NHL 19 Franchise Mode Thread

[Panthaz89]

Was it worth it?

For my team it was good. The guy is a med elite 84 at 20 years old though the 3 prospects could be pretty good but the Sabres already have the Rasmus pair so I dont have to worry.

 

[Gardner McKay]

Does anyone have any "rules" they place on themselves in franchise mode to make it more realistic? IE only doing deals that match trade blocks, hard trade difficulty, Only do deals with teams who ask you about a player? etc etc. I'm trying to make my franchise mode feel more "real". Please let me know any tips, tricks, or rules you like to set for yourself to make it feel "real".

Unfortunately I don't. Each person gets something different out of gaming. I just play the game as it is and enjoy it more for the fantasy aspect. Sometimes I will play on hard but I don't impose any rules.

 

[Echo Roku]

Does anyone have any "rules" they place on themselves in franchise mode to make it more realistic? IE only doing deals that match trade blocks, hard trade difficulty, Only do deals with teams who ask you about a player? etc etc. I'm trying to make my franchise mode feel more "real". Please let me know any tips, tricks, or rules you like to set for yourself to make it feel "real".

Well, I don’t necessarily follow all these myself all the time (probably will do a strict, realistic one, one day), but here’s some you could use...

• Unless they’re depth players/middling or worse prospects, don’t trade for them unless their team wants to trade them.
• If you’re rebuilding and want to trade away players for picks, limit it to two or three. Moreso ones with a year left in their contract. And only to teams that want them.
• Don’t offer free agents unreasonable contracts. Don’t overpay significantly or go more than a year away from their desired length of contract.
• Same with re-signing players. Understand when a player seems to want a bridge contract or a long term one.
• Don’t offer sheet players for cheap just because the cpu mismanaged their cap and cant sign them.
• Limit trades in the draft to a few trades. Don’t trade unless they’re willing to give up the pick.
• Don’t try to trade for a pick to get every good steal you find in the draft. Reach for players in later rounds, as most teams have wildly different player rankings at that point
• Don’t trade players that you just signed. Probably not for a year, at least
• When you do make a trade, don’t just throw in random players or picks to up the value. Especially highly valued prospects that may or may not work out. Make sure most of the value given is from assets they want
• If you want to really match reality. Do an overview of their roster and check of the player actually make sense, or if it just happens to match a too vague trade block desire
• Don’t trade aging veterans to rebuilding teams. Don’t trade picks and young players not ready for the NHL to teams that are going for the cup now (in exchange for players)

In general. If what you’re doing feels like you’re manipulating the AI, then don’t do it.

 

[belair]

I really wish EA would fix their AI's cap management. For years it's been broken. There are usually only two or three teams who aren't completely capped out.

 

[Hockey Rush]

Well, I don’t necessarily follow all these myself all the time (probably will do a strict, realistic one, one day), but here’s some you could use...

• Unless they’re depth players/middling or worse prospects, don’t trade for them unless their team wants to trade them.
• If you’re rebuilding and want to trade away players for picks, limit it to two or three. Moreso ones with a year left in their contract. And only to teams that want them.
• Don’t offer free agents unreasonable contracts. Don’t overpay significantly or go more than a year away from their desired length of contract.
• Same with re-signing players. Understand when a player seems to want a bridge contract or a long term one.
• Don’t offer sheet players for cheap just because the cpu mismanaged their cap and cant sign them.
• Limit trades in the draft to a few trades. Don’t trade unless they’re willing to give up the pick.
• Don’t try to trade for a pick to get every good steal you find in the draft. Reach for players in later rounds, as most teams have wildly different player rankings at that point
• Don’t trade players that you just signed. Probably not for a year, at least
• When you do make a trade, don’t just throw in random players or picks to up the value. Especially highly valued prospects that may or may not work out. Make sure most of the value given is from assets they want
• If you want to really match reality. Do an overview of their roster and check of the player actually make sense, or if it just happens to match a too vague trade block desire
• Don’t trade aging veterans to rebuilding teams. Don’t trade picks and young players not ready for the NHL to teams that are going for the cup now (in exchange for players)

In general. If what you’re doing feels like you’re manipulating the AI, then don’t do it.

A great foundation you have given me here. I appreciate that! Yeah, I have been trying to implement some of this other aspects though I haven't thought of. Thanks for the ideas! If anyone else has any rules of more realism please share them! Love to hear all of your guys tricks.

 

[Hockey Rush]

There seem to be a lot of "Elites" in franchise mode it kind of feels unrealistic. I'm not sure how these elites pan out. Is there like a percentage chance they can be duds? I just watched a video of a youtuber named mattwicc he just got like 5-6 elite players in rounds 1-5. It feels kind of weird.

How exactly do the elites in this or past games really work? Do they all become something?

 

[Echo Roku]

There seem to be a lot of "Elites" in franchise mode it kind of feels unrealistic. I'm not sure how these elites pan out. Is there like a percentage chance they can be duds? I just watched a video of a youtuber named mattwicc he just got like 5-6 elite players in rounds 1-5. It feels kind of weird.

