Chris Holmes Online

As detailed a couple weeks ago, Madden 2007 has included a new feature for Franchise mode: Player Roles. These roles can affect several aspects of the game, making them more than just a gimmick. The two most common affects of a role is to boost the player’s ratings and increase or decrease their value (which in turn affects their salary requirements and trade value). The stat boosts can affect more than just the player carrying the role tag; his teammates ratings or even the opposition he’s facing can also be affected depending on the specific role. Role effects can also occur at specific times during the game. For instance, on 3rd down or in the fourth quarter a player might get a boost because they perform better under pressure.

Good luck finding the descriptions of these roles in the manual though – they don’t exist. You won’t find them in the in-game help either, but you will occassionally see a description of one of them displayed between screen transitions, which on a fast computer leaves barely enough time to read it. Convenient huh? I didn’t think so either. However, thanks to Drewbaby27 at football-freaks.com, I was able to discover an Excel spreadsheet of the roles and their descriptions. To save you, Madden Fan, from having to download the file I’m posting the roles here. Enjoy.

QB of the Future

• This player is considered the QB of the Future by his franchise.
• This role is applied to a QB that is drafted in the 1st round and is a prototype NFL QB.
• This player will lose his role if another QB is drafted in the 1st round while he’s on the roster or if he fails to meet expectations by his 4th YIL (Year In League).
• This role increases this player’s value in trades by 25 percent.
• This player expects to be starting by his 3rd YIL.

Feature Back

• This player is considered the Feature Back.
• This player will lose his role if: His OVR drops below 84, His franchise signs another Feature Back or his franchise drafts a HB in the 1st round.
• This player expects to start every game and he expects 75 percent of the team’s carries.
• His starting OL receives +2 AWR and +2 RBK while he has this role.

Franchise Quarterback

• This player is considered the Franchise QB.
• This player will lose his role if: his OVR drops below 85, his franchise signs another Franchise QB or his franchise drafts a QB in the 1st round.
• This role increases this player’s value by 10 percent.
• His starting OL receives +2 AWR and +2 PBK and his starting WRs, TE, HB and FB receive +2 CTH and +2 AWR while he has this role.

Go to Guy

• This player will lose his role if he has 5 or more drops in a season or less than 20 first downs.
• This role increases his value 2 percent.
• This player expects to start every game, average 3 catches and 2 first downs per game played.
• His starting QB receives a THA boost of +3 while the Go to Guy receives a boost of +2 AWR and +2 CTH on any pass thrown to him in-game.

NFL Starter

• This player is considered an NFL Starter.
• This player earns this role if he has 12 starts in a season and is a starter in the depth chart at the end of the season.
• This role increases his value 3 percent.
• This player expects to maintain his starting position.
• This player receives a boost of AWR +1 with this role.

Clutch Kicker

• This player is considered a Clutch Kicker.
• This player earns this role if he makes 3 Game Winning Kicks and loses it if he misses 3 Game Winning Kicks.
• This role increases his value 5 percent.
• This player expects to take 80 percent of team FG attempts.
• This player receives a boost of KAC +3 and KPW +2 for every 4th quarter FG attempt in-game.

Team Captain

• This player is considered a Team Captain.
• This role increases his value 1 percent.
• This player receives AWR +1 while he has this role.

NFL Icon

• This player is considered an NFL Icon.
• This role increases his value 10 percent.
• While this player has this role, every starter on his side of the ball will receive AWR +1.

Deep Threat

• This player will lose his role if: His SPD drops below 91 or he averages less than 8 YPC for the season.
• This role increases his value by 4 percent.
• This player expects to average 3 catches per game.
• His starting QB will receive THP +1 and THA +1 for every game he starts, while he’ll receive CTH +1 and AWR +1 in those games.
• A defender in man coverage will receive SPD -1 and AWR -1 for that play.

Possession Receiver

• This role increases this player’s value by 3 percent.
• This player expects to average 2 first downs for every GP.
• For every pass thrown to him in-game, his QB receives THA +1 while he receives CTH +1 and AWR +1.
• Any defender manned up on him when a pass is thrown to him has AWR -1.

