Rebuilding the Off-season

[DeuceDouglas]

Re: Rebuilding the Off-season

Another random screenshot showing how it could go in later rounds where they show the last five selected instead of going over every single pick. Ideally, you have talk about one of the five guys and in between maybe some talk about teams having a good or bad draft or whatever.

[gausec]

Re: Rebuilding the Off-season

All this stuff is awesome, but would love a realistic AI management too much roster turnover if you play one CCM. Peyton Manning left Denver after a year in mine and joined... The JAGS! In what world would this happen I would understand making a run for him as Jacksonville but really Denver will let him go and draft a rookie in the 3rd round to replace him!?

[DeuceDouglas]

Re: Rebuilding the Off-season

All this stuff is awesome, but would love a realistic AI management too much roster turnover if you play one CCM. Peyton Manning left Denver after a year in mine and joined... The JAGS! In what world would this happen I would understand making a run for him as Jacksonville but really Denver will let him go and draft a rookie in the 3rd round to replace him!?

That's definitely something I'd like to see increased emphasis on is teams kind of staying the path. It's funny how ridiculous things get in a CCM when you play a few games and then switch off teams from user control to CPU control. Within a few weeks nearly every team has cut and signed a number of free agents. That's also why I'd like to see some sort of system that affects newly signed or acquired players whether it be playbook knowledge or just anything so that teams would value the players they have more than just cutting them and signing players off the scrap heap to one-year deals.

[DeuceDouglas]

Re: Rebuilding the Off-season

Player/Team Options- Allow for player/team options to be negotiated in contracts. Allows for more creativity in negotiating contracts as well as additional management duties if a player opts out or if you feel the need to opt out of a contract of a under-performing player.

Transition Tag - The transition tag it a less expensive alternative to the franchise tag. The difference is that other teams can sign the player to an offer sheet as if they were an unrestricted free agent, but the original team has seven days to match. And unlike the franchise tag, if the player signs with another team, his original team receives no compensation.

[Caveman24]

Re: Rebuilding the Off-season

Anyway to keep tabs on teams past draft classes? In real life we always go back to an draft class maybe 3-5 years and say "we should've gotten him" etc. I think this would be an good idea especially for online CFM's. Just something little that can go along way. Hell why stop there with that log that can be something added to the in game draft commentary or something on the ticker.

"Jets haven't drafted an offensive player in the 1st round since 2009"

[DeuceDouglas]

Re: Rebuilding the Off-season

Anyway to keep tabs on teams past draft classes? In real life we always go back to an draft class maybe 3-5 years and say "we should've gotten him" etc. I think this would be an good idea especially for online CFM's. Just something little that can go along way. Hell why stop there with that log that can be something added to the in game draft commentary or something on the ticker.

"Jets haven't drafted an offensive player in the 1st round since 2009"

Definitely. I think that's one of those things that gets looked over when it comes to a franchise mode. I've always found it interesting to go back and look back on a previous season's results or a new free agent signings career previous to joining my team but the way it is now doesn't really allow for that. I really hope they clean up the UI and make stuff like that easily accessible.

[Trick13]

Re: Rebuilding the Off-season

DeuceDouglas -


Love the screens, with one exception - I really want to see the draft screen fully loaded with multiple "windows" where I never have to navigate away from the action.


I would love to see something where the actual draft order (the live banner/ticker so to speak is the top 1/4 of the screen and each pick would show the team, their needs and say 3 "projected possible picks".


The next 1/4 of the screen would be the trade arena - where I can offer a trade for the current pick, or any pick within say like five picks of the current pick - I can "open the phones" for any of my picks ahead of time - allowing other "GMs" to see that I am willing to "field calls for my next draft pick".


Next would be "my draft board" where the players are listed in the order I ranked them in (think NCAA's recruiting board). Here I can re-order my rankings as the draft progresses - IE I need a DT for instance and so I have ranked a couple fairly high on my board, I select one with the 22nd pick, now I don't need 2 so I can lower the remaining DTs on my board. This way I can adjust my board as the draft develops and if I have internet/EA server issues and get booted during the draft - I won't get a crap selection if the CPU has to make my next selection.


