Alright Boyz, Here We Go!!! (Front Office Football 8 Thoughts)

[AlexB]

Also learned through reading the help a bit more than before that what (for me) had become a confused issue has been clarified:
Interviewing affects the ability to narrow down ranges from rookie interviews
Scouting affects the ratings you see for veteran players

(I had read a thread somewhere that suggested this might not be as black and white as the above)

[zullojer]

clearing cap by using cap outs at the beginning of free agency is now a thing of the past it looks like. keep getting a " client wants at least a 4yr contract at this stage of free agency" and won't let me cap someone out with 2 years on their contract.

[keeks]

are Draw plays possible to make?

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by zullojer

clearing cap by using cap outs at the beginning of free agency is now a thing of the past it looks like. keep getting a " client wants at least a 4yr contract at this stage of free agency" and won't let me cap someone out with 2 years on their contract.

Hmmmm......based on the way the blog post was written about shorter FA contracts, I'm not sure that this is intended behavior. I'll add it to the bug thread.

[Antmeister]

Originally Posted by AlexB

Also learned through reading the help a bit more than before that what (for me) had become a confused issue has been clarified:
Interviewing affects the ability to narrow down ranges from rookie interviews
Scouting affects the ratings you see for veteran players

(I had read a thread somewhere that suggested this might not be as black and white as the above)

This is the same as before (FOF 7). The only thing we still don't know now or then is how much weight is given to coordinators and coaches in Interviewing and Scouting. See the old thread here: FOF7 - Staff Draft and Staff Role Thoughts - Front Office Football Central

[Noop]

You know what would be nice and I might be in the super minority with this request. A player editor. I like to create super players around the league and track their progress, however that's not possible in this game.

Any chance Jim adds it or is this wish a nonstarter?

[Caligari]

You know what I would like?

Access to the Personnel charts during the off-season, so when I'm signing people I can get a sense of how they might fit into the array of roles and formations...

[Ben E Lou]

Being able to have my team roster open during the draft and free agency is teh awesome.

[Zee]

My main TE got injured, and it won't let me edit the playbook until I have 3 active TE's. So I have to carry 4 TE's and drop another player? It won't let me into the playbook to remove the 3 TE's plays, or substitute my FB for that slot.

[rush_27]

Top CB's are being left out of the starting line-up on AI teams. Inferior players are getting more game time. Is this a bug?

[Noop]

Originally Posted by rush_27

Top CB's are being left out of the starting line-up on AI teams. Inferior players are getting more game time. Is this a bug?

I've had the same thing happen.

[TroyF]

Not sure if anyone has noticed this or not, so if it has already been said I apologize in advance.

If you go to controls/choose-edit display options, there is a box marked "restrict pop ups when hovering on player and home town information"

If you uncheck that box, everything in the player screen will pop up when you hover over it. You can get a full personality report, see all injuries, see the agent information, awards and view agent information without having to do another click.

[garion333]

Originally Posted by rush_27

Top CB's are being left out of the starting line-up on AI teams. Inferior players are getting more game time. Is this a bug?

See the bugs thread where I'm reporting that certain positions don't have their bars showing up in a Recommended search.

I'm thinking the reason lesser players are being slotted in is because the game isn't recognizing the pass D bars on the corners and Lbs and is instead slotting them in based on other factors like run D.

[A-Husker-4-Life]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

Being able to have my team roster open during the draft and free agency is teh awesome.

This is a great feature, Jim did a great job on this version and it's only going to get better.

[SegRat]

Originally Posted by rush_27

Top CB's are being left out of the starting line-up on AI teams. Inferior players are getting more game time. Is this a bug?

I have had the same happen with my best safety.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by SegRat

I have had the same happen with my best safety.

Safeties have search issues like CBs. I'll bet whatever's causing these search issues is also messing up the AI's ability to evaluate them.

[OldGiants]

Originally Posted by garion333

See the bugs thread where I'm reporting that certain positions don't have their bars showing up in a Recommended search.

I'm thinking the reason lesser players are being slotted in is because the game isn't recognizing the pass D bars on the corners and Lbs and is instead slotting them in based on other factors like run D.

This is happening to me as well. I think it is related to man-to-man, not run D based on my observations. I'm seeing guys with marginally better MtM starting over players with better ratings in most everything else except for that.

[QuikSand]

Originally Posted by Caligari

You know what I would like?

Access to the Personnel charts during the off-season, so when I'm signing people I can get a sense of how they might fit into the array of roles and formations...

Have to agree - I never understood the thinking behind having that stuff be off limits for so much of the offseason cycle.

