Custom Playbook "zero play" Bug Discussion

[Koach Vonner]

*edited by gschwendt
There is apparently a bug that the patch did not correct in which when using a Custom Playbook, the only plays available to select from have no formation art. If you select that play, your team will come out with all 11 players huddled around the football. Use this thread to discuss the issue and hopefully we can find a work-around for the time being.

Please post the base playbook you began with as well as the number of formations and number of plays in your playbook.




No but I broke the huddle and saw a glitch. Everybody was stuck together. Had to call a timeout.
Also in my playbook there are a bunch of empty slots with question marks. No plays in there

[Dr Death]

Here's what I got and I am playing OFF line. Custom Playbooks have ? and no play art. My Offensive PB has only 146 plays... yet nothing shows. Call a play just to see what happens, team comes out bunched together like 11 people trying to fit in a phone booth. Get penalty for off-sides and can't call time out either.

EA... WTF???

[Justin66]

this doesent sound good

[Dr Death]

Alright, here's what I did to get this game to work. Uh... somewhat. Turned off the XBox 360 and restarted. Went back to Play Now w/ my CPB's, both O and D. This time, the plays are there but on an 11 play, 81 yard drive I had the ? again w/ no plays showing up, so I just hit the X button and the guys come out bunched together and this time I was able to call a TO to avoid the penalty.

THIS MUST BE PATCHED IMMEDIATELY. Using time-outs because of a flaw in the game is going to be a killer. Since rebooting it's only happened once... on one drive. I am getting ready to go on D now. Will update later.

[Dr Death]

I've read about freezing and problems on the 360 version on OS. They said it's better if you install it to your HDD. Have you guys tried that?

I haven't had the freezing issue, but I did add two Trips formations to my PB, giving me 16 formations and now over 200 plays and haven't the empty PB w/ ? instead of the play art.

EDIT: Scratch that. It's still doing it. Early in the game and I have just been going around and playing a quarter to see different teams, but it does it early in every game.

[Treadstone6700]

I'm on 360, had the * playbook thing happen to me a couple times and then my guys just bunch up in the middle. Also has frozen on me twice when going from on the field to sim the defensive side of the ball (i'm doing an offline dynasty as an OC).

The game is installed to my hard drive, it was the first thing that I did when I got it home.

[Kwizzy]

Oh, we definitely noticed it. We let the devs know & it is supposed to be fixed in the first patch. Have you guys downloaded the patch?

*edit* I'm referring to the CPB issue here. Not sure about the freezing issues.

[gschwendt]

For the "huddle around the ball" bug (aka zero play bug), it's not anything I've seen in retail but did see at the community event. My understanding was that it is caused by having too few plays or formations in your custom playbook, however Dr Death's 16 Formations and 200 plays should be more than enough. Death, when you created your playbook, did you remove a lot of the playbook before you got started or did you just remove a few and add a few? Just curious so I can pass along as many notes as possible.

That said, we'll try to find an answer for you guys.

[keyser soze]

Wow... how does stuff THIS BASIC make it into the game? 11 guys STUCK TOGETHER! I don't think I have EVER seen this and I have been playing this series for YEARS.... AMAZING!

[xMrHitStickx904]

so.. that didn't get fixed in the patch??

EDIT : I'm on PS3, and the zero play bug was there, but G said it was fixed in the patch. I'm just now downloading it, so we'll see if it's on the ps3 version too.

[keyser soze]

Not unless the fix includes calling a time out I guess to "fix it".


so.. that didn't get fixed in the patch??

[gschwendt]

For everyone that sees it, please post your formation & play count sizes of your Custom Playbook.
Wondering if we can find a pattern of a minimum number that needs to be included.

In all of mine, I have generally had at least 15 or so formations with approximately 300 plays and have not run into the issue at all in retail.

[xMrHitStickx904]

My 1st PB has 26 formations, with 373 plays, and i've seen the bug.

2nd PB has 31 formations, with 371 plays, only seen it once from this PB.

Both pre-patch however.

EDIT: Base PB's were Auburn and Mississippi State.

[JPBD]

Please also include your base playbook.

[Pig Bomb]

is this just a custom playbook error???

[xMrHitStickx904]

is this just a custom playbook error???

yes, not a normal PB error.

[gschwendt]

is this just a custom playbook error???
Yes. This should only be a result of using a custom playbook.

As JPBD suggested, you'll want to list the base playbook that you began with.

[xMrHitStickx904]

first game post-patch, it's still there. Special teams, Goal Line and Hail Mary are gone.


I have to in " special plays " to find special teams.

[gschwendt]

first game post-patch, it's still there. Special teams, Goal Line and Hail Mary are gone.


I have to in " special plays " to find special teams.
Do you know what playbook you started with as your base playbook?

[xMrHitStickx904]

Do you know what playbook you started with as your base playbook?


yes, this one is Auburn. 31 formations, 371 plays.

[roccogator]

Just a thought, but does this only happen with playbooks created pre-patch?

[Koach Vonner]

No, when I got home and put the game in it said I had an update for this game (patch I assume) and I downloaded it. First thing I did was create a custom Playbook (feature I was most excited about). Oregon was my base Playbook. I had over 300 plays and 22 formations.

[THE Travis]

So, "Community" leaders who had the game for 2 weeks... Why was this game-breaking glitch to the biggest new feature not revealed until today? The edit in the original post seems to indicate that you knew about it? So why did you not mention this huge problem in your reviews of the game? This feature is the only reason that many people (including myself) are even considering purchasing the game this year. I would like to think that an honest community site would at least inform us that the most anticipated new feature is broken... So, simple question... why not?

To me, it is disingenuous at best. Why should anyone trust any of your other impressions, when you neglect to mention such a huge bug until release day?

[The Knee]

hey guys, if you go back into playbook before you play resets or let me give example: you run a play and the ball hasnt been reset and go back to playbook you have a pretty good chance of this happening. if you wait for the ball to be reset and players lined up then you can go to playbook no probs. has nothing to do with amount of plays. i can make it happen every time if i want. if this does happen just go to recent called plays. pick one(there will be no play art) then go back into to playbook and plays are there. if this doesnt work then run the zero play or whatever yall call it and let reset then go to playbook. you dont need to exit or restart. just go to resent plays. hopefully they will fix this but gamebreaker it is not. just be patient and wait for the O to reset before you go to playbook. hope this helps guys. and to above poster, it is very possible they never saw this. if only happens if you go to playbook before play resets. i didnt notice till i was a few hours in. but i like the dramatic touch.

[gschwendt]

So, "Community" leaders who had the game for 2 weeks... Why was this game-breaking glitch to the biggest new feature not revealed until today? The edit in the original post seems to indicate that you knew about it? So why did you not mention this huge problem in your reviews of the game? This feature is the only reason that many people (including myself) are even considering purchasing the game this year. I would like to think that an honest community site would at least inform us that the most anticipated new feature is broken... So, simple question... why not?

To me, it is disingenuous at best. Why should anyone trust any of your other impressions, when you neglect to mention such a huge bug until release day?I realize you're looking for a reason to fault us or the "community leaders" but I assure you, in all of the playbooks I created, I never saw the issue myself in the retail copy of the game. MrHitstick mentioned that he saw the issue pre-patch on PS3 but when reviewing the patch notes, there is an item listed that gave the impression that it would be fixed. We were aware of the issue only because we saw it at one of the community events and were given the impression that it had been fixed or would be fixed.



All of that said, we're here to try to relay as much information to EA as to what is causing the issue to trigger and also so that we can share that information so that as people create their playbook, they'll be aware. That's the point of this thread.

[AustinWolv]

THE Travis

You are a big Alex Jones fan, aren't you?

Or is it that you just mad that you aren't a 'community leader' and feel special so you are going to bag on the guys who created, paid, and run this site out of their own time whenever you can?

[Koach Vonner]

Very Well PUT!!!
Custom Playbooks was my baby. I've been asking for this since last gen. It was the number one reason I bought this game (I do like NCAA) and the only thing that is saving Madden's ass right now (especially after a horrible Madden 11).
I gonna try and give the community guys a little slack and say it's because they are all on PS3. But then the question is, how come no 360 community guys got it earlier? Is this the reason why? I also would like to know if it's just my disk? Can I take my disk back and get a new one or is it ALL 360 users with this problem?

HELP PLEASE b4 I drive 30 minutes again!!!

[The Knee]

its there. i can make it happen every play if i want. but i can also make it never happen if i wait for play to reset. so it needs to be fixed but it is on the user when it happens. the only way to get playart back in the playbook is to go to recent plays and pick one. this very much exist's on the retail version.

[The Knee]

im on ps3 and its there.

[THE Travis]

I realize you're looking for a reason to fault us or the "community leaders" but I assure you, in all of the playbooks I created, I never saw the issue myself in the retail copy of the game. MrHitstick mentioned that he saw the issue pre-patch on PS3 but when reviewing the patch notes, there is an item listed that gave the impression that it would be fixed. We were aware of the issue only because we saw it at one of the community events and were given the impression that it had been fixed or would be fixed.



All of that said, we're here to try to relay as much information to EA as to what is causing the issue to trigger and also so that we can share that information so that as people create their playbook, they'll be aware. That's the point of this thread.


Just a little late for those who have already bought the game, expecting this feature to work, right? For the record, I'm not "looking" for reasons to fault the "Community Leaders," the reasons are readily apparent. I obviously don't fault the "community leaders" for this feature being broken, that is EA's modus operandi when it comes to new features. I do fault the "Community Leaders" for misleading the community. Whether that is through accident, ignorance, ineptitude, or just flat out lying, your reports on this game were misleading. The glitch appears to be incredibly wide spread and immediately noticeable to anyone who so much as took a cursory look at custom playbooks. Everyone can draw their own conclusions about "why" the info on this custom playbook bug (again, the most anticipated new feature, even according to your own poll) was not made public before release day.

[gschwendt]

Very Well PUT!!!
Custom Playbooks was my baby. I've been asking for this since last gen. It was the number one reason I bought this game (I do like NCAA) and the only thing that is saving Madden's ass right now (especially after a horrible Madden 11).
I gonna try and give the community guys a little slack and say it's because they are all on PS3. But then the question is, how come no 360 community guys got it earlier? Is this the reason why? I also would like to know if it's just my disk? Can I take my disk back and get a new one or is it ALL 360 users with this problem?

HELP PLEASE b4 I drive 30 minutes again!!!There were also community guys that had the 360 version of the game but all of the guys here are primarily PS3 guys... probably the community group as a whole was split 50/50 for PS3 or 360. The Custom Playbook bug is not disc related. No sense in returning it to the store to get a different copy.

[gschwendt]

Just a little late for those who have already bought the game, expecting this feature to work, right? For the record, I'm not "looking" for reasons to fault the "Community Leaders," the reasons are readily apparent. I obviously don't fault the "community leaders" for this feature being broken, that is EA's modus operandi when it comes to new features. I do fault the "Community Leaders" for misleading the community. Whether that is through accident, ignorance, ineptitude, or just flat out lying, your reports on this game were misleading. The glitch appears to be incredibly wide spread and immediately noticeable to anyone who so much as took a cursory look at custom playbooks. Everyone can draw their own conclusions about "why" the info on this custom playbook bug (again, the most anticipated new feature, even according to your own poll) was not made public before release day.
You "facts" are completely inaccurate. I assure you I built plenty of custom playbooks myself and never ran into the issue. This was my number one feature this year, thus why I created the playbook spreadsheet. I played online with those custom playbooks, I posted videos using those playbooks and never once did the issue crop up. Please have correct information before you start over-generalizing with falsehoods.

We are not in the business of hiding issues, period. End of story. If I felt there were still a really bad bug such as this one, I wouldn't have had such high praise for the game. I would have indeed called it out as a bug and publicly mentioned it as such if there were no indication that it would be fixed for launch.

[Koach Vonner]

Knee I appreciate you trying to help as we all are but that's not the answer buddy. I got mine yesterday at 10 pm. Trust me I tried that. I have tried everything.
1. Started game over (No)
2. Added over 300 plays (No)
3. Wait for ball to be reset (No)
4. Play Fast (No)
5. No Custom Defense (No)
6. No Custom Offense (No)
7. Just use regular team PB's (Yes)

The problem is a lot of got the game because of "Custom Playbooks". That's why it HURTS!! Lol

The game is awesome. Better than demo. But w/o custom playbooks it's like a hot chick with small breast. Yea, she's still hot and I'd hit it. But wouldn't she be more fun with a C or D cup?

[The Knee]

dont bother gschwendt, just joined the damn forum to help you guys with this and mostly him. he just ignored it and wants to whine to someone. its easily avoidable!!!!! but it is there. but whatever.

[gschwendt]

its there. i can make it happen every play if i want. but i can also make it never happen if i wait for play to reset. so it needs to be fixed but it is on the user when it happens. the only way to get playart back in the playbook is to go to recent plays and pick one. this very much exist's on the retail version.
Just to be clear, can you provide full step-by-step of how you're avoiding it?

You mention that you "wait for play to reset"... can you expand on what you mean?
Also you mention going to the "recent plays", are you calling a play from the recent play or just simply going in there, then backing out and then calling a play "by formation"?

Anymore details would help so that we could have that information available to everyone.

[AustinWolv]

Hey TRAVIS, so if they were led to believe that the patch would fix the bug, why would they bother reporting it?
Did any 'community leaders' at the other sites report it previously?

[THE Travis]

I gave you the benefit of the doubt when I said it could be an accident. I suppose everyone is free to draw their own conclusions. Good day.

[The Knee]

i had the game since sat and only been in custom playbooks. had it happen over 30 times atleast to me. its my fault everytime for leaving the play early. only time it happens. i have 4 custom playbooks and they all work fine. when in practice mode i you go to playbook before play is reset you will get all the players standing around the ball. if this does happen just go to recent plays and pick one. then go back into playbook when on the field and the plays will be there again. messed with this for about a hour to try different ways of making this happen. this is what does it.

[THE Travis]

Hey TRAVIS, so if they were led to believe that the patch would fix the bug, why would they bother reporting it?
Did any 'community leaders' at the other sites report it previously?

A certain "non community leading simian" did indeed report the possibility of this bug on May 9th, and he didn't even have early access to the game.... Just saying.

And they should report it either way, since EA's history of "fixing" things isn't exactly flawless.

[gschwendt]

Sorry, I still don't follow exactly, what do you mean by "leaving the play early". Do you mean on the field? Do you mean going as past as possible to call a new play? I apologize, I just want to make sure I have all of the facts straight before I start discussion as to what the work-around is. Does this only work in practice mode?

