Dev increases and balance in franchise mode

[Shosum13]

This is just getting ridiculous especially for online leagues, between the crazy amount of breakout scenarios we see and the fact that we get a crazy amount of post season dev bumps it is getting way out of hand. We just finished season 2 and we already have some teams with 12-13 players with superstar & x factor abilities. This is only after 2 seasons, by time we get 3 or 4 seasons in people are going to end up having to face some opponents with a line up made of entirely of players with superstar and x factor abilities on one side of the ball. With how powerful a lot of these abilities are this is going to destroy the balance of leagues.

One of the biggest problems is the process which is supposed randomly generate breakout scenarios based on stats each week seems to favor certain teams more than others. I’ve seen some teams get more breakout scenarios in ONE WEEK than other teams have had through both seasons combined, and it always seems to favor the top teams for the most part. The whole way the scenario engine and these new abilities were incorporated in to the game was so short sighted and it’s become an annual EA tradition to take ideas that could actually add a lot of fun factor to a game and implement them poorly.

Don’t get me wrong this game doesn’t play that bad and the issue with the crazy dev inflation isn’t nearly as prevalent for people that only play solo franchises against the CPU. But being a big online franchise player this game is quickly surpassing 19 for one of my least favorite Maddens of all time. I hated 19 for the on field gameplay in user vs user play because it was one of the worst experiences I’ve ever had, but with 20 while the on field gameplay is improved the whole scenario system and new abilities are so poorly implemented for online leagues that it is quickly ruining the fun.

I have a huge problem with the direction madden has went with devs and progression. In the real NFL it is a league built on parody, it’s made for teams to make turnarounds in a matter of a couple of seasons. In Madden everything has become so stat based that it just continues to reward the top users and creates a rich get richer scenario. It really makes it next to impossible for users that are on the bubble of being competitive and trying to improve their user skills to really compete.

[JoshC1977]

The only thing I can think of is to make 'breakout scenarios' give dev boosts for only the rest of the season (mimicking more of a 'hot year'). The commish would have to manually revert the breakouts after the season by editing the dev traits back. An alternate approach is to allow each team to 'designate' one breakout player's dev trait increase as permanent (i.e. isn't edited back after the season).

This would add work for the commish, but it might help stabilize things.

[Shosum13]

Quote: Originally Posted by JoshC1977

The only thing I can think of is to make 'breakout scenarios' give dev boosts for only the rest of the season (mimicking more of a 'hot year'). The commish would have to manually revert the breakouts after the season by editing the dev traits back. An alternate approach is to allow each team to 'designate' one breakout player's dev trait increase as permanent (i.e. isn't edited back after the season). This would add work for the commish, but it might help stabilize things.

These are actually some good ideas to combat the issue, the only problem is at this point already 2 seasons in to institute a rule like that would only handicap owners that haven’t gotten many breakouts if they start getting a few. Unfortunately with already going in to the 3rd season I don’t think there’s anything we can do other than let it play out and hope things are much more balanced in madden 21, and if they aren’t we could look at incorporating ideas like this. I’m just glad that our league starts a little later to wait for the week 1 rosters to come out so I have time to find a used copy to make sure not to give EA any of my money.

[reyes the roof]

I wish they’d give the option to hide breakout scenarios. At least then padding someone’s stats to get an upgrade won’t be on your mind. I know some will say you can just police yourself to not pad stats, but if my WR has 95 yards and only needs 5 more to trigger an upgrade most of us are going to try and get that 5 yards

[Shosum13]

Quote: Originally Posted by reyes the roof

I wish they’d give the option to hide breakout scenarios. At least then padding someone’s stats to get an upgrade won’t be on your mind. I know some will say you can just police yourself to not pad stats, but if my WR has 95 yards and only needs 5 more to trigger an upgrade most of us are going to try and get that 5 yards

With what a difference maker abilities can be we’ve literally got people trading wins to hit breakouts. I wish they were something that happened in the background, like after a string of good games a scenario would just pop up like “X player has had quite a few big games, we have a real star on her hands!” and then award you with a dev boost.