How exactly do the elites in this or past games really work? Do they all become something?

Potentials have a ceiling and a likelihood

Elite is a ceiling. Low, medium, or high is the probability they reach that potential

You’re probably seeing a lot of low elites

FYI, there a potential called Franchise above that

 

[Hockey Rush]

Potentials have a ceiling and a likelihood

Elite is a ceiling. Low, medium, or high is the probability they reach that potential

You’re probably seeing a lot of low elites

FYI, there a potential called Franchise above that

Yeah, there seems to be some separation. It seems like you can kind of "game" the system but putting them in the AHL sooner. I just wish the odds of them becoming elite were lower. I wish we saw more High Top 6 forwards who could flop as bottom 6 or even become elites. Is there a video explaining the differences and probabilities. I really seem to be missing something here. I've had some elites turn out great. I really haven't had many duds in my experience to this point.

Some person posted a guide to the ratings previously. He said essentially a "low elite or top 6" it has the potential to be 2 ranks above or below. Which would be a low top 6 could become a franchise guy. It Is that really a thing?

 

[twiztidwolff]

Does the sim engine feel any better this game vs last game?

 

[Panthaz89]

Yeah, there seems to be some separation. It seems like you can kind of "game" the system but putting them in the AHL sooner. I just wish the odds of them becoming elite were lower. I wish we saw more High Top 6 forwards who could flop as bottom 6 or even become elites. Is there a video explaining the differences and probabilities. I really seem to be missing something here. I've had some elites turn out great. I really haven't had many duds in my experience to this point.

Some person posted a guide to the ratings previously. He said essentially a "low elite or top 6" it has the potential to be 2 ranks above or below. Which would be a low top 6 could become a franchise guy. It Is that really a thing?

Top 6 F/Top 4 D medium is almost always better than low elite...they rarely ever become valuable players. Guys who are already 70ish at 18 years old should be a safe bet though.

 

[Cor]

The next big change to Franchise really needs to be a new potential system.

In EHM, there’s no visable potential. In the game’s engine each player is given a numerical value for their future value, which gives the engine an approximate of where a player will end up, and then there’s another potential thing they can get where it’s a larger scale and a player can end up becoming different in every simulation. Such as in one sim he can become a star, and another sim he doesn’t become much. Then on top of that there’s some minor randomness on top. So let’s say Joe Smith is given a FV of a safe bet to be middle 6 winger, he can still end up being a top 6 winger or bottom 6 winger in different play throughs. You can change it prior to starting a new save, but once you are in there, you don’t know what players potentials are and you need to watch how their stats develop and how they preform as well as relying on your scout, coach and physio reports on each of your players to get an idea of what they are and what they can be.

 

[Field of Dreams]

Can anyone help me with how "gem" prospects work?

An A+ scout identified a "gem" in the third round: a 6'3 LHD enforcer who has no strengths, 3 significant weaknesses, poor stats across the board. Everything that could be negative, is negative, except for his player comparison, which is Chara. All of these traits are given the accurate rating as well. I dont know what to believe here, it seems like he's giving me a shit sandwich and calling it caviar.

 

[Echo Roku]

Can anyone help me with how "gem" prospects work?

An A+ scout identified a "gem" in the third round: a 6'3 LHD enforcer who has no strengths, 3 significant weaknesses, poor stats across the board. Everything that could be negative, is negative, except for his player comparison, which is Chara. All of these traits are given the accurate rating as well. I dont know what to believe here, it seems like he's giving me a **** sandwich and calling it caviar.

Gems tend to be players with low current stats, but the scouts believe they’ll develop well over time.

Only guessing at if this is technically how it works, but it seems like gems will tend to grow into at least serviceable players or even meet their potential.

Though your scours certainly can miss others. So those probably aren’t all the gems available either.

No idea if they can be mistaken on them, though

 

[Field of Dreams]

Gems tend to be players with low current stats, but the scouts believe they’ll develop well over time.

Only guessing at if this is technically how it works, but it seems like gems will tend to grow into at least serviceable players or even meet their potential.

Though your scours certainly can miss others. So those probably aren’t all the gems available either.

No idea if they can be mistaken on them, though

Okay, that makes sense, I guess I'll take a flyer on him, it's only a 3rd. I'll let you know how he pans out

 

[NuxFan09]

I wish EA would design preseason in franchise mode so that you can have unlimited players on your roster, as you can in real life. I'd like to be able to experiment with a bunch of young players and AHL players. Instead, I have to send a bunch of vets down to the minors in order to experiment with other players

 

[mk80]

Is anyone else finding trading unreasonably difficult?

I'm not saying it should be easy, but I'm offering some of these players they identify that they want, exactly meeting their trade block needs in a fair deal (I'm not low balling them) and they'll reject it saying they can live with it, but my guy's are overvalued? But again it's a deal that by all indications meets their trade block, and even they say it meets their needs, etc.

 

[Echo Roku]

Is anyone else finding trading unreasonably difficult?

