Brando70 wrote:Are you guys getting a decent pass rush from your d-line? That's the one area that where I'm getting killed -- my front four constantly get upended or stuck on their blockers. I manage to break away for a sack or two usually, but the other times the QBs get an eternity back there. Even blitzes don't help that much. I'm playing with the Bears and I should be getting more pressure than I am. I turned CPU pass block down to 30 but it didn't really help. Anyone else having an issue with this?
I'm getting good pressure with the Chargers 3-4 and nickle defenses - but many of the sacks do come on blitzes from the linebacker. you may want to see if you can use the gameplan during the week to emphasize the dline. I did that prior to the Broncos and had pretty good pressure from the d-line against both the pass and run. But I do go with blitzes the majority of the time as these are pretty much the emphasized plays in the Chargers playbook.
Best wishes,
Doug
"Every major sport has come under the influence of organized crime. FIFA actually is organized crime" - Charles Pierce
Thanks, Doug. I wanted to see if the planning was more of the culprit than the game. The Bears run the Cover 2, and it's hard to be successful with it when I don't get pressure from my front four, even on my mastered plays. I'll have to see if I can emphasize the rush in practice and work in more blitzes.
OK, I got the offensinve and defensive coordinators to call the plays in my last game (a 35-13 drubbing of the rival Rams, got a few goals finished for that!), but my question now is how do I let the DC call his plays, but let me call the offensive ones?
Gurantsu wrote:OK, I got the offensinve and defensive coordinators to call the plays in my last game (a 35-13 drubbing of the rival Rams, got a few goals finished for that!), but my question now is how do I let the DC call his plays, but let me call the offensive ones?
Just (360) to discard the playcall option on defense and your DC will call the plays. Select playcall with [A] on offense and you'll have the slate of playcall options available to you.
Rob Ryan is so much better at calling the defense than I am, that I actually hop to Supersim for defensive series and just hit "Sim to next possession". Game times cut down to about 40 minutes for a complete game with me just calling the offensive plays and simming the defensive series.
OK, I finally got some time with this over the weekend...and as a result I got little time for sleep
Holy crap, this game is a BLAST!
I must've started over to go through the pre-season process about a half-dozen times just to get a feel for what was going on, but rather than being frustrating it was fun peeling back the layers and figuring how the nuts and bolts work.
My principal beef is basically a result of the fact that the interface is so good. Those areas where it falls short are therefore glaring and particularly infuriating. How they can have the trade screen with no info on what the trade will do to your salary cap is beyond me. I'm also not thrilled at the fact that I lose approval every time I disagree with my GM on a draftee.
But damn it's fun!
XBL Gamertag: RobVarak
"Ok I'm an elitist, but I have a healthy respect for people who don't measure up." --Aaron Sorkin
Glad to see you like it Rob. I love the game but have held off waiting for the patch. I didn't like the scrubs asking for outrageous salaries or Kevin Jones and Mike Brown never healing. Once the patch comes out I have a feeling I'll totally lose myself in this game.
I am a patient boy.
I wait, I wait, I wait, I wait.
My time is water down a drain.
Yeah, the patch will help a lot. Still, I can't stop playing.
I'm sure I've totally screwed up my salary cap for years to come with my Seahawks. I couldn't for the life of me get Marcus Trufant to re-sign under the cap, so I let the AI handle it and somehow he's back for 6 years and happy as a clam. I was a bit crazy with free agents and trades at first, so I have no idea what affect it will have in the future. Draft day should be a riot. Still, Mershawn Lynch was a great and much needed pickup for me at HB.
I was moving right along at 7-1, then had a game against the Eagles that went into overtime. Olindo Mare misses TWO easy field goals that cost us the win; luckily my defense got me a tie out of it. Since then I've been handed 3 losses in a row, with the Patriots looming in my next game (with Tom Brady I might add). Looks like it will be an interesting run down the stretch. (Mare is now my #2 kicker after I found a decent rookie in the free agent pool).
