Seven Franchise Mode UI Changes Needed For Madden NFL 18

[Dcourtne]

The salary cap information, esp in the off-season needs an overhaul. It seems to mix up the current and next season. And why can't they just show the breakout of salary and bonus by contract year? That info is obviously there but we are left to try and figure it out for ourselves. Would also be nice if it showed projected total team salary for future seasons.

[timhere1970]

Also, hall of fame. All we get is a list of people who made it. We should be able to see what they did in their career. Shoud be able to bring up the player card and see their actual stats and who they played for. Old maddens at least would show the hallll of fame by team.

[howboutdat]

While i totally agree and get all the very valid points made in this thread ,from the OP all the way down to here. Here is one thing i often think about . And maybe it wouldnt matter , maybe the team of people who work on UI, have no idea how to code or work on adding features to the mode, my guess is they maybe dont deal with adding features to mode itself, maybe just UI specialists if you will.


But i cant help but think, they been working on the UI ALOT since madden 13 every single year and its still flat out just bad, as noted by everyone here.So when i think about that , i think about how much time and money goes into "fixing" the UI every year, only for it to not really be good , still 5 years later. Honestly , as much as i dont like the UI, im to the point im used to it and can deal with it, how about they spend that money/resources on adding more features to the game? I say this because alot of the changes to CFM each year are UI changes. Most of the big decision stuff this year was already in the game, yet they just redid how it looks and comes up basically. Id much rather see that resource spent on adding a new useful fully fledged feature for CFM over rediong more UI that still comes out bad.

[Cardot]

Great article. The standings UI has annoyed me for YEARS. Who ever wants to see the full league standings? Don't most people want to see it by division...and even better if can see all 4 divisions in the conference on one screen?



On a related note, in the spirit of the article to help streamline the UI/Menu experience, there is a group of us who always clamor for a "Season Mode". We really just want a UI where we can hide/by-pass all the franchise information that we don't care about.

[D81SKINS]

What happened to seeing a side by side comparison of each teams rankings for the CFM season stats while waiting for the game to start?
We also used to have an option to see these side by team rankings in the Schedule, so we could take a quick look at the matchups for the week.


Not this ridiculous XP system that just screams "Arcade" Mode.

For ex.
Redskins
DEFENSE
Total Yds allowed: 856(rank 5th)

Vs

Cowboys
Defense
Tot yds allowed: 978(rank 16th)

Also guys remember the more we ask for out of the UI, the less time for actual gameplay fixes.
Ex. AI
Kicking/Punting and wind issues
QB acc
More true to life penalties per gm and variety in calls.
So yeah, I'm more for gameplay fixes vs the AI.
An AI that can adapt to your habits and keep more of the Chess Match feel to the game.
I shouldn't be able to keep calling the same money play each week and have it work almost 90% of the time.

Allow the cpu to do weekly adjustments to what the user is calling, just like teams do week to week in the real life.
I know this isn't UI, I just don't want the UI to cause other much more important aspects to be left out.

[Cardot]

Quote: Originally Posted by D81SKINS

I just don't want the UI to cause other much more important aspects to be left out.

I am fairly confident that the people who work on the UI are different than the ones who work the gameplay.

[brandon27]

The change to the big menu tiles this year, especially in CFM was really a mind boggling decision for me. Especially when looking at player progression. Last year, we could just go through what was the usual roster screen to select players, and spend XP. This year, it's the big goofy tiles. It's just a sloppy mess to work with. Keep in simple. It doesn't need to be flashy. It's a franchise mode menu. It needs to be functional.


I think Madden does an incredibly bad job of presenting, and tracking stats inside of franchise mode as well. From errors in calculation and tracking, to the simple presentation of it. It's difficult to work with. We should be able to quickly and easily look back through a player's particular season, game within that season, or even past seasons. Individual games in past seasons may get difficult to store/track, but I think it should still be available to view.


Trading is also difficult to work with. It's not bad once you get into the actual trade screen. However it's incredibly limited. Only three players or picks per team? How do I possibly put a reasonable package together to trade for the #1 overall pick if I wanted to since I'm limited to only 3 resources? Take off the restraints.


The news page is also a mess. For all the reasons mentioned in this article, and then some. The fact you can't click on the tweets and open up more of the story is a bit, odd. The draft news screen is even more maddening. You get tweets there about a certain player having a good performance, or season. No mention though of his team, or his position though sometimes. So, good luck actually finding this guy in your draft class. Then there's the realization that some of the guys mentioned in the draft story, aren't even in the draft class. It's just a puzzling system. It's like someone had a good idea at some point, but the execution was only half there.


I think sometimes they're too focused on making it look flashy. Just... make it functional. Let me execute my tasks quickly, efficiently, and easily. The visual depth chart with the players cards is another example of flash, over function IMO. In theory, great idea. Lays out the depth chart all on once screen, rather than the old way (which is still available) of going position by position. But everytime you select someone within the depth chart, up comes the tile, with the picture etc. That, to me is unnecessary.


I don't necessarily mind the standings page. I get the fact that it defaults to the league, and not your division might be an issue for some, and it is a bit of an inconvenience to have to flip through all the time, but in reality I don't think it's a huge deal.


I think you guessed by now (if you read this far) what my main issue is with the CFM menu's, and it's really EA's game menu's in general. In it's current state, to me it's more about flash, than functionality and substance. I want that reversed. Afterall, if I'm running my franchise I don't care about flashy menu's. I just want the speed, and the ease of getting the information I need. Quickly. Efficiently. Functionality. Depth. Give me the speed, the ease, the functionality, and the depth of historical information, and current season information. Let me get to it, and through it so I can advance the week and get into my next game. This really applies to even their main menu's. Get rid of those big goofy tiles.

[howboutdat]

One thing sort of for UI , id love to see.This is more about the game menu itself. I dont play other modes, if i do its very rare and a bye week in my league for me so im bored. Id love an option in settings , where we could tell it to just auto load into our CFM, either last used, last advanced, whatever. So instead of having to go to an extra menu screen to get there, it just auto loads from gronk "opening area" straight to my CFM. I know that sounds small but its a very nice touch . GTA does this, you can just load right into online instead of going to offline mode then switch to online. Just let us tell it where to load right to would be a nice touch of functionality to me.