Franchise questions
What additional access will we have to edit our franchise experience in NHL 25? Really hoping for the ability to edit strategies, player positions and players attributes in general. Bought eve...
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This is my main concern as well. The lack of creative control over my franchise mode really limits my enjoyment of it. I can't think of another sports game that is as restrictive as NHL. Ideally, the series will start to go more in the direction of 2K's NBA series in regards to creative freedom.
I want to be able to force wins, force trades/signings, edit contracts and attributes, edit draft prospects, change appearances and biographical information of generated players, etc. It would really alleviate a lot of the annoyances in the game mode. Until some basic options are opened up, I just can't really get excited about the game.
I don’t think that level of customization will ever be possible unfortunately. In all fairness NBA 2k really is the only series with that level of customization. To be honest, NHL has made a lot of really positive strides with franchise mode over the last few years. From the introduction of coaching staffs, to the revamped scouting, right down to the player line fits and personalities. Does it all work 100%. No. But they have been adding things for years when other series franchise modes remained stagnant. I have been singing their praises for years over at OS. But like I said. This marketing cycle is just bizarre. To be so reluctant to put information out is just…… well, bizarre
2K is leagues above all other sports game in regards to customization that is true and I'm certainly not expecting EA to catch up in one game, I just want them to strive towards it. They oddly took away the ability to edit player positions in NHL 20 so I'm worried that it's not that they can't implement player freedom, it's that they don't want to. Which, is just a design philosophy I am completely in disagreement with.
But I agree, the franchise mode certainly is fun and provides a solid base to build off of, but the lack of creative control really just accentuates some of the issues with their systems. I.e. generated player prospects being extremely similar year after year, wildly incorrect cultural names for certain countries, overrepresentation of certain counties in the draft, defensemen development and contracts, line strategies/preferences, and just so much else that's too much to list.
2K is leagues above all other sports game in regards to customization
I think this has more to do with 2K's licensing relationship with NBA/NBPA where they may allow a lot of creative freedom when it comes to customization.
One can't help but think the NHL has a tight grip on many creative design decisions. It may be that those entrusted with branding/licensing are still in an 'old school' way of thinking and don't want to take any risks with the license - even if it's just a videogame.
That would not be surprising actually. Totally something the NHL would fumble.
Positive strides?….
- Removing all significant player editing capabilities
- Removing strategy editing
- Adding coaches that aren’t wired up to anything
- Generating prospects that have had missing preference templates since strategies were implemented
- Adding strategies that never match up to player preferences
- Broken contract, trade, and free agency logic
- A clunky, poorly implemented, and underwhelming trade deadline mechanic that resets all of your lines afterward
- Meaningless owner goals that have no influence or impact
- Lack of GM progress/tracking throughout career. You can’t even see how many years are remaining on your current GM contract.
- An impossible to navigate player listing system that shoots you back to the top if you try to use triggers to scroll through them in profile view
- AHL rosters not utilizing AHL only contracts to compensate for NHL callups forcing you to use contract slots.
- Game breaking presentation bugs causing crashes due to broken cinematics resulting in the removal of nearly all presentation cinematics.
- All of this sitting on top of an additional mountain of bugs that have gone unfixed, and you think that’s positive strides?
This is just tip of the iceberg.
Franchise mode has been a train wreck for the better part of a decade and, in addition to all the features they’ve removed unwarranted, everything they’ve added over that time has been nothing short of fluff.
They can’t even get roster limits during preseason - season - and after the trade deadline correct. 50 - 23 - 50 by the way.
This game needs an entirely new and fresh group of upper management behind it because what they have right now sucks.
Ive tried for years to give constructive feedback on franchise mode the past several years, but I can only reiterate the same exact problems that have plagued this mode so many times before I realized it was all falling on deaf ears.
I pray every year they prove me wrong, but unfortunately…
This is a great list and should be highlighted for everyone to see
