How Do You Keep Your Franchise Fresh?

[smace767]

What i do in season 8 with the current chise.
Play on custom 13s and 14 passing and reduce speed differential affect to 48 to reduce the affect of having fast players just a little.

I scout the top 54 high potential players, 5 weeks apiece, 18 at a time, but i dont have the list and i dont change my draft habits to get high potential guys. I can only draft who my team needs by position, and no sooner than 1-2 rounds before projection. so in round 2 if i need a cb and a high potential cb i scouted is projected in the 5th i cant draft him. if he is projected in the 4th i could but i cant pass more than 5 guys at his position to get him. This keeps the good players spread out to all the teams.

I never sign the best at A position FA, and only sign a max of two fa. During the season i can redo only 2 guys contracts but not for anyone over 32 years old. so i release a lot of guys and sign specific skill set lower rated FAs.

after season 4, I only play 8 games if i won the superbowl the year before, 10 games otherwise and sim the rest. only one game against the div foes at home up until game 14. The last two weeks i can play one game if their is something still to gain as far as playoff position or home field. This creates injuries and forces me to adjust to that. and lets the game even out user ability vs the actual quality of my team with wins and losses.

Doing this i have snuck up on Cory Judge, Tyrus Duhon to name a few and i didnt even know how good they were when i drafted them. I also signed a HB who is 74 ovr and only c potential, but a beast in short yardage with 99 trk 95 brk tackle. He will never gain 1900 yds since he is still a backup and a formation sub, but he gets the job done well enough to keep it fresh.

[cletusdog]

I keep my franchise fresh by signing Kyle Boller to the Raiders.
Yikes.

[bo4345]

I keep franchise fresh by not resigning 90% of my players, making zero FA deals in the offseason, and trading away marque players every now and then. Controlling all 32 teams is too time consuming for me and I don't like the draft when you control EVERYBODY. If a high rated player that I want to re-sign refuses my first offer in the offseason I will franchise tag him and attempt to trade him or keep him if I can't get a good deal with another team. Try to switch from a 4-3 D for a 3-4 every few years for fun. Also try to shift from a passing team to a running team and visa versa. I don't really have house rules, I just try to 'get' myself and constantly have needs to fill each offseason.

If you don't want your team to be a beast by year 3, start with the cupcake team(you gotta create one), which has about 3-4 players worth keeping after the first season. In year 2 I have a team from 6-10 rookies, and a bunch of "misfits" from the FA pool, and some players from year 1. I try to play most of the division games and sim all the rest.

I typically play 4-5 games each season, and try to make a team that can win against good teams like the Pats, Chargers or Colts without me having to play those games.

[TheCreep]

I keep my franchise fresh by not doing a damn thing with ANY team. I control all 32 teams but whatever happens during the off season I could care less about. Its all a surprise the next season for me, lol. Its the Madden parallel universe, come on, you all should know that by now. Accept it, lol.

I play with the Browns. I went into my second season and noticed I had Asomugha on the team. Dont know how I aqcuired him, but I was like **** that'll work.

I play an NCAA season, draft the class, go to Madden play a season. Rinse and repeat. Except the next season, I just save the NCAA class and use the Madden generated class when I start my new Madden season. I go back and forth with the NCAA class and the Madden generated class every season.

I've never looked at the Madden generated classes, so I dont know who the hell any of them are, and its a mix and mash up anyway because every other season I bring in NCAA classes. In theory.

I've yet to make it past a third season, because the obsessive compulsive cats on this ****in site always come up with conspiracy theory that makes me want to start my franchise over, lol.

The latest one is, "turn CAPS off", you wont have to worry about the CPU getting stuck in limbo, ie you cant start your franchise because you have to cycle through teams to figure out something that was wrong in regards to the players and team salary or whatever.

So now, here at the end of Madden season 2 (almost time to go back to NCAA) I want to start over and turn caps off. I probably wont end up with asomugha this next go around if I do, but who cares? Make do with what you have. I think I'm about to stop reading some of this **** on this site and just play the ****in game, with my special slider set, and the ability to realize that it is the Madden Parallel/Bizarro world, lol.

I thoroughly enjoy both games actually, even with the willy wonka **** that happens sometimes in Maddenworld, and I consider myself a sim head through and through. Is that possible, or maybe I'm just not as sim as I thought, I noticed lots of folks here actuall play text sims?, lol ya gotta be nuts, lol.

[mavfan21]

Quote: Originally Posted by TheCreep

I keep my franchise fresh by not doing a damn thing with ANY team. I control all 32 teams but whatever happens during the off season I could care less about. Its all a surprise the next season for me, lol. Its the Madden parallel universe, come on, you all should know that by now. Accept it, lol. I play with the Browns. I went into my second season and noticed I had Asomugha on the team. Dont know how I aqcuired him, but I was like **** that'll work.

I actaully thought of doing this maybe every 3rd season or so. Just set all signings, etc. to CPU for my team and then seeing what happens.

Like I said, I run a 32 team chise but set the CPU to run all teams but mine. I also do CPU to CPU trades and adjust depth charts, make some cuts, signings (I make sure the CPU signs Brees, Mayo, etc. to long term deals) and so on.

