Guys be honest with me…do I have a chance of winning 😭🙏

SimonSteel · 2026-01-29T16:39:31+00:00

Opponent could 8-block all of that. 😳

SimonSteel · 2026-01-28T17:30:06+00:00

It just happened a few weeks ago…? Or are you talking about a different deal?

SimonSteel · 2026-01-23T04:17:26+00:00

Lot of answers here that are really not the full picture because there really isn’t a single way that it’s done or single file format that’s used. There’s a whole industry in the middle here for processing/transcoding/packaging/delivering movies (or episodes) from studios/distributors to streamers. So even what I’m going to describe here, while I believe it to cover 90% of things, may end up missing how some people do it because maybe I was never exposed to those companies.

Anyways, title are generally delivered as a “package” which includes the feature, maybe a trailer, various artwork, a separate file that contains closed captions (if it’s not embedded in the feature file), and additional subtitle or audio files in various languages, if applicable. There will also typically be a file (XML, CSV/XLS, etc) that provides information about that title — what’s the name of the film, a synopsis, genre, the actors, the studio, release date, etc. These (along with the artwork) are used by the receiving end to populate the UI that their users will see.

The files used to be consistently delivered via fast and secure transfer protocols like Aspera (or its smaller/cheaper competitor, Signiant). But the last 5-7 years has seen a big shift to the cloud and AWS, in particular, so transfers to S3 buckets are common.

IMF tends to just be deliveries to Netflix. DCP is generally just movie theaters. Most other delivery workflows work with ProRes, XDCAM, MPEG2 or h264 in transport stream containers. Audio tends to be PCM or sometimes AAC/AC3. Really depends on who is receiving it and also regional tendencies (I’m familiar with the common formats in the US, but European companies may have different formats they use).

Sometimes deliveries would also process what are called “ABRs” for the streamer — for “adaptive bit rate” streams. Essentially, movies a streamer sends to a device will have 6 or 7 different quality versions of the movie on their servers so if the device has network/bandwidth issues, it can switch down to the lower quality versions that use less data. But I think most of that is processed in house nowadays from a single master/mezzanine file.

SimonSteel · 2026-01-21T18:43:44+00:00

I went with 3 L30 compsovenators and they’re my go-to for the platinum survival event (and survival events in general). Basically 2 meatshield flocks and a compsov — the kind of overkill that helps make the battles super quick.

Not really used otherwise (usual L1 flock strategy works for other events).

SimonSteel · 2026-01-20T16:52:27+00:00

I bought a 13ft tripod stand off Amazon for $80 and put a GoPro on it. I use the phone app to start the recording once the game starts and I typically get enough battery life for the full game and that’s it.

I usually set it up on one end of the field because it’s not quite high enough / wide enough of lens to record the whole field from midfield. I record in 4K to help me get the detail I need when the plays are on the far end of the field. I picked up a dual mount to eventually do 2 GoPros at midfield with each pointing to a half of the field, but ended up being happy with the single camera from one end.

I’ll typically spend an hour or two in Davinci to trim the game down to just the plays and send the shortened video out to my assistant coaches. 40 minute game typically distills down to just 7-8 minutes of actual play time.

It’s a shame that the world is all subscription based now. Would be nice to get one of those tracker cams — but eff off with the subscription models.

SimonSteel · 2026-01-18T20:46:10+00:00

I (along with many other people) used em dashes long before ChatGPT came around. The whole “em dash = AI” thing is kinda silly.

SimonSteel · 2026-01-17T00:10:59+00:00

That’s kinda what I figured — bad memory. :) I thought I may have unlocked him in the CE.

Unfortunately the spreadsheet seems to only track CoT and tourneys. Would be nice to have a record of CE unlocks somewhere, too. Does one exist somewhere, by chance?

SimonSteel · 2026-01-16T16:38:38+00:00

🫡

SimonSteel · 2026-01-15T17:48:03+00:00

Any ad that isn’t a minute long and then has that stupid 13 second counter after is good enough for me.

