How do you handle training in solo franchises?

[Chris_]

I played my practices to Silver where I now sim them each week.

I'm currently in the 2024 season and my Bengals team is in the upper half of the ratings but not the strongest team. If I remember right I'm 82 overall (with something like 84 offence, 80 defence). I've played a team already this year on 85, others around 83 and the lowest (which actually was one of the tougher games) had 78.

I have custom XP sliders based on TDawg's but adjusted for personal taste after plugging 10 year sim numbers into a spreadsheet.

I try not to adjust my gameplay for breakout scenarios and just select to ignore/get the win whenever an X-Factor opponent scenario is presented.

I'm at the point now where most of the younger players from the original roster are hitting regression so it'll be interesting to see where ratings go from here. The top end is still dominated by the real players who started with high OVR at a young age as the first 2-3 years of regression can often be fairly minor (and I've found that quite a few skip the first possible year) but there are more generated players breaking through to the top gradually.

Anyhow, with Silver training I'm probably in the top half of teams but not the highest. My games usually see the other team pretty evenly matched (ie. if I'm 82, they'll often be within 1-2 either side).

The main difference is probably that I have certain minimums I keep players at, particularly for physical ratings, while the CPU will resign a veteran on a big/long contract and then see them get slower and slower for the next 4 years until the contract runs out as their OVR is still high enough to make them a starter.

[Shosum13]

Quote: Originally Posted by Chris_

I'm at the point now where most of the younger players from the original roster are hitting regression so it'll be interesting to see where ratings go from here. The top end is still dominated by the real players who started with high OVR at a young age as the first 2-3 years of regression can often be fairly minor (and I've found that quite a few skip the first possible year) but there are more generated players breaking through to the top gradually.

It’ll be interesting to see once you get to a point where the franchise is all generated players how it is. I know there’s some people that start a franchise and immediately do a 10 year sim because the gameplay and franchise mode in general supposedly plays better when it’s all generated players.

Quote: Originally Posted by Chris_

The main difference is probably that I have certain minimums I keep players at, particularly for physical ratings, while the CPU will resign a veteran on a big/long contract and then see them get slower and slower for the next 4 years until the contract runs out as their OVR is still high enough to make them a starter.

Hopefully one day they can implement some sort of logic where the CPU will look past overall in some cases where they have a younger player that’s close in talent so they actually plug that player in and try to develop them.

[NYJin2011tm]

I just sim it. I just want to play the games.

[Mozatta]

I’ve tuned all XP sliders to 25, so for training I do all gold.

[stp2081]

Does nobody here follow Armor & Sword’s method besides me? I end up with a mix of bronze, silver and gold with this method.

“ Gameplanning - I do play all my game planning for my team only. It is a great place to learn as well. Once I finish a gameplanning drill though, whatever medal I earn remains that level for that season. So If I get a silver on Dig routes drills....I will sim that drill if I want to use it again and get the silver reward for the remainder of that season.”

[Shosum13]

Quote: Originally Posted by stp2081

Does nobody here follow Armor & Sword’s method besides me? I end up with a mix of bronze, silver and gold with this method. “ Gameplanning - I do play all my game planning for my team only. It is a great place to learn as well. Once I finish a gameplanning drill though, whatever medal I earn remains that level for that season. So If I get a silver on Dig routes drills....I will sim that drill if I want to use it again and get the silver reward for the remainder of that season.”

I haven’t, I used to do all gold but felt like I was gaining to much of an advantage on the CPU so I switched to just simming all bronze but even with tdawgs xp sliders I felt like my team wasn’t progressing fast enough. I think I’m going to try this method out and see how it works.