NFLed's
2002-2003 Strat-O-Matic
Computer Football Web Page
Updated
Welcome and thank you for visiting my web
page. The purpose of this page is
to post my
computer managers for the great Strat-O-Matic (SOM) computer football
game version 2
which can be purchased from http://www.strat-o-matic.com.
Please check out http://www.somworld.com for great coverage
on all SOM games
including a
very active forum.
Upcoming: possibly further update the BB Set
standard offensive manager
On
in newly
updated 3-4 standard and 4-3 and 3-4 “blitz” and “no blitz”
defensive
managers all 6
of which can now be downloaded in a single zip file below
On
On
On
On
many teams, see
below for a list of changes
On
On
On
On
board game
adherence option
On
readme file
with NFC defensive slider recommentations) for all NFC teams
On
with additional
information for these managers) for all AFC teams
On
and 3-4
defenses)
On
Six Defensive Managers
(all updated
The following files are included in the
zip file above which are meant for teams
in 1981 through
2001: a 4-3 standard defensive manager,
a 3-4 standard defensive
manager, a 4-3 “blitz”
defensive manager, a 3-4 “blitz” defensive manager, a 4-3
“no blitz”
defensive manager, and a 3-4 “no blitz” defensive manager.
The standard managers replace the
standard computer managers for 1981-2001 which
came with v2.0
of the game; simply use these instead of the ones which came with
the game.
Compared
to the standard defensive managers which shipped with v2.0 (managers I
created) the
updated 4-3 manager makes smarter decisions when confronted by a 3
or 4 WR offense
(using a
situations) and
makes smarter and more detailed adjustments to the score in the
third and
fourth quarter. I have also made
minor adjustments/improvements to the
playcalling of
most every situation.
The
doubleteaming
and the flat and lookin zones are open about the same amount as
each other and
about the same amount as the 4-3 defense against a pro set. In
other words,
don’t count on lookins to be open an inordinate amount even though
the defense is
The updated 3-4 standard defensive
manager contains most of the same enhancements
(except for the
For the
making calls
based upon the time remaining in the game; I slightly modified the
use of LB
doubleteam to more focus on a receiver being thrown short or long passes;
I have set the defense to adjust in some
situations for when the offense uses the
BB formation for somewhat more keying
but no more leaving of flat/long zones open;
and I have
slightly adjusted some playcalls in some circumstances.
For the
updates and also
basically completely reworked the calls in most passing situations
to make more
sense. I also included all of the
updates in the 3-4 manager.
The 03/02 and 03/16 updates combined are
what I would consider a huge improvement
over previous
managers and since they are very simple to install (no slider
adjustments are
needed) and I highly recommend them if you play games against
the computer
opponent.
Above are also four additional defensive
computer managers for use by any 1981-2001
team. All four of these managers are exactly
the same as the standard defensive
managers except
that two of them (one for a 4-3 base defense and the other for a
3-4 base defense) have very little
showing free safety blitz while the other two
(one for a 4-3
and the other for a 3-4) use a huge amount of showing free safety
blitz.
Even for these four managers there are
times when they show free safety blitz
(for example,
on most plays within their own 20 yard line) and when they don’t
show free
safety blitz (for example, on third down and short).
Use of the manager which shows very
little free safety blitz is recommended
only for teams
which have very poor defensive line pass rush ratings while
use of the
manager which shows a large amount of free safety blitz is
recommended
only for teams which have very good defensive line pass rush
ratings. Even for these extreme types of teams
use of the managers which
came with the
game are fine, these four new managers are simply another
option for
those who are interested.
Standard BB Set Offensive
Manager (added
(updated
Above is an updated BB Set offensive
computer manager for use by any team which
normally uses
this formation. For any team
already using this formation simply
replace their
computer manager with this one.
This CM contains several enhancements
mostly to accommodate for time-dependent
situations
including “hurry up set up field goal,” “hurry up at
opponent’s 14-19
yard
line,” and so on. In addition
the hurry up situation has been completely
revamped to be
more realistic and I have separated these out into normal hurry
up (which now
includes some running, mostly end runs) and hurry up almost all
passing
situations which are used at the appropriate time.
I will likely continue to work on this CM
in the next few weeks, although I don’t
believe that it
will be modified much more until v3 is released. My purpose for
working on this
and also an updated standard 4-3 defensive CM is to prepare for
v3 to have a
better base CM (one offensive and one defensive) to work with so I
will likely not
be updating all of the other CM’s with these enhancements until
v3 is released
(and I will then apply them to the 2002 CM’s).
