I am not playing a 32 team control Franchise this season. I am rolling with an offline single team Raiders CFM. Below are some general guidelines I employ as "House Rules" to try and keep a well balanced and competitive league. The CPU will do what it does and I am fine with that. It is what it is and to be frank I plan on only playing 5 full seasons max with this team.

1) Gameplanning - Madden has a new gameplanning feature that I am fully utilizing. I pick my own drills and sometimes I follow the suggested ones as well. Either way do whatever you want. I do have one caveat. If I earn a silver medal (or gold) I do not replay that drill again for the rest of that season. I also only do the drill one time for that week which means I don't spam it and play it till I get a gold (or silver) If I get a no medal or a bronze....chalk it up as a bad week of practice and deal with it on game day! So again if you score a silver or higher, do not replay that drill again for that season. If you use that drill again as part of a game plan just toggle to sim that drill (saves time too). Once your season is over....fair game if you want to replay a drill to get a gold. But follow the same process for all future seasons.

2) Player XP - I set progress players to "Every 4 Weeks" for the CPU so therefore I also follow that rule. Please read below as I have included TDawgs XP house rules in conjunction to use with his brilliant XP sliders!

3) Coach XP - I spend it whenever I want during the season and I don't limit what packages I buy. Have fun with it. It's your coach and your legacy rating.

4) Contracts during in season resign period and off-season free agency :

Contracts must never be more than 4 yrs unless player requests more

You must let one player rated 74 or higher test free agency


For all Contracts that meet these parameters below:

All contracts longer than 2 years (3 years or more)
All Contracts 2MM total or higher

Must receive a bonus at 30% of the contract amount so for example you have a WR who signs for 60MM over 4 years his bonus should be 18MM of that 60MM total.

QB Contracts are a different animal:

Minimum contract amounts for QB's (even if they want much less) in free agency:

4MM for QB rated below 70

8MM For QB rated 70-79

14MM for QB rated 80-89

17MM for QB rated 90+


When signing your own QB's these rules apply to your 1st and second stringers only.

Also a small caveat. Your starting QB must be paid a minimum of 14MM regardless of rating once his contract comes up for extension. So let's say you have Big Ben retire on you and now your want Landry Jones to step in...and his contract is up to be redone. Well...if he is going to be your starter...he must get starters money. It makes you really think about QB's and their worth to you.


5) Trading - So we all know we can fleece the CPU.....don't do it. If you want a realistic franchise don't blatantly fleece them. Sometimes you can get a good deal that ends up looking one sided. But don't go and trade a 1st and 3rd and some 75 rated RB for Aaron Rodgers. You know that just would never happen. Here are some guidelines for trading:

If trading for a CB you must send back a CB of no lesser value than +/- 10 rating points plus a 2nd round pick. Or you must send at least a 1st and 3rd rounder for any CB rated above 83.

Any blockbuster trade must include a 1st this year a 1st next year, and either a 2nd this year or a really solid young 3rd year or higher player rated 80 or above at either RT, LT, DT, DE, CB, WR, HB.

If your going to trade for a starting QB rated 83 or higher you really should be giving up the moon for them. 1st, 2nd this year, 1st next year, plus a very serviceable young player rated 80 or higher at the positions I mentioned above.

Also one trade is allowed per season. No trading of or for any rookies or players in the first year of a new contract.

In the draft trade as much as you want. It is a lot of fun.


Scouting - I have no house rules on scouting at all. knock yourself out and enjoy the hunt!!!



Rules

Rule 1 - These sliders are not intended for 32 team human control leagues. These sliders are intended for a 1-4 person league with the rest being cpu controlled.

Rule 2 - These sliders are intended for sim play style. If you constantly lead the league in everything or break records non stop the amount of xp you earn will be skewed in your favor.

Rule 3 - These sliders are intended for 4 week progression only. Every Week and End of Season progression will not work with these. Human controlled teams may progress as you please but I still suggest 4 Week for you as well.

Guidelines (How I Play)

Guideline 1 - I sim all training to make sure I only get a bronze. CPU teams do train but it's always the bronze star level and I don't want to cheat them.

Guideline 2 - All starters on my teams must have at least an 80 rating in Awr before I upgrade another attribute. All backups must have at least a 70 rating in Awr before I upgrade another attribute. This does two things. First it makes me have to spend on brains instead of jacking up their other ratings and using my stick skills to beat teams. Second it keeps it inline with how the cpu progresses players. They most definitely spend on Awr so again I don't want to cheat them.

Guideline 3 - I will pretty much never spend any XP on Spd, Acc, and Agi.
I feel guys come in at their peak in those areas so no need to make them better and I don't think the cpu goes for those either.

