Basics to making rosters/franchises?

[WWEDX2007]

What are the basics to making ESPN NFL 2K5 rosters and franchises?

I've been told before moving players in-game was bad (not on this forum but elsewhere) but then I found out that Finn's editor doesn't allow you to move players.

Do you take retired players and change them into new players to keep the rosters current? for example, Peyton Manning is retired, but say there are no created player slots free, what's the course of action? change everything about him from photo to position to gear/looks and make him act as another player?

Attributes are also a concern, the most recent rosters by cmew utilize Madden 16's attributes for the players, would that be the best option for stats (aside from judging them yourself?)

Also, sliders, I've been told to play around with the game's sliders until I find it comfortable, but I feel sliders put together by longtime ESPN NFL 2K5 players are better, despite the fact that it's extremely challenging for me.

I'd just like to figure this out because there are not many people keeping the game up to date, and if I could soak up the knowledge, I could keep the game alive by making my own rosters.

[GillBoldberg]

I was actually thinking of making a "roster resource thread" for a while now for anyone who had similar questions to yours and wanted to get started on making rosters. I should probably get that started soon. A few sites that I use and a bunch of old community spreadsheets (as well as some of mine).

Moving players in-game is perfectly fine.

Changing retired players into current players like your example with Peyton is what I do.

Madden ratings are a little high to fit perfectly into the 2K engine. Madden loves to overrate players physical attributes (speed, agility, strength & jumping) so you might want to tone them down if you do go the Madden ratings route.

[nemeckle]

Hey Everyone,
I'm new to roster editing on ESPN NFL 2K5. I hadn't played the game for probably close to 10 years until I stumbled across it in a box in the basement. After finding it and my original xbox I played it for hours. I just couldn't put it down. I have done roster editing in Madden for sometime but decided to set that aside and try my hand at 2K5's roster editor. I am shocked at how easy the editor is to use compared to the one I use for Madden but I do have some questions specifically when it comes to ratings. My plan was to cross the ratings for Madden 18 when the spreadsheet comes out in early august. However I realized when digging through the 2K5 ratings that some of the rating either don't have or I had to guess on the equivalent Madden Rating. So I played with the Madden 17 spreadsheet to come up with a rating scale. I have what I did here. I put the ones I was really unsure about in bold text.
2K5 rating - Madden 17 Rating
Speed-Speed
Agility-Agility
Strength-Strength
Jumping-Jumping
Pass Accuracy-Average of the five accuracy ratings
Pass Read Coverage-Average of pass accuracy and awareness
Arm Strength-Arm Strength
Scramble-Elusiveness (Not sure on this one ex. this gives Russell Wilson an 81 and Cam Newton and 87 while a less mobile Tom Brady a 30)
Leadership-??????? I have no idea any suggestions would be appreciated
Composure-Awareness?????
Hold on to the Ball-Carrying
Run Style-Will have to personalize based on other ratings
Stamina-Stamina
Durability-Injury
Break Tackle-Trucking
Catching-Average of the 3 catch ratings (This gives Jordy Nelson a 94 and OBJ a 95 with a lot of guys falling between 70 and 85)
Run Block-Run Blocking
Pass Block-Pass Blocking
Run Routes-Average of Route Running and Release (Gives OBJ a 93 and a guy like Cordarrelle Patterson only a 67
Run Coverage-Power Moves
Pass Rush-Finesse Moves
Tackle- Average of Tackle, play recognition, pursuit and hit power (Gives JJ Watt a 94 and Mack a 91)
Coverage-Average of Press, man coverage, zone coverage and play recognition (Gives Sherman 92 and Rhodes a 88)
Consistency-Awareness. I know I already used this once but I am not sure what else to use here either
Aggressiveness-Toughness
Kick Power-Kick Power
Kick Accuracy-Kick Accuracy
Before I spend a lot of time putting these ratings in does this look like it would work? If not or it appears good but I should tweak certain things I would love some input from experienced roster makers.I don't want to arbitrarily put ratings in for the ones that don't have an exact equivalent cause I am certain that will result in a terrible roster.

