Let Me Upgrade You: Madden's Online Franchise Mode
 

As you guys already know, the Franchise mode in Madden 11 was pretty much no different than that of its predecessor. If "simpler, quicker and deeper" described most of Madden 11, then "stale, unchanged and the same" was still the name of the game for the Franchise mode.

Luckily, EA Sports is prepping for another season on the gridiron, and an updated Franchise mode is said to be part of the game plan. With that in mind, here are four upgrades I hope make the final cut for Madden 12’s Online Franchise mode.

The Surprise Onside Kick

Let's kick things off with the new surprise onside kick (SOK) that has been announced for Madden 12. The word out of EA is that the SOK will be limited to one attempt a game. However, there needs to be more regulation for a franchise mode. My suggestion is to give the league commissioner the option to choose how many SOKs each team can attempt throughout a season. Personally, anywhere between two or three attempts for a whole season would be fair and realistic. This way the league commissioners and fellow users never have to worry about teams exploiting this new gameplay feature.

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If i still played madden, those would have been some nice improvements for me...good article though

If i still played madden, those would have been some nice improvements for me...good article though (2)

Those ideas are ok but you are missing the most important ones: ability to trade draft picks, a salary cap, and free agent bidding system.

Now if you want ideas beyond those must haves then might I suggest the ability to hire and fire coaches and coordinators. You may ask why this is necessary. Well I would suggest that instead of 16 owners in your online franchise using the same playbook that you can only use the playbook of the coach you employ. No more running a 3-4 defense if you have a D-coordinator who runs a 4-3. So EA could use the same code for free agents and a bidding system for coaches as well. Kill two birds with one stone on this one.

there are some draft steals. example a POT A getting drafted in the 5-6th round. but i get what your saying, the ability to make what ever one says is a POT C and with some extra training and care he can move to a POT A, in time and the sky is the limit. Not setting a limit as it is now...

With that too I believe they need to bring back the training camp drills, that way we have the ability to do this!

@labguy

Yes ability to trade draft picks will be welcomed, but whole Draft system in general needs an overhaul. Need to be able to pre-pick in the event a user isn't available for the draft, but as said - my main issue in Madden 11 were the created players themselves and that's the key.

1) Salary cap with free agent market.

2) Practice mode.

3) Correct NFL tiebreaker rules.

4) Custom sliders and every other option that offline franchise mode has.

5) Randomized draft pools instead of scripted. Most people just use the cheat sheets in drafts.

6) Tradeable draft picks.

"Practice modes or perhaps even scrimmages against other users would be a welcomed addition in the online franchise world. Lastly, an upgraded companion website is a must. The lack of options and the unreliable draft client needs to be addressed so users can always be in control."

great idea here, in our sim franchise community we have some leagues that advance every 48 hours like clockwork which leaves little time to become familiar with your squad. we love to lab with each other and this would be a great way to do so (LOVE the idea of scrimmages).

my suggestion as mentioned many times before is a HLTV or spectator server to view other online franchise games...and possible some sort of salary cap to prevent team stacking (not every owner is the brightest crayon in the box when it comes to trading).