Posted by coach_deen on 1/20/2013 9:27:00 PM (view original):
Norbert...I hope I make sense with this question. When the new engine is in place will we be able to use players abilities any differently? For example, if we put 2 TE's in the ND formation, and both have good speed, hands, elusiveness, etc., should we be able to throw the ball consistently & effectively? Will the formation have as much or more to do with the outcome as the players abilities? I feel like it would add to the game if we could change a players position and get more out of it than we're able to now. I think it would also make scouting our opponents more important. Right now we can look at their tendencies and that's about it. I believe it would be a better game if a coach could scout his opponents players attributes and get an advantage. If I'm not explaining this properly forgive me...and just pretend I never ask the question! (LOL)
I think the general idea of the question is about player ratings in the new engine and how you will be able to use them. The example of TEs with good SPD, HND, and ELU asks whether or not you should be able to throw the ball effectively (than if they had lower SPD, HND, and ELU, I'm assuming). I think most people would say this is something you should see in the CURRENT engine. Part of the problem with the current engine is that you really don't do anything with these good receiving TEs other than set them higher in your depth chart and hope your settings throw more to these guys to take advantage of them.
I'd be a little dishonest if I said the new engine was going to be perfect and all our wishes would be granted in a golden football utopia, but really I'm just hoping to get it better than it is now with the idea that we can improve as we go along. I'd also say I don't think any football sim can be perfect, at least not in the eyes of everyone that plays it. There are always going to be a few glitches or balance issues and those are things I hope we can take care of a little quicker than we have in the current engine, but balancing is difficult. I don't want a "hand it off and a cloud of dust" game nor do I want a "pass, baby, pass" game. I'd like to see us having to make decisions like "against this team, I want to pass more and against this other team, I want to rush more".
So to answer your question with regard to the new engine, there is a new level of control over setting up your team. In the case of the TEs, having good receiving skills will help you in setting up plays where you have your TE going out for passes. You can't say specifically to target a TE, but you can set up a formation that has the TE pass distribution higher and set a play to pass more to those areas and that will give you a higher chance of passing to the TE. A TE can either be set up to block at the line or go out on passing routes. The blocking setting is something I have in that I fully intend to change with feedback during beta, so what you see at the beginning of beta might be different than where we end up. But regardless, there is a distinction between a TE blocking at the line and one running routes and those should have an effect on the play. You might not see the direct effect in each single play, but overall you should see a difference. The effectiveness of how well those receiving TEs do or how much they effect your passing game will also depend on the defense you are facing. If you have great receiving TEs and you have them involved in the passing, the defense might be set up to match them with great defenders. There will be a lot more dynamics to the match ups for each play which is another reason it's a lot more difficult to balance than the current engine.
One of the limitations of the new engine is the degree of control. There will be more control in your settings than there are now, but there are also some assumptions in the settings. For instance, a player slot that is set to a CB role will cover receivers as they run their routes, so will act pretty much like a man-to-man coverage. In the current engine, these guys are pretty much set to some semblance of zone coverage where your tendency affects their positioning some. This change is balanced by Safety positions that play more of a zone coverage which is affected by a "Short, Medium, Long" setting. The limitation in these settings is that you can't really fine tune your match ups. You can't say you want a certain DB to cover a certain WR. You can't set DBs to zone coverage. You will still set your defense based on offensive formation and situation.
So the way you take advantage of good receiving TEs on your team is to set them up in the formations and the play in the playbooks to get more passes. The better receivers you have out on the field when you are passing, the better your chances of successful passes. You should see a difference in passing results with good receiving TEs. If you see your opponent has good receiving TEs, you might adjust to get your best pass coverage LBs on the field and set up your defense to shorter passes (assuming the TEs get more short passes). So hopefully with the new engine you do see some advantage to really building your game plans to your players or recruiting for certain strengths, and you also find a reason to take a little closer look at your opponent.
Probably not exactly what you were asking, but hopefully some good information.