Operation Sports Forums - MADDEN 10 Updated Info Thread

Okay, I'm going to try to keep this as up to date as possible. Anytime I come across anything of interest that's actually verifiable, I'll post it. Once there's enough information to do so, I'll organize the top post into categories.

Hard Data

Release: Friday, August 14th

Platforms: XBox 360, Playstation 2, Playstation 3, Wii, PSP

Tagline: "Fight for Every Yard"

Official Website: http://maddennfl.easports.com/home.action

Official Announcement: EA's Madden NFL 10 Kicks Off Season on August 14th

Demo: Confirmed for early August

* Game Information

01-28 Everything You See on Sunday, See it in Madden By Ian Cummings. A mission statement of sorts.

02-01 Madden NFL 10: First Look by Ian Cummings, introduction to Procedural Awareness.

02-06 All optional onscreen data is off by default- Weapon icons and all other informational overlays except for the score bug are now OFF by default

02-09 Madden NFL 10 Player Ratings- A New Philosophy by Donny Moore, a discussion on the new direction for player ratings in M10

02-16 Quick Madden NFL 10 Update by Ian Cummings, two new ratings added to Madden 10; Half sacks and assists

2-23 Improvements to QB Play by Ian Cummings, explains Layered Blending for getting passes off under pressure, new QB ratings, new landing zone

03-02 DB/WR Interaction by Ian Cummings, the addition of defensive assignments, improvements in route and coverage animations, jostling, and improved press play

03-18 AFL Throwbacks to be included in Madden 10

03-09 Creating 'Sim-Style" Gameplay in Madden 10 by Ian Cummings, discusses inconsistant animation speed fixes, the FB dive play, QB dropbacks, pass velocity, game speed, and specific player speed. Here we learn of the new game speed and differential slider.

03-16 Player Momentum in Madden NFL 10 by Ian Cummings, discusses turn rates while running at full speed and animations to deal with change of direction.

03-23 Fight for Every Yard by Peter Moore, a brief discussion on the direction of Madden in general, and the first Madden 10 screen shot.

03-24 NCAA Football 10: Pocket Protection by Russell Kiniry, a discussion of line play in Tiburon's 2010 football titles. Verified by Ian to be in Madden 10.

03-24 Breaking Down "The Shot" by Michael Young, Madden's Art Director goes through the first screen shot, discussing Depth of Field technology in Madden 10, single digit helmet numbers, Superbowl patches, custom Superbowl fields, hand towels, refs and chain gang, captains patches, secondary color equipment, and nameplates.

03-25 New penalties added including Illegal Forward Pass and late hit out of bounds. Ian is accepting suggestions for other penalties and how they should work in game.

03-26 NCAA Football 10: Player Pursuit Angles by Russell Kiniry, a discussion and video preview of Tiburon football's new pursuit logic. Verified to also apply to Madden (though Ian Cummings warns that the locomotion systems for backs are different)

03-26 Pursuit Angles in NCAA 10 also applies to Madden, as per this post by Ian Cummings. Note Ian's statement that the locomotion in Madden is quite different.

03-30 Customization in Madden NFL 10 by Ian Cummings, a look at an inside design document as well as the verification that CPU Sliders are back, Accelated Clock is in with a customizable threshold, there is potential for adjustable cameras and control schemes, new Fatigue slider, Coach mode, and several new on/off switches for interface items.

04-01 April Fool's (plus some real info) by Ian Cummings, an admission that the original April 1st blog (found here) was a joke, plus layered blending and steering as it applies to sideline catches.

4-6 Franchise Mode Improvements by Josh Looman, a general discussion of fixing previously existing problems in franchise mode.

4-10 Adaptive AI in Madden 10 by Ian Cummings, a description of a new supplemental AI system to take away overly successful plays.

4-13 The importance of an early community day. by Ian Cummings, includes a new screen shot revealing some new equipment.

Rumor/Possibility/Conceptual

* Ian Cummings has indicated that blocking and general OL/DL interaction is a priority this year. Strong possibility of seeing the branching animation system will be expanded to include line moves.

* Time has been set aside in February specifically for tuning the effect of player height and weight on what happens in-game.

* "Pileups" in short yardage situations are something they are "looking into", but there are potential pitfalls they have encountered before (large groups of players locked in animation make it easier for the back to simply break outside and have a free run at the endzone). It's possible using branching animations could create a better environment for this.

* The infamous jumping spin animation that so often plays for both the receiver and the defensive back at the same time has been removed from the game. Some others have as well, and EA is considering a blog specifically to explain which animations have been removed and why.

* The large names on jerseys issue has been fixed.

* Due to time constraints, it is unclear whether the probowl in franchise mode will be moved to the appropriate week.

* Ian Cummings has claimed massive graphical upgrades.

* Phil Frazier has indicated the possibility of either an in-game play editor similar to LegacyGen, or a far more powerful play editor that would be web based and export to your PSN/XBL account

* 2010 Score bug will be on the bottom of the screen

* Per Donny Moore- addressing issues with QBs disappearing by the third round, is confident rookie salaries will be more realistic in '10, imported NCAA draft classes will be addressed (tuning incoming class conversions)

* Madden IQ tests will return, mostly unchanged.

* Both announcers will return with newly recorded material.

* There is a strong possibility the "Lead Blocker Control" will be removed for Madden 10.