Shutdown Corner

• This role is earned and lost based on catches allowed.
• This role increases his value 6 percent.
• Any player he’s assigned to in man coverage in-game receives AGI -1, ACC -1, STR -1, CTH -1, AWR -1 for that play.
• The opposing QB will receive THA -1 for every pass thrown his way.
• He’ll receive AWR +1, AGI +1, ACC +1 and SPD +1 while he has this role.

Underachiever

• This player earned this role because his overall is 82 or less years after he was a 1st round draft pick.
• The player can shed this role once his OVR is at least 86.
• This role decreases this player’s value by 8 percent.
• Players on the team will receive temporary attribute drops while this player has this role.

Pass Rusher

• This role will be removed if his OVR is 88 or less and he records less than 2 sacks in a season.
• This role increases this player’s value by 4 percent.
• For every pass play he’s in for, the opposing O-Line will receive PBK -1 while he receives AWR +1, AGI +1, ACC +1 and TAK +1.
• The members of the secondary on the field with him will receive AWR +1 for every pass play.

Team Mentor

• This player is considered a Team Mentor.
• This role will be removed if his OVR is 85 or less and his MOR is 25 or less at the end of the season.
• This role increases this player’s value by 5 percent.
• While this player has this role, young players at his position will receive AWR +2 while veterans at his position will receive AWR +1.

Run Stopper

• This player is considered a Run Stopper.
• This role increases his value 6 percent.
• The opposing O-Line receives RBK -1 while the opposing HB receives AGI -1 for every run play the Run Stopper is in the game for.
• This player receives AWR +1, AGI +1, ACC +1 and TAK +1 while they have this role.
• LBs and Safeties receive AWR +1, +2 SPD and +2 AGI for every run play they are on the field with the Run Stopper.

Team Leader

• This player is considered a Team Leader.
• This role will be removed if his OVR is 85 or less and his MOR is 25 or less at the end of the season.
• This role increases this player’s value by 5 percent.
• While this player has this role, young players on the team will receive AWR +1.

Project Player

• This player is considered a Project Player.
• That means he’s a player with plenty of physical talent but a low OVR.
• This role will be removed if his OVR exceeds 88 at any point in his career.
• This role increases this player’s value by 2 percent.

Team Distraction

• This player has become a Distraction.
• He’s become a distraction because his morale has dropped to dangerous levels.
• Once this player’s morale increases to normal levels, this role will be removed.
• This role decreases this player’s value by 8 percent.
• While he has this role, every player on the team will receive a drop of AWR -1.

Captain Comeback

• This player is considered Captain Comeback.
• This player earns this role if he makes 10 4th Qtr. Comebacks.
• This role increases his value 6 percent.
• This player expects to make at least one 4th Qtr. Comeback per season.
• This player receives a boost of AWR +3 and THA +2 in the 4th Qtr of game where his team is losing.
• His teammates on offense receive AWR +1.

Game Manager

• This player is considered a Game Manager.
• This player loses this role once his overall exceeds 89 or drops below 81.
• This role increases his value 4 percent.
• This player expects to play in at least 4 games per season.
• This player receives a boost of AWR +1 and THA +1 on third down passing plays.

Return Specialist

• This player is considered a Return Specialist.
• This role will be removed when the player averages 15 yards or less per KR or 5 yards or less per PR for the season.
• This role increases the player’s value 12%.
• During a return, this player will receive AWR +3, AGI +2, ACC +2 and BTK +2.
• His blockers will receive +2 RBK while his opponents receive TAK -2.

Offensive Playmaker

• This player is considered an Offensive Playmaker.
• This role will be removed if this player throws 15 INT or has 5 Fumbles.
• This player expects to start every game.
• This role increases the player’s value 6%.
• Depending on his position, this player will receive attribute boosts in-game for 3rd down plays and for the 4th Qtr.

1st Round Pick

• This player is a 1st Round Pick.
• This player expects to start every game by his 3rd YIL.
• This role increases the player’s value 7%.

Defensive Enforcer

• This player is considered a Defensive Enforcer.
• This role will be removed if this player’s OVR drops below 80, his TAK drops below 85 and he records 3 Big Hits or less in a season.
• This player expects to start every game and record at least 10 big hits per season.
• This role increases the player’s value 3%.
• This player will receive TAK +3 while he has this role.

