Madden: Editing Player Ratings in Franchise - Need Your Thoughts

[Ian_Cummings]

So Josh Looman and I looked into this a bit this morning and I thought I'd post back some results.

Good News: It's very easy enough to 'unlock' the screen to allow someone to edit everything about their players in Franchise mode. Took like 10 minutes to do.

Bad News: Unfortunately, there are about a million things that can go wrong with this unlocked. Now I realize what you all will use this feature for which is to fine-tune progression and try and get extremely realistic stats, but here are just a few of the things that came up when we messed around with it:

• There are countless "cheesing" things that the user can do like dropping your player ratings right before the off-season, signing him to the cheapest deal possible, and then setting him back.
• Your save file can easily be rendered non-functional if you change enough CPU team's player's ratings where they can't re-sign any players. At this point the mode typically crashes or hangs and won't be recoverable from.
• We also don't display that potential rating in the edit player screen now, and if you were to edit the actual player's overall rating to be higher than his potential rating, the game has a chance of crashing in many different spots. We'd have to add it in and always force it to be higher than the OVR I guess.

So I need help from you all...

Please comment and be specific about what exactly you NEED to edit. What is your overall specific intent with wanting to edit these players? Are there certain time frames we can lock it to? Are there certain specific changes you could only be allowed to make instead of full league-wide control? By reducing the amount of variables we can look into finding ways to make this happen. Unfortunately allowing the user to set every player in the league anytime from a 0 to a 99 is not going to be an option because of all the instability it will cause...and we just don't have the testing man-power to ensure that the mode won't start crashing all over the place.

[stp2081]

Quote: Originally Posted by Ian_Cummings_EA

- There are countless "cheesing" things that the user can do like dropping your player ratings right before the off-season, signing him to the cheapest deal possible, and then setting him back. - Your save file can easily be rendered non-functional if you change enough CPU team's player's ratings where they can't re-sign any players. At this point the mode typically crashes or hangs and won't be recoverable from. - We also don't display that potential rating in the edit player screen now, and if you were to edit the actual player's overall rating to be higher than his potential rating, the game has a chance of crashing in many different spots. We'd have to add it in and always force it to be higher than the OVR I guess.

My thoughts:
- In an offline franchise, the user should be allowed to "cheese" like that if he or she wants to do so.
- What is the approximate threshold? I think this risk is tolerable if the approximate threshold of going overboard with editing CPU teams' players is known. I know NZA's PC editor allowed global edits, but then again that was the PC.
- Allow the option to remove the potential rating altogether? I know many people are frustrated that it "artificially" acts as a cap on season stats-based progression.

[aTTckr]

First of all it's great to already see you here in november asking us our opinions about the next Madden. Really appreciate that! Especially after the somewhat harsh criticism you received here after the podcast.

I don't think that the cheesing really is a problem. If a player wants to cheat himself and make his gameplay expierence worse in a offline franchise that's his problem.

For the problem with the potential rating/ ceiling: Why not let us rerate that aswell, that should probably take those sorts of complications you mentioned away.

[Dog]

Seems like you are stuck between a rock and a hard place with this. For me, I don't feel the need to change player ratings in franchise mode. I edit player ratings in a separate roster file. In franchise, I view it as a simulation, so I just let the progression system work on its own. I edit equipment and things like that, but not player ratings

[huskerwr38]

Maybe you shouldn't really link contracts to ratings. Maybe link contracts to season stats and career stats, because in real life if a running back rushes for 1500 yards for two straight seasons, even if he runs a 4.7 40 and only has a vertical leap of 25 inches, he's going to get a big contract. That way, even if you re-rate Peyton Manning to an overall of 10 and you want to re-sign him, you'll still owe him a big contract because of his stats. However, if he's a 10 and he goes through the season, he'll obviously not do good and he can be signed to a lower contract. Hope that make sense.

As for rookies contracts can be link to a combination of their stats and combine performance.

