I've been in MFN since January 2018. I'm not a perennial bowl contender and I don't know anything about the code, however I've been reading through different posts in the community forums and some of my league forums and I'm seeing a lot of frustration. Most of it is due to a teams bad performance, and the owners inability, for whatever reason, to make the team perform in the manner they envision. I don't know how to make you good ( or me for that matter ), but I want to share some stuff that I've started doing that seems to help with overall maintenance.
For my first year in MFN I had 2 main leagues, Paydirt and USFL. I would generally open up the game, check the depth chart for injuries and adjust. Every few games or so I would go through the playbook and remove a play that was doing really bad and generally try and replace it with a play from the same formation and call...inside run, outside tun etc. I'd watch only my games, never really went through the play log. Each season I would dump the playbooks to create them again, trying basically the same stuff with a few differences, sometimes using a new formation etc. This was keeping me under .500. Then out of the blue, there was a code change, 4.4 I think, not sure. All of a sudden in both Paydirt and USFL my guys start playing like big boys. I go 14-2 in Paydirt, make the playoffs in both.. my guys are throwing TD after TD, sacks left and right. I get voted most improved Gm in both leagues. Dominance it was, in your face!!
Then the next season some new code was implemented and I racked up 5 wins in Paydirt and went right back to below .500 across all my leagues. Interceptions all over the place, can't run a TD, can't land a sack, can't throw a TD. I'm Done!
Wait,.. hold on.. I see a bunch of guys still banging it out, still racking up wins and TD's. Still racking up sacks, ok maybe not sacks but their still good. Their still WINNING. So how is that? What is the difference in what I'm doing and what they are doing? We all have access to the same information at the same time for the price, zero. So what is it? Well the code hasn't changes since then as far as I know, I made some changes to how I set up game planning.. started doing more studying, and won my first 2 playoff games in MFN, Die Hard Football League, currently at 10-2 in Paydirt, a highly competitive league. I'm no genius, but I know the changes I've made are contributing to that success.
What I'm saying is it can be done, even in an ever changing, early development game. Here are some of the things I started doing that helped.
1. Find a GM who is doing well, watch their games each week as well as yours. Then go back and watch the entire game again, one play at a time through the play log. Doing this will allow you to see the plays called for offense and defense, then see it play out. I watch some plays several times, in slow motion. I'm looking for where my guys are lining up and how they react to the offensive play. Remember its a script, so the offense isn't going to suddenly start free styling and break off on an option route. Defensive players will line up in different locations other than what is shown in the play picture, depending on the offensive formation. Run each play in slow motion, have your depth chart pulled up in another browser so you know who should be in for each formation, yards to go etc. Study plays, there really aren't that many. I didn't do this before. I do it now.
2. Make sure you are properly creating a balanced playbook. Yes there are some broken plays that just have an ungodly success rate and you should identify and utilize those, but make sure you are using the "view plays" option to see how the weights are set up. This is how you manage the plays that will be called. Make sure your sliders are not that far apart to keep things balanced. There were times I would have a play in my playbook for 10 games and it would never get called and I couldn't figure out why, particularly on defense, it was frustrating. Turns out it was my sliders being so out of whack, certain formations/plays had an extremely slim chance of every being called. Now that being said, it is useful at times in certain situations to use sliders to isolate a play you don't want called in a certain situation if it shares similar position calls as others you use. I've never really struggled on the defensive side of the ball in this game, but once I started using the "view plays" tab, I saw why my playbook was so narrow and I made the changes and adapted. My Paydirt rookie QB has more TD's than INT's... yes that's right.. Do it, it will help.
3. Use "overrides". Oh boy, this. Injuries are like a rainy day IRL. It ruins it. I hate them, so much...
OK moving on. Set up your overrides as if everyone is healthy, save it. Now every game you will have to make at least one injury adjustment. This will often throw off the overrides as new players are moving up in the depth chart in game. Make sure you are using your role players effectively. If you got that scrubby DT, with no pass rush, 90 run block and strength..5th on your depth chart and he's active for the game.. is he set up to come in on that 2nd and 1, when you opponent come out on the 2/3/0 formation on your 40 yard line? NO?.. you didn't want to give one of your starters a play off, while maximizing a player you probably aren't using unless your starters are injured. Start using overrides for not just the obvious, players being injured and sitting out etc, but for the one off plays when you can. It's not super impressive, and again some of this is stuff I only recently started doing the last few months, but I drafted this terrible QB in Die hard cause the dude could run. My RB's weren't exactly stellar, so I was able to weave him in a few plays, just experimenting.
https://die-hard-fans.myfootballnow.com/player/5375
16 attempts, 91 yards, 5.7 average with a 12 yard long. Again not super impressive.. but I had this keyed from game one.. it only triggered 16 times for the season, but will good success. 13 games played, 36 total plays.. guy even has 3 pass blocks and a run clock. Whatever it takes baby!
EDIT: I didn't state exactly what my point was for this section which is to use your depth. Overrides can help you be more successful in certain situation as well as give players a rest, this is particularly important with lineman as they are injured most often.
Ok I'm done, some things you have to discover on your own, and you will if you start studying and adapt.
This guy.
Last edited at 6/22/2019 9:22 am
