Madden 22 Preview: Franchise, Customization, & Presentation Questions Answered by Bri

[jmurphy31]

Quote: Originally Posted by Playmakers

Yeah I read it and actually he never said they tried to push a halftime show through. He made that comment regarding the injury statement if I'm not mistaken. This is what I gathered about the halftime show which is what they wanted to do not because they couldn't do it...... "The halftime show will be different, but it’s not going to be kind of what you’re envisioning, which is around all highlights from around the league. It’s going to be focused on your matchup and strategy, and statistics, what the other team is doing well, not doing well, to inform you on what to do for your halftime adjustment." He didn't mention anything about trying to push it through (Highlights/shows)

That’s how I read it as well. They wanted to make it the way they made with the focus on adjustments.

Here’s my thoughts. The focus on depth is great in franchise mode, but without a better source of getting the user information about the league and what is going on it’s like playing an action game (let’s say Spider-Man) without any story line. You just keep fighting random enemies and a few larger ones but you have no idea why or for what purpose. Yes, you have the ability to increase your hit power, change skins , add more attacks but without a story the game becomes repetitive. That’s where I am with Madden. Still feels like it has no life to it.

Bringing this back to madden, now I can spend even more time on my team with coaches, new scouting, new storylines (which before week 1 is just a coach press conference with words that have to be read, which is pretty week in my opinion). But I still doubt the CPU makes the same adjustments. And how am I supposed to game plan about my opponent if I don’t even know who is good on their team. Or who has been playing well. I would love to hear about a QB battle in preseason or a big injury or trade that happens.

[michapop9]

Quote: Originally Posted by Playmakers

I'd be interesting in hearing EA's feedback on the CPU AI game planning and adjustments. I mean sure the human player will have all these new resources to use but how will it effect the CPU AI when they face a human player in franchise? Are they going to adjust their strategies based on the same tendencies on their own or do we still have to control all 32 teams just to make sure game planning applies to both teams through the week or on game day. If I'm controlling Lamar Jackson shouldn't the CPU focus on him as well doing their preparation.

1000 % ^^^^^ nothing was mentioned about the cpus use of the new franchise features. One other thing, the article mentions the "game" telling us what an opponent does well and uses alot of. They specifically mentioned Lamars scrambling ability and stated that if lamar was scrambling alot the game would let you know so you could plan against it.

Heres the thing, unless they updated the simstats which i highly doubt, theres no way lamar is scrambling alot in simulated games which leads me to believe that the gameplanning feature is not tied to simulated games at all. Another immersion breaker.

[ggsimmonds]

Quote: Originally Posted by PhillyPhanatic14

Again, if you read the article they said they tried to push more things through and weren't able to get it approved for this cycle. It sounded like a budget thing. It's not like they fixed the socks on the packers and bills and didn't add anything else to the game. There have been years where the work they put in is crazy small (see M21) but this isn't one of those years. They've made some major strides in franchise this cycle and what's coming for scouting is really promising. We don't even know yet what live update 2 & 3 are so maybe more is coming.

I'm a software developer and certified scrum master so I can tell you exactly what happens because he spoke my language with the line " then it got locked off once the estimates came in for the other stuff."

It wasn't about budget. In software development we estimate the amount of effort everything requires, often using the fibonacci sequence.

So what likely happens in their creative phase is brainstorming. This is the design phase where they think of what it would look like and entail. So they get the feature mapped out.

They then gather the whole team (or only relevant parties) and estimate the amount of effort each feature requires.

They have what is called "capacity" which is basically the max amount of points they can commit to for that development cycle. They rank features based on priority, and go down the list until they reach their capacity. Features that consistently miss the cut usually do so because the low priority does not justify the amount of effort involved (halftime show is the best example of this).

Just thought I'd share that so people don't get the wrong idea that the execs are "shooting them down" on things.

[khaliib]

I really liked this Q/A as it helped me to understand how the new Game Plan mechanism functions inside Franchise (wish they do more of these vs the Gridiron Notes).

Now I know what to look for specifically dealing with improvement feedback for this mechanism specifically.

I'm assuming that the initial Franchise start up will comprise of 2021 Stats to start the Game Plans off, then will update according to what's happening in the Franchise.

I love the part where their focus for this mechanism is to have the AI team actually hammer the User during gameplay based off the AI Teams given data.

If this works as intended and is dynamic over the entire Franchise, this will be a major injection into the Mode that will add a tangible team differentiation element.

It's a 110 degrees here in Fresno, CA so I'm not going anywhere, perfect time for some extensive Beta testing.

[Qcsports4]

One thing that I do think the NHL series does well that could be a slider option for Madden is the CPU A.I. Adjustment slider and maybe a slider for how quickly the CPU adjusts to how we are playing against it.