Rex on Franchise Mode (10/26)

[Brightline]

Quote: Originally Posted by NateDogPack12

I’ve abstained from commenting publicly much on the status of Madden CFM this year. This is because with the move to Frostbite, Rex was honest with us that this was not a typical development cycle. Some of you may not remember, but even back when M17 was released, Rex talked about how CFM needed to make strides. Now, he’s using profound words like “rebuild” that we don’t hear much from EA staff. First, the bad. Critics of Madden that point to EA’s monopoly and “non-sim” modes no doubt make some solid points. It’s obvious that MUT and accessories to it have not only taken up a lot of creative energy, but they’ve also benefited from the cutting edge tech. It’s fair to wonder if EA’s focus has swayed from providing authentic game day experience as Rex pitched when he came on board. If the goal is authenticity, CFM is your touchstone mode to showcase that. It’s quite obvious to me CFM has taken a backseat. Even in this interview, Rex stumbles on square pegs in round holes because sim leagues don’t fall into EA’s model he’s trying to force on the mode. Give us tools to enjoy HOW our league is divergent and different and unique. Don’t try to insert your nose into my league everyday, EA - that doesn’t sound fun at all. The GOOD news is that EA is listening. From a pure priority standpoint, the franchise guys still pack a punch. We need to politely but persistently make our voices heard. Rex humbled himself to say CFM has to be “rebuilt” and placed where “it deserves”. Here are some ideas to make that happen: -Use the player badge system found in Madden for the original XBOX in order to make players unique. Tie it to a morale system. You can use this to create unique player identities. Maybe a WR/CB is a slot specialist and gets +10 AWR from that spot. Maybe a guy is a special teams ace and gets a big boost on that phase of the game. Maybe a guy is super clutch or maybe he’s a mentor in the locker room. -Madden needs to somehow represent that guys like Aaron Jones can emerge from obscurity to become a starter in a two week period with solid performance. This would constitute a 12+ point upward shift in OVR. Give players a “Breakout” badge if they meet certain criteria on the field that will make them eligible for large XP increases if they sustain the performance. -Allow us to set player rotations and / or situational depth charts. -Get special teams ball trajectory right. There is too much space for punt returns and no evolved blocking on returns. -Allow the USER to control their franchise experience. If I want to play with both offenses while only using one controller, let me switch teams in game. Let us easily control all the teams without creating characters and scrolling through glitzy but in meaningful menus. -Player histories and stat tracking. In Madden 08 for the XBOX, one click of the right stick lets me see what a player’s been up to for the last decade. -Less fluff. More substance. I don’t care about your fancy animated selection boxes. Let me move about the mode intuitively, efficiently, and logically. -Let me preset settings and sliders so I don’t have to spend twenty minutes doing everything over for a new league. -True football experiences - make my long snapper matter, force me to deal with guys not practicing due to injury, or uncertainty about status. Make me choose inactives. Give me coaches and even coordinators with a badge system of their own that will impact my football team. Give me a compensatory draft system and restricted free agency. -Creation suites are a hallmark of every sports game on market despite the NFL’s apparent allergen to this. Let us at least create draft classes.

Good post but I have two issues. (1) Listen to Rex's comments. The direction he is speculating about is nothing like what you described. (2) For a game of this size, it is wholly unacceptable to say that this year there was a focus on frostbite and/or our CFM team was loaned to another game. CFM should, if EA takes it seriously, have a dedicated team that only works on this mode.

[T4VERTS]

Quote: Originally Posted by Brightline

(2) For a game of this size, it is wholly unacceptable to say that this year there was a focus on frostbite and/or our CFM team was loaned to another game. CFM should, if EA takes it seriously, have a dedicated team that only works on this mode.

Can't do that for one off large scale projects. You can't hire in a bunch of brand new people only to lay them back off after the project is complete without blowing a ton of time and money. Spending time to train them to take on the project in itself would be a huge resource sink. In cases like this where it is a project rather than a new division, you have to scavenge from within your current asset pool. It's just the way companies have to operate and part of being a business before anything.

[Cato06]

Quote: Originally Posted by T4VERTS

Can't do that for one off large scale projects. You can't hire in a bunch of brand new people only to lay them back off after the project is complete without blowing a ton of time and money. Spending time to train them to take on the project in itself would be a huge resource sink. In cases like this where it is a project rather than a new division, you have to scavenge from within your current asset pool. It's just the way companies have to operate, and part of it being a business before anything.

This is very true. The only way this would work is if you were getting already proven talent from other companies that could handle the tasks and not have to be trained. Hiring more people and having to spend half your time training them just to get them up to speed will really effect the workflow and slow everyone down resulting in less actual work getting done.

[triplechin]

Perhaps they need more developers then so CFM doesn't get pushed to the side? The lack of improvement over the last handful of years is unacceptable. I know some EA people like John White read some of the things over here but we haven't seen much if anything from here in franchise mode. I only hope he has taken the right message from DD's post as well as my own, and the countless other suggestions here. I really feel like they don't need any creativity considering people on here have done plenty of thinking lol, it is just about coding it imo.

[Brightline]

Quote: Originally Posted by T4VERTS

Can't do that for one off large scale projects. You can't hire in a bunch of brand new people only to lay them back off after the project is complete without blowing a ton of time and money. Spending time to train them to take on the project in itself would be a huge resource sink. In cases like this where it is a project rather than a new division, you have to scavenge from within your current asset pool. It's just the way companies have to operate and part of being a business before anything.

No i don't understand this. Maybe this is my ignorance but am I to believe that the same team person/people designing draft logic or implementing something like assistant coaches are also programming the gameplay engine?

[T4VERTS]

Quote: Originally Posted by Brightline

No i don't understand this. Maybe this is my ignorance but am I to believe that the same team person/people designing draft logic or implementing something like assistant coaches are also programming the gameplay engine?

No those are separate teams, so there is game play (Orlando) and CFM (Austin). In this case they borrowed assets from the CFM team to work on the frostbite transition because it was a "one time" large scale project. If you bring in a whole new team to take on such a project you have to train them on the intricacies of how the game is coded taking longer to get up and running. When they are done you then have to decide where they are going to sit full time or if your going to lay them off. From a business standpoint it simply makes more sense to use current assets to do the projects.

[Brightline]

Quote: Originally Posted by T4VERTS

No those are separate teams, so there is game play (Orlando) and CFM (Austin). In this case they borrowed assets from the CFM team to work on the frostbite transition because it was a "one time" large scale project. If you bring in a whole new team to take on such a project you have to train them on the intricacies of how the game is coded taking longer to get up and running. When they are done you then have to decide where they are going to sit full time or if your going to lay them off. From a business standpoint it simply makes more sense to use current assets to do the projects.

100% i agree what EA has done with respect to CFM makes sense from a business perspective. But my point is slightly different. The decision to take resources from CFM may be smart business but it also should signal the consumer that it is nor priority.

Even if i take your point, was CFM really in such solid position that it could afford to take a year off?

[Culture Rot]

They still don't get it