Questions for Madden roster creators.

[Grentthealien]

I have recently been working on some MLB rosters and I’m debating branching off into classic Madden rosters, but if I go down that route there are some questions I need answers for.

1. How are the rosters made lol Do you just keep creating players and if so is there a create a player limit or do you just keep editing the name,appearance and attributes of all the players in the game?

2. Where do you get your info specifically for player retirements? One thing I like to do is use amy own base or someone else’s base roster and build from it to put together multiple seasons worth of rosters so it would be beneficial if I could find a list of players that retired each specific season to do that as Pro Football reference doesn’t keep track of that it seems.

3.How do you go about getting accurate ratings for each player?

4. Is there a way around retired numbers?

If anyone would take the time to answer a few of these questions it would very much be appreciated.

[Iteachpercussion]

I have been making classic rosters for Madden for a number of years so I will answer what I do.

1: I create very few players. Madden has a limit to the number of created plays, plus if you are using those players in franchise they all appear as rookies. So, I and most people simply edit existing players. That is much easier this year since more editing can be done in the main menu. I trade players and move players around to get close matches and then edit the info.

2: I do not know of any site that deals specifically with retirements. That is not something I have dealt with. I get my rosters, depth charts, and stats from profootballreference.com.

3: Ratings: This is a bit subjective and everyone has their own methods. I have developed ways to set OVRs and certain ratings based on player and team stats. My formulas have evolved over the years and continue to do so. They provide me with a solid starting point. For some ratings, such as the physical ratings you can use combine numbers IF you are doing a more recent roster. That information is not available consistently before 2000. Having played Madden for so many years and A LOT of testing, I feel pretty comfortable with how the game plays and how I can manipulate the ratings to bring about the best results.

4: Retired numbers: Madden does not keep you from using retired numbers so that is not a problem.


Hope that helps. If I can be of any more assistance just let me know. I will do what I can.

[Grentthealien]

Quote: Originally Posted by Iteachpercussion

I have been making classic rosters for Madden for a number of years so I will answer what I do. 1: I create very few players. Madden has a limit to the number of created plays, plus if you are using those players in franchise they all appear as rookies. So, I and most people simply edit existing players. That is much easier this year since more editing can be done in the main menu. I trade players and move players around to get close matches and then edit the info. 2: I do not know of any site that deals specifically with retirements. That is not something I have dealt with. I get my rosters, depth charts, and stats from profootballreference.com. 3: Ratings: This is a bit subjective and everyone has their own methods. I have developed ways to set OVRs and certain ratings based on player and team stats. My formulas have evolved over the years and continue to do so. They provide me with a solid starting point. For some ratings, such as the physical ratings you can use combine numbers IF you are doing a more recent roster. That information is not available consistently before 2000. Having played Madden for so many years and A LOT of testing, I feel pretty comfortable with how the game plays and how I can manipulate the ratings to bring about the best results. 4: Retired numbers: Madden does not keep you from using retired numbers so that is not a problem. Hope that helps. If I can be of any more assistance just let me know. I will do what I can.

Hey Iteach thanks for the reply, I’ve actually been meaning to talk to you as one of the things I’ve been thinking about doing if you are ok with it is using your 2002 roster from Madden 18 as a base roster. I would like to use it as a base to make the 2001 season and possibly the 2003 season later on if I have the energy. That is only if you’re fine with it though as I know some creators might not like that. It would just be quicker than starting from scratch and it would give me some parameters to work with for ratings rather than making up my own rating system.

I’ve done a bit of research and I’ve found out that most features like height,weight and appearance can’t be edited from the main menu so all editing must be done in CFM although you did mention it’s a bit different for 19 so if you could elaborate on that it would be appreciated. The thing that I’m confused about is how do take the roster you’ve created in CFM and turn it into a roster file that you can use yourself and then upload to share with the community? Is it simple or are there a number of things you got to do to achieve that?

[Iteachpercussion]

Quote: Originally Posted by Grentthealien

Hey Iteach thanks for the reply, I’ve actually been meaning to talk to you as one of the things I’ve been thinking about doing if you are ok with it is using your 2002 roster from Madden 18 as a base roster. I would like to use it as a base to make the 2001 season and possibly the 2003 season later on if I have the energy. That is only if you’re fine with it though as I know some creators might not like that. It would just be quicker than starting from scratch and it would give me some parameters to work with for ratings rather than making up my own rating system. I’ve done a bit of research and I’ve found out that most features like height,weight and appearance can’t be edited from the main menu so all editing must be done in CFM although you did mention it’s a bit different for 19 so if you could elaborate on that it would be appreciated. The thing that I’m confused about is how do take the roster you’ve created in CFM and turn it into a roster file that you can use yourself and then upload to share with the community? Is it simple or are there a number of things you got to do to achieve that?

You are more than welcome to use my 2002 roster. I appreciate you asking though.

Editing: In all previous versions of Madden (this generation) Height, weight, face, and skin color were only editable in CFM. This made/ makes rosters more difficult. Constantly trying to find matches for players in terms of all of those characteristics is difficult. However, in Madden 19, all of those are fully editable from the main menu roster section. Also, in Madden 19 you can edit chest, waist, arms, legs size from the main menu roster section. This makes editing and creating rosters MUCH easier.
You cannot take a roster from CFM and export it for use in Play Now games or to upload to Madden Share. Only rosters created/edited from the main menu can be upoaded to Madden Share. So, if you are using M18 or earlier, you have to deal with some heights and weights not being perfect. Then, if you want to take the time to make those changes in CFM, you can, but those changes cannot be uploaded. So, anyone who downloads your roster must make those CFM changes themselves. I hope that makes sense.

