Check out the latest Madden NFL 11 blog, featuring game flow and game planning.
Quote:
"Fixing play call was not an easy thing to do. It's easily one of the most used screens in the game and everyone wants something different from it. Changing such a major part of the game is a scary thing to do. Every football game since football games have been around has done pretty much the same thing. The play call screen pops up, you flip through the plays, pick a play, and then you run the play you picked. Calling plays like this is the standard. I was extremely nervous to mess with the formula, but the fact is, the way you have been calling plays in Madden NFL for 20+ years is actually not authentic to the way coaches do it."
I anticipated a stale blog b/c this stuff has been talked about all week...but it was actually pretty informative and organized. I like all of the customization options (tweaking CPU gameplans to account for real life tendencies ).
I'm curious to see how these features are translated to franchise mode. IGN confirmed that gameplans are affected by hiring/firing coordinators and while I can believe that, I'd like to hear it from the horse's mouth.
its also possible IGN doesnt know what they are talking about.
I hope we can set our play calling approach in the menu, so we don't have to hit X each and every single time just to avoid GameFlow.
I hope we they didn't burn all their time/resources on the GameFlow implementation, and we actually have the ability to edit our own playbook this year, and to save games. Both of which have been fan requests for years now.
I hope we can set our play calling approach in the menu, so we don't have to hit X each and every single time just to avoid GameFlow.
That's a legitimate request. It should definitely be an option.
If someone really just wants absolutely nothing to do with gameflow, dont further agitate them by forcing them to look at it every single play. And on the flip side, if someone no longer wants to see the playbook, let them also choose to only use gameflow.
I hope we can set our play calling approach in the menu, so we don't have to hit X each and every single time just to avoid GameFlow.
"You can choose to play with the conventional play call screen (old style play call screen that's been around since the advent of football gaming). You can choose to turn off coordinator audio, subtitles, and strategy pad. Pretty much everything is an option."
Like the Gameplan part, don't like gameflow, I'll try it but I think that voice in my headset is going to get stale and annoyiing real quick. Hoping I can completely turn off Gameflow and not have to x out everytime.
I really like where they are going with this but I do see some possible pitfalls. I haven't read all this stuff on Madden this year, but I've seen a lot of it..so if some of these things have been addressed please forgive me.
1. I'm assuming the CPU will be calling plays against you in the same manner..with a limited palette of plays in each situation. It says the users can adjust their game plans, but will the CPU just blindly go with the same game plan every game during the course of a season? If I'm a team with a weak rush defense can I expect to see the CPU try and exploit that in their game plan? Also, will the CPU AI change game plans if they are in your division and playing you twice (and even a possible 3rd time in the playoffs)? So if I play a team in week 1 and face them again in week 10 can I expect the same thing out of them?
2. Kind of related to number 1: Will the CPU take into account it's personnel over multiple years in a franchise? If I run a franchise for 10 years and a CPU through the draft, trades, free agency, ends up morphing from a running team to a passing team personnel wise will it be reflected in their game plans and play calling? I know it says we can go in and change CPU game plans, but who wants to do that for 30 teams every season?
3. I have seen nothing about being able to put packages together relating to score and time left in the game. All I see is down and distance. The plays I want coming up when I'm 1st and 10 on my first possession are not the plays I want coming up on 1st and 10 with 3 minutes left in the fourth quarter and down by 14. Again..I know you can override this stuff and just look at your whole playbook, but that kind of seems to go against the spirit of this feature which is supposed to limit your palette of plays from week to week as is done in the NFL. I hope they at least have a situation for "hurry up," and "slow down."
Again, this stuff all sounds cool but I can't help but feel a little skeptical. Play calling AI hasn't always been a Madden strong suit. In fact, in a lot of areas it's a joke (2 minute offenses come to mind). So while this stuff is great for the user, for us solo players it really won't matter if the CPU is too dumb to utilize it effectively.
I really like where they are going with this but I do see some possible pitfalls. I haven't read all this stuff on Madden this year, but I've seen a lot of it..so if some of these things have been addressed please forgive me.
1. I'm assuming the CPU will be calling plays against you in the same manner..with a limited palette of plays in each situation. It says the users can adjust their game plans, but will the CPU just blindly go with the same game plan every game during the course of a season? If I'm a team with a weak rush defense can I expect to see the CPU try and exploit that in their game plan? Also, will the CPU AI change game plans if they are in your division and playing you twice (and even a possible 3rd time in the playoffs)? So if I play a team in week 1 and face them again in week 10 can I expect the same thing out of them?
2. Kind of related to number 1: Will the CPU take into account it's personnel over multiple years in a franchise? If I run a franchise for 10 years and a CPU through the draft, trades, free agency, ends up morphing from a running team to a passing team personnel wise will it be reflected in their game plans and play calling? I know it says we can go in and change CPU game plans, but who wants to do that for 30 teams every season?
3. I have seen nothing about being able to put packages together relating to score and time left in the game. All I see is down and distance. The plays I want coming up when I'm 1st and 10 on my first possession are not the plays I want coming up on 1st and 10 with 3 minutes left in the fourth quarter and down by 14. Again..I know you can override this stuff and just look at your whole playbook, but that kind of seems to go against the spirit of this feature which is supposed to limit your palette of plays from week to week as is done in the NFL. I hope they at least have a situation for "hurry up," and "slow down."
Again, this stuff all sounds cool but I can't help but feel a little skeptical. Play calling AI hasn't always been a Madden strong suit. In fact, in a lot of areas it's a joke (2 minute offenses come to mind). So while this stuff is great for the user, for us solo players it really won't matter if the CPU is too dumb to utilize it effectively.
All great points and my answer is when has EA implemented a new feature and got it right the 1st year. Almost Online Franchise comes to my mind immediatly. We'll see...
