How can Madden distinguish QBs?

[bears5122]

I think the vision cone was the best feature for this. It really made your quarterback important. Right now, it doesn't matter much if you are playing with Manning or a random 3rd stringer.

But too many kids don't like the vision cone and we know who the game is being catered to.

[jyoung]

The vision cone is a lazy, gimmicky solution to a problem that requires actual programming--something that Tiburon seems to be completely averse to.

If QBs are going to be distinguishable from each other, they need to program different animations for each QB.

If the All Pro Football team can make every QB in their game animate/perform differently with half as much time (6 months) and a lot less resources, then Tiburon has no excuse for being lazy and making all QBs perform and animate the same.

[bears5122]

I actually would add that the game doesn't show accuracy well. There aren't a lot of passes that fall short, overthrown, underthrown, etc. It doesn't have to be incompletions either, just hitting guys in stride. Manning should hit guys in stride frequently while a backup QB would have trouble with this. It seems that Madden wants to make every pass catchable when the reality is that a percent of NFL passes just don't stand a chance of being caught by anyone.

[Nza]

Visually, throw styles as everyone's mentioned already. It would be tricky though as I doubt they'd get a chance to bring in most top QB's for a mo-cap session, but skilled animators should be able to do it.

All in all though the game's AI needs a total revamp. Just another area not living up to the next gen hype. All these new attributes don't do much when the AI is just as basic as ever. The problem is a football game is actually probably one of the hardest gaming scenarios if not *the* hardest to take on AI wise with 22 humans at once all with their own unique roles and assignments let alone abilities and attributes. 22 doesn't sound like a lot but if you really think about it, not many other gaming scenarios even comes close. When you combine that complexity issue with EA's coding quality and commitment to pushing profits over push boundaries, you don't get a very good result and I doubt this changes any time soon.

[Bootzilla]

Quote: Originally Posted by BigTigLSU

I got an idea QBs with low IQ or Read Coverage ability the passing icons for the WR is delayed... The lower the ability the slower it comes up. In comparison Manning/Brady would automatically be up after the ball is hiked. The delay for lower level players could be a few miliseconds....

Great idea. Less aware QB's should have the primary receiver icon appear first and if that receiver is covered have a slight delay before the other icons come up. This would make the user read the defense pre snap and pick a primary receiver even if it isn't the orange routed receiver. The delay would cause the timing to be off causing poor throws, less run after catch, etc.

[BigTigLSU]

Quote: Originally Posted by coogrfan

Hmm, not bad. I might refine it a bit by having the primary recievers icon visible at all times, but I like the basic concept.

Good suggestion the QBs that are mid level might have the the Primary WR and Check down RB out of the backfield . High level QBs would have the whole field open and low level Qbs would just get the Primary WR which you can pick preplay the play progresses the more of the field opens up and the other icons become available... forcing a realistic QB progression....

another thing for those who scramble and throw to the other side of the field if you have low read coverage ability the WR icon wont be there as you run away from that side... So as you scramble to the right the WR far left may not be visible but the middle of the field and right side would be.

[BigTigLSU]

Quote: Originally Posted by Bootzilla

Great idea. Less aware QB's should have the primary receiver icon appear first and if that receiver is covered have a slight delay before the other icons come up. This would make the user read the defense pre snap and pick a primary receiver even if it isn't the orange routed receiver. The delay would cause the timing to be off causing poor throws, less run after catch, etc.

Something that Madden need to add as well is audible defensive shells and adding varying DB depth on every play

[marshallfever]

Quote: Originally Posted by SmashMan

I liked the vision cone as an idea because it gave some disparity between QBs, but I absolutely hated using it. As a gamer, I can sit in front of my TV and see the entire field; but my QB cannot. It just became too frustrating to move the cone towards a player and pass the ball, oftentimes leading to an INT or an incomplete pass because I miss my window in the time it takes to move the cone. I also use the Bears, which meant I had Grossman and his small vision cone. Maybe I didn't give it a totally fair chance (I only used it for one entire game before turning it off)...but unless they find a more intuitive way to utilize it, I won't be turning it on again.

This is why i still think NFL Fever's read n lead passing was probably one of the coolest passing ideas in a video game. The thing is not every QB can see the entire field and even for those that can, its not an easy thing to use.

What Read N Lead did was primiraly focus the player on his first receiver, if that guy wasn't open, it gave you the ability to change recievers and use the tiggers to give the ball any type of velocity you wanted, wether it be a lobbed pass or a bullet.

It wasn't perfect in the game, but with some improvement it could still be done today be one of the coolest styles of passing. The way Madden does it is very similar, but it doesn't allow you to properly lead the reciever which is kind of sucky.