Ok, based on the feedback I am going to go ahead and lock the goals for 0.4.1 to what we currently have. The biggest thing I want to make sure of is that there isn't a step -backwards- like we had with version 0.4, so please let me know if there is anything you feel is a step backwards. We'll continue to refine the existing issues, but this way some of the updates that fix issues in 0.4 can finally get pushed to the other leagues.

A couple of new changes for week 9:
* I updated the LB lateral play. Now, they are waiting for a clean attack angle to pursue the RB instead of waiting for him to get to the LOS.
* Tweaked the tackle algorithim some more so that players with low tackle ability aren't making as many tackles.
* Updated the hot read so that it should be more effective, and also including it in the play-by-play.
* Increased the impact of weight differential in blocking a bit more.

I'm going to let this play out for the rest of the season before making the official release, if things feel stable at the end of the season I'll plan to release it to the general release at that point. If you feel that there is still something in what has been fixed that screams 'don't release this yet!' please reply to this thread. If you come across something that's not a deal-breaker, go ahead and make a fresh thread or reply to the thread that already is talking about that issue and it can be something that gets looked at for 0.4.2.

Anything is better than 0.4, so you can release this any time as far as I'm concerned.

That said, I'm pretty disappointed that not much was done to prevent owners who use the "power blitz all game" strategy from being successful with it.

My team's performance using this strategy the rest of this season in MFN-1 is going to say a lot. Hopefully I'll start losing some games soon. 7-0 so far is NOT a good sign for any improvements in this area at all.

I perfectly agree with this.

The other major problem with 0.4.1 that I see is that nothing has been done to address speed as the most important aspect of all positions, but I understand that speed will have to be a big re-write since half of it will be a functional change and half will be a purely visual change on the card. Regardless, I'm sure I'm not the only one that gets tired of seeing 100 SP RBs, WRs, DEs, and DBs (**** even QBs) with no other attributes greatly outperform slower players that have much better secondary skills.

On the other hand, it makes talent evaluation easy. I just put SP at 100 and no other skill higher than 20 and game plan like I'm playing Madden. (I feel ridiculous and my interest in the game has sunk to almost zero, but I still win and put up huge yards.)

I agree, but I don't feel like the solutions I've attempted to this point have solved it without causing other problems.



This is a good point (from https://mfn1.myfootballnow.com/community/thread/3/2860) - I'm going to put in some additional impact of the run/pass key on passing plays in the next game sim that's compatible with the most recent changes that have been made.

I removed the 6 worst avg/play selections from my defensive playbook. I now have 24 blitz plays instead of 30.

My defense dominated in my first game without those 6 plays.
2.6 ypc rushing allowed
1 rushing first down allowed
12 sacks

Still no downside at all for choosing to use this type of playcalling.

I don't know what you're trying to prove here, WarEagle. There haven't been any changes implemented for 0.4.1 that indicate they'd stop over-blitzing from being effective. JDB has listed all the changes. The only real change as far as that's concerned is that there's now a penalty for overuse of specific plays, not play archetypes.

Just trying to use my team as a test for this vital issue.

At one point this was mentioned as one of the items that was going to be addressed in the next version, so I'm posting updates to indicate it hasn't been yet.

I guess I should have posted in the other thread instead of this one.

Is that what your issue with my comment is, or should I remain silent on it altogether?

I want you to keep it up - I'm studying your game film also and am having some new ideas I'm going to try to implement in the next game. Right now they'll only be scheduled into 0.4.1 if they seem to successfully improve the issue without introducing new ones.

Here's what I'm changing:

* Play experience: I noticed in your game against SF that the first half the game stayed relatively close, but started to get out of hand in the second half. Someone mentioned somewhere that the in-game play experience boost seems to benefit the team calling the play more than the opponent. So, I'm trying a new change - the team calling the play will not have the same improvement as the team facing it, and the more you call the same play the more your opponent's experience for it will increase. This may have an adverse effect too quickly if you call the same play frequently but still realistically, so let me know what you think. It's a linear increase now, but I might change it to exponential where it takes 5-6 times of seeing it before it grows faster than normal, but at that point starts to grow even faster.

* I'm also tweaking the hot read a bit more. In the last sim I added verbiage indicating that a hot read was called into the play-by-play, and noticed when looking through that the hot read was frequently unsuccessful. I'm modifying that play so that the catch is more likely to be made, and the immediate tackle probability is reduced.

Are all the changes in this week's games? Your OP said Week 9 so I hadn't studied the film closely.

* I updated the LB lateral play. Now, they are waiting for a clean attack angle to pursue the RB instead of waiting for him to get to the LOS.
* Tweaked the tackle algorithim some more so that players with low tackle ability aren't making as many tackles.
.

I had a tough time stopping the run and preventing yards after the catch. Something like this happened 4 or 5 times. 60 speed player 80 ball carry 250 pounds. I called that play 5 times?

https://mfn1.myfootballnow.com/gamecenter/view/6173#1110975