Madden NFL 15 News Post

Madden NFL 15 Connected Franchise Details, Trailer and Screenshots

11:49 AM - August 6, 2014 by 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

# 141 Scott @ 08/06/14 03:28 PM

Wish you could edit draft classes, I'm passing

# 142 Sheba2011 @ 08/06/14 03:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mmorg


	That might be what the lawsuit says from the prosecution's perspective, but what did the judges actually legislate their decisions on? Find that and get back to me. It has been ruled in numerous courts, and is displayed evidently in games like OOTP and FOF, that people do not own the rights to their names and only their likeness.

Here's the 9th circuit court of California's opinion from their ruling in which they rejected EA's first amendment defense (the same defense those other cases used):

"In NCAA Football, EA seeks to replicate each school's entire team as accurately as possible. Every real football player on each team included in the game has a corresponding avatar in the game with the player's actual jersey number and virtually identical height, weight, build, skin tone, hair color, and home state. EA attempts to match any unique, highly identifiable playing behaviors by sending detailed questionnaires to team equipment managers. Additionally, EA creates realistic virtual versions of actual stadiums; populates them with the virtual athletes, coaches, cheerleaders, and fans realistically rendered by EA's graphic artists; and incorporates realistic sounds such as the crunch of the players' pads and the roar of the crowd.

EA's game differs from reality in that EA omits the players' names on their jerseys and assigns each player a
home town that is different from the actual player's home town. However, users of the video game may upload rosters of names obtained from third parties so that the names do appear on the jerseys. In such cases, EA allows images from the game containing athletes' real names to be posted on its website by users."

# 143 Sheba2011 @ 08/06/14 03:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DeuceDouglas


	Which is exactly my point. You shouldn't be able to just go and pluck guys off the street and plug them in and get that player at their neutral level or rating. As for Sealver Siliga, he was added to their practice squad on October 23rd of last year and wasn't put on their active roster until November 27th, over a month later which just kind of furthers my point.

We'll just have to agree to disagree on this one.

# 144 jeremym480 @ 08/06/14 03:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scott


	Wish you could edit draft classes, I'm passing

I wish that I had your strength. This year has just been a down year for me (gaming wise) because there just as been that many great titles out - especially for Next Gen. so I'm in a bit of a lull. Because of that I'm actually really looking forward to Madden this year.

As far as the lawsuit discussion, I can see why EA would be hesitant about Custom Draft Classes.... however, I'm not even asking for those at this point. All I want is to be able to edit the players in my own offline franchise, nothing more, nothing less. There's no sharing or anything going on with that, so to me there's really isn't a reasonable excuse for it not to be allowed.

# 145 bcruise @ 08/06/14 03:38 PM

Along with the random draft classes I'm also excited about the changes to confidence and how it's tied into game prep. Confidence was always a very nebulous, under-the-hood factor in Madden, such that the only 2 ways you could tell it was changing on you was to go all the way into an individual player's traits screen and see it there, or if they would go on a hot/cold streak (Very poor Confidence = Cold, Very Good Confidence = Hot). And consistency has NEVER been fully explained, except to say that it's what controls how "streaky" a player is (increases or decreases the confidence effect). Now we'll be able to see just exactly how these two factors affect the ratings.

Just as an example, in the one screenshot we're provided of this we can see Tannehill's three accuracy ratings are lowered, to 85, 78, and 68. Comparing that to the AFC East Ratings Spreadsheet, where his ratings are 87, 80, and 70, it looks like we'll actually get the updated rating shown to us in the game, and not just an up or down arrow indicating progress either way. I'm DEFINITELY interested in seeing which ratings are affected by this for each position - it's something I've wanted to know for years.

# 146 EASPORTS_AJ @ 08/06/14 03:38 PM

Okay, so to answer a lot of your question on Coach Mode...

Coach Mode is available in CFM but it must be enabled in the Front End by going to Customize -> Help/Settings ->Settings-> Game Options ->Coach Mode and setting the toggle to ON. This will enable Coach Mode capability in Online and Offline except for Head to Head games.

Hope that helps, guys.

