The Equalizer in Madden 16.

[Senor Tortilla]

Quote: Originally Posted by SolidSquid

This is infuriating, call a cover 3 and my deep middle guy is no where to be found while the TE walks into the end zone, check the replay he starts doing some weird float/stutter move before completely abandoning his assignment to cover no one on the left side of the field. You just throw your hands up and say "that's madden"

Oh yeah, Cover 3 is broken this year, especially in the final two minutes. Your middle safety will be trying to hold hands with the MLB leaving the offense to destroy the middle, you're better off running 2 man under or 3 man deep, or else your zone will get destroyed every time. Even man will be affected, highly rated CBs put their back towards the QB and pass rush becomes non-existent.

[richrolla]

Happens in H2H too, especially after being up early.

[CM Hooe]

Quote: Originally Posted by howboutdat

Yes , i second the above fully. While it may be said its a "dice roll" each play , some games it is flat out one team wins 80% of those rolls. As mentioned above it seems like the "dice roll" itself just negates a the players actual attributes involved in the play at that.The devs can say whatever they want. Maybe they didnt intentionally code in this , but its in the code somehow , even if not intentional it is there . Anyone who plays enough has seen it. Ask anyone in our league. There are some games each season, where it is clear before the 1st quarter is over, which team is going to win.

Streakiness is inherent in random probabilities over arbitrary lengths time. It has nothing to do with intentionally or accidentally coding something one way or another. It's simple probability math.

Flip a coin ten times. I guarantee you that you will get two heads or two tails in a row somewhere in that sequence at least once. In fact, In fact, I am going to guess you get multiple streaks at least length of two in that set. Here's a website which will do it for you, for convenience.

While the odds of either side of a coin on a single flip are obviously 50%, getting ten flips in a row where the side always alternates is abysmal. Think about it: getting two heads on two flips means you need to be right twice (P(H) = 0.5; 0.5 * 0.5 = 0.25). Each time you flip the coin while seeking a specific order, your odds of seeing that order get cut in half. So ten coin flips where the order is HTHTHTHTHT is (1 / 2^10 = 0.000977); add in the probability of ten flips where the order is THTHTHTHTH (1 / 2^10 = 0.000977) and you end up with a really small chance of getting what you want (.000977 * 2 = .001954; aka 0.1954% chance).

Meanwhile if you just ask for five heads on ten coin flips in any order, your odds are still lower than 50% but much better (if I'm doing my combinatorics math correctly: there are 252 total ways to flip 10 coins and get five heads in any order (10 choose 5 = 252), and 1024 unique result strings of ten coin flips (2 ^ 10), so 252 / 1024 = 0.246 = 24.6%).

Over a long time the dice rolls in Madden are surely balanced, but over the course of single games getting a bunch of dice rolls in favor of one side or another is going to happen. That's not "wrong". That's randomness at work.

[jfsolo]

Even though they increase in number every year, there still is a lack of animations in sports games. One of the ways that this shows up negatively is in the subtle display of failure or being slightly off of ones game. Dice rolls come up that trigger a highly improbably occurrence, and the animating of the event plays out visually in way that would never happen in real life, and people are incensed.

We don't see things like players taking a half step in the wrong direction, or a slight slip on the grass, or footwork being a little off, instead a player just stands their like a statue, or moves a few yards in the wrong direction, or some other crazy animation sequence.

It bothers me less in football games, than it does in basketball games, because bball is my number one sport and I'm more critical of the shortcomings.

The dice rolls just have to play out in a less over-the-top manner.

[Dr Death]

Quote: Originally Posted by CM Hooe

Streakiness is inherent in random probabilities over arbitrary lengths time. It has nothing to do with intentionally or accidentally coding something one way or another. It's simple probability math. Flip a coin ten times. I guarantee you that you will get two heads or two tails in a row somewhere in that sequence at least once. In fact, In fact, I am going to guess you get multiple streaks at least length of two in that set. Here's a website which will do it for you, for convenience. While the odds of either side of a coin on a single flip are obviously 50%, getting ten flips in a row where the side always alternates is abysmal. Think about it: getting two heads on two flips means you need to be right twice (P(H) = 0.5; 0.5 * 0.5 = 0.25). Each time you flip the coin while seeking a specific order, your odds of seeing that order get cut in half. So ten coin flips where the order is HTHTHTHTHT is (1 / 2^10 = 0.000977); add in the probability of ten flips where the order is THTHTHTHTH (1 / 2^10 = 0.000977) and you end up with a really small chance of getting what you want (.000977 * 2 = .001954; aka 0.1954% chance). Meanwhile if you just ask for five heads on ten coin flips in any order, your odds are still lower than 50% but much better (if I'm doing my combinatorics math correctly: there are 252 total ways to flip 10 coins and get five heads in any order (10 choose 5 = 252), and 1024 unique result strings of ten coin flips (2 ^ 10), so 252 / 1024 = 0.246 = 24.6%). Over a long time the dice rolls in Madden are surely balanced, but over the course of single games getting a bunch of dice rolls in favor of one side or another is going to happen. That's not "wrong". That's randomness at work.

