Catch 22/How can EA Make Madden More Sim Without Making It More Difficult?
 

I consider myself a sim style Madden gamer so this question is a look in the mirror for me.We sim ballers say we want to see Madden get closer to a NFL football simulation game every year but do we understand what that requires?

When Madden 2006 introduced the qb vision cone,I hated it!LOL
It was difficult for me to learn,I was saying things like,
"Im playing the qb,its supposed to be my vision of the field,not his!"
Now in hindsight,the qb vision cone was a great step in the right direction for sim style football IMO.But so many gamers,including myself,complained about it so much that EA made it optional at first and then just removed it all together.

This causes me to take a look in the mirror because I say I want sim style but is that a possible achievement without making the gameplay more complex?
NFL football gameplay is strategic and complex,its many different parts working together as a single unit.Can we sim ballers really expect EA to recreate that in Madden but still keep it all as simple as just pressing a button at the right time?
I use these examples to ask the bigger question,is it possible to make Madden more sim without making the gameplay more complex?

My opinon is that EA can NOT make Madden more sim without making the gameplay more complex.Any good stratergy based game,such as chess,is NOT a game you can master right out of the box.I know NFL football is NOT just a chess match but that is a part of it.

So I feel we sim ballers should support EA when they implement more complex gameplay options in Madden,even if the changes make the game initially more difficult to play.

I want to know what other people think of this Catch 22.

Re: Catch 22/How can EA Make Madden More Sim Without Making It More Difficult?
 

The Cone was awful, basically you could look at your Z WR and throw to the X WR without any penalties.
was bad implemented.

There is no need to add a CONE to the game to be more realistic.
What we need is some simple tunes.. example

QB OVERTHROWING THEIR WR MORE OFTEN! and this should be releated to thei QB ratings and not "luck".

At default settings you can complete over 80% of the passes with S.Hill.
IF you lower to 10.. guess what, you can still complete more than 60% of the passes. They need to make this sliders to work better and also it should work related to QB Ratings.

If i throw over 80% with P. Manning i expect to throw a lot less with.. T.Jackson to name one.

What we need are more variables, like Overthrows and Undetrhows (not like the one they added on Madden 10, it`s ok.. and it help, but is far from realistic). and better AI.

Re: Catch 22/How can EA Make Madden More Sim Without Making It More Difficult?
 

Simple. Have three difficulties:

Rookie (obviously the easiest, for beginners and kiddies)

Normal (Like it is now;not too easy, but not too hard)

Simulation (only for the most hardcore of the hardcore players. If like me who's a casual player and since I kinda stink at Madden, I'd stay away from this one, lol)

I like that sim difficulty. Some would argue all madden would b that already.

Re: Catch 22/How can EA Make Madden More Sim Without Making It More Difficult?
 

Here is what I would do:

- Keep the gameplay the same on all the levels. No ratings boosts.
- On easy modes, have Madden give "hints". Have him point out things like "looks like you can beat the nickel CB on this play". Essentially he tells you the coverage and who to look for.
- Mulligans (Rewinds). I love them. Awesome idea and implementation EA.
- Have the defense use "Pro Bowl" play style on easy mode. No blitzes, vanilla defense, easy to put up big points.
- Smaller playbooks for easy mode. Tier based playcalling on defense in hard mode.
- QB's make safer decisions on easy. Go for the throat more on hard.
- Fumbles, ints, penalties go way in your favor on easy. On hard, maybe have it slightly slant to the CPU.
- Franchise rules as well. Don't show rookie ratings until they get 100 snaps on easy, 1000 snaps on hard.
- Easier to negotiate contracts on easy. Harder on Madden levels.
- More money on easy? Maybe "better economy"? Hard mode, make your $$$ stretch.


Just a few ideas off the top of my head.

Re: Catch 22/How can EA Make Madden More Sim Without Making It More Difficult?
 

I agree completely, and this would probably help with the interception issues. If I turn down the interception slider, all it does is make my defensive players hands worse. I don't want that, I want the QBs to make better decisions but not have perfect accuracy

Re: Catch 22/How can EA Make Madden More Sim Without Making It More Difficult?
 

the question is... can we get a more sim type of game without taking away from the users team. right now when we play all madden all the cpus stats are 100 and all the users stats are 0. so that stud LT you have protecting the Qb's back with 99 pass block...is actually lower and not only that the DE his boosted stats are better as well. i honestly don't think a straight sim would make the game necessarily harder. we know Qb's don't have that much time in the pocket but someone will complain about not having enough time is not fun at all. if we avg 4 yds a carry with a RB someone will complain about not being able to break long runs on a consistent basis. so yes it is a catch 22. and we just have to take each game for what it is. cause we will have to individually make it as sim as can be.


As for things that could make the game different and more complex.. i always felt they could do much more with scouting and discovering attributes for incoming talent. EA should completely revamp the whole drafting/scouting aspect by not revealing anything to us besides height and weight. and have scouting actually be scouting.. let us attend pro days and let us watch the athlete run the 40. we would get a stop watch on screen and we time the runner. we time the agility drills. that way our assessments are exactly that! ours

Re: Catch 22/How can EA Make Madden More Sim Without Making It More Difficult?
 

Why does everyone hate the cone? I loved it, still do. There is a penality for not getting your cone a wr..unless your Manning and your cone covers the whole field...

cone or no cone, they need to figure out a way to change the passing so that it's challenging. It can be challenging now but the fact that most of your passes are right on the money and all you have to do is simply push a button is kind of cheesy...it takes the element of "pressure" out of the game...it takes no real skill to pass in Madden, all you have to do is find the open guy and push botton.

Just throwing ideas out there, maybe passing should be cursor based with the speed and loft of the pass be button pressure sensative to the say "R2" button...the harder you press "R2" the harder he throws the ball..or leave out the cursor and just have a combo of "R2" and the face buttons..I don't know. They need to do something though cuz what they got is getting real old.