Why Realistic Fatigue Makes 85 Man Rosters Even More Important

[hurricanefootball4]

I agree on the fatigue being a factor for the offensive and defensive line, and it would definitely add an element of strategy.

The Chicago Bears only played Julius Peppers on 60-70% of snaps this season because they viewed fresh bodies as more important than talent level disparity. Peppers also played better because every time he came in he was fresh.

This would make tweaking your auto subs important as to what the threshold would be.

[Bamanutt]

Quote: Originally Posted by WFColonel56

This is false (well partially). OL usually plays every snap unless its a blowout.

Across a 12-15 game season I would say that the same 5 linemen starting the season playing every minute of every game never, has ever finished the season. That's the level of detail that is needed to take advantage of the 85 man roster.

[hurricanefootball4]

Quote: Originally Posted by Bamanutt

Across a 12-15 game season I would say that the same 5 linemen starting the season playing every minute of every game never, has ever finished the season. That's the level of detail that is needed to take advantage of the 85 man roster.

The subbing of offensive lineman goes largely unnoticed because their names aren't being called unless they commit a penalty or a monster block. As you have pointed out, offensive lineman are subbed in and out of the game (even for a play or two) regularly throughout the game.

[Big FN Deal]

I am all for accuracy so if the game can be expanded to include a 85 man roster I am all for it. However, I voted for "no difference" because for one, since every team is restricted to 70 players, it's relative and secondly because fatigue alone isn't enough to represent the importance of team depth. Meaning, in real college football, is not just about being able to field up to 85 athletes but about being able to field the highest number of skilled athletes. So a team like Alabama is "deep" while ECU is not because Bama has second and some third string players that are skilled enough to theoretically start at many other schools, where as ECU may have a skilled 1st string but a skill drop off for the latter strings.

So while fatigue should clearly matter in NCAA 14, causing each team to utilize their depth more and play more players, there needs to be a much better representation of the differential in skill for each player, to showcase deep teams. Hopefully the "real AI" being touted will help that because currently even the elite/star players in the game, don't perform that way under CPU control, which the majority of the players are under CPU control when playing. If real AI can start to truly differentiate player skill under CPU control, more than just the speed rating would be paramount, then couple that with fatigue causing potentially lesser skilled players to play and we just might have something good.

That said, this will be the first year for both real AI and fatigue so I don't expect either one to be done that great.

[BA2929]

Quote: Originally Posted by Bamanutt

Across a 12-15 game season I would say that the same 5 linemen starting the season playing every minute of every game never, has ever finished the season. That's the level of detail that is needed to take advantage of the 85 man roster.

Most of the time that's due to injury though. I highly doubt TAM took Luke Joeckel out of close games because he was tired. He started all 38 games while there, and I doubt he came out of many due to fatigue.

If EA is going to make us sub OL guys due to the new fatigue system, then they better have a good plan on how to implement it because I don't want my 99 overall LT coming out of the game in the 3rd Q for 4 plays because he's tired. Heck, I don't want my 77 overall RT coming out of a close game because he's tired.

Quote: Originally Posted by hurricanefootball4

The subbing of offensive lineman goes largely unnoticed because their names aren't being called unless they commit a penalty or a monster block. As you have pointed out, offensive lineman are subbed in and out of the game (even for a play or two) regularly throughout the game.

I don't believe this is true. I don't think I've EVER seen a starting lineman come out of a game due to fatigue. Especially a Center or LT. That'd be quite a big deal if there was a bad snap and it was because the Center was out due to being tired and not injury.

[Big FN Deal]

Quote: Originally Posted by Bamanutt

Across a 12-15 game season I would say that the same 5 linemen starting the season playing every minute of every game never, has ever finished the season. That's the level of detail that is needed to take advantage of the 85 man roster.

True but that's more about injury and chemistry than fatigue. I hope with all this new IE talk there is something new on the injury system, like real time injuries but who knows. Also, like I stated earlier, OL are always under CPU control so the real AI could be a big factor here, if Tiburon ever chooses to focus on the importance of finding good chemistry in the trenches and on teams in general.

It's much too easy to just find the highest rated OL you can, plug them in and forget about them. That's of course not how it is with a real OLine and sometimes it takes time to find the right unit and when they do, why it's so potentially challenging if there are injuries or other changes needed to that unit.

[BA2929]

Quote: Originally Posted by Big FN Deal

True but that's more about injury and chemistry than fatigue. I hope with all this new IE talk there is something new on the injury system, like real time injuries but who knows. Also, like I stated earlier, OL are always under CPU control so the real AI could be a big factor here, if Tiburon ever chooses to focus on the importance of finding good chemistry in the trenches and on teams in general. It's much too easy to just find the highest rated OL you can, plug them in and forget about them. That's of course not how it is with a real OLine and sometimes it takes time to find the right unit and when they do, why it's so potentially challenging if there are injuries or other changes needed to that unit.

Agreed. I wouldn't mind a few OL injuries. I don't think I've seen an injury to anyone on my OL or DL in probably 7 years of NCAA Football. Plus (getting back on topic here), it'd be nice to be able to keep more than 1, maybe 2, backups for each OL position. With 85 man rosters you could really groom your lines.

[Big FN Deal]

Quote: Originally Posted by BA2929

Agreed. I wouldn't mind a few OL injuries. I don't think I've seen an injury to anyone on my OL or DL in probably 7 years of NCAA Football.

I hate to even get started on injuries but how on earth Tiburon could continue to represent every injury as being a simple in the game or out the game kind of thing, I just don't get. I want to see OL and every player play through nagging injuries that effect their performance, ie ratings, not automatically put them on the bench. Also multiple simultaneous injuries, it's silly at this point in gaming, each player can only have one injury at a time in EA football games. Currently if OL did start getting injured, since they can't play injured, we would start to see Punters on the OLine of CPU teams. smh