NCAA Football 12: Custom Playbooks

[JeffHCross]

is the editor fairly easy to navigate and create? or do you have to keep back tracking after each individual selection/ do you see a number count off as you fill your playbook?

I'd say it's intuitive. At the highest level, you select formations from the various alignments (I-Form, Far, Flexbone, etc) that you want. Within each formation, you have the option of choosing every play that you want to be included in that formation in your playbook. As you're editing these, the total number of plays (and formations) currently allocated in your playbook is constantly fluctuating. Everything is tracked at the top of the screen, so it's easy to see how many plays you have remaining.

how about setting audibles for each play- is that still in ?

For each play? Huh?

[ram29jackson]

OK, I guess that means per formation haha

[JeffHCross]

Ram, see below.

Can you change formation audibles?

I don't believe so.

Then it's really not a custom playbook then is it? You still have to use the plays that are scripted for the formation, even if they aren't in your playbook.

I'm working on getting clarification as to what happens when you add/remove plays that are formation audibles. As well, if you only have four plays in that formation, what happens to the audibles? I'll let you know what kind of response I get.

Thanks G. Really disappointed if the formation audibles are set in stone since 95% of them are the same across almost all of the formations.

[Koach Vonner]

I can't wait. This has been one of the things I have been asking for and looking forward too. There are so many teams that multiple sets now. This is going to be good for Offense and Defense.

[Koach Vonner]

I'd say it's intuitive. At the highest level, you select formations from the various alignments (I-Form, Far, Flexbone, etc) that you want. Within each formation, you have the option of choosing every play that you want to be included in that formation in your playbook. As you're editing these, the total number of plays (and formations) currently allocated in your playbook is constantly fluctuating. Everything is tracked at the top of the screen, so it's easy to see how many plays you have remaining.

For each play? Huh?

The first part sounds awesome. That should make things a lot easier.

The second part is just flat out funny!! LOL

[smace767]

long post from another board. its a response to a post so some of it might not make sense because it was a direct response to things from another post.

since some guys have used this feature i wanted to get some of your feedback on the subject.
once again a loooong post.

just one mans thoughts. no disrespect or trying to influence anyone to my way of thinking. Take it as is or keep it movin.

The first thing is nobody cares what other people do with their game in their own environment. The same you should care less if he has a sim crusade in his environment. You get your game and do what you want with it. Who cares?
With that said customizing everything is a thing few sports games allow. The show does not let you create a team of 8 ft tall 360 lb sluggers and pitchers. FIFA, nba2k11, ect..
the reason?

It takes away from the core of that sport. This is not nfl street or blitz or jam, Backyard football, or mario football.

Most people's issue is these things will impact the 2 player experience. Thats what every one is talking about. OD, online ranked matches, or head to head on the same console.

The whole discussion is about multiplayer. Nobody cares what you do in your offline dynasty. I know how ODs work and ive got 65 to 70 season in ods since ncaa09 in every type from tradition.com and heavy controlled web site hosted dynasties to dynasties that are pure psn communication with no msg boards or web sites.

i get the offline point as well since i have been playing this offline since ncaa 99 on pc. Avg about 10 season a year in offline dynasties and during good years its more like 15 to 20 seasons.

And the point of contention is we dont want to disable it. i want to go up against custom offense and defensive playbooks. What you hear is some guys dont want every single user game to be multi offense vs multiple defense.

The whole small issue, not a big deal, is how game to game, the offenses will be the same. you stop the run, guys come out in 4 and 5 wide. The identity of teams wont exist because every team will be a chameleon. Able to be any offense it chooses on any particular down / series.

There are some good playbooks with no qb runs. There are some good playbooks with no 5 wide or empty sets. some playbooks with no power running formations. At the start of the game i know what style you are and By the second qrt i know what sets you have.
i know what 2wr 2 rbs sets can do in that particular style or playbook. Now i can start to attack / be aggressive.
That chess match is over. With playbooks this big and diverse i now have to wait and see what you come out in every down.


Every team in a bcs any team online dynasty, after year two will have 4 star players, 3 deep at every position. They will have the depth.

in MAC or sunbelt dynasties, its relative. So your lack of depth is equal to his lack of depth on defense so the play still has the same chance for success.

