#108 | SimFBA | Scheme Changes: Part 2 (New Attributes)

[Rocketcan]

Hello Coaches!

Welcome to another Dev Diary for NewSim on SimFBA! We are continuing our series on the upcoming changes to the simulation engine regarding schemes. This dev diary will be a bit shorter and focus on the changes to attributes that players have. To summarize: there will be two new attributes for players this season.

Shotgun Rating

Now, some of the eagle-eyed among you many have spotted some formations in Part 1 of the Scheme Change Dev Diary with the word "Gun" or "Pistol" in the name. This denotes that the formation is considered a shotgun formation. This is not just a way to get the same personnel on the field more often, but also a way to further tailor your offense to your liking and the players at your disposal.

The rating will have the following possible values:

• Balanced
• Shotgun Passer
• Drop Back Passer

Quarterbacks with the Balanced rating will not have any bonus or malus in any formation. The majority (about 60%) of players will have this rating, meaning there is a good chance you will find a QB that is fairly versatile in this aspect.

But not everyone is versatile. Shotgun Passer QBs will prefer shotgun formations and receive a bonus while in them. The downside being that in formations that put them under center they will suffer a malus. While not a majority of players, they represent a good chunk of QBs (about 25%) as some teams have moved to purely shotgun formations.

The flipside of the modern, shotgun QB is the Drop Back Passer. A relic of the past, the Drop Back Passer prefers to take the snap directly from the Center's hands. They will receive bonuses in formations where he is under center, while suffering maluses when in shotgun formations. This type will be uncommon, but not unheard of (about 15% of players).

Every single player in the sim will have this attribute, but obviously this is important for QBs only. We haven't entirely put in stone whether or not you can see everyone's rating, but I am leaning towards just seeing it on QB cards. That way we don't clutter up other positions' cards further.

Now that this attribute is known, I wanted to also announce another small scheme change that didn't make it into Part 1 because I wanted to see if people caught on to the formations with "Gun" or "Pistol". All shotgun formations will receive a (slight) bonus to pass protection, and under center formations will receive a (slight) bonus to run blocking. So even though your QB might be balanced, there are still (albeit small) reasons to choose shotgun or under center formations over one another.

Clutch Rating

Potentially my favorite addition to the engine will be the Clutch Rating. This will be an invisible attribute, like progression, but there will be ways you can see if a player is clutch or not and I will explain those later.

Clutch will be referenced during the following high-leverage situations:

• 3rd Down
• 4th Down
• Two Minute Drill
• Four Minute Drill
• Playoff/Bowl Games

This list might change in the future, but for now these are the situations that will have effects applied. For example, perhaps primetime games, or games against "superior" opponents could be added in the future, but not now.

There are 4 possible ratings for a player. Since it is a hidden attribute, they technically won't have a name (they will just be a humble number from 0-3) but I will label them with names here for clarity.

• None: This player does not step up in big moments more than usual, but they also do not shrink from the spotlight. No bonuses or maluses. This will be the most common rating by far (~70%).
• Clutch: This player knows that big moments call for big plays, and they step up to make big plays. This player will receive a bonus in high-leverage situations. Uncommon, but not rare (~15%).
• Choker: This player can't get out of their own head and the pressure gets to them consistently. This player will receive a malus in high-leverage situations. Uncommon, but not rare (~15%).
• David Tyree's Illegitimate Son: This player seemingly becomes super human when all eyes are on him. They thrive and author their best performances in the biggest moments. This player will receive a significant bonus in high-leverage situations Rare (~1%).

As stated before, this attribute is a hidden one, but you can get an idea about a player if you do some scouting on your own. Finding players that consistently show up in high-leverage situations is a good indication that they have a good clutch rating. Choking with the game on the line in the two-minute drill? Likely a bad rating. This will be easier to see with players like QBs, RBs, and receivers, but it is definitely possible to determine this for defensive players and specialists as well.

That is it for this dev diary. The next dev diary in this series will continue the scheme updates, specifically regarding some new offensive play options that will be available.

Behave yourselves...

Until next time,

Rocketcan

[alexfall862]

Someone is going to spreadsheet this out and sign an entire team of below average but clutch players. @tsweezy

Very interesting foils!

[Rocketcan]

Just now, alexfall862 said:

Someone is going to spreadsheet this out and sign an entire team of below average but clutch players. @tsweezy

I am all for it at Tennessee.

It is forbidden in Washington D.C.

[alexfall862]

Does the malus or boost for either of these (passing and clutch) apply as a global modifier or impact specific attributes?

[tsweezy]

OR will I see everyone else paying a premium for clutch players and moneyball into getting chokers for dirt cheap? 

