Player Age

[Geld1941]

Why do the vast mojority of drafted players seem to be 23 years old? I very rarely come across 22 and 21 year olds who would have spent 4 years and 3 years at college respectively. In fact, it seems like there are more 24 year old coming out of college than 22 year old and underclassmen.

Does anyone know the reason for this?

[Ben E Lou]

I don't know, but I'd guess that the portion of the algorithm that determines the birth year of the player has been in place for multiple versions of the game, and it has remained as-is because no one has really cared enough to bring it up as an issue.

[Dutch]

Does a players age factor into the retirement algorithm? We believed it was an issue in GEFL when flipper anderson showed up with a jacked up birthday in GEFL. He's a 4th year WR that's 34 years old now. We expect he will retire early. But perhaps not?

[Ben E Lou]

Does a players age factor into the retirement algorithm? We believed it was an issue in GEFL when flipper anderson showed up with a jacked up birthday in GEFL. He's a 4th year WR that's 34 years old now. We expect he will retire early. But perhaps not?It definitely did at one point. It was reported that if you tried to import, say, the 1970 draft class into a 2000 career, they'd all retire after one season. I'm not into that sort of thing, so I don't know if this was ever changed.

[Geld1941]

I don't know, but I'd guess that the portion of the algorithm that determines the birth year of the player has been in place for multiple versions of the game, and it has remained as-is because no one has really cared enough to bring it up as an issue.

Do you know if it is the sort of thing that I can alter on my own? The reason I ask is that getting a few more prime years out of a stud running back, or any position for that matter, is invaluable.

thanks a lot for your reply

[MalcPow]

It matters with regard to retirement, but years of experience matters more in the more usual cases (i.e. where the guy came in as a 24 yr old vs a 22 yr old). With wildly mismatched birth year imported draft classes or the occasional stud 28 yr old guy that shows up in generated draft classes, you can expect this to play a significant role though. A 45 yr old rookie from an imported draft class will retire almost immediately, and the 28 yr old rookie may see his dev hits start to come in year 6 or so (see DT Hunter Bumpers in WOOF).

It's something of a wash though in the end. The older players are more developed, so I'd venture that with standard draft classes you get about the same level of peak production out of everybody.