Franchise Mode is like a story mode in an action/adventure game. It is what makes games playable for a long period for offline play. It gets old just playing play now games. You want to have a reason to continue on and win games; an ultimate goal. However, there needs to be depth to make the path enjoyable enough that you want to do it again or again. Franchise Mode has lacked the depth for it�s whole Next Gen life-span, and the biggest demograph of Madden consumers are being left with a game mode that hasn�t gotten a big upgrade and still lacking the things that were on PS2. Plain and simple, it�s time for Franchise Mode to shine again. Trading � The computer GMs have brain as well, and they use them sometimes and trade amongst each other. Just make sure that the AI uses its brain properly and make trades that make sense (with the very slim chance of a questionable trade). Trades don�t have to be just limited to season and draft day, they can occur in the off season as well. Prior to or after the draft. Another addition along with CPU trading is trading beyond one year ahead future draft picks. Highlight Show �After the week is finished, a weekly recap should be shown to show the biggest highlights would show the biggest plays, the hardest hits, and the most memorable moments. At the end of the season, the same thing can be done, but from a season standpoint. Practice Squad & Inactive Play � Teams have reserved players like the NHL has reserved players in prospects in the AHL. If injuries happen, teams got a replacement in place at the practice squad for the depth charts rather then having to look through the free agent pool, unless they have to. Players can also be placed on the inactive player list to open up roster space as well. Full Coaching Staff � The Head Coach and coordinators don�t do everything. There are coaches for every position who truly help players on their techniques and improve their skills. Having a full coaching staff will give a more direct way of improve their player skills. Create A Stadium � The current tools in create a stadium is too limited. The user can still have so much more control and actually allow us to be creative enough that you can create hundreds of combinations. The customization when it comes to the seats is the area that needs the most options. Right now it�s very limited because we can�t even set them like we could back on PS2. Their needs to be options to control how many decks/levels we want (heck, maybe we just have one very long level if it�s on the sidelines), how many rows in a certain deck, what colour are the seats. Where and how long does the luxury and press boxes span and how many levels are there. Where are the tunnels placed? Give us the ultimate control like it�s a Sims game. We should also have control on how our scoreboard looks. Control the size of the scoreboard and screen (if there is one), and the placements of stats and ads. Customization with the field should be improved. Yards number font, endzone design (opening the idea of creating your team font design for custom teams). Endzone and sideline design should have more customization; as well the exterior should be open for design to accommodate the pre game stadium visual. Financial Management � A feature from the PS2 days that should return is the process of managing your revenue generators. Having the ability to control ticket prices, concession prices, ect. Was a neat thing to do and give you that feeling of controlling an NFL team. It should come back this time around with some modifications. Season tickets prices should be set and put on sell during the off-season. In the regular season, single game ticket prices can be handled game to game. The real difference between my proposed format and the way it was before is with the concession stands. In reality, concession prices are handled by the vendors for the most part. The user would select the vendors they want to service at their stadium (and pay expenses for the stadium owned food outlets), and would receive a percentage of the vendors profit. Merchandising is in the same ball park with some of the products that are manufactured. Therefore concessions and team merchandise store would be an expense/profit business. Parking would be a profit of course, and advertising, promotions and fan appreciation games would be expenses. Other expenses are coaching and training staff, scout team, facility staff (they gotta get paid too!), and stadium maintenance. The problem in the past was that it was just to easy to make a ton of money while spending the most possible on everything. In order to get to that level, it should take time to build up the income to be able to afford doing that financially. Season Fatigue � Players aren�t as healthy as they were in the beginning of the season. The season wares on and it takes a toll on the body. This needs to be reflected in Madden, and make those bye weeks matter more. If a team is a lock at it�s current playoff spot during the last games of the season, the CPU should rest it�s starters in order to rest them up an protect them from injury. Meanwhile players should not get mad about sitting a game. Create A Playbook � It�s time to get those inner head coaches alive and give users that ability to create their own dream playbook. As years goes by the team changes coaches and new players are in the system. How the team was run before may change and a playbook needs to fit the new philosophy. Computer generated coaches can make their own playbook relating to their philosophy in order to make every coach unique rather then most using the standard run n� gun & 4-3 Defence. Drafting & Scouting � During the season, your hired scout team will go around the nation and attend college games and give impressions on the players they