Video: Round 2 with Quik on MP FOF strategy and finding surplus value
 

OK so Quik and I did another video...if you liked the first one, you might like this one.

Focus this time was on strategy and specifically thinking about where we look for surplus value in MP FOF.

It was a lot of fun to do. Big thanks again to Quik for taking the time

Round 2 with Quik on MP FOF strategy and finding surplus value - YouTube

These videos are great. Thank you so much.

great stuff, looking fwd to round 3!

the discussion about QB affinities with defensive leaders is interesting -- i wouldn't be surprised if it's still there. this is what the manual says.


for this reason i tend to avoid would-be conflicts between qb and defensive leaders, but do not go for affinities there. maybe i should. i'll test this at some point and report back here.

to me, the main line of thinking is: it's a one man show, who knows?

Round 3 ideas
 

:popcorn:
Nice video Squirrel and Q...

Interesting to know, that you don`t pay much attention to the league appointed scout. I do think you underestimate him a bit in the 0-minus and 100-plus debate. If both your own scout and the league scout rates 0 or 100, there might be surplus value and vice versa. If the league scout dosn`t agree on an fx 100 rating, I don`t really think there is worthwhile surplus value. If both scouts rates him 100 - then there might be some surplus value worth looking in to.

Getting more SP players over to the MP part of the game will strengthen FoF in the long run. Could it be an idea to go over the different FoF MP leagues and talk a bit about them? More inside into the other mp leagues could be fun.

Also -where i'm struggling is coverting exported CSV data to Excel files. I play in the CFL and that is not a Ben league, which make the affinity hunt rather tedious, so I turned to Excel. I got to the point, where managed to color-code players based of Zodiac. I kinda lost the motivation due to lack of skill when I needed to merge in information from CSV files to get player names and so on. I imagine the inability in converting data to functional update-able excel sheets is where the good FOF-players are separated from the great ones.

In regards of your video, if you need help spending time before starting at your new job (congrats by the way) I can strongly recommend double tapping that Transport Tycoon Deluxe icon on your desktop😏

Heh OpenTTD is my son's favourite at the moment. He's a bit young for FOF but that time will come.

The thing you might need to learn if you're working on Excel for affinities is the combination of using INDEX and MATCH. That's a key thing to use if you're going that way...in my opinion more flexible than the various varieties of LOOKUP.

If you want to take it to the next level of speed / automation, perhaps have a go at figuring out how to use Powerquery in Excel.

Then there's learning python or SQL, which is another way do to it but that bit more hardcore again.

For me the main thing tools like this do is reduce the time it takes to zero in on the parts of the game I want to think about. I just want a pre-filter to tell me the ten or so players in the game population that I would have shortlisted had I taken the time to do so...then I will decide what to do from there. It's more fun for me to play that way.

That is really good. Hadn't thought of it, but now I'm saddened that I hadn't.

...and if any viewers/listeners are interested in the rookie receiver(s) we discussed in this vid, here's a shameless plug for my dynasty thread on running the GML Ravens, which also goes into frightful detail as to my decision-making.

The Whole Shebang - "Snakebitten" Dynasty Thread

Discussing the receivers, from today

Thanks for the videos both, I am completely new to the game (only bought last week) as I use a Mac and since Jim and Ootp decided to go separate ways decided to give it a try using oracle virtual box which so far seems to work just fine rather than wait to see if FOF9 is released and then is compatible for Mac.

I learned a huge amount about the game from the 2 videos and have spent a lot of time trawling through the forums here and at RZB for as much info as I can find, there’s a huge amount of useful info available.

If you considered doing any further videos, one on drafting would be most interesting for me as the few drafts I have done so far have been terrible :lol:

I onLy read after the last draft that it was the OC not HC where scouting rating matters and my OC is has terrible scouting rating. Once I replace him I will give the draft analyser a try. Are there any tips you would a complete newcomer to the game apart from reading as much as possible in the forums?

Thanks for the feedback. No, this isn't really "entry level" stuff, but I'm glad you've found value in it.

Read the offensive philosophy and defensive philosophy in the help docs (you can also find a copy online if you search "fof8 offensive philosophy")

As far as drafting is concerned:

Pay attention to player weights. There is debate on how much the incorrect weight hurts players, but when you are drafting the guys who are exactly on the ideal weight they are less likely to die in training camp. I generally try to be within 5lbs of ideal weight, 10 lbs+ and I'm going to change them to a different position.

Easiest way to get better at drafting is to sort by grade, not adjusted grade. You get a much clearer picture of the actual talent level, and not the game's opinion of which position you should draft in which round.

