Setting fatigue settings so low (30) may result in poor conditioning which would increase injuries. This also leads to continuous swapping in and out of every lineman.
In fact, would a low fatigue setting actually alert the AI that a player is fatigued which would actually increase injury probability.
I am just speculating but based on my experience, I set my fatigue levels in the mid range, rest injured players as best I can....meaning yeah you can play a probable 4 player but if you can avoid it, it's better in the long run.
My philosophy is that my roster is 53 and I have to dress 46. I will play the 46 healthiest players. It magnifies the need for depth at every position and creating versatile players that can play multiple positions.
Of course, there are exceptions to all these rules. If I'm in the playoffs or need to win a particular game. Let's face it, injuries in game are not realistic.
Last season in the NFL during week 9 of the season the following teams had this amount of players on Injured Reserved which meant they wouldnt be returning during the season unless they sat out 8 games and each team is limited to 2 that can return.
Atlanta 6
SF 7
Cincinnati 8
Philadelphia 8
Carolina 9
Oakland 11
Indianapolis 12
New Engalnd 12
Jacksonville 13
Washington 13
Now these numbers include players hurt in training camp where the NFL teams may have close to 90 players attending and of course NFL teams have 53 active and 7 inactive reserves so the numbers are slightly off. In addition, teams will "hide" draft picks on the IR by claiming they have an injury. Now all the players on the IR arent starters but the majority impact a teams depth. For example, Washington lost 3 running backs which resulted in the signing of Adrian Peterson, lost 2 guards in preseason then 2 more during the same game against Atlanta.
Bottom line.....be thankful that injuries are not more realistic because they are much more manageable in the game.
Some owners lose sight that this game is designed with the "long view" in mind. That means if you are looking for instant success in this game, this probably isnt the game for you. You either take over a team during an allocation draft or take over a preexisting team that most likely needs to be rebuild. In both cases, you can have short term success by either drafting older players in an allocation draft or trading away future picks to fill holes on an existing team but in both cases this can hurt the longterm success of a francise. In reality, building a consistently good francise takes seasons of drafting and signing free agents while managing the cap through the years in order to retain the star players.
While NOBODY enjoys injuries during a season, if you have a great team with a deep roster, it affords you the opportunity to improve the team by allowing the depth players to start, progress and obtain the play knowledge needed to become successful.
Injuries have taught me how to construct a roster. How many O-lineman do you keep on your roster? How many QBs? How often does your QB get hurt during the regular season? I see rosters with multiple K, P and 3 QBs. When I cut down from 60 to 53 players, it is a hard decision because I try to have 3 deep depth at just about every position except QB, P, and K. You should enter the regular season knowing who your 3rd string center is as well who is your 5th and 6th OT and OG is. You should also know who your 4th DT, 4th MLB and 6th CB is.
This game is first and foremost a roster management sim and success in this game is building a deep and versatile roster. Without injuries, this game would simply be who puts together the best 22 starters.
Last edited at 6/26/2019 12:03 pm