# 147 Sheba2011 @ 08/06/14 03:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PacMan3000


	Well, maybe it's me, but I still don't get the difference between confidence and the hot and cold streaks. They both seem to work the same way (week to week)--I guess the only real difference is you can actively improve a player's confidence via a point system. With that said, whenever changes like these happen to franchise, I'm always a bit skeptical just because there is no way to quantify it. In other words, if in week three Johnny Manziel comes into the game with a confidence rating of 50...if week three sees him making errant throws, is it because he had low confidence or mediocre accuracy ratings? How would you know? And does confidence override ratings? Can your confidence of 90 result in you completing downfield passes--despite having a deep accuracy of 70? It's kind of like the "clutch" rating that you can improve with XP points. I've played with it a few times, but there's never been a point when playing a game and a guy makes a play where I'm like "Ah, see I know he definitely made that play because I specifically spent time trying to improve this intangible element of his game." I like the idea of confidence or morale or hot and cold streaks. But I think there's a reason these things get introduced and them removed 3 years later. You just can't quantify how it actually impacts your games. It's fun to tinker around with, but I honestly wonder if stuff like this is more cosmetic than anything. It gives you the idea that you're making improvements to your players and to your team, when at the end of the day, things like accuracy, catching, speed and other ratings are what really matter. Personally, I'm hoping that in franchise mode, we can get away from pushing buttons on our controller in static screens and actually having more true engagement. For example, in one of the screenshots, it shows an image that says something like "Defensive Film Room." Instead of just clicking buttons on a screen, I think it would be better and far more interesting to be presented with, say, 10 highlights of your opponents previous game and allow you to study and take notes on their team, their impact players, the formations and player personnel they like to use in certain situations, their defensive scheme, etc.

I think it depends more on how long Johnny is making those errant throws. If it's a one week thing his confidence rating might drop a few points which won't affect his ratings. But if it's happening every game he plays then it will affect his ratings negatively, as it should.

# 148 MAGboyswifT27 @ 08/06/14 03:45 PM

I'm not going to lie at first I didn't want to get my hopes up and end up having another mediocre title. But with everything that I've seen up to this point and especially the CFM news today gives me not only a lot of hope but excitement for the release. I can't wait, is it the 26th yet!?

# 149 Benz87 @ 08/06/14 03:45 PM

Maddden 25 provided me with more fun and immersion than any previous version in quite some time, probably going back to the initial inclusion of Owner Mode on PS2. It looks like they have only improved upon that, by no means is this year going to be perfect, but EA is definitely implementing well needed improvements. Not only will connected franchise see improvement, but there will be some noticeable game play tweaks to what I already viewed as solid play last year. I'm definitely filled with anticipation.

# 150 HoundsOfHowl @ 08/06/14 03:45 PM

I am excited for the new Game Prep out of all.

It would've been cool to practice had there been more than 8 of the same thing every week.

But now you can just "Watch film" or even just go in the skills trainer (which I personally like to do every now and then for fun, and now I can do it and it actually matter to my franchise)

This is definitely a step forward to making Madden a longer lasting franchise (per release), at least IMO

# 151 Lexicon @ 08/06/14 03:46 PM

Any word if selecting all 32 teams in offline CFM is less tedious? Can we switch owners without losing control of the team (if I wanted to create a new owner but keep control of the same team, that was forbidden in 25)?

# 152 Sheba2011 @ 08/06/14 03:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by iBleedOrange247


	I am excited for the new Game Prep out of all. It would've been cool to practice had there been more than 8 of the same thing every week. But now you can just "Watch film" or even just go in the skills trainer (which I personally like to do every now and then for fun, and now I can do it and it actually matter to my franchise) This is definitely a step forward to making Madden a longer lasting franchise (per release), at least IMO

For me practice was tedious and boring last year, I only did it for XP. I would much prefer to do the skills trainer.

# 153 StefJoeHalt @ 08/06/14 03:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sheba2011


	Here's the 9th circuit court of California's opinion from their ruling in which they rejected EA's first amendment defense (the same defense those other cases used): "In NCAA Football, EA seeks to replicate each school's entire team as accurately as possible. Every real football player on each team included in the game has a corresponding avatar in the game with the player's actual jersey number and virtually identical height, weight, build, skin tone, hair color, and home state. EA attempts to match any unique, highly identifiable playing behaviors by sending detailed questionnaires to team equipment managers. Additionally, EA creates realistic virtual versions of actual stadiums; populates them with the virtual athletes, coaches, cheerleaders, and fans realistically rendered by EA's graphic artists; and incorporates realistic sounds such as the crunch of the players' pads and the roar of the crowd. EA's game differs from reality in that EA omits the players' names on their jerseys and assigns each player a home town that is different from the actual player's home town. However, users of the video game may upload rosters of names obtained from third parties so that the names do appear on the jerseys. In such cases, EA allows images from the game containing athletes' real names to be posted on its website by users."

