Not thinking through their franchise designs.

[adembroski]

In their endless pursuit of being casual-friendly, EA just screws one thing up after another.

Two big franchise additions; player tags and free agency.

I was kind of excited. Player tags are a pitch I made in '13 but it got cut for time. But here's the thing: So far as I can tell, they don't work. Well some do, but some are just text on the screen, they don't actually do anything. Look for a guy with a Day 1 starter tag starting over a higher rated guy. That's specifically what the tag is supposed to do.

Next is far more important and, imho, damn near game breaking. The newly structured contracts.

You can't actually play cap-over-cash anymore. It used to be that the more you paid up front, the more you could push salary back toward the end of the contract. That was the entire game. It's how the Rams do what they do. And it's a risk, because it doesn't free you of the bill, it comes due eventually. Now it does not. They've taken that away completely. No matter how you attempt to structure your contract, the yearly cap numbers are the same.

I thought when they said there would be "team friendly" and "player friendly" contract options, they were talking about quick ways to select reasonable offers that ranged from salary loaded to bonus loaded, but no, you can't make that choice. There is effectively no difference between the two except that bonus money is guaranteed against the cap. Well then I might as well just go all salary and minimize all bonuses. It makes no difference except now I can cut them whenever I feel like it with zero repercussion.

It is possible to make the game simpler by adding options like pre-built contracts, but what they actually did was just dumb it down to the point that salary negotiation is more or less predetermined.

Oh, and if anyone here has ever had a guy accept a team friendly contract, please tell me, because I haven't seen it once. If it only works 1 in a million times, it might as well not be there, because the risk of annoying the player and having him refuse to negotiate further isn't worth it.

[HennyHefner]

Quote: Originally Posted by adembroski

In their endless pursuit of being casual-friendly, EA just screws one thing up after another. Two big franchise additions; player tags and free agency. I was kind of excited. Player tags are a pitch I made in '13 but it got cut for time. But here's the thing: So far as I can tell, they don't work. Well some do, but some are just text on the screen, they don't actually do anything. Look for a guy with a Day 1 starter tag starting over a higher rated guy. That's specifically what the tag is supposed to do. Next is far more important and, imho, damn near game breaking. The newly structured contracts. You can't actually play cap-over-cash anymore. It used to be that the more you paid up front, the more you could push salary back toward the end of the contract. That was the entire game. It's how the Rams do what they do. And it's a risk, because it doesn't free you of the bill, it comes due eventually. Now it does not. They've taken that away completely. No matter how you attempt to structure your contract, the yearly cap numbers are the same. I thought when they said there would be "team friendly" and "player friendly" contract options, they were talking about quick ways to select reasonable offers that ranged from salary loaded to bonus loaded, but no, you can't make that choice. There is effectively no difference between the two except that bonus money is guaranteed against the cap. Well then I might as well just go all salary and minimize all bonuses. It makes no difference except now I can cut them whenever I feel like it with zero repercussion. It is possible to make the game simpler by adding options like pre-built contracts, but what they actually did was just dumb it down to the point that salary negotiation is more or less predetermined. Oh, and if anyone here has ever had a guy accept a player friendly contract, please tell me, because I haven't seen it once. If it only works 1 in a million times, it might as well not be there, because the risk of annoying the player and having him refuse to negotiate further isn't worth it.

They tried to make it fancy years ago. The one player franchise or coach franchise or
team franchise should all be different options. I hate how unlike 2K and the show I can’t run a single team offline franchise but still change lineups or update injuries for other teams. If it’s offline I should have full control to do whatever.


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[oneamongthefence]