Fan Favorite

• This player received this role because his OVR is at least 90 and he has been with the same team for 5 seasons.
• This player does not want to be on the trading block.

His value will increase by 10% while he has this role.

• While he has this role, his AWR +1 and the team’s attendance will increase.

Injury Prone

• This player is considered Injury Prone.
• He earned this role because his INJ is 70 or less while his TGH is 80 or less.
• Once his INJ exceeds 80, this role will be removed.
• This player’s value is decreased by 10%.
• CPU teams will only sign this player to a 1-year deal.

Fumble Prone

• This player earned this role because his CAR is less than 76 and he had at least 5 fumbles this season.
• Once his CAR exceeds 80 and he records 3 fumbles or less in a season, this role will be removed.
• This player’s value is decreased by 10%.
• While he has this role, this player’s CAR will decrease by 5 on 3rd down running plays and in the 4th Qtr.

Defensive Playmaker

• This player is considered a Defensive Playmaker.
• This role will be removed if this player goes an entire season without a FF or INT.
• This player expects to start every game.
• This role increases the player’s value 7%.
• Depending on his position, this player will receive attribute boosts in-game for 3rd down plays and for the 4th Qtr.

Future Star

• This player is considered a Future Star in the NFL.
• This role is applied to a player that is drafted in the 1st round and who has exceptional talent.
• This player will lose his role if he fails to meet expectations by his 4th YIL.
• This role increases this player’s value in trades by 25 percent.
• This player expects to be starting by his 3rd YIL.

One of the things that has always been annoying about playing a video game, especially roleplaying games, is the static setting. Buildings, vehicles, and characters don’t do anything more than exist to serve the player. They don’t create a real, virtual world; they create the illusion of one. Players discover quickly that game worlds are static and lack depth, and that destroys immersion.

Morrowind, the predicessor to Oblivion, was no different than any other roleplaying game in this regard. You could count on the non-player characters to be at certain places all the time, never sleeping or visiting a friend or plowing a field or sleeping. They just stood in their specified location, perhaps wandering a few feet here or there, and wait for the player to engage them when it comes time for their part in the story.

Fortunately, things have changed.

Oblivion sports a new Artificial Intelligence system called the Radiant AI engine. It is a breakthrough in game technology. The Oblivion Wiki describes it:

Radiant AI works by giving NPCs a list of goals (only quests and interaction with the player character are scripted). They must decide how to achieve these goals by themselves based on their individual statistics. A hungry NPC might compare his current gold against his moral values to decide whether he will walk to a store and purchase food, or just steal it; a skilled archer can choose to hunt his own deer.

This system has improved the immersion of the game substantially. For instance, I was on a quest that involved breaking into the captain of the guard’s chambers to find some incriminating evidence. Upon entering the guard house I discovered the soldiers in the middle of a shift change. When a guard entered through the front door he would be greeted by a fellow soldier who would then inform him he was being replaced. The guard coming off-duty would then sit down at a large table and start to eat. This process continued for several minutes, one guard after the next, until the entire township’s guards had swapped places, dayshift to nightshift. My character, itching to complete his mission, was forced to sit at a bench nearby waiting for the off duty guards to finish eating and go to sleep.

The whole experience really made the game world come alive. I no longer feel like the game world exists to serve me, but that my character is simply one small being in a larger domain. The guard house experience changed my expecations. Instead of the NPC’s existing explicitly to serve me and my purpose, I was having to adjust my schedule and expectations around their actions. That doesn’t happen in video games, and when it does it is largely the result of pre-planned scripts written by the developers. Here, though, I just happened to walk into the guard house at exactly the right time of day to witness the shift change.

I’m not sure that the value of the Radiant AI engine can be described adequately, or determined in terms of money and sales. This is a serious improvement to video game design. Much like how Oblivion’s graphics have raised the bar for future games, so has the Radiant AI engine. Players are not going to accept static game worlds after playing Oblivion.

And why should they? This is an absolutely wonderful world to play in.

There’s no doubt that Oblivion looks great. It’s setting a pretty high bar for future video games; substandard graphics are not going to be acceptable for much longer. But how does it play? I’ve had a week to dig into this game and it’s time for some real analysis.

