Madden NFL 21 Playbooks and AI Gameplay Updates Revealed

[jpdavis82]

Our writers witnessed both positive signs and negative issues from the Madden NFL 21 beta, so...

Written By: Steve Noah

Click here to view the article.

[SolidSquid]

They talk about man coverage but the beta had the return of cbs turning the wrong way in coverage. Hopefully that gets fixed

[simbayless]

If the AI truly plays adaptive as avertise it's gonna be a game changer for those that complain (including me)about the difficulty levels being too easy/hard/unrealistic. I have to give props where it's due but let's wait untill the final build.

[jfsolo]

There is a lot of good stuff there for the solo player if they've tuned things well of course.

It won't really affect me that much because it's not how I play, but if the CPU is really able to make solid adjustments and decision against heavy blitzing and they don't let the User controlled player cover 2 or 3 routes anymore, I don't think that a lot of Users will know how to play defense.

We'll see in a couple of weeks what changes they made because of the Beta feedback, because one of the problems in the Beta IMO was that the CPU QBs were sometimes getting the ball out too quickly when there wasn't pressure and the receiver wasn't wide open. This led to a lot of interceptions especially for the pocket passers.

They also didn't really talk about adaptive AI for CPU on defense, only more varied goal line playcalling(which was need though). Since they mentioned continued support for AI gameplay post launch, maybe defense can get some more attention.

[CM Hooe]

Quote:

Make sure you use a variety of defensive plays against AI opponents, or they will start making adjustments to counter; this will drastically improve the strategy in solo game sessions, such as single-player Franchise and MUT Solo’s and make it more difficult to exploit the AI by repeatedly running plays such as Double A-Gap Mid Blitz.

This is exactly what I have been looking for.

With the exception of trips checks for more pattern match coverage types, I honestly think Tiburon has in their work on Madden 21 addressed literally every single complaint I have about Madden 20’s on-field gameplay.

[T4VERTS]

Part of me wonders if they had moved all the AI improvements into the franchise section and branded it as a "year of focusing on improving the solo franchise experience" if they could have controlled the narrative better? It wouldn't have appeased the online franchise crowd, however, it may have split the community in a way that made the blowback less on them.

Not condoning EA's actions just thinking out loud here.

[roadman]

I read this and it was a lot of nice user vs cpu info in here.

Let's see if it holds out.

[canes21]

Everything read well and if implemented properly can completely change the offline experience. I wish I would have read that AI players now make an effort to stop the clock in late game situations like running out of bounds, throwing towards the sidelines more, etc.

What is in the blog is good, though. Hearing that the AI has the ability to max protect or just have a back or TE chip, help in protection is nice. Knowing the AI is supposed to audible now is a good sign. These kind of AI updates are what the offline experience has been needing for well over 10 years at this point and are the types of improvements that do not seem huge, but can make the game feel dynamic and organic every time you kickoff. If opponents in franchise mode finally feel different then that's a big step for the series despite the lack of franchise features added.

I really hope that EA continues to invest into the AI like this. It is desperately needed. A few cycles of this kind of improvement can lead to the AI behaving like a real person, audibling, adjusting, using actual football knowledge, and more. The past 10+, years we've delt with an AI that just picked plays at random with only a run pass ratio influence. We've delt with an AI that had no concept of making adjustments, audibling, etc. If these improvements are finally here and more are to come, Madden will take a step forward as a series.