The CPU knows every play you call and more

[JVM]

I find it very interesting that practically every time I call a HB Toss, the CPU has a defender at the side I am running to, all by himself in the middle between sideline and DE. Even more interesting is of the 2 WRs on the other side, one WR doesn't have anyone defending him! I tried letting the play clock expire and calling the same play again, and still the same scenario occurred.

Also interesting is the CPU's Center runs out over 5 yards, sometimes 10 yards, to block my MLB who doesn't move so the HB can gain yardage.

The ball is in the air and CPU's WR turns to catch it while my DB looking in same direction just stands there or bends down to let him catch the ball.

The CPU's 5'7" DB jumps up to deflect the pass thrown to my 6'5" WR who is like 5 yards ahead of him. This particular play has been happening at least once in the past few games.

Ratings don't seem to mean much when my WRs rated mid to high 90's and CPUs DBs are rated in 70's.

The CPU has an amazing assortment of WRs and HBs rated B or C that have Speed ratings in the mid to high 80s and Acceleration of 99.

When the CPU wants to run for some yardage, the HB bounces off my MLB with 98 TKL and 95 HPW even when the HB is rated in low 80's for Trucking. Plus, it amazes me that the MLB with 98 TKL and 95 HPW doesn't cause a fumble when hitting a HB or WR 99% of the time. Now when my players get hit with much lesser talent, dropped passes or fumbles occur with more frequency.

My QB, Konrad Young, rated 98 with 94 THP and best accuracy ratings quite frequently overthrows/misses wide open receivers in every single game more often than its QB rated low 80's.

I still have Shaydon Favors HB on my team with Carry rating of 90. He fumbled 13 times last season--the most in the NFL.

The bottom line for me is the CPU knows every play you call and decides what should happen without regard for realism, except that the better team should win. In case you're wondering, my team is rated 97, highest rating in the NFL, and I'm in my 14th season of Franchise.

I do enjoy the game, but there are glaring issues, at least glaring issues for me in my Franchise.

[Sausage]

Re: The CPU knows every play you call and more

How can they fix this? I can't think of any other way the A.I brain could hang with our human brains. I guess I unconsciously counteract what your saying by flipping my plays and sending another blocker to that side. Overall I have never felt the A.I. was psychic, but occasionally like us just calls a better play than us.

[PantherBeast_OS]

Re: The CPU knows every play you call and more

I kind of agree that the AI knows every play you pick and every move you make is dumb. But the AI needs to know all plays to be able keep up. The problem with this ain't that the AI knows everything. I could careless. My problem the AI is way to overpower on both D and Offense. They do need to tweak somethings with the AI and make the human D better then it is on madden 11. But while the main focus in madden 12 is franchise mode. I'm sure Ian and crew will keep tweaking and trying to make the gameplay better. Honestly I felt the gameplay and the balance between AI and human was much better before patch 3 come out. But since the AI blitz every play just about no matter what team it is. But again the main problem here is the AI is way overpowered and I feel the madden crew needs to adjust the AI. I don't want them to dumb down the AI or anything. I just don't want to see the AI be so overpowered.

[Cnada]

Re: The CPU knows every play you call and more

I know exactly what you mean has been my biggest gripe for a long time!

Lets find a way to raise awareness of this problem!

You pick a run and they know it and stack the box, so you audible to deep and the safety moves deep , you audible back and AI does the same WTF!

Lets Bump this up so that it can be fixed asap!

[Senator Palmer]

Re: The CPU knows every play you call and more

From another thread:

I have never bought into the conspiracy theories regarding the way the game unfolds, but there is anecdotal evidence that makes me wonder. I was playing as the Falcons against the Eagles.

On the FIRST play of the game, I come out in a heavy run formation, but the play I call in the huddle is a quick slant. The Eagles, on the FIRST play of the game, come out in a 3-3-5. Now why in the world would a professional football team known for their aggressive 4-3, come out in a 3-3-5 against a known run-first team on the FIRST play of the game?
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[Dats ignant]

Re: The CPU knows every play you call and more

I have run into a lot of similar problems as the OP. I think the main thing is the CPU has to be toned down a bit below God-mode.

