My Ideal Franchise Mode Part 2 (Pre-Madden 13) - Lexicon's Blog

Lexicon's Blog

My Ideal Franchise Mode Part 2 (Pre-Madden 13)

Posted on February 17, 2012 at 02:13 PM.

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Last year, I wrote a blog detailing what I want in Franchise Mode for Madden 12. It's the only blog post I've made here on Operation Sports, mainly because Offline Franchise Mode is all I care about in Madden. Let me start off this blog by explaining how important Franchise Mode is for me. First off, I work for the biggest game retailer in the US. I do know quite a bit about video games in general, but I mainly play football games. Occasionally I'll pick up a game like Red Dead Redemption or Mass Effect. I'm a huge wrestling fan, so I play the SmackDown vs Raw series as well. However, besides The Show, my game of choice is Madden and NCAA Football. The only thing I play for an extended period of time are the Franchise and Dynasty modes. So, in the grand scheme of things, Franchise and Dynasty Modes are THE most important thing in gaming to me. And because gaming is a big part of my life by it being my source of income, Franchise Mode is a huge deal to me.

Now that I've relayed the importance of Franchise Mode, let me explain what I intend to do in this post. I'm going to take out everything that I wanted last year for Madden 12 that they actually did. Everything else will be left on the list, because I still want those things in the next edition of Madden. I'll also add some new stuff that I'd like to see that I hadn't previously listed. I'll make sure to label those as "NEW". Here we go...

Pre-Season
-Position Battles: Similar to what they implemented for Madden NFL 2005. Ignoring small differences in OVR ratings, allow the depth chart to be created based on performance.
*This was SOMEWHAT addressed in Madden 12, but not to the extent I'd like to see. I, myself, ignored the ratings, but it was tough at some points to do so.

-Player Progression/Regression: Have Rookies/Younger Players progress or regress based on performance in pre-season. Also, base the progression/regression on which string of offense/defense the player is facing (i.e. more progression/regression vs 1st string as opposed to lesser progression/regression vs 2nd and/or 3rd string)
*While hiding the rookie's overall was a different way to go, it still would be nice to see rookies prove themselves and get rewarded if they do.

-Better Substitution System: As it stands right now, CPU controlled teams will play their starting QB the whole first quarter, no matter if it's the first pre-season game or the fourth. Realistically, the starting QB (depending on experience and importance) would only play a series in the first game, gradually increasing playing time til the start of the season to limit chance of injury. Also, as it is now, 3rd string does not get subbed in as much as they should be.
*While improved in Madden 12, a HUGE problem arose. Since we aren't able to adjust the depth chart outside of the regular set (i.e. 3 adjustable spots for QB), the rest of the substitutions were handled by overall rating. This caused WR's subbing in for CB's in the 4th quarter of a pre-season game, where they could possibly suffer an injury. Kickers and Punters were be subbed out for each other. So instead of having the back-up Kicker coming in for the second half of a game, the Punter would come in, making you manually sub in the other Kicker that's battling for the position. Frustration for this marred the pre-season experience that EA worked so hard to make enjoyable.

-Hall of Fame Game: It kicks off the pre-season every year, and has become an NFL tradition. It would also be great if we got a cut-scene of all of the Hall of Famers voted in that year standing together in suits posing for a picture at half time.

-Regular Season Prediction Show: A show going over an analysts predictions for the upcoming season based on off-season additions and subtractions. Go over games in the upcoming regular season schedule to keep an eye on. Also, 'awards' for pre-season performance (Best QB, Best HB, etc.)

-Pre-Season Press Conference: As the owner of the team, announce to your fan-base your intension and expectations for the upcoming season. Field some 'tough' questions about your roster ("why did you decide to start so-and-so instead of this guy?").

-Fan Screen: A screen that shows you your fans excitement for the upcoming season, their expectations, and other thoughts such as what they do and don't like about the team (players, coaches, current stadium, etc.)

-Player Morale: The reason I'm mentioning this under "Pre-Season" and not under "Regular Season" is because of the next feature I'm about to list. Players morale should be based upon players position on the team, performance to salary ratio, desire to play in team's climate, and experience in the NFL. For example, rookies don't really care where they play, but veterans tend to base who they sign with on area and off-the-field perks.

-Practice Squads: A roster of 8 players that can be called upon during the season to replace injured or released players. Player Morale would factor in to this feature. If a player feels like he can succeed elsewhere or thinks he's good enough to be on the full roster, then his morale will go down until you call him up to the main roster.

Regular Season
-Weekly Headlines: Nothing much needs to be added to Regular Season. Acknowledge players returning to their old stomping grounds, records and record breaking streaks, new projected starters, trading block rumors, important games to the playoff picture, breakout players, and more. I don't expect a virtual show, but I do expect the game to recognize these big events. I'd like to see it in magazine or NFL.com form.

