The Awareness rating

[o 99 PROBL3MS o]

I have thought about what this rating means to NCAA Football. The younger or less expereinced a player is, the lower their awareness. I really think they should change the name of this rating fromm "Awareness" to "Experience". That would give the rating some new found relevance. The more a player plays the higher his "Experience" rating would go. It is a small change but one that just makes sense in my opinion. Maybe someone else can expound on this idea.

[osubeavs721]

Quote: Originally Posted by o 99 PROBL3MS o

I have thought about what this rating means to NCAA Football. The younger or less expereinced a player is, the lower their awareness. I really think they should change the name of this rating fromm "Awareness" to "Experience". That would give the rating some new found relevance. The more a player plays the higher his "Experience" rating would go. It is a small change but one that just makes sense in my opinion. Maybe someone else can expound on this idea.

i just posted this in another thread... but that wouldnt change the way it effects the game. The way awareness is now used is to determine how effective a player uses the rating. So if a guy is a 85 catch and 55 awareness, he drops more passes. If he is an 85 catch 85 aware, he tends to catch more balls. and thats not what awareness is. If they programmed it right awareness would bring out the experience of players

[GatorChomp1]

I think awareness needs to affect user QB's more. It has such an impact on OVR, but really no effect on the play when being controlled by a human. If it mattered more, you'd be less inclined to throw in a Freshman instead of a Junior that's been sitting for a few years.

[osubeavs721]

Quote: Originally Posted by GatorChomp1

I think awareness needs to affect user QB's more. It has such an impact on OVR, but really no effect on the play when being controlled by a human. If it mattered more, you'd be less inclined to throw in a Freshman instead of a Junior that's been sitting for a few years.

thats why we need the vision cone back!

[jmik58]

Quote: Originally Posted by osubeavs721

i just posted this in another thread... but that wouldnt change the way it effects the game. The way awareness is now used is to determine how effective a player uses the rating. So if a guy is a 85 catch and 55 awareness, he drops more passes. If he is an 85 catch 85 aware, he tends to catch more balls. and thats not what awareness is. If they programmed it right awareness would bring out the experience of players

I agree that awareness isn't used correctly, but I also disagree at what it should mean/do.

To me, awareness is more like intelligence. For a quarterback it should directly impact their ability to read the defense and choose the appropriate receiver.

For halfbacks it should be vision, which is already incorporated, so get rid of awareness.

For FB, OL, and TE it should impact their ability to know who to block. If you have bad awareness on blocking responsibilities you should go after the wrong block more than someone with a higher rating.

FB, TE, and WR should be affected in pass routes as well. Can they find the opening in the zone or do they run their route right into the defender?

For the DLinemen it has to do with recognizing the blocks and attacking for the run or pass.

The linebackers awareness has to do with their ability to recognize a play, this is already factored in with "play recognition". It should also affect their ability to avoid blocks (not just break them) and to locate proper placement in a zone for pass coverage.

For defensive backs it should have to do with an awareness of when the ball is thrown and where they should be in their zone. A dback with poor awareness doesn't recognize the pass has been thrown as often as someone with higher awareness. They also get caught out of position in their zone more often.

These could be fine tuned more, but I think it's a start.

EDIT: Maybe awareness also slows the game speed down when your player has the ball in his hands (quarterback, halfback, receiver, etc.) If a freshman QB is in, it's harder to read the defense because the game "moves faster" which could be represented in the game. The higher your awareness, the slower the players and game move. This would mean less/more time to read running lanes, etc.

[Dr Death]

Quote: Originally Posted by jmik58

To me, awareness is more like intelligence. For a quarterback it should directly impact their ability to read the defense and choose the appropriate receiver.

This ^^^ is correct. Awareness isn't experience. Let's take JaMarcus Russell and Sam Bradford as an example. Russell, who is no longer on a team, has 3 years NFL experience, to Bradford's none. Yet Sam has more awareness in his pinky toe than Russell will ever have.

People need to understand what awareness is before they start asking for change.

[GatorChomp1]

Quote: Originally Posted by Dr Death

This ^^^ is correct. Awareness isn't experience. Let's take JaMarcus Russell and Sam Bradford as an example. Russell, who is no longer on a team, has 3 years NFL experience, to Bradford's none. Yet Sam has more awareness in his pinky toe than Russell will ever have. People need to understand what awareness is before they start asking for change.

Well different people have different opinions what "awareness" is, and how it should impact gameplay. I think we can all agree that there are many factors that play into awareness. Everything from experience, intelligence, gameplanning, focus, work ethic, etc. That's why it's so hard for us to embrace a rating that can't actually be measured and is so subjective.

[Dr Death]

Quote: Originally Posted by GatorChomp1

Well different people have different opinions what "awareness" is, and how it should impact gameplay. I think we can all agree that there are many factors that play into awareness. Everything from experience, intelligence, gameplanning, focus, work ethic, etc. That's why it's so hard for us to embrace a rating that can't actually be measured and is so subjective.

Yes, but a different opinion can't be justified when it's wrong. And I'm not trying to be a jerk or anything, but awareness is everything you mentioned aside from experience. Experience does not equate to awareness and people should understand this. Or maybe it's just that those who don't understand it have a low awareness themselves. LOL

To me it goes toward the end of having the ability to practice with your team and have that actually mean something in the game. I like how 2K5 had the ability to have your QB study film or work on certain things that would enable him to improve. I wish EA would get into this. Practice would mean something and when you get that Freshman QB w/ an awareness of 40 you could work on him during the year... even if he's redshirting... and get that awareness up some.

Of course, that brings up the issue of having an Awareness Rating for your QB when you are controlling him. My QB ratings never really matter because I know how to read a defense and where to go with the ball. It certainly is something that needs to be looked at though for every player on the field.

And opinion or not, awareness is not experience. Jus' sayin'...