Madden NFL 16 CFM Impressions - Confidence, Goals, Hub & More (MyMaddenPad)

[jpdavis82]

Re: Madden 16 CFM initial impressions by Shopmaster Part 1

Thanks for answering questions JP. I've got a couple on the things that Shop touched on.

1. Is it still possible to see a spread sheet view of ratings for multiple players somewhere? The Visual depth chart looks nice but when I'm comparing players to make decisions on my depth chart or which free agents to add I need to be able to see their ratings next to each other. Thats something that the MUT visual DCs lack and would be a major disappointment for me if I couldn't do that in CFM anymore.
Also is there still a spread sheet view of player contracts? Sorting by cap penalty or freed up funds was the best way to make tough salary cap decisions in my opinion.

2. If I understood one of your replies correctly then its great news that Confidence resets for all players to 50 after each season. I was hoping for a bit of moderation like a max of 66 and min of 33 to start a season but 50 sounds good too. My question about Confidence then is do players that you resign after the season still lose Confidence because they suddenly "don't know the playbook" anymore?

3. When creating coaches is there anyway to assign a new coach a specific rank or packages? Two problems in online CFMs this year were generally poor teams stayed bad because of the Confidence hole that they couldn't crawl out of and that new coaches that enter the league a season or two after the CFM began were at a significant disadvantage because of their coaching level and lack of packages. This has lead to a lot of players who joined our league late just quitting after a while because they felt they couldn't catch up.

4. It looks like the Twitter feed and Stories were completely scrapped based on the New CFM Hub screenshots. Is this true?

5. Is there a way to see all the players who are on the Trade Block? This is shown as an option on the player card but I don't see anywhere that just shows all the players around the league who are on the block.

6. Is there a slider for XP and Confidence so commissioners can adjust how much XP and Confidence is given out? There are so many varying opinions on how fastor slow players should progress/regress. By adding a slider for it EA could make everyone happy by allowing them to set the progression rates on their own.

7. This is a draft question so it will have to wait but please confirm whether we finally have a customizable draft board/player rankings again. And whether the CPU will draft based on your customized board if you can't make the online draft.

They are still working on a lot of this stuff so I can't give definitive answers except for #4. The stories and twitter feed is still there it's just under a news tile, that way the main menus aren't bogged down by it every time you want to navigate the menus like they had been. Oh just saw this one, yes you can view the trade block, there's 3 screens on the main hub if that makes sense, the third one is where news and roster, settings are. The first two are the home screen and the depth chart screens. Actually the trade block may be on the first screen, I'm thinking it is, I know scouting is.

[The JareBear]

Re: Madden NFL 16 CFM Impressions - Confidence, Goals, Hub & More (MyMaddenPad)

XP shouldn't even apply to physical attributes. I'd like to see it for football attributes only, and physical attributes progress or regress through a non-user controlled method.

Best idea I have read in awhile, makes absolute sense.

Would LOVE for this to be implemented.

[The JareBear]

Re: Madden NFL 16 CFM Impressions - Confidence, Goals, Hub & More (MyMaddenPad)

Football is completely subjective in how it should be modeled from the real thing. Whether you like the xp system or not I find it pretty funny some of you guys keep saying that NFL players don't have individual goals. Of course they ALL do w some being more selfish and vocal about it than others. And sure, maybe EA isn't getting it exactly right but the fact that they're trying to make the game go in that direction to me is a great idea, the game should have more of an RPG feel for long term game modes.

And yet I see some folks saying you can either have RPG or have realism?? Uh RPG is realism. RPG stands for role playing and when you are playing any game for the long haul you are playing some role.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You're right, it is definitely subjective.

One thing I personally try to say, pretty often at least, when I post in this forum is that I don't think anyone is wrong or that I am right, I just think there are a lot of different ideas on how to achieve the same thing (sim football).

In the old PS2/Xbox games there was long-term team/player development/management, without this XP system. I don't recall anything really being that wrong with it. I am not sure why we can't choose which one we want.

Give the gamers options.

That picture of Bortles in the OP, I am sorry, that kinda bums me out. That just looks kind of silly to me and kills immersion. Now, I KNOW the ticker/overlays can be turned off, but the bottom line is it doesn't change the fact that I know what is going on under the hood. I would much rather play an old school vanilla Franchise Mode than this RPG enhanced CFM mode, just me personally.

