Madden Franchise Improvement Mock-Up

[Toupal]

It’s been five months since Madden 17 dropped, and we have all had plenty of time to indulge ourselves in the real NFL season and Maddens’ franchise mode.

I have enjoyed this years’ madden more than I have enjoyed any madden for quite some time, due in large part to an improved franchise mode. However despite the huge improvements, I always feel like there is room to grow.

I have mocked up a few ideas and pictures for things that I feel could add a little more depth to our virtual football experience, and those ideas are broken down into several categories. Feel free to throw more ideas out there, and I would love to mock them up for the community. Some of these pictures I have used in previous forums and have done some updating to them.

Presentation
Madden is leaps and bound ahead of where it used to be with commentary. I thought they hit a homerun with the new commentary and constant updating.

Things that would add more immersion to the game for commentary/ graphics would be:
Stat Updating
League/ Playoff standings
Future Match-ups
Award Races
Injuries
Recent Roster Moves/ Transactions
Broken Records

League news and information could use a revitalization. It is annoying to sift through the unorganized league news. Madden on the ps2 had each cities newspaper with stories on them. I think it would be fun to see an updated version of that with a league website. Something similar to NFL.com or even bleacherreport.


Players/ Rosters
The addition of full player editing was a HUGE addition to Madden this year. However, I feel like they need to take it a step further. They need to allow us to edit a players shape along with their height and weight.
Another HUGE addition to Madden this year is the practice squad. I used it a lot more than I anticipated going into the game.
Another addition that would be more than welcomed to Madden is an 80 man preseason roster. In the Madden of old, you would have to cut your roster down after each preseason game. Once again, this added to the depth and realism of the game.

This next addition kind of goes into one of my other points I will mention later (In depth historical stat tracking), but I feel like they could add an additional element to franchise mode if they incorporated more legendary players. I mocked up a screen that would allow you to select a player in the stat screen, and their player card would show up similar to any other player in the game, with the addition of more stats. The one big change on there, is I added a “Pull From Retirement” tab. This would allow a retired player to come from retirement with the option of you assigning the player to a team, or they hit the free agency. With the edit player tab, you could set their age. So with this feature, you could go with a more realistic approach, and unretire a recently retired guy like Steve Smith. Or you could go for a fantasy approach and bring back Earl Campbell, John Elway, etc. all at the age of 21. Once more, this would add a little more to the game, and give us the Brett Favre experience.



Draft/ Scouting
With the huge addition of player editing, I believe that madden needs to take it a step further and implement draft class editing/ sharing into the game. Its’ already proven extremely successful on other games, and I feel like it would only add to the emersion of the game.
EA can take it a step further with the draft classes, and allow us “scramble up” the ratings for players. So that way in online leagues, it keeps players honest so their overall rating beforehand is not the same as the downloaded/ created rating. This would work so if a player like Mitch Trubisky is created with a 76 overall rating, the game would scramble it so he could be either a 70 overall, or an 80 overall, while an unknown player like Donnel Pumphrey of SDSU would go from a 69 overall, to potentially having a higher rating than Leonard Fournette.


I also like the improvements to scouting. But I feel like scouts are all the same across the board. I think their needs to be a difference between a great scout, and a terrible scout. A great scout should tell me to take a Dak Prescott in the 3rd round. A terrible scout should tell me that Christian Ponder is a 1st round steal at QB. Also, with every scout, no matter what, you are getting the same three grades for that prospect, as well as the combine results. I feel like a great scout is going to get you more details, whereas a bad scout will come back with a not so great scouting report.

Attached is Deshaun Watsons’ “improved” player card with more details. Some little things on there are awards, school logo/ player card in Clemson jersey (I know NCAA issues), and career awards/ accomplishments. Some big improvements include:


Player comparison: Lets you know a player similar to what you’re getting, and where they were drafted

Projected Landing Spot: We NEED mock drafts in madden. It gives you an idea of who may go where, so that way I know if I need to trade up or down.

Injuries: Injuries need to be added to madden draft classes. It hinders players’ development, and it is always a HUGE red flag for many teams. Jaylon Smith went from a top 10 pick to a 2nd rounder because of his injury or AP’s biggest problem going into the 2007 draft was his injuries problems at Oklahoma. This lets you know if the player you are scouting has had any lingering issues over the year so you don’t have to deal with nagging health issues.

Tale Of The Tape: There are some things that just do not get captured at the combine or with grades for throwing power/ accuracy. With a good scout, the more of these you will unlock.

Historical Stat Tracking/ HOF
One of Maddens’ biggest weaknesses to me is the lack of history being tracked in your franchise mode. It seems like every season is just a brand new season, and the years before are wiped clean from the slate… I have no way of knowing who won what awards the year before, what my previous stats were, or who even won the Super Bowl. Additionally, I have no idea who recently retired, unless I go into the news stories and sift through a lot of garbage to find out a player like Tom Brady retired.

One of the first improvements I would like to see is the announcing. I think it is leap and bounds ahead of what it was last year. However, if the Seahawks play the Patriots in the Super Bowl two years in a row, I want to see some kind of mention of that. Also, if a player is on pace to breaking a record, I want to see some stat comparisons in a game. Like when Adrian Peterson was chasing Eric Dickersons’ all-time rushing yards in a season record, I want to hear that get mentioned in a game.
Additionally, if a player wins an award, I would like to see them mention it down the road. So if Ezekiel Elliott wins rookie of the year, the 2017 madden season should mention “Last years’ rookie of the year, Eziekiel Elliott…”

Also, I know Madden has legacy points, but I want to see those mean something more. I want players to be measured by those numbers in order to get into the hall of fame. I mocked this up last year, but I would still appreciate this being incorporated. The Hall of Fame is one of the greatest accomplishments a player can ever reach, and I would like to see madden put more effort into this.


