The key to having a fun long lashing franchise?

[chilidogbeefcake]

I love franchise mode.. or at least want to love it... Team building, drafting etc I really enjoy

Obviously it becomes quite easy to have the best team a few years in, and madden’s sim engine clearly struggles to produce realism

In you guys’ opinion - what is the best way to keep it competitive and balanced? House rules? Not accumulating picks? Is the key to just constantly edit CPU players and make them better?

It gets boring around year 7 or so when there’s a handful of generated players above 85 and most of them are on your team...

How do you guys make franchise mode fun and long lasting?

I sometimes just edit other teams’ players to level the playing field but franchise mode usually gets to feeling pointless after a while once the game shows it isn’t built for a decade + long sim

[csouza]

I play a team until I win the SB and then user the team with the worst record, rebuild, win the SB.

...rinse and repeat...

I get an average of 3 to 4 seasons with a team before taking them all the way and get exposure to the first draft pick to cement a cornerstone player for the next team.


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[abolden05]

In my league, we have a team rating cap of 86ovr, superstar cap of 10, only 6 of those can be xfactor, only 1 pick in the 1st and 2nd every year, and we still give boosts to young players on the cpu so they actually get on the field to improve. It’s a lot but we’re at year 13 and it keeps it competitive.

[Richie71]

I play as Dallas, until I get SBs in a row. The Dallas roster is usually overrated by Madden, so if I can get a slider set for All Madden where I'm successful but it isn't overly easy, then I take those sliders to a rebuild franchise.
In 21, my rebuild is the Jets. I'm in season 5 and chasing the 3rd SB. I would have stopped except I got a lucky QB selection in the 2nd round enabling me to trade away the guy who had been my first pick. He (meaning me) kept throwing the ball to the opposition too often. Strangely, although only 8 games in, my new QB with very similar ratings everywhere (weaker on deep accuracy, better at play action) is performing much better. Maybe I just got better.

[oneamongthefence]

So I let my "Scouting department" scout for me. I set it to auto so I only have scouting reports on what the CPU scouts for me come draft time. I also set weekly gameprep to auto as well to keep it more balanced.

Some people on here do write ups on the goings on in their league to keep them engaged. There's a thread for it or you can post it in your arena.

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[PhillyPhanatic14]

Quote: Originally Posted by oneamongthefence

So I let my "Scouting department" scout for me. I set it to auto so I only have scouting reports on what the CPU scouts for me come draft time. I also set weekly gameprep to auto as well to keep it more balanced. Some people on here do write ups on the goings on in their league to keep them engaged. There's a thread for it or you can post it in your arena. Sent from my LM-G820 using Tapatalk

Man I never thought of doing the auto-scout. That's brilliant. Thank you!

[InsideZone77]

The inherent problem as you alluded to is that your team just gets too damn good after 3-5 years and beyond. A lot of this is because scouting is so damn easy and precise for you, but the cpu AI is absolute **** at it. Then their depth chart issues and FA signings and re-signings make it even worse.
So I have 2 solutions but both are really imperfect.
(1)every year at the end of the draft go in and edit some CPU picks to be better overall and have some star/superstar traits mixed in.
The problem with this is it still doesn’t “fix” the problem and is more of a bandaid, and creates a muddled league over the years where most teams overall is pretty close.(Also though the cpu created draft classes players are too low in general compared to the real life rookies in the first year of the franchise, so in a way this helps fix that.)
(2)Since scouting is so damn unrealistically easy, make it harder. My best solution for this is to only scout a players first two traits but never the third, this way it’s more guesswork and we never see their “true grade/value” which is a dead giveaway for their overall. This is way more realistic— seriously go look back at nfl drafts, there are so many absolute busts and mediocre picks in the first round etc. even the best drafting teams like the Saints, Ravens and Steelers still make plenty of absolutely horrible picks.

But that’s all I’ve really been able to come up with and both are flawed. Then there’s also the whole issue of free agency and roster management and your inherent advantage over the CPU AI.

[JoshC1977]

Quote: Originally Posted by chilidogbeefcake

How do you guys make franchise mode fun and long lasting?

Simple answer, I play it honestly. It boils down to several key items:

1. No custom draft classes based on real life players. Aside from the fact that they are normally crap due to inflated dev traits, you have an advantage using them. If you know college football, you can avoid busts quite easily.

2. When making trades, I ask a simple question. If I were the CPU team on the other end of the deal, would I be happy with it? If the answer is "no", I don't even offer it (or accept it if the CPU offered the deal). Just because you CAN do something doesn't mean you SHOULD.

3. I build almost exclusively off of the draft. Free Agency is nice for filling gaps, but I don't use it as a means of team building. This might be stylistic but I think it lends itself well to a long-term experience. If you grab every high-end player on the market, what does that leave the CPU with?

4. I don't abuse mechanics the CPU doesn't have access to. That means, I don't abuse breakout scenarios (if I have them turned on). I don't use the 5th year extension scenarios (CPU doesn't get them). Using these may be "fun", but they give you an advantage.

5. I don't dumb-down the CPU slider-wise for "stats". If I am throwing too many picks, I get better at the game. I don't take the easy way out and lower the INT slider. If they are throwing for a high comp percentage; I don't lower the QBA, I learn to scheme better and play better defense. I keep things on a keel that is challenging for me while respecting player ratings.