The biggest thing I wish for, not discussed yet..

[BrianU]

*Talking about Current Gen*

I am an offline franchise vs the CPU guy. Last year Madden 13 was a mess until the last patch for me. The AI running back regularly even after tweaking sliders would put up under 50 yard rushing games for those that remember. We made a huge deal of it last year on the forum and got many many people to post their similar experience and finally EA tweaked it. The AI performed vastly different between Play Now games and CCM games. The CCM CPU AI was a joke, they could not run the ball no matter how much you tuned the sliders in their advantage.

The other big issue which wasn't really fixed and was a real immersion killer for me was how the AI playcalling was not realistic at all. I'm talking about the Run/Pass split. When the Packers and Saints would run the ball more than pass it becomes a pretty big problem. Also the scenarios they would run the ball were ridiculous. If the AI doesn't bother calling plays based on their own teams strengths I know this year will be another waste for me and I will not get much enjoyment out of the game. I am going to be extra cautious and wait to see how the game plays fully in CCM before making a judgment on purchassng or not. Even the demo is not a good test because I assume the demo is from Play Now games, where last year as I mentioned the AI played vastly different in CCM compared to Play Now. We had to make separate sliders for each mode until the last patch. I worry that the fixes they performed will not be implemented out of the box so i'll be playing close attention to the slider forum.

For the second problem of the AI playcalling tendency.. I know there are some gameplay videos out on YouTube showing the AI running the offense but I have not payed much attention. For those that have how does the AI look? It's going to take tracking the plays and figuring out the percentages to see if things are decently realistic but from the early looks has anyone been watching this? All this hype about Owner Mode, Position changes, and hot routing means very little to me if the core gameplay is lacking.

If the AI is incapable of running the ball in CCM like last year pre last patch, and the AI playcalling is generic for every team I will not be a buyer. In the few vids i've watched so far I haven't seen anything too great from the AI. I've seen them to those random phantom jukes with no players in front of them which leaves me worried. I really don't wanna see the CPU controlled running back run directly into the oppposing teams players and fall to the ground for a 2 yard gain 80% of the time in CCM like last year...

[secondsolution]

These are big issues for me as well. Judging by the videos, the CPU AI appears to be improved. It also looks like there is a better run/pass ratio. Its almost impossible to tell until we play the game though.

[SickDL]

Totaly agree. One of the biggest let downs of last year version.
Luckely giving the cpu a generatic playbook helped a bit. Only tging was you only had 6 or 7 playbooks for for 31 teams.

The problem was with the star system most of the run plays had 5 stars for most situations so the cpu would pick mostely run plays unless it was behind by 14 or more and then completely skip the running game

[BrianU]

Quote: Originally Posted by SickDL

Totaly agree. One of the biggest let downs of last year version. Luckely giving the cpu a generatic playbook helped a bit. Only tging was you only had 6 or 7 playbooks for for 31 teams. The problem was with the star system most of the run plays had 5 stars for most situations so the cpu would pick mostely run plays unless it was behind by 14 or more and then completely skip the running game

The optimal solution to the AI playcalling is allowing the user to fully customize the AI's gameplans + playbooks but I think that was only possible in Play Now last year not CCM... I doubt that has changed. Unfortunately we are stuck with however good or bad the programmers program the AI playbooks... They created CCM to connect the franchise mode, superstar mode, and online franchise mode and make all the features the exact same. So instead of upgrading online franchise one year, then adding different features to offline franchise like in years past they only have 1 mode to update.

The problem is Play Now and CCM are still seperate modes and behave differently.. We should be able to customize the AI's gameplan + playbooks FULLY and play the game the way we want. The answer is always more customization, the sliders are a good thing but we need more control. The community will always do better work than the programmers. We test every facet, get feedback from other people, and tune it. It's frustrating when the game has all the big features but the small things like I mentioned are still broken.

[LorenzoDC]

I'm with you, as an offline vs. CPU franchise player. And I would add, even after the patching, it was near impossible to get good CPU competitive results. I must have spent at least 80 hours of game play trying to get it right, and never did. Move the sliders one tick in a direction in favor of the CPU, and at some point it does from 3.7 yards per carry to 5.5 yardsw per carry. And so on.

To me, whether I buy this year at all is based on CPU AI in game play and win the CCF mode. I just can't repeat last year's futile effort to make the game right.

I'm mildly more interested in next gen because they are touting it as making better AI possible in game with more CPU to allow for individual player decision processing in real time. But the key is the execution, and first time out of the gate, I expect problems.

I'm going to watch how current gen looks by checking comments here, and even after, once next gen comes, I'll watch again. All of this means that I may not play console football this year until December, if I play at all.

I could change if I'm pleasantly surprised by reactions around here, though.

[reginald_rush]

The one thing I hope for is the A.I. refs calling penalties correctly!

[PatriotsFANBOY]

I'm new to this forum but could somebody confirm whether or not the co-op online communities with up to 3 players on a team will be back? Not team play but the online community that plays like team play. Anybody know this for sure???

[friscob]

Agree. As a fellow offline franchise player the ability to control CPU settings and playbooks would be great. Hope EA doesn't forget about the offline franchise lovers again w/ 25. Would also really love to see the player progression altered to where my players can actually get better OR WORSE based off their performance on the field. Hated 13's system