Madden NFL 16 News Post

Madden NFL 16: Penalties Are Finally Going to Be a Thing

05:28 PM - June 15, 2015 by Steve_OS

Penalties have long not been a big part of the Madden NFL experience. This year, EA is hoping to change that legacy, which you can read fully fleshed out on their new blog:

Quote:


	"Our hardcore simulation fans have been demanding realistic penalties for years. The team finally made this a point of emphasis in Madden NFL 16, and penalties will play a bigger factor than ever before. In addition to several new penalties being added, we have updated all pre-existing penalties and built a system to control penalty frequency."

What This Means: Every player is going to get a penalty trait based on real-world NFL data, which will determine how likely they are to commit a penalty. Also, how you play the game will determine how many penalties are called as well. A pressing cornerback is used as an example, where your chances of seeing a defensive holding penalty are higher than if he is playing loose.

The penalty sliders also are getting a makeover, with the default setting based on NFL penalty averages over the last five seasons, which will make penalty type and frequency as authentic as possible, so EA says.

Penalties which got the updated treatment include: Encroachment, False Start, Offensive Holding, Facemask, Defensive Pass Interference, Illegal Block in the Back, Neutral Zone Infraction, Defensive Holding, Illegal Forward Pass, Illegal Touching, Delay of Game, Kick Catch Interference Running into the Kicker, Unnecessary Roughness and Roughing the Passer.

What do you think of the potentially improved penalties?

Game: Madden NFL 16Reader Score: 7/10 - Vote Now
Platform: PS3 / PS4 / Xbox 360 / Xbox OneVotes for game: 24 - View All

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Member Comments

# 101 m1ke_nyc @ 06/16/15 06:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Josiphos


	I guess I'm just wary of the computer policing itself, per se. I've gotten used to zero penalties this year. I can just predict I'm going to have some soul crushing, super bowl altering penalty in 16. In the real nfl, I can look at the replay and be like yeah, he held. In 16, it's gonna be like, wtf just happened? Edit: I guess the whole crux of my argument is I don't understand how you can effectively program something to realize the guards hands were actually grasping and twisting, rather than staying open and pushing. You can tie "intelligence to it" all day long, but you're not going to get an accurate depiction of what is and is not holding. Adding an additional layer of randomness on top of what we already have, is not that important to me

Football is a team sport, you cannot control all players on the field. Just like you can have a random penalty cost you the superbowl you can have a random slip by a wide open receiver in the endzone on the last play of the superbowl to cost you the game. Should they take slips out of the game then ?

# 102 Josiphos @ 06/16/15 06:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ratedmoney


	Football is a team sport, you cannot control all players on the field. Just like you can have a random penalty cost you the superbowl you can have a random slip by a wide open receiver in the endzone on the last play of the superbowl to cost you the game. Should they take slips out of the game then ?

I'm not asking to take away randomness. Slipping and falling is based directly on player agility, conditions etc.

Penalties however are different, as they are best applied by independent refeeres. That's impossible in a computer game, ergo, I'd argue to just leave them out of the game.

We can have all the slips and blown coverages you can eat though.

# 103 kehlis @ 06/16/15 07:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shady Mike


	Well the way I see it is you've had it your way for 25 years, now its our turn. #SimNation

Why can't it be both?

# 104 TTD71 @ 06/16/15 07:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Josiphos


	Edit: I guess the whole crux of my argument is I don't understand how you can effectively program something to realize the guards hands were actually grasping and twisting, rather than staying open and pushing. You can tie "intelligence to it" all day long, but you're not going to get an accurate depiction of what is and is not holding. Adding an additional layer of randomness on top of what we already have, is not that important to me

This is something I distinctly remember hearing or reading about all the way back to the Ian Cummings days of Madden franchise. Back then there were some of us asking for penalties too....more realistic, more frequent, more impact than just offsides or roughing. One of the reasons we have been told numerous times over the years why penalties WEREN'T more widespread or why holding was not ever really called was because they "lacked the animations to show it, so in replays you would see the player hold". Maybe they finally feel good enough about the animations to try it out? We'll see soon enough...

