The kicking game needs life. The AFC championship last year was decided on missed 32 yard field goal. 32 yards! I don't think I've missed anything short of 60 since last gen. I've got an idea for a new kick meter that I think would add some additional and much needed challenge but it wouldn't be without some other upgrades as well.
The Meter
How It Works
Basically you have two meters, one on the left and one on the right. You press A and one of them starts going back and forth around the meter. You press A again to stop the bar as close to the middle of the green area as possible. Once you've done that, the meter on the other side does the same thing in the opposite direction. The goal is to get both bars in the green and essentially try to have them line up as close as possible to where you want to kick. You could even have which one starts first decided by the footedness of your kicker for some added depth.
Power would be determined solely off the kickers ratings while also taking into account how well the meter bars are lined up. The better they're lined up, the more power you get on your kick. If they line up perfectly, you get a slight power increase to account for "hitting the ball perfect".
There also would be no more arrow. The green area would adjust along the meter to account for the angle you're kicking at. Here's an example of what certain kicks would look like from different spots on the field:
The Green Zone
The green zone is used to differentiate the level of kicker. A kicker with a poor accuracy rating will have a smaller green zone. A very accurate kicker will have a much larger area to hit and much more room for error. Here is an example of what a poor, average, and good kickers meters would look like:
The speed at which the line meters moved would be determined by both the level of difficulty you were playing on (Rookie, Pro, etc.) as well as the kickers rating. The lower the accuracy, the faster they move. Another addition that would be useful to this is a slider that would allow you to adjust the speed of the meter, regardless of difficulty. In addition, the meter would also be condensed for all kickers for the much longer field goals adding an additional challenge to hitting far field goals with poor to average kickers.
The Elements
I'm talking mainly wind here. And before I go any further they would have to fix the obnoxious fact that the wind meter is currently backwards and all wrong. Okay, now obviously there should be a power (and maybe even accuracy) decrease when it comes to kicking in adverse conditions like rain and snow. But wind is the most commonly seen thing that affects kicks.
What I was thinking is that rather than having a constant wind speed, they should go back to the way it was last gen where the wind would vary between an area of MPH. This would be displayed on the meter by having the green zone sway a bit in either direction to basically simulate wind gusts. You could also have the AWR rating play a role in how a kicker is affected by this by maybe having their meter sway a little more if their AWR is low and remain more steady if they have a higher AWR.
Alright, I believe that is all. Hopefully I didn't leave anything out in all that. I understand it is a long read, especially about something as trivial as kicking but it's just one of those things that has irked me over the years. I look at it like free throws in a basketball game. It's not a huge thing but if Shaq is going to the line and hitting 97 percent of his free throws it kills the feel a little bit.
Anyways, if you've made it this far I thank you for your time and would love to hear your thoughts!
The Meter
How It Works
Basically you have two meters, one on the left and one on the right. You press A and one of them starts going back and forth around the meter. You press A again to stop the bar as close to the middle of the green area as possible. Once you've done that, the meter on the other side does the same thing in the opposite direction. The goal is to get both bars in the green and essentially try to have them line up as close as possible to where you want to kick. You could even have which one starts first decided by the footedness of your kicker for some added depth.
Power would be determined solely off the kickers ratings while also taking into account how well the meter bars are lined up. The better they're lined up, the more power you get on your kick. If they line up perfectly, you get a slight power increase to account for "hitting the ball perfect".
There also would be no more arrow. The green area would adjust along the meter to account for the angle you're kicking at. Here's an example of what certain kicks would look like from different spots on the field:
The Green Zone
The green zone is used to differentiate the level of kicker. A kicker with a poor accuracy rating will have a smaller green zone. A very accurate kicker will have a much larger area to hit and much more room for error. Here is an example of what a poor, average, and good kickers meters would look like:
The speed at which the line meters moved would be determined by both the level of difficulty you were playing on (Rookie, Pro, etc.) as well as the kickers rating. The lower the accuracy, the faster they move. Another addition that would be useful to this is a slider that would allow you to adjust the speed of the meter, regardless of difficulty. In addition, the meter would also be condensed for all kickers for the much longer field goals adding an additional challenge to hitting far field goals with poor to average kickers.
The Elements
I'm talking mainly wind here. And before I go any further they would have to fix the obnoxious fact that the wind meter is currently backwards and all wrong. Okay, now obviously there should be a power (and maybe even accuracy) decrease when it comes to kicking in adverse conditions like rain and snow. But wind is the most commonly seen thing that affects kicks.
What I was thinking is that rather than having a constant wind speed, they should go back to the way it was last gen where the wind would vary between an area of MPH. This would be displayed on the meter by having the green zone sway a bit in either direction to basically simulate wind gusts. You could also have the AWR rating play a role in how a kicker is affected by this by maybe having their meter sway a little more if their AWR is low and remain more steady if they have a higher AWR.
Alright, I believe that is all. Hopefully I didn't leave anything out in all that. I understand it is a long read, especially about something as trivial as kicking but it's just one of those things that has irked me over the years. I look at it like free throws in a basketball game. It's not a huge thing but if Shaq is going to the line and hitting 97 percent of his free throws it kills the feel a little bit.
Anyways, if you've made it this far I thank you for your time and would love to hear your thoughts!
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