So you’ve decided to be an Offensive Coordinator or you’re a team owner and couldn’t find one. Being a coordinator in GLB is very rewarding, but very taxing. Great coordinators are hard to come by due to the time they put into their work. If you want to be the best, you’ll have to work at it. The following information should help you get a jump start in becoming a better OC. Most of this was learned the hard way.
Roster EvaluationThis part of the OC’s responsibility is taking care of player builds, skill point assignment, daily training, and veteran point placement. This role can vary from team to team due to owners wanting their input only on player builds or players cooperating with advice given. Ideally it’s their player so they may want to build him their way, but you have to make sure their plans will fit into your system.
The other major area is knowing your roster and the player’s abilities. You’ll need to know your team’s strengths and weaknesses; such as can your HB catch? Not only what they are capable of doing for your offense, but what you’ll need to recruit for if something is missing. Roster Evaluation is very important to make sure your offense is being built in the way that best reflects your offense. You don't want an agent building his FB as a blocker if you want him as a receiver, but he won't know unless you talk to them.
Now this is the tricky part because some agents aren't happy being told what to do. Now you're not telling anyone what to do, but your giving your opinion about their build. So you have to come across that way and hope you get their cooperation.
Naturally if you're winning; they're listening. If you lose, they'll want to do what they think is best. Most of the time the ones that won't listen will still build close to your requests, but if the go too far off path; be prepared to look for a replacement. You have to remember what’s best for the team and for the player.
Player TacticsEach game you’ll need to post up your player tactics for the game. I know most of the time my tactics don't change, but your idea is to make sure everyone is checking in and knows what the game plan is. A lot of the time I'll joke about them not changing or about how I will change the just to see if they're paying attention.
The big thing is getting your players to feel like they know you're game planning and you're letting them in on what you're doing. Communication is key to success and if they always see you giving and receiving information; they'll be a lot more willing to participate with you.
Part of setting player tactics comes from not only reading the hundreds of threads in GLB to see what is working for other teams, but to watch how your players are performing on the dotfield. Is your QB releasing the ball too soon? Is your HB juking too much? These can all be adjusted by changing player tactics.
Use and scrimmage games you have to test out different sets of tactics to see what works best. Make sure to talk to your players so they know what you’re looking for. Most agents will watch their players and may notice things you didn’t see.
PlaybookEach team I OC for will have a very different AI, unique to their builds and abilities. There will be a lot of similarities and that’s why I can transfer my AI into a new team, setup shop, and begin reworking my AI to match their needs.
Your playbook however is very different. More than likely it will be the same for any team you OC on. You need to learn what plays have the same play calling pattern and then you have to choose which play you want or which play you want to eliminate. Don’t worry about taking out every play you don’t like; this is a waste of time because you just don’t call those plays.
Knowing your playbook is key to success. As you get to know your play book more and more it will make changes to your AI easier and easier. For quick reference to what plays do what; see this link:
http://goallineblitz.com/game/offense_play_list.plKeep in mind that if you do not call specific plays in your AI or in packages; any plays left in your playbook could be called. So if you’re not going to be specific in your play calling, take out the plays you don’t want.
Basic AIYou have to wonder why I would bother going over the Basic AI, but this is very important. For most cases you won’t use this feature, but it can be a big time saver when adjusting your AI. Also you need to keep in mind that any area in your regular AI you use the "Use Basic Settings", your AI will default to the Basic AI. So if you didn't want your TE to pass block unless you set it up that way, you need to adjust your Basic AI to have your TE Run Routes 100% of the time.
If you use the “Use Basic Settings” option in your AI, you can just change the percentages in your AI to make a mass adjustment in your AI.
Advanced EnergyThe Basic AI sets up the sub ratio for all players on the team, but the Advanced Energy allows you to adjust specific positions. This allows you to decide when you want that backup to come into the game. There is also a great deal of responsibility for you because you need to make sure everyone is getting enough playing time to achieve their MAX XP for the game.
There are a lot of different theories into what works best, but you’ll have to test different settings to see what gets you the results you want. Maybe you want your starting HB to get most of the snaps, but you want to make sure your backup still gets his MAX XP; you can always use Special Teams as a way to get extra playing time for players.
