25 Days of Madden: The Vision Cone

[dat boi Q]

How could you hate the only feature madden ever made that separated good qbs from bad ones.
Guess everyone isn't as sim as they say they are.
And most just hated it because they wasn't good at it.

[Big FN Deal]

Quote: Originally Posted by SageInfinite

Honestly that would be my favorite way to simulate having to look at a receiver. Tap the icon once to look at the specific receiver, press it again to throw. Add in realistic qb animations so the quarterback actually has to turn his head and body to throw to that receiver and I'm good. I hated the idea of steering a cone.

This makes sense but it's not necessary for some innovative feature to passing. By now, what you are referring to should be inherently integrated into the passing game. Although one button passing icons are old hat, they could still be realistic IF the in-game player went through the necessary motions when that one button was pressed. For example, if Payton Manning is inherently going through his progressions on a play and the User input was integrated into that, that would make the passing game organic and QBs inherently different. However, there is this mindset around Tiburon football video games that believes that is tantamount to watching, not playing.

The whole notion that Vision Cone was ever intended to be "sim" is not true, imo, it was just a meant to be a way to have the AWR rating matter for User control, ie stick skill. It was never about differentiating in-game QBs but differentiating User skill set.

Gamers that expect a realistic football video game fool ourselves when we see features like "QB Vision", "throw a receiver open", "total control passing", "no huddle/hurry up", "preplay adjustments", etc added to Tiburon football games, into thinking they are being added for football realism, when that's NEVER the priority, which leaves us baffled at the implementation. However, if we take a step back and realize that regardless of the features moniker
realism is NOT the priority, User control is, then their implementation makes way more sense.

[coachmac75]

In 2006 QB did not have three accuracy (short, medium, deep) and a single THA skill. Then Cone was an awesome improvement or realism/sim in the fact that it was creating a REAL difference between Peyton Manning or Tom Brady versus other QB to represent their AWR (because the size of the cone was driven by the AWR skill).

It was making full/total sense for people playing online in a franchise mode for multiple season because then it made sense to invest a lot of cap space for Manning or Brady (QB not mobile but with high awr). It was an incredible improvement. Before the cone some below average QB could lead their team to SB (I played a bowl with Josh McCown as QB).

When it was removed (for the change of engine) then the three accuracies (short, med, deep) were introduced to separate QB. The cone then was not anymore really needed even if I think it would still make sense from a strict sim style standpoint.

Regardless of opinions (pro or cons) the cone was a revolution and an important change to the game.

That are my 2 cents

[tril]

Quote: Originally Posted by Big FN Deal

This makes sense but it's not necessary for some innovative feature to passing. By now, what you are referring to should be inherently integrated into the passing game. Although one button passing icons are old hat, they could still be realistic IF the in-game player went through the necessary motions when that one button was pressed. For example, if Payton Manning is inherently going through his progressions on a play and the User input was integrated into that, that would make the passing game organic and QBs inherently different. However, there is this mindset around Tiburon football video games that believes that is tantamount to watching, not playing. The whole notion that Vision Cone was ever intended to be "sim" is not true, imo, it was just a meant to be a way to have the AWR rating matter for User control, ie stick skill. It was never about differentiating in-game QBs but differentiating User skill set. Gamers that expect a realistic football video game fool ourselves when we see features like "QB Vision", "throw a receiver open", "total control passing", "no huddle/hurry up", "preplay adjustments", etc added to Tiburon football games, into thinking they are being added for football realism, when that's NEVER the priority, which leaves us baffled at the implementation. However, if we take a step back and realize that regardless of the features moniker realism is NOT the priority, User control is, then their implementation makes way more sense.

good points. I think that's what most sim users want is user control implemented along with player ratings/attributes.
A perfect example of this, (and its been mentioned in this thread) is the shot stick in the NBA2k series and the different pitching options in MLB the SHOW. and the MLB2k series.

QB control, by now should have progressed to this point by now.. several other football games had some innovative qb mechanics/controls that the Madden developers should have looked into.
The vision cone was a good concept, and if they stuck with it probably would have been refined by now.

I agree with folks who say that qb'ing in Madden is not organic enough. we should be beyond just pressing a button.

The passing feature in NCAA 14 is a step in the right direction. the lead passing along with taking control of the receivers is nicely implemented, but has been done before, and done much more effectively in other football titles. APF2k8 (advanced passing), Backbreaker, as well as NFL Fever had good passing mechanics

[Keys99]

Personally I liked the vision cone, it made the game realistic. It took some time getting used to, but once I did the passing game felt authentic. Back then a lot of my friends played with M.Vick so they hated it, b/c you couldn't throw accurate passes in any direction. They should have kept improving it, or just made it optional, but they scrapped it cause the online community complained.

[Lukin4]

Best feature ever... Added realism on both sides of the ball

[ggsimmonds]

I loved it. It is interesting to me that now so many people scream for a greater challenge, more sim gameplay, and greater differences between the QBs when the vision cone did all this and it was widely hated.

After they removed the cone it was back to making Kyle Boller a pro bowl QB.

[The JareBear]

It needs this or a throwing meter.