I'll preface this by saying that I have no idea how practical this idea is, but I figured I'd throw it out there. I know a lot of people are frustrated with the lack of play calling diversity. While obviously the best fix is to make the current slate of plays all more worthwhile since 90+% of them are currently unusable, it certainly wouldn't hurt to also just have more plays in general.

The idea would be to have a subsection where users could design a play in a simple editor, then post it and have others rate and comment on it. If based on that feedback some changes are made, the user who posted it can 'retire' a suggested play and link it to a new updated version. JDB could then theoretically browse through the subsection, filter for the top voted plays, and implement them however he sees fit.

As for the editor itself, it really shouldn't take much in terms of coding (not being glib, I've literally written this exact program before, back in those halcyon days when VB6 was a cutting edge language, haha). Text field for name. Pre-existing formation templates in an opt menu. Then a rules section, consisting of a list of each 11 positions, with each followed after by two drop down menus. The first would be 'action' (ie, Zone, Man, Blitz). The second would then further specify that action (ie, Zone area, Man WR#--or for CBs possibly B&R/Press/5 Cushion/10 Cushion/Prevent--, Blitz gap).

For offense, whether the QB is set to Pass or Hand-Off (or maybe one day Run Option or just a straight designed Run?) will 'fix' some of the boxes for certain positions, changing their contents (ie to stop you from setting your line to block downfield, any players from having the 'Run' option when the QB is set to Pass), as would obviously having a player set to Run, which would then clear anyone else currently set to that duty. Drop down options would be Run, Fake Run, Route, Block. Specification box would be Gap, or Route Type. If Route has been selected, there'd also be a depth box, 1-10, that would set the length of the route.

Then the user could add which playbooks they felt it should be included in and voila, submit.

I mean, you get the idea. Anyway, the reason I think this could be a helpful addition is that 'crowdsourcing' game development is an awesome way to enlist free labor for a project. As basically a single man team, why not take as much advantage as possible of those willing to lend help. Not only would we be the ones pumping out a bunch of fancy new plays, but we would also be the ones mercilessly down-voting and posting nasty comments on each other so that only the strongest plays survive peer critique. The other advantage is that it would let players come up with dynamic 'solutions' to plays that were OP. No answer to the 46 blitz? Here's a blitz killer. No answer to the blitz killer? Here's the anti-blitz killer. Etc.

doesnt hurt to throw ideas out there because really you never know what will happen when you do.

Btw i think your idea is somewhat like a idea i posted a awhile back

my idea = https://mfn2.myfootballnow.com/community/thread/5/1247?page=1#7345

will say chances are people will not go for it mainly because of issue of exploitation of running the same plays over and over

Even if they do say that or some other reason they rather not have this shouldnt stop you from posting ideas because you can never tell when you have a great one or thought of one until you post it and it actually gets alot of rare views of how great it is and it gets put into the game.

That would actually be an argument for this idea, not against it. This doesn't allow users to create their own plays for their own use, but to nominate plays for introduction into specific (or all) playbooks should JDB see fit after community voting. If implemented, it would only facilitate the addition of new and community veted expansions to the current system already in place.

The comments about exploitation were against those who were suggesting all plays be made available to everyone, or for being able to create your own private plays. The others against your suggestion were nixing the idea of trick plays, which this also would not allow for.

Excellent suggestion. Hmm, you know how this could be used??? As means to filter out the worst offensive plays (ones that never work) culling them out of the game and thus introducing new community agreed upon plays. The key would be to have a constant flow of new creations so that not only a couple are added and then voila everyone is running them to the hilt. Subtracting the worst of the worst plays and then filtering in at least usable ones. They don't have to be world beatings but just a new, fresh batch of plays.

I've been opposed to having a custom play editor because of the potential exploits, but your suggestion is the best idea of how to make it happen that I've seen. I will definitely take this under consideration.

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