Special TeamsSome teams have a Special Teams Coordinator or maybe this becomes a shared duty between GM’s, but worst case it’s ignored completely. As an OC your main concern is what players you have on the return team and the kick off team. Those players will use up energy faster and may not be able to help you when you need them most. Especially with kick returners being HB’s or WR’s.
The other issue you need to address is your AI setup for FG and Punts. This is very important and can be costly if done wrong. One mistake can mess up a whole game or change a game winning FG to a huge mistake. You’ll also have to adjust for your Kicker’s Range so he’s not trying to kick 70 yard FG’s.
AI PackagesPackages are an easy way to adjust your AI quickly. You can create groups of plays to put into your AI or multiple parts of your AI. This will save you a lot of time when you’ll want specific plays called at certain points of the game. Plus when you need to change one of the plays because it’s not working, you only need to change the play in the package instead of multiples in your AI.
Not only will you be able to choose the play, but you’ll be able to choose if you want your TE or HB to stay back in block. As well as your QB’s check downs for passing plays.
Your other important feature is your ability to “Enable Auto Adjust” for each play. This will allow the SIM to adjust your percentages in your package based on the plays success. So if 1 play is failing consistently it will be called less and less.
AI InputsAI Inputs are the tool you’ll use to setup when your plays will be called. Whether the play will be on 1st down or 2nd down with 2 yards to go; each setting option will determine when this Input will be triggered. So you can set it to be open to anytime, anywhere, and any score or only when you’re behind by 7 and on their 40 yard line. Be careful and don’t be too specific to where your Input is hardly ever triggered.
Inside your Input will be an Output which will be the play or plays that will be called when this Input is triggered. Each of these Inputs will be based off of a percentage of how often you want them called. All Outputs will equal 100% no matter what you put them as, but you’ll want to make sure your Outputs are setup to the percentage you want them called.
Be careful with too many Outputs because an Output with a 10% setting doesn’t mean that that play will be called 1 out of 10 times. It’s based off of a random number generator that will call the plays with the higher percentage more often. So an Input with 6 plays at different percentage amounts, will have vastly different outcomes each game.
Your other important feature is your ability to “Enable Auto Adjust” for each Input. This will allow the SIM to adjust your percentages in your Input based on the Outputs success. So if 1 Output is failing consistently it will be called less and less.
AI OutputsAI Outputs are the tool you’ll use to setup the play you want called. Whether it’s a specific play you want called or an entire package. You can set the Output up to call a variety of plays based out of your Playbook as well. You have a lot of options on what play or plays you want called.
Not only will you be able to choose the play, but you’ll be able to choose if you want your TE or HB to stay back in block. As well as your QB’s check downs for passing plays.
Overtime AINot too many games end up in overtime so not a lot of focus is here, but this could be a crucial mistake when your team ends up in an overtime game in the playoffs. Mainly you need to go over what plays you have setup there and how your normal AI will be used here. So if you have any crazy Wildcat or 5WR Streak plays on 2nd and short; these will all be used in Overtime when the game is on the line.
So you may want to have specific plays setup just for overtime or maybe you can run straight from your General AI, but it’s a good idea to go over this area before you’re in the middle of OT.
2nd Quarter AIYou’ve made it into the end of the second quarter and there could be a huge difference between your team being up by a larger margin or trailing. In both cases you’ll need a specific offense setup for each case; not to mention you’ll want to hit that last minute FG before heading to the locker room.
Think about regular football with your 2 minute drill and create plays around it. Also consider your position on the field and what you’ll want to do with the ball and your timeouts. Maybe you want to make sure to run out the clock with the lead and keep your opponent off the field.
4th Quarter AIThe game is almost over and it’s crucial you’ve chosen the right plan of action. Not only for the whole game, but to finish off the game right without losing! You’ll need to run out that clock so their offense can’t get back on the field, hit that last minute FG to seal the game, and hopefully take a knee to waste their timeouts and put the game away.
Keep in mind of what the score of the game is and position on the field. If you’re only down by 2 points, you’ll only need 3 points to win the game. A quick strike touchdown will give your opponent the ball back with time on the clock.
General AINow that all of the specific areas are covered and more than likely won’t require much of your attention you can focus on the main portion of your AI. This can vary from OC to OC, setup is very most important not only for proper use, but for your use. Not one setup is better if you get confused and can’t navigate it.