[MalcPow]

Originally Posted by OldGiants

This is happening to me as well. I think it is related to man-to-man, not run D based on my observations. I'm seeing guys with marginally better MtM starting over players with better ratings in most everything else except for that.

It actually looks like MtM is absolute king here. Not sure if that's intended but it appears to be what the AI is weighting extremely heavily or exclusively. Not sure if there's any variance between schemes.

Edit to add: Tough to think through scout error, etc. But I'll at least lean hard in the direction that Zone is playing a much larger role in the calculation of a CB's overall rating than it is in the AI's playing time allocation algorithm. Again, not sure if that's intended.

[QuikSand]

I have been letting the staff dictate my depth chart... but I'm frustrated by a number of their decisions:

-I have a very old CB Joe Haden (4 year captain), whom we rate at 28/28 (much of that attributable to KR skills)... and the AI is starting him at LCB in nearly every formation ahead of a much younger guy rated 63/63 and very well suited to play as a tarting CB. There's no major differential in single ratings, either, both guys are fairly low in zone and better at the other two coverages. (Haden at 36/0/34 and the other guy at 68/20/93)

-I have a specialty pass-rush-only guy slotted as the only WLB on my True 34 roster (literally a zero in run D, but solid in the pass rush skills)..but on the Recommend screen, I see him being pulled for a DE in the base formation (um, okay, not awful) but then being used as our starting SLB quite a lot of the time in other situations, and once as a DE, while other guys are used as the WLB. (I have a quality 63/63 guy slotted at SLB, he's by far a better fir for SLB) The WLB guy is a natural 3-4 WLB on his card. FWIW, on the "exact position match" setting for defense, Rex is using a 3/10 (but 7/10 on offense).

Nothing showstoping here, but it's enough that I see myself needing to invest a lot more time into depth chart decisions in multiplayer FOF 8.

[TroyF]

Start the game as my beloved Broncos. Sim forward 12 years. Look over the roster, it's horrible. (which is fine, I'm good with that) A nice young QB who was drafted with the fourth pick last year. Good, that'll work.

Go to coaches screen. head coach: Josh McDaniels. I think I just threw up in my mouth a little bit.

[garion333]

Originally Posted by MalcPow

It actually looks like MtM is absolute king here. Not sure if that's intended but it appears to be what the AI is weighting extremely heavily or exclusively. Not sure if there's any variance between schemes.

Edit to add: Tough to think through scout error, etc. But I'll at least lean hard in the direction that Zone is playing a much larger role in the calculation of a CB's overall rating than it is in the AI's playing time allocation algorithm. Again, not sure if that's intended.

Yeah, kind of tough to determine if Rex is completely broken, seeing some of the coverage bars or all the coverage bars (with Recommend player screen only not seeing them).

My guess is it's slotting them not by coverage bars at all and we're incorrectly trying to attribute Rex with something it isn't doing. It might be as simple as returning a null value and in setting the oldest guys when we hit Rex.

[Ben E Lou]

Here's something I've never been able to do in previous versions: I drafted very light LB in the 5th round, weight-trained him down, and he did a successful switch to Safety. Nothing magical, but he's 29/46 and should be at worst a decent backup.

[Sharkn20]

I don´t know if someone reported this or no yet, or how to solve it. I am having a problem trying to drag the offensive personal screen across the monitor... Any suggestions? The defensive personnel works fine

[Ben E Lou]

Quick-Simmed 2016-2029 to start my first real career. Took over Atlanta. In the Staff Draft, there was a monster OC available to me (90s playcalling, 80s scouting, 80s player dev and young talent). Only problem was that he is a Spread Offense guy and my QB sucked at running. I traded for a upper 40s guy with good wheels, and filled out the roster. I let Rex create the entire playbook and added a few designed QB runs to the game plan. Used the same one every week. These were the year 1 results:



Fun stuff so far.

[Hammer]

Pretty poor ypr for the QB. Will be interesting to see just how well the QB spy works and if QB designed runs are even worth calling against a team who is consistently playing the spy. Plus just how much the spy hurts pass defense.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Hammer

Pretty poor ypr for the QB.

Not for using him as a primary ball carrier.

[Nemesis]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

Not for using him as a primary ball carrier.

^This

I bet if you were able to figure out which of the runs were planned QB runs vs scrambles from a pass, you'd see more yards per rush on the scrambles. I noticed it when trying some shenanigans with Cam Newton.