I have said this a few times, but, I do see why EA is incorporating the RPG elements into player development. I understand it can create attachment to your roster, encourage repeat playing and long-term playing of CFM mode. I definitely am not trying to hate on their vision. I think their goal is a rich, fully realized, franchise mode that is half great gameplay and half micro-managing your roster. I think that is a good goal.

I think this approach, as currently presented, based on what I have read and seen, is a little too "gamey" to me. This is Football, not Final Fantasy XV.

I am reserving real judgment for when I actually play the game. Overall I am very excited. More excited than I have been in awhile, but I have to admit that the subject of this thread, the information revealed here, doesn't really do it for me, and that's ok. I am not right, or wrong, it's just my personal preference.

I also understand that the RPG elements in CFM mode are here to stay, it sounds like this is something they really wanted to do and are very behind. That's cool. There are tactful/subtle ways of doing it though, I don't think it needs to be something thrown in your face every game or every season week in CFM.

Just my two cents.

Basically, TL;DR version of this post:

At what point are no longer playing football? What happened to just playing ball? Extra nuances and extra game mechanics are awesome but at what point is the "video game" aspect overlapping and drowning the "simulation football immersion" aspect

EDIT:

Goals are subjective too, ODogg.

To me, a rookie season of 40 catches for a WR/TE is pretty decent. Someone else might say no that's not enough. Who is right?

[shep2837]

Re: Madden NFL 16 CFM Impressions - Confidence, Goals, Hub & More (MyMaddenPad)

Have they made any changes to the relocation teams?

[4thQtrStre5S]

Re: Madden NFL 16 CFM Impressions - Confidence, Goals, Hub & More (MyMaddenPad)

A usage question (and only a usage question) - do people here focus their XP spending on SPD / ACC in CFM?

Personally, I find this incredibly inefficient. Using the WR example, I'd rather upgrade his CTH / CIT / RRT / SPC / AWR ratings. The way EA has balanced the game, one can increase these ratings by more total points than if one just focuses on SPD / ACC, and by a significant margin. If I spend my XP on SPD / ACC instead, I'm not maximizing the value of that XP spent and not improving that player as much as I potentially could otherwise.

If I want a more athletic player, more often than not I have to draft him, not build him.

I like your view - I have witnessed that speed is not much of a factor when testing 40 times in practice mode between someone who is 95 or 80 speed, for example, but I have seen that CIT matters a lot because, IMO, EA/Tiburon uses the big hit to adjust completion percentages; as there will not be as many bad throws as much as passes dropped due to big hits..Or am I not seeing this correctly?

[Dj_MyTime]

Re: Madden NFL 16 CFM Impressions - Confidence, Goals, Hub & More (MyMaddenPad)

Simple answer tier the progression with caps, and make users buy the next tier to progress the player.

So as an example, player ''x'' is a 70 ovr ''Slow Development player. You can either keep this player as quality depth, roster filler, or if this is the player you want top break out ''you have to put in the work'' as follows.

As a slow development player for example cap all position related attributes at (70, for sake of explanation). If a user wants to open up the next tier they HAVE to buy "Normal Development'' which allows a attribute Cap of 80.

If you want to continue to build player ''x'' you purchase the quick package (Cap at 89), and eventually Star (cap at 99).

So essentially even if XP is fairly easy to gain you can't just apply it all to the attributes, you have to unlock them by opening up player ''x's'' development tiers. And the cost of those should increase accordingly.

Slow - Base (no cost)
Normal - 10K, XP
Quick - 20K XP
Star - 40K XP

So obviously players in the game already will start off in varied spots, and the same for rookies. But this way a good chunk of XP has to be spent just to open up the next tier instead of automatically being eligible to be applied to position specific attributes.

That should help slow down progression so that good users in CFM aren't basically at 99 across the board in attributes by Season 3.

[Danish ram]

Re: Madden NFL 16 CFM Impressions - Confidence, Goals, Hub & More (MyMaddenPad)

Simple answer tier the progression with caps, and make users buy the next tier to progress the player.

So as an example, player ''x'' is a 70 ovr ''Slow Development player. You can either keep this player as quality depth, roster filler, or if this is the player you want top break out ''you have to put in the work'' as follows.

