This should get any new players off on a solid start and I am sure some will disagree about some of the information here but please feel free to post ideas to help people out. If you dont like giving new guys infomation then continue beating up on Coach SiM and clueless new coaches. I play for competition, if I wanted to dominate a SIM game I would simulate endless seasons of NCAA football. Everyone please feel free to add links and information about GD. I did not cover specifics like like player types for sets like p*** coverage LB and such but I am sure it is in here somewhere. GL new coaches and if you have new coaches in your world/conference please let them know about the forums and the help that is here. You would be amazed at the number of people tht do not know about forums.
12/17/2006 6:05 AM
USEFULL LINKS-(Borrowed from another post)
http://whatifsports.com/devchat/default.asp (developer chat frontpage. has discussions from the programmers of the various sports. just remember some of the questions become outdated, but even the first GD developer chat has some useful information) Exhibition games are simmed at 2:30 am eastern. Regular season and playoff games are simmed at two different times. The first half is simmed at 2:30 am and the second half is simmed at 2:30 pm. You can make adjustments at halftime. To schedule an exhibition the recruiting period must be occuring. Click on your schedule link and in the upper right hand corner it will say schedule exhibition. It isn't advisable to play a team from a division above yours because your players can get injured in exhibitions. I schedule three (the maximum) each season because the only time players improve is when games happen (see next bullet). You can play one exhibition game after new recruits are added. You must wait until after recruiting is over to schedule it. If you don't have 25 players on your roster you can't play an exhibition game.
12/17/2006 6:05 AM
Phase VI-GAME PLANNING
This, in my opinion is the hardest thing to figure out for coaches and I still dont think I have a good grasp on how these settings affect plays. I will give some basics but alot depends on your players and the sytem you are running along with your opponents settings.
FAQ section on Gameplanning-
General
The general section is used to set your primary offense, 2 minute offense, primary defense, 2 minute defense, and special teams settings. The primary offense settings are used to determine your starting offensive lineup and basic offensive style and tendency. If you do not set your down specific offense (Off. 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th tabs), then the primary offense will always be run. The primary defense settings work the same way -- it determines your starting defensive lineup, basic defensive style and tendency, and will always be used if no other defensive settings (Def. 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th tabs) have been saved. The 2 minute offense section specifies when to enter the "2 minute drill" or "hurry up" offense. You can choose to always follow your normal game plan regardless of the score or specify the number of points your team must be trailing with a given amount of time in the game to enter the 2 minute drill. Once your team enters their 2 minute drill, they will remain in this offense until the score is tied (or you take the lead) or the game ends. For example, if you specify to enter the 2 minute drill when down by 1 with 4 minutes remaining, your team will enter the 2 minute drill if you are losing inside of 4 minutes and will continue to execute this offense until you either tie the score (or take the lead) or the game ends. Your team will NOT punt when running the 2 minute drill. The 2 minute defense section allows you to specify whether or not to adjust your defense if the other team enters their 2 minute drill offense and what the adjustment should be. You can choose to follow your normal game plan or adjust your defensive tendencies and styles to the selected settings when facing a 2 minute drill. The special teams sections allows you to set the maximum distance for a field goal attempt (remember to add 17 yards to the line of scrimmage to account for the placement and the end zone) as well as your return man to return all punts and kickoffs.Offense: 1st Down, 2nd Down, 3rd Down, and 4th Down
The down sections are used to specify your offense in every down and distance situation - i.e. on the 1st tab you set your offense for 1st and long, 1st and medium, and 1st and short situations. The 2nd tab is for second down situations, 3rd tab for third down situations, and 4th tab for fourth down situations. The distances for long and medium can be set for what your team considers each situation to be and the short distance is automatically set to be 1 yard up to the medium setting. Under each down and distance situation, there are 3 "play" options consisting of set, tendency, style, normal, red zone, and 2 min. settings. The set is the offensive formation. The tendency is the run/p*** balance used for play calling:
Setting% P***% Run
Always P***1000
Heavy P***8515
P***6535
Balanced5050
Run3565
Heavy Run1585
Always Run0100

The style determines how aggressive the play calling is. A more aggressive offense will take more chances for the big play, but is more likely to turn the ball over. The normal checkbox indicates whether or not this "play" can be used during normal play calling, i.e. not in the red zone or running the 2 minute drill. The red zone checkbox indicates whether or not this "play" can be used when the team is in the red zone (inside the opponent's 20 yard line). The 2 min. checkbox indicates whether or not this "play" can be used when the team is running the 2 minute drill. You may check any combination of the checkboxes for each of the "plays":
NormalRed Zone2 Min.Availability
XOnly available when not in the red zone or running 2 minute drill
XXAvailable when not running 2 minute drill
XXAvailable when running 2 minute drill or not in the red zone
XAvailable only in the red zone
XXAvailable when running 2 minute drill or in the red zone
XAvailable when running 2 minute drill
XXXAnytime
Anytime

If no "plays" have the checkbox checked for a given situation (e.g. none of them have the normal checkbox checked), then ALL of the listed "plays" are available to be called in that situation. Defense: 1st Down, 2nd Down, 3rd Down, and 4th Down
Just like the offense section, the defense section allows you to specify your defensive set, tendency, and style when facing every offensive formation in long, medium, and short yardage situations broken up by down. The distances for long and medium can be set for what your team considers each situation to be and the short distance is automatically set to be 1 yard up to the medium setting. The set is the defensive formation. The tendency is what the defense is looking for or leaning towards -- p*** or run. For example, if a heavy run tendency is chosen, then the defensive players are pulled up closer to the line of scrimmage to try and stop the run but potentially leaves the defense open to a big p***ing play. The style is the overall style of play for the defense -- the more aggressive this setting is, the more often the defense will blitz, jump p***ing routes for interceptions, etc. An aggressive defense could lead to a lot of turnovers, but it may also give up some big plays to the offense.With that information you can get a good handle on game planning. If you scout an opponent an he "always runs or p***es" in certain situations then by all means go always run or always p*** on your tendency section.Also look at the talent levels of your teams, if your defense is supperior to his offense in the running department then you can go to heavy run or run to help prevent the chance he tries to p*** in that situation. You are depending on your talent to offset the fact you are not looking for run at all times.
