Madden NFL 11 Blog: Game Flow & Game Planning

[booker21]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Blog: Game Flow & Game Planning

This feature sounds like something I will definitely use. I get so bored of calling my own plays, because I start only going with what works and never really trying anything else. It'll be nice having an OC and DC per se.

same here.
The thing is... how do you control yourself for selecting only the plays you know they work?

remember the "coach" will only call for the gameplan plays ONLY. And you don`t have the requirement to choose 15 plays on each category.

[splff3000]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Blog: Game Flow & Game Planning

Well, I'm not as giddy as some of you are for these features. I'll definitely try them though. It's nice that they are 2 separate features. I sense that I would use these probably at the beginning of games to kind of script my plays and, depending on what happens there, I may continue to use it or may choose to call my own plays for the rest of the game. There are still a whole lot of questions that need to be answered before I am 100% on board with this. For Franchise mode, budsticky brings up some very good questions. A few more that I need to know are:

- What are the situations on offense that you can set this up for?

- What are the formations and sets on defense that you can set this up for?

- How will we use packages with this feature?

- How does this affect your opponent in head to head games, online and off, if he doesn't want to use it?

- Will this be mandatory online since settings need to be the same between both users online?

- Will we be able to change our gameplan ingame, in case of injury or whatever?

- How will we load 2 separate gameplans for each user in local head to head games since we can only load 1 profile?

- Will there be any other ways to scout our opponents in franchise to be able to develop a proper gameplan?

These are just ones that come off the top of my head. I'm sure if I sat back and thought about it, I could come up with a lot more. Like a lot of people, I'm still a little skeptical about this, simply for the fact that EA hardly ever gets anything right on the first try and this is a pretty big part of the game. Still, I'm definitely gonna try it. I'm not too excited for it though. Not yet, anway. I need to find the answer to those questions before I start jumping for joy.

[TheWatcher]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Blog: Game Flow & Game Planning

"Fixing play call was not an easy thing to do. It's easily one of the most used screens in the game and everyone wants something different from it. Changing such a major part of the game is a scary thing to do."

Which is precisely why getting rid of all the accessibility options we had and stripping it down last season never made sense. Building on the options so that each user can get what they want was the right idea. The Wii team took that sort of approach with a semi-customizable (by selection) playcall. Madden Team for 360 and PS3 should've adopted that thought process.

If you have a stripped-down default for the general user, and a robust version with more access for the user who wants more control, you then offer the best of both world's. It won't be scary then, because you'll know that you've covered both ends of the spectrum.

[Valdarez]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Blog: Game Flow & Game Planning

"You can choose to play with the conventional play call screen (old style play call screen that's been around since the advent of football gaming). You can choose to turn off coordinator audio, subtitles, and strategy pad. Pretty much everything is an option."

Pretty sure you'll be able to in an option menu.

I read that and I see the first part as you hitting a button to bring up the old play call menu, and then the last part as customizing GameFlow. I don't read any of it as being able to completely turn off GameFlow if I want to do so.

[splff3000]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Blog: Game Flow & Game Planning

I read that and I see the first part as you hitting a button to bring up the old play call menu, and then the last part as customizing GameFlow. I don't read any of it as being able to completely turn off GameFlow if I want to do so.

Yep, that's the way that I saw it too.

[jmj25]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Blog: Game Flow & Game Planning

For head to head offline I imagine gameflow would be turned off by default and you would just call plays like we do now and use audibles. For online gameflow would probably be on because your opponent can't see your play art the way they have it now.

[Bgamer90]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Blog: Game Flow & Game Planning

Your far more optimistic than I am. I read that and I see the first part as you hitting a button to bring up the old play call menu, and then the last part as customizing GameFlow. I don't read any of it as being able to completely turn off GameFlow if I want to do so.

Essentially though, if gameflow shows up on the screen and one just chooses to go to the playbook, gameflow is still on... it's just that the user isn't choosing to play that way.

Also, this was said...

"Another key note about gameplans is that you can use them with or without GameFlow. Let's say you want to play with the old style play-calling screen. If you do, the "Ask Madden" option is actually totally replaced with "My Gameplan", which then gives you all your pre-planned plays right there for you in each game situation."



So yeah...

Not really being optimistic. Just basing it off of what was said and also how past features were. For example, EA sports rewind. When you turned it off you never saw it come on the screen. When it was on you did though (obviously) but that still didn't mean that you couldn't avoid using it in a game.

So yeah, it wouldn't make sense for them to take a different approach here in terms of on/off.

[splff3000]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Blog: Game Flow & Game Planning

Essentially though, if gameflow shows up on the screen and one just chooses to go to the playbook, gameflow is still on... it's just that the user isn't choosing to play that way.

Also, this was said...

