FOF 9 Q & A thread

[cupofjoe]

Originally Posted by Ruthian23

Regarding the mass release issue, I wanted to ask people's opinions about how playable the game currently is with this issue. I really want to get the game and start playing, but if long-term saves are totally unfeasible with that issue I am reluctant. If it's more of a mild inconvenience/realism issue that doesn't benefit the player that much, I'm willing to get it and wait for an update. Any views would be appreciated.

The game plays perfectly fine after the last couple of updates. If you don’t mind the constant changing of good players from the other teams, then it’s not much of an issue. It seems like it bothers some but others are fine with it.

I’m personally waiting for my first serious save for when this patch comes out

[Passacaglia]

Are you able to extend a player's contract in the last season?

[mozelmanzana]

As I get more into this, a couple questions arose. Sorry if I just can't find the right screens for these.



a) Depth charts- Can I manually set backups? In the preseason, can I pull starters/players after time (in FOF 7 there was a 1-10 scale I believe)? Can I manually substitute players while calling plays? (eg bring second rb in if the starter is gassed?)


b) Everbody on defense has just that one familiarity bar, but I can't put them in out of position? I have a linebacker who is great in coverage and in passrush, so my plan was to play him early down LB and long distance end but I'm not allowed to?


c) When calling defensive plays I can't tag the exact blitzers? I just call a 5 man rush but who rushes is automatically decided by the blitzrate strategy?


Appreciate any feedback, sorry if these are obvious.

[henry296]

Originally Posted by Passacaglia

Are you able to extend a player's contract in the last season?

Yes, but I believe you need to do it before the playoffs start.

[geacher]

Sorry to be a bore, but is there NO way I can print my roster, game reports etc other the the snipping/print screen options?

[Marmel]

I am noticing that the AI is signing players for me, even though on my options screen I have AI makes minor and major rosters decisions unchecked.

I had an ILB holding out and decided to let him sit and then walk after the year. I fast simmed the last 2 weeks of preseason with a legal roster and the AI signed him to a huge contract.

I do have the settings for playbook, game plan and depth chart checked as yes to AI decide.

What's going on here, a bug or am I not understanding the settings?

[james17]

Originally Posted by geacher

Sorry to be a bore, but is there NO way I can print my roster, game reports etc other the the snipping/print screen options?

I raised the same issue. No you can't do any other way to print. I was told it would have to be a major update for the program to be able to do so.



Maybe FOF10??

[geacher]

Thanks James.
A major omission I fear.

[geacher]

Thanks James.
A major omission I fear.

[Buttons]

So how do positional rankings work? Trying to improve my positions as much as I can and most is going well, but for some reason it's saying my secondary is 9th in the league despite having great starters and good depth for injuries and special formations. Even our DCs both have the same specialization (secondary) as well as the same playcalling and intelligence. Is there something I'm missing or is this not really useful information?

[Unimaginative]

Originally Posted by Marmel

I am noticing that the AI is signing players for me, even though on my options screen I have AI makes minor and major rosters decisions unchecked.

I had an ILB holding out and decided to let him sit and then walk after the year. I fast simmed the last 2 weeks of preseason with a legal roster and the AI signed him to a huge contract.

I do have the settings for playbook, game plan and depth chart checked as yes to AI decide.

What's going on here, a bug or am I not understanding the settings?

I had that happen, too. I haven't gotten around to sending a Bug Report to Solcesmic yet, but I (with all AI settings off) had the AI sign a QB that was holding out to a monster contract that I did not want him on. I'm assuming it has something to do with player holdouts, since that's the commonality between the two of us.

[cupofjoe]

I think it's important to report that as a bug. I'd be annoyed if I'm playing and that happens. I think a lot of people on here are depending on Jim reading the posts and fixing the bugs....which I'm sure Jim does read, but he has still asked to go through the process of reporting.



I'm not playing because I'm waiting for the "mass release" patch, but what you're mentioning would be frustrating

[geacher]

Are you sure that your "AI makes minor roster changes" box isn't ticked?