As a slow development player for example cap all position related attributes at (70, for sake of explanation). If a user wants to open up the next tier they HAVE to buy "Normal Development'' which allows a attribute Cap of 80.

If you want to continue to build player ''x'' you purchase the quick package (Cap at 89), and eventually Star (cap at 99).

So essentially even if XP is fairly easy to gain you can't just apply it all to the attributes, you have to unlock them by opening up player ''x's'' development tiers. And the cost of those should increase accordingly.

Slow - Base (no cost)
Normal - 10K, XP
Quick - 20K XP
Star - 40K XP

So obviously players in the game already will start off in varied spots, and the same for rookies. But this way a good chunk of XP has to be spent just to open up the next tier instead of automatically being eligible to be applied to position specific attributes.

That should help slow down progression so that good users in CFM aren't basically at 99 across the board in attributes by Season 3.

.


Why would you want a system that let's you upgrade talent?
You can't train talent level, you can however like seattle has done, use players with a certain skill set in a new setting, and make them play better than their ratings.
Progression should be about staff, game grades and talent
I will say it again, look at fifa, with a progression system far more balanced and sim than madden. Is it perfect no, but it is a great platform to build upon

[l8knight1]

Re: Madden NFL 16 CFM Impressions - Confidence, Goals, Hub & More (MyMaddenPad)

Not sure if this has been discussed, but found a combine screen?

[Danish ram]

Re: Madden NFL 16 CFM Impressions - Confidence, Goals, Hub & More (MyMaddenPad)

Not sure if this has been discussed, but found a combine screen?

Now show me a screenshot of my personal draftboard and tell me about a new solid cpu draft Logic please

[jpdavis82]

Re: Madden NFL 16 CFM Impressions - Confidence, Goals, Hub & More (MyMaddenPad)

Not sure if this has been discussed, but found a combine screen?

So once you advance past that screen it shows you the combine results, there's no actual combine that you can participate in this year.

[oneamongthefence]

Re: Madden NFL 16 CFM Impressions - Confidence, Goals, Hub & More (MyMaddenPad)

So once you advance past that screen it shows you the combine results, there's no actual combine that you can participate in this year.

This feature while nice reeks of "we added it now get off our backs about it" its just 6 drills. It's just another menu to display information. There's no frills or presentation to it.

[Hooe]

Re: Madden NFL 16 CFM Impressions - Confidence, Goals, Hub & More (MyMaddenPad)

It'd be cool to run some players through position-specific drills at the combine in a future version of Madden. Like take a QB through some passing drills, or a WR catching passes from a camp arm, etc.

I don't particularly want the 40-yard-dash or bench press mini-games back, though.

[sebennayx]

Re: Madden NFL 16 CFM Impressions - Confidence, Goals, Hub & More (MyMaddenPad)

After reading the valuable and constructive thoughts regarding progression put together by bucky, jp, branden, and others, I've attempted to compile the notes with many additions of my own.

*Don't remove the current XP progression option - leave it in for those who want to play with it.
*Myself, and I'm sure others here, would be very big fans of completely removing the OVR from view entirely. Much of the below is based on this premise.
*Personally, I would be ecstatic to have an option which removes all player skills from view...not everyone will feel the same, but check out the two examples below;

Imagine having to put time into developing your newly drafted DE simply by pitting him against your franchise LT in practice - watching him get manhandled, and also watching him manhandle the backup LT in practice. By next offseason your now veteran DE is mauling that same LT...is it because the DE improved?...or is your LT getting old?? Now THAT is cause for playing year-to-year, no need for written in storylines and twitter feed folks - this drama is built in!

Imagine picking up a WR during FA who never quite put it together on his rookie contract, but based on the players profile with his previous team, you feel he will be a good depth for your playbook. Said player comes back strong after the offseason, shines during Training Camp/OTAs and the Preseason, earns his way to the starting lineup, then puts up 90 rec, 1200 yards, 9 tds...incredible FA pickup, right? Suddenly, you don't care so much what his Madden calculated OVR is...or even what his exact Route Running rating is - you know whatever he does works for your play style!

