Hey everyone, me again. This is just going to be a small guide/tip board on using the draft board and preparing for a draft.
First, scan your team and use the sticky note function to note positions I want to target with my picks. For anyone unfamiliar with how to do that, you will mouse over the messages tab in your league; the last option will be the new sticky note option. After clicking it you will have a sticky note to resize and move around the screen. It will only be for that specific league so it is a great way to help keep track of individual team needs/wants. I generally either list by round then position I want, like 1st: RB means I want to draft someone to play RB in the 1st round, or I just list positions I want to try and fill, like RB then on a new line I would put the next position like LB etc meaning I want to leave the draft with players to play RB and LB wherever I can get them. I do the first when I am missing key pieces and feel that I need someone no matter what to fill that position and the latter after I have my major pieces and am looking for starters at lesser impactful positions/depth. This is to help you keep track of what you're trying to draft for as once people start coming off the board it can become difficult to remember.
Second, set up your draft board sliders to try and help the AI if it has to make a pick for you by using the edit function to access the sliders. The weight you give each position is how likely the AI is to draft the best player for that position. It will take into account your ratings value of that best player and weight it against the ratings value of the best player for other positions. Super simple example, you only have QB and C with non-zero values and QB is at 21 and C is at 20. If the AI is making your next pick, you are extremely likely to get a QB, unless there is a C whose ratings are so much higher than the best QB to "override" the extra weight you gave to QB. The goal count function tells the AI how many of a position you want to draft MINIMUM. You can and will draft more than this depending on your draft slider weights. The AI will fill your goal count based on your weights, then draft based on your weights. Another example, QB, C, and RB have values of 21, 20, and 25 respectively. However, QB and C both have a goal count of 1 and RB has a goal count of 0. The AI will draft a QB and C before drafting a RB because of the goal count function, and then after that will use the weights you have listed to decide between drafting a QB/C/RB which will likely be a RB. Lastly there is volatility weight which changes how much the AI cares about volatility. In the first 3 rounds, a high volatility weight means the AI will add players with very low vol even if they are much more low rated players. In the last 4 rounds, a high volatitly means that the AI will add players with high vol even if they are lower rated players than what is left. The inverse/opposite is true for both examples given. What I personally like to do is to set my draft sliders to only weight C/G/T at 20 and DE/DT at 19 and set the vol slider to 70. I generally add players(skill players specifically) to my draft queue for the first three rounds and let the AI add lineman with high vol starting from round four and on assuming there aren't more talented skill players left. The 20 and 19 values generally net me two OL and one DL or vice versa as I will swap the weights occasionally. The vol slider set at 70 generally drafts high vol players without sacrificing their rating too much ie instead of drafting a 40 rated player with 100 vol the AI will draft a 60 rated player with 80 vol.
Third, add every player you want to draft to the queue regardless of position. Even with good sliders and weights you're mostly minimizing the damage the AI does to your team. So you're going to add every player that you see and say, this guy could help my team or play a position I have in my notes that I need to upgrade/replace/improve on. One thing I like to do when I have time, I will do a player search of the draft class sorting by speed and generally add every skill player who would be good players if they boom. I don't add those 90 speed 45 rated players with 15 vol because even if they boom they will not have the skills to be good players. Once all these players are added, then you just go through your manual priority list sorting their rankings that way you are always getting YOUR best player instead of the player the AI thinks is best. It takes a little more time to do this, but is one of the best ways to add the exact skill player you want during a draft.
Hopefully this can help anyone who struggles with the draft board aspect of this game, or has trouble being online to make their picks. Another tip, don't use the default weights! They are part of the reason the AI is not good at drafting. Humble brag, but there are 4.6 weights that I have made originally for autodrafting and after tinkering with them a bit, feel they are more than a good start for player evaluation:
https://xfl.myfootballnow.com/community/3/7428?page=1. For actual draft strategy, look up my approach to the game as I wrote about the draft at length there. If you still have questions ask away, but I would prefer to answer questions about using the draft sliders and preparing for drafts.
