From: kaamel@lunch.Eng.Sun.COM (Kaamel Kermaani)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games
Subject: Re: FPS Football Player Ratings, etc
Date: 18 Dec 1992 23:41:22 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Distribution: world
Reply-To: kaamel@lunch.Eng.Sun.COM
NNTP-Posting-Host: lunch

In article 851@parc.xerox.com, fishkin@parc.xerox.com (Ken Fishkin) writes:
>In article <1992Dec18.143902.5589@apgea.army.mil>, wrsauerw@apgea.army.mil (William R. Sauerwald <wrsauerw>) writes:
>> 	1 for DI of OL and DL?  I guess you've never had a lineman jump
>> offside at a key moment in the game ?  Same for DB, pass interference can
>> ruin a great defensive series...
>    Agreed - it appears that one can come up with a reason for virtually
>every stat to be important for virtually every player. Perhaps a simple
>addition is really the best evaluator?

I disagree.  If you guy by that argument, any player can play any position
which we know is not true.  The issue is what is "more" important for an OL?
Everything being equal, if the AG is higher for player A than player B, then
player A is a "better" player, what ever that means.  However, if player A
has AG of 44 and ST of 75, and player B has AG of 43 and ST of 76, in my
opinion, player B is a better OL than player A and player A is a better HB
than player B, assuming everything else is the same.  By the way here is
how I feel about the importance of each factor (the most important for each
position if multiplied by 10):

		SP AC AG ST HA EN IN DI
QB		 2  2  1  7 10  5  8  6
RB		10 10 10  5  5  5  7  3
R		10  8  8  5 10  5  3  5
OL		 1  1  1 10  1  5  2  2
DL		 1  2  2 10  2  5  5  5
LB		 5  5  5  5  5  5  5  5
DB		10 10 10  5  8  5 10  8
P/K		 1  1  1  10 1  1  5  2


If you haven't already notice, the game itself uses the straight addition
which clearly puts itself in a weaker position than human players.  This
is especially important during the draft, which you can easily find real
gems in the later rounds.  By the same token, during the game, it will make
substitutions based on who it thinks is the best player.  I have managed to
improve my teams performance by just substituting the players, periodically,
with those that I think are the best, and win a few games.  I just started
my second year.  During the first year, my team (Rams) finished second in the
division (49ers first), but went to the playoffs as a wild-card and that is
when I started "coaching" them (14 out of the 16 regular season games were
simulated).  They went to superbowl to beat the Steelers 42-0!  This was
interesting since the only time that the Rams made to superbowl, they played
against Steelers also!  This has been the most exciting NFL season I have
enjoyed in may years!

>
>>  Now for my question.  How come I've never had an interception?  Granted, Troy
>> Aikman is God :), but even the Messiah himself would surely throw the ball 
>> away once or twice and get picked off.
>    Absolutely. Interceptions in general seem way too uncommon. How many

During the last season my QB had no interceptions and my defense had only one!
Clearly something is wrong with their algorithm.  Also I feel the completion
rates are WAY too high, either for or against my team.  Have you noticed
how routingly QBs can throw the ball to a single receiver in the middle of 4 to
6 defenders and get a completion?  This happens for/against me at a rate
of about 90%.  And finally, there are very few kickers in the league that can
kick a field goal of more than 40 yards!  For the 30-40 yard range the success
rate is about 70%.  I am talking about coaching not the arcade mode. I have not
even tried to play the game in the arcade mode.

By the way, the cowboys finished 5-11 in my league.  Smith retired after a
career ending injury during the third game of last season.  I had Todd Lyght
(the third player drafted overall in '91 draft) and Willie Anderson retiring
at the end of the last year with no injuries!  Just weird.


-Kaamel