1. PRESENTATION
• Halftime show
• Weekly recap show
2. New systems
• Wear and tear
• Chemistry
3. Gameplay improvements
• Dline stunts
• Dline push
• Jersey pulls and push offs particularly from runningbacks
• Linebackers jump
• Arm length has impact on gameplay
4. Franchise improvements
• Improved scenarios
• Holdouts and trade demands
• Deeper stat tracking. Pressures, targeted, completion percentage against, etc
• Face generator and new player faces!!
• Deeper scout staffing. Throw out current scouting and coaching system.
5. New tools
• AI and physics slider suite (a la Battlefield 2042)
6. Ratings adjustments
• Ratings much more dynamic
• More fog of war
• Remove XFactors
7. Gameplay structure on how it creates yearly metas
• Metas formed by roster makeup
8. Positional nuance
• More of focus on distinguishing players by strengths and weaknesses
• i.e. Edge rusher vs gap filler or players ready to play out of college vs players that need to develop more
The lack of customization in Madden is terrible compared to pretty much all other major sports games. There should be no generic faces that we are stuck with. They have the function in superstar to create your own face… it should be in all modes of the game. You can edit generic faces in The Show, and in NBA2K. Ever seen a player with a generic face in the game and thought “hey that doesn’t look like him in real life”? Of course you have because we’re stuck with these crappy generic faces. Don’t get me started on being able to create a team or edit the relocation teams! MLB The Show added the ability to create your own Stadium years ago! Madden is sooo far behind when it comes to customization.
1. PRESENTATION
• Halftime show
• Weekly recap show
2. New systems
• Wear and tear
• Chemistry
3. Gameplay improvements
• Dline stunts
• Dline push
• Jersey pulls and push offs particularly from runningbacks
• Linebackers jump
• Arm length has impact on gameplay
4. Franchise improvements
• Improved scenarios
• Holdouts and trade demands
• Deeper stat tracking. Pressures, targeted, completion percentage against, etc
• Face generator and new player faces!!
• Deeper scout staffing. Throw out current scouting and coaching system.
5. New tools
• AI and physics slider suite (a la Battlefield 2042)
6. Ratings adjustments
• Ratings much more dynamic
• More fog of war
• Remove XFactors
7. Gameplay structure on how it creates yearly metas
• Metas formed by roster makeup
8. Positional nuance
• More of focus on distinguishing players by strengths and weaknesses
• i.e. Edge rusher vs gap filler or players ready to play out of college vs players that need to develop more
9. Penalties!
This is a great list! I feel like every single year I ask for those things for the Franchise mode. Unfortunately we just never get anything more in depth.
It's hard to really feel emersed in the franchise when everything is so robotic. I get the back and forth they'd likely get from the players union on putting holdouts and demands in the game, but I just don't see how you can have a true simulation franchise mode without those sort of things. Can you imagine thinking you're locked to play a season your big name FA and all of a sudden they say "Pay me" lol
Wishes that I think are actually possible with EA:
Spoiler
Getting penalties to work.
Adding penalties that are missing like Defensive Holding.
Having referees throw flags in real time.
Having referees say the player’s number.
Dynamic weather.
The ability to select weather in franchise games.
The ability to either select a set weather condition for the entire game or pick the starting weather with a forecasted weather option also so that I can start a game in clear weather and give it a 55% chance of rain starting in the 2nd quarter.
A true wear and tear system that influences injuries, e.g., if a player has taken a lot of hits to the legs they may have an increased chance of future leg injuries, or a player that has had knee issues in the past is at a higher risk of knee injuries moving forward.
Fix practice logic for CPU teams so that playing with progressive fatigue doesn’t lead to them not having their starters for the playoffs. It’s incredible even for EA that they can’t even get the CPU to manage their practice reps correctly. I’d love to see this working and have multiple different strategies the different CPU teams can employ.
More stat banners.
More contextual commentary about what is happening in my franchise universe.
Commentary updates for other games taking place. I want a score update from the Eagles game if we’re both competing for the division lead. I don’t need a highlight from that game, just literally give me an update on the score and time of that game.
Team celebrations for the defense. It’s so weird to get a turnover and see the defender celebrate alone when in real life you’ll see the entire defense sprint to the end zone so they can strike a pose.
Group celebrations. If I have a nice 23-yard pass play, don’t have my WR celebrate alone. Have the other WR’s come up and dap him up, helmet bump him, pat him on the butt. Have QB’s sprint downfield to the endzone after throwing a TD pass. If two defenders make a TFL then have them hug, tap helmets, chest bump, anything together, please.
