Madden NFL 12 Super Bowl Halftime Blog: Tuner Sets and Surprise Onside Kicks

[kjcheezhead]

I like the tuner sets, especially after some of Madden 11's problems. There were problems with strat pad, kicking meter and overall defense that needed immediate attention. Hopefully, we aren't looking for a 5th patch in December to correct these things in Madden 12.

I don't like the surpise onsides as presented for a couple of reasons. First, as people have pointed out the video shows the kickoff get picked up very nonchalantly by the recieving team which takes away from the excitement of a moment like that. The other is that they are only allowing it 2x per game. Unless this game is being played with "fair play" settings, I don't like it. As another poster said, it shouldn't be limited imo. The success rate just should go down. After a second attempt, the kickoff team should be ready for it and it should have a next to zero chance of working.

I realise this is an early build, but if they are showing it to get feedback then that's my 2 cents. I think if it plays out like it did in the video and only allowed 2x per game for no real reason, then the feature won't be well recieved.

[Hooe]

Quote: Originally Posted by The GIGGAS

Because the features aren't complete yet. They're just ideas right now. Some of them are in the process of getting implemented. Remember the complaints about how the crowd sounds were going to be improved, and then time ran out and they didn't get in?

This x 1000. Remember that we're still five months out; EA is still hard at work on this game.

If such a scenario were to happen like the one Giggas poses, EA would at-worst potentially be opening themselves up to an unwanted lawsuit for false advertising, and at-best tick a lot of fans off for not delivering promised features.

[GiantBlue76]

To the guys getting on the ones who are showing skepticism, let me just say there are reasons for the way they feel. Let's take a look back shall we? Madden 10's big feature... Online Franchise! Oh wait, it's not really online franchise, because it doesn't have any of the features that make it a "franchise". No cap or trade logic, but wait. We were told that these items were done server side and they could be easily added and possibly added during the season. Really? Well the season went on and it wasn't added, but surely next year right? A whole year to get it right now. Surprise! Not even touched in Madden 11. No sliders, no cap or trade or FA logic. Instead, a 25 year old kid had to write a web app to do it. Next, pro-tak! It's great, true gang tackling! Really? Ok, it was a good concept, and it sort of worked. Except there are no consecutive hit tackles, so it only engages when it wants to, and when it does, guys break out of 5 man gang tackles regularly. Whole year goes by, completely untouched!!! Not a single enhancement! What's next? Adaptive AI, touted highly in Madden 10 and showed how it can be tweaked and improved. In Madden 11, completely untouched and not enhanced, then simply forgot about. When questions were asked, you were ignored and labeled a "*****". Penalties... I remember seeing penalty blogs. What penalties were included? About half of the real NFL penalties, allowing me to go out of bounds at will and come back in to catch the ball, allowing my lineman to run 20 yards down field on screen plays before I throw the ball, having intentional grounding be called no matter if a receiver is in the area when I throw the ball away from within the pocket, not having pass interference EVER called unless I manually dive into the receiver or the DB. This went untouched for years.

This is not a bash, these are facts. There is not one thing on this list that can be disputed because it is not my opinion. So in all honesty, how can anyone who has any sense really put any stock into what their marketing says or does? Yes, Ian is a nice guy and he means to do well, but the fact remains it's the same old story. With so many things missing from the game, working on a feature like surprise onside kicks comes across as ridiculous to a lot of folks. Like I said before, it's a cool addition, but with so many other basics out of whack, it's a head scratcher how this can get dev time. Especially when you listen to the blogs and you hear the devs say that certain features take a long time and they are hard to do.

[Senator Palmer]

Quote: Originally Posted by roadman

Also, I feel that having a former college QB at the top will help out as well.

And just to put this out there about former QBs, they've had former football players on the team before. One of them helped design the playbooks if memory serves me correctly (might still be there, not sure), and one of the them, a former UF QB, was the MoCap for the QB throwing motions in Madden 08, which were horrible.

[roadman]

Quote: Originally Posted by Senator Palmer

And just to put this out there about former QBs, they've had former football players on the team before. One of them helped design the playbooks if memory serves me correctly (might still be there, not sure), and one of the them, a former UF QB, was the MoCap for the QB throwing motions in Madden 08, which were horrible.

All I meant is that it can't hurt.

The more the merrier is the way I see it.

Plus, having Fight Night on your resume can't hurt, either.

[guaps]

Quote: Originally Posted by CHooe

This x 1000. Remember that we're still five months out; EA is still hard at work on this game. If such a scenario were to happen like the one Giggas poses, EA would at-worst potentially be opening themselves up to an unwanted lawsuit for false advertising, and at-best tick a lot of fans off for not delivering promised features.

I don't worry too much about false promises or not delivering, but I just want them to be more open and frank about their own game and its flaws.

FIFA's producer David Rutter has already gone publicly about FIFA 12 - ~7 months from its release - and spoken somewhat critically about their AI (we've done a good job, but...) and called some of their current features "a bit lame" and "last-gen". He hasn't promised new features, but he's being very passionate about the game he's making and that is what I want to hear from a producer.

[Hooe]

Quote: Originally Posted by tazdevil20

This is not a bash, these are facts.

Wholeheartedly disagree.

EA thus far has delivered everything they explicitly promised with online franchise; they never guaranteed server-side updates, and even if they did they've fulfilled that requirement via roster updates. Does that mean we're all happy with it? No. But they never mentioned salary cap / free agency in their buildup, rather they focused on the more multiplayer components of it.

I also dispute the notion that Pro-Tak was not adjusted from M10 to M11. It clearly was; larger pileups happen more appropriately, and the frequency of that one "get tackled by everybody... or not" animation was significantly reduced. There actually were animation improvements across the board between M10 and M11, though many of them were subtle things that aren't as immediately noticeable at first blush.

Finally, to my recollection, EA has never stated anything about adding more penalties beyond what is in the game already. They did add animations for penalties such as holding so that it has the appearance of being less random, thus appearing more realistic and have definitely tuned penalties; I see called penalties in this game out-of-the-box, which hasn't happened really ever before for me in a Madden game. Granted, they're probably still too low in frequency speaking from a "sim" gamer's perspective, but work has obviously been done to that end.

[kjcheezhead]

Quote: Originally Posted by CHooe

Wholeheartedly disagree. EA thus far has delivered everything they explicitly promised with online franchise; they never guaranteed server-side updates, and even if they did they've fulfilled that requirement via roster updates. Does that mean we're all happy with it? No. But they never mentioned salary cap / free agency in their buildup, rather they focused on the more multiplayer components of it. I also dispute the notion that Pro-Tak was not adjusted from M10 to M11. It clearly was; larger pileups happen more appropriately, and the frequency of that one "get tackled by everybody... or not" animation was significantly reduced. There actually were animation improvements across the board between M10 and M11, though many of them were subtle things that aren't as immediately noticeable at first blush. Finally, to my recollection, EA has never stated anything about adding more penalties beyond what is in the game already. They did add animations for penalties such as holding so that it has the appearance of being less random, thus appearing more realistic and have definitely tuned penalties; I see called penalties in this game out-of-the-box, which hasn't happened really ever before for me in a Madden game. Granted, they're probably still too low in frequency speaking from a "sim" gamer's perspective, but work has obviously been done to that end.

Server side fixes were promised based on usage.

Quote: " Because everything was built to be server-based for Online Franchise, things like CPU logic would have to be run on that server, so we were not able to make that a part of the online franchise experience by the time the game will hit the shelves. Based on usage once the game is released we will obviously look to update and change whatever the community feels is most important."

Taken from online franchise blog.

http://maddennfl.easports.com/blog.a...0franchise%201