Franchise speculations

[Flamehead]

Quote: Originally Posted by stux

Last year pretty much anyone that read these boards or that looked into the game new LONG before E3 online franchise was in. If you don't believe check my past posts and you will find several instances of me saying it was in and that people could quote me on it. Now, I am not saying it isn't possible this year because they aren't communicating like that did in years past but the feeling I am getting is that offline franchise just isn't the direction they are headed in. The feeling I am having is that they simply don't want to spend the money on it. Just like the PS2 version of Madden isn't getting much done neither will offline franchise because they are headed in a different direction and don't want to spend the money on it. Believe me, I really really hope I am wrong but I haven't seen anything that would make me believe it based on every madded released since this gen came about. Combine that with what and how they are communicating in blogs, forums, etc. and there doesn't seem to be much hope. But here is to hoping

+1. It doesn't take a detective to see what's important to EA these days. Yet people still cling to hope otherwise. Nothing wrong with that, but I don't see much evidence to support it.

[DrewsLions]

Quote: Originally Posted by stux

This is one of the worst problems atm. I mean Josh basically said he couldn't work with what he had. Well then why not get rid of it? Not enough time? Well get more damn people don't release crap fix the problem. It is like saying there isn't enough time to build a house in three weeks. Guess what there is always enough time if you know what you are doing and how to manage the time given. Time isn't the excuse. Maybe your boss won't let you do what needs to be done, now that is an excuse. Your boss won't let you spend the money needed to fix it, now that is an excuse. I mean last year every update they did fixed one thing and broke another. The franchise I am playing atm the top 10 running backs are all over 6 yards per carry. To quote SNL, "Really?!"

This has been one of my biggest beefs and I've been calling for this change for years. My idea has always been to make a change in the sim process from a simulation engine (like the current one)... that basically just spits out stats from a formula based on OVR... to ACTUALLY simming the games, a-la CPU vs CPU.

I have absolutely no idea why they don't do this. And if you're fuzzy on what I mean, I'm talking about actually playing each game out through some form of CPU vs CPU super-sim (not the current, useless version dubbed "super-sim" either). This way injuries, stats, coaching styles, fatigue, substitution... all of it is actually simulated. Don't tell me that they couldn't do this either. They could... and should. It would eliminate all of the stat fixes constantly needed (and they've proven time and time again that they can't get it right) and allow the sliders and settings to drive the stats. I know this has been done in other games as well.

The other big change that would result from this "actual simulation" is that you would now have recordable highlights from EVERY game of the entire season. These could be incorporated into the Extra Point and wala... an immediately enhanced post-game show that everyone would actually watch... especially knowing that the highlights are REAL and that they actually came from that game and helped determine the outcome. This is why so many people turn to CPU vs CPU to get realistic franchise stats. But unless you have a ridiculous amount of time to spend simming games (and no injuries kind of crushed that in Madden '10 anyway), you're stuck with 8 2000 yd rushers and new sack records every season.

Oh yeah and a progression fix, hiding potential, upgraded draft presentation, upgraded CPU trade/draft/FA logic and better scouting tools would be nice as well. I'm not asking for too much....

Am I?

[dougdeuce]

Quote: Originally Posted by DrewsLions

This has been one of my biggest beefs and I've been calling for this change for years. My idea has always been to make a change in the sim process from a simulation engine (like the current one)... that basically just spits out stats from a formula based on OVR... to ACTUALLY simming the games, a-la CPU vs CPU. I have absolutely no idea why they don't do this. And if you're fuzzy on what I mean, I'm talking about actually playing each game out through some form of CPU vs CPU super-sim (not the current, useless version dubbed "super-sim" either). This way injuries, stats, coaching styles, fatigue, substitution... all of it is actually simulated. Don't tell me that they couldn't do this either. They could... and should. It would eliminate all of the stat fixes constantly needed (and they've proven time and time again that they can't get it right) and allow the sliders and settings to drive the stats. I know this has been done in other games as well. The other big change that would result from this "actual simulation" is that you would now have recordable highlights from EVERY game of the entire season. These could be incorporated into the Extra Point and wala... an immediately enhanced post-game show that everyone would actually watch... especially knowing that the highlights are REAL and that they actually came from that game and helped determine the outcome. This is why so many people turn to CPU vs CPU to get realistic franchise stats. But unless you have a ridiculous amount of time to spend simming games (and no injuries kind of crushed that in Madden '10 anyway), you're stuck with 8 2000 yd rushers and new sack records every season. Oh yeah and a progression fix, hiding potential, upgraded draft presentation, upgraded CPU trade/draft/FA logic and better scouting tools would be nice as well. I'm not asking for too much.... Am I?

CO-SIGN! You should start your own thread on this and see how much steam we can get it to gather, cause that seems possible. Remember the Tecmo Super Bowl sim style? Where each game took 10 seconds to sim and then they threw stats at you? I'm not asking for that, but we don't need to sim a season in 2 minutes. I wouldn't mind if simming took a little longer for a system like this. Great post.

[Cantgetright69]

Madden dropped the ball again. I can only hope that they learn there lesson this year when the sales are down. Cause there has been no hype this year and i know it being june that they have no killer features. This is just a filler year for the next which sums up every madden game this generation.

[Blitz1942]

I hope (but don't expect) that the offline franchise is where the 05-07 PS2 franchises were, and that the online is where M10's offline franchise was. I think that would be a fairly decent step this year, and set up for a HC09 style offline franchise in Madden 12's offline, and a M05-07 offline for Madden 12's online franchises.

Again, what I'm hoping for, but knowing EA's track record, I'm not expecting it at all.

[LSX]

As far as stats go, there is no excuse. Honestly I feel that they haven't been accurate in years, if ever. Last year it got even worse.

Why do I feel there should be NO excuses for any statistical errors? Well, I remember playing the "franchise" mode in Ultimate Football '95 for PC, simming games, and actually getting very accurate results. It was pretty awesome too; when you quick simmed a game, a little scoreboard would pop up with the teams' names, possession, time, score, all that. It would sim a whole game in like 20 seconds, and it was actually really cool to watch. Then after it was over, the box score would pop up. The stats were 100% realistic; it was like something you would see in the Monday newspaper.

Now if they could do that in Ultimate Football '95, how come EA Sports hasn't figured it out 15+ years later?

[tlc12576]

Quote: Originally Posted by mwjr

Just went back and read it. I might be totally misreading what you're stating, but it seems to me that what you're talking about is basic league-wide news and stories, which they used to feature back on previous generation games. That would be a nice touch, but before they do that there is so much more that can and should be done to fix franchise.

Nah,I was saying have all that stuff run in conjuction with the yearly "storyline" being told by the commentary.For instance,if Im playing with the Redskins in year 1 of my franchise.Every game the commentary is adding more to a our storyline.Like how Mcnabb is playing week after week and how coach Shanahan is bringing the team along etc.The news and highlight shows would work within this yearly storyline by focusing their articles,like last-gen and video commentary,like 2k on last-gen on these topics.
The paper would write about is Mcnabb a good fit early in the year than if has a bad year year write about Washington maybe drafting a QB.Video highlight commentary would make comments like the redskins new coach Mike Shanahan got his first win today and later in the year talk about him either managing to get the Redskins in the playoffs or having alot of work left to do.

Stuff like that,year after year for each User controlled team.CPU teams stuff could be much more general to focus on giving gamers that RPG like feel with their user controlled team or teams.

[ForeverYoung]

(Offline) franchise mode has zero priority for EA.
They work on getting more money streams from Madden. That's the reason why Josh works on Ultimate team instead of franchise mode.