FOF8 vs FOF7 differents playstyles.

[jonhferri]

I'm new to this series and I was wandering which is better for each different way of playing, which I divided into three:

1. If I just want to be GM, so basically automated depth chart and gameplans.
2. I take care of gameplans and depth charts but I don't call plays.
3. If I do all that and also call plays.

If anyone could break this down, would be much appreciated.

[RaidersFanEU]

Originally Posted by jonhferri

I'm new to this series and I was wandering which is better for each different way of playing, which I divided into three:

1. If I just want to be GM, so basically automated depth chart and gameplans.
2. I take care of gameplans and depth charts but I don't call plays.
3. If I do all that and also call plays.

If anyone could break this down, would be much appreciated.

I seen your other post so maybe you have read it already but if not I will copy the info from steam...

""New in Version Eight
For those of you who have played Front Office Football in the past, there are dozens of new features in the game. This is our most ambitious new product to date, and you'll find it a much more realistic professional football experience.

Custom offensive playbooks. Each year, during training camp, you can create a book of up to 200 offensive plays to use during the season. Of course, as with all the management features in Front Office Football, the game's AI can create a playbook specifically for your team if you like.

New player participation charts. You can select your starters based on personnel groupings. This gives you much more control over who is on the field in every situation.

More realistic game planning. Rather than filling out extensive charts, you can write scripts for the plays your team will run in every situation. Create a list of plays for use in the Two-Minute Drill. Save your best plays for those critical third-and-three situations. This is much closer to how professional teams handle in-game play-calling. On defense, your plan will cover how you react to what your opponent is doing. You'll have fewer choices to make, but the choices will have a big impact on performance.

Instant history (or at least history created as quickly as your computer can run). At the press of a button, you can generate up to 50 seasons of "history" for your league, with the AI running every team.

Enhanced Multi-Player Support. A fuller set of options for maintaining your multi-player games. Additional security features to prevent "hacked" stage files and file compression to shorten load times and reduce the FTP space needed to run a game.

New player cards with quick access to all the information available about each athlete.

Create graphs showing how many wins each franchise has over any time period in your league to highlight potential dynasties.

A playoff probability simulator so that late in the season you can determine each team's chances of reaching the playoffs or gaining a first-round bye.

A brand new menu interface. Front Office Football will never be the prettiest game in the world, but the the new menu will quickly get you any place in the game.

Interface improvements. Switch between using various screens within the game. You can even take advantage of multiple monitors and have all sorts of varied information available at once. Front Office Football has always been about displaying as much information as possible.

Quote of the Day. Every day, you can read a quote from the vast store of collected wisdom within the Front Office Football universe.

Extensive improvements and fine tuning within the game engine. Little was left untouched. The heart of Front Office Football is in the play results and the simulation of thousands and thousands of games.

A 2019 player file and coach file.

Thanks for taking a look at Front Office Football Eight""

From your questions I guess FOF8 would be the preferred game, as its been updated, but I wouldn't worry too much if you have just go the free FOF7 download. I would make sure you like it first then go buy 8.

[jonhferri]

Thanks. I'll play some more with fof7, but I'll probably get fof8, I'm really enjoying it so far.

[mac88]

Originally Posted by jonhferri

Thanks. I'll play some more with fof7, but I'll probably get fof8, I'm really enjoying it so far.

dude get fof8 and join a multiplayer league!! its a ton of fun, and a lot of the leagues are super friendly and helpful. Highly recommend it

[jonhferri]

Yeah I will eventually try to join one, but I want to learn some more so I'm not a complete noob.

[mac88]

Originally Posted by jonhferri

Yeah I will eventually try to join one, but I want to learn some more so I'm not a complete noob.

yeah get familiar for sure, but don't feel like you need to know everything. I will say cohesion seems to be pretty important in multiplayer.

[jonhferri]

Ok thanks. I'm simming a couple of seasons real quick to see what of players/coaches/playbooks perform well and whatnot. Quick question, when is creating a playbook from scratch worth it? Rn I'm going recommended on gameplan and also using the default playbook.

[triplykely]

Originally Posted by jonhferri

Ok thanks. I'm simming a couple of seasons real quick to see what of players/coaches/playbooks perform well and whatnot. Quick question, when is creating a playbook from scratch worth it? Rn I'm going recommended on gameplan and also using the default playbook.

When you're familiar enough with the system and/or inspired to do a bunch of testing/stat analysis. With good personnel AI playbooks and gameplans can give you good results and you can win games. A custom playbook will allow you to get more out of your personnel and therefore win more games. There seems to be a few schools of thought with doing this; some players use the same gameplan regardless of personnel and others (myself) tweak the gameplan based on personnel (although I see the merit in the latter, I prefer the finer micro control of which players get targets/carries).

What you can do if you are so inclined to make a playbook is begin by drafting a team from a random player file and try to draft as ideal a team as possible for your system you want to run. Save it before training camp into multiple versions; each version will have a new iteration of the playbook you're working on. In this post theres links to an old post on how to use the playbook generator to avoid the tedious task of making each play individually.

