Madden: Editing Player Ratings in Franchise - Need Your Thoughts

[khaliib]

Most folks edit player ratings for gameplay according to their perspective. I know you guys hate this, but what NBA 2k11 player editing feature does is allow for players to be edited to perform to what the gamer sees on real TV.

We are at the point were all sports games player editing needs to be at this level because of so many perspectives about what looks "Realistic". This would mean that Madden would need ratings to be broken down even further so that it affects what a player does (Ex. WR preference for hand or body to catches).

Unlike college, NFL players do not need to have all ratings applied to them because only a handful of players change positions in the Pro's due to the money involved and roster size available. So have raings only for positions they are being payed to play. If someone wants to try a guy at another positions, let all ratings outside of mobility ratings remain unkown.

Get rid of the OVR and Potential rating.
Potential should be changed back to "Team Importance" because it really does depend on the scheme/philosophy the coach utilizes and how that player fits in (Ex. C. Johnson would'nt fit into a power/pounding type of running scheme, he wouldn't last which minimizes his importance to such a team).

OVR is only a visual cue that really has little value. A 65 rated QB w/C.J. speed/quickness will always be better/most wanted than a slow 90 rated QB. Speed will always be "King" in football video games.
As in real life, you will always put the player in that will help you to accomplish your scheme/goal.

Also, the OVR prevents you from utilizing the lower end of the 1-99 scale because it is accumalitive driven.
I think 90 ratings should be reserved for Elite guys (P. Manning, J. Rice, W. Payton etc...) whose career play over serveral seasons has put them there. Putting a C.J. or even D. Jackson in the 90's in such a short NFL career just takes away from the meaning of ratings to me. I would create levels that are stat driven that as they continue to perform, they go up or down a level over the course of their career (90's=HOF, 80's=All Pro, 70's=Starter, 60's=Backup, 50's=Depth Type, 40's=Bust)
**It would help with deciding value and what type of contract to offer.
**Injuries would finally play a role, as missing games causes them to drop and need to relook at contracts.
**It would allow a bonus (fan support, sales--ala B. Farve) to be applied to team.


Athletic abilities should represent across the board, not different for each position (Ex. 75 speed for TE is different than a 75 speed DE) or (STR for DB's should be different from those on OL)

Things I would like to able to edit:
**Would really help to be able to +/- global position edit like in NBA Live 10**

Arc and speed of QB throws, because the field size is not represented properly (for visual purposes, I think) which allows out routes to be zipped from opposite side hash mark with ease. (Make field wider PLEASE)

Be able to edit color scheme of teams (uni's and field) like in College Hoops 2k8. Would add a nice visual wrinkle to be able to adjust colors w/out losing the audio commentary attached to the team.

Able to change stats of players in Draft which would help drive the draft projection of a player.

just my thought on some things.

[t-mac357]

We should be able to edit 99% of all we could edit. They should take a page from 2k, if a user wants to mess up his franchise mode let them. The ability to edit is really important though.

[bcruise]

Quote: Originally Posted by t-mac357

We should be able to edit 99% of all we could edit. They should take a page from 2k, if a user wants to mess up his franchise mode let them. The ability to edit is really important though.

Ian already explained that Sony and Microsoft won't let that fly.

http://www.operationsports.com/forum...03-post18.html

[jyoung]

One other roster issue:

Instead of the generic "LOLB" and "ROLB" labels,

I would love to see linebackers classified by scheme (3-4 vs. 4-3) and position (weak-side vs. strong-side).

The skill set needed for 3-4 LBs (blitzers) is totally different from the 4-3 guys (more coverage-oriented).

Ditto for weak-side LBs (usually lighter, athletic guys who pursue well) and strong-side LBs (stronger guys who take lead blocks head on and have to shed them).

The same philosophy can be extended to how defensive linemen are sorted.

3-4 linemen are mostly stationary space-eaters.

4-3 linemen are lighter and are usually involved in more twists and stunts.

This kind of classification system could be used to replace the useless "overall" rating.

[hobbes2d]

Quote:

There are countless "cheesing" things that the user can do like dropping your player ratings right before the off-season, signing him to the cheapest deal possible, and then setting him back. Your save file can easily be rendered non-functional if you change enough CPU team's player's ratings where they can't re-sign any players. At this point the mode typically crashes or hangs and won't be recoverable from. We also don't display that potential rating in the edit player screen now, and if you were to edit the actual player's overall rating to be higher than his potential rating, the game has a chance of crashing in many different spots. We'd have to add it in and always force it to be higher than the OVR I guess. So I need help from you all... Please comment and be specific about what exactly you NEED to edit. What is your overall specific intent with wanting to edit these players? Are there certain time frames we can lock it to? Are there certain specific changes you could only be allowed to make instead of full league-wide control? By reducing the amount of variables we can look into finding ways to make this happen. Unfortunately allowing the user to set every player in the league anytime from a 0 to a 99 is not going to be an option because of all the instability it will cause...and we just don't have the testing man-power to ensure that the mode won't start crashing all over the place.

