New player - Where do I start

[Bridgford Ram]

Hi all, I am starting to play the game again (I played a little bit last year) but I don't know where to start. I have only really been into NFL for 2 years and being from the UK I don't know football inside out.

With this in mind, is there a thread that can advise how I can take my first steps in the game, whether it be light touch (not calling plays, just managing the squad) or fully immersing myself into the game? If there isn't a thread does anyone fancy helping me through the game?

[aston217]

I don't think most players call the plays. FOF is really more of a management game.

I think there are a lot of parts to the game you truly can't get an appreciation for without playing MP -- where you'll talk with other owners regularly and see the kinds of things they'll do. Particularly in drafting and free agency, which have been rendered into something of a competitive art form. There's a good league I know of that has openings in the NAFL: Waiting List - North American Football League (http://www.naflsim.com/board/viewforum.php?f=11)

And other, faster-paced leagues as well (I don't *think* the OSFL or CFL currently have openings). In any case, I think it's harder to get feedback goring through seasons at a torrid pace in SP, than it is when you are forced to really get to know your team -- and compete against human owners.

[Bridgford Ram]

Thanks Aston, I'll perhaps step back from play calling - at least for now.

I am not sure that I am ready for a MP league as I think I'd just be fodder. Also is an MP league played in real time? Would being UK based be an issue?

I think that initially at least I need to learn the game through single player play.

- Is there a team that it is recommended I start with?
- What should I be looking to do first?
- Should I look to compare players through numbers other than their current and potential rating?
- Do you guys ever amend depth charts or play percentages?
- What should I look to achieve in pre-season? (I don't seem to be able to offer contracts to players with 1 year remaining)

Any other tips? Anyone able to help walk me through the game?

[Julio Riddols]

- Is there a team that it is recommended I start with?

Start with a team you like. Doesn't matter why you like the team, but I think it helps with immersion to care a little about the team you are calling the shots for. There aren't any major advantages to picking any specific team though.

- What should I be looking to do first?

Get to know your roster. Get an idea of what the team might be good at, who your stars might be, things like that. The better you know your team, the more informed you will be when you get deeper into the game and start handling more things.

- Should I look to compare players through numbers other than their current and potential rating?

Eventually yes. For a beginner, I would just go with the current and potential rating until you're comfortable enough with the mechanics of the game to make better use of specific skill sets.

- Do you guys ever amend depth charts or play percentages?

Frequently. This can be for several reasons, one being that the computer (We call him "Rex" because of his recommendations) likes to be pretty strict with what position a player plays when they set the depth chart. If you have 2 highly skilled RDE and a below average LDE, the game often starts the LDE at LDE because of his specified position instead of putting the 2nd RDE in at LDE.

When it comes to play percentages the main thing I tweak is QB playing time. If I have a QB who isn't very good as my starter, I often set playing time to 1 because I want him to be pulled as quick as possible in the event that the team is struggling with him at the helm. Sometimes I also tweak the playing time for everyone else if my team is particularly deep (decrease playing time) or particularly shallow (max out playing time) from a talent standpoint.

- What should I look to achieve in pre-season? (I don't seem to be able to offer contracts to players with 1 year remaining)

You should be able to offer contracts. On the player card there is a button to offer a new contract on the lower left hand side. I'd advise to wait until the end of a season to extend contracts though, because how a player plays and whether or not they get hurt over the course of the season can influence the decision to keep them or let them walk.

Other than that, you want to get a look at your players before preseason week 2 and compare that to how they look after preseason week 2. This is when your players will reveal whether they have improved, maintained, or lost skill or potential. The younger and older players will be the most volatile. You can also use the preseason to test schemes and try experimental things with the roster.

I posted a guide on steam for beginners that might help you out. Look in the guides section for the game on steam and you should see it there, the "Points of Interest" guide. If it works as intended it will help you get used to the menus of the game a bit and what to do when.

[MIJB#19]

I am not sure that I am ready for a MP league as I think I'd just be fodder. Also is an MP league played in real time? Would being UK based be an issue?Game weeks and off-season stages are simmed by the commish at preset days and times. Every owner picks up the results files at their own convenient time and send in their game plan and depth chart for the next game or free agent offers in time before the next sim. Some leagues have days in between, in others the time between sims is roughly 24 hours. Some leagues even run several game weeks in a single sim.

During the draft, which most leagues run 'live', sometimes with 'clock off' timeframes, living 5 to 9 hours of time zones away could be a very minor issue, but it hasn't stopped or bothered me much. Most leagues use utilities to accommodate for making lists. It will be slightly harder to work out trades with other owners, but in reality there's hardly a difference between being at sleep and being at work/out with the kids/other reasons that make you unable to negotiate.

Jumping into MP as a novice can be overwhelming, but it can provide a place to gain experience with a source of advice, as you can see how other GMs run their teams in various more or less successful ways.

