Madden NFL 25 News Post

Madden NFL 25 Connected Franchise Q&A with Josh Looman

09:22 PM - May 21, 2013 by jpdavis82

VSN has posted an interview with Madden NFL 25 Lead Designer for Connected Franchise, Josh Looman.

Quote:


	VSN: Coach Contracts for when we just play as Coaches? Will Owners be different in the coach they want depending on their style? How will CPU Owners handle 32 Human Coaches when it comes to firing and hiring someone new? Josh Looman: We have built new logic in to the coach hiring process. We�ve added scouts and trainers to the game. So if you are an owner, you can hire a head coach, scout or trainer. If you are a coach, your owner will wait until the end of the offseason and make a decision on your contract. Last year if your contract was up, basically that was it. This year the team will actually look at you and make you an offer. Coach Firing will still be a feature that you can turn off and on but if you are an owner you can be forced to sell the team if you are running it into the red. We are also working on a feature that if you are forced to sell a team, you can�t just rejoin that league as the owner of that team. You will have to take over another team. We don�t want people running a team into the ground as the owner in an online league and then turning around and running them into the ground even more. Everything as a coach and player will be back again this year. A lot of decisions that we make sadly are the result of people trying to exploit the game. It�s not all about adding cool new things since we have to spend a lot of time coding to block exploits. One of our favorite new features this year is the ability to relocate a team in owner mode but the community guys really wanted us to have the ability to turn it on or off by league so we put that in as an option to be decided by the commissioners and league members.

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# 21 rootofalleli @ 05/22/13 10:27 AM

OK, this almost made my head explode:

Quote:


	VSN: Will Is Restricted Free Agency be making it back into the game? Josh Looman: Not this year. To be honest it is not a high priority for me personally. Typically what I do when I am designing stuff is to look at trends around the league or things that are a big deal within the league and try to figure out how to incorporate that into the game. I watch Restricted Free Agency very closely this year and not a single player got signed or even received an offer. If it isn�t being used in the NFL we aren�t spending a lot of time on it for the game. It almost feels like it is a dying part of the league.

Seriously? The point of RFA is not stealing players from other teams. It's **keeping** guys on your team for one more year at a reasonable salary. For example, among the Ravens' RFAs from last year were Dannell Ellerbe and Cary Williams, two key starters who contributed a lot in the playoffs. "Not a single player got signed" is dead wrong because almost every RFA tendered an offer has resigned with his original team. Guys like Victor Cruz and Dennis Pitta would have gotten a lot of interest in unrestricted free agency this year. Another correction: there was one offer from another team, from the Pats to Steelers' WR Emmanuel Sanders.

I'm shocked that Looman doesn't understand that Restricted Free Agency is a big part of what NFL teams do. We should also have Exclusive Rights Free Agency and other basic tools teams use to manage player salaries. I realize that players changing teams is more exciting to many people than players resigning for less. But the reintroduction of owner mode - with all its financial micromanagement - is right up the same alley. Actually, being able to hold onto developing players for one more year to make a Super Bowl run or wait for salary cap space to clear seems way more relevant and interesting to me than fine-tuning hot dog and soda prices.

# 22 howboutdat @ 05/22/13 10:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by splff3000


	Thanks, I still don't fully understand how what he's saying is gonna stop the draft guides but I do understand what he's trying to do now. That was a pretty good link. I found out about a lot of stuff for cf that hasn't been talked about.

its really simple spliff, they wont be stopping draft guides at all. all he was saying is , they will have the normal 10 storyline guys, and then they will have a few other guys (only a few , not entire class) that will have changing overalls from league to league. However, that isnt enough to stop the guides. they will work each class untill they figure out the high and low of those FEW extra players ,and they can then post their overalls and tell u what one thing to scout(prob awr) to see which of them they will be. Its basically a waste of time.majority of the classes will be the exact same from league to league. so the guys making the guides will work each class to see which few extra they fixed to change, nad figure them out as well. not to hard to do, guides will still be around next madden just face it.thanks ea!

