League Forums

Main - League News/General Discussion

The Next Of The Iron Men?

By JCSwishMan33
10/09/2014 8:18 am
I introduce you to Eric Cox: http://mfn2.myfootballnow.com/player/761

He is currently the #2 WR on my depth chart, and is having a solid year after 10 games: 32 catches for 561 and 2 TDs, with only one drop (number of targets would be a cool stat to have, BTW). Not spectacular, but solid.

But if you happen to take a glance at his Defense tab, you'll notice something interesting: he sees quite a bit of play on the other side of the ball. Not just this year, but over his career.

Now I can only speak to this year, because this is the first time I've noticed his name coming up on the defensive side of the ball (the INT really made me double take). My secondary isn't particularly deep, with only a couple of serious injuries. Mister Cox is nowhere in the secondary depth chart, but lo and behold, his presence is felt.

I told that story to ask this question: Is the game engine purposely spitting out the rare CAPABLE two-way player like the NFL has produced only a few times in its history, or is this just a matter of the RNG falling JUST right to make him capable of playing both sides of the ball?

Re: The Next Of The Iron Men?

By King of Bling
10/10/2014 2:33 am
He is a LEGEND!

Re: The Next Of The Iron Men?

By jdavidbakr - Site Admin
10/10/2014 5:34 am
The engine will use your depth chart until there are no players available, then it will switch to use the best player available. Right now in MFN-1 there is better logic to handle that (to try to keep offensive players on offense and defensive players on defense) so once the engine switches to the next version it will probably reduce the frequency that happens to when there just plain aren't enough players.

Re: The Next Of The Iron Men?

By JCSwishMan33
10/10/2014 7:48 am
jdavidbakr wrote:
The engine will use your depth chart until there are no players available, then it will switch to use the best player available. Right now in MFN-1 there is better logic to handle that (to try to keep offensive players on offense and defensive players on defense) so once the engine switches to the next version it will probably reduce the frequency that happens to when there just plain aren't enough players.


Well, I guess my corollary to this would be: Once that code drops on this league, will that spell the end of the two-way player? Or was there never supposed to be that capability in the first place? I understand I could put my players pretty much anywhere I wanted, but... Could I, for example, line Mister Cox up as my #2 WR AND a #3-4 CB, and have him be effective at both?

Re: The Next Of The Iron Men?

By jdavidbakr - Site Admin
10/10/2014 8:15 am
It would end the 2-way player by the AI (except in extremely race instances) - but you can still place your WR in your CB depth chart. The applicable attributes will apply (and when you put him in the DC you'll see his ratings at that position).

Re: The Next Of The Iron Men?

By JCSwishMan33
10/10/2014 8:31 am
jdavidbakr wrote:
It would end the 2-way player by the AI (except in extremely race instances) - but you can still place your WR in your CB depth chart. The applicable attributes will apply (and when you put him in the DC you'll see his ratings at that position).


Next question: If I put him in, say, my #4 CB slot, along with his #2 WR slot, would his abilities at the CB improve with playing time and practice? Or would I have to literally change his position to start seeing any training benefits?

Re: The Next Of The Iron Men?

By jdavidbakr - Site Admin
10/10/2014 8:42 am
JCSwishMan33 wrote:
Next question: If I put him in, say, my #4 CB slot, along with his #2 WR slot, would his abilities at the CB improve with playing time and practice? Or would I have to literally change his position to start seeing any training benefits?


His experience will increase as he actually is on the field for each play at that position (he won't gain experience during the week like he would if he was assigned), but his attributes for CB won't increase unless you change his position. (Changing his position will also cause him to slowly lose his attributes for his WR position). Normally a WR won't have much potential in M2M or Zone, so unless he has some blue in those bars there's no real benefit to having him switch positions (other than increasing his experience with the playbook and in the position) because if there's no future potential in an attribute he's not going to improve in that attribute.

Re: The Next Of The Iron Men?

By JCSwishMan33
10/11/2014 9:52 am
jdavidbakr wrote:
His experience will increase as he actually is on the field for each play at that position (he won't gain experience during the week like he would if he was assigned), but his attributes for CB won't increase unless you change his position. (Changing his position will also cause him to slowly lose his attributes for his WR position). Normally a WR won't have much potential in M2M or Zone, so unless he has some blue in those bars there's no real benefit to having him switch positions (other than increasing his experience with the playbook and in the position) because if there's no future potential in an attribute he's not going to improve in that attribute.


Is there a way to see his bars for CB without changing his position? Or will I be able to, say, change his position today, take a look at his bars to see what the worth would be to change him (or even keep him in the depth chart there), and then change him back to WR before the next stage so he doesn't lose any 'time' as a WR?

Re: The Next Of The Iron Men?

By jdavidbakr - Site Admin
10/11/2014 10:14 am
JCSwishMan33 wrote:
Is there a way to see his bars for CB without changing his position? Or will I be able to, say, change his position today, take a look at his bars to see what the worth would be to change him (or even keep him in the depth chart there), and then change him back to WR before the next stage so he doesn't lose any 'time' as a WR?


When you look at his player card, you see his bars filtered by his position - if you go to his detail page, though, you can see all of his bars, including the ones that don't apply to his current position. That's the easy way - but if you change his position to CB and then back to WR in the same stage, there is no penalty because to the progress engine he never changed, so you can do that if you want to be able to see the filtered view on the player card.

Re: The Next Of The Iron Men?

By JCSwishMan33
10/11/2014 12:20 pm
jdavidbakr wrote:
When you look at his player card, you see his bars filtered by his position - if you go to his detail page, though, you can see all of his bars, including the ones that don't apply to his current position. That's the easy way - but if you change his position to CB and then back to WR in the same stage, there is no penalty because to the progress engine he never changed, so you can do that if you want to be able to see the filtered view on the player card.


Spectacular. I took a look at his filtered stats as a CB, and I saw no blue even though it listed him as a 36/38... Either way, I'm keeping him as a WR, and will just be a bit tickled every time I see defensive stats come up for him. Heh.