Special Teams and Returners?

[SlyBelle1]

Although I will send this to support for clarification, just wanted to make sure I wasn't expecting the wrong thing. Couple questions.

- If you have computer managing the depth chart and rosters....does the computer also manage whether a player can play on special teams (not talking about the returner depth screen)? I know the screen exists under roster to manually set each player to play on special teams, but I wasn't sure if the computer overrides my choices if they manage the roster/depth chart.

- If the answer to the above is that the computer does not override the special team settings and the human must do this, then I think there may be an issue. I manually set my starting RB Bell to not play on special teams, but the computer still is making him my primary return man for punts. Although he does have the best punt return rating on my team, I don't want my starting RB risking injury on special teams.

- General question on player ratings. I play on default files, not x-factor and I notice that my team does not have realistic punt/kick return ratings that match real life. For example, Antonio Brown in Pittsburgh is the main punt returner in real life, but within the game he has a zero rating for punt returns. I have seen that in other places too. Not a huge deal, but was just wondering if certain stats don't reflect real life like that (not looking for them to be exact, but at least represent the fact he really does return kicks and fairly well).

[gstelmack]

On your last question, go read the Football Frontier blog entry The Zeke Factor – Football Frontier (http://www.solecismic.com/frontierblog/uncategorized/the-zeke-factor/). It explains a bit of how the player ratings for the initial file work.

[SlyBelle1]

On your last question, go read the Football Frontier blog entry The Zeke Factor – Football Frontier (http://www.solecismic.com/frontierblog/uncategorized/the-zeke-factor/). It explains a bit of how the player ratings for the initial file work.

Thanks, missed that paragraph....not a huge deal, but I wish at least some kind of rating was generated to represent the positions players actually played like a returner, even if the rating itself is not perfect. But that's Ok.

Back to Front Office Football… I make relatively undetailed player files for use with the game. I try and provide accurate demographic information, but I don’t try and fully model each player. For a career sim, this works best. But there’s still that out-of-the-box experience. I give each player a 0-9 rating and let the game calculate the details each time you start a new career. Elliott deserves a 9. I haven’t had a 9 running back in years, but I don’t think it would be right not to give him one, because he’s already the top back in the league and research suggests he’ll be even a bit better next year.

[QuikSand]

I am fairly certain that in both FOF8 and FOF7, if you have staff set depth charts that also lets them override your ST/NoST decisions. Which, at least in FOF7, meant a pretty meaningful undermining of special teams outcomes.

In time, we might get a clearer sense of whether the ST player selection AI is at least improved in this situation.

[SlyBelle1]

I am fairly certain that in both FOF8 and FOF7, if you have staff set depth charts that also lets them override your ST/NoST decisions. Which, at least in FOF7, meant a pretty meaningful undermining of special teams outcomes.

In time, we might get a clearer sense of whether the ST player selection AI is at least improved in this situation.

That's unfortunate if the case. I also tried to use the "lock" feature on the depth chart screen which I thought might help force the AI to use different returners, but that didn't work either...they still used what they wanted, my star RB. Plus, that wouldn't be enough anyway since I also see my star RB also making tackles on special teams, which is even more concerning then him being a returner.