Madden 22 Scouting Update Impressions

[BoomFranchise]

Quote: Originally Posted by coachmac75

I am very impressed with what has been delivered. Let me try to explain (note: i have been playing Madden exclusively in online lg since Madden 04). Over the past few years, the hardcore NFL fans playing madden (i.e. franchise mode) often felt development resources were not properly used. This new scouting has clearly been made fort these hardcore NFL fans playing madden who are into details and who like and understand what the NFL draft is. The fact we cannot, simply cannot, walk into the draft pretty much knowing everything on all prospects is an amazing step to make this game a real sim game. I mean we never had real bust drafted (and i exlcusively play in active online franchise). I mean we usually had enough points to undercover all attributes. It was easy to figure out player attribute values, the only unknown were the traits (and we used the stories for that). This new scouting leaves you for most prospects with that scout report and couples attributes and physicals plus a real small number of well scouted prospects. This is a game changer and results in what a draft pick is: a shot in the dark. Now We will all draft bust and we will all find unexpected gems. For instance, I never ever in a Madden online lg understood the rationales to trade down (and lets be clear i have yet to see a good user doing a trade down period). Simply because you always have a good picture of what is left. Now it will make sense. If the guys you have scouted well have all been drafted (especially for online lg) then you may pefer two shots in the dark for cheaper contracts rather than one, or, even, one this year and one next year. This is amazing, really amazing. I am very impressed by the work done and more important the design decision made. Thank you EA we often make critics because we play your game like 700h or 800h a year but this is an amazing added value for football fans looking for an immersive madden game. Note: if you could now restore free practice in the game even after game preparation that would be highly appreciated.

I do think like Bengal said even not knowing "everything about a player" it's pretty baffling we wouldn't be able to get a CB's man and/or zone coverage despite 85% scouting on them, or a LB who we can't see their tackle rating.

For only franchise's, I also think at some point people will make "cheat sheets" for guys to be drafted and most will know who are busts and who aren't.

Still these changes are a welcome addition, hopefully they continue to patch them moving forward!

[steelheat226]

Quote: Originally Posted by coachmac75

I am very impressed with what has been delivered. Let me try to explain (note: i have been playing Madden exclusively in online lg since Madden 04). Over the past few years, the hardcore NFL fans playing madden (i.e. franchise mode) often felt development resources were not properly used. This new scouting has clearly been made fort these hardcore NFL fans playing madden who are into details and who like and understand what the NFL draft is. The fact we cannot, simply cannot, walk into the draft pretty much knowing everything on all prospects is an amazing step to make this game a real sim game. I mean we never had real bust drafted (and i exlcusively play in active online franchise). I mean we usually had enough points to undercover all attributes. It was easy to figure out player attribute values, the only unknown were the traits (and we used the stories for that). This new scouting leaves you for most prospects with that scout report and couples attributes and physicals plus a real small number of well scouted prospects. This is a game changer and results in what a draft pick is: a shot in the dark. Now We will all draft bust and we will all find unexpected gems. For instance, I never ever in a Madden online lg understood the rationales to trade down (and lets be clear i have yet to see a good user doing a trade down period). Simply because you always have a good picture of what is left. Now it will make sense. If the guys you have scouted well have all been drafted (especially for online lg) then you may pefer two shots in the dark for cheaper contracts rather than one, or, even, one this year and one next year. This is amazing, really amazing. I am very impressed by the work done and more important the design decision made. Thank you EA we often make critics because we play your game like 700h or 800h a year but this is an amazing added value for football fans looking for an immersive madden game. Note: if you could now restore free practice in the game even after game preparation that would be highly appreciated.

Thank for that this. Completely nailed it! I like this patch. I’m a grateful fan that appreciates the details and different world this will create with drafting busts/gems. I can’t wait to get the guys set for my League Thursday. Waiting on the roster & standings update to start from Week 6

[9juice]

Quote: Originally Posted by coachmac75

I am very impressed with what has been delivered. Let me try to explain (note: i have been playing Madden exclusively in online lg since Madden 04). Over the past few years, the hardcore NFL fans playing madden (i.e. franchise mode) often felt development resources were not properly used. This new scouting has clearly been made fort these hardcore NFL fans playing madden who are into details and who like and understand what the NFL draft is. The fact we cannot, simply cannot, walk into the draft pretty much knowing everything on all prospects is an amazing step to make this game a real sim game. I mean we never had real bust drafted (and i exlcusively play in active online franchise). I mean we usually had enough points to undercover all attributes. It was easy to figure out player attribute values, the only unknown were the traits (and we used the stories for that). This new scouting leaves you for most prospects with that scout report and couples attributes and physicals plus a real small number of well scouted prospects. This is a game changer and results in what a draft pick is: a shot in the dark. Now We will all draft bust and we will all find unexpected gems. For instance, I never ever in a Madden online lg understood the rationales to trade down (and lets be clear i have yet to see a good user doing a trade down period). Simply because you always have a good picture of what is left. Now it will make sense. If the guys you have scouted well have all been drafted (especially for online lg) then you may pefer two shots in the dark for cheaper contracts rather than one, or, even, one this year and one next year. This is amazing, really amazing. I am very impressed by the work done and more important the design decision made. Thank you EA we often make critics because we play your game like 700h or 800h a year but this is an amazing added value for football fans looking for an immersive madden game. Note: if you could now restore free practice in the game even after game preparation that would be highly appreciated.