Also, are you seeing players actually take the field huddled around the ball and then have to do the work-around, or are you able to avoid it altogether?

[The Knee]

ok so your running a play and right after you are tackled you go back into playbook. they there are no plays. so then you go to recent plays and pick one and then you will have all players around the ball. you can snap it and wait till the play resets then go to playbook and bam plays are there. but you can avoid this by not going back into playbook until the players are set on the ball again. so you run a play and your ready for a new play. but instead of going into playbook you need to wait till they reset to run play again then go into playbook and playwill be there. i have alot of formations with only 3 or 6 plays and i dont see any connection to amount of plays.

[AustinWolv]

A certain "non community leading simian" did indeed report the possibility of this bug on May 9th, and he didn't even have early access to the game.... Just saying.
So if I report the possibility of a bunch of bugs, would that make you happy? Because there are tons of bugs in games, some easily known, some not.
The guy looked at a May build and thought he was some award-winning journalist for finding a bug? Um yeah, humans need water to survive. Duh.

Why is this such a big deal? It isn't like EA isn't looking at it and this is an old Nintendo game that can't be patched.

[Koach Vonner]

I don't think waiting for then to reset it is going to help. I tried that. Plus sone other guy (can't remember if it was here or at Tradition) said it happens to him but only once per half. He also stated that if he called a timeout, it fixed it.
My observation is that it happens after I get that first 1st Down. Then I'm screwed. Timeouts don't help me.
Another guy stated that it happened to him right after kickoff. He never got started.
All these stories lead me to believe that it's a BIG BUG and it's not the same for everybody. You're going to get different scenarios.

Just like the Roster Share issue of 2010!!! Boy was that a headache or what!!!!

[The Knee]

kinda hard to explain. i hope that is easier to understand. basically don't exit the practice field to go to playbook until your players are set up to run the play again. if you exit before this you wont have play art. if you wait then the plays will be there. i still mess up sometimes and all you have to do is go down two places under formations to recent plays. there will be no play aret but pick a play anyway. then run the zero play once, or just exit which works most of time and then the plays will be there. haha, im trying to find the best ways to explain but i know its hard to understand without seeing it.

[gschwendt]

kinda hard to explain. i hope that is easier to understand. basically don't exit the practice field to go to playbook until your players are set up to run the play again. if you exit before this you wont have play art. if you wait then the plays will be there. i still mess up sometimes and all you have to do is go down two places under formations to recent plays. there will be no play aret but pick a play anyway. then run the zero play once, or just exit which works most of time and then the plays will be there. haha, im trying to find the best ways to explain but i know its hard to understand without seeing it.
Well, unfortunately it doesn't sound like an ideal solution since it sounds like you still have to run the "zero play" and either let the play-clock run out or call a time out in order to get your full playbook back. Ideally we'd be able to avoid it altogether either by backing out to "recent plays" or some kind of work-around such as that.

[GuyIncognito21]

So if I report the possibility of a bunch of bugs, would that make you happy? Because there are tons of bugs in games, some easily known, some not.
The guy looked at a May build and thought he was some award-winning journalist for finding a bug? Um yeah, humans need water to survive. Duh.


Actually, I think what he did is look at EA's track record of poorly implementing new features (even new features that are actually old features, rebranded as new since they've been out of the game for 5 years), and try to figure out the most likely way EA would screw this new thing up. And, as it turns out, he was right.

This wasn't a bug that he "saw" in a build. It's one he asserted would be there based on nothing more than the fact that EA always does this.



Why is this such a big deal? It isn't like EA isn't looking at it and this is an old Nintendo game that can't be patched.

It's a big deal to some because we've been led to believe that community involvement is at an all-time high, and that the community is being represented and advocated for in the development process. But when such massive FUBARs get through, despite the fact that said leaders have had the game for days, it raises questions about whose interests are being promoted. Is the community leader system really giving us a better product, or is it just being used by EA to turn its critics into mouthpieces?

So in one sense, it's no big deal, you're right. EA will patch this. But it's certainly going to turn a lot more people into cynics about whether we're being fed crap not only by EA, but also by our own community.

[trioptionGator]

I have experienced this glitch.

Playbook type: Offense
Base playbook: Florida
Playbook size: 27 formations, 374 plays (curiously when I started the playbook it said I could have 375, but that number dropped to 374 when I added a certain formation -- cannot recall which)
Game Type: Play now, Vanderbilt @ Florida, All-American, Default Sliders, 9 min. quarters
Glitch occurred: Second play from scrimmage in game

[osufan4life]

Is this happening when you use a regular offensive playbook and a custom defensive playbook or just for custom O playbooks?

[gschwendt]

Is this happening when you use a regular offensive playbook and a custom defensive playbook or just for custom O playbooks?
I believe I've seen it reported for both offense & defense but the primary reports are for offense and so far, they all sound like spread teams. The teams I've seen listed are:

Auburn, Oregon, Mississippi State, and Florida.

I have been able to create a playbook using the Louisville playbook and used it successfully.

[AustinWolv]

Guy, I see your point. However, I don't see TRAVIS' point of attacking the people directly (this isn't the first time he's lobbed shots at the site leaders here about stuff without any evidence other than being malicious).

There are always bugs in games. Even in the OS' that we run. That's what patches are for. The engineering team works on that and tries to avoid them, but it is the money at the top that sets the schedule, determines how many resources that team is allowed to have, and beats the crap out of that team in that not all the bugs can be identified and fixed in time. Hell, I work in an industry designing and managing products that are 10-20X the cost of a video game and we surely don't catch everything during testing.........thus, revisions are made on the fly.

It is a bad bug? Yeah. It is reason to accuse other games of willingly hiding stuff? No, unless you got evidence or their name is Tressell.

[trioptionGator]

I believe I've seen it reported for both offense & defense but the primary reports are for offense and so far, they all sound like spread teams. The teams I've seen listed are:

Auburn, Oregon, Mississippi State, and Florida.

I have been able to create a playbook using the Louisville playbook and used it successfully.

Florida's playbook is Pro Style this year. I just experienced the glitch for the second time. This time I tried a number of things to get out of it, none of which worked:

- Tried going into Instant Replay screen
- Tried calling timeout without selecting an "empty" play
- Tried selecting an "empty" play then calling timeout
- Tried calling a play from each playcalling screen (by formation, recent, etc.)

I also tried calling an audible from the "huddle around the ball" play. The audible worked and I was able to run a play, but I noticed two things:

1) The personnel grouping was bizarre. I had all three quarterbacks on the depth chart on the field at once. It looked like the 3rd stringer ended up taking the snap on the running play I called, and the 2nd string QB was at halfback after the audible was called.
2) After the successful audible run play, the playcalling screen was filled with "empty" plays again.

For the record, I did download the patch.

[gschwendt]

Florida's playbook is Pro Style this year.
Ah... good point. Brain fart on my part.

[Paakaa10]

It's a big deal to some because we've been led to believe that community involvement is at an all-time high, and that the community is being represented and advocated for in the development process. But when such massive FUBARs get through, despite the fact that said leaders have had the game for days, it raises questions about whose interests are being promoted. Is the community leader system really giving us a better product, or is it just being used by EA to turn its critics into mouthpieces?

So in one sense, it's no big deal, you're right. EA will patch this. But it's certainly going to turn a lot more people into cynics about whether we're being fed crap not only by EA, but also by our own community.

So if I have my PS3 copy of the game and play it for just about two weeks prior to release, building a Custom Playbook and not running into this issue, I'm supposed to talk about the issue I didn't experience? Interesting.

I would also point out that "community leaders" aren't the only people to have gotten their hands on the game early and shared impressions and experiences in online forums. A number of people at Operation Sports--general community, people without any "agenda" to "protect EA"--got the game early, played it, and never mentioned the issue.

Editorial staffs received review copies of the game as well and I'm not hearing anybody speaking out about this issue.

PastaPadre got his copy early, played through all of the modes so that he could put together impressions, and prides himself on giving honest opinions and being an advocate for the hard-working game consumer. He didn't mention the custom playbook issue.

Are all of these people "hiding" it?

I suppose at the end of the day you can read into it whatever you want. If you want to believe that the "community leaders" are nothing but "EA PR Lite," then nothing I say is going to change your mind anyway.

I didn't see the issue in my time with the retail game. Other people are seeing the issue now. Tommy is busting his ass here to try and figure out how to reproduce the issue in retail so that we can give as much feedback as possible.

If you think that anybody here was trying to hide an issue like this from the gaming community just so they'd still go out and buy the game, then you've obviously never seen people like Tommy in their element working with the game.

[osufan4life]

I believe I've seen it reported for both offense & defense but the primary reports are for offense and so far, they all sound like spread teams. The teams I've seen listed are:

Auburn, Oregon, Mississippi State, and Florida.

I have been able to create a playbook using the Louisville playbook and used it successfully.
I've definitely seen it reported when using both a custom offensive and defensive playbook at the same time, just trying to see if it happens when you are using a regular O and a custom D playbook.

[Kwizzy]

I have created two offensive CPBs, one based on Nebraska's playbook and have had zero issuers with it. The other, was based on Florida State's within the last 2 days and noticed this bug. I brought it up & was led to believe that this was addressed in the patch.


- Fixed an issue in Custom Playbooks where removing too many formations resulted in an empty playbook.

Also I have created 1 defensive book based on the 4-3 with no issues.

Saying that we would purposefully ingore a bug like this and mislead the community is just plain ignorant.

[THE Travis]

So if I have my PS3 copy of the game and play it for just about two weeks prior to release, building a Custom Playbook and not running into this issue, I'm supposed to talk about the issue I didn't experience? Interesting.

I would also point out that "community leaders" aren't the only people to have gotten their hands on the game early and shared impressions and experiences in online forums. A number of people at Operation Sports--general community, people without any "agenda" to "protect EA"--got the game early, played it, and never mentioned the issue.

Editorial staffs received review copies of the game as well and I'm not hearing anybody speaking out about this issue.

PastaPadre got his copy early, played through all of the modes so that he could put together impressions, and prides himself on giving honest opinions and being an advocate for the hard-working game consumer. He didn't mention the custom playbook issue.

Are all of these people "hiding" it?

I suppose at the end of the day you can read into it whatever you want. If you want to believe that the "community leaders" are nothing but "EA PR Lite," then nothing I say is going to change your mind anyway.

I didn't see the issue in my time with the retail game. Other people are seeing the issue now. Tommy is busting his ass here to try and figure out how to reproduce the issue in retail so that we can give as much feedback as possible.

If you think that anybody here was trying to hide an issue like this from the gaming community just so they'd still go out and buy the game, then you've obviously never seen people like Tommy in their element working with the game.


In that case, where can I get a copy of the game that you community guys play? Because year in and year out it always seems to work better than the game the rest of us get on release day...

@Austinwolv, I don't think I'm attacking people directly. Simply asking honest questions. As a member of "the community," I'm just curious how this stuff slips through the cracks. Thanks to community guys who answered my questions.

[The Knee]

guys im only talking about practice mode. that is the only place this solution works. not games. sorry i thought i mentioned that in first post. sorry for confusion.

[osufan4life]

In that case, where can I get a copy of the game that you community guys play? Because year in and year out it always seems to work better than the game the rest of us get on release day...

@Austinwolv, I don't think I'm attacking people directly. Simply asking honest questions. As a member of "the community," I'm just curious how this stuff slips through the cracks. Thanks to community guys who answered my questions.side track: do you believe that secret societies run our country?

[THE Travis]

guys im only talking about practice mode. that is the only place this solution works. not games. sorry i thought i mentioned that in first post. sorry for confusion.

Well in that case... thanks for saying that I'm just a whiner who is ignoring the solution, lol.

[The Knee]

no, you sound like that anyway. with your blame game

[Paakaa10]

In that case, where can I get a copy of the game that you community guys play? Because year in and year out it always seems to work better than the game the rest of us get on release day...

I'll send it to you once it's done curing cancer, AIDS, and poverty. It's quite the game disc. :D

It's a retail copy of the game. It came shrunk-wrap in the mail. As far as I'm aware it lacks any mystical properties to distinguish it from the other game discs which people obtained prior to launch or officially through stores beginning at midnight last night.

In the interest of contributing hardware information to track this issue, I'm using a 60GB launch PS3 unit with the latest firmware installed. Even though I've not experienced the issue yet, I'm knee-deep in trying to reproduce it now that we know people are seeing it.

[mnguy]

no, you sound like that anyway. with your blame game

who is he blaming? He is just asking why such a obviously large glitch wasn't noticed earlier...

[osufan4life]

I'll send it to you once it's done curing cancer, AIDS, and poverty. It's quite the game disc. :D

It's a retail copy of the game. It came shrunk-wrap in the mail. As far as I'm aware it lacks any mystical properties to distinguish it from the other game discs which people obtained prior to launch or officially through stores beginning at midnight last night.

In the interest of contributing hardware information to track this issue, I'm using a 60GB launch PS3 unit with the latest firmware installed. Even though I've not experienced the issue yet, I'm knee-deep in trying to reproduce it now that we know people are seeing it.
Does it only cure poverty if you own the disc? Because I'm still poor...

[The Knee]

paakaa it should be very easy to reproduce in practice mode. idk if that is something you need to look into

[osufan4life]

who is he blaming? He is just asking why such a obviously large glitch wasn't noticed earlier...

He is passive-aggressively blaming the "community" for failing to report this bug pre launch because he thinks they get commission on each sale or something.

[The Knee]

no it was the way he blamed it on the community leaders. go back and read his post and all the post in response from the community leaders.

did you really use your first post to defend this guy???

did you read the thread??

maybe you are the same guy??

[Oneback]

Has anyone tried re-installing the day 1 patch? It's obvious the guys that got the game early didn't see this issue (other than the one time by MrHitSticks) after the time is was reported at the community event. Make's me wonder if something in the patch is triggering the issue.

[The Knee]

good point one back. could very well be that.

[mnguy]

He is passive-aggressively blaming the "community" for failing to report this bug pre launch because he thinks they get commission on each sale or something.

I agree that he might be jumping to conclusions a little too quickly, but it is mind boggling how no one noticed the glitch earlier.

[SmoothPancakes]

Has anyone tried re-installing the day 1 patch? It's obvious the guys that got the game early didn't see this issue (other than the one time by MrHitSticks) after the time is was reported at the community event. Make's me wonder if something in the patch is triggering the issue.

Another thing to try, completely delete the patch and then go into the game offline and not connected (so you don't get prompted to download it again) and see if the playbooks still have this issue. That alone right there would give us a good idea on if it's an issue with the patch or not.

