How will Draft work?

[njssurf]

are we picking?
is ps3 picking?
thanks

[djKianoosh]

we're going to use the built-in online features.. according to Q&A's with the online franchise guys at EA, the league commish has the ability to start and stop the draft and also sim through parts of it, I believe.

So we do need to discuss how we're going to break up the draft. We may set it up like the real NFL and break it up and do a certain amount of rounds each day over the course of a few days. Considering we have people all over the country, deciding on a time will be difficult, so we pretty much have to go into this knowing that not everyone will be happy with the start time. but it's like fantasy football drafts. you set a time and either you're there or not. done.

I'll throw out a start time of 9pm EST if it's a weekday. that usually is good enough for west coast people to get home if they know of the draft day in advance. if we're starting on the weekend, we could start at 1pm EST on saturday, go for a few hours, and then break and restart the draft sunday at the same time. however many rounds we end up going through depends on how fast we pick and how much customization the feature provides.

So my suggestion for the group, and for the sake of discussion, is this:

Start draft on a Saturday at 1pm EST & proceed until 4pm EST. Pause draft.
Continue draft on Sunday at 1pm EST & pause live draft at 4pm EST. Simulate the rest of the draft (if that's an option, I hope we can confirm this).


I think if we time-box it like that, we'll get through the draft with the least headaches and get into the season pretty quick. Discuss:

[djKianoosh]

how do y'all feel about the draft suggestion I made in the previous post? let's discuss and bring out other options. and if needed, I can post a poll and we can vote on it. Otherwise, I think this scenario might work best and get us into the thick of things the quickest..

[njssurf]

I'll throw out a start time of 9pm EST if it's a weekday. that usually is good enough for west coast people to get home if they know of the draft day in advance. if we're starting on the weekend, we could start at 1pm EST on saturday, go for a few hours, and then break and restart the draft sunday at the same time. however many rounds we end up going through depends on how fast we pick and how much customization the feature provides.

I wouldn't mind if we did the new NFL draft set up.

- Day 1 Thurs. night 9:00 pm est Rds. 1-11
- Day 2 Fri. night 9:00 pm est Rds. 11-22
- Day 3 Sat. Morning or Night est start Rds. 22- thru finish.

I work Mon thru Fri. and am in School Sat and Sun.
I have a hell schedule and will just get someone to draft off a list for me if i cant make draft.

Thanks

[ramsballa]

I wouldn't mind if we did the new NFL draft set up.

- Day 1 Thurs. night 9:00 pm est Rds. 1-11
- Day 2 Fri. night 9:00 pm est Rds. 11-22
- Day 3 Sat. Morning or Night est start Rds. 22- thru finish.

I work Mon thru Fri. and am in School Sat and Sun.
I have a hell schedule and will just get someone to draft off a list for me if i cant make draft.

Thanks

This would be great to do it this way...

[djKianoosh]

I wouldn't mind if we did the new NFL draft set up.

- Day 1 Thurs. night 9:00 pm est Rds. 1-11
- Day 2 Fri. night 9:00 pm est Rds. 11-22
- Day 3 Sat. Morning or Night est start Rds. 22- thru finish.

I work Mon thru Fri. and am in School Sat and Sun.
I have a hell schedule and will just get someone to draft off a list for me if i cant make draft.

Thanks

only problem there is how long do you think it would take going through 11 rounds!?! that's a whole lot of rounds to go through.

another suggestion that RJ brought up is to actually simulate the entire draft in this first season. he gave some good reasons for it in another thread.

and yet another idea is to conduct the first 5 or 10 or 20 rounds of the draft and then simulate the rest. it's similar to the first suggestion up above, but if we say we'll draft 22 rounds then everybody has a chance to draft their starters, then let the autodraft fill out everyone's teams.

[njssurf]

only problem there is how long do you think it would take going through 11 rounds!?! that's a whole lot of rounds to go through.

another suggestion that RJ brought up is to actually simulate the entire draft in this first season. he gave some good reasons for it in another thread.

and yet another idea is to conduct the first 5 or 10 or 20 rounds of the draft and then simulate the rest. it's similar to the first suggestion up above, but if we say we'll draft 22 rounds then everybody has a chance to draft their starters, then let the autodraft fill out everyone's teams.

_ Not sure how long draft would take.
So my 1 thru 11 and 11 thru 22 was to get starters.

_ I do like simulate first draft to get ball rolling and let the trades begin!

_ Also drafting 1 thru 22 then simulate rest of draft is fine with me.

_ Or we could draft 1 thru 5 thurs night. 5-11 Friday night and simulate the rest.

I just hope new Franchise draft features are easy.