see. The more the scouts see the players, the more accurate and detail their impressions become. Pretty straightforward how scouting would work. Scout teams can be divided between regions or conferences week by week, with more scouts in one specific region then another if desired. Every week during the regular season, quick impressions will be made from scouting assignments along with grading. Every four weeks, the scout team will give you a new rankings list for draft eligible players. Bowl games will be scouted of course, especially the major ones. Manpower for those games can be determined as well. Scouts impression will grade players� skills by letter grading. The accuracy of the scouts impressions depend by how good they are at scouting. Their accuracy can vary between player positions, so one scouting team may be better at scouting QB�s, and not so great at grading DB�s. The more often they see a player however, the more accurate their impressions are. The team the players are on can also get some notice as well. Assignments to pay most attention to a specific position can even be attempted to just scout the whole tam and not focus on one specific player. The more players that are focused to be scouted on though, the less accurate the impressions will be for the game unless you have enough manpower at the games. If you have a good scout team though, then you are able to expand your interest lists due more then with a weaker scout team since their impression will be a better chance of being near the mark sooner then the other team. Of course it would cost more however. After the season is over and done with, it�s time to put those scouting reports into use. The Senior Bowl game will give you a test drive with the prospects, individual workouts can be done to get another test drive. If user does great enough in the individual workouts, some ratings can be set in stone or 90% correct. Things to keep in mind when it comes to scouting and the actual drafting; the CPU AI really need to understand to draft for team needs rather then drafting best player available. Once draft day comes along, it should come with a new presentation feel. The expected big name draft picks should be seen walking the stage, shaking he commish hand and taking pictures with his selected team jersey. Heck, if we can get the hold draft day coverage thing going, we could have �experts� analyst and predictions going on at the hall. As for the picking screen it self. Keep it very central. Don�t make us have to go back and forth between screens and get slowed down by loading. Having the scout notes on players, draft board, coaches� advice, and trade screen (and let us be able to review offers) should be all very accessible. New Negotiation & Agents System � Amongst all the things to upgrade, contract negotiations should be another. When teams are doing contract talk, it�s normally with the player agent. Some GMs have a relationship with a agent, good or bad. Since contract talks are all about negotiating, that�s what it should be. You may get an opening offer from the agent. That is what client is looking for. From that point on you can send counter offers which the agent may accept. If not, he would fire back with another offer which may be a bit lower or the same. You have to be careful though, if you low ball, the agent may actually increase the price tag or walk out of talks from that point on and talks would open at a later date (if he�s not picked up by someone else at that time). This opens up my suggestion that franchise mode should be done in a day-by-day format. Therefore rather then just the free agent periods going on by the day, the whole year is. This would also impact trade offers and even game preparation during the season. But back to the suggestion at hand, players have certain types of agents. Many may have the same one, so the GM may have to deal with the same one from time to time, which is where this agent-GM relationship comes into play. Some agents are easier to negotiate in your favour then others. They may not be that great in bringing in the money (and probably working for lower tier players). While there are some that are very tough to cut the price tag on. If you build good relationships with the agents, then the agents may be willing to make a small discount. If you don�t have a good relationship however, the agent may be very stubborn, and quicker to cut off talks. It�s important that the agent is serving for his client. The client wants is priority number one. And if he wants to play for a specific team, even at a price cut, then the agent would have to obligate. My final point I want to add for this is how the whole system is designed. THERE IS NO INTEREST METER IN THE NEGOIATION SCREEN (leave it as an option if need be). The hints of the agent approval will come from the responses he gives. If the response is very negative, then you know that your way off the mark. If the response is OK, then you know you�re around a good negotiation area. The counter offers the agent present also gives you hints on the process. Training Camp/Pre-Season � This is a busy time of the year as teams prepare their players and finalize the roster for the season. Practice and player cuts is the main focus during the period, and the roster limit should be expanded so teams can evaluate their players and decide which ones to place on the practice squad, and those who should be cut from the team. Starters should get very little play time during the pre-season that some may not play any games at all after week 2 on CPU teams. It�s likely that most of the starters are set, so other players should be playing and getting plenty looks in practice to see who should earn a spot in a position battle or stay on the team. Practice/Weekly Preparation � During the