In 0.4.3, a nerf was introduced to cause players to drop the ball at increasing rates when the player was wide open. The nerf was introduced because coverage was so hilariously broken that receivers would be wide open down the field all the time. The nerf still exists.
The reason I'm particularly mad about this nerf still being around is that it punishes game planners -- and there are other things in the game that equally punish game planners. And, here's the thing,
how can you have a simulation game if you are just going to punish the people that really want to get into the simulation part of the game?Some things JDB could do, right now, and should have done six months ago, to improve the playability of 0.4.5 and encourage people to get back into actual game planning:
1) Turn off drops - Just turn them off. They are still broken by the 0.4.3 catch nerf, and they make the game ridiculous. 90+ catch players have 20-30 drops a year when they should have 0-3. (I have a 98 catch receiver on pace for 24 drops in one league.)
2) Turn off play knowledge - This concept is OK, but the execution has been awful since the beginning. There is no way that play knowledge should affect as many aspects of the game -- including modifying physical attributes -- that it does.
Let's just start with those two since they are the ones that affect game planning the most. If I'm a good game planner, I want to pick out the plays that work and I don't want to wait 10-12 game seasons to have enough play knowledge that I'm not nerfed for no reason. And when I game plan to get my best WR open, I want to see him actually catch the ball.
These two things will bring back more long passing and big plays - that will make the arcade players happy - and it'll make game planning enjoyable, which is what the sim players really want.
For what it's worth, neither of these things is fixed in 0.4.6 in beta either. In fact, dropped passes are even more noticeable since defenders knockdown 60% of the passes.
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Here's a perfect example of how the game let's down players all the time. The WR finds the hole in coverage on 3rd down, the QB threads the needle, and the WR just drops the ball:
https://mfn19.myfootballnow.com/watch/7460#1388018You see this play 100 times a week in the NFL. No one drops that pass. No one. (Except may Coradelle Patterson ... but only him.)
Last edited at 9/23/2019 7:42 am