[Marmel]

Originally Posted by cupofjoe

I think it's important to report that as a bug. I'd be annoyed if I'm playing and that happens. I think a lot of people on here are depending on Jim reading the posts and fixing the bugs....which I'm sure Jim does read, but he has still asked to go through the process of reporting.



I'm not playing because I'm waiting for the "mass release" patch, but what you're mentioning would be frustrating

I reported it last night.
This is not game breaking, but it really sucked.

[beatle]

How do you get past a runtime error?

[cupofjoe]

Originally Posted by Marmel

I reported it last night.
This is not game breaking, but it really sucked.

Looks like the issue was fixed in the new patch last night 👍

[cupofjoe]

I feel a bit embarrassed asking this as a semi-experienced player, but why can I only sometimes sub offensive players during a game? On defense my "examine lineup" is always clickable. But on offense, it becomes only clickable on like 5% of my plays so I can't make subs.

[full_metal_mattoid]

Originally Posted by cupofjoe

I feel a bit embarrassed asking this as a semi-experienced player, but why can I only sometimes sub offensive players during a game? On defense my "examine lineup" is always clickable. But on offense, it becomes only clickable on like 5% of my plays so I can't make subs.

New player here, but this same thing drove me nuts initially as well. What works for me is the following:

(1) First, make sure you have "You call plays" selected;
(2) Initially, the 'examine lineup' button will be blurred out and unclickable. Hover your mouse over the "Call" button of an offensive play without clicking on it.
(3) You should then see the position boxes light up for the relevant players and the "Examine Lineup" button will also change to include the personnel group number and also finally become clickable;
(4) Click on it and the substitution menu should pop up.


Note I might be playing with a different or older version of the game since I haven't patched, modded, or done anything like that with the game yet (I am a complete newb with the FOF series and FOF 9 specifically). Nevertheless, hopefully the functionality here remains the same and this works for you since I understand how frustrating it can be not knowing how to access the feature or even having to presume it's essentially broken and only works randomly as I initially did. I used to just literally click all over the place within the client and other random things until the accessible "Examine Lineup" button seemed to somehow magically appear, which only provided a brief form of relief as I still had no idea what the heck I was doing to activate the option. I'm sure you know how it goes; once I had to start the next game it was back to square one and if I was lucky enough to 'magically' unlock the button in a relatively short amount of time during one game it was likely I would find myself struggling for an embarrassing amount of time trying to blindly repeat the process in the next.

Anyway, sorry for TL;DR'ing but hopefully this made it to you before any keyboards or flatscreens were smashed (j/k) and it works to resolve the issue so you can enjoy the game as intended.

Although the visual aid is most likely not necessary, noob screenshot included below anyway.

[Nooby]

Quick question, have been out for some time after giving up the hope for FOF9. But since the game has been released last year, is the new game good in MP? Have the bigger leagues switched to FOF9 or are they mostly still using FOF8?

[henry296]

No MP in this version.

[Nooby]

Originally Posted by henry296

No MP in this version.

Will there be a MP or is it gonna stay SP version?

[NawlinsFan]

Originally Posted by Nooby

Will there be a MP or is it gonna stay SP version?

Some are hopeful but that all rests with Jim.

[jim_nihilist]

Originally Posted by full_metal_mattoid

New player here, but this same thing drove me nuts initially as well. What works for me is the following:

(1) First, make sure you have "You call plays" selected;
(2) Initially, the 'examine lineup' button will be blurred out and unclickable. Hover your mouse over the "Call" button of an offensive play without clicking on it.
(3) You should then see the position boxes light up for the relevant players and the "Examine Lineup" button will also change to include the personnel group number and also finally become clickable;
(4) Click on it and the substitution menu should pop up.

Thank you for the explanation. Even though I know how it works... it doesn't always work. Fickle at best.



I understand why it has to be made a decision befpr we see the line up, but can't there be another solution how we can exchange players? Maybe with a right click?