When you are drafting for a specific position and you are only using the in game draft screen, don't be afraid to go down quite a ways to select a player. I generally have a 0.5 grade range when choosing players (for ex: if the highest grade in a position is 5.2, I'll look at everyone grades 4.7-5.2) you generally aren't reaching until their grade is a full point lower within the position (also just my opinion)

Also, your coaches need a good interviewing bar. It affects the width of the blue bars during the draft.

Thank you.

Sorry for hijacking this thread, i shall start a new one if i have any further questions.

I thought that was the scouting bar? and interview bar relates to either how much the blue bars shrink when you interview them and how accurate their "impression" of the player is?

I think that sounds more accurate, as I recall

OC/DC interview are chiefly concerned with pre and post interview bar width.

Accuracy of those seen bars comes from OC/DC scouting.

So in practice you need both high scouting and interview to get a sharp picture of the player.

you guys talked a bit about cohesion in the video, i have a maybe nuanced question about this. Is it total years on your team that count? successive years only?

IE, where is the breakpoint for cohesion? if you let someone hit FA, but retain them anyways, will that hurt cohesion? If you sign a player you had on your team in years past but who was most recently on another team, do you bank those past years towards cohesion or start anew like they were never on your team?

No, there is no banking time if a player previously on your team was on another team's roster. However, a player can hit the FA market and the consecutive years are not interrupted provided you resign him.

On your team scouting report screen, check the scout overview tab. You will find the "On Team" data.

Red Flag - Debugging the myths regarding avoiding Red Flag players. Has the Excel-dudes found any performance, cohesion or other impacted regarding the 'RED FLAG'?

Important detail: you have to sign him before training camp. After training camp, free agents are off the 'roster' and signing a player in pre-season or during the season will revert the 'on team' figure to the new ongoing season.

regarding cohesion-

will sitting starters in a meaningless week 17 game (we are in the playoffs) have any negative effects on cohesion?

I don't think there's anything documented to say there would be an effect in the game when you bring them back. So I'm unsure.

I will say that whether it's some sort of "streetlight effect" at work, or a proper intuition from loads of playing, I am very reluctant to adjust the roster of a team that I'm counting on. So, in weeks when all I might want to do is make a playing time tweak here or there, I typically decline to submit a file instead, and will wait until the next time I really need to. I sense this is in my best interests, but it may well be some psych phenomenon at work... because that one time, my really good team laid an egg and it seems like it came after I tweaked a thing or two in my lineup and FROM THAT DAY ON...

Regarding playing rookies or undeveloped players...
- look for guys who have significant ST bars (assuming they can make the top 46) they can get development this way and provide current value to your team
- Starting a rookie, they will likely sign a 5 year extension at very cheap during their 2nd year offseason, sure you pay more for years 2 and 3 but I love this move personally
- Alternatively, purposely stunting by nto playng them a players stats and development can lead to you being able to sign a 4-5 year extension in their 3 year offseason and then you get them cheap for their prime...this is normally what happens a lot with my OL and Secondary guys where I as Quik said I draft for need but usually 2-3 years out
- if CMB does affect performance, then a developing CMB stud will outperform his current ratings...I do not have any idea on how much CMB means to performance but you do see raw future studs put up good numbers

I very much use this when I can... have a position group that's either really deep or really unimpressive? Rotate the guy whose contract year is around the bend for low duty this year, depress his value, then extend him more cheaply. Definite angle.

Yea, no shame in it but I can't say I go that far but def draft guys knowing that they won't play for 2 or 3 years and then try to resign them before they have touched the field significantly.

BTW love the videos, I am planning on sharing some of my data-based findings soon as well as general philosophies as it would be good to give a helping hand to keep this version stocked with new users.

Also I have a handful of deeper questions that I would be interesting to hear viewpoints on from the cream of the crop GMs.

I just started playing FOF with version 7 and both DA and GP Analyzer helped me get up to speed very quickly, so nice to see the curtain revealed a bit more with this version as I think that helps make it less intimidating.

You're mentioning Version 7 here, but is that really the version you just started playing? I think most of the players are on FOF8 (and 8.3 in particular), which is a very different game in terms of depth chart management, game planning and drafting based on combine scores.

Let me know what the Qs are...in case we can weave them in to anything else we end up doing

My bad, terrible writing, I started playing FOF in general 4 or 5 years ago when it was FOF7. Both the game and the boards were very helpful, great to see people opening up the book on this far more complicated version now.