Madden NFL 10 Q&A Blog with the Dev Team

[bengtc]

Re: Madden NFL 10 Q&A Blog with the Dev Team

I am sure this has been asked but it is probably the single most important question for me: Can you give a detailed explanations on how the sliders player/cpu work??? EX. Does QB accuracy also include QB awareness or what does the pass reaction slider affect exactly??

[sois]

Re: Madden NFL 10 Q&A Blog with the Dev Team

Are there any plans to have more than one progression point a season? Once a season is not a very good method at all. How about a weekly "zero sum" progression system? Slight ratings changes based on game performance? Then do the potential performance at the end of the season. Either way, what are the plans for M11 progression?

[Snoop24]

Re: Madden NFL 10 Q&A Blog with the Dev Team

Hey Ian,

Just two quick questions

Why in offline franchise do the games need to be played in order for user assigned games to not be simmed? But if you go to the last game of the week that is cpu assigned you can sim it out of order without all of the other games simming?

Second, is there a way to find out why a player is inactive? I have come across this a couple times and the only way I have ever been able to get the play off the inactive list is to trade him away and then try and trade for him back to my team. I don't mind them being inactive I just want to know why they are.

[mixxx01]

Re: Madden NFL 10 Q&A Blog with the Dev Team

Ian is there anyway that OFFLINE franchise players like my self will have the ability to create players that are added in say week 11 after we have already started our season. ie someone may sign JP Losman after he finishes in November playing with the UFL or even pacman jones. one year Chirs Carter joined the dolphins in the middle of the season, roster update did not help my already existing franchise but because it was the ps2 i was able to create him and add him to the dolphins. If you can explain in the blog why you guys took away the ability to create players within a franchise mode that would be helpful. also can you give an indication on whether you will reintegrate this feature into madden 11 next year. thanks alot. this may not be important to online players but to some others it is an important feature.

[SoxFan01605]

Re: Madden NFL 10 Q&A Blog with the Dev Team

Are there any plans to have more than one progression point a season? Once a season is not a very good method at all. How about a weekly "zero sum" progression system? Slight ratings changes based on game performance? Then do the potential performance at the end of the season. Either way, what are the plans for M11 progression?

I agree. I actually liked the preseason, postseason, and quarterly progression points they had on the last gen Madden (as of 06...not sure after that). I'd love to see progression get some needed attention.

[sois]

Re: Madden NFL 10 Q&A Blog with the Dev Team

Should be a simple legalese-type answer: Why aren't the real player contracts used in Madden? You should have access to the info. If anything, it would be a good learning tool for Madden players to see how real contracts are structured.

[helix139]

Re: Madden NFL 10 Q&A Blog with the Dev Team

Is there any possibility of getting true run blocking schemes, if not in a patch then next year? Even something as simple as the inside zone is flat out wrong as there are no double teams at the point of attack, no creation of blocking angles, and no logical advancement to the second level.

Also, what is up with all the drops by WRs in the madden test? I thought it was supposed to test my ability to read coverage, not the computer's ability to hang onto the ball.

[DaFunk4]

Re: Madden NFL 10 Q&A Blog with the Dev Team

Just wanted to thank you Ian for finally having a pocket to stay in and throw in Madden after all this years. Also love the new ratings where every player is not rated the same with 90+ speed.

I am as fussy as it gets with Madden and use to be ranked #1 online back in the old xbox days but nowdays I dont play online and just enjoy playing a franchise.

Only a few things that bother me that problyhave already been mentioned.

A Wr with 99 speed running deep will never get ahead of the DB. DBs 99% of the time are ahead of the WR and I cant stand that.

CPU on defense does so many stupid blitzes most the time. They need to play some good cover 2, or cover 3 and alot of man and mix in blitzes unless they are a blitzing team.

Alot of teams are running the 3-4 defense now and the ratings for these LBs are broken. For example Broncos Dumervil, and my Packers Kampman. If you put Kampman as a DE he is well beyound a 99 overall and Dumervil is a pro bowl type DE rated as a 3rd teamer at OLB.

Anyway can't wait for the 1st patch and week 1 rosters so I can finally play a season.

[hee163]

Re: Madden NFL 10 Q&A Blog with the Dev Team

When are you going to fix the playoff system bug that occurs when a wildcard team has a better record than a division winner and both those teams win their wild card game? (has been in the game since Madden 2003)

Bug explanation:

The only way to get this bug to happen is you have to have at least one wildcard team have a better record than a division winner; AND that wildcard team has to win their playoff game in addition to a division winner with a worse record winning their game as well. (This happened in real life during the 2005 - 2006 NFL playoffs)


Here's what I got in Madden 10.

