A Few Ideas To Increase Depth to CFM

[franko3219]

Until this year I had not previously purchased a Madden game since probably Madden 11. Thus, I have definitely enjoyed the overall Madden 16 experience despite some of the technical issues. Sitting here I did think of a few things that, while small in nature, I believe would be a great addition to the franchise mode in Madden (offline and online).


1. I have already seen this mentioned quite a bit, but allow for defensive assignments again. I will not go in depth here and rehash everything, but it is definitely needed.


2. Obviously fix auto-subs


3. I love the ability to practice and increase players XP/Confidence each week prior to playing each game. This is where I would love to see a few small changes that could really affect the immersion in CFM. First, especially in online leagues, incorporate a scouting system into Madden. This has been in the game in the past, which will show the % of run vs. pass %, blitz %, man vs. zone %, the popular plays that your opponent likes to run on offense and defense, etc. I would also like to see it taken more in depth where you can see what they like to do on offense and defense on first down, second down, and the other common situational breakdowns. The second phase of this system would be, to allow the user go into practice mode and chose to practice against your opponents tendencies, whether offense or defense. I just think that this would help to improve gameplay and increase realism.


4. More in depth contract options. Maybe they are present and I just don't know how to use them, but currently it seems that I am only able to negotiate base salary, bonus, and years. Why not include player and/or team options, no trade clauses, or trade exceptions.


5. This might be difficult due to the league, but incorporate a rating for leadership. This would provide some value to having some older vets on your team. Maybe a vet with a high leadership trait would help to add a multiplier to Confidence/XP during critical situations or big games. Obviously this would need to be balanced to keep someone from just having a team of vets or abuse of the ability. The opposite could be true where a player could become a "cancer" in the locker room where maybe you have to move someone to improve team chemistry. This would add another trait to look at when considering draft prospects instead of just looking for the fastest 40 time or most bench press reps.


These are just a few ideas that I thought could help improve the depth of the franchise mode.

[sXeInYoFace]

just got the game myself, but i wish formation subs were included. i think that would add nice depth. sure you can do subs at the play calling screen but im not sure if they reset after each played game in a franchise, and its a pain to have to do all of them every single game. i love the leadership idea because its true in every level of organized football...there is always someone the team looks to in certain game situations and what not. the same goes for the locker rooom "cancer".

[RowdyTexan99]

I agree with your points. Numbers 1 and 2 are a must.

To add to number 3, I love the idea of free practice, but I would really like to see a full team scrimmage option. Free practice may be close enough but it would be nice to be able to run your team through a full 4 quarter scrimmage. Having problems in late game situations? Have your team run 2 minute drills or put them in other game situations to practice them.

To add to number 4, I would love the idea to be able to restructure contracts with your players. As of now, you can only mess with their contracts during free agency or during their contract year. Players restructure their contracts all of the time in order to save their team some money in order to chase a championship. Along with this, they should add a team loyalty rating. If their TLR is high, then they would be more willing to restructure their contract in order to help their team. If their TLR is low, then they wouldn't care about restructuring because they're only looking out for themselves. Then allow that TLR to fluctuate based on how you use them, the team's success, and how much playing time they get. A player's TLR could start out at 99 when they first sign on with you, but as they stay and don't like the way they are being used by a specific team or their team is constantly losing games, their Team Loyalty Rating could be down in the 20's before you know it.

Number 5 is great. Out of all of the things I've thought of to add to the depth of CFM, this idea has somehow escaped me. I like the concept of "cancers" in the locker room as well as veteran leadership. Both of these aspects play a huge role to real life teams, so why not allow it to be a factor in our games. To add to this, I feel we should gain the control back of choosing who our Team Captains are. This is a small feature that I have missed ever since they removed it from the game.

Another feature that I wish would return and improve, is being able to sign offensive and defensive coordinators. This would add to the coaching carousel aspect of the game. Gary Kubiak is doing a bad job, but your defense has been great with Wade Phillips at DC? Fire Kubes, and keep Wade at DC, hire a new HC. OR you can promote Wade to HC and bring someone in as a DC. But Wade's defensive bonuses should remain with the team since he is still in charge of the grand scheme of things. Add more fictional coaches to the mix as well. Sign a young unknown OC that eventually works his way up to being a Super Bowl winning HC. It would keep the hot seats and coaching situations interesting.

[EricFreakingBerry]

With the addition of XP sliders, I think the game would just benefit from a host of more sliders. I may sound sarcastic when I say this but let's make Madden 2017 Slider 2017 instead. We should be able to control XP gains (if they're intent on this being the progression model) online and off, we should be able to completely tweak control of our passing, running, and defensive gameplans based on our scheme and players.

1. Set general amounts of plays in sim or play that you want specific players to be on the field.
2. Set specific plays or play types that these players are on the field (HB1 takes all inside runs regardless of formation, HB2 takes all pitches and screens, how often in sim do you pass to your TE2, specific pass rush packages, etc.)

[IcedCoffee1983]

A simple one for me would be so that within CFM when you are looking at a players stats year over year if it listed the team he was playing for each year.

They have it that way when you view players stats by year in the main menu, but for some reason it dissappears when in CFM mode.

It drives me nuts.

Oh... And I agree on Auto-Subs. They haven't worked in CFM for YEARS. Im almost embarrassed for EA at this point. And I honestly can't tell if they're even aware.

[Robo COP]

Love every idea in this thread. Formation subs needs to be back in the game for sure. Incredibly frustrating

Also love the leadership idea.

On the XP sliders, pretty sure they didn't have the ability to patch it into the game itself, it was a server side thing which is why it's only for online CFMs. I am sure, assuming they don't do away with xp, it will be in next years offline CFM options

[RowdyTexan99]

Another thing that would add some depth is giving us a practice squad to deal with. I think you should also be allowed to "work out" certain free agents before you sign them; make it a process. Also, add to the free agents. People like Terrell Owens have said that they aren't retired and waiting for a team to call. Vince Young was a free agent for the longest time but wasn't available to use in Madden. I think they should add ALL free agents to the pool.

These may be asking for too much, but I'm just thinking of what the game is lacking from the actual NFL.