Editing Rosters - Getting Them Right

[Mike7273]

Is there a trick to this? Trying to start a 2014 SP game and I just can't make the decision to move forward without the ratings where I want them.

If no, why doesn't the game allow you to completely edit the stats?

[Ruckuz]

Is there a trick to this? Trying to start a 2014 SP game and I just can't make the decision to move forward without the ratings where I want them.

If no, why doesn't the game allow you to completely edit the stats?

You have to use the playfile.exe that game with the game,
Create .cvs file, following the games .cvs file format.
Then you use the playfile.exe to generate a players.fdt file.
Repace your new players.fdt with the one in your \Front Office Football Seven\datafile directory.I'm with your on be able to customize stats on the fly during a season but far as I know, you cant. It has to be before you start. You can import your own draft class every new season but thats about it.

[Mike7273]

But, the game still adjusts the ratings I edited

[gstelmack]

Make sure you aren't using the X-Factor when creating the league, that will randomize players much more.

[Mike7273]

I'm not

[Ruckuz]

I'm not

I think there is a rating mask that hides the players true ratings. this is dependent on how good coaches are in scouting. I think.

[Dawgfan19]

From the in-game help. There still is a random x-factor even with that setting turned off.

You can choose to begin a new career with the normal "X-factor" or a greatly reduced X-factor. As described in the article about Random Beginnings to New Games, the X-factor controls the extent to which ratings in the player file are used when beginning new careers. The default player file is generic in nature and does not contain many specific ratings. This option should probably be left set to "Yes" unless you're using a player file with more concrete ratings.

Let's face it. There's not a lot of information about players who don't have extensive professional experience. How should free agent Alex Smith perform in Kansas City? How should players with only a couple of games worth of part-time experience perform?
All other games on the market try and make an educated guess. Front Office Football is no different - except for one additional X-factor. Sure, I gave Smith a set of ratings. After two or three years, he will perform in a manner consistent with other quarterbacks selected first in the draft. Most of the time, at least.
That's where the X-factor comes into play. It's based on the number of games the player has started at the professional level and his years of experience. For instance, the average quarterback has started 37 games in a 5.5-year career. So the X-factor for a quarterback with 22 games in two seasons is about 50. Smith's X-factor is a little lower.
That X-factor determines the random element that changes the core ratings each time you start a new game. When the X-factor is 0, the core ratings can vary by up to 50 percent from the assigned rating. When the X-factor is 100, which it is for about one-third of the players in the league, the core ratings only vary by up to 10 percent.
The net result? Front Office Football generates a new universe every time you start a new game. Most of the time, Smith will be a decent quarterback. A good percentage of the time, he'll be outstanding. And some of the time, he'll be fairly mediocre. Well-established players will perform more as they did in the past, but there will still be some variety.
You'll have to rely heavily on your scouting staff to determine whether or not a player is worth drafting. You'll have access to your scouts from every screen you can make a personnel decision from. They'll know more than general reputation allows.
This allows for a more challenging game and greater replay value. What's the fun of a game where you know that Smith will be a huge success? Or a game where you know that linebacker Brian Cushing is always an undervalued superstar, so your first move in guaranteeing a 12-win season is acquiring him in a hugely unbalanced trade?
That's how the X-factor brings additional realism to Front Office Football without sacrificing the integrity of the simulation.

[yabanci]

Even if you have the x-factor off, the ratings you see when you generate a new game are not necessarily what you are going to get. They're kind of like the ratings you see when after a draft; they will change. By the time you hit opening day of the next season, the ratings probably will be much closer to what you are expecting (according to the rating in the player file).

You can see this in the historical files. For example, when I started a new league in 1983, Marcus Allen was rated 62/62, not bad but not hall of fame material. But by 1984 training camp he was up to 73/73 and by opening day 1984 he was 81/81. The 19/55 undrafted free agents ended up 25/25. Ratings tend to gravitate to where they should be according to the player file.

Also it helps to remember the stats we see in real life don't necessarily reflect what a player's true ratings should be. For example, Eric Decker was catching 85 passes for 1200 yards with 12 touchdowns in 2012-13, so you would think he should have some pretty good ratings. But that was with Peyton Manning throwing to him. With Gino Smith in 2014, he catches something like 65 passes for 750 yards and 4 touchdowns, so maybe his ratings should be a lot lower. Who knows what he'll do in 2015.

Or take Robert Griffin III -- in 2013 he would have been rated as elite, but now you'd probably rate him as average if that. In the 2012 file, Russell Wilson probably would have been rated as a decent backup at best. I played in a multiplayer league that used the 2003 player file and the elite HOF quarterbacks ended up as Joey Harrington, David Carr, and Kyle Boller, because that was what was projected as accurate at the time.

The truth is, except for a handful of guys, we really have no idea what the the future holds or what the "accurate" ratings really should be. No matter how much we think we have it nailed down, we are going to be waaayyyyy wrong.

So the best thing to do is start out a new career and even if things don't look right in the beginning, play it out and you'll have a lot of fun playing a realistic version of what one future might be. It won't match what we are projecting now, but real life is likely to be just as far off if not more.