Future Improvements for Madden13 and Beyond - ABR173rd's Blog

ABR173rd's Blog

Future Improvements for Madden13 and Beyond

Posted on January 25, 2012 at 02:46 PM.

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This blog's main focus will be on improvements to future versions of Madden and the direction the game should be heading in at this point based on where we are with M12. Consider this blog a work in progress as I find time to edit and update as needed.

Gameplay-

Commentary appears to be a huge issue for EA, as we watch games like NBA2k with what seems like dynamic and on the spot commentary I have to wonder how EA fell so behind the technology curve in this department. Every single players name needs to be in the game including all future CPU generated rookies and FA's. There is no excuse at this point and time for this to even be a discussion. There was no point to adding team specific entrances when the moment you take the original starting QB off of the team we get the generic "starting QB" commentary. This is a huge issue that will help develop story line's and keep every game/season fresh as we get deeper into franchise mode.

Madden must eventually transition over to a physics based engine. Motion capture just isn't cutting it anymore and has lead to to many canned animations- many of these animations don't look or appear to be realistic.

This leads me into the WR's/DB interactions, Madden has done a better job this year of making the slower possession type receivers viable options again. The biggest issue I see right now is really discerning the difference between players that you can throw the ball up to like a Mega Tron and watching him come down with it in double coverage (out muscling DB's). This is also evident when using the fade route, the fade route is about position and lobbing the ball up to where the receiver is able to out jump defenders. The lack of WR/DB interaction has lead the fade route to be purely about timing and void of any fight for positioning or real interaction between opposing players.

The trajectory of the ball is another big one. Every year we hear more complaints about superman LB's swatting passes down 3 yards off the line of scrimmage. The reality is the ball trajectory on a bee line pass thrown 15-20 yards shouldn't be low enough to the ground where an LB 3-4 yards off the line of scrimmage is able to leap up and knock it down.

O-line and the D-Line-

Last year it was to easy to get sacks with the DE and much more difficult with the DT. This year the DT's seem to easily get sacks and the DE's are hit or miss regardless of who your using. My first issue here is the RE- why is it so hard for the RE to get a sack if he's not user-ed? You could have a 98 rated RE on the D-line and its has absolutely no bearing on the pass rush. There needs to be a bigger separation between line players. What I mean by that is when I play Baltimore, I want to see and feel the pressure that Baltimore's D brings to the table.

D-Lineman don't necessarily need to come barreling through the line every time. It would be nice to see the pocket collapse slowly forcing the QB to the outside of the pocket. The way the pocket collapses or stands strong should also reflect the skill or attributes of the players on both sides of the ball. This should be regardless of if I'm playing another person or playing the CPU. Playing Baltimore's current defense should not feel the same as playing the Minnesota Vikings- for example. This starts with the individual players, the ratings and skills of each individual player should then be combined with the coaches game plan, and then to the specific play in order to provide a unique experience every time I play a game.

The user O-line needs to get pancake blocks and given credit for them- the blocking is better this year in terms of less suction blocking and runners actually finding lanes. The O-line needs to get credit for pass protection though. I have noticed this trend in the last 3 or 4 Maddens where the O-line regardless of how good they are accumulate 3 or 4 pancake blocks the whole season... This inevitably leads them to declining in overall regardless of age or potential. This has been brought up every year and it exists so fix it EA!

Franchise Mode-

Coaching Carousel great idea and I can't believe NCAA implemented it first. My idea is come into the league as a positions coach on either side of the ball and work your way up from there. During the season and games you will be able to only change and control the position you are coaching. During the off season you will have an input level in terms how much sway you have with the front office in terms of singing players and draft picks. For instance as a CB's coach depending on your first season the front office will grant you a certain amount of money to spend on CB's, during the draft you may be given the 3, 4, 5,..ect pick to grab a CB depending on how long you've been with the team and the overall performance of your unit. As you progress during the off-season better jobs may come available and may not- EA needs to do it's best to make this very realistic in terms of users not going from a CB coach to a D coordinator in two seasons and then to a HC job in season four of their franchise.

