Custom Play Policy Discussion

[Charlie-49ers]

Gentlemen, and I use that term loosely, I have engaged in an interesting discussion over the past few days regarding Custom plays! After discussions many seasons ago, we elected to accept Custom plays weekly for the use of that team only for the upcoming week, then we released them to the League after the game. This logic followed the NFL where every team scouts the game films to determine if they want to copy it for their use or determine how to defend against it.

A possible change to this would be to consider Custom plays as proprietary to that team for the season! As such, you would not get the newest Custom plays every week but rather receive them in an updated play pool file at the end of the season. You would however see the results of these plays in the logs, and if you wanted to see them in action you would have to watch game films, not unlike the NFL.

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to give this some thought and post your opinions in this thread below. I am somewhere in the middle right now and would not want to decide without some input, since I can see both sides of this coin. Implementation is another issue if we go down this road! We could do it for the upcoming week or we could do it next season, or any other timeline.

If we implement this, I will become much more critical of clones and dupes and will summarily disapprove of them with no discussion. BTW, the more teams that respond, the easier the decision. How say you?

[Jerry-Redskins]

Potential issues:

1. You have to get more plays for review and not disapprove them. If someone sorts out something new, we will all make a new play clone of it and likely just make more plays anyway. You cannot disapprove a clone. There cannot be a "patent" on a combination of patterns and/or blocking schemes if the plays are restricted. Can't be first come first serve with a new idea. Also we all will need a way to attack a new defense if it works. Likely similar plays to attack it. We will all have to have the right to have a 100% personal block of plays even if they are all about the same.

2. This may create game folder size issues with increased numbers of plays.

3. The NFL are 100% work time on film. We are a game on the side. We cannot be NFL like with just film due to real world time restraints. So it is not NFL like in the PNFL. The current rule is closer as the NFL copies any thing new that works after it hits the streets. This may mean the people with the most real life time who already have an advantage will see that advantage increased.

This is a huge change from what has been the rules and principle of the league and turns it more to the former defunct leagues in my opinion.

[Rich-League Officer]

I am pro on this idea.

I confess, I read Jerry's #1 several times and I still do not understand what he means.
There will not be this great influx of new plays. It's business as usual. Nobody is going to create something magical and spur clones
That could happen right now. In fact, it would be much more difficult to create a clone since you don't have the play or logic.
You can approximate a play which makes it unique not a clone.

There will be no folder issues because even in the event 15 teams went crazy sending plays, there are hundreds and hundreds we could delete that nobody uses.

I don't think this changes anything. Back in the early days I would agree this would hurt coaches who did not use the editor. But, this is a very mature league with thousands of plays. There is almost nothing new to be created. No coach is disadvantaged by not being able to use the customs being dispensed each week.

The truth is, this league has always benefitted coaches who had more time to spend playing. Lets be honest, you fall into 3 categories. #1 you are a simmer #2 you are a custom play coach #3 you do very little and copy/follow what others are doing. Nobody has the time to sim thousands and also create 8 new plays weekly. Not enough hours in a day to do it all.

This proposal changes nothing and the balance of power does not shift. It's a reasonable reward to coaches who spend their time in the editor.
If I were coaching, I would not be worried in the least that my opponent this week will submit plays I have never seen.

Plus, Charlie could also change the # of plays accepted weekly. As a compromise, instead of 4/4, he could say 3/3
As a former simmer, this is not a big deal and I have next to zero concerns.
I'd like to hear from other coaches who disagree.

[Jerry-Redskins]

Both Rich and Charlie say no dupes and extra clone scrutiny. If we restrict the play files, every team has to have the right to create any play they want in their restricted pile of plays. Not a dupe from the open plays, but there can not be a no dupe rule for new plays in respect to the restricted plays. I have to have the right to build what I want to use how I need. Teams that can or decide to spend the additional play design have to have the ability to do what we want to defend and attack other teams. Team A creates a new play that is successful. I have to have the ability to attack other teams in the same manner as this new play. Me creating a near clone should be irrelevant with respect to restricted plays. This would mean we are shifting closer to a closed play file.

I believe it widens the gap further for those with the most time to play the game as well.

[Rich-League Officer]

I confess to being dense
I still don't get it.

If a team creates a successful play, and you want to defend it, why do you need the right and need to create a dupe to defend it?
The antidote is already in the pool

I don't think Charlie said and I certainly am not saying Dean has the right to create whatever he wants in his temporarily restricted plays.
He must create a play that is not a clone of what we already have. Because that play will one day be in the pile with the thousands of others next season. No coach gets to have exclusive rights forever.

The reason why this is such a non issue is, after 5 decades of playing, there is nothing new to be created or virtually nothing new. Do any coaches today go through the customs each week and think, omg, how will I stop this?
Nope, they unzip the plays, toss them in and do what they always do. Never giving one thought to the new plays.

