Is this the correct way to set up formation distribution?

CB: Im impressed you just got the screenshot into the forum in a ledgible way .

Answer is Yes if that is the distribution that you want. Understand that the numbers you put in are who gets targeted where and how often . But NOT who gets thrown to that often. Once the AI does it's check of let's say your 1 RB if he is covered then the qb AI go's on to find another open receiver.

Because I have seen people do it like this too:




So, either way works?

Experiment with them. Neither is how I do it personally.

Neither is how I do it personally.

I can't fathom any other way to do it. I am very left-brained and lack in imagination. Anti-depressants also stunt the imagination.
Given those two things, I don't suppose you would be willing to share any OLD formation that you no longer use or to create a dummy that you never used and to post it here?

Here is an old Trips formation where I have a clear primary and secondary receiver at each depth as well as having receivers run every depth.





And in the old playbook I have receivers running every depth with a clear primary depth (Medium) as well as a clear secondary depth (Long) with the QB looking at Short/Deep/Very Short as well.




I would run something like this for one half in a game and then adjust both the formation and the playbook until I find something I like. Once I like it I will give the formation a fancy name and include it into one of my active playbooks against human coaches.

Please share the fancy name. TIA.

Here are a couple of my current names:

This is my current offense for Oklahoma.





Sadly this next one needs a better name (no offense lyonzfan). I run this in three worlds now.

They are all right. It all depends on what you are trying to do and with which receivers.

Just checked out this thread on Microsoft Edge (wanted to see if Blitz's photos of his Oklahoma playbook would come in there).

All the photos are extremely tiny there. Meanwhile, on Chrome, I had to reduce the size 80% or so to fit an image that didn't require a scroll bar.

Add that to one of the things new management can fix.

Posted by blitziscomin on 9/3/2017 5:29:00 PM (view original):
Here is an old Trips formation where I have a clear primary and secondary receiver at each depth as well as having receivers run every depth.





And in the old playbook I have receivers running every depth with a clear primary depth (Medium) as well as a clear secondary depth (Long) with the QB looking at Short/Deep/Very Short as well.




I would run something like this for one half in a game and then adjust both the formation and the playbook until I find something I like. Once I like it I will give the formation a fancy name and include it into one of my active playbooks against human coaches.

This is something that has always confused me. In the example above, is the engine saying there is a 48% chance the QB will look at Med depth, and then he will then look in order of the values across the receivers, starting with WR2 at 80%? So, all 5 receivers will be running medium depth in those cases?

So, all 5 receivers will be running medium depth in those cases?

The way I read it, WR2 will be there 74% of the time the offense passes (80/108).
Meanwhile, RB1 will be there on just 3% of the time.
RB2: Also 3% of the time.
WR1: 3% of the time.
WR3:3.3% of the time.

In all likelihood, WR2 will be the only receiver at that depth and he will be the one the QB looks to throw to.

I'm also reading where the QB looks differently than you :
From what I've garnered, 30% of the time the QB will look Long FIRST before he looks anywhere else.
And 48% of the time he'll look Medium depth FIRST.
12% of the time, Short.
8% of the time, he'll look Deep FIRST.
And 2% of the time, he'll look to throw a screen behind the line.

I have no clue what governs where the quarterback looks second.

Posted by chetty1963 on 9/4/2017 10:40:00 AM (view original):

Posted by blitziscomin on 9/3/2017 5:29:00 PM (view original):
Here is an old Trips formation where I have a clear primary and secondary receiver at each depth as well as having receivers run every depth.





And in the old playbook I have receivers running every depth with a clear primary depth (Medium) as well as a clear secondary depth (Long) with the QB looking at Short/Deep/Very Short as well.




I would run something like this for one half in a game and then adjust both the formation and the playbook until I find something I like. Once I like it I will give the formation a fancy name and include it into one of my active playbooks against human coaches.

This is something that has always confused me. In the example above, is the engine saying there is a 48% chance the QB will look at Med depth, and then he will then look in order of the values across the receivers, starting with WR2 at 80%? So, all 5 receivers will be running medium depth in those cases?

I have come to the conclusion that it is the QB progression order. In this example the QB will look at Medium first (48%) then Long (30%) and then Short (12%) and if he has time Deep (8%) and finally Very Short (2%). If I read in the expanded play-by-play that one of the receivers is wide open and the QB didn't see him it is oftentimes one of the ones farther down on the progression. I will tweak the open depth to be higher in the progression to get the QB to see him.

The playbook designates which route depths will be ran - so in the above example all five depths will be ran in the play. The Sim looks at the formation to determine which receiver will run which depth. So the last receiver in the formation will run the Medium depth 80% of the time and the Medium depth receiver will be the primary receiver (48% Pass % in Playbook). The fourth receiver in the formation will run the Long depth 80% of the time and will be the secondary receiver (30% Pass % in playbook).

I'm sure other coaches have different opinions regarding this but I have approached my formations and playbooks this way and it seems to be somewhat accurate as I tweak playbooks and formations.

The engine is more basic than what you are thinking. Think of playbooks and formations as an "if, then" statement in a program code. Here is an example, I will use the playbook and formations above.

[play begins]
[pass or run]
[pass]
[where to target]
[check 1st and medium playbook]
[options are 2|12|48|30|8}
[computer picks 48 - medium]
[who to target]
[check formation for medium]
[options are 80|11|3|3|3]
[computer picks 80 - WR2]
[goto pass sub]

[pass]
[attempt pass yes|no]
[no]
[new target|sack|throw away|force pass]
[new target]
[goto where to target sub]

I am fairly confident in this model.

Good luck.

nitros (James)

DEV CHAT

What will my QB do if the formation sends all receivers Deep, but the playbook says to throw very short? (andyjoemich - Hall of Famer - 2:55 PM)

good question. The playbook target number will determine where to target and the decision on which player to select for location is based on the formation number. In this case, since there will be nobody running the short route, all of the players have an equal percent chance to run that route, and it will choose one of the players slotted for the deep pass. Logically this is what appears to be happening. I'll have to run this test in my test games to know for certain.

In the pass progression, I notice sometimes the QB will look off a medium pass and progress to long, short etc. What determines this? (ronm605 - Hall of Famer - 2:48 PM)

Pass attempts are determined based on the QB rating and the coverage unit. A QB will determine if the pass coverage is too strong based on his rating at reading the play and will determine if he should make the attempt. If it is determined that he will not attempt the pass, the play will move to the next step, the pressure from the line will be determined, and the QB will then see if he can find another target, throw the ball away, or scramble depending on the state of the play.

On a pass play, if the quarterback passes on his first option, what determines his second option? (slid64er - Hall of Famer - 7:49 PM)

Each new step of the play will calculate the targeted area. For basic uses, the targeted area will always chose an area based on the weighted distribution on the play. For example, if the play calls for a 50% chance of long and a 50% chance of deep each time a new target is calculated it will choose long half the time and deep half the time. There are other factors in this as well depending on the other things going on in the play. For instance, a QB cannot target a long or deep route early in the play. If the defense gets pressure on the QB the target will depend on the QB's ability to assess to the best target area.