questions from a newbie

[JHopkins19]

Hey guys, I have a couple of questions I couldn't find in the Help section.

1. What exactly does Roster Strength mean? I'm assuming its a compilation of all the ratings of the guys on my roster, but rarely do I get a score of over 15 even when I have decent teams.

2. As of right now I haven't touched gameplanning. I'm content with playing as a GM. However, since I have gone this route, do I just have to trust that my coach will run the ball as much as possible if I have built my team around a strong run blocking O-Line with a 75+ rated RB.
I definitely have had issues developing QB's so my first couple of teams have been built this way, yet there are some games where my weak QB will throw the ball 40-50 times. Now I understand that if my team was always behind and playing catch up ball, but thats not the case.
Gameplanning just seems a bit too much for me right now, so if I have to live with this then so be it, just want to find out if I'm missing something.

Thanks.

[JHopkins19]

Follow up Question...

3. It seems like the AI doesn't ever come close to using their salary cap and a majority of the teams will have 20-50 million in payroll available after late free agency. Is this normal as well? I have found that because of this, I can usually get the players I want unless they have a high loyalty rating.

4. How do you choose between a 3-4 and a 4-3 in the game?

I also should have mentioned I'm playing this on the easiest of the three levels. How much does that affect the questions I'm asking?

Thanks again.

[Skolleck]

Originally Posted by JHopkins19

Hey guys, I have a couple of questions I couldn't find in the Help section.

1. What exactly does Roster Strength mean? I'm assuming its a compilation of all the ratings of the guys on my roster, but rarely do I get a score of over 15 even when I have decent teams.

2. As of right now I haven't touched gameplanning. I'm content with playing as a GM. However, since I have gone this route, do I just have to trust that my coach will run the ball as much as possible if I have built my team around a strong run blocking O-Line with a 75+ rated RB.
I definitely have had issues developing QB's so my first couple of teams have been built this way, yet there are some games where my weak QB will throw the ball 40-50 times. Now I understand that if my team was always behind and playing catch up ball, but thats not the case.
Gameplanning just seems a bit too much for me right now, so if I have to live with this then so be it, just want to find out if I'm missing something.

Thanks.

Most of the people on this board have played the Single Player (SP) version of this game for as many as ten years since it was first released. So for those players it is very easy to win in SP and getting a team with a roster of 100 is fairly easy. In order to get a real challenge those type of players use "house rules" to change the game. This can include not signing players to using totaly undrafted FA to build a team.

The overall score is based on different positions. Having a 95/95 QB is better than a 95/95 Punter.

The coach recommend button will not make the best use of your team. I recommend you look at the tips and downloads thread to look for the gameplans.

[Skolleck]

Originally Posted by JHopkins19

Follow up Question...

3. It seems like the AI doesn't ever come close to using their salary cap and a majority of the teams will have 20-50 million in payroll available after late free agency. Is this normal as well? I have found that because of this, I can usually get the players I want unless they have a high loyalty rating.

4. How do you choose between a 3-4 and a 4-3 in the game?

I also should have mentioned I'm playing this on the easiest of the three levels. How much does that affect the questions I'm asking?

Thanks again.

3) all AI sucks. Not just the AI in FOF... Yes it is normal that the AI teams have much cap. The other thing that will occur after the draft is AI teams up vs the cap will cut good young players you can pick up.

4) in the GP screens, I think i is labeled "Misc Def setting"

Once you get better you may want to try and join a Multi-Player league.

Good Luck!
Scott Kolleck

[JHopkins19]

Scott, thanks for the replies, very much appreciated. I also want to make sure I wasn't crapping on FOF AI, I just wanted to make sure it wasn't an option I had inadvertently checked or something along those lines. Thanks again.

[Raiders Army]

Originally Posted by JHopkins19

1. What exactly does Roster Strength mean? I'm assuming its a compilation of all the ratings of the guys on my roster, but rarely do I get a score of over 15 even when I have decent teams.

Originally Posted by Skolleck

Most of the people on this board have played the Single Player (SP) version of this game for as many as ten years since it was first released. So for those players it is very easy to win in SP and getting a team with a roster of 100 is fairly easy. In order to get a real challenge those type of players use "house rules" to change the game. This can include not signing players to using totaly undrafted FA to build a team.

The overall score is based on different positions. Having a 95/95 QB is better than a 95/95 Punter.

The coach recommend button will not make the best use of your team. I recommend you look at the tips and downloads thread to look for the gameplans.

With respect to this, I believe the question JHopkins is asking is about the Evaluation at the end of the year. The numeric rating to roster is not intuitive, really. Your roster rating will be lower as your team gets better. In other words, it's a measure of difficulty where if you have a bad roster (maybe conflict, red flags, etc. could affect it...I'm not really sure, but definitely bad players do) your score will go up.

[Raiders Army]

Originally Posted by JHopkins19

3. It seems like the AI doesn't ever come close to using their salary cap and a majority of the teams will have 20-50 million in payroll available after late free agency. Is this normal as well? I have found that because of this, I can usually get the players I want unless they have a high loyalty rating.

I'd agree with Scott here, but also add that the AI gets in cap hell (under default settings) and releases great players to FA, freeing up cap room for themselves. The AI also signs a lot of players to 1 year deals. If you check out the average players signed on teams during Stage 1 of FA, you'll note that a lot of teams only have anywhere from 15-30 players signed.

[Vinatieri for Prez]

AI gameplanning through the recommend button is much improved in this latest version and is a good substitute for a lack of gameplanning knowledge by the player. However, as time goes on, you will be able to increase performance by gameplanning yourself.

[Skolleck]

Originally Posted by Raiders Army

With respect to this, I believe the question JHopkins is asking is about the Evaluation at the end of the year. The numeric rating to roster is not intuitive, really. Your roster rating will be lower as your team gets better. In other words, it's a measure of difficulty where if you have a bad roster (maybe conflict, red flags, etc. could affect it...I'm not really sure, but definitely bad players do) your score will go up.

I was always under the impression that your final score for roster value was the same as your starting roster score in the fran value screen once the new season starts. This takes into account URFA that will be leaving the team. So you can have a fairly high score with a decent team that has every body resigned. I beleive it is also proprotional to the rest of the league scores. So with the AI allowing teams to go into a new season with only 15 to 25 players under contract a human team with 47 returning should get a high score.

I will test it a bit once I get the chance.

Thanks,
Scott Kolleck