I guess I identified at least one reason why the AI calls a timeout in no-huddle offense but only after the clock ran down (for calling no-huddle).
- in the last 2 minutes of the half, the AI calls no-huddle offense (in the 4th quarter only if it still has a chance to win...).
- in the last minute of the half, the AI calls timeout (in the 2nd quarter only if it still has timeouts and has a change to score; in the 4th quarter only if it still has a chance to win the game)
- if the game clock is close to (but still more than) one minute left in the 2nd or 1m30sec in the 4th quarter, the AI does not call timeout but no-huddle-offense resulting in a lose of time. if the play clock is below 1 minute (2nd quarter) or 90 seconds (4th) after the loss of time (due to no-huddle) it calls timeout.
as I said, that is only one reason why the AI calls timeout only after wasting some time. there seems to be a second issue very close to the end of the half. I did not exactly identify the mispecified logic here but I'd guess it is somehow similar to what I've written above. there might be a rule that says 'no-huddle!' if about x seconds are left on the clock and call timeout if y seconds are left on the clock. if the time runoff of the no-huddle call (within the timeframe x but outside y) results in entering the 'call timeout' timeframe y, the same pattern might occur (as above).
in addition, there seems to be a third mispecified logic related to the issue above: the AI seems to go for it on 4th down, if more than z seconds are left on the clock after the 3rd down play (and the offense is not too far away from the endzone in the 2nd quarter) the AI calls no-huddle. if the clock is within the timeframe (x) to call timeout after the loss of time, it will call timeout. but if the remaining time below z seconds, the AI will decide to punt. this pattern might explain why the AI calls 1) no-huddle, 2) timeout after wasting time, and 3) punting the ball afterwards.
by the way: the AI punts the ball 3 seconds before the half ends although it could easily end the quarter without executing the punt (because the time is running). this results in a final opportunity to score on the punt return (if the punt does not go out of bounds) or by blocking the punt. this should be changed: the AI should just end the half.
I'd guess the solution would be to take the time (after the no-huddle) into account for the AI rules. if the no-huddle will result in entering the next 'stage' of clock management 1) no-huddle 2) timeout, 3) punt, the AI should either call the timeout before the no-huddle call or not calling timeout afterwards.
@EA_Blueberry: may I ask you to forward my hypotheses to the dev team? I would be interested if it is correct. thank you!