I don't know if its a fatigue or injury issue, but my guys just really seemed to drop off. The health screen shows them getting banged up, but rarely better. Once the patch is out I'll see if it fixes all of this, if not I may restart altogether.
I'm actually thinking of selling off Madden 09, as Head Coach is getting 95% of my playing time. I find the games incredibly immersive, and they play out like a real game would.
You guys can fix the injury bug and salary bug now.
The injury bug is triggered by using your play creator from the coach's clipboard in your career. It turns injuries off, and once you do that, you can't turn them back on and your career is hosed. But if you only use the creator from the main screen or during a game, you'll be fine. Just don't use it from your clipboard during your career. It also does not get triggered by stealing plays. I created a few plays from the main screen and had no issues with injuries.
The salary bug has something to do with when you save. If you turn off autosave and save your game right before and after a game, you should avoid it. It seems to happen when you save mid week. I do think this one gets reset -- if you save on a Wednesday, you'll see it, but if your next save is on a Saturday, it'll go away. Kind of goofy but avoidable.
I do really love the game. I'm going to probably start over because you really do have to do a test run to learn what's going on. But overall it's a great effort from EA.
Well, I finally broke my losing streak against the previously undefeated Patriots in a nail biter of a game.
7-7 at halftime, then I'm up 21-7 going into the 4th. The Pats come back to tie it, then take the lead after an interception. I manage to tie it up again and figure I'll hold on until overtime. Well, a fumble recovery puts me in easy field goal range with seconds left to play. So I send out the FG team, with 30 seconds on the play clock and 20 on the game clock... and they stand there... and stand there... and let the game clock run out without kicking the field goal. Needless to say I was, um, displeased with the outcome. Why the hell wouldn't the AI kick the field goal? It's like it thought the play clock was the game clock, and was waiting for it to go down without paying any attention at all to the time left in the game. Luckily I was able to win the toss in overtime and take the win, but having to do it drives me nuts.
Is there any way to force your guys to hike the ball? I was pounding buttons left and right but they just stood there doing nothing. I had no time outs left by the way. Have any of you guys seen this? This is a pretty big deal if you can't get the game winning kicks off.
A big change in getting this win was the game plan. In my last few games my plan was all over the place; a little offense, a little defense. For the Pats I put all effort into stopping their passing game, even though they were concentrating on using the run in their practices. Worked out pretty well, although they did have a good running game I was able to keep it in check. Late in the game Brady really came alive and they were moving the ball quickly, I was lucky to gameplan the way I did or I'm sure I would have lost.
Anyway, the losing streak is over. I just hope they are looking at the AI's clock control in the patch.
That is an item listed as fixed in the patch. I believe they said the patch is done and has been passed onto MS for QA approval. Hopefully not more than a couple weeks.
1. Do players "improve" by playing in games or only during practices? Same with learning plays. I know that I can change a play's status from learned to mastered in a game, but I'm not sure if you can go from unlearned to learned.
2. Is there any way to initiate contract talks with a player already under contract? I franchised Lance Briggs and recently got a news story saying he was looking forward to a new deal. Can I do that myself or do I need to wait for a task to appear in the clipboard.
XBL Gamertag: RobVarak
"Ok I'm an elitist, but I have a healthy respect for people who don't measure up." --Aaron Sorkin
RobVarak wrote:I've got a couple of fundamental questions:
1. Do players "improve" by playing in games or only during practices? Same with learning plays. I know that I can change a play's status from learned to mastered in a game, but I'm not sure if you can go from unlearned to learned.
2. Is there any way to initiate contract talks with a player already under contract? I franchised Lance Briggs and recently got a news story saying he was looking forward to a new deal. Can I do that myself or do I need to wait for a task to appear in the clipboard.
#1, I think so. I seem to recall Earl Bennett's play knowledge going up during a game. I think it helps if they play a lot of the game. Not sure about unlearned to learned, because I never call unlearned plays in a game and my OC doesn't either.
