Madden NFL 11 News Post

Madden: Editing Player Ratings in Franchise - Need Your Thoughts

10:57 AM - November 22, 2010 by Ian_Cummings

So Josh Looman and I looked into this a bit this morning and I thought I'd post back some results.

Good News: It's very easy enough to 'unlock' the screen to allow someone to edit everything about their players in Franchise mode. Took like 10 minutes to do.

Bad News: Unfortunately, there are about a million things that can go wrong with this unlocked. Now I realize what you all will use this feature for which is to fine-tune progression and try and get extremely realistic stats, but here are just a few of the things that came up when we messed around with it:

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.

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# 121 Palo20 @ 11/29/10 12:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jbrew2411


	Hey Ian, please show the NCAA team how to do this so we can get it in NCAA 12. Much needed in both games.

Co-sign this as well.

# 122 Ian_Cummings @ 11/29/10 11:49 AM

Thanks everyone for all the great feedback.

I am currently leaning towards some sort of setting (or maybe even hidden button combo) that would 'unlock' the screen and allow you to edit everything about a player.

Of course there is no guarantee that this may or may not happen...you all are well aware of how unpredictable development can be. I'll be sure to let everyone know as the year moves on.

# 123 mm boost @ 11/29/10 12:33 PM

This is great Ian, thank you. Thank you for taking the time and listening to us EA supporters!

The only thing else I want to be able to edit is the player models. Peyton Hillis on Madden 11 looks like an aids patient. Look at him in real life he looks like a body builder. Just a small example. Another example is Igor Olshansky for the Cowboys. He looks like a defensive back, not a 300 lb wall. These types of things could be changed easily by us if you just give us the option, and would make SO many people much more happier. We have gotten to the points today where we just want you guys to make gameplay as good as possible, give us enough features to keep us wrapped up, give us premier presentation, and then give us the OPTION to make the game how we want. We don't need you guys spending hours per individual player making them perfect. If we have the option to edit everything about every player (size, muscle build, skin tones, facial hair, equipment options, etc.) then we can make the game how we want it on an individual basis, and we, the consumers, would be perfectly happy and would keep spending the $59.99 each year. Keep it up Ian!!

# 124 Vizen @ 11/29/10 01:31 PM

So, is this a feature for Madden 12 or will this be a patch for 11?

# 125 michapop9 @ 11/29/10 01:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ian_Cummings_EA


	Thanks everyone for all the great feedback. I am currently leaning towards some sort of setting (or maybe even hidden button combo) that would 'unlock' the screen and allow you to edit everything about a player. Of course there is no guarantee that this may or may not happen...you all are well aware of how unpredictable development can be. I'll be sure to let everyone know as the year moves on.

Thanks Ian, I know you get a hard time from alot of folks (Ive been one of them) but this is greatly appreciated and the type of thing thats been missing from madden that will greatly improve the experience for many, thanks. Ive got my fingers crossed that it does work.

# 126 roadman @ 11/29/10 01:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vizen


	So, is this a feature for Madden 12 or will this be a patch for 11?

I'm sure they are moving forward on 12. They've had 4 patches for 11, two more than usual.

# 127 Beeks @ 12/01/10 01:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ian_Cummings_EA


	Thanks everyone for all the great feedback. I am currently leaning towards some sort of setting (or maybe even hidden button combo) that would 'unlock' the screen and allow you to edit everything about a player. Of course there is no guarantee that this may or may not happen...you all are well aware of how unpredictable development can be. I'll be sure to let everyone know as the year moves on.

Thanks for the update, Ian.

I can't say it enough, and it's been said countless times in this thread, but cheaters are ALWAYS going to find ways to cheat, but please don't use that as a reason to limit those of us who want more control, especially when it comes to offline gaming.

# 128 chunt04 @ 12/01/10 04:47 PM

I think we need a feature to edit the draft classes coming into our franchise (much like what NBA2k has in place). I am tired of people with great speed in NCAA 11 coming into the NFL Draft in Madden 11 and running a 4.6 40. The ratings either need to directly reflect the ratings of the players in NCAA or we need an option to edit this ourselves before the draft in the off-season. This needs to be addressed because it ruins the realism of having draft classes imported from NCAA.

# 129 Tengo Juego @ 12/01/10 10:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PGaither84


	Short Answer: I want to be able to change a player's position, equipment, jersey number, and physical build while in franchise mode. I want to change a player's ratings outside of franchise mode if i disagree with Donny's ratings, along with that player's potential outside of franchise mode for the same reason. A perfect example is how EA has every first round draft pick an A potential player except Tim Tebow. I want to change that. Being able to change a player's position and equipment is a big deal to me and something that puts Madden apart from 2k5. When I go back and play 2k5 I miss not being able to make these changes.

Bold and underlined text is where I stand. I want franchise to properly do the potential, contract extensions, signings, and year-to-year increase/decrease in ratings on it's own, well. I'll never be a fair enough judge to decide this for players. Although, I totally agree with giving the user this option. I'm not sure it's even possible to create a system or scale for these things that someone wont object to.

