces the base to 0). By moving the ratio to 100 you can get more extreme splits (70-80% maybe 90%?).

I think this should be rethought, honestly. First... Some situations SHOULD be a very high number... for example, late game, 3 TD lead, I don't want to pass the ball. I want 100% run. This is reasonable, even if you are trying to be in line with the pros. Same for being behind... you are making it very hard to run a 2 minute offense if I'm running the ball 40% of the time... I know I can change it, but what about online, multiplayer leagues... Kills any strategy options. What happens if I'm playing a team with 3 of their 4 CBs injured? Well, I want to pass the **** out of the ball on offense. 60% is nice, but it's not effectively taking advantage of an opportunity that presented itself. What about teams who want to run or pass 90% of the time. If they are doing that every week, it's very easy to create a defense to stop them. One dimensional or obvious game planning is easy to defeat, so let them do it if they want. You can't FORCE the statistics to be what you want by forcing teams to play within a very small frame of reference... you've just taken a strategy game with a LOAD of possible strategy and just chopped that possible strategy down a LOT.

For me personally, I prefer the multiplayer game... it's challenging. Even with the box checked for enhanced AI, I have never had a team under 10 wins... Multiplayer, at the least, should not have that option. In solo or sandbox, it's just you and you can do whatever you want. But in multiplayer, there should be no such settings, allowing players to be creative and forcing players to adjust to the meta and also to the individual teams and players.

Anyway, thanks for the explanation. Good to understand what's going on.

[brooks_piggott]

That's why the setting is configurable... every league will look at it differently. Some will leave it wide open and don't care about being in line with pro stats... want a 2500 yard rusher that has 500 carries, go for it... want a 6000 yard passer and receivers with 150 catches, sure.

If you call your own plays, you're good. If you set the pct ratios for the league to 100, you're good. If you leave them as defaults then the AI kicks in and sometimes the dice rolls don't go perfect. Even at default settings the AI will adjust stuff enough to get to 100% in some scenarios... but we have to be careful... if a user sets up a strategy where they want to pass 100% of the time, but the AI says no, we're up by 3 TD so you must run, then we get massive complaints from the community. Where it's at now is a pretty good middle ground. It's realistic, but not perfect, but there are also options to give users more control if they really want to push the engine.