As we impatiently wait for the next two months for Madden 19 to release there are some things we can certainly prepare for in the meantime when it comes to this game. This is going to be a long article and I hope you’ve taken your hype pills – because it’s about to get textually exciting!
Franchise Mode Is Draft Mode –
Ever since sports games introduced multiple seasons and franchise mode in general it has always been driven by the existence of a draft. The action of finding new great players for your team is really what drives most people to play this. Sure, there are existing players that you want to use in game – maybe it is simply a rookie that you want to make into the greatest of all time (GOAT)… please be Baker Mayfield in real life…. annnnd I’m back.
The fact of the matter is that you are going to have to police yourself when it comes to creating a draft class. Here are some basic observations and house rules I already have in place to keep CFM as fresh as possible before I get close to installing Madden 19.
Development Traits Dictate Everything
Much like potential ratings of the past, development ratings will continue to be the driving factor in determining if you have made the best selection in the draft. My problem with doing this in Madden is that it is much like drafting Ryan Leaf back in 1998. If you drafted a player with what most people said from simply the athletic ability alone – sure, he might have made a lot of sense. Madden still hasn’t incorporated any sort of real leadership or personality traits. I feel like this is the next step that may never be taken, sadly.
In creating your draft class it will be crucial to be selective if you choose to give development traits that are outside of ‘Normal’. The danger will be in that you will have a leg up on the competition to select any of these top players with low round grades that happen to have Superstar development. This is why I am pushing for a dialed back draft class creation that will start with every player being given a development trait of Normal. It only makes sense for these new players to prove who they are in by showing it on the field and once the CFM engine starts for the pre-season.
Scouting – It’s Still Too Easy
I have set up my own house rules for scouting because Madden still has yet to create a scouting system with any sort of fluidity. This generally leaves most ‘discovered’ ratings to be set in stone. Some players on the news wire throughout the season might have their story dictate an injury or something else that takes them down a notch in development, etc. Once you know this, it becomes easy to pick apart each draft class.
You should still be scouting players based on matching your coach scheme to keep your efforts focused from the outset. After that, it is as crucial – if not more crucial in all honesty to focus on which positions you need to fill with young talent. It is most important for the sake of keeping your CFM challenging and realistic that you full scout each prospect once you open one of their ratings. I truly believe that this will keep you honest within your draft experience as well. Some highly ranked players will scout out terribly, and that generally will stand to pass that they are terrible players.
THIS IS WHY CFM NEEDS TO CREATE SCOUTING DEPARTMENTS AND REGIONAL SCOUTS!!!! (Sorry to yell, but this is something that could be awesome, and I don’t understand why it hasn’t been done to this point.)
Hording Draft Picks… It’s Over –
It’s hard to be honest with yourself once you start finding glitches in games that eventually become a subconscious pattern that you manipulate for your own gains. In a game like Dark Souls I have to say I understand and might even condone it to a point. However, it is still far too easy to trade for high draft picks in Madden.
I believe my house rules from Madden 18 are among the best out there to keep you honest while still maintaining some semblance of running your own fictional world in CFM.
Draft Pick Limitations – You can only hold a limited amount of picks in each draft. The rules for your draft pick amounts are somewhat complicated, but they will make for a better experience.
- Maximum of 13 picks in any draft
- You can have two first round picks for up to two years in a row
- If you end up with three first round picks during any draft you must trade one of them to a division opponent for their lowest pick in the next season’s draft.
- You cannot draft two QBs in two consecutive rounds
- You cannot draft more than two QBs, HBs, or TEs in any draft
The last aspect we will be covering today involves the draft class itself.
Rookie Ratings Should Never Be Maxed Out (Or Bottomed Out)
It is going to be vital for any decent custom draft class to be balanced with players that have great ratings in key areas as well as poor ratings in key areas. The idea here is that no player should be created in the draft class with a ratings of 99 in any category. This goes for speed and arm strength. The entirety of CFM is really based around development – so why would you create any player that doesn’t need to develop?
It will be important to give some players low ratings as well. There might be a QB you want to create from a small school that has to develop from a 65 OVR into an all time great. That is what CFM should really be about. One of the aspects that Madden 18 finally did a good job of was making it harder to do things like this if a QB had poor accuracy, etc. You need to create low rated players for the sake of your CFM and to give some stories to follow if you choose to pay attention.
There will be more updates on custom draft class guides as we get closer to Madden 19’s release. Stay tuned!
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