Want a realistic draft class?

[12]

I think that draft classes are huge in helping one sustain and enjoy a franchise for a longer period of time.

I can't stress enough how important this is to me. My hope with this thread is that it will help someone who can't get as much enjoyment out of their franchise as I get out of mine.

It's all about the draft class.

I realize there are problems with draft classes in general and I pray that EA gives more time to these next year. First of all, I believe that draft classes should be FULLY customizable. We should be able to open them up and edit them at will. I was getting extremely frustated at spending hours loading and reloading my draft classes to get somewhat realistic results - and I have yet to still get the 'perfect' draft class, but I am going to give it another try.

If you want a realistic draft class and you have some time on your hands, follow these steps. Also, feel free to add your own if there's anything that I missed...

I will start a new dynasty in NCAA. Before doing so though, I will download Mustangs84 latest roster update. I've seen his work and am impressed with it. He has been updating them all season long so I feel they are the best set to work with (360). I will tinker around with some ratings and change some player's class in order to 'force' players to leave early.

I won't do this with guys like Luck, Richardson, Griffin, Blackmon, etc... The reason for that is because if you change their class to senior, you'll find that they come in sometimes at like 24 or 25-years-old. I would load the perfect class but Luck would be 25 (listen up EA; this is where being able to edit draft class players would be IDEAL).

• I'll edit height and weight for a lot of players. It is sad to have to do this, but without doing so, the player portraits will be pretty jacked up. At Luck's current size, he comes in as (usually) a fat, white bald guy. I will drop him down to 6'3" and 215 pounds because that is the threshold for a 'skinny' or 'athletic' face. I do this with a lot of players such as Trent Richardson, Alfonzo Dennard, Dre Kirkpatrick and a few other QB's. Again EA, this is where it would be great to be able to CHOOSE what portraits a player gets.
• I'll play a few games with some college superstars on ROOKIE so I can have monster games with them. I'm talking about twice per season, I am going to play as Stanford and Luck is going to cheese his way to 900 passing yards and 12 or 13 TD passes. Trent Richardson will have a couple 600+ rushing yard days and eight or nine touchdowns. Justin Blackmon? Congrats on your new NCAA single game receiving record of 750 yards receiving and 10 TD's. Cheese or not, I'm trying to get a draft class here. Having a couple games like this for these guys will heavily increase your odds that they go pro. Perhaps checking their stats through the first few games is not a bad idea, either. I found that Luck was doing just fine on his own and leading the Heisman voting through three games with over 1,400 passing yards and 15 TD's so I didn't need to play as him at all. But doing this and simming the defense is not as time consuming as it sounds.
• For the players who stay in school like Matt Barkley... There's a couple of different options. You can make him a sophomore or just run with USC for your dynasty and convince him to stay if he decides to bolt early to the NFL.

There is no rhyme or reason on when players get drafted. I have not found a formula that works. Luck and Landry Jones always turned out to be projected first rounders, but guys like Robert Griffin and Justin Blackmon were all over the place, from first to seventh round projected picks. I've seen them both as first rounders and both as seventh rounders. It's weird.

So I hope this helps you guys. It doesn't fix the funky player models and equipment (another reason why we should get to edit height/weight, build and equipment) but it will give you a realistic draft class. If I could find a way to upload and share it, I would. I've had very good success with this before but this next attempt will be my longest one yet because I'm looking for the best results that I can get for my 'real' Seahawks' franchise.

Again, if anyone has any other tips or pointers, please post them in here.

[NYfanatic]

sounds great!

[Herky]

This is a good website to use when ranking the players.

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft

I always turn off injuries and fatigue to help guys getting the best possible stats.

Below is a list of guys who officially are going or staying.

Going Pro
USC- OT Matt Kalil, DE Nick Perry

Miami- OT Brandon Washington, DE Oliver Vernon, WR Tommy Streeter, DT Marcus Forston, RB Lamar Miller

Utah State- RB Robert Turbin

Memphis- DT Dontari Poe

Stanford- RG David DeCastro

Oklahoma State- WR Justin Blackmon

Oregon- RB LaMichael James

Staying In School
USC- FS Tim McDonald, QB Matt Barkley

Notre Dame- LB Manti Te’o

Are you going to upload you tweaked version of Mustang's roster to your EA Locker?

I'm interested in checking these out when they are done.

[12]

Quote: Originally Posted by Herky

This is a good website to use when ranking the players. http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft I always turn off injuries and fatigue to help guys getting the best possible stats. Below is a list of guys who officially are going or staying. Going Pro USC- OT Matt Kalil, DE Nick Perry Miami- OT Brandon Washington, DE Oliver Vernon, WR Tommy Streeter, DT Marcus Forston, RB Lamar Miller Utah State- RB Robert Turbin Memphis- DT Dontari Poe Stanford- RG David DeCastro Oklahoma State- WR Justin Blackmon Oregon- RB LaMichael James Staying In School USC- FS Tim McDonald, QB Matt Barkley Notre Dame- LB Manti Te’o Are you going to upload you tweaked version of Mustang's roster to your EA Locker? I'm interested in checking these out when they are done.

This will come in handy; thanks!

My plan is to take some time with this. I would like to spend a couple of hours after work for the next two nights (starting tomorrow) on working on these rosters. The challenge is predicting who will leave early.

