So playing through franchise mode in NHL09 (PS3 version) I must say there are more than a handful of opportunities for NHL 2010. Alot of the things I noted could be quick fixes, such as menu interface and adding certain pages, some will take more involvement. Hopefully with community day coming up someone reads this, because I find franchise mode painfully frustrating and if I was not playing with 3 friends, it would be quite boring. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy the game, I chose it over 2k for the first time since 2002 I believe, but it does leave some things to be desired.
Here is a list I compiled of strictly franchise issues and opportunities, with the biggest few issues coming first...
1. Load times kill flow of navigation
Something has to be done about the load times in franchise mode. Every time you go to a different menu page or scroll through a team it seems to lag behind and the load wheel will come up. That is just not acceptable, especially when some of the menus are very tedious (get to that soon). Just to sim a season from October to April took a good 15 minutes, especially with popups about waivers and trade offers. The calendar seemed to be overloaded when simming through, yet it's only displaying W's and L's. You can't even see how the other teams are doing from the calendar screen other than their record. Did Anaheim win their game? I don't know I'll have to go to another screen and find out....
2. Menus are confusing and need to be condensed/removed
There are alot of freakin menus in NHL 09 and I feel like they could've condensed a few menus together. Some examples;
There are 3 scouting reports that could easily be merged into one page that shows who is available, where they rank, and if you've scouted them all on the same page.
The Roster Moves page should be incorporated into the Edit Lines page or vice versa. It is extremely annoying when I have to go from the Roster Moves page to the Edit Lines page just to undress/scratch the guy and then go back into roster moves so I can send him down to the minors. You should be able to do that from the same page.
Maybe the amount of different pages causes the lag, who knows, but there are some pages they need to add.
>All Star Voting page - Where is it? I can't find it. Does it exist? We should be able to see in a simple page how the voting is going.
>League Leaders page - Again, If I am NYR, I have to scroll all the way through the teams, then the divisions just to get to the NHL leaders page, and with the lag as well? You should be able to click a page and wham there are the league leaders.
>Draft Order page - You can't see what pick you have until you get into the draft, that's weak!! If you can I can't find it which means others definitely can't either. I had to go into a draft before just to see what pick my team had.
The Dynasty Hub is a nice little idea that has a bunch of info, but why is half the page taken up by other team's roster moves? I don't really care that the Penguins sent some nobody back down to their farm team. Even if I did it shouldn't take up a half a screen. Move it to a ticker at the bottom of the page or something.
3. Add an Offseason To Do List
This is very neccesary imo. Going through offseason the draft just sneaks up on you, you never seem to have a handle for what's going on with just the calendar. I'd like to see something that is laid out in steps, like;
1. NHL Draft
2. Sign draft picks
3. Sign Restricted FA's
4. Sign FA's
5. Complete Lines
This way you know what's coming and what you need to do so you don't accidentally skip signing your draft picks or something.
4. Free Agency is a joke
Free Agency has many opportunities, the biggest for me is;
>Allow me to easily see what I have and what I need. I shouldn't have to go back to another menu to see what players I have then go back to FA to sign guys, it should be in view maybe at the bottom of the screen like;
C - 3 (1) LW - 5 (0) RW - 3(1) D - 4 (2) G 2 (0) TOP - 16 (2)
with how many I need in parenthesis and TOP being my total players and the minimum I need to fill my lines.
> No feeling of involvement with contracts. They basically have it bare bones, you can do years, alter the amount, if you want 2way, and that's about it. No signing bonus, no salary breakdown, no incentives, no back and forth negotiating as in I give an amount with incentives and the player/agent tells me what he thinks. If I want a guy it seems I give him a couple 100k more than he wants and he will always sign. Again the page needs to display more of the info we need to see.
(from Shakeable)
Stop with the automatic moving of players between NHL/AHL squads during the signing of free agents. It messes up the available cap space you have left and tricking you into thinking you have more cap space available than you really have. My own example would be Savard 5M$ and Wideman 3.8M$ trapped in the AHL because i signed to many free agents, thought i had the cap space.....
5. The Draft is an absolute Joke!!
Where's the spectacle, where's the life?? NHL 09 has a draft just to say it has a draft, it is really sad and coming from someone who loves drafts that makes me sad!! There are many issues with the Draft in 09.
> No Trade Offers/No ability to trade during the draft
- I can't trade during the draft?? That's weak man!! All trades must be completed before the draft.
> The draft flies by
- Where is the intensity? It's funny the menus lag but as soon as I pick my player in the draft I blink and it's my turn to pick again. Wow that was fast! But in this case it shouldn't be, unless I want it to. Allow us to skip to our pick but start the draft off slooooowwww. Maybe I have the 3rd overall pick and want to move up to #1? By the time I click start draft it's already my pick!
> Don't click the wrong button!!
