Along with a robust offline set up, the developers and designers at EA have created a fresh and stimulating online franchise mode for Madden 10. From features like complete mobile accessibility to fantasy draft, Madden 10 is sure to silence doubters, amplify the virtual community, and ensure a solid foundation for future iterations.
Donny Moore, designer for online franchise mode, has blogged some promising and exciting info at insideblog.easports.com. You may be asking, “How is Madden 10 different from 09’s Online Leagues?”
Hit the jump to learn more!
My previous feelings toward the Madden series were annoyed, tedious and generally uninterested. Thankfully, the new edition of Madden pledges to annihilate many preceding opinions. The Madden chain has come a long way, hell I remember playing Madden titles on my SEGA Genesis back in the day, and with that experience, I see this new addition as a huge step forward in the series’ history and future. One factor that has me convinced is server support. Most of the online mode lives on the EA servers. That means anything but meaningless support is intended, which adds more to the old saying, ‘you get what you pay for’, and for a lot of you, that’s plays a huge role when editions are issued every year.
Lead designer Donny Moore explains the difference between the online modules of Madden 09 and 10.
Online Franchise vs. Online Leagues
“First and foremost, Online Franchise is an entirely new mode built from scratch (not an improved version of online leagues).
We wanted to provide a real-world 17 week NFL regular season with playoffs instead of a flex-schedule tournament-style structure. The major difference between the two features is the fact that your franchise now persists from year to year, and your team evolves over time.
Online Franchise features player movement, retiring, yearly NFL drafts, progression/regression, and many other features that did not exist in Online Leagues …very little support for the mode lives on the game disc itself … it lives online on our servers.
The main reason we went that route was so we could add more features and do extra tweaks and tuning based on community feedback even after the game ships (so our fans don’t have to necessarily wait until Madden NFL 11 for something new to appear) … thanks to our server-based approach, your Online Franchise can be accessed and changes can be made entirely from the web.
If you want to change up your depth chart or propose a trade while you wait in line at the store, you now have the access to do so. If you can’t get to our console when it’s time for the rookie draft, you can now attend from a website (just like fantasy football draft). This interconnectivity is what we are extremely excited about as we continue to work and develop this mode for the future.”
Now, if that doesn’t have you excited for Madden 10, you’re obviously illiterate.
Read on (or pretend to) for details on the specific features of Online Franchise mode.
Online Franchise
- Online franchise’s duration is 10 years
- Players can start their franchise with a fantasy draft
One of the most intriguing features of online franchise is the fantasy draft. Instead of loading a team based on the 2009 roster, you can completely balance out the league by way of fantasy draft. A commissioner is appointed with various options (see below). This fantasy feature gives users the power to shape and create a game suited to their liking.
- Fantasy draft is 54 rounds
- Players can be pre-ranked for the NFL/fantasy draft
Another handy feature is power to pre-rank your draft picks. If you’ve got a vacation planned during your league’s draft, you’ll be able to customize your picks ahead of time.
- No salary cap or player contracts
Because of their absence, players remain on a team until cut, traded or retired.
- Full player progression
- Complete stat tracking and league leaders
“Yes, we have full team stats, box scores, and player stats for every game of the NFL Season. So you can go into League or Team Schedule and check out the box score of any game played. We also have Player Season Stats and League Leaders which show the Top 50 at each of the major stat categories like Passing Yards, Rushing TD, and Sacks for example. All this data can also be accessed from the web as well as the console.” - Donny Moore
- Complete accessibility via web
You’ll be able to draft, trade, sign, check stats and more via web access, which is basically everywhere nowadays (i.e. iPhone). There’s no excuse for being stuck with a ‘Detroit Lions’ type team.
- Free agency
Since there’re no contracts, players stay on a team until they’re cut, which makes them available to any owner
- Balanced and unbalanced trades
Users are not limited to 1 for 1 trades.
- Multi-week and season ending injuries.
Be praying for your athletes’ safety every game.
Power of the Commissioner
- Boot Owner
Able to boot any disruptive owner and replace them with a user or CPU.
- Promote Player
Able to promote any owner to commissioner during unavailability.
- Setting Changes
Able to alter quarter length, skill level, injuries etc.
- Post News
Able to post news to info all owners regarding the league.
- Player Movement
Able to modify rosters during to off-season.
As you can see, Madden 10’s online franchise mode offers much more than previous structures. Read on for Moore’s explanation on the absences we’ll see in the new edition. [pulled from insideblog.easports.com]
Q: Why don’t CPU teams run logic for things like trade proposals?
A: “That is something that we sorely wanted to squeeze in for Madden NFL 10, but simple could not pull it off in time. Because everything was built to be server-based for Online Franchise, things like CPU logic would have to be run on that server, so we were not able to make that a part of the online franchise experience by the time the game will hit the shelves. Based on usage once the game is released we will obviously look to update and change whatever the community feels is most important.”
[NOTE: CPU logic will be feature in offline franchise mode]
Q: Why did you limit the number of years to 10? Why not 30 years like offline franchise?
A: Couple of reasons… First off, we wanted to make sure the game was tuned as perfect as we could for the core experience. We felt it wasn’t a smart approach to support 30 years if the mode falls apart in year 11. We also looked at the data from NCAA 09 Online Dynasty and our offline franchise modes, and the reality is that very few players actually made it to 10 years of dynasty/franchise…
Q: Does Online Franchise support NCAA Import Draft Class feature?
A: No, unfortunately this did not make the final feature list this year. This is one of my absolute favorite features amongst all of our football games here at EA Sports, and we have some good ideas on how we can try to update this after the game launches based on community demand.
Q: Is Edit Player available in online franchise?
A: Unfortunately no, this feature was not implemented for year one. We felt it opened up too many doors for people to find exploits by messing with things like changing positions, ratings, etc. We would have had to spend extra, valuable time preventing ways for people to change Julius Peppers to a punter for example, instead of getting features like Retirements or Progression in the game…
Now that you’re familiar with online franchise, be sure to learn more about the new features Pro-Tak and online co-op for Madden 10. Check back with GamePro Sports for Madden 10 coverage.
