Make trading harder and scouting better!

[TMaj1972]

Been a big Madden fan for awhile, but found a lot of what ESPN was doing to be really good the past few years (especially in terms of presentation, running game, etc.) I'm disappointed about the exclusive deal, but am holding out hope that Madden '06 will really take itself up a notch.

Besides finally fixing suction blocking, blitzers who run right into people and ineffective run blocking, the 2 things that I think will really help Madden '06 are:

1. PLEASE make trading harder. A point system for valuing players and draft picks has been mentioned in lots of places, and I think that's a great way to go. I know EA talks about making the game "more accessible" to casual gamers with easy trades and fewer injuries, but they are really disappointing the knowledgeable football gamer by turning what is supposed to be an NFL simulation into fantasy football. Trades just don't happen that often in the league, and there's no reason that it should be possible to duplicate the Ricky Williams to the Saints trade every year in the draft--especially if you're picking #32. Assigning "points" would be an excellent idea.

It would also be great to just ratchet the CPU's aversion to trades WAAAAY up (as the default setting) and then have a "Trade Override" feature (that can be toggled off, of course) that allows players who want a more forgiving trade environment to have one. The override system I'm thinking about wouldn't be an automatic override that forces the computer to accept your trade offer; instead, it would divide the CPU's interest meter into 4 segments of interest (25%, 50%, 75%, 100%) and require, based on the slider setting, that the human player's offer reach one of those levels before the override becomes available. That way, players can at least be forced to provide reasonably legitimate trade offers. It doesn't have to be 25% segments; it could be every 20%, 10%, etc. Whatever. IMO, that would really cut down on the ability to hoard high draft picks AND would force folks to give up something close to true value.

2. The other thing that really gets on my nerves is the amount of info that we have access to as far as college draft scouting. The present system requires that we spend way too much "time" to get "information" on far too few players, and the information really isn't that helpful anyway. (Anybody else tired of spending 2nd round picks on 69 OVR players?) I say eliminate the guesswork in the draft; let us see the players' full ratings, but either (a) put much more weight on the IMP rating, so that we can know during the draft that a guy measures well but might not play well; or (b) have the ratings compiled by our own team scouts, who may or may not be good at their jobs. This business of finding out ratings after you've committed $ is bogus, and leads to cheeseball tactics like saving your game before the draft so you can do it over if necessary. NFL scouts scour the whole country to get their info; they don't go into the draft expecting that the 15 guys they looked at will last through 220+ picks. To me, the draft is pretty much useless after the 3rd round, and that's just not realistic.

I might be in the minority, but I want to have cap trouble. I want to deal with injuries. I want to find a gem in the 4th, 5th or 6th round that is a good fit for my system. Sorry this post is so long--but I really, really love Madden. If it's going to be the only NFL game in town for the next 5 years, I'd like to see them address some of the gameplay problems and stop fabricating newspaper headlines with inaccurate stories/pictures and e-mails from team owners who don't know what the team's record is.

[BUCSfan94]

I agree with you completely except for the draft part.. I don't wanna see the whole attributs or better yet give us some (ex. like speed and catch or strength and agility) not all. I wanna have cap problems also at the end of a couple years.

[TheLetterZ]

I agree with you completely on everything. It's a shame that none of it will ever happen.

[IlliniM1ke]

I agree with everything your saying other than the draft part. When I draft I look for players who I think (from their scouting reports) look like they'll fit the defense I run or they're the type of offensive guys I like, I like the guesswork in it, the draft is a crapshoot so if you wind up picking a 69 rated OL in round 2 because his scouting report (which should definitely be more in-depth than it is) fits what you like then you have to work with them to improve.

But I do want harder trading, cap problems, more injuries (not outrageously high but in my current Franchise I'm in week 12 and have only had 2 injuries and one was only for 1 quarter), I know the cap problems exist once you get deep into the chise (like year 15 I think one person said but they should come faster than that due to most teams don't have 15 years before they're strapped financially).

[msuforever]

I like the "scouts" item. They have coaches and assistant coaches, why not have you hire 2 "scouts" who can either scout the other team your facing that week (increasing players awr slightly), or scouting college prospects(kind of like CBB2k5, they have a basic "grade" or number, you find the exact numbers). And I totally agree with you, 15 PEOPLE SCOUTED A WEEK IS NOT ENOUGH!!!!

[3bitz]

What will honestly be VERY helpful would be a Senoir Bowl game to either watch or play before you scout the players, just like in College Hoops! This would definitly be a step in the fun factor direction. And make everyone availiable to be scouted for crying out loud.