Player progression ideas

[triplechin]

Hello all, I have seen many people who don't like the XP based progression but haven't found a thread dedicated to the idea, so I wanted to pitch an idea and also hear the opinions of others of course. I believe I saw a similar idea somewhere in the 2K thread a while back so credit to that person as well.

What I believe there should be is some sort of percentage based progression, where a certain player would have a certain chance to be a certain tier.

For example a 70 rated player who has a good chance to be a superstar would be something like 40% 90+ ovr. 40% 80+ ovr. 15% 70+ ovr. 5% 60+ ovr

Obviously for each player it would be different, and i believe if people wanted to incorporate production then promising seasons could increase the percentages of being a higher tiered player?

I am not sure exactly how to do it but perhaps after every season or few seasons, after the player has progressed however the game has determined then the percentages could change somewhat in order to reflect the player's production as well as remaining potential.

This would also work with older players as they have a chance to regress but also have a chance to maintain their skills(Peyton, etc.)

I believe this could add some spice to franchise and would make every franchise different. Perhaps the idea could use some tuning or such but please sound off

[slick589]

I'd really like to see progression based truly on stats.

Something like this: WR gets x amount of catches he gets an x amount gain in catching.

QB completes x amount of passes mid range get x amount increased mid range accuracy.

I mean just something like this for every position on the field

[Helios12787]

I'm still a fan of training options such as in MLB the Show or NBA 2k.

I for one am not a fan of the XP system as it is now because it is fairly easy to make anyone a stud and given enough time / XP everyone ends up being very similar.

WR's for example: Route running and the catch ratings up to a decent level (around 80-85) are VERY easy to get to. The only time the XP starts becoming a "chore" to get is when ur looking to boost stuff from like 88+. This ends up making it so in a season's worth of just decent stats and such you can take a WR with mid 70s catch/cit/spec/route-running and have him end the season as close to and above 80 in almost all the key categories.

Same goes for defensive linemen. If they have that initial strength needed to become a stud lineman all you have to do is up the blockshed / power or finesse move and they can turn into superstars very fast. It isn't until the high 80s in those categories that the XP needed goes above like the 8k mark.

I, for one, would like to see us be able to assign off-season tasks and things to actually practice each week going into a game. Have a wide receiver who had issues with drops work on his hands in the off-season or a defensive end who was a liability in the run game work on his ability to get off the block and such. I would also like to combine this with a stats based progression system that DIDN'T make stat padding an issue.

To do this I would make the XP based less on the game to game stats and more of the actual things happening on the field. If a wide receiver is getting clutch 3rd down receptions consistently or not dropping many passes game in and game out I feel that his ratings in areas such as catch / CIT / clutch should be affected (I also would rather the clutch trait be an actual rating and not a trait). For QB's I think to prevent stat padding being an issue in progression the system needs to be based more on the QB's overall performance (such as TD to INT ratio), or 4th quarter comebacks, or their QB rating instead of how it is now which basically screams TD = XP.

[Kingd803]

Quote: Originally Posted by slick589

I'd really like to see progression based truly on stats. Something like this: WR gets x amount of catches he gets an x amount gain in catching. QB completes x amount of passes mid range get x amount increased mid range accuracy. I mean just something like this for every position on the field

I don't like that at all.

Players don't get better because they play better. They play better because they get better.

But then again ratings don't mean much in EA games. You can take a backup and win the Super Bowl.

[slick589]

Quote: Originally Posted by Kingd803

I don't like that at all. Players don't get better because they play better. They play better because they get better. But then again ratings don't mean much in EA games. You can take a backup and win the Super Bowl.

Yea i guess you are right. I just really hate the whole xp thing. I shouldn't be able to increase my MLBs zone coverage bc he got 150'tackles in the season.

[triplechin]

Yeah maybe to go with the offseason point, you could assign drills/specific focuses and the practices could be more mini-game like in order to speed it up and keep it more interesting

[Jr.]

I was thinking about progression the other day and how OVR impacts how we view players. I think Madden has something in place that would be a good way to showcase how stats can affect a player's OVR without inflating attributes.

The production rating for each player has an effect on OVR in Madden, but the rating increases slowly as it seems to be a career rating, rather than a rating that shows how the player is performing currently.

I think they should update the code for how OVR is calculated to have the production rating be much more impactful. To do that, the production rating would have to fluctuate more based on how the player is currently performing. This would allow a player's OVR to be affected by their stats/production, but would also reflect their ratings/physical ability.

For instance, take a QB like Russell Wilson in real life. In the original rosters, Wilson was rated 74 I believe... in the latest update his OVR is over 80. Madden doesn't allow an increase like that in the game itself because OVR isn't affected by stats (while their roster updates certainly are).

Now, if EA changed how the production rating was calculated, and it's affect on a players OVR, you could have a player in the game who may be rated low to start, but has a great season and his OVR reflects that. His attributes may not have changed much, but you see his OVR based on his production from that season.

The production rating would be based on comparison to every other player in the league and there could be a floor where if the production rating is below 30 (just an arbitrary number to represent a bench player who doesn't get to play), it won't negatively affect their OVR. The rating also needs to tie in how much PT the player gets relative to their stats. So a HB who gets 100 carries on the year and has 600 yards and 4 TDs, their production rating would be better than a HB who had 600 yards and 4 TDs on 200 carries.

I'm no statistician or mathematician but I'm sure there are guys either here or at EA that could put together a good formula to represent these dynamics.

I hope this came out readable and easy to understand. I feel like no sports game has figured out how to do progression/regression properly, but I think something like this could be a good first step.

Thoughts?

EDIT: Also in regards to the XP system.. I'm not a huge fan of it either, so I'd like to see training options/drills that many other sports games have used in order to progress the actual physical ratings of players. If you want your LB to get better in pass coverage, you have him focus on that in drills/training for a season (or however long) in order to improve it.

[Helios12787]

yea Baughn I agree with the fact that production while a good idea currently, has 0 impact on gameplay or anything else in terms of when a user is playing.

It seems to be as arbitrary a number as Overall itself has become due to how it is calculated.

If they could somehow formulate a way to make production itself be the baseline measurable for XP gained (if they do keep this XP system long-term which I hope they don't), I would be a happy camper. It would allow for the more project style players aren't getting bloated XP gains unless they were constantly producing on the field. Would also somewhat give more of an importance to older players whom have high production ratings already.

Currently there's really no point in not going for younger players because as long as u work on the ratings that make veterans veterans (high awareness / play rec and stuff), u basically end up with the same style of players but for a longer period of time.

I think this could further be tied into this arcadey as hell hot / cold streak system that's currently in the game. Have production rating be the main contributor in a player's play game in and game out.