season, players have to practice in order to prepare for the upcoming game and try to improve their skills. The coaches� job is to schedule the practice time and events schedule of the practice. If the coach wants to give players a day off, it will rest the players up, but consequence in skill and knowledge attributes. If they do practice, then they would gain skill and knowledge attributes, with a hit on fatigue. Film watching can also be assigned to improve players� knowledge on the upcoming opponent. The effect of these actions depends on the degree of intensity or reputations. The more reps a player gets, the better the player gets at attributes affected. A short physical practice is less on the body then a long physical practice. The effects on the players wouldn�t be that great since we don�t want players getting great off of practice overnight. In fact, there should be a RPG like method in player progression so players aren�t progression to fast from lots of practice or regressing to much from having a day or two off. Individual player practice focus can be assigned to players in order to make the players selected focus on one thing in particular rather then with the whole group. If the QB arm was off target last game, then for practice the QB can be assigned to focus on his accuracy. Now just like in real life, there is risk of injuries occurring in practice mode. They shouldn�t be frequent that it�s not something to really worry about, but it can happen.Now that I got the game preparation practice dealt with, I want to move my attention to user practice mode. This mode needs the option to set up scrimmages and situations. If we want to just run a light game, we can set up a starting point for a drive and try to get up the field (or try to stop the O if you�re playing defence). If we want to practice the two minute drill, we can select a starting point, and once the ball is snapped the timer would start. This would help players get better at playing the game rather then picking random plays in the current practice mode. Quick Notes:· Better/more robust player progression engine· Real-time score ticker; real time simulations. Two things. One, games that start at the same time would be simulated at the time (meaning if your starting third quarter, then other games that started at same time may be in third quarter as well, or halftime (or even late 2nd quarter if game is moving slowly). Second, if your game quarter length is 7 minutes, THE WHOLE LEAGUE SHOULD BE SEVEN MINUTES. Therefore simulations and stats that occur in game matches with your game evenly.· NFL special week logos on field (Kickoff, thanksgiving, playoffs)· Super Bowl logo on players jerseys· All-Pro players wear their respective team helmets· NO INTERST METER (or leave as option)· There needs to be a second Free Agent period
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Franchise Mode Big Upgrade
Franchise Mode is like a story mode in an action/adventure game. It is what makes games playable for a long period for offline play. It gets old just playing play now games. You want to have a reason to continue on and win games; an ultimate goal. However, there needs to be depth to make the path enjoyable enough that you want to do it again or again. Franchise Mode has lacked the depth for it�s whole Next Gen life-span, and the biggest demograph of Madden consumers are being left with a game mode that hasn�t gotten a big upgrade and still lacking the things that were on PS2. Plain and simple, it�s time for Franchise Mode to shine again. Trading � The computer GMs have brain as well, and they use them sometimes and trade amongst each other. Just make sure that the AI uses its brain properly and make trades that make sense (with the very slim chance of a questionable trade). Trades don�t have to be just limited to season and draft day, they can occur in the off season as well. Prior to or after the draft. Another addition along with CPU trading is trading beyond one year ahead future draft picks. Highlight Show �After the week is finished, a weekly recap should be shown to show the biggest highlights would show the biggest plays, the hardest hits, and the most memorable moments. At the end of the season, the same thing can be done, but from a season standpoint. Practice Squad & Inactive Play � Teams have reserved players like the NHL has reserved players in prospects in the AHL. If injuries happen, teams got a replacement in place at the practice squad for the depth charts rather then having to look through the free agent pool, unless they have to. Players can also be placed on the inactive player list to open up roster space as well. Full Coaching Staff � The Head Coach and coordinators don�t do everything. There are coaches for every position who truly help players on their techniques and improve their skills. Having a full coaching staff will give a more direct way of improve their player skills. Create A Stadium � The current tools in create a stadium is too limited. The user can still have so much more control and actually allow us to be creative enough that you can create hundreds of combinations. The customization when it comes to the seats is the area that needs the most options. Right now it�s very limited because we can�t even set them like we could back on PS2. Their needs to be options to control how many decks/levels we want (heck, maybe we just have one very long level if it�s on the sidelines), how many rows in a certain deck, what colour are the seats. Where and how long does the luxury and press boxes span and how many levels are there. Where are the tunnels placed? Give us the ultimate control like it�s a Sims game. We should also have control on how our scoreboard looks. Control the size of the scoreboard and screen (if there is