Future Classic Rosters?
 

Ok folks, looking for some feedback, ideas, and suggestions. Really I want to open a conversation about classic rosters.

My current situation:
I have been making classic rosters for Madden for several years now. I started sharing them back with M25 on the XBOX360. Every year I make single season rosters, some years I make several rosters, other years only one or two. The process, as most of you know, is long and tedious and prior to M19 it was impossible to get height and weight correct. I enjoy making rosters and doing all of the background research and ratings stuff.

I have always tried to make sure that I created a good balance between played games and simmed games. I tried to force the game to create accurate run/pass ratios and game and season stats. However, the Madden sim engine simply struggles to create what I want. In previous Madden years it was possible to lower players ratings enough to force the sim engine to give pretty solid stats. However, that often came at a price... the played games were not as good.

As a result, I have tried moving away from using Franchise mode and using Play Now and setting up custom playbooks to get the desired results. I have had decent success with that model. However, for M19 I decided to give Franchise mode another chance. The sim engine simply could not be manipulated unless you fast sim each individual game. Even then, the playcalling is not great and you have to live with shotgun formations way too often for classic rosters such as my 1985 roster. So, even with the ability to create draft classes, a feature I was originally excited for, I have become again frustrated with Franchise mode.

Capa created an awesome 1970 roster that I have been playing quite a bit in Play Now games. I went back to creating playbooks to see if I could replicate 1970s football. While not perfect, I believe I created a pretty good offensive and defensive playbook. That got me to thinking about the future.

News of M20 started coming out recently, and there are some very positive additions (if they all work) which could make Franchise mode a better experience. However, I have not seen anything to suggest that any of the new features will help those of us who enjoy classic rosters and want an authentic classic football experience. What the mode needs for us is the ability to assign custom playbooks to CPU teams without some ridiculous work-around. We need the ability to set team run/pass ratios for playcalling. That feature used to be in Madden and worked back in M10,11 and 12. Without that feature, I do not know if I can stand to play classic rosters in Franchise mode any more. I am especially worried because EA announced that they are adding RPOs to the playbooks which will continue to destroy an authentic classic roster experience, much like the pistol formation.

While Madden 19 does have its problems in terms of gameplay, I feel that overall it is a very solid game in its current state. I have my sliders set and feel I can get a solid and challenging experience. So this brings me to the purpose of this thread...
Will Madden 20 be worth it for classic rosters?

Should I just stick with M19 and create additional classic rosters for Play Now?

What are your plans for M20 or M19?

Would classic roster fans prefer to use Play Now with custom playbooks on Madden 19?

Other thoughts?

Looking for feedback, thoughts, and ideas.

Re: Future Classic Rosters?
 

Each year franchise gets harder to play with classic rosters. I enjoy play now with era appropriate play books. Until and if ever we get total customization in madden I think play now is the way to go. I'd love for you to do another mid 70's season on 19.

Re: Future Classic Rosters?
 

Iteachpercussion,

I have been enjoying Capa's & Your Rosters for years now.

The answer to Your question of a go forward strategy for future Rosters to me is clearly:

"stick with M19 and create additional classic rosters for Play Now?"

I simply can not understand EA Sports lack of interest in helping Classic Roster enthusiast out by implementing such things as Team & or Player Exports/Imports. They had those features in their games years ago but abandoned them which clearly declares their interest in maintaining Classic Roster clients.

They just Don't Care about us.

Thus, I have decided and I think also Capa plus many others that M19 is where I stay for Classic Rosters.

My request would be the creation of an All-Decade '60s Roster Set. I began doing so on the xBox One only to discover the shortcomings of that platform relative to the ability of creating backups - relative in such that there is No Way to do so - Thus - I abandoned that project after 5+ teams into it but fully realized how Grand such a Project like that would be.

I have since (and only 2 Teams shy of completing it) started creating an ATGs 60s & 70s Roster Set from assante's & tommycoa's masterpiece on xBox One. It is truly a thing of Beauty ! I am solely moving their created players around, correcting Jersey #'s & setting Depth Charts ..... this roster should be considered 100% their creation not mine!

So, I would suggest either Single All-Decade Rosters or Multi-Decade Rosters.

They are a Blast !

Thanks for ALL You have done which has given me & countless others endless hours of fun through the years !

Don

Re: Future Classic Rosters?
 

As an incentive to anyone interested in creating an All-Decade '60s Roster I offer my spreadsheets of each Teams All-Decade '60s Roster including the non-existing Teams which are comprised of players from the '60s that did not make the cut on any of the existing teams rosters.

