Too Many Good Free Agents/ Upgrading the CPU GMs/ Meta Gameplay

[keytonelaroneNEW]

Hey boys,

Using the Latest Roger Roster and testing the franchise elements of the off-season, I see a ton of legit talent that no right-minded GM would ever let go into FA. This is likely a common question here so I apologize for redundancy, however I would love to hear from the resident experts on the topic.

Examples that stand out are the QBs (Luck, Rodgers etc.)

Additionally, I would love any further reference toward making the CPU GMs, highly intelligent.

Finally, I have an issue with my own ability to manipulate the CPU brain in a few ways. I would love a more diverse set of playbooks, that are randomly selected by the CPU. After a good amount of games, I can identify the plays quickly and sit on the curls for INTs etc. Is there any way to gather upwards of 100 playbooks with fresh plays that are more modern (RPO or screen heavy). Also, it is all quite easy to get rushing yards with ANY QB (even the old slow ones), so I was wondering if there were an algorithm to increase the CPU defenses QB spy play calls, based around the tendency of the Human QB rush attempts.

Thanks for listening and allowing me to take part in such an amazing community for the best NFL football game ever made.

[BUS36]

Usually in franchise play..when the game gets to the Pro Bowl, I use Nza's 1.3 editor and take control of all the teams. I can load in the Draft class and decide what Free Agents to be signed. So those guys like you said are kept on their teams. And after the second round of Free Agents is done, I remove all but the team I play with.

[jose21crisis]

Hey boys,

Using the Latest Roger Roster and testing the franchise elements of the off-season, I see a ton of legit talent that no right-minded GM would ever let go into FA. This is likely a common question here so I apologize for redundancy, however I would love to hear from the resident experts on the topic.

Examples that stand out are the QBs (Luck, Rodgers etc.)

Additionally, I would love any further reference toward making the CPU GMs, highly intelligent.

Finally, I have an issue with my own ability to manipulate the CPU brain in a few ways. I would love a more diverse set of playbooks, that are randomly selected by the CPU. After a good amount of games, I can identify the plays quickly and sit on the curls for INTs etc. Is there any way to gather upwards of 100 playbooks with fresh plays that are more modern (RPO or screen heavy). Also, it is all quite easy to get rushing yards with ANY QB (even the old slow ones), so I was wondering if there were an algorithm to increase the CPU defenses QB spy play calls, based around the tendency of the Human QB rush attempts.

Thanks for listening and allowing me to take part in such an amazing community for the best NFL football game ever made.

All right, to answer your questions in order:
1) You might have noticed that that, following the Retired Players phase, and the game's assignment of Player Roles and Weapons, you enter a small Roster Management section, which allows you to release player's whose contracts are way too high. However, Madden's GM AI considers a lot of contracts to be too expensive (Like, any non-rookie QB contract) and releases them. To counter this, you can use the Madden Editor that comes with the MadMod-X Package (v1.3 is recommended around here, but v2.0 works too) to give yourself control of all teams, then continue through that phase to prevent those player from being release. You could possibly manually release players if you wanted as well. Make sure that you use the Editor to remove player control from all teams after you pass into the Restricted Free Agent phase.