[Grentthealien]

Quote: Originally Posted by Iteachpercussion

You are more than welcome to use my 2002 roster. I appreciate you asking though. Editing: In all previous versions of Madden (this generation) Height, weight, face, and skin color were only editable in CFM. This made/ makes rosters more difficult. Constantly trying to find matches for players in terms of all of those characteristics is difficult. However, in Madden 19, all of those are fully editable from the main menu roster section. Also, in Madden 19 you can edit chest, waist, arms, legs size from the main menu roster section. This makes editing and creating rosters MUCH easier. You cannot take a roster from CFM and export it for use in Play Now games or to upload to Madden Share. Only rosters created/edited from the main menu can be upoaded to Madden Share. So, if you are using M18 or earlier, you have to deal with some heights and weights not being perfect. Then, if you want to take the time to make those changes in CFM, you can, but those changes cannot be uploaded. So, anyone who downloads your roster must make those CFM changes themselves. I hope that makes sense.

Ah that makes sense. So really in the case of doing a 2001 roster it is really a pick your own poison situation for me. I can do it on 18 using your 2002 roster as a base and deal with the annoyance of finding perfect matches for players or I can start from scratch on 19.

I noticed you have a load of free agents in your 2002 roster;What is that FA list comprised of? If it is made of players who weren’t playing at that time I could use that pool of players to turn into players that entered the league that year and I can release the retired players from their teams. That way I’m basically swapping out the players that left and entered the league that year which is the bulk of the movement that needs to be done. The rest is just editing overalls and accurate roster transactions.

[Iteachpercussion]

Quote: Originally Posted by Grentthealien

Ah that makes sense. So really in the case of doing a 2001 roster it is really a pick your own poison situation for me. I can do it on 18 using your 2002 roster as a base and deal with the annoyance of finding perfect matches for players or I can start from scratch on 19. I noticed you have a load of free agents in your 2002 roster;What is that FA list comprised of? If it is made of players who weren’t playing at that time I could use that pool of players to turn into players that entered the league that year and I can release the retired players from their teams. That way I’m basically swapping out the players that left and entered the league that year which is the bulk of the movement that needs to be done. The rest is just editing overalls and accurate roster transactions.

The free agent list is a combination if things. There might be some guys who retired after the 2001 season, guys were did not contribute on a team in 2002, actual free agents from 2002, and then current players who I simply dropped their ratings in hope that they would not be picked up or would play very little.
That is generally what I do with FAs. It is too time consuming to try to rerate and rename every free agent.
You will also notice that there are a lot of punters and kickers. This is because I often take current big name players that I did not use and change their position to punter, kicker, or QB to lineman. That lowers their OVR and keeps them out of the game. However, they are there if you want to use them.

[Grentthealien]

Quote: Originally Posted by Iteachpercussion

The free agent list is a combination if things. There might be some guys who retired after the 2001 season, guys were did not contribute on a team in 2002, actual free agents from 2002, and then current players who I simply dropped their ratings in hope that they would not be picked up or would play very little. That is generally what I do with FAs. It is too time consuming to try to rerate and rename every free agent. You will also notice that there are a lot of punters and kickers. This is because I often take current big name players that I did not use and change their position to punter, kicker, or QB to lineman. That lowers their OVR and keeps them out of the game. However, they are there if you want to use them.

I’d probably have to inspect it to make sure I don’t edit over players who retired in 2001 as I might need them, but the rest of it I could certainly choose from I’d just have to move the Punter and kicker free agents I want to use to a NFL team so I can change their position and edit them. I usually don’t put much thought into free agency as rosters I make are usually meant for one season of play only. In MLB I have just cleared out all the minors with generic named players , but that is as extensive as I’ve been.

Madden is probably the hardest sports game to make rosters in just because of the sheer size of football rosters especially starting from scratch. The work you do is incredible considering the amount of patience you must have to go through the process multiple times.

I definitely feel like giving this a shot once I finish the MLB rosters I’m working on. I think 2001 would be a nice year to have because it is the start of the Brady Belichick era and with the Rams and Patriots meeting in this year’s super bowl it would be nice to be able to redo their Super Bowl 36 matchup.

[Steelers4190]

Quote: Originally Posted by Grentthealien

Ah that makes sense. So really in the case of doing a 2001 roster it is really a pick your own poison situation for me. I can do it on 18 using your 2002 roster as a base and deal with the annoyance of finding perfect matches for players or I can start from scratch on 19. I noticed you have a load of free agents in your 2002 roster;What is that FA list comprised of? If it is made of players who weren’t playing at that time I could use that pool of players to turn into players that entered the league that year and I can release the retired players from their teams. That way I’m basically swapping out the players that left and entered the league that year which is the bulk of the movement that needs to be done. The rest is just editing overalls and accurate roster transactions.

An 01 class on 19 would be cool. I'd help with draft classes if you went that route