[Chris_]

It must be quite a problem in online leagues where certain users can exploit the system to build a superstar team.

Does anyone happen to know if CPU controlled teams get dev upgrades via mid-season breakouts or do they only get the traditional automatic performance based upgrades at the end of the year?

In my offline franchise the number of breakouts is getting silly. In under 2 years I’ve gone from 2 Superstars to 5 and it would be 6-7 if a couple of players hadn’t been injured en route to their goals. That’s without cheesing the plays to focus an entire game through 1 player.

I’d the CPU teams don’t benefit I’m tempted to only let breakouts go to Star, and keep Superstar or X-Factor upgrades for end of year events - I’d edit any of my players back down if they happened to achieve the goals for Superstar if so. Maybe even edit down all breakouts completely, including Normal -> Star.

I can only imagine the havoc this creates after a few years online with other users.

[Shosum13]

Quote: Originally Posted by Chris_

It must be quite a problem in online leagues where certain users can exploit the system to build a superstar team. Does anyone happen to know if CPU controlled teams get dev upgrades via mid-season breakouts or do they only get the traditional automatic performance based upgrades at the end of the year? In my offline franchise the number of breakouts is getting silly. In under 2 years I’ve gone from 2 Superstars to 5 and it would be 6-7 if a couple of players hadn’t been injured en route to their goals. That’s without cheesing the plays to focus an entire game through 1 player. I’d the CPU teams don’t benefit I’m tempted to only let breakouts go to Star, and keep Superstar or X-Factor upgrades for end of year events - I’d edit any of my players back down if they happened to achieve the goals for Superstar if so. Maybe even edit down all breakouts completely, including Normal -> Star. I can only imagine the havoc this creates after a few years online with other users.

CPU teams do not get breakout scenarios, the engine doesn't affect CPU teams at all. Thet will get stat based post season bumps though but thet are still at a disadvantage.

Now imagine how many breakout scenarios you're seeing in a solo franchise but in a 32 user league where most teams are seeing around as many breakouts as you have with some teams seeing less and some seeing even more than you have. I have seen a couple of teams get 3 superstar breakout scenarios in one week. After only two seasons we already have a few teams with 10 or more superstar and x factor players.

The way the scenario engine and these breakout scenarios were handled is so short sighted and poorly done it's a joke. I've been at lucky enough to get 3 superstar and 1 star breakout scenario in 2 seasons but there's some teams that haven't had any and another few teams that have only had one then you have a good number of teams that have already had 6,7,8,9+ breakout scenarios after only two seasons. It should feel rewarding to have a breakout player but instead the way it was handled cheapens it not to mention is going to destroy balance in leagues.

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

[Sphinx]

Quote: Originally Posted by Shosum13

CPU teams do not get breakout scenarios, the engine doesn't affect CPU teams at all. Thet will get stat based post season bumps though but thet are still at a disadvantage. Now imagine how many breakout scenarios you're seeing in a solo franchise but in a 32 user league where most teams are seeing around as many breakouts as you have with some teams seeing less and some seeing even more than you have. I have seen a couple of teams get 3 superstar breakout scenarios in one week. After only two seasons we already have a few teams with 10 or more superstar and x factor players. The way the scenario engine and these breakout scenarios were handled is so short sighted and poorly done it's a joke. I've been at lucky enough to get 3 superstar and 1 star breakout scenario in 2 seasons but there's some teams that haven't had any and another few teams that have only had one then you have a good number of teams that have already had 6,7,8,9+ breakout scenarios after only two seasons. It should feel rewarding to have a breakout player but instead the way it was handled cheapens it not to mention is going to destroy balance in leagues. Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

Ugh, every time I am thinking of maybe playing a cfm again, I am reminded of how much work I have to put in to just keep cpu teams at the same level. Back when the game came out i thought the breakout scenarios were a great thing and stupidly believed they would be balanced. I was wrong, they aren't. I honestly feel they are game breaking, along with the whole no regression of the dev traits. There is no reason for a 75 overall player to still be an x-factor when they're 35-36. I just don't know about the direction of this game anymore.

It's going to take a lot of improvements for me to keep playing madden going forward.