For Madden 13 - it's Online Franchise or bust.

[Big FN Deal]

I appreciate the advise Tyrant and I definitely expect some growing pains trying to organize Online franchises. My plan is to try and offer different things to keep gamers interested, in spite of the fact that some people have to lose games.

For instance, most likely my leagues will only be for those that have or are willing to get broadcast equipment so everyone in the league can watch each others games, if they want. (Playcalling will be done in "bluff mode" to prevent "spygate") Also, I will most likely offer some gift card prizes for things like Best Sportsmanship, Best Defensive Strategy, Most Creative Offense, Most Effective Special Teams, Most Improved, Macgyver Award( making the most of whatever their team has), etc. Stuff like that, outside of just wins and losses that hopefully holds peoples attention.

I will be striving hard to maintain 32 Users because I despise the thought of anyone having to play the CPU in a mutli-player franchise. I think if I can find 32 people that are actually hardcore fans of their team, they will be much more attached to that team in Madden and prone to stick it out. I know I love the Redskins and was able to stomach a M12 franchise for about 3 seasons just because of that. However, the other two leagues I was in where I didn't have the Redskins, I just couldn't do it.

[jyoung]

When you have 32 people in a league, that's 32 different job/life schedules to work around.

If you're doing a typical 72 hour advance schedule, there will be some advance periods where owners simply can't matchup their schedules before the advance comes.

That means you have to sim the game as CPU vs. CPU, which can be a killer to owner morale. No one likes losing a simmed game or seeing their star players get injured because of a CPU sim. Simmed games also throw off the statistical integrity of the league, which can make a difference in player progression at the end of the season.

Flex scheduling is a tool that allows leagues to get in more user vs. user games and less CPU sims, which is hugely beneficial to the health of the league and to owner morale.

[Redskins_Hokies]

Give us the option to flex schedule. Never a problem to give us more choices on how to handle our online franchise

[GiantBlue76]

One thing that would be great is to have a "fair trade" option. This would be an algorithm that determines if the trade is fair which could borrow from the logic they use in offline franchise, or beef it up a little. The "fair trade" option woud be a setting the commish can toggle. Also, how about an option to set a trade limit so we don't have to track it ourselves? In the settings the commissioner could set a trade limit per owner per season. from 0 - 10 or something.

[GiantBlue76]

Quote: Originally Posted by kjcheezhead

Why is it one or the other? It's franchise mode. Everything in a franchise mode should be included in both. The only difference should be that online should feature a commissioner ability to approve trades, advance games etc. Franchise is important to me but my priority is still with the game on the field. Blocking, player movement and interaction, more route based type passing and overall atmosphere improvements or bust for me when it comes to Madden 13.

Bingo - I've been saying this for years now. Any software architect that had any sort of ability would have done it that way. From a development perspective, it's idiotic to have two separate modes. Now you have to duplicate *** loads of code in two places. When one changes, then you have to change the other. It's expensive, error prone and a maintenance nightmare alone. Whoever approved that design at Tiburon should not be there anymore.

I am not a college football fan. I follow draft prospects and watch college football once in a while, but I bought NCAA last year for the first time since my sophomore year of college in 1995. I was absolutely blown away. EVERY aspect of NCAA is better than Madden. EVERYTHING. From game modes, to graphics, to player movement, to ball physics, to presentation... you name it. Yes, the "online" dynasty mode is absolutely sensational. I put online in quotes because it's not really "online". You can play solo if you want or you can play with friends. I wish I could be as big a college ball fan as I am an NFL fan, but unfortunately I'm not.

[Broncos86]

I wonder what costs EA incurs for those online franchise servers.

[CRMosier_LM]

Quote: Originally Posted by Tyrant8RDFL

I have a good amount of experience running a online league, and could have taken it to another level if I stood with it, but the 360 era killed it for us. Madden was just so bad that many of my memebers just could not play the game. It was sad also being that the league originated since the Dreamcast with NFL2k, and carreid over to the PS2 with madden, then XBOX, but died when the 360 was released. Running a 32 man league is very difficult trust me. What I did last year was only have a 16 man league. Place two players per division. This allowed for us to have enough head to head match ups and some CPU games. Which helped out bigitme because those game s agasint the CPU were very easy to get in. No scheduling needed it was all based on your own schedule.Things flowed nicely and finding a soid 16 is much easier than finding a solid 32. What ruins a league is when a player reailzes he wont make the playoffs. Those are the ones that dissappear and can ruin the flow. make sure you find a very responsible group of players. Now finding 32 of them is nearly impossible, but you never know. Good luck if you do decide to run a league.

Most players are on multiple leagues. If you are able to keep this fresh and engaging then your owners will bring in new ones from other leagues to fill holes. We have been sitting at 30-32 over the last 18 seasons from Madden 10-12. We are full all the way thru early August every year.

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[CRMosier_LM]

Quote: Originally Posted by Redskins_Hokies

Give us the option to flex schedule. Never a problem to give us more choices on how to handle our online franchise

They are striving to add realism as much as possible, flex scheduling is anti realism.

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