Madden NFL 11 Locomotion Live Chat (Replay Available Now)

[splff3000]

Quote: Originally Posted by kjcheezhead

I really didn't get anything out of that chat to be honest. I know I really didn't like this answer: we saw how weather such as snow played a role in animations such as guys slipping. With the new locomotion system, will we see even more of an effect? Thursday April 15, 2010 4:18 victor 4:19 Madden NFL Dev Team: We are still discussing ways to do this without making it too frustrating for the user. The slips that played last year could be pretty frustrating since they seemed so random when they played Seems to me weather should impact locomotion and this response seems like they think gamers feel cheated when this happens. I would think this would be easy to add/imporve with better locomotion. Cut too fast in heavy snow or rainy conditions and you slip and fall simple as that.

Yeah, I feel the same way KJ. I know one thing though. This guy isn't as good at avoiding the truth as other guys. There were a couple of simple yes or no questions that he tried to talk his way through instead of saying yes or no, but there were other yes or no questions that he specifically yes to. For example look at these questions and answers:

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[Comment From JesusJesus: ] Will the locomotion apply to backpedeling? Thursday April 15, 2010 4:07 Jesus Madden NFL Dev Team: Definitely, it affects forward, sidestepping, backpedaling (and all angles in between)

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[Comment From Rooney8Rooney8: ] In the race you posted in your blog the 99acc guy has run 2yards before the 90acc guy has run one. Are you still tuning this. Thursday April 15, 2010 4:08 Rooney8 Madden NFL Dev Team: Absolutely, the animations in the video aren't final. The stand to run foward animation was being scaled too much based on the accel rating. I just grabbed a video of the current state of the game at the time.

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[Comment From DavePSUDavePSU: ] When you say the players will feel a bit heavier, does that mean players who are leaner will be able to come in and out of their cuts quicker and more precise in comparison to larger 6'4 210LB WRs? Thursday April 15, 2010 4:14 DavePSU Madden NFL Dev Team: Yeah. Agility is the main thing that drives cutting. We set the ratings on an absolute scale, meaning that a bigger guy (in general, there are exceptions) will have a lower agility than a smaller guy, which gives him that heavy feel. The cool thing about separating size from the rating is that it gives Donny the power to make agile big guys and lumbering big guys based on where he sets their agility ratings. We are actually sitting down tonight to do some more tuning on this.

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[Comment From YLhandLZYLhandLZ: ] Does locomotion significantly impact pursuit and coverage? One of the more frustrating things still this year has been watching defenders completely overrun a play only to fly back the opposite direction for a nasty hit or an INT. Thursday April 15, 2010 4:25 YLhandLZ Madden NFL Dev Team: Yeah, that was one of the goals we had from the beginning. You can use a defenders momentum against them.

Noticed how he said yes to each of these questions and went into detail about most of them. Now look at the questions below. Not only does he not give a definitive yes or no answer, for some of them the answer he gives has nothing to do with the question.

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[Comment From victorvictor: ] we saw how weather such as snow played a role in animations such as guys slipping. With the new locomotion system, will we see even more of an effect? Thursday April 15, 2010 4:18 victor Madden NFL Dev Team: We are still discussing ways to do this without making it too frustrating for the user. The slips that played last year could be pretty frustrating since they seemed so random when they played.

Which means no, you won't see that.

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[Comment From ch46647ch46647: ] Does this finally eliminate completely the 180 degree snap around movement we see from players? Particularly DB's and LB's and players in pursuit Thursday April 15, 2010 4:20 ch46647 Madden NFL Dev Team: The players play more realistic looking direction changes in those situations now.

Which means it's better now, but no it does not eliminate the 180 degree turn.

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[Comment From Anton32Anton32: ] With Locomotion, will some running plays be more effective then others ex. Halfback draw, considering the front line and how they are effected by locomotion, to allow the RB to break a big run? Thursday April 15, 2010 4:22 Anton32 Madden NFL Dev Team: If you catch their linebackers still in their drops on a draw play, they have to react, plant and run towards you. They are viable this year while last year I had a hard time getting yards on draws. Counters work a lot better now also.

Which means halfback draws and counters are improved, but are still not as good as some of the other run plays.

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[Comment From drlw322drlw322: ] when big running backs and small DB collide, will weight play a role in it or more rating driven Thursday April 15, 2010 4:32 drlw322 Madden NFL Dev Team: Locomotion doesn't directly affect the tackling system. A huge difference this year is that if players slow down while breaking the tackle, their acceleration rating will really determine if they can break away from the pack. A big back like Jacobs generally plays animations that take him forward through the defender so that he probably won't be slowing down as much as a more elusive guy who is spinning through or juking out of a tackle. Last year since players accelerated so quickly, breaking a tackle didn't really give the defenders trailing much of a chance to catch up.

Which means............no, I guess. I have no idea what this answer had to do with the question.

These are just the first few questions. This continues all the way through the entire chat session. Take a look and see for yourself. One thing that is very disturbing to me is it seems like the same people are getting there question answered over and over again. It's a little unusual that out of hundreds, maybe even thousands, of questions, Rooney8 and Anton32 would get 2 of their questions answered, but that's not too bad. What is really disturbing is that YLhandLZ got 5 of his questions answered!!!! Now I have a problem with that. So out of 29 questions answered, he had 5 of them. With hundreds of questions coming from probably hundreds of people, his get answered 5 times. Hmmmm, I'm not saying anything......it's.....just .......a ...little.......aww nevermind.

