Would "Fog Of War" Be An Acceptable Addition To Madden's Default Passing View?

[Thinking Out Loud]

I recently posted in a thread about accounting for the QB blind side in Madden and thought "fog of war" could simulate it. After further thought, I believe this could be used to increase the realism of the passing game without limiting user control or changing the current "god view". Fog of war is a technique I have seen used in strategy games to simulate hiding the parts of the map/field the user does not have line of sight to or information about.

This could be adapted for Madden, by having a "protect your identity" -isk screen distorting the view of and around each receiver when a user controlled QB drops back to pass. This would simulate the differences in each QB's focus and ability to process what's happening down field, when user controlling them. QB AWR would determine how many receivers are distorted and how severely, when being displayed to the user controlling the QB. All passing icons would still be clearly displayed and operational, with NO ratings hit when throwing to distorted receivers. This would allow users controlling QBs with mediocre to terrible AWR, to read the defense themselves for passing success when throwing blind, like a real life QB.

For example, a user controlling Brady would have a clear view of all their passing reads/receivers, a user controlling Matt Shaub a clear view of their 1st-3rd reads/receivers with a slightly distorted view of the rest and a user controlling Grossman a clear view of his 1st read/primary receiver with a slightly distorted view of the 2nd but a fully distorted view of the rest. This would continue to scale down all the way to a user controlling a QB with 12 AWR with a fully distorted view of all reads/receivers. User reading defenses would actually become important when using lesser QBs and back ups.

I think the defense should remain the same without "fog of war" being used. If playing another user on the same console, the "fog of war" should be displayed unless a user controlled defender is in the distorted area. This would correct the imbalance of power the offense has over the defense in Madden. Also, it would be fair because both teams are going to eventually be playing defense.

Thoughts?

[poopoop]

Re: Would "Fog Of War" Be An Acceptable Addition To Madden's Default Passing View?

It might work. But it's the same basic concept as the vision cone, which wasn't a bad idea but still failed anyway.

[LHale21]

Re: Would "Fog Of War" Be An Acceptable Addition To Madden's Default Passing View?

I personally wouldn't mind it. Thats my biggest gripe about Madden actually, with "God View"; i can turn any QB into an All-Pro. Stats don't matter, ratings don't matter, defense doesn't even matter, bc i can read the defense far better than any normal human could under "realistic" circumstances.

But what do i know... i liked the vision cone.

[hampshire2012]

Re: Would "Fog Of War" Be An Acceptable Addition To Madden's Default Passing View?

I don't think this problem is ever going away if I'm honest.

In real life most starting QB's can make all the throws. And what I mean by that is if you set up a target within a QB's arm strength, they could nearly all hit it off a 3, 5 and 7 step drop with ease. While guys like Roethlisberger and Vick obviously possess unique physical talents, for the most part what separates the best from the worst is decision making, the ability to check to the right play, change the protection, lead the team - in short "the intangibles".

The "problem" the intangibles are all in the hands of the user. To compensate, EA is forced to low most QB ratings, and link QB ratings to WR catching, O-line blocking etc otherwise the QB would only be as good as the player is.

[Thinking Out Loud]

Re: Would "Fog Of War" Be An Acceptable Addition To Madden's Default Passing View?

It might work. But it's the same basic concept as the vision cone, which wasn't a bad idea but still failed anyway.

How so?

I think the main detractors of QB Vision were the actual vision cone head turning mechanic and seeing receivers wide open but not being able to pass to them without a passer ratings hit, unless they "looked" first.

Fog of war wouldn't have either one of these key detractors. Users could throw whenever and wherever with NO ratings hit, like they can now, but their actual vision would be limited depending on the QB they are controlling. Not like QB Vision when the user could still see the entire field but not get the ball there depending on the QB.

[shugknight]

Re: Would "Fog Of War" Be An Acceptable Addition To Madden's Default Passing View?

Sigh.. poor Grossman.. even after all these years, he's still being used as an example of a horrible QB. lol

[Gotmadskillzson]

Re: Would "Fog Of War" Be An Acceptable Addition To Madden's Default Passing View?

People wouldn't like it.......

I remember another football game many years ago had 1st person view for QB passing and pretty much every player. That game failed terrible because people didn't like it and wanted to see the whole field.

Hell even now you got people complaining that the field view still isn't big enough and the field size isn't big enough.

I can't think the name of the game but it was on the PS one or PS2.

[LiquorLogic]

Re: Would "Fog Of War" Be An Acceptable Addition To Madden's Default Passing View?

I think a double tap system would be more practical. The QB's vision starts out on the primary receiver, you have the option to change it, and the smarter the QB, the faster you can switch from one read to the next. So with a QB like Manning, it will be easy to get to your 4th read before getting sacked. With Grossman, you'll be lucky to get to your third. There would be no ratings hit for throwing at receivers that you aren't looking at because if you tapped the button in order throw the ball, and the icon wasn't highlighted, you'll simply have to tap the button again.

