Degree Of Difficulty?

[Ben E Lou]

So far, I'm finding this to be a significantly more difficult version without house rules. I think all of the following are playing into that:

Better Drafting AI--In FOF2K4, I could grab eventual starters pretty consistently in Rounds 4-7. That's not happening with this version.
Shorter Careers--I'm seeing a decent number of high-round draftees who only sign two basic contracts with me: their rookie contract, and then a long-term one that lasts until they either get hurt and useless, or retire.
Fewer Top-Tier Players--My 8-year starter at QB has faded down to 43/43, and I haven't been able to draft the next future stud (see #1). Free agency? Best guy available is a 50/52 career 81.5 rating guy who has 2 conflicts with my position leaders. It looks like I'm either going to have to figure out how to win with a journeyman QB, or actually go into rebuilding mode: two options I never had to explore in past versions without stringent house rules.
AI Teams Hold On To Studs--Yeah, maybe they franchise them too often, and sometimes there's that stray team that goes into cap hell (which it sounds like Jim is going to try to improve with the next patch), but the bottom line for me is this: there are no guarantees of finding a FA stud at my position of need any longer. I'm in 2014 FA-1. Best-rated Wide Receiver available? 50/50 12th-year man who has never caught more than 50 passes, or had more than 800 yards receiving. Best-rated CBs? Two guys in Year 10 and Year 11 who both had PDPcts less than 80. Skill position players rated 60 or better? Exactly one. Uno. And he's a 9th-year 71/71 RB who wants a deal that would cost me over 6% of this year's cap, and roughly 10% of next year's. Next-best FA RB? A 50/50 guy who has never rushed for more than 1,025 yards in a season.From a roster management standpoint (which is my primary interest in my first career), this just feels a LOT more like real football than past versions. From what I can tell so far, I'm going to need to draft intelligently and fill in a few key holes here and there with FA's in order to win, and it still fills like I'm only a key injury or two away from mediocrity or worse at any moment.

Thoughts?

[Eaglesfan27]

I agree. In my test careers and my main career (which is only 2nd year) I'm having some of my worst records of any version of the game. I think those are all good points as to why the difficulty is harder. I also think that while Jim tweaked scout error, it is still substantial and performance is more important than ever. I think the increased scouting error leads to more difficulty, and if you pay out the nose for the best scout (if you are lucky enough to get him) then you suffer in other areas of the staff.

[Bonegavel]

From a roster management standpoint (which is my primary interest in my first career), this just feels a LOT more like real football than past versions. From what I can tell so far, I'm going to need to draft intelligently and fill in a few key holes here and there with FA's in order to win, and it still fills like I'm only a key injury or two away from mediocrity or worse at any moment.

Thoughts?

Exactly what I've found.

Previous versions I was always able to nab just about any FA I wanted and there were always plenty of talent available. Now, the FA pool is filled with the type of talent that I just cut. :)

In previous versions, I was always able to cut McNabb around 2008/9 and save a ton of money and then find an FA stud QB to replace him with for faaaar less and then draft a stud and wash/rinse/repeat.

My latest season in FOF2k7, I cut McNabb aroudn 2009 (saved like 15M in cap!) and the best QB available in FA was Jake Plummer and he was definitely in his twilight. I then tried to follow this up by trading for 1(1) draft pick and nab the ever-present stud QB in the draft and to my suprise the QBs coming out of college were rather pathetic (that year, at least). Because of this I didn't drop my pants and give away the farm just to get the first pick as I have in previous versions (because getting the stud QB in the draft was so important).

At first I was ticked off and then I realized how great this was. Stud searching is now going to be a challenge and I can't just willy nilly pick up superman after superman.

[Bonegavel]

dola

I'm experience my most pathetic seasons in an FOF title to date and I'm loving it.

[lynchjm24]

I think the career lengths do feel better except on the offensive line. Centers and Guards seem to fade a little quickly.

I think I can still find some prospects late in the draft - if they ever turn into players that is another story.

[Marathoner]

I agree, this 2K7 seems much more difficult than any previous version. I am struggling my way to a .500 record. I rarely if ever had less than 10 wins in 2K4 or FOF2. Has anyone won the FOF bowl? Another thing why is the FOF bowl usually in a cold weather city?

[Ben E Lou]

I agree, this 2K7 seems much more difficult than any previous version. I am struggling my way to a .500 record. I rarely if ever had less than 10 wins in 2K4 or FOF2. Has anyone won the FOF bowl? Another thing why is the FOF bowl usually in a cold weather city?I won it once, but it was in my second year. I drafted my own team so I got the right players in place initially. However, as mentioned above, that team is breaking up. We missed the playoffs last year, and I didn't extend the contract of my ancient 43/43 QB for 2014.

Year Team Eval Perf Diff Proft FrVal Record Playoffs
2013 TUC 51 57 67 42 63 9-7-0 None
2012 TUC 55 63 64 46 71 12-7-0 Conference Final
2011 TUC 62 66 65 53 86 13-4-0 Wild Card Round
2010 TUC 67 86 64 53 83 14-4-0 Conference Final
2009 TUC 75 90 64 63 98 13-4-0 Division Final
2008 TUC 66 69 64 59 89 11-7-0 Division Final
2007 TUC 88 90 68 88 100 18-1-0 Bowl Winner
2006 TUC 48 48 74 35 84 8-8-0 None

[kingnebwsu]

I wish there was a way to easily search free agents based on stats. Many are saying that stats are more important to gauge a player than ever, and I'd like an easy way to quickly search all FA's stats. Example: recommend player with at least 500 receiving yards who's a FA, or 1000 rushing yds, etc.