- Seriously!? If I accidentally click on a guy with the wrong button I draft him!! Where is the Confirm popup with the default on No!!???
> No Draft immersion
- All you see is a board and a team logo. You click on your team when it's your turn to draft and select a name off of a sheet. There is absolutely no presence of Draft there!! Where's the setting?? Where are the players?? What are the rumors?? Immerse me in the draft!!
> No Player visuals
- All I see are stats and overlays and physical characteristics, what about the player!!?? I know it says 6'4 but I want to see if he's lean or a beast.. I can also then attach a name to the person. When you highlight the player they should show his actual person.
> You can't back out
- If you want to look at your roster while in round 3 to see your LW depth, tough. You cannot do anything but pick or autopick in the draft. It will not let you back out!!!
> No lotto incorporation
- Set a day aside to do the lottery drawing, don't make it a mystery. I want to know if I pick 3rd or 8th!!!
6. Scouting
I like the information part of scouting, but I don't know what's expected of me in regards to scouting. What I mean is it's not explained well enough when you get into franchise. Also;
>As I stated before, the scouting menus are confusing and could probably just be 1 menu for all 3.
>I like the experience factor, but how about a weekly or monthly update as to who went up. It could be a franchise popup that came and just said;
February Experience
Tee Starbird - C - +1 Slap Power, +1 Faceoff, +2 Wrist Accuracy
Overall is now an 88(87)
Parenthesis being previous....and it would have all the players on 1 page.
7. AHL incorporation
My big gripe with the AHL team is that I have to actually bother with them. Not a big fan of the AHL, love the NHL, so not sure why I have to keep simming their games and whatnot. Give us an option to turn off AHL reminders, let them run their own league.
8. Rosters
(from Shakeable)
CPU teams only change their line ups in the event of an injury. Despite leaving one of their better players out of the line up just because he was injured earlier in the year. Make CPU team adjust lines when players come back from injury as well.
(from Shakeable)
Also improve on the selection of line ups. It only seems to go by overall skill number and the position forever leaving the tough guys out of the line ups. Look at how the real teams do it. Why does the bruins have Axelsson on the top line from time to time, why do the canadiens have Laraque on the same line as Koivu etc. Make every player bring something to the table(this is probably more geared towards gameplay).
When you create a team and sign FA's to your roster and then start a franchise, all of the players you signed are on your team AND Free Agency as well as your created guys.
(from Shakeable)
The rosters have to be tested before its released. I started my dynasty with the roster update that was released after the trade deadline. It's crawling with duplicate players in the free agency and it's ruining the immersion seeing the same player on two different teams. An example would be Stamkos.
Okay this is all I have for right now but I am sure I will add more as I find more things that need addressing.....
Here is a list I compiled of strictly franchise issues and opportunities, with the biggest few issues coming first...
1. Load times kill flow of navigation
Something has to be done about the load times in franchise mode. Every time you go to a different menu page or scroll through a team it seems to lag behind and the load wheel will come up. That is just not acceptable, especially when some of the menus are very tedious (get to that soon). Just to sim a season from October to April took a good 15 minutes, especially with popups about waivers and trade offers. The calendar seemed to be overloaded when simming through, yet it's only displaying W's and L's. You can't even see how the other teams are doing from the calendar screen other than their record. Did Anaheim win their game? I don't know I'll have to go to another screen and find out....
2. Menus are confusing and need to be condensed/removed
There are alot of freakin menus in NHL 09 and I feel like they could've condensed a few menus together. Some examples;
There are 3 scouting reports that could easily be merged into one page that shows who is available, where they rank, and if you've scouted them all on the same page.
The Roster Moves page should be incorporated into the Edit Lines page or vice versa. It is extremely annoying when I have to go from the Roster Moves page to the Edit Lines page just to undress/scratch the guy and then go back into roster moves so I can send him down to the minors. You should be able to do that from the same page.
Maybe the amount of different pages causes the lag, who knows, but there are some pages they need to add.
>All Star Voting page - Where is it? I can't find it. Does it exist? We should be able to see in a simple page how the voting is going.
>League Leaders page - Again, If I am NYR, I have to scroll all the way through the teams, then the divisions just to get to the NHL leaders page, and with the lag as well? You should be able to click a page and wham there are the league leaders.
>Draft Order page - You can't see what pick you have until you get into the draft, that's weak!! If you can I can't find it which means others definitely can't either. I had to go into a draft before just to see what pick my team had.
The Dynasty Hub is a nice little idea that has a bunch of info, but why is half the page taken up by other team's roster moves? I don't really care that the Penguins sent some nobody back down to their farm team. Even if I did it shouldn't take up a half a screen. Move it to a ticker at the bottom of the page or something.
