Franchise Mode Needs Some Personality (Literally)

[splff3000]

I would like to see the return of just about every feature that was in franchise on Madden 07 on PS2. IMO that was best Madden franchise ever.

We had to scout our upcoming week's opponents top 3 plays on offense and defense during practice and if we called plays that were successful against those in practice our team got a slight awr boost when our opponent called them in the actual game. I would like to see a revised system similar to this where you didn't necessarily have to beat the play in practice, but you got to see what his top 3-5 plays where on offense and defense so you could devise your own gameplan against them since you knew their favorite plays. I'm not to keen on giving players boosts and stuff.

That also had the player morale system and if a player morale got to low he would hold out or ask for a trade. That was awesome cause everything affected morale. If you started a lower rated player(maybe because he's younger), the older player would take a morale hit. If you put your star rb on the trading block, expect his morale to take a big hit and he might hold out next season or ask to be traded the current season. If a star player isn't getting enough carries or catches he might take a morale hit. Everything affected morale. Madden really needs this back.

The FA was totally awesome on Madden 07. It was akin to recruiting on NCAA in that the players had a list of things that were important to them like money, proximity to home town, teams winning percentage, how good the coach is, etc..... This made FA much more dynamic than just bidding on players. You could be the highest bidder and the player still wouldn't come to play for you because you didn't win a lot and he was looking to win a championship or he was later in his career and wanted to be closer to home. Then again, some guys didn't care about nothing but the money. It was so awesome and dynamic. I remember being pissed off at Reggie Bush after one season because no matter how much I offered him in FA, he would not come to Oakland. I offered him waaaay more than anybody else, but he would not come lol. Madden needs that back. That dynamic approach to FA is definitely need now.

The draft was cool too. You had players and numbers and you had to scout each player. The longer you scouted a player, the more info you got. There no ratings revealed or anything. The scouts just said stuff like this guy could be the next Randy Moss with his leaping ability or this guy has blazing speed. That stuff was awesome man. I felt like I was actually scouting a player and not just getting his ratings and stuff. We need that back. Oh and the ratings and names were all random. There was no list of madden created draft classes floating on the internet because it as all random. They could chill out with 96 spd, 75 accel guys, but random is definitely the way to go. I'd like to see madden get back to that.

Offseason also had offseason battles where you could actually determine who should start by how they perform during the preseason. Like everything else, this also affected players morales so if you chose to go with the younger/lower rated guy, the older/ higher rated guy might ask to get traded.

Offseason also had the rookie mini camps where you could take a rookie though the mini camp drills and give them a slight boost in an area of your choice. This was tight, but I didn't like to use it, because the cpu didn't use it. If somehow the cpu could use it too, this would be a nice addition to have back in.

Pretty much EA could just copy everything from Madden 07 on PS2 and put it in, it would be one of the greatest franchise modes ever.

[nosaints26]

-DPP needs a complete overhaul, I think most people can't stand the random hot and cold streaks that pop up during a game
-The menus are way too clunky and laggy, even though this year's mode is weak as far as the amount of features available
-Bringing back player position battles is a MUST; this is a very important part of the NFL and it's sad that it was ever taken out. It also gives preseason games some meaning
-Fix the random extra player signings to fill your roster out, I.E. give us more control over this. I hate seeing all these random players on my roster at the start of a new season, few of which I ever keep.
-Bring back the ability to do drills with rookie prospects in lieu of the lame excuse of a "combine" they have in place now. This was one of the best things about drafting as you got a chance to work out some guys you were looking at (especially quarterbacks and their signature releases).

There are so many more things that they could have done to make franchise more alive, but I think these are some really basic, really core things that are needed...

[DeuceDouglas]

Quote: Originally Posted by nosaints26

-DPP needs a complete overhaul, I think most people can't stand the random hot and cold streaks that pop up during a game

I liked it. It could use a little tweaking but for the most part I think it was a nice addition.

