For Madden 2003 players...

[Guest kkktookmybabyaway]

OK, I just finished my first season in franchise mode. All-Pro, 7 minute quarters, fantasy draft. I went into the off-season and what did I see? My offensive line, the strength of my team, is wiped out!!!

 

Tra Thomas (my second overall pick, first overall on offense), from a 92 rating to 86...

 

Alan Faneca *sp?*, from a 93 to an 84

 

Some center guy whose name escapes me, from a 83 to a 74!!!

 

I guess the player progression of OLs involves getting a lot a pancakes, which is damn near impossible to get (if someone knows how to have their linemen flatten pesky DLs and LBs PLEASE let me know). It has to be this because my hosses didn't give up that many sacks (I think the most one gave up was 4 in a season).

 

Grrr...

[Guest redbaron51]

the weird thing is that i have the exact same players that you have, but Tra went from 92 to 89 and Alan Faneca went from a 93 to a 95.

 

My O-line did well, but my safety's took a hit big time, especially Lynch, and Seahorn. >

[Guest kkktookmybabyaway]

Did your two hosses have a lot of pancakes? Mine didn't, but they didn't give up sacks and my running game was above average, with one 1,000-yard rusher and two 500-800...

 

Lynch is old, so I'd expect a drop-off, and did Seahorn get hurt again?

 

How did your other defensive players do? I had everyone lose a few points (annoying, but not major). I'm guessing due to low tackle totals.

[Guest redbaron51]

no i was pissed because Lynch had 12 interceptions in the damn season. Seahorn had 4 sacks in 4 weeks but broke his hand and well was gone for the rest of the season.

 

Sapp, Kearse, Ahontu did well (3-4 defence). I'd average 17.8 points per game allowed, and only 230.6 net total yards per game.

 

My linebackers were injury plagued as hell.

 

I finished the season with 10-6 with Seattle, made the play offs but lost to the Rams in the conferance final, who then lost to Buffalo 41-6.

[Guest kkktookmybabyaway]

Whenever I draft, the first thing I look for is injury rating -- what good is a 90-rated player when he's on the sideline all year. It's funny because my last franchise team and this one both have Shaun King (sp?) as my starting QB. His injury rating is high (I think in the 80s) but he was out for the season last franchise and this year he's out for 10 weeks! Grrr...

 

I play as the San Antonio Outlaws and replace the Houston Texans. I still keep Capers on as coach though -- I just like my unis better...

 

My first franchise I won the Super Bowl, but 1/2 my wins in the reg. season were by a TD or less, and I had an AWESOME conference champ. game. I couldn't stop KC's passing attack, but I managed to win by 1 on a 58-yarder Seb. Janikowski field goal (If you fantasy draft, I've noticed other teams start drafting kickers at around round 20)

 

This time I drafted starting linemen rated overall in the mid-to-upper 70s to low 80s. I'm playing 15-minute quarters, but I'm simming half my games. I figure that way the progressions will be more realistic. My hosses will get their fair share of pancakes and my defense won't get hurt too bad due to lack of tackles. I did an experiement where I played 8 games (1 minute quarters) and simmed 8, and the linemen on my team who had overall scores in the upper 70s didn't get regressed -- I think two even gained some points.

[Guest Will Scarlet]

I know I hate player progression on this game. It has been a bitch of a time for me trying to get good wide receivers. I am stacked when it comes to offensive line because I can find an lineman in like the 4th, 5th, or 6th round, and turn him into a starter, and a pro bowl player. Of course, I have to figure out what to do with my other starters when I develop a lineman who is basically almost as good as they are. That is hard.

 

It also helps when I have to put a new starter in like I did with my QB situation. I took a guy who was a draft bust for me, and turned him into a legit starter. Unfortunately, I still cannot develop CB's and WR's all that well. Every other position I have been great at developing. I even took a few guys I picked up in the later rounds and turned them into stars. I love doing that.

 

Beware of drafting kickers though. I drafted one and he was an overall 52. He is like an overall 84 now, but I had some hard times with kicking for the first four years of his career.

[Guest MrRant]

I know I hate player progression on this game. It has been a bitch of a time for me trying to get good wide receivers. I am stacked when it comes to offensive line because I can find an lineman in like the 4th, 5th, or 6th round, and turn him into a starter, and a pro bowl player. Of course, I have to figure out what to do with my other starters when I develop a lineman who is basically almost as good as they are. That is hard.

 

It also helps when I have to put a new starter in like I did with my QB situation. I took a guy who was a draft bust for me, and turned him into a legit starter. Unfortunately, I still cannot develop CB's and WR's all that well. Every other position I have been great at developing. I even took a few guys I picked up in the later rounds and turned them into stars. I love doing that.