Of course im gonna match his personnel after he pick his play. what is lost now is against some guys i know the general limits of his playbook and what he likes to do based on his individual game and season stats. I can pick my defense first.

I can dictate what i want to do without fear of getting gashed. 335 split has a good balance of run / pass coverage(basically a predator type defense with a three deep zone with shorter zones in the flat.) 335 has a bear and a stack.

If i catch you in a shotgun heavy playbook based on your game stats and season stats i have a good chance to shut you down if there is no big gap in talent. Same type of thing if i have a very good secondary and you are passing team. Advantage should be with the defense like it would be in real football situations. But now you just switch to a two te/ wishbone /flexbone offense and go from there.

Now with huge variety in playbooks, there is no one defense to shut any team down because the offensive style is so big.


Again every team should have the ability to run every play. Every team has a shotgun system. The issue you hear us make, is now you have the ability to run multiple, complete, multi-attack offenses in one playbook.

The avg game you only run about 50 offensive plays. So having 90 shotgun, 90 wishbone, 90 i formation / weak / strong, 90 pistol formation / single back formation plays, each are whole offenses in themselves.

Having 75 different pass plays and 15 different runs out of the shotgun when you will only call about 30-35 different plays in a game is a complete offense by it self.

75 different runs and 15 different passes out of the wishbone / flexbone same thing, an offense by itself.

To compare, play a game in ncaa 11. it like letting teams load 4 playbooks of different styles for that game. Imagine the other guy has the Texas Tech, gTech, Tulane and Nevada playbooks during that game. or Miss st, Michigan st, Hawaii, and Miami all avail to choose from in one game.


For those that dont know, when i post its usually big a$$ posts. Even though its not that big a deal to me. In fact im in a few recurring dynasties and to stay competitive one of my playbooks will include as much as i can get in it. Thinking about setting up my playbook actually triggered how much i think it affects two player games.

what guys would want for od? restrictive custom playbook setups. it could be an on or off od option.
What would have worked is choose a weight of pass to run. have like 5 classes of playbooks from pass heavy, to balance pass, to balanced, to run balanced, to run heavy.

If you had a pass heavy weight playbook you would have a limit on certain type of formation and plays. Once again you could pick any formation and any play, but the number of power run plays and formations would have a playbook limit. same with run heavy, only a small number of shotgun / 4 wide plays could be loaded.

The custom playbook creation menu would be either run or pass. a shotgun draw is a run a wishbone pass is a pass.

You could have all runs in a run playbook but you cant have more than the limit of passing plays / formation.
in a balanced playbook you would only be able to load so many formations and plays per style(I formation, wishbone, shotgun, ect...).

This still allows creative playbooks. you could have a run heavy with all shotgun and pistol runs. or pass heavy with all wishbone and flexbone passes. you could still be a primary I formation team or a pistol, or flexbone team regardless of the playbook weight class of run vs pass.

something like this would simulate the difficulty in trying to have a full multi-philosophy offense.

On defense my take would be declare your main front and that takes up 80 percent of playbook and limited on other sets.
multi defense could be two base fronts and those two take up 80 of your playbook and limited other sets.

There is a reason there are no Air raid / power option teams. or I formation / run and shoot teams. Its not that it doesn't sound good or fun. its just not realistic in a simulation attempt in an od. Which most dynasties strive to try to be as realistic as possible. and this could be an on or off option. allow custom playbooks or allow only restrictive custom playbooks.

This is all my opinion on the impact of how this is implemented. I never said take it out, it sucks, its cheesy, i cant stop it, none of that.

Again my opinion is the way it setup now, it takes a little away from the basic chess match of offensive style vs the defense in 2 player games.

[gschwendt]

Hey guys... I got a few clarifications from one of the developers regarding some of the questions:

• Unfortunately it doesn't sound like you'll be able to share playbook files even on a memory card, etc.
• You can in fact have a very very small playbook with only a few plays added if you so desire but it doesn't sound like you can have a playbook with only Goalline/Hail Mary/Special Teams.
• Hail Mary, Special Teams, and Goalline sets do chew into the 40 total count so for example, Florida, with their multiple Goalline looks, has 35 formations for the user to customize.
• Defense does in fact use the 40 formation/set limitation
• The style definition (Ace, Spread, Air Raid, etc.) is assigned when you choose your base playbook. There is not a way to change that yourself.
• To re-confirm, Hail Mary plays are not addable/removable. They are locked into every playbook.