2001 Season Offensive
Computer Managers (added
(updated
2001 Season AFC
Defensive Computer Managers (added
2001 Season NFC
Defensive Computer Managers (added
Above are 2001 season team specific
offensive computer managers (CM’s).
These
managers are designed
to offer a realistic representation of each 2001 season
team including
rotating in backup players where appropriate, setting particular
formations in
different situations for each team, and taking into account the
effectiveness
of field goal attempts of various lengths.
If you play or autoplay
an entire season using these CM’s
then all 2001 season teams will have stats which
approximate all
players’ NFL frequency stats (rushing and receiving attempts). Each
of these three
zip files is about a 600-700KB download.
These offensive CM’s require some
setup on your part to work, perhaps about 45 minutes
total (a
one-time setup). If you choose to
use these then not only would you need
to import each
team’s CM into its appropriate league team but also it is highly
recommended
that you modify the slider settings of a few players per team in order
for those
players to be used in a realistic manner.
Above are also
2001 season team specific defensive CM’s for each AFC and NFC team.
These managers are designed to offer a
somewhat more challenging opponent as weak
defenders are
given more defensive help on flat/lookin passes (weak defenders
leave their
zone less often), short and long passes (weak man-to-man defenders
are helped with
more doubleteams), and runs (weak run defenders are helped with
a bit more LB
or DB run plugs). Also, use of the
show safety blitz formation is
now dependent
upon team as 2001 SEA (as an example) will now rarely show blitz.
In addition, situational substitutions
are made as appropriate for each team and
each
situation. There is more detail in
the readme file which comes with these CM’s.
These defensive CM’s require very
little setup on your part to work, perhaps about
10-15 minutes total. I *highly* recommend them if you play
any games against a
computer-controlled
2001 season opponent.
These defensive CM’s contain some
of the 12/2002 enhancements of the standard CM’s
(I was enhancing these as I created them)
but do not include enhancements against
multiple WR
sets and do not include enhancements designed to make the CM react more
realistically
to the score of the game.
These files above may be downloaded to
any location on your hard drive.
They are
zip files which
means that you would need a utility to unzip the files. WinZip
is such a
utility and may be downloaded from www.winzip.com.
All 31 mgr files contained in the
offensive zip file and all 31 mgr files in the
defensive zip
files above must be unzipped into the Managers directory on your hard
drive in order
for you to be able to import them.
Note that people reported having
difficulty with
the NO offense and GB defense CM’s, I have hopefully corrected those
problems (on
10/15) in the current files.
Included with these zip files is a Word
document and a text file (both containing
the same
content) going into detail. This
file completely replaces the readme
file for the
2001 season which came with the game so if you use these CM’s then
you would not
need to make the modifications recommended in the readme which
came with the
2001 season. All 2001 season
downloads now contain the same Word
and text
document.
2001 team offensive CM’s from this
site and have already made the recommended slider
adjustments
described in the readme file which comes with these CM’s then simply
use these new
CM’s instead of the old CM’s, there is no need to make any further
slider
adjustments.
All of these computer managers have been
enhanced with field goals taken when
appropriate at
the end of the half or game with 15 seconds left instead of just
8 to avoid clock mismanagement at the
end of halves; go for 2 point extra points
much less often
early in the game; go to the “hurry up” formation (3 or 4
WR’s
with almost no
running) later in the half or game (the previous managers were
going into this
mode too early); play conservatively deep in own territory near
the end of the
half; more QB Sneak on 3rd or 4th and 1; more realistic use of
bench warming
RB’s only in blowouts. All of
these except the last one will be
included in all
of next year’s CM’s (including non-team-specific CM’s).
Teams which had their main HB go down
with injury will use these HB’s the same parts
of the game in
which they played in the NFL so
or so of the
game and not play again. Examples
of this sort of team include
JAX, DEN, ATL, and
STL.
Many of the managers now rotate backup
RB’s into the lineup near midfield in the middle
of halves (i.e.
not crucial situations). Examples
of these teams include NYJ, CIN,
JAX, TEN, GB, and NO.
Many of the managers rotate backup
RB’s or use FB’s somewhat as the teams did in real
life including
KC, OAK, ARI, PHI, WAS, CHI, DET, TB, MIN, ATL, and SF often using
short yardage
HB’s and FB’s in the proper situations. Only BUF,
DAL, NYG, and CAR had almost no changes
to RB rotations.