 

Beware of drafting kickers though. I drafted one and he was an overall 52. He is like an overall 84 now, but I had some hard times with kicking for the first four years of his career.

When you develop someone real well then trade the old guys that are still good but cost you more for better players at positions you need help in. That's what I do. Either that or draft picks.

[Guest kkktookmybabyaway]

I haven't had time to develop anyone yet, but one thing I did notice is that when a player's stats go down their asking price does, too, so score one for Madden in that regard...

[Guest redbaron51]

i know the first year of the draft i usually build my team around defence and special teams.

 

I mean my starting quarterback was Jeff Blake for the first season, and he had a 113.4 QB Rating, and was second in pro bowl voting. (Behind Garcia by 500 votes). Blake only had 4 interceptions the whole season, missed one game (sprained knee). I had Alstott as my running back, and had washed up receivers.

 

I know my cousin has it for PS2, and he had started 0-5 and had a great team on paper. He basically changed the whole damn roster, and won the superbowl, and he was still about 25 million under the cap.

[Guest BigPoppaKev]

The madden player progression pisses me off too. I have horrible luck with Linebackers. I had Ray Lewis as my middle and he went from a 99 to like a 92 even though he had 100 tackles and a few sacks. It is impossible to keep up with computer progression if you play most games without simulating. No one wants to sit down and play 15 minute quarters. That is just ridiculous.

[Agent_Bond34 0]

No one wants to sit down and play 15 minute quarters. That is just ridiculous.

That is why you change the number of minutes you set your quarters to.

[Guest kkktookmybabyaway]

"No one wants to sit down and play 15 minute quarters. That is just ridiculous."

 

Actually, I've been doing that this season and I'm enjoying it for some odd reason. IMO, it's just like playing 2 games with 7-minute quarters. One thing I like about it is that there's no rushed feelings involved. I sit in more zone coverage and don't get burned as much. If someone makes a big play, I brush it off because I know I have time to counter.

 

Although my pass defense won't be ranked anywhere near the top of the league, my guys are getting some great stats. If my progression crashes and burns like it did with my previous franchise after this season I'll scream though...

[Guest The Man in Blak]

If I remember correctly, the player progression curves on Madden have absolutely nothing to do with the stats that you had the previous year. In every franchise mode, they're randomly generated at the beginning of the year using preset variables (such as age, years in the league, position) and then, through the rest of your franchise "session", each player's evolution through the years follows that pre-generated progression curve.

 

That way, you can have a guy like Emmitt Smith who slows down with age (although you may rush him for 2000 yards in each season) or a guy like Neil O'Donnell, who has one really solid year - the peak of the curve - and then fades away. It's just to make franchise mode a little more interesting and a little more realistic.

[Guest kkktookmybabyaway]

Well, then just take this thread out to the wood shed and shoot it between the eyes...

[Guest cartman]

If I remember correctly, the player progression curves on Madden have absolutely nothing to do with the stats that you had the previous year. In every franchise mode, they're randomly generated at the beginning of the year using preset variables (such as age, years in the league, position) and then, through the rest of your franchise "session", each player's evolution through the years follows that pre-generated progression curve.

 

That way, you can have a guy like Emmitt Smith who slows down with age (although you may rush him for 2000 yards in each season) or a guy like Neil O'Donnell, who has one really solid year - the peak of the curve - and then fades away. It's just to make franchise mode a little more interesting and a little more realistic.

No way in hell that's true...

 

Everytime I have a guy that performs above and beyond the expected he goes up big in progression points. I dont think it's a coincidence that the players who perform well(statwise) always go up for me.

[Guest redbaron51]

That is sorta true.

 

I had El-Kazim (right?) and he improve big time, but Rice went down 10 points, and he had the most touchdowns in the season, and first in pro-bowl voting for WR.

 

Anywho I signed Blake to a fat contract, and the guy blows his ACL in the first pre-season game.

[Guest Will Scarlet]

Anywho I signed Blake to a fat contract, and the guy blows his ACL in the first pre-season game.

 

That is why I hate preseason. I have had a ton of injuries in preseason which royally screwed me up. Sure, some have helped like when my marginally good starting FS went down with an injury for the season and my rookie backup came in and immediately became a solid starter. That helped, but I hate it when I lose a big player for the season in a preseason game.

[Guest cartman]

That is sorta true.

 

I had El-Kazim (right?) and he improve big time, but Rice went down 10 points, and he had the most touchdowns in the season, and first in pro-bowl voting for WR.

Yea but Rice is also OLD so that makes sense anyway. I mean for young players they wont get better unless they put up numbers. Thats how MY game works is all i'm sayin.

