Questions about Madden 18
 

So I'll start off by saying I've not owned a Madden game in forever. When I did, I always went back to Ncaa. So I'm not a huge Madden guy. I haven't kept up with it in several years. But I have the itch that NCAA 14 can't scratch anymore. I love paying NBA 2K18. I love building a team and so on. Here's my questions about Madden.

What is connected franchise?
How is it different from regular franchise?

Can people create and share draft classes like on 2k?

I'm a offline franchise kind of guy. Will I be disappointed in this?

Sent from my SM-N950U using Operation Sports mobile app

Re: Questions about Madden 18
 

Connected Franchise is Franchise mode. At its core it is the same thing - you play games in a season, build your team in the offseason via free agency and drafting, and do it all over again next season.

The connected part of Connected Franchise refers to the online functionality of the mode. You may optionally store your Franchise game save in the cloud and invite other Madden players to play in your Franchise game save as other teams. Effectively it is online franchise.

There is no functionality for this in Madden, no.

I think the Franchise experience in Madden comes across as pretty dry in an offline single-player context. There isn't enough going on away from the field in Franchise mode in its current iteration. You really have to play in an online league with other players in your league playing as other teams to get the most out of the mode. That said, multiplayer Madden online franchise is in my opinion one of the best sports gaming experiences every year and one I look forward to each September, so if you do have some friends to play Madden with I'd highly recommend that.

Re: Questions about Madden 18
 

There are a few tweaks for off line guys, such as off the ball injuries, and the center actually mattering now (now the awareness of your center will replace the lowest awareness of your linemen, in an attempt to simulate both the importance of the center and the gelling of the offensive line). CPU drafting is a little bit smarter.

Some AI tweaks have made the game better, such as QB movement in the pocket and QB scrambling.

Also there has been a couple of realism presentation tweaks, such as the way preseason rosters work. Now, how long your starters play will vary by game. They play one quarter in week 1, two quarters in week 2, three quarters in week 3 and one quarter in week 1.

Regression has been tweaked a bit.

Re: Questions about Madden 18
 

The bit in bold is available in an online franchise though, correct?

Re: Questions about Madden 18
 

Yes, all of the features are the same, online and offline. You can even play "offline" franchise, "online." Meaning you can set up a single player online franchise. It supposedly has faster simming.

Re: Questions about Madden 18
 

Cloud franchise does have faster week simulation times, it can simulate a single season in like two or three minutes.

Cloud franchise also benefits in that any tuning updates Tiburon makes to franchise mode appear in the game as soon as they are deployed to the Madden servers, as opposed to offline franchise which cannot change without a title update.

Re: Questions about Madden 18
 

IMO, this is generally pretty moot this late in the cycle. I'm fairly sure that EA hasn't issued an online cloud-only update since September-ish....they tend to do it more early in the cycle to respond to early-release issues.

The MAJOR downside of online is that you CANNOT take control of other teams/coaches if you want to tweak things along. The CPU AI is a bit notorious when it comes to handling things like injury management when they have a cascade at a position. In offline franchise, you can quickly take them over, get them a player, the retire the guy and carry-on. In online franchises....you may be stuck playing a team using a FB at RB or a P at QB....it isn't often, but can happen.