one), and the placements of stats and ads. Customization with the field should be improved. Yards number font, endzone design (opening the idea of creating your team font design for custom teams). Endzone and sideline design should have more customization; as well the exterior should be open for design to accommodate the pre game stadium visual. Financial Management � A feature from the PS2 days that should return is the process of managing your revenue generators. Having the ability to control ticket prices, concession prices, ect. Was a neat thing to do and give you that feeling of controlling an NFL team. It should come back this time around with some modifications. Season tickets prices should be set and put on sell during the off-season. In the regular season, single game ticket prices can be handled game to game. The real difference between my proposed format and the way it was before is with the concession stands. In reality, concession prices are handled by the vendors for the most part. The user would select the vendors they want to service at their stadium (and pay expenses for the stadium owned food outlets), and would receive a percentage of the vendors profit. Merchandising is in the same ball park with some of the products that are manufactured. Therefore concessions and team merchandise store would be an expense/profit business. Parking would be a profit of course, and advertising, promotions and fan appreciation games would be expenses. Other expenses are coaching and training staff, scout team, facility staff (they gotta get paid too!), and stadium maintenance. The problem in the past was that it was just to easy to make a ton of money while spending the most possible on everything. In order to get to that level, it should take time to build up the income to be able to afford doing that financially. Season Fatigue � Players aren�t as healthy as they were in the beginning of the season. The season wares on and it takes a toll on the body. This needs to be reflected in Madden, and make those bye weeks matter more. If a team is a lock at it�s current playoff spot during the last games of the season, the CPU should rest it�s starters in order to rest them up an protect them from injury. Meanwhile players should not get mad about sitting a game. Create A Playbook � It�s time to get those inner head coaches alive and give users that ability to create their own dream playbook. As years goes by the team changes coaches and new players are in the system. How the team was run before may change and a playbook needs to fit the new philosophy. Computer generated coaches can make their own playbook relating to their philosophy in order to make every coach unique rather then most using the standard run n� gun & 4-3 Defence. Drafting & Scouting � During the season, your hired scout team will go around the nation and attend college games and give impressions on the players they see. The more the scouts see the players, the more accurate and detail their impressions become. Pretty straightforward how scouting would work. Scout teams can be divided between regions or conferences week by week, with more scouts in one specific region then another if desired. Every week during the regular season, quick impressions will be made from scouting assignments along with grading. Every four weeks, the scout team will give you a new rankings list for draft eligible players. Bowl games will be scouted of course, especially the major ones. Manpower for those games can be determined as well. Scouts impression will grade players� skills by letter grading. The accuracy of the scouts impressions depend by how good they are at scouting. Their accuracy can vary between player positions, so one scouting team may be better at scouting QB�s, and not so great at grading DB�s. The more often they see a player however, the more accurate their impressions are. The team the players are on can also get some notice as well. Assignments to pay most attention to a specific position can even be attempted to just scout the whole tam and not focus on one specific player. The more players that are focused to be scouted on though, the less accurate the impressions will be for the game unless you have enough manpower at the games. If you have a good scout team though, then you are able to expand your interest lists due more then with a weaker scout team since their impression will be a better chance of being near the mark sooner then the other team. Of course it would cost more however. After the season is over and done with, it�s time to put those scouting reports into use. The Senior Bowl game will give you a test drive with the prospects, individual workouts can be done to get another test drive. If user does great enough in the individual workouts, some ratings can be set in stone or 90% correct. Things to keep in mind when it comes to scouting and the actual drafting; the CPU AI really need to understand to draft for team needs rather then drafting best player available. Once draft day comes along, it should come with a new presentation feel. The expected big name draft picks should be seen walking the stage, shaking he commish hand and taking pictures with his selected team jersey. Heck, if we can get the hold draft day coverage thing going, we could have �experts� analyst and predictions going on at the hall. As for the picking screen it self. Keep it very central. Don�t make us have to go back and forth between screens and get slowed down by loading. Having the scout notes on players, draft board, coaches� advice, and trade screen (and let us be able to review offers) should be all very accessible. New Negotiation & Agents System � Amongst all the things to upgrade, contract negotiations should be another. When teams are doing contract talk, it�s normally with