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Actinguy's Guide to Realistic Free Agency, Realistic Imported Drafts, and Fun!

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Old 09-07-2011, 01:27 PM   #1
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Actinguy's Guide to Realistic Free Agency, Realistic Imported Drafts, and Fun!

After a TON of work (and help from others on this forum), here are my suggestions for realism where it matters...in my opinion.

Note that this does not solve EVERYTHING. I don't work for Madden, I have the same game and tools available as you do. This DOES fix everything that I care about, which is basically centered around realistic drafts and free agency movements. It doesn't fix things I don't care about, which include...

1) What happens in the actual game. Commentary, weird pads, whatever. I sim my games, at least until the next patch. I do watch the stats though, and I'm basically happy with them.

2) The 3-4/4-3 debacle. I have a friend that is obsessed with this, so I leave it to him to fix it.

3) It may or may not be a "fix" for the made up UDFAs. They still exist, and there's still a lot of them. However, I have carefully watched the made up UDFA QBs for four years, and only ONE of them has survived the offseason cuts each year. So either this wasn't a real problem to begin with, or it is basically fixed now. Either way.

OK folks, here's how I do it!

(NOTE: A lot of this is personal preference. But steps 1, 3, and 17-20 are absolutely essential.)

1) Control all 32 teams. Turn all settings to CPU (my preference). You may think you can control 1 team, then switch to controlling all 32 for the off season moves. You are wrong. This breaks the game with a big ol' bug due to a problem with the coach-hiring system.

2) Sim through preseason. I will work on this later, coming up with a better system for cuts, but for now, this is what I'm doing. Yeah, some people are probably going to stop reading right here. Ok. So long, suckers!

3) SAVE THE GAME. This is SO freaking important right here. I save the game AFTER the preseason, but BEFORE advancing to the regular season. The reason? NCAA draft classes don't always load correctly. When this happens, you have to actually turn off the PS3, turn it back on, and then load your save for the draft classes to work correctly.

4) Advance into the regular season. That's pretty self-explanatory.

5) Put players on IR. Although the CPU can do this on its teams, when you control all 32 teams (even with all settings to CPU) the CPU completely fails here. It won't even put a career-ending injury on the injured reserve. I go through each team's injury, putting season-ending injuries on the reserve.

6) Advance one week.This is totally an optional thing. I like to note who the QBs are for each team, with their overalls, etc, from year to year. Teams make a lot of moves in week one of the regular season, so I don't note the QBs until the start of week 2. If that sounds ridiculous to you, skip this step.

7) Sim the regular season. Or play the games or whatever. Until we get a patch, I sim.

8) Check the standings. I write down the 12 seeds moving into the playoffs, in order of seed.

9) Back to the injury charts! I check the injury charts of the 12 teams moving into the playoffs. I'm partially checking just to see if there's anything interesting, like the starting QB missing the playoffs. But mostly, I'm back at it with the injured reserve again. This time, I'm not just IR'ing the folks who are out for the season. I'm also IR'ing anyone who is injured for 5 weeks or more, because that means they'll miss the Superbowl, so they're basically out for the season anyway.

10) Go to League Schedule I sim each playoff game individually, so I can partake in the one-second excitement. If a game looks particularly close, I look at the stats to see if it was a last minute score to win it or something. If a game is a serious blowout, I look to see if someone important was injured on the losing team.

11) After each playoff week, go back to injuries I update the injury chart every week so I can IR people as needed. Remember, after the wildcards, anyone injured 4 weeks or more will miss the Superbowl. The following week, it's 3 weeks or more. Etc etc.

12) Sim the Superbowl. Or play it. Whatever makes you happy.

13) Don't advance. I don't advance into the off season yet. I check the stats of the superbowl. I check the injuries of the superbowl teams. I check the season's MVP's, etc. I check the stats. Then I advance.

14) Sim past the coaching changes. Or make the coaching changes if you like. I don't care about this.