I agree on the difficulty aspect, in some ways it's like a totally different game. I'm not the kind of guy who can play with house rules, so anything that reasonably bumps up the challenge is a plus in my book.

[kingnebwsu]

Dola, I'm finding I can't trade away serviceable backups, or in some cases, pretty solid starters for draft picks. I think I was able to in previous versions, but I'm not certain. I know I'm not getting the number of draft picks I used to get.

[Axxon]

I agree, this 2K7 seems much more difficult than any previous version. I am struggling my way to a .500 record. I rarely if ever had less than 10 wins in 2K4 or FOF2. Has anyone won the FOF bowl? Another thing why is the FOF bowl usually in a cold weather city?

Ah, time for a sad sad story. :)

I made it to a FOF bowl once. In the championship game both my starting CB's went down with injuries. My #3 was already injured so I had to start my #4 and a very rusty scrub I picked up in free agency.

We fought bravely but simply could not stop the Seahawks from scoring at will. Before the half, my all pro first team kicker from the year before ( and destined to be the same for this year ) misses a 36 yard field goal. Right after the half he misses a 23 yard field goal as Seattle starts pulling away.

But my new QB, who had led Tampa Bay to the superbowl last season as an injury fill in and then dumped fought back and we scored 17 late points to ... lose 34-31.

That really sucked hard and again, the insult to injury was that the kicker did win his second consecutive first team kicker award and he's a fan favorite. His contract is now up and there's no one comparable to get in his place.

What's a GM to do but resign him?

[Marathoner]

What an idiot kicker. He was probably all liquored up at the time.

[Axxon]

What an idiot kicker. He was probably all liquored up at the time.

Yep. What makes it even worse, that one game aside, the kicker is also a GM favorite as well. We really couldn't have even gotten to the championship without him.

[lynchjm24]

I'm into my fourth season and I'm 38-28, playing about as deep as I'll ever play as far as gameplanning goes.

I don't have that great of a roster, I think I've got a playoff team though - but I've been there twice and haven't won a game yet anyway. At least my roster doesn't look like it would in past versions, chock full of stars.

The draft really is just enjoyable. The interview process adds so much. It helped me dig up 2 late round QBs with future values in 60s. I don't know if I"ll ever get to develop either since my starter is still young and is a solid 57 (which seems to be damn good in this version).

There is nothing available during in-season free agency, and the focus of most of my offseason free agency is to tie up my own players - very few very good players sneak through and I've yet to see a QB who could start for a good team make it to free agency in the offseason.

[JMO]

My first career has lasted 20 years as I play pretty quick. Ive won the Bowl game 3 times out of 4. One of those was a random whislt the other two were in my window. The random one came before my window really opened and was a shock. Ive been to the post season 13 out of 20 years.

I started with a real player file as the Oakland Raiders. The most important thing in imo was trading out of the top pick the one time I had it, after my first year. I got 3 firsts and 3 seconds(or something like that). I also traded down out of the first round a few time in my glory years. I had a few rules in the draft all of which I broke once.(I still think they are good ground rules for success)

1 never trade up in first rd(traded up for QB in 19th season from 13-5)
2 never draft rb in rd1(picked rb pick 29 in S18)

Other guidelines I had were
# pass rushing ends/cornerbacks/linemen/Qbs are most important positions
# wait for linebackers/safeties//fullbacks
#tight ends are great value and worth building an offense around
#good enough WRs can be picked up in FA.
# Running backs are over valued. late round/UDFA guys will do the job.

[Ksyrup]

I'm loving this game, but a couple of the things that are making the game harder have taken away a little of the fun of the game.

1. I pretty much can't trade anyone anymore. I'm not looking to horde 15 draft picks per draft like I used to be able to, but I'd like to trade a couple of vets for picks and haven't been able to do it.

2. There are usually only 4-6 decent FAs per year that aren't kickers. I have never seen a FA QB better than about 47 current rating. That's unrealistic.

In my current career, I saw an absolute stud QB in the draft and traded up to get him. I gave up 3 #1s and #2 - and it was worth it. At the conclusion of his third year (all as a starter), he's taken me to the SB twice and won it once, and is rated 97/97. Without him, I'm fairly certain I'd still be playing 40s-ish rated QBs I picked off the scrap heap in free agency. I realize Peyton Manning isn't going to be a FA, but the middle of the pack guys should be FAs every once in a while. Haven't seen it, though.

Oh, and one other "I love this game" story. Peyton and Eli were 1 and 2 in QB rating during 2008 until week 12, when both suffered knee injuries that ended their seasons. Eli's was severe, and as of the start of 2010, he's still out for another year or so. Peyton was able to come back and regain pretty much all of his ability (factoring in aging). Gotta love that story line, though - both brother go down in the same week in separate games. In fact, my Lions knocked Peyton out.