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Post by Boony on Sept 8, 2006 12:37:30 GMT
Cool - thanks for the tips. I'm planning to do a lot more gameplanning this year, rather than let the AI sort it out, as I see it can really get the best out of a squad. Do you tend to stick to a certain gameplan week in week out, or tweak it slightly here and there depending on results, or give it major tweakage depending on the opposition? And do you call your own plays, or let the coaches do that? I can never be arsed to call plays for a whole game, but then my play calling isn't very good. If I can get gameplanning licked, then maybe I'll start venturing that deep into the game.
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Post by Narcizo on Sept 8, 2006 12:55:44 GMT
I don't play Single Player any more Boony to be honest because I find it too fiddly to make it an enjoyable experience over a short period of time, so I don't have access to play-calling. I wouldn't bother gameplanning in single player though because it's too much hassle.
I normally start off with a base plan for the year and then customise it (generally the defensive side more than the offensive) to the opponents and, to a lesser extent, the weather. Unfortunately, due to the overt randomness of the game, tinkering gameplans based on one or two results is futile. (resim a week over and over to see the disparigity of results and performances to see what I mean). That doesn't mean that gameplanning is pointless just that it's difficult to get a grip on what a successful gameplan involves.
If you do want to gameplan generally speaking long passing games work well and you should defend with that in mind as well. The game AI is a bit screwy about defending 3 or 4 receiver sets as well, so it generally pays to have a high percentage of nickle and dime formations. When defending bear in mind that predicting what the AI is going to do isn't always enough. For example if I think someone is going to pass the ball 75% of the time I'll defend the pass 100% of the time as passing plays tend to get more yards and if I put 75% I think there's less chance of actually getting it right - you're the mathematician, you can work that out.
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Post by coffers on Sept 8, 2006 15:23:27 GMT
I tried the demo and I'm not sure if it would be a game I like. I was flummoxed by all the depth charts game book stuff. But then I don't know anyhting about that side of things. It all looks a bit messy.
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Post by Narcizo on Sept 9, 2006 17:43:08 GMT
Aye, it's a bit daunting at first true enough. Best off letting your coaches pick your gameplan and depth chart and whatnot to start off with. The demo doesn't really give you enough of a trial though - it should give you a year.
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Post by Narcizo on Sept 11, 2006 7:49:06 GMT
Most of the draft is over - I just have my 6th and 7th rounders left and the draft started well as three idiots forgot to clear their draft preferences from last year, effectively making my 2.1 worth a 1.30, except without the added salary demands. I was going to take the stud centre bloke but blow me down if a defensive end who will be starter quality in about 3 years time didn't drop all the way down to me. I'm still unsure about him, he doesn't have the ideal current:future ratio or excellent combine scores I normally look for, but there's precious little chance of getting a sgood tarter defensive end in the draft outside of the first round so I take the chance.
Which meant my 3.30 went on another centre who does have stunning combine scores but a somewhat dodgy cur/fut ratio. I'm pretty sure he's a boomer. Unfortunately it would seem that people are wising up to how drafts actually work in FOF as the wide receiver I was talking about, a cornerback predicited for the 6th who was much better and the quarterbacky chap all went before my 3.30. Which was annoying.
My 4.5 went on a wide receiver who had a good combine, good cur:fut ratio and should be solid as a 3rd or 4th receiver, but will probably never be the starter the guy I had my eye on will be. And the 5.29 went on a fullback as I felt I ought to do something about the fact that I don't actually have much in the way of fullbacks at the moment.
The draft is now 4 picks away from my turn and, amazingly, the DE I was originally thinking of taking as a back-up plan around 4.5 is still sitting there. Despite already having 4 defensive ends and having drafted one with the 2.1 I'm going to pick him if poss. 7.29 will go on a quarterback just in the hope that I catch a lucky random boom off of it.
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Post by Boony on Sept 11, 2006 9:30:01 GMT
Coffers - Nark is correct, you can leave all the tricky in-depth stuff to your coaches while you are learning the game, while all you concentrate on is building up a roster. This is how I played the game for ages, and isn't a bad way to do it. After a while, you can decide to pay more attention to depth charts and game plans and stuff. This is one of the good things about the game, the fact that it allows you to skim the surface or go into as much depth as you like. And yes, the demo is annoyingly short-lived.
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Post by coffers on Sept 11, 2006 9:42:46 GMT
And obviously, you don't get a chance to mess too much with the roster in the demo version.
With the depth charts & game plans etc, I guess I should go through them all once per week and take the coach's rocommendations?
I had a few runs at it over the weekend and got a bit more into it, leaving the coaches to call plays etc. My play calling proving to be extremely random and generally shoite. I'll probably end up shelling out in the end, but not just yet.
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Post by Mr Bismarck's Electric Donkey on Sept 11, 2006 9:52:51 GMT
You might want to wait a bit, Coffers, as Solecesmic, (or however the pantfish that's spelled) have announced that they'll be releasing a new version of "one of their football games" this year. So it might be a new FOF.
Personally, I hope it's The College Years, because I think it'd be interesting to have a constant four, (or five), year turnover of players.
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Post by coffers on Sept 11, 2006 10:09:19 GMT
Oh, it'll be some time before money is parted with, I've got some rather large bills to sort out at the moment, that may take a while to pay off.