The first thing to note is that combat has been revamped from Morrowind, and this is a welcome change. Morrowind (Oblivion’s predicessor) had overly simplistic combat; just click a button and your weapon would swing. You could perform three different attacks with a sword: lunge, horizontal slash or overhead chop. Each weapon in the game would tell you specific attack that did the best damage and there was a setting in the game that would allow you to always attack with the best attack, like Horizontal Slash. Thus, you could simply click a button and make your best attack every time. Due to that, combat was boring.

Oblivion’s combat has been significantly changed. Weapons don’t have different values of damage based on attack style now, they just have a base damage rating. This makes it easier to determine which weapon is better when comparing loot or items in a store. But that’s not the really great change. The best part is that the action has changed; you no longer just click your button and swing your sword. There’s more to it than that. Things have become a bit more complex since Morrowind.

The base attack is still made by clicking your mouse and this will cause your weapon to swing. A couple fast clicks with cause your character to make two quick attacks in rapid succession. But the real improvement is that characters now have access to several “Power” attacks in addition to the standard attack and that has changed combat significantly.

Power attacks are made by holding the mouse button down for a second before releasing it. This “delayed” mouse click action, performed in conjuction with the movement keys in one of the four basic directions (forwards, backwards, left/right) will cause your character to perform a “Power” attack, that does more damage, yet sacrifices some endurence/stamina. The animations for these attacks are well done and the damage benefit from performing them is significant. On top of that, as you level up the power attacks gain additional abilities, like paralyzation or knockdown.

What’s great about this system is that the Non-player characters (NPC’s) also use it, and by doing so they create a more complex combat encounter. Certain power moves have extended animations that take time to complete. This can create significant delay between attacks as an opponent must finish their current move before beginning another. What this does is open up windows of opportunity for the player to strategically advance or retreat and attack when the opponent is in a compromised position, instead of just charging into the enemy and clicking as fast as possible. It becomes very important while playing Oblivion to try and time your attacks between your enemy’s swings, or to retreat and block attacks while they are swinging at you. Combat as a whole feels a lot more interesting, engaging and fun.

That said, the overall combat system in Oblivion is still much like it was in Morrowind; it’s basically one-on-one, and heaven forbid you have to defend against multiple opponents at the same time, because you’ll be dead. For me, this is a major disappointment.

The area of multiple target engagement is where Morrowind, and now Oblivion, have failed miserably as far as I’m concerned. Games like Everquest 2 and Neverwinter Nights are shining examples of how multi-enemy encounters can (and should) be done. In addition to tough fights against very difficult individual foes, they frequently pit the player against groups of opponents. They do this by throwing weaker enemies at the player. Instead of a fight against one tough monsters, they pit the player against a half-dozen weaker monsters, substituting numbers for strength. This is not only fun (makes the player feel a bit more heroic) but it also opens the door to a whole new range of area-of-effect (AoE) spells and tactics.

Area of effect spells are a blast in pretty much any game environment. I enjoyed Neverwinter Nights: Hoards of the Underdark quite a bit because the higher you get in the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons system, the more access you have to powerful, AoE spells. Being able to fear several enemies so you don’t have to fight them all at the same time is enjoyable from a strategic standpoint. Being able to perform combat moves than whirl your character in a giant arc, slicing all nearby opponents is a blast. Everything about multi-enemy fighting is fun in these games. It also helps make your character feel more “heroic” because they can wade into the thick of battle and come out alive.

Sadly, Oblivion misses this opportunity by miles. The encounters in Oblivion are frequently so difficult that engaging more than one enemy at a time is suicide. Part of the problem with Oblivion is that all encounters scale to the level range of the player, so you are never getting stronger than your opponents. In fact, leveling up in Oblivion is anti-climactic because of this auto-scaling. It robs the player of the sense of satisfaction that comes from beating old enemies. I can’t count how many times in Morrowind I attacked something that wound up kicking my ass. But after several levels I would return to that dungeon/encounter much stronger and exact my revenge. Sadly, this element of gameplay is gone from Oblivion (it did exist in Morrowind and this is one of the few things that its predicessor has over the sequel).

