Potential NEEDS to be Hidden

[KBLover]

Quote: Originally Posted by Matt Diesel

Think about it. Do you really need to know Tom Brady's ratings? Or Chris Johnson, for example. We know exactly what they are good at. With that info , you'd be able to compare your rookies to your own team coupled with some historical data and real measurable data like combine data.

Ah, but that's name recognition at work. We see "Tom Brady" make a connection to the real player with that name and then we know (or at least assume with high probability) that he'll be awesome in the game.

Likewise with fictional players - "Tremendous Maxwell" doesn't mean anything to me. So I can't say "hey that guy plays for X team and had a good year so he's probably at least decent in the game." like I could with, say, Revis or D-R Cromartie.

Rookies, though, don't have pro history, by definition. We also know the college game doesn't necessarily translate to the pro game - so college history can't always be a true indicator. That's great on our end for those who want more mystery - but how do you do that on the developer end that's not cheap, cheesy, done for just the sake of "making it harder" (i.e. too many guys flop after having quality college numbers), and yet won't have us coming back complaining about how easy it is to min-max/game the system and ignore the depth?

Just to take one of the most basic measurables - the 40yd dash. Let's say a player ran a 4.6 40. That could be because he's on the slow side, but still is explosive and reaches his top speed in a few steps (which could still make him an effective HB if he has power, vision, etc) or it could be because he's fast, but takes too long to reach top speed (not explosive, not aggressive enough in his running style, too tense, etc).

Both are 4.6 for different reason, but one is useful, the other might just be a KR specialist. That's just one measurable - how would we want EA to do this? All 4.6 guys are just slow? Would the game use another measurable to decide which of these guys to generate?

Quote: Originally Posted by Matt Diesel

Do you take the guy who aced his pro day but didnt produce crazy numbers is college? Or do you take the college all-star who had pedestrian pro-day numbers? Look at that. A game within the game. Fun.

Fun indeed - brings up another question - who all of these numbers (college stats, combine results, pro day results) all be determined almost at random (since the game likely won't actually have these things and HC used it just to "unlock" ratings as time goes on) and just may or may not match with the hidden ratings? Would the hidden ratings "roll up" these results with some fudge factor (say 95 SPD is a base 4.3 40 time, but he could run at 4.6 at combine and 4.2 at pro day)?

[KBLover]

Quote: Originally Posted by splff3000

A few more examples of this are: QB: 99 thr power, 60 thr Acc, - rest of the league = 70 OVR, Raiders = 99 OVR WR: 95 speed, 60 hands - rest of the league = 75 OVR, Raiders = 96 OVR

You know, this brings up another scout idea. Scouts could favor different "tools" per se. The scout might love fast WR - so he overvalues fast WR.

Then you could throw on a calculated Production rating and have some scouts favor that.

Reminds me of another football game made by EA that did something close to this...

Combine that with the fact scouts aren't exact with what they think about a player - might not need to even have a "hidden ratings" discussion, because you never see the 'true' ratings except for perhaps when the player has a sizable history in the league (i.e. you don't need to be a great scout to see Peyton Manning is awesome).

[ABR173rd]

I have to comment on this, I don't think it should be hidden.Or maybe hidden but only for the players first 2 seasons.I think they should implement a Pro day were you actually get to watch footage of the players working out or get them to visit and use them in a practice mode before the draft so you would get a feel for how the player would actually play in the game.

I also think that rookies should be able to progress during their first preseason,that used to be an option as well in Maddens of old.