Linemen Returning Kickoffs?

[dwevans]

I have a little time so ill try and explain this.

Basically each team has 54 slots. Each player occupies one slot and by releasing/reassiging a player (or assiging to the same team as i discovered) you move him to the bottom of the list.

At the end of this process you will be left with the same 54 slots, but hopefully we have manipulated it so that the top end of this is only occupied by players who's positions would return punts normally.

The default punt returner in franchise mode is decided by taking the player who occupies slot 1 and looking at his position. This is important as the game then selects the highest rated OVR player in that players position to be the default punt returner.

I will give a couple of examples to help illustrate this a little bit later..

[puja21]

^ok i understand

so, even if you have CB Allen Rossum in the top "slot", the CPU team will only look at the fact that this player is a CB & then it will just select the highest rated CB on the roster (Nate Clements, if it's my 07 or 08 49ers)

so what finn said is correct: ordering them beyond position is "just overkill"

[dan77733]

Quote: Originally Posted by dwevans

I have a little time so ill try and explain this. Basically each team has 54 slots. Each player occupies one slot and by releasing/reassiging a player (or assiging to the same team as i discovered) you move him to the bottom of the list.

Releasing a player and re-assigning him does not move him to the bottom of the list because if that was true, I would have never came across the QB returning punts glitch.

When I released and re-assigned every player, I started with QB's and ended with Punters which is why the starting QB was always the punt returner because he was the first player that I released and more importantly, re-assigned to the team. After coming across that glitch, I found a way around it by releasing all the QB's again and re-assigning them.

Doing this a second time (but only for QB's) put the QB's last on the so called "list". The starting RB would then be the actual punt returner instead of the QB.

Personally, this glitch has to do with the crappy depth chart. I'm 100% certain that VC changing the depth chart which was obviously an experiment by them is the cause for the PR glitch, the starting QB being benched in the playoffs despite still being on the team and 100% healthy and who knows what else. Of course, this is just my own personal opinion.

[dwevans]

It does move hime to the bottom, and you just explained exactly how. If you started with the QB and worked your way through your list would have been like this:

1. QB
2. QB
3. QB
4. RB
5. RB
6. RB
etc. etc.
54. P

therefore when you released and reassigned the QBs again they were at the bottom of the list:

1. RB
2. RB
3. RB
4. FB
5. FB
6. WR
etc. etc.
51. P
52. QB
53. QB
54. QB

so releasing and resiging does move a player to the bottom and your fix was doing just that

[dwevans]

Right now i'm going to try to explain a few different scenarios that occur in franchise mode with this. In it the number denotes a players ranking in that position, i.e CB1 is the cornerback with the highest OVR rating, CB2 the second highest etc etc.

Ok scenario 1:

The 54 slots look like this at the top end after we have reassigned in an order we want to:

1. CB1
2. WR1
3. FS1
4. CB2
5. HB1

CB1 will be the punt returner here by default. If he is injured, CB2 will take over that role as CB1s OVR rating dropped (so he effectively becomes CB5) but the cornerback position still occupies the No.1 slot so the top rated CB will still be the punt returner.

If CB1 is traded or released WR1 will take over the No.1 slot and be the default punt returner.

Here is another list:

1. CB5
2. HB3
3. WR2
4. CB4
5. HB2

There is no point in doing it this way, even if CB5 is the teams punt returner in real life as the top rated CB will be the one returning punts as explained earlier. Always order by overall rating at the start. I think this may actually fix the wrong QB in playoffs glitch as my theory is this might happen by the game selecting the QB in the highest player slot. Just a theory though.

Here is the most interesting scenario i came accross during my research.

My Lions slot list went like this:

1. SS1
2. FS1
3. FS2
4. FS3
5. WR1

Dwight Smith is the only SS on the Lions roster. He got injured and was out for 6 weeks. Interestingly the baton for punt returning did not pass to Daniel Bullocks as the FS1 in this case. Instead the second choice kick returner took over the role. No idea why, but this is what happens if all the players of the top slots postion are unavailable. I have the franchise save but its in PS2 format.

Hope this explains how the computer chooses its returners down the line.

Personally i do think it is worth mixing it up a bit for some variety down the line when players are released or traded. I would rather see a list of CB1, WR1, CB2, HB1, than CB1, CB2, CB3, CB4, CB5, HB1, HB2 but thats just a personal preference and all depends on what you find easier to put into place Finn.

Any questions i can try to answer

[abbeyroad920]

so this is something we all have to do within our own franchises, yes?

[dwevans]

u should do it before starting a franchise in the roster manager. it wouldn't be possible to do this after starting a franchise

[dan77733]

Yeah, I know but you have to do it a SECOND time is what im saying. Doing it just once doesnt work out the way that you think it does.