Re: Franchise mode - Players who have a great season do much worse next year

@TwoHeadedTOM I definitely hear ya. All I want as well is for this mode to be in an enjoyable state and it still isn't. 

Unfortunately, this year they have been playing from behind since the release and each month they have had to fix game breaking bugs. Scouting, chemistry, edit lines, trade values and the record book have all had to be fixed this year so its safe to say the pandemic has hit this mode extra hard. 

I'm a broken record on this:

the easiest catch-all solution to all their non-gameplay bugs (many of which they've had in previous games, so it's not just Covid) is maximum customization.

Allow us to not only edit position in Franchise mode, but also roles... even names, faces, nationality, ratings, potential. Allow us to force trades and make CPU-CPU trades; allow us to block CPU-CPU trades (that way we could have CPU trades turned on, thus allowing some realism, while merely vetoing the most outlandish trades; I'd honestly not do that, I'd just spend several hours going over rosters at the start of the preseason, then again at the deadline, and make several targeted trades. It'd be less realistic, but more satisfying for me, and that's more important, honestly. But I absolutely think other players should have that option even though I, personally, wouldn't choose it.) Allow us to veto retirements, or force retirements.

Being able to edit those would solve problems with positions being wrong (like right-handed defenders being listed as LD, or defenders with the now-outdated "D" and no secondary position, or goalies with secondary positions), it'd allow us to fix those infuriating bad names (like the Polish-born Greg Liston and Marvin Jones not having traditionally Polish names)... we could just jump into a Franchise mode without having to spend hours fixing their inaccurate roster ratings; we could just fix a couple players' ratings/potential here and there as we notice them, in between games. We could fix ratings to reflect what their development was to counter-act the buggy decline. We could fix positions for players that've spent several years at RW; it's dumb that one year at LW in juniors means you're a LW even if you spend over a decade in the NHL as a RW. Sometimes forwards get moved to defense, and vice versa, yet EA thinks that we shouldn't be allowed to do that. ("If it's in the game" * you, I guess. Because we don't want to allow you full control, because you may, *gasp*, "cheat" and have a good time. I mean... I'd do it largely to make the game *more* realistic, but even if I cheated in every possible way... so what? It's a video game, the point is to have fun, right? If that's fun for somebody, then why does EA feel compelled to police how they enjoy it?)

And again, we should even be allowed to edit stats. I just want it 99% because I create a player that I draft in year 2 or 3, and I want his juniors stats to be what my Be A Pro got, rather than the underwhelming simmed stats... but also: at the moment both Sami Vatanen and Ryan Suter have a combined 0 goals and 2 GWGs in my Franchise, and uh... I guess that's an impressive ratio. That needs to be fixed. And even if EA fixes it *moving forward*, there's no way they'll be able to retroactively fix GWGs. But you know how it *could* be fixed? Maximum customization.

It wouldn't solve *every* problem, but it would solve *so many* of them, and in the easiest way possible for them and the most satisfying way possible for us (because we'd be able to choose which solution works best for us).

Also, this is off-topic, but...

why do players have silhouettes rather than faces? I mean, I get it with the relatively few players who are real but for whatever reason don't have portraits, but... your Be A Pro has a portrait, right? Clearly they have the technology to do that. So why don't all created players (both player created and CPU-generated prospects) have that feature? Why is it that the game essentially condemns you to have a team that is 90%+ silhouettes by year 15-20 of your Franchise mode? It's not functionally important, but... it's just dumb. It's easily fixed.

I was personally excited when I saw that they introduced the ability to choose your draft class quality this year. Ever since they introduced scouts I have found it too easy to build strictly through the draft and there wasn't much need for trades or free agents other than placeholder spots while your prospects develop. I get that most guys like just drafting/developing and that's cool too, at least we had options this year. Now of course what is happening is not a good thing and is clearly a bug as putting up good stats need to grow appropriately, especially the franchise and elite potential players. I have yet to be able to test out the different options to see if there are in fact or prospects that don't develop into what they are supposed to or these options only control how many elite players are in later rounds. Once the turnover of real players is complete, it seems the mode will be basically over (so 8-10 years...), but I am still going to get into a franchise now and see if I can notice if this is happening to all cpu generated players if of course I get that deep into it before the next patch. (the roster turnover may just be too much for me to handle as well, we shall see)

I will say this. I am more than ok with prospects not reaching their potential. In fact, I encourage it as long as its reflected in their stats which is not the case we have here. In real life there are way more players drafted that don't pan out than those that do including some higher picks. If I pick a guy with franchise potential first overall I'm ok if they don't develop into a 95 overall and I'm even ok if they are a complete bust as long as the reasoning makes sense and its not due to a bug. If they only put up 20-30 points a year I don't think they should grow very much at all. You don't want stats to matter and would prefer if your players always developed? Great, give us the option to turn it on/off or have difficulty settings. As @SchulzEricT has been saying, give us more options on how we want to play the game.

