Madden NFL 15 News Post

Madden NFL 15 Continues A Long Tradition of No Penalties

03:36 PM - November 5, 2014 by RaychelSnr

It shouldn't surprise you that Madden NFL 15 has a penalty problem, in the sense that most penalties are just never called in the game. With the default sliders, it is highly possible you won't see a single penalty called during a game. Most OS'ers agree that more penalties would add to the game and not subtract from it.

The popular theory is that EA doesn't have penalties called in the game because the randomness of penalties would ruin the experience for the average user. From talks I've had with Madden developers past and present, there is some credence to that being the case for the lack of actual penalties in the game.

What is baffling though, is why penalty sliders can't account for more variability where you can get to a more realistic penalty count while keeping the default game as separated as possible from penalties. Next year, it would certainly benefit the game if EA Sports could deliver a set of sliders that more adequately gives users the power to create a game experience more suited to the real NFL with actual 1st and 20s being possible.

Perhaps this could be where the all-mysterious (and oft-useless) AWR rating could finally play a hand in things on a tangible level on the field?

What do you think could be done to balance the needs of casual gamers who may not want a realistic number of yellow flags being thrown with the more hardcore Madden fans who demand more realistic handling of penalties?

Game: Madden NFL 15Reader Score: 6.5/10 - Vote Now
Platform: PS3 / PS4 / Xbox 360 / Xbox OneVotes for game: 42 - View All

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Member Comments

# 21 BadAssHskr @ 11/06/14 12:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by capa


	It's simple. Code the sliders so they work as penalty sliders and not tied to animations. If I want a normal range of penalties, each slider should be 50. If I want more penalties, up whichever ones you want.

But start the penalty sliders at zero, if you really want to have zero penalties. These sliders in particular should have a solid representaion of factual statistics. zero means none.

Quote:

Originally Posted by charter04


	It's simple. Give a slider for every penalty in football. Make the sliders actually work. Fix them so they don't affect the gameplay. They should only cause more or less of said penalty. Tie the likeliness of them to the players awareness or a discipline rating.

# 22 charter04 @ 11/06/14 12:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BadAssHskr


	But start the penalty sliders at zero, if you really want to have zero penalties. These sliders in particular should have a solid representaion of factual statistics. zero means none.

Yes. That would be perfect. That way 1-100 would actually mean 1-100. good idea

# 23 Cardot @ 11/06/14 12:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by charter04


	It's simple. Give a slider for every penalty in football. Make the sliders actually work. Fix them so they don't affect the gameplay. They should only cause more or less of said penalty. Tie the likeliness of them to the players awareness or a discipline rating. They can even have them off for online ranked and MUT. Just give us options. It's not not that complicated.

Totally agree. I find the design of the sliders to be both perplexing and frustrating. If I increase the holding slider, it should simply make the referee call more holding calls. I am trying to imagine the design meeting at EA...."Well, if holding slider is increased, then lineman should release their blocks sooner....and the QB should get rid of the ball quicker and FG kickers should be more accurate"...What??? Stop over thinking this EA. It really shoudn't be that hard. There should be a simple formula with a probability off a holding call. Adjust that probalby by the player ratings of the O-Lineman and the defender he is blocking, and then again by the holding slider. That's it. You DON'T have to factor in the down & distance or score or "momentum" or whatever gimmick you are pushing. Keep it simple, it will work.

# 24 fistofrage @ 11/06/14 12:16 PM

If its in the game......Whatever happened to that slogan? When's the last time you watched a game without a holding call?

I can't imagine a football fan who is a programmer who had programmed holding calls into previous versions could just in good conscience say Oh well when they saw absolutely no holding calls.

I think the problem is the people who are creating the game don't want a sim experience themselves. Like everyone else says, just make a penalties ON/Off switch for those who don't want them.

# 25 seanhazz1 @ 11/06/14 12:25 PM

The ONLY regularly called NFL penalty I haven't seen in game thus far, is the pass interference call on either CPU or human, and thats using a tweaked version of Charter's sliders for use in All Madden dynasty play.

I just had the CPU get called for throwing past the line of scrimmage last night, which actually made me say WOW out loud. Also In game I have seen roughing the passer, offsides, delay of game, face masking, clipping, false start and holding called on the CPU. I have not seen any pass interference (despite setting both to 100), intentional grounding, or roughing the kicker in game yet.

