My Ongoing Madden Wishlist - Argooos's Blog

Argooos's Blog

My Ongoing Madden Wishlist

Posted on July 14, 2011 at 10:15 PM.

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I'm basically using this blog entry as another way to get all these ideas out there. Many of these ideas are not my own, but rather are ideas that I have picked up from other people on the forums and added to the list. I fully intend to continue adding to the list whenever I see a good idea. When something is added to the game, I will remove it from the list. Until then this list serves as a reminder of all the things about Madden that could still be improved. I can only hope that somewhere somehow the developers are listening.

Franchise Suggestions

Coaches

Coaching staffs should be expanded to include position coaches.
We should have the ability to hire, fire, and re-sign coaches throughout the season.CPU-controlled GMs should fire coaches under certain conditions.
- Include set goals for each team and if they are not being met, the appropriate coach(es) should be fired.
Include a create-a-coach feature.
Coaches should each be associated with a particular offensive and defensive system (such as West Coast Offense or 3-4 Defense). Every player would then have a list of each of these systems, ranked in order of which system they are most comfortable with. A team's systems would be determined by the preferred systems of the head coach. If a player's preferred system is one other than the team's system, they would take a hit to their ratings and progress more slowly than other players (the size of the ratings hit and the speed of the progression would be determined by how low the team's system is on the player's list). For each year spent in a given system, that system would move up one ranking in each player's list.
Coaches should have certain player positions they specialize in coaching. Players at these positions would progress more quickly and easily than other players.
Coaches should have four ratings: Offense (OFF), Defense (DEF), Motivation (MOT), and OVR.
- OFF would determine how much of an effect an Offensive Coordinator has on his favored positions' progression.
- DEF would determine how much of an effect an Defensive Coordinator has on his favored positions' progression.
- MOT determines how much of an effect the coach has on their players' Confidence level. OCs would affect offensive player's Confidence, DC's would affect defensive players's Confidence, etc.
- OVR rating is based on a combination of the other three ratings. Determines how much of an effect a Head Coach has on the entire team's progression.
- These ratings would progress based on the teams offensive (OFF), defensive (DEF), and overall (MOT) performance.
Scouts should be hired just like coaches, and have at least one rating that determines how good they are.
- Better scouts would give you better information about draft picks and other teams' tendencies.

Franchise-specific New Ratings

Knowledge: A meter or star ratings that indicates how well a player knows the playbook.
- For quarterbacks, this rating would determine how much of the playbook is available for use.
- For all other players, they would take a hit to their Awareness ratings in proportion to how low their knowledge level is.
- Rookies would start with a low Knowledge rating.
- All players would take a hit to their Knowledge rating when coming to a new team.
- This rating would automatically progress slightly for each week that a player spends on the team.
Work Ethic: A meter or star rating that helps to determine the speed at which a player will progress or regress.
Chemistry: A complex rating that affects Confidence and/or Awareness and is based on who is on the field for any given play.
- If every member of your offensive line has played with every other member of the line for a long time, each of their Chemistry levels will be high. If you replace one member of that line, the new player's chemistry with the other four will likely be low. In addition, the chemistry level for the other four offensive linemen will drop slightly. For each play that this new group executes together, each of their Chemistry levels will grow slightly.
  - The tricky part here is that the game will have to keep track of how many plays each group has executed together in order to keep track of each potential group's Chemistry.
- Possible Chemistry groups include the offensive line, receivers, defensive line, linebackers and defensive backs. The quarterback would likely affect the Chemistry of the entire offense. The running back would affect the Chemistry of offensive line and the quarterback.
- Low Chemistry would negatively affect Awareness and/or Confidence
Morale
- Each player should have expectation that you can view in their profile. If those expectations are not being met, that player's Morale should go down.
- A player with low Morale would have lower Confidence, would be less likely to re-sign with the team, and would be more likely to hold out for a new contract.
Value: A meter that goes up or down based on a player's OVR, age, performance, and awards. This rating would determine how much that player demands in a contract and how much that player would be valued in a trade by the CPU.
- Also included could be an option to make this hidden, which would make franchise mode more challenging.

Player Progression & Potential

Small amounts of player progression should occur at several points throughout the season.
- While DPP accounts for temporary changes in player abilities, it does not account for more permanent changes to player abilities that occur throughout the season. Roster updates a real-life depth chart changes prove that players do progress and regress not only during the offseason, but during the season as well.
The Awareness rating should progress like other ratings do.
Progression should not always be so linear. Different players should have different growth curves for their progression that eventually leads to their Potential. The player's performance will determine how closely they follow that curve.
Potential
- Potential should not be pre-determined. Each player should have a range of possible Potential ratings. Which one is used should be randomly determined whenever a new Franchise is started.
- Dynamic Potential
  - Progression should be based partly on Potential, partly on performance, and partly on other factors such as age and coaching. The Potential rating will always pull a player's rating towards a certain number by a certain amount each year. If a player has already reached their potential and their performance warrants a change in ratings that exceeds the amount that their ratings would be pulled back down due to Potential, they should be able to exceed their Potential.
    - For example: A player has C Potential and is a 79 overall. He performs very well on the field, such that he would normally warrant a +6 in overall rating. But, since he has already reached his Potential, his ratings only increase by 3. The next season if he performed even better, and deserved a +7 overall, he would only get +1 since he already above his Potential.
- Potential should be fully editable.