Based off of that CBS website, I am going to likely make it so the top 10-12 picks leave early.

What ratings criteria should I use? I am new to this but have gotten good results with past classes I've made, but guys like Blackmon and Griffin still end up as projected sixth or seventh round picks at times. Which is funny, because Luck is always a projected first rounder even though he is rated a point higher in overall rating. Maybe it's due to the fact that his tendency in NCAA is "Scrambling." Maybe if I make him more balanced he will be a projected first round pick in each set? Same principle could apply to Blackmon - but I am thinking that tendencies *might* have something to do with it.

The thing that really bothers me is having to edit sizes. Luck will be 6'3" 215 in my set because that's the smallest he can be in order to not get an offensive lineman's face. Same with other big QB's. For me, I just can't look at a guy that looks like Stone Cold Steve Austin and believe that he is depicting Andrew Luck.

I will throw this set up on EA Locker when I'm done with it. I'll let you know when I get it done.

[Herky]

I've heard if you increase awareness, and the passing attributes to 94+ it will boost QB's into the 1st round.

[PanthersGM305]

I really do hope somebody is taking notes from EA, I mean their CS sucks... I recall , When the season ticket went live i contacted EA to see how do i download this demo game... They had no clue to what i was asking when i contacted them. The i just hit google searched on a blog and found out how to downloaded... not thanks to EA after i paid 29.99 for the ealrly relase of MD12.

[Herky]

I downloaded Mustang's latest file and make some tweaks. Changed Luck's heigh and weight, and adjusted all the QB rankings to reflect CBS's top 15. Adjusted some of the ratings for various players projected to go in the first round as well. Did not touch and speed or acc ratings since Mustang's file used a chart to retune those attributes. Only upped awareness, and other ratings if guys needed to be boosted to reflect where they were to be drafted. Used CBS's projections for these rankings as well.

I also added these guys from non D-1 schools who are projected to get drafted. I just replaced seniors that wouldn't be drafted on various teams. I upped their ratings and used the same speed and acc rating chart that was used on the 360 Community file that Mustang worked on.

CB Janoris Jenkins: North Alabama (Ark State)
WR Brian Quick: App State (Ohio)
QB Aaron Corp: Richmond (SMU)

It's in my EA Locker under DRAFT. Herkyalert is my gamertag. It's not finished but as I just did some minor edits. I tried to get all guys rated 99 in awareness who'd be top picks. I also knocked down the FB's since they really tend to come in projected high. My take in the past was 80 in awareness was tops for a FB, and then I edited down from there.

Feel free to use this as a base if you'd like. If not no worries. I'll post what I am tweaking if you'd like to use anything for your own file. Just trying to make it easier since I've done classes in the past and it's a real pain in the butt to get them as realistic as possible.

Feedback is appreciated by anyone. I haven't tested anything yet and have just keep working on ratings/rankings but will continue to edit this post as often as allowed so it doesn't take away from Apostle's thread. Just check the edit to see if things have been updated.

[12]

Quote: Originally Posted by Herky

I downloaded Mustang's latest file and make some tweaks. Changed Luck's heigh and weight, and adjusted all the QB rankings to reflect CBS's top 15. Adjusted some of the ratings for various players projected to go in the first round as well. Did not touch and speed or acc ratings since Mustang's file used a chart to retune those attributes. Only upped awareness, and other ratings if guys needed to be boosted to reflect where they were to be drafted. Used CBS's projections for these rankings as well. I also added these guys from non D-1 schools who are projected to get drafted. I just replaced seniors that wouldn't be drafted on various teams. I upped their ratings and used the same speed and acc rating chart that was used on the 360 Community file that Mustang worked on. CB Janoris Jenkins: North Alabama (Ark State) WR Brian Quick: App State (Ohio) QB Aaron Corp: Richmond (SMU) It's in my EA Locker under DRAFT. Herkyalert is my gamertag. It's not finished but as I just did some minor edits. I tried to get all guys rated 99 in awareness who'd be top picks. I also knocked down the FB's since they really tend to come in projected high. My take in the past was 80 in awareness was tops for a FB, and then I edited down from there. Feel free to use this as a base if you'd like. If not no worries. I'll post what I am tweaking if you'd like to use anything for your own file. Just trying to make it easier since I've done classes in the past and it's a real pain in the butt to get them as realistic as possible. Feedback is appreciated by anyone. I haven't tested anything yet and have just keep working on ratings/rankings but will continue to edit this post as often as allowed so it doesn't take away from Apostle's thread. Just check the edit to see if things have been updated.

I think it looks awesome, man. You are doing a great job. Maybe you and I could take this beast on and do it together. I'd be honored to do so if you're up for it.

The only thing I noticed is Luck's skin color. I'd really recommend giving him a face of Light 1-9. Anything after face #10 and you're getting a dangerous area of wrong skin color depiction in Madden. That's where a lot of people were getting black Andrew Luck's in their draft classes. It was because perhaps the most accurate face for him was of a face # past 10.

That's just a minor nitpick... I'd also suggest bumping player's sizes down. It sucks to do but guys like Dre Kirkpatrick and Alfonzo will have fat faces on their Madden portraits. Not sure if that's important to you or not, but I like to at least have the portrait believable.

Great work bro...