Madden NFL 10 Blog: Player Ratings - A New Philosophy, A New Era

[krc1130]

Quote: Originally Posted by rgiles36

I disagree here. While I CERTAINLY don't want to see a slew of 99-rated players, picking apart some of the elite player's weaknesses and trying to use that as justification for not being rated at the top of the scale is wrong. For example: Tom Brady, until proven otherwise, is the best QB in the NFL in my opinion. Some people want to point to that SuperBowl loss and say that pressure makes him struggle. I don't know of any QB's who can consistently pass the ball with pressure and hands in their face. With that said, if he was rated a 99, I wouldn't bicker one bit. I'd argue the same for a couple players on your list. I don't think a 99 rating suggests that a player is PERFECT all across the board.

Charlie Ward back in the good ole FSU days.

Now, I'm really happy to hear this news! Keep up the good work

[FootballDetails]

Quote: Originally Posted by Donny_Moore

Teams and players will play to their strengths and weaknesses like never before. That is my personal mantra for 10.

Fantastic!

Can't wait to see how all this affects the Wildcat formation! (Notice the confident assumption that the Wildcat will be included.)

[Donny_Moore]

Quote: Originally Posted by kcarr

first, as far as whether there should be 99 ovr players. It depends on what you consider 99. If you take it to mean perfect in their position then no, noone is there. If you take it to mean a top notch player compared to others in the league today, there should be a few. If you take it to mean at the top level of any who ever have or will in the foreseeable future play then it could be questionable but there would probably be a few. Second, another concern from me. While they are out there lowering players ratings I hope they don't just lower every average player's ratings across the board. you shouldnt just take a players and because he was an 80 overall lower everything drastically to where he is a 40 overall. What I hope they do is actually look closer at the ratings so if a guy is an 80 ovr with 98 speed, 80 catch, and 78 route running for instance you probably wouldn't lower speed or maybe just lower it one or 2 but then you would lower route running to like 35 and catch to like 37 maybe. That way you get some real variety to your 40 overall players. Also, that way players who are rated 40 overall can still help their teams in the way they do in real life and can still succeed in those ways. A good example of this would be someone likie devery henderson. Among the top of the league in drops, misses some easy passes with pretty bad regularity, doesn't run good routes, but he can catch the deep ball decently well and he is dangerous with the ball. He had crazy yards per catch this year and a really high percent of his passes went for 20 or more yards and for 40 or more yards as compared to the rest of the league. I figured those numbers up once and posted them somewhere but I cant remember what they were exactly. Just because he becomes like a 40 overall I dont want to see him become completely worthless. He should still be able to do what he does in real life

We are very much taking all the ratings into consideration. I have not done this to one single rating or one single position (blanket, across the board lowering of ratings). So while I do go in and have the intent to lower a particular rating, for a particular position...I do so by hand, for each guy and each rating.

Painful yes, but it really needs that level of attention IMO. Every single NFL player is unique and has his own set of strengths and weaknesses. You can't just go in and say Minus 10 for every player. Doesn't work like that - if you want to do it right of course!

Dev Henderson is a great example...He is super fast (95+) but his CTH and ROUTES are completely average to below average. He might be able to get deep every once in awhile, but this guy is going to falter if you try and make him your #1 and give him 10+ targets a game. He is simply not going to perform with 55 rated hands and 50 rated routes (not sure off top of my head what Devery is, but that is close).

Roy Williams the Safety is another great example...He has Linebacker quality run stopping abilities....Block Shedding, Tackle, Hit Power..But his Pass Coverage skills are very poor in Man Coverage and Zone Coverage.

That is the one thing I ALWAYS look for when creating a player for the first time, creating their ratings. I want to know, what is this guy best at and what is he worst at.

[XtremeDunkz]

Donny i'm not sure you are the right person to ask or if you can even go into this, but in Madden 09, as soon as you got pressure on a cpu QB he would just get rid of the ball no matter what making it almost impossible to get a realistic number of sacks against cpu teams in franchise. Has this been fixed?

[ch46647]

Donny, thanks for answering these questions it is very interesting. I have a question of my own, are you gonna put a large emphasis on the QB position this year? All QB's tend to play the same in Madden minus the throw power. IMHO it is extremely important to put major effort into the QB position. (The most important position in sports)

[DLaren]

Quote: Originally Posted by Glorious Arc

DONT bring the progression system from head coach into madden. Head coach killed the ability for players to grow that deserved to grow.

I disagree. I can understand why someone may not want the maximum potential rating from HeadCoach to make it into Madden'10, but the process that HeadCoach used to assess progression & regression absolutely needs to be in Madden'10 in my opinion.

I found the developer breakdown of how it works for those who may be wondering...

Quote: Originally Posted by Dan Bekins

Now for progression. 1. Progression is based on a player's actions in practice and the game. A cool thing about HC09 is that we use the SuperSim engine for all CPU practices and games. SuperSim is a *very* detailed simulator, so essentially every action on the field is simulated for every player. Each time a player makes a play, he will receive some progression points based on that play. For example, say a running back makes a ten yard run and breaks two tackles along the way. The run might contribute points to his speed and carry ratings, while the broken tackles might contribute to his trucking rating. Once a player accumulates enough progression points for a given rating, he will level-up that rating by 1 point and start over. All players have a maximum potential for each rating, and once they reach that potential they will no longer level-up regardless of how many progression points they accumulate. There are a few things that affect how many progression points a player will receive for each action. Players with high learning abilities will receive more progression points. These guys will reach their potential very quickly. Players that report to a skilled coaching staff will receive more progression points. The point multiplier is actually compounded as you walk up the chain of coaches. For example, a running back reports to the RB coach, then the offensive coordinator, then the head coach. If all three coaches are highly skilled with running backs, he will progress extremely quickly. 2. Regression happens at the end of each season, and is based on a player's age, career phase, learning ability, and career health. Basically a player's ratings and max potentials will be lowered a bit once he gets toward the end of his career.

[IanCummingsFriend]

How will teams such as the lions be able to match up against the steelers with the new rating system? Won't people just use dominate teams more often online now?

[Sef0r]

Quote: Originally Posted by Donny_Moore

We are very much taking all the ratings into consideration. I have not done this to one single rating or one single position (blanket, across the board lowering of ratings). So while I do go in and have the intent to lower a particular rating, for a particular position...I do so by hand, for each guy and each rating. Painful yes, but it really needs that level of attention IMO. Every single NFL player is unique and has his own set of strengths and weaknesses. You can't just go in and say Minus 10 for every player. Doesn't work like that - if you want to do it right of course! Dev Henderson is a great example...He is super fast (95+) but his CTH and ROUTES are completely average to below average. He might be able to get deep every once in awhile, but this guy is going to falter if you try and make him your #1 and give him 10+ targets a game. He is simply not going to perform with 55 rated hands and 50 rated routes (not sure off top of my head what Devery is, but that is close). Roy Williams the Safety is another great example...He has Linebacker quality run stopping abilities....Block Shedding, Tackle, Hit Power..But his Pass Coverage skills are very poor in Man Coverage and Zone Coverage. That is the one thing I ALWAYS look for when creating a player for the first time, creating their ratings. I want to know, what is this guy best at and what is he worst at.

Are you at all worried about the progression calculation possibly breaking all these ratings changes by my 2nd or 3rd season?

My 65 Catch, 65 Route Running WR might become a 85 Catch and 95 RR in his 2nd year because of how the progression works in the game.