[Ruthian23]

A quick question: I've noticed this in past versions before but it's true here also. A player goes through FA demanding X amount of money (say, 11 million.) It lowers slightly throughout with no offers and then jumps on the final day of free agency. If no one offers them a deal between either of the FA periods, they end up on someone's roster for the league minimum for a year (like 1.2 million or whatever), but the player team, as far as I can see, never gets a chance at these bargains. There's no period as far as I can tell where the player can make an offer between late FA and these players being signed, yet they get signed. What's the deal with this? When is the CPU signing them and why are they agreeing to drastically reduced offers without giving the player team a shot?

Additionally, I've been a bit frustrated by free agency in general in this version. I feel like the player often doesn't have a real opportunity to be in negotiations with a player. A lot of times I will make a FA offer equal or even greater than the player's desired offer, be the only offer on the table for several days, and then another team swoops in and they instantly sign with them for the same or less. It makes sense that some players would accept less money for various reasons, but my main issue is I never even get a shot to counter if someone beats my offer or makes a more attractive offer. I feel like in reality agents play teams off each other to try to get the best deal, but here a lot of times it's almost like blind bidding.

I am really enjoying the game for the most part, but can anyone let me know if there's anything I'm missing here?

[james17]

Originally Posted by jim_nihilist

Thank you for the explanation. Even though I know how it works... it doesn't always work. Fickle at best.



I understand why it has to be made a decision befpr we see the line up, but can't there be another solution how we can exchange players? Maybe with a right click?

It is fickle. May be a bug that needs to be reported?

[AlexB]

Originally Posted by Ruthian23

A quick question: I've noticed this in past versions before but it's true here also. A player goes through FA demanding X amount of money (say, 11 million.) It lowers slightly throughout with no offers and then jumps on the final day of free agency. If no one offers them a deal between either of the FA periods, they end up on someone's roster for the league minimum for a year (like 1.2 million or whatever), but the player team, as far as I can see, never gets a chance at these bargains. There's no period as far as I can tell where the player can make an offer between late FA and these players being signed, yet they get signed. What's the deal with this? When is the CPU signing them and why are they agreeing to drastically reduced offers without giving the player team a shot?

Additionally, I've been a bit frustrated by free agency in general in this version. I feel like the player often doesn't have a real opportunity to be in negotiations with a player. A lot of times I will make a FA offer equal or even greater than the player's desired offer, be the only offer on the table for several days, and then another team swoops in and they instantly sign with them for the same or less. It makes sense that some players would accept less money for various reasons, but my main issue is I never even get a shot to counter if someone beats my offer or makes a more attractive offer. I feel like in reality agents play teams off each other to try to get the best deal, but here a lot of times it's almost like blind bidding.

I am really enjoying the game for the most part, but can anyone let me know if there's anything I'm missing here?

Agree on the second part to an extent, but it’s quite easy to get most of the FAs you want, so anything that helps the AI a little isn’t such a bad thing

[TroyF]

So I follow off and on and the last time I jumped in here, it seemed like there would be no FOF9. Now I find out one has existed for months. Sheesh. I know what my weekend looks like now.

[canuxrok]

So, I've looked in the manual and can't find anything about a couple questions I have:


1) Can we name captains or does the game just arbitrarily set them? I see that I have an offensive and defensive captain but don't know when/how I would be able to pick that or change them if I wanted.


2) Is there any kind of overview of what the different personality traits do? Like something like leadership seems mostly self explanatory but what does personality mean? Is higher better or worse? What does it affect? How about Intelligence? Does that affect their on field play? Off-field decisions? Chemistry? Cohesion?? Is loyalty just them being willing to take less money to stay with your team or does it affect other things? Etc.


3) I want to change FB Nick Bellore into a LB. I can't do it from the position change screen. Is there an option in the offseason to do this? Or is it forever impossible to change an offensive player to a defensive position?


4) What does a player being "angry" affect? Do they mess with cohesion and affect team performance somehow? Do they just refuse to sign an extension with you? Should I ignore it? My FB and special teams specialist Nick Bellore is angry despite being starting FB, so I can't really figure out a way that isn't ridiculous to get him more snaps (I was gonna make him a linebacker but I can't do that). Should I cut him, is he detrimental to the team when he's angry?


