Why Salary Cap is a MUST in Online Franchise!

[Stikskillz]

For those of us that conduct fantasy drafts for our franchise teams, a Salary Cap is a must have because it affects the way a owner drafts his team and completes trades during the first part of the season, not to mention off-season. For example, If you draft upper-tier players early in the draft with high salaries, having a salary cap prevents you from drafting mid-tier players that also have high salaries because you will exceed the cap. This is proof that having a salary cap impacts the way a team is built and is essential to running and managing a successful franchise.

For Ian and co. to say a salary cap only affects the off-season proves their decision to not include one of the most fundamental features for a franchise was not a well thought out one. It is really frustrating to know this was excluded again in M11 after many gamers were shocked and expressed disappointment with this feature being left out last year. To leave it out based on their data analysis is a poor decision.

Last year, they boasted about being able to add features server side. What has been added? Not much to my knowledge. If someone from EA reads this, please rethink this decision and at the very least add a salary cap to Online Franchise server side like you touted you can.

Thank you!

[s38s38s]

Re: Why Salary Cap is a MUST in Online Franchise!

This ^. Seriously it really is hard to maintain an OLF without some sort of salary system to maintain balance.

[ryan36]

Re: Why Salary Cap is a MUST in Online Franchise!

It is- some commissioners use house rules or assign every player a point value, and each team a cap.

Not the best, but it IS a solution for those who like online franchise, and will help you enjoy Madden 11 that way, if you play it.

[Nev]

Re: Why Salary Cap is a MUST in Online Franchise!

Yeah I agree.

Without it, the franchise's I have been in are full of crazy trades. And lots of them. Without the salary cap there is zero player movement without trading.

I could carry on though without a salary cap, what I think needs changing is the rookie draft. Random classes would be nice instead of the same one's in the same order. Most of all though, the rookie ratings NEED to be hidden.

[bigrice25]

Re: Why Salary Cap is a MUST in Online Franchise!

Ya, those little (i wanted to say simple, but im not sure if they are simple to implement) things like Salary cap and hidden rookie ratings are whats keeping me from purchasing madden opening day.

There just isnt any strategy or player movement in the Online Franchises. It makes the mode feel like long leauge play rather than Franchise building.

I know there are ways we could make rules and stuff, but thats too much work IMO, I will probably buy Madden later down the road to give me a football fix other than NCAA, but i really hope they address this in madden 12.

[CRMosier_LM]

Re: Why Salary Cap is a MUST in Online Franchise!

I agree 100%! We have a cap system in our online franchise and it is a tedious avenue for owners to have to keep track of manually. I have seen a lot of leagues lose owners cuz people want a cap but don't want to be responsible for keeping track of it. You have to have a cap for free agent signings... it is a must! I hope that someone at EA realizes this and somehow gets us a salary cap in online franchise cuz it takes a lot of the fun out of the game to manually manage salary cap and ultimately prevents people from wanting to join an online franchise. That is how you lose users, by burning them out keeping track of a cap system. Its about playing the game and having fun, not feeling like you are in math class everyday. That's why they need to add it in game!

[Stikskillz]

Re: Why Salary Cap is a MUST in Online Franchise!

I agree 100%! We have a cap system in our online franchise and it is a tedious avenue for owners to have to keep track of manually. I have seen a lot of leagues lose owners cuz people want a cap but don't want to be responsible for keeping track of it. You have to have a cap for free agent signings... it is a must! I hope that someone at EA realizes this and somehow gets us a salary cap in online franchise cuz it takes a lot of the fun out of the game to manually manage salary cap and ultimately prevents people from wanting to join an online franchise. That is how you lose users, by burning them out keeping track of a cap system. Its about playing the game and having fun, not feeling like you are in math class everyday. That's why they need to add it in game!

That is exactly why there were low numbers of users participating in OF on M10. Their data analysis is not taken this into consideration. Ian & Co should be able recognize this flaw and the correlation and address it accordingly. Why should consumers have to wait another year for a Salary Cap to be implemented?