[Bridgford Ram]

- Is there a team that it is recommended I start with?

Start with a team you like. Doesn't matter why you like the team, but I think it helps with immersion to care a little about the team you are calling the shots for. There aren't any major advantages to picking any specific team though.

- What should I be looking to do first?

Get to know your roster. Get an idea of what the team might be good at, who your stars might be, things like that. The better you know your team, the more informed you will be when you get deeper into the game and start handling more things.

- Should I look to compare players through numbers other than their current and potential rating?

Eventually yes. For a beginner, I would just go with the current and potential rating until you're comfortable enough with the mechanics of the game to make better use of specific skill sets.

- Do you guys ever amend depth charts or play percentages?

Frequently. This can be for several reasons, one being that the computer (We call him "Rex" because of his recommendations) likes to be pretty strict with what position a player plays when they set the depth chart. If you have 2 highly skilled RDE and a below average LDE, the game often starts the LDE at LDE because of his specified position instead of putting the 2nd RDE in at LDE.

When it comes to play percentages the main thing I tweak is QB playing time. If I have a QB who isn't very good as my starter, I often set playing time to 1 because I want him to be pulled as quick as possible in the event that the team is struggling with him at the helm. Sometimes I also tweak the playing time for everyone else if my team is particularly deep (decrease playing time) or particularly shallow (max out playing time) from a talent standpoint.

- What should I look to achieve in pre-season? (I don't seem to be able to offer contracts to players with 1 year remaining)

You should be able to offer contracts. On the player card there is a button to offer a new contract on the lower left hand side. I'd advise to wait until the end of a season to extend contracts though, because how a player plays and whether or not they get hurt over the course of the season can influence the decision to keep them or let them walk.

Other than that, you want to get a look at your players before preseason week 2 and compare that to how they look after preseason week 2. This is when your players will reveal whether they have improved, maintained, or lost skill or potential. The younger and older players will be the most volatile. You can also use the preseason to test schemes and try experimental things with the roster.

I posted a guide on steam for beginners that might help you out. Look in the guides section for the game on steam and you should see it there, the "Points of Interest" guide. If it works as intended it will help you get used to the menus of the game a bit and what to do when.

If there was a like button, this post would get it. When I get back on the game (stupidly I have a mac so need to play the game on my boys PC) I may have some extra questions based on what you said. I'll certainly look at your guide too.

This might make you laugh though. I thought it would be a good idea to start with the Steelers (rather than my team - Tampa Bay) because they have good options with Big Ben, Bell and Brown offer good offensive options. I was 3-2 in preseason then on the eve of the season 10 players went down with Influenza and 2 more with heavy colds. I got battered!

I had to release 7 players before W1 (I picked 7 players in areas I had good coverage, who were mostly inactive and released them did I do good?)

[Dawgfan19]

I didn't check Julio's guide, but below are some useful links on this site.

Older link, but this information does a great job of walking through the game stages. Associated with the prior game version, so keep in mind some things have changed (no summer camp, for example).
FOF MP Offseason Helps and Hints - Front Office Football Central (http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/showthread.php?t=79247&highlight=guide)

Very useful to assist with developing game plans
BELCO Game Plan Library, Version 2.0 - Front Office Football Central (http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/showthread.php?t=82437&highlight=guide)

Strategy concepts for FOF 7
FOF7 - 100 little things - Front Office Football Central (http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/showthread.php?t=89928&highlight=hundred)

Strategy concepts for previous version, some of which still applies (but not all)
The FOF2K7 Hundred Little Things Thread. - Front Office Football Central (http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/showthread.php?t=63135&highlight=hundred)

[Darren29]

I am not sure that I am ready for a MP league as I think I'd just be fodder. Also is an MP league played in real time? Would being UK based be an issue?

You've had some good answers from other guys so far, so I'll just say this - there's only one UK based MP league, with a good mix of UK, European and US based GM's. We have some old experienced guys and some relative newbies, and it's a friendly atmosphere with the league run at a reasonable pace, so if you want to have a shot at MP I reckon the RDFL would be the place for you ;)

Realdeal Football League - Index page (http://www.bradders.net/rdfl/forum/index.php)

I think we have 4 teams open at the moment, and we literally have week 1 of the 2035 season running on Sunday night, so would be a good time to join...

[Ben E Lou]

I completely disagree with the idea of stepping into MP as a brand new player. The best way to improve at FOF is to play it a lot. It's a deep game with some trends that only become obvious after dozens/hundreds of seasons of play. You can move far more quickly in SP than MP.

[LastWhiteSoxFanStanding]

If there was a like button, this post would get it. When I get back on the game (stupidly I have a mac so need to play the game on my boys PC) I may have some extra questions based on what you said. I'll certainly look at your guide too.

