Madden NFL 15 News Post

Madden NFL 15 Connected Franchise Details, Trailer and Screenshots

11:49 AM - August 6, 2014 by CM Hooe

EA Sports released a plethora fresh new details of connected franchise today, with big changes coming to the mode and how it will work this year. You can check out the full details here.

Here are some highlights:

Confidence is new this year, and replaces hot and cold streaks. Really high or really low confidence is going to affect player ratings, all players start at a neutral 50 confidence level.
Game prep will allow you to earn XP or increase player confidence from week to week, allowing you to practically choose whether you are a rah-rah coach or a down to business type of coach.
CPU teams have extensive logic that determines what they work on every week. Bad teams will focus mostly on developing their players, while contenders will focus on confidence first and then earn XP if confidence isn�t an issue.
Free agents now take much more than money into account when deciding to sign with you or not. Playing time, scheme, your coaching prestige and more will be factors.
Draft classes are now random.
Owner Mode is now much more challenging when it comes to making a profit, and teams with older stadiums in smaller markets may be better off building new stadiums or relocating altogether.
You can now sim to points in the season, with an option to actually sim 10 years into the future.
New screen to see how players progress/regress.
Relocations are tuned way down and can be turned off.
You can now fire your head coach during the season.
The simulation engine now includes things like consistency, confidence and development. In Madden 15, young players with great development traits will have slightly better �simmed� stats than normal. This allows great young players to progress quickly and become stars in the league.

What do you think of the additions to the mode this year?

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Member Comments

# 41 Godgers12 @ 08/06/14 12:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by l8knight1


	Can't you just create/rename the guys? I doubt they changed anything as far as rosters across the board, that allows editing appearance to existing players without creating new. Since these new classes are random, maybe I am wrong.

You can't change ratings, and I'm pretty sure you can't change names.

# 42 LorenzoDC @ 08/06/14 12:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NDAlum


	It's a good compromise IMO. Guys like myself who really want to dig into development can and those who just want to fly through weeks can do that. I'd much rather have something like this than hear a bunch of guys complain that development is too tedious etc etc

Oh, I agree. And I give Looman credit for recognizing the problem in his original concept and turning around. I think it's also incredibly significant that CPU teams will simulate development activities each week, because lack of balance killed CFM's playability last year.

The devil is in the implementation, but if the mode shows balance, from the gameplay level to the franchise management level, so that it remains interesting and competitive, that will get my attention. Not on release day, but depending on what I hear after.

# 43 ggsimmonds @ 08/06/14 12:45 PM

To be honest I am a little disappointed.

I wanted the option to edit draft classes more than anything else. I am also sad to hear that aside from random draft classes nothing has changed with regards to prospect scouting. So no draft combine.

Hopefully there is a option to have a freestyle team practice that does not affect progression or confidence. It was nice in NCAA where you could go into practice mode and practice plays for as long as you wanted.

The FA improvements are welcomed, but I would have liked to see a couple more factors (strength of roster).

The improvements to owner mode are a mixed bag. So finding the sweet spot for a price is more challenging, but no mention if prices and attendance figures match up visually in game. And no word on year to year tracking.

# 44 alifeincomplete @ 08/06/14 12:47 PM

I just wish we could edit player names and appearances in CFM. I don't know why that is too much to ask for...

The changes outlined sound great!

# 45 Sheba2011 @ 08/06/14 12:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheSaints7


	Bulls look awfully similar to the Rams

But it is a new team name/logo which gives hopes that some cities have team names that actually sound interesting instead of LA Dream, Orlando Orbits or Memphis Steamers.

# 46 LorenzoDC @ 08/06/14 12:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ggsimmonds


	To be honest I am a little disappointed. I wanted the option to edit draft classes more than anything else. I am also sad to hear that aside from random draft classes nothing has changed with regards to prospect scouting. So no draft combine. Hopefully there is a option to have a freestyle team practice that does not affect progression or confidence. It was nice in NCAA where you could go into practice mode and practice plays for as long as you wanted. The FA improvements are welcomed, but I would have liked to see a couple more factors (strength of roster). The improvements to owner mode are a mixed bag. So finding the sweet spot for a price is more challenging, but no mention if prices and attendance figures match up visually in game. And no word on year to year tracking.

