Re: Can players in franchise mode develop zone or normal abilities over time?

As if you guys (EA) didnt forecast that people playing the game would want x-factors to be earned on young players. You guys are charging more and more every year for the same game with the same problems yr after yr after yr. 

If only 2K sports could make a come back you guys would then actually see the need to progress. 

Maybe less time on real player interviews commenting on their ratings . Bla bla bla and more time and effort in the creation zone.

this was the last year I bought your game.

EA, your NHL team is less then desiable at best!!!

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@migwrx wrote:

As if you guys (EA) didnt forecast that people playing the game would want x-factors to be earned on young players. You guys are charging more and more every year for the same game with the same problems yr after yr after yr. 

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I don’t mean this as a derogatory statement, but more what I believe to be fact:

I honestly don’t think there’s a single person at EA who actually plays Franchise Mode. Every few years they put some focus on it based on their understanding of the fan feedback, but no understanding in how the fans would want to use the features. Clearly very little (if any) testing is done on the mode before release. 

Thanks for the info @EA_Blueberry . The ability to “grow” into X Factors would have definitely made the mode much better, it wouldn’t surprise me if the team already knows this and that’s why they are the only thing that we can actually edit inside franchise mode. I still find it strange that no players from the 2019 or 2020 draft classes have any abilities whatsoever yet a few players from the 2021 draft do...

@kyl_35, with all due respect to EA I do have to somewhat agree with your point. There has never been anybody from EA actually answering any questions about franchise mode and a lot of the features remain a mystery all year long. I think what you are saying is partially true, but in my opinion a lot of it comes down to the game being a yearly release. The idea for features that they have are good, great even, but the execution is always underwhelming and almost seems like an unfinished product. Some features (scouting, coaching) they have made overly complicated so that there just aren't enough variations and a lot of useless information, while other features (trade deadline) are kind of all show and don't actually add much to the game. Then we have some features  that have remained untouched for years that could desperately use an update.

There definitely doesn’t seem to be any passion from EA for franchise mode as compared to the online modes (due to popularity, but still) and at the end of the day it comes down to what is being requested the most (or loudest) by those with influence and up to the franchise team to decide how they will work and unfortunately there have been a few misses in recent years. 

What about adding a Training feature? I want to assign work for my prospects to accomplish - like in Be a Pro Mode, which might allow them to develop into more well rounded players. Also, open the edit feature!!!

I wouldn’t hold my breath on that. At most I think we’d see it in NHL 23, assuming they haven’t ditched the X-Factors by then. 

I think in NHL24 franchise mode you should be able to earn XP for players to put towards getting specific XFactors, hell you could even call them Xpoints.  once you have enough support skills you could achieve the Xfactor status for that specific player 

Make an option for open skating in practice. I hate how if loose/take the puck or cross the center line it resets. I rarely use practice made jbc that reason.  Let us skate a practice freely when returning to faceoff under normal match rules. 

Bring back the skills trainer/tutorial.   I still play nhl 21 time to time strictly for that mode.

Thank you.