4) What does Red Flag character trait mean? Should I be concerned that my starting running back has that?


5) Is there any way to edit personality type stuff? In the roster file I don't see anything that correlates to it. Is it just randomly generated for each new save and uneditable?


6) Similarly, is there any way to edit the coach ratings? I also can't find anything in the coach file that corresponds to any of their ratings. Is this just randomly generated every new save and uneditable?


7) Lastly, is there any way to edit any pre-existing injuries onto a player? Like if I want the Rams to start the season with Cooper Kupp still injured like in real life. Or Kyler Murray on the Cardinals to still be recovering from his injury?

[garion333]

See below!

Originally Posted by canuxrok

So, I've looked in the manual and can't find anything about a couple questions I have:


1) Can we name captains or does the game just arbitrarily set them? I see that I have an offensive and defensive captain but don't know when/how I would be able to pick that or change them if I wanted.Game does it automatically.


2) Is there any kind of overview of what the different personality traits do? Like something like leadership seems mostly self explanatory but what does personality mean? Is higher better or worse? What does it affect? How about Intelligence? Does that affect their on field play? Off-field decisions? Chemistry? Cohesion?? Is loyalty just them being willing to take less money to stay with your team or does it affect other things? Etc.We don't know for most of these. There's been some aspects that have been sussed out in prior versions, but haven't been verified for FOF9. For instance, chemistry was based on a player's zodiac sign. Yes, birthdays dictated who liked who. It was an arbitrary system, but it worked from a game perspective and could be utilized because it wasn't random. Personality score affected the strength of the chemistry. If two players had good chemistry, but low Personality, then it would show as a weak chemistry affect or not at all. Two players worth good chemistry and strong Personality would have exceptional affinity. What does any of this do? It adds plusses and minuses to the dice rolls
No chemistry? No benefit, but also no negative. Mild affinity? It's a +1 to dice rolls. Exceptional affinity? +3 to dice rolls? Conflict? -1 or more to dice rolls. Think of chemistry and affinities as buffs and debuffs. I've made the "dice roll" numbers up, you may be used to +10% damage in other games and Chemistry works the same here. It's a small buff or debuff, but it all goes into the algorithm and affects the results of plays. You can choose to lean into chemistry as little or as much as you'd like, some folks ignore it entirely, while others use good chemistry to great effect.

No one knows concretely about Intelligence's impact. Some think it helps.

Cohesion is simply how long players have played together. It's most important in your OL.

With most aspects in the game, it all adds up over time. The more you pay attention to the details, the more you control your team's results.


3) I want to change FB Nick Bellore into a LB. I can't do it from the position change screen. Is there an option in the offseason to do this? Or is it forever impossible to change an offensive player to a defensive position? Forever impossible, offense and defense can't change sides. If a LB is lite enough they can be turned into a Safety and then CB. Usually there's a big penalty for doing so. Change across the OL or DL are generally easiest with LB to DE or DE to LB and FB to TE are the other most common position switches. A QB is never going to be a RB or WR.


4) What does a player being "angry" affect? Do they mess with cohesion and affect team performance somehow? Do they just refuse to sign an extension with you? Should I ignore it? My FB and special teams specialist Nick Bellore is angry despite being starting FB, so I can't really figure out a way that isn't ridiculous to get him more snaps (I was gonna make him a linebacker but I can't do that). Should I cut him, is he detrimental to the team when he's angry?In my experience the unhappiness only affects whether they will re-sign with you or not. Not sure about the cohesion and performance impact. I expect there is some impact, but it's likely miniscule.


4) What does Red Flag character trait mean? Should I be concerned that my starting running back has that?
Red Flag is a wild card player. They may be a problem at some point, will hold out or more penalties, those sorts of things. But it's not a huge effect, again.

5) Is there any way to edit personality type stuff? In the roster file I don't see anything that correlates to it. Is it just randomly generated for each new save and uneditable?Random. There may be a way to change it in the CSVs, but I'm not sure this version has been cracked wide open yet.


