A Map to Franchise Depth - ghostlight85's Blog

ghostlight85's Blog

A Map to Franchise Depth

Posted on December 7, 2010 at 05:51 PM.

(7)

Several things could be added to franchise mode to make it significantly deeper and more fun.

I'm going to lay out a few core changes and things that I think could make the mode far more immersive than it has been for quite some time. The first is a core change that would have to be optional because not all players are looking for this kind of depth from their gaming experience.

Hide the ratings

Football player's abilities are not an easily quantifiable thing. Otherwise, all scouts would agree about all players, and a coach would never be disappointed with a draft pick or free agent signing. In madden, none of this uncertainty exists. Everything is known, exactly. Fuzz it up.

This would have several potential offshoots. First would be the need for an in depth scouting system for incoming rookies. Second would be a "film room" feature. Here you would have the ability to have your coaching staff watch game tape on the teams/players of your choice. I say have your staff watch game tape because I personally have no desire to sit through film study for a video game, but I do want to feel like I've earned my knowledge of the opposing team's strengths/weaknesses and gameplan tendencies. You could also tie in ratings for coaching staff to the accuracy/effect of this film study.

Even players on your own team should not be immediately evaluated to an exact number. Game time and overall time with the team should narrow the perception of a player's abilities to a more accurate level as you go. A veteran who has been with the team for 5 years should be a relatively known quantity. A first year rookie, or a player that is in his first year with the team without a ton of playing experience elsewhere in the league should be relatively unknown other than speed/strength types of ratings.

Players on your own team could become "scouted" much more quickly even without playing, but a player on another team's practice squad or bench should have very limited information available. If a player gets regular time on the field then you'd have the option of scouting them in the film room either for the purpose of gameplanning or for the purpose of free agency/trades.

Categorize the ratings / change the impact of potential

Speed and strength don't progress and evolve in the same way as something like route running or man coverage. They should not be impacted by potential. A player's physical attributes should be governed by age, injury, and a bit of randomness. In the first few years after a player comes into the league, there should be the possibility that he gets stronger or faster or more agile. In the event that he is injured, there should be temporary or potentially permanent decreases to any attributes that make sense. The game differentiates types of injuries but doesn't have any lasting effects from them once the injury is healed.

A QB who has to have shoulder surgery should have the potential to lose passing strength. A running back who has knee surgery might lose a bit of acceleration, if the injury was serious enough.

Also, if a player does have any significant increase in strength/speed it should reflect in other ratings that should be tied into a physical attribute. Power rushing moves for a D-Lineman should be tied into strength/acceleration for instance. So if an incoming rookie has:

strength 78
acceleration 83
power moves 81

and then his strength goes up to 82 and his acceleration to 85, it would make sense that he also gets better at using a power move.

Skill ratings like power moves, or run route, or throwing accuracy should also be impacted by the potential rating. It should depend on multiple factors. Coaching staffs, playing time, and production should all influence how a player progresses.

This is another area that could give purpose to the hiring of coaching staffs in the game. Right now, they are mostly pointless. In reality, a good coaching staff can turn a team around.

Personality

Players/teams/coaches need to have a way of differentiating from one another individually. Teams like the steelers should be true to their real life in how they approach the draft and free agency. Players should make decisions in free agency based on a variety of factors like location, quality of the team, money, coaching staff. I know it's in the game now, but it has been broken for as long as I can remember.

I'll probably continue this thought later on, but I've rambled enough for now.

Comments

# 1 stlstudios189 @ Dec 7

I love the idea of personality but, how they would include it? Peyton Manning holding out really, Tom Brady causing distractions?, TO captian

# 2 DGMikeBarker @ Dec 7

I love the game tape idea. Have it where you can adjust the gameplan with a white board right before your game.

Would like it if Madden would do their ratings like Nba 2k's. Have the regular, long number rating and a shorter letter rating.

Good ideas Ghost

# 3 ghostlight85 @ Dec 7

@stistudios189

Guys that are money motivated would be by far the most likely to hold out, so I suppose you could tie it into the already existing but currently useless (or maybe just underrepresented) ratings that they have for players decision making during free agency.

Alternatively, bring something akin to the player roles from LG back, only instead of making it based on player ratings, have player roles be more personality based. A guy like TO would be a sideshow with the potential to be a negative influence on team chemistry because of holdouts/distractions. Someone like Ray Lewis would be a team motivator.

# 4 acornman @ Dec 10

Great ideas guys. I like the idea of team chemistry if properly iplemented. What they need to do is hire an RPG designer and get together with the developer of Head Coach football and make it like a Football RPG.