Madden 2010 News Post

Madden NFL 10 Blog: Adaptive AI

01:33 PM - April 10, 2009 by jimbo1215

EA has just posted another Madden NFL 10 blog. This one covers adaptive AI.

Quote:


	"In nearly every sports game that you�ve ever played, there usually comes a time where someone discovers some sort of gameplay strategy that is extremely successful (in an unbalanced way). Often times these are considered �exploits� because they are either impossible or extremely hard to stop. You may find it on your own, or you may learn it from someone abusing you with it online, or you may even pay to find it on a shady website. Regardless, these exploits can often extremely hamper the replay value of a game because at some point, nearly everyone gets tired of doing the same thing over and over again and beating up the CPU by 100 points�and at this point the game typically comes out of the tray. Whether it�s an exploit or a �money play�, it�s all frustrating�so from the start of the cycle we knew that we wanted to create an Adaptive AI infrastructure in our football games. Two of our most experienced gameplay / AI engineers � Daniel White and Ryan Burnsides � took the reigns with designing and implementing the majority of this system so I hope this blog does it justice. "

Game: Madden NFL 10Reader Score: 7.5/10 - Vote Now
Platform: PS3 / Wii / Xbox 360Votes for game: 76 - View All

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Member Comments

# 1 lightning_78 @ 04/10/09 01:38 PM

Finally. Hopefully this should greatly reduce the number of cheesers and glitchers online.

# 2 slvicick @ 04/10/09 01:38 PM

nice

# 3 deltroy @ 04/10/09 01:42 PM

This is great news I love how it works online also!!!!

# 4 roadman @ 04/10/09 01:46 PM

Outstanding!

The little things keep building up.

# 5 Hotlanta @ 04/10/09 01:46 PM

Blog...? Friday...? Really...?

*Runs of to go read*

# 6 CreatineKasey @ 04/10/09 01:49 PM

Very nice! This is an AWESOME feature that makes COMPLETE SENSE! I know people have been bringing this up for years... for good reason. As the blog states, if someone repeatedly uses the same routes your defenders should LEARN and attack those repeats better. You can't run hitches or outs all day against man coverage and expect it to work every time.

Best blog so far hands down.

# 7 countryboy @ 04/10/09 01:51 PM

in NCAA as well!!

Great news.!

# 8 Pnutt6 @ 04/10/09 01:52 PM

This is an awesome feature.
I cannot stand playing someone online and knowing exactly what he is running but still not being able to stop it cause my teammates don't know what the hell is going on. I hope it works as good as described.

# 9 Hotlanta @ 04/10/09 01:57 PM

This made my day. Sounds good but can't wait to see it in action.

# 10 Valdarez @ 04/10/09 01:58 PM

This is an awesome addition, and something I have pushed for in 2K's game. It looks like they are doing it based on the routes, instead of plays. Why not do both though? Also, now that they are adding adaptive AI, how are they going to help the user keep track of the plays they call on offense? They need to convey the 'defensive awareness' of the play to the player based on the number of times they have called the same play.

Keep track of every play a team plays on offense. Every time a play is called, it goes from green to yellow shading. Then the next time it's called, it goes from yellow to red shading. The color indicates how well the defense will recognize the play. The defense will get a speed / recognition boost so they can better lock down the play, even though a player might not have called the right defensive play. This would help avoid scenarios where players are able to be effective using a limited set of plays all game long.

You can add a 'cooling' effect based on every quarter or half. I would suggest half, so a team can effectively have no penalty what so ever for calling the same play twice a game.

This is a really bad mockup, and uses APF2K8's graphics, but at least you can get an idea of the defensive awareness bar at the bottom of the play, or you could just shade the entire area a given color.

# 11 StevieTheD @ 04/10/09 02:10 PM

Great to hear.

There is adaptive AI in NHL 09 and it works nicely. It has learned my play pretty well and now all my games are struggles. Hopefully it can be as effective in Madden 10.

The first thing I thought of was play actions. Call a few run plays and maybe you can get the defense to bite bad on a nice play action.

# 12 Sven Draconian @ 04/10/09 02:12 PM

So let me understand this:

If a person has a 5 play playbook, eventually my AI teammates will react to those plays faster.

IE, a guy just abuses a post-corner patter my DB will actually cover that pattern like he knows its coming (since he does).

And if a person just runs the HB counter, my defenders won't bite on the fake and actually play the run like they know its coming?
-------------------------

If my understanding is correct then I might finally get exctied for Madden (and NCAA).

# 13 Pnutt6 @ 04/10/09 02:19 PM

I remember reading about adaptive AI in past Maddens but don't remember if it was ever in Next Gen. Is this something new completely, same system used from previous gen, or just a tweak on what is already there?

Note: I don't mean the "The game adapts to you" crap from last year.

# 14 J-Unit40 @ 04/10/09 02:19 PM

Hell yes! I like this news a lot. Especially that it made it into NCAA as well.

I am starting to get excited for both of these games now. Finally.

# 15 Glorious Arc @ 04/10/09 02:21 PM

This was a very nice surprize today

# 16 Glorious Arc @ 04/10/09 02:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by countryboy


	in NCAA as well!! Great news.!

Thank you lol I didnt read everyones post before posting

# 17 Glorious Arc @ 04/10/09 02:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Segagendude


	Please tell me that was an 09 screenshot! Look at the top scroll: "End of game"(So why are they kicking off!!??) Score: 100-0!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

lmao wow that is good I didnt even catch it.

# 18 Cryolemon @ 04/10/09 02:32 PM

Good news. Should improve online. Might make things like position substitution less cheesey.

# 19 davep @ 04/10/09 02:32 PM

I like this too but wasn't this in madden 08 for the pc? I can run a few times to set up the play action...or run some great routes only once or twice before the cpu picks up on it.

# 20 bison160 @ 04/10/09 02:34 PM

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you Ian.

Best news yet. The absense of adaptive AI has killed the game for a long time now. It is something that is really needed to convey a real football game, as without it, there is no way to actually "trick" a defense. It will also really keep the game fresh if its done right.

Let me say that I am very glad to hear that none of the athletic abilities of the players will be boosted, just the recognition and awareness.

Now, since we have true adaptive AI, can you say TRICK PLAYS anyone? Pitch right a few times, then REVERSE!!!

My only fear is that it will work too well and not be dynamic enough to realize an overall pattern and focus to much on single plays. example: Guy runs dive, dive, dive, P/A pass, is that going to be wide open, or is there something I as a user can do to tell my defense to watch play action if i think it may be coming. It would be terrible if everyone really bit on it just because he ran PA 3 times in a row and I had to watch my entire defense get burnt if I know PA is coming. That would be very frustrating. Any thoughts?

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