Madden 20 Deep Dive: Scenario Engine

[DeuceDouglas]

So last week I posted a deep dive into Madden's 20 simulation stats and following that I wanted to take a look into franchise modes biggest feature this year in the scenario engine.

To do that, I started up a fresh franchise as the Broncos in Preseason Week 1 and went week-by-week for five seasons tracking every scenario that I encountered. The information that was tracked for each scenario was:

• When the scenario occurred
• What kind of scenario occurred
• The player(s) involved in the scenario (if any)
• The choices I was given during the scenario (if any)
• The choice(s) I made for the scenario
• What the goal was that came with the choices I made (if any)
• Whether the goal was passed or failed
• Any rewards/penalties that I received as a result of the scenario (if any)

To cover how I progressed through the franchise, as mentioned, I took the Broncos and played the franchise just as I normally would with the exception of actually playing the games. I simmed weekly training, did all the scouting, made all the choices for the scenarios, made all roster moves whether it be preseason cuts, free agency, the draft, etc. I wanted to keep things as close to a normal, full franchise experience with the exception of playing games which was done for the sake of time. I'll get into how that could affect things a bit later.

The main points I wanted to focus on once I had the data were FREQUENCY, VARIETY, and IMPACT.

Frequency covering how often were scenarios occurring. Variety covering how many different kinds and types of scenarios I encountered. And then Impact covering how the scenarios overall positively or negatively impacted my team. I feel like these are the three most important aspects of the scenario engine and that success or failure in these areas can really make or break the feature.

FREQUENCY

Overall I encountered 89 total scenarios over the course of the five seasons and interacted with the scenario engine 105 times over that period as well. That comes out to an average of 17.8 scenarios per season so about one per regular season week. I didn't include every interaction as it's own scenario in the numbers above because often they would be follow ups and part of the same scenario. For example, when the frustrated receiver scenario would trigger, you'd get the initial interaction and then a follow up the next week and I counted that as one scenario because it's part of the same situation. So while you're looking at around one scenario per week, it actually feels like more with the follow ups and it's certainly a part of your week-in, week-out routine.

I also encountered a bug where the beat reporter would continue congratulating me on an important win after losses that I had suffered. It happened nine times over the five seasons and they weren't included in these numbers either since they shouldn't have been triggering.

VARIETY

All of the scenarios I encountered fit under nine categories with the most common ones having subsets within them of different positions or variations.

X-Factor: As expected, the most common scenario. Something interesting here is that it didn't trigger against every X-Factor I faced and would often change not only during the season but over multiple seasons. For example, in season one I played the Chargers and only had the X-Factor scenario for Joey Bosa. Then later in the season when I played them again, I received it for both Bosa and Philip Rivers. Rivers wasn't injured the first time around and neither was Melvin Gordon. The following season the first time I played the Chargers I again only had the scenario for Joey Bosa and a few weeks later when I played them again, I only had the scenario for Melvin Gordon.

Another interesting thing with the X-Factor scenarios is that I didn't receive a single one for a wide receiver, tight end or safety and it wasn't due to a lack of opportunities either. as I played Antonio Brown, Travis Kelce and Derwin James ten times but didn't have one X-Factor scenario for them when playing the Raiders, Chiefs or Chargers.

Beat Reporter: This one was the second most common mainly due to the important win scenarios which more often than not are nothing more than a text. I did receive 150 coach XP a couple times which due to the bug I encountered ended up giving me another 600 coach XP for continuing to lose after an important win.

Other scenarios encountered were the reporter congratulating me on being able to play the Pro Bowl as well as the two onboarding scenarios where you meet the reporter and she questions you about you offense and defense which was seen once at the beginning of the franchise and not again after.

Frustrated Player: Had this mainly happen with wide receivers but did see it with a running back a few times as well. Something I noticed with this scenario is that it seemed to trigger a couple of times immediately after an injury. Phillip Lindsay got injured and the following week I had Royce Freeman frustrated over low numbers likely due to him having #2 numbers while now being in the #1 spot on the depth chart. Also happened with the wide receivers.

Mentorship: Encountered this every season I played and actually had it twice in the first season. One was an offensive line and the other was wide receiver. First season had it for Dalton Risner and then every subsequent season was a rookie center I drafted. Every time the dialogue was exactly the same.

Bye Week: Encountered this scenario every season during my bye week. Player coming to me would change but the dialogue and options would always be the same.

Breakout Player: Only encountered this three times but if I was playing games I feel like you would see this a lot more. Occurred once for a TE, once for a WR and once for a DT.

Short Week: Similar to the Bye Week saw this each time I had a game on a Thursday Night however I didn't have a Thursday Night game in every season which is why I saw this less than the Bye Week scenario. Dialogue and options were always the same.

Players Only Meeting: Had this one trigger three times and all three times it involved me calling out a group on defense. Not sure if a scenario exists where this happens for the offense but I didn't see it.

Player Development: Probably shouldn't have included this but it was the initial onboarding scenario teaching users about DEV trait mechanics.

IMPACT

Everything here is a cumulative look at all the positive and negative outcomes I received from scenarios. Everything is consolidated into it's own category so if a team received +1 morale in two different weeks, it would read as team morale +2.