6) Similarly, is there any way to edit the coach ratings? I also can't find anything in the coach file that corresponds to any of their ratings. Is this just randomly generated every new save and uneditable? Also random


7) Lastly, is there any way to edit any pre-existing injuries onto a player? Like if I want the Rams to start the season with Cooper Kupp still injured like in real life. Or Kyler Murray on the Cardinals to still be recovering from his injury? I don't believe so.

[canuxrok]

thanks!

[MizzouRah]

Anyone know why the League Overview screen shows the NFL logo for players instead of their team logo?

[AlexB]

As players seemingly don’t get subbed in/out when tired, instead being forced onto the field play after play just because they are in that formation in the depth charts, do you think it is better:

1. To have your best players in as much as possible, regardless of whether they are listed in red on the depth charts
   
2. To work your depth charts so players are not highlighted in red to ensure you always have fresh players on the field, even if it means your best players aren’t always in every formation?

[MizzouRah]

Speaking of red highlighted players on the roster screen. Is there a way to tell which ones are active and inactive without having to go into the inactive screen? The injured players are a pain to tell if they are active or inactive without more clicking.

[Buttons]

How do I re sign coaches? The extend contract button is greyed out no matter who I click on and I was able to somehow with enough clicking able to re sign the head coach, but everyone else is still greyed out. For reference I have AI handles off season GM functions unchecked.

[AlexB]

You can only extend coaches who have 1 year left on their contracts - if the contracts have multiple years or have expired, you can’t extend. Could that be what’s happening?

[Buttons]

Was trying to get a screenshot and learned what I was doing wrong, I had to wait like 0.5 seconds for the button to stop being greyed out. There's a lesson here about patience.

[www2]

Just had a situation where I had to sign a new coach despite my current coach had 3 years left on the contract and still at the club????

[Haiku]

Originally Posted by www2

Just had a situation where I had to sign a new coach despite my current coach had 3 years left on the contract and still at the club????

The game doesn't make it clear enough, but the coach is being poached by another team.

[www2]

Originally Posted by Haiku

The game doesn't make it clear enough, but the coach is being poached by another team.

hmmmm....not sure though....i hired a new coach on mar 16th....and my old coach signed a contract with his new team on 19th????

dont know

[OldGiants]

Originally Posted by www2

hmmmm....not sure though....i hired a new coach on mar 16th....and my old coach signed a contract with his new team on 19th????

dont know

I reported this bug several weeks ago. It should be fixed in the next patch.

[www2]

FEW OF MY QUESTIONS/CONCERNS:

1. I am also wondering how do you guys manage the screen transitions.

For instance, I like to use the back arrow button to get where I was before and while in free agency and while on my roster screen I like to have view set to contract.

Than when I go through free agents I have to compare the players with my current players at the position and then to get back I have to press the back arrow button a LOT of time.

Not sure how I explained this but what I wanted to say is that to move through screens there are a LOT of clicks involved. In the example above, sure I can go to my roster button but then the roster screen is not sorted by contract as it was but it is on default , which is basic info.

2. Also why were the multiple screens removed when it was one of the best features in FOF8???

3. Min req players by position is gone, or am I just missing it?

4. Contract history of a player....when you go to his medical/traansaction screen...it just says the amount of money someone signed for....not the duration of the contract.


Thats all I can remember now from top of my head.

[OldGiants]

3. Min req players by position is gone, or am I just missing it?

You're just missing it. DEPTH CHARTS > ACTIVE and look at the bottom of the screen. I use this all time when fixing injuries.

[www2]

Originally Posted by OldGiants

3. Min req players by position is gone, or am I just missing it?

You're just missing it. DEPTH CHARTS > ACTIVE and look at the bottom of the screen. I use this all time when fixing injuries.

