Playcalling and Playbooks Must Be Top Priority for Madden and College Football

[Steve_OS]

The power of a good playcaller can't be overstated at this point in football. Last year,...

Written By: Chase Becotte

Click here to view the article.

[canes21]

Re: Playcalling and Playbooks Must Be Top Priority for Madden and College Football

Love OS highlighting this. Very good article. The AI playing accurate to life is my biggest question with regards to both the new football games coming this summer.

Even with the 3-4 depth chart issues and the sliders not being quite sensitive enough, I still felt this was the best playing Madden ever, but this play calling issue made it too difficult to keep playing my franchises.

[Kramer5150]

Re: Playcalling and Playbooks Must Be Top Priority for Madden and College Football

I agree with this 100%, I would also add in that EA either....

1-Have penalty sliders that actually work (not just roughing the passer) OR go "under the hood" and tweak the frequency in which they happen, they have shown they can all but eliminate penalties as they claim "penalties are not fun"...

2-Have ALL the sliders be more responsive...I have witnessed no difference between coverage and reaction at default, zeroed out or maxed out, this is just an example. If there is a difference, it is so minimal that it's not really noticeable.

Madden (imo) was graphically pretty decent, but it's all the other aspects of the game that (for me) are lacking, the game is all style and no substance.

[Hammerhunker]

Re: Playcalling and Playbooks Must Be Top Priority for Madden and College Football

"...it’s about lacking the tools to be an adequate coach on the sidelines calling the plays."

This quote captures what I've always felt while playing Madden. The Playsheet doesn't exist in Madden making playcalling a spin of a wheel. The coach's playsheet IRL is organized by the result of an opponent's scouted fronts, coverage, personnel, blitz, etc. tendencies.

Could you imagine the levels of emersion a gamer would experience playing that game of chess, which is essentially still spinning the wheel, but with an educated spin.

[Gotmadskillzson]

Re: Playcalling and Playbooks Must Be Top Priority for Madden and College Football

I want to the AI to be able to execute said plays to matter. Don't matter if you have every real life play in the game if the AI don't run it correctly. That has always been the problem with Madden and NBA 2K. It is also the reason why I don't like call zone in Madden, the AI don't execute it correctly.

[IlluminatusUIUC]

Re: Playcalling and Playbooks Must Be Top Priority for Madden and College Football

"...it’s about lacking the tools to be an adequate coach on the sidelines calling the plays."

This quote captures what I've always felt while playing Madden. The Playsheet doesn't exist in Madden making playcalling a spin of a wheel. The coach's playsheet IRL is organized by the result of an opponent's scouted fronts, coverage, personnel, blitz, etc. tendencies.

Could you imagine the levels of emersion a gamer would experience playing that game of chess, which is essentially still spinning the wheel, but with an educated spin.

I really, really loved when "Coachglass" worked and would show you opponent tendencies when playing online. I mean, I'd be happy enough if the game would let me scout my *own* tendencies, by showing me how many times I call specific plays and the results.

[jerwoods]

Re: Playcalling and Playbooks Must Be Top Priority for Madden and College Football

I agree with this 100%, I would also add in that EA either....

1-Have penalty sliders that actually work (not just roughing the passer) OR go "under the hood" and tweak the frequency in which they happen, they have shown they can all but eliminate penalties as they claim "penalties are not fun"...

2-Have ALL the sliders be more responsive...I have witnessed no difference between coverage and reaction at default, zeroed out or maxed out, this is just an example. If there is a difference, it is so minimal that it's not really noticeable.

Madden (imo) was graphically pretty decent, but it's all the other aspects of the game that (for me) are lacking, the game is all style and no substance.

this will never work in madden because EA does not want a million dollar prize determed by a bad snap or bad hold u can blame MUT for this

[Kramer5150]

Re: Playcalling and Playbooks Must Be Top Priority for Madden and College Football

this will never work in madden because EA does not want a million dollar prize determed by a bad snap or bad hold u can blame MUT for this

Completely agree, this is why EA needs to up the frequency AND make sure the sliders actually do something...as it stands, in the description of the penalty sliders, it says something along the lines of being based on NFL data, which we know is a flat out lie, if the sliders actually did anything, this would be a complete non issue.

But getting back to the initial point of the topic, if playcalling and playbooks are not corrected, it won't matter what EA does with anything else, playcalling is something that simply cannot be ignored, and is obviously a HUGE part of football.

[canes21]

Re: Playcalling and Playbooks Must Be Top Priority for Madden and College Football

this will never work in madden because EA does not want a million dollar prize determed by a bad snap or bad hold u can blame MUT for this

EA could just disable penalties and other unforced errors when doing tournaments.

[cch99]

Re: Playcalling and Playbooks Must Be Top Priority for Madden and College Football

EA could just disable penalties and other unforced errors when doing tournaments.