[Hammer]

Yeah exactly, higher ypc on the scrambles. So you won't be making 4.8 ypc as a primary ball carrier. If you are using a guy with "good wheels" a good proportion of those runs will be scrambles...which typically see 7 ypc or so. Doesn't sound a very healthy average for the designed runs to me.

I don't know if Jim is raising the injuries risk factor for ball carriers in this version, but it is also worth keeping an eye out for. In the real world if you are using a QB as a designed ball carrier you need to be doing very well out of it.

[zullojer]

either way, it's still cool to see a QB with 674 rushing yards and the ability to put together a game plan to utilize a dual threat qb.

[IlliniCub]

Do Quarterback Completion percentages seem on the significantly high side for anyone else?

[wustin]

Originally Posted by IlliniCub

Do Quarterback Completion percentages seem on the significantly high side for anyone else?

It was pretty high in FOF7. I think it's that high to inflate passing yards. There was a patch in FOF7 where Jim adjusted that aspect of the game to make it more realistic.

[Dawgfan19]

Originally Posted by IlliniCub

Do Quarterback Completion percentages seem on the significantly high side for anyone else?

The NFL league QB completion percentage was 63.0 in 2015 and 62.6 in 2014. I'm seeing similar numbers in my testing.

[Caligari]

Originally Posted by Zee

My main TE got injured, and it won't let me edit the playbook until I have 3 active TE's. So I have to carry 4 TE's and drop another player? It won't let me into the playbook to remove the 3 TE's plays, or substitute my FB for that slot.

You have to have 3 TEs now on your team, regardless of your playbook. This is a change from FOF7.

[wustin]

Originally Posted by Dawgfan19

The NFL league QB completion percentage was 63.0 in 2015 and 62.6 in 2014. I'm seeing similar numbers in my testing.

A better way to gauge it is just do a fast sim of around 20 seasons and see if it deviates a lot or not.

[Dawgfan19]

Originally Posted by wustin

A better way to gauge it is just do a fast sim of around 20 seasons and see if it deviates a lot or not.

My post was not made casually. 11 seasons of FOF 8 data with the average completion percentage over that span within a 1% of current NFL averages.

I'm in a lot of FOF 7 MP leagues as well. After checking the history of those leagues, FOF 7 QB completion percentages were not inflated in that version either.

If there is one thing Jim does very well, it's simulating macro NFL statistics.

[wustin]

Originally Posted by Dawgfan19

My post was not made casually. 11 seasons of FOF 8 data with the average completion percentage over that span within a 1% of current NFL averages.

I'm in a lot of FOF 7 MP leagues as well. After checking the history of those leagues, FOF 7 QB completion percentages were not inflated in that version either.

If there is one thing Jim does very well, it's simulating macro NFL statistics.

I still think the high end of the curve is too high. Even in FOF7 I would have a few teams over 70% completion a season. Pretty sure only 1 or 2 teams in the NFL have gone 71>x>70 in the last 15 years. I'm going to do another quick sim of 20 seasons again to make sure.

Also on another note the AI does a much better job drafting for team needs and finding studs in the mid rounds.

[Ben E Lou]

Observation: I'm only in my third offseason where I'm actually paying attention, and one concern has already been assuaged: after just a couple of seasons, I already have a very good idea of the optimal weights for each position, and some are committed to memory; I'm playing the 3-4, and I can already recognize the DL and LB guys who are weight fits for this system. I'd been concerned about people having to consult the weight charts for every draft pick in order to optimize.

Originally Posted by wustin

Also on another note the AI does a much better job drafting for team needs and finding studs in the mid rounds.

Either the AI is a *lot* better at drafting, or I'm a *lot* worse. Either way, so far that's making it more challenging to build a team in SP than in the past.

[Ben E Lou]

Is it just me, or are there more 50ish-rated players in this version? Maybe this is intentional to make "fits" be more important?

[SlyBelle1]

Just curious if anyone else noticing receiving stats a bit down....after simming a number of seasons, often only have 1 or 2 players that exceed 100 catches and total yards for high end players in the 1300 range...I know there isn't a ton in real life, but have seen them be greater than this especially for some receivers.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by SlyBelle1

Just curious if anyone else noticing receiving stats a bit down....after simming a number of seasons, often only have 1 or 2 players that exceed 100 catches and total yards for high end players in the 1300 range...I know there isn't a ton in real life, but have seen them be greater than this especially for some receivers.