Also, I would highly recommend & request that You & Capa work together to create a Formula/Guideline for assigning Player Ratings that can be used by others wishing to contribute to a Classic Rosters project. Doing so would allow many others the ability to add to each Roster maintaining a consistency of Player Ratings across the board which to me is an essential factor for maintaining the realism within a Roster or across Rosters.

tommycoa has a really sound rating system which I think could be the basis for doing such. His rating schemes are exceptional for creating Decade oriented and/or All Time style Roster Sets. He also has them well documented in this forum.

If these ideas seem of interest to You & Capa then I will gladly join in the action as I feel I have learnt a great deal from those 5+ Teams I created then abandoned due to the xBox One shortcomings of saving rosters.

I truly regretted not starting my Madden Modding on the PS4, solely due to all the fun I've gained from Your & Capa's rosters over the years, but if You two decide to undertake such a co-operative venture then I will jump in to contribute as best I can as I am certain would many others.

Don

Re: Future Classic Rosters?
 

As for what you should do that is entirely up to you. All I know is if you make a rosters on 20 or 19 it is a must download for me. I’ve thought about taking a stab at rosters for Madden for a while now, but the sheer size of the project has always overwhelmed me because football rosters are the biggest in NA sports by far. I can only imagine how much more difficult it was to try and proof the roster for franchise as well.

For me personally with your rosters I usually have two versions one where I edit QB ratings for play now and one for franchise where everything you did is left untouched. I also usually treat franchise as a season mode where in historic rosters I replay that year’s season by controlling all the teams so the only real big difference for me would just be the simulation stats as stuff like contracts wouldn’t really mean much for me.

I will be getting 20 , but if you do decide to stick with 19 I will definitely go back to download and play with whatever you come out with. If you choose to go the play now route custom playbooks would get you the closet to a real life experience even if like you said they are not entirely ideal so I suppose that would be my preference.

Are you looking for suggestions for a roster to make or are you just testing the waters at this point? Because if you are there are a few years that I’d love to see tried on 19 that I can think of.

Re: Future Classic Rosters?
 

I think that it is more than obvious that EA is going to do nothing to allow us to port rosters over from year to year. That means another round of start from scratch editing for any roster that people want to do for 20. I don't know if I have that effort in me anymore.

Of course, once we all see what improvements 20 makes, it almost will seduce us into biting the bullet to recreate the classic rosters we all love so dearly. It's hard to play previous versions, in many instances, when you see what the new game has to offer.

However, I do think that adding to the 19 roster sets may be the way to go. I would enjoy being part of any co-op effort in any way I can help.

The truth is, there will be folks who pick up the gauntlet for 20 if the regular guys don't. That could at least provide a base for additional editing or changes to teams.

It is just so frustrating that EA will not provide a mechanism to port rosters from year to year. It's not too hard to do as it is all db field management. Any dba worth his/her salt could provide a utility in less than a week. I know...I work in the field. They just have no interest in throwing us a bone. If they did, I know they would get a ton of positive feedback, but it does not seem to garner any interest at all on their part.

I am up for anything that adds to the classic roster sets for either 19 or 20 version. I only use Play Now due to the limitations on franchise mode with classic sets. I often just do slow sim and watch the game. I also use Coach mode at times. But I am not a joystick jockey.

Another item to possibly at least consider is if a move to the pc version would make sense. I know there is an editor for the pc version that was developed...to at least change ratings and other fields with global edits. I assume this will continue to get refined. It may be easier to create roster sets in pc version. Also, the added benefit of the modding that can take place to improve gameplay may be something to consider. The downside is yet another expense for most of us to get a rig that can play the pc version.

Lastly, my personal preference is for single seasons from 60's or 70's or a roster set of great teams like the 62 Packers, 72, Dolphins, 78 Steelers, etc. I enjoy the all time sets as well, but I also like seeing the lesser known players I used to watch on tv as a kid that I can get from single season and great team sets.

C

Re: Future Classic Rosters?
 

Capa,

I agree with single seasons from the '60s & '70s (even '80s / '90s for many) plus those great teams sets. The All Time Great teams are fun as well but like you I would first shoot for individual seasons then decade specific great teams sets.

Spanning too many years takes away from it all in my opinion and with EA too lazy to provide export/import functions for individual players and/or teams I would much prefer sticking to a decade oriented approach versus spanning decades.

Regardless --- Hanging in here with Madden 19 I think IS the answer to best serve our interest in Classic Rosters as well as our best response to EA's position on Classic Rosters.

Don

Re: Future Classic Rosters?
 

I appreciate the feedback and ongoing conversation. I hope the conversation keeps going.