Playoffs
-Playoff Prediction Show: Have an analyst or two go through the Playoff match-ups and the roadmaps for all the teams journey to the Playoffs. It's been a long season and now it's time to sit back and enjoy your success up to that point.

-Special Commentary & Presentation: We need to feel like the Playoffs are special and different. We need to know that reaching this point is a special thing.

Pro Bowl
The only thing I'm going suggest for this is for the players to have their own teams helmet during the Pro Bowl game.

Super Bowl
No extra suggestions for this. Presentation could always be improved, however.

Beginning of Off-Season
-Coaches: It would be great to see coach personalities (i.e. young and enthusiastic vs old and stoic vs middle aged and fiery)

-Relocation, Expansion, and Updates: If you choose to relocate your team, you should be able to type in the name of any city, instead of just choosing from a list of 20 or so. Expansion to the NFL, while tricky to implement and keep things even such as schedules, it should be available to explore. This is where customization comes in the most. A team creator similar to what Backbreaker offered should be present to give the user the feeling of personalization. You should also be able to fully customize Divisions to properly locate existing NFL teams and expand Divisions and/or Conferences. Updates like creating a new stadium or changing the design of a uniform should not required relocations, and should not require you to use a generic logo as opposed to the actual teams logo.
*I'd also like to add, with the changing of uniform providers (Reebok to Nike), we should be able to come up with new designs for uniforms. Whether that's just changing the color of a helmet and being able to keep the logo on there, or changing the design of the logo should be available to users. This keeps things fresh. Being able to change the designs of other teams that you don't control would also be preferred. That, or at least have the CPU come up with a design and have you approve it before it's implemented.

-Retired Jersey Numbers: This is a feature that NFL Fever used that I always thought brought a special dynamic to the respect of veterans. Instead of trading for nothing but young, fast players, it made me want to cultivate a long term relationship with special players. Set a cap on the amount of numbers that are retired to that people reserve their retired jerseys for only the most special of players.

-Restricted Free Agents: This is pretty self explanitory. It wouldn't hurt to include a glossary of off-season terms like Sony does with MLB The Show to explain to those who don't fully understand RFA.

-Rookie Scouting: I believe strongly that we should be able to "work out" rookies, meaning running them through drills and seeing HOW they play. Especially with player tendencies being introduced this year, we need to see what they do in certain situations. I'm not talking about seeing a bunch of successful plays, I'm talking about putting a QB in an all out blitz situation and seeing how he handles it. I want to see change of direction from RB's. If we can't get a visual, then we need detailed scouting reports with plusses and minuses and side notes about the players college career and personality.
*Scouting was changed in Madden 12, but not the way I wanted to see it changed. In fact, it's still very similar to what it was prior to Madden 12. I feel strongly that time is a valuable thing when it comes to scouting, and making the decision to scout this player and not that player could mean missing out on a franchise player or having your QB for the next decade. That dynamic needs to have more importance placed on it. The only numbers we should be able to see are the measurements. Everyone's 40 time is available. That's not something you have to SEE to scout. Positional drills and being able to see those players in those drills are what will make scouting fun.

-Mock Drafts and Big Boards: Since putting together our own Big Boards would take FOREVER, have an analyst put together his Big Board and go off of that. It would also be nice to see a Pre-Draft Special show where that same analyst reveals his first round mock draft and explain his concerns about certain players.

-Draft: The draft is something that needs a lot of love. Presentation-wise, I think all 1st round draft picks should be announced by the Commissioner and there needs to be a cutscene of that player in a suit holding up that team's jersey. The rest of the rounds just need Radio City Music Hall as a background, and someone announcing "team-x is now on the clock". Also, we need to be able to trade next years draft picks.

-Post-Draft Special Show: Another show with the Draft analyst, this time breaking down the trades, reaches, and draft grades.

Other Franchise Notes:
-Contract Holdouts
-Special Holiday Presentation
-Player and Coach relationships + Ties
-MUCH more NCAA and Madden integration

Unfortunately, I was only able to fully remove one of the things off my list. While I do enjoy Madden 12 a lot, it's not something that will keep me playing much longer. The longevity in Franchise Mode just isn't there. I've already played approximately 150 hours of Franchise Mode, and while that was significantly more time than I spent on Madden 11's Franchise Mode, I want enough features to keep me playing well into the off-season and beyond. I understand needing to have something to work on for next year, but with all the features that were added to Franchise Mode and the reported focus that was put in that area, I should have been able to cross off more than one thing from my list. Even if Madden 13 added 1/4 of my list, I'd be happy. There's always work to be done, but maybe it's not the work that's the problem. Maybe it's the focus...