Madden Franchise Mode - briax87's Blog

briax87's Blog

Madden Franchise Mode

Posted on January 14, 2009 at 11:39 AM.

(3)

Pre-season:

When you first start your franchise, you're in the pre-season. Personally, these 4 games seem completely pointless to me as it is in-game. You play the first half with your first string team, and second half with your second string. The problem with this is that if you simulate through these games, some of the 3rd and 4th string players don't get on the field for one play. This is particularly noticeable in the running back position, and most of the defensive positions.

Another problem with the pre-season is that players do not progress or regress at all, no matter how they play. Yes, I know that they are only practice games, nothing to play for. But look at the New England Patriots pre-season games last August. With Brady out with an injury for them (foot, I think), the Quarterback position was shared between, Cassel, Gutierrez, and O'Connell. They each played, the coach saw how they fared and released Gutierrez, keeping the other two and Brady.

Players should progress and regress in the pre-season. I do not believe that a rookie should shoot up from a 70 to an 80, but perhaps from a 70 to a 72 or 73 overall. His awareness might increase if he played all 4 games, as he gets used to the NFL. If a player has a terrible pre-season, their stats might decrease. For example, if a running back fumbles in each of the 4 games, his carry stat might decrease by 2 or 3. Once again, not a huge decrease, but a decrease nonetheless.

Injuries:

Another problem with Franchise mode, and any other mode, is that when you're playing a game (not simulating), I rarely see a player get injured for more than a quarter. It seems to me that every second injury is a �will return soon� injury. The other injuries I see are �out for game�, and �out for 1 quarter�. I have only seen no more than 3 or 4 injuries through over 40 franchise games that lasted longer than a game. Now, when you simulate through games, you see a lot more �long-term� injuries. It seems as though the frequency of �long-term� in-game injuries should be increased. As it is now, injuries are basically non-existent while playing a game. This makes having depth in your squad pointless, and your starters will be the only ones playing.

Scouting:

The scouting part of franchise mode, well, I hate it. I really hate it. Searching through the database feels tedious, laborious, laggy. Every time you search a different position, it feels like a very long time for it to load. Sorting players by potential �lags� when sorting. Viewing players individually �lags�. It seems as if every time you try view something different in this mode it has to load it back up from scratch. You can't just skim quickly through positions, choosing players to scout. After choosing players to scout, the next week or two it doesn't show anymore important information about the players. It should be faster to search through and select players, and play an important factor on who you choose in the draft.

Off-season:

The off-season in Madden is good, but could still do with some work in my opinion. Player progression and regression seems to work better since it was patched, but could still do with some fine tuning. Older players could see a small decrease in athletic abilities such as speed and strength, i.e. a wide receiver not being as fast as he used to be, or a lineman not being as strong as he used to be. It appears that players do all their progression in their first 2 or 3 years since being drafted, then do not progress or regress that much after. The most I see happen is a change of +1 or -1 in their overall rating after the first few years.

The players retirement window seems fine, it does as it should. The re-signing part does not work as it should however. Often, I only re-sign half of the players in the window, and then press start to �simulate the rest of the signings�, and the players I chose not to sign were signed by the CPU back to my team. There is no option to release them, you only hope that the CPU will not sign them back onto your team. The free agency part, again works as it should. It is however, in my opinion, slow in the way it works. Searching through free agents seem to �lag� when switching from the QB to HB to FB (etc) category. Then when you decide to skip whatever amount of days you like, it takes quite a while to skip these days. I do believe that whatever algorithm used for signing free agents to the CPU teams, skipping days etc, could be optimized to make this little process speed up a bit. It's not a serious issue, but it's just one of those little things that you notice while waiting for it to finish.

Draft:

Next we have the draft. The draft in Madden is the part of the Franchise mode I enjoy the most. There are however, some problems with it. There is the AI Draft Logic. Every year in my franchise I see teams drafting 2 or 3 quarterback's in a row, and ending up with 4 or 5 in their depth chart, while having someone as Brees or Brady as their starter. This means that all the good rookie QB's are gone by the 10th pick.

Also, I believe that there should be some sort of �luck� based element to drafting. Say a QB is drafted first overall in the Draft. Every time in Madden he will progress into the high 80's and reach the 90's. There should be some chance of him becoming a bust, and not progressing at all. This is where scouting should play a part. You should scout your draft choices carefully before drafting. Also, all 5th to 7th round picks I have ever drafted don't reach above a 75 overall rating. You should be able to �get lucky� with a pick and end up picking a Tom Brady.

After you make your picks you are brought to the rookie signings screen. The same problem exists here that exists in the Re-Signings Screen. If you only sign 3 or 4 of your rookies, the CPU will sign the rest of them for you. You have no option to not sign them.

Summary:

Pre-season games should mean something
No injuries = no point in squad depth
Scouting should impact Draft
Implement some sort of �luck� element into the draft

Franchise mode is fun. I still enjoy it despite the many issues I have pointed out. It could be improved on, and I believe it will be improved on for 2010.

Comments

# 1 KLima878 @ Jan 14

Nice entry. I couldn't agree more. I dont play online so franchise is big for me. I would like to see after the preseason you have to make cuts to get down to the roster requirements. One thing I thought would be cool is not have overall player ratings. It's way to easy to just sign the higher rated player in the offseason. Lets say you are using the Chargers. LT retires and you need to sign a replacement. Well it's way to easy to just sign the highest rated RB that is a free agent. Why not have to look through his attributes and choose the guy you might want. A burner, pounder, good recieving skills etc....

# 2 briax87 @ Jan 14

Thats it. I also forgot to add to that list the fact that if a WR has a season where he gets between 100 and 400 receiving yards, his catching stat increases massively. I always find receivers with low overall but a catching rating of 95+ in free agency.