Made a small change this week...

[splff3000]

Quote: Originally Posted by countryboy

I prefer off. 2) Could it be possible to tying the pre-play menus on/off to the skill level chosen? Say for Rookie/Pro they are on and for All-Pro/All-Madden they are automatically off? Or if you had a choice of say like Hardcore/Casual or something along those lines.

I agree with this and all the others like this. This is a good idea. If you're playing on all pro or all madden then you pretty much know how to play madden and don't really need a preplay menu, but you could still have an option of pushing the R3 button to bring it up just for those that might need a reminder.

[thudias]

On or off doesn't make a difference as long as we have an option switch.

[Ian_Cummings]

Quote: Originally Posted by Exonerated

Imo. Default on is more sensible. Hardcores know how to turn this stuff on, and it takes like 2 seconds. But for the first time or newer players, they're gonna fked trying find how to turn the hints on. New players may not know the game has hints, weapons, etc. And they're have a harder (vs the hardcore turning it off) trying to turn stuff on. So leave them default on, everyone who wants em off has no trouble turning them off. Everyone who wants them on, will be confused and throw the game out the window.

So just to give a little insight, honestly this was definitely my first thought. But as I thought a little deeper...realistically is a person new to next-gen Madden going to do any pre-snap adjustments? I think they more likely feel overwhelmed when they see all these options. All of my friends nowadays say "Madden is too hard to play now", but I mean the core mechanics are the same from when they played 5 years ago - call a play, snap it, throw it, run, etc. IMO, it's the overkill with a million options that are always in their face that contributes to the panic. It immediately can invoke the feeling that "maybe I don't know what I'm doing" if you aren't using every one of those options. So I know the knee jerk thought is to think that we need to give more info for casual gamers, but that can often be detrimental when you go overboard.

We could also probably debate whether that many "casual" Madden gamers even exist on next-gen...do a lot of people out there spend $300+ bucks on new hardware and probably $1k at least on HD setups and stuff when they have no clue how to use a controller or have never seen a game of football? Wii on the other hand...

[thudias]

Quote: Originally Posted by Ian_Cummings_EA

So just to give a little insight, honestly this was definitely my first thought. But as I thought a little deeper...realistically is a person new to next-gen Madden going to do any pre-snap adjustments? I think they more likely feel overwhelmed when they see all these options. All of my friends nowadays say "Madden is too hard to play now", but I mean the core mechanics are the same from when they played 5 years ago - call a play, snap it, throw it, run, etc. IMO, it's the overkill with a million options that are always in their face that contributes to the panic. It immediately can invoke the feeling that "maybe I don't know what I'm doing" if you aren't using every one of those options. So I know the knee jerk thought is to think that we need to give more info for casual gamers, but that can often be detrimental when you go overboard. We could also probably debate whether that many "casual" Madden gamers even exist on next-gen...do a lot of people out there spend $300+ bucks on new hardware and probably $1k at least on HD setups and stuff when they have no clue how to use a controller or have never seen a game of football? Wii on the other hand...

Wow very good points...I change my vote to Off by deault. I like the sound of having it basic and you can add things if you like.

Yes you can be a casaual Madden Gamer on NexGen. The casual Madden gamers probably spent the 300 for hardware for games like Halo and first person shooters etc.. They buy Madden to pass time between those types of games. Ahh that was a total guess, I only own sports games and Rockband.

[bison160]

+1 for leaving all that crap off. Keep it about football. maybe have a big centerfold page in the manual that tells all of the pre-snap adjustments. Or you could turn them on in the options. I would say the more simple you keep the screen looking during gameplay, the easier it will be to play for even the beginner. And all the hardcore guys know how to make adjustments without all that garbage filling it up! Another positive move Ian, THANKS!

[Vikes1]

Quote: Originally Posted by Ian_Cummings_EA

just "pure football" again.

To me this says it all.

[KOACHK]

Quote: Originally Posted by LBzrule

With the weapon icons, I think you will do fine without them. You did fine without them in the past. Unless you are going to program specific abilities and attach it to weapon icons so that players with certain icons have special animation sets, I just think the game would look alot cleaner without all of that stuff in there.

I agree LBzrule. -I think weapon icons are more for causual gamers who don't actually go into the rosters to actually look at player ratings. --I've enjoyed your writeups and learned alot from them in the past; I hope to see more writeups and e-books from you in the future!


Ian,
I think what is left on or off out of the box is very important because alot of it seems to translate directly to what is default in online play. -Maybe a good compromise would be to have weapon icons on or off depending on the skill level settings instead.

Speaking on behalf of the tourney/competetive community; I think there should be a skill level/setting dedicated to tourney/competetive play. -On the other end of the spectrum; maybe there should be a skill level/setting dedicated to sim/casual play also. I would think tweaking the "fair-play" function for this might prove very useful, and getting the input of the leading tourney and sim community leaders would prove very useful in that endeavor.

[Guillotine 1]

Ian-

What about a Hardcore Mode, where we can have the actual recieving icons off as well. So during the actual play there are no icons on the Wr's, Te's, Rb's, and Fb's. Again, this could be turned on or off as well...

Rookie, Pro, All-Pro, All-Madden, and then Hardcore (no icons).