Not only do I hope to keep things fairly simple and straight-forward for the programming, but also for players understanding what's going on and how to build teams to win.
RyanM wrote:I understand that logic, but I would counter that grades should be considered from the standpoint that an average QB or RB IRL may be putting up better numbers because of the talent around them...
From the start I always wanted to add in an element of context for real game updates but has been too difficult before. Getting closer now and think I can have it incorporated next year.
That would hit upon that issue noted where a player's real supporting cast may be assisting his performance greatly, in that we would adjust the real game update based upon his real supporting cast versus his real opposition defense first, then take those adjusted figures from reality and adjust them further for sim conditions.
That gets at another problem or two also. Sometimes when two sim teams have most of the exact same players as realty (mostly in newer leagues with less movement or difference from reality so far) their sim result could be very different from the real result since we only rely upon static grades for supporting cast that may or may not have played well that day. Adding context to the real stats would help with that and better represent highly rated lines or defenses that had bad days on the game updates for skill position teammates to bring in more of that reality.
Additionally, in our first seasons a team like SD with a strong OL in reality and pretty much the same group in the sim really got a double-bonus for LT running the ball when it shouldn't logically. So even on bad games for LT with his extra grade advantage boost he'd almost never have an off game even if he did in reality, but if we take into context a bad game behind a great line in reality we can not give that undeserved boost in the sim.
The way I've always wanted to deal with that is look at LT's OL and opposing defense strength in reality and put his real figures into some context. A 100 yard game behind a great line against a poor defense in reality isn't the same as a 100 yard game against a strong defense behind a lower graded line.
So eventually it would compare the RB/QB's sim line versus his real line, and his sim opposing defense against his real opposing defense in the adjustment formula. But just takes working that out as well as the more involved keeping up with most of the NFL transactions to ensure their real team designation is always up to date also. I've updated those more regularly this season for doing the game updates by NFL team instead, and hope that with the competition committee helping more being able to keep good tabs on the real team assignments for players and incorporate that context for real numbers.
I think that gets at it more than what the player's madden individual score might be and adjusting his stats factoring in his personal grade because very often those grades are impacted by the stats built up also. Kyle Orton is the same human being this year as last year, but his grade is much different in a different system. If just going by madden grade to get at his real value, they shift his talent to a higher grade if he's in a better system with better players too. Theoretically they should keep his individual grade about the same but don't because they want his video version to play better if he's playing well on the field too.
In my intended way, if in reality he goes to a team with a better OL and better receivers against worse defenses, his real stats in his game update would be adjusted down for that situational context and then further adjusted for the sim roster differences as we do now.