Coaches - It all starts with the coaches.
Head Coach
Has a playbook "attached" to them; the HC playbook can choose to supersede the Coordinators if the user wishes, but is not mandatory.
Has position specific and grouping specific traits which they "prefer", scheme fits.
Can improve or stunt the ratings development, and/or raise/lower certain ratings caps of position groupings to a varying degree. Some players are affected more by the coach they're with than others.

*Examples*
Mike Zimmer raises the cap of his CBs Press rating, allowing the CBs to achieve a higher than normal press rating.
Mike Zimmer allows for quicker development rates of all DBs Man, Press, and Awareness.

Each Coordinator also has a playbook attached, as well as "preferred" position traits, or scheme fits for different personnel groupings. Coordinators can similarly improve/stunt the development...and raise/lower ratings caps of position groupings.

*Example*
Norv Turner speeds the development of the QB Intermediate accuracy - allowing his QBs ratings progression in that skill to rise quicker than it would otherwise.

Position coaches don't have a playbook attached, but instead add value to the position they are designated.

*Example*
Jeff Davidson raises the RBK cap while stunting the PBK development of all OLine positions.

These coaching traits may be visible if the user wishes. If the user prefers, only a description and background of a coach is given, allowing the user to interpret.

Example: Leslie Frazier
Played CB for the world champion Bears, led the team in INTs that year. Suffered a knee injury quickly ending his career. Likes to play a heavy Tampa 2 scheme with Cover 3 and man mixed in.
-1988-1996: HC - Trinity College - 2 conference titles
-1997-1998: DB - University of Illinois
-1999-2002: DB - Philadelphia Eagles
-etc.

Ratings Progression - This is the meat.
As has been previously mentioned, the ratings get broken down into three groupings;

Athletic
These skills can progress/regress on their own, but to a much lower/slower degree than all other ratings groupings.
There are ratings caps on an individual player basis, a range of which is determined by position, height, and weight.
Younger players usually start near their cap with these skills.
An injury can drastically reduce athletic skills.

Imagine two 6' 190lb CBs available in the draft, one caps at 92 spd, 94 acc, 44 str...the other caps at 96 spd, 95 acc, 28 str. Both start out at or near their athletic cap (90/94/38, 94/94/28). These can only be improved with gym time as a weekly focus and over the offseason.

As an offseason option, a coach or player can choose to "sacrifice" weight in an attempt to improve athletic skills. This is not a requirement to improve/progress these skills, but may create a higher % increase or chance of increase.

Think of a TE attempting to increase speed over the offseason by losing weight...or a rookie OG attempting to add weight and put on strength.
This is not solely decided by the player (as a Coach); think Bryant McKinnie showing up near 400lbs to Training Camp. Surprise! "Bad weight" can decrease skills, and is rectified through a focus at Training Camp/Offseason.

Some players will age gracefully - seemingly getting better with time (Steve Smith).
Others may have a steady decline in these stats as they age.
Others still will drop off a cliff due to injury or other unforeseen event.

Position skills
These ratings are generally lowest among young players, and also the most variable and easiest to progress through coaching and individual focus.
Each skill has it's own min/max rate of increase for each individual player. This can be shown for those Users who want to see it, others can have this turned off (or "dumbed down" to a scouting report view).
Again, with ratings having the option of being hidden, those who hide these skills from view will have to rely on Training Camp/OTAs, Preseason, Weekly Practices and Gameplan, and the actual in-game to determine their own estimate of these skills.

These skills also have a cap. Think Greg Little whose CTH rating started at 69 when drafted, but caps at 72 with a slooooow development rating...while his RTE started at 68, but caps at 81 with a normal dev rating. Some people will "get it" more than others.

Note the wide differentiation on skills...with less emphasis on the actual visual of the numbers used in the ratings, more emphasis can be made on how much more effective animations can play out given a wider range of stats (think 0-99 instead of 60-99).
Position players also have position skills which may/may not be suited for their current position. ODB or Suh and their KPW ratings, or Mohamed Sanu and his THP and THA ratings, etc. You won't know them until you check them out in practice.

These skills potential for increase is determined in large part by the player himself, while also potentially greatly affected by the coach(es) and focus/gameplan.
A coach can not directly increase the ratings themselves, but can allow these ratings to progress quicker naturally.
These ratings are only genuinely increased by Weekly Focus, Offseason Focus, and use in games/practice.