Quote: Originally Posted by adembroski

In their endless pursuit of being casual-friendly, EA just screws one thing up after another. Two big franchise additions; player tags and free agency. I was kind of excited. Player tags are a pitch I made in '13 but it got cut for time. But here's the thing: So far as I can tell, they don't work. Well some do, but some are just text on the screen, they don't actually do anything. Look for a guy with a Day 1 starter tag starting over a higher rated guy. That's specifically what the tag is supposed to do. Next is far more important and, imho, damn near game breaking. The newly structured contracts. You can't actually play cap-over-cash anymore. It used to be that the more you paid up front, the more you could push salary back toward the end of the contract. That was the entire game. It's how the Rams do what they do. And it's a risk, because it doesn't free you of the bill, it comes due eventually. Now it does not. They've taken that away completely. No matter how you attempt to structure your contract, the yearly cap numbers are the same. I thought when they said there would be "team friendly" and "player friendly" contract options, they were talking about quick ways to select reasonable offers that ranged from salary loaded to bonus loaded, but no, you can't make that choice. There is effectively no difference between the two except that bonus money is guaranteed against the cap. Well then I might as well just go all salary and minimize all bonuses. It makes no difference except now I can cut them whenever I feel like it with zero repercussion. It is possible to make the game simpler by adding options like pre-built contracts, but what they actually did was just dumb it down to the point that salary negotiation is more or less predetermined. Oh, and if anyone here has ever had a guy accept a player friendly contract, please tell me, because I haven't seen it once. If it only works 1 in a million times, it might as well not be there, because the risk of annoying the player and having him refuse to negotiate further isn't worth it.

A lot of what Madden adds is surface level stuff. Coordinators are surface level. There's very little depth to it. Scouting got an overhaul but there's not much to it other than assigning scouts to regions and mostly forgetting about it. Free agency got a little better but contracts are so basic. I've seen player tags not work. Teams won't draft players if they have tags but it doesn't apply to free agency. EA is pandering to franchise fans without really giving anything of substance but they can say they're adding features.

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[ShadyFan25]

Scouting is also very poorly designed from a UI/UX perspective.

It takes five button presses to go from viewing one players attributes to another. It would be so much better if you could quickly cycle through the prospects with the triggers.

There is no info on where you're assigning your scouts on the assign scouts page. You have to keep going back and forth between the region breakdown to see where they're being assigned to.

Why can't we sort prospects? By combine stats, attributes, height, weight, etc.

Despite these faults, I actually like scouting in 23. It really needs some quality of life features though.

[tosa]

One of the biggest issues I have is they never build on what they implement….each year they add their back of the box features and then never polish up what they implemented the year before. I for one wish they would as Adembroski said in the OP is to add some real depth to these features. I’m not sure they realize or care at this point what the franchise gamer really wants. They hire community members to help design what is being asked for and them water down their ideas just to make it “fun” for casuals. The key to all of this is to provide ways for users to toggle off the amount of depth they desire….that way everyone can be more easily satisfied. The other side of this is, if it’s not designed in a way that the CPU can logically use the new features as well , it all really becomes pointless unless you are in a 32 player league.

[GoJags904]

If the resign interest bar is green I've signed players every offseason and during the season. I assume u mean team friendly as player friendly is almost always accepted if green. Also depends on if a FA or not. That is determined by highest offer IMHO.

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[adembroski]

Quote: Originally Posted by GoJags904

If the resign interest bar is green I've signed players every offseason and during the season. I assume u mean team friendly as player friendly is almost always accepted if green. Also depends on if a FA or not. That is determined by highest offer IMHO. Sent from my SM-N975U using Tapatalk

Yes, I meant Team Friendly. Utterly pointless option.

[adembroski]

Quote: Originally Posted by ShadyFan25

Scouting is also very poorly designed from a UI/UX perspective. It takes five button presses to go from viewing one players attributes to another. It would be so much better if you could quickly cycle through the prospects with the triggers. There is no info on where you're assigning your scouts on the assign scouts page. You have to keep going back and forth between the region breakdown to see where they're being assigned to. Why can't we sort prospects? By combine stats, attributes, height, weight, etc. Despite these faults, I actually like scouting in 23. It really needs some quality of life features though.

UI was something I never mastered as a designer (I'm more about systems; probabilities and such), but yeah, even I can see the flaws. During free agency I'm constantly popping back and forth between the free agency screen to my salary screen.

Which reminds me of another issue, during the resigning phase, you get a reason the player rejected your offer. Not long enough, too little money, and you could still see the message the next week when you went in to make another offer. Now you gotta take notes or guess or something. I never appreciated that feature enough.

I do agree that scouting is much better. I actually feel like I can go in with some kind of a strategy now, but since you knew nothing about the class before you assigned scouts last year it was a total crapshoot.

I actually wouldn't mind a pure two-axis style of contract design if the two axes were total value and then a bonus-heavy to salary-heavy structure continuum within that total value. At least that would allow two strategies for building a roster, even if it's still not a great deal of control.

Also, why is the Player Personnel department permanent? Shouldn't that be the General Manager? Eventually every team is just going to max this out and it wont matter.