I have multiple comments for why the hardcore Madden gamer wants to edit players:

First, I think it's important to allow people to have the ability to tweak the game to their liking. The idea that so many tweaks can cause the game to crash and Sony/Microsoft etc won't allow you to release a game with known crashes sounds like a load of BS to me. Especially when they have released video game systems with known defects and most games are released with multiple bugs and serious crashing issues at launch.

Frankly I don't think it's the consumers problem if you're not able to find fixes for such issues. Especially if you're not capable of putting in things that were in Madden 6 years ago on an older system.

If editing so many players causes problem for CPU controlled teams signing their own players then perhaps maybe you guys need to focus on what issues plague the overall Free Agent signing system in your game. How is it that the FA system can be so random? And why are borderline bench players asking for obscene amounts of money in franchise mode? Is there a way you could maybe tailor the contracts towards player production instead of player rating? Or maybe the player ratings need to be tweaked as well.

One of my issues and therefore needs towards being able to edit player ratings is how off kilter the ratings themselves often are. Take Vernon Davis for example, he is one of the best TE's in football right? But he's not as good as say Dallas Clark or Antonio Gates. Those guys should arguably be the top rated TE's in the game. However, because of Davis' physical ability and his speed/strength etc ratings if I go to tweak him to be a better blocker or tweak his route running or something just a little bit too much and suddenly he is rated on par with them. So for me personally I'm always attempting to tweak and get the most accurate ratings possible when I go into my franchise so that I can have an accurate representation of the league, and frankly I don't think it's too much to ask to allow us to edit all of the players in the game and edit other aspects of the game as well. If something was allowed in old generation Madden, then it should be in Next Gen as well, and there should be improvements made upon those features as well.

Also, another big reason gamers like to edit things or player ratings is because they like to create fantasy teams/players/leagues or historical leagues/players/teams as well. For years I have made my on roster sets of classic rosters in an attempt to relieve or make new history with Madden and great teams of the past. There is a big interest in this not just for Madden but most sports games. Just look at the interest NBA 2K11 has garnered with their classic teams and Jordan mode for proof. Or MLB the Show's roster creation forum. There is tons of interest in the ability to create and mod the game to our liking. And those games aren't crashing and having huge issues with that ability.

Another reason is for accurate draft classes and being able to tweak those players as well. I'd also like to advocate for maybe an EA Locker type of share system (not sure if this has already been discussed or planned for Madden '12) so that people can share roster files, sliders etc. The same for the ability to edit draft classes or make your own draft classes even if you don't own NCAA Football as someone suggested above sounds like a great idea as well.

I guarantee that the more customization is implemented and allowed for the fans the more people are going to want to continue to play your product. I know countless people that have completely given up on Madden entirely because it has been missing so many features that it use to have or should be capable of having. If these things return and you continue to take our input to heart, I believe those people will come back.

Thanks for your time and interest into our concerns/comments Ian.

[hobbes2d]

Quote: Originally Posted by wEEman33

One other roster issue: Instead of the generic "LOLB" and "ROLB" labels, I would love to see linebackers classified by scheme (3-4 vs. 4-3) and position (weak-side vs. strong-side). The skill set needed for 3-4 LBs (blitzers) is totally different from the 4-3 guys (more coverage-oriented). Ditto for weak-side LBs (usually lighter, athletic guys who pursue well) and strong-side LBs (stronger guys who take lead blocks head on and have to shed them). The same philosophy can be extended to how defensive linemen are sorted. 3-4 linemen are mostly stationary space-eaters. 4-3 linemen are lighter and are usually involved in more twists and stunts. This kind of classification system could be used to replace the useless "overall" rating.

Having multiple player types per position and having each team philosophy have specific player position philosophies might be able to tie into how those players are rated as well. Like in Head Coach '09. If I had a 3-4 ILB type and tried to run a Cover 2 defense, his rating and potential would drop significantly. Couldn't this be a possible solution?

[ryan36]

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[patsfan188]

well im pretty sure in the ps2 days players progressed based on how they were doing. Like this RB Collier got drafted by the Browns 3rd overall his overall was 85 and he was supposed to be really good. Then his rookie season he was league leader very good player went up to 92 throughout the season. Then the next 2 years things went downhill for him he got injured then just sucked the next year and was eventually 80 overall. Thats good progression. I then as the Steelers picked him up off RFA ( Please add this in Looman RFA'S) and made him my starting back. He had a pretty decent season went up to 84 then had a breakout season for me the next year leading the league with like 1900 rushing yards. He then shot back up to 92 and thats i think as far as i got on my franchise. This was Madden 07 EA! very good game Franchise mode wize.