[gschwendt]

Alright from here out, use this thread to actually discuss the issue and possible causes & solutions to the issue.

No need for further posts about who is to blaim, who is not, etc. The facts are that we did not intentionally hide or mislead regarding the issue. Period. End of story. Now let's move on.

[Pig Bomb]

Another thing to try, completely delete the patch and then go into the game offline and not connected (so you don't get prompted to download it again) and see if the playbooks still have this issue. That alone right there would give us a good idea on if it's an issue with the patch or not.

my money is on the patch busting the custom books.... hopefully they can fix it quick..if not we will be without custom books for a month or two

[GuyIncognito21]

I would also point out that "community leaders" aren't the only people to have gotten their hands on the game early and shared impressions and experiences in online forums. A number of people at Operation Sports--general community, people without any "agenda" to "protect EA"--got the game early, played it, and never mentioned the issue.

Editorial staffs received review copies of the game as well and I'm not hearing anybody speaking out about this issue.

PastaPadre got his copy early, played through all of the modes so that he could put together impressions, and prides himself on giving honest opinions and being an advocate for the hard-working game consumer. He didn't mention the custom playbook issue.

The fact that none of them mentioned it is the whole point. And I don't know much about PastaPadre, but to Operation Sports and for-profit game reviewers, I would say there certainly is a huge incentive in covering EA's tracks for it. Incentives like advance access to the game and access to the community days.



If you think that anybody here was trying to hide an issue like this from the gaming community just so they'd still go out and buy the game, then you've obviously never seen people like Tommy in their element working with the game.

All I "think" is that it's perfectly reasonable for people to be asking why this issue was not brought to our attention until after the game was released. It seems like many of the community people knew about this bug, and had even commented on it to EA (to the point they were given assurances it would be fixed), and still didn't inform the community about it.

Why? If anybody with the game knew this bug was in there, whether EA said it was going to be fixed or not, weren't we told about it? Why not "oh btw, there is a bug whereby custom playbooks are showing up empty, but we've been assured that it will be fixed day 1?"

[trioptionGator]

So I just noticed that I've been experiencing the bug when using both an offensive AND defensive CPB, and to make my offensive playbook, I completely removed every formation down to the minimum # of plays allowed (I think it was 50).

[THE Travis]

If it does indeed turn out to be the day-1 patch that CAUSED this problem (as is tradition), then I I'll make sure the shit winds are pointed in the right direction... I suppose I had neglected that possible explanation for why it "wasn't noticed." But it should be mentioned that I have personal messages indicating that some community guys did know about this issue, but were told it would be fixed on launch day...

Either way, having their biggest feature broken on release day isn't a good thing... I wish you guys luck in figuring out a ham-fisted work around. I'll be waiting till this is fixed before I make a purchase.

[gschwendt]

As a temporary work-around for strictly offline game, if you see an instance where the play-art is not being displayed when you go to call a play, select Super Sim (I believe it's L1 but not certain). After that, you can then back out and your playbook should be back to normal.

Obviously this will not work for online gameplay since Super-sim is not available.

[Koach Vonner]

How in the hell do you delete or remove a patch?

I too now believe that this issue was caused by the patch. Not the lack of community guys kissing EA's ass. They never saw it. So the patch caused it!!

Let's get rid of the patch. How?

[trioptionGator]

As a temporary work-around for strictly offline game, if you see an instance where the play-art is not being displayed when you go to call a play, select Super Sim (I believe it's L1 but not certain). After that, you can then back out and your playbook should be back to normal.

Obviously this will not work for online gameplay since Super-sim is not available.

I was unable to successfully use this work-around on 360. I tried going into super-sim (both through the RB button and the pause menu) and backing out without simming a play but that did not work. I then tried running a play in super-sim and my system froze.

[gschwendt]

I was unable to successfully use this work-around on 360. I tried going into super-sim (both through the RB button and the pause menu) and backing out without simming a play but that did not work. I then tried running a play in super-sim and my system froze.
Thanks. I'll pass that along.

[xMrHitStickx904]

Ehh, I don't know. The problem was there on the PS3 as well. I sent G a message Sunday about it, and the PS3 patch didn't drop until a few hours ago. 360 one dropped on friday. I'm really not sure what is causing it, cause it's my offensive plays that go missing. My Custom defensive PB plays don't go missing at all. They only did once, hasn't happened since.

[xMrHitStickx904]

How in the hell do you delete or remove a patch?

I too now believe that this issue was caused by the patch. Not the lack of community guys kissing EA's ass. They never saw it. So the patch caused it!!

Let's get rid of the patch. How?

if you are on the 360, clear your cache, it should do it.

[Dr Death]

For the "huddle around the ball" bug (aka zero play bug), it's not anything I've seen in retail but did see at the community event. My understanding was that it is caused by having too few plays or formations in your custom playbook, however Dr Death's 16 Formations and 200 plays should be more than enough. Death, when you created your playbook, did you remove a lot of the playbook before you got started or did you just remove a few and add a few? Just curious so I can pass along as many notes as possible.

That said, we'll try to find an answer for you guys.

Sorry for taking so long to respond, I've been getting the AC in my car fixed. It's like 103 here! I chose UTEP's PB and took out everything except the 4-wide under center and 5-wide... then I added every 5-wide I could find except the 5-wide Bunch and the 5-wide Trey, I think it's called, w/ 4 WR's and a TE.

I did notice it started to happen when the defense {CPU} made a good play and as they were showing the replay I would hit the A button to skip past it and then the empty play art thing would happen. As soon as I called time out, my playbook was back.

This was in Play Now, 10 minute quarters. It happened twice each half, early and late in each half, UTEP base PB, it did it w/ 146 plays and 14 formations and again w/ 215 plays and 16 formations. I added two Trips packages... 4 WR's, 1 RB and it still did it at that point too. Have a CP for Defense and have not had the problem at all but I didn't tinker much w/ my base D, which is Multiple D.

[xMrHitStickx904]

just to help clarify, timeouts will bring your plays back (offline and online)

super sim will bring it back offline. It won't crash your game on the PS3 though.

If your special teams, goal line and hail mary goes missing, you can't choose them from the playbook for the remainder of the game. You have to go in to " by plays " , look under "Special" and there will be your special teams.

I'm going to try and set my playbook setting back to "By play" by default instead of showing it by formation for the remainder of the day, and I'll see if that helps.

[trioptionGator]

just to help clarify, timeouts will bring your plays back (offline and online)

super sim will bring it back offline. It won't crash your game on the PS3 though.

I've had no success with either super-sim or timeouts offline. I'm thinking about uninstalling and re-installing the patch.

[AustinWolv]

@Austinwolv, I don't think I'm attacking people directly. Simply asking honest questions.
Seriously? By calling them liars and hiding stuff to fit an agenda?
C'mon, you know, don't play innocent.

self-edit: Gschewendt, just saw your post a page back. Done.

[xMrHitStickx904]

Austin, just ignore him, and lets see if we can find some solutions, and pass it along to the devs. the quicker, the faster we can get a patch.

[Escobar]

You can also do ask coach and pick fg attempt or PAT. I accidently went for 2 in my first online game because of the glitch. Dude was a cheeser tho, cus he tried to dc glitch me when I started going off in the 3rd. Still got the win I think

[Paakaa10]

Console: PlayStation 3, 60GB, Launch
Firmware: Up to date.
Patch Status: Applied.
Custom Playbook: MichNew, Michigan Pro-Based, Created pre-patch-release. 23/40 Formations, 362/374 Plays.

Results: Went into Practice mode and played for 15 minutes on offense testing for the bug. Changed to a New Play after running a play every time. Never encountered any issue with the playcall screen loading up all formations and all plays.

[th3 last tiger]

Ive played it now for a few hours and have found no issues on the 360 for me at least, although someone else whom I played in a quick game had it happen to them.

[gschwendt]

For the super-sim suggestion earlier, it sounds as though you might have to in and back out in order for it to fix it. You shouldn't have to sim it but essentially going to the super-sim screen and then coming back has a chance to fix it.


For those that are encountering it, can you list some of your formations included, preferably all but particularly any and all 5WR sets you have in your playbook.

[Paakaa10]

Console: PlayStation 3, 60GB, Launch
Firmware: Up to date.
Patch Status: Applied.
Custom Playbook: UFNew, Florida Pro-Based, Created post-patch-release. 5/40 Formations, 120/375 Plays.

Results: Intentionally removed every Formation which wasn't tied to an audible to see what would happen. Went into Practice mode and played for about 15 minutes on offense testing for the bug. Changed to a New Play after running a play every time.

Finally happened to me on the 7th or 8th "New Play" change. Here are the formations that were in the CPB:

Shotgun (Normal, Normal Y-Slot, Wild Gator)
Ace (Big, Normal)
Hail Mary (Hail Mary)
Goal Line (Normal)
Special Teams (Punt)
I-Form (Normal)

[Dr Death]

For the super-sim suggestion earlier, it sounds as though you might have to in and back out in order for it to fix it. You shouldn't have to sim it but essentially going to the super-sim screen and then coming back has a chance to fix it.


For those that are encountering it, can you list some of your formations included, preferably all but particularly any and all 5WR sets you have in your playbook.

I'll give you my entire PB... but should first mention that I did download the patch as soon as I put the game in at 12:11...

Custom Playbook: Base PB :UTEP:

Playbook Name: Red Gun

Formations -

ACE - These are all Under Center

4 WR
4 WR Trips
Empty 5 WR
Empty Trey
Spread

SHOTGUN -

5 WR
5 WR Flex
5 WR Flex Trio
5 WR HB
5 WR Trio
5 WR Trips
Empty Base
Empty Quads
Empty Y Flex
Trips Open
Trips Open Str

Total Formations: 16/40 Total Plays: 215/375

If I delete the Trips Open and Trips Open Str, I would be at 14/40 and 146/375

[trioptionGator]

For those that are encountering it, can you list some of your formations included, preferably all but particularly any and all 5WR sets you have in your playbook.

My playbook has 5WR Trips. Just for fun I tried removing the formation, saving the CPB and playing a game. Same issue came up.

EDIT: I'll try to do a complete list in a moment.

[Pig Bomb]

so what has EA said about this...surely the community leaders have been in touch ???????????

[Paakaa10]

Console: PlayStation 3, 60GB, Launch
Firmware: Up to date.
Patch Status: Applied.
Custom Playbook: AubNew, Auburn Spread-Based, Created post-patch-release. 25/40 Formations, 373/373 Plays.

Results: Added just enough Formations to max out my number of plays.. Went into Practice mode and played for about 15 minutes on offense testing for the bug. Changed to a New Play after running a play every time. Never had the bug happen. Maybe maxing out plays isn't bad but having too few formations is?

Formations in CPB:

Pistol (Strong Slot, 4WR Trio)
Hail Mary (Hail Mary)
Goal Line (H Tight)
Special Teams (Punt)
Empty (Flex Trey Open)
Full House (Normal Wide)
Ace (F Pair Twins, Bunch Base)
Shotgun (Split Slot, Y-Trips, Normal HB Wk, Normal, Wing Trio Wk, Spread, Ace, Trio HB Wk, Spread Flex, 5WR Trio, Wildcat, 4WR Trio, 4WR Trio Str, Spread Flex Wk, Wing Offset, Wing Trips Wk, Wildcat Spread, Wild Cowboy, Wing Offset Wk, Normal Flex Wing)

[gschwendt]

so what has EA said about this...surely the community leaders have been in touch ???????????
They are indeed looking into the issue. That is exactly why I'm coming back to this thread, requesting more information, posing possible problems, etc. As well, on their twitter account, they posted:

We're looking into the Custom Playbooks issue that some of you are experiencing and will provide an update ASAP. Thanks for the feedback!

[Paakaa10]

so what has EA said about this...surely the community leaders have been in touch ???????????

Link: http://twitter.com/#!/EANCAAFootball/status/90856055545933824


We're looking into the Custom Playbooks issue that some of you are experiencing and will provide an update ASAP. Thanks for the feedback!

[Koach Vonner]

I went with Oregon Base Playbook.
I got rid of all ACE formation and put in Pistol Full House. I also put in the Wishbone

[JBHuskers]

Rest assured, we are in direct contact with the devs to get this resolved.

[trioptionGator]

My full playbook:

Florida Base

Ace -- Big, F Pair Twins, Jumbo, Normal, Spread, Tackle Over, Y-Trips
Full House -- Normal Wide
I-Form -- Normal, Slot, Tackle Over, Tight
Power-I -- Tight
Shotgun -- Bunch TE, Empty Y-Flex, Normal, Normal Y-Slot, Split Close, Split Offset, Tight, Wildcat (5WR Trips now removed)
Split Backs -- Normal
Strong I -- Twins, Twins Over, Y-Flex
Weak I -- Normal

EDIT: YES, I did receive the bug with this playbook, both with Shotgun 5WR Trips and without.

[trioptionGator]

Rest assured, we are in direct contact with the devs to get this resolved.

And we thank you for it!

[gschwendt]

And just so we're clear, those that are posting your playbooks, also be 100% sure to note that "yes, I did receive the bug with this playbook", that way as I pass along the information, I can be 100% positive you encountered it without having to go back through the thread and see who has reported it and who hasn't.

Greatly appreciate it guys... trying to do everything in our powers to this squared away.

[ram29jackson]

people talk about wanting a patch to come later, but what difference does that make for the majority of the sales of people who dont go online? only 10 % of people/sales go online to play. This cant be good for future sales at all, or game reputation

[Paakaa10]

Console: PlayStation 3, 60GB, Launch
Firmware: Up to date.
Patch Status: Applied.
Custom Playbook: OregNew, Oregon Spread-Based, Created post-patch-release. 22/40 Formations, 50/373 Plays.

Results: Removed plays from the set formations until I could go no further; apparently 50 plays was the minimum amount allowed. Went into Practice mode and played for about 15 minutes on offense testing for the bug. Changed to a New Play after running a play every time.

This was my most jacked-up CPB yet, but I didn't encounter the bug. Some of my formations only had a single play in them because my goal had been to cut out as many plays as it would let me.

Formations in CPB:

Shotgun (Split Slot, Y-Trips, Normal HB Wk, Normal, Y-Trips HB Wk, Wing Trio Wk, Ace, Trio HB Wk, Split Offset, Spread Flex, 5WR Trio, 4WR Trio, 4WR Trio Str, Spread Flex Wk, Twin TE Slot Str, Wing Offset, Wing Trips Wk, Wildcat Spread, Ace Twins Wk, Quads Trio, Wing Offset Wk)
Ace (F Pair Twins)
Hail Mary (Hail Mary)
Goal Line (Normal)
Special Teams (Punt)

[gschwendt]

people talk about wanting a patch to come later, but what difference does that make for the majority of the sales of people who dont go online? only 10 % of people/sales go online to play. This cant be good for future sales at all, or game reputationI imagine a much larger percentage of people are connected online, probably closer to 90% have the capability and therefore would receive the patch. You don't have to actually go into the online lobby to receive the patch, you receive it as soon as you boot the game and have a live internet connection.