[Skinsman 68]

Can the Commish pick for another team or does the team owner actually have to make the pick manually himself?

If the Commish can make picks for other teams, then maybe what would make sense is for each owner to submit a list of like their Top 100 players, in their order of preference, and let the Commish (or Commishes) run the drfat that way?

I am not too fond of simulating the draft. I would rather say we all get together as best as we can one weekend, knock out as many rounds as we can, and then Sim what's left over. You can give guys a certain time limit within which to make a pick, like the real draft, and then auto-pick.

I suppose a lot depends on the built in features in the game and what sort of pre-draft settings each owner can make.

[njssurf]

Can the Commish pick for another team or does the team owner actually have to make the pick manually himself?

If the Commish can make picks for other teams, then maybe what would make sense is for each owner to submit a list of like their Top 100 players, in their order of preference, and let the Commish (or Commishes) run the drfat that way?

I am not too fond of simulating the draft. I would rather say we all get together as best as we can one weekend, knock out as many rounds as we can, and then Sim what's left over. You can give guys a certain time limit within which to make a pick, like the real draft, and then auto-pick.

I suppose a lot depends on the built in features in the game and what sort of pre-draft settings each owner can make.

Last season you could list players 1 thru whatever and then simulate draft.
hopefully this feature is still there.

[Skinsman 68]

Last season you could list players 1 thru whatever and then simulate draft.
hopefully this feature is still there.

Actually, you could only set your preferences per round and an alternate preference based on the position you wanted. The game then picked the player for you. I think this years game lets you select an actual player as opposed to listing a preferred position.

[djKianoosh]

from what I understand the online franchise draft is designed to be very similar to a typical fantasy football draft. that is to say, if you're not 'present' the computer will pick for you based on your pre-ranking. now, supposedly, we'll be able to draft via the console, a website, or an iphone app. not having seen any of the three, we'll have to wait and see.

btw, i think it would be too much work for one or two people to know what everyone wants and draft for them. we're talking 53 rounds x 32 teams. that is 1696 draft picks in total. that would take quite a long time.

I like the flexibility everyone is showing so far. let's get more people chiming in and hopefully EA will release the online franchise website before the game comes out so we have a chance to take a look at it.

[djKianoosh]

Here's the link to the EA Q&A that talks about online franchise and I'm quoting the parts about the draft here...

http://www.maddentips.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=101

Q: How many rounds is a fantasy draft?
A: Fantasy drafts pick an entire 54 man roster. So the draft lasts 54 rounds.

Q: 54 rounds!?! Man, that sounds like it could actually take an entire weekend to finish.
A: We’ve done some things to help you get around that. First, we give the commissioner the ability to change the time per round to draft. Once you get past the first rounds you can set the pick time to as low as 15 seconds per pick. Secondly, the CPU teams rapid fire pick. We realize nobody wants to sit around for the CPU to pick, so that takes up little to no time each pick. Finally, we actually give the Commissioner the ability to “pause” the draft at any time. This means you can pause it one day, and pick it back up at some later point to continue.

Q: What about if I cannot make the live draft…Is there any way to pre-rank my players?
A: Yes, we allow you to pre-rank your players in the event where you cannot attend the live draft. This is set up in a similar way to fantasy baseball or football leagues. You can pre-rank each position with the players you want; in the order you want to draft them. This applies for both NFL seasonal drafts and fantasy drafts.

Q: Can I draft from my PC?
A: Yes, you can draft from the web using our Madden NFL 10 online franchise application or from your console, and members of your draft can be mixed on either platform. I believe this represents the first time in EA Sports history that a player on a console can be directly interacting with a player on the web…which for us is a huge win. This is a great example of how a server-based architecture allows us to do features we never really were thought possible before.

...

Q: What kind of options does the Commissioner have at his fingertips?
A: The commissioner is integral to the success of your online franchise. Just like in Online Dynasties, if you have a commish that forgets to advance the week or doesn’t control his owners, the league might fail. To accomplish this, we give the commissioner several different options:
- Boot Player – The commish can boot any unruly owner at any time. Any CPU team can be replaced by a user team (or vice versa) at any time.
- Promote Player – The commish can promote any other owner in the league to commissioner in the event where the commish goes out of town or is unavailable.
- Settings changes: Skill Level, Quarter Length, Fatigue, Injuries, and Accelerated Clock.
- Post News – The commish can post news to the console so all owners can see what is going on around the league.
- Add/Drop – As explained above, the commish can manipulate rosters to more realistically create off-season player movement.

[Skinsman 68]

Here's the link to the EA Q&A that talks about online franchise and I'm quoting the parts about the draft here...

http://www.maddentips.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=101

Great stuff man.