They're still working on formation audibles so no definitive answer on that yet but I'll share it as soon as they share it with me.


With the above said regarding goalline sets chewing into your formation count, there's really no reason to start with Florida as your base unless you really want to. Adding the Power I and Wishbone Tight will give you the same results (other than it all appearing under the same formation) with more customization options.

[oweb26]

Basically what I already said start with the smallest playbooks and add formations from there.

[xGRIDIRONxGURUx]

i dont care what side of the fence anyone sits on, on any site... if you think 35 is not enough in the example of using Florida... then you are just purposefully being a crybaby...

take your favorite book, take out the formations you never run, duplicates, remove all the fluff you never run, then add the little bit of stuff you always wish was in that playbook and i promise you...

end result is WAY < 35 or whatever formations... just my 2 cents... i like the setup and if they work on it and see that we really want custom formation audibles, then honestly that alone is worth me buying this game every year until i just get so old i cant play PS3 anymore... no joke

"E"

[Cipher 8]

So for example Virginia Tech's playbook in NCAA Football 11 has a weird or different than normal Goalline formation.



What if I wanted that as my goalline formation? Is there an option to choose that or would I have to choose it as, and use up, one of my other allowed formations and plays?

I hope they think about letting you choose amongst the different goalline formations or just take out the mandatory goalline altogether. I'de totally choose this VT Goalline or Maryland I over the normal Goalline anyday but I would hate to have to have both in my playbook and not use the normal Goalline while wasting some spots for other formations/plays.

Seems like you should just be able to choose what Goalline-like formation you want, or none at all. Defeats the purpose of "custom playbook" Special Teams should be mandatory but goalline you should be able to choose amongst the different formations or opt to not have one.

I would venture to guess if you choose the Va Tech playbook as your default playbook, then that goalline formation would be your default goalline formation.

To get that particular goalline formation, you'd either have to start with Virginia Tech as your base playbook or start with another but then add the Power I as one of your 40 allotted formations. You can't change your goalline set once you've started creating a playbook.

Hey guys... I got a few clarifications from one of the developers regarding some of the questions:

• Hail Mary, Special Teams, and Goalline sets do chew into the 40 total count so for example, Florida, with their multiple Goalline looks, has 35 formations for the user to customize.

They're still working on formation audibles so no definitive answer on that yet but I'll share it as soon as they share it with me.


With the above said regarding goalline sets chewing into your formation count, there's really no reason to start with Florida as your base unless you really want to. Adding the Power I and Wishbone Tight will give you the same results (other than it all appearing under the same formation) with more customization options.

So that does sound like how it is then... so if you want that Virginia Tech or any other team specific goalline formation you either have to choose that teams playbook as your base playbook or add it in as a separate formation. I still think the only thing that should be locked in is special teams but I can live with Goalline and Hail Mary as well, knowing that I'll never use Hail Mary and would never use the normal goalline plays but I do use VT's formation a lot.

[Koach Vonner]

Man these custom playbooks have me excited. That one feature alone might have me buy and pre-order the game.
Its going to take a lot of defensive strategy however this year to stop guys. Maybe the improved zone defense will help out tremendously. I can see guys coming out with Missouri passing attack, G-Tech option attack, Wildcats Formations, etc. People are going to have to defensive game plan for real!!

[Cipher 8]

i dont care what side of the fence anyone sits on, on any site... if you think 35 is not enough in the example of using Florida... then you are just purposefully being a crybaby...

take your favorite book, take out the formations you never run, duplicates, remove all the fluff you never run, then add the little bit of stuff you always wish was in that playbook and i promise you...

end result is WAY < 35 or whatever formations... just my 2 cents... i like the setup and if they work on it and see that we really want custom formation audibles, then honestly that alone is worth me buying this game every year until i just get so old i cant play PS3 anymore... no joke

"E"

Yeah the only thing people are worried about is that they won't be able to have a playbook with all styles, like a Air Raid with tons of Shotgun formations combined with a bunch of Pro Style formations.