2) Further references? Well, you might have noticed that the CPU tends to fill out it's roster with excess players (2 Fullbacks, 2-3 Kickers, 2-3 Punters, 5-6 Offensive Tackles, 5 Left LBs and 1 Right LB, etc). This can be minimized by taking control of all teams on the very first day of Free Agency, then access the "Coach Settings" in the game, go to Management for each coach and make sure that every coach has "Sign Free Agents" to User. Then sim the whole Free Agency period. No one should have signed anyone. After the FA period is done, reverse the change ("Sign Free Agents" to CPU except your team, the remove player control from all teams that are not yours) and proceed to the draft. Do the draft however you like (Be it the base Madden draft, or using MaddenAMP), retake control of all teams for the 2nd Roster Management section (So that those high contract guys don't get cut) and remove control on the "Sign Draft Picks" phase, so that the CPU signs their picks properly. Then proceed to the 2nd FA period, let them CPu do their job while you fill your own roster. That should minimize the excess players effect. Doesn't completely clear it, but it does a good job. The reason why the CPU has the excess players glitch is that, back in Madden 04, 05, older Maddens, there weren't 2 Free Agency periods. There was the Draft, then the only Free Agency period, instead of 08's 1st FA, Draft, 2nd FA. Because EA is EA, they added the 1st FA period, but forgot to add a proper AI to handle that, so the CPU fills their positions wrong. You could get extra nit picky and take control of all teams again and release the excess players, or change the player's position so that they are balanced in their position group (5 to 1 LTs to RTs can be corrected to 3 to 2 LTs to RTs for instance).

3) Sadly, Madden 08 only has 32 playbooks + the generic playbooks (About 7 on offense, About 6 on defense). Not all the playbooks are used in the FF/FI mod because some of them have Wildcat formations, and those are somewhat glitchy and OP (The Jet Pass, no matter your coverage, will result in the TE open downfield, possibly for a TD depending on his speed). The CPU does slowly pick up on your offensive and defensive tendencies as weeks pass in Franchise mode, but it's not perfect. There are some tendencies in some playbooks, for example New England's playbook is VERY screen heavy and is generally West Coast/Spread in design. Pittsburgh's playbook is more Vertical in design (A fair amount of PA concepts that stretch the field), but has enough West Coast concepts to be useful to that type of offense (It has the Wildcat though, making it a bad pick for AI teams). There is no RPOs in the playbooks (And it is impossible to create in 08), although you could make your own playbooks that have the concepts you want. Something you could try is going to your Madden 08 folder in Documents and move the GAMEDATA.dat file somewhere else.That file comes with the FF/FI mod and has updated playbooks from ... I think Madden 11. Removing it allows the game to load it's default playbooks (Those don't have Wildcat sets), and the CPU seems to behave a bit better with them on the long run.

4) It's somewhat hard to not be able to scramble when you are the QB, even when you have a slow guy like Ben Roethlisberger, or a slower guy like Tom Brady. It might be randomized, but maybe the CPU calls more QB Spy/Contain plays if the QB's type is Scrambling, as opposed to Balanced or Pocket Passer.

That was long all right, but hopefully it answers your questions, and kept them coming if needed.

[TeeNice]

One thing I started last yr to make the game AI better was perform each teams weekly tasks. In the beginning I was only doing the weekly focus for my team. Then realized how big it could be for all teams. Before each game use weeks tasks, study opponent, then play the teams gameplan (Weekly Focus). You will notice a major AI improvement across the board during the games! It takes a few, but well worth it. I do it for all 32 teams.

And for the playbooks, user profiles will save you. I do ton's of cpu v. cpu games. Use of profiles allows you to have cpu vs. cpu that use playbooks outside the default books, each team uses the profile book, not the same book! Teiota Spread and Gun books gets plenty of run, but I recently loaded the MAPO and was quite surprised!

[jose21crisis]

One thing I started last yr to make the game AI better was perform each teams weekly tasks. In the beginning I was only doing the weekly focus for my team. Then realized how big it could be for all teams. Before each game use weeks tasks, study opponent, then play the teams gameplan (Weekly Focus). You will notice a major AI improvement across the board during the games! It takes a few, but well worth it. I do it for all 32 teams.

And for the playbooks, user profiles will save you. I do ton's of cpu v. cpu games. Use of profiles allows you to have cpu vs. cpu that use playbooks outside the default books, each team uses the profile book, not the same book! Teiota Spread and Gun books gets plenty of run, but I recently loaded the MAPO and was quite surprised!

Huh ... funny. I thought the Weekly Tasks and Gameplan didn't affect the CPU at all. I could try that, set up 32 team control and every team I play (plus all playoff teams) I'll do the Weekly Training to see if the CPU fares better.