"Another key note about gameplans is that you can use them with or without GameFlow. Let's say you want to play with the old style play-calling screen. If you do, the "Ask Madden" option is actually totally replaced with "My Gameplan", which then gives you all your pre-planned plays right there for you in each game situation."



So yeah...

Not really being optimistic. Just basing it off of what was said and also how past features were. For example, EA sports rewind. When you turned it off you never saw it come on the screen. When it was on you did though (obviously) but that still didn't mean that you couldn't avoid using it in a game.

So yeah, it wouldn't make sense for them to take a different approach here in terms of on/off.

I think what Val was talking about is can you turn it off from the game menu INGAME. For example, if your starting QB gets hurt in the 1st qtr, you obviously can't use your gameplan/gameflow anymore unless you have a capable backup which most teams don't have. In that case you would want to turn off the gameflow/gameplan and call your own plays. If you can't turn it off in the menu then every play from then on you're going to have to press x or whatever to call your own plays. On the other hand, if you can turn it off in the menu then you can turn it off and call your plays the rest of the game. I think that's what he was talking about. correct me if I'm wrong val.

[davep]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Blog: Game Flow & Game Planning

Not to be a Negative Nancy but:

A) I highly doubt John Madden brought this to the forefront...they were looking for ways to speed up the game.

B) Unfortunately I think it'll get stale. I mean you're going to hear the same thing several times a game...multiply that by how many times you play an entire game and it's going to get old quickly unless they were creative.

[Purple28Pedestrian]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Blog: Game Flow & Game Planning

I just wish that the gameplan would be implemented so in addition to picking your favourite plays per situation you could set the mentality on how the offense should attack or the defense should defend.

ex. when on defense you could set your team to be more focused on stopping the run rather than the pass, and vice versa. Essentially it is all the franchise position sliders that never seem to work.

I'd like to play against the vikings and have my defense set up for the run, because unfortunately even plays designed to stop the run don't always work. that's why i think we need the ability to pick our plays per situation, but also have the team use a certain mentality going into the game.

such as playing the Colts you could have your d-line more focused on pass rush trying to get to 18 rather than trying to stop the run.

I didn't voice it very well, but i wish that there was more implementation that just a way to organize your plays.

[MJenness]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Blog: Game Flow & Game Planning

I like it more from the standpoint that FINALLY I can make the other teams play like their real NFL teams (as I am sure I'll need to change THEIR gameplans because EA has TOUTED that they've designed the game to make teams play realistically, but it's never really worked out).

At least now WE can fix this part of the game.

Now, if they'd give us the ability to fix other things, I'd be happy as a clam. Penalties and challenges comes to mind;-)

[roadman]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Blog: Game Flow & Game Planning

Not to be a Negative Nancy but:

A) I highly doubt John Madden brought this to the forefront...they were looking for ways to speed up the game.

B) Unfortunately I think it'll get stale. I mean you're going to hear the same thing several times a game...multiply that by how many times you play an entire game and it's going to get old quickly unless they were creative.

A) It's the third or fourth time I've seen in previews/interviews/blogs what have you, state that Madden did say that there are too many plays in the playbook. He said no coach carries 350 plays in a binder. I don't see any reason to doubt that part of it.

B) If it get's stale, go back to the old way of calling plays.

[jfsolo]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Blog: Game Flow & Game Planning

After reading that blog, I'm completely sold on this idea now. The fact that EVERYTHING is an option will please alot of people, not to mention the fact that you can also customize the CPU gameplans too?

And people DONT like this? Seriously?! I think it's brilliant.

I hope it isn't necessary, but for offline only franchise players, the ability to customizing the CPU game plans is a great addition.

That's a legitimate request. It should definitely be an option.

If someone really just wants absolutely nothing to do with gameflow, dont further agitate them by forcing them to look at it every single play. And on the flip side, if someone no longer wants to see the playbook, let them also choose to only use gameflow.

I'm guessing that they won't let people only use Game Flow. I would imaging that even the most ardent supporter of Game Flow will want to have the option of seeing the playbook. Say one or more of your key players gets injured and is out for the game. That would cause many players to totally abandon their previous game plan and if playbook was off, then they would be stuck running the plays that were set up for their starters/star players.

[Hova57]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Blog: Game Flow & Game Planning

my favorite part was 15 plays per situation

[joejccva71]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Blog: Game Flow & Game Planning

I hope it isn't necessary, but for offline only franchise players, the ability to customizing the CPU game plans is a great addition.

Alot of us hardcore offline franchise junkies last year before most of us quit were spending hours upon hours trying to tweak CPU team philosophies from controlling all 32 teams to try to achieve what we perceived as what those CPU teams would do. What the CPU teams would gameplan for, etc?

Now we can do it much easier and more intuitive as well.