Offline Franchise Question

[niftyjets]

So my buddy and I play an offline franchise together but im thinking about starting one on my own to give me something to play while Im waiting for him to play his game.

Im trying to decide though if I should just control my team or control all 32. I don't want to cheat or anything I just feel like sometimes the computer makes dumb moves and want to try and keep it as realistic as possible. I'm only gonna play my teams games, but when it comes to the offseason and the draft what do you guys who control all 32 teams do about that.

So what do you guys think? Do most people control all 32 teams?

Thanks!

[British Bronco]

As someone who does control all 32 teams I will say this. Its quite a rewarding experience and certainly allows you to save the AI from itself.

But it is a big commitment in time. I play all 16 Denver games, along with selected playoff games in the Broncos don't make it. That alone is close to 20 hours a season.

The big work is in the off-season. You first have to go through each team and identify areas of weakness. Then sign all your players - keeping track of positions where you think that team could make a trade.

Then you have free agency - I let each team have one quality free agent - and they choose in order of salary cap space to keep it fair.

Then its draft time - obviously you have already identifed each teams's needs. So you can draft Best Available Player at that position. Of course it is up to you to what extent you take advantage of the scouting tools.

Then you have to sign the draft picks for each team then go through each teams depth chart to cull the rubbish players and make sure each team is within minimum requirements for each position.

This is clearly a labour of love and it depends on how many seasons you intend playing and to what extent you can keep your girlfriend/wife off your back!

However you can scale all this back by just allowing the CPU to automate everything and then pick up the peices where they have made clearly stupid decisions. Its more messy and less accurate but saves a lot of time. I just find that with that method you see way too many quality players get released into Free Agency for my taste.

[ren6175]

I was convinced to control all 32 teams, and I think it is the way to go. Lowering the aggression for the teams helps them play more realistically against you. I go through each team and resign key players and release the losers. The only problem I have is that no trades are proposed and it is a lot of work to look for fair trades.

I'm hoping someone has some guidelines for trades, but otherwise I still enjoy the franchise play controlling all teams.

[British Bronco]

I don't think its as difficult as you think to work out trades.

When going through each teams roster at the start of the offseason look for positions where 2 or more players are both starter quality players - I judge this to be 80 + OVR - other peoples views may differ. Assuming one of them is not in his mid 30's and likely to retire soon (in which the team would hold onto the other player) and assuming also you can't move the 2nd player to a similar position to cover a talent gap elsewhere - e.g. LT to RT, FS to SS etc then you have a trade potential.

You should already have identified each teams needs. So its just a matter if finding a team who needs help at that position. Unless the player been traded is a 90+ (unlikely) then I think a 2nd round pick + 3rd is usually about right. Obviously the age of the player can make a big difference and if young and with A potential then you have to go up to a 1st round pick (although its unlikely you would trade such a player in the first place). I also try to avoid interdivisional trades, although of course that did not stop the Eagles recently!

Last night in my franchise which is about to to start the 2012 season I undertook about 5 or 6 trades in total using this method. Didn't take that long and seemed realistic. None of the trades were blockbusters apart from the Saints sending Jabari Greer to the Jags, because they already had 2 younger players both A potential and above 85 OVR. I figured that none of those CBs would want to be stuck playing nickleback! That was for 2 x 2nd round picks. (Sometimes you have to write down trades for next season as Madden does not allow future picks to be traded.)

This keeps the rosters nicely balanced each season and ensures a bit of fluidity. My house rules on resigning players also helps things stay interesting. (each team has to let 1 80+ player whose contract is up go into free agency each season). Teams then pick up the free agents in order of salary cap space. Usually this means teams dumping a veteran who is on the decline rather than young players and simulates the likes of Dawkins, Gonzalez, Pryce, Owens etc moving around in the twilight of their careers.

[ren6175]

Thanks for your input. This helps. I had already taken your advice about the resigning players. I've found that there is generally at least one over 80 player that doesn't want to resign, so I just let that person go. This essentially creates the same situation as your house rules.

[XLHead]

Doesn't manipulating all the rosters/signing/draft picks kind of take the "game" out of the game? But hey whatever makes you happy...I'm sure your buddy won't mind if you play your own franchise on the side.