Fictional Player/Draft File Generator
There are a number of things in FOF that are realistic to the modern NFL that just aren't my cup of tea. I'd prefer more offensive variety than the product that the NFL is putting on the field these days. I'm sure that some of what I'm looking for would be provided in the historical files, but I have little/no interest in playing that way. I've been playing text sims long enough to know what I like: fictional player pools. Period. Thus the creation of this utility. It currently just runs on my local machine's php server, but if enough people would want to use it AND I can find time to create an interface for some key user inputs, it's something that I could potentially put on a web server for others to use. At any rate, this utility creates an initial player pool of 3300ish players, and can spit out 100 years worth of draft classes a well that you don't have to import in one at a time. They're just in the csv and the game reads them. Here are the changes that I've made to player creation, and why:
OVERALL CHANGES
So here is where I'm taking a bit more license. First off, I grew up on Larry Csonka and Eugene "Mercury" Morris, Franco Harris and Rocky Bleier, William Andrews and Lynn Cain. Teams that had a great running back AND a great fullback. Of course, the fullback is a dying/dead breed in modern football, and this is reflected in FOF9: you'll almost never see a FB rated above 60ish overall. Well, I've removed that cap in these files. You'll see total stud FBs in these files from time to time. Next, while most players are built the standard FOF way with just an overall rating and letting FOF fill in the details, I've implemented--especially for modestly-talented players--some "player types." Basically, these are designed to reflect skill sets that "go together." Maybe a RB is a "1" overall rating (serviceable backup,) but he's a "3rd down specialist" player type with poor running skills, but pretty solid receiving skills. (An overall "1" isn't going to be a stud or even above-average receiver, but he might have 45-55s across the board in route running, hands, adjust to ball, etc., making him worth a possible roster spot.) Here are all of the "player types" that I have: QB
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I am of that same era and appreciation of what was real football when compared to the flag/touch football played today. I'm interested at giving it a run.
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I'm with you guys on the real football, count me in.
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Testing last night didn't give me the final results I'm looking for before outputting the files. I just made a change to create more variability in the accuracy/decisions nerf. (Short version: I want those overall numbers to be down, but more outliers on either end of the spectrum.) I *think* I'll have at least a test file for folks to play with by this evening.
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Count me in as far as interested! Love the idea and sounds like an amazing opportunity to enhance the value of career sims. Thank you
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Not sure you are taking suggestions but if so... here are some other 'archtypes' that could be intriguing.
DL -> run stuffer vs. pass rusher (maybe the default engine produces enough of these already?) OL -> road grader vs. protectionist CB -> press specialist vs. man specialist RB -> in addition to what you suggested... Add a Power back? No speed but great strength (would weight more) and convert short yardage? LB - > pass rusher vs. coverage specialist vs. run stopper WR -> Deep threat vs. possession Vs. YAC specialist |
Power back - off on a tangent but imagine having the option to plug an O/D lineman in as fullback for a short yardage or goal line play.
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Probably important to note here in terms of setting expectations: I get zero enjoyment out of trying to build a defensive plan based on my talent like I do on offense, so there's little/no chance I'm going to be bothered with doing anything to defensive players. I created a generic 3-4 man/press plan for defense within a day or two of the release, and I just draft/acquire defensive players who fit the talent profile for that plan and never hire 4-3 coaches so I don't have to be bothered with creating a 2nd option. :D On the other stuff... OL and WR either already have that stuff in standard FOF9, or perhaps there are few enough bars that matter for those types that they just kinda happen randomly often enough that forcing them isn't worth the time. There are tons of OL with high run blocking/loss pass blocking and vice versa, for example, and Power back isn't a "type" like the others in my code where there's a dice roll to create that specific type by increasing some ratings and decreasing others, but it's kinda baked into the player creation system I have in that heavier backs are generally stronger and slower. Plus it's kinda like the above two: really only speed/strength/elusiveness would be involved anyway, so even if Jim isn't doing it intentionally, just the dice rolls that create the bars from the overall ratings will give you plenty of guys high in strength, low in speed and elusiveness. All the stuff I'm coding involves a minimum of four bars, usually more. |
Oh, and this is worth documenting: there's a good bit of variability in whether the AI will use the "player types" appropriately, and that may impact whether some will want to go this route.
For example, I'm fairly certain that AI teams don't built their playbooks or game plans with a behind-the-scenes "Guided" generator like some of us would. A specific example: I was testing a team with a "9" FB (86/86 overall) on it. I used the guided playbook to increase FB usage in the plays, and the guided game plan to crank up passing attempts to the FB. With a lot of FB runs in the playbook, he was getting 100-150 carries per season and 80-100 pass targets. And of course--especially if your team has an OC who is Balanced or Smashmouth, it'd be both easy and productive to get a guy like that at least 150-200 carries and over 100 targets with a custom game plan. But AI teams are going to max out at around 60 targets and 70 carries per season for a FB, even an absolute stud one. So, other things to note...
One simple one that I know I'm going to use with these files: no RB-->WR or FB-->TE position switching. The AI doesn't know to do it, so I won't either, and because the player types may well create RBs and FBs with mediocre overall ratings but receiving ratings that would allow them to be converted to decent WRs and TEs, that would be too much of an extra advantage to the human. |
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It would be fantastic to be able to use such a tool.
Excited for you to share! |
This tool existed for FOF7/8 and I LOVED it. Unfortunately it doesn't work with the new version.
Roster/Draft Class CSV Utility - Front Office Football Central |
Casual observation. I am running through using BLT1 right now and it seems that there are still lots of QB's running a lot and almost leading their teams in rushing. I am not controlling the game plan or calling plays so this is the AI selections.
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Still looking for someone to give this a go?
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Still very interested in this thread.
How is progress going? Would you every consider sharing the utility itself? |
I'm interested in this too. I don't mind messing around with excel sheets but I'd love to see a full utility like FOF8 had.
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