I think FOF8 may spread the ball around a bit more than real life, but I don't see anything that I'd consider egregious there. In my current 15-season career, a couple of guys have exceeded 130 catches in a season (done only 3 times in the NFL, all three in the last 15 years), and in a 50-year sim, the single-season record for yards was 1,918, which is very close to real life. There was a lot of discussion with FOF7 in particular about the NFL's inflated offensive stats the last few years and how the game should respond to those. If he's still centering on 5ish-year averages rather than just the current season, as he did in the past, it should be expected that the overall numbers in FOF8 will be a little lower than the current season's NFL. That said, overall passing/receiving stats are passing the sniff test quite well: league-wide QB rating in the 2016 NFL is 89.2. In my current career the last five seasons have been 85.4, 87.4, 87.1, 89.2, and 89.1.

[wustin]

Originally Posted by SlyBelle1

Just curious if anyone else noticing receiving stats a bit down....after simming a number of seasons, often only have 1 or 2 players that exceed 100 catches and total yards for high end players in the 1300 range...I know there isn't a ton in real life, but have seen them be greater than this especially for some receivers.

AI has issues with how it starts WRs and DBs. I had a 53/76 SE and rex kept starting a 45/45 SE over it. I just finished simming 60 seasons (with 200 injury rating) and only two receivers have gotten more than 1000 catches. I'm going to sim another 20.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by wustin

AI has issues with how it starts WRs and DBs.

What issues with WRs? No one has reported that to the bug thread.

[wustin]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

What issues with WRs? No one has reported that to the bug thread.

The same problem the game has with cornerbacks? I would double check again to make sure but I'm quicksimming.

It could just be the AI spreading the offense more but I'm pretty sure I had a season where my 45/45 SE just plain out had priority over a stud SE.

[Squirrel]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

Is it just me, or are there more 50ish-rated players in this version? Maybe this is intentional to make "fits" be more important?

No data to back this up yet, but I was thinking the same. I'm about ten seasons in

[SlyBelle1]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

I think FOF8 may spread the ball around a bit more than real life, but I don't see anything that I'd consider egregious there. In my current 15-season career, a couple of guys have exceeded 130 catches in a season (done only 3 times in the NFL, all three in the last 15 years), and in a 50-year sim, the single-season record for yards was 1,918, which is very close to real life. There was a lot of discussion with FOF7 in particular about the NFL's inflated offensive stats the last few years and how the game should respond to those. If he's still centering on 5ish-year averages rather than just the current season, as he did in the past, it should be expected that the overall numbers in FOF8 will be a little lower than the current season's NFL. That said, overall passing/receiving stats are passing the sniff test quite well: league-wide QB rating in the 2016 NFL is 89.2. In my current career the last five seasons have been 85.4, 87.4, 87.1, 89.2, and 89.1.

Certainly nothing hugely wrong, but would like to see a little more to it...but if it is based on multiple season average, then I can see why it is doing it that way. Plus, seems like quite a bit TE's in the list, which certainly is OK for some, just more than I thought ahead of big time players like Jones, Brown, etc. (although I realize they won't match real life 100%).

Again, not a big deal, just would like to see some minor tweaking....

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

Observation: I'm only in my third offseason where I'm actually paying attention, and one concern has already been assuaged: after just a couple of seasons, I already have a very good idea of the optimal weights for each position, and some are committed to memory; I'm playing the 3-4, and I can already recognize the DL and LB guys who are weight fits for this system. I'd been concerned about people having to consult the weight charts for every draft pick in order to optimize.

Having height / weight colorized in DraftAnalyzer and PlayerTracker is high on my list right now, 'cause I'm too old to remember stuff like this.

I'd like to see FOF colorize these for good/bad, and start colorizing combines (along with height / weight) on the Player Record.

[Millerp33]

Has anyone noticed that the "Change Name" tab on other teams rosters isn't working? Nothing crazy but just something i've seen

[Dawgfan19]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

Observation: I'm only in my third offseason where I'm actually paying attention, and one concern has already been assuaged: after just a couple of seasons, I already have a very good idea of the optimal weights for each position, and some are committed to memory; I'm playing the 3-4, and I can already recognize the DL and LB guys who are weight fits for this system. I'd been concerned about people having to consult the weight charts for every draft pick in order to optimize.

Hopefully FOF 8 will begin generating heavier OLBs. In FOF 7, I don't recall many elite pass rushing 34 style WLBs weighting around 260 lbs. I have not been through enough drafts to gauge that.

But I suppose moving a light DE to WLB would be an option.

[AlexB]

Originally Posted by rush_27

Are player ratings changing on a week to week basis? Or is it just me? I have also noticed that the AI aren't playing their best players. Such as a 70/70 CB being left out for a 40/40 CB during regular season games

Edit - I think I was looking at the wrong player card