I know that this seems like somewhat of a drastic change, but here are my arguments for why this should go:
1) Honestly, how often are you in control of a player where you DON'T want him to run as fast as possible? Not very often. Certainly not often enough to warrant having to hit a separate button to get him to do so. Running should basically work based on the direction that the stick is pressed, so that varying degrees would result in varying speeds.
2) It would free up a button to do other things. Here are the things that I think you could replace the sprint button with, which would make the game better. I'm basing this of 360 controls, but the same changes would apply to the PS3.
QB - Pressing the right trigger takes down the passing icons and makes the QB go into runner mode. Now you can spin, stiff arm, juke, etc...Would have two-fold benefits. First, it would reduce the ability of people to run around at full speed with the QB and then suddenly throw to a WR. Second, for teams that have really mobile and athletic QBs, it would allow the user to actually try and evade people behind the LOS with something other than simply sprinting around in circles. I could even see implementing special QB pocket juke animations.
RB/ballcarrier - Pressing Right Trigger enters what I would term "traffic mode." This mode basically makes it easier to make moves in a tight area. So it would sacrifice forward speed for greater ability to move laterally. This would make it easier to do things like pull off hop steps into/out of a hole, or to make quick shifty moves that shake a defender, to get skinny in the hole, etc...In a lot of ways, this would almost be like an offensive strafe button for ballcarriers. When you press it, it could automatically turn your guy to have his shoulders parallel with the goal line, and then you can use the left and right jukes to perform appropriate moves that would be designed to work in a small space. The problem with the juke button right now is that it's often just too drastic of a movement to work in space very well, and it's kind of a dramatic movement that's designed for the open field. What I'm thinking here are more like smaller, more subtle jukes and moves, that are designed to be easy to control and which work in tight areas.
Receiver/Ball in the Air - So one of my biggest gripes about the way that the passing game works is that there's no way to get a receiver or DB to orient himself/look at the ball, without completely turning around via the stafe button (which now you can't even do on offense due to the exploits that was causing). You could use the right trigger as a mode that would make the player "look" at the ball. So his head would orient on the ball, and maybe you access some slightly different run animations that have some sort of speed difference, but the point is that now with him oriented on the ball, he will go for the catch or swat when you press the button. So it's kind of like a strafe concept, but the player doesn't stop and turn around, and it doesn't access any special jump animations.
Defense - I had a couple of ideas on defense. One was that you could combine right trigger with the right analog stick, and then have a set of custom defensive moves to try and defeat blocks. Right now, if you wanted to use the right analog stick for anything on defense, you have to get rid of pass commit and the hit-stick. Another idea is that you could use the right trigger as a power mode on defense. So currently, if defenders run into blockers, they really do so with almost no momentum or power, and end up getting blocked. This is problematic for power run type plays, or other plays where some defenders would, rather than trying to run around a blocker, would actually want to power into a blocker, knock him back, and blow up the play. I'm thinking this would be good for all kinds of situations. You've got LBs blitzing with a RB picking him up. You've got kickoff coverage with the wedge busters. You've got linebackers taking on fullbacks in the hole on lead running plays. What this would do is make size and strength, in addition to speed, actually matter for players other than your defensive linemen.
Thoughts?
1) Honestly, how often are you in control of a player where you DON'T want him to run as fast as possible? Not very often. Certainly not often enough to warrant having to hit a separate button to get him to do so. Running should basically work based on the direction that the stick is pressed, so that varying degrees would result in varying speeds.
2) It would free up a button to do other things. Here are the things that I think you could replace the sprint button with, which would make the game better. I'm basing this of 360 controls, but the same changes would apply to the PS3.
QB - Pressing the right trigger takes down the passing icons and makes the QB go into runner mode. Now you can spin, stiff arm, juke, etc...Would have two-fold benefits. First, it would reduce the ability of people to run around at full speed with the QB and then suddenly throw to a WR. Second, for teams that have really mobile and athletic QBs, it would allow the user to actually try and evade people behind the LOS with something other than simply sprinting around in circles. I could even see implementing special QB pocket juke animations.
RB/ballcarrier - Pressing Right Trigger enters what I would term "traffic mode." This mode basically makes it easier to make moves in a tight area. So it would sacrifice forward speed for greater ability to move laterally. This would make it easier to do things like pull off hop steps into/out of a hole, or to make quick shifty moves that shake a defender, to get skinny in the hole, etc...In a lot of ways, this would almost be like an offensive strafe button for ballcarriers. When you press it, it could automatically turn your guy to have his shoulders parallel with the goal line, and then you can use the left and right jukes to perform appropriate moves that would be designed to work in a small space. The problem with the juke button right now is that it's often just too drastic of a movement to work in space very well, and it's kind of a dramatic movement that's designed for the open field. What I'm thinking here are more like smaller, more subtle jukes and moves, that are designed to be easy to control and which work in tight areas.
Receiver/Ball in the Air - So one of my biggest gripes about the way that the passing game works is that there's no way to get a receiver or DB to orient himself/look at the ball, without completely turning around via the stafe button (which now you can't even do on offense due to the exploits that was causing). You could use the right trigger as a mode that would make the player "look" at the ball. So his head would orient on the ball, and maybe you access some slightly different run animations that have some sort of speed difference, but the point is that now with him oriented on the ball, he will go for the catch or swat when you press the button. So it's kind of like a strafe concept, but the player doesn't stop and turn around, and it doesn't access any special jump animations.
Defense - I had a couple of ideas on defense. One was that you could combine right trigger with the right analog stick, and then have a set of custom defensive moves to try and defeat blocks. Right now, if you wanted to use the right analog stick for anything on defense, you have to get rid of pass commit and the hit-stick. Another idea is that you could use the right trigger as a power mode on defense. So currently, if defenders run into blockers, they really do so with almost no momentum or power, and end up getting blocked. This is problematic for power run type plays, or other plays where some defenders would, rather than trying to run around a blocker, would actually want to power into a blocker, knock him back, and blow up the play. I'm thinking this would be good for all kinds of situations. You've got LBs blitzing with a RB picking him up. You've got kickoff coverage with the wedge busters. You've got linebackers taking on fullbacks in the hole on lead running plays. What this would do is make size and strength, in addition to speed, actually matter for players other than your defensive linemen.
Thoughts?
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