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Post by coffers on Sept 11, 2006 11:50:43 GMT
You might want to wait a bit, Coffers, as Solecesmic, (or however the pantfish that's spelled) have announced that they'll be releasing a new version of "one of their football games" this year. So it might be a new FOF. Personally, I hope it's The College Years, because I think it'd be interesting to have a constant four, (or five), year turnover of players. What they really want is a Dot$ version. :humb:
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Post by Narcizo on Sept 11, 2006 12:05:37 GMT
Personally, I hope it's The College Years, because I think it'd be interesting to have a constant four, (or five), year turnover of players. The problem with TCY is that it is really, really to fiddly scouting and trying to recruit players (makes FM look fantastically easy and user-friendly), and then setting players study, practice, weight training, video and free time and worrying about their grades. Sort of means that the actual football games take a (very far) backseat. Especially as there isn't play-calling available in the game, if I remember correctly. So an update that made that easier would be great. Ideally one that makes more realistic draft files to import in FOF as well. Currently there can be a total stud QB in TCY and he disappears without a trace in the FOF draft.
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Post by Narcizo on Sept 11, 2006 12:08:11 GMT
What they really want is a Dot$ version. :humb: Very little chance of that I suspect, unfortunately. Loads of people have said they would like a dot$ view of the plays but the game designer is just one bloke and making a dot$ view would require a huge overhaul of the game engine that is probably beyond his limited means. I'd settle for more information about each play so you acutally know who's playing well and the games to be less random
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Post by coffers on Sept 11, 2006 12:17:49 GMT
A scrolling history of the plays might be nice, rather than losing what's gone before every time a play is called.
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Post by Narcizo on Sept 19, 2006 7:38:59 GMT
If anyone wants to dip their toes into MP play then there is probably an opening in this league as the Vikings. Go to the waiting list and add your name and details. It's one of the more active leagues left out there at the moment - certainly of those leagues that let anyone join, and there's actually about 6 owners living in Europe so it's not too lonely living in the wrong time zone. The Vikings are a pretty good and balanced side although they're not going to beat the Bears this year they're pretty certain to come second. We're about to hit the pre-season. It's all very exciting. Oh yes. Well, apart from the fact that pre-season is all about getting as much of a rating bump for your young players while safely hiding your experienced players away on the inactive roster.
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Post by Narcizo on Dec 6, 2006 8:56:01 GMT
Hazzuh! Despite more injuries than you could shake Moo's googles at (including McNabb for 10 games, and the Divisional round game, and the Stupidbow, as it turns out) we heroically manage to go 15-1 in the regular season (after an opening day loss). I've made it through the divisional and conference games and am now ready for the Stupidbowl on Friday where we will be meeting the Buffalo Bills. As we all know, the Bills are incapable of winning the Stupidbowl, so it's difficult to see what could go wrong. Unless the fact that 4 of my key defensive starters and my top two quarterbacks being injured might influence the result somehow. Hard as that is to imagine. You too can follow the exciting action should you log into the chat room here at 6:30pm (your time) on Friday. Because, of course, you won't be having anything better to do at that time.
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Post by Mr Bismarck's Electric Donkey on Dec 6, 2006 8:58:24 GMT
Sorry, I'm busy Friday night. I'm washing my hare.
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Post by coffers on Dec 6, 2006 9:21:23 GMT
Nicely done Nark. Good luck for Friday.
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Post by Narcizo on Dec 11, 2006 12:51:01 GMT
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Post by Mr Bismarck's Electric Donkey on Dec 11, 2006 13:19:34 GMT
Well done Narkle - Rashaun Woods as MVP, n'est pas?
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Post by coffers on Dec 11, 2006 13:29:29 GMT
Well Done Nark, :thumb: now go and do it again.
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Post by Narcizo on Dec 11, 2006 13:47:54 GMT
Well Done Nark, now go and do it again. Luckily we won't be switching to FOF2007 until after the next season so there's every reason to believe that I should be able to do it. After that I'll be shagged though, as my FUaDtW-esque tactics don't work so well in the new version. Or, at all, in fact.
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Post by Moo on Dec 11, 2006 14:16:55 GMT
Nice work, Narkle. :thumb: and another :thumb: to boot.
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Post by Narcizo on Mar 19, 2007 11:59:55 GMT
So, we fucked up at the start of the year going 5-5 or some such nonsense due to an unprecedented train-crash load full of bad luck. (losing to a kick off td return etc etc). However we got back on track to finish 11-5, but it was too late to catch the Cardinals who won the division.
So now we have to play on the road and stuff, which is a big pain in the bottom. We start our play-off campaign at the heroically 7-8-1 recording NFC East winning Washington Redskins. Despite their crap record (making full use of being in the worst division in the league - a fact we reaped 4 wins from this year) they're not that bad. We should beat them but it's not going to be the walk in the park that you (well, I, anyway) would hope for. We beat them earlier this year but that was at our place.
However the long-term future is looking a lot rosier than one would have thought a year ago as draft day shenanighans at the start of the year saw me trade up from outside the first to the 3rd overall spot to take a quarterback who is going to be a star. And he's called Al An, which just sealed the deal. Admittedly I had to give up a starter running back, wide receiver, centre and a great defensive end prospect to get him. But he is going to be soooo worth it for a team like me who is never going to get within sniffing distance of a franchise quarterback in the draft (or anywhere else) when we switch to 2007. So harruh for me!
So the wildcard round is this evening - can't say I'm thrilled about it as anything but a win will be a bitter disappointment and a let down. I have to hope Donovan remembers how to beat the Redskins.
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Post by coffers on Mar 19, 2007 12:13:14 GMT
Good Luck Nark, sounds as if you'll need it.
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Post by Mr Bismarck's Electric Donkey on Mar 19, 2007 12:22:58 GMT
Al An :humb:
When does his brother Bri enter the draft?
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