[ram29jackson]

Rest assured, we are in direct contact with the devs to get this resolved.

they didnt already know ? quite frankly, with all due respect, this is a poor form of quality control.

[Roy38]

I'll share my experience...

Console: Xbox 360 Elite (250g Hard Drive)
Patch: Installed
Playbook: TCU
Playbook Type: Spread
Game Mode: Practice

What I did:
I removed all formations (Ace, I-Forms, and Shotgun I believe) and retained the Pistol formations (of which there were 3 I believe). I inserted a variety of Pistol formations to try them out (Spread, Spread Flex, Strong Slot, Weak Slot, Train, to name a few) as well as the Power-I counterpart to their Goal Line package (which is Power-I: Tight). Maybe Power-I: Weak?

What happened:
1. Came out in Pistol: Slot and was fooling around with some of the plays. At this time, I went to see what the Formation Audibles were for this formation. I could select a "Quick Pass", "PA Pass", and "Run", but "Deep Pass" was not available. I have all plays available from that formation, yet I can't call a "Deep Pass" formation audible.

2. I found Shotgun: Normal, Shotgun: Spread, and Shotgun: Crazy Raider available in my playbook even though I removed all the Shotgun formations. I didn't check to see what Shotgun formations were available, I just removed them all. Strangely enough, there was only one play available in Shotgun: Normal which was Four Verticals. Shotgun: Crazy Raider seemed pretty normal, but I haven't used this in prior editions to know if plays were missing. Shotgun: Spread was the biggest head scratcher. There were no plays available at all. However, I was trying to see if any plays were somehow imported, so I selected "Random Play" in which it took me back into practice mode to attempt the play. I could see a jumble of my offensive players on the LOS over the center. No play art, nothing. I hiked the ball, watched my QB get sacked, then like someone turning on a light at a roach party, my entire team scattered from over center revealing all my players.

[ram29jackson]

I imagine a much larger percentage of people are connected online, probably closer to 90% have the capability and therefore would receive the patch. You don't have to actually go into the online lobby to receive the patch, you receive it as soon as you boot the game and have a live internet connection.

honestly, I strongly doubt, 90% can or do connect online. The majority are not that privileged ..or being younger, allowed to haha

[Paakaa10]

Console: PlayStation 3, 60GB, Launch
Firmware: Up to date.
Patch Status: Applied.
Custom Playbook: OregNew, Oregon Spread-Based, Created post-patch-release. 40/40 Formations, 68/373 Plays.

Results: Edited the OregNew CPB from before so that I had 40/40 Formations. Went into Practice mode and played for about 15 minutes on offense testing for the bug. Changed to a New Play after running a play every time.

No occurrence of the bug from a CPB with Formations maxed out.

Formations in CPB:

Shotgun (Split Slot, Y-Trips, Normal HB Wk, Normal, Y-Trips HB Wk, Wing Trio Wk, Ace, Trio HB Wk, Split Offset, Spread Flex, 5WR Trio, 4WR Trio, 4WR Trio Str, Spread Flex Wk, Twin TE Slot Str, Wing Offset, Wing Trips Wk, Wildcat Spread, Ace Twins Wk, Quads Trio, Wing Offset Wk)
Ace (4WR, Big, 4WR Trips, F Wing Trips, Empty 5WR, Big Twins, Bunch, Big Wing, Jumbo, Double Flex, Flip Trips, Empty Trey, Big TE Flip, Bunch Swap, 4WR Trio, Jumbo Heavy, F Pair Twins, Bunch Base, Jumbo Z)
Hail Mary (Hail Mary)
Goal Line (Normal)
Special Teams (Punt)

[Dewiel]

they didnt already know ? quite frankly, with all due respect, this is a poor form of quality control.

We're looking into the Custom Playbooks issue that some of you are experiencing and will provide an update ASAP. Thanks for the feedback! We became aware of the issue when it was reported in the forums early this morning. As you can imagine, there are many moving pieces with this feature and the team is working to address this as quickly as possible.

[trioptionGator]

We're looking into the Custom Playbooks issue that some of you are experiencing and will provide an update ASAP. Thanks for the feedback! We became aware of the issue when it was reported in the forums early this morning. As you can imagine, there are many moving pieces with this feature and the team is working to address this as quickly as possible.

Thank you!

[jwallace0317]

honestly, I strongly doubt, 90% can or do connect online. The majority are not that privileged ..or being younger, allowed to haha

A majority of users don't have their PS3/Xbox360 connected to the internet? Are you sure you're talking about right now, like the year 2011? lol Online Dynasty play for the game has been huge and growing, and if you do a random search for public online dynasties on the EA site, you'll see THOUSANDS of online dynasties, and that doesn't include the additional OD's that are set to private. Not to mention, every single person I know that plays the game uses a names roster.....you can't get a names roster unless you download one, and you can't download one unless your console is connected to the internet. Pick 10 people you know who play the game, and I'll bet at least 9 of them have a PSN ID. Check their usernames on EASportsWorld, and it'll show the day and time they last played the game (even if it was offline)...you wouldn't be able to see that info if their console wasn't connected to the internet. So, to say that the majority of NCAA consumers don't have their console connected to the internet is preposterous.

[AustinWolv]

We're looking into the Custom Playbooks issue that some of you are experiencing and will provide an update ASAP. Thanks for the feedback! We became aware of the issue when it was reported in the forums early this morning. As you can imagine, there are many moving pieces with this feature and the team is working to address this as quickly as possible.

Thanks, the support is appreciated.

[Paakaa10]

Console: PlayStation 3, 60GB, Launch
Firmware: Up to date.
Patch Status: Applied.
Custom Playbook: OregNew, Oregon Spread-Based, Created post-patch-release. 40/40 Formations, 68/373 Plays.

Results: Edited the OregNew CPB from before so that I had 40/40 Formations. Went into Practice mode and played for about 15 minutes on offense testing for the bug. Changed to a New Play after running a play every time.

No occurrence of the bug from a CPB with Formations maxed out.

Formations in CPB:

Shotgun (Split Slot, Y-Trips, Normal HB Wk, Normal, Y-Trips HB Wk, Wing Trio Wk, Ace, Trio HB Wk, Split Offset, Spread Flex, 5WR Trio, 4WR Trio, 4WR Trio Str, Spread Flex Wk, Twin TE Slot Str, Wing Offset, Wing Trips Wk, Wildcat Spread, Ace Twins Wk, Quads Trio, Wing Offset Wk)
Ace (4WR, Big, 4WR Trips, F Wing Trips, Empty 5WR, Big Twins, Bunch, Big Wing, Jumbo, Double Flex, Flip Trips, Empty Trey, Big TE Flip, Bunch Swap, 4WR Trio, Jumbo Heavy, F Pair Twins, Bunch Base, Jumbo Z)
Hail Mary (Hail Mary)
Goal Line (Normal)
Special Teams (Punt)


I took the exact same CPB and just added plays from the formations until it was up to the maximum number of plays allowable. Once that was done, I went into Practice mode as before.

Even with a full CPB of formations and plays, did not encounter the bug.

[Dr Death]

And just so we're clear, those that are posting your playbooks, also be 100% sure to note that "yes, I did receive the bug with this playbook", that way as I pass along the information, I can be 100% positive you encountered it without having to go back through the thread and see who has reported it and who hasn't.

Greatly appreciate it guys... trying to do everything in our powers to this squared away.

Just thought I'd let you know... I just played one half... 10 minute quarters... and had the "bug" happen 4 times. I tried the RB thing... Sim... and then B to back out and each time it worked and brought my playbook back up w/ out having to use a timeout.

[ram29jackson]

A majority of users don't have their PS3/Xbox360 connected to the internet? Are you sure you're talking about right now, like the year 2011? lol Online Dynasty play for the game has been huge and growing, and if you do a random search for public online dynasties on the EA site, you'll see THOUSANDS of online dynasties, and that doesn't include the additional OD's that are set to private. Not to mention, every single person I know that plays the game uses a names roster.....you can't get a names roster unless you download one, and you can't download one unless your console is connected to the internet. Pick 10 people you know who play the game, and I'll bet at least 9 of them have a PSN ID. Check their usernames on EASportsWorld, and it'll show the day and time they last played the game (even if it was offline)...you wouldn't be able to see that info if their console wasn't connected to the internet. So, to say that the majority of NCAA consumers don't have their console connected to the internet is preposterous.


thousands is still a small number to total sales. Heres some simple math- most people see a black person/African American every where they go. Black people still only take up 10% of the nations population.....what ever,..just my 2 cents.
I hope this is problem is corrected as well..but post sale promises for fixes after paying $65 for game gets old real fast.

custom playbook or no CPB- I hope to see you guys in a gamechangers game soon !

[jusblaze09]

So it sounds like it is caused by removing too many formations (other than the one time Paakaa didn't encounter it after taking out everything possible).

Now the question is how much is too much.

[Paakaa10]

Console: PlayStation 3, 60GB, Launch
Firmware: Up to date.
Patch Status: Applied.
Custom Playbook: Mich2, Michigan Pro-Based, Created post-patch-release. 7/40 Formations, 50/373 Plays.

Results: Took the base Michigan playbook and removed as many Formations as it would allow until I hit the minimum number of plays allowable.

Even with the small number of Formations and Plays in this CPB, I did not encounter the bug.

Formations in CPB:

Ace (Twin TE)
I-Form (Normal)
Weak I (Normal, Twins)
Shotgun (Normal, 5WR Flex Trey)
Strong I (Normal)
Hail Mary (Hail Mary)
Goal Line (Normal)
Special Teams (Punt)


I had hoped to be able to reproduce the bug with this CPB because it had similar parameters to what caused the one occurrence of the bug in my game earlier. I will next re-create that one "bug" CPB to see if I can replicate the bug consistently.

[The Knee]

hey guys. just wanted to give you a update from a guy at os. he said that there is a limit to how many formations you can delete before this happens. hes working on numbers now. but looks like if you remove to many base formations at once this happens. he can only change a few and never happens. but thats just what hes' working on. could or couldnt be prob.

[xMrHitStickx904]

We're looking into the Custom Playbooks issue that some of you are experiencing and will provide an update ASAP. Thanks for the feedback! We became aware of the issue when it was reported in the forums early this morning. As you can imagine, there are many moving pieces with this feature and the team is working to address this as quickly as possible.

We appreciate it, it's a very good game this year, don't want to see it marred by the glitch.

[jwallace0317]

hey guys. just wanted to give you a update from a guy at os. he said that there is a limit to how many formations you can delete before this happens. hes working on numbers now. but looks like if you remove to many base formations at once this happens. he can only change a few and never happens. but thats just what hes' working on. could or couldnt be prob.

Totally random thought, but I wonder if it matters what the "theme" of the base playbook is. Like, if it's a one back playbook but you take out too many one back formations (i.e., you're destroying the "base"), then that might be a factor.

Someone should try triggering the bug with the Multiple playbook which, by definition, has no base.

[ram29jackson]

hey guys. just wanted to give you a update from a guy at os. he said that there is a limit to how many formations you can delete before this happens. hes working on numbers now. but looks like if you remove to many base formations at once this happens. he can only change a few and never happens. but thats just what hes' working on. could or couldnt be prob.

is his xbox360 or ps3?

[AustinWolv]

See, that is kind of interesting because I swore that in one of the CPB videos a couple weeks ago about how to use it that the NCAA guy on the video (I think Anthony White, the play creator guy) specifically showed deleting ALL of the formations out of the base PB and then adding in what you wanted for a fresh start.

[Paakaa10]

RE-TEST OF "BUG" CPB

Console: PlayStation 3, 60GB, Launch
Firmware: Up to date.
Patch Status: Applied.
Custom Playbook: UFNew, Florida Pro-Based, Created post-patch-release. 5/40 Formations, 120/375 Plays.

CPB Formations:

Shotgun (Normal, Normal Y-Slot, Wild Gator)
Ace (Big, Normal)
Hail Mary (Hail Mary)
Goal Line (Normal)
Special Teams (Punt)
I-Form (Normal)


Interesting thing happened when I went about re-creating this CPB; as I was removing whole formations to get down to the 5/40 I had before, I hit the error where I was down to 50 plays and that's the minimum; had to add more plays from Ace Big to get the exact same number of Formations as previous.

I ran a good deal more plays than last time before I hit the "zero play" bug. I don't know that this is the "be all, end all" fix, but the only two times I've seen the bug have come from using a CPB which has a minimum number of Formations in it.

[Kwizzy]

hey guys. just wanted to give you a update from a guy at os. he said that there is a limit to how many formations you can delete before this happens. hes working on numbers now. but looks like if you remove to many base formations at once this happens. he can only change a few and never happens. but thats just what hes' working on. could or couldnt be prob.

Not to say that this isn't a contributing factor but... When I first got the game 2 weeks ago, the first thing I did was create a custom playbook based of of Nebraska's PB. I immediately changed all of my audibles to goalline dive, and then removed all of the formations down to the 2-3 shotgun forms left when I hit the minimum. I then added 2 I formations and removed the remaining shotgun sets. I have had NO problems with it at all. So it's at the very least, not consistently removing too many formations that causes the problem.

[Paakaa10]

Someone should try triggering the bug with the Multiple playbook which, by definition, has no base.

Using the Boise State Multiple playbook as a base for my CPB, I was able to drop it down to 7/40 Formations and 50/375 Plays.

Here are the Formations I had left:

Weak I (Normal, Twin)
Hail Mary (Hail Mary)
Goal Line (Normal)
Special Teams (Punt)
Ace (Big, Normal)
Strong I (Tight)
Shotgun (5WR Flex Trey, Trey Open)


And... I never saw the bug. :confused::dunno:

Might be onto something with the idea about the "Multiple" playbook as a base being immune to something which is afflicting "specific" base playbooks. But I can't say anything concrete yet.

[RTCVT]

Using the Boise State Multiple playbook as a base for my CPB, I was able to drop it down to 7/40 Formations and 50/375 Plays.

Here are the Formations I had left:

Weak I (Normal, Twin)
Hail Mary (Hail Mary)
Goal Line (Normal)
Special Teams (Punt)
Ace (Big, Normal)
Strong I (Tight)
Shotgun (5WR Flex Trey, Trey Open)


And... I never saw the bug. :confused::dunno:

Might be onto something with the idea about the "Multiple" playbook as a base being immune to something which is afflicting "specific" base playbooks. But I can't say anything concrete yet.


