Update on feedback from yesterday's franchise blog...

[Nza]

One of the things I'm skeptical about is whether there won't be small hints and signs in a scouting report that a rookie fits a particular preset type - the steal late round QB, the overrated speed WR, etc etc. In theory preset classes with enough variation and enough attention directed to make sure patterns don't exist can work well, but that seems about just as difficult as just authoring a generator that outputs realistic rookies to me.

[Derrville]

A ++++++ for the update and use letters.

[viewtifuljoe71]

I would like to know exactly how many years will the franchise span? In Head Coach I think it was only 15 years(not sure). Madden's franchise usually runs about 30 years, that is a lot of pre-made players.

[Vikes1]

Thanks Josh for getting back to us!

The letter grade sounds much better. Honestly, I hated the idea of an exact number.

Is there anyway we can be given an option to hide this potential rating for the User team?

Thanks again Josh. I was hoping you'd respond to some of our concerns.

[kcarr]

Letter idea is great. If you could do that then that would be great. If not I guess I can deal with it but the letter grade would be a great improvement.

As far as minimum ratings first I will say that if regression is done correctly a player should maintain a lot of his skills and minimum ideas would not be so important but as is they are not a bad idea. One thing I would like to see though is those minimums being able to drop due to major injuries. If a guy like fred taylor tears his ACL when he comes back he should have much less speed and explosiveness, even below what his minimum rating had been.

One question for Josh, will there also be maximum potentials for each individual rating? I think doing this would be a great way of allowing a certain amount of growth within skill areas while limiting physical development.

[IndyColts2]

That cleared up a lot!! Thanks Josh.

For player potential, I feel you should use the MLB 09 and NBA 2k9 way of using Letter Grades for the ratings. Just like adembroski's way of putting it. Having number ratings gives it away to much. How about this, since you guys are giving us more options in customization, how about you give us the option of using letter grades or number ratings?

For the predetermined ratings, at first I felt it was a bad idea after reading about how Head Coach was busted by people knowing who is who. I hold you to your word that we will not see the same class in the same franchise or even if we start another 2 franchises over. Random players were starting to irritate me. QB's with brian urlacher facemasks. Skill positions with 96spd 75agi and 83acc were REALLY making me mad. Hopefully you implement it correctly.

Also, I have another question. When we import classes from NCAA, will they have the same type of potential ratings as if they came from the predetermined Madden players? I want to use my NCAA class the first couple of years and then use the precreated rookies, that way I will have real players in the game and then afterwords it will have to be fake people.

[mikeveli20]

The Letter grade would definitely be preferred, but it would also be nice if there was some give to this depending on how a player is performing. I'm not saying a D goes up to an A, but if you were to include the +/- with the letters like another poster suggested, someone could start out with say a B+ and be able to move that letter anywhere between a B- and an A depending on his performance after a few seasons.

It would also be cool if a player's potential could change depending on the philosophy of the team and/or what position that player ultimately plays. For example, an undersized DE in a 3-4 would have a lot more potential playing OLB then he would playing DE.

[CreatineKasey]

I'd vote for a letter. Ambiguity can help with blurring the precise amount of potential a player has.. which would emulate real life scouting closer in my opinion.

Thanks for the post!