[Hova57]

i wouldn't look into too much of who they answered. in the ncaa chat they answered like 4 or 5 of mine. and I'm a nobody to EA developers...lol

I think the ncaa team did a better job of answering the questions. but they are further in development than the madden team.

[splff3000]

Quote: Originally Posted by Hova57

i wouldn't look into too much of who they answered. in the ncaa chat they answered like 4 or 5 of mine. and I'm a nobody to EA developers...lol I think the ncaa team did a better job of answering the questions. but they are further in development than the madden team.

Yeah, I guess YLhandLZ just had the right questions for the devs. I still don't like the answers for some of them though. Well not the answer themselves, but the way they avoided answering the question straight up. I really wish they would just say no that's not fixed or whatever. You may not like Ian, but one things was for sure, he didn't shy away from the truth. If you asked him if something was going to be in the game, if it wasn't, he said no and then gave a reason why. Now I'm not talking about the blog materials or anything. I'm talking about if you specifically asked him if something was going to be in the game or if something was fixed or whatever, like they are doing in these chats, he would give you a truthful answer. Some of these answers have nothing to do with the question lol.

[drlw322]

I didn't really understand what his answer was to my question either. Had me scratching my head. Seem like he kinda beat around the bush with it. oh well

[rooney8]

Answering questions from the same people just tells me not that many people were there. I liked his answers for the most part. You have to remember they might plan on adding something but can't say it incase there's problems or it's not definate. The jumping question is probably more suited to the catch tuning chat. I like Ryan not too much bs probably cause he's new at this. I definately want a live chat with Josh Looman about franchise mode. Already got so many questions.

[kjcheezhead]

It's kinda odd they answered questions from the same people, but I can't say they just did it to answer softball questions because if that was the case, they probably would've avoided the weather question and some of the ones Splff3000 pointed out all together.

I agree with how Splff interpreted some of the other answers as well. Nice job of reading between the lines. lol

[johnnyg713]

Quote: Originally Posted by splff3000

Yeah, I feel the same way KJ. I know one thing though. This guy isn't as good at avoiding the truth as other guys. There were a couple of simple yes or no questions that he tried to talk his way through instead of saying yes or no, but there were other yes or no questions that he specifically yes to. For example look at these questions and answers: Noticed how he said yes to each of these questions and went into detail about most of them. Now look at the questions below. Not only does he not give a definitive yes or no answer, for some of them the answer he gives has nothing to do with the question. Which means no, you won't see that. Which means it's better now, but no it does not eliminate the 180 degree turn. Which means halfback draws and counters are improved, but are still not as good as some of the other run plays. Which means............no, I guess. I have no idea what this answer had to do with the question. These are just the first few questions. This continues all the way through the entire chat session. Take a look and see for yourself. One thing that is very disturbing to me is it seems like the same people are getting there question answered over and over again. It's a little unusual that out of hundreds, maybe even thousands, of questions, Rooney8 and Anton32 would get 2 of their questions answered, but that's not too bad. What is really disturbing is that YLhandLZ got 5 of his questions answered!!!! Now I have a problem with that. So out of 29 questions answered, he had 5 of them. With hundreds of questions coming from probably hundreds of people, his get answered 5 times. Hmmmm, I'm not saying anything......it's.....just .......a ...little.......aww nevermind.

I can see where your comming from. But remind yourself how many questions are being asked through out the entire hour. Hundreds. If an answer to a question was no, he would have not answered imo. I asked the one about weather and honestly I didnt even think they would answer that question. The fact that he did does show that they are thinkin about it like he said.

I asked a very important question to Ian last week about the catching tool and if we will still see catches that are made out of bounds. This is a very logical question to ask considering no one wants the tool to work so well that we'll never see a catch made out of bounds. Thought for sure to reassure he'd answer but he didnt.

[CreatineKasey]

Quote: Originally Posted by Legend Killer

The pocket ain't the issue from this past year. What is the issue was the oline pass blocking was not all that good. The AI was always getting the QB to quick. I know last year at this time when Ian did a video for on pass rush for us. At first it seem that we had to much time in the pocket. Then Ian and his team tweaked some stuff, low and behold the QB didn't have enough in the pocket. I could careless about a true pocket. There is no true NFL pocket. The pocket forms differently on every play. Sometime this no pocket period. It all depends on the plays the players and so on that forms a decent to good pocket. My main concern is that I'm hoping Ian andhis crew tones down the AI blitzing this year, and tunes the human oline pass blocking to give a little more time in the pocket according to oline ratings.

You answered my rebuttal yourself. The pocket forms differently every play. This isn't represented in Madden. The offensive tackles rarely ever have to get deep to block an outside rush. They also never get beat around the edge unless you turbo blitz. You don't have to step up in the pocket enough in this game. You still can't adequately contain those who want to sprint to the sidelines at the snap. That should be suicide. Acceleration could change that.

I think you envision a good pocket being something else than what I envision it being. I want something a bit more authentic. APF had it... M11 can have it.