15) Sim past re-signings. I tried really hard to fix this. I came up with a ridiculously-complicated formula, involving OVR, potential, age, need, player role, and whether the player had progressed, regressed, or stayed stagnant. It took FOREVER, and the end result? I was re-signing roughly the same players the CPU automatically cut.

16) Sim past all the scouting business. Because imported NCAA drafts are automatically sorted by OVR, there is no need for scouting. You can use their projected round to determine a rough estimate of OVR, assuming you're actually planning to do any drafting yourself.

17) This is the good stuff. Free Agency. Immediately before free agency occurs, check each team's depth chart. Note any serious starter needs (I consider it serious if there isn't at least a 78 OVR). You may consider age to be a factor here as well, although I usually don't. Now that you have each team's shopping list, go to Coaching Strategies. If a team has a serious need at a position, leave that priority at 100. If they don't, move it to 0.

18) Watch the Free Agency. You can sim it of course, but I like to actually watch where various players end up.

19) This is the gooder stuff. The Draft. Once again, we are looking at each team's depth chart. But this time, life is simpler. ALL WE CARE ABOUT IS QUARTERBACK. I write down each team's QBs, including OVR. If they are 35 or older, I circle their OVR. Then I check the player roles for each team. If a QB is either a future star or franchise, I put a square around his OVR (unless it already has a circle). If a QB is an underachiever, I "x" out his OVR.

20) Back to Coaching Strategies. Here's how I determine QB priorities:

A) Teams that have a starting QB 80+ and a fair backup (68+), without any shapes drawn, have a zero priority.

B) Any team with a circled starting QB and no fair backup has a priority of 100.

C) Any team with a starting QB 80+ but no fair backup has a priority of 50.

D) Any team with a squared QB has a priority of 0, regardless of the backup situation.

E) Any team with an X'ed out starting QB has a priority of 100.

F) ALL KICKING AND PUNTING PRIORITIES ARE ZERO, REGARDLESS OF NEED

G) ALL OTHER POSITIONS ARE 100, REGARDLESS OF NEED.

There is a method to this madness. The more positions you can leave at 100, the less likely you are to have a punter, kicker, or un-needed QB taken before the 5th round. If you start moving other positions below 100, you WILL have a punter taken in the first round, even if you put the punter priority at 0. Trust me on this, I did a TON of simulations to test every possibility.

Hope that helps everyone! Let me know if you have questions or other suggestions!

Last edited by Actinguy1; 09-07-2011 at 01:32 PM.
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Old 09-07-2011, 01:33 PM   #2
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Re: Actinguy's Guide to Realistic Free Agency, Realistic Imported Drafts, and Fun!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Actinguy1
After a TON of work (and help from others on this forum), here are my suggestions for realism where it matters...in my opinion.

Note that this does not solve EVERYTHING. I don't work for Madden, I have the same game and tools available as you do. This DOES fix everything that I care about, which is basically centered around realistic drafts and free agency movements. It doesn't fix things I don't care about, which include...

1) What happens in the actual game. Commentary, weird pads, whatever. I sim my games, at least until the next patch. I do watch the stats though, and I'm basically happy with them.

2) The 3-4/4-3 debacle. I have a friend that is obsessed with this, so I leave it to him to fix it.

3) It may or may not be a "fix" for the made up UDFAs. They still exist, and there's still a lot of them. However, I have carefully watched the made up UDFA QBs for four years, and only ONE of them has survived the offseason cuts each year. So either this wasn't a real problem to begin with, or it is basically fixed now. Either way.

OK folks, here's how I do it!

1) Control all 32 teams. Turn all settings to CPU (my preference). You may think you can control 1 team, then switch to controlling all 32 for the off season moves. You are wrong. This breaks the game with a big ol' bug due to a problem with the coach-hiring system.

2) Sim through preseason. I will work on this later, coming up with a better system for cuts, but for now, this is what I'm doing. Yeah, some people are probably going to stop reading right here. Ok. So long, suckers!

