Madden IQ - Yay or Nay?

[ab2c4]

Quote: Originally Posted by Nza

It was my assumption IQ adjusted based on averages from your profile, so over time, the more and more games you feed it, the less and less impact the very last game you played has on it. Is this wrong? If it doesn't use averages but instead just uses the last game you played, that's pretty silly.

It should work that way, but it doesn't. I have seen it change my IQ # just because of one big play. For example, if you get a long pass completion it will immediately compensate and you can forget about passing for awhile. Plus, it doesn't take into consideration the quality of opponents at all. The same goes with rushing the ball and regardless of it being the cpu or human. If it worked based on rushing yards per carry and passing completion percentages then it would probably be a good useful feature.

[ab2c4]

Quote: Originally Posted by Nza

It was my assumption IQ adjusted based on averages from your profile, so over time, the more and more games you feed it, the less and less impact the very last game you played has on it. Is this wrong? If it doesn't use averages but instead just uses the last game you played, that's pretty silly.

Basically Madden IQ is nothing more than adaptive Rubber Band AI. If you are getting beat badly in a game it will adjust so you can catch up, or vice versa. At least that is what it did for me in all the games I used it in.

[ab2c4]

Another thing I just thought about and probably others have mentioned: IQ takes basically removes team ratings and makes all teams equal. For those who want realistic results that isn't good. Would you expect Miami to play equal to the Cowboys, Colts, or Patriots every time they played those teams? No because they wouldn't in real life (they might, but usually they would be beaten easily). The IQ feature is designed for casual gamers that just want close scoring games.

EA could have just as easily removed team ratings and made them all equal instead of adding IQ, because that is what IQ does. That and exaggerates rubber band AI.

[Starbase503]

Quote: Originally Posted by ryby6969

I think it's a cool concept but I'm going to have to vote 'nay'. The fact that it "adjusts" to you is cool..but I think the test (if we are voting on that as well) is plain stupid. The running test is too easy and both of the defenses are way too hard. The test just doesn't correlate to the actual game. The test makes it WAY too hard to run in the game so..I don't even end up using the settings.

Amen, brother, you hit the nail on the head. The two offense tests are easy, especially the rushing (I scored All-Pro in both) and the defense tests are too hard (rookie on both). Now granted, this is my first Madden since '02 on the PS2 (and probably would be if 2k's game was still around), so I am still getting used to the differences between it and NFL 2k5. I like the fact that the controls mirror those of the college football game, so I have felt comfortable from the get-go.

I can't give the IQ a yay or nay at this point, as I have only played two games (a quick Play Now against my son, his Rams vs. my Cowboys) and a preseason game (CPU 49ers vs. the Raiders), but I like the concept. Because of 2k5's tendency to too many interceptions even with sliders turned way down, I would in fairness assume the offense for both sides, so my defense scores on the test didn't surprise me. But it HAS made playing D almost TOO easy. Using my skills for the two games, I couldn't run much (Marion Barber had a terrible game against the Rams; Justin Vargas scored 2 TDs vs SF but had a low yards-per-carry number, and Darren McFadden lost yardage in his first 4 carries before finding his wheels late in the game, ripping off a 67-yard TD run to finish with 84 yards in one half).

My passing wasn't much better, and after the Raider game, it suggested I might want to work on it, but my defense had no problems in either game, shutting out the Rams with three interceptions and holding the Niners to just 10 points, all in the second half vs my rookies and backups. I agree with the CPU QB accuracy remark somewhere in this thread. Alex Smith hit on 8 of his first 11 passes, although three of those were pulled down by the Silver and Black. Overall, in two games I had four sacks, one fumble recovery and ELEVEN picks, four of which were taken back for TDs.

So yes, the IQ settings do make for a potentially unrealistic game. But I think it has promise if they tweak it some. And I know that two games is not much of a benchmark to make more than just a maybe call. But so far, I must admit (and this is my first time I have EVER patrolled a Madden forum) that I am pleasantly surprised by this game. I absolutely HATED the '02 game and swore I would never buy another Madden. But this game gives me a glimmer of hope that maybe, just maybe, we might have something good here.

[crques]

Quote: Originally Posted by ab2c4

Another thing I just thought about and probably others have mentioned: IQ takes basically removes team ratings and makes all teams equal. For those who want realistic results that isn't good. Would you expect Miami to play equal to the Cowboys, Colts, or Patriots every time they played those teams? No because they wouldn't in real life (they might, but usually they would be beaten easily). The IQ feature is designed for casual gamers that just want close scoring games. EA could have just as easily removed team ratings and made them all equal instead of adding IQ, because that is what IQ does. That and exaggerates rubber band AI.

Exactly. I've played the Patriots and Dolphins and had very similar stats in both games. It shouldn't be that way. There needs to be a way to distinguish between the teams and their ratings before the IQ is adjusted. Essentially all teams are equal based on the IQ skill level.

[skatepro56]

i love the close games part, but i don't like the bipolarness of it. one game i throw for 500 yards because my passing O is on pro, then the next i throw 6 INT's. i destroyed the patriots twice(i'm the jets), but i got hammered by the dolphins. i'm not sure what i should play on though, because i'm getting good games on IQ, but i want realism.

[CM1847]

It's a very good start, but it does need tweaking. I went with "Yay" because for being such a huge first-year feature, it is actually pretty well done. I'll most likely continue using it for the first year of my Franchise and then go ahead and make my own adjustments from there.

To the poster who said it shouldnt' be done every game, I agree with you partially. It should be done based on your total number of games played. If it was only done every 5 or 6 game we would all be complaining about how poor the first 5 or 6 games are. It should take all of your games and keep a running total of your IQ score, so if it's your 100th game, it's only going to count for 1% of your total IQ score, so you aren't going to see huge shifts in the score after a single game if you've played a lot.

[jvaccaro]

The IQ idea is absolutely incredible.

The implementation is very flawed.


The main problem is that the VR drills are not representative of game situations. For example, I can score a TD on every rush in the drill. I do like how the games constantly update my IQ, but there needs to be some scale. One good passing game with Brady and my IQ was through the roof, and the next game I couldn't move the ball at all.

I think this feature just needs some fine tuning and tweaking...