Madden NFL 11 Video: Ian Cummings Talks Game Plan

[grunt]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Video: Ian Cummings Talks Game Plan

Here's a novel idea for the day.

Instead of praising this feature or damning this feature, why don't we wait till we play with it first?

It's too easy to praise it or rip it before we have first hand knowledge of it, isn't it?

If this continues, every feature that EA blogs about, people will start having heart attacks.

Obviously, the most productive post ask questions about the feature or how it might be enhanced now or in the future.

Just a thought.

but some of us been asking for game planning for years. Game flow is just another way I can play the game but game planning is way that I could go deeper into offensive play books.I agree we need more balance we are hardcore fans.

[grunt]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Video: Ian Cummings Talks Game Plan

Do we know Madden 11 will have a universal playbook and can we have unlimited amount pf game plans?

[dat swag]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Video: Ian Cummings Talks Game Plan

Business 101 sais it makes perfectly good sense to gear the game towards your largest audience and that is the "CASUAL GAMER"...Forget hardcore...nobody cares about the hardcore Madden/Football sim fan. They won't openly say that but its very clear based on the way the game plays...How is the gameplan gonna change when damn near every play in every playbook is the same and has remained the same for close to 7-8 years...Go back and look at the Madden historical playbooks and you won't find much changing. Maybe a new sexy formation here or there but relatively the same

Exclusivity was never about quality or improving the genre...It was and remains all about Dollars and cents...Ian and his crew are simply dumbing down the game so any child or casual person can pick it up and have fun and at the end of the day its likely the most intelligent way to go when making money comes before innovation and quality. Not saying that the EA team doesn't care about quality. I think they do...But as the ole saying goes "you can't squeeze water out of a rock"

Ian and those guys have limitations and every year they hit us with the next Hype Buzz word (Pro-Tak last year, GameFlow this year...) its become abundantly clear that the innovation train simply never found its way to EA through physics, gameplay and the important aspects of the game that never seem to change. IMO the videos look WEAK...more sliding, wonky/stiff running animations, tackles no better than what we saw in 2002 and my list goes on. The best thing about gameflow is I won't spend as much time being pissed off because the games will be shorter

In any event just resign yourself to enjoy whatever they put out without expectations...If you have expectations of major change and innovation you will be disappointed for another season IMO.

[Valdarez]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Video: Ian Cummings Talks Game Plan

Business 101 sais it makes perfectly good sense to gear the game towards your largest audience and that is the "CASUAL GAMER"...Forget hardcore...nobody cares about the hardcore Madden/Football sim fan.

Definitely agree with the first part, but disagree with the last part. I know Ian wants to make a sim game, and that means catering to the hardcore gamer. The problem is, like you said, the game must cater to the largest fan base, and that is the casual fan. If anyone has read my posts for the last couple of years, I have constantly said they needed to find a way to decrease the learning curve for newer players and to educate them on the game of football (both offense & defense). I see the first part of that equation in GameFlow, but not the later. GameFlow isn't a feature I'm that interested in, but at the same time I understand the necessity of it as you pointed out.

[Valdarez]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Video: Ian Cummings Talks Game Plan

Do we know Madden 11 will have a universal playbook and can we have unlimited amount pf game plans?

No, haven't seen anything on this yet. You got to have more than one gameplan! No way in !@#$ I want to credit/edit one over, and over, and over again in order to keep it 'dynamic'.

[Valdarez]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Video: Ian Cummings Talks Game Plan

Are you talking about what your opponent is showing you offensively or defensively? If you're on offense you dictate to the defense what they need to do based on personnel. If your opponent blitzes all the time put in a lot of quick slants and maybe some screens into your playbook. Max protect. And it's not like audibles and hot routes have been taken out. To me strategy still exists. Maybe even added strategy.

It sounds to me that guys most against this (and if you're against it, why complain? don't use it.) are online or head to head guys. Honestly, the game is very different for vs. cpu guys like myself and head to head guys. To each his own. I see great potential in this feature and since you don't have to use it, what's the downside?

Go play 5 seasons via Beginner PlayCalling in Madden 10, and you'll understand why I'm not for this (which is different than being 'against' it). It's just not a feature that I want to use.

[Valdarez]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Video: Ian Cummings Talks Game Plan

Here's a novel idea for the day.

Instead of praising this feature or damning this feature, why don't we wait till we play with it first?

It's too easy to praise it or rip it before we have first hand knowledge of it, isn't it?

If this continues, every feature that EA blogs about, people will start having heart attacks.

