Draft Fix #9

[edmus]

Quote: Originally Posted by LIGHTNING

I think the draft logic is great and very impressive. Teams in the game don't always pick the highest rated player, but they draft the best players for positions they are most weak. This is just like the real NFL! Very Very realistic. Also, I noticed that teams are aggressive signing quality free agents in positions where they are weak. The Franchise mode is great and kudos to VC! Do not change the franchise logic at all because it is near perfect. I am however having some issues with the game play and this could be better.

Glad you're happy with it. Guess you don't need this draft fix. Enjoy.

[baa7]

Quote: Originally Posted by edmus

DohAnyhoo, I still have a question about free agent signing. Specifically, how do you handle the 45-day free agent signing period? If you have the CPU control it, it will sign free agents for everyone including your team... I tried this and was none too happy with the players the CPU decided to pick up. If you want to control what players your team signs during the 45-day period, it seems to me you have to control signing for all the teams.

My name is not Dohanyhoo!!:-) Here’s what I did and the results: I make offers for my team, go to Targets and advance a day or two. If there’s no immediate response I sweeten the offer, and when I do that the guy will usually bite the next day. After I sign my guys, I exit FA signings saying “I don’t want to sign any FA’s” and the game finishes the 45 day period without signing FA’s for the other teams.

Then after the draft and signing my picks, I switch to “Auto” everything and the CPU signs its picks and orders depth charts. It’s then it will also sign FA’s, because teams can’t go into the season without a working roster. Whenever I’ve checked rosters at this point, the big name FA’s that didn’t get signed during the 45 day period are all with teams. Maybe this screws things up down the line somehow – salaries and team cap – I don’t know. I’m not a big fan of the money stuff, so I don’t analyze all that very closely.

[baa7]

I simmed three off seasons this morning and found out a couple of things. First, I don’t have to ever actually switch from human to CPU/Auto control. In the Off Season screen, all I have to do is complete my team’s Tasks – sign picks, for example – and then instruct the CPU to “sign all picks”. It will then sign /not sign the other 31 teams’ draft picks.

Second, I noticed after the first simmed off season that I had a vet/FA CB on the team that I myself didn’t make an offer to or sign. Apparently, if I try and complete the off season without a certain number of players in certain positions, the CPU will sign a FA or two for me when it’s rounding out the rosters for the other 31 teams. It looks like one has to have a minimum of 5 CB’s (or maybe some combination of DB’s equaling 7-8 players). For instance, I started the off season with 4 CB’s. When I signed a fifth CB – either a FA or rookie CB, didn’t matter – the CPU didn’t insert some unwanted FA CB into my roster.

Same thing happened with the OLB. When I had only two going into the final stages of the off season tasks, it kindly signed a FA OLB for me – and the guy I let go at the end of the season to boot! (Hey… we never really wanted you to leave. No hard feelings, right?) Again, apparently one needs at least 3 OLB’s or X number of OLB’s and ILB’s. I’ll work on that and see if I can come up with the exact number of players, and in what positions. I do know it doesn’t have to be a full team because I was under the player limit when the new season started.

[baa7]

Quote: Originally Posted by Flamehead

This is the most stellar game of ESPN Football that VC has ever put out. No matter what, ESPN this year is a damn fun game, and I'm not going to let this take away from the enjoyment.

Kanobi and Flamehead – Hey, thanks for the happy smack. And regardless of the glitches, it’s a mind-blowing FB game at times. I was there when Pong first hit the market, so I just have to recall those stellar days of “computer sports” and 2K5 suddenly seems… umm… absolutely mind-blowing! Another way of looking at things: It’s pretty cool to be living in a day and age where we get to fire up the TV and have 2K5 to entertain us. If this was 100,000 years ago, we’d all just be sitting around our homes staring at cave paintings. And that got real dull after the first couple of mastodons, let me tell you:-)

[baa7]

Correction/discovery: At the end of the rookie signing period and before the next season would start up, I needed to switch to Auto Sign and Cut in order to trim the CPU teams down to 54 players. I also switched on Auto Order Depth charts. (What the heck… sounds right to me.)

Initial findings with regards to # of players needed in each position: I’ve checked and rechecked several positions so far, and the CPU would not sign unwanted FA’s to my team at the end of the off season schedule, providing I had the following # of players already signed in those positions, which are: CB - 5; SS - 1; FS - 1; OLB – 3; ILB – 2; DE – 3; WR – 5. (And it also looks like 2 QB’s, 2 HB’s, 1 FB, etc. but I have to check some more.) Anyway, it does look like there’s a minimum # of players required in each position, and if you’re got the minimum # of players already signed, the CPU won’t stick any unwanted FA’s on your team.