AFC results as shown in Madden on AFC standings screen (division winner are bold)

1. Patriots (13 - 3) -- Division winner (1st round bye)
2. Steelers (12 - 4) -- Division winner (1st round bye)
3. Chargers (10 - 6) -- Division winner
4. Ravens (11 - 5) -- Wild Card
5. Titans (9 - 7) -- Division winner
6. Broncos (9 - 7) -- Wild card

However these teams needed to be reseeded as shown below to always have division winners seeds 1 - 4:

Playoff seeds
1. Patriots (13 - 3) Div winner
2. Steelers (12 - 4) Div winner
3. Chargers (10 - 6) Div winner
4. Titans (9 - 7) Div winner
5. Ravens (11 - 5) Wildcard
6. Broncos (9 - 7) wildcard.

AFC Wildcard match ups/results
#3 Chargers defeat #6 Broncos
#5 Ravens defeat #4 Titans.

In real life with the correct seedings in place, these wildcard results would create the following matchups in the divisional round. Because the lowest remaining seed from the wildcard round always plays the top seed; and the highest remaining seed plays the 2nd seed:

Divisional round matchups (what its supposed to be doing)
#5 Ravens (11 - 5) vs. #1 Patriots (13 - 3)
#3 Chargers (10 - 6) vs. #2 Steelers (12 - 4).

However Madden creates the following matchups

Maddens divisional round matchups (not correct)
#3 Chargers (10 - 6) vs. #1 Patriots (13 - 3)
#5 Ravens (11 - 5) vs. #2 Steelers (12 - 4)

This is occurring because Madden is still using the regular season rankings, and because the Ravens have a better record than the Chargers, Madden automatically assumes they have the higher playoff seed too when in fact they don't.

Is it getting the matchups right though? Conference standings are usually shown by record and not in seeding order.

See last season's AFC standings on NFL.com The colts are listed 3rd as they have the 3rd best record, despite taking the 5th seed as a wildcard team.

http://www.nfl.com/standings?categor...&split=Overall

I personally prefer the system they've been talking about the last few seasons where the 3 to 6 seeds are sorted on record regardless of division wins. No way the Chargers deserve a home playoff game for an 8-8 season.

[65South]

Re: Madden NFL 10 Q&A Blog with the Dev Team

Hi Ian, thanks for taking the time to do this and your team's continued involvement. It's not a requirement, but you guys are making attempts to reach out and appease the community with these threads and the dev chats. I know this can't be easy....

I hope to be short and simple. I can only speak on what I've experienced and for the most part that's been online franchise.

-----

In your original OF Q&A you stated that the main reason the team went server based was so you could add more features and do extra tweaks and tuning based on community feedback even after the game ships.

Q: How does/will the team determine what updates will be implemented? There has been tons of feedback but we haven't heard ANYTHING on you guys' end, Should we continue to hope for updates to the system and website or is online franchise set for Madden 10?

Q: There are a TON of questions in this thing...What constitutes a fixable or patchable issue, both offline or online? What determines priority?

Q: Are online updates correlated with patches or will online updates continue after a second patch? (assuming there will be two)

Q: What happened to the stadium sounds (and chants)? I miss hearing the cannons in Tampa Bay, lol.

Q: What happened to team/player specific celebrations? No Lambeau Leap?

Q: Are there any plans to address, or discuss, the blocking logic (or lack thereof) of offensive lineman?

Q: Is practice mode a possibility in online franchise? We get new players via draft and FA, but never have a chance to practice with them before diving into a game...SUCKS when you get a new QB.

Q: Have you guys taken a look at the Online Franchise Issues Thread? No need to cringe, thanks to bgdave everything is all one thread clean and neat.

Thanks for your time Ian (and team).

[Dbrentonbuck]

Re: Q&A blog with the dev team

Two questions I have that I do not believe have been addressed here are

1. What is wrong with the pass rush that causes it to be easier to get sacks with the strong side DE than with the weak side DE which should be getting all the sacks? Something is broken in the logic there. To test this, play with the Falcons who have a 94 rated weak side pass rushing DE who destroys OTs in real life for a whole game against a bad O-line and see how many sacks you get and then play with the scrub who should be selling beer in the stands 70 rated no talent strong side DE against the same O-line and see how many more sacks you can get even though you have to beat the TE or HB in addition to the RT on most plays. Something is messed up either in the pass protection logic or the pass rush logic. It should be easier to get sacks with the weak side DE.

2. Is there a way to fix imported draft classes from NCAA 10 to make their ratings translate some what logically? If a guy is 97 in speed in NCAA and is imported into Madden, his speed should never take a 10 point drop. If a guy has a 98 twp in NCAA and is imported to Madden he shouldn't have a 10-15 point drop in throw power. I thought I read before this game came out that this issue was being fixed.

I have one more question to add to my list if you are still reading this thread.

3. Is there anyway to make Matt Ryan look a little more like the real Matt Ryan? The model looks horrible in this game. At the very least if you could lighten the hair and add some eye black that would at least help somewhat. It kind of takes you out of the experience when durring cut scenes you see some guy that looks nothing like him. I know it is a small thing, but it is adds to the immersion.