It makes it somewhat easier. I think we pick a date that the majority of the owners can live with and try and get as much done as possible. If an owner cannot be there, then he can pre-rank his preferred players and at least that will give that owner a pretty good shot at getting the player he wants.

We should also pick a point where we just say enough and let the CPU sim the rest of the draft. Like after the 20th round or something like that.

With all of the various ways to access the draft, I think getting it done in like a week, at most, should not be too terribly hard. Honestly, delaying the start of any season by say a week would not be a big hardship, especially if it helps get people a team they will be comfortable with.

If I have to be the Browns, I at least want them to be somewhat decent:D

[njssurf]

Here's the link to the EA Q&A that talks about online franchise and I'm quoting the parts about the draft here...

http://www.maddentips.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=101

Thanks!
With the Pre-ranking i could be on the moon and I'll still draft a better team than Ramsballa, DSF and KGS!
:D

[bfox]

- Day 1 Thurs. night 9:00 pm est Rds. 1-11
- Day 2 Fri. night 9:00 pm est Rds. 11-22
- Day 3 Sat. Morning or Night est start Rds. 22- thru finish.

I like this format, except I doubt many people would show up for the later rounds. Which would be good for an auto draft at that point unless the cpu gives some teams like 5 kickers and punters like it did last year.

Maybe there should just be a limited number of live draft rounds, then auto draft from there to add a little balance. And if somebody doesn't want to draft they can just live with what the cpu gives them.

I just want the ability to select my starters and backups for both sides at minimum. I'm gonna be loading up on a few positions too so I'll have to consider that if there is only a certain number of live draft rounds, which makes things more fun in my opinion.

[ramsballa]

Thanks!
With the Pre-ranking i could be on the moon and I'll still draft a better team than Ramsballa, DSF and KGS!
:D

Here's my team in FML so far...we'll finish after game is released:

QB: Byron Leftwich
http://footballnationblogs.com/files/2009/04/byron_leftwich.jpg

QB: Chad Henne
http://phinphanatic.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/henne.jpg

RB: Jamaal Charles
RB: Derrick Ward
RB: Shagg Makino (baby AP)

FB: Tony Fiammetta

WR: Randy Moss (Supa Freak)
WR: TO
WR: Percy Harvin
WR: Louis Murphy
WR: Mike "mighty mouse" Thomas (5'8" - 95 spd)
WR: Marko Mitchell

TE: Greg Olson
TE: Shawn Nelson

LT: Marvel Smith (6'5" 321 lbs)
LG: Marc Colombo (6-8" 318 lbs)
C: Paul McQuistan(6-6" 315 lbs)
RG: Langston Walker (6'8" 366 lbs)
RT: Jon Stinchcomb (6-5" 315 lbs)

LT:
LG:
C:
RG:
RT:

DE: Leonard Little
DE:
DT: Tommie Harris
DT: Ron Fields
DT: Sione Pouha
DE: Kevin Carter
DE:

LOLB: Demorrio Williams
LOLB: Coy Wire
MLB: Keith Brooking
MLB:
ROLB: Chad Greenway
ROLB: Gerald McRath

CB: Rashean Mathis
CB: Antonio Cromartie
CB: Antione Cason
CB: Darrick Brown
CB: Justin King

FS: Tyvon Branch
FS:
SS: Brian Dawkins
FS:

K:
P:

[ramsballa]

only problem there is how long do you think it would take going through 11 rounds!?! that's a whole lot of rounds to go through......

Assuming, everyone takes the full 5 mins X 32 = 160mins/round. If everyone shows up, the min would be 30 minutes per round (if everyone picks immediately when its there turn). If we extrapolate a little, we may can do a round in 2 hours...Hence, an 11 round first day draft may be lengthy. We may want to cut it to 5 rounds.....?????

But if everyone shows up, have done their homework, we could breeze through it...???? The clock could be set at 2 mins....???

[Skinsman 68]

Assuming, everyone takes the full 5 mins X 32 = 160mins/round. If everyone shows up, the min would be 30 minutes per round (if everyone picks immediately when its there turn). If we extrapolate a little, we may can do a round in 2 hours...Hence, an 11 round first day draft may be lengthy. We may want to cut it to 5 rounds.....?????

But if everyone shows up, have done their homework, we could breeze through it...???? The clock could be set at 2 mins....???

Or what about the possibility of everyone just pre-selecting their picks by a certain date and then the league Commish just runs the draft, which would essentially involve hitting the "Draft" button. If everyone pre-selects their preferred players, people will get the team they want, more or less. Sure, it would not be perfect, but it would save some time.

Just throwing ideas out there.