OS Roundtable: If You Could Add One Feature To Madden...

[RaychelSnr]

With next year's Madden game in development, it's never too early to start expressing what we'd like to see the future of the franchise contain feature-wise. With that in mind, we asked the staff what one feature they'd like to see the Madden team implement into the game for not only this year, but for future editions to come.

Predictably, everyone has their own idea for what they'd like to see. Be sure to read our ideas and add your own.

Read More - OS Roundtable: If You Could Add One Feature To Madden...

[cusefan74]

How about if you are gonna have an owner mode then let us hire/fire our staff and watch cpu vs cpu games to see how our team is. Most of all I would love to see a good game. They need to fire the whole Madden team and start over from scratch. New people to design the game and new ideas as to what goes in the game.

[Gotmadskillzson]

Completely editable CPU AI and rosters.

For rosters I want to be able to edit EVERYTHING from race, to skin tone, to left hand or right to body type, height and weight.

For CPU AI, I want to be able to edit the CPU coaches mindset. From what plays they call on down and distance to who their primary WR is and how often they look to give that guy the ball. Also edit the ratio of pass and run, edit the ratio of blitzes, how often they run zone or man coverages.

Give me a fully EDITABLE game like Madden USE TO BE like years ago.

[SVCbearcat10]

No huddle system like NCAA. It's so inconvenient with how it's set up now. Then if you call an audible, you can't change the play again until everyone is lined up and/or the QB is finished going throw a fixed animation. You can move more quickly and get a better play call by huddling up. I'm pretty sure NFL QB's have access to the entire playbook when in no huddle with the personal on the field. NCAA allows this, why can't Madden when it's the same company!

[SageInfinite]

Realistic animations and interactions.

[metallicarl]

It was said before......ability to edit EVERYTHING(plus draft classes)!!!

[vannwolfhawk]

Re: OS Roundtable: If You Could Add One Feature To Madden...

I agree with steve and chris as far as most important for me. I've passed on the last 2 years of madden due to the fact of lack of advancement within playbooks, defense, cb/we interaction, d line play. The game killer for me was when I ran curl routes against Richard Sherman all game and completed 9/10 EVERYTIME they were in man coverage. Even moving coverage sliders to 100 it didn't change. I know the same thing go's for out routes as well.

I talked about defense last year and all I heard here was its an offensive league now a days. But look at the Super Bowl and what the Seahawks D did to the best offense ever supposedly. Defense still wins championships and it should be redone and a main focus. You can't overpower offensive side of the game EVERY year and not put any counters or the same effort on the other side of the ball.

I know this thread says if you could add 1 feature but I can't pick just 1. Fix sliders to work properly and each person can customize the game and difficulty to their own liking. Putting passing acc at 0 should mean balls being thrown in the dirt. It's a simple solution if sliders worked correctly. Man coverage at 100 should mean no cb gets beat.

1- But I'd like adaptive AI on defense. No way I run curl routes every play down field and complete them all against best cb in the league.

2- add cb/wr interaction, physics, etc. I want to see better press coverage.
Like steve said, tugging, fighting for ball, different animations for taller receivers vs smaller corners.

3- I want to be able to play as d line and feel like I can wreak havoc if I have a mismatch. Swim, power, spin, or speed rushes.

4- completely redo special teams! Field goals, blocking schemes, etc. Is it even possible to block a fg? I realize it's rare irl...

5- give us ability to edit coaching schemes/playbooks. If like to see teams play true to life with schemes like dick labeau used or what you saw the Seahawks play with tight bump coverage, 8 in the box, zone under, with back safety help. Is this possible without hot routing? Not sure cus like I said haven't played in 2 years, but maybe cover 1 or robber do this? Anyways, I don't think the playbooks have changed much in 10+ years.

These areas in itself being fixed for me would make me happy and purchase 1st madden in 3 years. Long story short focus on defense! I'm really hoping LOB gets on the cover and they put focus on wr/cb interaction! That would be my number 1 feature if I had to pick just 1...

[BSchwartz07]

Adding just one feature to Madden is like asking to add one player to a 1 win team... They really need to blow it up and start from scratch...

[asu666]

I'd like to see the presentation enhanced a lot.

[rudyjuly2]

Much more player and position specific animations so the games looks and feels more authentic and organic.

[gameface1324]

Re: OS Roundtable: If You Could Add One Feature To Madden...

Pre-play options ala NCAA to run clock, go for fumbles, etc. Its a pain to run out the clock on this game

[ec1015]

I'd like to see the CFL with all the teams, stadiums and rules.