# 23 jpdavis82 @ 05/22/13 11:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by howboutdat


	its really simple spliff, they wont be stopping draft guides at all. all he was saying is , they will have the normal 10 storyline guys, and then they will have a few other guys (only a few , not entire class) that will have changing overalls from league to league. However, that isnt enough to stop the guides. they will work each class untill they figure out the high and low of those FEW extra players ,and they can then post their overalls and tell u what one thing to scout(prob awr) to see which of them they will be. Its basically a waste of time.majority of the classes will be the exact same from league to league. so the guys making the guides will work each class to see which few extra they fixed to change, nad figure them out as well. not to hard to do, guides will still be around next madden just face it.thanks ea!

Yeah but if it's generated at a 40-50% chance that they are a sleeper or a bust, how are you going to know what you are going to get each time?

# 24 cuttingteeth @ 05/22/13 11:18 AM

Quote:


	VSN: Can you edit player ratings for single player Connected Franchises in Madden 25? Josh Looman: The issue with editing player ratings once the mode begins is that it causes a lot of bugs and issues with our goal systems and our player schemes and grades. We tried to get that in this year but it ended up causing a ton of bugs. We do let you allow you to edit position, gear and numbers but allowing owners to edit player ratings after the league is started just caused too many bugs with the current system.

Basically, we can edit players and take custom rosters into starting up a new CCM....but as far as changing ratings after that, the XP system can't handle it. I figured this would be the case. Still, we can edit gear, positions and jersey numbers. That's more huge to the majority of us.

(side note: Be aware that the answer was in question to just single player CCM, though. If you are a 32 team/league Owner mode CCM/F, perhaps you get to do whatever you want - and this didn't clarify online/offline differentials, either)

# 25 houseofbacon @ 05/22/13 11:20 AM

All that talk, and local multiplayer didn't get mentioned once. I buy Madden to play through a Franchise with my sons. If we want to do a Connected Career and play against each other we need 2-3 xbox's, copies of the game, live subscriptions, so on.

In '12 and earlier, we could just boot up the xbox, both login and play each other. Worked fine, '13 made that impossible. Reeeeally hoping they bring back local multiplayer, though I did see you can control multiple teams, that doesn't necessarily mean they can play each other with humans controlling both teams, and it would be better to just have our own separate franchises.

# 26 jpdavis82 @ 05/22/13 11:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rootofalleli


	OK, this almost made my head explode: Seriously? The point of RFA is not stealing players from other teams. It's keeping guys on your team for one more year at a reasonable salary. For example, among the Ravens' RFAs from last year were Dannell Ellerbe and Cary Williams, two key starters who contributed a lot in the playoffs. "Not a single player got signed" is dead wrong because almost every RFA tendered an offer has resigned with his original team. Guys like Victor Cruz and Dennis Pitta would have gotten a lot of interest in unrestricted free agency this year. Another correction: there was one offer from another team, from the Pats to Steelers' WR Emmanuel Sanders. I'm shocked that Looman doesn't understand that Restricted Free Agency is a big part of what NFL teams do. We should also have Exclusive Rights Free Agency and other basic tools teams use to manage player salaries. I realize that players changing teams is more exciting to many people than players resigning for less. But the reintroduction of owner mode - with all its financial micromanagement - is right up the same alley. Actually, being able to hold onto developing players for one more year to make a Super Bowl run or wait for salary cap space to clear seems way more relevant and interesting to me than fine-tuning hot dog and soda prices.

Yeah but he said you can still re-sign guys before they hit FA so how are you not being able to hold onto them?

# 27 cuttingteeth @ 05/22/13 11:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by houseofbacon


	All that talk, and local multiplayer didn't get mentioned once. I buy Madden to play through a Franchise with my sons. If we want to do a Connected Career and play against each other we need 2-3 xbox's, copies of the game, live subscriptions, so on. In '12 and earlier, we could just boot up the xbox, both login and play each other. Worked fine, '13 made that impossible. Reeeeally hoping they bring back local multiplayer, though I did see you can control multiple teams, that doesn't necessarily mean they can play each other with humans controlling both teams, and it would be better to just have our own separate franchises.

I would think with 32 team control coming back (confirmed), there's no reason you can't play each other head-to-head on the same game. Systemically, it should be impossible NOT to play head-to-head, actually. If you control all 32 teams, surely you must be given the option to play as them, too.

