Has Madden on Next Gen made in progress with Special teams play?

[Playmakers]

Blocked FG's or Punt's?

CPU AI players that are capable of returning Punts or Kickoffs for TD's?

Long Snappers who make mistakes at times?

Seems like EA has never really considered puting this in the game even though it's apart of authentic football

[Agatorfan]

Re: Has Madden on Next Gen made in progress with Special teams play?

Blocked FG's or Punt's?

CPU AI players that are capable of returning Punts or Kickoffs for TD's?

Long Snappers who make mistakes at times?

Seems like EA has never really considered puting this in the game even though it's apart of authentic football

I've legit only blocked a kick once. that wasn't even in madden, it was in ncaa. And the snappers always seem to have a perfect snap regardless of weather/wind

[Gotmadskillzson]

Re: Has Madden on Next Gen made in progress with Special teams play?

That would be a negative. Don't hold your breathe. People already complaining penalties going to happen this year. They would probably riot if they lose a game due to a bad snap on a punt or having a punt or FG blocked.

The only year AI special teams was actually good was Madden 10. You would think it would be an easy fix to tell kick off and punt returners to stop running in a straight line directly into defenders, use the entire field. Apparently it isn't. I'm still waiting for Madden to give me an AI RB that break off Barry Sanders or even USC Reggie Bush like runs with change of directions and cut backs across the field.

[Primo80]

Re: Has Madden on Next Gen made in progress with Special teams play?

That would be a negative. Don't hold your breathe. People already complaining penalties going to happen this year. They would probably riot if they lose a game due to a bad snap on a punt or having a punt or FG blocked.

The only year AI special teams was actually good was Madden 10. You would think it would be an easy fix to tell kick off and punt returners to stop running in a straight line directly into defenders, use the entire field. Apparently it isn't. I'm still waiting for Madden to give me an AI RB that break off Barry Sanders or even USC Reggie Bush like runs with change of directions and cut backs across the field.

Yeah man, i never really thought about how players run directly into blockers. They should be taking angles and avoiding them. Kind of the way DEs run around tackles.

When i was on kickoff teams, i would fix my sights on the returner and use my peripheral vision to see who was coming at me. It was easy to trick them into thinking i didnt see them and make moves around them, at the expense of my position in the lane.

Madden is cleaning up rough edges slowly, but there are still AI behaviors that dont even try to look convincing.

[The JareBear]

Re: Has Madden on Next Gen made in progress with Special teams play?

Probably the worst and "least sim" aspect of the game IMO. Special teams seems like a tacked on afterthought, other than new meters or camera angles the last few years.

Something tells me that this area and equipment overhauls are going to be feature announcements in near future titles

[Potatoes002]

Re: Has Madden on Next Gen made in progress with Special teams play?

Special Teams are 1/3 of football but has never received attention in this series.

No bad snaps, ball does not bounce realistically on punts, long-snappers do not matter, no blocks, kicking is still really easy, no special teams depth chart/formation subs, CPU is never dangerous on returns....

Madden has addressed numerous different parts of the gameplay on the offense and defense over the last few years, so I am still hopeful a special teams overhaul is on the horizon.

[WingedLion14]

Re: Has Madden on Next Gen made in progress with Special teams play?

My guess is we'll see it in a future title - chances are, they didn't want to bite off too much this year, and instead want to focus on getting what they are focusing on (the passing game) done right, rather than having several new systems working horribly.

[fballturkey]

Re: Has Madden on Next Gen made in progress with Special teams play?

I really hope they get better kick/punt returns and occasional blocks in the game next year. I mean they've even got the punt block play but there's literally no reason to use it because it never, ever works.

[undrafted]

Re: Has Madden on Next Gen made in progress with Special teams play?

I think the NFL is also to blame, with all the spotlights constantly placed on offensive/defensive players.
Not to speak about the misconceptions about the kicking game... often considered like some kind of a gimmicky afterthought, not belonging to football at all.

[Dr Death]

Re: Has Madden on Next Gen made in progress with Special teams play?

The problem with EA is that they do NOT know subtlety... in their case everything happens all the time or it doesn't happen at all. They need to realize that something happening once a season would be cool. Like a blocked punt or blocked FG. But they - for whatever reason - don't get this.

If you have more than one blocked punt or FG a year, then maybe it's time to change your blockers, which you can't do. We want SIM!!! How difficult is this to get???

Having the occasional blocked FG or punt would only add to the immersion one would feel. As it is now... there's no worry. And THAT is a shame!!!

[SolidSquid]

Re: Has Madden on Next Gen made in progress with Special teams play?

Having my starters on special teams is annoying. I'm sure some teams allow it but I want that choice for myself.

[ODogg]

Re: Has Madden on Next Gen made in progress with Special teams play?

This is, BY FAR, my biggest issue with Madden. I was really hoping this year on kickoff returns they'd finally zoom OUT to be able to see the lane a little but nope, the stupid camera still zooms in on you KR. Such a simple change but they won't even do that.

[EricFreakingBerry]

Re: Has Madden on Next Gen made in progress with Special teams play?

I've always wanted a special teams section in the depth chart so that you can best align players to block or attack (of course that all hinges on them tweaking the artificial intelligence to make special teams more dynamic and realistic too). It would make true specialists come to life a bit to be able to rate and interchange them. I mean it would be awesome to have some backup players who aren't great at their position (HB's, LB's who don't start because of low speed, bad carrying, etc.) but yet still "excel" at being a special teams player.

As it is now, it's mostly just starters and even if it wasn't the AI is so bad and you get the same results 99.9% of the time that it just doesn't stand out or matter.

[Datninja619]

Re: Has Madden on Next Gen made in progress with Special teams play?

You win and lose games, because of special teams (IRL).

But as most of you know, it's SIM community vs CASUAL community nowadays.

In Madden 15 H2H, people got the timing down to block FGs. It was frustrating!! They would start running off the edge once the players got set, because most people start the kick meter as soon as they can.

What did I start doing??? Slowing my kick meter down by either hesitating to start it or holding on to it.

This made it a chess match, because if I was confident in myself, I could go for 2 because I made them get a penalty.

[Datninja619]

Re: Has Madden on Next Gen made in progress with Special teams play?

I think the NFL is also to blame, with all the spotlights constantly placed on offensive/defensive players.
Not to speak about the misconceptions about the kicking game... often considered like some kind of a gimmicky afterthought, not belonging to football at all.

I don't think the NFL is to blame. The high risk/reward for attempting to block a kick is real though lol. Some teams just go for the safe return instead of the aggressive block and risk a penalty.

But seeing Kam jump over the FG block line multiple times, Troy P doing it in the past, JJ watt Swatting balls, etc etc makes me believe that teams aren't afraid to go for the block. IF they are confident they can get it.

Gotta remember that once I team reveals it's "trick" play or how they block FGs teams have film on it.