Yea confirmed, after a few seasons in young elite potential computer generated players have extreme negative natural growth at times. This is ridiculous. They only somewhat fixed the trade value. I still see unrealistic high and low values appear for players but it's not enough to really bother me; like I got 1.1m Logan Stanley 24 Top 4 Med potential for free (I gave them a 6th rounder and they called me a gift horse or whatever)  then his value jumped within a week to almost half. There's no Jay Beagles at full Connor Mcdavid value and vise versa anymore. 

Screw it, not buying these games release day, I'm not buying these games at all anymore, they got my 80 bucks CAD and that's the last of it. My friends usually buy the new one on Xbox anyways and we play versus time to time so I'll just do that. Even though I like hockey a lot more than basketball, I'll probably jump on the NBA 2K bandwagon. The difference in the quality of the 2 games is HUGE, especially when it comes to their Franchise mode. The amount of customization available to team's trade, free agency strategies, actual game strategy, player attributes, player personality, peak range of potential, player growth, decline, training effects, fatigue, you name it they have everything and more... oh yea and you can edit a player's height, weight & age (not in franchise), roster sharing too. I don't even know how to go about it so I mostly leave it at default but I wouldn't if it were an NHL game.

EA NHL will never do what 2K does, they will continue to do what they do year after year. By buying EAs game I'm just supporting their product and I don't want to see it continue so I'm not buying them anymore. I'll start supporting 2K as the potential competition instead. If EA NHL sales drop enough that can invite competition and that's what I want to see. To me I see it as low risk (because their product sucks and it's getting stale for me, especially with the direction they've taken) high reward (because of what it could potentially be, the equivalent of 2K). When EA NHLs product sales drop they'll either change for the better (not) or invite competition (please do). 

peace 

@SkylerJames13 I get what you are saying. I definitely think we are all pretty much on the same page here.

First things first, let's get the bugs worked out.

@LordDecland Unfortunately EA and NHL signed a multi year contract with each other so I don't think they will be breaking ties any time soon. I really don't know why the NHL decided to renew the deal frankly. As you say 2k offers SO MUCH more than EA. The amount of depth, detail and customization really tempts me into becoming a basketball fan. And isn't that the point? To have a game so good and so in depth that people who don't follow or even really like the topic buy it and try it out and enjoy it? I highly doubt that's the case with EA's NHL, especially this year. And honestly, I don't blame anyone for not getting sucked into EA's broken promises that this year is the year, I applaud them. Sadly, I am one of those idiots who believes them time and time again. 

Anyways thanks for checking it out to see if it's still broken. Still baffles me that they didn't fix this with yesterdays patch. Maybe someday (probably not anytime soon if ever) they will get their act together and produce an NHL game that is actually good. 

I'd imagine part of the contract the NHL signed with EA has a no compete clause, meaning they can't cooperate with another producer like 2k which is sad. I'd love to see two versions of this game, one EA and one 2k. That way both really have to try and put effort in and perhaps listen to their player base every once in a while. *sigh* …only if

@TwoHeadedTOM 

The deal between EA and the NHL is non exclusive. 2K could get a license and make an NHL game if they wanted to.

@Beauts90 How dare you give me hope ☹️

Once again simply bumping this topic to the top. Like I said previously I expect this issue to be resolved with the next monthly update. If it doesn't.... well.... just goes to show how bad this game and its developers really are. 

Indeed... since this is such a major issue though if it is to be fixed it'll be in the monthly update and not in a 'hotfix' like yesterday's patch. Really hoping these developers see this thread and realize that they have left a critical error in their game for a while now. I've been playing nhl 20 for a bit now (playing a fm that I started prior to 21's release) and I have to say it's kinda refreshing having no bugs or glitches that make it unplayable. Honestly, if they just went back and C/P'd last years FM into this years I'd be a happy camper. I can absolutely live w/o the trade deadline gimmick and their new trade values. Anyways, if any of y'all really want to play FM but don't want it to be plagued like this years, I recommend going back and playing 20 if you don't mind the fact that a lot of the players are on different teams. Like I said it's quite refreshing, and it kills time before they fix this issue. 

I stopped playing NHL 20 because you can't assign this years draft class to their proper teams due to their age. I then realized that a good chunk of them get traded at the deadline in 21 anyways so having them on their proper teams doesn't really matter. On top of that, EA still hasn't updated these players overall or potential to reflect where they were selected in the draft.

I have been defending EA quite a bit when it comes to updating the players from the 2020 draft so far this year. However, it's been 2 months since the draft and at least 6 months since we had a real good idea of what these players are and where they would be selected. That should be plenty of time to to have these players be more accurate.