the player agent. Some GMs have a relationship with a agent, good or bad. Since contract talks are all about negotiating, that�s what it should be. You may get an opening offer from the agent. That is what client is looking for. From that point on you can send counter offers which the agent may accept. If not, he would fire back with another offer which may be a bit lower or the same. You have to be careful though, if you low ball, the agent may actually increase the price tag or walk out of talks from that point on and talks would open at a later date (if he�s not picked up by someone else at that time). This opens up my suggestion that franchise mode should be done in a day-by-day format. Therefore rather then just the free agent periods going on by the day, the whole year is. This would also impact trade offers and even game preparation during the season. But back to the suggestion at hand, players have certain types of agents. Many may have the same one, so the GM may have to deal with the same one from time to time, which is where this agent-GM relationship comes into play. Some agents are easier to negotiate in your favour then others. They may not be that great in bringing in the money (and probably working for lower tier players). While there are some that are very tough to cut the price tag on. If you build good relationships with the agents, then the agents may be willing to make a small discount. If you don�t have a good relationship however, the agent may be very stubborn, and quicker to cut off talks. It�s important that the agent is serving for his client. The client wants is priority number one. And if he wants to play for a specific team, even at a price cut, then the agent would have to obligate. My final point I want to add for this is how the whole system is designed. THERE IS NO INTEREST METER IN THE NEGOIATION SCREEN (leave it as an option if need be). The hints of the agent approval will come from the responses he gives. If the response is very negative, then you know that your way off the mark. If the response is OK, then you know you�re around a good negotiation area. The counter offers the agent present also gives you hints on the process. Training Camp/Pre-Season � This is a busy time of the year as teams prepare their players and finalize the roster for the season. Practice and player cuts is the main focus during the period, and the roster limit should be expanded so teams can evaluate their players and decide which ones to place on the practice squad, and those who should be cut from the team. Starters should get very little play time during the pre-season that some may not play any games at all after week 2 on CPU teams. It�s likely that most of the starters are set, so other players should be playing and getting plenty looks in practice to see who should earn a spot in a position battle or stay on the team. Practice/Weekly Preparation � During the season, players have to practice in order to prepare for the upcoming game and try to improve their skills. The coaches� job is to schedule the practice time and events schedule of the practice. If the coach wants to give players a day off, it will rest the players up, but consequence in skill and knowledge attributes. If they do practice, then they would gain skill and knowledge attributes, with a hit on fatigue. Film watching can also be assigned to improve players� knowledge on the upcoming opponent. The effect of these actions depends on the degree of intensity or reputations. The more reps a player gets, the better the player gets at attributes affected. A short physical practice is less on the body then a long physical practice. The effects on the players wouldn�t be that great since we don�t want players getting great off of practice overnight. In fact, there should be a RPG like method in player progression so players aren�t progression to fast from lots of practice or regressing to much from having a day or two off. Individual player practice focus can be assigned to players in order to make the players selected focus on one thing in particular rather then with the whole group. If the QB arm was off target last game, then for practice the QB can be assigned to focus on his accuracy. Now just like in real life, there is risk of injuries occurring in practice mode. They shouldn�t be frequent that it�s not something to really worry about, but it can happen.Now that I got the game preparation practice dealt with, I want to move my attention to user practice mode. This mode needs the option to set up scrimmages and situations. If we want to just run a light game, we can set up a starting point for a drive and try to get up the field (or try to stop the O if you�re playing defence). If we want to practice the two minute drill, we can select a starting point, and once the ball is snapped the timer would start. This would help players get better at playing the game rather then picking random plays in the current practice mode. Quick Notes:· Better/more robust player progression engine· Real-time score ticker; real time simulations. Two things. One, games that start at the same time would be simulated at the time (meaning if your starting third quarter, then other games that started at same time may be in third quarter as well, or halftime (or even late 2nd quarter if game is moving slowly). Second, if your game quarter length is 7 minutes, THE WHOLE LEAGUE SHOULD BE SEVEN MINUTES. Therefore simulations and stats that occur in game matches with your game evenly.· NFL special week logos on field (Kickoff, thanksgiving, playoffs)· Super Bowl logo on players jerseys· All-Pro players wear their respective team helmets· NO INTERST METER (or leave as option)· There needs to be a second Free Agent period
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