Enhanced CPU logic for time management. Every single CPU team plays similarly late with regards to timeout usage, hurry up usage, etc. We need more advanced logic here that has teams playing more dynamically and more intelligently late in games. If I must see a team call a run play out of 22 personnel just to turn around and call an immediate timeout, then begin their two-minute offense one more time I will scream. It’s 2023, why is the logic so bad?! Why do I need to call a timeout for the CPU at the end of the half/game so they can kick a field goal because otherwise they’d let the clock run out despite having a timeout to use?
Wishes that I believe EA are willing to work on, but would need time:
Spoiler
Overhauled play along the LOS. It’s past due. They’ve done some work on the line play over the years, but it has not been enough. The run blocking logic improvements this year were great. It wasn’t enough. Interactions need to be significantly less scripted, and they need a lot less clear wins/losses in the animation library. I know EA may have a hard time believing this, but a defensive player can win their rep without shedding the block. WHAT? Yea, a DT can stand his ground resulting in a hole not opening leading to another player on the defense being able to stop the play dead. Yea, a DT doesn’t have to instantly shed a block at the start of a play to disrupt it. Offensive linemen also don’t have to get 3 yards of push whenever they win a rep. Some holes in real life are more like creases that the RB needs to find. Not every run play is either a blown up TFL or one featuring a hole so large a truck could fit through it like Madden would have you believe. Also, where are the arm tackle attempts by the DL that can at least slow the RB down?
Overhauled secondary play. We all know that the offense continues to get love, continues to be updated to stay modern, and the defense gets nearly no love each cycle. That’s been the reality with this series for a few years now. It’s led to an imbalanced foundation. Defense is at a disadvantage from a fundamental standpoint in this game in a manner in which it is not in real life. Coverages aren’t behaving like real life. Many plays still use spot drops from the 1990’s. There is no hand fighting between DB’s and WR’s. Occasionally an animation plays out where a DB has a hand on the WR’s hip in game, but it is cosmetic only. Secondary play just needs a lot of love.
More procedural animations. The game often is criticized for how scripted the animations are, how little physics matters in many situations, etc. This is because basically all animations in the game are hand crafted (with the help of motion capture) and keyframed meaning they literally play out the exact same every single time they are triggered. Procedural animations fix this.
An example most of you all are all familiar with regardless if you realize it or not is when you play a game like Grand Theft Auto V and you walk/run on some stairs in the game. Do you notice how your character moves correctly placing their feet on each step correctly? It’s a huge improvement over the olden days when characters used to use their normal walking animation while using stairs and it looking awful.
This is because Rockstar, and basically any developer these days, is using some sort of procedural system where the game will analyze the terrain around the character and calculate how they should step so that it looks appropriate and animates properly. The game will literally see the stairs, analyze the rise between each step, the depth of each step, and it adjusts where the foot will come down in real time. This is just one instance of procedural animations.
Imagine EA adapting this technology to many different areas of the game. Imagine that instead of them needing to create 50 different over the shoulder catching animations to reduce the amount of warping you’ll see in said situation, EA just uses some parameters and procedural animation work so that the WR can read the trajectory of the pass, understand it is an over the shoulder catch situation, and then dynamically move their body in real time relative to the throw. If it’s long, they may lay out for the ball and stretch their arms out. If it’s not too long they may be able to run in stride while stretching their arms out. If it’s perfectly thrown they will just run in stride and let the ball fall into their “basket”. And each time one of these scenarios plays out, it’s manipulated in real time, so it literally will animate ever so differently in a realistic fashion. No more scripted catching animations that are literally the same every time they trigger.
Image in a tackling situation the defender has the logic to get their head across the body and wrap up while driving their feet still. Now they can approach from literally any angle and do this behavior without getting warped into a specific tackle animation that you’ve seen 100 times over in the last 4 games alone. Gang tackles can happen organically and animate differently every single time. It’s basically the future we thought we were moving to when they used the Infinity Engine back around 2013 for Madden and NCAA. Things were a bit wonky then, but it was the first iteration of dynamic and physics-driven gameplay. We figured over time it would be enhanced and polished. We were wrong. It was almost completely scrapped for animation-driven gameplay while EA worked on their branching tech, which while great, it’s not a true competitor for dynamic physics-driven gameplay. Even with the wonkiness of the tackles at times, there’s a reason so many people still prefer the physics of NCAA 14 over the scripted nature of Madden today.
