I’ve noticed we’re almost down to just two pages of leagues on the available leagues page.

We seem to be losing tons of owners. 4.6 is obviously tough, but what can be done to keep people playing?

I personally will offer my knowledge to newbies and anyone struggling to get their franchises rolling.

Anyone else have thoughts?

At this point I think word of mouth is the only viable option to grow the game. Sure, we need to keep the players we have but we also need new blood too. Even then, why would they stay? I have no idea how much time JDB spends on this but I don't think it's very much. We need too many things fixed and it seems too much for 1 man to handle.

Some people have mentioned possibly buying MFN. They're probably joking but at the very least I think JDB needs help. Wish I could be more positive.

I understand. I’m sure someone in here would be willing to help. The game as is, isn’t that bad. Just a few tweaks needed. The “problem” with this version is it’s difficult and takes time to figure out. I think most people don’t want to put in the time. 4.5 had Setherick’s notes to jump right in and be competitive.

New blood is definitely needed. It’s difficult though to find people who want to put in the time for this game.

I think most people don't have the time to put into "figuring out" this engine. Most of us have jobs and families and no time to sit going through pages and pages of forums and game logs just to get an edge. I'm also not really sure why an engine needs to be "figured out." Shouldn't it be one game plan vs. another? Not just spams and nerfs? Why does one need to "figure out" the code just to be successful? Shouldn't the code be as neutral as possible?

It just feels like this sim suffers from lack of competitive gamesmanship. Nearly every owner runs the exact same plays. It's literally just spamming at this point. I get that's it's tough to code something like this as one person, but it just feels like we've never played a finished product and that's a bit frustrating to me.

The game, as is, feels pretty bad to me even when compared to 4.5 (which felt more natural and realistic). You can be a champion by using one play on defense in 4.6. How is that NOT bad? I got into MFN for the game planning aspect and, boy, is game planning ever boring in 4.6.

It's no surprise why leagues are closing at a dramatic rate. 4.6, despite the promises of parity from its champions, has only widened the gap between elite owners and the rest. It's hard to get new owners in here when they're getting beaten by 50+ points every week by elite owners who have "figured out" the code.

Many wiser than me said 4.6 would most likely be the end of MFN and I that's certainly the direction we're headed in right now. The only thing that will save it is for someone who has the time and dedication to improve it buys it or if we get an engine that improves parity. It's hard to find new people who want to put time into something that feels broken or incomplete.

My biggest issue with 4.6 has always been that it's not fun because of the lack of diversity on offense and the absolute steel trap that a good defense can become. In 4.5 I would have 35+ plays selected, but now as I trim plays my offenses all of a sudden are moving the ball better. You can not call bad/subpar plays offensively, because next thing you know you call two of them and there's a great chance you're going three and out.

I never understood the parity argument. The best owners are the best because they put the time in to know the game/get the right players/game plan better, more than everyone else. The engine change at best, disrupts one of those three tenants a good owner is built on and even then only for a short while.

Truthfully I'm playing one or two more seasons in almost all my leagues and then dropping down to the three leagues I enjoy the most. You want a good defense? Get some 4-3 defense, call the flat zone and sprinkle some blitz 2 plays in there along with a dime 2 deep for the passing sets. You want a good offense? Call only the 203/113/212 runs, and use only like 12 passing plays that target your RB on a flare or an out breaking route. Do those and now you get to play the best part of the game, did I pass/run into their blitz/no blitz?

You hit the nail on the head there with both defensive and offensive improvements. If any newer owners see this, AG's advice is a good place to start. I'm with you though -- going to drop down to 2-3 leagues after some of my seasons finish out.

Your right. The best owners are the best because of that and not the engine nerfs. Still, though, most of the owners I've known who've stayed for a year and then left have done so because they felt they'd never be able to be competitive against elite owners. At this point, mfn is pretty much the diehards. Not a lot of new blood coming in.

I just complained a lot so I do want to offer what I think could improve the game.

Add better offensive plays or fix the current plays. Generally runs are bad because your RB runs straight into a DL or an unblocked LB. Not sure how easy that would be, but you could always implement FoV for RBs so that they can see and hit an actual hole. By change long passes pass blocking to not be so abysmal you can call those plays without wondering if you're getting sacked or an incompletion. Just slightly tone done the jamming at the LoS to open up passing more in general.

Fix the code so that blitzing LBs don't just come in free. You're running to the weakside and not a single person blocks the WLB. Not the LG, FB, or a pulling RG who all will run right past him..

I'm sure there is a problem with this as well but use some standard distribution for player's speed based on position. There should not be a single DB/WR draft-able who have less than 60 speed. "Anybody" can make it to the NFL but generally those anybody's are people athletically in the top 1% of the population somehow

I like the idea of a FoV for the RBs, that could really open the field up and make the running game feel more realistic.

I agree with your first point about offensive plays, AG. That has been my biggest beef with MFN from the beginning. There are many formations and plays available that I never see used (for obvious reasons). Why not remove certain formations and experiment with others? Personally, I'd like to see more spread-type formations, maybe even pistol.

I agree there are issues. Specifically with offense and with defense. On defense you can run OLB Flat Zone only and be a solid defense.

With offense it takes probably too much effort to build what feels like a normal offense. By normal I mean 4000 yard season for QB and 1000 yard season for RB and WR (not TE).

The point of this thread though, was how can we keep newcomers until 4.7 hopefully resolves some of these issues?

The only way I see would be for veteran owners to help them out either through PMs or pointing them to certain forums and threads.