[BezO]

Re: The CPU knows every play you call and more

Yeah, the CPU needs to call defenses with down, distance, tendencies & offensive personnel in mind. That's it!

And they must find a way to have defenders react to actual keys instead of the Tecmo like system in place now.

The engines currently used were not built with football in mind. I believe this makes it very difficult to make realistic football changes. I doubt VC devs were that much more talented, if at all. I think someone there just had better foresight and built a better, more flexible game early on.

[Nunyerbiz]

Re: The CPU knows every play you call and more

I agree with the previous posters, you can easily see this in action by just coming out over and over again in a 4WR shotgun set with a HB draw called. Probably 7 out of 10 times the CPU will have linebackers in the box while ignoring slot recievers.

That said, I have noticed that the CPU is easier to shake via the use of audibles. I don't find that they "cheat" and follow audibles nearly as consistently as when you first break the huddle. Just for kicks and to see if it would work, I torched the CPU with an insane amount of passing one game, just by coming out in 4WR shotgun with the HB draw called and then audibling to four verticals.

[kcarr]

Re: The CPU knows every play you call and more

If you think that the cpu "needs" to know plays to keep up then you are missing something either in terms of football or in terms of what really can be programmed.

If you look at any coach's playcalling there is a formula that could be written to follow it based on percentages of plays of a certain type called per down and distance that can be adjusted based on opposing calls and success. Those things aren't that hard to do.

Beyond that a big thing that needs to happen is player AI on the field. Every CPU player should not read run as soon as the ball is handed off or know where the ball is thrown as soon as it is released. Every player's actions on the field should be based on what they see and how the interpret that based on their ratings, the opponent ratings, and the opponent tendencies and success.

[Pezell04x]

Re: The CPU knows every play you call and more

call an audible - or just throw it to your 99 WR you keep talking about.

[Senator Palmer]

Re: The CPU knows every play you call and more

call an audible - or just throw it to your 99 WR you keep talking about.

He can't. In the other thread, he said that he plays in Coach Mode and very rarely takes over to throw the ball.

[JVM]

Re: The CPU knows every play you call and more

call an audible - or just throw it to your 99 WR you keep talking about.

That 99 WR I keep talking about has trouble against CBs 5'9-5'10" with 89 speed and 93 acceleration while he is 99 speed and 99 acceleration and 99 Catch. Ratings don't mean as much as you think.

Of course I try to throw to my 99 WR, but the CPU makes extraordinary plays against him.

[puremvp1]

Re: The CPU knows every play you call and more

That 99 WR I keep talking about has trouble against CBs 5'9-5'10" with 89 speed and 93 acceleration while he is 99 speed and 99 acceleration and 99 Catch. Ratings don't mean as much as you think.

Of course I try to throw to my 99 WR, but the CPU makes extraordinary plays against him.

maybe you should bump it down from all pro to rookie, oh yeah.

[ComfortablyLomb]

Re: The CPU knows every play you call and more

There is no doubt that the AI adjusts playcalling based specifically on the play or audible you call. When keeping in formation and adjusting from a pass to run the AI responds to that instantaneously and vise-versa despite no player moving an inch. Maybe the fact that the AI responds at least in part to what you're doing and not the situation is why the defensive play calling is so suspect at times.

[BezO]

Re: The CPU knows every play you call and more

Maybe the fact that the AI responds at least in part to what you're doing and not the situation is why the defensive play calling is so suspect at times.

I'm curious how the defense selects plays. I know when I select a defense, since I'm limited to a group of plays, my first thought is, do I want a coverage or blitz/stunt. Depending on the down & distance, I decide on one & pick the coverage or blitz/stunt with the least amount of craziness going on at the other end.

I wonder what the defense's thought process is. If it wants to blitz, and since it can't combine coverages & blitzes/stunts, does it just pick any blitz play regardless of coverage? Does it consider the coverage? Does it end up selecting the same few defenses I select?