Anyone else enjoy gameplay post patch?

[BlastX21]

I'm actually starting to think that man coverage is just right, post-patch. Yeah its easy to get 300+ now, but thats only because 1. You can see the whole field at once which allows you to make reads faster than real life, and 2. Four man rush is terrible.

I'm not seeing psychic route running, but I'm also not seeing DB's lagging way behind ether, unless theres a huge gap in talent.

Zone coverage is still terrible though. But I'm starting to like what the patch did to man coverage.

[Bumble14]

Quote: Originally Posted by thedudedominick

I really haven't experienced this myself. Plus I try to play my games as sim as possible, mixing playcalling, not using money plays to exploit the AI, and I am getting great results. To each his own though, and hopefully the AI defense gets upgraded a little, but I just don't exploit the things a video game defense can't stop.

My problem is that this issue was not in the game pre patch- in my opinion even though there was psychic route running, it made the passing game more challenging and fun.

Slants tear ma coverage up and it is incredibly unrealistic to see linebackers smply do nothing as a slot man runs behind them. This is what bugs me the most, and it has nothing to do with me cheesing the cpu. The bottom line is that the patch nerfed what was a pretty enjoyable experience against the cpu, and has returned the game to NCAA 09 offensive production levels.

Pre patch there really were not any "money" plays, and you really had to work on offense to put up points. I loved the fact that I would beat a team 17-13 one game, or even 7-3. Now I can pass 100% of my plays and routinely put up 70+ points on AA- this is without using the cheese plays I mentioned before. Any slant or inside route is completely broken. The CPU may stop it once or twice per down, but they will completely botch their assignment at some point during your possession, leading to instant TD's.

[Rebel10]

I've enjoyed the game much more but a few things have bugged me. CPU QB accuracy was a nuisance, so I tuned it down and bumped up CB ability to cover, which has helped the man issue. I don't mind a hard CPU QB but I'd much rather see serious differentiation in QB talent... every QB was almost perfect against me, with the few incompletions coming on interceptions... And I hate seeing a 60overall QB be just as effective as a 95overall QB, and that's what I was seeing (or at least, not enough of a difference). Running is still really easy for me on All American, but not as easy as it was pre-patch... I can't get automatic first downs on sweeps or tosses anymore, which is good, but still break the occasional long run.

Blocking on runs is not as dominant for me, which I think is good, although it's a problem with the CPU. The CPU can't turn out any yardage against me. I'm going to tweak that at the end of this dynasty season.

Most importantly, the CPU is just better than they were... I'm being challenged more, now, which is good. I'm planning on riding out the contract for my first team in dynasty, then jumping ship and adopting somebody else's sliders after taking an new job.

One thing that still bugs me is the poor play calling by the CPU. There is really nothing intelligent about it, especially on defense. They call plays that are just so stupid... like I've just successfully run down their throats from my own 20 to their 8 yard line, on a long, time eating drive.... and it's 1st and goal from the 8, and they come out... in a dime defense? It happens so often to me where I'm scratching my head. Worse than that, it's a dime with some CB blitzs, so it leaves the middle of their field completely vulnerable and the only player who can protect a TD is one of the safeties. Along with very spurious engage 8 or near all-out blitzes, which happen way too often... the CPU is pretty easy to scheme against, and almost every team plays defense identically. While the offensive CPU plays uniquely for many teams, it seems like every defense has the same play calling scheme... and it's easy to pick apart, for me. Offensively, I think the playcalling is pretty good, with the lone exception of 4th down situations... the CPU goes for it on 4th down so much and in situations where they really shouldn't. This isn't really any different post-patch though.

Oh, and finally, the playaction. I can't call a playaction without being sacked. I'm totally a run-first team too, I run A LOT (average probably just over ~120 passing yards/game)... And so to have me get sacked on every play action is a little ridiculous. In Madden '10 last year, playaction was way too easy to get yards to the flat on. In NCAA '11 this year, playaction is nearly impossible to get off unless you have a stellar offensive line going against a bad, or non-blitzing defense.

But other than those things, I like the game much more after the patch. I also do not use any of the cheesy exploits that are posted about on here, too.

[KG]

Quote: Originally Posted by OkieTC

Yeah, I noticed it. Man coverage is non-existent post patch.

I think it's actually improved in the sense that DBs no longer run the WR patterns before them. It's just a little juiced up right now in the Offenses favor.

Quote: Originally Posted by BlastX21

I'm actually starting to think that man coverage is just right, post-patch. Yeah its easy to get 300+ now, but thats only because 1. You can see the whole field at once which allows you to make reads faster than real life, and 2. Four man rush is terrible. I'm not seeing psychic route running, but I'm also not seeing DB's lagging way behind ether, unless theres a huge gap in talent. Zone coverage is still terrible though. But I'm starting to like what the patch did to man coverage.