Evaluate your personel on both sides to help determine your aggresivness settings. If your QB has a weak arm you may want to run a short p***ing attack and stick to conservative p***ing. Again this takes times and evaluation of talent. Being inovativve and keeping your opponent guessing helps but at times no game planning can offset huge talent gaps.
If you do something really well on offense dont outhink yourself, do what your team does well.
I tend to avoid anything but always p*** or always run in certain situations. If it is 3rd and 1 at the 1 I dont want to see my team throw a p***, make sure settings are so that you do what you want your team to do in that situation. Always p*** and always run are good settings in certain situations.
12/17/2006 6:05 AM
Phase V-DEPTH CHARTS
Depth Charts decide in what order you have players come into the game and who your starters are. The BASIC depth chart determines who gets credits for starts along with the formations you have selected in general game plan. So say you run the ND Box and Trips offense in games but have the Wishbone selected as your offense in the general gameplan section. The game recognizes the players that woul be in the WB formation in your basic depth chart as starters for the year. If you never ran a play from WB all year long you would still recieve credit for 3 RB's starting or the 3 first RB listed in your BASIC depth chart. Make sure you have the guys you want starting listed in your BASIC depth chart first.
Generally the players listed first on your depth chart have a higher impact on the game so you want your best guys listed in order in your depth charts. i.e. you want your best DL first and not 2nd or 3rd.
MAKE SUREYOU SET YOUR ADVANCED DEPTH CHARTS FOR OFFENSIVE AND DEFENSIVE SETS!!! These advanced charts are formation specific and give you the ability to move players around to keep players fresh. Your best RB say in the ND Box could get a rest in trips if you have a good RB who can catch the ball well that could be in the first slot on the depth chart in trips. The same with defensive players, you can sub some of your best DL out in Nickel formations to get them rest. Watch for places you can get your stars some rest and let back-up players play. If a team only runs from the ND Box and you run the 4-4 defense then I would take you 3 worst DB and place them as starters in the depth chart to save them for p***ing situations in your Nickel D. This takes time to learn when and where you can skimp on some talent to provide fresh players in other formations to exploit depth and tired players.
12/17/2006 6:05 AM
Phase IV-EFFECTIVENESS SETTINGS
This setting will effect how long your players will stay in the game and at what point you have sub's come in to replace them.
****With GD 2.0 I am not sure what is best here, start at 60% and work up. Many are still trying to figure out the new stamina ranges.*****
12/17/2006 6:05 AM
Phase II-OFFENSE AND DEFENSIVE FORMATIONS
http://www.whatifsports.com/gd/Help/Gridiron101.aspx
The formations in GD are basically broken down into 3 categories.
Offensive:
Power Running Style-Wishbone, ND Box
P***ing Style-Shotgun, Trips
Balanced Style-I-Form, Pro-Set
Defensive:
Run Defense-4-4, 5-2
P*** Defense-Nickel, Dime
Balanced Defense-4-3, 3-4
You can be sucessfull running almost any of these sets and can tailor a system around your desired style. With that being said most winning coaches will select a set-up in this manner as far as sets go.
1 Running Offensive Formation
1 P***ing Offensive Formation
1 Run Stopping Defense
1 P*** Stopping Defense
The balanced sets for both offense and defense "can" work but normally a 4-3 or 3-4 Defense will not be able to slow down a good ND Box or Wishbone running attack. Work with these as you like but to start I would only use 2 Offensive sets and 2 Defensive sets and then work from there.
12/17/2006 6:05 AM
The "New? Start here" thread has pretty much been reduced to nothing so I thought I would try to gather some information to help new players. With the influx of new players from WiS promo on Fox Bowl Pick-em I thought something like this may be usefull to new players and help keep a few of them around. Please feel free to add anything I forget and by no means is this the "Bible" of GD as many coaches have had better success than I but I think this guide can help you get started.
12/17/2006 6:05 AM
Awesome job so far man. Can't wait to see it when it's done.
12/17/2006 6:55 AM
Thanks 21, could you shorten those links to fix the formatting so it is not so stretched out please?
12/17/2006 8:04 AM
Fixed
12/17/2006 8:35 AM
Wow Duke, great stuff. Very nicely done. The newbies would be wise to read over this info a lot.
12/17/2006 9:46 AM
good stuff guys you are credits to the gd community.
12/17/2006 11:04 PM
Nice job Duke, twenty_one & sqbj99!
12/18/2006 3:12 AM
I do not believe that
12/18/2006 3:48 AM
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