I’d be happy even if they had the base settings not having this stuff in but allowing settings changes for sim guys.


Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

[illwill10]

Re: Playcalling and Playbooks Must Be Top Priority for Madden and College Football

I do feel that the AI handles Playcalling is very ancient and needs to be overhauled. I always felt like AI calls plays like they are using Ask Madden/Coach. It never felt like the Scripted 15 Plays, setting up plays, taking advantage of mismatches, adjustments that you see in real life.

I don't know if they need to incorporate real AI to have CPU calls plays true to life. Or if they need to create some type of Tendency system. I always felt an in-depth Tendency system would really help playcalling. If they could attach a Playcalling Tendencies to coach profiles, that would be ideal. It would just need to include Run/Pass ratio, Down & Distance, Aggressive/Passive, Leading/Trailing playcalling, Plays against Coverages. I think something like that would differentiate play calling. Right now, there's no variance in how CPU calls plays outside or Playbooks.

[canes21]

Re: Playcalling and Playbooks Must Be Top Priority for Madden and College Football

I do feel that the AI handles Playcalling is very ancient and needs to be overhauled. I always felt like AI calls plays like they are using Ask Madden/Coach. It never felt like the Scripted 15 Plays, setting up plays, taking advantage of mismatches, adjustments that you see in real life.

I don't know if they need to incorporate real AI to have CPU calls plays true to life. Or if they need to create some type of Tendency system. I always felt an in-depth Tendency system would really help playcalling. If they could attach a Playcalling Tendencies to coach profiles, that would be ideal. It would just need to include Run/Pass ratio, Down & Distance, Aggressive/Passive, Leading/Trailing playcalling, Plays against Coverages. I think something like that would differentiate play calling. Right now, there's no variance in how CPU calls plays outside or Playbooks.

That is how they call plays and why they are limited to so few plays out of the entire playbook. It works the same way for the user if they use the play call suggestions menu only. I forget the exact number, but only like the first 20 plays in any situation are the only 20 that will ever show up in the suggestions menu. That leads to little play call variety for the user or CPU. The user can at least manually move through the playbook and call plays, but the CPU is stuck forever calling from the limited selection of plays.

This is another thing that mods always fix just about instantly with each new release.

Play calling needs to be completely redone for the CPU.

[illwill10]

Re: Playcalling and Playbooks Must Be Top Priority for Madden and College Football

That is how they call plays and why they are limited to so few plays out of the entire playbook. It works the same way for the user if they use the play call suggestions menu only. I forget the exact number, but only like the first 20 plays in any situation are the only 20 that will ever show up in the suggestions menu. That leads to little play call variety for the user or CPU. The user can at least manually move through the playbook and call plays, but the CPU is stuck forever calling from the limited selection of plays.

This is another thing that mods always fix just about instantly with each new release.

Play calling needs to be completely redone for the CPU.

Exactly. It does just feel like CPU just uses Suggested Playcalls. It cannot be that way anymore. Coaches need to have more of an impact on the field, outside of just Attribute boosts. I want to see the difference between an excellent CPU playcaller and a weak one. I want to see an aggressive coach still call pass plays when having a lead.

Being an Eagles fan, their motto was "Throw to score, and run to win the game". So their tendency was to throw more early in games to get a lead, then run the ball in the 2nd half to bleed the clock and win games. Currently, it's just "This is the Down & Distance and these are the best calls to call for this situation".

CPU Play Calling definitely needs to be redone. It just feels like something that was never changed in the PS3/360 era.

[King Gro23]

Playcalling and Playbooks Must Be Top Priority for Madden and College Football

There’s so many ways over the years they could of expanded on this.

Entirely the existence of AI in Madden is the least realistic and least challenging of any sport game.

Football is the most schematic dependent sport there is. The nfl has a variety of beautifully complex offenses.

Dolphins and their sprint motion rpo’s

Chiefs Andy Reid (they will look different this year. Think of the eagles with DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin. Philly Andy Reid)

Dallas and their option spread.

Cleveland multi motion and heavy run packages. (Which is now phased out for more of blend of Stefanski runs mixed with Dorsey spread)

Cleveland doesn’t throw short passes it was slant to Amari or screen to njoku.

Where as teams like the rams , Cincy, and Pittsburgh dot underneath routes.

None of these personnel’s are replicated neither are play styles.


The sad thing is there are amazing resources that show you the formations and personell, and motion plays need to be increased by 300% in Madden.




Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

[Kramer5150]

Re: Playcalling and Playbooks Must Be Top Priority for Madden and College Football

The sad thing is there are amazing resources that show you the formations and personell, and motion plays need to be increased by 300% in Madden.Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

It's just too bad EA being the only "simulation" game on the market they don't have access to these resources....oh wait??