Ben E Lou
04-08-2014, 08:01 AM
It has been interesting to watch teams put on full AI control in MP leagues. Those teams have been quite a bit more competitive than most probably would have guessed, especially in free agency. A few observations/explanations as to why I think this is:
The AI is willing to do what most humans aren't: build the best team possible--even if it means spending on older players--to try to improve its prospects from something like 6-10 to 9-7. Many human owners with sub-par rosters will avoid players with more than 8ish years of experience like the plague. (FWIW, I tend to suspect that strategy is less effective in this version...) Check out these signings in the GML as examples: "AVAILABLE" had a pretty good FA1... (http://www.fof-gml.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1350&p=5766&viewfull=1#post5766)
The AI never misses a free agency stage. This is an obvious one, but at times it's important. Humans get busy, forget that they didn't hit "export," etc. etc. etc. AI-run teams participate in every offseason stage.
The AI doesn't lowball, and humans forget that fact. This one tripped me up once before I adjusted, and I've noticed that some others haven't. An older player wanted something like $9M per year. I offered something like $7M per year, figuring "there's a good chance that no one else will pay that much, so I'll bet I can save a little cap space here." An AI team offered him a deal right around his asking price, and I was without the player.
The AI never gets "lazy." Instead, it always cuts the fat to maximize cap space. There was a team that went on AI control in IHOF this offseason. It had a good chunk of cap space before going on AI--maybe $35M or so. With that kind of space, some human players wouldn't have bothered to expend the time and energy to go through every single contract on the roster to see who was overpaid, and who could save money on renegs. However, the AI cut 9 players (all overpaid guys..all looked like "good" cuts), and renegotiated 10 contracts. And speaking of renegotiations...
The AI never forgets to do its contract extensions (as long as the team is on AI in FA1:1.) Almost every year in most leagues there is at least one human-run team that lets its players walk into FA because the GM simply forgot to extend contracts. Usually it's a non-playoff team where the human GM has partially checked out, just waiting to get to the offseason. He doesn't want to do his last-year extensions yet, though, just in case someone gets a debilitating injury. But as the last few weeks of the season wear on, he's less and less engaged, ends up sleeping through the postseason, and has multiple 60+ players in their prime whose contracts just expire.
The AI appears to evaluate every single player in the pool rather than overlooking some, as humans do. As thing as a couple of points above: the AI is never "lazy." It never says to itself "I've already looked at three defensive tackles rated over 60; I'm not bothering with those other three guys in the 52/52 to 58/58 range."
None of this is to suggest that it's better to have AI-run teams than human-run teams. But I have come over to the belief that in most cases a team on full AI control will be more competitive than a team run by a medicore-at-FOF human owner who isn't fully engaged. And I suspect that overall, AI-run teams in FOF7 are more competitive than maybe 20-40% of teams run by human GMs...at least for now as MP owners who don't play SP are still adjusting to the game. The AI is by no means perfect, but it's clearly leaps and bounds better than FOF2K7.
The AI is willing to do what most humans aren't: build the best team possible--even if it means spending on older players--to try to improve its prospects from something like 6-10 to 9-7. Many human owners with sub-par rosters will avoid players with more than 8ish years of experience like the plague. (FWIW, I tend to suspect that strategy is less effective in this version...) Check out these signings in the GML as examples: "AVAILABLE" had a pretty good FA1... (http://www.fof-gml.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1350&p=5766&viewfull=1#post5766)
The AI never misses a free agency stage. This is an obvious one, but at times it's important. Humans get busy, forget that they didn't hit "export," etc. etc. etc. AI-run teams participate in every offseason stage.
The AI doesn't lowball, and humans forget that fact. This one tripped me up once before I adjusted, and I've noticed that some others haven't. An older player wanted something like $9M per year. I offered something like $7M per year, figuring "there's a good chance that no one else will pay that much, so I'll bet I can save a little cap space here." An AI team offered him a deal right around his asking price, and I was without the player.
The AI never gets "lazy." Instead, it always cuts the fat to maximize cap space. There was a team that went on AI control in IHOF this offseason. It had a good chunk of cap space before going on AI--maybe $35M or so. With that kind of space, some human players wouldn't have bothered to expend the time and energy to go through every single contract on the roster to see who was overpaid, and who could save money on renegs. However, the AI cut 9 players (all overpaid guys..all looked like "good" cuts), and renegotiated 10 contracts. And speaking of renegotiations...
The AI never forgets to do its contract extensions (as long as the team is on AI in FA1:1.) Almost every year in most leagues there is at least one human-run team that lets its players walk into FA because the GM simply forgot to extend contracts. Usually it's a non-playoff team where the human GM has partially checked out, just waiting to get to the offseason. He doesn't want to do his last-year extensions yet, though, just in case someone gets a debilitating injury. But as the last few weeks of the season wear on, he's less and less engaged, ends up sleeping through the postseason, and has multiple 60+ players in their prime whose contracts just expire.
The AI appears to evaluate every single player in the pool rather than overlooking some, as humans do. As thing as a couple of points above: the AI is never "lazy." It never says to itself "I've already looked at three defensive tackles rated over 60; I'm not bothering with those other three guys in the 52/52 to 58/58 range."
None of this is to suggest that it's better to have AI-run teams than human-run teams. But I have come over to the belief that in most cases a team on full AI control will be more competitive than a team run by a medicore-at-FOF human owner who isn't fully engaged. And I suspect that overall, AI-run teams in FOF7 are more competitive than maybe 20-40% of teams run by human GMs...at least for now as MP owners who don't play SP are still adjusting to the game. The AI is by no means perfect, but it's clearly leaps and bounds better than FOF2K7.