Madden NFL 25 Connected Franchise Q&A with Josh Looman

[cuttingteeth]

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.

[Big FN Deal]

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.

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?

[daniel77733]

Happy about being able to fully edit players in CFM. Granted, can only switch a player's position in the off-season but I can deal with that. Very happy that we can edit the draft classes as well. Now, all I need to see is that depth chart being changed and I'll be a happy camper.

[cuttingteeth]

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.

[MrBill]

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.

[rootofalleli]

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.

[BradyFan12]

Quote: Originally Posted by MrBill

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.

Do you think you can ask him about CPU vs. CPU in Offline CFM? I've been asking this question and it just goes unanswered.

[jpdavis82]

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.