It's enough work just to get through the season and it's too much work to keep up with an artificial point system to mimic a salary cap. Without the inclusion of a Cap, running a franchise is pointless, let alone playing one season or multiple seasons with signing FA's during the year due to injuries, exploring possible trades, re-signing players during the season, etc.

EA, if you're reading this, this is not a request, it is a plea to do the right thing for your consumers and update OF on M11 with a Salary Cap server side. I firmly believe that when this is done, EA's OF usage data will look much different.

Thank you!

[EmmittSmithx22x]

Re: Why Salary Cap is a MUST in Online Franchise!

Man.... I wish they would fix OLF. Salary Caps would be great!!!! But they already told us, no fixes till Madden 12....

[xxxGODFATHERxxx]

Re: Why Salary Cap is a MUST in Online Franchise!

This is why EA needs some competition. I have been buying Madden since the very first one but every year they leave stuff out. They added nothing server side last year and everybody I talk to wants a salary cap. I will buy it again this year but very sad to hear no salary cap again.

[mestevo]

Re: Why Salary Cap is a MUST in Online Franchise!

3 friends passing on Madden this year because there's no cap in online and playing together was the only reason they bought it last year. Tried to convince them to give NCAA a go but was unsuccessful.

It's not NFL roster management without the salary cap. It's online 'franchise' not an online tournament.

[Boregard]

Re: Why Salary Cap is a MUST in Online Franchise!

OLF should function just like offline franchise

Salary Cap - you know what kind of NFL you have without a cap - Lockout
in other words no football played which is exactly what EA got in M10
I know a ton of guys who want to play Madden but none have
even bought the game since M07 on PS2 because PS3 offers no
Profile mobility (not to mention you can't play head to head games
with 2 profiles loaded on 1 PS3) No way to share files online, meaning
you can not play an offline franchise and upload the file for someone
to then download and then play their game or even "export" your
franchise games to online to facilitate a multi-user 'chise

You should have options in both online & offline franchises like;
CPU to HUM trades on/off toggle + HUM to CPU trade difficulty slider
SAL increase control (in other words the "commish" sets the increase
from year to year
Pre-season games on/off toggle -although you could just sim it
Lock difficulty settings
Lock player position
Custom playbooks on/off toggle (hint hint)
Lose franchise (being fired) on/off toggle
Guest star (HUM controlling CPU opponents) on/off toggle
Custom schedules (have the game attempt to move all HUM vs HUM
games to end of year when it generates the schedule)
Injury options - on/off sim, slider for frequency & slider for severity
for both during gameplay & in simulated games

Playing in an online franchise should not be a minimalist experience. Why the heck is EA not putting their effort there??? Franchise mode helped Madden reach new heights, so why don't they see that OLF would really help them take the next huge step? Franchise guys don't want to play a half-@$$ shell of the mode - we want online functionality for the franchise mode that of M05 only better!!!

[thekodinator]

Re: Why Salary Cap is a MUST in Online Franchise!

Yeah it's totally false advertising calling it "online franchise". Really it's no more than a shined-up version of the old online leagues.

NCAA online dynasty > madden online franchise

[reo]

Re: Why Salary Cap is a MUST in Online Franchise!

3 friends passing on Madden this year because there's no cap in online and playing together was the only reason they bought it last year. Tried to convince them to give NCAA a go but was unsuccessful.

It's not NFL roster management without the salary cap. It's online 'franchise' not an online tournament.

This is why my friends and I are passing on Madden this year as well . . .

[TDKing]

Re: Why Salary Cap is a MUST in Online Franchise!

3 friends passing on Madden this year because there's no cap in online and playing together was the only reason they bought it last year. Tried to convince them to give NCAA a go but was unsuccessful.

It's not NFL roster management without the salary cap. It's online 'franchise' not an online tournament.

You can add 4 more people passing because of no improvments to the so called online franchise mode. Having fun with NCAA for now.

[PlatooN]

Re: Why Salary Cap is a MUST in Online Franchise!

i remember them talking about being able to "patch it sever side" last year if the demand was great enough if i remember correctly.... sad to see it's not in the M11 retail copy....