Connected Careers vs Franchise Mode?

[LastChanceAvalanche]

I've been seeing a lot of post that say "I WANT MY FRANCHISE MODE BACK!!!1!" and "CCM is not even close to my old franchise mode!"

that leads me to the question: what's the difference?

seriously, can anyone tell me the major differences between connected careers and franchise mode?

what did they remove? what can't you do now that you could do then?

I can understand not liking change to the layout, but I don't understand where this is coming from.

any help?

UPDATE:

so the major reason i've found, that I think are legitimate differences and not "I liked this better"

- No player or coaching editing
- No relocating of teams
- No offline co-op
- Fantasy draft (which I learned today that people actually used)

[HugoBrasky]

Re: Connected Careers vs Franchise Mode?

Well for one you cannot have control of multiple teams, so you cannot do multi player CCM in offline mode. Another thing I noticed is that you cannot edit players in CCM. I started a CCM coach with the Colts and I prefer to run a 4-3 on defense. The Colts will be running a 3-4 this year so D. Freeny and R. Mathis are listed as OLB in this years game and you cannot change them to DE. Also in franchise mode you would hire/fire coaches which I assume is missing from CCM. I personally would rather play the game from the GM or owner perspective than the coach. I just got the game today so I'm not sure about all the things missing from franchise mode yet.

[jpdavis82]

Re: Connected Careers vs Franchise Mode?

Is this a joke? Connected Careers blows Franchise mode away!!!!!!!!

[gamemaster-2005]

Re: Connected Careers vs Franchise Mode?

Is this a joke? Connected Careers blows Franchise mode away!!!!!!!!

You are entitled to your opinion but I think you're wrong about that. Not have full control of your franchise is a let down. While that won't stop me from trying to make the best out of CCM.

[LastChanceAvalanche]

Re: Connected Careers vs Franchise Mode?

again what do you mean "full control"

[NYJin2011tm]

Re: Connected Careers vs Franchise Mode?

Is this a joke? Connected Careers blows Franchise mode away!!!!!!!!

That's a matter of opinion.

[gamemaster-2005]

Re: Connected Careers vs Franchise Mode?

again what do you mean "full control"

Signin firing head coaches an assistances being able to edit gear jersey numbers. Editing positions to fit defense scheme needs are just a few things that have now been left out.

[fondaflyer]

Re: Connected Careers vs Franchise Mode?

Is this a joke? Connected Careers blows Franchise mode away!!!!!!!!

are you kidding me? do you not have any friends? because in madden 13 you can play with NOBODY on the same console, unless it's in play now. They completely ruined the game for me with no franchise/fant. draft. I only ever bought madden to play with 3 other friends in our one franchise we would draft. Occasionally online, but playing offline by yourself? **** that. EA thinks that because they add a few mediocre things they can take out the important stuff?

[booker21]

pre season the Sims games played their backup.

SIM games were more accurate to real life

you could play co-op on same team

you were able to control 32 teams

you were able to edit players

fantasy draft

just a few things you could do on old franchise

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

[HugoBrasky]

Re: Connected Careers vs Franchise Mode?

again what do you mean "full control"

Being able to control any team in the league to prevent odd things from happening, like a team drafting a QB early in the first round multiple years in a row. Last year it was almost necessary because of the undrafted free agents and ??? ratings during the preseason that would cause the computer to cut players who were much better than the undrafted free agents. The new CCM is cool with the XP feature, but in my opinion they could've kept franchise mode in addition to having CCM. But I guess EA needs to have something to be able to promote for Madden 14.

[EvolutionSn1per]

Re: Connected Careers vs Franchise Mode?

Last night, I was angry about Connected Careers not working properly for me, and I posted that Franchise mode was much better. However, once I play Connected Careers a bit more, I will reevaluate that statement. However, here is how I think about this right now.

How Franchise mode is better:
- Multiple users on one console
- List of league transactions
- Ability to relocate team
- Better UI

How Connected Careers is better:
- The new practice scenarios are good
- ?????

[chargerrich]

Re: Connected Careers vs Franchise Mode?

I have purchased Madden every year for AT LEAST one platform since 1994...

CCM while hinting at the future and potentially could be really good (read: not this year) I would MUCH prefer to have franchise mode back.

1. No fantasy drafts... really?

2. No ability to import college rookies from NCAA any longer - And while I get that it never worked right, why not AT LEAST let the player customize (within Madden) the draft class every year so us purists can update the drafts each season. They wont allow this because EA wants to severely limit customization in the game so you will buy a new copy each year just to get the new players/rookies.

3. No ability to edit players - in ANY way - in any mode other than exhibition! This is by far the most glaring weakness. I like to customize my game, but this limitation takes us back to Madden 06. Not only can you not edit attributes, but you cannot edit numbers or even equipment in the new all everything CC mode that killed franchise.

Additionally if you have played Madden, you know how incredibly BAD EA is at setting ratings. The incidents of linemen having more speed than running backs goes back many years. Not to mention some people like to create their own rosters from college players and prep stars and avoid having stupid randomly generated rookies named after the EA developers... Hoofnagel anyone?