I have a lot of the same rules that people have listed. Just started a new franchise and I am going to stick to these:

-Use Star Player perk on one of my players only once every three seasons, on CPU teams every other
-Custom pick the first 15 or so draft picks (to make sure the CPU doesn't pick a HB for Carolina or a QB for the Colts/NE) and sim the rest until my team picks.
-When my team picks I am not allowed to pick a player unless he is in the top three remaining at his position at that point (no taking Leron James in the 2nd round, I have to see if I get lucky and he's there in the 5th).
-Re-sign no more than 5 players in the off-season.
-No more than 5 FA signings and only one above 85 OVR.
-"Adopt " 2 CPU teams an off-season and treat them like my team. Really assess and address their needs and boost them up.
-Sim 3/4 of games and always sim first round of playoffs.
-Supersim 2nd and 3rd quarter of playoff and Super Bowl games.

[RGiles36]

I don't do anything significant to keep my franchise fresh. I run into the same issue as some of you (always finishing with a winning season). However, at some point I'd like to play with a poor team to see if I'm still winning games as easily. As a 'Boys fan, I have a solid team in Madden by default as they are in real life. Plenty of playmakers on offense & defense...so I can't really get mad when I excel and continue to make the playoffs.

It might be worth it for me to try to get a team with a starting QB in the 60's or 70's, just to see if it's any harder with a lower rated signal caller.

Aside from that, the offseason is what keeps the franchise fresh for me. Though the offseason hasn't been presented as well in the past, I live to add new players to my team and see how they fit. And while I'm not a stat junkie, I love building a great defense. In my 2nd year in my franchise, I had one of the best defenses in the league after I drafted a stud MLB to replace Keith Brooking. In the offseason following, I lost some players on the D-line and it seems to have impacted my defenses' effectiveness. Stuff like that keeps me going...

I don't pick up that many free agents, but I did grab a 3rd tight end a few games into the season. His overall rating wasn't very high, but he had great hands and decent speed for TE. He's been productive and has supplanted my previous 2nd TE, John Philips. Transactions such as this and just finding better players to fit your scheme(s) keeps things fresh for me as well.

[splff3000]

Quote: Originally Posted by rgiles36

I don't do anything significant to keep my franchise fresh. I run into the same issue as some of you (always finishing with a winning season). However, at some point I'd like to play with a poor team to see if I'm still winning games as easily. As a 'Boys fan, I have a solid team in Madden by default as they are in real life. Plenty of playmakers on offense & defense...so I can't really get mad when I excel and continue to make the playoffs. It might be worth it for me to try to get a team with a starting QB in the 60's or 70's, just to see if it's any harder with a lower rated signal caller. Aside from that, the offseason is what keeps the franchise fresh for me. Though the offseason hasn't been presented as well in the past, I live to add new players to my team and see how they fit. And while I'm not a stat junkie, I love building a great defense. In my 2nd year in my franchise, I had one of the best defenses in the league after I drafted a stud MLB to replace Keith Brooking. In the offseason following, I lost some players on the D-line and it seems to have impacted my defenses' effectiveness. Stuff like that keeps me going... I don't pick up that many free agents, but I did grab a 3rd tight end a few games into the season. His overall rating wasn't very high, but he had great hands and decent speed for TE. He's been productive and has supplanted my previous 2nd TE, John Philips. Transactions such as this and just finding better players to fit your scheme(s) keeps things fresh for me as well.

Yeah, try starting your franchise with the Raiders and use Bill's sliders. You'll be hating life. lol. Good luck completing a pass. My first year I went 4-12. My next year I went 6-10. I'm currently in my 3rd year and I'm 5-5 right now. I've built my team up pretty good with some playmakers and some explosive guys on offense. I'm still working on the defense though.

Like Rgiles, I'm not really a stat junkie, but I'm always trying to get my LB's on the first page of tackles for the league lol. Kirk Morrison almost made it last year. I think if he was a little faster, he'd be up there easily. It's not really a rule, but I don't tend to pick up free agents if they're over 80. Mostly because they won't sign with me lol. I picked up this nice undrafted DT last year. He was rated only a 65, but he dominates the DL. He doesn't get a bunch of sacks and stuff, but I see him pushing his blocker into the backfield all the time. I have a feeling that I have about 2 or 3 more years to go before I'm Super Bowl ready. I can tell my team is getting better though. I got blown out in just about every game my first season. This year, not only have I not gotten blown out, but I got my first couple of double digit wins lol. Bill's sliders are no joke. If you think the game is easy, try using his sliders. Anyway, I don't know what I'm gonna do win I finally win it all. It's no cake walk getting there this year.

[PhillyPhanatic]

I've never done this before since i just thought of this, and i dont have M10, but:

For M11 after i do a few years with my Eagles, im going to create a team (a expansion team) where all my players i select(draft) are free agents like in real life. think it will be something new and fresh, and i think itll be fun to build up a expansion team with a bunch of has beens, and players who got cut the year before.