So what about if I go to a friends house and want to take my game plan with me...Should I copy it on paper. That maybe a hour right there. So hopefully its a way to take them with you. Never know when a game of Madden can pop off...when in the streets! LOL!
This feature sounds like something I will definitely use. I get so bored of calling my own plays, because I start only going with what works and never really trying anything else. It'll be nice having an OC and DC per se.
same here.
The thing is... how do you control yourself for selecting only the plays you know they work?
remember the "coach" will only call for the gameplan plays ONLY. And you don`t have the requirement to choose 15 plays on each category.
Well, I'm not as giddy as some of you are for these features. I'll definitely try them though. It's nice that they are 2 separate features. I sense that I would use these probably at the beginning of games to kind of script my plays and, depending on what happens there, I may continue to use it or may choose to call my own plays for the rest of the game. There are still a whole lot of questions that need to be answered before I am 100% on board with this. For Franchise mode, budsticky brings up some very good questions. A few more that I need to know are:
- What are the situations on offense that you can set this up for?
- What are the formations and sets on defense that you can set this up for?
- How will we use packages with this feature?
- How does this affect your opponent in head to head games, online and off, if he doesn't want to use it?
- Will this be mandatory online since settings need to be the same between both users online?
- Will we be able to change our gameplan ingame, in case of injury or whatever?
- How will we load 2 separate gameplans for each user in local head to head games since we can only load 1 profile?
- Will there be any other ways to scout our opponents in franchise to be able to develop a proper gameplan?
These are just ones that come off the top of my head. I'm sure if I sat back and thought about it, I could come up with a lot more. Like a lot of people, I'm still a little skeptical about this, simply for the fact that EA hardly ever gets anything right on the first try and this is a pretty big part of the game. Still, I'm definitely gonna try it. I'm not too excited for it though. Not yet, anway. I need to find the answer to those questions before I start jumping for joy.
"Fixing play call was not an easy thing to do. It's easily one of the most used screens in the game and everyone wants something different from it. Changing such a major part of the game is a scary thing to do."
Which is precisely why getting rid of all the accessibility options we had and stripping it down last season never made sense. Building on the options so that each user can get what they want was the right idea. The Wii team took that sort of approach with a semi-customizable (by selection) playcall. Madden Team for 360 and PS3 should've adopted that thought process.
If you have a stripped-down default for the general user, and a robust version with more access for the user who wants more control, you then offer the best of both world's. It won't be scary then, because you'll know that you've covered both ends of the spectrum.
"You can choose to play with the conventional play call screen (old style play call screen that's been around since the advent of football gaming). You can choose to turn off coordinator audio, subtitles, and strategy pad. Pretty much everything is an option."
Pretty sure you'll be able to in an option menu.
I read that and I see the first part as you hitting a button to bring up the old play call menu, and then the last part as customizing GameFlow. I don't read any of it as being able to completely turn off GameFlow if I want to do so.
I read that and I see the first part as you hitting a button to bring up the old play call menu, and then the last part as customizing GameFlow. I don't read any of it as being able to completely turn off GameFlow if I want to do so.
For head to head offline I imagine gameflow would be turned off by default and you would just call plays like we do now and use audibles. For online gameflow would probably be on because your opponent can't see your play art the way they have it now.
Your far more optimistic than I am. I read that and I see the first part as you hitting a button to bring up the old play call menu, and then the last part as customizing GameFlow. I don't read any of it as being able to completely turn off GameFlow if I want to do so.
Essentially though, if gameflow shows up on the screen and one just chooses to go to the playbook, gameflow is still on... it's just that the user isn't choosing to play that way.
Also, this was said...
"Another key note about gameplans is that you can use them with or without GameFlow. Let's say you want to play with the old style play-calling screen. If you do, the "Ask Madden" option is actually totally replaced with "My Gameplan", which then gives you all your pre-planned plays right there for you in each game situation."
So yeah...
Not really being optimistic. Just basing it off of what was said and also how past features were. For example, EA sports rewind. When you turned it off you never saw it come on the screen. When it was on you did though (obviously) but that still didn't mean that you couldn't avoid using it in a game.
So yeah, it wouldn't make sense for them to take a different approach here in terms of on/off.
Essentially though, if gameflow shows up on the screen and one just chooses to go to the playbook, gameflow is still on... it's just that the user isn't choosing to play that way.
Also, this was said...
"Another key note about gameplans is that you can use them with or without GameFlow. Let's say you want to play with the old style play-calling screen. If you do, the "Ask Madden" option is actually totally replaced with "My Gameplan", which then gives you all your pre-planned plays right there for you in each game situation."
So yeah...
Not really being optimistic. Just basing it off of what was said and also how past features were. For example, EA sports rewind. When you turned it off you never saw it come on the screen. When it was on you did though (obviously) but that still didn't mean that you couldn't avoid using it in a game.
So yeah, it wouldn't make sense for them to take a different approach here in terms of on/off.
I think what Val was talking about is can you turn it off from the game menu INGAME. For example, if your starting QB gets hurt in the 1st qtr, you obviously can't use your gameplan/gameflow anymore unless you have a capable backup which most teams don't have. In that case you would want to turn off the gameflow/gameplan and call your own plays. If you can't turn it off in the menu then every play from then on you're going to have to press x or whatever to call your own plays. On the other hand, if you can turn it off in the menu then you can turn it off and call your plays the rest of the game. I think that's what he was talking about. correct me if I'm wrong val.
A) I highly doubt John Madden brought this to the forefront...they were looking for ways to speed up the game.
B) Unfortunately I think it'll get stale. I mean you're going to hear the same thing several times a game...multiply that by how many times you play an entire game and it's going to get old quickly unless they were creative.