Madden NFL 25 Connected Franchise Q&A with Josh Looman

[rootofalleli]

OK, this almost made my head explode:

Quote:

VSN: Will Is Restricted Free Agency be making it back into the game? Josh Looman: Not this year. To be honest it is not a high priority for me personally. Typically what I do when I am designing stuff is to look at trends around the league or things that are a big deal within the league and try to figure out how to incorporate that into the game. I watch Restricted Free Agency very closely this year and not a single player got signed or even received an offer. If it isn’t being used in the NFL we aren’t spending a lot of time on it for the game. It almost feels like it is a dying part of the league.

Seriously? The point of RFA is not stealing players from other teams. It's **keeping** guys on your team for one more year at a reasonable salary. For example, among the Ravens' RFAs from last year were Dannell Ellerbe and Cary Williams, two key starters who contributed a lot in the playoffs. "Not a single player got signed" is dead wrong because almost every RFA tendered an offer has resigned with his original team. Guys like Victor Cruz and Dennis Pitta would have gotten a lot of interest in unrestricted free agency this year. Another correction: there was one offer from another team, from the Pats to Steelers' WR Emmanuel Sanders.

I'm shocked that Looman doesn't understand that Restricted Free Agency is a big part of what NFL teams do. We should also have Exclusive Rights Free Agency and other basic tools teams use to manage player salaries. I realize that players changing teams is more exciting to many people than players resigning for less. But the reintroduction of owner mode - with all its financial micromanagement - is right up the same alley. Actually, being able to hold onto developing players for one more year to make a Super Bowl run or wait for salary cap space to clear seems way more relevant and interesting to me than fine-tuning hot dog and soda prices.

[howboutdat]

Quote: Originally Posted by splff3000

Thanks, I still don't fully understand how what he's saying is gonna stop the draft guides but I do understand what he's trying to do now. That was a pretty good link. I found out about a lot of stuff for cf that hasn't been talked about.

its really simple spliff, they wont be stopping draft guides at all. all he was saying is , they will have the normal 10 storyline guys, and then they will have a few other guys (only a few , not entire class) that will have changing overalls from league to league. However, that isnt enough to stop the guides. they will work each class untill they figure out the high and low of those FEW extra players ,and they can then post their overalls and tell u what one thing to scout(prob awr) to see which of them they will be. Its basically a waste of time.majority of the classes will be the exact same from league to league. so the guys making the guides will work each class to see which few extra they fixed to change, nad figure them out as well. not to hard to do, guides will still be around next madden just face it.thanks ea!

[jpdavis82]

Quote: Originally Posted by howboutdat

its really simple spliff, they wont be stopping draft guides at all. all he was saying is , they will have the normal 10 storyline guys, and then they will have a few other guys (only a few , not entire class) that will have changing overalls from league to league. However, that isnt enough to stop the guides. they will work each class untill they figure out the high and low of those FEW extra players ,and they can then post their overalls and tell u what one thing to scout(prob awr) to see which of them they will be. Its basically a waste of time.majority of the classes will be the exact same from league to league. so the guys making the guides will work each class to see which few extra they fixed to change, nad figure them out as well. not to hard to do, guides will still be around next madden just face it.thanks ea!

Yeah but if it's generated at a 40-50% chance that they are a sleeper or a bust, how are you going to know what you are going to get each time?

[cuttingteeth]

Quote:

VSN: Can you edit player ratings for single player Connected Franchises in Madden 25? Josh Looman: The issue with editing player ratings once the mode begins is that it causes a lot of bugs and issues with our goal systems and our player schemes and grades. We tried to get that in this year but it ended up causing a ton of bugs. We do let you allow you to edit position, gear and numbers but allowing owners to edit player ratings after the league is started just caused too many bugs with the current system.

Basically, we can edit players and take custom rosters into starting up a new CCM....but as far as changing ratings after that, the XP system can't handle it. I figured this would be the case. Still, we can edit gear, positions and jersey numbers. That's more huge to the majority of us.

(side note: Be aware that the answer was in question to just single player CCM, though. If you are a 32 team/league Owner mode CCM/F, perhaps you get to do whatever you want - and this didn't clarify online/offline differentials, either)

[houseofbacon]

All that talk, and local multiplayer didn't get mentioned once. I buy Madden to play through a Franchise with my sons. If we want to do a Connected Career and play against each other we need 2-3 xbox's, copies of the game, live subscriptions, so on.

In '12 and earlier, we could just boot up the xbox, both login and play each other. Worked fine, '13 made that impossible. Reeeeally hoping they bring back local multiplayer, though I did see you can control multiple teams, that doesn't necessarily mean they can play each other with humans controlling both teams, and it would be better to just have our own separate franchises.

[jpdavis82]

Quote: Originally Posted by rootofalleli

OK, this almost made my head explode: Seriously? The point of RFA is not stealing players from other teams. It's **keeping** guys on your team for one more year at a reasonable salary. For example, among the Ravens' RFAs from last year were Dannell Ellerbe and Cary Williams, two key starters who contributed a lot in the playoffs. "Not a single player got signed" is dead wrong because almost every RFA tendered an offer has resigned with his original team. Guys like Victor Cruz and Dennis Pitta would have gotten a lot of interest in unrestricted free agency this year. Another correction: there was one offer from another team, from the Pats to Steelers' WR Emmanuel Sanders. I'm shocked that Looman doesn't understand that Restricted Free Agency is a big part of what NFL teams do. We should also have Exclusive Rights Free Agency and other basic tools teams use to manage player salaries. I realize that players changing teams is more exciting to many people than players resigning for less. But the reintroduction of owner mode - with all its financial micromanagement - is right up the same alley. Actually, being able to hold onto developing players for one more year to make a Super Bowl run or wait for salary cap space to clear seems way more relevant and interesting to me than fine-tuning hot dog and soda prices.

Yeah but he said you can still re-sign guys before they hit FA so how are you not being able to hold onto them?

[BradyFan12]

Quote: Originally Posted by cuttingteeth

Basically, we can edit players and take custom rosters into starting up a new CCM....but as far as changing ratings after that, the XP system can't handle it. I figured this would be the case. Still, we can edit gear, positions and jersey numbers. That's more huge to the majority of us. (side note: Be aware that the answer was in question to just single player CCM, though. If you are a 32 team/league Owner mode CCM/F, perhaps you get to do whatever you want - and this didn't clarify online/offline differentials, either)

Now if they'd just answer if we can do CPU vs. CPU in offline CCM. This question just keeps getting unanswered.

[cuttingteeth]

Quote: Originally Posted by houseofbacon

All that talk, and local multiplayer didn't get mentioned once. I buy Madden to play through a Franchise with my sons. If we want to do a Connected Career and play against each other we need 2-3 xbox's, copies of the game, live subscriptions, so on. In '12 and earlier, we could just boot up the xbox, both login and play each other. Worked fine, '13 made that impossible. Reeeeally hoping they bring back local multiplayer, though I did see you can control multiple teams, that doesn't necessarily mean they can play each other with humans controlling both teams, and it would be better to just have our own separate franchises.

I would think with 32 team control coming back (confirmed), there's no reason you can't play each other head-to-head on the same game. Systemically, it should be impossible NOT to play head-to-head, actually. If you control all 32 teams, surely you must be given the option to play as them, too.

Quote:

Now if they'd just answer if we can do CPU vs. CPU in offline CCM. This question just keeps getting unanswered.

Yeah, I've yet to read about even Simming through games - is that in...does that not freeze up...etc. ? I hope to hear about that soon.