It would be nice to see the penalties be affected by the user's play call selections (ie. constant Bump and Run or constant deep passing, or lack of using different plays, or constant no huddle with a team not built for that style, etc.) as well as skill ratings (pass block, run block, shed block, coverages, etc.), mental ratings (awareness, penalty, veteran vs. rookie, etc.) along with real, progressive fatigue.

After more than 20 years of playing Madden games across 5 generations of consoles (from Sega Gensis to PS4), I know better than to hold my breath. The game will be an iterative improvement in some ways, a crushing let down in others and the only decision to make for some is whether or not they will get value for their purchase. Since I ALWAYS get more than 100 hours of gameplay out of online play alone and probably 2X that overall, I have never had a crisis of conscience buying the annual releases regardless of the number of times I have heard promises broken or "couldn't get that in this year".

I'm old now, so I may have just mellowed enough to care less, but I enjoyed M25 and M15 on PS4 and I'm sure I will enjoy M16 as well. I'm equally sure that some of the things I have hoped to see for years will remain missing, but increased penalties is nice to finally see on the list of "new" features.

# 105 Josiphos @ 06/16/15 07:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shady Mike


	Well the way I see it is you've had it your way for 25 years, now its our turn. #SimNation

Enjoy your number generator then

Quote:

Originally Posted by TTD71


	One of the reasons we have been told numerous times over the years why penalties WEREN'T more widespread or why holding was not ever really called was because they "lacked the animations to show it, so in replays you would see the player hold". Maybe they finally feel good enough about the animations to try it out? It would be nice to see the penalties be affected by the user's play call selections (ie. constant Bump and Run or constant deep passing, or lack of using different plays, or constant no huddle with a team not built for that style, etc.) as well as skill ratings (pass block, run block, shed block, coverages, etc.), mental ratings (awareness, penalty, veteran vs. rookie, etc.) along with real, progressive fatigue.

What this guy said. Ill embrace penalties when I can actually see/ control them. I've mentioned before the penalties that already follow this, late hits offside etc

Call me when they get the rest

# 106 TimLawNYC @ 06/16/15 08:16 PM

Except, since this is EA, their "emphasis" on increased penalties basically means there's going to be a flag on EVERY. SINGLE. PLAY.

# 107 Godgers12 @ 06/16/15 08:17 PM

They mentioned the "Off the line mechanic" what is that?

# 108 ThatMichiganFan @ 06/16/15 08:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TimLawNYC


	Except, since this is EA, their "emphasis" on increased penalties basically means there's going to be a flag on EVERY. SINGLE. PLAY.

I hope not. If you watch the gameplay released today of Draft Champions mode, there was only one penalty, a false start on the CPU. It did not seem to be to penalty heavy, but that was just one half of a game with short quarters. I guess we will just have to wait and see.

# 109 CM Hooe @ 06/16/15 09:02 PM

The Draft Champions game mode on the show floor is locked at 3-minute quarters. I saw maybe two penalties during my time with the game, about three full Draft Champions games.

However, I was specifically invited by several EA reps (I made myself easily identifiable, I was wearing an OS shirt lol) to return the booth tomorrow and jack up the penalty sliders to the max values; those are apparently accessible on the show floor build prior to starting a game. I will do that next chance I get at the game.

# 110 Josiphos @ 06/16/15 09:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shady Mike


	No sir, I will enjoy FOOTBALL. I'd argue that it can and it is! All we needed is working penalty sliders and hopefully that is just what we got! I'm sure for online modes they will be VERY low, and for offline modes you can place them wherever you want!

You've missed my point completely. All I want is for the penalties to be a result of actual game phenomenon that the players actions are responsible for, something more than a "penalties 45" stat. I don't believe they can program this.
.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TimLawNYC


	Except, since this is EA, their "emphasis" on increased penalties basically means there's going to be a flag on EVERY. SINGLE. PLAY.

Yeah...but it will be FOOTBALL

Hoo Rah! (Grunt)

# 111 Skyboxer @ 06/16/15 09:24 PM

Random/Ratings based - that's the way it was for years.
FPSFB etc.. didn't have animated holds etc.. they barely had graphics lol..
so it was generated by ratings etc... Same with any simulated game like FOF.
I'd much rather have them generated by ratings etc.. than nothing at all. It's part of football.

However for those that don't want them hopefully turning all to 0 gives you that. Options are good.

