Warrior General Games

Updated with stuff I learned in S20...

I have used a version of this same AI on all of my teams and for a number of seasons now, only tweaking it as needed. Though the new DPC will change the way in which we create plays, the AI will likely stay the same. I figured it was time to share it as I see a version of it on a number of teams, including some teams above the PW levels. While this is only my Silver level AI, it can easily be tweaked to a Gold level AI if you understand defenses well and know where to make additions. Consider this a starting template where you customize it as needed.

GENERAL SETTINGS ONLY

Goal Line:
*doesn’t matter down or distance, but if the other team lines up in a Goal Line offensive formation, call your Goal Line defensive play.

2WR 3rd/4th & Very Long:
*call your 2WR prevent defense here. This is generic enough of a play where the adjustments for the specific 2WR formations are not needed.

2WR Strong(SI) Redzone:
*since most teams just pound it up the middle once they get into the redzone, call your Strong Side anti-run play that plugs up the middle, but one that doesn’t totally ignore the outside.

2WR Strong(SI) Rushing QB: (requires RUSHER tagged QB)
*since most RQB’s can’t pass, call your Strong Side anti-run play that contains the outside runs well.

2WR Strong(SI) 3rd/4th & Long:
*since this is likely a pass or sometimes an outside run, call your Strong Side anti-pass play here, but make sure it will contain the outsides runs as well.

2WR Strong(SI) 3rd/4th & Short:
* since most teams just pound it up the middle at this time, call your Strong Side anti-run play that plugs up the middle, but one that doesn’t totally ignore the outside.

2WR Strong(SI) Core:
*this is called when all other inputs are skipped, so this is your general (CORE) play call area, so pick 1-3 Strong Side plays that do a good job of covering everything.

2WR Weak(WI) Redzone:
*since most teams just pound it up the middle once they get into the redzone, call your Weak Side anti-run play that plugs up the middle, but one that doesn’t totally ignore the outside.

2WR Weak(WI) Rushing QB: (requires RUSHER tagged QB)
*since most RQB’s can’t pass, call your Weak Side anti-run play that contains the outside runs well.

2WR Weak(WI) 3rd/4th & Long:
*since this is likely a pass or sometimes an outside run, call your Weak Side anti-pass play here, but make sure it will contain the outsides runs as well.

2WR Weak(WI) 3rd/4th & Short:
* since most teams just pound it up the middle at this time, call your Weak Side anti-run play that plugs up the middle, but one that doesn’t totally ignore the outside.

2WR Weak(WI) Core:
*this is called when all other inputs are skipped, so this is your general (CORE) play call area, so pick 1-3 Weak Side plays that do a good job of covering everything.

2WR Center(IF/PS) Redzone:
*since most teams just pound it up the middle once they get into the redzone, call your Center anti-run play that plugs up the middle, but one that doesn’t totally ignore the outside.

2WR Center(IF/PS) Rushing QB: (requires RUSHER tagged QB)
*since most RQB’s can’t pass, call your Center anti-run play that contains the outside runs well.

2WR Center(IF/PS) 3rd/4th & Long:
*since this is likely a pass or sometimes an outside run, call your Center anti-pass play here, but make sure it will contain the outsides runs as well.

2WR Center(IF/PS) 3rd/4th & Short:
* since most teams just pound it up the middle at this time, call your Center anti-run play that plugs up the middle, but one that doesn’t totally ignore the outside.

2WR Center(IF/PS) Core:
*this is called when all other inputs are skipped, so this is your general (CORE) play call area, so pick 1-3 Center plays that do a good job of covering everything.

3WR 3rd/4h & Very Long:
*call your 3WR prevent defense here. This is generic enough of a play where the adjustments for the specific 3WR formations are not needed.

Singleback(SB) Redzone:
*since most teams just pound it up the middle once they get into the redzone, call your Strong Side anti-run play that plugs up the middle, but one that doesn’t totally ignore the outside.

SB Rushing QB: (requires RUSHER tagged QB)
*since most RQB’s can’t pass, call your 3WR anti-run play that contains the outside runs well.

SB 3rd/4th & Long:
*since this is likely a pass or sometimes an outside run, call your 3WR anti-pass play here, but make sure it will contain the outsides runs as well.

SB 3rd/4th & Short:
* since most teams just pound it up the middle at this time, call your 3WR anti-run play that plugs up the middle, but make sure to cover the outside for both runs and passes.

SB Core:
*this is called when all other inputs are skipped, so this is your general (CORE) play call area, so pick 1-3 plays that do a good job of covering everything.

3WR-Shotgun(3SG) Rushing QB: (requires RUSHER tagged QB)
*since most RQB’s can’t pass, call your 3WR anti-run play that contains the outside runs well.

3SG Core:
*since most people pass out of the 3WR-SG, call your 3WR anti-pass play here. The few rushing plays that are called here should be contained well enough.

5WR-Shotgun(5SG) 3rd/4th & Very Long:
*call your 5WR prevent defense here.

5SG Rushing QB: (requires RUSHER tagged QB)
*since most RQB’s can’t pass, call your 5WR Anti-Rin play with the sole purpose of stopping a RQB.

5SG Core:
*since this will only be a pass, call your Anti-Pass 5WR play(s) here.


As for custom plays, everyone has their own preference and I am not sharing mine, but for this AI to work, you need at least the following plays...

