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

[ProjectRipCity]

Adjusted player ratings huh? How bout fixing glide catches and the actual physics of the game? For example a 5'4 150lb guy should not be able to tackle a 6'6 350 reguardless of skill in tackling. Unless in someway he tripped him..lol.



Pay attention to this.

Im not buying and I wont let any of my closer friends buy until the intelligent gamers on this forum say this is a quality game. Sick of all the eye candy gimmicks

[JMD]

Quote: Originally Posted by Ian_Cummings_EA

Hey guys, we thought it would be a perfect time to share something that I am personally very excited about for Madden NFL 10. We took each and every rating in the game (over 50+ player ratings) and scaled them up/down in a way that is now using much more of the scale. I like to describe it around the office like this…”We basically stretched out the ratings.” We want to use more of the numbers so we get a bigger, more noticeable affect in the game. Let me give you guys an example….in Madden NFL 09 all of the WR’s Route Running ratings ranged from 62-99. In the current Madden NFL 10 build, WR’s now check in from 35-99. To counter this on the defensive side, all CB’s in Madden NFL 09 had a Man Coverage rating which ranged from 64-99. Now in Madden NFL 10, CB’s Man Coverage range is currently 40-99. Every position and every rating has been re-scaled to expand the range of numbers we are dealing with. The Overall Rating for your average NFL player has dropped. Your Joe Average linebacker who was 80 OVR is now dropped down to 70. The players who were before right on the cusp of 90 in a rating category are now down around 85-88…Meaning, there are fewer superstar players out there. Before, where you could maybe get by throwing to your slot WR who had 93 SPD, with 74 ROUTES, and 77 Catching…now in Madden NFL 10, that guy is going to have like 91 SPD, 60-65 ROUTES and anywhere from 65-70 Catching. Let me tell you, these rating drops make a big difference when that slot rookie WR with 90+ speed now drops every 3rd pass or so, or just simply cannot get open. The superstars have not been affected however, this is intentional. Peyton is still 99 OVR, Patrick Willis a 99, Larry Fitz is 99, etc. The elite players at rating categories have not been affected either (JaMarcus Russell still has a 98 Throw Power and Chris Johnson still rated 99 Speed). [Side note: One of my personal goals is to have the actual NFL players in Madden NFL 10 look like their real-life counterparts and play to their strengths and weaknesses like never before in a football video game.] Speaking of the Speed, which is always a hot topic, we made some major changes with the infamous SPD rating as well. To give you a great example, I will again go back to WR and CB. In Madden NFL 09, the WR SPD range was 85-100…CB was 87-99. In Madden NFL 10, WR SPD range is currently 70-100…CB is currently 75-99. So as you may or may not tell, the SPD range has been pushed down, in our opinions, to better reflect the “sim-gameplay” style that Ian and Phil have been telling you about all winter long. This SPD change has been updated for each position, so it makes a huge game play affect. Ian and I had a game the other day where Earnest Graham broke one up the middle for a 55 yard touchdown run… and he could not be caught!…E-Grahams’ Madden NFL 10 current SPD rating….80 SPD. That should give you a good sense of what is possible with the new ratings. It’s not all about having the 90+ SPD anymore. On this particular run, Ian’s CB’s got hung up against some blockers and all I had to do was beat one safety and Graham was gone! He had Brandon Jacobs and his 85 SPD breaking some long runs as well. On the flip side of bigger/slower backs, Chris Johnson is absolutely lethal right now. You can actually get him outside with sweeps now and he is a beast to stop. But again, we are constantly tuning the gameplay, we have an entire team dedicated to that and they are some of the best people we have in the building. So there you have it, player ratings are in for a major overhaul this year and I am really excited already with the impact they are having on the early builds of the game. And rest assured, we are well aware of the outside impacts this will have….Rookies will now come into the league based on the new ranges, NCAA Import guys are being tuned as well…Progression has been accounted for as well to better reflect breakout stars and burned-out former stars. Meaning, we want to have bigger jumps in OVR this year, both positive and negative. That’s all for now, probably gave away too much already! Would love to hear any feedback about this big new change in the way we do player ratings. I’d be happy to answer any questions regarding the new rating ranges….please no individual ratings questions, not answering those! Stay tuned for more Madden player rating related blogs in the future! - Donny Moore – Madden NFL 10 Designer

This sounds great, but I have a question. Once you guys are done tweaking the game and testing it is there any chance a few people from the forums can get some hands on time with the game before it goes gold? There are a few guys here like LBzrule, to name one, who have great football knowledge and I think it would be great for guys like him to get to play this game before everything is set in stone.