Your base job would dictate what your overall boost to a team would. So if you came in as a CB's coach and in your first three season had two Pro bowl CB's and 3 playoff appearances then you would get a boost that would permanently affect the CB's of whatever team you were coaching. These baseline attributes to you as a coach would also affect what kind of jobs your going to get especially HC positions. A team that has a great D coordinator and amazing offensive weapons is probably not going to higher a Defensive minded coach. More so a team with a terrible is going to want to higher a HC to shore up their D. There could be a total of 4 or 5 attributes that you could gain by the time you make it to Head Coach. If you started out on the defensive side then 4 of them would be defensive minded and the 5th one would be an offensive one and and the opposite it you started out as an offensive minded coach.

Going back to starting out as a positions coach, the negotiation period in the off season should be focused around promises made by different teams based on their needs. Such as the Giants in need of a RB's coach, as the user you would be able to request extra incentives outside of length and salary of the contract. Such incentives could consist of the guaranteed choice of a certain amount or certain round of draft picks or based on you meeting certain goals having the opportunity to interview for a coordinator position within a certain length of time with that team. This would add another layer of depth to deciding what team you sign with and how bad a team needs your services based on how you perform.

Moving into a head coaching position you would obviously want full control over player and personnel moves. As a head coach depending on your track record you may be able to negotiate none, some, or all of these incentives into your contract. Poor performance could and should also lead to getting fired. As in real life you may have to step down and take a Coordinator or even a positions coaching job and re-work your way back up the NFL ladder. The bottom line here is making it to the HC position doesn't guarantee you full control over all roster moves, you would be forced to earn those rights based on what was guaranteed in your initial contract.

The off season needs more depth and some sort of a training camp. I would go with a point system based on your performance in your respective coaching position. The system would be built around things like players you've drafted. As a CB coach at the end of your first season you would get a certain amount of points based on player performances and player draft grades and FA pickups. This would make every personnel decision affect your coaching legacy on and off the field. These points could be spent on player workouts in the off season to permanently boost player attribute. You as a coach would also have certain attributes that could positively or negatively affect your players in the off season. This would take some of the burden off of a pure progression system and make the personnel you have coaching the players significantly affect their training and attributes in the off season.

These points would also be used as bargaining chips per see in the off season when trying to sway personnel decisions. Every coach would have input on target players for the draft and your sway on the opinion of each one would be based on the amount of points you want to spend. Obviously as a brand new positions coach you may finish the season based on meeting incentives with 5-10 points. You as the CB coach really want this player so you could chose to use 5 of those points to sway the other coordinators to making in effort in drafting this player or you could use 0-2 points which may have nor effect one way or the other depending on the perceived weaknesses of the team by the other coaches. The amount of points that could be accumulated in one season would also grow as you move up the ranks in the organization. As a low level coach you would also have to pick and chose how you spend your points because they would also be used towards workouts designed to boost you CB's attributes and singing FA's.

The big thing with adding a brand new "coaching carousel" is giving users a reason to play for 30 seasons. Adding more substance to the game outside of trading for draft picks and signing the best FA's and within one or two seasons you have a Superbowl contender isn't enough. The road to the Super Bowl would be longer and would be much more rewarding in the end as every move you make in your career could inevitably put you one step closer or one step farther from a championship.

Based on adding a revamped coaching system the player progression would have to be toned down. There would have to be a balance on players progression based on performance/and the coaches coaching the players. Player progression based on performance would have to be capped at a Max of 3-4 points a season with another Max of 3-4 points depending on training camp.

Player position battles need to be brought back in training camp as well as player moral and team chemistry. This has to have some sort of tangible affect on how the team plays.Players need to hold out and even in some occasions players need to make it clear that they chose not to be drafted by certain teams (rarely).

Practice mode in franchise should leave us with the choice of scrimmaging or staying on offense or defense without pausing the game to change the play.

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