May be on to something with the multiple books, I have never seen the bug and I went with the VT playbook as my base.

[jwallace0317]

Might be onto something with the idea about the "Multiple" playbook as a base being immune to something which is afflicting "specific" base playbooks. But I can't say anything concrete yet.

Yeah who knows. Another test of the theory would be to take a pb with an "air raid" base but delete all sg formations and add on more under center formations, so that the "base" is destroyed.

I'll do some testing myself as soon as Mr. Amazon gets here today! :)

[Koach Vonner]

See, that is kind of interesting because I swore that in one of the CPB videos a couple weeks ago about how to use it that the NCAA guy on the video (I think Anthony White, the play creator guy) specifically showed deleting ALL of the formations out of the base PB and then adding in what you wanted for a fresh start.

THIS +1!!!
I did exactly what he did and got screwed.

[Paakaa10]

For the sake of testing variables, I took the Florida State Multiple playbook and dropped it down to 7/40 Formations and 50/373 Plays.

Here are the Formations I had left:

Weak I (Twins Flex)
Shotgun (Normal, Y-Trips HB Wk, Spread, Normal Flex Wk, 5WR Flex)
I-Form (Normal)
Ace (Normal Flex, Big)
Hail Mary (Hail Mary)
Goal Line (Normal)
Special Teams (Punt)


And no "bug" occurrence.

[Paakaa10]

Write-up on this from PastaPadre here: http://www.pastapadre.com/2011/07/12/ncaa-football-12-custom-playbook-troubles

Quote below comes from his own testing on 360:


Many are now reporting situations where within games their created playbooks display nothing but question marks or empty formations. The team then approaches the line of scrimmage in disarray with bizarre personnel groupings and the result is either a penalty or wasting a time out to prevent it. The instances may reoccur at random times throughout the game.

I’ve spent further time today testing out some quick custom playbooks that I put together using different bases and numbers of formations/plays but still have not had this occur to me with any of them. There must be some manner in which the books are being structured or certain formations/plays causing the problem. What I have noted however is when using custom playbooks the post-play scenes and replays experience slowdown (become very stuttery) and the play call screen is not as smooth to scroll through.

[Koach Vonner]

Knock on Wood!! First QT not a single problem yet. 7 min QTs too

[xMrHitStickx904]

this is really bizarre. It's hit or miss with people. I know people can say that EA should have beta tested more, but this is one of the more complex glitches I've heard of.

[JBHuskers]

this is really bizarre. It's hit or miss with people. I know people can say that EA should have beta tested more, but this is one of the more complex glitches I've heard of.

But it's very easy to jump on for those who just love to bitch. Those people make themselves so obvious.

[Paakaa10]

this is really bizarre. It's hit or miss with people. I know people can say that EA should have beta tested more, but this is one of the more complex glitches I've heard of.

And there's a good lesson in software programming haha.

Honestly--had I seen this during the pre-release window where I had a copy of the retail game--it would have been mentioned here front and center. But the level of edits I made to my CPB apparently weren't enough for me to run into the issue. As it is, the only success I've had in replicating the issue comes from taking Florida's playbook as a base and then completely stripping it down to hardly any plays and formations; things I would never do with the game unless I was specifically trying to break it.

I feel bad for the people having trouble with this, but it's obviously a fluid situation with different people experiencing pretty different results so far.

[Koach Vonner]

I froze right before halftime. 1 sec left :(. No problems till then though

[The Knee]

not sure what system he was on.

I havent tried playing a game yet but it happens no matter what you do in practice mode. but the only way it will happen is if you exit from the field to pick a new play before the O sets back up to run current play. my be something to do with that in games also. is it from skipping cut scenes? or maybe no huddle? idk just throwing some things out there.

[xMrHitStickx904]

I was having second thoughts about getting on the PS3, but i'm glad I did with the freezing problems lol. idk, my friend got his last night, installed it, hasn't froze yet. (Xbox 360 Slim)

[I OU a Beatn]

I've been playing for about 6 hours and I haven't had a single hiccup. I'm guessing a lot of these freezing issues are people using the old 360.

[Paakaa10]

I've been playing for about 6 hours and I haven't had a single hiccup. I'm guessing a lot of these freezing issues are people using the old 360.

Maybe, maybe not. In any case, it is a good idea to remind people to share some details about their console when they post their experience with any issues. It can sometimes have an effect on why an issue is occurring.

[morsdraconis]

As soon as I finish installing the game to the HD and downloading the update, I will do some extensive testing on this issue. I've got an idea on how to possibly figure out what the issue is (or, at least, get rid of the possibility of a certain formation/play causing the issue).

[ThaShark316]

Hmm...I used a Multiple (Boise St. book)...haven't seen the issue so far.

My issue:

FIU base playbook (spread)
360 (slim)
35/40 formations, 373 plays.

[jusblaze09]

Hmm...I used a Multiple (Boise St. book)...haven't seen the issue so far.

My issue:

FIU base playbook (spread)
360 (slim)
35/40 formations, 373 plays.

What are your formations with the FIU CPB?

[xMrHitStickx904]

Created a new playbook.

Base PB : Notre Dame ( Spread )
PS3 Slim
22/40 formations, 374 plays. I thought the max was 373, but mine is showing 374/374.

My formations :
Jumbo Z (Ace)
I Form - Close
Pistol - 4 WR Trips
Pistol - Cross
Pistol - Strong Slot
Pistol - Train
Shotgun :
5 WR Bunch
5WR Flex Trio
Ace Twins WK
Normal
Normal HB WK
Quads Trio
Short Snap
Split Slot
Spread
Tight Slots
Trips
Trips Open
Trips TE
Wildcat
Wing Offset WK
Y - Trips

[Koach Vonner]

When you download the game to the HD do you still have to have the game in the console to play it?

[Paakaa10]

22/40 formations, 374 plays. I thought the max was 373, but mine is showing 374/374.

I believe that the max number of plays fluctuates based on what you set as the base playbook for your CPB; since some playbooks have different numbers of plays in Goal Line, Special Teams, etc.

[BearDownUofA]

When you download the game to the HD do you still have to have the game in the console to play it?
Yes. Installing it to the drive just makes it run faster.

[Koach Vonner]

Just finished my first game using custom Playbook with no problems. Hell Yea!!!!

System: 360 Elite
Offense: Spread (Miss.St)
Plays: 368/373
Formations: 27/40

I Form Tackle Over
Maryland I
Pistol (Bunch, Full House, Strong Slot)
Power I Tight
Shotgun:
4WR Trio Str
5WR Bunch
5WR Flex Trey
5WR Flex Trio
5WR Tight
5WR Trio
Bunch Quads
Empty Quads
Empty Trey TE
Normal
Normal Flex Wing
Slot F Wing
Split Close
Split Offset
Tight Slots
Trio HB WK
Trips
Wildcat
Wing Offset
Wing Offset WK

Wishbone

However Pastapadre stated the play calling menu is a tad laggy and the Replay Highlights and cut scenes move slower. This is True!!

[xMrHitStickx904]

about to play a EASCGS game. We'll see how it goes.

[Koach Vonner]

Thanks for the HD info. I tried to play it without the game in and it said "Disc must be inserted". I was like I thought I didn't have to do that cause it's on the HD

[ThaShark316]

What are your formations with the FIU CPB?

Ace
Big
Bunch Base
Tackle Over
Y-Trips

I-Form
Close
Normal
Tackle Over
Tight
Twin TE Strg
Twins

Pistol
Bunch
Full House
Train

Shotgun
4WR Trio
4WR Trio Str
5WR Bunch
5WR Tight
5WR Trio
Bunch Quads
Empty Quads
Empty Trey
Empty Trips TE
Gator Heavy
Normal
Normal Flex Wing
Quads Trio
Short Snap
Slot F Wing
Spread Flex
Wing Offset
Wing Offset Wk

Another thing I noticed: When I look in the shotgun, I see the formation "spread". I didn't choose that in my playbook. Only happens/shows up in games and in practice. Not in audibles or in "view playbook" in custom playbooks.

[Paakaa10]

Just finished my first game using custom Playbook with no problems. Hell Yea!!!!

Very happy that you were able to get it all worked out. Keep us posted as you continue to play!

[Koach Vonner]

Cool.
I also noticed Pakaa that I don't have Goal Line in my Playbook.
The put wishbone as my Goal Line. Not that I care to be honest with you. They put Bear as my Goal Line defense. Weird? Maybe that will help you guys

[jwallace0317]

Question for the Mods: is this the designated place to mention all custom playbook problems, or just the "zero play" issue? I say this because I spotted another issue and don't know I should be posting somewhere else with it. The issue:

Missing Formation Audible, even when all plays from the formation are in your book.

Example: I-form H Pro. It's in Bowling Green's book. If you use that book as your base and save it as a custom playbook, the Iso play in I-form H Pro is the down(run) formation audible. Like you would expect. But...

Start a new custom playbook with another team as the base. Say, ECU. Add I-form H Pro (and all the plays associated with it) to the book. Save/exit. When you go into practice mode or a game and come out in that formation, you have no down(run) formation audible, even though Iso is in the book.

I stumbled onto this pretty quickly after starting to tool around with playbooks, and I wouldn't be surprised if something similar comes up with other formations.

-----------

On other note, I must be one of the lucky ones who can't seem to create the "question mark/no play art" plays custom playbook issue to save my life. I took ECU's air raid book, deleted all the shotgun plays, deleted all other formations and added in only a handful of power running formations (and only a few plays each) and had no problems in a game or practice mode in terms of running the plays and the playcall screen working properly. The only annoyance was that no matter what I did with ECU's book, it would always keep a heading for SG 4WR Trey (but would show no plays at all for that formation) and SG Spread Flex (listing only one play-Verts).

[xMrHitStickx904]

Just played a classic OT game. Miami vs Michigan. I'm Michigan, and D. Robinson gets injured for the season in the second quarter, starting RB is injured for 7 weeks, so what was once a 7-0, about to be 14-0 lead, became a 21-7 deficit in the 4th. Somehow, I'm able to string together two TD's in the 4th, and got some stops to take it into OT. First OT, he scores a TD, I score a TD. Then, I kick a field goal to take a 31-28 lead, he misses his and I get the W.

Best part was, no custom playbook problems at all.

[Koach Vonner]

Just finished game 2 with Custom Playbooks

[ThaShark316]

Just finished game 2 with Custom Playbooks

What did you do to get it to work?

[morsdraconis]

I think I might have possibly figured out what the issue is, but more testing is going to need to be done before I reveal more information.

[xMrHitStickx904]

No longer having any issues anymore, both Offense and D custom PB's are straight.

[ThaShark316]

No longer having any issues anymore, both Offense and D custom PB's are straight.

What did you do?

[Paakaa10]

Glad to see that people are "figuring out" the issue; if you don't mind, posting information about your CPBs here might be useful in terms of information passed back to the team so that they can analyze what's going on from their side of things.

[Pig Bomb]

just had my game freeze up... using lllinois playbook, not custom
ncsu @ notre dame

just froze in the 1st Q after a pass play and tackle

im on 360 with the game installed

[Architekto]

Guys, I had this problem with 3 different cpb. Those first 3 I had used Louisville, Florida St. And Rice as bases. I would then first set all audibles set under one of my most used formations and then would start adding/removing plays/formations.

I gave it one more try using Standford as base and this time I picked each audible from different formations. I then dropped all unwanted formations and added my formations but without adding/removing plays. With this playbook I did not see the glitch in a quick game and in about 1/2 hour in practice mode. Before I was getting it within the first few plays...

[xMrHitStickx904]

Here is what I did, when I made my " Luck Of The Irish " playbook, I didn't remove "All Formations" . I took them out individually, so I had about the same amount of formations that the stock ND PB had. Then, when I removed plays, I made sure I kept at least 7 in one formation. After that, I set my audibles, got rid of formations that had only 1 play in it, and it works. I haven't come across the bug since, it's been 5 games. All wins btw.

[Koach Vonner]

I sort of did the same thing. I didn't remove all formations. Nor did I go with a straight Air Raid PB. It has a lot of gun, but I incorporated familiar running formations so that audibles wouldn't have to be messed with. It works. Played 2 offline and 2 online. No problems. Except for can't get a decent pass game going :(

[morsdraconis]

The bug is definitely related to removing too many formations at once causing the FG formation to disappear.

There's an alternate bug with these formations where they actually remove an available play slot (make the available plays to be added decrease by one total for some reason):

Ace Double Flex
Pistol Slot Flex
Shotgun Normal
Shotgun Normal Flex Weak
Shotgun Normal Wing Weak
Shotgun Spread Flex

Not sure what's causing that, but if you add any of those formations to your playbook, it'll decrease the number of available plays in the book by one for each formation.

[Architekto]

Well my standford-based playbook was fine this morning in about 15 min of practice mode. I did notice that it showed shotgun normal hb wk with only one play (four verts), but I never added that and its not showing in the cpb interface

[PDuncanOSU]

I'm on PS3 with the patch installed. I have a offensive CPB with Nevada playbook base and a defensive CPB with multiple base. With both playbooks, I first moved my audibles to plays and formations I knew I would be keeping. I would not use the "remove all formations" option but would go through and individually add and remove plays and formations. Both playbooks have near the max number of plays and around 20 formations. I played a few offline "play now" games last night using OSU, Virginia, Maryland, and Oregon with these playbooks and never came across this bug.

[hampshire2012]

Not to say that this isn't a contributing factor but... When I first got the game 2 weeks ago, the first thing I did was create a custom playbook based of of Nebraska's PB. I immediately changed all of my audibles to goalline dive, and then removed all of the formations down to the 2-3 shotgun forms left when I hit the minimum. I then added 2 I formations and removed the remaining shotgun sets. I have had NO problems with it at all. So it's at the very least, not consistently removing too many formations that causes the problem.

I did exactly this and HAVENT seen the problem either.

So in order:

1) set all audibles to goal line hb dive
2) remove as many plays and formations as possible
3) add a load of plays (finished with around 120)
4) play game with no problem

This is on ps3 btw, TTU air raid as base

[hampshire2012]

The bug is definitely related to removing too many formations at once causing the FG formation to disappear.

There's an alternate bug with these formations where they actually remove an available play slot (make the available plays to be added decrease by one total for some reason):

Ace Double Flex
Pistol Slot Flex
Shotgun Normal
Shotgun Normal Flex Weak
Shotgun Normal Wing Weak
Shotgun Spread Flex

Not sure what's causing that, but if you add any of those formations to your playbook, it'll decrease the number of available plays in the book by one for each formation.

