Franchise Question

[d_max]

I'm looking for tips for franchise mode.

It seems I'm not too great at weekly training schedules. By gameday, my players all had negative regression rather than any progression from the weekly preparation.

How can I properly schedule the training for the week without any negative results?

Also, any other tips or tricks for the franchise mode are welcome here

[matthewk]

Quote: Originally Posted by d_max

I'm looking for tips for franchise mode. It seems I'm not too great at weekly training schedules. By gameday, my players all had negative regression rather than any progression from the weekly preparation. How can I properly schedule the training for the week without any negative results? Also, any other tips or tricks for the franchise mode are welcome here

Tip #1: Don't use weekly prep. Turn it off before you start your season. If I recall correctly, leaving this on causes all sorts of problems with the CPU making bad trades. It's a pretty useless feature from what I remember. I don't recal ever being able to get positive results out of it.

Tip #2: The rookie draft is a little odd. The CPU teams will chose nothing but QBs, DE, T, or CB (I think that's right) during the first round. I always make it a house rule to draft one of those positions in the 1st round to keep things fair.

Tip #3: Use the "customize league" option to move teams around. I love putting all of the Florida teams in a division. I also move the Texans into the NFC East with the Cowboys.

Tip #4: HAVE FUN!!!

[faulkman28]

One thing that I do that really helps my enjoyment level with this game is spend the first 5-6 games tweaking with the difficulty until you can find a nice mix of games from week to week. For example in my fantasy draft franchise, in my third week of the season, LT went down with a torn hamstring and will be out for 8 weeks. I ended up losing a close game 20-17 because i hadn't created an effective offensive scheme without LT. However, in the next week, i focused on establishing my passing attack against the niners and engram, warrick, bulger, and crumpler all had great games. I guess my point is establish a difficulty where you feel in control and that your actions determine who wins or loses not the rating of your team.
Oh, and if you do do weekly prep (which I, too, have grown to hate) make sure early in the week you get everyboby involved in film and the line and skill positions involved in player specific drills. towards the end of the week get the second team in a scrimmage and then focus most of your attention on the first team. I have had pretty good results in the past with this strategy and if you find a good one you can keep it for the whole year! Hope this helps!