This might make you laugh though. I thought it would be a good idea to start with the Steelers (rather than my team - Tampa Bay) because they have good options with Big Ben, Bell and Brown offer good offensive options. I was 3-2 in preseason then on the eve of the season 10 players went down with Influenza and 2 more with heavy colds. I got battered!

I had to release 7 players before W1 (I picked 7 players in areas I had good coverage, who were mostly inactive and released them did I do good?)

There is a setting somewhere to lower the injury rate. That might be a good idea as you get more comfortable with the mechanics of the game.

Also, you can play this game on a mac! I use parallels to emulate the pc on my mac, but other people have set this up with wine successfully.

[Dutch]

I completely disagree with the idea of stepping into MP as a brand new player. The best way to improve at FOF is to play it a lot. It's a deep game with some trends that only become obvious after dozens/hundreds of seasons of play. You can move far more quickly in SP than MP.

And also, once you are fluent-ish with the game mechanics, you'll need to sharpen your trend analyzing skills and have loads of free time, at least till you get your feet wet. MP provides a multitude of challenges, but if your up to it, winning a MP championship is resume worthy. Its easy for some and elusive to many. Just like in real life.

[bdubbs]

Here's a ton of stuff off the top of my head that should be useful for someone completely new

In relation to contracts

First the most basic since you're new to the NFL in general and may not know how the salary cap works, and in my opinion it is not very obvious to someone new. Basically you offer a salary and a signing bonus. The difference is that if you choose to cut a player you can save the money you owe them in salary, but their signing bonus is fully guaranteed for the length of the contract.

The simplest way to show this is probably through an example. A player who is offered a 4 year contract with a 12.2m salary and a 12.2m signing bonus with have a yearly salary of 3.3million and a signing bonus of 3.3 million resulting in a 6.6 million cap hit.

lets say 1 year goes by and you decide to cut this player from your roster in the offseason or following preseason. You don't have to pay his salary as he's no longer on your team but you still owe him his signing bonus in full.

This year you with have 3.3 million in "dead money" for 1 year's portion on that signing bonus, the following season you will have 6.6m in dead money which represents the remaining signing bonus you owe that player. So basically you owe players you cut their current year's portion of their signing bonus and any remainder to the signing bonus that hasn't yet been paid is due in the following year and this money will count against your salary cap.

So then who do I cut?

Players who have large salaries and low signing bonuses who are no longer worth keeping. Players in the final year of their contract that don't make sense to keep long term and have no trade value. Veterans who regress heavily in preseason who have only 1 or 2 years left on their contract are also popular targets for me.

Renegotiating

You can negotiate any contract with any player as long as it isn't their first season with your team or have already renegotiated with them in the current year. If you have a superstar player going into the last year of their contract they will often renegotiate and take a smaller salary in the current year, but be careful they will often want a 2 year extension past that and you have to offer them a higher base salary in the following years. However in the right scenario renegotiating can be a very useful way to open up a few million in the current year without hurting yourself in future years.

Retaining Stars

One of my biggest problems for a long time was retaining my star players without them taking up more cap space than I can afford. In SP you'll see that true star players very rarely hit free agency, in my experience it seems the best players in free agency show ratings in the 50s and 60s. Players in FA also seem to for the most part end up overpaid (much like the real NFL)

What I've done to try and hold teams together when I do manage to accumulate several players with ratings in the 70s or 80s in SP is offering contracts that give these players the majority of their contract in the form of a signing bonus. The default contract offers for a star typically has a very manageable salary in the first two to thee years but by the 4th or 5th year that player's contract can be a huge financial burden. Your star QB might be cool with 12 million in year 2, but by year 4 he could be making upwards of 25m if you just go with the recommended contract

The only way from what I can tell to get players to accept a smaller overall contract is through a monster signing bonus. This is a huge risk because you're essentially committing to a player for the entire length of the contract, but it helps you financially in two ways. The first is the player will accept significantly less money on the contract overall if the contract is weighted with guaranteed money.

The second is it makes it easier for the average person to budget their future cap salary. Typically a contract with huge amounts of guaranteed money means you're going to offer minimal increases in base salary from year to year. So a player you sign this year potentially might only be hitting your cap for an extra $4 million 4 years from now instead of an extra $10 million or more which can easily happen when offering the suggested contracts. The default contract for a star QB can lead to a $30 million cap hit in year 4 unless you renegotiate, trade, or cut him. Weighting his signing bonus you can reduce this number to $20 million or even less depending on his ratings, loyalty, and agent. The more players you do this with the more money you stand to save.

Like I said though this is not a riskless proposition. If you give out a long contract that is weighted in the signing bonus you are committed to that player. If you get rid of him for any reason you will owe the remainder of that bonus in the following year.