Obviously, the most productive post ask questions about the feature or how it might be enhanced now or in the future.

Just a thought.

Whatever would we talk about for the next 3 months then roadman???

[roadman]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Video: Ian Cummings Talks Game Plan

Whatever would we talk about for the next 3 months then roadman???

Exactly.

I don't mind if it's talked about intelligently, but the constant praising and the constant degrading it before trying it is really putting the cart before the horse on both sides.

My point is that none of us know what it feels like unles we see it unfold before our eyes.

Talk about what blog you want next or better ways to enhance the game.

Go treat your lady/ladies to something nice. haha

[Bootzilla]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Video: Ian Cummings Talks Game Plan

Go play 5 seasons via Beginner PlayCalling in Madden 10, and you'll understand why I'm not for this (which is different than being 'against' it). It's just not a feature that I want to use.

Huh? If I'm able to set up my favorite plays vs certain teams and their schemes and implement them how I want based on down and distance I'm all for it. And I can do this without scrolling through an entire playbook. How is this like Beginner Play Calling? That's what I fail to see.

It's been confirmed that Gameplan and Gameflow aren't mutually exclusive. So, if one week I'm playing a cover 2 team and I make a gameplan to go against them and the next week I play a zone blitz team and make a gameplan to go against them, how is that Beginner Play Calling. You do understand that without using Game Flow you'll be choosing from up to 15 plays that you selected for every situation. I may use gameflow from time to time but, I will primarily be calling the plays myself from my gameplan.

[Valdarez]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Video: Ian Cummings Talks Game Plan

Huh? If I'm able to set up my favorite plays vs certain teams and their schemes and implement them how I want based on down and distance I'm all for it. And I can do this without scrolling through an entire playbook. How is this like Beginner Play Calling? That's what I fail to see.

It's been confirmed that Gameplan and Gameflow aren't mutually exclusive. So, if one week I'm playing a cover 2 team and I make a gameplan to go against them and the next week I play a zone blitz team and make a gameplan to go against them, how is that Beginner Play Calling. You do understand that without using Game Flow you'll be choosing from up to 15 plays that you selected for every situation. I may use gameflow from time to time but, I will primarily be calling the plays myself from my gameplan.

Because the game is calling the play for you, and it effectively levels out the play calling between you and the AI. More importantly, it puts you on the field, in the action, as quickly as possible, which is exactly what GameFlow is going to do. Honestly, go plug in the NFL Simulation Sliders I put together for Madden 10 and play a game via Beginner PlayCalling. That's the closest you will get to playing the way GameFlow plays. If you set the time to 15 minutes and 25 second run off, you'll also see that a game can be played in roughly 40 minutes. I'm not sure where they are getting their under 30 minutes for realistic 120 or so play calls per game. I don't see that happening.

[Jimixiii]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Video: Ian Cummings Talks Game Plan

Exactly.

I don't mind if it's talked about intelligently, but the constant praising and the constant degrading it before trying it is really putting the cart before the horse on both sides.

My point is that none of us know what it feels like unles we see it unfold before our eyes.

Talk about what blog you want next or better ways to enhance the game.

Go treat your lady/ladies to something nice. haha

Gameplan is pretty straight forward. Not really a whole lot of guessing or interaction needed, it is what it is. It's not like you need to pick up the controller & get a feel for something like that.

These are Madden forums to discuss Madden news & info so don't tell us what we can or cannot discuss concerning Madden as long as it's done in a civilized manner. Nobodies name-calling or being rude or just trolling so if you don't wanna discuss a certain feature Madden released in a Madden forum then don't react or talk about it.

[Bootzilla]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Video: Ian Cummings Talks Game Plan

Because the game is calling the play for you, and it effectively levels out the play calling between you and the AI. More importantly, it puts you on the field, in the action, as quickly as possible, which is exactly what GameFlow is going to do. Honestly, go plug in the NFL Simulation Sliders I put together for Madden 10 and play a game via Beginner PlayCalling. That's the closest you will get to playing the way GameFlow plays. If you set the time to 15 minutes and 25 second run off, you'll also see that a game can be played in roughly 40 minutes. I'm not sure where they are getting their under 30 minutes for realistic 120 or so play calls per game. I don't see that happening.

I think we're talking about different things. The cpu is not calling plays for you unless you use GAMEFLOW. By using GAMEPLAN, you will be calling the plays that you selected for certain situations. I don't see it cutting game time in half by playing this way either but, i was O.K. with that anyway.