Very well thought out and very well written! The funny thing is that I have never experienced this phenomenon happen to me or for me. Sure, I've seen "momentum" shift in games, via turnovers or poor play-calling, but this "dice roll" that says who's going to win after the first quarter... never seen it.

Part of the reason may be the way I choose to play the game. I've been a long time NCAA guy, having barely played Madden. The Madden 2002 was the last one I bought until now, if that tells you something.

Anyway, loving college football so much, and seeing the various offenses that work so well and how coaches approach things totally different from the norm, got me thinking...

I am a HUGE fan of Mike Leach. His playbook is small. He installs his entire offense in just 3 days. Then... it's just repetition, the same guys running the same plays over and over and over. He also never "flips" plays, because, in his words, you have to teach everybody TWO routes to run. Instead, he just teaches them a new play.

So when I got Madden, I had my Mike Leach hat on and created an offense that's as close to the Air Raid as I could get, with a small sampling of Run & Shoot plays in there as well.

My playbook is small. There are the same plays run out of different formations, but it's just a small playbook. Now, I know that these are computer guys, not real life guys, but my experience so far as shown that this "Less is More" approach really does pay off and it works.

I throw a lot! If you know Leach, then you get the idea. However, I strategically plan my running plays and almost always gain at least 4-5 yards. And I only have three running plays in the playbook: HB Dive, HB Slam, and Counter. That's it.

But, every game my back will go over 100 yards. Sometimes he's on fire and will go for 140 or 150, other times he'll get 103 or 107.

The point is, with this offense, I feel like I am in control. The only thing that kills me is if I turn the ball over multiple times, but since I'm now playing Madden, and these are NFL QB's, turnovers are rare.

So my advice to those suffering from this "dice roll" thing, simplify things, make your playbook smaller. My plays are all legit plays, there's no cheese involved, it's just simple football and using the smaller playbook and using the same plays out of various formations, the defense has difficulty in figuring out what I'm going to run.

So... simplify people... simplify! You don't need 300 plays at your disposal!

[NinersFan49]

I've finished a 30 season franchise for the last several years (I know, I need to get a life), playing all games except preseason against the cpu on default all madden.

The AI totally cheats, it's like training wheels to make the game follow a script. I see the same basic patterns over and over. It helps the user sometimes, and the cpu others depending on the script.

Check this out (sorry for poor quality):


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KxwzUDhEMQ

The ballcarrier Reid had like, 87 spd, 94 acc. The tackler Unger had around 53 spd. I don't know what kind of a dice roll overcomes that rating difference. Also, note how Unger has started to pull backward before the ball even reaches Reid.

Things that are mistaken for poor coding are actually intentionally invoked to facilitate the results the AI wants. One of the core aspects is "speed cheating" where the game ignores the player ratings and dynamically adjusts the players speeds to make the tackle happen at the precise spot the AI wants it to, down to the inch.

[CM Hooe]

Quote: Originally Posted by NinersFan49

I've finished a 30 season franchise for the last several years (I know, I need to get a life), playing all games except preseason against the cpu on default all madden. The AI totally cheats, it's like training wheels to make the game follow a script. I see the same basic patterns over and over. It helps the user sometimes, and the cpu others depending on the script. Check this out (sorry for poor quality): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KxwzUDhEMQ The ballcarrier Reid had like, 87 spd, 94 acc. The tackler Unger had around 53 spd. I don't know what kind of a dice roll overcomes that rating difference. Also, note how Unger has started to pull backward before the ball even reaches Reid. Things that are mistaken for poor coding are actually intentionally invoked to facilitate the results the AI wants. One of the core aspects is "speed cheating" where the game ignores the player ratings and dynamically adjusts the players speeds to make the tackle happen at the precise spot the AI wants it to, down to the inch.

So, that's a glitch.

It's unfortunate that it happened. But it's just a glitch. It is nothing nefarious. The developers are not out to get you. The assertion in the last paragraph is just ridiculous and baseless.

Moreover, that's not a video of any current-gen version of Madden NFL (that's an XBOX 360 version) so I don't see how it's relevant to the discussion of the current-gen game.

[4thQtrStre5S]

Quote: Originally Posted by NinersFan49

I've finished a 30 season franchise for the last several years (I know, I need to get a life), playing all games except preseason against the cpu on default all madden. The AI totally cheats, it's like training wheels to make the game follow a script. I see the same basic patterns over and over. It helps the user sometimes, and the cpu others depending on the script. Check this out (sorry for poor quality): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KxwzUDhEMQ The ballcarrier Reid had like, 87 spd, 94 acc. The tackler Unger had around 53 spd. I don't know what kind of a dice roll overcomes that rating difference. Also, note how Unger has started to pull backward before the ball even reaches Reid. Things that are mistaken for poor coding are actually intentionally invoked to facilitate the results the AI wants. One of the core aspects is "speed cheating" where the game ignores the player ratings and dynamically adjusts the players speeds to make the tackle happen at the precise spot the AI wants it to, down to the inch.

Pursuit helps defenders catch opponents with higher speed.