Think MLB 14: The Show (don't have 15) and how, as the coach, you can tell each player at each position each week what you'd like them to Focus on;
*Jugs machine (Catch ratings are worked on)
*Hit the gym (physical attributes are worked on, with a very slim chance for injury)
*Rest up (especially useful while injured, can help to speed recovery time)

Just because a player is working on that specific skill does not guarantee it will increase...similarly just because a player is working on a specific skill does not prevent other skills from increasing as well.

The Offseason works very similar, you can request a specific focus for each player; some will come back with increased skills, others will come back with increased pant sizes.
After the offseason (and to a lesser extent each week) you can be presented with scribbles and notes providing occasionally helpful clues as to a players progress - other times these notes can be misleading.
Again, with ratings made invisible, the skills are only truly identified by using them in practice

Example: After an offseason, do your outside zone runs to the strong side not seem to be as easy as last year? Did your TE lose weight to increase speed? Maybe that TE needs to work with the OLine coach to get his RBK ratings back up to par during Training Camp...or maybe you choose to solely use him as a move TE (formation subs?).

Intangibles
Generally don't drop off as seasons progress, but are likely to fluctuate per game depending on weekly focus/gameplanning and in-game performance - similar to how Confidence is reported to work.

Example: Cortland Finnegan AWR drops exponentially due to getting wrecked by Andre Johnson most of the game. Provided AWR affects penalties, perhaps this leads to a game affecting penalty mid-game (!).

Intangibles also naturally rise similar to position skills over time, though with less risk to drop.
Commonly affected by coaching/playbook changes.

All of this can be visible or not visible, user managed or CPU managed, etc.


Scouting
Combine results are still visible, providing a rough idea of Athletic skills.
Scouts can be hired/chosen based on their position grouping specialties, and ratings grouping specialties.
These specialties don't guarantee quality or effective scouting, similarly quality scouts are not limited to only their position/ratings grouping specialties. One scout may suck at everything, another scout may find gold hidden in the muck.

If the ratings are turned on - the scouts determine how close the scouted ratings are compared to actual.
If the ratings are turned off, every player and position group scouted receive tiered ratings estimates (A - F). Additionally, notes can be provided to compare to current or past players, or provide quick jots of details

steady and reliable hands,
quick and efficient cuts,
lacks deep speed but hits top gear quickly

The CFM development team is clearly putting a lot of work into developing and balancing this XP based system; by all means, please keep it up! There are those who like and prefer this method, and that's fine for them. I believe over a cycle or two, an offseason like the above can also be added as a setup option to provide a more realistic opportunity for those who don't want this XP and Goal driven CFM format.

I know not everybody will be ready to give up seeing the OVR, let alone give up seeing all ratings, but I know there are those more on the hardcore sim side who want it as close to realistically running a team as possible. By providing options to allow for all of the below, a User can really customize their CFM to get it to play exactly how they want!

Visible OVR? Yes/No
Visible Ratings? Yes/No
Preferred CFM Style? XP Based/Focus Based
etc.

Thanks for reading. Someone can put a TL;DR to help out those who don't want to go through the whole thing haha .

[msdm27]

Re: Madden NFL 16 CFM Impressions - Confidence, Goals, Hub & More (MyMaddenPad)

Not sure if this has been discussed, but found a combine screen?

Anybody have any idea how they came to that 7.1 grade from those combine scores?

Trying to work on my own scouting tool spreadsheet, but can't seem to make it work.

I'm guessing the grade is tied to team scheme (care to give input if you have, JP?) and some combine events are valued higher into the overall grade than others. Otherwise, with a range from 1 to 10, I can't really see how they got 7.1 as a total grade from those scores.

My formula was:
I had to assume it was a total of 20 DT's (since there's no more info available)
Then just allocate scores.. he's the fastest DT = 10 pts; he's the 4th DT in 20yd shuttle = 7 pts and so on, then divide it by 6 events. But it never adds up.

Any input is appreciated
I do think that's a cool addition to the combine screen, as it is another way to differentiate between players.

[saybur]

Re: Madden NFL 16 CFM Impressions - Confidence, Goals, Hub & More (MyMaddenPad)

I haven't read the whole thread yet, but will regression still be simply tied to age? Will A.J. Green still lose 3 speed as soon as he turns 30 despite making the pro bowl every year? This absolutely kills long term CFM for me.