The problem with Personality + is the tendencies they have are too general. They don't take into account the players that are good at EVERYTHING, like Adrian Peterson, or Andre Johnson. Personality + has you choose one or the other, which may be how some people want it, but that would leave a lot to be desired.

For P+ to work in Madden or NCAA, the choices and categories would have to be more drawn out. That's why I prefer NBA 2K's system, because not only do they make the tendencies base on percentages, but they also allow for elite jack-of-all-trade players, AND, they allow you to choose animations for a player...

Re: Madden Needs Team, Player, & Coach Tendency Ratings
 

More AI personalities like this, combined with well-designed and impactful ratings would do a lot. You could see players trying things, but failing because their AWR sucks - like a QB that tries to make things happen, but ends up throwing the ball to the other team because he "loses" guys in coverage or holds the ball too long and takes hits and sacks instead of just throwing it away once he's outside the tackle box.

Some of the things the OP talks about could be AI personalities. It could favor certain attributes in a WR in certain situations (for example, it might like strength and size inside the red zone, but from "20 to 20" it might like a Wes Welker type and favor AGI, AWR, and RTE.

Or another would favor fast WR with decent CTH because this personality goes deep.

Combine this with coaching personalities for playcalling and GM personalities for roster building, and you pretty much do have what the OP was talking about, and yeah, that would be a great game.

Re: Madden Needs Team, Player, & Coach Tendency Ratings
 

The thing about percentages in a vacuum is that they don't give the factors that influenced that percentage.

Using more general personalities is probably more realistic because the player HAS to stay flexible to the situation. A player might like to throw right - but if the defense has, say, Revis over there, and the QB just has "I throw right 60% of the time" - it could make it too easy to stop.

But if the QB has "throw to the fastest WR with the weakest CB" maybe some weeks, that's right, maybe some days it's the slot over the middle against a slow MLB on a Cover 2 team, or maybe it's running comebacks against a team that's playing off your fastest WR who's on the left, then you call an out and up or slant and go, your fast WR beats his guy on the left and is wide open for six.

A general preference allows the player to still have his tendencies, but also try to execute those based on situation. I mean, if Andre Johnson is on my right - I'm throwing right a lot too. But what happens with its, say, Laurent Robinson instead? Am I still going to throw right 60% of the time to him?

As far as the do-it-all types, they really don't need a "personality" or a general one would really let them shine. An average QB with "throw to the fastest WR beyond 10 yds deep" will sometimes pick the wrong WR (his idea/ability to read "open" is not as good), not to mention his accuracy might be off, etc.

An elite QB will pick the right target most of the time, deliver the ball on time and on target, and hit his man. If anything, a specific, narrow tendency might *hurt* elite players - forcing them into situations where a more general tendency would let their skills and instincts shine, while still having a certain style to them.

A Joe Montana type QB might favor "open WR around 5 to 15 yds". Dan Marino might have "WR 20+ yds" as his first look. Both can still be elite and both will still play different styles of QB, just like in real life.

Re: Madden Needs Team, Player, & Coach Tendency Ratings
 

To me, this stuff falls under the "scheme" category rather than personality. An offensive scheme would be better to determine where and when a QB makes his throws. A Marino type offense would have deeper routes, more downfield throws. A Montana, west coast attack would use shorter routes, more timing throws and quicker checkdowns. I think if they can get the schemes to work better, and actually have the QBs use either pre snap reads or progressions, then that stuff will take care of itself.

I think the personality or tendencies would best come into play to determine which QBs might force the ball downfield vs. taking a checkdown. Maybe we're saying similar things, but I just think scheme should determine a lot about how a QB plays.

Re: Madden Needs Team, Player, & Coach Tendency Ratings
 

KB, your last post is how madden plays now, throw to the fastest guy/ guy with the slowest DB etc.....

and this is what makes this game sometimes unplayable for me...

when you play the giants/ cowboys the slot ALWAYS GETS OPEN FIRST so manninghan/ bryant gets 10+ catches everytime........becuase they have the high ACC/spd, and run shorter routes

however on sundays austin/ williams and nicks/smith get the clutch targets.,

QB targeting Wr if fixed gives us all those suggestions above.... i am all for tendencies i have preached it for years but this thread has many points to how tendencies might get things too predictable....

however

let awareness dictate on offense who the QB targets first them let him progress from there out.( i know how can we elininate HB's from this)

the only tendency i want done right is for the QB to look for his star first, i have seen plays where guys are wide open but Qb's miss them because they are locked in on their star player.

this is what seperated the greats from the good guys, this should take care of the deep ball as well, A. Johnson goes deep thats where shaub is looking.

Re: Madden Needs Team, Player, & Coach Tendency Ratings
 

I agree with most of this. The way Madden plays right now is the QB only realizes when a guy gets open, then throws to him. That's why, as you mentioned, we see so many throws to the slot--the game allows them to get open faster. Also why we see the QB hang in the pocket, step to the right a little, then he throws way back across the field to a FB. It's because the QB reads him as "open" yet has no awareness as to which player he is and where he is located (obviously doesn't make sense to throw that pass).

As far as the Smith/Nicks/Manningham and Austin/Wiliams/Bryant combos, Madden still has to do a better job of putting the proper WRs in the slot for these teams. Manningham and Bryant are the #3 WRs in real life, but they don't play in the slot, Smith and Austin do. If Madden got this more consistent (they're doing a better job putting Welker and Ward in the slot in some formations), we would see a more realistic game from the CPU. But as far as Madden is concerned, #3 WR means slot WR and that's not always the case.

Re: Madden Needs Team, Player, & Coach Tendency Ratings
 

Tendencies I'd want to see in Madden:
QB- scramble, audible play, hot route receiver, throw ball away, check down ball, hurry-up offense

HB/WR/QB- juke, stiff arm, lower shoulder, jump over pile

FB/OL/TE- cut block, pancake block, hold defender

WR/TE- attempt spectacular catch, alter route

DL/LB- attempt finesse moves, attempt power moves, wrap-up tackle, big hit

CB- press receiver, play off receiver, go for INT

S- big hit, go for INT

Team tendencies
Offense: hurry-up, pass, run, wildcat/trick plays
Defense: man blitz, zone blitz, man-to-man, zone coverage, agressiveness(when blitzing)

Coach tendencies
Offense: bench player, sub player, go for 4th down
Defense: sub player, agressiveness

I'd prefer to see those position tendencies before team/coaching tendencies though.

Re: Madden Needs Team, Player, & Coach Tendency Ratings
 

NFL 2K5 had this. Before you went into the game, you would see a coaches pie chart of where they pass the ball more, which way they ran most of the time. If they were a running team more than a passing team, or balanced. You were able to put any coach on any team, like I can put Andy Reid on the Packers and the Packers would play like the Eagles.

Madden doesn't need to do this because they're the only football team in town.