Finally, you would have the best available by (insert Kiper and one or two other "draft gurus") the board would rotate from say Kiper and McShay's rankings of the remaining players...


It does not need to be in that format, but I really want to see it all in on screen that I never have to navigate away from. If I am working a trade and the current selection is made I should be able to see it. If I am browsing through "my draft board" and the pick is made I should be able to see it and never have to leave what I am doing...


Heck, you could do it so that there is a "Radio City Music Hall" stage and do the whole pick walk across the stage deal on there too - though I crae less about that compared to the other stuff...

[SmashMan]

Re: Rebuilding the Off-season

Love the screens, with one exception - I really want to see the draft screen fully loaded with multiple "windows" where I never have to navigate away from the action.

I was actually thinking the exact opposite. I love the ideas, and I really enjoy posts with mockups to help visualize - but I feel like there is way too much info on-screen at once here, specifically on the Draft presentation screens. The others I think might just be a font choice looking too 'overwhelming' to my eyes.

I mean, this is a purely subjective thing. What looks overwhelming to me might look fine to others. I also hate when real networks do the same thing.

[DeuceDouglas]

Re: Rebuilding the Off-season

It does not need to be in that format, but I really want to see it all in on screen that I never have to navigate away from. If I am working a trade and the current selection is made I should be able to see it. If I am browsing through "my draft board" and the pick is made I should be able to see it and never have to leave what I am doing...

That's pretty much exactly what I had in mind. Like in the draft screenshots, basically the stuff along the bottom and side would never leave and everything you would possibly need to do in the upper left portion of the screen without ever needing to leave. And the only time anything would be interrupted would be when a selection was made. Maybe have the option to not have the player card pop up over your boards/trades when he is selected.

I definitely agree that at no point should you ever have to navigate away from the draft to do anything and that's kind of what I was trying to convey with the ability to switch through boards at will and look at player cards all in the upper left so it feels like you're still watching or in a draft-like process, but also have everything you would possibly ever need to trade or pick at your fingertips.

[Trick13]

Re: Rebuilding the Off-season

I was actually thinking the exact opposite. I love the ideas, and I really enjoy posts with mockups to help visualize - but I feel like there is way too much info on-screen at once here, specifically on the Draft presentation screens. The others I think might just be a font choice looking too 'overwhelming' to my eyes.

I mean, this is a purely subjective thing. What looks overwhelming to me might look fine to others. I also hate when real networks do the same thing.

I get what you are saying, and I don't really disagree completely, but I hate that you have to abandon what is going on to make a trade offer or look at your draft board - maybe the answer is in between there.


Like the top third of the screen is the draft order ticker and the bottom part you can toggle through the trade screen, my draft board, best available players, and current rosters.


This way you likely won't be overwhelmed with multiple screens and yet I can do "stuff" without "leaving" the draft screen...

[LopaKa]

Re: Rebuilding the Off-season

EA please hire this guy haha great ideas Deuce!

[DeuceDouglas]

Re: Rebuilding the Off-season

A couple more random things.

Off-season Camps - Represented in some, any form. Whether it just put a simple progression stage that you can't even play. Just something. Rookie mini-camp. Team mini-camp. Training camp. You could have very slight progression, mainly for younger guys throughout those processes as well as preseason.

Off-season Injuries - This goes right along with the last. You see it happen every year. A team loses a player for the year before he even touches the field. It would just be something that would have to be represented. Whether it's a nagging injury that forces him to miss some time or a season ending achilles injury. Obviously, you'd have to also put an option in for those that didn't want to deal with this type of thing.

90-man Rosters - This should be standard. 75 is good. 90 is better not to mention accurate to real life.

Hold Outs - This is another one of those last, last gen things that hasn't returned. This could go along with the mini-camp/training camp as a guy might hold out from those and miss time because of a contract dispute. Just another thing that should be represented although likely something the NFL wouldn't allow to be.

Schedule Release/Preseason Schedule - This is just fluff but it's something that attracts a large amount of attention and wouldn't be something too bad to represent at the end of a long off-season. It could range anything from graphics showcasing each weeks schedule to just a stage where you can look at the schedule yourself.