Quote:


	Now if they'd just answer if we can do CPU vs. CPU in offline CCM. This question just keeps getting unanswered.

Yeah, I've yet to read about even Simming through games - is that in...does that not freeze up...etc. ? I hope to hear about that soon.

# 28 slingblade73 @ 05/22/13 11:53 AM

What about position changes in the pre-season? An injury could force a move.

# 29 jpdavis82 @ 05/22/13 11:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by slingblade73


	What about position changes in the pre-season? An injury could force a move.

Great question and a very good point, I'm going to tweet Josh about this in a minute. As far as I know you could only make position changes in the offseason but I'm double checking. I know one thing you could do is edit your teams roster before you start a league so you have even amounts of players at each position, then start your league.

# 30 N51_rob @ 05/22/13 12:12 PM

Quote:


	VSN: Improvements to pass trajectories? They were much better in 13 vs. 12 but still an issue with INTs going to DB’s that are 10 yards behind the receiver. Josh Looman: I am pretty sure that answer is yes but I will have to defer to the guys back in Orlando that work on the gameplay features.

Biggest thing I take away from this interview is that I no longer need to hear from Josh Looman this development cycle. I played Madden 10 when online franchise was bare bones, played 12 when XFN was better than anything EA sports had and played 13 when the EA's site wasn't very useful. Bottom line I will play online franchise no matter how bad I think the interface(s) are. But gameplay is number 1. Its clear that Looman has nothing to do with gameplay and seems to not even be aware of some of the game play issues so I really don't need to hear anymore from him this cycle.

# 31 therizing02 @ 05/22/13 12:14 PM

Lots of previews, interviews, marketing, and feature dumping....but when will anyone, anywhere, ever ask about the AI? Play calling? Predictability? What about the broken fatigue for RBs last year?

It seems that there is an unwritten rule that EA will allow Q&As and interviews and previews but only if the site/blog tees up questions that can be answered with the announcement of new features. A lot of great improvements for Madden 25, but it is football and poor AI can negate the hours and hours of work put into game engines, Owner Mode, and CCM improvements.

Someone needs to start asking tougher questions.

# 32 EMbow513 @ 05/22/13 12:14 PM

Can someone please tell me that we can edit player bodies this year

# 33 Godgers12 @ 05/22/13 12:17 PM

Can someone please elaborate on what the new commissioner tools are in the online franchise portion of CCF

# 34 N51_rob @ 05/22/13 12:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Godgers12


	Can someone please elaborate on what the new commissioner tools are in the online franchise portion of CCF

No one can, because they are not talking about it yet.

# 35 roadman @ 05/22/13 12:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by therizing02


	Lots of previews, interviews, marketing, and feature dumping....but when will anyone, anywhere, ever ask about the AI? Play calling? Predictability? What about the broken fatigue for RBs last year? It seems that there is an unwritten rule that EA will allow Q&As and interviews and previews but only if the site/blog tees up questions that can be answered with the announcement of new features. A lot of great improvements for Madden 25, but it is football and poor AI can negate the hours and hours of work put into game engines, Owner Mode, and CCM improvements. Someone needs to start asking tougher questions.

Rizing, I did ask CorySA, a CGer, last week about the AI playcalling. He played a version a few weeks ago and was mainly there for CFM. He did take note of my post and said he would find out because he remembers the play calling was bad last year for the AI, especially late game AI play calling.

Waiting to hear from him.

# 36 cuttingteeth @ 05/22/13 12:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by therizing02


	Lots of previews, interviews, marketing, and feature dumping....but when will anyone, anywhere, ever ask about the AI? Play calling? Predictability? What about the broken fatigue for RBs last year?

+1 I was hoping to hear about this fatigue bar they've introduced, but no mention of it has been made in this "gameplay" sort of reveal. Whatever it does (if still in the game, now) will likely answer a lot for us that want player degradation of any kind, whether over the course of a season or per a single game and certainly to the degree of injuries that may or may not occur.