Thx

[cupofjoe]

I’d also love for point 4 to be improved. I wish it actually showed what the contract was. The current setup really doesn’t tell us anything

[cupofjoe]

I'm almost 400 hours into this game. Yet, I have no idea where to find the All-League teams outside of each player's indiviual card. I swear I saw someone post on here or on steam the location of a page where it has the complete list but I can't find it. Any help?

[Olsson]

Originally Posted by cupofjoe

I'm almost 400 hours into this game. Yet, I have no idea where to find the All-League teams outside of each player's indiviual card. I swear I saw someone post on here or on steam the location of a page where it has the complete list but I can't find it. Any help?

League -> Almanac -> League History

From there click on the year and it'll take you to the year overview page which contains the All-League teams.

[www2]

Yeah it took me about 2 hours of extensively searching to find this..... Very weird choice

[cupofjoe]

Originally Posted by Olsson

League -> Almanac -> League History

From there click on the year and it'll take you to the year overview page which contains the All-League teams.

Thank you!

[Passacaglia]

Originally Posted by Gallifrey

Yes it works. I have mine set to Super Bowl and it shows correctly in the game.

Can you elaborate on that? I've been trying to do that for a league starting in 1976, and using the 28_6_16 row -- at least, I assume that when I select a 1976_info file that includes it, the game knows to look for 28_6_16 everywhere else? Anyway, here's my league_info file. Did you do something different with the semicolons? I can't figure out how to get "Super Bowl" in there, and I'm assuming the weirdness with the semicolons is why. Thanks!

PHP Code:

SCHEDULEID;TEAMS;DIVISIONS;PLAYOFFTEAMS;GAMES;WEEKS;EXGAMES;EXWEEKS;CONF1;CONF1ABBR;CONF2;CONF2ABBR;DIV1;DIV1TEAMS;DIV2;DIV2TEAMS;DIV3;DIV3TEAMS;DIV4;DIV4TEAMS;DIV5;DIV5TEAMS;DIV6;DIV6TEAMS;DIV7;DIV7TEAMS;DIV8;DIV8TEAMS;CHAMPIONSHIP;SALARYCAP;MINIMUM;SALARY1;SALARY2;SALARY3;SALARY45;SALARY789;SALARY10;ROTATIONS;ROTATIONBASE;;
32_8_18;32;8;14;18;19;2;3;American;AFC;National;NFC;East;4;North;4;South;4;West;4;East;4;North;4;South;4;West;4;Front;Office;Bowl;2248;75;87;94;101;108;117;117;12;2002
32_8_17;32;8;14;17;18;3;4;American;AFC;National;NFC;East;4;North;4;South;4;West;4;East;4;North;4;South;4;West;4;Front;Office;Bowl;2248;75;87;94;101;108;117;117;12;2002
32_8_16;32;8;12;16;17;4;5;American;AFC;National;NFC;East;4;North;4;South;4;West;4;East;4;North;4;South;4;West;4;Front;Office;Bowl;2248;75;87;94;101;108;117;117;12;2002
31_6_16;31;6;12;16;17;4;5;American;AFC;National;NFC;East;5;Central;6;West;5;East;5;Central;5;West;5;;0;;0;Front;Office;Bowl;2248;75;87;94;101;108;117;117;6;1998
30_6_16;30;6;12;16;17;4;5;American;AFC;National;NFC;East;5;Central;5;West;5;East;5;Central;5;West;5;;0;;0;Front;Office;Bowl;2248;75;87;94;101;108;117;117;3;1994
28_6_16;28;6;10;16;17;4;5;American;AFC;National;NFC;East;5;Central;4;West;5;East;5;Central;5;West;4;;0;;0;Super;Bowl;;2248;75;87;94;101;108;117;117;3;1991
26_6_14;26;6;8;14;14;6;6;American;AFC;National;NFC;East;5;Central;4;West;4;East;5;Central;4;West;4;;0;;0;Front;Office;Bowl;2248;75;87;94;101;108;117;117;6;1970
24_8_ 


[Passacaglia]

Do heights show up weird on the roster screen for anyone else? I get things like 6040, 6010, and 6032 instead of 6'4", 6'1", 6'3 2/8" as they show up on the player cards.