Here is a link to the forum post where a group of OS members are corroborating all findings from the the penalty slider tweaks and their effects in game per testing.

http://www.operationsports.com/forums/madden-nfl-football-sliders/759873-penalty-explanation-theory.html

# 26 fistofrage @ 11/06/14 12:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by seanhazz1


	The ONLY regularly called NFL penalty I haven't seen in game thus far, is the pass interference call on either CPU or human, and thats using a tweaked version of Charter's sliders for use in All Madden dynasty play. I just had the CPU get called for throwing past the line of scrimmage last night, which actually made me say WOW out loud. Also In game I have seen roughing the passer, offsides, delay of game, face masking, clipping, false start and holding called on the CPU. I have not seen any pass interference (despite setting both to 100), intentional grounding, or roughing the kicker in game yet. Here is a link to the forum post where a group of OS members are corroborating all findings from the the penalty slider tweaks and their effects in game per testing. http://www.operationsports.com/forum...on-theory.html

How often do you see the holding call? Be honest and we are talking about PS4 Xbox 1, we know that there is holding called on last gen..

# 27 BadAssHskr @ 11/06/14 12:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by charter04


	Yes. That would be perfect. That way 1-100 would actually mean 1-100. good idea

picking up the snark, and realizing you missed the part where i stated "solid representaion of factual statistics."

which wouldn't be hard to calculate over a given weekend, how many false starts there were this week among each team, and gather the average. a setting at 50% would garner you about � the average, where a setting at 100 would strive you toward in,around, or over the average.

i assure you in certain situations, pass interference for the 6th time this game would boil your blood.

# 28 fistofrage @ 11/06/14 12:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BadAssHskr


	picking up the snark, and realizing you missed the part where i stated "solid representaion of factual statistics." which wouldn't be hard to calculate over a given weekend, how many false starts there were this week among each team, and gather the average. a setting at 50% would garner you about � the average, where a setting at 100 would strive you toward in,around, or over the average. i assure you in certain situations, pass interference for the 6th time this game would boil your blood.

It wouldn't boil my blood if I turned the penalties on and adjusted PI to give me PI penalties. Its part of the game. Guys with good awareness won't commit the penalties, lower rated players should.

# 29 tdogg097 @ 11/06/14 12:32 PM

The thing that is the most frustrating part about penalties is that EA has years worth of statistical data that any professional programmer should be able to write code for. And there are so many penalties that really don't need any added animations. False start, offsides, unnecessary roughness, roughing the passer, and facemask are already in the game. I would also argue PI and illegal contact are as well they just are not called. Things like illegal motion, neutral zone infraction, defensive holding, defenseless receiver, etc could basically be called without any animation. Half the time I can't see the foul in a real game anyways. Personally, I would take a realistic amount of penalties called with no animation for them versus animation with no penalties.

# 30 roadman @ 11/06/14 01:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fistofrage


	How often do you see the holding call? Be honest and we are talking about PS4 Xbox 1, we know that there is holding called on last gen..

Fist, I tried to tell you in your thread, there isn't holding called in Madden 15 on LG, either.

It's not NG VS LG for holding penalties.

Madden 25 and before, there was holding penalties called on the slider 53 and above on LG.

One thing is constant, some how, some way, holding has evaporated on Madden 15, on both generations.

# 31 fistofrage @ 11/06/14 01:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by roadman


	Fist, I tried to tell you in your thread, there isn't holding called in Madden 15 on LG, either. It's not NG VS LG for holding penalties. Madden 25 and before, there was holding penalties called on the slider 53 and above on LG. One thing is constant, some how, some way, holding has evaporated on Madden 15, on both generations.

Well you had some guy come into another discussion claiming to have the golden copy and get holding calls all time. Turns out he had a last gen copy.

Its a really sad state of affairs that this could slip past. It would have been one of the first things I tested.

Can't have a football game without penalties and have it resemble the real thing.

# 32 roadman @ 11/06/14 01:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fistofrage


	Well you had some guy come into another discussion claiming to have the golden copy and get holding calls all time. Turns out he had a last gen copy. Its a really sad state of affairs that this could slip past. It would have been one of the first things I tested. Can't have a football game without penalties and have it resemble the real thing.

It's similar to a basketball game without fouls and going to the foul line.

# 33 fistofrage @ 11/06/14 02:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by roadman


	It's similar to a basketball game without fouls and going to the foul line.

Or a baseball game that doesn't have balls or walks. It totally takes away from the game and any realism you may be seeking.