With the auto-scaling of the opponents comes an inability of the game engine to throw multiple, easier enemies at the player. There are simply no encounters where you are pitted against a dozen monsters with an arsenal of AoE spells at your command. If you do find yourself up against four or more opponents in Oblivion (as I have discovered) then you are facing certain death.

And Oblivion’s spell system, almost an exact carbon copy from Morrowind, doens’t do anything to help. Almost all spells are single target spells designed to either aid you (the player) or hurt a single enemy in combat. This makes fighting any more than one opponent a dicy proposition. I’ve died several times already just fighting two enemies at once.

Another very bad aspect of combat in Oblivion is fighting with allies. This was a rare occurance in Morrowind as you spent most of the game alone, pitted against the denizens of evil. But the developers of Oblivion have attempted to enhance the combat experience by frequently placing allies at your side for specific quests and events. This would be very welcome addition to the game play if not for the clumsy combat engine of Oblivion, which has your allies frequently dashing into the middle of the fight right as your sword is trying to come down on an enemy. In nearly every fight I have participated in that involved allies I have wound up slashing my teammates. This causes ones allies to quickly turn into enemies, creating more frustration. Any attempts to “be careful” and not strike your teammates usually causes your allies die quickly from rapid enemy attacks. They simply move around too much to make fighting as a team beneficial or fun.

Overall, the combat in Oblivion is still lacking in several areas. I find it rather disappointing considering the sheer number of contemporary games that have better encounter systems. How come no one at Bethesda (the developers of Oblivion) noticed this? Even very old games, like Baldur’s Gate, have combat that is more fun and involves more enemies. Bethesda has done a remarkable job with the graphics of the game (and the AI of the NPC’s, but that’s another post) and they have improved Oblivion’s combat compared to Morrowind in a significant way. But video games do not live in isolation, and it is more than fair to compare Oblivion’s combat to other games. When you make that comparison it becomes very clear that Oblivion just doesn’t stack up.

It’s better than Morrowind, and that’s a start. But I think Bethesda has a long way to go in the combat department.

When I first started playing PC games (about 15 years ago) there was a game called Betrayal at Krondor. It was a game based on a book by Raymond E. Feist, a fantasy author of some renown. It was also my introduction into the world of Fantasy gaming. Up to that point I’d never played a fantasy game or even sat down at a table and ventured with friends in an imaginary Dungeons and Dragons world. It was a completely new experience for me.

Compared to other games released around the same time Betrayal at Krondor was a technological step backwards. It wasn’t nearly as graphically inspiring as other contemporary games. But it had a charm and magic to it that I later learned were wholly unique to the world of fantasy roleplaying games. It was a game based around characters and story instead of shooting things. I found the whole experience to be wildly entertaining and would frequently find myself staring at the computer screen in the early hours of the morning after a long night of game play wondering where the time had gone.

My only real complaint with Betrayal at Krondor was the game world itself. It was a completely flat world with sharp “mountains” that blocked passage, forcing the character along the game’s roadways. These “mountains” were merely triangles pointed skyward, the most rudimentary of geometric objects. This sort of design was necessary because computers in that day and age didn’t have the power to create photo-realistic worlds.

Betrayal at Krondor (1993)

I loved playing Betrayal at Krondor because of the story, character development and combat, but in my mind I always yearned for the future of gaming, hoping that one day processing power, graphics development and programming prowess would bring me a more realistic world.

That day has arrived.

Yesterday I picked up Oblivion, the fourth title in the Elder Scrolls saga. I’ve played the previous installments, Daggerfall and Morrowind, and really enjoyed them. But like their predecessors before them, those titles had a flat world with triangle “mountains” in the way. Oh, Morrowind looked real enough – it was by far the best looking game I’ve seen when it came out. And the landscape was not “flat” either. But the mountain ranges in Morrowind were simply updated copies of the impassable triangles from 1993. You couldn’t actually climb over most of them.

Oblivion has changed that.

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (2006)

What you see in the screenshot above doesn’t just look like a mountain range you might find in Idaho, Washington or Oregon, but it behaves like one too. You can actually ‘hike’ your character up and down every ridge you see. It is utterly amazing.