Wishes I never expect EA to adopt:
Spoiler
Playbooks and play calls being more modular. In real life teams have concepts they run, they have looks they run plays out of, and they have additional verbiage for other things they can do in a play call so that they can take the same play and run it in a variety of ways. This is not represented in Madden at all. I get why, the current playbook and play call system is easier for the average fan to work with. I still wish it were different. It’s too simple and it restricts the user & CPU from being able to run offenses in a truer to life fashion.
Let’s say I want to run a simple counter out of what is known as a Singleback Doubles formation. I’d pick the concept in game, then I’d pick the formation I’d want to run it out of. Simple as that. Say it gains 4 yards, then on 2nd and 6 we pick up the first. We’re at 1st and 10 again and I want to run the counter out of the same look again, but this time I want the H in a Jet motion so it at least appears I may be running something different. In Madden right now, I cannot do that. I can manually motion the H, but I can’t specify the type of motion. I can’t have him Jet on command, I can’t have him Orbit, I can’t have him start a Jet then turn and run back towards the play side as we snap the ball. If I want any type of motion, I must pray EA created a play with it incorporated into it.
This really limits the ability of the user to be more creative in their play calling. It limits the CPU as well. In real life, a coach can use the vocabulary to make subtle changes to plays so that they can take a single base play and run 10 variations of it in a row. I can take that counter play and add motion to it from the H. I can call a fake counter and add a naked bootleg to it essentially creating a play action boot off the counter. It’s how real coaches call plays, yet it is not represented in the game really at all. Yes, there are linked plays. I can run the counter and likely find a PA rollout play of the counter, but not every single run play as a linked PA play. I can’t add motions to it. I can’t add a kill call to it so that I can just kill the play and run the counter if the defensive alignment says I should.
If EA could somehow create a system that allows us to build plays modularly on the fly like this, I’d be in football heaven. The CPU would need to be able to do it as well, but I honestly believe once they have the modular system in place, getting the CPU to “understand” concepts and how to build plays off it really would not be entirely too hard. Even if the CPU didn’t have the ability to create plays on the fly with the modular system, having the modular system in place would allow for the Create a Play feature to return a more structured fashion so we could create the plays for the CPU to run themselves.
And when it comes to custom playbooks, it would be great, and much easier on the user, if we just selected concepts and looks to feature in the scheme/playbook and using weightings like what we somewhat already have with the star system so we could dictate how often certain concepts are used in certain situations and what looks/personnel packages should be used in different scenarios. It would be much better than having a playbook of 312 plays that I must manually add to each scenario and then rate time and time again. Instead, I’d go to the 2nd and Long scenario and pick 6 or 7 of the 12 concepts in the offense and have those be what the play calls can come from. It would be so much more user friendly and less time-consuming.
Defense would need love also, but we’ve already seen a more modular play calling system for defenses in the past with the 2k football games. First you picked the defensive front you’d like, then the assignments of the back 7, then the assignments of the DL all independent from one another. It was great, it was truer to life, and it was implemented in such a way the casual fan wasn’t completely lost. It was like calling plays now with just a little extra step in picking the DL play separate from the coverage which is something we should already be able to do now in Madden in 2023, but they don’t like copying 2k, which is understandable to a degree. It just hit different back then when I’d call a zone blitz and use a stunt to get the LB in completely free. On the flip side, when I’d slant the DL one way and then have the CPU call a perfect counter to that slanting, it wasn’t irritating in a negative way. I didn’t feel cheated. It felt like real football. Like an actual X’s and O’s battle and not a dice roll like Madden can feel like too often.
__________________
“No one is more hated than he who speaks the truth.”
The lack of customization in Madden is terrible compared to pretty much all other major sports games. There should be no generic faces that we are stuck with. They have the function in superstar to create your own face… it should be in all modes of the game. You can edit generic faces in The Show, and in NBA2K. Ever seen a player with a generic face in the game and thought “hey that doesn’t look like him in real life”? Of course you have because we’re stuck with these crappy generic faces. Don’t get me started on being able to create a team or edit the relocation teams! MLB The Show added the ability to create your own Stadium years ago! Madden is sooo far behind when it comes to customization.
The top vote getter within the beta feedback forum was to add the SuperStar face editor in franchise. Beta launch version had it available but was removed on the beta update... Franchise Customization is so far behind other modes and games... Instead of them building on customization each year we're begging them just to fix broken things instead like the body editor not working and broken draft classes. You can't even edit a players name without the commentator losing the ability to say it - laughable considering all this is standard in any other eSport game. The Madden actives that are responsible for this should be embarrassed. Was hoping customization would have been more of a focus with a few people from OS community joining the Madden team but feels as shallow as ever.
09-20-2023, 12:51 PM
