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Rookie
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Re: Madden 19 FRANCHISE Wishlist
God, where to even begin on this? Duece and Toupal have covered most things better than I could ever hope to. I haven't purchased this year's game or played last year's in quite some time so all the issues and "missing" features aren't really at the front of my mind right now but I can say right off the bat that the biggest issues for me are AI and UI.
I'll start with AI. It needs to be completely rewritten in my opinion. CPU teams simply need to manage their rosters with far more authenticity than we see now. I feel like they haven't worked on this aspect because they want people to be always online, playing a franchise with their friends. Like many of the other old-schoolers here I imagine, I play video games to get away from the world, not to interact with it even more and from the privacy of my man-cave. As such, CPU teams in a single-player CFM need to behave as intelligently as possible. I understand that AI, in a $60 game at least, will never replace or fully replicate a human opponent but they need it to offer at least a modicum of a challenge and a semblance of reality. So, here's a list of what I believe to be the most pressing issues regarding AI:
1.CPU Teams need to base their depth chart not on overall but on production. In fact, all personnel decisions should be handled this way. Also, as has already been pointed out in this thread, they need to be smart with their stars by not playing them on ST and pulling them during blowouts in favor of getting young guys experience. QB's should be pulled after their 4th int or so of a game, RBs after a few fumbles, etc.
2.Teams need to draft more intelligently. They should never take two QB's in the first three rounds. They shouldn't draft a RB in the first round two years in a row. With other positions that require multiple starters, like WR and CB it's more acceptable but not for QB, RB, 4-3 MLBs and even safeties.
3. Regarding Free Agency, see number 2. Teams should never be targeting the top FA WR when they already have a 90+ OVR and a mid 80s OVR on their roster. They should be looking for depth not another stud who's gonna take away snaps from another very solid, borderline Pro-Bowler.
Likewise, if they have a 70s OVR DE who racked up over 10+ sacks in the previous season, they shouldn’t be trying to replace him in FA with an 80s OVR who only had 6 or so sacks. And don't get me started on the team that let that 10+ sack player walk in the first place.
4.Teams need to gameplan the same way we do. They need to play to their strength and be able to recognize our weaknesses and take advantage of them. On the same note, I suppose it would be nice if we actually HAD to gameplan for the CPU because they played smart enough to require it.
5. Playcalling needs to be seriously looked into. This has been pointed out numerous times in these forums as have the fixes. If the dev’s just gave the playbooks proper “star-ratings” we would see far greater diversity in playcalling with the system that’s already in place. Should be an easy, if not time-consuming fix.
6. Teams need to have personality and tendencies and those things need to be dynamic based on the coaching staff and roster. The Vikings were a run-first team because they had AP. Now that he’s gone their strategy will change and that kind of thing should be reflected in CFM. When Brady retires, the Pats won’t be running the same style of offense either. Many ideas have been presented to address this issue and I honestly don’t have a preference, I just don’t want the Philadelphia Eagles of 2031 to have the same philosophy as the Eagles of 2018 even though their entire roster and coaching staff has turned over three times in that timespan.
Basically, it all comes down to making 32-team, single player control a non-issue. If CPU controlled teams didn't make bone-headed roster decisions or utilized their entire playbook, I wouldn't NEED to take control of all of them and if I din't have to waste my time controlling EVERY darn team, I might actually be able to make it through more than three seasons before getting bored and fed-up with it all.
But, if they are going to make us control all the teams in order to get any semblance of reality out of the game, at least tweak the UI to make it a little easier.
1. Single button 32-team control. Not gonna kick a dead-horse here.
2. Give us more info and make it easier to access. Include the team played for on the Career Stats tab of the Player Card. This is a little thing that is supremely annoying, especially since it's incorporated in the main menu and play now games. Also, make the Player Cards accessible from ANYWHERE. Give us a Team Card that can be clicked on from the Schedule or Team Stats screen. Put numbers on the Team Stats screen, for heaven's sake! When I scroll down the Total Yards Allowed column and find next week's opponent somewhere in the middle of the pack, I have no idea where they actually rank. Are they 15th? Are they 18th? 20th? I know who the top 8 are and who the bottom 8 are. Everyone else, I have to go back to the top and count down. Another little, but absolutely maddening thing that just seems lazy on their part.
3. In free agency, give us full access to a players card. As I mentioned in the AI section, sometimes I don't care what a players OVR is, sometimes I want to base my decisions off of performance and production but as it is now, I can't do that because I can't click on their Player Card from the FA Signing. Boo!
4.I don't know if this is UI necessarily, but the new scouting system is just not up to par. Again, many proposals have been made to fix it and I hope EA listens to some of them because as simple and dumbed down as it is right now, I have very little interest in partaking in what should be one of the more exciting aspects of the front office part of the game.
5. The draft. Hmmmm. Not terrible, and again, maybe not UI, but why why why why why why why did they decide to show us the picks OVR immediately upon selection once again????? Who thought that was a good idea??? I understand the instant gratification but it is UTTERLY unrealistic. At least make it an option.
6. Stats? What stats? Where are they? Once you start a new season, everything that happened before it essentially ceases to exist unless you dig deep into the Player Card (or hopefully the newly added Team Card). What's the point of playing 10, 20, 30 seasons if there's no sense of history surrounding it? I want to be able to look back and track the rise and fall of great players and teams. To me that's the point of playing a franchise.
So, if what I wanted from the AI was to eliminate the need for 32-team control, what I want from the UI is to eliminate the need for a pencil and notebook. I end up wasting so much time in between season logging by hand final W/L records, playoff results, Stat Leaders, Pro-Bowl rosters, Draft Results and Free Agent signings all in the name of immersion that by the time I get to the third or fourth season, I've just had it.
Like I said, I haven't played in quite a while so there are probably a ton of things that I'm forgetting but I'm sure if I fired up the game they would all come flooding back. Unfortunately, despite being a devoted customer since 92 (Madden being my only yearly buy in all that time) I simply no longer have the desire. It's too time consuming and frustrating and I expected so much more in this day and age.
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08-28-2017, 03:09 PM
