FOF7 - 100 little things

[NoxMortem]

I have seen that thread for FOF2k7, as I am new to the game I have nothing to add, but could we revive that format :)?

[aston217]

Sure! I'll start:

1. Players with 2+ year contracts can't be cut if they are injured, and only 'Doubtful' or worse players can go on IR. So be careful tossing out multi-year contracts to bubble players and then playing them during preseason, if you don't want to potentially be stuck with them. Unlikely, but this is a 'little things' thread, after all.

[Julio Riddols]

2. Having coaches that are good at scouting is vital for finding talent more consistently. It might even be worth sacrificing in other skill areas in order to assemble a staff with incredible scouting skills for a few seasons.

[Julio Riddols]

3. Always evaluate every contract on the roster to effectively squeeze every penny of value out of your roster. Some players will renegotiate for a cheaper deal even if they just signed a large extension the year prior.

[Yoda]

4. Don't over look special teams. Excellent special teams can be the difference between a losing season and a deep run in the playoffs.

[Yoda]

5. When using a 3 Deep coverage, make sure you are in at least a nickle package, as your WLB will be the one that drops back in coverage. That is unless your WLB is a complete stud and you have crap for back up corners/safeties.

[Ben E Lou]

Worth Noting: A good 90% of the stuff in the FOF2K7 Hundred Little Things thread still applies in FOF7. (And two of the three things posted prior to this here were absolutely true for FOF2K7.) It's worth the time of a newbie to read through that thread, with the following filters:


Scouting and drafting are different.
It's tons more difficult to draft a good QB.
Positions are better balanced to reflect real life (i.e. the QB is now the most important position, rather than the BPR WR).
The SP roster-building AI is much better, so relying on free agency long-term isn't a great idea in SP.
Draftees are signed to 4-year contracts, and late-rounders get very cheap ones, thus making those picks more valuable if you're a good drafter.


Other than those items, there's not a ton that has changed in terms of strategy.

[NoxMortem]

You can save a lot of money during the free agency phases by reducing the offers in each step as many players will request more money early on and will become desperate if no one else offers them for 7-10 rounds :)

[aston217]

^ That's a good one!

7. Players will take an offer if there's one on the table at the end of Late Free Agency, and also at the end of Early Free Agency. However, once you're at the "Pre-Training Camp" stage, players will reject offers if they are not good enough.

In other words, say there's a veteran who wants $2.5M, but you want to bag him at the veteran minimum. If you can offer it, and that's his best offer, he'll take it at FA Stage 2-5. However, once 2-5 finishes, he might reject an offer if it's not good enough.

Further, once training camp is over, you can only offer 1-year deals to players. And in my experience anyway, they will only take them if they get what they ask (or at least there's very little wiggle room!) -- which is also somewhat new.

[gstelmack]

If the player says he wants to sign in stage X, he won't sign before then, so offering before then just gives info to your opponents.

[aston217]

Sometimes he will sign, but those cases seem to be rare. Although it seems to happen more frequently later on (i.e, "Stage 11" guys signing on Stage 10). But generally, that's true.

At the pre-TC stage, the league scout's first impressions for the year are available to you. You can click on a player's bars to see where the league scout has them, and that can be useful for rookies, so you can compare with your own scout. (By the way, to see bars for your own rookies before TC, you have to pull up the Trade Information screen, and right click on the rookie player).

[MIJB#19]

If the player says he wants to sign in stage X, he won't sign before then, so offering before then just gives info to your opponents.This one is no longer true.
Players in FOF7 sometimes do sign before the preferred 'stage X', even as early as stage 2.

[revrew]

5. When using a 3 Deep coverage, make sure you are in at least a nickle package, as your WLB will be the one that drops back in coverage. That is unless your WLB is a complete stud and you have crap for back up corners/safeties.

Wait a sec. 3-deep is the standard zone coverage, as opposed to 4-deep. And in 3-deep, the 3 deep are supposed to be CB, CB, FS. 4-deep would add the SS. Are you saying FOF pulls a linebacker into coverage for some weird reason instead of a safety?

[zbuckley]

Read everything Ben E Lou posts

[Yoda]

Wait a sec. 3-deep is the standard zone coverage, as opposed to 4-deep. And in 3-deep, the 3 deep are supposed to be CB, CB, FS. 4-deep would add the SS. Are you saying FOF pulls a linebacker into coverage for some weird reason instead of a safety?

I thought 2 deep was the standard coverage?

Anyway, that came from various email exchanges I have had over the years with Sol Support. I'll see if I can find the specific email, but here is one of the exchanges:

--------------------------------
In nickel and dime, yes, that's what happens. It's not a good idea to run
3-deep and 4-deep without extra DBs, but if so, it will try and keep the LBs
in short zones, since the game doesn't run any Tampa-2 variations.

--------------------------------
Ethan Potter
Customer Service
Solecismic Software

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jimmy Repine"
To: "Ethan Potter"
Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2008 11:54 PM

The documentation says that it takes extra DB's and places them in the zone
(3-deep and 4-deep respectively), if the DB's aren't on the field, and the
LB's they normally replace still are, won't those LB's replace the DB's in
their assignments?

[revrew]

Well, part of that discussion would also need to define terms. Is a safety considered a DB? Typically, they are. So if I run a 4-deep, and I have 2 CBs and 2 safeties on the field, those are my guys in 4 deep, while the LBs would be in short zones.

That's what I would expect, anyways. But is that reality?

[aston217]

Cover-3 should have your two outside corners, plus the free safety in deep zones. In my FOF understanding however, it was always two safeties + nickel. However, this may be flawed...

My understanding with FOF's 3-deep and 4-deep is that everyone is playing zone coverage, only a matter of it's deep or short. Most likely, even if your guys are not great at zone coverage, you're better off playing 3/4-deep vs the long pass just because you have more bodies there.

And actually, from this...

In nickel and dime, yes, that's what happens. It's not a good idea to run
3-deep and 4-deep without extra DBs, but if so, it will try and keep the LBs
in short zones, since the game doesn't run any Tampa-2 variations.

It sounds like:

1. The nickel and dime backs are the ones "placed" in deep coverage

2. If the nickel and dime backs aren't there, the LBs will be in short zones, not deep zones. So a called 4-deep zone from the base, for example, would really be a 2-deep play, so you're really losing the long pass defense aspect of it.

Although if that's the case, maybe there is some strategy there. You have 2-deep, man under. And 2-deep, bump and run. You have the "Strong side corner plays man, everybody else plays zone" and "Weak side vice versa", but there isn't a "2-deep safety, everyone else short zone" kind of coverage. Although isn't that the Tampa 2?

[NoxMortem]

Trading this season pick for next season picks

If you have low draft picks, try to get your players from Free Agency and trade away your draft picks this season for equal round draft picks next season. This way you can even get high priority draft picks very cheap! Of course it could happen the team suddenly drops extremly in priority but it is a good to go way if you just get your fingers into trading the first time and have a hard time to get the AI to accept your trades without making a loss.