Solution to Back-Up Development Issue (for Madden 14)

[hay99077]

First of all, let me say I that overall I think the direction the team at EA has decided to pursue with CCM this year is an overall positive change. One thing that particularly bothers me thoug is the impossability of truly "developing" any young back-up a la Aaron Rodgers, Tony Romo, Steve Youg, etc etc..

While I hope we can all agree that the only way players get better is by actually playing football and playing it well (not through some magical, pre-destined potential rating as in past Maddens), this development generally takes place on the practice field weeks and sometimes years in advance of it actually being displayed on Sundays. To bring this reality closer to what Madden offers, I suggest tuning the weekly practice mechanic Madden installed for CCM.

My proposal would be a once a week practice decision for each position group (QB, RB, FB/TE, etc.). This decision would include a distribution of a pre-determined number snaps for each player at that position. The better each player performed, the more XP the user got to spend on certain, specific traits based on which drill was chosen. Have a veteran RB who you want to rest and a young up and comer backing him up? Give the majority of practice snaps to the young guy and work him into the gameplan, helping him mature and improve while the veteran still carries the majority of the load on Sundays (which would still provide a fair amount of XP for the vet).

An additional choice made every week could be the type of drill run at each position. Three drills could be offered to develop certain characteristcs for each position. Most of these drills harken back to old Maddens and NCAA's from the previous generation. I've listed some examples below for each position group.

QB
Pocket Pressence (a la last gen) - improve awareness, agility, short accuracy
Pass Skeleton (I know NCAA had this, can't remember if Madden did) - improve accuracy short, medium, and long
Rabbit Drill (last gen Madden and NCAA, RB vs Linebackers) - improve juke, spin, ect.

RB
Rabbit Drill (last gen Madden and NCAA, RB vs Linebackers) - improve juke, spin, ect.
Oklahoma Drill (last gen NCAA) - trucking, break tackle, vision
Pass Skeleton - route, catch, catch in traffic, agility

WR
Pass Skeleton - route, catch, catch in traffic, agility
Rabbit Drill (last gen Madden and NCAA, RB vs Linebackers) - improve juke, spin, ect.
One on One Drill (PSP Madden had this, not sure of what else) - release, spectacular catch, catch

FB/TE
Okie drill - impact block, run block
Pass Skeleton - route, catch, catch in traffic, agility
Rabbit Drill (last gen Madden and NCAA, RB vs Linebackers) - improve juke, spin, ect.

OL/DL - (Line play revamp would help these tremendously, but I digress)
Okie drill - run block, impact block/block shed, power move
Pass Pro drill (Last gen Maddens) - pass block, agility, acceleration/finese moves, agility, acceleration

LB
Okie drill - tackle, hit power, block shedding
Pass Skeleton - zone coverage, agility, play recognition

DB
One on One Drill (PSP Madden had this, not sure of what else) - press, man coverage
Pass Skeleton - play recognition, zone coverage, catch
Okie drill - tackle, hit power, block shedding

If this provided too much depth for anyone, the computer could simply simulate based on the team strategy, desired player type, and the structure of you team.

I personally think this would provide some of the developmental nature of Franchise lost with the move to XP in CCM and would honeslty likely move closer to real life than Madden has ever been all while staying within the framework already developed in CCM in 13.

That was really long... Thanks if you stuck through it all. Thoughts?

[ghostlight85]

Re: Solution to Back-Up Development Issue (for Madden 14)

I like the idea, but I don't know if I want all the minigames. It does need to be fixed, though.

I think at least part of it could be fixed by tuning the Goals assigned to each player very differently. Setting a season goal of 80 catches for a backup TE is not good balance.

[Reign X]

Re: Solution to Back-Up Development Issue (for Madden 14)

Yes practise is definitely where the development of back-ups should come in. That's what it should all be about. Not beating the computer in a regular game style where it's better play all your starters.

I'd get on board with this.

[CarryTheWeight]

Re: Solution to Back-Up Development Issue (for Madden 14)

Here's another area where last-gen had it much better. I actually had much more incentive to try the offseason Training Camp mini games because I would often use those to enhance my position battles and develop younger players.

The last few games of the PS2/Xbox days (Madden 07-09) really nailed this. Stars would emerge from 50-overall, late-round draft picks and eventually overtake the veteran, 85+ rated starters. Teams that were in the playoffs every year became stacked. Teams that would constantly lose and underperform, however, would eventually see their top-rated draft picks regress and turn into overpaid 70-overalls. Hiring the right coaching regime also meant a lot and added a text-sim quality to the game. Everything felt more organic and immersive.

Stats did a lot for progression in those days --- meaning if a QB who was a bust for his first 2-3 seasons suddenly had a 4500 yard season with 25+ TD's, he'd see a modest boost even after regressing or staying dormant in his "bust" years. You saw this with Alex Smith last year --- get the right scheme, and a QB can excel.

We don't see this in 13 in spite of the development team telling us otherwise. Instead, we *need* C.J. Spiller to get 1000 yards or 10-15 touchdowns as an RB2 to meet his goals. I don't think it's realistic for backups to have such lofty goals for a modest attribute gain. We could easily have a reasonable way to earn XP if these goals were more realistic in the first place. Instead, we have guys regressing if they don't come close to meeting the lofty standards the game sets.

[ghostlight85]

Re: Solution to Back-Up Development Issue (for Madden 14)

Instead, we have guys regressing if they don't come close to meeting the lofty standards the game sets.

I don't see regression anywhere related to performance. Is it happening without changing overall? In fact, I barely recognize regression as being in the game.

[CarryTheWeight]

Re: Solution to Back-Up Development Issue (for Madden 14)

I don't see regression anywhere related to performance. Is it happening without changing overall? In fact, I barely recognize regression as being in the game.

From what I saw, I've had players regress in OVR (haven't checked other stats, sorry, but I assume OVR is the average of the most relevant stats to that position) if they aren't being upgraded enough. Sounds silly, but it's happened to me:

I neglected to progress CJ Spiller at the end of a season because I wanted to carry his XP points to the following year and upgrade his development trait from "Normal" to "Quick". Despite splitting 1,000 yards with Fred Jackson and making the Pro Bowl, he actually regressed one point in OVR, either because I didn't upgrade him or the game determined he wasn't doing very well. Jackson, an older RB with less touchdowns, ended up improving --- since he either has a better Development Trait or because I decided to upgrade his attributes at the end of the year instead of banking points like I did for Spiller.

Maybe others can come up with a reason for why this happened --- I'll admit I haven't been very active on these forums and haven't combed through threads on progression to see why anomalies like this take place.