After Three Seasons . . .
 

So i sat down to simulate 3 seasons of madden to see how progression works , AI roster signings etc. . .

1. I put the settings to give the CPU full control of filling up my rosters . Preseason of year 2 i had 17 total players in the roster . Preseason of year 3 i had 8 total players and the team i used , NYJ , released almost all of their A potential players including Mangold .

2. The progression system is confusing me . Mark Sanchez threw 78 touchdowns and 10,000 some yards in 3 seasons . His throw power and throw accuracy rating havent budged , only his short throw , mid , etc.

Shonn Greene his rookie year rushed 103 times for 431 yards and 6 TDs . Tony Fiammetta , rookie FB on the Panthers , rushed 2 times for 4 yards and was released by the 7th week . Now i check his progression , he jumps up from a rating of 70 to 78 . Shonn Greene goes from 78 to 82 . By Season 3 , Fiammetta was now a rating of 89 .

Kerry Rhodes intercepted 24 passes in 3 seasons . Season 2 he had 9 picks and non of his skills have gone up 1 point .

3. The NCAA imported draft classes are a mess . I ve been noticing people saying the players size affects his rating . Lets take Taylor Mays who is 6"3 225lbs. - 235lbs. i forgot . I scouted him and his ratings are beastly . Eric Berry who is rated 98 overall in NCAA is 5"10 180some pounds . I scouted him and first off his potential rating is at decent and his skills are horrible . So i said ok , maybe in season performance affects it . I put in NCAA and load a franchise i saved week 14 so i can see the draftees stats . Taylor Mays did nothing but tackle , only 2 picks . Berry had 5 picks , more tackles and only one less sack than Mays .

Heres where the size doesnt make sense . Eugene Jarvis is a 5"5 RB for Kent State and he had better ratings than berry when i scouted both and Jarvis had a mediocre season rushing for 500some yards whereas Blount ran for 1000+ and theyre about the same ratings wise .


Looks like EA needs to put out more than a patch #2 . The whole potential rating i like because in past Maddens almost every player was rated 99 by season 3 or 4 . The progression system has to be worked on though because a lot of it makes no sense . EA was swearing they had improved AI Franchise logic regarding roster transactions and that was a complete lie . The draft class makes 0 sense . It seems like the AI is picking which player has a better looking face and making them great .

Re: After Three Seasons . . .
 

One other thing i just found out . Matthew Stafford has done 0 for the Lions but be injured and hes a higher rating than sanchez . Stafford is a rating of 90 and i counted how many games he started and it came up at 28 games in 3 seasons . Sanchez hasnt missed a start and his rating is 88 .

Re: After Three Seasons . . .
 

To some extent, I like unpredictability in progression. I don't want every guy developing into a 99 overall rated beast. Stats also shouldn't be the controlling factor. If it is, then I control who becomes a superstar. The fun of franchise for me is to see who develops and who doesn't. I want to see successes and failures.

As to the NCAA conversions, yeah, to me, that needs work. A guy who runs a 4.3 is fast. A guy who does 40 reps at 225 is strong, etc. NCAA or NFL, physical characteristics don't change. Awareness, throwing accuracy and reading coverages, mental aspects, those are the types of things that would go way down, logically, in the transition. And, ideally, so would develop back over years in the NFL, while others never improve at all.

Re: After Three Seasons . . .
 

Good post, specially the second part(co-sign). Good thread SSO.