[GillBoldberg]

Quote:

Scramble-Elusiveness (Not sure on this one ex. this gives Russell Wilson an 81 and Cam Newton and 87 while a less mobile Tom Brady a 30)

QB's in 2K5 rarely ever actually scramble which was disappointing. The rating basically measures how accurate the QB is while outside of the pocket. I just used a scale for my rosters.
90 - Elite scramblers (Wilson, Cam, Rodgers to an extent)
50 - Balanced QB's
10 - "Lead foot" QB's (Brady, Peyton, etc.)

Quote:

Leadership-??????? I have no idea any suggestions would be appreciated Composure-Awareness?????

I used another scale here for Leadership, Composure and Consistency
95 - Perennial All-Pro
85 - Pro-Bowler
75 - Solidified Starter
65 - Replaceable Starter
55 - Role Player/Bench
45 - Late Round Rookies/Special Teamer

Quote:

Run Coverage-Power Moves Pass Rush-Finesse Moves

Run Coverage - Average of Block Shed and Pursuit and maybe Tackle?
Pass Rush - Average of Block Shed, Power and Finesse moves?

Quote:

Aggressiveness-Toughness

Aggressiveness is the weirdest rating. I think the manual just says something about how often the player celebrates and bites on play action. But the one position group where it actually affects gameplay is DB's. If you set it too high DB's will do this weird circling ("360") animation before making a play on the ball or receiver. Basically, lower aggression = takes less chances, plays the receiver more than the ball. higher aggression = takes more risks by going for the int/swat. You can check out my thread here (page 25&26) where I discuss my aggression scale a little bit. It's ultimately up to you what you want to use. With DB's I'd probably not go over 50 for aggression.

[nemeckle]

Thanks this helps a lot. Let me ask one more question. In some versions of madden you can't take a edited roster into franchise mode. It just freezes up. Can you enter franchise mode with an edited roster on 2K5 or do you have to start a franchise then edit the roster?

[GillBoldberg]

With all my rosters I've created I've only had my franchise freeze once (sometimes you'll get some slow simulation but not a hard freeze). I just went to one of my backup files and it was working again. So there shouldn't be any problems with it. There are some small issues with franchise mode with a custom roster. Player stats won't clear from the previous season, so sometimes you'll get QB's with 10,000+ passing yards. This usually only happens during year 2-3 then it goes back to normal. There is a work around but it's touchy. The other issue is you'll sometimes have QB's become kick returners. This happens on the default roster too. You can use the editor to fix the depth charts but it is a bit annoying.

[nemeckle]

The last time I opened the editor it said that the Ravens have a not typical position kick returner. Would that be that issue? Is it possible to update the depth chart in the editor or in game only?

[Culture Rot]

Always happy to talk ratings. Lots of misconceptions about 2k ratings.

Scrambling has nothing to do with elusiveness. Nothing. It controls how far and accurately the we throws the ball when on the run and doesn't set his feet. It has no effect on scrambling or sim stats.

Aggressiveness controls risk taking at all positions a so as omeone mentioned for a defensive back it means going for swats and Ints

I was also disappointed to find that many ratings do not matter. For example in 2k3 ( and imassuming 2k4), putting qb accuracy at 0 doesn't matter. He can still make all the throws any other QB can in game. It does effect sim stats. This can be tested in practice mode on any difficulty. there is this myth that 2k football has always had this incredible respect for the player ratings that was superior to maddens. Not the case. About half the ratings work as described. The rest are useless or a complete question mark.

Putting the QB arm strength at 0 makes the QB do a slow wind up before throwing long. That's about it. 60-90 makes no difference. Every QB can throw for same yardage.

Leadership gives an attribute boost to teammates ok same side of the ball. Higher the leadership the higher the boost.

Composure in 2K and Awareness in Madden are not similar. Composure has to do with how well QB throws in the face of pressure and also how likely he is to take off running in face of pressure