Testing Fictional Player Pool/Draft Files

[Ben E Lou]

For details on what is different about these player files and why I'm doing this, check this thread. A major difference between FOF9 and previous version is that when using premade draft classes--whether fictional or historical--there is no need to import the class each year. The draftees live in csvs that the game knows to read every year, so even if running a fast-sim of multiple seasons, it'll use the draft classes in the csvs.

If any of you are up for running some long-term sims with my fictional files, they're definitely ready for testing. And honestly, they MAY be ready for release/playing, but wanted to let folks kick the tires a bit before fully releasing. There are draftees in these files for 100 seasons (2023-2122 draft classes).

SETUP INSTRUCTIONS
1. Download one of the zips from HERE. (NOTE: As of this writing, there are two zips. I'll probably put at least one or two more there before the day is out. Each zip contains completely different sets of players and draftees, generated by the same code. I'd love multiple to get multiple player sets tested. No need to worry about spoilers. If you test all of these files and end up knowing who the superstars are, I can always just produce a new file for you if you want to use one in a career.)

2. Unzip the three csvs from the zip you selected into your \custom_example folder.
3. OPTIONAL: Set the conference/division/bowl info in the 32_8_16 row of league_info.csv
4. OPTIONAL: Set the team names/nicknames in the 32_8_16 rows of default_teams.csv


GAMESTART INSTRUCTIONS
1. New Game
2. Choose Folder Name
3. Do NOT use FOF player file.
4. Check the box to "Use Your Own Player File" and the "Choose Custom File Set" and pick bentest_info.csv
5. Begin with Preference Draft or Full 53-round draft. Do NOT start with players on teams as that will start you off in a greatly unstable situation. (Players aren't assigned to teams in these files. It would be a lot of extra work to do that in a way that balances the teams, and given that I *ALWAYS* start a fictional career with one of the two drafts, assigning fictional players to default teams via code isn't a time investment I'm going to make.)
6. Use Default Team Assignments to use the team names/nicknames in your default_teams.csv

7. Do NOT use historic QBs


The rest of the settings are at your discretion, although it's worth nothing that all testing was done with injuries at 100. Higher/lower injury settings will result in lower/high offensive outputs.


FEEDBACK THAT I'M LOOKING FOR
I'm mainly looking for balance. Are there too many _____??? Especially the player types listed in the other thread. For example, there may be too many RBs with solid receiving skills. Having two or three leftovers after the FA pool is signed is fine with me, but if you're seeing 10 good ones going unsigned every year, then that's something I want to know about.
I'm looking for league-wide completion percentage in the upper 50s/low 60s, ppg in the 20-21.5 range, about 10-15 QBs per year with 50+ carries, and the occasional 1000-yard rushing QB.


FYI, speaking of running QBs, one thing I've changed in the last 24 hours that as such isn't documented in the other thread: I've realized that for QBs, running ability/desire was tied to overall talent. I other words, the 8s and 9s were the most likely QBs to be great runners...because they're just great at everything. I've made some changes to have more drop-back passing studs, and more modestly-talented QBs with good (and sometimes great) running skills.


Anyway, looking forward to any feedback y'all want to give.




NOTES ABOUT USING DIFFERENT CONFIGURATIONS THAN 32_8_16: These files have talent distributions set up for 32-team leagues. Using them for smaller/larger leagues will result in talent imbalances and as such I do NOT recommend using these for leagues without 32 teams. Let me know if you'd like files generated for leagues of different sizes and I can do that fairly easily. If you're playing 17 or 18 game schedules, my guess is that offensive output would drop a little--maybe not even noticeable to anyone besides me--because of a higher overall number of injuries and more opportunities for stud players to get CEIs.

[Mbbmets1]

So these are totally fictional? I was looking for the 2024 draft class

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Mbbmets1

So these are totally fictional? I was looking for the 2024 draft class

Totally fictional.

[NawlinsFan]

DL'd all 3. Plan on setting them each up and then drafting notes. I assume you just want this thread to be where we post everything.

[Harveysimpson]

Could this be adapted to create a College league?