Grab a handfull of these guys and put them in a room for a full day and let them have at it. I think they could give fresh insite to the game and what if anything needs to be tweaked before it's is completed. Don't take this the wrong way, I have full confidence in the EA team, I just think some fresh minds that have not been working on the game for months can provide a different point of view.

I'm already sold, my copy of Madden 10 is pre ordered and paid in full.

Just a thought.

[adembroski]

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.

The way it works in HC coach is a bit different from Madden.

The players have the same set-in-stone numbers as Madden when it comes down too it, but rather than sifting through all that, you are giving numbers in several over-arching categories as it relates to your team's philosophy. I've seen players go from 70 overall to 90 overall just by changing your team philosophy.

The way this works is it takes the numbers and plugs them into a weighting system based what you are looking for. For example, if you like to platoon runningbacks, a back wont get as much credit for having a high stamina rating. If you like power backs, speed backs will be heavily under rated.

The players specific numbers... speed, agility, awareness, catch, tackle, etc... don't change. Just the way the numbers fit into the overall and the categorical ratings (this is things like Physical, Mental, Intangibles, and Potential).

If you decide you prefer scrambling quarterbacks, Donovan McNabb is going to be higher rated than, say, Ben Roethlisburger. On the other hand, if you like big pocket passers, Big Ben will be the higher rated.

The nice thing about this system is the way it affects computer logic. The computer's moves are governed by a team roadmap system that tracks pretty much every player in the league and tells the computer what their best option at that position is. You can use it as the player as well. You go into QBs, for example, and it'll list all available QBs in order of their overall rating according to your philosophy, and how they are available (ie. upcoming draft, already on team, free agent, or on trading block).

So if you've got a fairly average pocket passer starting, but there's a better one available, that one will be listed ahead of who you have there.

It's a really robust and very well thought out system... and it was designed by the same guys who are working franchise mode this year, so you can understand we Head Coach fans' excitement at their assignment to that post.

As far as I'm concerned, if ALL they do is bring over Team Roadmaps, I'll be happy with franchise for the time being. It alone made the computers free agency and draft logic infinitely better than what we've seen out of Madden.

[yvesdereuter]

I havent looked at all 31 pages but would kind of like to know if the dreaded speed rating hit for players imported from NCAA is still going to be in the game.

And like someone else said, this has to be done well, otherwise it could fail miserably and make SPD more important.

[cowboysfan440]

Quote: Originally Posted by Cryolemon

Even players with speed burner in APF are slightly different speeds.

may be true but between guys with the same star grade at the same position that both had speed burner i didnt notice a difference

[Donny_Moore]

Quote: Originally Posted by JMD

This sounds great, but I have a question. Once you guys are done tweaking the game and testing it is there any chance a few people from the forums can get some hands on time with the game before it goes gold? There are a few guys here like LBzrule, to name one, who have great football knowledge and I think it would be great for guys like him to get to play this game before everything is set in stone. Grab a handfull of these guys and put them in a room for a full day and let them have at it. I think they could give fresh insite to the game and what if anything needs to be tweaked before it's is completed. Don't take this the wrong way, I have full confidence in the EA team, I just think some fresh minds that have not been working on the game for months can provide a different point of view. I'm already sold, my copy of Madden 10 is pre ordered and paid in full. Just a thought.

Stay tuned my friend...

[Donny_Moore]

Quote: Originally Posted by yvesdereuter

I havent looked at all 31 pages but would kind of like to know if the dreaded speed rating hit for players imported from NCAA is still going to be in the game. And like someone else said, this has to be done well, otherwise it could fail miserably and make SPD more important.

Yes, NCAA Import draft classes will be tuned. I actually might start up a new thread and ask the community how they would like to see speed treated in regards to NCAA import guys.

I will explain how the logic currently works, and maybe we can all come to some sort of consensus.

[SHO]

Would it be too late in the cycle to implement some sort of HC-esque feature that adjusts a players' rating according to the team's offense/primarily defensive philosphy?