Do You Bother with the Development Trait?

[picker19]

How many of you bother to save up your XP and upgrade a player's development trait?

I'm at the end of year two of a CFM with the Bears, and I've been saving up Kevin White's XP to get him from Quick to Superstar for a cost of 16500 XP. But since they made XP much harder to get in M16, even at the end of Year 2 and not spending a single XP point on White, I still don't have enough XP to upgrade to Superstar. I'm at around 15,000+, which means that it won't be until Year 3 when I have enough. And keep in mind, White has been a starter for 2 years straight, won NFC Rookie of the Year, and I've game prepped him every week at least 2x a week, if not more.

So, here I am with 15,000 XP after two years, and I'm thinking, has it been worth it? When he does become a Superstar, is it really going to make that much of a difference in how much XP he earns? I mean, Game Prep is not really reliable in terms of the amount of XP it distributes. I've sometimes seen Kyle Long, who is a Superstar, get less XP in a Game Prep than someone who is "Normal." And I do not believe (I have not seen any evidence of this) that the Development Trait improves XP during games from performance. Now if that was the case, then it might be worth it. But if the Development Trait only impacts Game Prep, then no, I'm thinking it's not worth it.

Thoughts? What's your experience been? Am I wrong that the Development Trait does not impact game performance XP? Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

[lasto]

Quote: Originally Posted by picker19

How many of you bother to save up your XP and upgrade a player's development trait? I'm at the end of year two of a CFM with the Bears, and I've been saving up Kevin White's XP to get him from Quick to Superstar for a cost of 16500 XP. But since they made XP much harder to get in M16, even at the end of Year 2 and not spending a single XP point on White, I still don't have enough XP to upgrade to Superstar. I'm at around 15,000+, which means that it won't be until Year 3 when I have enough. And keep in mind, White has been a starter for 2 years straight, won NFC Rookie of the Year, and I've game prepped him every week at least 2x a week, if not more. So, here I am with 15,000 XP after two years, and I'm thinking, has it been worth it? When he does become a Superstar, is it really going to make that much of a difference in how much XP he earns? I mean, Game Prep is not really reliable in terms of the amount of XP it distributes. I've sometimes seen Kyle Long, who is a Superstar, get less XP in a Game Prep than someone who is "Normal." And I do not believe (I have not seen any evidence of this) that the Development Trait improves XP during games from performance. Now if that was the case, then it might be worth it. But if the Development Trait only impacts Game Prep, then no, I'm thinking it's not worth it. Thoughts? What's your experience been? Am I wrong that the Development Trait does not impact game performance XP? Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Some smarter people on here can tell you mathematically what the right answer is. But from a game playing perspective, definitely not worth it. In my experience the difference in xp earned is negligible and if you play on all Madden you need your players to be as skilled as they can be.

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[garyraymond23]

Quote: Originally Posted by picker19

How many of you bother to save up your XP and upgrade a player's development trait? I'm at the end of year two of a CFM with the Bears, and I've been saving up Kevin White's XP to get him from Quick to Superstar for a cost of 16500 XP. But since they made XP much harder to get in M16, even at the end of Year 2 and not spending a single XP point on White, I still don't have enough XP to upgrade to Superstar. I'm at around 15,000+, which means that it won't be until Year 3 when I have enough. And keep in mind, White has been a starter for 2 years straight, won NFC Rookie of the Year, and I've game prepped him every week at least 2x a week, if not more. So, here I am with 15,000 XP after two years, and I'm thinking, has it been worth it? When he does become a Superstar, is it really going to make that much of a difference in how much XP he earns? I mean, Game Prep is not really reliable in terms of the amount of XP it distributes. I've sometimes seen Kyle Long, who is a Superstar, get less XP in a Game Prep than someone who is "Normal." And I do not believe (I have not seen any evidence of this) that the Development Trait improves XP during games from performance. Now if that was the case, then it might be worth it. But if the Development Trait only impacts Game Prep, then no, I'm thinking it's not worth it. Thoughts? What's your experience been? Am I wrong that the Development Trait does not impact game performance XP? Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Not worth it IMO, imagine the amount of catching statistics that could've helped you within those 2 years. I mean 15k XP is a TON of available upgrades.

[jhigginsluckow]

Quote: Originally Posted by lasto

Some smarter people on here can tell you mathematically what the right answer is. But from a game playing perspective, definitely not worth it. In my experience the difference in xp earned is negligible and if you play on all Madden you need your players to be as skilled as they can be. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk

I'm not going to toot my own horn and act like I'm smarter than others, but I'll take my crack at doing it mathematically.

