Ian, worth a look.
 

O.k, first, let me say i already respect you because i actually read your response to a gamer complaint in an attemp to tune the Game. I wouldn't believe it if I didnt see it, thanks.

Lets get to the bidness.

I think after you totally revamp the player movement animations, specifically DB backpeddling, change of direction, application of acceleration rating(how different and effective a CB goes from 0 to 60 vs a DL), the passing as an attack can be made as real as it gets by making a simple change and distributing rating accordingly.

GET RID OF THE CIRCLE ON THE FIELD THAT SHOWS WHERE THE BALL WILL LAND.

Thats it. After that, the Game will completely change if you structure gameplay/ratings off of this.

EXAMPLE-

Without the circle, QB's will be forced to live and die with the actual abilities that make a QB the most difficult position to succeed at. THR POW & ACC, AWR. I would add a few ratings specifically for QB's, like pocket presence, blittz recognition, and most important, COMPOSURE. Stop using universal rating sets. We dont need to know a QB's kicking rating, if I try to kick it with my QB, i should just accept something unproductive to happen.

Which reminds me. change your philosophy on ratings and you wont have to worry about gamers saying the ratings dont mean anything. Simple logic to understand, I cant say if it is to implement. Everyone wants "realism", O.k, Make the ratings change per play. Can we all agree that Randy Moss with New England isnt the same Randy Moss with Oakland? O.k, dont give me a team rating that stays the same vs any team I'm playing against. Example, Indianapolis' offensive rating may be a 95 against Detroit, but IMO a 88 against San Diego UNLESS I get some things established ON THE FIELD. Which is my point. Let me see how we MATCH-UP, I represent their potential. Change ratings due to match-ups and situations per play and definitely per position. You cant run 3 hurry-up Hail Mary's in a row and not have someone tired or at least not as fast as normal.

Back to Circle on the Field - Now, if your QB has a THR POW & ACC of 93,85 for example. When you throw the ball, You HAVE TO ACCOUNT for his weaker ACC rating. Yes, he can throw any route(with proper time, footing, COMPOSURE), but the key is, where is it going to go? Inside/outside shoulder, short/long(BASED ON RATINGS) This is where the Game is and how you make your ratings mean EVERYTHING, because now you may have to manually switch to the WR to MAKE PROPER ADJUSTMENTS. AND, in order to do that you may have to put air under it(without a circle). That ELIMINATES complaints because now we are both playing the ball which then turns the Game to manual WR/DB ratings. But what if that DB is Champ Bailey? He may not need to be manually controlled which differentiates between team strengths and weaknesses.

Your gonna have less complaints because you are conditioning us to make plays. For the greatest amount of success you need to do what the team is designed to do. If New England comes out in a 5 wide, and Detroit runs a 4-3, you will learn quickly why a Dime or more is necessary. And sorry, but yes, if that means NE then comes out in 4 wide and draws you to death because you have to spread out with them welcome to the NFL. No one will complain because A.) Detroit vs NE is a NE win and 2.) NO ONE WILL BRING Detroit against NE anyway.

Just my thoughts, I'll go to running the ball later, it just requires deeper changes in philosophy because it involves more pieces of your team working together determined by more position specific ratings for the A.I/CPU to read.

Defense also. and quickly, who is responsible for allowing the CPU to translate difficulty by allowing itself to know what plays we call? If I quick audible from ACE SPREAD STREAKS to dive, how is the defense coincidentally moving players into the box, so then if I reset, so do they? Practice mode it.

THANKS

Re: Ian, worth a look.
 

this could help get rid of the rocket catch int. as well because with the circle you just have to go 1 or 2 yards in front of it and strafe jump

Re: Ian, worth a look.
 

Granted- Safeties do make it from one side of the field to other with glaring speed sometimes when their not even in the screen.

GET RID OF THE CIRCLE ON THE FIELD THAT SHOWS WHERE THE BALL WILL LAND. - - - - - What does that have to do with the quaterback? That what also take away from the manual element of the game. And if they do take the circle out they would have give a view with the ball and the WR & CB in question which would be essentially like having a circle on the field.

