This is my second post in a 'series' (don't hold me too strictly to that--technically two posts constitutes a series, right?) wherein I decompile the sim file and see what secrets it has to offer. If you missed it, my first post touched on the calculation of overall rating, a fun but mostly meaningless metric meant to sum up your player's value in a single number. Today, we'll dive into what was easily the most requested topic after my first post and is easily the most discussed 'hidden' value in the sim.
Anyone who has played Madden over the years is well aware that overall rating is not the ultimate barometer of usage for a player. For decades, Madden players have regularly banished players with higher overall ratings to the bottom of the depth chart in favor of players with a higher value in another stat entirely. It is the reason why players like Joe Webb have seen the light of day and also why many controllers were broken in 2002 when playing against the Falcons. Just as in Madden, speed is a highly valuable metric in the NSFL, and today I'll be discussing how it is implemented in the sim.
First, let me start with a generic disclaimer. I'm not making any statement about which positional archetype is the best, and I'm not here to say that my findings constitute the pinnacle of build advice. I would recommend that any interested parties test out these ideas in the sim for themselves. Now, without further ado...
What is Speed?
Come on, this one's obvious. Speed is represented by the number that you enter in your update posts every week--it's the one that your locker room tells you to max out if you haven't done so already. However, the number that represents your speed isn't represented so simply in the sim. If you compare one player with 80 Speed and another with 85 Speed, it's not as easy as saying that the latter player is 1/16 faster than the former.
What is CurrentSpeed?
CurrentSpeed is the actual number that determines how quickly the little circle that represents your player moves around in the sim, and it's modified in several different ways depending on the play type (run/pass), your player's position, whether your player has the ball, and several other factors. The first modification that your player's Speed undergoes happens to everyone, though. It looks like this--
For example, a player with a Speed of 100 has their Speed converted to a CurrentSpeed of 2.75, and a player with a Speed of 50 has their Speed converted to a CurrentSpeed of 2.00. This has the intended effect of scaling Speed so that players with obscenely high Speed values don't utterly decimate the other team. Until this point, it's still true that higher Speed will always result in higher CurrentSpeed, though the effect is not as pronounced. Still with me? Great! It's about to get a little more murky. Since the calculation varies by position, my best advice would be to find your particular player's side of the ball (Offense / Defense) and their position. Sorry, Special Teams players--in this instance, you are special in the sense that none of this will really affect you. Note that rows are independent of each others unless otherwise stated (for example, if your RB has 36 carries, their CurrentSpeed would be CurrentSpeed * 98% * 95% * 95%). In general, you will typically observe that CurrentSpeed begins to decrease the better your player does. I think this is an attempt by the devs to prevent players from routinely having record-breaking performances.
A few observations--
Anyone who has played Madden over the years is well aware that overall rating is not the ultimate barometer of usage for a player. For decades, Madden players have regularly banished players with higher overall ratings to the bottom of the depth chart in favor of players with a higher value in another stat entirely. It is the reason why players like Joe Webb have seen the light of day and also why many controllers were broken in 2002 when playing against the Falcons. Just as in Madden, speed is a highly valuable metric in the NSFL, and today I'll be discussing how it is implemented in the sim.
First, let me start with a generic disclaimer. I'm not making any statement about which positional archetype is the best, and I'm not here to say that my findings constitute the pinnacle of build advice. I would recommend that any interested parties test out these ideas in the sim for themselves. Now, without further ado...
What is Speed?
Come on, this one's obvious. Speed is represented by the number that you enter in your update posts every week--it's the one that your locker room tells you to max out if you haven't done so already. However, the number that represents your speed isn't represented so simply in the sim. If you compare one player with 80 Speed and another with 85 Speed, it's not as easy as saying that the latter player is 1/16 faster than the former.
What is CurrentSpeed?
CurrentSpeed is the actual number that determines how quickly the little circle that represents your player moves around in the sim, and it's modified in several different ways depending on the play type (run/pass), your player's position, whether your player has the ball, and several other factors. The first modification that your player's Speed undergoes happens to everyone, though. It looks like this--
Code:
CurrentSpeed = 1.25 + 0.015 * Speed
Offense
- Do you have more than 25 carries? Multiply CurrentSpeed by 98%.
- Do you have more than 30 carries? Multiply CurrentSpeed by 95%.
- Do you have more than 35 carries? Multiply CurrentSpeed by 95%.
- Do you have the ball? Multiply CurrentSpeed by 94% on passing plays if you aren't a QB.
- Do you have the ball and have an Agility less than 75? Multiply CurrentSpeed by 95% on passing plays if you aren't a QB.
- Do you have more than 8 catches or 85 receiving yards? Multiply CurrentSpeed by 85% on passing plays when you have the ball.
- Does your QB have Arm greater than 89 and Accuracy greater than 89? Multiply CurrentSpeed by 108% on passing plays when you have the ball if you aren't a QB.
- Go through your position's individual modifications. Afterwards, if nothing has applied to you so far, multiply CurrentSpeed by 88% on running plays while you have the ball.
- Are you a Mobile QB? Multiply CurrentSpeed by 125% on running plays while you have the ball.
