Madden NFL 19 Franchise Blog

[Madden08PCgmr]

I don't think progression will ever get to where we want it to be, no matter your preference or personal opinion.

These are the same conversations we had 10, even 15 years ago.

All I want is consistency, and to steer clear of the drastic issues we had to overcome in versions like 2004.

[K_GUN]

So....do these archetypes replace the traits once assigned to players??


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[jfsolo]

Quote: Originally Posted by K_GUN

So....do these archetypes replace the traits once assigned to players?? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

No, the traits are still there. It's unfortunate that in none of the media that was sent to the GCs none of them show complete walk through of every screen for any single player so that the complete picture of what all makes up a players abilities could be easily seen.

[DeuceDouglas]

Quote: Originally Posted by Other Guy

Re: progression for backups How about a system where the backups progression is tied to the starter's performance in some way? A rookie QB watching Tom Brady for a year would get a bigger boost than if he sat behind Ryan Fitzpatrick. Of course, the progression would be based on several other factors, but starter performance could still be part of the formula. At least this way the user is rewarded for playing well with the starters with a progression bump foe the backups.

This is why I'd love to see some kind of badge or role system within the game. In this scenario you could give guys like Brady or Alex Smith a mentor badge that does something like provides an XP boost for QB's on the roster with three/four or less years experience or something like that. Then to an example I saw earlier about rookies not playing their first year and you could do the same kinds of things with that where maybe a QB coming out of college has the "Raw" badge where it incentivizes you with either XP or an upgraded DEV trait to not play him because he needs a year to learn. You could still play him right away but it could stunt his growth and it presents you with interesting decision making elements.

Are you in a position where you can draft him and sit him for a year rather than take a guy who is more pro ready?

If you do draft him do you go and try to find a QB with the mentor badge to get the double effect and put him in the best position to succeed?

If you suffer an injury during the season do you play him or have you prepared your roster for such a scenario where you have another player ready to step in to allow him to keep getting that bonus?

Performance, in my opinion, is one of those things that I feel like is way too easy to manipulate. As on offline player, I can easily keep in it check by simply not doing it but I know when it came to online leagues there'd be the guy throwing four verts up by 20 with two minutes to go trying to rack up more stats for his players.

[canes21]

I wish progression was done in a completely different manner than it is now. I'd rid of the XP system and I'd rid of performance = progression because that is not how it works in the real world and everyone knows that.


I'd set up a system where a player has a set potential behind the scenes. Each team has a scouting department they fill with multiple firms. Each firm has their own strengths/weakness and levels of accuracy. Firm A is the go to for QBs, but they can't help you with any other position of the field. They cost a lot, but if this draft is the one you're going to go for a QB in round 1, you hire firm A as one of your 3(or whatever number EA chose) firms. Firm B is known as a relatively accurate firm, but they don't specialize in any one position and they are prone to getting it wrong from time to time, they are human. Firm C can scout linemen better than everyone else at the moment, but they aren't as accurate here as Firm A is with QBs. Going with them gives you the best shot at getting a good OL, but they are below average with every other position so you won't want to rely on them outside of the OL reports.


There would also be league reports. A source that all NFL teams have access to. It's separate from every other firm and its reports tend to be okay, but nothing special. They get the obvious superstars projected high, but in the 2nd and 3rd rounds they may lose some of their value, but that picks back up again in the 5th and 6th rounds where you may have not really had your firms scout too much, but these league reports have some info that may help. You may be able to save money, really scout the players projected in the first couple of days and then rely on the NFL reports for day 3. It may work for you, it may not.



These potentials each player has are modified by a multitude of things. First, the work ethic of the play himself. A player that has Randy Moss potential is worthless if he is the laziest player on the team. A player that projects as an average starter, someone who does their job, but isn't electric may have a great work ethic and they may be the most consistent player on your team and their work may just progress them to the point where they actually exceed expectations and become a bit of a known piece around the league.,


Other modifiers include coaches. This one is simple. The deeper the coaching system gets, the more this can lead to. Simply having coordinators opens this up more than we have now. Expanding to positional coaches really enhances it. Team A may have a QB coach that couldn't coach Tom Brady out of a barrel and he may halt any progress a player makes regardless of their work ethic. Team B may have a coach that gets every QB to reach their potential and then some, but he is expensive. Team C may have a guy that can make your QB as accurate as you want, but he can't do much else. That may be okay depending on the system you run.


Injuries are other modifiers. A guy that works hard, projects as a star, but continually tears ligaments is likely not going to have a great career. His work ethic may allow him to get back to form after one major injury, but if his knees get destroyed 3 seasons out of 4, he may just have to call it quits or come off of the bench. This would require a bit of a wear and tear system like Head Coach had or NBA 2k has. Systems that carry over season to season to truly replicate the war of attrition that football is.


