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While most of the posts have seemed to deal with presentation and immersion ideas, I feel that gameplay-related issues should be the crux of the improvements for next-years installment:
1. IMO, above all other things, lineplay needs to be adjusted the most:
a. there needs to be much more lateral movement involved in the running game (watch film from the endzone perspective of an nfl game and notice how much both lines are displaced laterally and then replicate that in the game). this is the whole idea behind how zone schemes work, by stretching the defense side-to-side, while creating 2 ol on a dl and lb in an attempt to create a vertical seam by pushing frontside dl laterally and cutting off backside defenders. i personally don't feel that the running game is too hard from the players perspective, but the cpu running game would be more successfull using a more realistic approach, and it would allow for more consistency by the human player instead of the "homerun or strikeout" plays we have now
b. pass protection and pass rush needs to be tweaked considerablly as well. as many people have already stated, there needs to be a more defined pocket. again, using "tight copy" or endzone film would give the programmers a better idea of what type of interactions occur during passing plays. there are way to many "cut block" animations on pass plays, and too much of a stalemate that occurs on contact, especially on the edges. More movement should occur after contact, but with the ol staying on their blocks, there doesn't really seem to be any true "bull-rush" techniques; either the dl gets stoned, cut, or an ol completely whiffs in the current game
c. more improvement in blocking schemes: this is one area that was definitely improved, but still needs some work as there is still not any real gap-blocking or trap schemes. these are fundamental type plays and are very popular in the nfl, even more so than in college (most spread teams are almost exclusively zone now) and not having them in my mind is akin to a basketball game not having a pick and roll. there are simple rules to these plays that i don't think would take alot of code to introduce, but i have no background in programming as my career is in football.
2. The passing game was improved this year over almost any other year, but there is a true lack of intermediate routes and concepts. In the game, all routes are either under 10 yds, or deep and i would like to see some intermediate routes, even though i will say that most of the concepts behind the plays transfer over from the real-life counterparts. Obviously, the pass protection/pass rush issues come to play here, but i've already mentioned those.
3. Pass defense has become a big issue, and the main reason is the lack of defensive fundamentals. Pass defenders don't aimlessly drop into pre-determined zones, instead they read the route stems of the receivers opposite them and then react in an effort to "read" the pattern and cover the receiver that ends up nearest to their zone. I know that this is a complicated concept that is hard enough to teach to players, much less to instill into a video game, but I guess what i'm asking is for defenders to do a better job of covering the closest receiver to their "zone" of coverage. Spot-dropping has went the way of the dinosaur and there has to be some way of implementing pattern-reading zone schemes. Man-to-man needs to be cleaned up also, mainly the ability of crossing routes to become wide open. In cuts are the hardest route to cover in a man scheme with no help, but the amount of separation that occurs is more often than not too great, which brings me to my next point.
4. The differences in speed between players of different skill sets is way too great. i feel that this has been heading in the right direction the past couple of years, but still isn't quite right. The numbers-based ratings should not be used as a percentage a player with a 90 speed rating shouldn't be 50% faster than a player with a 60 rating. Let's say the 90 rated player ran a 4.4, did the 60 rated player run a 6.6, i don't think so.
5. I kept quaterback play separate from the passing game, because i think it is a separate issue. This has always been a problem in videogame football, and i don't know the answer, but i wish there was a true difference in playing with a successful quarterback, like peyton mannig as opposed to one with more problems, like trent edwards. Like i said, i don't know how to fix it, the vision cone was a step in right direction, but just didn't seem to work, but i wish something could be done.
6. the kicking game needs to be a little more difficult. there should be some sort of timing issue involved or a different way of mapping the stick movements, as a kickers leg doesn't move straight back and straight forward and he has to time up the pronation of his foot as well as the swing of his leg.
7. more realistic franchise with better simmed stats, a way for human ol to compete with cpu linemen in pancake stats, better draft logic, free-agent movements, human injuries, 45 man active rosters with room for practice players, players on ir not counting against the 54 man rosters and of course, fully supported online franchises.
I know this probably sounds like a lot, but i'm sure you guys can do it given the resources. maybe an addendum to this list is to get more feedback from people who truly know the game of football and who also love to play the games.
Thanks for all the hard work
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01-03-2009, 01:58 PM
