Way ahead of you buddy
Okay,
Ive given this a bit of thought and its actually a trickier issue than i first gave it credit for, Here are what i perceive to be the problems with the star player system as it is;
-The little stars above their heads look too arcade-y and a little bit gay. (petty i know but there it is)
-The distribution of star players will never be fair. Last time australia had 6 star players and the springboks had 3? Also, if the you have to reach to be a star player is at the level of Carter/Habana etc, why is O'Gara a star player? where is the line?
-A "Star" seems to mean something different to every player. In Carter and Wilkinson it meant you could kick a long way, In BOD it meant you were physically unable to be tackled (Infuriating), in Habana it meant your sidestep worked every time (Seriously, every single time. no matter where the defender was)
-The "Frans Steyn problem." Steyn has the biggest boot in world rugby, so he should get a star so that he can kick further than anyone else. BUT he has alot of flaws to his game, even the most vocal Steyn supporter couldnt argue that he was in the top 20 or 25 (what ever the number of star players there are) in the world. The same could be said for Rene Ranger. He has poor defensive positioning, a non-existant kicking game, he makes bad decisions often and has a suspect passing game. That being said he is probably the best tackle breaker in SANZAR. he should have a star to give him the ability to rip through tackles, but as it stands he isnt good enough allround to warrant one.
Heres what i offer therefore to replace the stars;
Instead of having the top 20 rugby players in the world getting stars that show they are awesome at everything, how about if a player has a particular talent, then they get some sort of icon to show and enhance that talent. Sort of like the player abilities section that exists at the moment, except you would have noticeable improvements in the way the player plays and they would be given out as sparingly as the stars.
You would have abilities with tangible results such as;
-Tackle Breaker{increase in the amount of tackles broken} (Nonu, Ranger, Ioane, Caucau, Powell etc)
-Power Kicker {increase in kicking distance}(Steyn, M Steyn, Nick Evans etc)
-Big Hitter{increase in noticeably heavy tackles/ balls jarred loose, maybe even some different animations} (Nonu,SBW, Chabal etc)
-Ball Winner {increase in the likelyhood that a tackle of theirs becomes a turnover, maybe even different animations} (McCaw, Brussow, Pocock, Dussitioir etc)
-Aerial Ace {increased ability to win lineouts} (Matfield etc)
-Scrum Technician {Increased ability to win scrums} (Hayman, Alexander, Murray etc)
-Fleet footed {increase in agility, acceleration and side-step abiltiy} (Nanai-Williams, Quade Cooper, Shane Williams)
-Speedster {Increase in raw pace} (Rod davies, Varndell ect)
-Passer {Increase in speed of pass and likelyhood the player will catch it} (Conrad Smith, Genia, FDP etc)
There are definately more categories i just couldnt be bothered continuing.
How about, there is an icon and name for every rating and if a player gets to 95 in any rating, they get the corresponding icon.
So if they get to 95 in lineout jumping, they get the icon aerial ace, if they get to 95 in tackle breaking, they get the icon tackle breaker etc.
The icons are shown under a players name (but whether you can see the icons can be turned on or off depending on if you think the icons are too arcade-y or a little bit gay)
If a player has say 5 icons, then they are truly an allround superstar footballer, and those 5 icons get replaced by a STAR that shows that they have mastered 5 or more aspects of the game of rugby.
