Thoughts on an overhaul of Franchise Mode

[zfarrow]

Okay, so I've been playing Franchise mode a lot this year and I honestly think there are a lot of things that need to be improved. I haven't played Madden in a few years, but The Show's Franchise mode doesn't really compare to the realism/depth of Madden's Connected Franchise Mode. Of course, The Show has nearly flawless gameplay, which is why these improvement would mean so much more! I'm going to list things and I'd love to hear others thoughts!

1) Regional weather fixed: Weather should change when selecting the game. Temperatures should be accurate. It should not be 59 degrees in Washington in the middle of May. This is easy to fix and just quite annoying that its still wrong.

2) Spring Training: It should mean something more. There have been some good threads on this that I don't need to rehash, but I sim through it (wanting some injuries to take place like in real life). There just isn't any real reason to participate.

3) Player Progression: This needs to be retooled (always). There are certain things that players cannot really improve much at: arm strength and speed for instance. There are other things that tend to improve with Major League experience: plate discipline, contact, fielding (to a degree). Overall, I just don't think its very representative of real life. In addition, there are certain attributes that don't regress and some that do. Plate discipline doesn't ever really regress. Speed does significantly. Arm strength doesn't regress much IRL unless theres an injury. You get the idea.

4) Scouting and the draft: This sort of ties in with the above. The way young players develop makes no sense. The draft is full of players who are equally far from their potential at every attribute. There are never players who have a 70 fielding rating coming in. Heck there aren't even very many who have a high speed rating. There are certain tools that are evident when players are young: speed, arm strength, arm accuracy, fielding. Especially arm strength and speed! How often do you see a high school prospect with a cannon in The Show? Let scouting be redone and completely based on the "5 Tools" and the "20-80 system". After the draft their full attributes can be revealed. Also maybe give us 10 rounds? Balance out the high potentials - increase the amount of dynamic change that takes place with player potentials (more D's turning into B's and A's turning into C's).

5) Potentials-by-Attribute: This would solve the above problem. Give players potentials at all the attributes instead of overall. Then you can draft someone and find that they are a 40contact with an 80pot contact. Or a 40 contact with 45 potential contact but an 80 power potential. I think it would make things much more varied and realistic.

6) Rosters: There should be more than 90 roster spots available, at least 100. Even if they don't expand the minors at all, it'd be nice to have 4 25 man rosters. I am running out of players due to injury (which is awesome, but it'd be nice if I could call up another OF to AA instead of a 2B). Let my draft picks join my system as soon as they sign a contract.

7) Offseason: Simplify this! I love that all the MLB rules are present, but if I have to bookmark a how-to thread on OS in order to make it through without losing my players to some rule I wasn't understanding, it kind of defeats the purpose. I believe there has to be a way for the rules to all be present/functional, but for it also to be easy enough for the casual baseball fan/franchise player to figure out.

8) Presentation: Pitchers' names are never mentioned on the mound. This is just weird. Theres never "Here's Scherzer with the 2-2" it's always "Here's the 2-2". Relievers stats are shown but rarely ever spoken of when they enter the game. Situational stats please! That means RISP, splits against certain pitchers, etc. Talk about roster moves during the game; especially kicking off the new season, tell me who the other team signed as a FA (Here comes Cruz, whom the Mariners signed to a big deal this offseason). Tell me about trades: "Here comes Zobrist, he was picked up last year in a trade with with the Rays". Tell me about injuries during the game (especially the 1st of a series): "You'll notice no Manny Machado in the lineup tonight, as he's found himself on the DL with a wrist contusion." These would add so much to the immersion of the game.

I'm probably forgetting some things, but I'd love to hear some others thoughts on this. I love franchise! I just wonder what it would be like if it were up to par with the rest of sports gaming!

[Jr.]

These are great. The draft pool needs to be better developed and progression/regression definitely. I hate that there is consistent gains in progression every season. I don't think any game has ever gotten progression/regression right in sports games.

