Re: Madden 2025 Wishlist

Great list of suggestions here.  This one jumped way, way out at me:

• NFL Draft intro – alternate with all 32 cities. Have unique intros based on what that city is famous for.  Maybe add in some video or animation of famous areas around that city that are well known.  Have a fly in intro with a banner of the year and the city.
  • Have the commissioner walk up to start the draft
  • 1st rd only, have player walk up’s on stage and commentary about the player and scouting report for that player.  That could all be pulled from the player card we see in the draft.  Relate that somehow on what the team already has or compare with current NFL players.  Or maybe announce that could be a huge hit or miss.  Something unique that is not constantly repeated all the time.
  • Finish draft with mr irrelevant ceremony

How this isn't already part of the game, I don't know.  The presentation here should be made to be so fun we can't stand it and it should be a major emphasis and selling point of Franchise mode.  I want the boos for Goodell.  I want Mel Kiper & Todd McShay commentary; hell, bring in Boomer.  I want a quick cut scene of each draft pick on-stage holding his #1 jersey.  And most of all, I want the damn NFL Draft music!  The fact that we don't have those musical queues when "a pick is in" is mind-boggling!

And adding commentary after each selection would be fascinating, as it would make Madden figure out and fix why a team with a starting quarterback on a big contract they can't cut or trade...just selected a starting quarterback.

This is also brilliant:

DAILY schedule instead of weekly

• Do a daily schedule for the HC or owner or both.
  • Take or make trade calls
  • Player requested talks
  • Injury reports per day and action to take the next for that player
  • Determine if you want to rest or practice a player that day
  • Updated league transactions for that day (maybe with a scene of the coach in a office watching a segment of Good Morning Football and they are discussing the transactions on a screen in your office)
  • Calls from coaches with recommended prep or input for an upcoming game
  • Calls from the owner about what he wants to gee
  • Calls from the gm asking about brining in a certain player and wanted to hear your view of that player.

They already do a daily schedule in Superstar Mode; they need to mod this over for Franchise.  Love the Daily Transactions update, love the Calls from GM/Owner/Player.  This could make this much more realistic, as you factor in storytelling elements like weekly press conferences or media appearances.  Can we get Aaron Rodgers on The Pat McAfee Show in the game, please?  Kidding...maybe.  And make this customizable for guys like me that don't want to do Weekly Training and manage who is practicing on Wednesday, but still want the personnel & storytelling aspects.  I don't want to get bogged down with determining player practice reps, but I do want drama, intrigue, and team management to be expanded.

Agree with pretty much everything else here, too, but especially about Scouting.  It's stupid and pointless and after using this "system" for the last 2-3 years or whatever, I still don't know how to use it.  Most seasons I don't even slow down to fire & hire new scouts...it's just stupid. 

Here's an idea:  let me build a Personnel Department for my team.  That means hiring a GM, who would have ratings and a cost just like a player does (this is how coaches should be in the game, also).  Then, during Franchise mode, I work with my GM, who has a name, face, and body, to identify the 1) players I'm most interested in and 2) positions of need.  Let's say the Top 250 prospects are scouted to 50%; I can identify a Top 30 list of players who I can scout to 75%..align with it with number of pre-draft visits teams can do.  Then I pick my Top 10 to get to 100%.  The rest of the players or positions I haven't focused on?  Crapshoot, depending on the strength of the GM I've hired.  And based on draft, free agent, and team success, that GM's rating goes up or down, and if it goes up, I can identify better prospects each year.  This isn't even that big of a departure from the current scouting ratings system, but package it in a way that actually is somewhat realistic and we would love it.

This is not rocket science.  EA just needs to spend as much time on Franchise as it does on Ultimate Team.