IMO you shouldn't be able to have the best of all of it. You choose what style you like and customize it and tweak it like you said to take out the plays you never run, the fluff as you call it, and add in the plays from other playbooks you like.

[psuexv]

Good Stuff G

I think EA's idea behind custom playbooks is that you have a couple of playbooks that you like, but just need to add a play here or a formation there that will really complete the playbook. I don't think they intended it as most on here seem to want - basically a complete build of a custom playbook. I think that's why you have thinks like "The style definition (Ace, Spread, Air Raid, etc.) is assigned when you choose your base playbook. There is not a way to change that yourself."

[xGRIDIRONxGURUx]

i think the style should depend on the bulk of the plays you are running... each play assigned a tag to its original concept... the highest % of plays you have is what dictates your offensive style...

same for defense...

because its going to be stupid to play someone online in a ranked game that going into the game it says "flexbone" but once you get in there you see that they just use the flex tight but are quads and wildcat all game... it just doesnt make sense that they didnt do it this way... they already have play #'s tracked on how many you have if they just used that same setup and assigned it a tag from the system it originally came from... motion trip option from spread (tag=Spread Option) but its not a complaint more than an "i wish it would have been done that way" type deal

"E"

[JBHuskers]

i dont care what side of the fence anyone sits on, on any site... if you think 35 is not enough in the example of using Florida... then you are just purposefully being a crybaby...

Sadly for 10 things EA adds to the game from what those who pound it into the ground to bitch about, they'll focus on the ONE thing that isn't done right and go on for pages and pages about it; without even acknowledging that things they were bitching and berating EA about are things are now actually in the game, they mysteriously disappear and not talk about those topics anymore. It's something that is very easy for those type of people to do.

[psuexv]

i think the style should depend on the bulk of the plays you are running... each play assigned a tag to its original concept... the highest % of plays you have is what dictates your offensive style...

same for defense...

because its going to be stupid to play someone online in a ranked game that going into the game it says "flexbone" but once you get in there you see that they just use the flex tight but are quads and wildcat all game... it just doesnt make sense that they didnt do it this way... they already have play #'s tracked on how many you have if they just used that same setup and assigned it a tag from the system it originally came from... motion trip option from spread (tag=Spread Option) but its not a complaint more than an "i wish it would have been done that way" type deal

"E"

I agree E - I think they didn't do this as I said in my previous post they didn't see someone taking a Flexbone base playbook and changing every single play. I think they designed this for example that I can grab USC's playbook and take out the 5 wide under center formation that sucks and add another shotgun formation or take out the Ace Trips and add I-form trips.

Personally this is how I'll run it. I'm not looking to build a playbook from scratch, just modify a couple to optimize for my playing style and likes.

[Solidice]

• Hail Mary, Special Teams, and Goalline sets do chew into the 40 total count so for example, Florida, with their multiple Goalline looks, has 35 formations for the user to customize.

what about the hidden formations within Hail Mary and Special Teams? do they count as 1, or still separately?

[gschwendt]

what about the hidden formations within Hail Mary and Special Teams? do they count as 1, or still separately?

They just count as 1.

[morsdraconis]

And see, I would be looking to build a playbook from scratch. I would want a playbook that caters to exactly what my team is built around. If I'm building my team to be a TE - FB - HB - 2 WR team, then I don't want something that doesn't use that personnel. That's the beauty of custom playbooks. If I'm building a team like that, I can build the playbook to match up my team to a "t". My OGs suck at pulling for offtackle plays? Then I can strip them out of the playbook, add more formations that fit my personnel, and add more plays that work for the players that I have.

[psuexv]

And see, I would be looking to build a playbook from scratch. I would want a playbook that caters to exactly what my team is built around. If I'm building my team to be a TE - FB - HB - 2 WR team, then I don't want something that doesn't use that personnel. That's the beauty of custom playbooks. If I'm building a team like that, I can build the playbook to match up my team to a "t". My OGs suck at pulling for offtackle plays? Then I can strip them out of the playbook, add more formations that fit my personnel, and add more plays that work for the players that I have.

Yeah I'm not disagreeing that this wouldn't be cool. I'm just saying that I don't think EA intended this feature to do that and I probably at this point won't do that. If they did intend for it, I would think they would have allowed things like customizing the style not taking the style of the base playbook.