Are these audible formations by any chance? Just a thought, I'm at work atm so I can't test stuff out.

Also, I'm having problems with formation audibles that seem equally illogical. Is there a thread for that aswell? Clearly its not the priority but something is definitely broken there.

[gschwendt]

The bug is definitely related to removing too many formations at once causing the FG formation to disappear.

There's an alternate bug with these formations where they actually remove an available play slot (make the available plays to be added decrease by one total for some reason):

Ace Double Flex
Pistol Slot Flex
Shotgun Normal
Shotgun Normal Flex Weak
Shotgun Normal Wing Weak
Shotgun Spread Flex

Not sure what's causing that, but if you add any of those formations to your playbook, it'll decrease the number of available plays in the book by one for each formation.
Nice work... I plan to test this further today to see if I can find an actual number or not. That way we can give an idea of what to avoid, etc.

[ram29jackson]

I'm a consumer. I paid money for this expecting it to work in the way they told me it would. I'll use it when I dont have to worry about remembering what work arounds might work.

[xMrHitStickx904]

yeah that shotgun normal 4 vertical bug is a surefire way to know that you may be missing some plays during a gm.

[Roy38]

Question for the Mods: is this the designated place to mention all custom playbook problems, or just the "zero play" issue? I say this because I spotted another issue and don't know I should be posting somewhere else with it. The issue:

Missing Formation Audible, even when all plays from the formation are in your book.

Example: I-form H Pro. It's in Bowling Green's book. If you use that book as your base and save it as a custom playbook, the Iso play in I-form H Pro is the down(run) formation audible. Like you would expect. But...

Start a new custom playbook with another team as the base. Say, ECU. Add I-form H Pro (and all the plays associated with it) to the book. Save/exit. When you go into practice mode or a game and come out in that formation, you have no down(run) formation audible, even though Iso is in the book.

I stumbled onto this pretty quickly after starting to tool around with playbooks, and I wouldn't be surprised if something similar comes up with other formations.

-----------

On other note, I must be one of the lucky ones who can't seem to create the "question mark/no play art" plays custom playbook issue to save my life. I took ECU's air raid book, deleted all the shotgun plays, deleted all other formations and added in only a handful of power running formations (and only a few plays each) and had no problems in a game or practice mode in terms of running the plays and the playcall screen working properly. The only annoyance was that no matter what I did with ECU's book, it would always keep a heading for SG 4WR Trey (but would show no plays at all for that formation) and SG Spread Flex (listing only one play-Verts).

Had this happen again last night:

Console: Xbox 360 Elite (250g HD)
Playbook: Virginia Tech
Style: Multiple

This time, I deleted all formations that weren't set as an audible, then added the Pistol formations I wanted. I then edited all my audibles to Goal Line: HB Dive then deleted those remaining formations from my playbook. I then added some more formations and plays up to near the max amount which was around 370 plays.

What happened:
Pistol Slot does not have a "Deep Pass " Formation Audible - again. I also had Shotgun: Normal and Shotgun: Spread appear in my playbook even after I deleted them. Shotgun: Normal containing of Four Verticals and Shotgun: Spread was completely empty.

[jwallace0317]

Had this happen again last night:

Console: Xbox 360 Elite (250g HD)
Playbook: Virginia Tech
Style: Multiple

This time, I deleted all formations that weren't set as an audible, then added the Pistol formations I wanted. I then edited all my audibles to Goal Line: HB Dive then deleted those remaining formations from my playbook. I then added some more formations and plays up to near the max amount which was around 370 plays.

What happened:
Pistol Slot does not have a "Deep Pass " Formation Audible - again. I also had Shotgun: Normal and Shotgun: Spread appear in my playbook even after I deleted them. Shotgun: Normal containing of Four Verticals and Shotgun: Spread was completely empty.

Yeah, this is definitely a separate issue that needs resolution, because you can still get bitten by this even when you've followed all the makeshift rules to avoid the "zero play" bug. Considering we really can't customize our formation audibles, and can't rely on master audibles as much as we could in years past, at the very least we should HAVE all four functioning formation audibles when you've added a formation to your playbook along with all the plays associated with that formation.

[ThaShark316]

This really sucks, folks.

Hopefully this gets fixed quickly. Biggest new feature for a lot of us, and it's pretty much dead until a fix comes. Luckily, Miss. St. has most of the formations I like, so I can use that til a fix comes.

[griffin2608]

Yea man this bug is really just disappointing..... I haven't preordered the game in awhile and really completely forgot about all the release bugs from the usual poorly tested games. I have seen the same issues that most here have but this just happened to me. I finished my first dynasty game as a DC then the next week my play books are nowhere to be found. I had to start over after I moved around all my conferences. ARRGGGGH!

[Sven Draconian]

I've made two playbooks so far:

1- I-option based playbook with about 5 formations and less than 70 plays. Works like a champ. I made this by manually removing most of the formations and plays (since I didn't even see the "delete all" button at first).

2- A fairly generic power running offense book. This had the bug first snap every game. My first step when I created it was deleting all formations.

[trioptionGator]

So it looks like there is a temporary workaround to at least make custom playbooks stable. Like a few other people here, I haven't encountered the empty playbook glitch since I made a CPB by not removing everything at first.

But even though my CPB is now stable, there are still a number of weird things happening. Formation audibles aren't showing up for certain formations, and certain formations and plays in the original playbook are still showing up despite the fact that I have gone through and specifically removed them. My playbook is somewhat disorganized and I've taken a few delay-of-game penalties as a result.

I'm sure this feature is going to be awesome once everything is ironed out, but I think I'm going to leave it by the wayside for now. That's really disappointing considering that I had hoped to take this first week with the game to iron out some custom playbooks while waiting for rosters to show up. I will say that this has not been my favorite NCAA launch...

[morsdraconis]

It's DEFINITELY related to removing too many formations and it causing the FG formation to disappear (thus giving you the * play that continues to take over the plays that are there).

If you go about adding formations and deleting formations a few at a time, you won't have any issues at all.

[ThaShark316]

It's DEFINITELY related to removing too many formations and it causing the FG formation to disappear (thus giving you the * play that continues to take over the plays that are there).

If you go about adding formations and deleting formations a few at a time, you won't have any issues at all.

Example please?

EDIT: Would I add 2-3, delete 2-3...save, then do it again?

[gschwendt]

Example please?

EDIT: Would I add 2-3, delete 2-3...save, then do it again?
Yes, that sounds like what he's describing. I don't think you have to save in the middle of it (though never hurts).

[xMrHitStickx904]

just an update, still no problems with my Luck Of The Irish playbook. Even played user v user offline using the same PB and audibles, no problems.

[I OU a Beatn]

I've been using a custom play book with Louisville as my base, and I haven't had a single issue yet. I don't think it has to do with removing too many plays either. When I originally created this one, I stripped it down as far as I could before adding anything.

[AustinWolv]

I've been using a custom play book with Louisville as my base, and I haven't had a single issue yet. I don't think it has to do with removing too many plays either. When I originally created this one, I stripped it down as far as I could before adding anything.

No issues here either.
360, patch applied.
Michigan as the base, also removed all the plays and formations I could until it hit the 50 minimum, and then started adding in the formations and plays I wanted.

[Undefeated]

Not seeing this issue.

250GB PS3.

[SmoothPancakes]

I have yet to see this issue pop up. I created an offensive playbook, using Navy's PB as base, gutted it, and rebuilt it from the ground up. I also created a defensive playbook using the Multiple D PB as base, again, gutted it and rebuilt it from the ground up. I've played multiple games, Play now, Coach Mode Play Now, Offline Dynasty, and single player Online Dynasty. Never have had this come up once.

I'm on a 3 year old Xbox 360 Elite. 120GB HDD. Disc installed to the hard drive.

[morsdraconis]

Well, I got it every time with Wyoming's playbook as a base (Spread Offense) no matter how I did it. I even went through and methodically stripped it down formation by formation and it still did it.

I'll do some more testing today though.

[xMrHitStickx904]

i found out why im not having problems. Apparently, if a player has 374 plays, the glitch won't occur.

[Architekto]

Are there any playbooks that have remained untouched in the last few years? I think Colorado St. has stayed the same since 09, but would like to test others. I wonder if this glitch has to do with playbooks that have those hidden plays and formations that werent that common on past years playbooks

[THE Travis]

Rest assured, we are in direct contact with the devs to get this resolved.

Since you are in direct contact with the devs, I figured I'd mention the fact that EA might want to look into formation audibles as well... There is something seriously broken with the way the game "assigns" them. Some formations, despite having plays with that "type play," will simply have blank formation audibles for no reason. Short pass seems to be the most prevalent example of this. I have multiple formations without a short pass formation audible despite the fact that I have slants and stick in that formation.

If I had to take a guess, all of the various custom playbook glitches have something to do with formation audibles and "hidden/unique" sub-formations associated with certain playbooks. That might explain why some people have issues while others don't.

Also, there seems to be something fundamentally broken with the way formations are listed in the playbook as well. There is really no rhyme or reason to it, as Ace Big and Ace big Twins appear on opposite ends of my ace column and special teams/hail mary are in the middle of my playbook (not at the end or even in alphabetical order).

Am I still playing the "bad" copy of NCAA12, or have the rest of you community guys noticed this stuff as well? I mean, there is so much wrong with custom playbooks at this point that most people are having a hard time piecing together anything coherent at all.

Thank you for personally taking charge on this issue, I am resting assured that you will have this problem fixed ASAP.

[THE Travis]

Are there any playbooks that have remained untouched in the last few years? I think Colorado St. has stayed the same since 09, but would like to test others. I wonder if this glitch has to do with playbooks that have those hidden plays and formations that werent that common on past years playbooks

Despite the fact that CSU actually changed coaches during that time as well....

I agree with the bolded, and didn't see your post before I posted the same. I'd bet money that hidden plays and formations are part of the problem.

[AustinWolv]

i found out why im not having problems. Apparently, if a player has 374 plays, the glitch won't occur.

In my limited custom PB toying around, I've had all 374 play slots filled each time. So if true, that's why I wouldn't be seeing the glitch.

[SmoothPancakes]

In my limited custom PB toying around, I've had all 374 play slots filled each time. So if true, that's why I wouldn't be seeing the glitch.

I have all 374 play slots filled as well, and I haven't seen the bug once.

[ThaShark316]

I did what you guys said (374 plays) and I still saw the glitch.

Good news is the defensive playbook is fine. :D

[souljahbill]

I'm not having a glitch where no plays show up but for some reason Pistol Slots Flex is an added formation to my playbook (it's not checked in the cpb). It only has one play in it, Curl Flats. My cpb is all Pistol outside of the mandatory formations. PS3 version.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[PDuncanOSU]

I'm not having a glitch where no plays show up but for some reason Pistol Slots Flex is an added formation to my playbook (it's not checked in the cpb). It only has one play in it, Curl Flats. My cpb is all Pistol outside of the mandatory formations. PS3 version.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This is the same thing that is happening to me. I'm on the PS3, using Nevada's playbook as a base. I removed any formation w/ less than 3 recievers and added in some shotgun. I kept Pistol Slot, and got rid of Pistol Slot Flex. Then in a game, Pistol Slot Flex still shows up but with Curl Flats as the only play. Not a big deal, but just a little annoying.

[Sven Draconian]

It has nothing to do with how many plays are in the playbook. I just created a 60 play book to goof around with and see if I could get the glitch and it worked fine.

The issue has to be with certain playbooks. I feel confident that the Michigan book is "clean", and I'm sure many others are as well. It would also explain how many people played for weeks pre-release and never saw the issue.

[Paakaa10]

It has nothing to do with how many plays are in the playbook. I just created a 60 play book to goof around with and see if I could get the glitch and it worked fine. The issue has to be with certain playbooks. I feel confident that the Michigan book is "clean", and I'm sure many others are as well.

I would generally agree with this from my personal experience; I had playbooks which were maxed out and playbooks which had the minimum of 50 plays in them, and those didn't experience the glitch. Messing around with the Florida playbook, however, yielded the glitch on two separate occasions with two separate files. The Michigan playbook was the base for my pre-release CPB, and I never had any problems with it.


It would also explain how many people played for weeks pre-release and never saw the issue.

At least we have theories outside of "everyone with pre-release copies was covering this up" now :P.

This is definitely a big problem and something that needs to be fixed by post-release support. Thanks to everyone who continues to come to this thread and share their results and experiences so that we can build up a solid data set to help try and figure out what is causing Custom Playbooks to work for some people and cause major errors for others.

[gschwendt]

My latest theory is that it all has something to do with what I'm calling "residue" plays & formations. Essentially those plays & formations that despite you removing them in the Custom Playbooks interface, they still wind up in your playbook in-game. I'm wondering if you add that formation (or it's part of the base playbook) and then ever go over the formation count or play count (since those residue plays & formations likely don't count towards it), you're then bugged.


I plan to test it this afternoon and will report back with my results.

[I OU a Beatn]

When I went into practice mode after editing my Louisville play book, I had 3 formations that had either 0 plays or 1 play that I didn't pick. I didn't encounter the glitch, but I did go back, deleted 3 formations, and then completely added the 3 that were showing up as zero or one. As I said, I've been using it online since the opening day and I haven't encountered the glitch one time. I also have 374 plays, but I did have 375 at one point and still no glitch.

[jwallace0317]

There seems to be a lot of inconsistency in how people experience this glitch. I created a book based off Tulane's, didn't do anything radical to it. In practice mode, it worked fine. But then I played an online ranked game and I got the glitch 4 times.

I think somebody else has mentioned this, but in my online ranked game, the glitch seemed to happen after a skipped cut scene. (In '12, some cut scenes that you would normally see in '11 are immediately skipped without anyone having to press a button).

Anyway, add this on to "sucks!" pile.

[morsdraconis]

Well, I have created two CPBs, one using WVU's base and one using Wisconsin's base with no issues at all (even using one of the formations I talked about before that reduces the number of plays available by 1 when you use it in my Air Raid playbook). They both work flawlessly. I'll have to try to create another one based on Wyoming's playbook since that was the one that kept cropping up the bug.

[Pig Bomb]

I'm using the Army playbook with a bunch of other formations added on and only tweo formations removed..no problems so far... 360/ game installed

[morsdraconis]

I'm REALLY starting to believe that it's simply Spread based playbooks that are having the issue. More testing is needed though.

[ClemsonPoker]

Can we start a list of playbooks in which people have seen the glitch, so that we will know which ones to avoid if the base playbook *is* the problem?