* Accelerated clock, refs and chain gang on the field, classic control setting are all tentatively confirmed. In other words, 3rd parties have "confirmed" this information, but I don't yet have it from the horse's mouth.

* Ian Cummings has mentioned working on AI as he was doing so. Specific fixes he was working on was cleaning up the code so it's less of a headache to work on, fixing the AIs tendency to call a time out after no-huddling, and punting from the 35 yard line. There were other fixes deemed "secret"

* The base chance of a player biting on play action will be determined by the success of the team running the ball, weighted toward YPC, and situation (no biting on 3rd and 25). That base chance will be modified by an opposed stat check between the QB and RBs Play Action ratings and the defensive players Play Recognition rating.

* An AI bug has been fixed that caused the CPU to call timeouts in situations advantageous to its opponent.

* All coaches in Franchise mode have been re-rated and been set to act more true-to-life in terms of how they act on 4th down, specifically related to fakes and going for it.

* Per twitter, Ian seems to have made it his personal mission to fix QB sneaks. He's also stated that the FB dive problem has been solved.

* Donny Moore has stated that salary cap increases are being retuned in franchise mode and are, at the time of his statement, were in fact increasing too little. Player salaries are being retuned to fall in line with this, but ultimately it means no more ridiculous cap room figures.

* Ian Cummings mentioned that a new system was added for in-game stat banners in Madden 09 that is bearing fruit for '10. Adding new stat graphics for in-game presentation.

* Per Donny Moore; the Elusiveness rating has received a major overhaul for non-ball carrying positions, especially defensive players. This means that quick players who aren't especially experienced carrying the ball, such as CB, will not be nearly as good at duck under/slippery moves (left right twitchiness, that's agility, or juke, that's juke) wont feel like Barry Sanders anymore. Furthermore, the elusiveness rating across the board has been tuned down to better emphasize the true tackle breakers and reduce the dominance of high-speed runners.

3-18: Per Ian, player stances can now be overridden from their default position entry on a per-play basis. Hense, an outside linebacker can be placed into a 3-point stance in a 3-4 play for hybrid teams such as the Ravens.

3-18: The following teams will be 3-4 teams in Madden 10: Dolphins, Jets, Patriots, Ravens, Steelers, Browns, Chargers, Broncos, Chiefs (More than likely), 49ers, Cardinals, Packers, Cowboys

3-18 Hammond and Collinworth recorded new audio together, rather than in separate sessions.

3-22 Ian stated that the mini-games will likely no longer be used for progression and injury rehab in franchise mode anymore.

3-25 Ian has stated that the deep passing game is going to be far more varied, with more variables taken into account. Likely, Deep Accuracy will play a large role, along with the defender's coverage rating. Great cover corners will be able to slow down fast receivers, but for lesser corners, being matched up with significantly greater speed will hurt. Much more information available in this thread.

3-30 via twitter, Ian confirmed that there will be a greater degree of risk involved with the Hit Stick

3-31 Press release makes vague mentions of dragging players, pile-on-fumbles, and "new animation technology".

4-4 According to Ian, the affect of Procedural Awareness post play was surprising to the team. The players looking at one another, looking down as they hopped over a fallen opponent, gave the game more life than they anticipated.

4-4 Due to CPU considerations, referees do not have the same awareness as players, however, they will follow their assigned targets. The line judge will follow the ball carrier, the head ref will watch the trenches, etc.

4-4 Camera flashes will be scaled according to the type of game (i.e. Regular season, playoffs, Super Bowl).

4-4 A photo of Ian's workstation was released with a white board behind with the following "To Do" list- Fix QB sneaks, Tune crowd animations so they're not so busy, add "prep steps" to double jukes so they're physically realistic, and fix the spin move so you can't "double spin" to change directions. Ian verified what each of these was. Also, new break tackle animations have been added.

4-4 "Tipped passes" at the line have been added. They are rare but dramatic moments when a pass tipped at the line of scrimmage will float, giving both teams a shot at it.

4-6 "Wrap swats" are in. This means that, rather than leaping for the ball, defenders are more likely to reach in and try to knock a ball away from the receiver at the last moment.

Unfounded Rumors
* Hip Hop Gamer Show stated in a recent article that Madden 10 would feature a "brand new engine". This is, as far as I can tell, has no basis in fact. The article also mentions "Endorphin", a NaturalMotion animation system. Once again, there is no substance to backup this claim.

* A short lived rumor that NCAA draft classes could no longer be imported into Madden was shot down by Phil Frazier.

Quotables

"Teams and players will play to their strengths and weaknesses like never before. That is my personal mantra for 10."
- Madden 10 Developer Donny Moore

"I study the hell out of (NFL 2k5) now because I personally don't want people to ever to be able to compare us to them any more."
- Lead Designer Ian Cummings

3-16- "For the future vision of Madden, we want a football coach that's never played Madden before to be able to take down a Madden Challenge competitor."
- Lead Designer Ian Cummings

What will NOT be in Madden 10

* A tiered defensive playcalling system (as per NFL 2kX) will not make this version.

* The Ring Builder will not make a return to Madden 10

* Due to space considerations, the exterior stadium shots will not return for Madden 10

* Madden 10 will not have interactive sidelines, but the same "dummy" players are previous years.

* No "Game Face" photo importing technology will be in Madden 10

4-6 Madden 10 will have no historic rosters.