Newbie Questions

[amazedbygrace86]

Hello, all! I recently acquired FOF 2007, and while I love the depth and realism of the game, I am a little overwhelmed. I've been looking through some of the strategy tips on FOFC, but some of it is a little over my football head or its so specific as to be not helpful for a newbie like me.

Here's what I'm wondering:

1) On a week by week basis, what you do before every game you sim/play? What the bare minimum of things I should check/adjust before simming another week? Right now, my Bengals are 0-3, and so I think I'm missing something.

2) How do you use the scouting report to adjust your game plan?

3) Do you use any of the myriad of gameplan adjustments or do you allow the computer to recommend and then adjust from there?

4) Under the "Roster Strengths" screen, what are these values based on for each position and each team? Is this from my scouting department or are these the actual values of my team? For instance, my starting quarterback is like a 32, but the Roster Strengths screen says that I'm at like 16 or something. Is that what my QB is really at and my scout is just horrible at reading quarterbacks?

Thanks for your help!

[conception]

I use the gameplan libraries provided here and modify the one I want to match up the best to my team. For example, if I have a great TE, I'm gonna make sure he's on the field a lot. Really, before every game I just check the injuries. If an important playmaker is out, obviously I'll have to emphasize other playmakers that week, maybe temporarily adopting a different offensive strategy. The only times when I've really changed my gameplan week to week was when I had spectacular offensive talent, and I changed from a pass heavy approach to a run/throw deep approach; ironically, when perhaps gameplan meant the least.

Really, if you've got a normal roster with certain positions good and certain not, you are pretty well off just to emphasize those strengths every week.

[aston217]

It is very overwhelming, but there is a lot to enjoy. Just take it slowly. I played through many seasons of single player and several years of multiplayer without really getting into the ins and outs of a lot of aspects of the game.

I think the best way to figure it out, and the best way to enjoy the game, is to join a MP league that runs at a pace suitable for your needs -- you will figure it out, slowly but surely :) and you'll learn a lot from discussion with other owners.

Week by week, in MP sometimes I'll study the opponents' gameplans, but I would never do that in SP...I'd just wolf through the seasons. I'd look at the roster to figure out how I should double cover and where I might want to run or blitz, although it isn't always clear cut.

Roster strengths is a normalized, relative number, so it basically compares how good your starting and backup guys are relative to all the other teams in the league. The team with the best man at the position is rated 100, and then it goes down from there. So all a '16' means is that your QB is one of the lower-rated starting QBs in the league, not that his rating is actually 16.

Also, keep in mind that players can be masked, hugely -- no matter how good your scout is. Got to pay attention to how your guys do in their rookie TC, and to a smaller extent over the course of their careers and especially during the offseason stage where FA1 begins.