So far I've seen Wyoming, Florida, and Tulane mentioned for sure.

Michigan and Nebraska seem to have been semi-confirmed as 'clean' books.

[gschwendt]

For anyone that experienced the issue with Custom Playbooks where your I-Forms are listed on separate tabs, can you post more details? Particularly, post exactly which formation(s) are on a separate tab and also what plays you have included or not included in that formation. Also, what base playbook you used could be helpful.

I just tried to re-create it by adding every I-Form formation with at least a handful of plays in them and they all appear properly on the same tab. Is it possible that a Strong or Weak formation or something like that is labeled I-Form for the tab but actually shows the correct play-art? Trying to get more details on this one so I can pass it on.

[Dr Death]

Can we start a list of playbooks in which people have seen the glitch, so that we will know which ones to avoid if the base playbook *is* the problem?

So far I've seen Wyoming, Florida, and Tulane mentioned for sure.

Michigan and Nebraska seem to have been semi-confirmed as 'clean' books.

I've used Notre Dame and La Tech and still have the bug as well.

[SmoothPancakes]

I have my created playbook using Navy as the base, and have never had a single problem so far.

[morsdraconis]

Ok, I'm almost positive that I've figured it out now. I went with Wyoming's playbook again and I'm pretty sure the entire issue is the playbook keeping their Wildcat formation and, in doing so, it also keeps formations that are normally in the book, but aren't adding by the user, and therefore giving you empty formations.

There also seems to be an issue with not having the playbook completely full.

So, when in doubt, fill the book completely up and you won't have an issue (at least, as far as I've seen). Using Wyoming's playbook, I was having the bug the entire time with it until I filled it all the way up (and included the Spread Flex and Spread Flex HB formations as they seemed to be the ones that were causing issues with it thinking they're there even if they aren't). Now, I've been using it in practice mode for a solid 30 minutes without any issues at all.

[morsdraconis]

For anyone that experienced the issue with Custom Playbooks where your I-Forms are listed on separate tabs, can you post more details? Particularly, post exactly which formation(s) are on a separate tab and also what plays you have included or not included in that formation. Also, what base playbook you used could be helpful.

I just tried to re-create it by adding every I-Form formation with at least a handful of plays in them and they all appear properly on the same tab. Is it possible that a Strong or Weak formation or something like that is labeled I-Form for the tab but actually shows the correct play-art? Trying to get more details on this one so I can pass it on.

For me, I used Wisconsin's base playbook, methodically removed a few formations and then added a few and I-Form Normal is in a separate section than all the other I-Form formations that I have. My playbook consists of:

Full House - Normal Wide
I-Form - Close, H Pro, H Twins, Normal, Twins, Twins Flex, Y-Trips
Pistol - Full House, H Twins, Train
Strong I - Close, H Pro, H Twins, Normal, Twins, Twins Flex, Twins Over, Y-Trips
Weak I - Close, H Pro, H Twins, H Twins Flex, Tight Twins, Twins

All of that with mostly any Verts, any FB runs (or HB runs off of fakes to the FB), or Option based plays taken out of the formations.

I-Form Normal is the one that's separated and it's definitely I-Form Normal.

[gschwendt]

Good deal... knowing that it's i-form normal is what I needed to know. In my test, it wouldn't let me add all the I-Form Normal plays because there are too many so I'll have to play around with adding a bunch of different ones to see which ones triggers it.

[jello1717]

360, 120GB (2 years oldish)
installed on HDD

On release day I created a full pb based on Miss. St's and I've never ever had an issue. This is through probably a couple hours of practice and about 10 games offline and online. It has 4 pistols, 20 SGs, and abou 370/373 plays.

Last night I made a new one based on ND and I hit the glitch very, very often (probably every 2 or 3 plays). I used the same exact formations as my MSU pb and I had the same plays in each formation as well. Below are the only differences between the working pb and the broken one.

Working: Based on Miss. St. - Had the wishbone GL formation
Broken: Based on ND - Had the normal GL - had the Leprechaun wildcat formation.

For the broken ND pb, I set all audibles to GL and then removed every formation with the "Y" button until I got the message saying that it couldn't delete the last 2 formations as it would take me below the minimum. I don't think I did this while creating the MSU pb.

Also, both my working and broken pbs have SG-spread and SG-normal even though I didn't select that formation.

EDIT:
I tried filling up my broken ND pb to 373/373 and it was still broken. ND also has a team specific wildcat formation (which is why I chose it) while MSU does not.

[gschwendt]

Excellent guys... keep any details you come up with coming and I'll keep passing them along. Things like jello's post is perfect because it shows the same playbook being created but with one failing and one not.

[morsdraconis]

360, 120GB (2 years oldish)
installed on HDD

On release day I created a full pb based on Miss. St's and I've never ever had an issue. This is through probably a couple hours of practice and about 10 games offline and online. It has 4 pistols, 20 SGs, and abou 370/373 plays.

Last night I made a new one based on ND and I hit the glitch very, very often (probably every 2 or 3 plays). I used the same exact formations as my MSU pb and I had the same plays in each formation as well. Below are the only differences between the working pb and the broken one.

Working: Based on Miss. St. - Had the wishbone GL formation
Broken: Based on ND - Had the normal GL - had the Leprechaun wildcat formation.

For the broken ND pb, I set all audibles to GL and then removed every formation with the "Y" button until I got the message saying that it couldn't delete the last 2 formations as it would take me below the minimum. I don't think I did this while creating the MSU pb.

Also, both my working and broken pbs have SG-spread and SG-normal even though I didn't select that formation.

EDIT:
I tried filling up my broken ND pb to 373/373 and it was still broken. ND also has a team specific wildcat formation (which is why I chose it) while MSU does not.

Try recreating the ND playbook and fill it all the way up to begin with. It's what worked for me with the playbook I made from Wyoming's base playbook.

Recreate it by removing a few formations, adding what you want, and slowly filling it up. It takes longer than removing everything and starting from scratch, but, so far, it's made it where no matter what base I use, it doesn't fuck up.

[jello1717]

Try recreating the ND playbook and fill it all the way up to begin with. It's what worked for me with the playbook I made from Wyoming's base playbook.

Recreate it by removing a few formations, adding what you want, and slowly filling it up. It takes longer than removing everything and starting from scratch, but, so far, it's made it where no matter what base I use, it doesn't fuck up.That's what I'll try when I get home from work. From what I've read in this thread it sounds like the issue could be because I removed everything until the game told me I couldn't remove anything else. It definitely doesn't seem to be base pb specific as someone in this thread (Hitstick?) created one with ND and has had no issues.

[ram29jackson]

its been a week, is EA going to say anything about it yet ? They are the people getting paid to figure it out

[Paakaa10]

its been a week, is EA going to say anything about it yet ? They are the people getting paid to figure it out

From the @EANCAAFootball Twitter account on Tuesday:

We're looking into the Custom Playbooks issue that some of you are experiencing and will provide an update ASAP. Thanks for the feedback!
http://twitter.com/#!/EANCAAFootball/status/90856055545933824

[SmoothPancakes]

its been a week, is EA going to say anything about it yet ? They are the people getting paid to figure it out

Actually, it hasn't been a week. It's been 4 days counting Tuesday. Three if you start counting from Wednesday. Half a week, yes. A week? No.

[ram29jackson]

paakaa , with all due respect, please dont post quickie twitter sentences. thats kiddy silliness. Give me actual media issue paragraphs that actually address details. Twitter posts mean nothing.

we're checkin into bro's texts mean nothing.

dont take it personal paakaa, its just that twitter isnt truly a serious business tool unless your a struggling DJ or tattoo artist, so I ranted :)

[ram29jackson]

Actually, it hasn't been a week. It's been 4 days counting Tuesday. Three if you start counting from Wednesday. Half a week, yes. A week? No.


:P shuuuuut uuuuup :D

edit- its been close to 4 business days, ie. long enough for the professionals to get an idea what happened

[Paakaa10]

paakaa , with all due respect, please dont post quickie twitter sentences. thats kiddy silliness. Give me actual media issue paragraphs that actually address details. Twitter posts mean nothing.

we're checkin into bro's texts mean nothing.

dont take it personal paakaa, its just that twitter isnt truly a serious business tool unless your a struggling DJ or tattoo artist, so I ranted :)

I don't take it personal, but I think you should rethink your policy on how businesses use social media. The day of the "press release" has gone away for the most part. I wouldn't expect any long release from the company until they're detailing what's going to be in the next software update or tuner patch.

We're seeing in this thread how bizarre and varied the bug is; there are a lot of variables to keep in mind. Do you think this is something which can be addressed in a few paragraphs when we have over 220 individual postings here so far in just a few days?

Chances are small updates will be posted over Twitter and Facebook leading up to the next big blog.

[SmoothPancakes]

:P shuuuuut uuuuup :D

edit- its been close to 4 business days, ie. long enough for the professionals to get an idea what happened

I wouldn't be so sure about that. If it's an extremely complex issue (which it seems to be as it affects only some people, and only some playbooks, not all), it can take a whole lot longer than just four business days for even the professionals to figure out what exactly the issue is. And then after that, figure out what they have to do to fix it. It's not as simple as some people like to think it is.

[ram29jackson]

I wouldn't be so sure about that. If it's an extremely complex issue (which it seems to be as it affects only some people, and only some playbooks, not all), it can take a whole lot longer than just four business days for even the professionals to figure out what exactly the issue is. And then after that, figure out what they have to do to fix it. It's not as simple as some people like to think it is.

no one ever said it was simple haha but its definitely simpler to them then it is to anyone here. I'm sure you understand what I mean by that....que sera, the games still got alot of stuff/gameplay/eye candy in it, and i'm trying to get some EAGCC games in at some point haha.....and waiting for Rhombic to come out of his lab and disect the thing to pieces :D

[ThaShark316]

paakaa , with all due respect, please dont post quickie twitter sentences. thats kiddy silliness. Give me actual media issue paragraphs that actually address details. Twitter posts mean nothing.

we're checkin into bro's texts mean nothing.

dont take it personal paakaa, its just that twitter isnt truly a serious business tool unless your a struggling DJ or tattoo artist, so I ranted :)

I detect a lot of sarcasm in this post...otherwise...lmao.

[Paakaa10]

I detect a lot of sarcasm in this post...otherwise...lmao.

That's not sarcasm; that's just Ram :nod:.

[ram29jackson]

I detect a lot of sarcasm in this post...otherwise...lmao.

I dont know Paakaa, I have no reason to dislike him. I just think twitter isnt a professional media tool worth noting....it just gets dumb athletes in trouble :sf:

[griffin2608]

Ok since we are getting into how long patches, tuners, and their complexity may take to flesh out details I have a question for all those involved in community days, developer interaction, and receiving early copies of the game. Did any of you see any of the bugs associated with this game that others have seen? Were all of you guys given copies of the game for the PS3 or 360? If you did notice the bugs, were you in contact with EA about the issues? I read multiple QA threads, asked many questions, and felt like those involved in the process were more than generous with the answers but to be honest don't see how some of these issues were not known prior to street date. With in the 30 minutes of of driving to gamestop and the game in my console I noticed the zero play bug, had my game freeze, seen no game track or stat overlays. Not trying to make anyone angry but just want to know. IMO you guys who were involved with the community days were representing the everyone who comes to this site, plays the game, and sits in their work truck on a Friday typing on their I pad asking questions about a video game. (guilty) I just hope it wasn't something you guys were not allowed to discuss or if it was you guys were allowed to bring to the developers attention.

[gschwendt]

I personally have still not been able to create the zero play bug (granted I've been using the same playbook for a week or so now), but prior to release, I know of two instances where someone received the zero play bug. In both cases, they were on the PS3 version and it was the weekend just before release (ie before we got the patch). When I was asked about it occurring, I mentioned that I thought it would be fixed in the patch because there is a note there that says "Fixed an issue in Custom Playbooks where removing too many formations resulted in an empty playbook." Since it was only two issues, I confidently believed that the patch would fix both occurrences.

For people at this site, we are primarily PS3 players in general but each of the community event attendees here did in fact receive the PS3 version. There were other attendees scattered throughout the community that received 360 copies. I didn't receive any reports of lock-ups or freezes from either PS3 users nor 360 users.


In short, no, we did not intentionally deceive anyone. EA did not intentionally deceive us nor the customer. My understanding is that they were under the impression that the patch would also correct the zero play bug. I can only assume that it's likely another case of fix one thing, it breaks another, type scenario. It is very unfortunate that it occurred not only because it was a big feature that a lot of people wanted, but on a personal level, this was the item that I championed the most and so for me to have to explain myself (trust me, I do see where you're coming from), it is quite frustrating.

Again though, one last time, I'll re-iterate, I nor anyone to my knowledge, was aware that the zero play bug would be a problem of this magnitude.

[ebarws6]

This finally happened to me last night. I ended up just picking a blank play and the players huddled around the ball and one of my players knocking into their line drew an encroachment penalty hahahaha

[griffin2608]

Thank you for the response and I am glad you see that my question is not intended to blame anyone but when you are in the position you guys are in there can be questions that come up. I already figured that the majority on you guys were on the ps3 because the 360 version is buggy as hell. The only reason I went with the 360 version is because a guy at work was talking shit and I was going to put an old school ground and pound ass whoopin on him. Now I think I may go back and get it for ps3 or just wait out a patch. Another thing the gold membership on 360 sucks.

[ram29jackson]

...Wait a minute..is anyone with a ps3 having any problems at all? or is this a xbox360 thing for the most part ?

[Sven Draconian]

It's on PS3 as well.

[Roy38]

I'm REALLY starting to believe that it's simply Spread based playbooks that are having the issue. More testing is needed though.

False. I'm trying to edit the Nevada (Pistol) book and have encountered problems. Here's what I've done this evening...

- Scroll to "Team Management"
- Selected "Custom Playbooks" by hitting "A".
- Make sure "Offense" is highlighted and hit "Y".
- Press "LT" and scroll up to "Pistol"
- Scroll right to "Nevada" and hit "A".

It shows the following information at the top:
Playbook: NEV1
Type: OFFENSE
Style: PISTOL
Formations: 19/40
Plays: 338/374

- Make sure "View Playbook" is highlighted and hit "A".
- Scroll to "Ace Twins" and hit "A".

It shows I have 6/6 runs and 9/10 passes.

- Hit "Y" to "Add/Remove Plays"

All plays are checked except for "Slants".