[baa7]

Something I mentioned a couple of weeks ago: when you take control of all the teams in your franchise, you have access to each team’s Coach Gameplan sliders. Let’s say a team ends up drafting a dynamite HB – well, that team’s sliders probably need to be bumped in the direction of Run vs Pass. Or if a team ends up with a QB with a great arm and lots of accuracy – more Pass than Run, especially if their backfield is weak. A team that drafts aggressive D players can be bumped in the Blitz direction.

The Coach Gameplan sliders are at 50% in the default position, and so every CPU team in franchise mode tends to play the same middle-of-the-road style of FB. (Although it’s true some of their play calling IS dependant on their particular playbook.) Regardless, a team will evolve and morph over the years from a running to a passing to a defensive team, depending on their personnel. Selecting all teams at the start of your franchise allows you to help the CPU teams along so to speak while adding (I think) a lot more team development realism.

[jbprice20]

Quote: Originally Posted by baa7

Correction/discovery: At the end of the rookie signing period and before the next season would start up, I needed to switch to Auto Sign and Cut in order to trim the CPU teams down to 54 players. I also switched on Auto Order Depth charts. (What the heck… sounds right to me.) Initial findings with regards to # of players needed in each position: I’ve checked and rechecked several positions so far, and the CPU would not sign unwanted FA’s to my team at the end of the off season schedule, providing I had the following # of players already signed in those positions, which are: CB - 5; SS - 1; FS - 1; OLB – 3; ILB – 2; DE – 3; WR – 5. (And it also looks like 2 QB’s, 2 HB’s, 1 FB, etc. but I have to check some more.) Anyway, it does look like there’s a minimum # of players required in each position, and if you’re got the minimum # of players already signed, the CPU won’t stick any unwanted FA’s on your team.

thanks for posting all your observations with respect to controlling all teams in franchise mode. in a nutshell, i think these are the 'bottom lines'

1) controlling all teams will solve any 'trading problem' but you need to accept that no trades can happen at all. it would be unfair to only trade for your team (obviously since you control every team), defeat the purpose if you let the computer control trades (and possibly have a trade for your team that you didn't want), and be no fun at all if you analyzed every team and made good trades for everyone.

2) controlling all teams helps make the draft more realistic but it turns the draft into a chore (imo). i can see where you would think it's fun but i don't think i would like it. btw, your idea of drafting for everyone in the first three rounds and letting the rest be computer picked is flawed isn't it? that would mean the computer picks for your team, right?

3) signing draft picks for your team and then letting the computer take over for the rest of the teams is pretty painless but free agent signings turn into a nightmare. you can't just sign guys you want and then let the computer take over for the other teams because the computer will make pickups for your team as well. now, i guess you can just fill up your roster with scrubs and sign them with no signing bonus and therfore no penalty for cutting them once you took control again.

4) in-season roster management becomes really cumbersome because you can either allow the computer to sign fa's and adjust depth charts due to injury, you can do it all yourself, or you can kinda flip, flop between control but i bet if your roster isn't full that the computer will do some strange things to your roster regardless.

i think that covers the main points of controlling all teams. do i have it right, kinda right, or am i completely off-base here?

[Zinthar]

I like the creativity of the idea but that's something that's too time-intensive for me. With the draft as is, it seems like the lingering effects of it are that teams with high picks will get 2 of the top players in the draft (since they'll get one of the good QB, T, DE, or HB's + one of the top players in the other positions come round 2). I was thinking that we could hold ourselves to a rule set where if we wanted to trade for draft picks, it could be a rule that you can't trade for a round 2 (or maybe 3) pick and for any pick lower than, say, pick 5, you must trade that pick straight up to the team with 2nd round pick 5 (or exchange a 1st round pick 15 for a 2nd rounder 15)...because you could just get a lot of 1st round picks and pick up the top WR's, C's, G's, DT's, CB's, etc. Thirdly, you could make it a rule that in the 1st round you may only draft for a QB, HB, T, or DE (following the same rules as the CPU) -- unless you have a top 5 pick or so, in which case you can take anyone.

Does anyone know the avg. # of QB's, HB's, T's, & DE's taken in the first round of the draft in any given year? That could help tweak these rules.

Anyone have suggestions on how to modify this to make it more fair. I think this might be a good alternative for those who don't have the time to draft for every team.