Injuries

The severity of injuries (beyond whether or not the player is out for the game) should not be known until after the game is over.
Injured players should be shown on the sidelines.
Injuries should occur at all points during the season and during the offseason with comparable frequency to how often injuries happen the NFL.
Add the Physically Unable to Perform (P.U.P.) list for short-term injuries.
Severe injuries:
- Some should require surgery, with a set amount of recovery time afterward.
  - Give us an option in some cases to have the surgery now and lose the player for the season, or have it in the offseason but have the player's rating suffer.
  - If surgery occurs in the offseason, have recovery extend into the next season in some cases.
- Even after recovery, some injuries should still result in temporary losses to appropriate player ratings.
  - some very severe injuries should result in permanent losses to appropriate ratings
- Severe injuries should increase the chances of getting the same injury in the future.

Gameplan

Depth charts
- Situational depth charts
  - Have separate charts for special teams, passing vs. running downs, first vs. fourth quarter, first down vs third down.
  - To access these charts have us press a button when viewing the normal depth charts. That way, more casual gamers will not have to worry about them.
- Depth charts should not be limited in any way - any player of any position should be able to fill the depth chart of any other position.
- Position-based roster minimums should be removed. A full depth chart and a minimum total number of players should be the only roster requirements.
Formation substitutions should be available outside of the playcall screen
- Should not be limited by position.
There should be sliders for every position similar to the sliders for HB1/HB2. This way you could have players sub out not just on the basis on fatigue, but also on the basis on gameplan.

Offseason

Introduce a recap show that talks about all the major offseason moves, reviews the draft, talks about big free agents, and big trades.
Player contracts
- Include more types, such as front-loaded, back-loaded, and incentives.
- When negotiating, the player should make reasonable counter-offers that give us some idea of what the player is willing to sign for.
Our team's home stadium should be fully editable (with appropriate costs involved in any changes we make).
When our team relocates, we should be able to keep everything about the team from the name to the team logo to the jersey.
Teams that are performing poorly financially should be getting relocation offers.
Include a College all-star game as a part of the scouting process.
We should be able to try to talk players out of retirement.
After the draft, there should be an undrafted free agent signing period.
Include training camp, where we can unlock some player ratings.

Franchise Options

Include an option to show all ratings, hide all ratings, hide the OVR rating, or replace all ratings with letter grades.
Include an option to show or hide player potential.
When starting a Franchise:
- We should be able to add an expansion team and conduct an expansion draft.
- We should be able to re-distribute the divisions.
- When conducting a fantasy draft, we should be able to choose our draft position or randomize the draft order.
  - we should also be able to edit the drafting priorities for other teams.
Include a progression slider, which determines to what degree progression is based on performance. At one end of the slider progression is based entirely on performance; at the other end progression is entirely based on things like age and coaching.

Presentation

Include pregame, halftime, and postgame shows, which should have content similar to what you get on any major network, with highlights, previews, and predictions.
All cut scenes should have the option to be skipped.
During the offseason, briefly show the Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
Draft day should include commentary and draft picks should be shown coming up on stage when they are picked.
Fully customizable camera angles: allow us to change the camera angle and zoom the same way we can in instant replay.
- Also allow us to set different camera angles for different phases of the game. It would be interesting to be able to play defense from the perspective of the defenders.
Crowds
- Should react better to what is happening on the field:
  - There should be lots of noise when the away team has third down, and big cheers when the home team makes a big first down.
  - Good away teams should have more of their fans in the stands than worse away teams.
  - If the home team is losing badly in the fourth quarter, many of the fans should leave.
Commentary
- During pregame warm-up, commentators should discuss more players, highlighting players who are coming off big performances and focusing not only on quarterbacks.
- If a star player is not in a game due to injury, the commentators should mention this.
- Record significantly more commentary, and vary it throughout the season so that we are always hearing something new in every game.
- Have different commentary teams for different game times and nights:
  - Different teams for Sunday night, Monday night, Sunday early game and Sunday late game.
- Specialized commentary for different parts of the season (if the team is in the playoff race, missing the playoffs, or already guaranteed a spot):
  - Also include special commentary for the last game of the season (last place team gets first overall pick � talk about what the team needs to improve for next year).
  - Specialized commentary based on past performance:
    - "This team won the super-bowl/conference championship/missed the playoffs last year/two years in a row, etc."