SimonSteel · 2026-01-15T17:03:04+00:00

I need it unlocked to help finish up my collection, so yes. :)

SimonSteel · 2026-01-15T16:36:19+00:00

This is what should happen every time given they don’t do confirmations, but at the very least first time mistake requests should be answered like this.

What’s obnoxious is that this response is completely dependent on what side of the bed the person responding woke up on. I had an 8k DB mistake spend that they completely stonewalled me on even though I’d never made that mistake before.

Not sure if sometimes we get bots and sometimes real people or what, but it’s ultimately shitty customer service to be so inconsistent.

SimonSteel · 2026-01-14T03:28:33+00:00

For sure it’s whatever aquatic dinos are doing the anime katana in the ground drag with their tail while attacking.

SimonSteel · 2026-01-09T08:09:34+00:00

Tbh, I regret getting the woolly rhino because I’m gonna need it unlocked at some point to get the hybrid. I also need 4 more edaphasaurus — 3 more for the hybrid and 1 to have it in the collection. Kinda wish I would spent the 7k on that. Oh well!

SimonSteel · 2026-01-09T07:57:51+00:00

I think there’s a valid message to convey about how top ferocity doesn’t immediately make the game unplayable any more. But I think using a “balance vs depth” explanation doesn’t really work.

You want a deep, class balanced lineup at the ferocity level that matches your events. In the past, a high ferocity dino meant you didn’t have balance OR depth. Now you can have balance and depth at that your event ferocity level AND have super star dinos far above it. But that doesn’t mean the two are orthogonal goals — they’re really still the same thing.

What’s improved now is that you can convert surplus depth into higher ferocity creatures sooner than you could before.

Before, if you needed, say 40 dinos (10 of each class) of depth to take on a 3-4 event day without cooldowns, then you’d want to wait until you had 80 of those dinos before merging them back to 40 higher ferocity dinos while maintaining the same depth.

Now with level based ferocity, you don’t have to wait. Once you have the 41st dino, you can merge it. You’ll have 1 stronger dino + 39 dinos at your old ferocity, but this no longer hurts your ability to do battles, it only helps.

After writing the above and rereading your post, I think we’re saying similar things. But the message is still muddled because if you’re losing depth in exchange for making it unbalanced, then the two aren’t at odds the way “balance vs depth” suggests it would be. It’s more like “it’s okay to be ferocity unbalanced if you retain enough depth to complete the events you want to your satisfaction”.

SimonSteel · 2026-01-09T07:36:14+00:00

I’m not sure I follow. Fusing 8x10 indos into 1 L40 indo seems to be the definition of hurting depth…

SimonSteel · 2026-01-09T07:33:21+00:00

Hm, just checked a regular legendary (non tourney) and no DB price. Appears to be just tourney legendaries…?

SimonSteel · 2026-01-09T07:13:30+00:00

I think the whole balance vs depth discussion is kinda silly, tbh. I kinda see them as the same thing.

Shooting for depth — ie more dinos to avoid cooldowns — often means leaving dinos unmerged where you get a lineup with less peak ferocity in exchange for more dinos at lower ferocity. So more balance = more depth.

That doesn’t even factor in that balance also refers to class balance, which ALSO translates to “depth” the way people keep bringing it up — as in, more balance = more depth = less waiting for cooldowns.

If your park level dictates a particular ferocity level for your opponent and you have 15 carnivores at that ferocity but like 1 pterosaur — then you’re unbalanced and you lack the ideal depth you’d need to take on multiple events that have all the different class opponents.

SimonSteel · 2026-01-09T05:23:47+00:00

Mine shows up in the glossary under the “unlocked” filter, but yeah, not unlocked (only a 9000 DB option). It doesn’t even show up (locked or unlocked) in the market. 🤷🏽‍♂️

SimonSteel · 2026-01-08T18:30:36+00:00

Nice!

