M2H's 32 Team Control Franchise Handbook

[Shards]

The CPU AI is definitely not ready to fill a 75 man roster. It looks like like this may be the only way to have a moderately competitive offline franchise. If I get into this then I'm going to drop most of the UFAs and sign most of the free agents to 1 year deals. They need to add one more free agency period after the draft where teams can add camp fodder.

[RCMSfan77]

These expanded rosters and cuts have really messed up the original roster, bring back the plain, old, simple, season mode.

[NikeBlitz]

Great thread.


I will definitely use it.

[Manning2Harrison]

Quote: Originally Posted by PacMan3000

Really interesting post, Manning. Have a couple questions: 1) I attempted to control all 32 teams just to try it out for the very first time. One thing I noticed was that even when I set the other 31 teams settings to CPU, some of them kept jumping back to USER. So I felt like I had to change every team's settings and save the franchise after each and every team's setting was changed. So obviously, this was very, very tedious. Have you run into that issue? 2) About the UDFA's...I understand the concern that they pop up and take roster sports during your first season. But when you're in year 2, and you're playing with Madden generated draft classes, then that means that your rookies AND your UDFA's are "fake." At that point, why would it be such a nuisance to have the UDFA's populate all 32 teams' rosters?

1) Hopefully that's not a glitch that popped up this year. I've never had settings jump back from CPU to USER. Were you changing teams while in the franchise options section? You need to back out to the main menu before changing teams. Same goes for when you do the coaching settings.

2) I can tell you haven't read the thread on the fake UDFA's invading all the CPU rosters. The problem isn't that they have fake names. It's that a CPU-run team will not re-sign any players below 80 OVR, and won't sign any FA's below 80. When preseason comes, all those vacant spots a filled by fake UDFA's. Then when cuts come, there will be fake UDFA's who have a hidden rating of 85-95?. Thinking it has a player that will actually be getting a player in the 85-95 range, the CPU will cut a real player with a lower rating. When the actual ratings are revealed, that fake UDFA is in the 40's or 50's, and the CPU does not correct this with a cut and the signing of another player. So each opening day, the CPU rosters are populated with new scubs in the 50's or worse while the FA pool is full of real players in the 60's and 70's who never get signed. Can you see how that would make the CPU rosters progressively worse from year to year?

[Manning2Harrison]

Quote: Originally Posted by PacMan3000

I see. So the problem isn't that it's fake players populating rosters, but rather BAD players landing roster spots over quality vets? For anyone who has done free agency, can you offer an idea of how many solid players don't get signed? Are we seeing quality QB's, LB's, DB's, etc languishing in free agency for years and years? Or, are we seeing one of two good guys per position, and the rest are a bunch of pretty bad veterans?

buckeye02, who is the one who made us aware of the UDFA problem to begin with, said it's players under 80 OVR that the CPU ignores. In past versions, I've also seen higher-rated players stay free agents because they're they're the ones that decline an initial contract offer. My way of doing FA fixes both of those problems.

[Manning2Harrison]

Quote: Originally Posted by PacMan3000

Also Manning, in addition to my questions on page one, are you completelty sure that if, for example, I only want to control and scout for the Browns, and opt not to scout any players for the other 31 teams, that that won't cause the CPU controlled teams to draft poorly because I didn't scout for them? I noticed that when I set the scouting setting to CPU for the other teams, and went back to see who they scouted, they didn't scout anyone. And can you also talk about the scouting feature for the user. Because I've heard people say it's good and it gives you a decent amount of info. Others have said they'll scout players only to discover they're all drafted by round 2, and then they're just blinding selecting guys?

Can't address the scouting in M12 yet because I'm still waiting for my copy. The mailman is outside at the mailboxes as I write so hopefully today will be the day. Next time I pre-order a game I need to remember to pick release day delivery. But you can start a 1-user franchise and sim ahead to a draft with a Madden class and watch what the CPU does. You'll be able to tell by who is still on the board after each round that the CPU teams didn't discover any gems via scouting- they strictly go for the highest-projected players.

[Manning2Harrison]

Bumping back to page 1.

[pinksheets]

Thanks for this. Definitely going to start a 32-team controlled franchise once the final roster cuts are made.

It's a shame that the devs can't make a realistic, competitive experience that stands alone, but it's great to have a community and contributors like you who give us a solid method to work around the numerous issues.