Guideline 4 - This is something I just started doing. At each progression phase, after I've got my players to the Awr level they need to be at, I auto progress any unused xp they may have left. I believe that the auto progress not only coincides with the cpu progression but also will progress players based off of your scheme. Plus I like having only some control over progression. A little random variety is nice. It gives me the feeling of being a Head Coach. I've trained them on their Awr (smarts), they train their bodies, and position specific stuff falls on their imaginary position coaches lol.

To Sum It Up

So that's basically it. The guidelines you don't have to follow but I think it will add a lot to these sliders. The rules however you must follow for these to work properly.

Side note on a few things. I've read where some think the user gains too much XP with these. Remember that these were created to give you realistic averages of talented players later on in your cfm. If you turn them down, while lowering your xp, you are also lowering the xp of all cpu teams and stunting their progression resulting in a cfm with not much top talent. If you gain too much xp you may just be too good for them. However they do give very realistic results for the cpu and to me that is the most important part for people who want a long and satisfying cfm experience. I haven't had a problem gaining too much xp as of yet and if I do at some point I think the guidelines I have above will help to keep things in check. You can always implement your own house rules for yourself as well. That's it. XP Sliders are below.



Creating current coach for your opponent

Ok so something you can do to immerse your Madden Franchise experience further. Simply follow these guidelines:

Let's say for example you are playing the Seahawks in week 1 Follow these steps:

Click down R3 (PS4) and create new character
Choose The Seahawks and use Pete Carrol (the real coach)

Now you also have control over The Seahawks and simply can do the following:


1) I will set up the Seahawks depth chart however I want, I will go into their auto sub menu and set everything to in 80 out 60.

2) I will go to coach schemes for the Seahawks and change their team specific playbook to a generic playbook. Below I have a list of my suggested playbooks for each team.

4) Now go into formation subs for the Seahawks - you will see it has the generic playbook now listed (it works!!!) and set up some formation subs you want for your opponent. Or not...totally your decision. I will typically put in the back up RB in on some running formations. For example with Seattle, I put Christine Michael in a few sets (Single Back Bunch, Single back spread, some shotgun) also I use CJ Prosise in some passing formations since he is being used as a 3rd down back this season etc. You can do whatever you want.

5) Do your weekly gameplanning for your main CFM team then play your week one game. After you finish week one retire Pete Carroll and move on to week two.
He will be coaching again for the Seahawks even after you retire him!

Guys......it's fantastic. Trust me. The game is even better. Far better. I am really pumped about this!!!! So much so I am restarting my Raiders CFM. It feels like I was cheating playing an inferior AI....but now with the generic playbook workaround......they are playing great.


Here is a list of my suggested playbooks for each team.

Arizona Cardinals- Balanced
Atlanta Falcons- West Coast
Baltimore Ravens – Balanced or Run Balanced
Buffalo Bills- Run Balance
Carolina Panthers -Panthers or Run Balanced
Chicago Bears - Balanced
Cincinnati Bengals - Balanced
Cleveland Browns- West Coast
Dallas Cowboys- Balanced
Denver Broncos- Run Balanced
Detroit Lions – Pass Balanced
Green Bay Packers- West Coast
Houston Texans- Balanced
Indianapolis Colts – Pass Balanced
Jacksonville Jaguars- Balanced
Kansas City Chiefs- West Coast
Miami Dolphins- West Coast
Minnesota Vikings – Run Balanced
New England Patriots- Pass Balanced
New Orleans Saints – Pass Balanced
New York Giants- Balanced
New York Jets- Balanced
Oakland Raiders- Balanced
Philadelphia Eagles- Pass Balanced
Pittsburgh Steelers –West Coast
Saint Louis Rams- Run Balanced
San Diego Chargers - West Coast
San Francisco 49ers – Run N Gun
Seattle Seahawks- Run Balanced or West Coast
Tampa Bay Buccaneers – Balanced
Tennessee Titans- Run Balanced or Balanced
Washington Redskins- Pass Balanced


Dynamic playbook selection - What happens if Aaron Rodgers is out with an injury the week you play him? Do you think they will be throwing the ball nearly as much or will they lean on Eddie Lacy? I say they feature Eddie Lacy. So use the Run Balanced or Run Heavy playbook!!! Match the playbook to personnel and usually that means if the starting QB is out and they don't have a capable back up....mix it up. Help the CPU be more competitive by giving them a playbook that will help them utilize their weapons better if they are missing their stud QB or Stud RB.

That's it! Plug in the settings and start your franchise!!!!