Agreed on both. Unless the route takes the WR literally into the path of the Defender the DB/LB/DL will just stand in his respective zone oblivious to anyone in his zone. That combined with the fact that there are huge holes in the zone play-art make it nearly impossible to run a true zone without having to rely on blitzes or pressure.

[rudyjuly2]

Initially I liked the second patch gameplay more. I felt the man coverage needed some loosening up but after about 10 games post patch I want to delete it (but I don't want to lose the progression fixes). Man coverage was loosened up but zone coverage got worse too for the human which I don't like. I do like the fact they made outside running tougher.

But my biggest beef is they broke the cpu run block and human run defense slider. You can set those sliders to anything you want and the game just plays at the default levels (set cpu run block to 100 or 0, set human run defense to 100 or 0 - makes zero difference). This makes adjusting the cpu running game impossible if you are unhappy with it. On AA the cpu can't run the ball at all on me anymore and there isn't much I can do about it. And I don't care what many of you are saying, Varsity is not the cure all for everyone. I've bumped the game up to Heisman where the cpu runs the ball much better and I'm back to being happy for the most part now (after a lot of slider tweaking). But I don't like the sliders they broke. That needs to be fixed period. Otherwise All American against the cpu is lousy for me and I loved AA before this patch. And I did try Varsity for one game as well - the cpu running game stinks there too (for me).

[Ramminyou]

Quote: Originally Posted by Djwlfpack

If you know that this works all the time, why do you continue to call it then? Of course that will dampen your experience with the game if you are taking advantage of an exploit. I'm sure if you stopped running that hot route, you'd get some different outcomes in your games. I very rarely hot route any of my receivers and just stick with the original play call. Now, that doesn't excuse EA from not addressing the issue. Hopefully the defensive AI Awareness will be improved in the next tuner, especially as it relates to user hot-routes and that this exploit will vanish.

I knew I'd see some people trying to justify the ease of completing passes over the middle with something like this. The problem is you don't even have to hot route to a slant route. You can simple call plays like 4 Verticals all game where a slot receiver moves over the middle and you will almost never see a 4th Down. In essence, there's no strategy needed to move downfield.

And "Just don't do those plays!" is not an answer. This isn't a glitch. These are just plays you're calling that the D is too weak against (either because of blitzing or poor pass coverage). As an offense, you are supposed to take what the defense is giving you. But your logic basically says don't take what the defense will give you, only do what the defense is able to stop. That kind of philosophy kills the challenge of playing football.

I want to have to stretch my playcalling as much as I have to to win. I want to have to mix the run with the pass, call playactions and screens, and avoid getting too one-dimensional. I want to have to spread the field and create weaknesses in the coverage. That's what makes football fun. It isn't fun when those weaknesses are inherent in every game and you have to create the challenge yourself by making rules that don't and shouldn't exist in your own playcalling. If EA can beef up to the pass defense (mostly by throwing out all the stupid blitz packages that the CPU calls when you've got 5 guys running routes that they can't defend), the challenge would be increased exponentially.

[rudyjuly2]

Quote: Originally Posted by Ramminyou

And "Just don't do those plays!" is not an answer. This isn't a glitch. These are just plays you're calling that the D is too weak against (either because of blitzing or poor pass coverage). As an offense, you are supposed to take what the defense is giving you. But your logic basically says don't take what the defense will give you, only do what the defense is able to stop. That kind of philosophy kills the challenge of playing football. I want to have to stretch my playcalling as much as I have to to win. I want to have to mix the run with the pass, call playactions and screens, and avoid getting too one-dimensional. I want to have to spread the field and create weaknesses in the coverage. That's what makes football fun. It isn't fun when those weaknesses are inherent in every game and you have to create the challenge yourself by making rules that don't and shouldn't exist in your own playcalling. If EA can beef up to the pass defense (mostly by throwing out all the stupid blitz packages that the CPU calls when you've got 5 guys running routes that they can't defend), the challenge would be increased exponentially.

I generally agree with this. It's one thing to avoid money plays but when you have too many of them it does become an issue.

[Ramminyou]

Quote: Originally Posted by rudyjuly2

I generally agree with this. It's one thing to avoid money plays but when you have too many of them it does become an issue.

I think some people don't understand that it isn't just one type of play or one type of route. It's literally EVERY passing play you can think of that has one or two guys going over the middle. It'd be one thing if I found one pass play in one playbook that when run causes all the CPU DBs to stand still or something because of some kind of glitch. But that's not what I'm talking about. The problem is the CPU calling whatever play it wants irrespective of your formation, which usually results in an overblitz or at least a stupid blitz which leaves gaping holes in the middle. That, combined with sometimes sketchy pass coverage results in too many completions, regardless of difficulty and sliders - and trust me, I've tried them all from Playmakers to SN's to my own Heisman set.