Second trick - back loaded salaries

Do you have a player you want to resign but you're sure you're not going to want him after that contract expires? If you're ready to commit to that decision in the current season you are given another potential option to save some money. You can offer the player a ridiculous sum of money for their salary in the final year and simply cut him before you owe any of it. The AI puts significantly less value on salary offered in the later years but you can use this trick to help negotiate for a slightly more team friendly salary in the years before you plan to cut him.

Combine these tricks with successful drafting and you can start dominating SP leagues fairly easily. The key is offering the right players contracts weighted with guarantees and using that money to fill out your team with reasonable starters that will play for reasonable contracts which is harder than it sounds. This is where drafting well is key, not every player you draft will be a star and they don't have to be. There's a couple great threads in the forum that can help you evaluate prospects based on their bars and combine scores. If you use those resources and take your time you can often find decent players in most rounds of most drafts.

From my experience I can tell you a few other things when it comes to contracts, players with low ratings who are starters on your team typically want more money to resign with the team than a player of the same rating that is riding the bench. Players in free agency typically want more money than it would have cost to retain them.

Some players in free agency legitimately want more money than any team will pay them. The player info screen in FA will tell you what week of FA that player wants to be signed in, how much money they want, and any other teams that have already made an offer. If that week passes and they have not yet signed with a team it means no team has offered them the contract they are asking for. As time goes on they will settle for less and less money until they are signed or until the FA period has ended at which point they are given a non negotiable salary and signing bonus that any team can choose to sign them for in preseason.

Older players want more money!

One of the hardest parts about this game for me is that as someone who is invested in my team is that I want my best drafted players to play their whole career and retire with me. However from what I can tell players will almost always want more money than a counterpart of equal ratings who is younger. Because of this it is usually prudent to part ways with great players when they have a contract expiring at 30 years or older at most positions assuming you draft well enough that you're expecting to need that money you're saving to retain a younger player.

On the flip side, ratings aren't everything and as long as a player is achieving levels of production you're satisfied with at their salary level they are a worthy investment.

In relation to roster building

Spread your studs out, at least a little. In the past I've had some frustrating experiences by trying to have an elite OL or DL and had little success with it. You don't need to have 5 O linemen with a 70+ rating, and you're probably hurting your team by what you're paying them. An O line with 1 stud player, 2 solid starters (lets say 50-55 ovr) and 2 players in the mid-high 40s should do pretty well.

Another reason is just because your O line is beastly it doesn't make your other players any better.

In this game elite QB's can't make scrub WR's look like stars like Tom Brady. Elite wideouts like Deadre Hopkins can't make a QB circus look good, you need a healthy balance at your positions. Instead of 5 O linemen with a 70+ rating I'd much rather have a 70+ QB, RB, 2OL, 1 WR.

I haven't done any math on this but based on my observations I never look to have a stud flanker and split end for example. WR is an expensive position and the benefit of upgrading that second WR spot from a 45 to a 75 never seems to make a big difference on the stat sheet. If that player does perform its usually because they ate into the incumbent star WR's production


In my opinion its wiser to save that money for a big contract at another position to be successful. It's been a while since I've played (I was originally just here looking for news on a potential fof8) but if I remember right I came to the conclusion that you can typically retain 6-10 star players on large contracts at a time without hurting your ability to keep solid to fairly solid starters at most positions with some quality back ups. This is using guaranteed money to lower their overall cap hit.

So If I got to pick what positions those star players were distributed to it would be something like 1 QB 1 RB 1 WR 1 OL 1 DL 2LB 1CB 1S

In my opinion this game rewards balance. Loading up at one position group rarely has great results but that's not a reason to draft an average looking player over one that projects as a potential star.

Some Trading tips

From what I can tell under no circumstances will the CPU accept a trade that gives you more measurable value than them. If you have a deep first round pick, lets say like #26 and you want to move into the top 3 even if you offer 3 first round picks the CPU will probably turn you down. It's much easier to negotiate a trade involving draft picks if the CPU doesn't have to move down many picks.

In SP it's best to avoid trading in most situations because of how stingy the AI is. The one situation where I find value is when I have a player who is in the last year of their rookie contract who is a star. The only reason you would ever do this of course is because you realize that you can't afford to keep this player from hitting free agency next year and you would rather give them up now for a first round draft pick than lose them to free agency with no compensation. From what I can tell the AI owners put higher value on players with lower cap hits in the current year and who are young. If that player is already under a mega contract it seriously hurts their trade value because of the cap hit, but the AI's perception of value isn't changed by the fact that they will need to take a big cap hit to keep the player after the current season when proposing a rookie in the final year of their contract. All they see is a a good player who can still develop further who doesn't cost a lot of cap money to acquire in the trade.

Basically you look through the teams with the worst records in the last week trades are available and pick the one you think is most likely to finish bottom 3 at the end of the season. It's the only way I've found I can get a first round draft pick for a player without giving up a 1st or 2nd round draft pick.

You offer them the player and 2 mid round picks (I start with a 4th and 5th and go from there) and you can usually get them to accept without giving up more than 3rd round picks.