I defy anyone to point out the last time someone created a custom play on offense that shook the league with fear and scrambled for defenses to stop it.
Okay, We had that RZD issue for 5 minutes until teams actually found the defenses and now nobody cares about razzle dazzle anymore. If those plays were "exclusive" they still would have been shut down. The big remedy was having a safety sit 30 yards downfield waiting for the WR to show up if he wasn't already bumped at the line to ruin the timing. You did not need the actual play to create the solution. Safety's deep, bump at the line, play eradicated

[Rich-League Officer]

For the record
I am not married to this idea or a big proponent of it.
I will let the custom play coaches speak for themselves.

As a coach who learned to hate the editor, I would not worry about it or feel as though I am being disadvantaged one bit.
And, as I said, Charlie could put caps on this to mitigate any perceived advantages.

[Donovon-Steelers]

I proposed this very same idea soon after I arrived in the league to (1) vary the play pool, (2) get more coaches involved in creating, (3) give each team a more distinct identity/flavor, (4) reward those creating innovative plays, and (5) reward coaches who are watching their upcoming opponent's game(s) and trying to devise plays to counter-act them.

The only argument I recall was that "people have lives" and it would take too much time. For me personally, I think it would be a lot more fun than seeing the same plays over and over again.

I'm all in favor of it; even if it wasn't for the entire season, but just for 4-5 games.

[Dean-Atlanta]

Potential issues:

1. You have to get more plays for review and not disapprove them. If someone sorts out something new, we will all make a new play clone of it and likely just make more plays anyway. You cannot disapprove a clone. There cannot be a "patent" on a combination of patterns and/or blocking schemes if the plays are restricted. Can't be first come first serve with a new idea. Also we all will need a way to attack a new defense if it works. Likely similar plays to attack it. We will all have to have the right to have a 100% personal block of plays even if they are all about the same.

As someone in a debate recently said... I don't know what he just said, I don't think he knows what he said.

2. This may create game folder size issues with increased numbers of plays.

As Rich pointed out, we have plenty of space in the folders and more can be made by purging plays we do not use anymore if needed.

3. The NFL are 100% work time on film. We are a game on the side. We cannot be NFL like with just film due to real world time restraints. So it is not NFL like in the PNFL. The current rule is closer as the NFL copies any thing new that works after it hits the streets. This may mean the people with the most real life time who already have an advantage will see that advantage increased.

This is a huge change from what has been the rules and principle of the league and turns it more to the former defunct leagues in my opinion.

This is NOT a huge change and it is NOT going back to the olds leagues, not even close. In the old leagues there was NO play pool, and copyingplays was strictly forbidden. This is in no way close to going back to that. There ar eplenty of plays to build game plans for those who do not submit news plays. And nothing stops them from giving play design a shot and submitting new stuff.

[Dean-Atlanta]

Both Rich and Charlie say no dupes and extra clone scrutiny. If we restrict the play files, every team has to have the right to create any play they want in their restricted pile of plays. Not a dupe from the open plays, but there can not be a no dupe rule for new plays in respect to the restricted plays. I have to have the right to build what I want to use how I need. Teams that can or decide to spend the additional play design have to have the ability to do what we want to defend and attack other teams. Team A creates a new play that is successful. I have to have the ability to attack other teams in the same manner as this new play. Me creating a near clone should be irrelevant with respect to restricted plays. This would mean we are shifting closer to a closed play file.

I believe it widens the gap further for those with the most time to play the game as well.

The gap between those who spend more or less time coaching in this game is not affected by this issue we're discussingnow.As Rioch pointed out, those who sim more using current plays may put less effort into new plays. But I do think those who prefer working more with new plays may spend less time simming.

Either way, HOW one spends his available FBPro98 time coaching in the PNFL/PCFL is a separate issue from how much time one spends doing this. What is being proposed here affords not advantage to those who can spend more time doing football pro. It may only affect HOW they choose to spend that time.

[Dean-Atlanta]

I proposed this very same idea soon after I arrived in the league to (1) vary the play pool, (2) get more coaches involved in creating, (3) give each team a more distinct identity/flavor, (4) reward those creating innovative plays, and (5) reward coaches who are watching their upcoming opponent's game(s) and trying to devise plays to counter-act them.

The only argument I recall was that "people have lives" and it would take too much time. For me personally, I think it would be a lot more fun than seeing the same plays over and over again.

I'm all in favor of it; even if it wasn't for the entire season, but just for 4-5 games.

I fully support this idea, and preferably for the rest of the current season those plays by the team that created them. The only other issue is, do we started doing this during this season or start it in the upcoming off-season for the 2046 season.

Implementation is simple. Charlie could create a team customs folder for the 18 teams and all new plays are held there, and loaded from there into our gameplans. At the end of the season, all those plays are moved to the general play pool and those team folders are emptied out.