The Beauty of Player Development in Madden 13

[DetroitStyle]

Quote: Originally Posted by Nev

What I like is that players are rewarded for their success. Gone are the days of a rookie WR racking up 1000 yards and 10 TD's, but not progressing because his potential is C. Whilst the A potential guy shoots up 6 OVR points off a 300 yard, 2 TD season. I also like the control. I can mold my team into a Man Press team by investing time in training drills (XP). I can get that undrafted WR with great acceleration and agility and invest XP into his route running. Only 9 more sleeps... Can't wait!

It's also nice because you can give a ton of XP to a Matt Flynn type backup if they have a career game. Stats matter! Now whether or not this system works practically we have yet to see.

What worries me is that what's the point in developing a man press team if man coverage is busted or doesn't work like it's supposed to. What's the point in making a pass blocking line if just average pass blockers do the same job because line play is busted. You see, connected careers is literally connected and it all rests on idea that ratings matter. Well, Madden is notorious for ratings not mattering, so I'm skeptical on how this would work out.

It's fun developing coverage linebackers but if AI zone coverage is terrible or the AI logic is bad, then developing zone coverage doesn't matter. That's when you get the cheese. People realize that maybe pass blocking and run blocking doesn't matter. Those rating don't really mean anything in terms of gameplay. So instead of logically investing in those ratings people start pouring the XP into speed and agility where the rating does matter. All of a sudden your OD's have O-lineman that are 99 speed and zipping all over the place!

See where I'm going with this?

[DerkontheOS]

Quote: Originally Posted by Nev

What I like is that players are rewarded for their success. Gone are the days of a rookie WR racking up 1000 yards and 10 TD's, but not progressing because his potential is C. Whilst the A potential guy shoots up 6 OVR points off a 300 yard, 2 TD season. I also like the control. I can mold my team into a Man Press team by investing time in training drills (XP). I can get that undrafted WR with great acceleration and agility and invest XP into his route running. Only 9 more sleeps... Can't wait!

That is hilarious. I can't stop laughing and saying it over and over again.

[TheBleedingRed21]

You know OP, you are truly the first person who has given an excellent view on this subject and when i say truly, I mean the way you laid it out, very neat and down the the point. Nice job.

XP is supposed to be difficult to get and hard to boost players unnaturally. If your season goal for RB is 1000 yards for 10,000 XP (no real figures here..), players can not just run every single down and get 3,000 rushing yards and receive 30,000 XP, they would still get 10,000 XP.

I think online leagues will benefit as the OP suggested, gone are the days of scripted progression.

[TheBleedingRed21]

Quote: Originally Posted by DetroitStyle

It's also nice because you can give a ton of XP to a Matt Flynn type backup if they have a career game. Stats matter! Now whether or not this system works practically we have yet to see. What worries me is that what's the point in developing a man press team if man coverage is busted or doesn't work like it's supposed to. What's the point in making a pass blocking line if just average pass blockers do the same job because line play is busted. You see, connected careers is literally connected and it all rests on idea that ratings matter. Well, Madden is notorious for ratings not mattering, so I'm skeptical on how this would work out. It's fun developing coverage linebackers but if AI zone coverage is terrible or the AI logic is bad, then developing zone coverage doesn't matter. That's when you get the cheese. People realize that maybe pass blocking and run blocking doesn't matter. Those rating don't really mean anything in terms of gameplay. So instead of logically investing in those ratings people start pouring the XP into speed and agility where the rating does matter. All of a sudden your OD's have O-lineman that are 99 speed and zipping all over the place! See where I'm going with this?

Also I do not think you understand how the system works. Speed is one of the most, if not hardest attribute to boost. They have already said it takes TONS of XP to increase speed and if you spend all point on speed, the rest of stuff will suffer.

Position players that use speed more will cost more than oline who does not matter if they're fast.

[aksumite]

Quote: Originally Posted by TeamBuilder

Fortunately, gone are the Madden days of old; when the hard cap on player potential stunted a player's growth and development. With the new and glorious XP system in Connected Careers Mode, we can develop anyone into an elite player.

I'm surprised no else has mentioned this. But some people should simply NEVER progress past a certain point.

For example if I work out everyday more than Ray Lewis, would that really make me better than Ray Lewis in real life?

Some guys simply need to "max out"......it is the harsh reality...some guys just will never be better than others no matter how much harder they work...

Some guys like Randy Moss for example, don't need to work that hard to progress (as you loathed above).....but in reality that is life....he is just that gifted naturally....

Don't get me wrong I do think to a certain extent we should be able to progress our guys better. We should have more sway.

But it does need to be balanced.

Your statement that ANYONE can be ELITE, I think does not reflect reality.

[StrawHat Patriot]

To answer the question "What do you think of the new XP system?"

I find some issues. One, I don't like how progression works with D-Line/O-line men. You're telling me that if I control Demarcus Ware and get 20 sacks, I won't progress if the rest of the Defensive linemen don't rack up that much sacks at all? (if that's not how it works, then my fault)

2, I... I don't seem to high on the fact that you can make anyone elite. I know you can avoid this, by simply letting the CPU do this, but then comes the issue of the CPU handling it well, and waiting for the CPU to simulate every week or year.

3. Assist tackles.

Also, if everybody declines once they reach 30, will we ever see a guy who gets better with age like Tom Brady? (His best seasons have been every since he turned 29)

Again, I'm probably wrong on a couple of things. Correct me.

[seasprite]

Quote: Originally Posted by aksumite

Your statement that ANYONE can be ELITE, I think does not reflect reality.

Some of the best players in the history of the NFL were very late draft picks and not expected to do very much of anything in the NFL.

[Humdinger80]

Quote: Originally Posted by aksumite

I'm surprised no else has mentioned this. But some people should simply NEVER progress past a certain point. For example if I work out everyday more than Ray Lewis, would that really make me better than Ray Lewis in real life? Some guys simply need to "max out"......it is the harsh reality...some guys just will never be better than others no matter how much harder they work... Some guys like Randy Moss for example, don't need to work that hard to progress (as you loathed above).....but in reality that is life....he is just that gifted naturally.... Don't get me wrong I do think to a certain extent we should be able to progress our guys better. We should have more sway. But it does need to be balanced. Your statement that ANYONE can be ELITE, I think does not reflect reality.

Well not exactly, because their are players that will come out of the draft that are much more developed in their skill sets so it should only take a "star" rookie LB maybe 2 or 3 seasons to make into a Ray Lewis caliber player depending on how much xp you use on that particular player, whereas you could pump several seasons worth of xp into a bum LB and eventually turn him into what that star rookie was just coming out of the draft. Lots of interesting variables here.