I'm not saying it should be easy, but I'm offering some of these players they identify that they want, exactly meeting their trade block needs in a fair deal (I'm not low balling them) and they'll reject it saying they can live with it, but my guy's are overvalued? But again it's a deal that by all indications meets their trade block, and even they say it meets their needs, etc.

I’ve gotten messages back saying that my valuation of players is way off compared to what their scouts are saying

Which basically means theyre seeing a different set of trade values than you.

I’ve no idea if EA has every team running their own fog of war where they could be getting your players’ values wrong, but they can definitely see a different set of values than you do

 

[bleedblue1223]

I’ve gotten messages back saying that my valuation of players is way off compared to what their scouts are saying

Which basically means theyre seeing a different set of trade values than you.

I’ve no idea if EA has every team running their own fog of war where they could be getting your players’ values wrong, but they can definitely see a different set of values than you do

This is correct from what I understand. With Fog of War on, it also affects how other teams view certain players. They could over or under value either their own or your players. I've seen some CPU trades that made no sense, and this is the reason why.

Not sure if it's going to be a good thing or a bad thing. I ultimately think it's just going to be super annoying because it will be random. Usually in real life, when there is a bad trade, there are usually reasons for it. Whether it be cap issues, desperately wanting to win now, or an issue with the player/club.

 

[Echo Roku]

This is correct from what I understand. With Fog of War on, it also affects how other teams view certain players. They could over or under value either their own or your players. I've seen some CPU trades that made no sense, and this is the reason why.

Not sure if it's going to be a good thing or a bad thing. I ultimately think it's just going to be super annoying because it will be random. Usually in real life, when there is a bad trade, there are usually reasons for it. Whether it be cap issues, desperately wanting to win now, or an issue with the player/club.

That does make it clear that there is one way fog of war could definitely improve

Reputation scouting

Basically just a base level of scouting you get for players if they’re prominent. At least NHL ones.

Like top line players would get three bar conference on overall. Maybe two in potential.

Middle like players get 3 bars in overall. 1 in potential

Depth players get 2 in overall and 1 in potential

Minor league players get 1 and 0 bars

You can pro scout to get more accurate, but this would be more realistic, at least. Especially if every team has their own scouting levels.

I think the current system is supposed to encourage using stats as that baseline check on quality of player, but CPUs can’t really use that as well as this

 

[aigledefeu]

I wish EA would design preseason in franchise mode so that you can have unlimited players on your roster, as you can in real life. I'd like to be able to experiment with a bunch of young players and AHL players. Instead, I have to send a bunch of vets down to the minors in order to experiment with other players

Yeah, right now it is really anoying because the salary cap is effective on my preseason so I can only call up few prospects, I hope they will fix that

 

[M88K]

Is anyone else finding trading unreasonably difficult?

I'm not saying it should be easy, but I'm offering some of these players they identify that they want, exactly meeting their trade block needs in a fair deal (I'm not low balling them) and they'll reject it saying they can live with it, but my guy's are overvalued? But again it's a deal that by all indications meets their trade block, and even they say it meets their needs, etc.

yeah had this issue a lot

 

[Tak7]

Anyone having the glitch where player signings dont pop up in franchise mode?

Offering a bunch of my team contracts, or UFAs contracts, and there's no pop-up saying deal accepted/rejected, even though they now appear on my roster as newly signed...

Ffs, EA Sports

 

[SlapshotTheMovie]

So i always play with certain house rules but i think i need to add more with the changes this game has done with the draft.

Noramlly i play with the following rules

• Can't trade for a player not on a teams trading block unless its the off season and its a realistic trade (no taking a teams starting goalie when they don't have a replacement or anything like that)
• UFA players get what they ask for, no negotiating or doing the 85% trick.
• Players with real life NMC on my team can't be moved.
• Core players on a team when i take over have to retire with the team (for example if i do the red wings i have to resign zetter and kronwall until they retire)
• No moving big contract players until their final year unless i am doing a rebuild.
• If i am rebuilding the team all players over 26 have to go unless they were part of the previous core.
• If a player says he doens't want an extension but more money could change their mind i only get one more shot to sign them.

Now i am thinking no trading smaller depth players for picks since you can do some serious work in the draft in 3 years. If I move someone that is easily replaced in free agency for a 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th round pick i could realistically find like 3 players that have way more value. For the first time in an NHL gm mode i was able to sim a full season and post season and win the cup with a team entirely drafted by the team they were playing for. No free agents or trades on the team. Including the back up goalie and healthy scartched players. To me that alone makes this game better then the other PS4/XboxOne generation of games. However it also makes it really easy. So maybe if i trade bottom 6 guys they have to be for either one pick or a prospect/vet with similar trade value.

 

[haveandare]

This is my favorite part of the game by far, I spend probably 90% of my playing time on it. Haven't gotten 19 yet, but from the sounds of this thread, franchise mode got a significant update? Seems like mostly scouting has improved, anything else specific to franchise mode?

 

[542365]

Does anyone use auto scouting? Does the CPU do a good job at it?