#2, I think you have to wait. Briggs is probably pissed at you anyway.
For the record, I'd also like to say 95% of sports reviewers are complete idiots about the sports games they review. This game has gotten some of the dumbest reviews I've ever seen. Abner's is the only one worth anything, as he really nailed the pros and cons of the game. I'm going to be really disappointed if EA doesn't try and keep the franchise going. With a few improvements this game could be amazing instead of really good.
RobVarak wrote:I've got a couple of fundamental questions:
1. Do players "improve" by playing in games or only during practices? Same with learning plays. I know that I can change a play's status from learned to mastered in a game, but I'm not sure if you can go from unlearned to learned.
Yes, it is my understanding that they do on both counts.
RobVarak wrote:2. Is there any way to initiate contract talks with a player already under contract? I franchised Lance Briggs and recently got a news story saying he was looking forward to a new deal. Can I do that myself or do I need to wait for a task to appear in the clipboard.
Haven't found a way yet... However, depending on your cap situation, you may want to wait until the patch. If you are close to the cap, even though a player's current salary may be on an expiring contract, your next year's cap room will be 'estimated' based upon the players current salary. As a result, you may be negotiating with less cap room than you would have if the player's contract were 'off the books'. This will be addressed in the patch by adding the player's current salary to your cap room for next year for the purpose of negotiating with players still under contract.
Around week 5 or 6 you should start getting overtures from your players on 1 year contracts.
Brando70 wrote:
For the record, I'd also like to say 95% of sports reviewers are complete idiots about the sports games they review.
The one up review was horrible, I wrote them a letter saying such and I don't think I have ever done that for a game.
To be fair though the game does have a pretty nasty UI for the most part. I get that they tried to make things easier and such with the clipboard and this and that but it really takes some getting used to before it begins to click. Don't take this the wrong way as I've enjoyed my time with HC so far but its does have a ways to go before it deserves wide critical acclaim that some people have already lauded upon it. I'm not even going to start talking about all the bugs that even the developers themselves are trying to correct with all the planned patches. Overall they've outdone themselves trying to make a playable coaching game but the ugly truth is that with all that work they still have a LONG way to go.
That being said I'll be first in line again to purchase the next version should they decide to make one (is that known yet?).
That's why I thought Abner's review was really good -- he gave it a good grade but pointed out a lot of the flaws. The 1UP review was like Fisher Price's My First Sports Game Review, and the IGN review was so far up Madden's ass that I'm surprised the reviewer could move his hands to type.
What would suck would be if the unwarrented negativity killed what is the most promising sports title I've played in a while. I actually like Madden, too, but I'd hate to see it absorb Head Coach completely, because I know the Madden franchise mode will never be as deep as a game like this.
Brando70 wrote:That's why I thought Abner's review was really good -- he gave it a good grade but pointed out a lot of the flaws. The 1UP review was like Fisher Price's My First Sports Game Review, and the IGN review was so far up Madden's ass that I'm surprised the reviewer could move his hands to type.
What would suck would be if the unwarrented negativity killed what is the most promising sports title I've played in a while. I actually like Madden, too, but I'd hate to see it absorb Head Coach completely, because I know the Madden franchise mode will never be as deep as a game like this.
I'm not saying the game is flawless, it is getting praise because it is innovative and achieves things most football titles haven't ever done. There are tons of issues, the two minute drill is a bad design choice. Bugs are popping up and the whole Injury / Health screen and how it works is frustrating to name a few. (Personally I think the interface is as good as you can get on a console)
But the feeling has always been, even before release that EA wants to kill this game, hell it outclasses Madden in almost every facet, low scores and a bad meta critic average are the ammo the suits need to kill this thing and that's a shame.
People will pay every year for a new OOTP, The Show, Madden, NBA etc which have to invent gimmicks to innovate. We have a product who has done so and has so many avenues in front of it not only that it could improve but expand and there is a good chance it will never happen.