And I'd really like to be able to schedule my own preseason like you used to be able to. It's something little but I know, for me, I'd be more willing to play those games if I got to choose who I played each year. Not to mention it would resolve the issues with playing the exact same preseason schedule every single season which, depending on your team, may or may not have division opponents on it.

[Trick13]

Re: Rebuilding the Off-season

A couple more random things.

...

DeuceDouglas - before I drop my "take" on your post - I just want to say I am not trying to nitpick or criticize any part of them, more over I am trying to add my perspective to your ideas - hope people do the same in regard to mine - to add something you may have not thought of - in the hopes of getting some really great collaborative ideas out there...


As far as mini camps - I know a ton of people have asked for the return of PS2 style playable deal, but to me they were always heavily slanted to favor speed players - it was just the nature of the drills they had - I mean outside of K/P/QBs. And you were limited to 1 player per drill, so it is one feature I don't really miss from PS2 era.


While I would not complain about a similar feature due to the popularity of it, I would rather see something where you had so many hours for mini-camp and so many hours for training camp and you would divide the time up between different activities thus producing different results.
Conditioning
Flexibility
Strength
one on one drills
7 on 7
full team 3/4 speed
contact drills
full contact scrimmage days
classroom/film work


Each would have a minimum and a maximum and you could divide the time up within those constraints. Say I have a veteran heavy team - I likely don't want a lot of contact or full scrimmages because I want to keep them healthy. This should be connected in a significant way to coach and training staff ratings. Although, I would hope it meant more coaches to include coordinators and positional coaches.


I think this is where you should be able to "task" individual players with "adding or dropping weight" which could potentially impact their ratings in the following attributes - STA/TGH/ACC/AGI/STR/INJ - not that adding pounds would automatically add to or diminish any given rating, but let's say you ask a DT to add 10 lbs - you may see him gain only 7 and then lose 3 points in ACC, 2 in STA, 1 in AGI, but gain 4 in STR and 2 in both INJ/TGH.


I don't really want to "play" offseason camps - as much as I want them "represented" within CFM - that being said I think injury risks should be on a set of two sliders or settings. one would be frequency (never, very infrequent, infrequent, average, frequent, very frequent, constant) and max severity (1 wk, 3 wks, 6 wks, 9 wks, 12 wks,season ending, career ending). I feel that these two sliders or settings should encompass all "simmed events" including camps, preseason, regular season and post season games. I will get back to why we should have "sim" game injury settings later in the schedule section.


As far as the 90 man rosters I don't see the need under the current way that Madden operates. That being that I can see every rating accurately depicted in number form and I know what development level each player is. Now, I don't think SPD/AGI/STR/JMP/ACC/THP need to be hidden. You get a pretty clear idea of these things from college tape, combine and pro day workouts - so they can stay in number form. Just about every other rating should be a letter grade from and no more when you scout players and even after you draft them - development should be totally hidden until after a player has been in the league 3 years - then it should open up for upgrades (assuming we are going to keep the dumb as heck XP system).


Now don't be upset with me - not saying I don't want 90 man rosters - would actually like the idea if incoming rookies had only letter grades at "technique" ratings and we had an actual UDRFA period and a secondary regular free agency period after the draft and before "mini-camps" start. Then I would prefer that after camps end we see "skills improvement/decline" screen where we see after the first camp who made strides where and which veterans are beginning to decline. Then I would have some viable info to make roster choices on. I would also be in favor of keeping extended rosters later than IRL - so I can put these players on the field in preseason (as I don't want to play mini/training camps).


Holdouts - ...and player morale tied into roles system. Winning masks most ills but big time players (high OVR) should get grumpy (impacting their consistency) if they are under utilized. Let's use an example from a recent solo CFM I did as the Cowboys - I signed Julio Jones in FA to pair with Dez Bryant. Great you say, but as I am a fairly balanced play caller (maybe even favor the run a bit) it will be difficult for me to keep them both happy in terms of touches and that should be reflected within CFM. Maybe to the point where if I fail to get them both enough touches - one or both of them should gripe in the media or even demand a trade/release.
Players who are low OVR, but put up huge numbers (high PROD) should demand a new contract. Again from my last solo CFM, I brought back WR- Teddy Williams (97 spd, 99 acc but 57 OVR) and he had like 27 receptions for 9 TDs. He was on a one year deal and so when I went to resign him he asked for a 1 year deal at "league minimum" but in the real world a guy who catches 9 TDs with an obscene yards per catch number is going to be looking for a bigger contract and some bonus money... Same with speed rushers that I, and many of you I am sure, use as situational pass rush guys - no matter how low the rating they have - a 10 sack guy is going to ask to be paid - and player roles would mean if he leaves via FA the CPU teams would have an idea of how to use that player.


