Madden 25 Connected Franchise FAQ with Shopmaster

[cuttingteeth]

Ah, okay. I kept expecting another bar below or above the player indicator rings instead of thinking it'd be color coded to the rings themselves. Likewise, I dispelled the different color indicator rings in that video as just being the "color coded" difference between player 1 and player 2 on the same team.

I do like that better than another bar hovering around on the field. That would have sucked big time.

To add, though: Apparently we won't know the CPU fatigue levels..? (based on that same footage)

[jpdavis82]

Quote: Originally Posted by cuttingteeth

Ah, okay. I kept expecting another bar below or above the player indicator rings instead of thinking it'd be color coded to the rings themselves. Likewise, I dispelled the different color indicator rings in that video as just being the "color coded" difference between player 1 and player 2 on the same team. I do like that better than another bar hovering around on the field. That would have sucked big time. To add, though: Apparently we won't know the CPU fatigue levels..? (based on that same footage)

That's an interesting observation, I wonder if they feel like if we know the cpu levels are low maybe we won't try as hard.

[rootofalleli]

Quote: Originally Posted by LorenzoDC

But even when you adjust your own substitution sliders and optimize that with your fatigue bar, the CPU subs when playing offline are a mess. Because the playbooks for CPU are so run heavy, and to try to get a competitive game you have to soften user run defense to compensate, you end up playing against an HB1 who gets maybe 30-40 carries in a game at 5+ YPC. Otherwise the CPU can't even compete, score, get first downs, sustain drives, etc. I juice up the CPU pass sliders so even weaker QB's can complete 70% of their passes. Even with Aaron ridgers and these sliders, the CPU will still make just 6-7 yards per attempt, and throw for 250 yards with maybe 1 TD, 2 tops (with an INT). I mean, c'mon man.

And this screws with goals and XP, which screws with progression... this is why good AI is so integral to CFM. If stats are FUBAR, then everything else goes wrong, and we try to compensate with sliders that distort the game in new and surprising ways. We really need some strong tuning from EA for once.

[LorenzoDC]

Quote: Originally Posted by rootofalleli

And this screws with goals and XP, which screws with progression... this is why good AI is so integral to CFM. If stats are FUBAR, then everything else goes wrong, and we try to compensate with sliders that distort the game in new and surprising ways. We really need some strong tuning from EA for once.

Just needed to bold that.

Last year I went for the hype and started my CCM online, because I wanted to check out the web management integration and I especially thought that patches, updates and tuning would be more effectively delivered if I was playing on their servers. I put up with the occasional disconnects - no small deal when you play 14 minute quarters. After all, patches and updates have to get approved through Microsoft and that takes forever.

What could go wrong. . . right? They made a big promotion of their newly built tuning capabilities, after all.

True, the patches and some incremental tweaks got to the EA servers before they got to offline people. But. . . I could not use a custom playbook in online CCM.

• The tuning and fixes and patches never fixed the team playbooks. They did a little bit early on to soften the run heavy stuff but it was still essentially broken.
• The web site they talked up was inaccessible, never finished, and even if you got into the site (only really optimized for Chrome), there wasn't any reason to go there because it didn't allow you to do anything.

I get why Looman was pushing online CCM so much - he needed to prove to EA that his brainchild would actually be accepted and popular. There were a lot of doubters in house.

But it was a lemon. I basically traded custom playbook for earlier, incomplete updates and fixes. The solo player CCM gameplay and game balance experience was and remains a barrier to fun gaming, requiring uncounted and unrewarding hours to try to minimize the damage through constant slider manipulation.

[Dbrentonbuck]

Can someone enlighten me as to if I am understanding playbooks correctly. So, you start franchise and you select your playbook and your scheme. Once that is done, you can never change your play book for the life of your franchise. You have to keep the same playbook for all 30 years of your franchise and even though you will fire and hire several coaches in that time, it isn't going to matter because your playbook will be exactly the same? Now, I get if you use a custom playbook, there is the potential that you could go in a gut that playbook and put in all new plays as a work around... but we aren't totally sure that is going to work. It could save its own copy of the initial playbook for franchise the way it does a roster right? So, CPU teams are also stuck with the same playbook no matter how many coaches they hire or fire right? That basically means coaches are useless in this other than for the small perks/boosts they have. That seems... I don't even have a word for it.

[Trick13]

Quote: Originally Posted by Dbrentonbuck

Can someone enlighten me as to if I am understanding playbooks correctly. So, you start franchise and you select your playbook and your scheme. Once that is done, you can never change your play book for the life of your franchise. You have to keep the same playbook for all 30 years of your franchise and even though you will fire and hire several coaches in that time, it isn't going to matter because your playbook will be exactly the same? Now, I get if you use a custom playbook, there is the potential that you could go in a gut that playbook and put in all new plays as a work around... but we aren't totally sure that is going to work. It could save its own copy of the initial playbook for franchise the way it does a roster right? So, CPU teams are also stuck with the same playbook no matter how many coaches they hire or fire right? That basically means coaches are useless in this other than for the small perks/boosts they have. That seems... I don't even have a word for it.

short sited, moronic, uninspired, dumb, lackluster, half@$&ed, resplendent with ineptitude, a new higher level of low, assi-ten, assi-eleven etc etc...

I get some leagues want to hamstring guys for obvious reasons, but should have at the very least an off-season option to switch playbook - not to mention the option to tweak run-pass ratios from week to week- if I have to miss a game against the CPU with a low ranked pass defense then maybe I tweak the ratio to be a little pass heavy, and the following week I gotta SIM a game against a great pass defense so I go more balanced or run heavy for that SIM game....

[rootofalleli]

If CPU teams don't change playbooks, that's another huge minus for me. When, 8 years and 6 coaching changes from now, the Browns draft RG3's faster little brother, they need to adjust. If the playbook doesn't reflect his talents, something is wrong. Or if that player won't be drafted by any team that doesn't currently have a dual-threat QB, something is wrong. Washington didn't place any particular emphasis on mobile QBs before RG3, and Shanahan didn't need to have a passer like RG3 on his team. Both the franchise and the coach adapted to the opportunity to draft a player who could turn things around. That's something we should see in Madden!

[m-dogg]

can two players play on the same team in CF this year over online? so I play a position, and my brother plays another position on the same team? (like OTP)