More info on CPU Sliders (from EA)

[db56]

I'll admit, this is freakin scary, but I for one will give EA the benefit of the doubt as far as the game adapting to the user, maybe it will work and we will not longer need the cpu sliders, maybe.

[dtigers63]

Quote: Originally Posted by countryboy

Do I use sliders? Rarely. But to take something out of the game that: A) has been available for several years now B) allows the player to customize the game to his/her liking is never a good thing. Customization is always a good thing. Always.

Preach it Countryboy, preach it. There's no down side to making a game as flexable as possible (I'm alking human vs AI here).

[nxt]

Quote: Originally Posted by Exonerated

Spanky, Ian is well aware of catering to the casual, sim and madden nation crowd. They are trying to find a happy medium that will appeal to the largest audience. The current demographic of madden players are casuals, so thus madden caters to these guys the most. We'd all love to see a truly sim game, but that may alienate some of the casual fans? And why are people proclaiming the cpu ai and gameplay broken before playing it. Do 3 peoples impression really count for that much? Maybe the cpu is actually well coded?

This is why they need to make the game with as much customization (sliders) as possible so everyone can tune the game to their liking, and no one is alienated.

[callmetaternuts]

Just glad we are getting some info from Ian and the gang these days. Ian, any word on what prompted the decision to take out the CPU sliders? Do you guys ever tweak sliders when playing in the office or while testing? (just curious if you are all default guys or you tweak it to how you play)

[canes2008]

Good Job Ian. So it is all related to the IQ test right

[callmetaternuts]

Wonder if we can get a comment from Ian on playbooks (for 09, and 10). The playbooks appear to be the same as NCAA (and NCAA, each team essentially has pretty similar playbooks). Any chance that will be touched for either year? Is this just a demo thing?

Also, do teams run their real life offense? Will New England line up 4-5 wide alot, with the Jags running alot of power O? Any team specific sliders we can use (offensive and defensive tendencies?)

[Pared]

I think with all the questions you ask of them the EA devs have you on ignore, cmt.

[Dbrentonbuck]

Quote: Originally Posted by TheFuture15

To answer many of the previous posts along the line of "where do we go from here" - Phil and I both agree the best method will be more of a wait and see approach. If the lack of CPU tweaking ability (in those areas that have been talked about above like QB ACC and WR CTH) becomes a major issue that's hampering the gameplay experience, then we'll obviously look at addressing it in a patch. As a few people have stated in this thread (Nza for example), there is always the possibility that you all can still fully tweak the game to your liking. If people can still balance the experience with the "new-look" sliders, then obviously we probably won't patch it in - and probably just look to 2010 to add more tweaking & tuning functionality where possible. No way to know until people get some hands-on time with it... Just know that we want to gauge community reaction and make a decision based on that. You guys are very important in the decision that gets made, so once you get the game if you can provide as much feedback and proof with what you are seeing, that will help guide us in making changes if you all really feel they are needed. If you all get the game and are overall happy with it but just need some tweaks to AI here and there then those could be all we do for patch 2... That being said, we obviously don't want to just ignore 09 - we want to show all of you that we can keep making changes throughout the life of the product and that we're committed to delivering the best game we can for you all.

Ian,

Perhaps you could better explain this rationale to us. I have been very impressed with EA's willingness to listen to the hardcore gaming community this year by being a part of various message boards. It is nice to know that you are listening to us.

What I don't understand is why you would take something out of a game that allows for a greater amount of customization without infringing on those who are looking for a straight out of the box fun experience. I mean most causal players are probably not even aware that Madden has AI sliders, but they have always been there for the people who use them. It seems to me like this would be like a car company deciding to take the passenger seat out of their new model of cars and see if anyone misses them, and then if the public outcry is loud enough they will put them back in. The question which begs to be asked is why take them out in the first place.

I cannot imagine a meeting where one of the devs says, "hey let's remove and entire level of customization from this years game". So, how does a decision like that get made?

The other thing I do not understand is the wait and see approach. The problem with this is that if the outcry is loud to put sliders back in, we will have to wait months on a patch. If they would have just been left in to begin with, then you wouldn't have to spend man power, time and money to put them back in.

This is what is happening to NCAA football. It is going to be at least September at the earliest that the game is playable to most hardcore/sim style players. I bought this game in July. That means that at the very least, a quarter of this game's shelf life is spent wating on things to be fixed that should have never made it through testing to beging with. I just don't get that. This then rolls into 2010's development time as well.

I can remember the last time head coach came out, one of the devs in an interview said that they wanted to get all of the sliders and ratings (like the short, mid and long throw ratings) from that game into Madden. That never happened. Instead Madden is getting less customization.

I really don't understand why you wouldn't want to build a game that can be customized to fit anyone's taste period. There should be a slider for everything on this game and the sliders should go from one extreme to the other. Using the interception slider as an example: at 100, 9/10 passes should be picked off, while at 0 no passes should be picked off at all. That allows each indivdual consumer to get what they want from this game. I can't understand why you would not want that.

Is there a loud outcry from people with games like NBA 2k8 saying "This game is too customizable"?

[callmetaternuts]

Quote: Originally Posted by Pared

I think with all the questions you ask of them the EA devs have you on ignore, cmt.

Cant say i blame them, althought at least im civil! Just asking things that we all want to know. I dont have the game, have no hope of getting it early, and figure i might as well ask, they came here for a reason.


















I do have a question though........ j/k

[J-Unit40]

Quote: Originally Posted by callmetaternuts

Wonder if we can get a comment from Ian on playbooks (for 09, and 10). The playbooks appear to be the same as NCAA (and NCAA, each team essentially has pretty similar playbooks). Any chance that will be touched for either year? Is this just a demo thing? Also, do teams run their real life offense? Will New England line up 4-5 wide alot, with the Jags running alot of power O? Any team specific sliders we can use (offensive and defensive tendencies?)

I'm going to assume that the playbook for the demo is just a "demo thing". It's similar to what the NCAA demo was with playbooks.

I remember the playbook guru for Madden had a lot of new stuff for team specific playbooks. I'm looking for to it.