# 37 cuttingteeth @ 05/22/13 12:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Big FN Deal


	Yep, another year of bending to Tiburon's will and having tunnel vision on the shiny new thing they put out in front, instead of asking "what's wrong". If I go to buy anything or consider becoming involved with a female, the cons are the first things I want to know about because the pros are usually pretty evident. We always get sold the bill of goods as if the new Madden is perfect, which of course there is no such thing, so stop with act and tell us the real. I don't get why Looman would choose to focus on a Tycoon mode and leave the basic Franchise elements the same as M13. What it seems he/they did was address some basic design flaws, like adding a transaction log and added some needed editing ability but there should have been a 2.0 element to wholesale porting HC09. It seems he took the premise of HC09 with regard to player management and applied it to Owner Mode but I don't get doing that before actually completing that premise for player management in M25. Another thing is this continued commitment to XP, why? Again in the owner mode they don't seem to be using XP or some other video game moniker for progress, they are using money, fan morale, media scrutiny, advisers, etc, real world elements, so why the eff the XP stuff for players?

Good points. It makes me wonder how future use all of the emotional immersion (because honestly, twitter really just creates or destroys hype - all social media really does) will merge with goal based features.

# 38 MrBill @ 05/22/13 01:32 PM

Good discussion guys. I am the person that spoke with Josh yesterday and wrote the original article on VSN. Keep the questions coming as we will be having a follow up in a few weeks with either him or Mike Young.

# 39 rootofalleli @ 05/22/13 01:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jpdavis82


	Yeah but he said you can still re-sign guys before they hit FA so how are you not being able to hold onto them?

OK, think of how much you pay Victor Cruz as an RFA. If you don't know, his tender is a little under $3 million. If you look around at some other quality slot receivers, you will see 32 year old Wes Welker signing a 2 year, $12 million deal this year. Percy Harvin's deal with Seattle is for $67 million over 6 years despite his attitude in MN and his migraines, though he certainly is more versatile than Cruz. On the other hand, Danny Amendola is getting $31 million over 5 years despite being made of glass. Marques Colston works out of the slot a lot and recently signed a deal for $40 million over 5 years. Considering that Cruz is younger than Welker and healthier than Amendola, I'm betting he's worth at least as much as Colston and possibly as much as Harvin on the open market. Whether he's worth $8 - $11 million+ per year or "only" $6 million, that's still a much bigger contract than what he gets as an RFA.

Simply keeping Cruz on the team isn't really the point for me. Maybe I have other contracts I have to do now or dead money that prevents me from signing him to a huge deal this year. Or maybe I'm not sold on him as the long-term answer. I'd like the game to make me ask tough questions and give me realistic tools to answer them. I know this kind of decision making isn't everyone's cup of tea, but then again we could say the same about 7th round draft picks, contract details, jersey prices, spending XP for 3rd stringers, and a host of other things that are in the game. We're encouraged to micromanage so many things that have a lot less impact on a team than restrictive free agency.

# 40 jpdavis82 @ 05/22/13 01:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rootofalleli


	OK, think of how much you pay Victor Cruz as an RFA. If you don't know, his tender is a little under $3 million. If you look around at some other quality slot receivers, you will see 32 year old Wes Welker signing a 2 year, $12 million deal this year. Percy Harvin's deal with Seattle is for $67 million over 6 years despite his attitude in MN and his migraines, though he certainly is more versatile than Cruz. On the other hand, Danny Amendola is getting $31 million over 5 years despite being made of glass. Marques Colston works out of the slot a lot and recently signed a deal for $40 million over 5 years. Considering that Cruz is younger than Welker and healthier than Amendola, I'm betting he's worth at least as much as Colston and possibly as much as Harvin on the open market. Whether he's worth $8 - $11 million+ per year or "only" $6 million, that's still a much bigger contract than what he gets as an RFA. Simply keeping Cruz on the team isn't really the point for me. Maybe I have other contracts I have to do now or dead money that prevents me from signing him to a huge deal this year. Or maybe I'm not sold on him as the long-term answer. I'd like the game to make me ask tough questions and give me realistic tools to answer them. I know this kind of decision making isn't everyone's cup of tea, but then again we could say the same about 7th round draft picks, contract details, jersey prices, spending XP for 3rd stringers, and a host of other things that are in the game. We're encouraged to micromanage so many things that have a lot less impact on a team than restrictive free agency.

Maybe you should DM @Josh_Looman on Twitter. These are good points and maybe you can show him why RFA is important and relevant, it sure can't hurt to ask him more about it.

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