Many of the managers
use 3 or 4 WR sets for a bit on first down. A few of the managers
use the BB
formation more often and use a bit more variety in formations.
The STL manager has been put through a
major overhaul in terms of formations used with
much more BB
and Pro Set while still using plenty of 3 and 4 WR formations.
Strict Board Game Adherence Comments
(added
I have come up with my own
recommendations for playing games against a computer
controlled
opponent with the board game adherence (real dice rolls) option on. My
recommendations
are for 2001 season teams using the computer managers (CM's) from
this web site but
they should also be applicable at least to 2001 using the default
CM's, 1990, 1998,
1999, 2000, and perhaps 1981. I don't have any recommendations for
seasons prior
to this.
The goal of these recommendations is to
maintain as challenging of a computer opponent
as possible
(now throwing fewer of those less successful short and long passes while
calling run
defense more) while aiming for as realistic of an experience as possible
(fewer short
and long passes also fits with this).
To
maintain statistical and strategic realism I recommend not using strict board
game
adherence; however, for those who
want to use this option please see below.
For every team I recommend
adjusting the following sliders:
1) Defensive team run/pass slider
50% more towards run; in other words, if a run/pass
slider is at -6/+6 then move
it to +44/-44;
2) Offensive team run/pass slider
9% more towards run; in other words if a run/pass
slider is at +3/-3 then move
it to +12/-12;
3) Offensive team flat pass slider
40% positive; in other words, if a flat pass slider
is at -5% then move it to
+35%;
4) Offensive team long pass slider
10% negative; in other words, if a long pass slider
is
at -10% then move it to -20%.
If you have moved sliders already based
upon my recommendations from my web site or
even from your
own adjustments from before v2.1 then the adjustments above should be
made after all
previous adjustments. For example, if my previous recommendation on the
web site was to
move a defensive team run/pass slider to -5/+5 then do that and then
apply my
recommendation above to set it to +45/-45.
A full autoplayed 2001 season using
the CM's from my web site with board game adherence
on and using my
recommendations above will give you the following approximated stats
(compared to
the real NFL stats in parentheses): 52.6% completion (58.9), 5.75 yards/
attempt passing
(6.77), 777 sacks (1196), and 3.75 yards per rushing attempt (4.06).
Basically, all offensive production will
be lower although total points will be only
very slightly
lower which is why I recommend not using strict board game adherence.
I could have recommended even more run
defensive calls but 50% was the maximum I felt
comfortable
with and if rushing averages had become too low then it wouldn't be worth
running the
ball at all for many teams.
In order to retain statistical
accuracy you may want to keep board game adherence off (as
is recommended
by Strat) but these recommendations are for those who want that option on.
If you have any questions or comments
about these CM’s (or any other portions of
this site) feel
free to post on the forums at www.somworld.com. For instructions
on how to import
computer managers into your game please click on the somfb2001
link to the
archived information below.
I have archived all previous information
which was on this web page to
http://www.somiba.com/somfb2001.html.
My 2000 season offensive CM’s
should work fine still; however, I strongly recommend
setting all
team and player sliders to zero (this is a hassle, I know) if you use
them. My 2000 season defensive CM’s have
not been updated with many needed
enhancements, I
do not recommend using them.
Here is a summary of options for making
your 2001 season replay as realistic as possible:
1)
Play the game right out of the box and make only the depth chart suggestions
listed in the readme files -- you will need to keep the default overusage of
110% for this if you want somewhat realistic stats at the end of the season;
2)
Download the CM's from this web site and make the slider changes recommended in
the readme file from the download -- you can turn off overusage with this and
you will find that RB's will be rotated during every game so Bettis, E.James,
etc. will never play a full game but will always share carries with others
during the game; this should give you fairly realistic stats at the end of the
season;
3)
Same as #2 except if the rotating RB's in each game issue bothers you go into
the offensive CM of each team for which you think this is an issue (IND, PIT,
etc.) and make sure that the starter you want is in the game at all times; then
before each game manually adjust the depth chart so that the RB's each play the
correct # of games;
4)
Choose any of #1, #2, or #3 but also make the recommended defensive run/pass
slider changes before each game; for example, whenever any team is playing
against NYJ move their slider 5% in the direction of calling more run defense.
Since
(web counter
courtesy of http://www.digits.com):
The count was at 1434 on
version of this
web page.
Here is a link to the SOM Internet Basketball
Association which is a
computer
basketball league which has openings for next season which
begins in about
October of 2003: