Madden NFL 10 Blog: Franchise Mode Improvements

[kcarr]

Re: Madden NFL 10 Blog: Franchise Mode Improvements

I really don't like the idea of a "cap" on how players progress. If they do ell, they should be ratted higher. It's simple really. If I draft rookie QB Joe Blow in the 4th round and his "potential" is 85 and I through a serise of events I end up making him the next Tom Brady, he should be THE NEXT TOM BRADY. Not get caped at 85. This potential "cap" idea [i don't know if it is accurate] as we understand it is GARBAGE. Potential should help you rate what kind of player he "Could be" on draft day. Manning and Leaf had a lot of potential, but look who lived up to it?

When Jamal Lewis ran for over 2000 yards what happened in Madden? he was a BEAST as he should be. i was jsut talkignto my friend and he was sayign it would be wrog if I could just take a shmuck reciver and do crazy things with him that he shoud become a 99 in a few years. I responded "Why? If you saw that reciver go ape $hit, wouldn't you EXPECT his madden ratting in the next update/game to be high?" Your ratting should be in part a reflecion on you performance. Manny Lawson of the 49ers is 6'6" 235 lbs and has 90 speed. he is a beast. however he is hurt a lot and it only an 85 OLB. If he could overcome injury and play at the level willis has played, would he too deserveto be a high 90's player?

I know I sound like a bad record, but production and physical attributes should factor into how well a player's ovr is ratted and how he progresses. I agree that things like speed, agilit, acceleration, and jump shouldn't really go up. tackle, play recogniton, man/zone coverage, rout runningand others however should be altered by thier performance as that is the POINT of rattings, to RATE how well a player is doing out there.

First on the "potential cap" deal you are talking about, if you draft a player and he is not the next Tom Brady, being able to make him the next Tom Brady really takes away from any relevance to smart drafting.

As far as this whole progression should be based off of performance thing, this whole deal makes absolutely no sense to me. Can anyone tell me how a running back running for 2000 yards will cause him improve beyond his current level? Can anyone here name a few examples of players who have followed breakout seasons with true development being even better the next year? The whole deal just makes no sense. It bases progression off of the user's stick skills basically as if they can make a player play better than they should, they progress. If the user can't then that player won't progress. The whole deal just seems wrong to me.

[Bump101]

Re: Madden NFL 10 Blog: Franchise Mode Improvements

I think players should progress physically until the age of 25 regardless of playing time or workouts unless they suffer a severe injury. (some more than others based on potential, body types, etc.)

Age 25 - 30.... maintain physical attributes as long as they are not severly injured. Some attributes like strength can be upgraded through training. Speed pretty much locked in at this point.

Age 30 +.... Some players slowly start to regress in physical attributes. Stamina, and Injury really need to start regressing here. Severe Injuries take a much larger toll on attributes. RB's being the hardest hit here. LB's probably next in line. Gaining even the simplest of physical attributes like strength should be very difficult.

The progression of non physical attributes should be determined by success. If a 32 yr old RB still has a decent year stat wise, then he should still see an incease in Awr or in skills like catching, or any other skill he was good at during the year.

The main thing I don't want to see is a player in his 30's who has been a solid player for years, suddenly start to lose Awareness points. That seems silly to me, if anything, it should be the opposite. I know for a fact I've seen older players regress in some older versions of Madden, and I was always so confused by seeing Awr drop for them. Players don't get dumber with age, they just get older, and lose their physical edge.

I co-sign that.

[Megatron2k7]

Re: Madden NFL 10 Blog: Franchise Mode Improvements

Yeah I like the veterans losing steam after 30, but superstars should lose pts at a slower rate than a normal player;

ex:
Superstar WR

WR Age 30 Rated 95
WR Age 31 Rated 94
WR Age 32 Rated 92
WR Age 33 Rated 91
WR Age 34 Rated 90
WR Age 35 Rated 90
WR Age 36 Rated 86
WR Age 37 Rated 81

Normal WR

WR Age 30 Rated 85
WR Age 31 Rated 83
WR Age 32 Rated 81
WR Age 33 Rated 78
WR Age 34 Rated 74
WR Age 35 Rated 69
WR Age 36 Rated 61
WR Age 37 Rated 53

Like that.

Players getting older and regressing has nothing at all to do with their overall rating. It should only deal with them getting lowered in physical attributes. The drops in overall would, or could come naturally as the physical attributes drop, but you make it sound like it's just a cookie cutter formula.

A 37 year old WR being a 53 overall.........LMAO....!!! What......did his hands fall off or something....if he was once a very good, NFL caliber WR, then I'm sure he still has good hands, and by that age he should have great awareness. He may have lost a step (or nine) by 37 yrs old, but 53 overall is a bit too harsh.

[kcarr]

Re: Madden NFL 10 Blog: Franchise Mode Improvements

Spot on Megatron.

I'll use LT as an example.

You start your chargers franchise and LT has a good year. Say 1300 rsh yds 500 receiving yds and 13 total TD's.

I would hope that the progression takes away a few points from some physical attributes,(SPD,AGL,ACC etc.) BUT he would gain technique or awareness attributes(BCV,CAR,CTH etc.).


If he started at 92 OVRL his OVRL rating might stay the same, maybe even go up a small amount(1 or 2 points). If he had an average or bad season, he likely would have dropped due to not gaining the technique or awareness attributes.

And I think we can all agree that a 92 or 93 rated back can play a big part in an offense even if he did lose a step.

Thats what I'm hoping for.

LT has been playing professional football for 8 years, played 4 years in college, and played one year as a runningback in highschool. You really think he still has enough to learn about the game to make up for the physical loss from his advancing age, the injuries he has sustained, and the wear and tear of all those seasons? This really doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

Also, I know a lot of you like to take these players you have seen excel over the past few years and see them play at least a few in madden but playing runningback in the NFL is really a young mans game. There is a lot of wear and tear that leads to player's bodies breaking down which is why anymore it is so rare to see backs play very far past 30 years old, especially as feature backs.

[kcarr]

Re: Madden NFL 10 Blog: Franchise Mode Improvements

I agree with your primise here. I agree that players shouldhave thier physical abilitie caped. however, though hard work and dedication players shoudl have the opertunity to be greats like Jerry Rice if they perform up to that level. i am not talking about single game performances, but over all. If I rush for 2000 yards, I shouldn't be caped at having an 85 ovr back. J. Lewis ran for over 2000 yards an in the next madden his speed went up from 88 to like 91, but his other skills went through the roof just like they should have. the same is ture in Madden. if your guy goes nuts, he should have his rattings do the same over he corse of time. conversely, if he starts to decline and shows thathe is more of a fluke [like Dante Hall?] then he should drop accordingly as well.

OK, so if as an 85 overall a player is able to run for 2000 yards then a 90 overall should be able to easily break 2000 and probably hit near 2300 or 2400 right. When was the last time you saw a runningback follow a 2000 yard season with another 2000 yard season? Even with an 1800 yard season? 1500?

Jamal followed his 2000 yard season with 1006. Terrell Davis followed his 2000 yard season with a 211 yard season. Eric Dickerson followed his 2000 yard season with a 1234 yard season. OJ Simpson followed his 2000 with 1125. Barry Sanders did the best of 2000 yard backs I can find following up his 2000 yard season with 1491 yards the next year.

Where within that do you see any great progression caused by that 2000 yard rushing season?

[Bump101]

Re: Madden NFL 10 Blog: Franchise Mode Improvements

I also dont know what to think!!!. I know that it reads pretty unfavorable (about not exceeding potential), but in the blog, he also states that from time to time we can find the next "Brady or Colston" in the later rounds of the draft. Well, coming into the league and being 6th and 7th round picks, there "potential" (in a videogame stand point) would be mid-60's...tops. So is this a contradiction or a HUGE misunderstanding?? Either way this should and needs to be cleaned up and explained into greater depths... If not, then another sad franchise for me as I take THE most time into building up my rookies...

Or it could mean, a player being drafted in the 6th or 7th round has a high (90) potential rating but a low (68) overall rating. And his high potential rating is what will make him the next Brady or whatever.

[kcarr]

Re: Madden NFL 10 Blog: Franchise Mode Improvements

I also dont know what to think!!!. I know that it reads pretty unfavorable (about not exceeding potential), but in the blog, he also states that from time to time we can find the next "Brady or Colston" in the later rounds of the draft. Well, coming into the league and being 6th and 7th round picks, there "potential" (in a videogame stand point) would be mid-60's...tops. So is this a contradiction or a HUGE misunderstanding?? Either way this should and needs to be cleaned up and explained into greater depths... If not, then another sad franchise for me as I take THE most time into building up my rookies...

I think the real advantages of this potential cap are:

1) It adds some possibility for a need for good scouting, good drafting, and hopefully some luck to be successful. Not every player can now become the next Tom Brady or the next Marques Colston but this makes it so that when you get one of these players it really means something because not every player is like that.

2) It also leads to some players be predisposed to being steals so you will see players drafted by other teams become steals and so you can also draft steals yourself without having to work though a broken production based progression system to develop them

3) it gives the ability to make player's actually be busts.

[Exonerated]

Re: Madden NFL 10 Blog: Franchise Mode Improvements

Sif complain the potential rating when you've never played Head Coach.

Potential rating in HC09 was amazing.

Potential varied by scheme, production, coaches and other stuff. Like Adrian Peterson had a potential of 95 at one time and 99 with another team, coaching staff, strong production etc.

[salbowski]

Re: Madden NFL 10 Blog: Franchise Mode Improvements

Sif complain the potential rating when you've never played Head Coach.

Potential rating in HC09 was amazing.

Potential varied by scheme, production, coaches and other stuff. Like Adrian Peterson had a potential of 95 at one time and 99 with another team, coaching staff, strong production etc.

His potential went down to 82 and fluctuated between 82 and 85 after 3/4 long term injuries with me , ended up trying to getting some value in a trade but only managed a 4th + 6th rd pick cos his salary was 9m (1.5m pen)... but used the 4th rounder to move up in the second round and get a guy with 93 potential .
I'd planned to trade AP in the offseason for about a year so scouted every HB in the world (and beyond)... eventually found a great one at Florida st, who was a backup in college so didn't have a great production rating (that improved once i got him the ball) but had 85 learning and 96 speed. Came in to training camp with a current ability of 72 (pot 93) and by the end of preseason he was an 84... by week 6 he was a 91. The less said about my 81 potential pick up with the 26th pick the better ()... all my scouted 1st rounders had been taken and i was given zero value to trade down- took a gamble on a LT... 19m on a blooming bust (ryan cook was better than him)...

YOU WIN SOME YOU LOSE SOME.

[Josh_Looman]

Re: Madden NFL 10 Blog: Franchise Mode Improvements

Or it could mean, a player being drafted in the 6th or 7th round has a high (90) potential rating but a low (68) overall rating. And his high potential rating is what will make him the next Brady or whatever.

Correct.

It means that we can set his potential to be whatever we want, regardless of where he is drafted. Same with overall rating.

[FadeEmAll]

Re: Madden NFL 10 Blog: Franchise Mode Improvements

LOL funny this is the most disgruntled I have seen the OS fan base after a blog and in my opinion this blog has been the most informative and game changing to date. The blog was excellent to me and points to marked improvement in the franchise mode, far more important to me than hand towels and colored cleats....

[achain]

Re: Madden NFL 10 Blog: Franchise Mode Improvements

Atleast the draft is finally getting some attention. A buddy and myself were just discussing how broken the current system is.

I hope you guys can change the graphical interface too. Something about the current gen menus just look awful to me. Can someone confirm if these are changing?

[RogueHominid]

Re: Madden NFL 10 Blog: Franchise Mode Improvements

Regarding scouting, if this game is to be the most accurate reflection of what we see in NFL games and in NFL culture, scouting comments should not be anything like "he'll have awareness of no higher than 80." In baseball they use an 80 scale, but they seem to use different skill-based verbiage when talking about players in the NFL draft. Some guys are explosive off the ball, some are strong at the point of attack, some are very good at moving to the ball without wasting steps, etc.

I think the philosophy is thus off regarding how to build this "base." Simply put, I don't want my scouts to reveal exact ratings unless they're real measurables like a 40 time or a shuttle drill. And even then I want there to be a difference between raw speed and football speed, just like real life.

I'm also not sure about revealing a player's potential rating. There are guys we know have near limitless athletic potential but it feels a little cheap to know that rating ahead of time. If scouts really knew what players were capable of, the draft wouldn't be such a crapshoot. As it stands, it's a glorified guessing game.

I like most of what I've heard thus far from Ian, but I'm lukewarm about this posting, especially since I'm really into franchise modes.

[brza37]

Re: Madden NFL 10 Blog: Franchise Mode Improvements

LOL funny this is the most disgruntled I have seen the OS fan base after a blog and in my opinion this blog has been the most informative and game changing to date. The blog was excellent to me and points to marked improvement in the franchise mode, far more important to me than hand towels and colored cleats....

+1

We got things that a lot of people have been asking for plus the promise that there is more to come and the explanation that we need to be a bit patient seeing that it is only April.
Plus, the most hotly debated topic "created rookies" is something that is optional, so if you don't like it use NCAA draft classes.
I hope we can all relax, be glad that we've gotten so much info already and let the devs keep doing their jobs.

[bigrice25]

Re: Madden NFL 10 Blog: Franchise Mode Improvements

i just recently started playing HC and im loving it.
I have faith in the HC guy in handling maddens franchise mode.

I have no problem with the precreated rookies, sometimes the randomness of the randomly generated players didnt make sense. and as long as i have the option to import players from NCAA, im good.

you guys should give HC a spin, its a pretty good football game.

now im just hoping for online franchise

but im not expecting it this version.......