::COMING SOON:: JRT2006's Madden 2016 Scouting and Roster Tool
Returning in 2016…..
JRT2006’s Madden Scouting and Roster Management Tool!
For those of you who enjoyed using the 2015 version through the excel program, I am more than pleased to announce that 2016’s version is currently in production. This year; the tool will be a lot more user friendly, a lot more decorative, and a lot more in-depth! Using Microsoft Access I have already started to develop the tool and expect to have it released very soon after the release of Madden 2016.
If you do not have a Microsoft Office license, have no fear, the plan is to develop this tool as an executable file so those who do not have the capabilities can still use it!
Background:
Spoiler
I first started development of the Madden Scouting tool because I was displeased at the way Madden handled the NFL Draft. I was tired of trying to locate the highest overall rated players with limited amount of points to scout an extremely large list of prospects. That is when I thought to myself, “Why overall ratings? Why do I set schemes for my offense and defense, yet ignore them and focus on finding the highest rated players available? Why don’t I set my schemes and then set my standard for players to run my scheme?” I did just that when I made this tool. I chose how I want to run my offense and then I decided on the type of player I wanted to have run it, I plugged in the attributes and ranked them on a highest importance to least importance rating. I scouted the key attributes that I require for my positions and assigned them a letter grade. The letter grade is based on an average of the range you can expect to get from that grade. I then created a big board that listed players from highest value to lowest and began drafting using that logic only. The results didn’t bring me the top rated prospects in the draft each year, but it did allow me to locate some nice gems and more importantly it allowed me to pick up players who fit my ideal mold. It was a lengthy process, but it was exactly what I always wanted from the game itself, to be so in depth that I am immersed for hours.
After releasing the tool, I was amazed at how much attention it gained, I never thought it would get more than 5 people wanting to use it. The best part about it was that all of the users who were applying it to their franchises had so much input that I was able to expand on my ideas and implement theres, eventually creating a roster management tool to pair with it. Well this year I decided to move away from the number crunched version on excel tables that seemed to cause a lot of issues with users who had didn’t versions of excel, or didn’t have excel at all and advance towards the more user friendly access database. For the past 6 months I practiced my database skills dissecting multiple templates and doing research on random functions, hit up forums to learn a little VBA and began production. I hope everyone is able to put good use to the tool this upcoming year.
Breakdown:
Spoiler
Login:
The login screen first appears (unless macros aren’t enabled, then a startup screen pops up directing you to enable macros) and you must select the direction you wish to go, your selection here does not matter as you will have the ability to quickly jump from each side. You have two areas of the tool:
General Manager:
General Manager is where you will find all of your roster management tools. The plan for this section is to have a (1)Roster Evaluation Screen, (2)Free Agent Evaluation Tool, and (3)Salary Cap Information.
(1)Roster Evaluation tool will be created using the same principles as the old version. Before you can start inputting your roster, you will need to complete a few steps first, which I will guide you through later. This tool will value every player you input on your roster and produce three values for each player; a raw talent value, an actual talent value, and a projected talent value.
(2)Free Agent Evaluation tool will use the same concept as the Roster Evaluation tool, except it will allow you to compare the evaluated free agent with the current players on your roster at that position.
(3)Salary Cap Information is just an area for you to track contracts. This tool will produce information used elsewhere throughout the database; it will tie into your team needs by finding players on their contract year and adjusting your team needs to accommodate for their loss until you resign them as well as produce a list of upcoming free agents for you to see.
Director of College Scouting:
The Scouting portion of the tool runs extremely similar to the 2015 version with only a few changes to the algorithm of valuing prospects. The numbers on the earlier version of the tool worked well, but this years tool will value prospects that are close in range, much more close and from what I have seen so far, actually ranks the very similar prospects correctly. The plan for this section, which is about 95% complete, is to have a (1)Scouting Tool for you to enter prospect information and then a (2)Big Board to view scouted prospects. Like the roster tool, there are steps to take to set everything up, it can be a lengthy process, but I decided to make everything fully customizable for user input.
(1)Scouting Tool, like the roster tool, allows you to enter prospect information and scouted grades for the positions you select are important. Once completed, the tool evaluates your entry and gives you a value. On the Scout screen, you will see the prospects True Value. True Value is the value of the prospects skills alone, it does not take into account the projected round the player is expected to be drafted or the position need.
