Preseason Idea (for future Maddens)

[StormJH1]

A lot of people have complained that preseason in Madden has no real function other than to get your regulars hurt with nowhere to put them on the IR. It's been suggested that Madden would never expand to an 80-man roster b/c they would then have to have literally hundreds of additional free agents corresponding to the real NFL.

Instead of doing that, why not have the same number of NFL players, but then an optional mode (you could skip it or turn it off) where it computer generates fake undrafted prospects to fill out each 80-man roster. Most of these guys would be rated in the 30-60 OVR range, but maybe throw a few gems in there...

Then, instead of playing meaningless preseason games (and getting your guys hurt), you play games featuring many of these generated prospects. Their ratings would be hidden to you, but you could either scout them, or discover their attributes by playing with them. They may even progress a bit if you perform particularly well with them. At the end of the preseason, you get to choose if any of them are worth keeping on your roster. If not, they can disappear from the game, so as not to crowd up the FA list too much. A new batch would simply be regenerated each training camp, the same way draft rookies are generated.

I know, it's probably unrealistic and too hardcore and I'm sure "memory limitations" (code for: "Your idea isn't valuable to enough people to make it worth our time"), but I was just trying to reverse engineer a preseason mode that I'd actually enjoy playing.

[Glenn33]

Re: Preseason Idea (for future Maddens)

Truth be told..I love your idea.

[torrey]

Re: Preseason Idea (for future Maddens)

with some tweaking, i think that is a great idea. i've always said they needed to expand, if not 80, at least 70, and give us a darn practice squad!!! and fix the IR bug. and as far as the ratings go, i think they should hide ALL of the ratings, so we could base things off on field performance and combine numbers for draft picks.

[bbell447]

Re: Preseason Idea (for future Maddens)

Sounds really cool actually

[CSL]

Re: Preseason Idea (for future Maddens)

It's not a bad idea but I don't really wanna see a bunch of fake players. If they're gonna go through the effort of adding a bunch of fake players, it won't take them any longer to add real ones

[sois]

Re: Preseason Idea (for future Maddens)

I love this idea.

[RayAllen20]

Re: Preseason Idea (for future Maddens)

YES genius idea...that way after a draft we wont immediately know if weve drafted a gem or a bust.

[Sanchez_Mareno]

Re: Preseason Idea (for future Maddens)

Looks like someones been playing Head Coach

[dougdeuce]

Re: Preseason Idea (for future Maddens)

Donald Driver was a practice squad player who is now an NFL stud. This needs to be part of the franchise. I don't even have Brett Swain on my team, and he might make the team this year... This is very frustrating, especially when players get injured.

NO IR is lame also

[SiMbEcK11]

Re: Preseason Idea (for future Maddens)

Or how bout they just make preseason like it used to be on PS2 from 02-05. In the preseason guys who were 24 or younger would progress if you played well with them in the 4 preseason games. After the 4 preseason games you would get the option to view player progression and could see how your young guys progressed. The better preseason they had the more they improved this was awesome.

[Clarke_311]

Re: Preseason Idea (for future Maddens)

Looks like someones been playing Head Coach

Yeah that's what I was thinking this was in NFL Head Coach 09 and has been great in there, it would be awesome if this was in Madden.

[Mofficial]

Re: Preseason Idea (for future Maddens)

Or how bout they just make preseason like it used to be on PS2 from 02-05. In the preseason guys who were 24 or younger would progress if you played well with them in the 4 preseason games. After the 4 preseason games you would get the option to view player progression and could see how your young guys progressed. The better preseason they had the more they improved this was awesome.

I like the OP's suggestion more. OP! I like your idea a lot.

[StormJH1]

Re: Preseason Idea (for future Maddens)

Looks like someones been playing Head Coach

Oh, is that what they do on Head Coach? I haven't played the new Head Coach, so if my idea steals from them, that wasn't my intent.

Some people might be turned off by the idea of having "fake" players. A better term for it is "computer-generated", and it's really no different than the way the game creates draft picks in future seasons. Play Madden long enough and everyone is a "fake" player.

Granted, the vast majority of these guys would have no value to an NFL roster. At best, you might come across a Samkon Gado or Mike Bell type player that could rate in the low 70's. Or there might be guys that rank in the 50's, but have potential to be something in future years and could be backups/special team players this year. That's what I meant by planting a few "gems" in there.

But I think that even if 95% of the players disappeared after the preseason, it would still be fun to play with those guys and try to root out the good ones. If you're going to have a preseason mode at all, it might as well try to approximate what preseason is actually for, which is to evaluate the back-end spots on your roster and to practice running plays for the upcoming season.

[tyler289]

Re: Preseason Idea (for future Maddens)

Head Coach does this well. Your team gets a bunch of undrafted players (usually crap, but some solid players) and the more you play them, the more you find out about their ratings and potential. It was great.

[Luca Brasi]

Re: Preseason Idea (for future Maddens)

Man i'd just be real happy to have a practice squad lol