The "One and Done Challenge"
 

The “One and Done” Challenge

Okay, it has been a long, long time since there was a single-player “competition” here at FOFC. Some of you might recall that back with FOF 2001, I believe, a whole series of players played a career with teams from Richmond, Virginia that all had the same starting point, and reported back on their long term success. Regrettably, the game was not flexible enough to really make the year-to-year experience perfectly parallel for each player – the x-factor even for imported draft files renders this a variable, no matter what. That inflexibility remains today, so it’s just not easy to come up with a “challenge” that really puts everyone in the same boat.

This is an attempt to do so.

The concept is simple. We can’t control what comes into the league in future draft classes… so, for our team, there won’t be any future draft classes. Just this one. Load up, build an entire team just from this rookie class, who come through your training camp, and play out the entire career with those players.

It should, I think, have several interesting advantages:
-One long offseason, but then it should move quickly if you want it to
-Long-term look at many players who might otherwise get replaced/released/traded
-Long-term look at cohesion, as yours will likely move from worst to best in the league


Here is the setup:

YOU GET:
An empty roster (well, one angry guy who won’t re-sign, but he will be gone soon)
Three years worth of draft picks, including the 1(1) this season

YOU MUST:
Build your team **entirely** from this year’s rookie pool, with players acquired before this year's training camp
Set your global options to: cap increase from 60 to 99, injuries set to 100

YOU MAY:
Make any trades you can involving all three years’ worth of picks to acquire picks for you to use in this year's draft
Draft as many or as few players as you like, and then

YOU MAY NOT:
Sign, trade for, or otherwise acquire any new player to your team after the first year’s final cutdowns*
(*one exception – worst FA K/P, but only if needed to keep the career alive)

edit: To be as clear as I can here, after your 2008 training camp, you may *never* trade for, draft, sign, or otherwise acquire any new player for your team, with the exception of a kicker/punter absolutely necessitated by injury, and in such a case only the worst-rated free agent. I hope that is completely clear - that really is the essence of the whole challenge. Miss that, and you're simply not playing the same game the rest of us are.

YOU START:
By getting the files I have uploaded here: OneNDone Zip Files
(warning: it looks like the frfoot.fgr file includes a custom color setting - at the very least, back up your file with that name... you may not even need this one)

YOU CONTINUE:
By doing your rookie interviews, making whatever trades you like, and drafting
Fill in the rest of your team with undrafted rookies, and head to camp
From there on, play an entire “dynasty” career with that lot of players

YOU KEEP SCORE:
Over the long haul, here’s how you can give yourself a “score” for your efforts:
(for simplicity's sake, just use the in-game summary - don't subtract out the 0-16 start that you were handed for the first year)

Your score is the sum of:
100 x Cumulative (career-long) winning percentage, rounded down
Your total number of games won + ½ your number of ties, rounded down
2 points for each time your team won its conference
2 points for each time your team won the championship


edit: A few notes, in case these things are not obvious as you get started. Keeping a legal roster will determine how long you can keep your career going - remember, you can't add any new players. At some point, guys will retire, or guys might leave via free agency. You will need to field a legal roster with whatever you have left. This likely means making permanent position changes, even if they completely emasculate the usefulness of the player (like switching a RB to CB, or a DT to OT). So it goes. But keep this in mind, both as you build your initial roster and as you go forward -- staying flexible, and keeping your players happy about playing time (so they will re-sign with you) are essential parts of what you may need to do down the line. Also, recall that no non-QB can ever switch to QB, so carrying fewer than four guys there is likely asking for trouble. (There's a waiver on the P/K position, to keep that from needlessly occupying three roster slots) Hope these tips are helpful if you're getting started with a One and Done Career.

So I could in theory trade the 1.1 for a stud QB in his 5th season but then I must keep him?

I don't think you can trade for veterans.

That seems pretty clear to me that the answer is "NO". The future year's draft picks are for acquiring picks in this draft only I would assume.

No, all your players have to be rookies, period. If you want to use that 1.1 to take the top QB, that's fine (I have not even looked at this draft class, incidentally) or you could choose to trade down to give yourself a ton of picks in rounds 3-7, if you prefer. But no veterans, period.

If it turns out that anyone here actually wants to take this up and give it a try, I'd like to think that we could separate out any "spoilers" from this thread. Since we're all dealing with the same lot of players, in my first time thought at least, I'd prefer not to already know that DE Joe Sacker is predestined to be a great breakout player that I can get at pick 4.21 but not after that... if you get my drift.

Do we need a team ID and password?

If I put these files in, they won't erase any MP stuff or anything, right? (logos, city files, etc.?)

It's a solo career, so I *think* you just load the files into your "universe" directory, and it should come up as one of your available single player games, under the filename: OneNDone.

The only file that is in there without the OneNDone name is the frfoot.fgr file -- I guess it may be wise to back up your file of the same name, as I don't honestly know what is contained in that file.

No logos, city information, or anything else. I don't even know what NFL team this is mapped onto... I don't even have an NFL setup any longer for FOF.

Awesome. I think I'm gonna take a shot at this. Do we have a time limit? Like...10 years and then we compare scores? Or just until everyone retires from this year?

Also...what should our settings be for injuries and cap?

Hmmm... I guess I ought to put some of those settings into the rules above.

I'm thinking we go with 60-99 for cap increases and 100 for injuries. I think that is what I have in there as the default, but I'll add to the rules that those are to remain fixed at those levels.

