Madden 12 News Post

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

09:00 PM - February 6, 2011 by Steve_OS

The Madden NFL 12 Super Bowl Halftime blog is online. Tuner sets and surprise onside kicks are in.

Quote:


	""Tuner Sets", introduced in the NHL series and brought into NCAA Football last year, are hugely important to the development of sports games in that they allow us to tune and tweak many existing parts of game code without the major delay that comes from a full title update requiring 1st party console manufacturer approvals. A quick addition to my hacked surprise onside kick code made this feature easily tunable post-ship, and thus much safer against any exploits that may crop up. This isn't the only thing in the tuner sets obviously...we are in the process of moving as many items into these as possible, from gameplay tuning to franchise data to even presentation aspects. We are excited to the possibilities this will open up to our fans in being able to provide live feedback and having us act on it in near real-time. The days of shipping a disc in a box and forgetting about it are long gone, and we want to be at the forefront of blazing new trails in reacting to our audience and improving the game quickly."

Read the entire blog right here, along with a short video showing off the new surprise onside kick, in action.

UPDATE: The podcast is now on iTunes, for those that couldn't listen to it, via the blog.

EDIT: Per Ian Cummings

Quote:


	"RE: surprise onside, you pick a normal kickoff, then hit the B (or Circle) button as the last press on the meter. Your opponent has no clue!"

UPDATE #2: Via Ian

Quote:


	"Since so many people have asked...surprise onside as of today is only allowed 2x per team per game. That value is also in the tuner set."

Game: Madden NFL 12Reader Score: 6.5/10 - Vote Now
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Member Comments

# 121 dkp23 @ 02/07/11 04:11 PM

Good to have the surprise kick options even though it may be abused in online lobby play...

Hopefully the tuner thing will help with fixing some of the issues with games after releases..

I think madden 12 can be a good game if they just focus on getting rid of the gimmicks and adding more gimmicks to replace old gimmicks...Focus on the core of the game which is gameplay/mechanics/realism...

Nobody asked for gameplan, nobody asked for strat pad, and nobody asked for all the unnecessary "new features" in each new installment of the game....Bring back some of the gaemplay features left out from the ps2 days and improve the gameplay...

I just hope EA doesnt come to a point where they focus on ONE aspect of the game and leave other parts of the game untouched because of "lack of time" i.e online franchise this year.

# 122 Skyboxer @ 02/07/11 04:41 PM

As someone who dearly misses his Madden I am hoping for the best. Tuner sets are sweet and couldn't be happier.
One thing I really wish is we get some options on how we play the game. I'm a big fan of cursor type passing (Fever with some tweaks would have been great) and just wish we had that option. The Show added analog mechanics but kept button also. Hopefully we get there with Madden some day.
Option to meet all gamers = Win Win...

Can't wait to see more info in the coming months!

# 123 SageInfinite @ 02/07/11 06:30 PM

Kool early info. It'll be interesting to see what else Tiburon has for us in the coming months.

# 124 Mike Smoove @ 02/07/11 08:10 PM

Looks like the same exact game. Not good.

# 125 BlueNGold @ 02/07/11 08:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike Smoove


	Looks like the same exact game. Not good.

Yeah, because you could really tell from a 5 second clip.....

# 126 Dog @ 02/07/11 08:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BlueNGold


	Yeah, because you could really tell from a 5 second clip.....

In such an early build. People never cease to baffle me

# 127 RedZoneD25 @ 02/07/11 08:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike Smoove


	Looks like the same exact game. Not good.

With 5 months of dev time left? (Goes gold a month before release)

Yeah, I'm sure it would. I'd rather it look similar with upgrades yearly than get a brand new facelift with a whole new set of problems...but wait until June/July gameplay videos before you throw in the towel.

# 128 econoodle @ 02/07/11 08:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike Smoove


	Looks like the same exact game. Not good.

Come on Mike, that's not Smoove.

its february.
its a 5 second clip.

Besides, how different do u want it too look Mike?

ME, I am glad it looks like the same exact game. One time I bought FIFA 09 and it looked like Fight Night.

Man, I was piiiiiissseeed.

# 129 Senator Palmer @ 02/07/11 09:12 PM

I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing that it looks like last year.

At this point looks do nothing for me. I wouldn't care if it was photo-real if the gameplay isn't polished with a compliment of defensive improvements.

# 130 KyGamerLT @ 02/07/11 09:28 PM

I sure hope EA can have this not be a exploit. If the current testers can get it back 90% of the time, I'm sure online players can figure out how to get it back at the same rate.

# 131 Steve_OS @ 02/07/11 11:15 PM

UPDATE: The podcast is now on iTunes, for those that couldn't listen to it, via the blog.

Via WTFitsDaveyJ.

# 132 RedZoneD25 @ 02/07/11 11:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve_OS


	UPDATE: The podcast is now on iTunes, for those that couldn't listen to it, via the blog. Via WTFitsDaveyJ.

lol thanks Steve.

# 133 Steve_OS @ 02/07/11 11:55 PM

Via Ian.

http://twitter.com/#!/ian_cummings/s...22017249325057

Since so many people have asked...surprise onside as of today is only allowed 2x per team per game. That value is also in the tuner set.

# 134 BlueNGold @ 02/08/11 12:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve_OS


	Via Ian. http://twitter.com/#!/ian_cummings/s...22017249325057 Since so many people have asked...surprise onside as of today is only allowed 2x per team per game. That value is also in the tuner set.

Sounds good to me. I wasn't sure if they were going to put a limit or anything on it.

# 135 KyGamerLT @ 02/08/11 12:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve_OS


	Via Ian. http://twitter.com/#!/ian_cummings/s...22017249325057 Since so many people have asked...surprise onside as of today is only allowed 2x per team per game. That value is also in the tuner set.

Good to hear.

# 136 phant030 @ 02/08/11 12:39 AM

Wonder if there will be some type of 'coaching' to make your team more aware on the kickoff.

# 137 Bellsprout @ 02/08/11 01:15 AM

Is this going to be strictly luck? Or will there be some strategy to surprise onsides?

Like, will I be able to tell if players in the front line are breaking back to get in their blocking position slightly before the ball is kicked, so the next time I kickoff I can look for this and use the surprise onside if I see it again? Or will it be pretty much random?

# 138 MrSkagTrendy @ 02/08/11 08:12 AM

Where is the fighting for the ball which is a staple of the onside? And where is the emotion from Philly after recovering it? Nice feature but a long way to go.

# 139 JMD @ 02/08/11 09:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MizzouBravesFan


	Surprise onside kicks eh...like it but can see it getting abused online.

One of the biggest problems with Madden is that it did not include these types of plays because of the "fear" of what abuses might take place online.

I say NO MORE to that mentality. You can't keep things out of a game just because you are concerned about some cheeseballer. Find a core group of sim gamers to play with and the problem is solved. There are enough good communities like this one around now so that type of player can be avoided. The game should not suffer because of them.

# 140 Hova57 @ 02/08/11 10:29 AM

I believe EA should take on the role of making games that is true to the sport regardless of the fan base sector. Making the onside sneak on two times a game is great. Someone who isn't that up to date on this will try to do it more than twice . they should have illegal procedure penalty and tack 15 yards

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