Will Break-Out Years be Reflected in the New Progression Tuning?

[CajunPunk]

Will Break-Out Years be Reflected in the New Progression Tuning?

I ask this questions because I haven't seen appealing progression in a while.

For example, last year, if your starting HB got injured and you played a 67-rated HB in his place and picked up 1,200 yards, 12 TDs and a Pro Bowl, his player rating wouldn't improve at all because all progression/potential was predetermined.

From what I understand about this year's Madden, player progression is linked not only to production but also to a player's age and how his production and age is compared to other players in his same age group. For example, "if a rookie running back rushes for 500 yards and that is the best among his peers, he will progress the most in his age group." (taken from the Madden 12 Franchise Mode Blog)

Here is an example for my original question: Let's say my star HB goes down in the preseason with a season-ending injury and my backup HB (age 26) rated at a 67 takes the reins and racks up 1,200 yards 12 TDs and a Pro Bowl. Will his player rating increase significantly to accommodate his production? If Adrian Peterson (also age 26) had 2,000 yards and 20 TDs, will my HB's ratings not increase because his yards/TDs aren't as good and they are the same age?

I ask this because it's pretty frequent that, in the NFL, we see nobodies turn into stars (Tom Brady, Kurt Warner, Arian Foster, Priest Holmes, Matt Schaub, Matt Cassel, Tony Romo, Marques Colston, Jared Allen, Shannon Sharpe, Terrell Davis, and the list goes on).

However, in the newer versions on Madden, you never see this. I can remember, in Madden '05, drafting a lower-rated QB in a late round to a short contract. He is very productive during the season, his ratings go up, I release him and he would get picked up and start for another team (ala Matt Cassel).

Next gen Madden has killed this possibility. Last year, if I released a low-rated player that was extremely productive and went to the Pro Bowl, he would get lost in free agency and never be picked up by another team ever again. This is extremely unrealistic.

I guess I'm hoping that with this new progression system there is a return of the "hidden treasure" the old gen Madden's used to allow for. Not really a hidden, predetermined potential rating, but an ability to see low-rated players become stars because of their production, rather than what they were only programmed to be.

Anyone else have a similar curiosity?

[Yeah...THAT Guy]

Agreed. I still remember in one of the old Maddens for the PC, I drafted a lefty QB in the 7th round. My top 3 QBs all went down with season ending injuries, and in comes this 55 overall (I think he was around there) and my team ends up going on to win the Super Bowl. The next season his overall was up in the mid 80s, and the year after that, he was into the 90s, and the year after, he was a 99 overall and the best QB in the NFL. The only time I've ever come anywhere near as connected to a specific fake player as I was to him was Madden 10 with Michael Bolt and Vonnie Mendenhall because I ended up doing a 30 year franchise with them and they were there from the time my Browns were the worst team in the league to the time the same Browns won 5 Super Bowls in 7 years.

[Argooos]

It would be nice to go back to something resembling the old system.

There's nothing quite as satisfying to me as taking a low rated player, and though hard work slowly building him up to a star.

The good news though is that even if Madden progression is unchanged, we can edit players in franchise mode now!

So, if your 67 ovr back doesn't go up as much as you think he should, edit his rating!

[CCPiper]

Quote: Originally Posted by Argooos

It would be nice to go back to something resembling the old system. There's nothing quite as satisfying to me as taking a low rated player, and though hard work slowly building him up to a star. The good news though is that even if Madden progression is unchanged, we can edit players in franchise mode now! So, if your 67 ovr back doesn't go up as much as you think he should, edit his rating!

Exactly! I'm SO happy that EA allowed us to edit players this year! It seems like every year in franchise, player awareness never progresses. This year, now that one can edit players, anybody can determine how the players progress/regress in their franchises.

Also, now it's possible to implement retired jersey numbers lol...

[CajunPunk]

Quote: Originally Posted by Argooos

It would be nice to go back to something resembling the old system. There's nothing quite as satisfying to me as taking a low rated player, and though hard work slowly building him up to a star. The good news though is that even if Madden progression is unchanged, we can edit players in franchise mode now! So, if your 67 ovr back doesn't go up as much as you think he should, edit his rating!

That is true, and I forgot about this feature. However, it would be better if the game did it on its own like it used to so I wouldn't have to go through the entire NFL looking for breakout players from other teams.

If nothing else, though, I could just look at Pro Bowlers and top 10 stat listings.

[BDawg35]

It would be nice to have performance/experience-based progression, for sure.

Let's say your team is 2-9 and has no hope of doing anything. You decide to play some rookies to get them experience. There should be a payoff for doing that, which would make playing out the string in a bad season much more interesting.

Same applies to playing back-ups in blowout games, getting them experience in hopes of a few bumps in OVR or individual skillz.

[RaiderKtulu]

Why does everyone want to be able to pad stats to increase player ratings?

If you can put up god-like numbers with a 70, you don't need him to be any higher.

Progression should be fairly random, mixed with a potential and a consistency rating, or with rating ranges rather than a solid number. Higher consistency = smaller range. So an A potential with a 50 consistency might range from 70-95 (with the user having no way to tell at any given point), while a B potential with a 90 con would range from 80-85.

[shanew21]

Quote: Originally Posted by RaiderKtulu

Why does everyone want to be able to pad stats to increase player ratings? If you can put up god-like numbers with a 70, you don't need him to be any higher. Progression should be fairly random, mixed with a potential and a consistency rating, or with rating ranges rather than a solid number. Higher consistency = smaller range. So an A potential with a 50 consistency might range from 70-95 (with the user having no way to tell at any given point), while a B potential with a 90 con would range from 80-85.

I think the issue everybody has with it is that the simulation engine will not put up good stats with him for CPU teams, and CPU teams will either not pick up players like this or sign them to really low paying contracts