I think that is wide open. I have made the scoring such that additional years are very likely to be worth playing, as long as your team has at least a reasonable hope of winning several games. Down the stretch, it might require shifting positions here and there to field a legal roster, but I reckon that to be part of the long-term challenge. Something to plan for, though, as you fill those 51st-53rd roster slots... probably good to have a few guys wit proper weights to serve as a "gimp" just to fill in the roster in case of a fall-apart.

I did intentionally waive the no signings rule for kickers and punter - nobody will want to carry a 3rd guy there, but it would suck to have your career end if your punter is listed as out and you cannot field a legal roster in year three or something.

Incidentally, my personal thinking is that I want to play this out once without any special information - just do my interviews, do my draft, fill in the roster, and see how well I can do.

But I can foresee, especially if a number of people play it and post their results somewhere, a future replayability where I/we play it over again, but use some "insider" knowledge -- knowing in advance that certain players are likely breakouts of draft-day-fallers, and make plans around that.

I might take some notes to myself on certain players who would make good future affinity group leaders, too. I just can't help myself.

I'll def be giving this a try

Awesome... I thought about a similar challenge earlier but never got around to it. I'm in.

What the hell is up with the colors???

Can we get a separate thread for spoilers/results?

Is there any way to get a new base file one more year out? That dead cap space is a killer.

I'm not really convinced it's a killer... I am flying through a career, had four picks in the first 16 including 1.4 and 1.6, signed all my draftees with the exact contracts they wanted, and still have over 28 million for free agent signees. Even if you push for picks 1-4 somehow, I have trouble seeing how you spend all the cap space this year.

Maybe it will serve as a reasonable limitation on how much to crush the AI trade engine, if nothing else.

Hmmm...maybe that answers that question. If you have a red-and-goldish color scheme with this team, then presumably that .fgr file includes the custom color scheme. It wasn't my intention to share that... sorry. I'll add a note to that effect above.

How do I load the single-player game?

The second of the several icons at the top right is "load game." Make sure you have not opened the multi-player window out of habit -- that window being present/absent is essentially the toggle between being in MP and SP mode.

I have it closed, but it says no single-player games available.

Well, it has worked for at least one person... so I'm guessing there is some setting difference.

If you didn't use my .fgr file, can you try backing up yours and using mine? Maybe that's why my .fgr file got updated, as maybe it includes information about the save games library, perhaps? *shurg*

Quik, I'm in.

Do we need a little subforum set up for different people to post their year-to-year results?

I have no idea what would be the best way to set things up... we clearly don't want to overrun the main forum with crap, but that's basically out, I'd think.

Whether individual dynasty threads make more sense than something set aside on its own, I don't have any really strong feelings.

I can set every person up with a thread that only he can see, then on a specified date, we move the threads ibto one new subforum for this, and make them all public. How does that sound?

Sounds pretty cool to me.

I'm in, just so everyone knows.

I'll set up the private deals in the morning. If you're in and haven't posted, please let me know.

Oh hell yeah I am in.

Extracting rookie class...oh yeah the juices are flowing.

I am going to start a dynasty report on this, probably tonight.

Is use of the Change Tracker frowned upon or not? If it is kosher, I will report what it tells me.

I am in. What else are visits to the in-laws for?

I'm going to give it a shot.

Quick question. Once we get get past the third year, we'll start getting draft picks again. Should we just draft and then not sign the player?

Should we draft BPA? Or the worst available? I ask because it seems that if we draft the worst player, there could be too much talent on the other teams, so I would assume we should just draft BPA and then let them re-enter next year?

I'd say just trade them away for future picks that you'll trade away in the future :)

This sounds great. I'll give it a go.

OK. I've set up private forums for the following people.

1. QuikSand
2. Chubby
3. JetsIn06
4. Passacaglia
5. SkyDog
6. Subby
7. Shorty3281
8. Celeval
9. gstelmack
10. stevew
11. digamma
12. larrymcg421

Go ahead and write a full-blown dynasty report in there with all the creeping/booming/unmasking detail you want. No one but you should be able to see the contents (not even me, until I change the settings.) On a deadline day that Quik specifies, I'll de-privatize the forums, and move all of the dynasty threads into the One And Done Challenge subforum.

If you haven't posted and want to participate, let me know, and I can get you set up.

Since I'm somewhat sick, and also Jewish with nothing to do over the next couple days :), I'd like to give this a shot, even though I haven't opened up FOF in at least 8 months. I've never been much of a dynasty writer, so if I get my own thread, is it cool if I stay brief on the details?

Yes yes, that's easiest.

Your forum is now set up.

Thanks SD.

Is this a rule, then? Or can we draft players, but not sign them?

Is there a way to make those not visible? They're kind of screwing up the format of the board.

Yeah, but it's much less convenient. It won't be that way for long.

Deadline for results?

I think it is "cleaner" to just trade away all your draft picks - it keeps your roster screens from being cluttered with extraneous guys, and potentially avoids an "end run" of acquiring rookies to draft for chemistry purposes, if there is any advantage to doing so.

Honestly, I can tell you from my own experience (I have played countless "no draft" teams) - we're talking about an investment of maybe a minute or two of your time once every three seasons. It's not hard to do, just trade your picks away five at a time and demand almost nothing back, it doesn't take any deep thought.

Jeez, the pressure.

I'm thinking something like January 15th. Sound okay to everyone?

I sat down yesterday and deliberately just *flew* through my draft, and got my team finalized and ready to start playing games in about 90 minutes of game time -- not exactly the "slow and steady" approach, overall. This will by no means be any sort of world-beater team, though.