You want to find an organization that makes sense to you and that you can navigate through it quickly. Keep in mind the SIM will work its way down from the top and take the first play that falls into the game situation. It's critical you go over each area and when in doubt; test it to make sure it's accurate.
Remember you’ll want to cover different downs and yards to go. Some OCs work from 1st down to 4th and others work from their opponent’s goal line to their own. Find a way that works best for you and one that you can move through quickly.
You’ll want to watch out for easy errors like yardage on the field not covered. A very common error is to setup plays from 0 to 3 yards and 4 to 7 yards on 2nd down thinking that would cover the entire yardage, but in between 3 and 4 yards you won’t have any AI in place. So on 3.5 yards the SIM will choose its own play to run. Hope it’s not overtime when you discover this.
Try to remember if you're working on this for long periods of time, you'll be timed out by the server and you could be at risk to losing your information. I recommend having another GLB page open so you can make sure you're still logged in. Also, you should update and save your work often in case you need to get offline in a hurry.
Testing your AIOnce you’ve updated or saved your AI its ready to be tested. Select Test AI and input the settings you want to test. Maybe you just added a 2 minute drive and you want to make sure it’s in place. The test is very specific so make sure each option is accurate to what you want. If you’re looking to test a 2 minute drill, forgetting to input 120 seconds can cause the test to be inaccurate.
Once you’ve inputted all of the information just click test. A “Matching Input” will show up, if not, they you don’t have any AI for that setting. Ideally a full AI should never have a “No Matching Input” screen pop up. If the input that is shown is not the one you wanted, check your settings on the test first; then go back to your AI and see what mistake you made.
The “Test and Show Unmatched” button will show you all of the inputs that are similar to what your settings asked for, but did not match completely. This might also help you find why you have a “No Matching Input” screen.
AI Changes after the HalfNow that we know what’s going to happen through most of the game, it’s time to be prepared for a losing game plan. In real football you’re going to be able to adjust on the fly. If you scouting a team’s weakness and put together your plan of action, they still could have fixed that problem before your game.
Go over how to change your AI for the second half and what you should focus on and make it difficult for the defense to make their own adjustments. This done by preparing your AI to have plays setup if you're down and I recommend you use plays you know will work with your team. If a team is very weak against passes to the slot receiver, doesn't necessarily mean you'll have that same success.
On the flip side if you’re up by a lot, you may want to slow down the game and control the clock so your opponent can’t get back into the game. Either way this is usually done by setting your Inputs up by score difference. Negative numbers for times when you’re losing and positive numbers for games you’re winning.
Situational AIBy now you know what your team will be doing on first down, second down, and so on, but what about in certain situations? What is your offense doing in the Red Zone? What is your offense doing on short yardage plays? These are some of the questions you need answered so you’re prepared for those situations.
You'll want to make adjustments to your offense based off of field position and yards to go. The more variations in these areas allows for less plays to select. You'll want to stay unscoutable, so try to run a variety of plays at different yardage and at different locations of the field, it will make it a lot harder on the DCs to scout you.
ScoutingScouting can vary for everyone and you can spend hours researching what to do. As important as this is, it can also be a disaster; ever heard of the term over prepared? You want to find your opponents weakness, but you don’t want to go away from your team’s strengths to get there. Don’t run outside because they always give up big yards there if your HB’s can run outside.
Look at their roster and see if there are any holes to take advantage of. Maybe they only have 2 DTs so runs up the middle will work a lot better since those players will be tired quickly. Maybe they only have 4 CBs so you'll want to have more 3 to 5 WR sets.
There are Greasemonkey scripts like Monsterkill scout to look at the different formations from their last few games and see what their defense looks like. This will help you, but watching your opponent’s defense in action is the best way to see what they do wrong and how you can take advantage of it.
AI AdjustmentsNow you’re ready to make adjustments to your AI. How can it be done quickly and efficiently? You don’t want to rewrite your AI for every game, but you will need to not only change it every game, but change it quickly in case you spent too much time scouting.
This is where having a package based AI is helpful since you'll only need to click on a few plays to make your adjustments. Maybe your AI is setup where you don't need to adjust too much, but either case you'll want to make sure you have enough time to do it for each game. If you're offense always looks the same, you're going to find a DC that will eat you alive!
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