What Does Madden's AI Need to Do Better?

[RogueHominid]

Quote: Originally Posted by jfsolo

The QB AI and the CPU play calling are of equal importance IMO.

Agreed, and what I'm seeing is that the AI playcalling is purely a function of the neglect of the game plan feature by developers.

You can tell that almost no consideration was given to setting up the default game plans that ship with the game. These determine AI playcalling on both sides of the ball and they're what make the game so bad on so many levels when playing the CPU.

I've gone full custom for these and am now seeing the CPU calling games that remind me of the real team--targeting their best players, running signature schemes, etc.

What this tells me is that the team needs to do the following:

*Have someone fully flesh out each team's offensive and defensive default game plans to reflect the past year's statistics for run : pass ratios, targeting of certain players or concepts in the passing game, personnel groupings, coverage shells and dominant coverage types, blitz percentages, etc.

*Give us a more transparent and straightforward system for adjusting these game plans to our liking than the current star system, which nobody seems to know exactly how it works.

It's hard to overstate how good the game gets when the playcalling is addressed through custom playbooks and game plans. I'm playing on default All Pro and am seeing All Madden level difficulty without any of the all Madden cheese because the CPU is runnings its most effective plays and targeting its best players.

I agree that we need more developer attention on this point and more resources for improving on their work in our own franchises.

[Fist Of Kings]

- They have got to finally address the legacy issue of robo qbs. I haven't played in a month, mainly because of this. Whatever they do, borrow 2k's badge system, put in position tendencies, whatever, they really need to do something to make players separate themselves from each other. Tom Brady and insert no name qb here ___ play exactly the same. And this goes for any position.

- For whatever reasons, qbs rarely scramble...not sure why that is.

- The adaptive ai(if it exists) needs some serious work. Even on all madden I can run the same toss play, or throw to the te running a post route at will, and not because I'm some beast at the game, but because the ai is too poor to recognize what I'm doing. Frustrating is that sometimes they'll luck out on a play here or there and be in the right defense, yet what do they do next? Completely forget that, and go back to being in the wrong defense.

- The hyped 'improved run game' where elite rbs were supposed to stand out didn't live up to expectations. The only thing I've noticed is that rbs will do the same spin move in the open field...every time. Power back, speed back, they all play like this.

The ai rbs follow the playart to a tee, they don't adapt to what's going on during the play, which is why they still struggle to get decent yardage.

- Wrs still get stuck in that falling out of bounds near the sideline animation too much, especially when they are wide open, and have plenty of room to cut upfield.

- Challenges don't work at all. I'm guessing this has something to do with the physics engine.

- The ai run the ball when they should be passing, especially when they are down big late in games, and as mentioned earlier, they struggle to run the ball anyway.

- Not sure if this is a new problem, but in my experience, I run, run, run to set it up, but the ai doesn't bite on playaction passes. They only 'work' since my wrs beat the dbs covering them.

[reyes the roof]

Make it feel like the AI has some sort of strategy for what they're doing. If I'm stacking the box and shutting down the run, start throwing and try to get me to back off my defense a little. If one of my corners is inferior to the other, attack that side of the field. Make it feel like a game of strategy, currently it feels like each playcall is completely independent of anything that previously happened in the game, and nothing is done to set up a future playcall

[thatphillydude]

The pass defensee on here is terrible. Even the pre-snap selections are useless. You tell them to play inside, they don't. You tell them to break on the ball, they don't. From the pre-snap selection to the severe lack of intelligence on defense in general. You can have elite rated corners but they're too stupid to defend a quick slant. Another problem, massive problem, is any QB, ANY QB you play against is the 2nd coming of drew brees. I can't tell you how many times I knocked a brady, or a Rodgers out of a game just to have some 62 rated no name QB step in and look exactly like a top 3 QB. Release that license so other companies can make NFL games because EA is just lazy

[timhere1970]

Quote: Originally Posted by thatphillydude

The pass defensee on here is terrible. Even the pre-snap selections are useless. You tell them to play inside, they don't. You tell them to break on the ball, they don't. From the pre-snap selection to the severe lack of intelligence on defense in general. You can have elite rated corners but they're too stupid to defend a quick slant. Another problem, massive problem, is any QB, ANY QB you play against is the 2nd coming of drew brees. I can't tell you how many times I knocked a brady, or a Rodgers out of a game just to have some 62 rated no name QB step in and look exactly like a top 3 QB. Release that license so other companies can make NFL games because EA is just lazy

Good points but i don't feel the development team is lazy. I think they have a major lack of resources to work with and corporate sets priorities. And yes the license plays a huge role in the decisions made by the company. Most of us are upset because we had ideas where a football video game should be in 2016 and ea has not delivered. If I could have looked into the future at madden from 2005 on my original xbox andd saw madden 2017 12 years and rwo consoles later i would be flabergasted at how little improvement happened.

[Smallville102001]

My biggest issue with the AI is that they don't go to no huddle when they should. The only time the CPU will go to no huddle is if there are less then 2 minutes left in the game. In real life if a team gets the ball and are down by like 2 TD or a FG and TD with 5 minutes left they are going to go into no huddle because not only do you need to score but you need to score fast. In madden they don't and all that does is make a unlikely comeback even less likely to happen in the game.

[roadman]

I would suggest being careful of any kind of license talk.

It is considered a dead beaten horse and causes threads to be locked and closed.

And lazy discussion is not tolerated, either.

There are a litany of issues the AI needs attention to and QB play and CPU playcalling should be at the top of that list.

[KingV2k3]

Quote: Originally Posted by roadman

There are a litany of issues the AI needs attention to and QB play and CPU playcalling should be at the top of that list.

Agreed on the "Top Two" here, but I'd also add that pass coverage is lacking...particularly, post patch...

Esp. M2M...

They did a great job improving the run game this year with gap assignments, etc...

So if the passing game (and defending the pass) got the same level "bump"?

#allgoodness