I know the "reasons" why Connected Careers is so locked down, because of the online component. But why in the world would you not have an offline mode for those of us that enjoy customization? The answer is because they have a monopoly with the NFL license.

Do you think their would be an offline franchise mode with full customization if there were ANY competitor developers who had access to the license? The answer is 100% yes.

How is CCM better than Franchise Madden 11? Simple, it is not.

New EA Slogan: "If it's in game, Oh who cares we have an exclusive license"

[Sugashane]

Re: Connected Careers vs Franchise Mode?

CC is quite... underwhelming. I love editing a team to fit my style of coaching. As a Bears fan, I switch to a 3-4, move Briggs to MLB with Urlacher, Peppers to OLB (overall be damned, he's ALWAYS blitzing), Tillman to FS, use three run stuffing DTs on the line, etc. Basically making a run stuffing front 7 with an OLB for blitzing and one for general coverage and run support, and 4 CBs (2 switched to safeties) for direct man to man coverage. My oline is always made mostly of tackles, switching their position to G or C as I see fit.

What about great deals you wanted your team to take advantage of? Asante Samuel was traded for a 7th round pick, Keith Rivers for a 5th, and Reggie Wayne was a free agent. I would have traded them to my team pre-franchise mode, then traded a higher pick than the original team received for a garbage player I could release. (IE- give the Eagles a 6th for Samuel, a 5th and a 7th for Rivers, etc), and then given Wayne a slightly better contract.

Can't do it in CC. Sure, you can look at a jumbled, disorganized depth chart, but it is not the same. Free agents flying off the market before you get to throw them an offer (Nick Collins for example) is also a killer. I was pretty sure every team started free agency at the same time, but I guess EA will say they chose to have you replace a coach 2-3 days after free agency starts.

Sad, EA fixes so many flaws in gameplay but then butchers the format in which players can play the game. I love the twitter feed, and several neat features, but miss the franchise mode that was. It didn't need scrapped out, just adding these extras would have put it over the top and sealed this as possibly the best Madden ever (obviously in my own opinion). Hopefully they add patches to remedy these poorly executed changes, otherwise I will have to quit paying $60 for disappointments.

[Shinywalrus]

Re: Connected Careers vs Franchise Mode?

The differences, as I see them. I'm probably missing a few:

1. Franchise allows the editing of players. CCM does not.
2. Franchise allowed a Fantasy Draft. CCM does not.
3. Franchise allows you to change coaching strategy preferences (run/pass mix, etc) after the beginning of a game. CCM does not.
4. Franchise included adequate population of draft classes and positions beyond 7 rounds. CCM does not, and includes overstocking of cornerbacks at the expense of other positions, especially offensive tackles.
5. Franchise included UDFAs. CCM effectively does not (an extremely small set of players go into the general FA pool after the draft).
6. Franchise included stat-masking features that made the pre-season and cut periods relevant and interest. CCM does away with this feature.
7. Franchise allows you to play with edited rosters (before starting a new career). CCM appears to only allow stock rosters.
8. Franchise had a ticking clock FA bidding gameplay approach, while CCM decided against that approach, also deciding not to provide the player direct feedback on whether such FA offers were accepted or declined.
9. Franchise allowed players to simulate multiple games ahead, to a particular week, etc. In CCM, EA decided that sim-based gameplay was undesirable and has removed this feature.
10. Franchise allowed scheme selections and priorities to be saved. In CCM, these features return to the default for the team any time the file is loaded. (Bug)
11. Franchise allowed the selection of staff and coordinators, and in various years, the management of the business of the football team. CCM has removed this.
12. Past versions of Franchise allowed for the customized selection of trades of or for draft picks during the draft. CCM allows only for predetermined packages and does not always offer trade-down opportunities.
13. Past Franchise versions had fairly intuitive interfaces for accessing statistics, awards, etc. CCM's interface requires more steps to access essentially every bit of information one might require.
14. In Franchise, trade responses were given immediately, allowing for a fairly fluid trade process (albeit with fairly bad trade logic). The trade logic is still fairly bad, although apparently more difficult and probably somewhat improved. But the trading process is now unwieldy as one must wait for responses, or check by going back to the main screen.
15. CCM has done away with unmasked Potential as a driver of progression, and relies more directly on player achievement of goals. It's a better system, but still a bit confusing to parse. Jury's out on realism - unfortunately, since they took away the long-term sim ability, it's very difficult to test.
16. CCM has a largely superior presentation, including a "News" section that is much more interesting and useful than most fairly canned such features in past games.
17. CCM has what appears to be a more realistic simulation engine - completion rates for QBs now approach reality after a year in which they were 5-7% too low across the board.
18. CCM has all sorts of online functionality that Franchise didn't. I guess there are people who do this, but removing Fantasy Draft probably cut the number down a bit.

[Sugashane]

Re: Connected Careers vs Franchise Mode?

3. No ability to edit players - in ANY way - in any mode other than exhibition! This is by far the most glaring weakness. I like to customize my game, but this limitation takes us back to Madden 06. Not only can you not edit attributes, but you cannot edit numbers or even equipment in the new all everything CC mode that killed franchise.

You think that is bad, look at LaRon Landry's strength rating. The guy is a beast, but get real. LOL