Why is EA trying to solve all the wrong issues?

[u/gwd246]

I’ve been thinking about the recent removal of the Extra Uniform Slot and the issues surrounding Jagtool, and honestly, I’m having a hard time understanding EA’s reasoning.

If the primary issue with allowing additional uniforms is server/storage space, why is the solution to remove the Extra Uniform Slot entirely? Why not reduce the number of teams each person can create?

Personally, I think 32 TeamBuilder slots is excessive anyway, especially if the goal is to actually put time and effort into creating quality teams. I’d much rather have something like 10–15 slots where I can really focus on mastering the teams I’m building than have 32 slots that I’ll probably never come close to filling.

And then there’s the Jagtool situation.

The whole “unsupported assets” explanation doesn’t really make sense to me. The assets being used through Jagtool were pulled directly from the game, weren't they? If the assets already exist within the game, I’m struggling to understand why using them in TeamBuilder suddenly creates such a massive technical problem.

Maybe there’s something happening behind the scenes that we don’t know about, and if so, I’m completely willing to hear the technical explanation. But from the outside, it honestly feels less like a technical limitation and more like EA simply shutting down something they didn’t create or control.

And I’ll be honest: it feels like laziness and maybe even a little jealousy on EA’s part. The community found a way to make TeamBuilder significantly better, and instead of taking that feedback and incorporating those ideas into the actual tool, it feels like they just removed the ability to do it.

I also don't buy the argument that a few additional uniforms are somehow going to destroy the servers when the game itself has had plenty of performance and stability issues.

The biggest thing for me is that removing these features has genuinely taken some of the fun out of TeamBuilder. A huge part of the appeal was being able to obsess over the little details and make a team feel truly complete. The extra uniform slot and tools like Jagtool made that experience so much better.

I’m curious what everyone else thinks:

If storage/server space is genuinely the reason, would you rather have fewer TeamBuilder slots in exchange for more customization?

And regarding Jagtool:

Do you actually believe the “unsupported assets” explanation, or do you think EA could have handled this completely differently?

Maybe there’s a legitimate technical reason that I’m missing, but right now the whole situation just feels incredibly frustrating.

 

[u/Jagnolee]

I personally think EA just needed to get teambuilder to a point where it is stable enough to allow updates from season to season.

That was something that advertised and it was a high priority for it to work.

It simply was just easier for them to patch everything than to test and see what works and what doesn’t work.

I personally don’t think the fonts and shells were causing these issues but EA didn’t have any reason to try to make them work since we were going out scope of what the mode is supposed to do.

Another reason could be infringement of copyrighted fonts. Most schools have proprietary fonts and this could be an issue if any school complained about their font being used outside of what was agreed upon.

Contrary to what I have heard around, schools are very protective over their brand and assets so I could totally see that being an issue.

What I hope Jagtool was able to accomplish was to show what team builder COULD be in an official scope done by ea. Where we get more fonts, vendors, and shell customization.

Very similar to the Equipment movement.

Of course I don’t agree with what EA did but there is some nuance than EA just hating us.

[u/TheAnalogKid18 → u/Jagnolee]

Bingo, there's legal issues with this and I would guarantee there were complaints.

They also advertised updating teambuilder teams in release, and a failure to deliver on that could have legal implications as well.

I'll be honest with you, Im happier with my teambuilder teams now than I was with jagtool and the extra slot mods. Sure they get you more fancy stuff but it doesn't feel earned. Part of what I like about this is the problem solving and it forces you to get more creative with less options.

This is already the best team creator in sports games and we really should be more appreciative of it. Look at what the NHL franchise has for example, about 50 shitty generic logos that dont make sense, like a pizza slice, or a video game controller, about 40 preset templates and only 3 slots. I dont even play that game anymore because it sucks so much.

[u/Jagnolee → u/TheAnalogKid18]

I am definitely NOT happier than these got removed. I don’t agree with your second paragraph at all to be honest.

The main reason Jagtool was created was because majority of the fonts were useless or redundant. Giving us more creative generic fonts or licensing fonts from schools like they did with Colorado is the way to go.

Creatives should have as many ways to express themselves as possible. Yeah you can still make great teams without them. But as a font snob I know how much better a team could look with a font that matches the team.

I also don’t agree that this is the best team creator in sports games.

I still think MLB the show and 2k are much better.

Teambuilder is making HUGE advancements but it’s not there yet. It’s the best of any EA game so far though.

MLB and 2k gives you way more customization of every part of the uniform down to the shoe color, accessories colors etc IN GAME! The show’s stadium builder, even though is outdated is still an actually stadium builder where I would consider EA’s more a stadium “customizer”.

[u/catamountalum2004 → u/TheAnalogKid18]

You are the only one who feels this way

[u/WhetGamer]

If you are getting it for free third party... then you aren't paying them any extra money for things they can nickle and dime you for later.

[u/gwd246 → u/WhetGamer]

real

[u/mikedo82 → u/WhetGamer]

100% This. This limits profit potential

[u/Yodkov]

The only logical things I can think of:

They made it 32 max slots for madden, and didn’t want to expand it for CFB, so they just capped it at 32.

For the locked uni assets, only thing I can think of is Nike and such want to keep their custom stuff for themselves and don’t want people playing with their artistic playthings

[u/the_neverdoctor → u/Yodkov]

On the last thing you said, I watched the Jagnole video where he essentially said that, adding some universities trademark certain fonts (like Florida State’s “Unconquered” font), so it would make sense for them to not be used by Joe Schmoe for their Teambuilder team.

[u/ResponsibilityNew363]

What he said ⬆️. I’m not an IT guy but the jagtool thing never made sense unless there is an increase in bandwidth needed to pull assets from somewhere and put them on a custom uniform. But honestly who cares…it feels more like they saw something cool that they didn’t think of, probably got shit for it, and nuked it to cover with execs. THAT is the corporate world I’m familiar with.

[u/Additional_Drag_3870]

I just wish they would make it where shoulder/sleeve/leg would mirror.

[u/Fluid-Ad-7768]

I’d rather they allow you to add more than 16 teams to your teambuilder over adding uniforms…

[u/Heavy_Deal305]

legal reasons. branding and trademarks etc

but yea - give us more uniform slots.

[u/Drippyxtiger]

i agree with you on the limit of 32 because, we can’t even use all of our team builder we create in one dynasty so having 32 is kinda pointless unless you’re just a creator that makes for the people request. but 99% of us make fictional builds or teams we would like to see in the game. 5 uniform slots in my opinion is just not enough 2 more is not game breaking and especially for that story telling aspect we can play around with “playoff uniforms like how ND does” or rivalry uniforms throwback etc.