[ggsimmonds]

Quote: Originally Posted by SyncereBlackout

Out of curiosity. In the scenario you suggested, would the animation cause the outside route be open? Would your press be less effective or completely ineffective (For hypothetical example, since you altered a 50/50 dice roll (basic press/ no press) with a 1/4 roll?* *numbers are for illustrative purposes only.

The post you quoted was wrong in saying there is only a win/lose outcome. There is something of a neutral outcome, or it could be called a slight win for the defense because the WR is forced to alter their path, but they still get off the line pretty quickly.

The problem with outcomes is that win/lose animations are too frequent and too one sided. The normal DB win animation is the type of animation where a guy like Madden or Collinsworth in a broadcast would bring special attention to it and would comment "look how this DB is just manhandling the WR." On the flipside the WR win tends to make the DB look ridiculous. You watch it in game and you can almost hear Chris Berman yelling "whoomp!"

There needs to be many more press animations, and the majority of times it should only be modest outcomes.

By far the biggest flaw is poor AI. To put it bluntly the AI in Madden is inexcusable in 2017.
Story time on why I lost interest in last year's Madden quicker than I expected:

Spoiler

It was year 3 or 4 in my Ravens franchise. Divisional round playoff game against the Texans.

I cannot remember all the specifics, but I built Breshad Perriman into a solid WR, something like 84 ovr. He finished the regular season with 1200+yards and around 10 TDs. Everyone knows about his speed but his release rating was pretty damn good as well, about 86-88 if I recall.

In the game he was matched up with Jonathan Joseph. Right now his speed is poor, but it had regressed to low 80s in game. Houston, like 80% of teams in Madden, likes calling single high safety and bump and run coverage. Joseph's press rating was lower than Perriman's release. I can't remember specifics, but on all madden the coach stick gave a strong edge to Perriman.

Sometime in the first quarter I completed a bomb to Perriman for a ~64 yard TD. It would not be the first. Then very late in the 4th quarter of the game, with the outcome still in question, Houston came out in cover 1 press. No blitz, just a 4 man rush. TD to Perriman.

At no point did the Houston AI think "gee this isn't working, better change it up." That is inexcusable and I cannot accept the term simulation football being used to describe a game where this is a common experience.

Ideally we would have adaptive AI to remedy this situation, but I think we are a long way off from Madden having that. At the very least they need to address defensive gameplans because aside from adding plays here and there, that entire feature hasn't been touched since it was introduced. There are basically only 3 gameplans in the game: Rex Ryan's man blitzes, Dick LeBeau's zone blitz scheme, and a cover 3 heavy generic scheme. Seriously guys, boot up Madden and scroll through the different teams. And the AI doesn't give a damn about personnel or who they are playing, if the gameplan says they call cover 1 press 20% of the time, that is what they are going to do, matchups be damned.

Something needs to be done.

Edit: Other factor in this problem relates to pockets and accuracy. In real life most QBs need a clean pocket to complete the deep ball, in Madden you are either a second away from getting sacked or have a clean pocket. So it is not so much that the passes are too accurate, but that the situation is unrealistically conductive for deep passes.

Edit2: Beginning of this play perfectly shows the gameplay issues with press: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pkPZoNaDsk