Connected Franchise Mode: A Rebuild

[Lexicon]

Quote: Originally Posted by DeuceDouglas

I honestly think they should just ditch the whole "Connected" aspect and just go back to a more traditional franchise model. They have a good opportunity this year if they wanted to follow in the footsteps of FIFA and create a single player mode to go along with the transition to Frostbite. It would eliminate the need for the current "Superstar" mode within CFM which I don't think has really even been touched since CFM's inception. And then having an Owner and HC mode where, outside of relocation, they both do almost entirely the same thing is quite redundant. They just consolidate it into a GM mode where you're not playing a role rather than just controlling a team. And on the topic of scouting it reminded me of a quote made about it prior to M16 when talking about Madden's current scouting system: It just shows what a huge uphill battle it is going to be to get nearly any aspect of CFM to have any kind of depth beyond it's absolute simplest form and scouting is a perfect example of this. He's right it's not an easy thing but the exact things he mentioned weren't realistic in terms of what you could do in a video were in Madden 13 years ago, worked well and were in the game for years. And to think that even something that, to me, is quite simple isn't even considered a realistic option anymore is really unfortunate. Madden 2004: Madden 09:

I miss this kind of design, so much...

[DeuceDouglas]

When I was going through looking for old Madden scouting screenshots I also came across some old NCAA screenshots and saw something that I think would fit really well into to Madden on a multitude of levels and that's the SPARQ score.



You can see it in the top right and for those that are unaware SPARQ stands for Speed Power Agility Reaction and Quickness. It's essentially an attempt to quantify athleticism into a single metric. For more info you can go here. Also, the site 3-Sigma Athlete has created a variation of this called pSPARQ (position specific SPARQ) based on combine and pro-day data that gives players a rating based on their specific position. They also provide a z-score (number of standard deviations a player is above or below the NFL average) and NFL percentile which is essentially the same but shows where the player ranks among peers based on percentage i.e. 85th percentile means he ranks in the top 15% in the league.

Okay, so how does it fit in Madden?

When it comes to incoming rookies, instead of receiving a "combine grade" at the combine, you would first receive a perceived SPARQ score at the beginning of the year. One of the things that bugs me about scouting is that you're given zero info in regards to a players physical traits prior to the combine and this would aim to remedy that. Once you reach the combine you'd receive a players actual SPARQ score based off of their combine numbers as well as a Team Ranking and NFL Percentile. The team ranking would show you where the player ranked compared to the players at his position on your current roster while the NFL percentile would show you where they rank based on the entire league at their position. If they included Pro Days as well it could allow for some variation where a players score could get better as well. For veteran players, it would essentially replace the Physical rating and be sortable through the view roster screen.

Now where they could take this to the next level is by allowing the user to customize the formula to their own specific preferences by both overall and by specific positions. So let's just say the formula is made up of Speed, Acceleration, Agility, Jumping, and Strength and the base scale weighs each attribute equally or 20%. If you coveted speed receivers you could adjust the rating scale to weigh speed more heavily and receivers with good speed would rate higher while slower receivers would grade out much lower. This would be able to be adjusted unique to each position. This would help users not only in the draft but also in trading and free agency at quickly and easily identifying the physical player types that they covet while also weeding ones that they don't want to even consider.

[young22]

Quote: Originally Posted by DeuceDouglas

When I was going through looking for old Madden scouting screenshots I also came across some old NCAA screenshots and saw something that I think would fit really well into to Madden on a multitude of levels and that's the SPARQ score. You can see it in the top right and for those that are unaware SPARQ stands for Speed Power Agility Reaction and Quickness. It's essentially an attempt to quantify athleticism into a single metric. For more info you can go here. Also, the site 3-Sigma Athlete has created a variation of this called pSPARQ (position specific SPARQ) based on combine and pro-day data that gives players a rating based on their specific position. They also provide a z-score (number of standard deviations a player is above or below the NFL average) and NFL percentile which is essentially the same but shows where the player ranks among peers based on percentage i.e. 85th percentile means he ranks in the top 15% in the league. Okay, so how does it fit in Madden? When it comes to incoming rookies, instead of receiving a "combine grade" at the combine, you would first receive a perceived SPARQ score at the beginning of the year. One of the things that bugs me about scouting is that you're given zero info in regards to a players physical traits prior to the combine and this would aim to remedy that. Once you reach the combine you'd receive a players actual SPARQ score based off of their combine numbers as well as a Team Ranking and NFL Percentile. The team ranking would show you where the player ranked compared to the players at his position on your current roster while the NFL percentile would show you where they rank based on the entire league at their position. If they included Pro Days as well it could allow for some variation where a players score could get better as well. For veteran players, it would essentially replace the Physical rating and be sortable through the view roster screen. Now where they could take this to the next level is by allowing the user to customize the formula to their own specific preferences by both overall and by specific positions. So let's just say the formula is made up of Speed, Acceleration, Agility, Jumping, and Strength and the base scale weighs each attribute equally or 20%. If you coveted speed receivers you could adjust the rating scale to weigh speed more heavily and receivers with good speed would rate higher while slower receivers would grade out much lower. This would be able to be adjusted unique to each position. This would help users not only in the draft but also in trading and free agency at quickly and easily identifying the physical player types that they covet while also weeding ones that they don't want to even consider.

They need to hire you. They need to take what you got here, take Geos stuff too, and rebuild franchise over the next 5 or so years. Introduce a few things each year, work on stuff in the background, and Madden 22 will be everything we've hoped for.

Sent from my SM-G386W using Operation Sports mobile app

[iFnotWhyNoT]

It's about that time when we start to see the first screenshots of the new Madden and a month until EA Play.

With this being the first year of the new engine, do you guys think we are going to get a scaled back version of a "new" traditional type of franchise mode [scrapping conntected]? I'm a tad worried, hopefully they have been working on the transition for awhile now so we don't get a scaled back version of what we currently have.

[DeuceDouglas]

Quote: Originally Posted by iFnotWhyNoT

It's about that time when we start to see the first screenshots of the new Madden and a month until EA Play. With this being the first year of the new engine, do you guys think we are going to get a scaled back version of a "new" traditional type of franchise mode [scrapping conntected]? I'm a tad worried, hopefully they have been working on the transition for awhile now so we don't get a scaled back version of what we currently have.

I don't think so. This transition doesn't seem like one that is going to completely shake up the infrastructure of the game and shouldn't be much different than the move to Ignite so CFM should remain largely unaffected by the transition. I'm guessing it's also something that was considered for last year as it was likely already in the works but wasn't deemed ready so they waited until this year. They seem to have genuinely learned from the Xbox>360 transition though so I wouldn't be worried about it too much.

[iFnotWhyNoT]

Right, I think I remember hearing about the new engine switch last year and that they've been working on it but I wasn't entirely sure. Sounds good.

[Lexicon]

That franchise mode team has a lot to prove. The mode has been underwhelming for some time now. Even last year, boasting an in-game ticker that, to this day, doesn't work properly (displays incorrect win-loss records) was kind of embarrassing. I'd really like to see them break out. I know Looman tweeted back in February that the team had good momentum. I believe they have the potential to really do something special.

[Mattanite]

DeuceDouglas, have you ever been contacted by the game devs or any other gamechangers after shopmaster featured you on his channel a while back? I tweeted Clint Oldenburg a link to this thread just asking if the devs ever found time to read some of the more creative threads (I don't think they know who Geodude is, so didn't bother with mine... :P)