Strategy for building a team in FOF4c

[The Shadow]

Hi, all. I've been lurking on this board since late 2001. I've played FOF2001 until about a year ago, then I bought FOF4. But I haven't played much FOF4 until patch C was released.

I really enjoyed strategy discussions in the past (Morgado and others, and more recently, Quicksand) but haven't found very much strategy discussion on FOF4c, so I thought I'd start one. Some of this has been noted by others in this forum, but some have not. So far, this is what I found works for me.

My strategy for building a team has been :

1. I want a great QB. Future rating 70+ is ideal. I also prefer Long Pass QB’s with high Avoid INT rating. I don’t care much for Scrambling or Screen/Short Passing.

2. On offense, I want at least 2 good (50+), veteran WR’s and 1 young WR with good (60+) future ratings. I prefer WR with high “Big Play” abilities. I also want solid LT and RT (50+) and a great C (70+). I’ll keep the OT’s and C together for many years. RG/LG, I’ll usually find bargains through Free Agency.

3. Also on offense, I want great FB and TE. They’re easy to find through the draft. FB is easier to keep as their salary demands tend to be lower. I usually find my RB through the draft, late 1st round to 3rd round. I almost never keep my RB past their rookie contracts.

4. On defense, I start with great safeties, both SS and FS, as it’s easy to pick up good ones through the draft. I almost always have one stud LB, either at MLB or SLB. WLB gets taken out during nickel packages so WLB doesn’t play as much.

5. It’s relatively easy to find solid, but not topped out CB’s, in late 1st or early 2nd round. I usually pick CB’s with high interception rating, followed by Man/Zone/Bump ratings. Less important are Hard Hitting/Play Diagnosis/Run Support. Once I find 2 good CB’s, I’ll keep them and the safeties around for a while. This means my teams almost always have high Cohesion in the secondary.

6. Stud DE and DT are very difficult to find through the draft. Even if you find them, they usually want “stupid” money after their rookie contract, even if they are not complete studs. I usually find one DT and one DE that I’ll try to keep, paying “stupid” money. The other DT and DE are on my team 3-4 years, as I keep finding them through the draft. As a result, my team’s Cohesion in the defensive line is usually low.

7. After rookie contracts, most players want lots of money. How do I decide which ones I’ll keep? I look at frequency of their injuries. I don’t have any proof, but I think some players have higher tendencies to get injured than others. For me lock up my team’s salary cap on veteran players, they need to prove that they don’t get injured easily or often. After that, I look at their career stats, then ratings.

I'm interested in hearing what works for you.
:)

[condors]

if i want to win

1-running back needs to be all world so i can run the clock out in the 2nd half with a lead

2-defense if i am not best in the league there is work to be done

3-fb and te can get all pro for cheap on the salary cap

4-qb short passing scrambler is what normally have (to get the ball to the te and fb)

5-wr and ol is usually where i save on the salary cap

6-i try to collect special team stars and have them as backups and keep them around sometimes a stud returner may be good enough to start but i like to keep him as the nickle back/3rd wr

with all this being said you have to look at what is available in the draft is a superstar qb or wr is there for my 1st round pick (usually not usually have an offensive lineman fullback tightend) then i will jump on him but in the end of round the star players can be a little slim espcially at rb,de, qb, and wr

[QuikSand]

Shadow, you talk a lot about the draft, but hardly at all about free agency. There are several positions which seem to lend themselves well to being acquired that way rather than primarily via the draft -- I'm thinking OL, LB, S, and maybe DL and WR. QB can be a special case, but there are frequently pretty good, pretty cheap options there, too.

Do you generally use rules requiring you to build just through the draft, or do you use free agency as well?

[The Shadow]

QuikSand,

I generally use the draft, but I also use free agency. I have almost never drafted starting RG/LG - I always find bargains at those positions through free agency.

When I'm drafting in the bottom half, I generally can't even find starting LT/RT through the draft, so again, I use free agency.

I've also used free agency to find back-up positions everywhere else, but for starters, I prefer using the draft to find them.

I almost always bargain hunt in free agency - I never sign the most expensive guys. I sign guys making veteran minimum (back-ups) or slightly above it (starters). In making my decision, I rely more on their career stats than on their ratings.

For example, on the OL, I look at their BPct, SPct and OPct more than I look at their Run Block, Pass Block, Blocking Strength or Endurance. I don't know if you evaluate players the same way.

As others have noted, I've found one LG and one FS that busted out big-time after 6-8 years. I had signed both through free agency at about 4-5 years as back ups, but they turned out to be monsters after a couple of years. I couldn't afford to keep the LG but I was able to keep the FS.

[torahbirth]

I find that the greatest free-agent bargains can be found after the draft before you start training camp. There I can frequently find a starting player for a near minimum salary, for 3 years.

I find that at least 1/2 of my first round picks are busts and just eat up salary cap. I am quite happy trading a first round pick for a starter w/2 or more years left on his contract.

I also try to pick scouts and coaches that are good at QB, OL, and DL and these are the positions that I emphasize. It is also possible to pick up and raw free-agent QB, groom him for a year and then trade him to a time for a 1st round pick or a starting player.

Also the cap seems easier to manage the bigger it gets. I am currently in 2035 or so, and I can usually fill all of my positions with at least 45 - rating players.

A stud QB is a must, I have been unable to replicate the Baltimore Ravens or NY Giants of the late 80s. It is too expensive to keep a good defensive unit together. Also drafting WR's seems to be more reliable than CB's, LB's, or defensive linemen.

[The Shadow]

Wow, half your first round picks are busts? What do you mean busts? Non-starter quality or not even 2nd string? Or do you just mean their ratings drop slowly each year?

