On The Eighth Day of ISFL-mas

JPach · (This post was last modified: 01-09-2021, 02:12 PM by Swanty.)

SAFETY

What’s new for Safety(s) in DDSPF21?

STRONG SAFETY BE STRONG AND FREE SAFETY BE FREE ELVES!!
As many of you know (and if you didn’t well now you do) in DDPSF16, players listed as Free Safety in the sim had a slight catch radius advantage. This was neat and all, but it made players lining up at Strong Safety feel a little left out. This little quirk followed us to DDSPF21, but; players listed as Strong Safety in the sim will now get slight boosts to their ability to tackle. In addition, players listed at Strong Safety will gain the benefit of one specific trait that players at Free Safety will not (this was not the Migration Team’s doing, this was the game’s doing).

What’s going on with my archetype?

If there is one glaring issue brought on from the limitations of DDSFP16, it’s that players really don’t feel any different. Thanks to the improved sim logic and the new Trait system, we have been able to create diverse Safeties that fill different roles better than before. To that end, we have collapsed some old Safety archetypes, and are introducing three for players to choose from. Each of these performs differently than others, so there will be some interesting choices for teams to make when it comes to creating their strategies and building their teams!

CENTER FIELDER
Rangy and quick, the Center Fielder is what comes to mind when you think of the old-school definition of a Safety. These types of players are well-suited for being the last line of defense, and their ability to read a Quarterback’s eyes gives them better shots at breaking up a deep pass or even getting an interception. These types of players prefer to do their damage away from the line of scrimmage, and rely on athleticism to get into the right position.

BALL HAWK
They might not be the biggest nor the most athletic player on the field, but what the Ball Hawk lacks in size and speed, they more than make up for with unrivaled instincts and will. These players have a penchant for being in the right place at the right time, and can cause momentum to shift in their team’s favor with a single big play.

ENFORCER
The biggest Safety archetype, the Enforcer Safety is the perfect enforcer to have you in your defensive backfield. Whether it’s physical coverage of a Tight End or taking on a Running Back head on, these players don’t shy away from contact.

What are these Traits I keep hearing about?
New to DDSPF21 is the idea of Traits. As your player progresses and increases in ability, you will eventually unlock the opportunity to apply Traits to them. These will have real impacts on how your player performs. For Safety players the available traits are:

CENTER FIELDER
The Center Fielder trait makes your player better at not only defending passes, but also better at intercepting passes.

PERCEPTIVE
Players with the Perceptive trait can more easily identify the ballcarrier on any play and also get a slightly better chance to intercept passes.

BOX SAFETY
Do those mean Linebackers on your team make fun of you because you aren’t as good in run defense as they are? Well, with the Box Safety trait, your player will be more likely to identify the ballcarrier on a run play, and will get a tackling boost when near the line of scrimmage. SPECIAL NOTE: Due to some wonderful planning by Wolverine Studios, the Box Safety trait will have NO EFFECT if a player with it is rostered as a Free Safety.

ATHLETE
Makes your player more athletic, and for Safeties it makes them faster when blitzing.

ROLE MODEL
Role Model is the same for everyone – it makes your player less likely to commit penalties.

DOUBLE DAILY DOSE OF DOUBLENESS OF INFORMATION WEE WOW WEE WHAT??!!
That’s right children, the Sim Migration Team has decided to drop an extra dose of knowledge on you today. Today’s extra bit is one that we’ve received a few questions related to, so we wanted to give everyone some information on it.

OFFENSIVE DEPTH CHARTS AND PACKAGES

Anyone who has been tinkering around in DDSPF21 has almost undoubtedly noticed one major change when it comes to depth charts – unlike in DDSFP16 there aren’t individual depth charts for each formation. Further complicating things for all of us that will be involved in setting depth charts or double checking them for eligibility is the fact that while there are seven formations in use in DDSPF21, the game only allows up to 5 depth charts to be created for each team.

To balance the flexibility that teams have in setting depth charts and the work that the sim team has to do, along with addressing other issues in game planning (namely that selecting RBBC doesn’t change anything), we have taken advantage of the newfound customizability of depth charts and formations to establish a new framework for offensive strategies.

In DDSPF21, each team will submit four depth charts as a part of their offensive strategy. These depth chart packages will be named Heavy A, Heavy B, Light A, and Light B. Apologies for the uninspired naming conventions.

The Heavy packages will correspond to the following offensive formations: Pro Set, I-Formation, Two TE, and the new Jumbo formation (RB, FB, TE1, TE2, WR).

The Light packages will correspond to the following offensive positions: Spread, Shotgun, and the new Shotgun 4WR formation (RB + 4 WRs).

These packages have the A and B split for a specific reason – the A depth chart will be used 60% of the time and the B depth chart will be used 40% of the time when running plays using their corresponding formations. While setting your team’s game plan to RBBC doesn’t work correctly in DDSPF21, this setup will ensure that teams have the flexibility to continue to run RBBC moving forward. If you set your team’s primary running back as the RB in Heavy A and Light A, and your second running back as RB in Heavy B and Light B, they will end up with roughly a 60/40 split of carries, similar to the current split using RBBC in DDSPF16.

However, this new setup will also open up lots of room for teams to customize their usage of running backs - you could create a 50/50 split by using one RB in Heavy and one in Light, a more lopsided split by only using the backup in one B package, or any number of other different options.

In addition, this setup will actually reduce the amount of work needed by the sim team and GMs to submit and verify offensive depth charts, as only 4 offensive depth charts will need to be submitted rather than 5 at present.

Depth charts form the foundation of offensive strategies, and with these changes we have adapted to the new sim in allowing teams to set these foundations in a way that is both familiar and adds some new room for creativity. We look forward in the near future to share with you details on other pieces of offensive strategy, like playbooks and other new game planning options available to teams.

I can't believe we are already 8 days into ISFL-mas and our info hasn't run out yet. And what's even crazier is that you can check in tomorrow for even more wonderful info. Which Position will it be? OL? DE? DT? Who knows?