Anyway, these are my House Rules:
I use the auto-subs and audio settings from Flazko. I love the stadium feel of the audio settings and I think he’s nailed the auto-subs even better than EA.
I use the gameplay settings/penalties and gameplay sliders from Matt10. I am a believer in his animation-driven gameplay. It forces me to play thoughtfully.
I use TDawg’s XP sliders. These are the gold standard of player progression and his thread gives you the research right there.
I absolutely encourage everyone to use the defensive perspective camera angle to play their D. Your preference for whatever offensive camera angle you like is fine because I don’t think that changes gameplay outside of being just a personal preference. Having said that, the defensive perspective camera is critical to having changed how I call plays on defense and make pre-snap adjustments. If I call the wrong play or make the wrong adjustment, I will get burned—and rightfully so.
Now, here are my actual rules I follow (and, in a couple of instances, the research attached to support them):
Personal House Rules:
1. You are limited to twenty player signings/off-season, which includes bringing on new draft signings and UDFAs. This can include three realistic trades. You cannot trade for players with less than two years experience.
(The cap of twenty player signings is based on https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.the...ce-inevitable/)
2. Prior to your first season, you are capped at signing three free agents and one realistic trade. You must follow the trade rules described in #1.
3. Sign free agents to a reasonable length of contract. If a player wants a three-year deal, don’t try to sign him to a one-year deal or a five-year deal. You can sign him to a deal from two-to-four years. If a player wants a one-year deal, sign him to a one-year contract.
(This is based on https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnb...-a-season.html)
4. You must keep at least five draft picks from your latest draft for at least one season. You must keep at least three draft picks from each draft for at least three seasons. Teams try to make their draft picks work. They don’t like to move on from bad selections.
5. You are allowed one in-season trade. This does not count towards the off-season limit of twenty moves or trade cap of three off-season trades. You must follow the trade rules described in #1.
6. Because contracts on Madden will put teams in cap Hell by year two, fix salaries for no more than five players on each team to move money into the current year (only for players with three or more years remaining on their contract because high-dollar players with only two years left on their deal are likely targets for realistic cap cuts). This will help teams be able to keep key players while still being forced to consider their cap situation at the end of the season. To do this, go into the “edit menu” for each player on the “salaries menu” under the “My Team” tab. When you are on the “edit salary section”, move the year of the contract over one year (either direction) and then immediately move it back to to the correct year. Do not hit save until you have moved the contract back to the correct year. This has the effect of keeping the salary the same for the player but moves the money around to even it out over the contract, while also transferring money into the current year.
7. You can only sign players with zero or one year of experience to the Practice Squad. You can have no more than two players of any position on the PS. While some teams will try to hide a player on their Practice Squad who is in his third season, if he’s not good enough to be on your roster, don’t do it. This will save your PS slots for developmental players.
8. You can sign players off your Practice Squad if: they were on your PS at the start of the regular season; or they have been on your PS for at least four weeks; or you are replacing a 1:1 positional injury.
9. Your player focus for weekly training must be the same players all season. It must also be three of the top four rookies you drafted in the latest draft. While teams obviously try to build up their entire team, they typically focus on making their best rookies into first-year starters.
10. Always sim the weekly training to ensure you’re not progressing faster than the CPU.
11. Use player progression every week for you and the CPU. Players in the NFL sometimes develop quickly from week-to-week, especially young players.
12. You must call plays for offense and defense from coach suggestions. This is similar to having an OC and DC. They would give you a series of plays for the situation and you would have to choose from what they gave you.
13. This one is personal for me and may be meaningless to you. Don’t let players wear the numbers that have been retired by your organization. I don’t want to see anyone wearing Len Dawson’s #16 on my Chiefs squad.
I’d love to hear what your House Rules are that keep this game fun and challenging for you!
Edited #6 based on discovering that editing all player salaries for all teams had the effect that no teams had serious cap considerations for starters. I want teams to be able to keep their key players. I also want teams to be forced to make realistic cap choices for starters—especially those with only one or two years left on their deals.
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