There should be bigger jumps early on, then stasis starting around age 27, in general. Have some outliers that are late bloomers, early regression candidates.

Make injuries matter. If a pitcher tears his shoulder, there should be a dip in velocity and accuracy stats. With elbow injury, less so. Separate the durability attribute from a general fatigue, so you can have guys with low durability play more than 4 games in a row before they need a day off.

I do disagree with simplifying the off-season. I love the way it is set up.

I love the Potentials-by-Attribute idea. That would breath some life into scouting and how players develop.

Good stuff.

[thawkprime 21]

To go along with your weather changes, they need to make it so that stadiums with retractable domes close. You shouldnt be able to play a game in the rain in a stadium with a retractable dome.

[johntait1]

Nice post, but personally I feel that The Show's franchise mode is a lot more in depth than Madden's Connected Franchise. I've played a lot of Madden 15's Connected Franchise and its quite broke IMHO.

That said, this thread isn't about Madden and I think you've got some valid points. I think for the draft they should add the slot bonuses thing because that is huge in today's draft. First ten rounds would work great with that.

International free agency and the slots thing needs to be added as well; its such a huge part of today's game.

Good point on potentials. I would add that they should have more than one potential rating IMHO:there should be at least a ceiling, floor, and progression rate rating. Ceiling is best the player can be, floor is worst the player will be, and progression rate will determine how fast the player progresses. That would mean a lot of different types of prospects:high floor, low ceiling; high ceiling, low floor;etc.

Offseason I'd have to disagree on, I think they could add stuff to it to make it simpler to understand. Adding stuff like Media coverage through internet articles like rumor: Price headed to Cubs or something like that would make it much more immersive, while the stuff in the articles could mention the various rules that help casual players understand them.

Overall a great thread, and I hope to see more people talking about franchise overhauling. Maybe if I have the time I'll start a series pointing out various things I think need an overhaul to let people discuss them.

[Benz87]

All I care about is stat tracking. IMO there is no purpose in playing more than a season with the complete lack of career stat tracking. I cant even view career stolen bases for a player, what boggles me even more is this stat is tracked. It is shown on the scoreboard occasionally and after a player hits a milestone in game, yet there is no way to view it in any menus. I'm a numbers guy, as I imagine most baseball fans would be, as that is what the game is predicated on. It amazes me there is such lack of numbers represented in what is considering to be the greatest baseball simulation game created. I know it has already been confirmed this will be a concentration of the development team for 2016.

If I had to choose a 2nd improvement it would would be the scouting system. There is no purpose in scouting as it is impossible to scout all players in draft class to any amount of accuracy, i'm better off taking advantage of the glitch that allows 100% accurate overall and potential if I don't scout at all. I could get a semi-accurate scouting report on a few players, but to do this I would have to leave 70% of the draft class unscouted. The discovery system does not have any logic applied to it either. Why would I need to discover a player who is well known in college ball? He has already been discovered because he is known, all I should have to do is scout him more in depth than he already has been.

[cusefan74]

I don't think Maddens CFM is even close to The Shows franchise mode. It's hard to find things in Madden, it's not broken, but it needs to be redone big time. People are always gonna complain about the progression and regression thing in sports games. That I think is one thing that they can never get right, IMO. Opening and closing roofs I don't care about myself. Baseball should be played outside all the time!

[forme95]

The regression thing doesnt bother me. I like that a player can go down as he ages. Thats how it should be. As long as he is productive, he will play. If he gets to the point I can no longer use him, its next man up imo. I have a 39 yr old pitcher who has regressed considerably, but he can still be productive, so he is still up and playing.