Hold on..so urs saying the court is holding EA responsible for what I do at my home with my own game? I don't see the ruling that way..I see it as the court is holding EA responsible for "cloning" college players..same height, weight, age, hometown, same equipment, and same playing number...by ur belief Madden should remove "create a player" as well?...what I believe Madden will never do is have a draft class which appears to be the same draft class as future classes..which is why I believe they went to random classes now to combat any issues..also regarding what others have said about confidence rating and free agents..some are looking at it as almost "learning" the system (ie playbook)..why I would like for in season free agents players to have low confidence..just my two cents on both topics

# 154 Sheba2011 @ 08/06/14 03:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by StefJoeHalt


	Hold on..so urs saying the court is holding EA responsible for what I do at my home with my own game? I don't see the ruling that way..I see it as the court is holding EA responsible for "cloning" college players..same height, weight, age, hometown, same equipment, and same playing number...by ur belief Madden should remove "create a player" as well?...what I believe Madden will never do is have a draft class which appears to be the same draft class as future classes..which is why I believe they went to random classes now to combat any issues..also regarding what others have said about confidence rating and free agents..some are looking at it as almost "learning" the system (ie playbook)..why I would like for in season free agents players to have low confidence..just my two cents on both topics

This isn't my opinion/belief its the judges in the lawsuit. That quote is directly from their ruling. The basis of the lawsuit was that EA used the player likeness and allowed users to edit names, hometowns, appearance etc. The Judges agreed with Sam Kellers claims. The problem EA ran into was not that you did it in the privacy of your home, but that they allowed and enabled you to upload it to the internet for anyone to use and see.

# 155 CT Pitbull @ 08/06/14 04:01 PM

I really wish we could just turn off player development, XP/confidence, player cuts, cpu trades, cpu fa signings and play a bare bones franchise if we wanted. Good for everyone who likes relocating to a fictitious stadium and building fictitious players up but im just not one of them.

The days of re-creating the REAL NFL season as it goes through the year are over with CFM. Until EA either gives us a season/old school franchise mode back or gives the user the chance to toggle every single one of the off field options off I will be stuck in "play now" land. all this convoluted off-the-field menu porn pushes me further and further away from playing through an NFL year.

This CFM really makes it impossible to mirror the real NFL with player movements and depth charts for all 32 teams. I don't know if they changed how easy it is to control all 32 teams this year, but if its anything like it has been im out. I don't have the time to basically create 32 different profiles for every team in the NFL.

I just don't have the interest or the time to mess with anything other than playing the game on the field. And for those who may think im a "casual" gamer because I cant stand CFM just remember this. I was playing madden before many of you were born.

I am happy for those who are happy though.

# 156 slingblade73 @ 08/06/14 04:03 PM

I wonder if we have been given more scouting points. You could not really research in depth numerous positions of need last year. They want us to dig deep in these random classes, we need the points to do so.

# 157 yardz23 @ 08/06/14 04:06 PM

I hope there is still an option to work on plays 11v11 for no in game XP.

# 158 Marcus @ 08/06/14 04:11 PM

I know this seems like a small addition but does anyone know if the players will have each team they played for show up on their player card? (Year by Year) It has always been that way before until they removed it last year.

# 159 jmurphy31 @ 08/06/14 04:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by maafla1


	I still want to know if the stat engine has been fixed to properly calculate winning percentage. Again a team that finishes 8-7-1 should be AHEAD of a team that finishes 8-8. This DOES impact CFM, what if your coach needs to make the playoffs to keep his job, finishes 8-7-1 but doesn't make the playoffs because a team finished 8-8 and DID?

Not sure if this was answered yet but on another blog from a game changer he said this has been fixed

# 160 l8knight1 @ 08/06/14 04:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sheba2011


	This isn't my opinion/belief its the judges in the lawsuit. That quote is directly from their ruling. The basis of the lawsuit was that EA used the player likeness and allowed users to edit names, hometowns, appearance etc. The Judges agreed with Sam Kellers claims. The problem EA ran into was not that you did it in the privacy of your home, but that they allowed and enabled you to upload it to the internet for anyone to use and see.

Correct me if I'm wrong, as I haven't been an NCAA guy in a while, but I think the problem was that the existing roster in the game, while it didn't include names, included likenesses, as in color white/black, player number, height, weight, etc. Then that was customized by community even further with names making things even stickier.

Now, if in Madden they give you a draft class that is randomized in terms of likenesses at the beginning, I don't understand why you couldn't edit a roster completely have a roster full of fat or skinny, white or black, John Doe or James Dean, however you see fit. All of this trickles down to the actual rosters in the game. It's also clear you can't mess with the ACTUAL likenesses that are legally agreed to. Good grief.

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