Game Engine Beta Discussion: Gameplay Updates for 4.7

I've just deployed an update to reduce sacks. In testing it appears to cut them in about half; we'll evaluate a few weeks and see where we are at after that. Please let me know specific feedback about this change, starting in 2078 Week 6.

I'm always happy for less sacks.

What is the effect of those fewer sacks-increase completions/incompletions, is it skewed either way?

I used sacks as a tangible measure of pressure, but this was the original observation, and it seems that may have been lost. It looks to me like the fix was that QB's get rid of the ball quicker. That doesn't solve the original issue brought up at all. Excellent O-lines are entirely overwhelmed by blitzes that they should be capable of picking up and dealing with.

The solution to the pressure problem is in boosting pass blocking and blitz pickup in accordance with the proper attributes for the O-line. My main gripe overall with MFN is that player attributes do not correlate nearly strongly enough with results.

JDB, please study my game against Washington today carefully. You keep gently telling me that I'm delusional for thinking that the sim is trying to force parity and/or is suppressing teams when they are performing too well. It continues to happen over and over again. Even if not intentional, something in the code is causing this. There is no excuse for this having been anything other than a massive blowout, yet I ended up shocked that they didn't end up scoring at the end and taking us to overtime, just because the sim was clearly forcing it that direction essentially the entire second half. This has to be looked into and stopped.

Interesting QB response to pressure while in his own end zone.
https://mfn1.myfootballnow.com/watch/21819#3981751

I have a young QB with low scramble but this decision to take a safety looks odd in the game viewer.
https://mfn1.myfootballnow.com/watch/21819#3981767

first time Ive seen that one! QB going out of the end zone

Just realized I updated my parser and forgot to post the data I have for the whole last season excluding preseason. Somewhat relevant explanations of stats: the play average(avg) does not include sack yards as those are their own stat but the stats are separated because most avg's dip incredibly hard when you include sack yards; completion, incompletion(not listed), interception, and sack percentages add up to 100%; all receiver percentages add up to 100% and are only calculated from completion/incompletions because interceptions change the play text to not say who was targeted on the pass.

Here is the download link to the file: https://limewire.com/d/qmS1b#Ydt3LE2ZU0. I've also just realized the link only seems to work for ~3 days so after that it will not be working. I will make a new post if I find a way later today to host these files better. It is an Excel file so you need to have a way to open Excel files to view it

would be great if anyone could post any significant insights from the data, and whether or not the results and averages are a good simulation of NFL stats.

Here are the sacks per game (both teams combined) for 2078 by week:

1 6.0000
2 8.1250
3 6.8750
4 7.3125
5 4.1538 - New code in place
6 3.4167
7 4.0833
8 3.9167
9 4.0769

Here are the passing stats by week:

wk play_type. att. comp. pct. avg_dist. int
1 Short Pass 505 377 0.7465 3.5782 10
2 Short Pass 460 333 0.7239 3.4348 6
3 Short Pass 489 374 0.7648 3.2434 9
4 Short Pass 488 353 0.7234 3.9447 4
5 Short Pass 412 308 0.7476 3.6505 8 - New code in place
6 Short Pass 390 288 0.7385 3.6103 7
7 Short Pass 412 300 0.7282 3.6189 8
8 Short Pass 432 327 0.7569 3.7963 4
9 Short Pass 424 308 0.7264 3.5684 7
1 Medium Pass 356 194 0.5449 7.4831 14
2 Medium Pass 384 215 0.5599 7.2734 10
3 Medium Pass 327 187 0.5719 7.1743 5
4 Medium Pass 332 200 0.6024 6.9880 9
5 Medium Pass 291 162 0.5567 6.6564 10 - New code in place
6 Medium Pass 293 162 0.5529 6.7645 22
7 Medium Pass 332 197 0.5934 7.0211 10
8 Medium Pass 344 192 0.5581 6.8052 14
9 Medium Pass 347 186 0.5360 6.5937 16
1 Long Pass 77 28 0.3636 12.1948 7
2 Long Pass 76 30 0.3947 12.4474 7
3 Long Pass 71 38 0.5352 11.1972 3
4 Long Pass 61 32 0.5246 12.2951 3
5 Long Pass 62 26 0.4194 9.1452 4 - new code in place
6 Long Pass 54 25 0.4630 13.1852 3
7 Long Pass 59 25 0.4237 11.0339 2
8 Long Pass 74 33 0.4459 10.2838 8
9 Long Pass 46 22 0.4783 11.5652 2

In the short sample set the actual stats don't seem to be impacted much, but the sack rate has gotten within our goals. Thoughts?