The Death Of Money Plays - Thanks EA

[marktg30]

Edit: It seems that my post was read as Adaptive AI being perfect this year. I have highlighted in red/italics the main point in where the tech is now.

After quite a bit of good news regarding gameplay and franchise mode (among other things) you gave us the latest update about Adaptive AI.

This is a technology that may prove to be the next step in an intelligent CPU opponent (as well as intelligent un-controlled players on the Human side of the ball).

The polls have made it clear that adaptive AI is something that 90% of OS voters appreciate.

Now that it should become more difficult to run the same 6-10 plays all day long you are starting to annoy the gamers that do just that.

I will admit it, I used to be one of those people. The problem was (as Ian explained in the blog) that the game lost a lot of replay value once certain plays were discovered and used to exploit the defense ('ten yard hook patterns' were my bread and butter in Madden 09). When it may feel nice to win every game - I am willing to bet that there is a bit of an empty spot inside every cheesing victory.

I just hope the haters can see the logic in Adaptive AI and put aside their dependence on "money-plays".

Thanks to everyone at EA for making Madden NFL Football into a true simulation of football strategy/gaming.

[Exonerated]

I wouldn't say its the end of money plays. Someone will find a glitch.

But its a great start. People will forcibly have to mix up their playcalling which will be awesome.

I don't think its chess on the gridiron yet, but its a damn fine game of Connect 4.

[marktg30]

Quote: Originally Posted by Exonerated

I don't think its chess on the gridiron yet, but its a damn fine game of Connect 4.

Or Checkers... Either way... I totally agree.

The cheesers are coming out of the woodwork and it is a wonderful moment in sports gaming.

[Perfect Zero]

If this would get cheesers offline, and would provide a good game of football, I would venture online more often.

[mikeacard]

Quote: Originally Posted by Perfect Zero

If this would get cheesers offline, and would provide a good game of football, I would venture online more often.

agree. while it may be possible to stop most annoying cheese. i don't want to have to take the time and effort to sub every position on my defense because someone is running 2-3 money plays. i just want to be able to go on and play against someone in something that resembles a real football game.

[Champ24]

"Death" might be too strong of a word. I don't think u can ever kill money plays in any video game. Regardless, I love the direction this game is going in. I cannot wait until August so I can have a reason to turn on my 360 again.

[Ian_Cummings]

Quote: Originally Posted by Champ24

"Death" might be too strong of a word. I don't think u can ever kill money plays in any video game. Regardless, I love the direction this game is going in. I cannot wait until August so I can have a reason to turn on my 360 again.

Thought my marketing partners wouldn't like me posting this, I have to re-iterate that statement. The technology is very new, so to say it will be the end of all money plays is probably a little optimistic for year one.

But it is going to be a great start I hope...and it's all in how we tune it. The community guys gave us some great feedback that it wasn't kicking in fast enough or strong enough on the high skill levels. For example, dave374 hammered on it quite a bit for us - he ran I believe 6 straight scrambles with McNabb before they dropped some guys out into contain and spies and shut it down. And he also was able to have pretty easy gains like (7 or 8 out of 10 times) with dumps out to the flats with Westbrook until the defense started changing things up to stop it. So that's the stuff we have to iron out and tune from now to ship. The last thing we want to do is spend all this time on the implementation and not have it work correctly because of some simple tuning values being off.

Regardless, it was a pretty sweet moment after it kicked in - he called me over and was saying "I don't think it's working", and the next time he tried to roll McNabb out again he just immediately got swarmed.

I am so stoked that we were allowed to have those guys in here for a day to find all the good issues.

[STLRams]

Thats good to hear Ian, I love the adaptive A.I. feature, NBA2K9 has it somewhat, but this feature needs to be in every sports game.