[WdnUlik2no]

Re: Madden NFL 10 Q&A Blog with the Dev Team

Is it getting the matchups right though? Conference standings are usually shown by record and not in seeding order.

See last season's AFC standings on NFL.com The colts are listed 3rd as they have the 3rd best record, despite taking the 5th seed as a wildcard team.

http://www.nfl.com/standings?categor...&split=Overall

I personally prefer the system they've been talking about the last few seasons where the 3 to 6 seeds are sorted on record regardless of division wins. No way the Chargers deserve a home playoff game for an 8-8 season.

no the divisional playoffs (2nd round) match ups are wrong which is my point.

When the playoffs start, regular season records are no longer relevant. The only thing that matters is the playoff seeding.

So in my scenario, with the #5 Ravens and #3 Chargers winning their wildcard games, the #5 Ravens should be playing the #1 Patriots in the Divisional round because they are the LOWEST remaining seed. However Madden puts them against the #2 Steelers in the Divisional round just because they have a better record than the #3 Chargers.

For the Divisional round, Madden has:

#5 Ravens (11 - 5) vs #2 Steelers (12 - 4) (This is WRONG because the Ravens are the Lowest remaining seed from the wildcard and should be playing the #1 Patriots)

#3 Chargers (10 - 5) vs. #1 Patriots (13 - 3) (This is WRONG because the Chargers are the Highest remaining seed from the wildcard round and should be playing the #2 Steelers)

The NFL does not do this, they only go by playoff seeding. so the divisional playoff matchups (2nd round) should have been:

#5 Ravens (11 - 5) vs #1 Patriots (13 - 3) (LOWEST seeded wildcard winner vs. #1 seed)

#3 Chargers (10 - 5) vs. #2 Steelers (12 - 4) (HIGHEST seeded wildcard winner vs. #2 seed)





Look at the 2005 - 2006 NFL playoffs as this scenario happened in real life with the Steelers and Patriots. The Steelers ended up with a better record than the Patriots but because they didn't win their division, they were seeded as a wild card at #6.

http://www.nfl.com/scores/2005/POST18

In the wildcard round, the #6 Steelers (11 - 5) beat the #3 Bengals and the #4 Patriots (10 - 6) beat the #5 Jaguars

The divisional matchups were:

#6 Steelers (11 - 5) at #1 Colts (14 - 2)
#4 Patriots (10 - 6) at #2 Broncos (13 - 3)

However when I simmed the season and wildcard round in Madden 2006
Madden came up with the following matchups which are wrong:

#6 Steelers at #2 Broncos (This was WRONG because the Steelers were the Lowest remaining seed from the wildcard and actually played the #1 Colts)

#4 Patriots at #1 Colts (This was WRONG because the Patriots were the Highest remaining seed from the wildcard and actually played the #2 Broncos)

This has been an issue in Madden since 2003 and is still broken in Madden 10


Anyway they said no discussion in this thread, so lets start a new thread to discuss this, or just look at this one:

http://www.operationsports.com/forum...hise-mode.html

[Mossfan8480]

Re: Madden NFL 10 Q&A Blog with the Dev Team

I am four games into the second year of my franchise and my team has not suffered an injury lasting more than one quarter. I have played the last four games with the injury slider at 58 and also at 60, but I still have yet to suffer any kind of injury that was longer than a play or a drive.

All the other teams in the franchise are racking up injuries by the second, and here I am feeling guilty that my team has been injury free for over 25 games (pre-season and playoffs included). What's the problem with human injuries in franchise mode?

[SA1NT401]

Re: Madden NFL 10 Q&A Blog with the Dev Team

I am four games into the second year of my franchise and my team has not suffered an injury lasting more than one quarter. I have played the last four games with the injury slider at 58 and also at 60, but I still have yet to suffer any kind of injury that was longer than a play or a drive.

All the other teams in the franchise are racking up injuries by the second, and here I am feeling guilty that my team has been injury free for over 25 games (pre-season and playoffs included). What's the problem with human injuries in franchise mode?

Its completely random.....VERY VERY random. I have 3 injuries. 2 were from simming a week by accident, i won and just say whatever. But i am now in week 12 and have 3 total injuries. ONLY 1 was in game. Fred Taylor went out for the year with a broken leg. Even with injury slider at 100 no real big injuries.

then you look at the CPU...The Bucs have 13 players injured...5 out for the year. I do feel guilty.....Injuries are part of the game....but i guess not "THIS' game.

[jvaccaro]

Re: Madden NFL 10 Q&A Blog with the Dev Team

does an additional player not add to the pro-tak pile if I'm holding sprint? I constantly bounce off the pile when I try to run into it with safety or linebacker.

Also, can you not hitstick a pile? I ALWAYS whiff everytime I try.