It’s a bit of both. If you want to play a franchise throughout the year, the player rating updates won’t affect the franchise and you can’t change it yourself. So you almost have to restart if you want to play with the breakout players being properly rated and the teams playing to what they should be. The fact that you can’t change positions also really messes with the generated lineups
The second part is that I used to mass edit the rosters into fun scenarios (like make my team all really small or big, make all the goalies 99 overall, add legends in by remaking players, etc.) which kept me playing the game forever. I played one franchise for like 20 years. Now, I play a few seasons with a few teams and that’s it bc there’s zero replayability; there’s no creative freedom to edit anything and add things on the fly.
This is something that was in previous NHL games for a while and it’s in every other sports game as well. It helps franchise mode so much bc it gives us control to play how we want within the game. Maybe the team didn’t realize how much it did but being able to fully edit players really does a lot for franchise mode
Is the ability to edit players once you start a franchise mode just gone? Not being able to edit my team/ prospects positions, player types, shot style etc. mid franchise mode just ruins the game for me especially since you can't even do something as simple as changing player's hairstyle's
I understand why they made the changes, its to prevent people from "cheating" to create all players as Playmakers, Snipers, and Power Forwards to make their chemistry. While it makes the game more fun, it really limits your prospects. I can't tell you how many times I got an Elite Center Playmaker that had crap passing and horrible faceoffs, but unbelievable shot power and accuracy. In the old days, I'd change him to a Sniper Left Wing, so he might be worth while, but I can't now. Also, someone like Morgan Geekie (Go Seattle) who is turning out to be a playmaker not a TWF, can't be changed without resetting my save - which seems silly.
I think another really bad design is the Coaching Staff. I mean I know I am suppose to be the GM, but most of us (I assume) like playing as a coach - setting up lines and watching them flourish. Why don't players start to take on their coach's line preferences? I got a front line of Robertson (86 PLY), Tarasenko (87 SNP) and DuBois (89 PWF) yet they only get a +1 Chem because they don't fit the scheme. Don't players change how they play based on Coaches? Why can't we either see changes in players or be allowed to create our coaches?
Also, what's up with every defensive prospect (generated by the computer) being Pinch/Cycle - It makes Hold the Line a completely worthless, and why aren't my OFD's getting "Shoot" or at least "Balanced?"
In the same line of questioning, where is Carry? I've got a coach with Carry, Shoot, Balanced, Balanced - and I've NEVER gotten a prospect with Carry. Its always Balanced or Dump (and I've never seen a coach with Dump on the first or second line)
I love the game, I'm not going to lie, but there ae some weaknesses - and I know there is so many complaints. Can we just get an answer for some of them? Is hold the line just really super powerful? I'm not asking for ground breaking changes to the game, just an answer as to why things are/aren't done.
@IrishOwlThey seriously removed the option to edit players once you start a franchise mode? So all my prospects are stuck as big bearded/ silver hair clones who I can't tell to start passing more/ play more physically etc.? Who the hell are you cheating, yourself? They're better be an option to let us edit our franchise mode players or else I'm probably getting a refund now if so since all I use is the out of date create a modes/ franchise mode.
Yeah, they removed the ability to edit players within Franchise in NHL 21, I guess it was to make coaching harder...
It was a big request last year to allow us to be able to edit players and obviously a big request again, so hopefully we can see it in a patch this year. They at least allowed us to edit X factors, which seems to be the biggest impact on chemistry this year anyways.
@IrishOwl wrote:I understand why they made the changes, its to prevent people from "cheating" to create all players as Playmakers, Snipers, and Power Forwards to make their chemistry. While it makes the game more fun, it really limits your prospects. I can't tell you how many times I got an Elite Center Playmaker that had crap passing and horrible faceoffs, but unbelievable shot power and accuracy. In the old days, I'd change him to a Sniper Left Wing, so he might be worth while, but I can't now. Also, someone like Morgan Geekie (Go Seattle) who is turning out to be a playmaker not a TWF, can't be changed without resetting my save - which seems silly.
I think another really bad design is the Coaching Staff. I mean I know I am suppose to be the GM, but most of us (I assume) like playing as a coach - setting up lines and watching them flourish. Why don't players start to take on their coach's line preferences? I got a front line of Robertson (86 PLY), Tarasenko (87 SNP) and DuBois (89 PWF) yet they only get a +1 Chem because they don't fit the scheme. Don't players change how they play based on Coaches? Why can't we either see changes in players or be allowed to create our coaches?
Also, what's up with every defensive prospect (generated by the computer) being Pinch/Cycle - It makes Hold the Line a completely worthless, and why aren't my OFD's getting "Shoot" or at least "Balanced?"In the same line of questioning, where is Carry? I've got a coach with Carry, Shoot, Balanced, Balanced - and I've NEVER gotten a prospect with Carry. Its always Balanced or Dump (and I've never seen a coach with Dump on the first or second line)
I love the game, I'm not going to lie, but there ae some weaknesses - and I know there is so many complaints. Can we just get an answer for some of them? Is hold the line just really super powerful? I'm not asking for ground breaking changes to the game, just an answer as to why things are/aren't done.
Preventing players from “cheating” in an offline mode against AI? I think its actually true though but bc they wanted everyone to experience the game exactly how they envisioned it, even if it removed a great feature that gave the mode so much life. And I agree with the coaching. It randomly generates coaches when teams are built to play their coaches style. So it really doesn’t make much sense why the starting coach isn’t adjusted to the roster they have when you start the franchise. And with prospects, the whole system needs an overhaul. NBA 2k and MLB the show, have an exact overall ceiling number with a probability of hitting it as their development system. It is much better than what NHL has bc there’s major variation among prospects and how they develop. It’s also much clearer how they are developing. There are no prospects in football, but maddens system of adding attribute points to pros actually is really good and makes a lot of sense. NHL is just all about getting medium elites, when in The Show (the other sport with prospects) so many players you draft actually have an impact bc they all develop close to MLB level at the least. With NHL it seems only 10 players from the draft are NHL players. Which is so off. There’s no ability to develop prospects properly either.
But I think the gameplay feels better this year so I hope they add a a patch for the edit players ability in franchise and I’ll be very happy with the game. Fingers crossed
@neums33You can turn someone like Crosby into a enforcer defensemen and he'd be stuck that way in franchise mode but I can't turn my rookie from a PWF to a TWF, now that seems like cheating to me lol
This game needs as much player freedom as it can get since they couldn't re-do the create a modes, an option to change player type on or off inside of certain games modes would help people play the way they want,
Good luck seeing any of these changes with how bugged the game is so far lol
