Hello everybody,
I'm a longtime follower here at OS and read a lot of threads and posts. Over the years I collected a lot of house rules to assure some sort of balance with the CPU actions.
I just thougt that's a good idea to gather my and your rules. Maybe it helps some user here at OS to improve their franchise experience.
1. I negotiate the expiring contracts of my players only at the end of the season.
With this house rule you have only one try to expand these contracts.
2. I use some formulas for the contract terms of my expiring players.
Every player has specific terms for his new contract.
For example 4 years 18 millions base salary and 8 millions as a signing bonus. To match this you have to offer 4,5 million base salary and 0,8 million bonus per year. We know that you can lowball these offers but in my opinion that's not the way I want it.
Because of this I pay them what they wantfor the base salary and a specific percentage of the base salary (in line with the length of the contract) for the bonus according to the following chart:
Age
> 33 yrs: 5 % Bonus
32-33 yrs: 7 % Bonus
30-31 yrs: 10 % Bonus
27-29 yrs: 15 % Bonus
< 27 yrs: 20 % Bonus
OVR
80-84 = + 5 % Bonus
85-89 = + 10 % Bonus
90-95 = + 15 % Bonus
> 95 = + 20 % Bonus
Contract length
90+ = 6 year deal
85-89 = 5 year deal
75-84 = 4 year deal
65-74 = 3 year deal
61-64 = 2 year deal
60-0 = 1 year deal
If our player is 28 years old and has an OVR of 86 and want the abovementioned contract I will offer him 4,5 million base salary and 1,125 (4,5 * (15%+10%)) million as bonus per year over a duration of 5 years.
In comparison the player originally wanted a 4 year 4,5 million base with 0,8 million bonus salary and I offer him a 5 year 4,5 million base with 1,125 million bonus salary.
With these formulas you give the top players a little more than they demand and you have to decide whether you sign you 33 year old 89 OVR player who maybe only wants a 2 year contract a new 5 year deal.
It sounds more complicating than it is.
I use this method only for my starting caliber players.
3. Don't progress your players manually.
In order with the CPU actions I always choose automatic progression for all my players. The CPU don't use their XP points wisely as the user so this way you don't have an advantage over them.
Beyond that I can imagine that the progression is not in my hands but rather a more 'natural' way. In real life the coaches also can't determine which specific rating they want to improve for his players.
4. Don't train your players manually.
For the same reasons as progression I let the CPU decide who and which to train. It should provide the same sort of balance over the CPU as progression.
5. Don't look at the development traits of your players.
I understand that this trait is needed to differentiate the players in terms of potential but for me I don't want to know who has a higher or lower ceiling. In years past following this rule was no problem in relation with rule 3.
This year it gets a little bit more complicated because you immediately know this trait for your drafted players. To prevent this you have to look away from the screen after selecting your player as some users here at OS has already recommended.
6. Don't control your receiver at all.
Neither I manually catch the ball with the receiver nor I control them after the catch. I want to decide the ratings to determine the outcome of the game. In my opinion this improves your game experience a lot because you can see and feel the difference between the Dez/Julio type of players versus the Tavon Austin guys.
7. Don't control a defensive player.
This is some mix of my insufficient stick skills as a defender and the same approach from rule 6. I want he ratings to decide the outcome. This might be very confusing for some of you. :-)
8. Don't do manual trades.
Execute trades only via the trade block. Doing it this way you can't rob the CPU because with manual trades you have unlimited tries to find a package that suits your liking.
9. Don't call your own plays.
This rule is controversial and correlated with the basic issue whether you want (able to) call your own plays or not. I'm no expert in the matter of playcalling therefore it's the easy way for playing your games. This rule also can be used only for offense or defense.
By all means this prevents you from using money plays at al.
10. Limit your scoutable players.
In years past it was to easy to identify the gems in the draft classes. In 2 to 3 years you could stack your roster which isn't all to realistic. Despite they change the neede points to scout from 5, 10, 15 to 15, 10, 5 I think even in Madden 17 it's too easy to find the top dogs and diamond in the roughs.
For me I only can scout players who fit my scheme (Balanced Offense, Attacking 4-3, etc.) or who has the right player type (Red Zone Threat, Pocket Passer, Speed Rusher, etc.). At the beginning of every franchise i choose my scheme and my preferred player types to follow this rule.
