Sm27's Madden Manifesto for 2010, a preview...

[Sm27]

Hi Guys.
It really is quite amazing to me that after all these years I still get emails from time to time of people asking for "The Manifesto" from 2005. I see guys mentioning here about doing "team specific" gameplay sliders. That differs from the original Manifesto Philosophy in that OUR philosophy was based on making the game CALL THE RIGHT PLAYS by manipulating the COACHING SLIDERS and the Fatigue or SUB IN/OUT sliders together. The whole thing was an effort to make the game play right WITHOUT touching the GAMEPLAY AI sliders until the very last step. My reason for doing it this way was that I thought that if we could use all of the OTHER game play sliders to get the game to call the right plays, then gameplay issues relating to what happens AFTER the snap would be easier to fix. If you remember, in those days, guys would try to induce the CPU to call more running plays by jacking the hell out of the Running Ability and Run Blocking sliders. The Cpu always wanted to do whatever it deduced would be the most successful, and the bullet balls that the CPU QB always through were always more successful. The game was out of balance BEFORE the snap.

I actually stopped playing console Madden after 2006 because it seemed EA actually went in the wrong direction after our Manifesto in 2005. It was EXTREMELY frustrating. We got all sorts of unbelievably positive feedback from EA after the 2005 Manifesto. They actually printed the damn thing out down in Florida and went over it in meetings. They contacted various members of the core Manifesto team and invited us to be part of the testing team for future versions of Madden, but due to many circumstances having to do with behometh corporate EA protocols and irreversable compensation doctrine, the partnership wasn't to be. We tried a Manifesto for 2006 and 2007, but if anything, the game was broken more than ever. So I spent $5000.00 on an Alienware Aurora M9700 Laptop and went over to the PC version of the game where my dreams of Global Ratings adjustments and the ability to export complete player rosters into excel was possible. I was then able to come up with formulas to "re Rate" entire rosters by position so that gameplay slider manipulation was not needed or necessary.....But those days are over. Madden PC is no more, my Alienware is used primarily now to run Pro Tools in my gig as a touring live concert sound engineer, and no amount of manipulation can make that tired gameplay engine interesting to me any more.

Which brings us to Madden 2010 for the Xbox 360.
I first want to commend EA for taking many of the complaints that we had in those days, and our vision for the game, our tireless research and testing on the Manifesto, and making much of it a reality in Madden 2010. The Gameplay speed adjustment alone is testament to a commitment to the "sim style" Madden Player by EA. Kudos.

The 2005 Madden Manifesto wasn't actually started until many months after Madden 2005 was out and guys had been experimenting with gameplay AI sliders alone. Nobody even touched the coaching sliders before us. Nobody even touched the sub out/in sliders before us, and the whole idea of creating a "CPU Profile" in order to slide a second controller back to the middle and have the CPU operate with manipulated sub out/in sliders was our most inspired idea to this day.

It is these ideas that were pioneered in the Madden Community in the writing of the Madden Manifesto for 2005 that we see implemented all throughout Madden 2010. Just go through the various settings adjustment menus and you will see what I mean. One example, and this is HUGE is the POSITIONAL sub out/in settings adjustments. WOW! Finally you will be FORCED to use strategy in when to put in positional subs to keep yourself in the game in the 4th quarter! The "game within the game" FINALLY is a reality! This is only ONE of the many adjustments in the game that they have so graciously afforded us hardcore guys....And we are going to find every one of them!

We now have the ability with online franchise to really do what we always wanted to do. 32 seperate guys, each of them playing each other in a realistic league....Awesome.

I will be starting a world tour with Paulina Rubio in about 4 weeks...That means I have about three weeks to dedicate to you know what...

So now, the Madden Manifesto is BACK for 2010.

I will be posting a new thread on Sunday that will define what it is we hope to accomplish, what our specific goals are, a format for testing, a Manifesto "Game Room" on the EA servers for head to head testing as well as the usual individual projects that are specific to testing single elements within the game.

The Idea will be to utilyze ALL aspects of the NFL experience that are possible within the game for offline franchise play as well as online "head to head" Franchise play. You will have to be a Game Manager as well as a "Stick Jockey"...A Player as well as a Coach, an Owner as well as GM....And maybe, just maybe, EA has given us the tools to accomplish this. God willing, we will be able to take this puppy to the next level like we did in 2005.

If any of you are interested in making a commitment to a couple of weeks of intense input into the Manifesto for 2010, send me a PM and also reply in comments to this thread...I have attached a word document of our Original Manifesto for 2005 for inspiration.

By the time were done, it might be so damn realistic that my beloved Detroit Lions, even though they are my team, end up 5 and 11!