Miscellaneous

Practice squads (including the ability to sign players off other teams' squads and have players signed off yours).
Franchises should begin the first season with the same draft picks they have in real life.
Weather:
- Should change as the game progresses.
- Should have real effects on player ratings and CPU gameplan.
- Should include all possible weather conditions, including various amounts of snow, rain, wind, and fog.
- The sun should move in the sky throughout the game in a way that is realistic for the location of the stadium.
There should be both CPU-initiated trades and CPU-CPU trades.
- We should be made aware when a CPU GM is interested in trading a player in addition to getting direct offers.
Trade-finder: Select a player on another team and the CPU GM will show you what you might have to give up to get the player.
Include a fan happiness rating, which determines attendance.
- A low enough rating could force the team to relocate.
- Wins, loses, losing good players, gaining good players, and filling or not filling team needs would affect fan happiness.
- This rating should change slowly, but different teams will start with different ratings.
Pre-season
- Make actually playing the pre-season games matter more:
  - One way could be to have Potential for rookies depend partially on performance during the preseason.
    - For example, a player might have hidden C (77) potential at the start of the pre-season, but through excellent play, his potential raises to a B. Since we never knew his potential to begin with, it�s not really like potential is actually changing � it�s more like it�s being re-evaluated by the coaching staff.

Other Suggestions

Create-a-player: have templates available for various possible player types.
We should be able to create our own plays and use them in custom playbooks.
Penalties of all types should occur with comparative frequency to the real NFL.
Include a search option so we can more easily find players that fit certain criteria.
In-game saves are a pretty basic feature that needs to be in the game.
We should be able to import logos for created teams. Failing this, there should be more options for logos.
We should be able to upload our own songs to the soundtrack.
Height and weight should matter more for a player�s ratings. If two wide receivers have the exact same abilities, but one is 6�4� and the other is 5�9�, the taller player should perform better and be valued higher. The same would go for weight. These two attributes could be tied directly into players� ratings.
When viewing a player's ratings, only display the ratings relevant to that player's position.
Include more signature movement and play styles of well-known or significant players.
Add the ability to take, save, and share screenshots.
New Ratings:
- Discipline: Indicates how likely a player is to commit penalties.
- Long Snapping: Determines the quality of long snaps. Matters only for the long-snapper position on the depth chart.

And thus concludes my wishlist. If you actually managed to read the whole thing (or even if you didn't), I thank you for reading. Please feel free to comment if you like any of the ideas posted, if you think any could be improved, or if you have any ideas of your own that you want added.

Thank you.

Comments

# 1 gjneff @ Jul 14

I like most of that except the progression part. That is still too restrictive. If you perform, you should be rated as such. Example, what is arian foster's madden 11 rating at release, and what is it in madden 12 release? One season and he jumps a significant amount that you could never get in the game.

# 2 Argooos @ Jul 15

That's a good point. How would you propose changing it? Should the limits for how much someone's attributes can change in one year go up?

I should note there are few things in my list that at least partially address this issue. One is the proposed option in the franchise menu that allows you to set how much you want progression to be based on performance. The other is including mid-season progression. If we had mid-season progression, if someone like Arian Foster was performing much higher than expectations, he would have more than one chance to progress.

# 3 schnaidt1 @ Jul 15

love this!! this is very in depth and well thougth out! and i am glad to see someone else has the idea of a chemistry system for different positions that i have had in the past.

the only thing i would add to this is an expansion on the rating system. and having only ratings that apply to that position show. i dont need to know what an offensive linemans qb accuracy rating is ya know.

i would love more signature styles added to the game for the really popular players or any player who has signature running style or catching style or something.

and full facial design would be amazing for later years in franchise!
but this is a crazy awesome list!!

# 4 Argooos @ Jul 16

I've added your first two suggestions to the list.
What do you mean by full facial design though? You'll have to elaborate before I can add it.

# 5 Heroiczero13 @ Jul 16

Veryy good well thought out list, but I agree that progression should be based mostly on performance, though it would be difficult to make that work for someone who stays on the bench for a couple of years but gets better...both the potential rating and performance should impact it, but performance should have a greater share of it. I guess haha.

# 6 Argooos @ Jul 16

That's exactly why I included a suggestion under "Franchise Options" for a slider that determines how much progression is based on performance. Some people are like you and want progression to be based on performance, while there are others who prefer it to not be based on performance at all. Rather than having a system that makes no one happy, they should give us the choice.

Thanks for reading!

# 7 HelmDawg518 @ Jul 18

This was a great read! I am a Madden addict, but with even half of these improvements, mainly presentation, offseason, and drafting/scouting, I wouldn't put the game down until the release day of the next one

# 8 Argooos @ Jul 18

Thanks Rudolph999 and HelmDawg518. I really appreciate that. This just shows that all the developers have to do is actually listen to the ideas of the community and they would have a great product.