My team imploded

[aisle_nine]

(posting this over from Reddit as suggested there)


Coming out of Ex2, the re-ratings came out and...I might as well call this franchise a RIP. Key players all over the place saw their current rating tank by 8-12 pts, in some cases way more. My starting RB fell from 53/53 to 45/45, his backup (rookie first-rounder) fell from 44/59 to 34/40. My starting MLB dropped from 74/74 to 55/55, my nickel CB from 42/59 to 30/40. This is coming off a year where I spent the first overall pick on a sure-fire stud LDE with a future potential of 85...and watched him immediately bust, with his rating down to 38/49 before he ever took a regular season snap.

So, um, what the hell happened? And how do I keep it from happening in future playthroughs? I'm new to this game and still figuring things out, but this is just nuts. My team's gone from a contender to the Houston Texans in one click flat. I have chemistry turned off to give myself one less thing to think about while I'm learning. I was very aggressive with weight training for the first time ever, but that doesn't seem to really be a common denominator amongst guys who saw their rating implode. I do tend to grab a mentor for every position with a young player and deactivate them, and the attitude of all my players who crashed was "content". Please help me understand what happened. I have no idea why my team just self-destructed, and since I have a firm "no reload" rule, that whole franchise is effectively cooked.

Down below is an image with screenshots of my staff, the league scout, and an example of what happened to my RB. The numbers on the scouting screen are slightly off from what appears in the player's info page. It was suggested that my head coach's scouting stat could be part of the reason the ratings are toast, but I thought I read that the head coach's scouting score doesn't really matter, and it's the coordinators/asst HC who need to be good scouts.

Imgur: The magic of the Internet

[QuikSand]

Details aside... this game is just a couple layers deeper than most text based sim games out there. The amount of randomness in FOF is still way short of the NFL, but there are things that happen -- rookies turn out to be less impressive than you think/hope... some guys suffer/gain kinda random busts/booms in their ratings... some guys fade with age sooner than we'd like. It happens.

In the moment, you might think "this sucks, stupid game." And that's fine. But the twists like this in this game are a big part of the reason why the community behind the franchise is still here and this strong so many years after its last release. Without some of these elements, it wouldn't hold up so well.

It's not a perfect game, but with time you'd pick up a lot of tips on how to manage, overcome, and work around the stuff that right now seems completely mysterious.

[aisle_nine]

Originally Posted by QuikSand

Details aside... this game is just a couple layers deeper than most text based sim games out there. The amount of randomness in FOF is still way short of the NFL, but there are things that happen -- rookies turn out to be less impressive than you think/hope... some guys suffer/gain kinda random busts/booms in their ratings... some guys fade with age sooner than we'd like. It happens.

In the moment, you might think "this sucks, stupid game." And that's fine. But the twists like this in this game are a big part of the reason why the community behind the franchise is still here and this strong so many years after its last release. Without some of these elements, it wouldn't hold up so well.

It's not a perfect game, but with time you'd pick up a lot of tips on how to manage, overcome, and work around the stuff that right now seems completely mysterious.

Nah, I'm still having plenty of fun with it. Maybe a bit irritated because I gave huge extensions to a 28-year-old linebacker and a 27-year-old corner who were both rated 65 in the offseason, and now they're rated 50 and 52. Not to mention the 42-rated first overall pick at defensive end.


Ok, more than a bit irritated, because their backups are now better options than they are, but I'm stuck with those contracts for at least two years, plus the massive contract for that DE, and the contract for the rookie RB, and the other contract extensions I didn't mention...not quitting the game over it at all, but I am really curious as to what happened so I can try to avoid dealing with it again.

[Dawgfan19]

A couple of significant points. I am a big fan of high scout ability for the HC, OC and DC. Leftwich is an issue. Interview ability is a close second. This may have impacted how you saw the rookie class bars. Further, do some research on this forum regarding combines. Be aware, some of the analysis you may find no longer applies to FOF V8.x. And bars are more important in V8 when compared to prior versions of the game.

I also try to "justify" the bar based on the combine associated with that skill. For example, a DE with a poor 40 time but a great pass rush technique bar could be a questionable pick.

Other tips:

1. Learn how to use the draft analyzer.

2. Consider joining a multi-player league - that's an excellent way to learn from experienced players.

[aisle_nine]

Originally Posted by Dawgfan19

1. Learn how to use the draft analyzer.

2. Consider joining a multi-player league - that's an excellent way to learn from experienced players.

Thank you, I'll do both. Stupid question: is the Draft Analyzer linked in this forum? I see a reference thread with a draft utility mentioned, but the link to it is dead.

[Dawgfan19]

I think you can download the draft analyzer from this link (binaries.zip). Let me know if this does not work.

GitHub - gstelmack/FOFUtilities: DraftAnalyzer and PlayerTracker FOF8 support.

[MIJB#19]

Originally Posted by aisle_nine

Nah, I'm still having plenty of fun with it. Maybe a bit irritated because I gave huge extensions to a 28-year-old linebacker and a 27-year-old corner who were both rated 65 in the offseason, and now they're rated 50 and 52. Not to mention the 42-rated first overall pick at defensive end.

My word of advice is to never offer contract extensions before pre-season 2, the rare exception being when you're short on cap space and need renegotiations to get under the cap. What you're describing here with your LB and CB is going to happen quite often.

Originally Posted by aisle_nine

plus the massive contract for that DE, and the contract for the rookie RB, and the other contract extensions I didn't mention...not quitting the game over it at all, but I am really curious as to what happened so I can try to avoid dealing with it again.

Over time you'll find out rookie contracts are quite generous compared to when the day comes these players enter their 4th season and start demanding multiples of what they were used to making. Cherish the first 3 seasons and hope they don't start holding out in their 4th season when you have to decide whether you want to extend their contracts.

Handling the cap is all part of the challenge, it mimics the NFL and will eventually make sure you won't quickly find the way to go 14-2 every season, but still have to work for earning bowl game victories.