[Solo Challenges] play not counted when flag is thrown (even if declined)
Whenever a penalty flag is thrown, the result of a play is not counted towards the challenge goals, regardless of whether the penalty is accepted or declined. For instance, if one of the teams scores a TD and a flag was thrown because the opponent caused a pass interference, the TD (in case of a declined penalty) or the progress (in terms of yards) to the 1 yard line is not counted. Similarly, if there is an offside penalty, neither the 5 yards penalty (if accepted) nor the outcome of the play (whatever it is, if declined) is counted towards the challenge goals.
Admittedly, penalties don't occur very often in solo modes, but there are still two good reasons why the bug should be fixed (apart from the fact that bugs should always be fixed at some point):
- It is very frustrating for a player when you manage to complete an objective and it is not counted just because of a penalty your opponent caused. It's even more frustrating when this happens in one of the very difficult Epic Solo Challenges (for instance) and you've already tried that challenge several times, only to find that you still haven't succeeded (even though you've actually already succeeded).
- This bug also represents a potential glitch exploit: whenever the goal of a solo challenge is simply to prevent touchdowns, points or even yards, all you need to do is put one player offside and let the opponent score as many points as they want (or even worse, simply out of the block FG formation, because the opponent can almost always score immediately). However, integrating other objectives such as ‘Get a Tackle’ etc. would prevent the glitch exploit...
By the way: Solo Challenges that should only last one drive (e.g. where the target is something like ‘Don't allow a TD this drive’) do not end if a flag is thrown on the last play of the drive. In these cases, you must play at least one more drive, because apparently the trigger for checking whether the solo challenge has been completed must always be the end of a drive for solo challenges with such objectives.
How should it actually be?
- If the penalty is declined, the outcome of the play should be counted in any case.
- If the penalty is accepted, I'd guess it is not that clear what should happen (in particular when taking into account my second argument above).
- From my point of view, the penalty yards should be taken into account too if the penalty is due to offsides or similar in order to avoid the potential glitch exploit (otherwise there are probably some more glitch exploits feasible. For instance, if the goals is to "not allow 30 yards this drive", you might just cause enough offside penalties that your opponent starts his drive too close to your endzone that there aren't 30 yards left...). Not sure how to avoud this glitch exploit if the objective is "Don't allow 30 passing (or rushing) yards"...
- I'd also say that what the human player did (or managed to complete) during the play should be taken into account for the challenge objectives. I'm thinking here of objectives like "make a ball carrier move" or "get a tackle". I'd like to see it that you can complete such objectives even during plays that are neutralized afterwards because of a penalty. But the outcome of the play in terms of yards gained or points scored should not be taken into account because because they are cancelled out by the penalty and are therefore also not counted towards the game score.