Coaching
One of the lamest features in Maddens’ franchise mode is its’ lack of coaching emphasis. It doesn’t matter who your coach is, and in the real NFL, that is not the case. One thing that is missing is ASSISTANT Coaches. They are just as important as most head coaches. I am tired of seeing the same coaches getting fired and cycled around over and over again. So far in my 4 year franchise, John Harbaugh has coached for the Ravens, Cardinals, and Lions. I think it is time we add more coaching options to the game.


This mock up just shows the Bears organization with its’ three main coaches. Each coach you select over, shows their records/ accomplishments. On the left, it gives you notes on your teams’ direction. It tells me my offense is one of the worst, and I need to fire my offense coordinator. You can easily fire a coach with the triangle button that would lead you to the next mock-up of where to find your next coach.


In this screen, I added coaches ratings (which I will elaborate on in a moment). You can see that I have coaches from several backgrounds (Assistants and college). Granted due to the dispute with the NCAA, Madden is not able use these coaches. However, at the bottom left of the screen, you can create a coach (Similar to creating a player). From there you can build your coach by name, appearance, and where they are from (CFL, assistant coach NFL, college/ which college, former player). After editing all of this, you can go in and edit a coaches ratings. Some ideas for coaches ratings are as follows:

Convservative/ Aggresive- Every team has a similar playbook or similar plays, also when it suggests plays, it usually suggests certain plays for certain situations. In a situation like 4th and 1 in the middle of a close game, for suggested plays, if Belichick is your coach, you are probably going to go for it. However, if you get a more conservative guy like Jim Caldwell, it will almost always suggest punt. I could go into this more, but you can use your imagination.

Scouting: How many scouting points you get each year/ week based on how good at scouting your coach/ gm is. Maybe your coach has an inside track on certain players that other coaches may not.
Someone like Pete Carrol for example... he only had one pick in the top 10 (Russell Okung) but he nailed his later round picks like Kam Chancellor, Bobby Wagner, Russell Wilson, Richard Sherman...)

Motivator- Can you get your players fired up for game day? Are you going to get the most out of your players? Players won't drop in overall after a bad performance, or they get a little boost in overall performance before a game, depending on how great of a motivator you are.

Recruiter- Obviously something you would think would be important in college, it is just as valuable for the NFL with the Free Agency. Can you talk that big name player into joining your team. Players value many factors into where they are going to sign; money, success, scheme fit, location, and coaching. Peyton Manning probably would have been a Bronco if it weren't for John Elway talking him into it.

Position Expert- Ever notice how some coaches always find a way to make a position on their team work? Like Mike Shanahan... I don't think he has ever had a running back not play at a pro bowl caliber for him. Alfred Morris, Clinton Portis, Mike Anderson, Terrell Davis, and Olandis Gary. This could also be described as a system. Like some people believe that Bill Belichick just has a system that works for every QB that roles through.

There are a lot more ideas out there, and I would love to hear from the community on what those ideas may be, or how to improve Madden for future generations.

As I said before, I am always open to doing a mock-up for the community, I will just need ideas.

[T4VERTS]

I know they want to add coordinators. When speaking with John he mentioned they want to do it right though. They want ti to really have an affect opn the team and not just be a "check mark" thing where oyu just have to have one with little thought.

[howboutdat]

Quote: Originally Posted by T4VERTS

I know they want to add coordinators. When speaking with John he mentioned they want to do it right though. They want ti to really have an affect opn the team and not just be a "check mark" thing where oyu just have to have one with little thought.

Hope that also includes giving more detailed and in depth info on your opponent for that week. Like way deeper info instead of just based on only his first down calls from last week deep.

Id like to see it even more in depth , with somehow tying coach glass into playcalling screen in game based on that opponent and his playcalling in that league only.

[Yukon105]

To add my 2 cent, I also like to see an improvement in game scheduling, the weather needs an overhaul, and daylight saving time done also so in December it would be dark. On real grass field to shown some wear like they used to have in the older games.

[ripcandlestickpark]

Couldn't agree with you more about historical stat tracking and coaching! Another thing that I think would be a nice compliment to your news feed idea would be a ticker that's dedicated solely to the happenings in your league (scores from last week, league leaders, injuries, next week's matchups, etc.). OS user DeuceDouglas had a pretty cool mockup as to what this might look like. It would also be cool to have the actual NFL Network ticker design in the game

[ganggang]

Don't know if you mentioned this since I read through the post somewhat quickly but I would also like to see suspensions be available and incorporated. Maybe like a trait where players have a higher or lower chance of being suspended. Also making it realistic so players like Leveon Bell or Randy Gregory would have higher chances of being suspended while a lot of other clean players wouldn't have super high chances but there is always that small possibility. Also, have this mixed into drafting by (my opinion) having this trait/rating show up for every player. This way we know whether each rookie has a high chance of being suspended or not and we really have to think about if we want to take that chance or not.

[extremeskins04]

Great thread. As a Patriots fan, is there any way we can get a ball deflating trait? That way, the Pats can deflate more footballs and win more games? Ty.

[jfsolo]

The NFL and the NFLPA are never going to allow suspensions. Never.