How FOF7 is Different from FOF2k7

[Matt]

Another helpful thread by Ben can be found here
http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/...ad.php?t=88027

So the game may look the same (or a little uglier, ) (EDIT: No longer uglier!) but man, gameplay and strategy seem to have changed a LOT. I've noticed a ton of "little changes" that seem to be adding up to an entirely new experience. I thought for those in MP leagues who don't play a lot of SP, as well as for those considering a purchase, this might be a useful thread topic. Please post your observations on areas of the game that play differently and therefore affect strategy, and I'll add them to this first post. Over time, I may sub-divide it into different areas.

• QB appears to be the most important position on the field now by a fairly wide margin, and it is *much* more difficult to draft a good QB or sign one during free agency.
• Scouting is vastly different. Scouts from one team might view a young player very differently than scouts of another team. A variance as high as 23 points (future) has been confirmed as being possible: one team saw a player as a 55 future, while another saw him as a 78 future. See this post for more details: Front Office Football Central - View Single Post - FOF7 - Staff Draft and Staff Role Thoughts
• Overall talent at QB position appears to be less.
• Talent matters for your backup RB. No longer is he a near-automatic 4.0-4.5ypc.
• The Recommend button on the "Formation Use" screens is very useful now. It adjusts usage of formations based on the talent of your personnel. Positions affected most seem to be:
  • TIGHT END: The most obvious major impact of this is that when these screens are Rexed by a team that has a good receiving tight end, he will stay on the field far more frequently in passing situations than in the past, thereby greatly increasing the impact of a top tight end, especially on a team with mediocre WRs and a good QB.
  • FULLBACK: When Rex sees a team with a very talented fullback it will use two-back sets more frequently.
• Because of stricter limits on position switching, it's much harder to build a chemistry-monster team.
• However, potential conflicts and affinities are shown for draftees now without having to interview the player.
• WRs are important, but not nearly as important as in FOF2K7. BPR no longer appears to be overpowered. (So far, no bar appears to be overpowered.)
• Players who get some playing time expect to get paid. Holdouts are more frequent as a result. Cap management is going to be much more important and much more challenging.
• Later-round rookies make minimum salary plus very small bonuses and are under contract for four years, making them much more cost-effective than in the past.
• Player development is not as predictable. There are still players whose ratings continually "creep" upward and players who continually decline, but it appears that for most players, the scouted impression will move in both directions a bit before settling in. Cutting players after their first training camp should be much less frequent.
• All staff roles have changed. Multiple staff members are involved in creating the team scout impression. Here's a chart of what matters for each staff member. (The Help File has greater detail.)
• 
• The ceiling for QB rushing stats is much higher than in the past. Elite running QBs can put up over 1,000 yards rushing in a season.
• Luxury boxes are no longer the only key to doing well financially. It appears that ticket prices and even spending on salaries and bonuses are at the level where multiple factors matter.
• Ticket prices now have a Rex button that seems to do reasonably well.
• Run directions need to be more balanced. 20-20-5-5-5-5-20-20 game plans don't appear to be nearly as effective. BEN ANECDOTAL COMMENT: I don't have hard evidence of this yet, but from watching Solevision and reading game logs so far, I believe that this is partly because outside runs go for losses much more frequently than they did in FOF2K7.
• Special teams Encouraged/Not Encouraged can be set much more easily now by right-clicking in the Roster Attributes screen. I list this as a "strategy-changer" because for some, the time it took to set those flags prohibited any serious investment into ST. Now it will probably be worth everyone's while to acquire good ST guys.
• The in-game help file is much more useful than in the past. New features are documented very well, and there are some changes to the documentation of old features as well, most notably the amateur draft.
• Special teams plays now count toward rust removal, so little/no need to put ST specialists in the regular depth charts just to shake off rust.

That should be a decent starting point. Feel free to add stuff I overlooked or haven't noticed and I'll move it to the first post. To re-emphasize, I'm not looking for just "stuff that's new" here. My vision is that this thread will become a primary reference for "how should my strategies change when my league converts to FOF7?"

[SteveBsFan]

Side note, you'd think someone who re-designed the game would have seen that the green on green for experience and ratings is much harder to read than it should be.

Did they ever update that again, or is that how the new graphics are supposed to be?

[Kobeck]

agree.

The look is beyond terruble