3. Add an Offseason To Do List
This is very neccesary imo. Going through offseason the draft just sneaks up on you, you never seem to have a handle for what's going on with just the calendar. I'd like to see something that is laid out in steps, like;
1. NHL Draft
2. Sign draft picks
3. Sign Restricted FA's
4. Sign FA's
5. Complete Lines
This way you know what's coming and what you need to do so you don't accidentally skip signing your draft picks or something.
4. Free Agency is a joke
Free Agency has many opportunities, the biggest for me is;
>Allow me to easily see what I have and what I need. I shouldn't have to go back to another menu to see what players I have then go back to FA to sign guys, it should be in view maybe at the bottom of the screen like;
C - 3 (1) LW - 5 (0) RW - 3(1) D - 4 (2) G 2 (0) TOP - 16 (2)
with how many I need in parenthesis and TOP being my total players and the minimum I need to fill my lines.
> No feeling of involvement with contracts. They basically have it bare bones, you can do years, alter the amount, if you want 2way, and that's about it. No signing bonus, no salary breakdown, no incentives, no back and forth negotiating as in I give an amount with incentives and the player/agent tells me what he thinks. If I want a guy it seems I give him a couple 100k more than he wants and he will always sign. Again the page needs to display more of the info we need to see.
(from Shakeable)
Stop with the automatic moving of players between NHL/AHL squads during the signing of free agents. It messes up the available cap space you have left and tricking you into thinking you have more cap space available than you really have. My own example would be Savard 5M$ and Wideman 3.8M$ trapped in the AHL because i signed to many free agents, thought i had the cap space.....
5. The Draft is an absolute Joke!!
Where's the spectacle, where's the life?? NHL 09 has a draft just to say it has a draft, it is really sad and coming from someone who loves drafts that makes me sad!! There are many issues with the Draft in 09.
> No Trade Offers/No ability to trade during the draft
- I can't trade during the draft?? That's weak man!! All trades must be completed before the draft.
> The draft flies by
- Where is the intensity? It's funny the menus lag but as soon as I pick my player in the draft I blink and it's my turn to pick again. Wow that was fast! But in this case it shouldn't be, unless I want it to. Allow us to skip to our pick but start the draft off slooooowwww. Maybe I have the 3rd overall pick and want to move up to #1? By the time I click start draft it's already my pick!
> Don't click the wrong button!!
- Seriously!? If I accidentally click on a guy with the wrong button I draft him!! Where is the Confirm popup with the default on No!!???
> No Draft immersion
- All you see is a board and a team logo. You click on your team when it's your turn to draft and select a name off of a sheet. There is absolutely no presence of Draft there!! Where's the setting?? Where are the players?? What are the rumors?? Immerse me in the draft!!
> No Player visuals
- All I see are stats and overlays and physical characteristics, what about the player!!?? I know it says 6'4 but I want to see if he's lean or a beast.. I can also then attach a name to the person. When you highlight the player they should show his actual person.
> You can't back out
- If you want to look at your roster while in round 3 to see your LW depth, tough. You cannot do anything but pick or autopick in the draft. It will not let you back out!!!
> No lotto incorporation
- Set a day aside to do the lottery drawing, don't make it a mystery. I want to know if I pick 3rd or 8th!!!
6. Scouting
I like the information part of scouting, but I don't know what's expected of me in regards to scouting. What I mean is it's not explained well enough when you get into franchise. Also;
>As I stated before, the scouting menus are confusing and could probably just be 1 menu for all 3.
>I like the experience factor, but how about a weekly or monthly update as to who went up. It could be a franchise popup that came and just said;
February Experience
Tee Starbird - C - +1 Slap Power, +1 Faceoff, +2 Wrist Accuracy
Overall is now an 88(87)
Parenthesis being previous....and it would have all the players on 1 page.
7. AHL incorporation
My big gripe with the AHL team is that I have to actually bother with them. Not a big fan of the AHL, love the NHL, so not sure why I have to keep simming their games and whatnot. Give us an option to turn off AHL reminders, let them run their own league.
8. Rosters
(from Shakeable)
CPU teams only change their line ups in the event of an injury. Despite leaving one of their better players out of the line up just because he was injured earlier in the year. Make CPU team adjust lines when players come back from injury as well.
(from Shakeable)
Also improve on the selection of line ups. It only seems to go by overall skill number and the position forever leaving the tough guys out of the line ups. Look at how the real teams do it. Why does the bruins have Axelsson on the top line from time to time, why do the canadiens have Laraque on the same line as Koivu etc. Make every player bring something to the table(this is probably more geared towards gameplay).
When you create a team and sign FA's to your roster and then start a franchise, all of the players you signed are on your team AND Free Agency as well as your created guys.
(from Shakeable)
The rosters have to be tested before its released. I started my dynasty with the roster update that was released after the trade deadline. It's crawling with duplicate players in the free agency and it's ruining the immersion seeing the same player on two different teams. An example would be Stamkos.
Okay this is all I have for right now but I am sure I will add more as I find more things that need addressing.....
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