A Few New Attribute Stats

[havokeff]

So I'm watching the Sunday Night Football game last night, and being a 49er fan, I was both elated and devastated throughout the various parts of the game.

Opening drive and overall beginning of the game and the first quarter, Alex Smith looks fantastic, then towards the second quarter he looked just OK.
Obviously in the third quarter and the beginning of the fourth, he looked awful and then in the end of the fourth, he looked amazing again.

So as I was loading up Madden last night I began wondering what attributes I could change to make Smith's more reflect this real life inconsistency.

As I went through, I realized that there wasn't really anything to change to reflect this.

You can't just change Awareness, because, obviously, Smith's AWR isn't his only his problem. Is it his accuracy? No, not really, he was making pinpoint throws last night, even under pressure.

Then I realized that I already figured out the problem... inconsistency, or I should say, Consistency.

This is the attribute that is missing from Madden.

Someone like Smith would have a CON rating of 45-65, flashing moments of being great, but having just as many of being horrible. Matching that with his Accuracy and Awareness attributes, you almost have a complete picture for a QB like Alex Smith... but there is still a piece missing.

Composure. When Smith was under extreme pressure last night, he made dumb mistakes. If you say that Smith has a Composure rating of around 70-80, you explain how he can sometimes collapse under pressure.

As a comparison look at someone like Peyton Manning.
Manning would have a Composure rating of 95-99, where it would take extreme, consistent pressure, hits and sacks for him to get rattled.
He would also have a Consistency rating of 95-99, where his attributes are always reflected in his play.

To take this further, look at someone like Brett Farve. He obviously still has a canon, and still has great accuracy and is there really a defense that he isn't Aware of? He shows great consistency. Yet, you also know that he can get rattled.

So a QB like Farve would have great physical attributes, yet have a CON rating of 85-90 and an even lower Composure rating while still having the AWR and throwing attributes that someone that is about to throw his 500th TD pass has, yet still reflecting why that same guy has the most INTs of all time.

What this equates to is having a realistic differences between the great QBs, the good QBs, and the mediocre QBs.

To break down...
Manning: Extremely consistent, great composure, great AWR and throwing stats.
Farve: Good consistency, average composure, great AWR and throwing stats.
Smith: Average consistency, average composure, average AWR and throwing stats.
Jamarcus Russell: Bad consistency, bad composure, poor AWR, a great throwing power rating and poor accuracy ratings.

But that last entry to the list there, along with Farve, got me thinking about arm strength and the fact that there is only one attribute dedicated to it, while accuracy has 5. (counting Play Action)

There is more to arm strength than just how far you can throw it. There is also has fast the ball gets there. Velocity. People like Cutler, Farve and Elawy(in their prime) not only could huck the ball 70+ yards, but they can/could missile it in there.

You could even add Release into the mix if you want to get a complete picture of the true QB in the NFL. Arron Rogers would have a 95-99 REL rating while someone like Tim Teebow would have a 45-55 REL attribute.

Moving back to the first two new ratings I proposed, Consistency and Composure, these easily can apply to every player.

Someone such as Ray Lewis would have a 95-99 CON rating, so that even though, he may not have the highest tackling rating in the game anymore, he isn't going to miss tackles because he plays so consistent, just as he does in real life.

Look at Ray again, his composure is unparalleled. He doesn't make stupid plays just because his team is down, whereas a young player may get a late hit call or unsportsmanlike or take a chance that backfires when his team is down because of a lower Composure rating.

Now you can look at this and say; "Well the Tackling rating itself has built in consistency, the lower it gets the worse the tackling is, or the more tackles that get missed or broken."

Now this is certainly a valid way of looking at it, and it may even be the way Madden works, but the way I look at it, tackling should denote the technique of tackling, i.e. whether or not a player squares up and makes good tackles as opposed to diving or arm tackles.

If you combined the Tackling rating and the Consistency ratings, you get a more complete picture of a defensive player so if you have a player like say Patrick Willis who has a 99 Tackling rating and would hypothetically have a 99 Consistency rating, you are almost never going to see him miss a tackle or have someone break a tackle on him in game, just as in real life.

Take Darrell Revis. He would have a 95-99 CON rating that would equate to his very high Man and Zone coverage along with his AWR maintaining the high level through a game and season that we have seen in the NFL.

Move to the other side of the defense of the Jets for a contrast in Antonio Cromarte. Great physical skills as well as great Man and Zone play (in real life) yet he is obviously inconsistent. So while he may have the same physical stats as Revis, the say, 65-75 CON attribute is going to reflect on the field with Cromatre being a far more vulnerable target than Revis.