Using the OP's numbers, White has gained 15,000 XP points in two years - 7,500 in one. Let's say, hypothetically, that advancing a development trait increases the XP you gain by 25%. I honestly do not know if that's accurate, I'm merely using it to show the point. Let's also assume that the cost to upgrade is only 15,000 XP, and you can upgrade him right now. It just makes it easier to visualize.

So let's say you upgrade him to superstar development right now. He now will receive 1875 more XP points per year than he would have before (7500 X .25). Meaning, it will take 8 years in order to make up the XP you spent. (You spent 15,000 XP to gain an additional 1875 XP per year. 15000 divided by 1875 = 8). Pretty clear that it isn't worth it to do so.

This also doesn't even consider other factors that make it less worth it to do.

1. Had you spent the XP on attributes as opposed to upgrading the development trait, theoretically the player should play better, post better stats, and therefore gain more XP.

2. Attribute upgrades cost less while a player is young, making it paramount to upgrade them while they are younger. The two teams I play with most are the 49ers and Buccaneers. Austin Seferian-Jenkins and Vernon Davis both have roughly a 68 route running rating. It costs about 300 XP points to raise AFJ's, and 1200 to raise Davis's.



So long story short, advancing a player's development trait is not worth it. Not at all. And if I were you, I'd start spending those XP on White while he's young. Well, younger lol. He's 25 by year three. I never draft 23 year olds because they have less time to build up while packages cost less.

[lasto]

Quote: Originally Posted by jhigginsluckow

I'm not going to toot my own horn and act like I'm smarter than others, but I'll take my crack at doing it mathematically. Using the OP's numbers, White has gained 15,000 XP points in two years - 7,500 in one. Let's say, hypothetically, that advancing a development trait increases the XP you gain by 25%. I honestly do not know if that's accurate, I'm merely using it to show the point. Let's also assume that the cost to upgrade is only 15,000 XP, and you can upgrade him right now. It just makes it easier to visualize. So let's say you upgrade him to superstar development right now. He now will receive 1875 more XP points per year than he would have before (7500 X .25). Meaning, it will take 8 years in order to make up the XP you spent. (You spent 15,000 XP to gain an additional 1875 XP per year. 15000 divided by 1875 = 8). Pretty clear that it isn't worth it to do so. This also doesn't even consider other factors that make it less worth it to do. 1. Had you spent the XP on attributes as opposed to upgrading the development trait, theoretically the player should play better, post better stats, and therefore gain more XP. 2. Attribute upgrades cost less while a player is young, making it paramount to upgrade them while they are younger. The two teams I play with most are the 49ers and Buccaneers. Austin Seferian-Jenkins and Vernon Davis both have roughly a 68 route running rating. It costs about 300 XP points to raise AFJ's, and 1200 to raise Davis's. So long story short, advancing a player's development trait is not worth it. Not at all. And if I were you, I'd start spending those XP on White while he's young. Well, younger lol. He's 25 by year three. I never draft 23 year olds because they have less time to build up while packages cost less.

Toot it bro, Toot it. This was awesome.

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[Kakdaddy]

I don't think it is worth it either, but you also have to consider that each upgrade makes attribute upgrade costs lower by some hidden percentage (and also raises the cap they stay lower). I've noticed that you can raise a statistic such as AWR for a standard minimum that doesn't increase until you reach a certain stat cap. Dev Trait also effects this. I also believe it makes traits cheaper.

[nflman2033]

Last year it was barely worth it, this year no way at all. If a player has it, great if not oh well. This year xp is so hard to come by only my offensive players progress. Last year it was easy to build any one up, this year you can only do it buy working hard on 1 player the whole year, and even then it's not huge.

[picker19]

Thanks for all the replies and that awesome, very logical breakdown. If it was easier to earn more XP this year, then I would probably say it would be worth it for a 21 or 22 year old rookie with already a "Quick" development trait to save up XP for him and boost him to Superstar. But I think all of you are right. With 15k XP, I can really boost him up now versus waiting until Year 3 to do it, and then I have to still Game Prep the crap out of him to raise up his attributes that I could have been doing since Year 1...all for a small % boost (and cap per the above post). Not sure it really is ever worth it. Maybe I should start treating the Dev Trait like a static one...something that can't be changed.

Have any of you yet seen a rookie with a Superstar trait? I've seen Madden generate a few "Quick" traits but never Superstar yet.