This thread is to facilitate a discussion as to what the priorities should be for when the new UI is fully released and the game engine once again gets its much-needed attention. As much as the passing game is likely to be the clear leader here, historic efforts to balance passing have been like playing whack-a-mole, solving one problem only for a new one to emerge. To that end, I welcome outside-the-box suggestions that may improve the game in a more fundamental fashion.

Offensive Plays
- 2 QB runs
- 1 FB run / QB sneak

Would love to see designed QB runs in play book, at least 2 plays.
Maybe trick play like punt fake or flea flicker is also nice.

Deffo some QB runs. Also, a few run pass option plays, as they seem to be the standard in the NFL these days. Also DL/OL stunts/pulls, jet sweeps, more play-action.

Can't recall any play that has pulling OL, or a QB who is truly dual threat in the game (LaMarr Jackson).

In leagues where "anything goes", just about every roster has 15+ WR's and 15+ CB's with 90+ speed and many of them severely lacking in any actual talent. Work on making the code realistic to the point that a roster of that composition has no chance of winning a game, as it would be in the NFL.

I would suggest double injury rates and severity for out of position as well as double fatigue and fumble rate. I'd imagine that'd be enough of a deterrent while maintaining realism.

Edit: Could tweek to get the rate right, might need 4 times for instance or 1.5 if double makes it broken. Could also add a league admin option to turn it on or off for those who like out of position.

Edit 2: Probably best to tie it to weight. Either progressively or a set limit like outside 10 pounds from the default weight. It'd probably prevent some weight rigging where they keep them at wr to lower weight then switch to RB only on game day to avoid the penalty.

Thresholds applied to generated players for draft. I think before killing speed or out of position players, there needs to be adequate draft talent.

Also a more dynamic player weight system independent to each league and how owners sign/draft/play based on position. I.e. a league running lesser talented players with high speed will eventually require signing those players based on usage, high usage of similar players causes for higher bonus demand when signing.

Player progression after first TC. Sure they can boom or bust at TC, but if a percentage of players continue playing and being coached shouldn’t they become at least modestly better over time? Tie it to volatility so a player can be a late bloomer. It seems odd that a player who busts only gets worse if they are continually playing or signed to a team.


Additional edit: what about a game preview as a UI item. A side by side of the teams starters, team stats, and highlighting high performers, notable injuries and perhaps random one off stats of teams W/L records against each other going back to start of league or recent trends offensively/defensively. Something to click when looking at my upcoming game and build anticipation.

For league admin I think could use enhanced features. Maybe controlling league size, cap growth %, roster size, IR rules. The meta factors of running the league or moderating perceived imbalances. Actual admin would know better, but the ones I know exist are good at it and attentive. Maybe even a switch where the admin can control whether you have to play people at true position or not.

Further edit: where did the plays come from? Even if not able to mess with passing/run game too much could plays be swapped out just to simply test new concepts? Are there plays in the game that we just don’t see at the user level?

I definitely agree there should be minimum stats when players are generated. For example 70 speed minimum for RB, wr, cb, s and 70 strength minimum for ol.

Put me down for a new player generator as well. The one being used now is horribly broken.
Minimums in the skill categories would be a good start.
Who knows, maybe better generated talent might make a better sim?

Updated default weights and player generation to raise the median speed of draft classes. My rule of thumb has been players under 80 speed for skill positions are when they start to become a liability without exceptional skills and I think that is fairly accurate. Using this RoT there have been drafts with less than 64 draftable skill players without considering their actual skills which doesn't feel right.

Have weight matter in blocking/route running/more in general to combat underweight players.

Have speed not tied to weight in any way ie a player losing weight doesn't gain speed. They realistically should lose strength and add acceleration and vice versa.

Have a player's weight not factor in to a player's game speed.

Have run blocking be more organic than hard coded. A lot of running plays are useless because two blockers will run right past a blitzing player instead of picking him up and your back is stopped at the LoS if not behind.

I would prefer passing to be changed to where QBs will target a WR down the field more often but I think that would be a can of worms to deal with right off the bat.

Edit: Forgot to add, updated hot reads so that your QB throws it only to a receiver who is running a route especially uncovered ones. I've had a GL defense against sets where I have four receivers and the hot route was my RB who stayed in to block, not my uncovered, wide open WR

I'm going to go to my usual soapbox and ask for admin tools.

There's almost no change to the game engine in terms of balancing that won't be tested and exploited given enough time. Rather than going through an endless series of buff/nerf cycles from a development standpoint to counter this - a sequence that can never be conclusively won - instead give league admins the ability to affect player performance on the field, and the make-up of new draft classes.

What could be controlled? The effect of play scouting could be amplified or reduced. Increase the overuse penalties. Add overall offense or defensive modifiers to all stats on underused plays. The more, the better. Feel like the HB flare needs toning down? Slap it with a -10% offensive performance modifier. Want to beef up FB dives? Give them a -10% defensive modifier. You could be even more granular, modifying individual player stats on a per-play basis. An insane amount of work for admins to do, but they're already investing a ton of time in keeping leagues entertaining, competitive, and fair.

Want long passing fixed? Easily done with a few modifiers.

To test these modifications, allow admins to run the play repeatedly in a test environment using standardised players. We'd soon reach a situation where every custom league has its own identity, also enabling every era of football to be better replicated. Instead of players sharing optimum weight settings, thereby making the game head in a cookie-cutter direction, instead you'll have admins sharing optimised play modifiers.

When it comes to incoming draft classes, give admins the ability to control the ranges and scarcity of stats by position. You could set it with such granularity that every player in a given position has identical stats (effectively giving the opposite game to "roster only" - "gameplan only").

Further, it would then be beneficial for admins to be able to set default position weights for the league.

There are two keys to success. The first is transparency. Balance changes could be limited to the off-season only, and then any change to the league settings auto-posted to the forum (as they are with trades).

The second is flexibility. The more power there is to change how the game performs, the more each league can take on its own identity, the less power any overall meta has, and the less work needs to be done on the dev side to offset exploits. I, for one would rather have more features and more plays added than all dev time being spent on fixing the latest overpowered play.

The normal counter here is "but what about unscrupulous admins?"
My response is straightforward: watch a bad admin try to persuade people to join their leagues. Anyone rigging it in their own favour will find themselves playing against ghost-teams pretty fast.

Fundamentally, this takes the responsibility to constantly balance the game out of the hands of one developer, instead giving it to the league controllers so they can create a better experience for their team owners.