This is where I am willing to help and have tried. I have been successful with some owners who are now contending in every league they play in. But also I have noticed owners in leagues that don't do well that aren't in all the usual leagues.

Retaining them without changes will be difficult. The biggest I could think of is a game manual of sorts that explains everything somewhat explicitly similar to this http://onlinecollegebasketball.org/rules

There are help videos, but I haven't watched a one simply because I normally am not able to. If you are managing your team you probably are able to read a text document which is why I think it will be more helpful to new players than the current videos.

I’ve played a few months now and I’d say only the last month after certain managers reached out I’ve started to think I’m doing okay . I think some newbies feel abit stupid reaching out to managers but in one league I think I messaged about 7 managers for help and about 5 replied with tips . If the new managers see this , just message some people and most are more than helpful .


I think a big part of the game is the discord channel in some leagues . You don’t realise how active some leagues are compared to others so it’s about finding the right league too .

Legend ruthless you’ve helped me a lot the last month or so and always been patient even when I go on and on about things I don’t understand so thanks again ????

On the topic of retention, games in this genre aren't super popular because people usually like to feel like they're controlling their performance. This game does a good job of alleviating that by having a customizable ruleset, but the default game plans and player weights are straight-up trash. There's a very steep learning curve, plus a new player can join a league with experienced owners and get absolutely stomped on for a couple seasons before giving up. And this is the real issue with retention -- it's very likely that new owners will spend their first few seasons getting the **** kicked out of them by experienced owners, rather than competing against other similarly-skilled owners.

On the topic of game planning, the main issue is the lack of actual customizable plays leading to a playbook filled with mostly bad plays and a small list of "premium" plays. New owners are presented with a large playbook without any real direction on how to formulate a game plan, so they often select these trash plays that wouldn't work even with the best roster against the worst roster. Experienced owners have had time to see which plays are good and which plays are trash. The inability to use long pass plays (due to the high effectiveness of a 4-man rush) is 0.4.6's biggest flaw, since even many of the medium passes do a great job at punishing OLB Flat Zone spammers.

With the 4-man rush able to continually create sacks on long passes, unbeatable strategies emerge. To wit: flat zone + run keying, or blitzes with pass keying. Flat zone destroys short passes (a key element of winning in 0.4.5, which is why flat zone spam was the first meta in 0.4.6 ), and blitzes destroy everything else. So this leads to 3 kinds of defenses: flat zone spammers, LB blitz spammers, and clueless owners who play zone. Flat zone is beatable by certain runs and medium passes (long passes would be great if they could withstand the pass rush). LB blitzes are beatable by short passes and outside tosses, especially those with RB flat routes. And zone coverage is beatable by basically anything (except long passes, which are unusable due to pass blocking deficiencies).

The end result is that there are currently about a dozen owners who use only premium offensive plays and one of the two main defensive strategies, and many others who are starting to copy us. As more and more people have figured out these premium plays, parity should increase. However, those who figured out premium plays early tend to be those who have a better understanding of roster building and player valuation, so that advantage still stands. So we've ended up where we are now: new owners get turned away by getting stomped by experienced owners, and experienced owners lose interest from the lack of variety in strategies.

With this perennial advantage to experienced owners and emergence of a small set of winning strategies lacking in counter-play, most newer people quit. New versions of the engine can fix the counter-play issues at the top level of competition, but new player retention will continually suffer without opportunities for them to feel successful.

retention of players wasn't much of an issue 3 or 4 years ago. The game was probably just as flawed then as it is now - except that it was fun. Can't remember for certain, but 4.2 or 4.3 was a more enjoyable game than the current 4.6. It was common to have 400 yard passing games and 42-35 final scores. The biggest flaw then was your QB would get fatigued in the late 3rd quarter and if you set the fatigue level to have him replaced - the backup would be cold and ineffective.

Bring back that version, correct the fatigue issue with QBs and this game would retain more owners and attract new ones.

