Instead of 4 difficulty levels, how about 32 ?

[Tito78]

What if the difficulty of playing a certain team depended SOLELY on their ratings. If we want the teams to play like their real life counter parts, then how realistic is it to be able to beat a team like the Saints with a team like the Browns ?

The difficulty levels may be causing to AI to interfere in a sense; not allowing the ratings to actually do their job. It could be the reason that ratings, for the most part, are irrelevant. Players get attributes boosts on all of the levels if I'm not mistaken. The user on the lower difficulty levels, and the CPU on the higher ones. If you're boosting ratings of players to affect performance, it's going to be tough for the user to feel the difference between players.

Instead of 4 difficulty levels, how about 32 ? Make the difficulty depend on the ratings of the players on your opponent's team. If you're a beginner, trying to beat the Colts with the Redskins probably isn't going to happen without turnovers from Colts, and/or big plays on special teams by the Redskins. It should be next to impossible to win a shoot out against the Saints with the Chiefs, no matter how good you are in madden. In order for the chiefs to win, the Saints, whether they're controlled by a human opponent or the CPU, should have to make mistakes in order for the Chiefs to win.

Basically if you're a newbie, then you should play against teams like the Bucs, Skins, Lions, etc. with teams like the Saints, Colts or Vikings. If you're a very good madden player, you should try to beat teams like the Vikings and the Saints, with the Skins or the Lions.

This could also add depth to the franchise mode because users would have to build their team. They'd have to scout and draft well to have success; they couldn't just rely on their ability to win regardless of the team their playing with

[IAHawks1903]

So what do you tell the 10yr old kid in KC when he wants to play as his favorite team, but loses every game by 40 pts because his team is terrible. Have fun with that one.

[Poetique]

You tell him to turn off whatever option allows this style of play.

Good idea Tito... which is why it will never be implemented.

[hatisback]

Quote: Originally Posted by Tito78

What if the difficulty of playing a certain team depended SOLELY on their ratings. If we want the teams to play like their real life counter parts, then how realistic is it to be able to beat a team like the Saints with a team like the Browns ? The difficulty levels may be causing to AI to interfere in a sense; not allowing the ratings to actually do their job. It could be the reason that ratings, for the most part, are irrelevant. Players get attributes boosts on all of the levels if I'm not mistaken. The user on the lower difficulty levels, and the CPU on the higher ones. If you're boosting ratings of players to affect performance, it's going to be tough for the user to feel the difference between players. Instead of 4 difficulty levels, how about 32 ? Make the difficulty depend on the ratings of the players on your opponent's team. If you're a beginner, trying to beat the Colts with the Redskins probably isn't going to happen without turnovers from Colts, and/or big plays on special teams by the Redskins. It should be next to impossible to win a shoot out against the Saints with the Chiefs, no matter how good you are in madden. In order for the chiefs to win, the Saints, whether they're controlled by a human opponent or the CPU, should have to make mistakes in order for the Chiefs to win. Basically if you're a newbie, then you should play against teams like the Bucs, Skins, Lions, etc. with teams like the Saints, Colts or Vikings. If you're a very good madden player, you should try to beat teams like the Vikings and the Saints, with the Skins or the Lions. This could also add depth to the franchise mode because users would have to build their team. They'd have to scout and draft well to have success; they couldn't just rely on their ability to win regardless of the team their playing with

I disagree just for the fact that the NFL is "Any Given Sunday" for a reason. Any team can beat any team in the NFL, given the right situations and such. Sometimes it takes some lucky breaks to beat an opponent, but that shouldn't mean they shouldn't be there.

[kehlis]

Quote: Originally Posted by hatisback

I disagree just for the fact that the NFL is "Any Given Sunday" for a reason. Any team can beat any team in the NFL, given the right situations and such. Sometimes it takes some lucky breaks to beat an opponent, but that shouldn't mean they shouldn't be there.

I agree, the difficulty level should be based on my playing skill and the ratings should proportionally represent the difference in difficulty of the teams.

In essence, to me, if the ratings work correctly, there should be 32 different difficulty levels within your franchise based on the players on each teams but each user should still have to choose a "base" difficulty.

[hlhbk]

It's an interesting idea, but what about online? I am sorry but I am a Raiders fan and already in my opinion the ratings matter to much. I can win online but I am very very restricted in what I can do with my favorite team.

I realize the Raiders are terrible, but if I am vastly superior in playing skills to the guys who are constantly taking the pats then the ratings shouldn't decide that they beat me.

[Tito78]

Quote: Originally Posted by IAHawks1903

So what do you tell the 10yr old kid in KC when he wants to play as his favorite team, but loses every game by 40 pts because his team is terrible. Have fun with that one.

Well, he can play against teams like the Rams, Bucs or Redskins.

[Tito78]

Quote: Originally Posted by hatisback

I disagree just for the fact that the NFL is "Any Given Sunday" for a reason. Any team can beat any team in the NFL, given the right situations and such. Sometimes it takes some lucky breaks to beat an opponent, but that shouldn't mean they shouldn't be there.

I didn't say that upsets shouldn't be possible, I said that you shouldn't be beat teams like the Colts in a shootout with the Chiefs. When upsets happen in the NFL, it's because on some level, the favorite didn't show up.

I did say that if upsets happen, it should take mistakes by the superior team, and big plays by the underdog.