[Armor and Sword]

Quote: Originally Posted by huskerwr38

Maybe you shouldn't really link contracts to ratings. Maybe link contracts to season stats and career stats, because in real life if a running back rushes for 1500 yards for two straight seasons, even if he runs a 4.7 40 and only has a vertical leap of 25 inches, he's going to get a big contract. That way, even if you re-rate Peyton Manning to an overall of 10 and you want to re-sign him, you'll still owe him a big contract because of his stats. However, if he's a 10 and he goes through the season, he'll obviously not do good and he can be signed to a lower contract. Hope that make sense. As for rookies contracts can be link to a combination of their stats and combine performance.

I think this is a great point. I just don't know if the build you guys are working with allow this.

I have never had the urge to edit player ratings while I am playing my franchise. As another poster pointed out I just edit and save them before going into franchise mode. Once I am past season one it really becomes my universe and I leave it to the progression system/injuries and performance to determine future ratings of my players.

Would it be cool to be able to edit in-season? Absolutely. But if it would create massive crashes and bugs no way.

It is very appreciated though that you posted here to get some fan feedback. I hope 2012 gives us that overhauled immersive offline franchise mode we are all pining for.

[BezO]

Quote: Originally Posted by Ian_Cummings_EA

So Josh Looman and I looked into this a bit this morning and I thought I'd post back some results. Good News: It's very easy enough to 'unlock' the screen to allow someone to edit everything about their players in Franchise mode. Took like 10 minutes to do. Bad News: Unfortunately, there are about a million things that can go wrong with this unlocked. Now I realize what you all will use this feature for which is to fine-tune progression and try and get extremely realistic stats, but here are just a few of the things that came up when we messed around with it: - There are countless "cheesing" things that the user can do like dropping your player ratings right before the off-season, signing him to the cheapest deal possible, and then setting him back. - Your save file can easily be rendered non-functional if you change enough CPU team's player's ratings where they can't re-sign any players. At this point the mode typically crashes or hangs and won't be recoverable from. - We also don't display that potential rating in the edit player screen now, and if you were to edit the actual player's overall rating to be higher than his potential rating, the game has a chance of crashing in many different spots. We'd have to add it in and always force it to be higher than the OVR I guess. So I need help from you all... Please comment and be specific about what exactly you NEED to edit. What is your overall specific intent with wanting to edit these players? Are there certain time frames we can lock it to? Are there certain specific changes you could only be allowed to make instead of full league-wide control? By reducing the amount of variables we can look into finding ways to make this happen. Unfortunately allowing the user to set every player in the league anytime from a 0 to a 99 is not going to be an option because of all the instability it will cause...and we just don't have the testing man-power to ensure that the mode won't start crashing all over the place.

A few things...

-Potential is derived from physical traits. A big, fast, strong, agile athlete has more potential than a less athletic one. Either get rid of the potential ratings or reverse the set up so that the potential rating is based off the physical ratings. For example, when we up the speed, we up the potential.

-If neither of those work, allow us only to adjust ratings within the potential range. For example, A potential allows for max ratings, B potential allows for 89 and lower, and so on.

[Instant C1a55ic]

Quote: Originally Posted by huskerwr38

Maybe you shouldn't really link contracts to ratings. Maybe link contracts to season stats and career stats, because in real life if a running back rushes for 1500 yards for two straight seasons, even if he runs a 4.7 40 and only has a vertical leap of 25 inches, he's going to get a big contract. That way, even if you re-rate Peyton Manning to an overall of 10 and you want to re-sign him, you'll still owe him a big contract because of his stats. However, if he's a 10 and he goes through the season, he'll obviously not do good and he can be signed to a lower contract. Hope that make sense. As for rookies contracts can be link to a combination of their stats and combine performance.

THIS

I have also grown tired of seeing the CPU get players for dirt cheap, then i have to pay out of the butt. When you go to sign a guy, it says hes wants for example $450k, but when you sign him it jumps up to 950K+.