Scouting is really pretty fun

[Coredor]

I just wanted to let everyone know that if you do your homework it really can be fun to do your scouting. I just got done with one of the drafts. I'm not going to get into spoilers but a season later I was curious to see what it said about that draft when I had some really awesome players. In my third draft counting the first offseason which I did do I apparently drafted 3 future fifty players after a Super Bowl season where I was picking last in hte first round. I traded up for one of them, but this really can be done without reading up on the draft and when a player's potential pops up as 97 and you know you have them it's the most fun thing in the world.

[CurlyJefferson]

Quote: Originally Posted by Coredor

I just wanted to let everyone know that if you do your homework it really can be fun to do your scouting. I just got done with one of the drafts. I'm not going to get into spoilers but a season later I was curious to see what it said about that draft when I had some really awesome players. In my third draft counting the first offseason which I did do I apparently drafted 3 future fifty players after a Super Bowl season where I was picking last in hte first round. I traded up for one of them, but this really can be done without reading up on the draft and when a player's potential pops up as 97 and you know you have them it's the most fun thing in the world.

I actually found it too easy to find out who the good sleepers were. And then I just kept picking them all, and it felt like I was the only one picking good players, like I had been the only team scouting anyone. I got like 8 starters in one draft, 7 of them with potential over 90, the other with 88 potential. And it's not like I had a great GM or was doing anything special. It's just that 9 times out of 10 when a guy's NFL comparison is a great player, that's a guy you want to pick. At the very least, the comparison is a dead giveaway that you should scout the guy further. I mean, I still love the draft. I love just about everything about drafting. But I hate the fact that the draft preview tells you who is a sleeper and who is overrated, and I hate the NFL comparisons. (There are 6 RBs compared to Derrick Ward and one compared to LaDainian Tomlinson. Hmm, let me think....)

I've only done one draft, so maybe it gets harder, but I found it way too easy and would like it if I had to work harder and dig deeper to find the sleepers of the draft, and also to avoid the busts.

[kcarr]

Quote: Originally Posted by CurlyJefferson

I've only done one draft, so maybe it gets harder, but I found it way too easy and would like it if I had to work harder and dig deeper to find the sleepers of the draft, and also to avoid the busts.

it doesnt get any tougher. Pretty basic across the board, if you find good comparisons, you will find good players. The only tricky ones I have seen is with there being two adrian petersons and two steve smiths so you dont know which one is the comparison, but those are rare and not enough to make any difference

[jfsolo]

Yeah, if you just pay attention, and put in a little time, you will always get future stars/superstars in the 3-6 rounds.

They need to have more game changers where guys, get in trouble, have psychological issues, or have a crappy work ethic.

Maybe the NFL frowned on that kind of stuff, but it would add an additional element of risk, which is needed during the draft process.

[kcarr]

either that or make gems and busts less of a for sure thing. Make potential a little less defined so that you dont know that you are getting a steal based soley on a potential score. Also, I have mentioned in other posts, but adding work ethic and mental ability type attributes that you cant really gauge on the college level would help. Also, I think all actual attributes should be hidden and all you should be able to see is general scores for athleticism, size, intangebles etc and a word based scouting report on the player highlighting strengths, weaknesses, etc. ovr and pot should also be hidden and just eluded to in the scouting report.
As for comparisons I think just give the top few philosophies that the player will fit into in order so you can see what type of player he is, but nothing that would elude to his actual ability.

[CurlyJefferson]

The devs probably didn't want the depth and complexity of this game to turn people off, so they made things kind of easy. But man, I wish this whole game was harder. The gameplay is something you can actually make harder for yourself, but scouting you really can't, unless you just ignore it, and that's ignoring what I consider the most fun part. I just really wish there was a way to turn off NFL comparisons. And that list of sleepers and overrated guys.

Anyone in the NFL will tell you that you can never draft a sure thing. I remember when Robert Gallery was considered the most sure thing in the draft, and he has been mediocre in Oakland, certainly not the player they thought they were getting. There are too many sure things in NFL Head Coach. I want more uncertainty. I never want to know exactly how good a guy is when I draft him, only how good he's likely to be. I'm not going to hate the game if I draft some busts. It's a part of the NFL, and right now drafting a bust would actually be refreshing.

[eaglescrzy]

what i do to make the game hard, and this actually makes it really hard to turn a bad team around, is to trade away/cut all players with "bad" personalities, like superstar, headliner, etc. and when you pick up FAs and draft players, avoid these people, and if you draft one by accident,cut or trade them

[kcarr]

remember, when ryan leaf came out everyone thought he had more potential than peyton. Had this game been created with the year that class came out he probably would have had like a brett farve or john elway comparison. How did that work out? If it was really so easy to see that he wasnt going to produce as scouting him one week in college and comparing him to a weaker qb, would anyone have drafted him that high? no. Same with tom brady. If one week of scouting could tell most teams that out of all big school QBs in the draft, he was most comparable to some other great QB, do you think he would have been drafted in the 6th round? never. Also, this one week, at most 5 if your gm sucks, but whatever, it doesnt just scout one player but one third of the players in that position. This makes it way to easy to find steals