The only other rating that I feel is missing is Leadership. If there is going to be a stat like 'Swagger', which is a complete intangible and in now way measurable, yet is clearly identifiable when seen, then Leadership should certainly be an attribute.

Again, using Manning as an example, he obviously has a 95-99 rating. Farve also has demonstrated a similar 'rating'. Alex Smith? Not so much, and would have say a 55-66 LDR attribute.

Leadership should reflect just that. The ability of that player to lead his team and bring them together and rally them if and when needed, but I may be getting into more of an RPG setting with this one.

So my proposals to The Madden team:
COM: Composure
CON: Consistency
VEL: Throwing velocity
REL: Throwing release speed
LDR: Leadership

I feel like these additions, or similar attributes would give a more complete picture of every player, and consequently every team and give a far better representation of the real life NFL and it's players.

[PGaither84]

I agree. Alex Smith is far more accurate that his ratings imply. He makes bad choices "at random." He has bad instincts. When things break down and he starts to panic and his mechanics go out the window, he will fumble the ball, sail passes, throw to spots of the field where there are only 3 defenders, that sort of thing. When he knows what he is doing, he can throw passes on a rope.

What EA needs to do is blatantly steal ratings from ESPN 2k5 to go along with their own.

PRC - Pass Read Coverage [could be awareness]
SCR - Scramble [could be throw on the run]
LDR - Leadership
AGG - Aggressiveness
COM - Composure
CON - Consistency

Now, madden does have short/medium/deep throwing accuracies. Madden has man and zone coverage tratings, a press and release rating, trucking/elusiveness/spin move/and stiff arm for running the ball, catch in traffic, power move, spin move, block shedding, run/pass blocking strength/footwork and impact blocking. All of these are ratings that 2k does not have. I am glad. However, we still need more, like you mentioned and what I showed above.

[I_Tyler_Durden_I]

I like the idea. A couple of days ago, I thought a SNAP - Attribute would be cool, too. This Attribute would be important for Centers and Long-snappers. Snaps under center should only be affected very little so we see a fumbled snap from time to time. But Shot Gun snaps could sail over the QBs head sometimes (they had that feature in the NCAA 10 Demo), depending on the rating of the center.
The biggest benefit would be seen in special teams. Bad Snaps would give the blocking team a chance to get to the punter/kicker at least sometimes.

[Palo20]

Quote: Originally Posted by havokeff

So my proposals to The Madden team: COM: Composure CON: Consistency VEL: Throwing velocity REL: Throwing release speed LDR: Leadership .

That was well thought out. I'm not sold on consistency though. As you mentioned, I think it's built into the ratings. If I play with Alex Smith, he'll make some good throws, and he'll make some bad ones. There's his consistency.

Release speed for a QB is HUGE, but I think it should be built into the QB's throwing motion. Once I heard that Madden '10 was using custom motions for QBs, I instantly thought of Byron Leftwich and his borderline wind up. It is very poorly represented in the game. It should take him much longer to release the ball, while guys like Peyton and Romo should get rid of it quickly. I don't think they need a rating, just the proper animations.

Tebow is obviously a good example of this as well. He has very good arm strength and in the preseason, he made some very accurate throws. His problem is of course the long release. So in Madden, if his long release is duplicated, he will need to anticipate throws a split second earlier than most QBs.

In real life, I can see Tebow having some success against man coverage. The CB doesn't have his eyes on the QB, and he showed he can throw the deep ball, back shoulder fades and other types of routes against man coverage. The problem is gonna be zone coverage when all defenders have their eyes on the QB. The holes will close quicker and Tebow will have to be more precise.

[CommonBeatz]

No need for a QB throwing release attribute or a consistency attribute for defense.

Tackling + Awareness + Play Recognition + Pursuit = Consistency

Now if only Madden put more of an emphasis on those 4 attributes than maybe LBs would play the way they are supposed to.

[Dewie12]

They could use a lot of attributes and animations to differentiate players....

[JohnnyNutman]

i always believed that there should be more "personality" based ratings. composure, leadership, intelligence, aggressiveness. consistency isnt really needed as composure makes it redundant.

i think fifa added personality traits in their latest installation. i think it would help make franchise mode more realistic. players that lack composure (TO, haynesworth, moss etc.) would cause trouble more often, while players like manning would always be working hard (i guess u would need separate on field/ off field composure ratings).

[canes21]

Doing what yo described in the main post would add an element of personality Madden has never seen. I am all for the ratings, but knowing EA, they'd be broken or work in strange ways.