If you're right and get a top 3 pick, great. It's not terribly hard to move from 3 to 1. If you fall out of the top 5 it feels like it gets a lot harder but as long as you're in the top 10 you can move to 1 if you want.

It's a costly method but it's one way I've found to turn players I can't afford to keep, or players that I don't particularly need into a top draft pick. This is much more important when it comes to looking for your next franchise QB.

Keep an eye on the rosters of those picking before you though. Even if a great QB is available a team that is rebuilding can have a top 3 pick multiple years in a row. If they have a sophomore or 3rd year QB who is still projected as a stud they will likely pass on a top QB.

Oh one more thing, every draft is totally random. Some drafts have tons of future stars, some drafts are seriously lacking in talent. If I trade for what turns into a top 10 pick during the season and there's no players available I'm in love with in the first round I trade that pick away for a potential top 10 pick in the next year.

After QB the thinnest position in drafts is usually WR from my experience. Defensive ends, linebackers, safeties, half backs, offensive linemen, and tight ends are the positions where its more common for you to find a star with a late first round draft pick. The truly elite corners and wideouts typically go early and seem to appear less in drafts.

The truly elite are pretty easy to find in a draft. If he has great combines and high bars it's not a trick. When you look through the draft preview and check each player you might be tempted to say to yourself there's no way all these players could suck and start doubting your ability to tell the difference between a good and bad prospect. You're only partially right. A few of those players have potential in the high 50s and 60s, but it can often be very hard if not impossible to discern these players from inferior ones until after the fact. Stick to a player who looks like he has superior bars and combines even if he's further down the draft board. As a rookie player the best thing is to start building consistency instead of taking dart throws.

Lastly I recommend a 4-3 defense which is one of two base defenses.

Conceptually a 4-3 defense means 4 defensive linemen, 3 linebackers. The defensive lineman typically specialize in pass rushing and all 3 linebackers are responsible for run support and coverage. What makes the 4-3 defense different from a 3-4 is where the defensive linemen line up and where the linebackers line up.

In a 3-4 defense there's 3 defensive linemen, 2 middle linebackers, and 2 outside linebackers which typically line up on the line of scrimmage just outside the tackles. The defensive linemen are not the primary pass rushers and instead they are typically there to be big and mean and soak up blocks in the running game. By holding up the O-line the middle linebackers are free to make tackles. The outside linebackers contain outside runs, provide the primary pass rush, and are also used in coverage.

In my opinion the 3-4 defense is superior, but it doesn't translate well to FOF7. Elite pass rushing outside linebackers rarely seem to rival defensive ends. From what I can tell in this game your better off making your linebackers your tacklers and your D line your pass rushers. Pass rushing outside linebackers can sometimes be changed to defensive ends without a significant loss in ratings if they have decent size.

My defenses just seem to perform better as a 4-3, and it's frustrating when my defensive ends lead the team in sacks in a 3-4 defense.

So yeah, that's a ton of crap but this is a pretty complex game. Hope this helps, using the methodology I described I've managed to put together SP teams that completely dominate the league and win 5 front office bowls over a decade if they already have a lot of talent to work with.

Play enough seasons to get comfortable with managing contracts and drafting before you look into an MP league imo. You can get through them very fast which will speed up the learning process and also gives you the ability to experiment without be too concerned if you run a team into the ground. When it comes to setting your game plans and depth charts and all that jazz that's where you'll learn the most in an MP league. Being able to manage contracts and draft fairly well will allow you to remain fairly competitive while learning the finer points of the game and the best way to practice that is to spend some time simming through full seasons and only doing contract management and drafting for a bit.

[Bridgford Ram]

Here's a ton of stuff off the top of my head that should be useful for someone completely new



Another post that will be fantastically helpful for me. I must admit I felt like giving up over the weekend. I had a half decent season and got to the wildcard round with the Steelers. Kept my coach but then I had gone from $36m under cap to $10m over cap, despite releasing a load of players. I can see that your initial tips will help me with this.

[bdubbs]

Another post that will be fantastically helpful for me. I must admit I felt like giving up over the weekend. I had a half decent season and got to the wildcard round with the Steelers. Kept my coach but then I had gone from $36m under cap to $10m over cap, despite releasing a load of players. I can see that your initial tips will help me with this.

Now we're talking friend, I happen to be a die hard Steelers fan and have run far more SP sims with them than any other team. First I'd like to mention that when starting new games you control how strong the X factor is when you start the league. If you're not familiar with the concept all it does is adjust player ratings up or down from some base value when you start a new league so it plays out differently every time. Don't pay players for who they are in real life.

Here's some tips I can give you that are specific to the Steelers SP franchise. I believe they are one of the more difficult franchises to run for the first 3 years because there's a lot of bad contracts on this team.