I spent about four hours playing Oblivion yesterday. The first couple of hours are spend underground in some catacombs, and indeed a vast majority of the gameplay takes place in various well-designed and awesome-looking dungeons. But what blew me away immediately was my exit from the catacombs and the sheer breathtaking beauty of the outside world. The province of Cyrodiil, where Oblivion takes place, is amazing to behold. Never before have a seen a game world this realistic. I’ve spent a good portion of my life bowhunting and attending archery tournaments in various locations throughout Idaho and Washington. I never thought I’d ever see a game that could come close to mimicking the sort of outdoor environments that I am accustom to seeing in the real world. But finally I have.

Oblivion has raised the bar for all games that must now follow it. And not only graphically, but in other areas. However, I’ll save those commeents for another post, otherwise this one will become far too long to read. For now, I’m just basking in the beauty of the game world itself and slowly plodding along, taking it all in. I’ve never seen anything like this. It is a crowning achievement in video game design.

If there’s one disadvantage to living in the sticks/outback/wild-America, it’s internet access. For some people this isn’t really a problem, but for me – Mr. Everquest, he of the many hours playing online games – this is disasterous.

It has become particularly problematic in the past weeks. My avatar in EQ2 has reached a high enough level to start “raiding” with my guildmates and friends. You can think of raids as the ultimate teamwork experience. Most of the time I spend online playing Everquest 2 is with a very small group of people, usually 2-6 players, or by myself. We journey together working on quests, slinking our way through dungeons, slaying ugly monsters and marveling at the neat loot.

Raids are a different deal though. They are big events, targetted toward (typically) 24 individuals, all working as a team, trying to defeat super-nasty creatures (think about the Balrog in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings and you’ve got some idea of what we’re trying to defeat).

I loved raiding in the original Everquest. It’s the ultimate team effort in online gaming. The creatures you set out to do battle against typically are very unique, and have all sorts of different strengths and weaknesses. Defeating these “boss” monsters requires a lot of planning, strategy, tactics, and precise execution of a plan. It can also be a very difficult job to try and lead 24 (or more) people, many of whom have no military experience, or even team-sports experience, and get the job done with the precision necessary. When you win, with these odds, there’s a real sense of satisfaction.

The problem is, if your internet connection sucks (like mine does) then even participating in these events can be an exercise in pure frustration; not just for me, but for the entire raid.

This week I did some of my first raiding in Everquest 2 that required 24 players (the max allowed in an Everquest 2 raid). The network lag was so bad that on several occasions I would press a button to make my character perform some melee attack, only to watch with sheer disappointment as my character failed to execute that maneuver for over two full minutes. The delays were unacceptable, and it made me a liability on the raid. It also was just plain unfun.

In an effort to try and alleviate the latency problem involved with playing on a 56K modem that only connects (even on its best days) at 26.6, I decided to do a little investigating on the internet to see what broadband options were available to me.

That’s when I found this site: DSLBroker.com. Enter your phone number and a state, and they’ll tell you what options are available to you, and link you to the proper company for purchasing choices. Sounds great! Let’s fire it up!

Results returned: There is one option, Satellite Internet by Earthlink.

No other options. No DSL. No Cable Modem. No wireless. And to top it off, satellite internet isn’t good for gaming, specifically games I play. Check out the FAQ from Earthlink:

Any signal you send from your computer via satellite has to travel over 44,000 miles to space and back again in order to deliver your information, and because of this, Satellite products have a degree of latency. Latency is the time it takes for a signal from your computer to reach its destination and then for the response to flow through the satellite back to your computer. Therefore, certain time-sensitive applications are not recommended for use with EarthLink Satellite, powered by DIRECWAY:

• Real-time online games that emphasize reaction time such as Quake, CounterStrike, Diablo, and EverQuest.

They even name Everquest specifically. Ok, so I’m playing the second generation of Everquest, EQ2, but it’s even worse than it’s predicessor. I remember raiding in Everquest with a 28.8 modem and being fine with 100 other players in the area. But not in EQ2. Twenty-four players and a few monsters and my network latency gets so bad I can click a button and watch an episode of CSI before anything happens.

It’s disappointing. Utterly disappointing.

I wonder if we’re ever going to see acceptable high-speed broadband access out here, in the Land of the Lost…