Goal Line
2WR Prevent
2WR Strong Anti-Pass
2WR Strong Core
2WR Strong Anti-Run
2WR Weak Anti-Pass
2WR Weak Core
2WR Weak Anti-Run
2WR Center Anti-Pass
2WR Center Core
2WR Center Anti-Run
3WR Prevent
3WR Anti-Pass
3WR Core
3WR Anti-Run
5WR Prevent
5WR Anti-Pass
5WR Anti-Run

Your Prevent plays should stop deep passes and hold any runs to less than 10 yards.
Your Anti-Pass plays should stop medium to long passes and limit short passes and any rushes from gaining too much yardage.
Your Core plays are your jack of all trades plays, good at stopping the run and pass, but not great at either.
Your Anti-Run plays are used to stop any and all rushing plays by the HB and FB, and RQB.

HEY!!! You stole my D setup! I mean uhhhh....whoops lol

wow.. great stuff!!

If anyone has any questions, just reply here or send me a PM.

Amazes me how nobody has paid any attention to this

Awesome job Gerr

<~~~Paying attention. Still looks like chinese to me

Tryin to get somethin installed on the lolcopper team I bought to finally learn this crap. My biggest problem is some kinda brain lock I get when I'm looking at the play creator and can't visualize what my dots are doin with all this cover weak/strong w or w/out move etc etc. This DPC is spose to be easier than the other ?!?

One That won the championship COUGH COUGH COPPER
Defense
Basic
25% Random passing Plays
75% Running plays

Rushing QB
Blitzing plays and spying the QB

Goal Line/Short Yardage
BLITZ/ some pass defenses
Used like 10-15 plays

Remember that this is one big "If-Then" script and does go in order from top to bottom. The order I have things is is for a specific reason.

For example, the Core inputs are at the bottom of their formation because they are the catch-all for their formation. Lets look at the Strong-I calls...

If SI & Redzone, then call the Strong Redzone play.
If SI & RQB, then call the Strong RQB play.
If SI & 3rd or 4th and long, call the 2WR Pass play.
If SI & 3rd or 4th and short, call the Strong Anti-Run play.
If SI & Power HB, then call the Strong Anti-Ru play.
If SI, then call the Strong Core play.

Notice that for all inputs except for the last one, there is SI AND something, where the Core is just SI. The script just goes from top to bottom and once if finds a match, it calls the play under that match.

The only thing out of order is the 3rd/4th & Very Long calls. I call these early because I want them called BEFORE the RQB inputs. Otherwise, the only play called before the RQB in each set of inputs is the Redzone, which would contain the RQB also.

Originally posted by CocoJedi
One That won the championship COUGH COUGH COPPER
Defense
Basic
25% Random passing Plays
75% Running plays

Rushing QB
Blitzing plays and spying the QB

Goal Line/Short Yardage
BLITZ/ some pass defenses
Used like 10-15 plays

That might work in Copper where half the teams are CPU and most of the other half are new to GLB and have no clue what they are doing, but that wont work well in Silver unless your custom plays are very good. My AI will give you a GOOD Silver level defense and would probably work decently in Gold if you had some good Custom Plays.

Ya I could simplify it for Copper or lower level Silver. To do that, I would use 2WR inputs rather than formation specific, and remove the very long, redzone, and powerback inputs. Thus all you have to tag is for a rushing QB and this defense would do very well in Copper and decently in Silver, pending your Custom Plays are decent.

Originally posted by zmj44
Amazes me how nobody has paid any attention to this

Awesome job Gerr

That's because he posted something everyone had pretty much already been doing since about S5. Slightly different, but pretty much the same thing. It's like if you started a thread stating that playing on hard makes your player better than if he was on relaxed. Posting an AI skeleton really doesn't mean what you think it means.

While Dub-J could have said it nicer..., what he is saying is for the most part, true. Any good DC worth their salt has probably come up with a similar system since it's a fairly logical progression. While there are a lot of options, the core ones are fairly similar.

However, I have see a lot of teams with an overly simple DAI and just call a lot of core plays with few to no situational calls. That doesn't make a good DAI, even if it works at times. So I posted my core system which is probably very similar to many of the better DC's AI's.

Originally posted by Dub J
That's because he posted something everyone had pretty much already been doing since about S5. Slightly different, but pretty much the same thing. It's like if you started a thread stating that playing on hard makes your player better than if he was on relaxed. Posting an AI skeleton really doesn't mean what you think it means.

I agree, if your throwing in random plays at random times then it won't always work though...

Most of the clueless coppers arent doing this...

Hey, which cover shell is best for long (10+) yardage passes on 3/4 down. Trying to eventually build an ai later. Right now for DPC, only have some outside/inside runs. QB Tags and C0/1/2/3/4. Possibly a goal line play?

That's why I have 2 pass plays, ones for 3rd/4th and Long, which I use 8-15, and Very Long is 15+. For the 2WR sets, I use the 4DL Nickel for the Long and 3DL Dime for the Very Long. I am not worried about a 5-10 yard rushing gain when in the Very Long, so 3DL work fine, but I don't want to give up that in the Long play, so I put 4DL in and make sure it will stop the outside runs as well. For the 3WR sets, I use the 3DL Nickel for the Long and Quarter for the Very Long.

You ALWAYS want a custom Goal Line play as the CPU one is badly exposed to the off-tackle and often the FB runs.

When I did GL plays last season, I sorta just looked at WL games lol and saw what they were doing in GL situations. I made 2 plays where I had coverage and 2 with blitzes I think. Would a good one for outside be having DE's cover the flat? That's what I'm planning to do to stop the QB run and the outside rush. I saw that from Ghetto Witch Dr.