Reviews like 1Up where the guy didn't even state what he did or didn't like are a joke. That review could of and probably was written based on stealing snippets from other reviews. As I said in my email to them I could have done a better job in the time it takes me to pop a squat and it still would have been more time then that reviewer put in.
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As much as I think Head Coach is a promising title, it's just a year 1 title with some pretty big flaws.
Teh two-minute warning flaws is like the lefty-bug in MVP.
Stripping out features out of the play creator was a abhorrent decision. I suspect they couldn't get the timing right. But when you are supposed to create your own plays how can a feature like this be hampered this much.
Beleive it or not the onfield play is probably the weakest and least balanced. I wonder if they would have not used the Madden engine and used a 2D engine, if it wouldn't be better. It does feel a bit barren but from a first year title that's what you would expect.
Head Coach could be a very good yearly title but it seems HC might have been just filler (not in quality of the game but how EA views HC) to get more sales for Madden.
[url=http://sensiblecoasters.wordpress.com/][b]Sensible Coasters - A critique of sports games, reviews, gaming sites and news. Questionably Proofread![/b][/url]
I believe the two minute thing is getting patched.
The on-field gameplay does have some issues, as I think they had to do some extremes to demonstrate things like players not knowing plays (eg missing holes a high schooler could hit). The interface is also overwhelming at first.
But overall, the game is intriguing and interesting, which is why I like it so much. I was surprised to find it was not nearly as dumbed-down as I expected, and in some respects it's more deep and detailed than Front Office Football.
Brando70 wrote:I believe the two minute thing is getting patched.
The on-field gameplay does have some issues, as I think they had to do some extremes to demonstrate things like players not knowing plays (eg missing holes a high schooler could hit). The interface is also overwhelming at first.
But overall, the game is intriguing and interesting, which is why I like it so much. I was surprised to find it was not nearly as dumbed-down as I expected, and in some respects it's more deep and detailed than Front Office Football.
Most of the off-field items are extremely well done. I left that out of my other post.
[url=http://sensiblecoasters.wordpress.com/][b]Sensible Coasters - A critique of sports games, reviews, gaming sites and news. Questionably Proofread![/b][/url]
Brando70 wrote:I believe the two minute thing is getting patched.
The on-field gameplay does have some issues, as I think they had to do some extremes to demonstrate things like players not knowing plays (eg missing holes a high schooler could hit). The interface is also overwhelming at first.
I've actually found that ignoring the 3-d play itself and just looking at the result has been rewarding. Some of the plays are so bizarre, e.g. I had Vince Young run a QB sneak on 4th and inches and he backed up, ran 10 yards back, fought back to the line and ultimately fell like 3 yards short.
Maybe not so unrealistic given the events of this week, but still
XBL Gamertag: RobVarak
"Ok I'm an elitist, but I have a healthy respect for people who don't measure up." --Aaron Sorkin
Fixed the Bug that caused players to remain injured when you go into play creator.
Fixed the ability to call plays within the two minute drill.
Fixed the Brett Favre career stats issue.
Fixed the ability for us to change team philosophies in the roster update. If you have the previous roster update, you should see some major changes in ratings.
Fixed the bug that caused low rated players to ask for a very large deal when re-signing.
Fixed the Draft Day trading issue that allowed the user to force every team to trade their pick to another team.
Fixed the ability to change a QB to WR and change him back to QB again.
Fixed the bug where teams would not kick a FG at the end of the half.
Fixed fumbles. We put in a fix that should make these much more realistic.
Fixed CPU fatigue subbing. Running backs will now come out of the game more quickly and be replaced by their backup.
Fixed FG distance. Kickers will be able to kick longer FGs now.
Added the option to turn off CPU Downloaded Plays.
Fixed the bug that was causing RFAs to not show up after year 1.
Fixed the bug that wouldn't take a player's current salary into account when figuring out if you had enough cap room to re-sign him.
Fixed a big issue that we believe was causing 99% of the crashes or more.
I think that's it. I hope I'm not forgetting anything.
