What do you want out of your franchise?

[PGaither84]

After reading a lot of posts and questions by others I felt compelled to ask what you, the members of Operation Sports, want out of your franchise[s] in Madden 10?

One person talked about how with his Packers he won back to back Super Bowls and lost all of one game. Other players talk about how they sim each game and try to use the draft and free agency to build a bad team into a champion. Others still say that they control all 32 teams and run the enitre league because they feel the computer does a poor job.

I have tried a few franchises myself while continually adjusting sliders and I found no mater what I was doing, I still ended up winning nearly every game as the season went on with my 49ers. This just wasn't cutting it for me because I like a good sim experience and having the 7-9 49ers turn around and start the season off 10-0, or 9-1 just wasn't really cutting it for me.

In my opinion there are three reasons why the computer is "too easy" no matter what custom sliders you use:

1.) Poor pursuit angles. Even if you end up playing a very close simulation style game, the poor pursuit angles often allow nice gains or nice plays to degenerate into scores or huge gains and momentum shifting plays. This can be remedied to an extent by using the "no sprint" rule. I found that by just not using sprint on offense helps prevent the big play from breaking the game. This, however, feels like a cheep solution and more like a band aid to the real problem.

2.) The computer blitzes too much, and at the wrong times. As I showed in a video of mine, I had the Ball at around the 12 with 7 seconds left and one time out. The computer sent the house with an 8 man corner blitz and it was a simple matter of tossing the touch pass over the middle to my hot receiver for the easy score. Too often in this game the D sends 6 or 7 men after the user to try and generate pressure, but any player that knows his reads can exploit this [the three reads are; Primary, Hot, and check down receivers]. Just throw it to your hot man and pick up solid yards.

3.) Poor decisions by the computer controlled QB. While every one complained about robo QB burning then up with the pass, I honestly believe that with the sliders for QB accuracy in M10 set to 22 [my preference, but anything around 20 will do] causes QBs to throw the occasional over/under throw and with WR catching set between 40-45 allows receivers to actually drop some passes, robo QB wouldn't be so bad. Currently I can watch as the computer QB has all day on a 3rd down and I will see a TE or slot receiver either running wide open over the middle or sitting alone on a curl route and will be ignored even by Kurt Warner and Tom Brady so they can force the ball to someone in tight coverage leading to incomplete passes or even turn overs.

In my opinion, these three things, above all others, are reasons why no mater what you do to the sliders to make M10 and other wise fun and simulation NFL experience, the user has a significant advantage over the computer leading to unrealistic results in franchise mode.

So I ask again; What do you want out of your franchise mode?

Thank you.

[Pringles]

you make some valid points but madden has never been sim it is trying to get there. is it not 10 times closer than last years version of the game
i personally love this game and know it is on the right track. but if i was to grip about it i would say the fact they added all the records that you can break and there is noway in hezz that with my lions stafford is going to break the all time passing records when franchise mode only last 10 years so to me all the altime records in the game are useless.

[Guggy107]

pretty sure franchise mode lasts at least 30 years

[Pringles]

i just looked at a josh looman video and he said 30 years lol my mistake that is sweet i thought he said 10 in anothervideo unless he ment online.

[PGaither84]

He did mean online. They said that they would consider expanding the 10 years if they found a lot of people capping out at the 10 year mark, but they honestly don't expect people to play that much online franchise.

[sois]

Your issues aren't really franchise mode issues, but gameplay issues. But I guess I'll answer the original question:

Full NFL sized rosters
Preseason that means something - NFL cut down days, roster battles, training camp
Weekly progression
Restricted free agency
Actual NFL INJURED RESERVE rules
Ratings that matter for positions other than QB and attributes other than speed
Coaches that actually do something
Finances that matter
New stadiums without moving your team
Head Coach FA negotiation
Some sort of immersion with what is happening in the rest of the league

Pretty much an overhaul of what is there.

[R.Moncrief]

I can look past the practice team squad, cutting players down to a 53 man roster, the IR issues, and all those kind of gripes.

I look past them because they are all necessities for a real(er) franchise experience and at this point, I've grown used to not having them and I have adjusted. They would be nice touches, and I'm sure they are easy fixes, but I can dig the game without 'em.

I would like the EA Radio thing back. I forget the host but whoever that bald dude was, he was essential to my franchises a few years back. I'm pretty good at imagining my own drama within my franchises and simulating the idea of suspending players and all that, but with that addition they had so many years ago, it made it easier to believe the league had a pulse. I haven't played franchise on Madden 10 yet, I refuse to until the patch is released, and maybe the Extra Point will help me in this area but unless it is exactly like that radio thing, I doubt it.

I don't know if they fixed this and if Madden has always had this feature, I can't remember experiencing it but I would love it if I can sim the rest of the games for say Week 4 and suddenly I have a notification that some team wants to negotiate a trade with me. To know that the CPU controlled teams are coveting one of my top guys would make everything a lot more interesting. As it stands, this year, I think I'm going to control all 32 teams for the first time in my Madden playing experience so this last point I brought out winds up not mattering a whole lot.

And yea, I'm sure some gameplay tweaks would help smooth franchise over. I don't mind admitting a fault and I feel as though I may not be as good as the rest of you. I know how to play the game and play it well, maybe I'm not as aggressive as the rest of you and that's probably a good thing because I can maintain balanced game scores most of the time and going 9-7 isn't a hard task. Do I have to sometimes run out of bounds so I don't run up the score to 28 in the first half? Sure. But you know what? It's not that HUGE of a deal. In the NFL, if a team could they'd drop 45 in the first half. No mercy. For me, I guess, it's different. Just because I can do something, doesn't necessarily mean I have to.

[Whoa Titan]

I want star players to really stand out

I want to be able to get sacks on a decent enough basis if i have a good D-line {like averaging from 1-4 a game]

I want O-line to be important, and to be leaps and bounds better in run blocking and pass blocking.

Finally, I want a GOOD jump ball, because Larry Fitz and Calvin Johnson, etc, are just the same as any other wr without it.