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Rookie
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Re: Connected Careers Player Progression is broken
I am a big Head Coach 09 fan, so I recently started an offline CCM with coach mode turned on (post-patch, which means no user control). 15 minutes quarters with accelerated clock; I am getting very close to NFL stats. After a few weeks of play, I am now in season 7.
Overall, I am OK with the manual progression of my own team, although I resent the fact that the starters get much of the XP while my backups progress quite slowly, since their goals are unreasonably high for many positions.
Beyond my own team, I've noticed a lot of the other weird things mentioned in this thread. One thing that strikes me is how many young first round picks can sooner rather than later be found in the FA pool. Especially on defensive line. In my CCM, I found guys like Nick Fairley, Quinton Coples, or Shea McLelan simply get cut by their team after a year or two and sitting in FA. I am not sure, but I can see two possible scenarios causing this. One, this may be due to poor progression. These guys had overall that made them backups, and since they didn't see the field, they remained low, leading the CPU team to cut ties with them. Or, second option, it may also have to do with positional philosophy. Fairley is a good example of a drastic change based on scheme. As a run stopper, he's rated in the mid-60s, but as a pure pass rusher DT or DE, he shoots up to the 80s. Now, suppose a team wants a 3-4 run stopper and don't need a guy like Fairley, they should at least trade him to another CPU team, since he should be highly valued by another organization running a 4-3, for example. Change in philosophies/schemes occur often on CPU teams when coach firing is turned on.
This problem with poor rookie progression is a general one. In 2016, so around the time most of the 2012 draft class rookie contracts expired, pretty much all the big names rookies were dropped into the FA pool by the CPU: Andrew Luck, Michael Floyd, Doug Martin, Morris Clayborne, etc. were almost all FAs. The year before, Andrew Dalton, coming out of an MVP season, was not re-signed by the Bengals (who did not have any salary cap issues) and went into FA. Almost all the stats leaders were veterans, even at positions where it makes no sense: most of the rushing leaders were guys in their 30s, while rookies had pretty average seasons. This is really frustrating, as it kills the realism of an extended franchise mode.
The CPU will also sign rookie QBs in the first round of the draft, but many don't ever see the field, and since they don't progress, the CPU will keep them on the bench forever, and at the end of the year will sign a scrub FA QB like Kyle Orton, since he has a slightly higher overall. Again, this makes little sense. I've seen so many other examples of poor CPU management of roster, but that's another topic.
For better progression, the CPU should rotate players more in game. In my CCM games, I'll see the CPU run the same HB 30 times a game, even small scatbacks like Stephens-Howling or Sproles. Does anybody know how to fix this? It's as if they never get tired.
The other issues I have with the general idea of manual progression based on performance XP, especially in online leagues, is that it can become a vicious circle: guys who win a lot of games have more XP therefore making their team and players better, while guys struggling will continue to struggle since their progression will be stunted. It also frequently leads to stats padding to meet unrealistic goals: guys running a HB 35 times a game, spamming their WRs or TEs, etc.
Leave it to EA to fix something only to break something else. Too bad that, once again, I'm stuck hoping next year will be better or that, one day, there will be another installment of Head Coach.
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11-03-2012, 06:56 PM