[Only1LT]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Video: Ian Cummings Talks Game Plan

Huh? If I'm able to set up my favorite plays vs certain teams and their schemes and implement them how I want based on down and distance I'm all for it. And I can do this without scrolling through an entire playbook. How is this like Beginner Play Calling? That's what I fail to see.

It's been confirmed that Gameplan and Gameflow aren't mutually exclusive. So, if one week I'm playing a cover 2 team and I make a gameplan to go against them and the next week I play a zone blitz team and make a gameplan to go against them, how is that Beginner Play Calling. You do understand that without using Game Flow you'll be choosing from up to 15 plays that you selected for every situation. I may use gameflow from time to time but, I will primarily be calling the plays myself from my gameplan.

If this is true, then I see this as being the way I would use it.

Put all the plays for every situation together so that when said situation comes up, I can choose from those 15 plays for that given situation, or if I feel like what I planned beforehand isn't working, go into the full playbook and use something else. That sounds good to me if that is actually how it works. That's how plays are called IRL and it streamlines my time for picking the right play.

What I haven't heard though is whether gameflow only gives the choice to go with the play the OC calls or go into the full playbook. If that is the case then it is something that I will try to see what the OC sounds like and get the experience, but I would probably never use it after that.

I think it would be great if there is an accept or decline aspect to the OC calling the play. If he calls a play that I gameplanned before hand for that situation, even if I rated it 5 stars, doesn't necessarily mean that I want to run it at that time. Maybe I want to save it. I think that gameflow should work like the OC calls a play and I have a veto option, and then he calls the next play in my list for that situation, and that this continues until I accept. This way I can experience gameflow without having to feel like the game is doing the work for me and I have no input.

To me this would mimic the OC calling a play and me as the HC overruling him. You can overrule him by going into the full playbook, but they spent all this effort trying to get away from picking from 300-400 plays, so why should having the AI pick plays or using the full playbook be my only two options with gameflow.

I don't know if those are my only two options but I haven't seen anything to the contrary that would suggest otherwise. If anyone has more info on this, please weigh in.

[roadman]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Video: Ian Cummings Talks Game Plan

Gameplan is pretty straight forward. Not really a whole lot of guessing or interaction needed, it is what it is. It's not like you need to put up the controller & get a feel for something like that.

These are Madden forums to discuss Madden news & info so don't tell us what we can or cannot discuss concerning Madden as long as it's done in a civilized manner. Nobodies name-calling or being rude or just trolling so if you don't wanna discuss a certain feature Madden released in a Madden forum then don't react or talk about it.

Umm, your first sentence out of the gate isn't true. If that is the case, why is there so many questions about it if it's so straightforward.

Therefore, I do feel people need to get the feel before they make any preliminary decisions, one way or the other.

What's so wrong about giving advice about trying it out before praising or giving it a failing grade?

At the end of the day, isn't that the logical choice?

And I don't need any advice, but thank you for offering.

[roadman]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Video: Ian Cummings Talks Game Plan

If this is true, then I see this as being the way I would use it.

Put all the plays for every situation together so that when said situation comes up, I can choose from those 15 plays for that given situation, or if I feel like what I planned beforehand isn't working, go into the full playbook and use something else. That sounds good to me if that is actually how it works. That's how plays are called IRL and it streamlines my time for picking the right play.

What I haven't heard though is whether gameflow only gives the choice to go with the play the OC calls or go into the full playbook. If that is the case then it is something that I will try to see what the OC sounds like and get the experience, but I would probably never use it after that.

I think it would be great if there is an accept or decline aspect to the OC calling the play. If he calls a play that I gameplanned before hand for that situation, even if I rated it 5 stars, doesn't necessarily mean that I want to run it at that time. Maybe I want to save it. I think that gameflow should work like the OC calls a play and I have a veto option, and then he calls the next play in my list for that situation, and that this continues until I accept. This way I can experience gameflow without having to feel like the game is doing the work for me and I have no input.

To me this would mimic the OC calling a play and me as the HC overruling him. You can overrule him by going into the full playbook, but they spent all this effort trying to get away from picking from 300-400 plays, so why should having the AI pick plays or using the full playbook be my only two options with gameflow.

I don't know if those are my only two options but I haven't seen anything to the contrary that would suggest otherwise. If anyone has more info on this, please weigh in.

LT;

I asked Ian on Twitter if we had a chance to change the play the OC called before the play and he said, no, you can only use your audibles if you want to change the play. So, I guess, wisely choose your audibles.