Playing in games will be a modifier, playing behind players with mentor badges would be a multiplier, locker room atmosphere could be one. There are plenty of modifiers I am not thinking of.


All of these would be modifying a probability. The entire system would be built off of probabilities. It allows for the game to play out dynamically and differently for everyone, while not being random for the sake of steering away from linearity.



A player that projects as a Pro-Bowler in an accurate scouting report may have the base probability to progress of 85%. They may be healthy, have a great coaching staff, play in a great locker room environment with mentors all over the team and all of that would modify their chance of progressing to 97%. Of course these %'s are behind the scenes also.As he ages and reaches his prime he will likely turn into the Pro-Bowl talent he was projected as, but being a probability it isn't a given. You may be unlucky and get the 3% probability and it may be a 1.5% chance he stays the same and a 1.% chance he regresses and he may regress in your franchise after his rookie season, but if he is still set up to succeed he may progress from then on out. This allows for all sorts of dynamic stories just like the real world.


Another player may have a great work ethic and a combination of other things that gives him a 75% chance to progress, 20% chance to stay the same, and 5% chance to regress, but his coaching staff may be so bad it turns into a 50/50 shot he progresses with a 25% chance he regresses. Now young players with all of the hope in the world may get caught playing for 3 staffs in 6 years and never reach their potentials. Other players may come into dream scenarios and play better than anyone projected.


The thing with probabilities is they tend to create organic results. If progression is based off of organic numbers, we'll get organic results. We'll get results that are dynamic and make every franchise different. We'll get results that make sense and we can track why things happened the way they did.


If EA were to implement a system like this I may never need another game again. This series would take all of my time year after year. If they had sliders to go with it so I could make coaching affects 5x stronger than they have it tuned, that'd be great. You could turn it to where coaching matters none. You could tune your game however you wanted. If you really liked, you could make mentors and locker room atmosphere be all that modifies the probabilities. You could make it to where work ethic is all that matters so players are rewarded. You could potentially even make it to where injuries mean nothing and your franchise has a medical breakthrough apparently and guys come back from everything without derailing their growth. You could make it to where injuries are 10x stronger now and a broken arm may mean you will never be able to suit up again.


EA, if you're listening, realism based mechanics with sandbox control are things we can only dream of. If these systems were there, I can't imagine we'd complain even a quarter as much.

[briz1046]

Quote: Originally Posted by Madden08PCgmr

I don't think progression will ever get to where we want it to be, no matter your preference or personal opinion. These are the same conversations we had 10, even 15 years ago. All I want is consistency, and to steer clear of the drastic issues we had to overcome in versions like 2004.

Personally id settle for the system we have now , but add on a method of progresssion / earning XP that doesnt involve actual in- game stats

That could be via off season activities , training camps etc or an in-built dynamic potential system and modified by coaching staffs ( or mentors etc )

I'd agree I can't foresee them abandoning in- game user agency but by adding other methods and providing the user with tools to weight the impact of these , each user can find their own way to have fun , rather than being told how to have fun

[canes21]

Quote: Originally Posted by briz1046

Personally id settle for the system we have now , but add on a method of progresssion / earning XP that doesnt involve actual in- game stats That could be via off season activities , training camps etc or an in-built dynamic potential system and modified by coaching staffs ( or mentors etc ) I'd agree I can't foresee them abandoning in- game user agency but by adding other methods and providing the user with tools to weight the impact of these , each user can find their own way to have fun , rather than being told how to have fun

Who knows how feasible it would be, but I wouldn't mind if we kept this system, but were given sliders that controlled XP contributions. That way some users could weight it out to where in game could be 100% of the XP earnings. Others like us could set it very low if not all the way to 0 and allow other methods like training to progress a player.

[bucky60]

Quote: Originally Posted by briz1046

Personally id settle for the system we have now , but add on a method of progresssion / earning XP that doesnt involve actual in- game stats That could be via off season activities , training camps etc or an in-built dynamic potential system and modified by coaching staffs ( or mentors etc ) I'd agree I can't foresee them abandoning in- game user agency but by adding other methods and providing the user with tools to weight the impact of these , each user can find their own way to have fun , rather than being told how to have fun

Quote: Originally Posted by canes21

Who knows how feasible it would be, but I wouldn't mind if we kept this system, but were given sliders that controlled XP contributions. That way some users could weight it out to where in game could be 100% of the XP earnings. Others like us could set it very low if not all the way to 0 and allow other methods like training to progress a player.

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