# 112 SageInfinite @ 06/16/15 09:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skyboxer


	Random/Ratings based - that's the way it was for years. FPSFB etc.. didn't have animated holds etc.. they barely had graphics lol.. so it was generated by ratings etc... Same with any simulated game like FOF. I'd much rather have them generated by ratings etc.. than nothing at all. It's part of football. However for those that don't want them hopefully turning all to 0 gives you that. Options are good.

That's all we want in the game is options. I'd like for the game to be close to realistic out the box, but for those that want more, working options should be there, same for those that'd like a less realistic experience.

# 113 DeuceDouglas @ 06/16/15 09:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CM Hooe


	The Draft Champions game mode on the show floor is locked at 3-minute quarters. I saw maybe two penalties during my time with the game, about three full Draft Champions games. However, I was specifically invited by several EA reps (I made myself easily identifiable, I was wearing an OS shirt lol) to return the booth tomorrow and jack up the penalty sliders to the max values; those are apparently accessible on the show floor build prior to starting a game. I will do that next chance I get at the game.

I'll be interested to see how that goes. I'm interested to know how the penalties are setup by default whether they're all on 50 and tuned to the those NFL averages or if the default 50's are adjusted to certain numbers kind of like what they did with WR catching not too long ago.

Another thing is in one video Rex said:

Quote:


	We have what we call a system of caps. And the caps are basically linked to real world NFL data. So we only allow a certain number of penalties to be called in a quarter and you can obviously modify that with our sliders.

I was just curious for any clarification you might be able to get on what this might have meant.

# 114 jpdavis82 @ 06/17/15 12:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DeuceDouglas


	I'll be interested to see how that goes. I'm interested to know how the penalties are setup by default whether they're all on 50 and tuned to the those NFL averages or if the default 50's are adjusted to certain numbers kind of like what they did with WR catching not too long ago. Another thing is in one video Rex said: I was just curious for any clarification you might be able to get on what this might have meant.

Do you know which video Rex mentioned this in?

# 115 The JareBear @ 06/17/15 12:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jpdavis82


	Do you know which video Rex mentioned this in?

It is in the E3 Draft Kings vid, the guy asks him something like "how do you figure out penalties for the AI."

I don't know exactly when that takes place,

# 116 DeuceDouglas @ 06/17/15 12:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The JareBear


	It is in the E3 Draft Kings vid, the guy asks him something like "how do you figure out penalties for the AI." I don't know exactly when that takes place,

It was at 20:35.

# 117 johnnyg713 @ 06/17/15 12:28 AM

My question is how pass interference is going to be triggered. Does PI have its own animations that trigger randomly or will db/WR interaction animations have a certain percentage of a penalty being called (meaning a specific animation will play out and sometimes it will get called and others it won't). Also I'm curios of how defensive holding will be called if jostling animations are being triggered automatically. There should be a jostle input like fifa. Abuse it and get a penalty. Penalties should be a result of user input not statistics.

# 118 Millennium @ 06/17/15 12:59 AM

Here is what I hope -

Barely any penalties in online ranked games and MUT. I don't want to see penalties in any type of ranked games deciding the outcome.

Then when I play my franchise (connected or by myself) the ability to move the slider up to a realistic level.

I believe that is a realistic idea.

# 119 Mike Lowe @ 06/17/15 02:50 PM

It will break something else. I sincerely hope I'm wrong, but judging by their track record...

# 120 jfsolo @ 06/17/15 03:10 PM

I think that a lot of us will have turn the penalty sliders up anyway because of the "penalty cap" mechanism that Rex mentioned in the video. If a team gets a couple of early penalties in the beginning of a quarter, then it seems like the cap would possibly allow them to act with impunity for the rest of that quarter.

I hope it's a little more variable than 6, 5, 7, 4, 6,... for each team in each game. This past season my Rams had 13 penalties in the first game vs the Vikings, of course we got our *** beat. The next game we had 5. In our best wins of the season vs. the Seahawks and the Broncos we had 2 and 3 respectively. In games where we blanked the Raiders and the Redskins, we still had 8 and 11 in those games.

Hopefully match-ups, weather, play calling, confidence, injuries, and other factors play into how many penalties occur in a give game.

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