Madden NFL 17: The Five Biggest Changes Needed for CFM

[jfsolo]

I would replace expanded stats with better commentary for CFM.

The names of new players who come into the league need to be pronounced.

Don't talk about things that happen years ago as if it is happening in the present.

Stop using in game commentary as a teaching tool for new players. Leave that stuff for practice and training modes.

The analysis of the previous drives and the overlays comparing the earlier passing and running stats with the most recent ones are often wildly off base.

Get rid of the personal anecdotes and replace them with comments about the game. Hearing comments about how good the pass protection has been this game or how a team has blitzed on a third of the snaps is better than hearing the same stories literally every game.

[msdm27]

Quote: Originally Posted by T4VERTS

The first two I think are already in the pipeline and it's more of a when than if. The injury thing is something I have spoke to multiple developers about and it's much more complex than you'd think. It will be a substantial investment and it tends to be a tough sell when allocating development time (which is a finite resource). I think we will get it, but not sure when and how exactly it would work. When I spoke with Jon he mentioned wanting to expand the roles of coordinators and such, but didn't want to half bake. I think when we see this added it will be an in depth experience, so expect this one to be a back of the box feature in the next Madden or two.

The bold bothers me to no end!

It's like Madden gets to have it both ways:

This year:
Why is feature X not in the game? - We don't want to half bake it

Next year:
Why is feature X just recently put in the game not working as the real nfl or why is it so bugged? - Hey, we just installed that feature, so we're building a foundation for it, we can expand upon it.

Rinse, wash, repeat!

People can say what they want about finite resources but the real problem is those resources that are allocated are not used properly. Take practice squad for example, so many years saying if it made it in, it would be fully fleshed; then we finally get it in and.....
For starters one cannot recreate a real-life practice squad, and the AI logic for it beyond flawwwwwwwed.

And if we wanna talk about selling things to EA's biggest scapegoat (marketing), wouldn't "Big decisions" (LOLOLOL) be the perfect timing to approach marketing about overhauling the injury system? Nah, let's just create a new UI for it and call it day.
"But hey, players can come back early from injury!" - Yeah, at the cost of a ridiculous amount of attributes that makes ZERO sense. Player A is 1 week away from returning, do you want to play him? if you do, he will have -15 SPD, -10 THP and -10THA whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.... How is dat dude just one week away from returning?

To get back to the article and not rant too much, I believe the biggest change needed for CFM in M18 is..... TESTING!
Just test the mode, just one time, before releasing it. Please!

It is really frustrating to get a mode that is filled with bugs (IR-bug anyone?) and poor AI logic EVERY SINGLE YEAR!

[Kentaurus]

Love the list, there are some things missing, some things I'd like perhaps tweaked from your options, and one thing that should blend several of the things mentioned both by the post and comments together.

1: When showing the personnel of the opposing offense, put the player numbers on the screen. The NCAA franchise did this for years. Picking your defense against the Patriots with Blount on the field or Lewis makes a difference. (Okay this goes far wider than CFM).

2: Coordinators/Staff - Head Coaches virtually always have control of their coordinators and staff, expanding the game to include this would be greatly beneficial. These new staff positions could give boosts similar to the gameplan boosts, but over a larger array of plays.

3: Progression - Progression is still a problem, it is getting better, but still bad. First off, I hate this RPG style player building, would much rather see a structured style where players improve naturally. This should even tie into the previously mentioned coordinators where they should skew improvement towards the style of their respective coach. You can mix in some RPG style system as well with dedicated training of players and XP from goals.
If you are not going to switch away from the XP based system, the first change is all players should get XP from practice, then perhaps a position group gets bonus XP because you gave them some specific attention, and lastly a few young players like now get 1 on 1 time.

4: Regression - As others have said this also needs adjusted, it needs to feel more random not just arbitrary everyone loses at 29. And regressions shouldn't be on a linear scale, for example speed is the biggest issue, while players certainly lose speed it isn't something that just continues to rapidly decline, it again plateaus. Other attributes like strength should start falling off until later into careers.

5: Retirement - Following a part on regressions, retirement makes sense. This should be something where the game looks at how many downs a player played during that season, especially for older players. If they were playing a significant portion of a teams downs, they should be far less likely to retire, regardless of age (not saying there shouldn't be some random elements, but not significant). Likewise if they are a free agent or not really getting snaps at an older age (either due to lack of ability or injury) they should be more likely to retire.

6: Goals - Quite simply this whole system needs to change. First it cannot be arbitrary amounts that don't take account for quarter length, accelerated clock, and game speed. Again this goes back towards not liking the XP system very much as well.

7: Scouting - This three attribute scouting is garbage. Often you get back information you may not care about, while never getting an idea of a specific attribute you might value (other than it is worse than the three scouted attributes). For example if I run a Tampa 2 defense, and want to find a good linebacker, getting back that a guy is B+ Tackle, B Pursuit, B Hit Power, doesn't help me any, I want to know if he can cover zone. I should be able to specifically find that information out. I'd love to go back to the old system (though keep the scouting combine and remove the spending of points for combine based attributes).
Additionally, at the start of the season, we should be able to see base grades for physical attributes. Even if you don't know specifics you can still see if a guy is fast or slow, strong or weak. (Give us like the A-, B+, C grades for spd, str, agi, acc, jmp ... or even just A,B,C) some concept of their physical ability should be known before you get too deep into scouting.

Injuries: This year was a nice step in the right direction now take the system you have in place, add a significant amount of "lingering" type injuries where players may play with -1 or -2 to a few attributes based on the injury, and are not at risk for further injury, but still may take several weeks to heal fully, especially if they play through the injury rather than rest.

Reiteration:
Like Sir Psycho mentioned, you should not see full player ratings until after the draft is over. Ideally even they should only start unlocking as you progress through the preseason.

[tyler28]

i know its a small thing but it bugs me , please put in what teams players play for each year under their stat card. I hate how it just says the year and no team!

Also get auto subs to work , my game freezes everytime i go into that option therefore i cant use it.

[thudias]

How about something as simple as setting the gameday active roster?

[thudias]

Oh i almost forgot... A real draft board where i can stack my incoming rookies for the upcoming draft.. Make it easier to trade when the CPU is on the clock during the draft.

[charter04]

Good list. So much can and should be added to make Franchise mode great. I hope Mr. John White can make it happen

[raindle23]

Really them just looking back on NFL head coach 09 and taking those concepts and putting them into madden. Which I belite should've been how CFM should've always been.