[Rocketcan]

14 minutes ago, alexfall862 said:

Does the malus or boost for either of these (passing and clutch) apply as a global modifier or impact specific attributes?

These affect all attributes, but even a player having the best clutch rating doesn't mean that if they are a DT they can play QB.

[subsequent]

35 minutes ago, Rocketcan said:

Clutch will be referenced during the following high-leverage situations:

• 3rd Down
• 4th Down
• Two Minute Drill
• Four Minute Drill
• Playoff/Bowl Games

Should add conference championship games... or maybe matchups against ranked teams? 👀

[subsequent]

37 minutes ago, Rocketcan said:

Behave yourselves...

 

I don't think I will.

[Rocketcan]

6 hours ago, subsequent said:

Should add conference championship games... or maybe matchups against ranked teams? 👀

Some of this will be a matter of logistics that we might not be able to hash out right away.

6 hours ago, subsequent said:

I don't think I will.

+1

[Sarge]

Please God let us hope David Tyree smashed Dekoda Link's mom, amen.

[alexfall862]

2 hours ago, Sarge said:

Please God let us hope David Tyree smashed Dekoda Link's mom, amen.

Almost certain that Dekoda is actually David Tyree's dad through some back to the future hijinks.

[Rome]

11 hours ago, subsequent said:

Should add conference championship games... or maybe matchups against ranked teams? 👀

 

4 hours ago, Rocketcan said:

Some of this will be a matter of logistics that we might not be able to hash out right away.

I'm not gonna pretend to know how the attribute works, but I do wanna throw my ideas out for other "big time" games, both college and pro.

College

Rivalry Games - Either Designated or with some sort of "recent history" metric, maybe with a historic adjustment so that you have default rivalries, but they evolve over time. Like OSU-Penn State blossoming into what I always thought was a rivalry.

Ranked vs Ranked - Both in-conference non-rivalry ranked games and non-con ranked games tend to have pretty raucous atmospheres. To me, that's what really defines a "playoff" atmosphere: how much the crowd cares about each individual play. USC at Ohio State, Texas at Alabama, Oregon vs whoever wanted those hands, always made the game feel very important. I think the players buy into it as well.

College GameDay Location - You got picked! You're in the spotlight! Now live up to the hype!

Pro

Divisional Games - Steelers vs Ravens, Seahawks vs Niners, New England vs everyone else. The 6 games against your divisional opponents are your rivalry games in the NFL, so the extra fight and strategy comes out these weeks. No matter how good the Bengals are lately, the Browns still beat them, and that's because Baker Mayfield was Clutch AF.

Week 17, 18 Games - IFF both teams are in the hunt of the playoffs and/or seeding (not eliminated or locked into the 1/4/5), both teams are fighting for their lives. These are the pseudo playoff, playoff-in games. Given these are also rivalry games, it gets extra spicy. Negated if one team rests starters.

Edited November 1, 2023 by Rome

[Rocketcan]

38 minutes ago, Rome said:

 

I'm not gonna pretend to know how the attribute works, but I do wanna throw my ideas out for other "big time" games, both college and pro.

College

Rivalry Games - Either Designated or with some sort of "recent history" metric, maybe with a historic adjustment so that you have default rivalries, but they evolve over time. Like OSU-Penn State blossoming into what I always thought was a rivalry.

Ranked vs Ranked - Both in-conference non-rivalry ranked games and non-con ranked games tend to have pretty raucous atmospheres. To me, that's what really defines a "playoff" atmosphere: how much the crowd cares about each individual play. USC at Ohio State, Texas at Alabama, Oregon vs whoever wanted those hands, always made the game feel very important. I think the players buy into it as well.

College GameDay Location - You got picked! You're in the spotlight! Now live up to the hype!

Pro

Divisional Games - Steelers vs Ravens, Seahawks vs Niners, New England vs everyone else. The 6 games against your divisional opponents are your rivalry games in the NFL, so the extra fight and strategy comes out these weeks. No matter how good the Bengals are lately, the Browns still beat them, and that's because Baker Mayfield was Clutch AF.

Week 17, 18 Games - IFF both teams are in the hunt of the playoffs and/or seeding (not eliminated or locked into the 1/4/5), both teams are fighting for their lives. These are the pseudo playoff, playoff-in games. Given these are also rivalry games, it gets extra spicy. Negated if one team rests starters.

I like all these ideas. Some are more feasible than others, like the week 17/18 games and whether or not starters are rested is a bit gray. But the rivalry games could be determined fairly easily even now. I expect the easier ones could be added no problem, but the harder ones reserved for later upgrades. For example: things like ranked vs. ranked is definitely possible, but requires extra infrastructure on the interface that we do not have just yet.