[tessl]

Quote: Originally Posted by zfarrow

Okay, so I've been playing Franchise mode a lot this year and I honestly think there are a lot of things that need to be improved. I haven't played Madden in a few years, but The Show's Franchise mode doesn't really compare to the realism/depth of Madden's Connected Franchise Mode. Of course, The Show has nearly flawless gameplay, which is why these improvement would mean so much more! I'm going to list things and I'd love to hear others thoughts! 1) Regional weather fixed: Weather should change when selecting the game. Temperatures should be accurate. It should not be 59 degrees in Washington in the middle of May. This is easy to fix and just quite annoying that its still wrong. 2) Spring Training: It should mean something more. There have been some good threads on this that I don't need to rehash, but I sim through it (wanting some injuries to take place like in real life). There just isn't any real reason to participate. 3) Player Progression: This needs to be retooled (always). There are certain things that players cannot really improve much at: arm strength and speed for instance. There are other things that tend to improve with Major League experience: plate discipline, contact, fielding (to a degree). Overall, I just don't think its very representative of real life. In addition, there are certain attributes that don't regress and some that do. Plate discipline doesn't ever really regress. Speed does significantly. Arm strength doesn't regress much IRL unless theres an injury. You get the idea. 4) Scouting and the draft: This sort of ties in with the above. The way young players develop makes no sense. The draft is full of players who are equally far from their potential at every attribute. There are never players who have a 70 fielding rating coming in. Heck there aren't even very many who have a high speed rating. There are certain tools that are evident when players are young: speed, arm strength, arm accuracy, fielding. Especially arm strength and speed! How often do you see a high school prospect with a cannon in The Show? Let scouting be redone and completely based on the "5 Tools" and the "20-80 system". After the draft their full attributes can be revealed. Also maybe give us 10 rounds? Balance out the high potentials - increase the amount of dynamic change that takes place with player potentials (more D's turning into B's and A's turning into C's). 5) Potentials-by-Attribute: This would solve the above problem. Give players potentials at all the attributes instead of overall. Then you can draft someone and find that they are a 40contact with an 80pot contact. Or a 40 contact with 45 potential contact but an 80 power potential. I think it would make things much more varied and realistic. 6) Rosters: There should be more than 90 roster spots available, at least 100. Even if they don't expand the minors at all, it'd be nice to have 4 25 man rosters. I am running out of players due to injury (which is awesome, but it'd be nice if I could call up another OF to AA instead of a 2B). Let my draft picks join my system as soon as they sign a contract. 7) Offseason: Simplify this! I love that all the MLB rules are present, but if I have to bookmark a how-to thread on OS in order to make it through without losing my players to some rule I wasn't understanding, it kind of defeats the purpose. I believe there has to be a way for the rules to all be present/functional, but for it also to be easy enough for the casual baseball fan/franchise player to figure out. 8) Presentation: Pitchers' names are never mentioned on the mound. This is just weird. Theres never "Here's Scherzer with the 2-2" it's always "Here's the 2-2". Relievers stats are shown but rarely ever spoken of when they enter the game. Situational stats please! That means RISP, splits against certain pitchers, etc. Talk about roster moves during the game; especially kicking off the new season, tell me who the other team signed as a FA (Here comes Cruz, whom the Mariners signed to a big deal this offseason). Tell me about trades: "Here comes Zobrist, he was picked up last year in a trade with with the Rays". Tell me about injuries during the game (especially the 1st of a series): "You'll notice no Manny Machado in the lineup tonight, as he's found himself on the DL with a wrist contusion." These would add so much to the immersion of the game. I'm probably forgetting some things, but I'd love to hear some others thoughts on this. I love franchise! I just wonder what it would be like if it were up to par with the rest of sports gaming!

Interesting ideas.

1. I'd settle for random weather. In manage mode the sun always shines.

2. I'd still sim spring training. It's practice.

3. They did change progression - and it is worse according to people who sim into the future with every team loaded with stars. It does need attention.

4. I wasn't aware until I read the scouting thread - it certainly needs attention.

5. Potentials by attribute is a good idea if properly implemented. Then add training being easier for attributes with high potential than low potential.

6. There may be valid reasons why they limit the roster size. You can always pick up a cheap free agent if you are in a bind.

7. The offseason is fine as it is. You can sim it if you don't want to be bothered.

8. I turn the sound off. Nothing against the commentary but I listen to the radio while I'm playing the game.