1) You can typically save a considerable amount of money by renegotiating with Big Ben in the preseason. While I do love him as a fan he's getting on in years so I never hesitate to replace him with a young franchise QB when the opportunity presents itself unless the X factor gives him high 80s ratings.

2) Antonio Brown is another player who I typically let leave in free agency at the end of his contract. WR's often regress young and fast compared to other positions.

3) Unless the X factor gives them very high ratings the offensive linemen typically want way more money than you can spend on retaining them. Ramon Foster is usually easy enough to keep around but I've had many teams where I've had to let Decastro, Pouncey, and Beachum to free agency.

4) Older players on defense can typically be cut in the first few seasons to give you some breathing room. Timmons commands a huge cap number and losing Mike Mitchell can save you as well.

5) Extending the contracts of players who are new to a starting role is a more risky but potentially rewarding way to lock down a starting player long term to a team friendly deal. Beware: even when you do sign team friendly deals players are very likely to stage a hold out for more money after a few years. If you refuse to renegotiate their salary they almost definitely will refuse to re sign with you in a contract year. I lost my Star QB that way once because I didn't realize he was holding out as I was moving too fast. When he wouldn't re sign at the end of the year I franchise tagged him. However he never entered negotiations with me again and I was unable to retain him.

Don't be discouraged by losing seasons with any team early on if you use the full X factor, the whole point of it is to help add an extra random factor to who the good and bad players and teams are. I don't play with the full X factor because I don't want that extra random factor early on, I want my team to better reflect the actual team.

Without the full x factor I've found success the quickest by building around Le'veon Bell on offense and Ryan Shazier on Defense. I look to acquire a top draft pick and replace Ben within 3 seasons and also look to replace Antonio Brown with a younger, slightly less talented player who will play for much less money. In almost all scenario's Timmons and Mitchell are good guys to look to get off the team near the end of their contracts.

Like I said getting through those first few years are tough but the Salary relief from Timmons is substantial and if you can replace Ben with a rookie and Antonio Brown with a small downgrade for much cheaper you'll find keeping your salary under the cap MUCH easier as long as you don't keep handing out whatever salary players are requesting carelessly.

[Bridgford Ram]

Thanks again bdubbs this is massively helpful. What I might do is start again with the Steelers and correct some of the mistakes I made first time round. Does anyone recommend the starting settings I should use as a starter?

[Bridgford Ram]

-

- Do you guys ever amend depth charts or play percentages?

Frequently.


Does this mean that I should change the Single Player Options for Coaches resetting depth chart and game plans each game to No?

[Bridgford Ram]

If you have 2 highly skilled RDE and a below average LDE, the game often starts the LDE at LDE because of his specified position instead of putting the 2nd RDE in at LDE.

Are there any other positions that you can do this with.

RB & FB?
FL & SE?
LG & RG?
LT & RT?
SILB & WILB?
SLB & WLB?
LCB & RCB?

[Bridgford Ram]

Just lost in the Superbowl in my second attempted 1st season with the Steelers.

I got new players in (Rookie Free Agents) to improve the side and released players who didn't damage my cap (I have only lost $1.4m of my cap room).

I didn't add any club / luxury seats as there was no public support for it (I did have a question on this - how do I know what the maximum team contribution to ground improvements is? The numbers being talked to add a few luxury seats was $640m plus!)

Seems like the tips from you guys are working - albeit now I am entering the key stage of the game.

Cheers all.

[Bridgford Ram]

My coach was down to 0 years meaning I couldn't offer him a new contract - was there something I could have done to resolve that?

I just drafted the highest (suitable) rated unattached coach.

[Bridgford Ram]

Sorry for the number of posts but I realise you guys are awake at different times for me.

I resigned a couple of my young free agents but this left me with only 33 players and $50k under cap. One of these players has a 2yr hip injury

Is this because I have too many high earners in the team? Does this mean that I need to release some players and take the damage in lost cap room? Otherwise I guess I am not going to be able to sign up a full roster?

[MIJB#19]

Sorry for the number of posts but I realise you guys are awake at different times for me.

I resigned a couple of my young free agents but this left me with only 33 players and $50k under cap. One of these players has a 2yr hip injury

Is this because I have too many high earners in the team? Does this mean that I need to release some players and take the damage in lost cap room? Otherwise I guess I am not going to be able to sign up a full roster?Release the worst or renegotiate with your players to get their cap figures for this season to go down. The latter will become more important the better your team becomes.

[www2]

My coach was down to 0 years meaning I couldn't offer him a new contract - was there something I could have done to resolve that?

I just drafted the highest (suitable) rated unattached coach.

After every season there is a phase when you do the resigning of the staff.....you probably just clicked on FINISHED WITH STAFF RESIGNING.

Note:
Resigning only happens when the coach has 1 year remaining of the current contract

[www2]

About your salary cap:

Google (https://www.google.hr/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=nfl%20cap%20explained)

....click on any and you will get the base understanding of how the things work in USA sport.