3) SAVE THE GAME. This is SO freaking important right here. I save the game AFTER the preseason, but BEFORE advancing to the regular season. The reason? NCAA draft classes don't always load correctly. When this happens, you have to actually turn off the PS3, turn it back on, and then load your save for the draft classes to work correctly.

4) Advance into the regular season. That's pretty self-explanatory.

5) Put players on IR. Although the CPU can do this on its teams, when you control all 32 teams (even with all settings to CPU) the CPU completely fails here. It won't even put a career-ending injury on the injured reserve. I go through each team's injury, putting season-ending injuries on the reserve.

6) Advance one week.This is totally an optional thing. I like to note who the QBs are for each team, with their overalls, etc, from year to year. Teams make a lot of moves in week one of the regular season, so I don't note the QBs until the start of week 2. If that sounds ridiculous to you, skip this step.

7) Sim the regular season. Or play the games or whatever. Until we get a patch, I sim.

8) Check the standings. I write down the 12 seeds moving into the playoffs, in order of seed.

9) Back to the injury charts! I check the injury charts of the 12 teams moving into the playoffs. I'm partially checking just to see if there's anything interesting, like the starting QB missing the playoffs. But mostly, I'm back at it with the injured reserve again. This time, I'm not just IR'ing the folks who are out for the season. I'm also IR'ing anyone who is injured for 5 weeks or more, because that means they'll miss the Superbowl, so they're basically out for the season anyway.

10) Go to League Schedule I sim each playoff game individually, so I can partake in the one-second excitement. If a game looks particularly close, I look at the stats to see if it was a last minute score to win it or something. If a game is a serious blowout, I look to see if someone important was injured on the losing team.

11) After each playoff week, go back to injuries I update the injury chart every week so I can IR people as needed. Remember, after the wildcards, anyone injured 4 weeks or more will miss the Superbowl. The following week, it's 3 weeks or more. Etc etc.

12) Sim the Superbowl. Or play it. Whatever makes you happy.

13) Don't advance. I don't advance into the off season yet. I check the stats of the superbowl. I check the injuries of the superbowl teams. I check the season's MVP's, etc. I check the stats. Then I advance.

14) Sim past the coaching changes. Or make the coaching changes if you like. I don't care about this.

15) Sim past re-signings. I tried really hard to fix this. I came up with a ridiculously-complicated formula, involving OVR, potential, age, need, player role, and whether the player had progressed, regressed, or stayed stagnant. It took FOREVER, and the end result? I was re-signing roughly the same players the CPU automatically cut.

16) Sim past all the scouting business. Because imported NCAA drafts are automatically sorted by OVR, there is no need for scouting. You can use their projected round to determine a rough estimate of OVR, assuming you're actually planning to do any drafting yourself.

17) This is the good stuff. Free Agency. Immediately before free agency occurs, check each team's depth chart. Note any serious starter needs (I consider it serious if there isn't at least a 78 OVR). You may consider age to be a factor here as well, although I usually don't. Now that you have each team's shopping list, go to Coaching Strategies. If a team has a serious need at a position, leave that priority at 100. If they don't, move it to 0.

18) Watch the Free Agency. You can sim it of course, but I like to actually watch where various players end up.

19) This is the gooder stuff. The Draft. Once again, we are looking at each team's depth chart. But this time, life is simpler. ALL WE CARE ABOUT IS QUARTERBACK. I write down each team's QBs, including OVR. If they are 35 or older, I circle their OVR. Then I check the player roles for each team. If a QB is either a future star or franchise, I put a square around his OVR (unless it already has a circle). If a QB is an underachiever, I "x" out his OVR.

20) Back to Coaching Strategies. Here's how I determine QB priorities:

A) Teams that have a starting QB 80+ and a fair backup (68+), without any shapes drawn, have a zero priority.

B) Any team with a circled starting QB and no fair backup has a priority of 100.

C) Any team with a starting QB 80+ but no fair backup has a priority of 50.

D) Any team with a squared QB has a priority of 0, regardless of the backup situation.

