Madden 21 final Franchise update coming in February with trade logic improvements
In February, the third and final planned Franchise update for Madden 21 will bring trade logic improvements and league history.
This month, the second planned franchise update for Madden 21 will arrive implementing new features, like additional commissioner controls, draft tools and house rules, as well as improved CPU QB Draft Logic. It’s another step forward for the long-forgotten mode, but there are still improvements on the horizon.
EA confirmed that the final updates to Franchise mode are targeted to arrive in February. With it will come improved trade logic as well as the option to view your franchise league history.
Trade Logic Improvements
The goal with these improvements is to create “more rewarding and authentic trades” for Madden 21. This will include adjusting the way players and draft picks are evaluated, which hopefully prevents some of the popular exploits around AI trades
As it currently stands, you can get away with some pretty one-sided trades, like trading acquiring an elite offensive lineman for late-round picks. Or it’s possible to acquire some very high rated positional players — ones that a team would likely never trade in real life — for peanuts as long as the players you’re trading fit within a team’s position need. Basically, it’s too easy to meet an AI team’s threshold for accepting a trade.
While EA didn’t get into specifics, they did offer some insight into what went into reevaluating previous trade logic:
"Establishing new baseline scales around player and draft pick values by reconsidering every factor and modifier that is currently used in trades, resolving top community exploits around AI trades (like elite offensive linemen for late round picks), and looking for opportunities to improve or add new AI considerations when evaluating offers from teams."
Hopefully, this results in more realistic trades while hopefully not removing the fun aspect. In my opinion, the goal should be to still allow players to acquire a player they really want, but make it so the trade makes sense and isn’t highway robbery. We’ll learn more with the next Madden 21 Deep Dive.
Franchise League History
A new tile will allow you to see past Super Bowl and key winners from each year of your franchise, such as MVP, Coach of the Year, Offensive/Defensive Player of the Year, Offensive/Defensive Rookie of the Year, and Super Bowl MVP.
Unfortunately, this feature isn’t retroactive, so it will only track seasons in your franchise from when this feature is added and forward. However, if you were to start a new league, it will track every season from the start.
"Any history prior to the addition of this new feature will not be accessible as we previously did not save off Superbowl scores among other things upon the start of a new league year. Any new league will have every season played tracked, however. Related Story: Madden 21: Best teams to rebuild in franchise mode"
The Future?
While February’s Franchise update will be the last for Madden 21, I doubt this will be the end of Franchise improvements. There are still plenty of community-requested features that still need to be addressed and it finally seems like EA has gotten the message. Previously, the developer acknowledged that not every feature would be able to make it into Madden 21, but they will continue to improve upon the fan-favorite mode moving forward with each new game. Hopefully, this includes coaching and staff management that allows us to sign offensive and defensive coordinators.