Quote: Originally Posted by nosaints26

-Fix the random extra player signings to fill your roster out, I.E. give us more control over this. I hate seeing all these random players on my roster at the start of a new season, few of which I ever keep.

You had total control of this. The only reason why those guys ended up on your roster was because your roster wasn't full. If you signed guys in free agency that had a shot at making your team at positions that were weak and filled out your roster, you wouldn't get these guys. I hardly ever saw them on my franchise after like season two.

[Moegames]

Quote: Originally Posted by Cre8

Madden 12 made tremendous steps in improving Franchise Mode last year; but I can't help feeling like the players, coaches and teams as a whole have no personality at all. NBA 2K has this with player morale, team chemistry, etc. Madden on last gen had morale and even contract holdouts. Still, that leaves a lot to be desired from E3 next week with all of the possible news. What is Franchise missing at this point? I feel like it is on the cusp of greatness but there are some things to be hoped for next week. What is on the top of your list?

I always felt that the franchise mode for sports games need to start going into the RPG elements of it all..RPG is "role playing game" in case someone does not know what "RPG" means. Example of things i would like to see are more in-depth tasks that we can tinker with during the practice week.. injured players being rehabbed and we must pick certain rehab exercises,etc to speed up the injuries,etc..but not just make it a text based thing with options..have actual sequences of the game showing the training room where we see the injured player with the trainer actually "doing these rehab tasks" ...make it fun..that kind of thing visually is fun to see...not just have a screen with some options to pick and choose..give us a visual interactive task with these things.

Other idea's i would love to see are general workouts,etc with players or key players and again..instead of just having a screen with text options to tinker with..let the game take us to the practice field where we actually see the players working out with coaches,etc blowing whistles, yelling at players, training and practicing on certain things/tasks..blocking, passing the ball, working on new plays,etc,etc and all of this add's ability to the players (attributes)..where we visually see the practice field and the game actually allows us to interact in these events....now that is my idea of fun AND immersiveness!!

Another thing i would love to see are many more things to do with the off season..like negotiating with other teams for certain players, scouting players/coaches, working out deals/contracts, going to the actual NFL draft ..i mean have the game actually render and show the draft and bring us to the draft.. where we can actually be there..in other words..what we see on ESPN with the NFL draft each year..render all that graphically into madden and bring us to that draft..that would be so fun to mess around with.

Going to other team's cities to negotiate trades,etc...have us actually go into the office of another team and negotiate trades rather than just have a screen with some text options..again..actually bring us visually to these scenarios in the game.

There are so many idea's that could really add so much more depth and fun to madden and its sad to see madden only grow inches each year when even someone like me.. an average joe..can think of things that i KNOW would work and i know would be welcomed by the gamer. EA needs to start reaching for higher things...right now and its just not with madden...sports videogames in general are not reaching high enough for immersiveness.

This is why i say sports videogames need to start really implementing RPG elements into the franchise modes of these games..its time to take it to the next level and horse power in the consoles have absolutely nothing to do with any of this..this stuff could be done for a while now...its a shame no one has pushed for something like this yet.

[AttackAttack]

Madden 12 franchise was so boring to me. I played a year in it. Played the first three games and dimmed the rest. Its just so bland.

Give me madden 05 franchise mode and I'll be set.

[Armor and Sword]

Quote: Originally Posted by jpdavis82

Well you said it needs some personality, I believe we are getting Trey Wingo with some kind of weekly wrap up show, which to me is what is really missing. That and the fact that Jim and Phil are supposed to know what is happening around the league week to week should add a ton of immersion to Franchise Mode. That is what is missing for me, the sense that I am in a regular season, where stuff is happening around me each week, and it's not just a series of exhibition games. When I heard the line in the audio trailer on GameTrailers where Jim said "All the pundits were saying there's no way they can win without their star running back this week, but that's exactly what they did today." I started to get excited, because if that is the kind of commentary we can expect, it's going to really bring things to life IMO. Then after the games each week if you have Trey Wingo breaking the games down and previewing the next week's games and talking about injuries, who's hot who's not, playoff races, etc.. and it's done right, then this game will really go to the next level for me. I would also like to see a calendar and a practice mode, so each day something different happens. If they could add like a daily one minute "NFL Live" type segment with news around the league from each day, that would be amazing, but I doubt that for this year. Just imagine if you had that calendar and on "Fridays" you got to see experts picks and stuff, that would be awesome. Then on Gameday if you got injury reports from around the league?