E) Any team with an X'ed out starting QB has a priority of 100.

F) ALL KICKING AND PUNTING PRIORITIES ARE ZERO, REGARDLESS OF NEED

G) ALL OTHER POSITIONS ARE 100, REGARDLESS OF NEED.

There is a method to this madness. The more positions you can leave at 100, the less likely you are to have a punter, kicker, or un-needed QB taken before the 5th round. If you start moving other positions below 100, you WILL have a punter taken in the first round, even if you put the punter priority at 0. Trust me on this, I did a TON of simulations to test every possibility.

Hope that helps everyone! Let me know if you have questions or other suggestions!

Good stuff man, but im just wondering how does tomorrow's opening day roster update change any of this? i know that there will still be UDFA's on each team's rosters but is there anything specific that we should alter?
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Old 09-07-2011, 01:53 PM   #3
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Re: Actinguy's Guide to Realistic Free Agency, Realistic Imported Drafts, and Fun!

How in the world would I know? I'll find out after I've played with the new rosters, just like the rest of you fine, upstanding citizens. I don't have any secret information.
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Old 09-07-2011, 01:55 PM   #4
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Re: Actinguy's Guide to Realistic Free Agency, Realistic Imported Drafts, and Fun!

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Originally Posted by Actinguy1
How in the world would I know? I'll find out after I've played with the new rosters, just like the rest of you fine, upstanding citizens. I don't have any secret information.
I'm jus askin man....cause i been holdin off on starting a franchise until the rosters come out...Hopefully it's not too much work....
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Old 09-07-2011, 02:52 PM   #5
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Re: Actinguy's Guide to Realistic Free Agency, Realistic Imported Drafts, and Fun!

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Originally Posted by NoFatGirlz4Me37
Good stuff man, but im just wondering how does tomorrow's opening day roster update change any of this? i know that there will still be UDFA's on each team's rosters but is there anything specific that we should alter?
I know there has been massive freakage over how to handle the newest opening day rosters... though the answer seems simple to me (correct me if I'm wrong).

When you start your franchise, control all 32 teams and go in and release all the fake UDFAs it puts on each team. They will disappear. If you do this all in the first week of the pre-season, the game won't force you to cut any players since you are already under the max allowed. Barring injuries, once you arrive at the regular season there should have been no major changes, unless necessary to fill spots due to injury.

Voila.
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Old 09-07-2011, 03:00 PM   #6
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Re: Actinguy's Guide to Realistic Free Agency, Realistic Imported Drafts, and Fun!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Actinguy1
2) The 3-4/4-3 debacle. I have a friend that is obsessed with this, so I leave it to him to fix it.
This should come soon. Until EA changes their mindset concerning 3-4/4-3 it will remain broken and a constant headache as it's been for years, but there are some steps to take to assist in having quasi-realistic personnel.
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Old 09-07-2011, 03:01 PM   #7
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Re: Actinguy's Guide to Realistic Free Agency, Realistic Imported Drafts, and Fun!

Quote:
Originally Posted by imskykid
I know there has been massive freakage over how to handle the newest opening day rosters... though the answer seems simple to me (correct me if I'm wrong).

When you start your franchise, control all 32 teams and go in and release all the fake UDFAs it puts on each team. They will disappear. If you do this all in the first week of the pre-season, the game won't force you to cut any players since you are already under the max allowed. Barring injuries, once you arrive at the regular season there should have been no major changes, unless necessary to fill spots due to injury.

Voila.
For every1's sake, i hope ur right...If that's ALL we have to do, then it's not earth-shattering.....as long as the rosters are up-to-date and accurate, that's a good first step....either way, we gunna still have to go through the drafting and free agency process so the less work, the better
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Old 09-07-2011, 03:07 PM   #8
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Re: Actinguy's Guide to Realistic Free Agency, Realistic Imported Drafts, and Fun!

I'll throw my hat back in for help if you need it man. It was really fun playing around with the stuff last time.

Although very infurating at times.
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