Just curious, Why is it crazy to trade down? Or did you just mean in online multi player leagues? I play against the CPU but I traded down all the time to get better value on guys/future picks and to make it somewhat more realistic since the CPU didn't trade much, if at all, during the draft.

[wvu22]

Does anyone know if it works with existing franchise? I’m 11 weeks in with a lot of work put in. Do I need to restart?

[Cory Levy]

Quote: Originally Posted by wvu22

Does anyone know if it works with existing franchise? I’m 11 weeks in with a lot of work put in. Do I need to restart?

Yes, the new update will only apply to fresh franchises once installed.

[coachmac75]

Quote: Originally Posted by 9juice

Just curious, Why is it crazy to trade down? Or did you just mean in online multi player leagues? I play against the CPU but I traded down all the time to get better value on guys/future picks and to make it somewhat more realistic since the CPU didn't trade much, if at all, during the draft.

Yes i exclusively meant in online Madden lg context

[Zvonimir Boban]

I am not liking it but my problems are almost entirely due to the poor design of the menus/UI making everything a time consuming chore or downright breaking it.

For example, I'm at the stage in week 11 or whatever where I choose 3 players for the full focus. My National Scout is a QB scout so I want to choose 3 quarterbacks out of a weak QB class for him to fully examine.

So I click Scout College Players > Prospects

Then I filter by QB and this is all business as usual for anybody who has played Madden in the past however many years.

So now I'm faced with this screen



The problem here is now I have no idea about any of the letter grades that have been revealed so I have to individually go into each QB > Press the right bumper to go the physicals tab > press the right bumper again to see all the letter grades that have been unlocked > Decide if he is worth getting a full report on> Go back out to the previous screen > scroll down to the next QB > repeat that whole process for every QB in the class

Oh and each time you back out of a scouting report to the main prospects page it highlights the very first player in that position so by the time I've got to the 11th or 12th scouting report I have to scroll back down past a dozen guys because it keeps restarting me at the top of the class.

And the only small mercy is that because I've got them 80% scouted at least I can see the player archetype so I can just focus on scramblers or strong arm QBs depending on my offensive scheme.

But let's say if I had only got 55% scouting done and my QB suddenly decides to retire midway through the year or whatever, so now I want to focus on QBs I've got no idea if they are scramblers or field generals and I have to go through this tedium for every single quarterback in the class to see if they can run or if they are statues.

If I could flip through the scouting report cards by pressing up/down or use the triggers to go to the previous/next QB in the class without going back and forth from various screens it would remove like 95% of the frustration in one fell swoop.

Oh and it actually doesn't matter for this season of my franchise because when the prompt comes up in the franchise menu to focus scouts on a position this is what happens.

You see the prompt to select position focus and click it > Select position focus or delegate to staff > Think "Hmmm I should double check the prospects before I make a final decision" and press B to go back to the main menu and look at the prospects > Bad luck the prompt is gone and now that has been delegated to my staff and my defensive end scout Chris Long is scouting receivers which is definitely not why I hired him, my OLB scout is looking at MLBs which I don't need and my DT scout is scouting receivers and my cornerback scout is looking at right tackles when I have Penei Sewell starting at that spot. I can't see any way to reassign scouts so it looks like my draft is just ruined. Not only that but I now have to tattoo onto my body a reminder to myself to keep in depth records of which positions/regions/players I want to scout so the unwieldy menus don't break my draft class the next season.

It's the same problem Madden has had for a while and everybody who has had to adjust their depth charts knows the pain, you need to go back and forth through two or three different menus to get the full picture about a players traits, their development speed, their age/contract etc and everything takes 5 times longer than it should as a result.


The idea in theory is brilliant but in practice it's busted and I'm not the only person this is going to frustrate. I might actually miss having to keep track of my scouting via a spreadsheet, at least then I could be as detailed or as casual as I wanted to. Right now if you delegate everything to your staff you might end up with your staff going "Yeah we've got Patrick Mahomes and a garbage defence but you know what let's have 3 of our 5 scouts dedicate their time to scouting quarterbacks" and then when the draft starts you are absolutely screwed.

[venem557]

It's terrible to be honest.

Just think of a real draft... What NFL team wouldn't even know which scheme players ran except 5-6 players? What NFL team would go into a draft only having scouted 3 players 100%? And if they did, still don't know most things about them?

Why do I have to click on every single prospect to see their combine scores? Combine that with 99% of them only being scouted to 40%, how long will it take to actually pick out ones to look into, or should I click through 600 prospects to find the fastest RB?

No draft board.. So no setting one up to allow the cpu to draft..

It reminds me of the off season free agency screen. All this clicking around to find the same info that's easily available on the season free agency screen. They didn't actually do anything but remove information, give us less to do, and call it an update.