Official Strategy Pad Discussion Thread

[bo4345]

Takes some getting used to. But it's much slower to defensively hot route. I generally do not like the addition.

[Palo20]

Quote: Originally Posted by ChubbyBanana

Is there possibly no way whatsoever that you see the strategy pad becoming "natural" to you at sometime in the future? I mean at first I didn't like the some features of games in past, thought they were hideous and a headache. Eventually I grew to become adjusted to them and in come cases found them better than their predecessors. I suppose it's just different strokes/folks.

I think the worst part is that I play Madden and NCAA extensively, and now they have 2 different systems. I will have to master this new one while still remembering the old one.

As has been said, the audible system at the line is one of the last things anyone wanted addressed.

And the defensive playbooks are so generic that changes at the line are necessary for a lot of people, not just nanoers.

[MrSkagTrendy]

One of the hardest parts is getting my hand to actually use the d-pad. I NEVER use the d-pad so it doesn't feel natural going there. Once i'm used to that it'll be fine.

[jamaster14]

i would be much more inclined to give strategy pad a pass if it wasnt just a change in how things are inputted, and came with additional functionality or functionality we've had in the past....

for instance:

- being able to have your CB bump individual WR's but not all of them
- being able to bump 1 WR, and play off the other WR
- being able to have your CB shade a WR inside or outside
- being able to playmaker a LB's zone to the first down marker

things like this. the way i see it, you need to either add simplicity or add functionality. adding additional steps without adding functionality doesnt seem to make sense to me.

more button presses with less functionality makes the user inferface very clunky

[sin18]

this seems like it is going to be horrible, i personally love the way you can fly through defensive adjustments the past few years.

honestly i play a simply, super aggressive defense. i use alot man to man with heavly blitz's with a few zone blitz plays thrown in. i honestly run 6 plays 75% of the time with another 10 or so to mix in different coverages or situations. i do run plays out of many different formations tho, 4-6 65% of the time with 3-4, 4-3, and 1-5-5 thrown in.

recently to help hide my plays from the offense i usually audible into the 1-5-5 or some other different line up that i intent to run, then quickly send the defense into a huge adjustment after the O-line is set. show the O alot of movement and make them question if and where the blitz is comming from....

sounds like my new defensive wrinkle just got phased out by a bad decision. i will admit i havent played the demo, but ive read alot of reviews and basically the fact the it is just slower to make adjustments suuucks! i was so pissed when they ditched pass/run commit, this is the 2nd off season adjustment that has made my ability to play GREAT defense take a step back

i want to say that i actually loved madden 10, seems like alot of people want to nit pick and complain, and sure, there is alot wrong with the gm, but its a damn good game and IMO football is the hardest sport to recreate, 22 ppl on a field doing alot very quickly in a matter of 7 seconds with the most rich and reactive atmoshpere's in sports(soccer compeates here, but football is the MOST technical sport there is)


but all in all this is a huge deal breaker, ive bought every madden in a week of it comming out since 2004 when i was 14, but if i hear another majorly bad decision like this i will be forced to just play madden 2010, take a year off from madden alil, and wait for 'the year of the franchise'.... booo

[ttmatt]

Quote: Originally Posted by jamaster14

i would be much more inclined to give strategy pad a pass if it wasnt just a change in how things are inputted, and came with additional functionality or functionality we've had in the past.... for instance: - being able to have your CB bump individual WR's but not all of them - being able to bump 1 WR, and play off the other WR - being able to have your CB shade a WR inside or outside - being able to playmaker a LB's zone to the first down marker things like this. the way i see it, you need to either add simplicity or add functionality. adding additional steps without adding functionality doesnt seem to make sense to me. more button presses with less functionality makes the user inferface very clunky

Exactly the way I feel. We are not getting any new functionality at all. All they did was make the interface more clunky and cumbersome. This is not an improvement in any shape or form. There is absolutely no need to tie all of these functions to one button when there are several buttons going unused. Its like trying to play a RTS game with one button. It makes no sense to go through multiple menus trying to make adjustments in real time. This is live.

[sky454]

This is the reason why the strategy pad has been put in the game.

It was meant to be "clunky" to hot route, shift, etc. your players. What this does is it makes it difficult to manually reposition a ton of players to set up nano blitzes, unrealistic things like moving 3-5 players prior to the snap across the opposite side of the screen garbage. This is EA's way of trying to eliminate exploits, including trying to reposition players to exploit the poor a.i. of the offensive line.

EA is intentionally making it difficult and time consuming to setup whatever you're trying to do whether it is an exploit or not. If you don't want to deal with someone setting up exotic nanos, hot routing every receiver, repositioning a ton of defensive players on one side of the line, well here is your solution, like it or not.

Obviously there are better ways to address the problem with exploits but this is EA's solution take it or leave it.

[nyj721]

How does the strategy pad stop cheesers? If regular people are learning it within a few games, what is keeping cheesers from doing so as well?