# 130 rooney8 @ 12/02/10 06:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ian_Cummings_EA


	Thanks everyone for all the great feedback. I am currently leaning towards some sort of setting (or maybe even hidden button combo) that would 'unlock' the screen and allow you to edit everything about a player. Of course there is no guarantee that this may or may not happen...you all are well aware of how unpredictable development can be. I'll be sure to let everyone know as the year moves on.

I almost forgot. An chance of an option to hide player ratings in this unlock screen should it happen. 75% of 263 people here said they would use it.

# 131 MCNABB51BOI @ 12/02/10 11:45 AM

SPREAD THE RATINGS BACK OUT less all stars and freaks more role players

# 132 iAM-IncReDiBLe- @ 12/02/10 01:30 PM

Yes make sure commissioners only can do this in online franchise.

# 133 Kegthaplaya @ 12/02/10 02:12 PM

I think a lot of problems could be solved by adding three sliders. One for progression (for how much better a player can get), one for what causes progression (have 0 be potential, have 100 be preformance, and those who want both can set it to 50), and one for regression. This would allow everyone to fine tune the ratings in a safe way.

The progression is drastically inflated, so many players get too good too fast. Combined with such talented draft classes (seems like 11 has more a rookies and higher rated rookies then 10 did), and the lack of regression on anyone aside from Mike Vick (why is he cursed to failure!?) player ratings get a bit rediculous a few seasons in.

Editing players would be nice, more options are always nice, but i think having some controll over progression and decline overall would be a better and easier solution for most poeple.

# 134 davidd @ 12/02/10 09:06 PM

I'd like to be able to edit player ratings at the very least. I like to start my offline franchise mode on the same day as the regular season and play games by the week which means that after I start I won't be able to update my roster with the online feature because the roster won't transfer over to an already started offline franchise.

So basically if a player like Michael Vick gets a huge ratings boost which could greatly effect my franchise I won't be able to update it because I can't edit players within the franchise and can't update the roster. This is why I think we need to at least be able to edit players ratings and if possible create caps within an already in progress offline franchise and use them within it in case players return from suspension mid season or new younger players make a roster and make a big impact who weren't part of the pre season roster updates.

By the way thanks for asking for our opinions Ian we REALLY appreciate it.

# 135 ghostlight85 @ 12/07/10 06:00 PM

A few thoughts on this

Potential shouldn't be a cap for the player, it should be an influencing factor for growth. A player should be able to have an 85 overall rating with 58 potential. That should mean that he is more likely to decline than get any better, but it shouldn't mean that he's going to end up at a 58 rating. Seems to be a bit limiting in terms of player types.

Another thing, I don't believe that the player ratings should be fully editable in online franchise, unless it is done with some sort of required approval by the league commissioner.

Lastly, the best way to fix CPU teams not being able to resign their players would be to fix the game economy. I know that's not an easy thing, but it's the best way to approach that issue. Also, for the type of player who would be editing to the point where a team couldn't resign it's players, add an option to turn off the salary cap entirely. That way someone who has very little care for realism would be able to do whatever they want for editing and if it breaks the game, he can unbreak it by turning off the salary cap.

# 136 bjm2210 @ 12/08/10 01:57 PM

I really think its a preference - make it an option at the start of franchise - like lock player ratings on/off - because i dont like it personally it gives me that thought in the back of my head that i can do it. but i understand where people want with the rosters to be the same. and as for progression i still think we should go back to madden 06. it was great and the training camp should be brought back not the drills we have now. if you use that remove the progression rating we have now and use the old one.

# 137 billsmetalbooze @ 12/09/10 10:55 PM

as a longtime offline franchise player i don't care about editing existing players as much as i do editing rookies.

the computer-generated rookies often have unrealistically "matched" ratings. like a wide receiver with 99 speed but only 78 Acceleration. there is no real-life NFL player with world-class speed and acceleration that low.

that's just one example. others examples would be speed burners with ridiculously low agility (again, no real-life NFL player has such a disparate set of ratings; in general, fast guys are at least sufficiently agile). or having running backs with 99 speed and 99 break tackle. it just doesn't happen in the real NFL.

this bothers me tremendously. if i could edit computer-generated rookies i'd be happy.

with "real" players, allowing the user to edit each particular rating within 10 points would be great.

thanks if you've read this, Ian.

# 138 kbigsexy9 @ 12/10/10 07:28 AM

I can do it in MLB the show and NBA 2k11 why not Madden and Ncaa?

# 139 kjjnesb @ 12/10/10 08:19 AM

Editing ratings would go a long way to help fix offline franchise espically those dang imported draft classes tired of seeing my 3 time heisman winning pro style Qb come in with terrible accuracy lol

# 140 bxgoods @ 12/10/10 12:46 PM

Only I need to be able to edit are the players build, and equipment.

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