No Huddle Online

[TTD71]

Quote: Originally Posted by DePounded

The crazy thing is I remember back in Madden 05 when running the no huddle excessively would result in a false start penalty. Suddenly people stopped running no huddle -- funny how that worked out. Of course, the cheesers would complain but ultimately it would make H2H games more enjoyable IMO. Some people didn't like the fair play setting back in Madden 05 because it actually forced you to punt the ball on 4th, etc., but it went a long time in terms of making online matches cleaner. And for those who wanted no restrictions, they could play on a hardcore setting. Not sure why EA hasn't brought this feature back (hopefully they will in the future), but this might be a good way to stop all of the cheap tactics online and still not alienate those who want to play that style of Madden.

Philosophically, I agree with everything you just said...I have been calling for the same return of Fair Play settings online pretty much since they took them out...but sadly, giving players the option to play cheesy and utilize cheap tactics is not enough in their eyes...they don't want to play the game the way they want...they want to play the game the way they want AND they want everyone else to "validate" them by being able to do so in the same regular ranked games as everyone else. There will always be a small percentage of people who actually don't give a damn whatsoever about HOW they "win" and much as IF they "win"...

Its that small distinction that ensures online play will ALWAYS have people that ruin the experience for strangers and think they are perfectly justified in doing so...not a Madden-centric phenomena though by any stretch of the imagination. COD, BF, Halo...all have brigades of morons who team kill, exploit and out-and-out cheat in order to "win"...the really sad thing is that the artificial "result" means more to this kind of player than the overall "experience".

Fair Play rules forced people to play "football" more than "Madden"...and the vocal nature of that type of person won the day.

I really liked the NCAA approach a couple year's back that assigned points - or took away points - for specific actions like punting, kicking FGs or running up scores...Madden should have been ahead of them on that count and instead they still don't have anything even close to that.

Another thing that would help a little is separate servers for simulation style and freestyle players, but in the end, there would still be people who would intentionally go into simulation style games and utilize exploits and cheats anyway...sad but true for all of us. The only fool-proof way to avoid the idiot brigade is to play with a league or friends or like-minded players...anything else is Russian Roulette...

[Branchurian]

I devote myself to putting down "cheesers" & "abusers" using SIM tactics. I simply "train" with real football principles and apply it to the game. I played MLB in college and although the game has tweaks if you remember your pursuit angles, don't turbo after the defender unless your chasing him or about to crash into him and stay home in your zone, you can still beat the idiot who runs out of the pocket and forces up bombs. Yes it's difficult but if you stick to your guns and play sound football, they will quit or be defeated. I embrace an idiot who no huddles all game, that means he has no offensive sense and will make a mistake. Hang in there guys!

[ManiacMatt1782]

I liked to run a slow no huddle to keep what I felt was a personell mismatch on the field. I would still audible and make presnap reads all the way to about the 5 second mark. But if I had 4wr vs a 4-3. Or pro set vs a dime, I would try to keep that mismatch on the field as long as possible if I was consitiently gaining positive yardage. I don't feel that is cheap, thats playing the matchup game.

[iNolaNightmare]

I may be wrong, but I think I heard one of the devs on the stream saying you can get penalized by calling too many hot routes, by receives running silly routes and what not. If they can do that, I don't see how this would be any different. Not sure if that's true, though. I may be thinking of something else.

[Postman17]

I am all for some of the things some of you said. However, football is a 4 down game and it is up to the coach to decide if he wants to punt or go for it. Unfortunately in H2H games the person with the controller is the coach and if he goes for it so be it. The game should be made harder on 4th downs. Then little Timmy will be forced to learn it. Fair play was unrealistic and should never be considered. There is no fair play in football. Do I hate that ppl go for it sure but its a choice; and to take that choice from little Timmy is unfair. This year looks promising so us sims guy finally have the defense at our disposal and will probably punish the cheesers. If the game is what its cracked up to be h2h games will be very boring because ppl will only use the great teams with QBs and the best defense. So again H2H on line is so overrated.

[wordtobigbird]

This should be easily balanced by a working fatigue system.

Teams may run no huddle a whole game if their offense never got tired having to keep up that pace. Increase fatigue should increase chances for all those miscues. And if you make a WR go deep 3 times in a row doing no huddle he should be completely out of gas and need to come off the field.

[TTD71]

Quote: Originally Posted by ManiacMatt1782

I liked to run a slow no huddle to keep what I felt was a personell mismatch on the field. I would still audible and make presnap reads all the way to about the 5 second mark. But if I had 4wr vs a 4-3. Or pro set vs a dime, I would try to keep that mismatch on the field as long as possible if I was consitiently gaining positive yardage. I don't feel that is cheap, thats playing the matchup game.

I would agree with you based on the way you describe your intentions...there isn't anything wrong with making someone burn a T.O. to get out of a bad match-up...and I liked the fact that in Madden, if you had an OB play or an incompletion, the game rewarded the defense by forcing a huddle...but there's a difference in playing match-ups and running 30 audibles and hot routes on each snap all out of no-huddle

Quote: Originally Posted by Postman17

I am all for some of the things some of you said. However, football is a 4 down game and it is up to the coach to decide if he wants to punt or go for it. Unfortunately in H2H games the person with the controller is the coach and if he goes for it so be it. The game should be made harder on 4th downs. Then little Timmy will be forced to learn it. Fair play was unrealistic and should never be considered. There is no fair play in football. Do I hate that ppl go for it sure but its a choice; and to take that choice from little Timmy is unfair. This year looks promising so us sims guy finally have the defense at our disposal and will probably punish the cheesers. If the game is what its cracked up to be h2h games will be very boring because ppl will only use the great teams with QBs and the best defense. So again H2H on line is so overrated.

Here I will agree to disagree...I understand the premise - that the game should allow you to make coaching decisions, but there are simply too many fools who go for 4th down from their own 20 in the first quarter (or on every single 4th down regardless of situation) and then quit when they get stopped...giving that kind of jackass a license to dictate the game experience is just wrong.

There is a middle ground between no Fair Play at all and a reasonable version...I don't like them trying to make the game harder on 4th down because EA has proven for decades that they cannot do that without making the CPU AI cheat to jump routes or know the plays...I also loved the vision cone, so clearly I am not always going to be in the mainstream!

Quote: Originally Posted by wordtobigbird

This should be easily balanced by a working fatigue system. Teams may run no huddle a whole game if their offense never got tired having to keep up that pace. Increase fatigue should increase chances for all those miscues. And if you make a WR go deep 3 times in a row doing no huddle he should be completely out of gas and need to come off the field.

We've been begging for realistic fatigue for the last 10+ years...there have been several times over that decade plus that it was supposed to be "fixed"...yet time and again the progression of fatigue - both through a drive and throughout an entire game - remains broken...

Increased fatigue + increased penalties + increased influence of awareness (to differentiate between rookies and vets and stars and scrubs) = big progress...

It's a shame that those things almost NEVER seem to make the cut for "back of the box" additions or areas of focus...

[Hiro1]

The real problem involves the offense getting set at the line too fast. On avg I think Chip Kelly's up tempo offense took about 15-18 secs between the play being dead and the start of a new play. In madden it only takes 7 seconds. Less than half than real life.

Adding in animations where guys make sure they are set correctly and delays between audibles would make a huge difference.