Scheduling - Love that you brought up "hand picked" preseason opponents. I had forgotten that.
Now, returning to why we should have some settings/sliders for "simmed events" - I prefer to play in CFMs with about 8 user teams and play essentially a "10 game schedule". meaning we "sim" 6 regular season games each year. This provides a bit of a test of your "general manager" skills (putting a team together that can win simmed games) and allows us to get in more seasons allowing people with "project teams" (Jags, Rams, Raiders) a decent shot at getting down the road where they have a chance to win against the better "out of box" teams like the Broncos, Patriots, Seahawks etc.
This does create a bit of a nightmare for the commissioner in terms of schedule - as you have to find an early span of 6 games with no HUM vs Hum games - well how cool would it be if you could "instruct the CPU" to move all HUM vs HUM games to end of the season - or the commish could "place games" on the blank schedule and then have the game fill in the rest...

[DeuceDouglas]

Re: Rebuilding the Off-season

I don't really want to "play" offseason camps - as much as I want them "represented" within CFM...

With you 100% on this. The only thing I really want to play is my games. I would have to have a reason to play preseason games for me to ever play them again. I don't like the idea of having to 'play' practice. And I definitely don't like the idea of playing off-season camps. It's just boring. Having the option for it is fine for those that want to but you shouldn't be penalized for not wanting to play it. I definitely want them to be represented but I don't want them to be a chore kind of like practice is now.

Originally, the idea I had in my head for mini-camps/training camps was basically an allotted amount of days, OTA's (3-4 days apiece, 3 separate times), Rookie mini-camp (3 days), Team mini-camp (3 days), and Training Camp (Around 20 days). And you would just simulate them and each would just basically be a progression period that would be dependent upon your, ideally, full coaching staff as well as players potential and what not. But I really like the idea of divvying up time to certain drills and activities. I remember NBA Live used to have something similar to this and it worked fairly well.

Perhaps for each day you simulate, you choose the amount of time you devote to certain categories, drills, or activities for that given day and based upon the players you have and the coaches you have, you see very minimal improvements or regressions for players on given days. And to go along with that, say you don't devote any time throughout training camp to conditioning. Make it so that throughout training camp your players' stamina ratings dip a bit until you start devoting time to it. And I don't mind having a setting or slider for injury severity throughout these modes. I know a lot of people wouldn't like losing their best player while simulating stages of the off-season but at the same time, that stuff happens. More options is always a plus though.

To go with this as well, these camps would be a great time to involve something like the Team Chemistry and Playbook Knowledge factors. If you don't devote enough time to position meetings and playbook study, your players would suffer a little bit. Give the user the option to control the difficulty of how expansive this is so that if they just want to simulate the whole thing and get progression results, that's possible. This all goes along the lines of "progressing the players the way you want to" that they were big on before, it's just in a more realistic way.

As for the 90-man rosters, it's a give or take for me. I'd like to see it just because it's accurate to real life. But at the same time, if you just took what we have now and upped the roster limits to 90 it would be pretty much meaningless. But if you pair it with some other things where roster management is more imperative on composing your roster of "the right 53" rather than just "the random 53" then it starts to become something more. You start to get camp studs along with guys that really are just camp bodies. And then if something like practice squads is involved, guys that are more familiar with your team are more valuable and easier to develop.

There is so much potential here and this is all without even playing anything which, to me, is perfect. I'd have a blast going through and simulating each day of camp and strategizing different ways to build my roster and players.

[rock456]

Re: Rebuilding the Off-season

Absolutely need more realisric draft classes, 85 strength corners 88 speed dts etc dont exist irl