I think some of the confusion people new to version 3 experienced at first glance can be reduced by eliminating redundant options in both the playbook and the formation settings.  I sometimes find myself confused even though I now know these options are in two places.  Keeping them consistent is a battle that doesn't need to be waged.  Could one or the other be eliminated to make preperation seem less daunting?  Or is there a reason for having them in both places I am not seeing.      

This is exactly part of the confusion as they are actually two different things.

The playbook tells you how you want that specific play to play out - more rushing on the inside, more passes medium, etc.

The formations tell you which players are more likely to be involved.  IF the play calls a rush to the inside, who is more likely to get the ball.  IF the play tries to target a player in the medium area, who is most likely to be that target.

It might make sense to look at it through the 2.0 lenses - the playbook settings are essentially the same as what you had in 2.0. The difference being that instead of "Aggressiveness" settings that tell you what percent of inside rushes or medium passes you want to make, you set them explicitly.  Other than that, and a difference in the way you mark which of them is active, its essentially the same settings.  In 2.0, the formation settings were fixed, baked in, for the player receiving distributions and depth charts.  You could adjust the player rush distributions through settings on the depth chart page, but those were applied over all formations, plus the "Third-Down" and "Short Yardage" back settings which were again locked into certain situations.  In 2.0, formations had all of these settings, you just couldn't see them or change them.

If you want to keep it as simple as possible, but want to take advantage of the advanced settings, I would recommend:

• Ignore the position role settings.  These are only there for you to use in evaluating your players and recruits.
• Set only the default position depth charts (QB, RB, etc.) plus FB, ILB, OLB, DT, and DE - to get you what you are familiar with in 2.0.
• Do not add formations.  Set your default formations to pull from the FB, ILB, OLB, DT, and DE depth charts where appropriate.
• Now, set up playbooks using the formations as you would normally in 2.0.

At that point, you are essentially the same as 2.0 with a few additional settings in the playbooks, and we will be working on adding some tools to help facilitate making mass changes in those playbooks.

Thanks for the response Norbert.  Good info, although I am still somewhat confused lol.  I am picking up more and more each day though.  Please don't take the above as a complaint - it wasn't.  It just looks like you can set up some of what you set up in the playbook, through formation settings, which as you point out, is more specific.  I like that it is so specific!   I will have to look at both again to see the differences you point out.  THanks again! 

Ahhhh I see the difference now and it is a big one.  Not sure how I managed to overlook that. 

I don't take any of this as complaints.  The more feedback, even when it is confusion, helps us work on improving the game and hopefully making something that is less confusing.  So if something confuses you, please let us know.

this is un believably complicated

I dont find it complicated at all.  I love tha fact that i can build a real playbook, and control who I am passing to and where i am passing too them.  The difficulty does come when you want to alter a playbook due to your opponent.  There are a lot of little adjustments we can make here, and it can be very time consuming. 

"Be careful what we wish for" I guess.  We wanted more control, and now we are getting it.  Those of us who are willing to put in the work shoudlreap the rewards (Wins).