[Guest The Man in Blak]

If I remember correctly, the player progression curves on Madden have absolutely nothing to do with the stats that you had the previous year.  In every franchise mode, they're randomly generated at the beginning of the year using preset variables (such as age, years in the league, position) and then, through the rest of your franchise "session", each player's evolution through the years follows that pre-generated progression curve.

 

That way, you can have a guy like Emmitt Smith who slows down with age (although you may rush him for 2000 yards in each season) or a guy like Neil O'Donnell, who has one really solid year - the peak of the curve - and then fades away.  It's just to make franchise mode a little more interesting and a little more realistic.

No way in hell that's true...

 

Everytime I have a guy that performs above and beyond the expected he goes up big in progression points. I dont think it's a coincidence that the players who perform well(statwise) always go up for me.

There's always room for coincidence in a system that uses randomly generated progression curves. But I'm not going to declare myself an expert on Madden 2003 - I certainly wasn't on the development team or anything. I just know that both Madden and NFL2K have been using player progression curves and, from what I had seen and heard, there wasn't a great deal of correlation in Madden between growth and stats from the previous year.

 

But as I said - don't take what I said as law. It's just an observation.

[Guest kkktookmybabyaway]

Did a quick Google search and came up with this...

 

http://www.gamespy.com/reviews/august02/ma...madden2003xbox/

 

Player progression has also seen improvements with more reliance placed on the style of offense a team runs and whether or not a player contributed significantly enough to improve his skills. Preseason exhibition games are a great place to get your young guys, free agents, or created players time on the field. Their statistical improvements can also be viewed before the start of the season. Older players tend to digress a bit quicker than years past, especially if they’re getting fazed out in favor of a younger player.

 

I read at a few other web sites the same thing regarding PP, but I'm too damn lazy to cut and paste...

[Guest Redhawk]

Remember the good ol' days, starting with Madden '92 and up to probably '98? You didn't have to deal with shit like this.

[Guest kkktookmybabyaway]

Actually, I like all the extra shit. The way I got my games now, player progression will be more natural.

 

Although I must say my fav. madden game post PS2 was '93, and '93 championship edition...

[Guest redbaron51]

madden 96 for the SNES was probably my fav. of the post "next-gen" console wars

[Guest El Satanico]

Remember the good ol' days, starting with Madden '92 and up to probably '98? You didn't have to deal with shit like this.

You still don't have to deal with it. You won't have to deal with it unless you are doing franchise.

 

And honestly if it wasn't for the extra stuff the franchise mode wouldn't be much fun and not worth doing.

[Guest kkktookmybabyaway]

For the record I just concluded my first year of franchise playing full quarters and simming 1/2 my games, and just about everyone's stats rose. The exceptions were my reserves who saw no action and a couple of guys who were hurt....

[Rob E Dangerously 0]

There is no way I could play 15 minute quarters. One reason for that is that I already score 49 points a game (on 'rookie') with 5 minute quarters. Imagine if I got to play 15 minutes, it'd be a whupping.

 

At least my reserves should get some improvement since I put a bunch of them in when I went up four touchdowns like my backup QBs (Michael Bishop, a somewhat created Rex Grossman or WR Eric Crouch), RBs or my WRs.

 

I figure that my overall team rating of 80 still isn't good enough for Madden, but Frerotte did rise from 69 to 78 (or 75, I forget)

[Guest kkktookmybabyaway]

"There is no way I could play 15 minute quarters. One reason for that is that I already score 49 points a game (on 'rookie') with 5 minute quarters. Imagine if I got to play 15 minutes, it'd be a whupping."

 

I can imagine -- I now play All-Madden and although some scores are high (42-40, etc.) I don't have a problem with it since my eight simmed games are usually more down-to-earth.

 

"I figure that my overall team rating of 80 still isn't good enough for Madden, but Frerotte did rise from 69 to 78 (or 75, I forget)"

 

My team is a 92 rating -- who do you have on your team?...

[Guest MrRant]

I can't play 15 minute quarter because of sheer boredom if playing the computer. Now... human opponents sure.

[Guest kkktookmybabyaway]

My theory to playing 15-minutes quarters is this -- It's pretty much the same length as playing two 7/8-minute quarter games.

 

One thing I like about playing for this long is that it gives the opportuinity to adjust to situations -- if you get picked apart on one drive due to playing a zone coverage, you can test out other defenses and come back later in the game. There have been a LOT of games where I was down by 10+ points only to adjust my play and come back to win...

[Guest MrRant]

I usually just play 4/5 minute quarters and still have scores like 27-17 or so and still get 100-150 yrd rushing and 200-300 passing.