What criteria do you use for selecting your 1st round picks? Have you tried using "Popularity"? I've been using that criteria and it's not 100% guarantee, but compared to your experience, mine has been much better.

[torahbirth]

By "busts" I mean that a 50-rating potential ends up being in the 30s and I am left with millions in signing bonus. It seems to happen most often with S, CB and LBs. I am currently playing in 2040, and a first round pick will earn more than a veteran after training camp.
Also I usually have a very low 1st round pick (27 or lower) so there are not too many clear cut starters left by that time, excluding TE and FB.

But I will try looking at their popularity.

By the way, what is the highest single season rating anyone has got?
I think I got a 93, but since I like to play the NY Giants, I always have a low roster score.

[The Shadow]

The good thing about FOF4c is that no matter what we do, we're always going to have some players bust. Also, there's not a near flawless predictor for which players will break-out. (Unlike FOF2001 red-liners and earlier versions of FOF4 where you can look at certain key indicators)

I have a career going for about 20 years now and generally, I've had good luck drafting - I've had about 3 or 4 players bust on me. What I mean is draft picks in rounds 1-3 that just stunk.

But others have either ended up just about what their potentials indicated, or not enough to tell based on scout changes or old age. And I've had about 5-6 players that gradually improved their ratings throughout the years.

On picks in rounds 1-2, I've really relied on popularity so maybe that'll help you. But remember, it's not 100% either.

Highest single season rating I got was 98 a few times. I won the Superbowl (100), had the most valuable franchise (100), made lots of money (100), but curiously enough, my roster score was between 75-78. I don't understand that, because my roster ranking was always 100.

[ozias]

Speaking of strategies, have you gone and traded 3 of your 1st rounders and 2 2nd rounders for a player like this.

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-8/355708/RBScottScales.JPG


His career totals ended up as this.

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-8/355708/RBS.Scales-Stats.JPG

There were only 2 players with more career attempts and 3 with more yards, but the TD's were the most by any RB in history of my league. The next closest was 113, and after that no one over 100.
His yards were 4th but the next 2 players had 14,737 and 14,743. The best was the only one to crack 15,000 and he finished with 15,621, he was also the one to have the most attempts(3930) in my league, but a very disappointing 78 TD's.

I did give up 3 1st and 2 2nd rounders to get Scott Scales and he didn't disappoint me. He was also a very good receiving RB.

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-8/355708/RBS.Scales-Recstats.JPG

Scott is 2nd best for my team in career receptions, 7th in yards, and 6th in TD's. He didn't make the Career list for all players, due to needing at least 843 receptions, 12,927 yards, and 76 TD's, but for a RB I think he did quite well.

I have even though about going back and replaying the 2054 season, just to see what he would have done if he never got hurt, but thats for another time, since I am currently in 2073.

During the time Scott Scales was here I went to 5 Super Bowls, and won 2. He won his first one in 2050 and the next in 2058. I lost the others in 2050, 2055, and 2061 the year he retired. I was hoping to see him win one before he left the game, but due to injuries the last 2 years he played I just couldn't pull the last one out for him.

He entered the Hall of Fame in 2066 at 97%....I was disappointed myself, feeling it should have been 100%, due to his stats alone.

If I ever see another RB as good as him in the draft I will gladly give up 3 firsts, and 2 seconds again.

John

[ozias]

dola

I didn't edit the player in any way, just to let everyone know. I don't use the Player editor....tried once when FOF4 first came out, but found it to be, for lack of a better word, clunky.

John

[Noop]

Damn he dont play the way his ratings says he should...

[ozias]

Noop

I did expect more out of him coming out as a rookie looking like that, but in the history of my league I have seen some very good RB's, but none like him. I did have 1 outstanding WR during the years he was playing for me, but other than that the other WR's were pretty good, not great though. My QB was maxed out in the screen and short passes, around 75 for medium, but very low for long, and deep passes. He did have 90's for 3rd down and avoiding INT's.
I would guess that the QB's ratings had something to do with Scott not getting the 1500+ yards per season that I expected, plus I didn't change any of the formations around, nor my run percentages in the formations. Everything like that has been the same since I started this league. I didn't want to edit any of those feeling it would give me a little bit of an advantage over the AI.
I suppose I could go back and try playing him as a rookie again, I save at the end of every season so I can go back and look over players careers, but once I saw this RB I had to save it under his name, because I have never seen one look this good in any of the careers I have run, going all the way back to FOF2. Then this time edit my run percentages to allow him more carries and use his strengths more. I may have to do that just to see the "What If?"

EDITED for spelling error

[The Shadow]

That's the other cool thing about FOF games - everyone has a different strategy to build their own team. You can even switch strategies to see which ones work better.

If I'd seen Scott Scales in one of my drafts (I've only seen one player like him and it was a Center. I was able to draft him with a mid-1st round pick) I would have tried to trade up to get him. But I would not have given up 3-1st and 2-2nd round picks to get him, but that's just me. How devastating would it be if he suffered a season-ending or career-ending injury?

But again, to each his own..........ozias, I think you outdid even Mike Ditka and his Ricky Williams trade - he only gave up his entire draft for 1 year to get him!!!!

[cuervo72]

Yikes, Scales gained over 2400 yards from scrimmage in 2055! (and almost again in 2058...)

[Blade6119]

Scales wasnt even drafted!!!!!

[JeeberD]

Originally posted by Blade6119
Scales wasnt even drafted!!!!!

That first screen shot was taken during the draft, before he was drafted. If you look at his team, it says "Draft Eligible"....