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

[mrjordan]

The problem with Madden has been that you could beat your friend with your Lions against his Steelers if you have better stick skills...player ratings do not mean as much as stick stills.

It would be revolutionary to actually have the ratings mean more then stick skills and create a TRUE sim.

If you can do that, I will become a missionary for EA.

[mavfan21]

MUCH NEEDED, great news!


Hate to say this...but it is the same balance that NFL2K5 had. Slower players were noticeably slower, you could tell the difference between a fast and slow player immediately.

[swaldo]

I still like APF2K8 ratings better - so simple and makes it easy to scout your opponent or build a team to the style you want. Tuning gameplay would also be easier that way rather than constantly fiddling with tons of numerical ratings.

[alliance4g63]

Quote: Originally Posted by Donny_Moore

Calvin Johnson should be fun at least. You are talking about an 0-16 team, first of it's kind. I believe the expectation (and rightfully so IMO) from most people who care to dabble in this kind of thing, I think that expectation for the Lions in Madden 10 the video game is for them to be the very worst of all 32 teams in the league. I'm talking clear-cut, 32 of 32. And on paper, aside from Megatron as mention above, the Lions will be pretty bad. Kevin Smith will get a nice bump, he shows signs which is OK, but then you have first round pick Gosder Cherilus....he had a Joe Average year, so he's not much to build around. Ernie Sims is the one nice thing on defense, not much else to get excited about. Name the Lions Corners. See what I mean... Your turn, now you tell me. If you had two average, evenly matched All-Pro Mode players playing against each other....And they went heads up Steelers vs Lions....each getting to be the Steelers 5 times...what would you EXPECT/WANT the Madden 10 results to be? Would you want a 50/50 (5-5) Detroit/Pittsburgh split? A 10-0 Steelers sweep? I have a very strong opinion on this one (as you may or may not tell from this post). Would love to hear where everyone stands on this!

I understand what you are saying here but you also have to take into account the real world vs the videogame world. The Lions in real life could be a player or coach away from being a better team. If I can use my few star players better than my opponent can use his whole team of star players, the win/loss gap should shorten.

Prime example, I used to use the Cowboys in Nfl2k5 while most were using the Pats, Ravens..etc.. Sure I would get those "free" giveaways just because I was playing against the Pats but guess what? I just focused on playing mistake free football and that is how I won the majority of those games. Testerverde couldn't throw more than 30 yards, so guess what? I didn't try to throw over 30 yards.

That is what I feel the previous guys are talking about. I'm already penalized for using a 0-16 team vs the Superbowl champs, we understand that. But if the Steeler user wants to always go for it on 4th down, throw off his back foot, throw into triple coverage, or come out in dime defense when I'm in a Jumbo package, we should win those games easily if we can capitalize on their continuous mistakes.

[thudias]

Quote: Originally Posted by BezO

Absoulutely! Hide them, something, but I hated scrolling through unecessary ratings. And if they do include these irrelevent ratings in the overall formula, they should remove them. I think I'd prefer absolute ratings that stuck with a player from team to team so I could determine his value on a particular team and in different schemes. What exactly governs the ratings? Would that undersized LB have higher ratings on all Cover 2 teams? Will he hold his value if his current team changes their defensive philosophy? Does he maintain that higher value when I run man defenses with that Cover 2 team? Are all of his ratings boosted on teams that value him more? Does he cover better, have more speed, ect? I never played HC if you can't tell.

After an injury, lets say a QB. If you sign one off the street will his overall be at it's lowest point based on not knowing the offense?
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Any player should not be signed off the street and be able to come in and start for a team. (unfamiliar with the playbook, conditioning etc. etc.)
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Answer: Players off the street will struggle coming on to your team if they don't know the playbook. There is a chance they'll make mistakes during the game and they won't play as well as they would if they knew the play.

We have the same core player ratings. What we changed was how the overall rating was calculated. Several grades (like real NFL scouts use) now make up the overall rating. They are Athletic (physical skills like speed), Intangibles (mental skills like awareness), Durability (how healthy a player is), Learning (how quickly a player learns and retains information), Potential (how good the player can get if everything works out in his career) and Size (does the player fit the classic mold at the position). We also use a different system to determine a player's value to the team, which in conjunction with their overall grade, determines how valuable they are in free agency or trades. Value is determined by overall, upside (remaining potential), contract value (is he overpaid, paid just right or underpaid) and playbook knowledge (how much does he know of your playbook).

From HC developer's Q and A thread.

There is actually one that goes into more detail of player value but I couldn't find it.

[youALREADYknow]

Quote: Originally Posted by BezO

And if they do include these irrelevent ratings in the overall formula, they should remove them.

They aren't in the OVR formula.

[RogueHominid]

Quote: Originally Posted by swaldo

I still like APF2K8 ratings better - so simple and makes it easy to scout your opponent or build a team to the style you want. Tuning gameplay would also be easier that way rather than constantly fiddling with tons of numerical ratings.

I agree completely, but it doesn't seem to go over in this neck of the woods. The team is all about differentiating players, but seems reticent to go the signature ability/signature animation package and continues to maintain a fundamental commitment to the numerical ratings system. It is what it is; the difference is not procedural, it's ideological.

[Layoneil]

there are too many players in the NFL for an emphasis on signature ability/animation packages. it's too much work for too little benefit. what signatures will do is pigeonhole players into using only those teams that have signature players.

it's also difficult to apply to franchise mode when you start drafting players. how would they come about getting signature abilities and animations? do they start off with them out of the gate? do they progress into them? how would they progress into them? does every drafted player with a certain stat progress into them? would it be random?