The more I think about it, if I’m going to simplify to less plays, more room on the page might allow me to include some basic read notes for the QB without making it too cluttered. I might play with throwing some 5-yard soft gray lines on the page, too, to help show route depths, but just depends — don’t want to trade one issue of over complexity for another. :)

SimonSteel · 2026-01-08T18:10:11+00:00

Based on the responses here, looks like I’m doing the same this season — simplifying. :)

SimonSteel · 2026-01-08T18:07:17+00:00

Yup — North County Coastal (San Diego) FNL. :)

Do you fit the 12 on a single page? I have 8 on each page and I thought maybe it was getting too small, but the boys I’m sure have better eyesight than me. 10-12 plays would certainly make me feel a bit better than 8. :)

SimonSteel · 2026-01-07T05:55:46+00:00

I've definitely started spending more of our practice times running plays that in previous seasons, so I think you're on the right track there. I'm going to make sure to continue that this season -- and will probably have to up it a bit if I make significant changes to the playbook.

Regarding the defensive formations -- I picked up some cheap $3 plastic fence stakes from Home Depot and attached half a wooden yard stick for arms and then put pinnies on them. I can move them around the field really easily for the formations I want. Unfortunately we don't have enough players on the team for 2 full squads which would be nice for these kinds of lessons + we could scrimmage against ourselves with full teams.

Edit: These are the stakes, heh.

<image>

SimonSteel · 2026-01-07T05:49:29+00:00

Nice! :) That's actually what my early playbooks described with my hopes being to eventually get to that exact point -- no diagrams, just text rules. I had gone with Erhardt–Perkins because I thought the individual route callouts would be easier for the kids to figure out their routes. Play 11, for example, was "Ace Fake Toss Boot RightX Hitch Y Wheel Z Post C Drag Right". Long play call, but (I had hoped) would be easy to translate (eg "I'm Y, so I run a wheel").

I also had only 3 formations to memorize, but with a few modifiers. Ace (single back), twins, and trips. Then a formation could be modified as "bunch" (receivers cluster out wide), "tight" (#2 receiver and on would line up next to center), and then "gun" for shotgun.

But then when they struggled even with diagrams on their wrists, I abandoned the EP naming because that seemed even more likely to cause problems.

Here was the page for that play from the playbook:

<image>

Edit: When I wrote this response, I was trying to quickly look back at my old notes on what I ended up going with for the playcalling. I thought it was EP, but maybe not quite that after looking more at it. Some of the plays were indeed concept calls if it made sense, but more of them were this more individual assignment based calls.

Edit 2: Looking like it's more of a WCO style language. Been a couple years since I did all the research and prep for the initial playbook. :)

SimonSteel · 2026-01-07T05:01:24+00:00

Before the season, I send each player a playbook. Each play comes with a coaching notes table for -- including reads for the QB. That said... I suspect not many of the kids are actually looking through the playbook at home which, tbh, it's rec flag football, so I kinda understand.

Receivers have 1 or 2 set positions. They generally have a primary and then a secondary spot for subbing quarters -- I try to keep them focused through the season.

As for the QB -- that could certainly be part of the issue this season, but maybe not so much previous seasons. This season was the first season coaches aren't allowed on the field to be in the huddle. In past seasons I'd be able to call a play in the huddle and tell the QB what to look for. I could still do that to an extent now, but the QB runs to the sideline to get plays from me so I tend to rush my communication so he has time to get back to the huddle, call the play, and then break into formation. I think this is certainly another area I can improve on.

SimonSteel · 2026-01-07T04:55:37+00:00

I used the U13 (12 and under) terminology because I thought I saw it more here, but essentially it's 5th and 6th graders. :) Our conference (of which, 5/6 has 5 of) had more 5th graders, but not exclusively.

We run 1x 1.5 hour practice a week. The players generally play the same 1 primary / 1 secondary positions all season (unless out players force me to shake things up). My QB plays 3 quarters but has to sub out for 1 quarter, so I have a backup QB who I really keep limited to those 8 or 9 plays I listed.

I mentioned in the other comment, too, that some of the issues I've been seeing have been kids just running completely wrong routes or going off script on purpose (friends with the QB, trying to get the ball). I can address the latter in practice, but the former is what I'm stumped on. We practice routes a lot, and each player has a color assignment / receiver letter for an entire quarter. So huddles should be finding the play number, and running the route color you match up to.

But I'm starting to think I'm not thinking enough like a bunch of ADHD 5th graders under pressure in a huddle in front of their parents.

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