(2)Big Board creates a list of your scouted prospects. The list includes basic information about the prospects and includes two values. True Value, as explained above is the value of the prospects scouted skills alone. Final Value takes into account the position priority and the projected draft round. This modifiers are here to better rank players in accordance with need (if that’s how you chose to draft) and to deter you from reaching for a player multiple rounds ahead of where they are scheduled. You may still seem projections to be a little off, i.e. a 2nd round projection listed at the bottom of the group of 1st round projections. This is because that prospect is valued extremely well, but not well enough to be taken two rounds ahead of schedule. In the instance that a prospect is high up on the board away from his fellow projected round prospects, it is likely due to position priority as that determines “reach level” as well.
(3) Salary Cap Information. In development
(4) Free Agent Evaluation. In Development
Step-by-Step Instructions
Spoiler
If you look at the top right of the General Manager and Director of College Scouting home screens, you will notice, in red, an Instructions link. Clicking this will open the instructions for each page, but I will also walk you through them here on the Thread.
General manager:
First thing you need to do before you start evaluating your rosters or free agent lists is set up your positions. The quick link buttons are set up in order of progress.
1) You must click the ‘Position Details Button to begin. The Positions Details screen will appear and this is where you enter your positions, the amount of roster spots dedicated to the position, and the age at which you expect that position performance to decline. The bottom of the screen has two tab arrows to advance forward and back to through the records. Once completed, click the close button and save if prompted to. If the prompt does not appear, do not worry, records save as you click advance through them.
2) Once you have your positions set up the way you like, you enter the Position Skills screen. On this screen you select the skills you find are necessary for that position that you’d like to evaluate your players on. You may select as many or as little skills as you wish. Next to each position, you select the value of that skill, there are six values to choose from; Very Low, Low, Medium, High, Very High, and Most Important. If you are only evaluating players per position, rank these skills as you wish. If you plan to evaluate players as a team, I’d suggest you select an equal amount of skills and skill value per position to keep the evaluation fair amongst positions. Once completed, click the close button and save if prompted to do so.
3) Now that you have set up your positions, you can begin to enter you player details by clicking the Roster Input button. All information on this screen besides the notes are important to valuing your players. Enter your players general information, awareness, intangible, and development trait. After doing so, click the Add Skill Listings button. On the right side of the screen, a list of skills you selected for the position will appear allowing you to enter the skills rating. The bottom of the skills area will show you the players Raw Talent Value. Once you complete the player input, you can advance to the next record by clicking the arrow at the bottom border of the screen. Once all players are inputted, you may close the form and save if prompted.
4) Once you fill in your roster details, you can click the Roster Evaluation button. An evaluation screen will appear listing your roster with a few details about the player along with three separate values. Raw Talent is your players value based on his physical skills ONLY. Actual Talent is your players value based on his skills, intangible rating, and awareness rating. Future Talent is your players value projection if properly trained, it is the players actual talent with a modifier based on his age and development skill added. This number is not what the player will eventually reach for Actual Talent, its just a value to inform you which player has the best growth potential.
Director of College Scouting:
Just as you did in the General manager screen, you must first begin the scouting process by determining your positions.
1) First things first, you must set your positions needs. Open the Position Needs screen and input the position and the need priority of that position. Advance to the next record by clicking the arrow on the bottom border of the page. Once finished, close the page and save if prompted.
2) Once your positions are set up above, open the Skills screen by pressing the Position Skills button. This screen is where you select the pertinent skills relating to that position. Next to each skill, you need to value that skill from low to High. When scouting prospects you may choose as little or as much skills as you wish, but it has to be equal amongst ALL positions. If you scout 6 positions for QB you must scout 6 positions for every other positions as well. The same rule applies to the skill value, how every many Low, Mediums, and High value targets you place on a position, you must place the same on all other positions. This keeps the evaluation of prospects fair and equal when creating a big board.
3) Once your Positions and Skills are complete, you can begin to scout your players. Click the Scout Prospects button to bring up the Prospect Details screen. Just as you did with the Rosters, fill out all of the prospects general information. Once complete, click the Add Skills Listing button, this will populate the Skills area of the screen with the skills you selected for the position. Now you may begin to enter the scouted grades for each position. Once complete, the bottom of the screen will show you the players True Value, the True Value is the weighted average of the prospects skills only.
4) Now that you’ve scouted to your max potential, you can bring up your Big Board by clicking the Big Board button. Showing on the Big Board is a few of the prospects details as well as two different values. True Value I the players skill value, this value does not take into account where the prospects will be drafted OR the priority of the Position. If you like to draft BPA, this is the value you would look at, keep in mind, it will suggest taking players far ahead of their projection, and you will be making some great reaches using this approach. Final Value is the players True Value, but also takes into consideration the need priority as well as the projected round. This is the value that the big board is sorted on, it will place prospects within their projected draft round group. The 1st round projections will be grouped together and ranked by highest value to lowest, as well as the 2nd rounds and every round to follow thereafter. In some instances, you will see a 2nd round prospects creep up into the group with the 1st round prospects, or a 3rd with the 2nd, etc. This is because that player’s value warrants his climb up the boards or his need priority is high.