In addition to this I limit the scoutable players to position of need (I choose 4-7 positions every year) and some favourite colleges of me (Boston College, California, Clemson, Florida State, Georgia, Miami, Michigan, Notre Dame, Ole Miss, Penn State, South Carolina, Stanford, UCLA, Wisconsin).
This guarantees that I miss some gems because they don't fit my restrictions.
11. Get some false start penalties.
You can see the the CPU will use the fake snap from time to time. I couldn't figured out which rules the CPU QB follows whether to use the fake snap or not. Because of this I set some scenarios in which I will use the fake snap. Every play-action, screen and HB draw play-call I will use it and in addition every time the CPU shows blitz. This ensures at least some false start penalty for the user because I don't know any significant advantage from the fake snap which would lead to never using it.
12. Don't stop the clock before the 2 minute warning when trailing.
In the real NFL coaches will use their timeouts before the 2 minute warning to stop the clock if they trail. Unfortunately the CPU is programmed to use their timeouts after the 2 minute warning to stop the clock. Therefore the same rule is applied by me.
In addition to these rules I use my own formulas (Excel) to calculate my players OVR's which will vary from the Madden OVR. But this is a very special mannerism of me to concentrate more at the relevant ratings for each position. A lot of people here at OS preach 'Don't look at the OVR but at the specific ratings for the position.' and I agree with them.
For me it's my way to compare all of my players at a glance.
Furthermore I created a production sheet for my players to have a better statistical comparison of each of them. This aids my decision who to re-sign in the offseason.
But these two points have nothing in common with house rules. They are further methods to individualize your franchise.
Three years ago I started a thread with the topic Tweak your franchise experience.
To clarify why I post these rules I want to say that I want to give you some input for possibly house rules you can utilize.
I don't say everybody who won't use house rules play unrealistically because everyone of us has different standards for his franchise play.
I realize that some (most) of you will say that especially my in game rules leads to very little input by the user. You can see it as some hybrid User vs. CPU and CPU vs. CPU sort of playing.
If some of you uses one or more of these rules to improve their franchise experience I'm pleased that I could give a little bit back to the forum which I learned a lot till today.
I want to say OS is the very best place to optimize your sliders and your understanding of the mechanics and share your experiences with the SIM crowd of Madden.
Sorry for the long post, now I hope you can share some of your house rules with us.
I'm a longtime follower here at OS and read a lot of threads and posts. Over the years I collected a lot of house rules to assure some sort of balance with the CPU actions.
I just thougt that's a good idea to gather my and your rules. Maybe it helps some user here at OS to improve their franchise experience.
1. I negotiate the expiring contracts of my players only at the end of the season.
With this house rule you have only one try to expand these contracts.
2. I use some formulas for the contract terms of my expiring players.
Every player has specific terms for his new contract.
For example 4 years 18 millions base salary and 8 millions as a signing bonus. To match this you have to offer 4,5 million base salary and 0,8 million bonus per year. We know that you can lowball these offers but in my opinion that's not the way I want it.
Because of this I pay them what they wantfor the base salary and a specific percentage of the base salary (in line with the length of the contract) for the bonus according to the following chart:
Age
> 33 yrs: 5 % Bonus
32-33 yrs: 7 % Bonus
30-31 yrs: 10 % Bonus
27-29 yrs: 15 % Bonus
< 27 yrs: 20 % Bonus
OVR
80-84 = + 5 % Bonus
85-89 = + 10 % Bonus
90-95 = + 15 % Bonus
> 95 = + 20 % Bonus
Contract length
90+ = 6 year deal
85-89 = 5 year deal
75-84 = 4 year deal
65-74 = 3 year deal
61-64 = 2 year deal
60-0 = 1 year deal
If our player is 28 years old and has an OVR of 86 and want the abovementioned contract I will offer him 4,5 million base salary and 1,125 (4,5 * (15%+10%)) million as bonus per year over a duration of 5 years.
In comparison the player originally wanted a 4 year 4,5 million base with 0,8 million bonus salary and I offer him a 5 year 4,5 million base with 1,125 million bonus salary.
With these formulas you give the top players a little more than they demand and you have to decide whether you sign you 33 year old 89 OVR player who maybe only wants a 2 year contract a new 5 year deal.
It sounds more complicating than it is.
I use this method only for my starting caliber players.
3. Don't progress your players manually.
In order with the CPU actions I always choose automatic progression for all my players. The CPU don't use their XP points wisely as the user so this way you don't have an advantage over them.