Make sure to use the same defensive gameplan for all sims on all saves to help limit variability and sim through the same season with a playbook and gameplan multiple times. Focus on what matters to you (for me it's yards/play, 3rd down, TOs) and see what results you're getting. You may see one sim the team is hot and 12-4 the next bums at 7-9 - chances are you have some high variance/big risk plays that could be changed/tweaked. Really try to understand how they achieved their record. When you feel like you have a good handle on the issues of that playbook/gameplan load the next version of the save and make small tweaks (QB was around 55% passing and the team threw less short passes than any other team, probably change some long/deep to short/med/screen passes). Obviously the fewer variables changed the better.

TLDR, if you're a glutton for data crunching and running many simulations you can gain a significant edge over the AI (players who don't) using custom playbooks and gameplans.

[jonhferri]

Thanks man, that sounds really smart. I don't know if I'm that type of stat glutton, but tbh with quarentine rn I have plenty of free time.

[triplykely]

Quarantine is what prompted me to start the process and while it was slow going, from an NFL fan perspective its been fun to figure out more of the micro behind FOF.

As a Packers fan I love the idea that our coach is a scheme guy who doesn't just have good players but concepts that beat teams handily. Listening to Rodgers talk it's obvious how much better his career would have been with a better coach than McCarthy for all those years - which is wild, and off topic.

If drafting a QB in the 5th round in FOF and having them finish their career with 75k yards, 550 TDs and 8 SB rings sounds fun you will need a custom playbook. I look at FOF more like a series of puzzles operating as a football sim. Coming up with better solutions to the contract, draft, free agent, playbook/gameplan, etc. puzzles that other coaches/the AI is what makes FOF great, imo. You're locked up, get nerdy

[jonhferri]

Yeah I agree McCarthy is a stooge, I listen to Rodgers on the Pat McAfee show and it's clear he prefers Lefleur. As a giants fan I hope we get rid of Garret. I don't think he's terrible but I would love an OC with the Titans/Browns/Vikings scheme, with a lot of runs. We have a monster rb with saquon and DJ would benefit of the play action.

[Dreghorn2]

I'll say one thing for McCarthy though, he wouldn't have kicked a field goal on 4th and goal from the 8.

[jonhferri]

Ahahahah for real. Seriously though that shit was maddening. I used to actually like him, but i just don't understand how you do something like that, especially when you're known for your offense and your defense has been getting destroyed all night. He lost all my respect.

[Jstraub]

Originally Posted by Dreghorn2

I'll say one thing for McCarthy though, he wouldn't have kicked a field goal on 4th and goal from the 8.

Well for one thing they failed to gain a single yard in the three previous attempts from the 8.

This is one of those deals where hindsight is 20:20. It was genius if the packers got the ball back (they should have but the refs made this all about them as usual) and then scored a TD in regulation.

The Packers lost because Adams dropped a TD and they had to kick a KG (-4), they gifted TB touchdowns on both sides of the half (-14) and dropped a 2 Pt. conversion attempt(-2).

[triplykely]

And 6 pts off 3 GOAT picks... LaFleur pulled a McCarthy by abandoning the run, 3 passes then punt after 2 INTs, nonsense with how the team had won all year. Irritating to hear how great Brady was when he nearly let the Packers come from behind after gifting a huge lead. Green Bay beat themselves and that’s what’s so frustrating

[jonhferri]

Completely agree with you man. I hate when teams stop doing what works for them just because they are behind.

By the way, quick question. I just understood how chemistry works and I was wondering if there is a program that shows all the players' zodiac signs, I downloaded fof utilities and I'm not sure if it's there. Because figuring it out one by one is a massive hassle.

[Dreghorn2]

Originally Posted by Jstraub

Well for one thing they failed to gain a single yard in the three previous attempts from the 8.

This is one of those deals where hindsight is 20:20. It was genius if the packers got the ball back (they should have but the refs made this all about them as usual) and then scored a TD in regulation.

The Packers lost because Adams dropped a TD and they had to kick a KG (-4), they gifted TB touchdowns on both sides of the half (-14) and dropped a 2 Pt. conversion attempt(-2).

I see you are echoing LaFleur's explanation for the FG attempt, 'well we didn't score the first three times so no sense trying again.' That's silly and he probably knew he sounded foolish even as he was making the statement.

If you're kicking a FG to bring it within 3 fine, you can talk me into it, but you still needed a TD anyway?? Crazy decision.

In my opinion this was not 20/20 hindsight and with the amount of heat LaFleur received yesterday i think many others agree.

[thaynes888]

Originally Posted by jonhferri

Completely agree with you man. I hate when teams stop doing what works for them just because they are behind.

By the way, quick question. I just understood how chemistry works and I was wondering if there is a program that shows all the players' zodiac signs, I downloaded fof utilities and I'm not sure if it's there. Because figuring it out one by one is a massive hassle.

tzach has a chart: https://sites.google.com/view/tzach/personality-traits