Team Chemistry in FOF 2004
For those who want to explore this element of the game, here is a simplified explanation of how it all works.
If you’d rather that this stuff remain a mystery to you, do not read any further.
The Evolved Chemistry System
Following the protests of many in the FOF community, the listing from FOF 4 of each player’s zodiac sign on the player page and on the “personality” view of the roster (implying an inherent connection to player relationships) was removed from the FOF 2004 game. It seems that some people were put off by the mere suggestion that the zodiac actually means something, even if it was clearly just being used as a proxy for different personality types that would ultimately constitute a reasonably complex systems of affinities and conflicts. So, the signs are no longer listed in FOF 2004, as they were in FOF 4. Alas.
Regardless –
it’s still zodiac signs that govern these player relationships. All that has really changed is that the sign themselves are not longer listed in the game. If you want to take the time, you can work out the signs for yourself, and still use the player’s birthdate from the game (and the interaction systems that were worked out for FOF 4) to manage your team’s internal chemistry. Essentially, all the FOF 4 anti-zodiac bellyachers accomplished was to make this a pain in the rear end to actively manage.
For your reference, here are the twelve zodiac signs, and their corresponding dates:
Code:
Aries - March 21 to April 20
Taurus - April 21 to May 21
Gemini - May 22 to June 21
Cancer - June 22 to July 23
Leo - July 24 to August 23
Virgo - August 24 to September 23
Libra - September 24 to October 23
Scorpio - October 24 to November 22
Sagittarius - November 23 to December 22
Capricorn - December 23 to January 20
Aquarius - January 21 to February 18
Pisces - February 19 to March 20
(edit: dates corrected to conform exactly with the actual groups set within the game, previous posting had a few slight errors)
If a player’s birthday lies in the late March or early April range for Aries, for instance, then he is an Aries. I do not have data on how precisely the signs are implemented – it’s possible that there is a day off here or there that I have yet to find. Astrological sorts are fond of the “cusp” idea – and some of the dates right on the edge between two signs are considered split decisions. I have included the dates that seemed to be the most widely used – but they might be a day or two off from time to time (e.g. it’s possible that FOF 2004 puts a player born on October 22 into Scorpio rather than Libra). I don’t see any way to account for this in detail other than fairly exhaustive trial and error (which would be much easier with FOF 4 than FOF 2004, by the way).
(edit - now we have found and corrected all the rough edges, so the preceding caveat paragraph is now rendered obsolete, but left here for archival value)
Once you have the signs for your players – which do not appear in the game anywhere – then you may go about analyzing the player conflicts and affinities on the team.
How the Chemistry System Seems to Work
- Each position group other than QB (backfield, receivers, offensive line, defensive front, secondary) has one player assigned as the positional leader (seemingly based on some combination of experience and leadership rating)
- Each player has a “check” for chemistry with his positional leader (i.e. every DL and LB on the team checks his compatibility with the defensive front leader)
- Based on the zodiac signs of the two players, the result may be an
affinity, a
conflict, nor nothing at all
-The intensity of the affinity or conflict, if any, will be determined by the personality rating of the players (I confess I don’t know if the personality of the positional leader matters here)
- Each QB on the team is checked for chemistry with the three offensive positional leaders (backfield, receivers, and offensive line)
- Kickers and punters are not connected to the team chemistry function in any way
How The Signs Interact
With that, we need to understand “when is there an affinity or conflict?” The system works by the implicit zodiac signs of the players. The twelve zodiac signs are essentially broken into four “affinity” groups, each with three signs.
Code:
The four affinity groups are:
Aries, Gemini, Scorpio
Sagittarius, Leo, Virgo
Pisces, Taurus, Cancer
Aquarius, Libra, Capricorn
-Within each affinity group, players of two different signs will have an affinity (e.g. Aries and Gemini will always have an affinity)
-Two players with the same sign, however, will have a neutral relationship (no affinity)
In addition, the twelve zodiac signs are paired up into six “opposition” groups:
Code:
The six pairs of opposed signs are:
Aries - Aquarius
Taurus - Libra
Gemini - Virgo
Scorpio - Pisces
Capricorn - Leo
Cancer - Sagittarius
-Any two players of the two signs paired up here will have a conflict (e.g. Aries and Aquarius will always have a conflict)
That’s really all there is to the system of team chemistry in FOF 4 and FOF 2004. There is fairly sparse anecdotal evidence that a team benefits (perhaps pretty significantly) by having generally good chemistry (i.e. many affinities and few conflicts) and that individual player performance is affected by that player’s relationship with his positional leader. The degree or reliability of these effects is unknown, and is probably very difficult to measure with any reliability.
So, use this information as you will. If anyone has additional input into this system – factual corrections or additions, or just evidence on how the chemistry seems to affect outcomes – feel free to follow up in this thread.