[MossMan84]

Franchise Mode!! Yes there is this thing they call connected franchise but it is terrible imo. Gameplay is always the number one feature to me but I think great gameplay is another couple gens away. But I bet if they wanted to they could come up with a nice franchise mode and Im not talking about a ridiculous superstar mode or wahtever they call these lame, waste of time modes that they have had in the past! Just a straight up franchise mode with control of everything and all real elements of the NFL. I want to be the player, head coach, DC, OC, owner and the waterboy! I dont want to start my franchise by picking a player or head coach or whatever, this is ridiculous! I remember how fun it was playing madden 05-06 with my best friend, building our teams and simming for hundreds of hours. I can dream up a franchise mode that would blow the roof off and Im sure most on here could also and it makes me wonder how long do we have to wait?? So if gameplay cant be fixed then a nice real franchise mode would do it for me! But in the end any NFL football game is better than no NFL football game!

[Jakeness23]

Let's see...

- Improved physics-- this game currently does NOT run on RTP, there are numerous problems with their system.
- Less of the hyper awareness of the CPU and MORE awareness for your own team.
- No more routes that lead a player out of bounds.
- Bigger field.
- Bigger difference between player speeds.
- Team tackles; right now if an animation starts and someone else comes in; the initial tackler just falls off AND gets no credit.
- QB pocket escape moves, to step up or sideways quicker. If a QB could do juke & spins while still behind the LOS, that'd be great. Especially with guys like Cam, Wilson, Luck, Kap; and then Johnny Manziel coming in next year,
- More customization in CAP and team relocation
- Expansion teams
- Definitely some improved graphics and much, much more animations

Couldn't keep it to one, this game has a lot of problems. I have a blog about some problems as well. Guess I should post this on a wishlist as well...

[Iceman87GT]

One thing? Actual Onside Kicks!

I know others have probably had different experiences but I rarely see warping of the ball into the hands of a player (i.e. balls that should have been tipped but not caught being caught or in some cases balls that should not have even been touched by a certain player being caught by said player), but pretty much every single Onside Kick attempt I have made has involved the ball warping right into the players hands. I've managed to recover one once, and only saw a realistic recovery one other time.

Its frustrating enough that players are forced into a single Onside Kick formation when there are dozens of formations used by teams. Even worse is that no matter what you do the ball will only go to one player, the majority of onside kicks are directed towards the second level nowadays with the occasional attempt to bounce one off the front line, yet no matter how hard you kick it (direction is irrelevant because you can't change that), the same guy (who is usually the 3rd WR on a team's roster) gets the first (and because of the warping pretty much the only) shot at the ball.

I could deal with the direction of the ball being predetermined (even if the direction it is predetermined to go in is unrealistic in today's game), if the warping wasn't so rampant.

I want to see many changes made to the game, but this is the one that has annoyed me the most (and it seems like at least the warping could have been fixed in an update).

Breaking the concept behind the round-table here are some other things:
1. Uniform Re-Designs - we can build new stadiums but can't get new uniforms unless we move the team? Truth is I'd be happy with the ability to switch to the Falcons old uniforms (the throwbacks they wore from 2009-12, right now I can recreate those (using the 1960s pants, 70s helmets, and 90s Jerseys), but don't have an away option so while I'd like to rock their throwbacks full-time I currently can only do so with a Home and Alternate, having to settle for their current away jersey)

2. More interactive Depth Chart/ - When I run a system that switches between formations that use 2 SS and 1 FS and 1 SS I'd like to be able to set it up so that my FS of choice would line up at SS when I make that switch to a 2 SS formation. Additionally In a Pistol formation that uses 2 RBs I'd like to be able to easily switch between using 2 HBs and using an HB and a FB from the play selection screen (switching packages as opposed to pausing and going into Depth Chart).

3. Better Commentary - I'd like to see a crew that involved Gruden (but that is unlikely to happen because of his likelihood to return to coaching in the next few years leaving Madden with a need to re-fill that position), but I'd thoroughly enjoy having 2 different crews to switch things up. One thing that I really enjoyed about Madden 10 was the change of audio we got with the intro of Collinsworth, I actually enjoy his real-life commentary, and in the end I don't think he translates well to games (Much Like Corso his insight comes from real-time observations which are hard to recreate in an audio booth months before any football would be played, so we wind up getting canned sayings that quickly become stale), but it was refreshing for me to hear him instead of Madden. It would be great to see 3 different broadcast styles (or even just 2) replicating the difference in broadcasts we see every week in real life. AFC matchups on CBS and NFC on CBS, when the 2 conference collide the away team determines the broadcast (i.e. Titans @ Green Bay = CBS Broadcast), with a possible 3rd broadcast style being NFL Network or ESPN. Breaking it up visually and audibly would go a long way in preventing the presentation from being stale. We need new non-play interactions to boost the presentation value but Phil Simms and Jim Nantz are going to get stale quickly no matter how good the cutscenes are. Also it would be nice if I Simms din't berate me for not picking up enough for the 1st down on 1st down, criticizing me for padding the stats when I pick up 6 and set up 2nd and 4 is absurd, and that's just one example of odd lines being triggered.