- Are you a non-Mobile QB with Speed greater than 79? Multiply CurrentSpeed by 115% on running plays while you have the ball.
- Are you a non-Mobile QB with Speed of 79 or less? Multiply CurrentSpeed by 135% on running plays while you have the ball.
- Do you have the ball? Multiply CurrentSpeed by 95% on passing plays.
- Is your Strength greater than 90, your weight over 225, AND your Speed less than 80? Multiply CurrentSpeed by 106% on running plays while you have the ball.
- Do you have more than 100 rushing yards? Multiply CurrentSpeed by 93% on running plays while you have the ball. NOTE: If this is true, disregard the remaining bullet points for this position--they no longer apply.
- Do you have between 81 and 100 rushing yards? Multiply CurrentSpeed by 96% on running plays while you have the ball. NOTE: If this is true, disregard the remaining bullet points for this position--they no longer apply.
- Is your Speed greater than 96? Multiply CurrentSpeed by 99% on running plays while you have the ball.
- Is your Speed between 95 and 96? Multiply CurrentSpeed by 101% on running plays while you have the ball.
- Is your Speed between 90 and 94? Multiply CurrentSpeed by 103% on running plays while you have the ball.
- Is your Speed between 80 and 89? Multiply CurrentSpeed by 106% on running plays while you have the ball.
- Is your Speed between 70 and 79? Multiply CurrentSpeed by 112% on running plays while you have the ball.
- Is your Speed between 60 and 69? Multiply CurrentSpeed by 114% on running plays while you have the ball.
- Do you have the ball? Multiply CurrentSpeed by 95% on passing plays.
- Is your Strength greater than 90, your weight over 225, AND your Speed less than 80? Multiply CurrentSpeed by 106% on running plays while you have the ball.
- Do you have more than 100 rushing yards? Multiply CurrentSpeed by 93% on running plays while you have the ball. NOTE: If this is true, disregard the remaining bullet points for this position--they no longer apply.
- Do you have between 81 and 100 rushing yards? Multiply CurrentSpeed by 96% on running plays while you have the ball. NOTE: If this is true, disregard the remaining bullet points for this position--they no longer apply.
- Is your Speed greater than 96? Multiply CurrentSpeed by 99% on running plays while you have the ball.
- Is your Speed between 95 and 96? Multiply CurrentSpeed by 101% on running plays while you have the ball.
- Is your Speed between 90 and 94? Multiply CurrentSpeed by 103% on running plays while you have the ball.
- Is your Speed between 80 and 89? Multiply CurrentSpeed by 106% on running plays while you have the ball.
- Is your Speed between 70 and 79? Multiply CurrentSpeed by 112% on running plays while you have the ball.
- Is your Speed between 60 and 69? Multiply CurrentSpeed by 114% on running plays while you have the ball.
- Do you have the ball? Multiply CurrentSpeed by 103% on running plays.
- Do you have the ball? Multiply CurrentSpeed by 96% on passing plays.
- Do you have more than 10 tackles? Multiply CurrentSpeed by 90%.
- Do you have more than 1 sack? Multiply CurrentSpeed by 80% on passing plays.
- Do you have exactly 1 sack? Multiply CurrentSpeed by 85% on passing plays.
- Do you have 0 sacks and a Speed rating of 0 - 79? Multiply CurrentSpeed by 109% on passing plays.
- Do you have 0 sacks and a Speed rating of 80 - 89? Multiply CurrentSpeed by 106% on passing plays.
- Do you have 0 sacks? Multiply CurrentSpeed by 112% on passing plays.
- Do you have 0 sacks? Multiply CurrentSpeed by 95% on running plays.
A few observations--
- First, because of the Speed/Strength/Weight boost, Big Backs are superior until everyone merges at the 80 Speed threshold. But, in reality...
- Big Backs are superior until 89 Speed. As it relates to CurrentSpeed, there is no point for a Big Back to add additional Speed past 79 until they have accumulated enough TPE to vault all the way to 89 Speed, where they are barely faster than they were at 79 Speed.
- The only back that should max Speed is the Speed back. All others have a Speed cap that is at an existing breakpoint, making it worse than the previous value. To that end, below are the values of Speed where a lower value results in a higher CurrentSpeed.
- 'Wasted' values for Speed (Big Backs) - 70, 80-88, 90
- 'Wasted' values for Speed (Small Backs) - 70, 80-83, 90, 91, 95, 97
- Almost all of the position-specific defensive adjustments to CurrentSpeed are thrown out when a defensive player gains possession of the ball. When this occurs, the player with the ball instead gets the 94% penalty to CurrentSpeed mentioned in the Offense section.
- There are reductions to CurrentSpeed that occur the longer a play runs in real-time. However, these are applied identically to every player so aren't really worth elaborating.
- The delineations between Offense and Defense aren't coded into the sim. I've just put them into the categories that seem most appropriate, but an offensive player that theoretically recorded a sack would suffer the same penalty to CurrentSpeed as a defensive player. The only hard-coded modifications are the positional ones.
- After all of the modifications listed, there are still a couple of others that decompilation has not revealed to me. Good luck guessing what those might be.