You hit the nail firmly on it's head.

Can't wait till next week to find out lot's of hopefully great news.

[Jimi XIII]

Player personalities like NBA2K, chemistry and fixing the mess they made last year (the flood of worthless walk-ons on teams & the less realistic FA system) would all be great.

[Big FN Deal]

Quote: Originally Posted by splff3000

I would like to see the return of just about every feature that was in franchise on Madden 07 on PS2. IMO that was best Madden franchise ever. We had to scout our upcoming week's opponents top 3 plays on offense and defense during practice and if we called plays that were successful against those in practice our team got a slight awr boost when our opponent called them in the actual game. I would like to see a revised system similar to this where you didn't necessarily have to beat the play in practice, but you got to see what his top 3-5 plays where on offense and defense so you could devise your own gameplan against them since you knew their favorite plays. I'm not to keen on giving players boosts and stuff. That also had the player morale system and if a player morale got to low he would hold out or ask for a trade. That was awesome cause everything affected morale. If you started a lower rated player(maybe because he's younger), the older player would take a morale hit. If you put your star rb on the trading block, expect his morale to take a big hit and he might hold out next season or ask to be traded the current season. If a star player isn't getting enough carries or catches he might take a morale hit. Everything affected morale. Madden really needs this back. The FA was totally awesome on Madden 07. It was akin to recruiting on NCAA in that the players had a list of things that were important to them like money, proximity to home town, teams winning percentage, how good the coach is, etc..... This made FA much more dynamic than just bidding on players. You could be the highest bidder and the player still wouldn't come to play for you because you didn't win a lot and he was looking to win a championship or he was later in his career and wanted to be closer to home. Then again, some guys didn't care about nothing but the money. It was so awesome and dynamic. I remember being pissed off at Reggie Bush after one season because no matter how much I offered him in FA, he would not come to Oakland. I offered him waaaay more than anybody else, but he would not come lol. Madden needs that back. That dynamic approach to FA is definitely need now. The draft was cool too. You had players and numbers and you had to scout each player. The longer you scouted a player, the more info you got. There no ratings revealed or anything. The scouts just said stuff like this guy could be the next Randy Moss with his leaping ability or this guy has blazing speed. That stuff was awesome man. I felt like I was actually scouting a player and not just getting his ratings and stuff. We need that back. Oh and the ratings and names were all random. There was no list of madden created draft classes floating on the internet because it as all random. They could chill out with 96 spd, 75 accel guys, but random is definitely the way to go. I'd like to see madden get back to that. Offseason also had offseason battles where you could actually determine who should start by how they perform during the preseason. Like everything else, this also affected players morales so if you chose to go with the younger/lower rated guy, the older/ higher rated guy might ask to get traded. Offseason also had the rookie mini camps where you could take a rookie though the mini camp drills and give them a slight boost in an area of your choice. This was tight, but I didn't like to use it, because the cpu didn't use it. If somehow the cpu could use it too, this would be a nice addition to have back in. Pretty much EA could just copy everything from Madden 07 on PS2 and put it in, it would be one of the greatest franchise modes ever.

This entire post was disturbing for me to read because it is essentially confirming that EA has already created a solid Franchise mode since the next-gen consoles came out, just not for a next-gen Madden.

I was actually coming in this thread to post about how EA/Tiburon should utilize NCAA football's recruiting system for Madden's player and coach wants but then I find out through Spliff's post, they already have but for Madden on PS2.

Un-FN-believable.