Where's the Road Map? Where's the Live Service?

[PhillyPhanatic14]

Back in the golden days of summer when the devs still informed us about their plans for Madden 22, their whole mantra was about how Madden is a live service. They said it everywhere and repeated it nonstop. Since launch, we've gotten 2 substantial title updates to fix bugs and we got a half baked version of the scouting update... which has many bugs that haven't been acknowledged or fixed since releasing over a month ago. In Madden 21 we had a road map which set expectations and gave the devs targets to hit for their live service. This year we're getting fewer title updates than ever to fix the large number of bugs in the game and we have no communication about future updates and plans for this "live service"

I am fine with games not updating much after they release - THPS 1+2 is a great example of a game with potential that got abandoned after release. The difference is those devs never said their game was a live service... These Madden devs couldn't get a sentence out without saying live service over and over and yet here we are... 3 months after release... with the same bugs from the beta in June, no communication from the devs, and no idea if they're ever going to fix these bugs or add anything to the game this year.

If this pattern continues through the rest of the M22 cycle, hopefully for next year they learn from all the promises they failed to deliver. The podcasts over the summer were cool at the time, but looking back now we see that most of those new features are still full of bugs, and some of it never even made it into the game (looking at you coaching carousel & playbooks blog).

And if anyone else is frustrated, go look at the gridiron notes section of the EA website... they do a once a week newsletter for Ultimate Team lol. Clearly it's possible for them to tell us what is happening if they want to and they just don't want to. The live service seems dead.

[BadAssHskr]

Re: Where's the Road Map? Where's the Live Service?

Penalties before Thanksgiving, in Sim mode, would push this game to new heights.

[lilrosati56]

Re: Where's the Road Map? Where's the Live Service?

two words: DRAFT. LOGIC. Needs to be fixed ASAP, it's a total franchise killer for me. There are so many things I like about this game, and things they've improved on. I like the game planning, and practice management. I like the new scouting, I like the newsfeed, they fixed offline sim stats....I can even live with penalties being where they are....but I can't stand seeing CPU teams picking QBs in the draft right after they've already drafted one.

And you're right about the Gridiron Notes constantly being updated regarding MUT Content.....between that, and this site's only MLB The Show content being Diamond Dynasty related, it just makes me sad.

[Darth Aegis]

Re: Where's the Road Map? Where's the Live Service?

two words: DRAFT. LOGIC. Needs to be fixed ASAP, it's a total franchise killer for me. There are so many things I like about this game, and things they've improved on. I like the game planning, and practice management. I like the new scouting, I like the newsfeed, they fixed offline sim stats....I can even live with penalties being where they are....but I can't stand seeing CPU teams picking QBs in the draft right after they've already drafted one.

And you're right about the Gridiron Notes constantly being updated regarding MUT Content.....between that, and this site's only MLB The Show content being Diamond Dynasty related, it just makes me sad.

Didn't they say they fixed draft logic every year for the past 3 yrs? They should just admit they don't know their own coding at this point.

[Sheba2011]

Re: Where's the Road Map? Where's the Live Service?

I had a draft in which one team took two QB's in the first round and then Jacksonville took a QB with the 3rd overall pick. The new scouting update completely broke any draft logic they had already (which wasn't much to begin with).

[baconbits11]

Re: Where's the Road Map? Where's the Live Service?

What else is new, many promises, no delivery

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

[tru11]

Re: Where's the Road Map? Where's the Live Service?

Why hire people to count the money when you can have the devs do it.


Verzonden vanaf mijn iPhone met Operation Sports

[BadAssHskr]

Re: Where's the Road Map? Where's the Live Service?

Don’t we usually get a patch to kick off the holiday weekend to boot?

[secondsolution]

Re: Where's the Road Map? Where's the Live Service?

I hate the whole live service approach. Basically means we get a half-baked release most years and then they split their team to work on 'live' updates to divert resources from next year's game.

Just give us a game that works out of the box with features the team is capable of creating.

I personally will be taking a break from Madden for a few years. The franchise additions that got me excited the last couple of years have all lacked depth and had issues with bugs. I think I need to step away from it all and hopefully come back to something fresh in 2024

[dvdsaba]

Re: Where's the Road Map? Where's the Live Service?

When EA goes quiet it is usually a bad sign for franchise. They said in the Summer they would do 3 major franchise updates like last year. So for, scouting and... Bet you this gets disregarded also unless we count regular patches... Shame because franchise still needs major work.

[NoFear]

Re: Where's the Road Map? Where's the Live Service?

Franchise certainly still needs a lot of work. I'm not that impressed with the scouting update in particular. It would've been so much better if you could play with your Top 5 or so scouted players in private workouts and play with the seniors in a senior bowl game.

The one feature we really need is to be able to Create A Relocation Team fully in Franchise like NCAA's Team Builder feature was. If NFL doesn't allow it then they need to put a lot more options into what they currently have. I'm so tired of having the same damn options over the last what, 6 years?! Also creating the option to have an league expansion with your created team would be great. I want customization similar to the Yard but in Franchise.

The only hope I have is that EA hired the guy who posted great ideas for Franchise mode from here or so I remember reading a few months ago. Let's hope he's actually able to implement his ideas.

[dvdsaba]

Re: Where's the Road Map? Where's the Live Service?

Franchise certainly still needs a lot of work. I'm not that impressed with the scouting update in particular. It would've been so much better if you could play with your Top 5 or so scouted players in private workouts and play with the seniors in a senior bowl game.

The one feature we really need is to be able to Create A Relocation Team fully in Franchise like NCAA's Team Builder feature was. If NFL doesn't allow it then they need to put a lot more options into what they currently have. I'm so tired of having the same damn options over the last what, 6 years?! Also creating the option to have an league expansion with your created team would be great. I want customization similar to the Yard but in Franchise.

The only hope I have is that EA hired the guy who posted great ideas for Franchise mode from here or so I remember reading a few months ago. Let's hope he's actually able to implement his ideas.

Agreed. Find it borderline unplayable when you look at all the customization features available in games like NBA2K and EA NHL even... Played Madden under 5 hours this year and only because I got it as a gift. Would have liked to see stuff like college stats and senior bowl added to scouting also.

Current create a team is a joke. Should be what 2K does and lets users create teams and share them online for others to download. And more layers like division realignment, stadium creator, field editor, stadium upgrades, league meetings/voting for it... League expansion would be great also.

And really disappointed that the bulk of customization features from The Yard are still not in Franchise. Tons of missing or outdated equipment (arm sleeves, undershirts, different mouthpieces), no face editor/sculptor for creating realistic/immersive draft classes like 2K (choosing from generic faces belongs in 2005...), and you can't even edit a common name within custom draft classes without the announcer losing the ability to say it within game. Madden has always been horrid in terms of customization (it's what makes franchise so immersive and playable several years in for many when done right).

I'm not too optimistic this is a focus for them over the next few years as they seem oblivious to it and lack the attention to detail needed for fully implementing features that aren't broken in many areas once you drill in.