Yeah, having the same off season schedule and then the drafting system unchanged is a bummer. And nothing about CPU trade logic, CPU to CPU trade tuning, or CPU signing and depth chart logic.

The confidence system reminds me a bit of NBA 2K, but the tuning of that is critical. Before the NBA 2k14 patch, guys who should be happy with 7-12 minutes per game as role players were getting really unhappy, losing skills/ratings and sometimes demanding trades, making it near impossible to build a decent bench. So the implementation of all these things will be critical, and I expect problems, and needs for patching.

# 47 MrPinkBlackrose @ 08/06/14 12:55 PM

hoping the loophole is still in where you could actually watch CPU games...

# 48 callmetaternuts @ 08/06/14 12:57 PM

While there are some items missing, I would say the changes made are a great upgrade, assuming they all work as intended. Dynamic ratings, player performance factoring into this, training players all are things we've asked for from Madden.

If (and it's a big if because it's been promised before) free agents actually consider situation and not just money, that will be huge. Before it was just find the best offer and send it to players, but if they look at coach, scheme etc, that would be great.

# 49 charter04 @ 08/06/14 01:00 PM

I was pretty sure we wouldn't get practice squads and more options of contract types. I figured a new injury system (head coach 09) wouldn't be added. So I'm not real surprised by this news.

I really like the changes and additions though. These will really add to the fun of the online CFM I'm in.

I'm actually glad that they are adding to and improving CFM instead of scraping it.

The biggest omission is that it looks like we won't be able to create or edit draft classes. That's a shame.

# 50 zmonkey @ 08/06/14 01:00 PM

About customizable draft classes...

Because the classes are random now, they must not be hard coded into the game, which means that they probably save to the hard drive/ memory so if either next gen system has a way to transfer save files to a computer there's a good chance they could eventually be edited like they used to for NFL Head Coach.
So yeah, it's grasping at straws but at least it's something.

# 51 MrPinkBlackrose @ 08/06/14 01:01 PM

....and I REALLY hope they've made selecting all 32 teams less painful. Essh. I felt like a masochist every time I had to start over for some small oversight

# 52 Mckinley Cash @ 08/06/14 01:05 PM

Madden 15: Connected Careers
http://youtu.be/s5nfse-GaTg

Brief video from the article for those that don't have time to read it all right now.

# 53 Malcd9583 @ 08/06/14 01:08 PM

Is connected franchise the same as connected careers?

# 54 underdog13 @ 08/06/14 01:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Malcd9583


	Is connected franchise the same as connected careers?

yes (10char)

# 55 callmetaternuts @ 08/06/14 01:11 PM

If we are controlling a player or a CAP, do we only run training drills for that guy or do we still control whole team? Does a "coach" determine what drills we run?

# 56 Malcd9583 @ 08/06/14 01:11 PM

So is there a fantasy draft and full 32 team control?

# 57 DNMHIII @ 08/06/14 01:12 PM

I really hope all these new features and tweaks work great and make the game better so I'm looking forward to getting my hands on it.

The one thing that I really want to see, and doubt they did, is have the ability for the commish to advance through the league website and also user teams be able to toggle auto pilot from the web. Not being able to do those things from the web like NCAA was capable of makes running a league absolutely brutal because you have to be on console and that just doesn't work sometimes.

# 58 Cowboy008 @ 08/06/14 01:12 PM

I'm officially hyped for Madden now after reading what they have improved in CFM. Yes there are some things that didn't make it in that I would have liked but the stuff the team put in this year is good enough for me. Wish PS4 had the early access because I would have gotten it just to play this game early.

# 59 rkocjay @ 08/06/14 01:15 PM

i think this is great still some work needs to be done but i cant wait for the live stream

# 60 BJNT @ 08/06/14 01:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by l8knight1


	Can't you just create/rename the guys? I doubt they changed anything as far as rosters across the board, that allows editing appearance to existing players without creating new. Since these new classes are random, maybe I am wrong.

That's what I was thinking. We'd just have to scout and then draft the player that fits closest to it's real life counterpart. For example you find a quarterback that rates similar to Jameis Winston. After you get him on your roster change his name, height, weight, school, skin color, number, and hair to refect the real life Jameis Winston. Would rather be able to do all this before though. Maybe they will patch it in somehow.

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