I like how Ian interacts with the fans on the forum, so if your going to say its worth a look. It should be worth a look. (It's not, no disrespect)

And what no one understands is if you change CB change of direction and accel, we have to do the same thing for the WR or we'll have the same NO DEFENSE games we had before 05' came
out. People only remember the big plays made by WRs, they never think about how many time CBs don't give them up.

Man coverage needs work and there definatley needs to be more CB/WR interaction.

Re: Ian, worth a look.
 

Getting rid of the circle is arguably the worst idea I've ever heard on anyy Madden related forum

Re: Ian, worth a look.
 

What if the offense could only see the spot where the ball landed? When you practice, you have routes down pat and a generally idea of where the ball will be.

Re: Ian, worth a look.
 

getting rid of the circle is a horrible idea. think about it....you throw a deep lob on a streak route and you take control of your WR but wait where did the ball go its not on the screen...how do i figure out where its at...o no the CP runs and magically knows where it is and picks it.

i personally hate the manual catch because it really does ruin the game by making players who arent really that good perform tasks that shouldnt be able to do in the first place.

I also disagree that they should remove all the players stats that people deem pointless because if i want to move a Olineman to TE because he can catch/block how would i be able to see that if you removed it. This was one of me beefs with HC because i wanted to see other stats of players like a Dlineman zone/man coverage but i had to go into some backdoor to find it.

I do agree that there needs to be different stats added for QBs. short, medium, long acc need to be added in. Carson Palmer is best example because he sucks on short routes but is accurate on the deep routes. throw distance and throw speed HUGE stat that i dont understand why it isnt added. QBs like Tom brady get 99 throw power because they have great throw speed and can throw a 60 yard bomb. in madden he should have great(95-99) throw speed and above average(88-92) throw distance. composure would be nice but as it stands the game is already broken enough and they need to fix the rest of it before they add another feature that may hurt things more then help.

Re: Ian, worth a look.
 

Thank you fellas for some feedback. I respect people period so dont be afraid to say what you feel, I did. I see some thought deeper into it, that's the point, but nothing will please everyone.

To clarify, the point with the Circle is to implement a more user controlled Game. I think of it as an easier way to seperate not only good teams from lesser teams, but individual players. Its basically an inhanced impact player system. If your team has good LB's but weaker DB's, This system will mean you may have a harder time getting stops if spread out. BUT, if the team your facing isnt a spread out(run & gun) offense, now its a Game.

What seperates good/bad defenses now? A good defense reads and reacts quicker. I call it an "active zone". Go into practice mode and lab against a "good" defense running the same zone play. I dont think a defense should be able to have the same success playing a zone as man unless their personel is suited for it.

Even Baltimore kept 2 S 15 yrds of the LOS against Indianapolis. But not against New England. Why, Baltimore gambled they could still control the box against Indy, but couldnt risk it against New England. I want the ability to gameplan like that. I feel cheated when a "good" defense makes a play just to justify their rating.

Tired, talk more on it later.

Re: Ian, worth a look.
 

Hey, I give this guy credit for thinking outside the box on this one. He latched onto a detail I don't think any of us have really considered. Maybe getting rid of the circle itself isn't the best idea on Earth, but it's the sort of lateral thinking that Madden's been needing for years.

There are ways to create a similar effect to the "landing zone indicator", so to speak, that would do exactly what he's talking about without totally leaving players blind. Some baseball games rely 100% on the ball's shadow (stylizing it, admittedly, in order to make it an indicator), and force the player to figure the landing zone based on what they see.

The trouble is that this takes away from the manual player and puts the advantage into the hands of the guy that lets the CPU do the work. People will abandon user control in favor of CPU control, and while I'm generally a "throw it and let the receiver go get it" type of player, I don't wanna see the BETTER players penalized.

Stick skills have their place. All I want is to be able to match it with my knowledge of the game.

But, like I said, good post. Good idea on the basis that it forces people to look at things from a different angle. Also, way to take criticism in stride. I hope you stick around.