This guide is your friend, trust me:

FOF MP Offseason Helps and Hints - Front Office Football Central (http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/showthread.php?p=2350315)

....here you will find an explanation on how to conduct youre signing and resigning.


But to tell you the trouth you will have a HARD time keeping a good team now when you try to get another 13 players that are minuimum req (46) for the season to start.

Your best move would be to load a previous save game if you have one, or to try again from the start :(

[www2]

http://s12.postimg.org/vca3wai9p/nfl.jpg

2. This is your salary cap for this season....

3. This is remaining money/salary cap you can afford this season.....this is your reference for aquiring playeres that you need.
I have 78,700,000 left, this means that I have to sign atleast 17 more players (i have 29 active players as you can see) to fill min. roster req....(min. is 46, but you will need more probably because of the injuries, about 50-53).
Now I can't go and sign 3 or 4 world class players (like you probably did) and spend all of my remaining 78 milions on them since I will have no more than 32-33 players.

1. This is the cap you will be using next season, this is so you can plan ahead....

4. This is the real amount 65,230,000 you can spend on your signing new players (not the 78,700,000) and resigning old ones, since some ammount is saved for your draft picks....(in this case 78,700,000 - 65,230,000 = 13,470,000)



On the bottom you have Position distribution button on which you can check min req. for player position every nfl team needs on their rooster.


Hope this helps a little. I understand your problems since I am also from Europe (Croatia) and had to learn those things myself......well years of MADDEN and watching NFL helped though :) .

[Bridgford Ram]

After every season there is a phase when you do the resigning of the staff.....you probably just clicked on FINISHED WITH STAFF RESIGNING.

Note:
Resigning only happens when the coach has 1 year remaining of the current contract

I think the problem was that he was noted as having 0 years remaining. I guess this means the contract would have needed to be offered the season before (before the game started in effect).

[Bridgford Ram]

2. This is your salary cap for this season....

3. This is remaining money/salary cap you can afford this season.....this is your reference for aquiring playeres that you need.
I have 78,700,000 left, this means that I have to sign atleast 17 more players (i have 29 active players as you can see) to fill min. roster req....(min. is 46, but you will need more probably because of the injuries, about 50-53).
Now I can't go and sign 3 or 4 world class players (like you probably did) and spend all of my remaining 78 milions on them since I will have no more than 32-33 players.

1. This is the cap you will be using next season, this is so you can plan ahead....

4. This is the real amount 65,230,000 you can spend on your signing new players (not the 78,700,000) and resigning old ones, since some ammount is saved for your draft picks....(in this case 78,700,000 - 65,230,000 = 13,470,000)



On the bottom you have Position distribution button on which you can check min req. for player position every nfl team needs on their rooster.


Hope this helps a little. I understand your problems since I am also from Europe (Croatia) and had to learn those things myself......well years of MADDEN and watching NFL helped though :) .

I think it was no.1 that I wasn't understanding correctly. I was assuming that if I was $xm under cap this season, I'd be similar next season as well. Big help, thank you.

[www2]

http://s12.postimg.org/yvd97gn25/nfl2.jpg

It changes depending oa all player contracts......here you can see that the cap hit for this season (for this player) was ~ 7,500,000 .......and in the season 2045 it will be almost 14,000,000.....

This is the kind of contract you want from all of your players (although its harder to get), coz now i can cut this player in season 2044 and save a lot of money.......

[Bridgford Ram]

About your salary cap:

Google (https://www.google.hr/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=nfl%20cap%20explained)

....click on any and you will get the base understanding of how the things work in USA sport.



This guide is your friend, trust me:

FOF MP Offseason Helps and Hints - Front Office Football Central (http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/showthread.php?p=2350315)

....here you will find an explanation on how to conduct youre signing and resigning.


But to tell you the trouth you will have a HARD time keeping a good team now when you try to get another 13 players that are minuimum req (46) for the season to start.

Your best move would be to load a previous save game if you have one, or to try again from the start :(

Well this is my first preseason and my only signings have been either mid-season FA signings on small contracts and the draft signings so I can only assume that the issues are from contracts in place when I started the game.

I shall see if I can release / renegotiate with some players as this will be decent practise. If I can't get a full roster I shall start again.

Cheers.

[Bridgford Ram]

Your best move would be to load a previous save game if you have one, or to try again from the start :(

I carried on, released some players and got a full cheaper roster, unfortunately I went from losing the Superbowl in 2015 to finishing 6-10 for the season in 2016.

But, I used the free agency - I was able to this time as I had trimmed players I could cope without before the FA (I still had about the second most players but $20m Cap Room).

I made difficult decisions and let Williams & Bell (both RB) go but managed to get Doug Martin to pair with Eddie Lacy. I decided to give Big Ben one last season but I am currently 4-0 in 2017 and he is throwing the ball perfectly.