While I have always been impressed with the level of complexity this sim has attempted to create, I was not around long enough ago to experience the “simpler” versions. The stagnation of 4.6 could be a case of something where “less is more”. I have mostly been pretty competitive in this version, but I definitely play an old school grind it out kind of gameplan not necessarily out of choice, but simple lack of effectiveness for everything else I try. I don’t even fill up my 40 or 30 play game plans anymore, and even with 20-25 plays in each there’s only a half dozen real options that are consistently useful.

My thought is if the simulation rolls are making most of us suffer, if there was something that would open up the playbooks to create better mismatches or actual situational strategy I’m all for it. The caveat to that being any time a broken play or mismatch is discovered, the gamer community will expose and exploit it to no end. Playbooks need to function in a sort of “rock, paper, scissors” cycle where everything is beaten by something, but that something is nuetralized by something else and coming back around full circle to prevent any one set of “alpha” plays like we have now.

I feel the same way about 4.5 which was still around when I joined mfn. It was flawed, yes, but it was so much more fun and enjoyable to game plan.

The simplest and quickest fix JDB can make to help new owners is to adjust the default player weights to something that truly measures each player.

Default player weights directly influence trade scores and A.I. contracts are signed according to the default player weights.

I remember when I started, I used default player weights and thought I was building a solid team until digging deeper.....once I edited my player weights....I realized I had sign garbage to long term deals and traded away superstars for pennies on the dollar.

This doesn't fix everything but at least new owners won't get fooled into want players are really good and which are fools gold while also preventing the predatory trading that goes unchecked in many MFN-# leagues with no active league admin.

I've been pushing for JDB to come up with a APP for MFN. This would instantly broaden his user-base and the current 300 owners in MFN can rate the game for him to attract new players.

Unfortunately, I feel JDB doesn't want to do that now so essentially we the few who play now are his beta testers until he finally comes up with a version he feels is ready for prime time.

I have 3 leagues I run and I try to retain owners by adding content not available in every league. I stay full for the most part but feel the noose tightening for sure.

I see a day in the future where only 1 page of leagues exist....the best of the best....with just the hard-core MFN owners playing.....I hope I'm wrong!

I'm in the position where I don't accept brand new owners into my leagues....I tell them to play in MFN-# leagues for 30 days to get the hang of it plus invite them to ask me any questions so I can help but I've invested way to much time and energy into my leagues to have a new owner destroy a francise out of ignorance or simply lose interest after a few days

In my point of view, Mcbolt55 nailed it:

"My thought is if the simulation rolls are making most of us suffer, if there was something that would open up the playbooks to create better mismatches or actual situational strategy I’m all for it. The caveat to that being any time a broken play or mismatch is discovered, the gamer community will expose and exploit it to no end. Playbooks need to function in a sort of “rock, paper, scissors” cycle where everything is beaten by something, but that something is nuetralized by something else and coming back around full circle to prevent any one set of “alpha” plays like we have now."

Look, in the end this is a game and not work. A game should be fun, even if you dont spend hours a day trying to exploit the latest bugs in gameplaning. Yeah, i say bugs, because it is what it is. Are there those superior plays in real live football? Are we seeing NFL games where maybe 5 to 10 playcalls are used, because they are so much butter then every other play?

I think there shouldnt be plays that are superior to other plays, only plays that fit your players better and plays that are relative good to counter other plays. So, playing all deep shouldnt be a good idea if your QB is Chad Pennington! Oh and there should be a huge penalty for both, overuse of plays and one dimensional play. In the NFL the teams have about 66% to 50% of pass plays called in a year. There isnt a team that calls 80% or more pass plays every game, and they dont do it because it wont work!

Be more realistic. I dont need hours to know that a gameplan where i play exclusivley run or pass dosnt work. I know it because i did see a football game before! I dont nee hours to know that accuracy (as example - i know that it is important here too) is a good thing for QBs. I know it because i did see a football game before!

Getting that edge in gameplaning isnt about strategy, its about identifying bugs and using them to your advantage. That isnt fun, that is work. And if im expected to work i expect to get paid. That is the reason why i dont want to play in leagues other than roster only.

My playbooks typically have 36-38 offensive plays and 28-30 defensive plays and the majority of them do well. But the key is I believe most plays can work if you have the right personnel. There are obviously some plays that are dominant no matter what but others can be very good as well.