1) It appears that player attributes continue to rise even if their CA is maxed out to match their PA. Example...I have Shawn Horcoff starting the game with a CA of 150 and a PA 150. He's 33 years-old. His starting attributes are pretty solid...well past the 11.5 average that is kind of the working guideline for estimated attributes by CA. For example, his speed and acceleration are 15. I sim a season...he plays good minutes but doesn't exactly shine offensively (which is to be expected) yet by the end of the season almost all of his attributes have raised by a point or two. So now 34 year-old Shawn Horcoff who has mediocre numbers and no difference between his CA and PA is suddenly a 17 rated speed demon. And using the saved-game editor, I see his CA is still 150 or sometimes even goes down while his attributes continue to rise. It seems like players universally have attributes that continue to rise in general well into their mid-30's and I can't figure out what is driving this. Is it hard-coded into the game? It sucks spending a lot of time fine-tuning ratings and then within a year, even for guys with capped PA's, everybody's profile is full of 18's, 19's and 20's.
2) Does any of this have to do with offensive/defensive role? I understand the concept of 'roles' as far as how EHM would distribute attribute points for a 'blank player'. Per the guidelines, if their role is 20 OFF / 10 DEF, they will get twice as many attribute points for offensive categories. But what if their role ratings are 6 DEF / 3 OFF. It's the same ratio, but does it affect how good they can become (how high their attributes will cap at)? In the Player Attribute guide, I can't figure out the following logic...
Does the fact that player B has higher role values increase the ability for his attributes to increase beyond what they would be at the same CA if his roles were less? Is there a specific correlation between how these roles affect attribute development...ie, a '20' for offense will increase offensive attributes "x" much more than if the same player had a '5' for offense?Player A with CA = 200 and off/def role = 15/15 could reach an attribute average of about 17.
Player B with CA = 160 and off/def role = 18/18 could have reached a similar attribute average of 17.
Still player A will most likely play better than player B because of the higher CA.
I think in general, I'd just like to see if there is a way to control attribute development in the game such that the high values are less common. It's easy with junior age prospects to just make their attributes lower to start with but for established players who really shouldn't be getting any better...I'm not sure how you control them. I know at like age 35, a lot of attributes start going down...but most players peak at or stay at a level much earlier in their careers than this.