[poopoop]

Re: Would "Fog Of War" Be An Acceptable Addition To Madden's Default Passing View?

How so?

I think the main detractors of QB Vision were the actual vision cone head turning mechanic and seeing receivers wide open but not being able to pass to them without a passer ratings hit, unless they "looked" first.

Fog of war wouldn't have either one of these key detractors. Users could throw whenever and wherever with NO ratings hit, like they can now, but their actual vision would be limited depending on the QB they are controlling. Not like QB Vision when the user could still see the entire field but not get the ball there depending on the QB.

It's different but it still tries to accomplish the same thing. Limiting what the QB can "see" and forcing people to actually make reads. The main issue is that even though it makes complete sense to do something like this, I think there's too many people who like the God mode arcadey style and would complain if EA tried to take it way.

[nastynacho1]

Re: Would "Fog Of War" Be An Acceptable Addition To Madden's Default Passing View?

Fog of War is made for AOE and Civ

[Broncos86]

Re: Would "Fog Of War" Be An Acceptable Addition To Madden's Default Passing View?

The problem I see here is that the game brings up different issues than its real-life counterpart.

As a QB, your peripheral vision plays a huge role in how you see pressure around you. In Madden, that same vision is limited since we're watching the upper half of the screen. This is why EA Sports offered us the vibrating control when pressure is near, to help offset this. Yes, the whole concept of the blindside is absent, but so is our ability to easily see defenders right in front of us.

I never liked the vision cone, it felt like a gimmick that was trying to simulate a QB's vision. This seems like the same thing. For me, there are certain concessions I'm willing to make for a video game, and this is one of them. I think there are other ways to apply the AWR rating for player-controlled QBs, such as play art that disappears in an amount of time based on QB AWR.

[Thinking Out Loud]

Re: Would "Fog Of War" Be An Acceptable Addition To Madden's Default Passing View?

Ok, I understand everyone has there own opinion about this and that's cool. However, I think some people are misunderstanding the bases of why I think "fog of war" could work. The point is could this add realism without requiring too much change from the status quo.

It would NOT alter the default passing view currently in Madden, not require users to learn a new passing mechanic and not prevent or randomly penalize users passing to any player on the field. What it would do is alter the users physical view, displayed on the screen, when they are controlling a QB.

I don't doubt that some people that are just opposed to ANY change at all would have a problem. I am asking more about the reasonable majority. If anyone still thinks they or others would have a reasonable issue with this, please explain why?

[Landlordos7]

Re: Would "Fog Of War" Be An Acceptable Addition To Madden's Default Passing View?

Here's my fix idea:

First, one of the triggers is now a pass button.

Take the god view camera, zoom it in some (not a ton, think of it as a halfway point between madden and backbreaker) to where you can't see the entire field at one time, but you can still see most of it, say...70%.

All your receivers still have icons, but hitting the icon for (example) my (X) receiver doesn't pass it to (X) receiver, it just shifts focus to him, much like the vision cone system (if he's in the same general area as the currently focused receiver the camera won't change at all, since it still shows a good amount of the field at all times). You have to be "focused" or selected on your receiver to throw it to them with the new pass button.

I feel this could work if they implemented it well and in a way to where users could still get passes off lightning quick after deciding where to go with it. It takes away most of the frustration with accidentally hitting the wrong receiver button (hopefully you'll have time to switch to the right one before taking a sack), it simulates reads and checkdowns and etc., but it doesn't make it impossible or entirely human either.

Edit: I should note, with the new camera angle, the biggest difference isn't that it's zoomed in, it's that it's lower (closer to the level of the field) and slightly more upfield, meaning you can't see ten yards behind your quarterback for pressure coming from behind, but maybe cut that in half or so. It is still slightly zoomed as well, however.

[Broncos86]

Re: Would "Fog Of War" Be An Acceptable Addition To Madden's Default Passing View?

Have fun playing multiplayer on the same TV, with that view.

[Thinking Out Loud]

Re: Would "Fog Of War" Be An Acceptable Addition To Madden's Default Passing View?

I think a double tap system would be more practical. The QB's vision starts out on the primary receiver, you have the option to change it, and the smarter the QB, the faster you can switch from one read to the next. So with a QB like Manning, it will be easy to get to your 4th read before getting sacked. With Grossman, you'll be lucky to get to your third. There would be no ratings hit for throwing at receivers that you aren't looking at because if you tapped the button in order throw the ball, and the icon wasn't highlighted, you'll simply have to tap the button again.

I don't disagree but that would be a new mechanic that is not currently in Madden. I personally would like to see EA implement the most challenging "sim" mechanic that could invent but we both know that ain't no haps. LOL

So I am hoping there can be some sort of feature that can be added to improve the current system's realism, without too drastic a change.