[adembroski]

Quote: Originally Posted by BezO

Absoulutely! Hide them, something, but I hated scrolling through unecessary ratings. And if they do include these irrelevent ratings in the overall formula, they should remove them. I think I'd prefer absolute ratings that stuck with a player from team to team so I could determine his value on a particular team and in different schemes. What exactly governs the ratings? Would that undersized LB have higher ratings on all Cover 2 teams? Will he hold his value if his current team changes their defensive philosophy? Does he maintain that higher value when I run man defenses with that Cover 2 team? Are all of his ratings boosted on teams that value him more? Does he cover better, have more speed, ect? I never played HC if you can't tell.

The way it works in HC coach is a bit different from Madden.

The players have the same set-in-stone numbers as Madden when it comes down too it, but rather than sifting through all that, you are giving numbers in several over-arching categories as it relates to your team's philosophy. I've seen players go from 70 overall to 90 overall just by changing your team philosophy.

The way this works is it takes the numbers and plugs them into a weighting system based what you are looking for. For example, if you like to platoon runningbacks, a back wont get as much credit for having a high stamina rating. If you like power backs, speed backs will be heavily under rated.

The players specific numbers... speed, agility, awareness, catch, tackle, etc... don't change. Just the way the numbers fit into the overall and the categorical ratings (this is things like Physical, Mental, Intangibles, and Potential).

If you decide you prefer scrambling quarterbacks, Donovan McNabb is going to be higher rated than, say, Ben Roethlisburger. On the other hand, if you like big pocket passers, Big Ben will be the higher rated.

The nice thing about this system is the way it affects computer logic. The computer's moves are governed by a team roadmap system that tracks pretty much every player in the league and tells the computer what their best option at that position is. You can use it as the player as well. You go into QBs, for example, and it'll list all available QBs in order of their overall rating according to your philosophy, and how they are available (ie. upcoming draft, already on team, free agent, or on trading block).

So if you've got a fairly average pocket passer starting, but there's a better one available, that one will be listed ahead of who you have there.

It's a really robust and very well thought out system... and it was designed by the same guys who are working franchise mode this year, so you can understand we Head Coach fans' excitement at their assignment to that post.

As far as I'm concerned, if ALL they do is bring over Team Roadmaps, I'll be happy with franchise for the time being. It alone made the computers free agency and draft logic infinitely better than what we've seen out of Madden.