But...yeah. Not much really needs to be explained here but some additional context: I mentioned earlier how simming versus playing can affect things and this is an area that can be hugely impacted by doing so. Simulation doesn't take into account scenarios and as a result the failure rate for the goals I had was 67%. That number jumps to 77% when treating goals where I passed one part but failed another as a complete failure. Had I actually been playing the games with the knowledge of what it took to accomplish the goals, this haul would be much, MUCH larger. I likely would have seen more breakout player scenarios and likely would have accomplished at least a couple rather than failing each one I encountered while simulating and this alone would have granted me upgrades in DEV traits and large chunks of XP.

The negative side is a bit misleading because more often than not the negative affects would come along with something that either cancelled them out or had you leaving a situation with a net positive. With Emmanuel Sanders, his -1 morale was a result of not getting the ball following a frustrated receiver scenario. However, just for choosing to get him involved he received +3 morale meaning he left the situation with higher morale than he entered it with. The -4 team morale all came from my choice to emphasize prep over rest and each time that choice was made the team lost one morale point but also gained 600 XP.

Nelson Agholor had two frustrated receiver scenarios where he first received +3 morale for me telling him I'd get him involved. After a 3 reception, 22 yard game the follow up led to him losing three morale points meaning the whole situation was a push. The second time around I made no promises and after a 4 reception, 28 yard game he again lost three morale points however for making no promises initially, my entire team received +1 morale so again the net gain is higher.

Courtland Sutton's was another frustrated receiver where I made him no promises giving my whole offense +1 morale and after the week he only lost one morale point making it a push for him and a net gain for everyone else. And then Edward Lawson (draft pick) was another frustrated receiver scenario and was really the only scenario in five seasons where I ended up with a net loss. He received +3 for morale for telling him I'd get him involved and following a 7 reception, 56 yard game he lost five morale points.

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If you guys want to see the document I used to track scenarios I'll post that below. The main thing it has is each interaction logged over the course of the five seasons. I will say though, if you'd rather not know the outcomes of scenarios you haven't seen or anything like that, I wouldn't recommend looking at it because it's pretty straightforward and will basically tell you exactly what to expect from a given scenario.

Madden 20 Scenario Engine Deep Dive

A couple things as I wrap up, go ahead and use this thread to not only discuss what you saw here but also for feedback you'd give on how you want the scenario engine to be handled. If you think this is good and like it this way, let me know why. If you don't like it and would like to see things handled differently, say why and how and please try to keep things constructive.

Also, I can't stress enough that if you have an idea for a scenario that you'd like to see within franchise, post it in the thread below. It doesn't have to be crazy in-depth or fleshed out just enough to get the idea out there and plant the seed.

Create Your Own Scenario [Scenario Suggestions]

[Lexicon]

If you ever needed evidence that there are design issues afoot in the development process of Madden, this is as cut and clear as it gets. This could have been a fantastic feature. Not only did it not live up to the reveal info, it didn't even live up to the gamey feature that it really was. And now it feels like we've stepped back another few years.

Great work, Deuce. I appreciate the effort you put in, even if you know going in that the results are not going to be pretty haha

[Mackrel829]

This is crazy! Some people on this forum put in so much work.

Thank you for the information!

[timhere1970]

Great work as always. I have seldom seen such potential stripped by lack of effort. This could be a game changer for franchise but is is so under developed it just leaves me flabergasted. The real work was getting the system coded to work. Once that it would seem it would be so simple to just use the engine to drive unpredictability in franchise mode but it is so slckadasically implemented it actually makes franchise more predicatable. Don't even get me started on the coming out ahead either way scenarioss. I really hope they don't throw this away to work on whatever next year's back of the box concept is. This can be so good.

[acbagel]

Great post. Hope devs will improve this feature. It's a cool idea for a feature, but honestly not the interesting at the moment.

[jpdavis82]

Since it’s clear that this game is needing the negative scenarios far more than positive ones, I’m going to focus on that for now.

Negative Scenario ideas

What Have You Done For Me Lately/Depth Chart scenario
If player fails to meet weekly goals for ___ weeks, they lose a spot on the depth chart.

Last Chance/Preseason cuts scenario
If a player fails to impress in the preseason, they get the last game before cut day to prove they belong, and if the player does not meet that goal they are released.

Give Me The Damn Ball/Frustrated WR Scenario
If a WR does not see a significant increase in targets within a month, after expressing frustration, they ask to be traded or released.

I’m out/Holdout scenario
Players that have performed above their contract relative to other players at their same position, will holdout the next season until they receive a new contract.

Aging Player/Lost A Step Scenario
After a WR/HB/DB has played 12-15 years, they will lose a few speed points and have an opportunity to increase their other position specific skills to compensate for the loss of speed.

Bad Chemistry/Locker Room
cancer Scenario
If a player has been causing issues in the locker room, the team chemistry rating will go down and that player will ask for a trade/release and could even impact others wanting to be traded/released as well.




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[XtremeDunkz]

It just feels so unfinished and unpolished. Like an Alpha build of a new feature.

Seems like they were like uhh we need to put something in to franchise mode this year, lets see if we can fit this in.

[GameBreaker35]

Where do we go to find out what the goals are for the frustrated players scenario? I never know what I should be attempting to do when it comes up.


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