To Do List
Spoiler
Still to accomplish are the following projects: 1) Need to rank prospects on the scouting screen by position. This way you know if you are about to take the 2nd best WR in the first round or want to wait for the 3rd round best WR. 2) Need to implement the V/MV system. The V/MV system will compare a prospect to the perfect prospect. By looking at a percentage, you can quickly tell how good a prospect is. 3) Need to research a way to determine a projected round. By scouting a prospects grade, depending on how good the prospect is, suggest a round to be picked. Can use the V/MV system to do this. 4) Need to make the Big Board more interactive. Allow users to mark prospects on their Big Board that have already been drafted. 5) Need to research a way to automatically add prospects details into Roster with the click of a button. When a prospect is drafted by you, you can click “Add to Roster” to place that prospects general information into the Roster Evaluator and input skill ratings afterwards.
This is fantastic work!
Look forward to seeing the end result.
I have also created my own franchise tool, but mine is a bit different since I like to control all 32 teams so it gets quite lengthy.
My main reason for creating the tool was to be able to draft "fairly" for each team, taking their needs/situation into consideration.
The main focus of my tool ends up being.... GM/Coach/Franchise personality... this becomes the main modifier for everything that happens in the tool. I use these traits to the determine things like how agressive teams are in trading or in FA.
The tool, requires quite a lot of imagination and patience... but it's worth it imo since it's probably the only way to keep a competitive franchise for 3+ years in CFM.
Funny enough, it makes my main wish for CFM in Madden 16 to be: let us be able to control all 32 teams without having to change to each coach/owner :/ That would be heaven!
Anyways, I work in market analysis so Excel is part of my daily activities... I'm no expert but got good knowledge of most functions, so in case you need a sparring partner for some ideas... let me know!
I might also share some more details on my CFM tool for '16 when it's more developed (waiting for more details).
Keep up the good work!
PS: Which modifier weighted values do you use for position priority in the draft?
I tend to use
1st priority........ 1.5
2nd.................. 1.4
3rd................... 1.3
4th................... 1.2
5th.................... 1.1
all others............. 1
This is not my only weighted value for draft priority, but interested to see how you weigh your positional needs.
If youre speaking of my Value Pick, BPA, Slight Reach modifiers, I have them set to .9, 1, 1.03, and 1.07.
That combined with the round modifiers arranged the big board right where I think it should be.
Top of the board is composed of mainly 1st round prospects, unless there is a 2nd round player with extremely high value and/or a position Priority increase, like Immediate Starter.
Looking at the big board example i provided in the original post, you can see most of the 2nd round prospects fall under the 1st rounders, excepting being the RG which had a Position Priority increase.
i still want to tinker with the numbers though, i just want to get some user input first.
Like, if you needed an immediate starter for a position, how far of a reach is reasonable to fill a desperate need?
It would great if you could scout an enormous amount of prospects and get a big board filled with like 300+ people.
One question that is really hindering further development:
1) What are your thoughts on how to evaluate current rosters?
I currently have is set up ALMOST the same way you scout prospects. You run through the same procedure of selecting the important skills for the position, only with roster management you aren't limited to the amount you select. I have 23 total skills selected for the WR position. Then you enter the skill rating in the details screen; 95, 93, 87, 75, etc. It then gives you a weighted average of that players skill ratings.
Do you see this as a fair way to evaluate rosters, even though the WR position may have 23 skills that pertain to the position and the OL positions may only have 13? I assume you would be evaluating rosters on a position-by-position basis, not as an entire roster together.
Let me know your thoughts and/or any suggestions on doing it another way?
I evaluate players position by position. So it shouldn't matter how many skills a certain position has compared to another. One thing I'm wondering about though, is if there would be a way to evaluate players with expiring contracts besides their true value to the team. I can never decide who i should resign and wonder if there would be something that could be added to help make a decision.
That's what I thought, but there has to be some kind of rule for setting your importance.
For my WR position, which has 23 skills that pertain to it.
I'm looking for a quick, agile, route runner with good hands. I decided I would pick 8 high skills, 8 medium skills, and 7 low skills.
Using thay setup, Dwayne Bowe was valued higher for my position than Jeremy Maclin was.
05-10-2015, 02:26 PM
::COMING SOON:: JRT2006's Madden 2016 Scouting and Roster Tool