*UPDATE*

I spoke with someone closely involved with the Madden development team. I have also been playing the game a lot the last few days to try and sort out the most glaring issues for prioritizing what exactly the Manifesto 2010 Team needs to accomplish. I have to say that, until something can be done about the totally broken run blocking in the game, playability issues are a pointless endeavor. No amount of slider manipulation can fix the hard coding in the OL run blocking AI. This issue simply HAS to be the number one priority in the first patch. Everything else is absolutely secondary to that issue. In my conversations with this developement resource, we did a cursory analysis overview of the Sim Engine stat output and although there are a couple of issues with the number of QB's with QB ratings over 100 as well as a few other things, the EA team did a really good job of addressing realistic stat output in the sim engine. A quick fix for some of the minor unrealistic sim engine stat output can be quickly fixed with minor re-rates from EA in their next roster, or we can do this ourselves very easily if they don't address it to our satisfaction when the first "opening day" roster is released.

If you remember, one of the main inspirations for the first Manifesto back in 2004 was the problem that no matter what you did, your user controlled team would 9 times out of 10 end up being 1st against the run, and last against the pass. Well, guess what, that will not change until the run blocking AI in "played games" is addressed. You might not be last against the pass anymore, but from my preliminary investigation, you will most certainly be number one against the run....In it's present state, it's just broke. So we all need to lobby as vigorously as possible to have this corrected.

Penalties on Field Goals, (for that matter Penalties in general) is incredibly important to be addressed as well as a host of other issues, but I can't emphasize the point strenuously enough that until the Run Blocking is addressed in a patch for the game, quite literally, nothing else matters at this point as far as getting the game to "play right". At this point if they just hard coded the OL to block the closest guy in a simple universal zone blocking scheme that would still be a monumental improvement over what it is now.

All of the CPU play calling issues that everyone is noticing can easily, and I mean EASILY, be corrected once we get into the weeds with manipulating coaching sliders and playbooks. It will be time consuming but well worth it when we are done.

So in closing.....
As to what our priorities will be in going forward...
I will continue to make myself a complete pain in the *** to my source at EA about this run blocking snafu to get that fixed for the next couple of weeks before the Opening Day Roster is released. I am looking at this pre season time as exactly that. Let's see if we can get just two things done at EA by using our vast community as one loud voice. Let's get two things patched for offline play most certainly.

1.) Run Blocking. Somebody needs to wake up the RG and tell him that the C can manage to block the NG on his own most of the time, especially if it means that by helping the C he is subjecting the RB to a Team Picture of the LB Corps in the backfield on every damn play. I mean let's have the OL at least block SOMEBODY and not just run around in space looking lost, OK? To be clear here...I am just using the RG as one example, the whole damn line is guilty of not knowing what the hell to do. I do appreciate the stellar work that EA has done to address "suction blocking" animations, and some credit is do, but this deficiancy is killing the game on every level. Do I really have to list all the ways that this is the number one important thing?

2.) Penalties. I want these sliders to never have to even APPROACH "100". If these sliders are at "100" I want to see AT LEAST one penalty on EVERY PLAY (not to mention 'offsetting penalties').
On "0" I should see NO PENALTIES AT ALL. If EA gives us this range in these sliders, we will sort out which penalty sliders should be set where thank you. A good 75% of the drama of a game is the damn zebras pissing you off or helping you with those damn yellow bean bags, either stopping drives, extending drives, or playing havoc with your playcalling on a situational basis.
For example...If I have a rookie CB or a TIRED CB, he should be getting flagged for having to cheat with Pass Interference, Defensive Holding, or Illegal Use of the Hands. I should have to make a decision on benching him because he is killing me with free yardage for the other team. When I see him starting to get tired, that should tell me that I either take a chance with a "double X" or a "double Z" defense, sub him out to get a blow and risk my sub getting punked, or hope the Side Judge is looking at a nice set of Ta-Ta's in the crowd so he doesn't throw the flag.

If we can get these two lousy things done, we will have no problem whatsoever fixing "gameplay" issues like CPU playcalling with the tools they have given us. The Sim Engine is in suprizingly good shape.

[JohnDoe8865]

This is some of the best news all year concerning Madden 10. I'm so glad to see the Manifesto come back.

[Jukeman]

Heeeey long time no see lol

[Sm27]

Quote: Originally Posted by Jukeman

Heeeey long time no see lol

I know...It's been so damn long I am a "rookie" on OS..lol Oh well, I can always use a healthy dose of humility! It's good to be back!

[adembroski]

HOLY JEEZUZ YOU'RE ALIVE!!! Call, you missing SOB.

[Sm27]

Quote: Originally Posted by adembroski

HOLY JEEZUZ YOU'RE ALIVE!!! Call, you missing SOB.

I don't have your number...PM Me so I can call you!

[JGRIPP81]

count me in sir. will be more than happy to test for you. and welcome back

[swaldo]

Do you still play Madden 05?