# 34 Last Gunfighter @ 11/06/14 02:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cardot


	Totally agree. I find the design of the sliders to be both perplexing and frustrating. If I increase the holding slider, it should simply make the referee call more holding calls. I am trying to imagine the design meeting at EA...."Well, if holding slider is increased, then lineman should release their blocks sooner....and the QB should get rid of the ball quicker and FG kickers should be more accurate"...What??? Stop over thinking this EA. It really shoudn't be that hard. There should be a simple formula with a probability off a holding call. Adjust that probalby by the player ratings of the O-Lineman and the defender he is blocking, and then again by the holding slider. That's it. You DON'T have to factor in the down & distance or score or "momentum" or whatever gimmick you are pushing. Keep it simple, it will work.

Just my .02 but I don't think this is by design at all, I think it is an unexpected byproduct of years and years of crappy code on top of more crappy code. At this point I don't think they have any idea how to fix any of this because they have no idea what effects what. It's too much of a mish mosh of original coding, patches, updates, attempted fixes, and who knows what else, all thrown together. I really believe the only way they will ever get any of this to work like it is supposed to is to start over from scratch. But we all know that isn't going to happen until they lose the stranglehold on the NFL license, because currently they are required to put the game out every year. As a result they will never devote the time and manpower required to rewrite the game. They would rather use those resources to add worthless "features" to the game so they can hype it for the new release. In the end that only compounds the coding issue which becomes more and more of a cluster.

# 35 fistofrage @ 11/06/14 02:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Last Gunfighter


	Just my .02 but I don't think this is by design at all, I think it is an unexpected byproduct of years and years of crappy code on top of more crappy code. At this point I don't think they have any idea how to fix any of this because they have no idea what effects what. It's too much of a mish mosh of original coding, patches, updates, attempted fixes, and who knows what else, all thrown together. I really believe the only way they will ever get any of this to work like it is supposed to is to start over from scratch. But we all know that isn't going to happen until they lose the stranglehold on the NFL license, because currently they are required to put the game out every year. As a result they will never devote the time and manpower required to rewrite the game. They would rather use those resources to add worthless "features" to the game so they can hype it for the new release. In the end that only compounds the coding issue which becomes more and more of a cluster.

I would agree with this statement. I bet the programmers don't even know what the sliders do. They probably have a good laugh at the people who spend hours trying to tweak the sliders because most of them are broken or have unintended consequences.

But they really just want people to jump online and play. Most online players are win at all costs so as long as they have nice uniforms to look at while they are trying to glitch the other players its all good. Don't need a silly penalty standing in the way of victory.

# 36 charter04 @ 11/06/14 03:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BadAssHskr


	picking up the snark, and realizing you missed the part where i stated "solid representaion of factual statistics." which wouldn't be hard to calculate over a given weekend, how many false starts there were this week among each team, and gather the average. a setting at 50% would garner you about � the average, where a setting at 100 would strive you toward in,around, or over the average. i assure you in certain situations, pass interference for the 6th time this game would boil your blood.

What? lol I was serious. I really would want the slider to be that sensitive. I'm not saying 1 would be 1 per game. I just mean that for every click the likeness would increase. If they gave us total control everyone could make it how ever they want. Not sure how you thought I was being Snarky?

# 37 BadAssHskr @ 11/06/14 03:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by charter04


	What? lol I was serious. I really would want the slider to be that sensitive. I'm not saying 1 would be 1 per game. I just mean that for every click the likeness would increase. If they gave us total control everyone could make it how ever they want. Not sure how you thought I was being Snarky?

LOL, you'll have to excuse me, i'm strapped with a harsh cold, i just mistook the statement is all.

:thumbs:

# 38 charter04 @ 11/06/14 03:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by roadman


	Fist, I tried to tell you in your thread, there isn't holding called in Madden 15 on LG, either. It's not NG VS LG for holding penalties. Madden 25 and before, there was holding penalties called on the slider 53 and above on LG. One thing is constant, some how, some way, holding has evaporated on Madden 15, on both generations.

I have seen holding called in Xbox1 Madden 15. I have seen it versus the cpu and in a user v user cfm game. It's very rare but, I have seen it.

# 39 HC0023 @ 11/06/14 03:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by charter04


	I have seen holding called in Xbox1 Madden 15. I have seen it versus the cpu and in a user v user cfm game. It's very rare but, I have seen it.

I was just doing coach mode and i tripped over the controller wire, And the Referee threw a flag and said PI on the PS4 1st down First PI i have seen all year

# 40 roadman @ 11/06/14 04:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by charter04


	I have seen holding called in Xbox1 Madden 15. I have seen it versus the cpu and in a user v user cfm game. It's very rare but, I have seen it.

Yeah, Charter, you are correct, I should have been a bit more clearer.

The holding calls are very rare compared to past Maddens, starting with 25.

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