I really enjoyed that season and a bit. It is all thanks to you guys and the help / guides you posted. I can't thank you all enough.

I will still have some (lots of) questions, but hopefully they more intelligent and detailed - rather than the question of 'What do I do?' that I started with. :)

My biggest question at the moment is around ticket prices. I used the guide that said increase the price of the club and luxury seats but my revenue dipped a lot.

[www2]

You check your regular season home attendance and see what sector is/are full......if its full than increase the price, not by much though.

If it's not full decrease it....thats how I used to do it and now I have 99,000 stadium and its allways full ....you will just have to play with it for some seasons...

[Bridgford Ram]

You check your regular season home attendance and see what sector is/are full......if its full than increase the price, not by much though.

If it's not full decrease it....thats how I used to do it and now I have 99,000 stadium and its allways full ....you will just have to play with it for some seasons...

Is this no longer true then?

SUMMER/TICKET/FRANCHISE STAGE


TICKET PRICES
This is probably the most misunderstood mechanism in FOF, so I’ll highlight it. If your seats are full, you aren’t charging enough money, and you’re not maximizing your revenue. I have no idea if this is how the developer intended it to work, but this *IS* how it works, so you can either play the game the way you think it should work, or play it the way it *does* work. This is *especially* true when it comes to luxury boxes. I want somewhere around 60-75% of those filled per game. That’s where the real money rolls in. To give a specific example, in the WOOF 2021 season, we were #1 financials. We made 190.1M in suite revenue—by far the biggest revenue number we had-and our total profit was 214.3M, so basically our entire profit was from suites. Apart from QuikSand, who also kinda gets the financial thing (he was right behind me at 187.7M), the next-highest suite revenue was 142.0M. That #3 box-revenue team had the maximum number of luxury boxes (19,900), but he’s screwing around charging nickel and dime prices to fill every one of them for every game. I have only 7,500 boxes, filled 5,200 per game, and made over 30% more revenue. Let me repeat that: I had 5,200 boxes filled per game, the other guy had 19,900 boxes filled per game. I made 190.1M on my suites. He made 142.0M on his.

Some other helpful hints on these.

Apart from luxury boxes and club seats, do *NOT* increase your prices very much anywhere else from year to year. People won’t come.
You can increase your luxury and club prices significantly from year to year without losing many people, and you’ll increase your revenue quite a bit by doing so.
As has been posted at FOFC (http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/showthread.php?t=79107), in some instances, you can max out luxury box prices and get a small handful of people to show up. If your league allows it, know that it's still a huge risk if you're a top-tier team in revenue. However, if you're in the bottom tier financially and it's legal, I don't see any reason not to give it a whirl.
Again, if luxury boxes are full, you’re not maximizing revenue. All that miscellaneous stuff like concessions that’s dependent on attendance is a drop in the bucket compared to what you can rake in from overcharging for your suites. The WOOF has a stadium with the maximum number of seats (99,900) that averaged 98,600 in attendance last year: they made a massive 21.4M in concessions. I made 14.5M with my 61,800 attendance. His 6.9M lead there doesn’t come close to the 77M lead I had over him in suite revenue.
To set your prices, look at one of your home games from last year. If you’re setting upper deck and your upper deck seats were full or close to full last year, increase them. Here are my attendance figures from a recent home game in the WOOF, and how I’ll change my prices for next year based on them:
<center> <table bgcolor="#ffcc00" border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="3" width="261"> <col width="85"> <col width="157"> <tbody><tr> <td height="15" width="85"> Section
</td> <td width="157"> Attendance
</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="85"> Stadium
</td> <td width="157"> 61,100 (70,000 capacity)
</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="85"> Upper Deck
</td> <td width="157"> 14,300 (17,100)
</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="85"> End Zone
</td> <td width="157"> 11,200 (12,400)
</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="85"> Mezzanine
</td> <td width="157"> 6,700 (7,100)
</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="85"> Sideline Seats
</td> <td width="157"> 9,700 (10,900)
</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="85"> Club Seats
</td> <td width="157"> 14,200 (15,000)
</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="85"> Luxury Boxes
</td> <td width="157"> 5,000 (7,500)
</td> </tr> </tbody></table> </center> UD: Tiny increase. ($85à$90)
EZ: Moderate increase ($95à$110)
MEZ: Significant increase ($130à$155)
SID: Moderate increase ($165à$185)
Club: Significant increase ($410à$445)
Luxury: Significant increase ($320,000à$400,000)


[/LIST]

[aston217]

That's FOF2k7 stuff. Most people just Rex the ticket prices these days. I think there's room to up the prices, but not as much -- and going too far can be quite risky.

[Tim Tellean]

This has been a good thread. I found a few nuggets throughout and confirmation on other things I was doing.