- Scroll to "Slants" and hit "A" to "Add/Remove Plays"
- Hit "B" for "Back"

It shows the following information at the top:
Playbook: NEV1
Type: OFFENSE
Style: PISTOL
Formations: 19/40
Plays: 339/374

- Hit "B" for "Back".
- Hit "B" for "Back" again.
- Hit "B" for "Back To Main Menu".
- Scroll to "Yes" and hit "A".
- Scroll to "Play Now" then scroll to "Practice" and hit "A".
- Hit "A" to "Advance".
- Scroll up to "Offense" then scroll over to "Nev1" and hit "A" to "Advance"
- Set "Skill" to "All-American" then hit "A" to "Start Game".
- Scroll down to "Ace Twins" then hit "A".
- Pick any play you want to.
- Pick any defense you want to play against.
- Now press "X" to call and audible then select "Deep Pass".

Nothing happens! A "Deep Pass" play doesn't exist!

Now, if I select the Nevada playbook (non-custom), this isn't an issue. I have a full compliment of Formations Audibles. By adding one play to my playbook (Slants), I lost a "Deep Pass" Formation Audible. Again, I didn't delete any formations or plays, I only added one play to an existing formation. :fp:

[Sven Draconian]

Created another O-book tonight, changed one of my working books a bit, and created 2 new D books. Used MICH as base for the new book, 13 formations and 130ish plays. Just played a game with me using one created book and the CPU using another and had no glitch.

I really think the bug is tied to certain playbooks.

[jwallace0317]

To add another grain of sand to the beach, as I'm working with custom pb's more, it seems like using one in an online ranked/unranked game is primary litmus test for whether you have a buggy playbook. So far, I've created two books in which I could not get the empty play bug in either practice mode or in an offline game vs. the CPU, but fell victim in an online ranked game.

[brownguy15]

Last night I was playing a ranked game online I was using my first cpb. My very first possession on offense I got the blank screen of death. I had no formations showing nor plays however I chose a play my whole offense huddled up in the middle of the field. I was caught off guard for a second then my offense ran down the field like I punted the ball. I received a delay of game penalty. After the penalty to my surprise the black screen of death again. This time my offense huddle again in the middle of the field, I called an audible my personnel had 3to qb as rb and defensive players everywhere else. I tried to friendly quit after that the guy I was playing declined it. I had to play that way the whole game on both sides of the ball. My wife was laughing at me because she thought I was doing this on purpose. After the tenth time of this she saw the frustrations on my face. I continued to fight thru this I didn't think it could get any worse it did i started lagging really bad. The football gods are punishing me I thought to myself. Then the game froze the connection to your opponent has ended. I now need a new controller and roses for my wife. I forgot to mention my defense huddled up inbthe middle of the field and they where all wr and offensive linemen. This beats all I have ever seen or saw im so frustrated and upset. Ea fix this please!!!!!!!!!!

[QuietStorm]

Hey everyone, long time lurker, first time poster. Thought I would add my little piece of data to the mix.

I'm playing on PS3. I spent the first couple days building my playbook - using Oregon (Spread) as the base. I had 2 I-Form formations and about 15 shotgun formations. I've yet to play an actual game yet but after finishing my playbook I went into practice mode - I clicked on my Hail Mary formation and tried running the play "Circus" a few times (the Boise hook and lateral from the Fiesta Bowl). I then went to select a new play and my playbook was completely blank.

From reading everything here and on some other sites, there just doesn't seem to be any pattern to the problem - it happens on both systems, online and offline, game and practice mode, all different bases of playbooks, all different numbers of formations and plays, etc. I'm sure the programmers are having a ton of fun right now trying to figure this one out.

[Dr Death]

I am at my wits end... reading this thread, some have speculated that the "bug" is tied to Spread PB's... so I went in and created a new PB using Wisconsin {Pro} as my base. I then deleted everything out of that and put in the following formations:

Ace:

4 WR {QB Under Center}
4 WR Trips {QB Under Center}
Empty 5 WR {QB Under Center}

Shot-Gun:

5WR
5WR Flex
5WR Flex Trio
5WR HB
5WR Trio
5WR Trips
Empty Quads
Quads Trio

I then went and deleted plays and ended up w/ this: 11/40 formations and 108/375 plays. I set my audibles and go to Practice Mode. For the first time my PB was exactly as I had it. In previous PB's there are always formations in that I took out and plays in that I deleted. But this one... perfection. Go through several minutes of practice and everything is working perfectly.

Then I go to Play Now and guess what... NOTHING SHOWS UP!!! No plays, hitting the RB button and then B does nothing. Tried two Play Now games and it won't show up at all. How does it show up perfectly in practice mode and yet disappears in game mode???

This is beyond frustration!!! :fp:

[Unconquered]

This is beyond frustration!!! :fp:

I hear ya, man. Custom playbooks were my #1 feature. Until they're fixed, NCAA 12 is sitting on the shelf. I have a bad feeling it'll be mid-August before this is fixed. :smh:

[morsdraconis]

I am at my wits end... reading this thread, some have speculated that the "bug" is tied to Spread PB's... so I went in and created a new PB using Wisconsin {Pro} as my base. I then deleted everything out of that and put in the following formations:

Ace:

4 WR {QB Under Center}
4 WR Trips {QB Under Center}
Empty 5 WR {QB Under Center}

Shot-Gun:

5WR
5WR Flex
5WR Flex Trio
5WR HB
5WR Trio
5WR Trips
Empty Quads
Quads Trio

I then went and deleted plays and ended up w/ this: 11/40 formations and 108/375 plays. I set my audibles and go to Practice Mode. For the first time my PB was exactly as I had it. In previous PB's there are always formations in that I took out and plays in that I deleted. But this one... perfection. Go through several minutes of practice and everything is working perfectly.

Then I go to Play Now and guess what... NOTHING SHOWS UP!!! No plays, hitting the RB button and then B does nothing. Tried two Play Now games and it won't show up at all. How does it show up perfectly in practice mode and yet disappears in game mode???

This is beyond frustration!!! :fp:

Ok, here's what you need to do:

Use Wyoming's playbook.

Only get rid of enough formations to add what you want and do it one formation at a time.

Make sure the playbook is either close to being full or completely full (plays wise).

Then save it and try it.

You'll get formations that you don't want (including the Wild Cowboy Wildcat formation), but, from what I've seen, it'll work. Just be sure not to get rid of Shotgun Spread and Shotgun Spread HB (or whatever that formation is called).

[Dr Death]

Ok, here's what you need to do:

Use Wyoming's playbook.

Only get rid of enough formations to add what you want and do it one formation at a time.

Make sure the playbook is either close to being full or completely full (plays wise).

Then save it and try it.

You'll get formations that you don't want (including the Wild Cowboy Wildcat formation), but, from what I've seen, it'll work. Just be sure not to get rid of Shotgun Spread and Shotgun Spread HB (or whatever that formation is called).

Don't get me wrong, I do appreciate any help in this matter... but the point of Custom Playbooks is to have the playbook that YOU want. Not one filled w/ a bunch of formations and plays you don't want!

And I know you know this and understand my frustration, I just don't get how this was not fixed months ago. I can't recall where I read it... it may have been Ram29... :D but someone said "I am getting tired of being a beta tester for EA..."

And sadly... that's what it feels like. :fp:

[Sven Draconian]

I created another new book this afternoon, again, based off the MICHIGAN playbook. Played a game with the CPU and myself using custom playbooks, and again, no issues. I've now created 3 seperate playbooks based off Michigan that work perfectly. I created one using a spread school (Miss St. I believe) and had the glitch.

[morsdraconis]

Don't get me wrong, I do appreciate any help in this matter... but the point of Custom Playbooks is to have the playbook that YOU want. Not one filled w/ a bunch of formations and plays you don't want!

And I know you know this and understand my frustration, I just don't get how this was not fixed months ago. I can't recall where I read it... it may have been Ram29... :D but someone said "I am getting tired of being a beta tester for EA..."

And sadly... that's what it feels like. :fp:

Well, considering, it's been basically impossible to figure out what's causing it (and, believe me, I've spent a good 10+ hours fuckin' with various playbooks trying to figure out what exactly the issue was), I'd say that's the reason why they haven't fixed it yet. Kinda hard to fix something when you can't figure out what the issue is to begin with.

[Dr Death]

Well, considering, it's been basically impossible to figure out what's causing it (and, believe me, I've spent a good 10+ hours fuckin' with various playbooks trying to figure out what exactly the issue was), I'd say that's the reason why they haven't fixed it yet. Kinda hard to fix something when you can't figure out what the issue is to begin with.

I know most will hate me for saying this... but if this great new feature was so filled w/ bugs... assuming, rightfully so, that EA knew about it, then why didn't they pull it and fix it and implement it next year?

This is one more example of them getting the community super hyped and then delivering something that is severely flawed. It simply isn't good business sense. If the report I read was correct, they lost close to half a million in sales last year from NCAA '10 to '11... and when the game releases w/ all the problems that this one has... you should read the bugs being reported on OS... how do they expect to increase sales?

To add to this, Sven above you posted about using :Michigan: as the base playbook and this is what I also tried. This one works. I still have extra formations and plays I don't want, as well as two formations that are just completely void of any plays, but the playbook works in that all the plays I want are in there minus the bug.

I just hope they fix it soon... :(

[morsdraconis]

I know most will hate me for saying this... but if this great new feature was so filled w/ bugs... assuming, rightfully so, that EA knew about it, then why didn't they pull it and fix it and implement it next year?

This is one more example of them getting the community super hyped and then delivering something that is severely flawed. It simply isn't good business sense. If the report I read was correct, they lost close to half a million in sales last year from NCAA '10 to '11... and when the game releases w/ all the problems that this one has... you should read the bugs being reported on OS... how do they expect to increase sales?

To add to this, Sven above you posted about using :Michigan: as the base playbook and this is what I also tried. This one works. I still have extra formations and plays I don't want, as well as two formations that are just completely void of any plays, but the playbook works in that all the plays I want are in there minus the bug.

I just hope they fix it soon... :(

Who is to say that they knew it was screwed up? From everything I've seen, there was only an issue with it removing one of the special teams formations or something (which they fixed in the day 1 patch) but, other than that, everything was good from their department when it came to custom playbooks.

Honestly, I doubt that they expected people to only make playbooks with 100 - 150 plays and so few formation so they never tried it. Hell, the two playbooks I made (without even knowing of the glitch at all) I filled them completely up. Why wouldn't you? So what if I don't use those formations? I will eventually and that's really all I wanted. The ability to customize what plays and formations were available to me and give me the largest amount of variety that I could fit into one playbook.

[Dr Death]

Who is to say that they knew it was screwed up? From everything I've seen, there was only an issue with it removing one of the special teams formations or something (which they fixed in the day 1 patch) but, other than that, everything was good from their department when it came to custom playbooks.

Honestly, I doubt that they expected people to only make playbooks with 100 - 150 plays and so few formation so they never tried it. Hell, the two playbooks I made (without even knowing of the glitch at all) I filled them completely up. Why wouldn't you? So what if I don't use those formations? I will eventually and that's really all I wanted. The ability to customize what plays and formations were available to me and give me the largest amount of variety that I could fit into one playbook.

Here's what I would do if I were implementing something in a game... I would strive to get as varied opinions as possible to the idea and then test each thing out. Custom PB's have been talked about on here and OS and Utopia for years. To assume that everyone would fill their playbook up w/ 375 plays is just a terribly bad assumption.

Some of the schemes they promoted last year, the Run & Shoot and Air Raid, are notorious for having fewer plays. The original R&S had 8 total plays. The Air Raid has a base amount of plays, but they run them from various formations. To quote Mike Leach, It's easier to tell someone where to stand than to teach them 150 plays. So they will run a play, say Ace 700 X Under Y Corner and they will run it in 4-wide, 3-wide w/ a TE, w/ 2 backs, etc... the routes stay the same, where the people line up changes.

I just find it incredibly unbelievable that they had this in and not one person from EA encountered this bug when the entire community, or 99% of the community, has experienced it from day one.

[oweb26]

Here's what I would do if I were implementing something in a game... I would strive to get as varied opinions as possible to the idea and then test each thing out. Custom PB's have been talked about on here and OS and Utopia for years. To assume that everyone would fill their playbook up w/ 375 plays is just a terribly bad assumption.

Some of the schemes they promoted last year, the Run & Shoot and Air Raid, are notorious for having fewer plays. The original R&S had 8 total plays. The Air Raid has a base amount of plays, but they run them from various formations. To quote Mike Leach, It's easier to tell someone where to stand than to teach them 150 plays. So they will run a play, say Ace 700 X Under Y Corner and they will run it in 4-wide, 3-wide w/ a TE, w/ 2 backs, etc... the routes stay the same, where the people line up changes.

I just find it incredibly unbelievable that they had this in and not one person from EA encountered this bug when the entire community, or 99% of the community, has experienced it from day one.



Not taking up for EA in the smallest regard but I do performance reporting for a tech company and we have something like 30 developers and you will be surprised some of the things that gets missed simply because when developers are looking for bugs they in all honestly can't think of everything, now I will admit this one seems kind of obvious but when you are testing only what you have it front of you and not everything I can see how they would miss it. Like for example I am willing to bet they didn't test 98% of the playbooks to see whether something was going to happen, they included the feature tested on whatever they had and didn't get any bugs and let the product out. Its a business and its not fiscally sound to test everything about something when there are probably 10 other things in the "queue" in fair honesty
Developers are always missing the smallest things that causes the biggest issues. It just happens no real need for getting all pissed about it.

Or you can get all pissed but it kinda makes you look bad not necessarily EA that you are getting pissed over a game. LOL. just sayin

[Dr Death]

Or you can get all pissed but it kinda makes you look bad not necessarily EA that you are getting pissed over a game. LOL. just sayin

How does it make me look bad when practically everyone is having this issue? I'll say the same thing someone at OS said about people complaining... if it weren't for community feedback, where would the game be???

Now as for me, personally, when I drop $60.00 on something, I expect it to work, particularly when we've been told, for months, how great this new "feature" is. I don't care if it's a game or a part for my car... $60.00 bucks is $60.00 bucks. I have been trying to post all the issues that I've seen and dealt with to HELP EA get this fixed, as the folks here have requested.

Sorry if it offends you.

[SmoothPancakes]

I just find it incredibly unbelievable that they had this in and not one person from EA encountered this bug when the entire community, or 99% of the community, has experienced it from day one.

I must be in the 1% then, because I have played tens of games, and never once have I seen the playbook bug at all with my custom playbooks. In fact, the only bugs I have seen at all in this game, is that it froze up on me at the start of the 4th quarter of a Coach Mode Play Now game the afternoon of release day. Have not had a single other bug or problem, in any area of the game, show up for me.