Beyond that I can imagine that the progression is not in my hands but rather a more 'natural' way. In real life the coaches also can't determine which specific rating they want to improve for his players.
4. Don't train your players manually.
For the same reasons as progression I let the CPU decide who and which to train. It should provide the same sort of balance over the CPU as progression.
5. Don't look at the development traits of your players.
I understand that this trait is needed to differentiate the players in terms of potential but for me I don't want to know who has a higher or lower ceiling. In years past following this rule was no problem in relation with rule 3.
This year it gets a little bit more complicated because you immediately know this trait for your drafted players. To prevent this you have to look away from the screen after selecting your player as some users here at OS has already recommended.
6. Don't control your receiver at all.
Neither I manually catch the ball with the receiver nor I control them after the catch. I want to decide the ratings to determine the outcome of the game. In my opinion this improves your game experience a lot because you can see and feel the difference between the Dez/Julio type of players versus the Tavon Austin guys.
7. Don't control a defensive player.
This is some mix of my insufficient stick skills as a defender and the same approach from rule 6. I want he ratings to decide the outcome. This might be very confusing for some of you. :-)
8. Don't do manual trades.
Execute trades only via the trade block. Doing it this way you can't rob the CPU because with manual trades you have unlimited tries to find a package that suits your liking.
9. Don't call your own plays.
This rule is controversial and correlated with the basic issue whether you want (able to) call your own plays or not. I'm no expert in the matter of playcalling therefore it's the easy way for playing your games. This rule also can be used only for offense or defense.
By all means this prevents you from using money plays at al.
10. Limit your scoutable players.
In years past it was to easy to identify the gems in the draft classes. In 2 to 3 years you could stack your roster which isn't all to realistic. Despite they change the neede points to scout from 5, 10, 15 to 15, 10, 5 I think even in Madden 17 it's too easy to find the top dogs and diamond in the roughs.
For me I only can scout players who fit my scheme (Balanced Offense, Attacking 4-3, etc.) or who has the right player type (Red Zone Threat, Pocket Passer, Speed Rusher, etc.). At the beginning of every franchise i choose my scheme and my preferred player types to follow this rule.
In addition to this I limit the scoutable players to position of need (I choose 4-7 positions every year) and some favourite colleges of me (Boston College, California, Clemson, Florida State, Georgia, Miami, Michigan, Notre Dame, Ole Miss, Penn State, South Carolina, Stanford, UCLA, Wisconsin).
This guarantees that I miss some gems because they don't fit my restrictions.
11. Get some false start penalties.
You can see the the CPU will use the fake snap from time to time. I couldn't figured out which rules the CPU QB follows whether to use the fake snap or not. Because of this I set some scenarios in which I will use the fake snap. Every play-action, screen and HB draw play-call I will use it and in addition every time the CPU shows blitz. This ensures at least some false start penalty for the user because I don't know any significant advantage from the fake snap which would lead to never using it.
12. Don't stop the clock before the 2 minute warning when trailing.
In the real NFL coaches will use their timeouts before the 2 minute warning to stop the clock if they trail. Unfortunately the CPU is programmed to use their timeouts after the 2 minute warning to stop the clock. Therefore the same rule is applied by me.
In addition to these rules I use my own formulas (Excel) to calculate my players OVR's which will vary from the Madden OVR. But this is a very special mannerism of me to concentrate more at the relevant ratings for each position. A lot of people here at OS preach 'Don't look at the OVR but at the specific ratings for the position.' and I agree with them.
For me it's my way to compare all of my players at a glance.
Furthermore I created a production sheet for my players to have a better statistical comparison of each of them. This aids my decision who to re-sign in the offseason.
But these two points have nothing in common with house rules. They are further methods to individualize your franchise.
Three years ago I started a thread with the topic Tweak your franchise experience.
To clarify why I post these rules I want to say that I want to give you some input for possibly house rules you can utilize.
I don't say everybody who won't use house rules play unrealistically because everyone of us has different standards for his franchise play.
I realize that some (most) of you will say that especially my in game rules leads to very little input by the user. You can see it as some hybrid User vs. CPU and CPU vs. CPU sort of playing.
If some of you uses one or more of these rules to improve their franchise experience I'm pleased that I could give a little bit back to the forum which I learned a lot till today.
I want to say OS is the very best place to optimize your sliders and your understanding of the mechanics and share your experiences with the SIM crowd of Madden.
Sorry for the long post, now I hope you can share some of your house rules with us.
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