Joborule's Madden NFL 11 | Gameplay Part I

[Joborule]

Part I

Madden NFL 10 was the first Madden that I’ve enjoyed since I’ve played since Madden on the PS2. It had a lot of additions that the series sorely needed, each of which were meant to replicate the fundamental aspects of real life football. Quarterbacks finally have accuracy broken down in ranges, pocket formation, multi-man gang tackles were implemented, along with fight for the fumble, but the most important thing is that Madden was, and still is fun to play. Me playing Madden a month after the game release was unheard of for me a month after the game release on the current consoles. The NHL series from EA has taken a full on charge on being amongst the top sport series in present day while Madden was lacklustre.

This year the series seems to be back. But it still has a long way to go as there is still many fundamental football aspects not being replicated well enough in the game. Blocking AI is an issue, adaptive AI isn’t working properly, lack of frequent penalties, and kicking is still too easy once you get the hang of it within a couple hours. For Madden NFL 11, those need to be addressed along with other work done to the AI and new additions to the series...

Not enough Variety of Animations
The variety in animations need to be increased. Within three games you see the same break tackle animations when you truck stick, which is better for blocking engagements. There needs to be greater variety in tackles, break tackles, shoe string tackles, blocking animations, catching, ect.

Quarterback Play
The deep ball passes to the corners and posts for low deep ball rating quarterbacks could still have more variety in overthrown and/or off target throws. With Orton I can still fit deep post and corner route balls into tight zone coverage a bit too often.

There also seems to be a universal speed in bullet passes for quarterbacks as well. Jay Cutler passes on 30 yard fly routes have the same speed as a backup that has 75 Throw Power it seems. I don’t see enough difference between quarterbacks that have bullet arms compare to other quarterbacks that aren’t so powerful with their throws. This can cause quarterbacks to fit it into spots they probably wouldn’t be able to if their arm wasn’t so powerful.

Also, throwing on the run isn’t taking enough effect still. Being able to run to the sidelines, throw it to the middle of the field to a receiver while twisting your body when running is both too accurate and too much velocity in the ball for quarterbacks that aren’t QBs that aren’t great at throwing while running.

As a last note the quarterback awareness rating seem to take effect a bit on the hit in accuracy when pressured in the pocket. A full Pocket Pressure rating should be created to replicate how well quarterbacks accuracy and vision for the CPU is handled when the heat is on.

Interceptions Difficulty
Player catching ability seems to not take enough interest in ball velocity along with their catch ability. There are a few too many times that a defender could make the easiest pick in the world since the ball is going at low velocity and at a catchable angle, yet the player just drops it. Those lame ducks throws and tipped passes need to be a final prayer for the quarterbacks because a defender having a good chance at those should almost always be an automatic pick.

But at the same time, interception guarantee shouldn’t be always the case for these defenders. They should still be able to drop the ball after making the initial grab on the ball. Just like how receivers can get hit and end up dropping the ball when they made the initial catch at first, defenders should have interceptions become incompletion because they couldn’t retain control of the ball.

Pro-Tak & Physics
The Pro-Tak is great, but the break gang tackle and general tackles need a serious need of physics/momentum. It’s flat out ridiculous that a speed or small sized back breaking a 5 or more man gang tackle isn’t uncommon. Those breakouts should basically be exclusive to only big backs and even then they should be fairly rare and be uncommon. Small elusive backs should break any gang tackles much as it is. So generally, broken gang tackles need to be toned way down. Size, momentum, and player need be a bigger role in how much of a battle these players can put to break out of tackles and gang tackles. A smaller back should more times than not get pushed back by a big strong defender.

What Pro-Tak really needs, which would hopefully end the broken gang tackles issue is the defenders need more finish in their tackles. When a back is held up and a defender is head on he should come in to clean house if he has the strength and power to do so. This won’t give much of a chance for the ball carrier to break the tackles since he will be heading down already right at impact.

Other tweaks to tackles which should be added are jersey pull down animations. In a lot of chases, the defenders may grab on to the jerseys to pull the ball carrier in to them and/or bring them down. This is where we see jerseys get stuck underneath shoulder pads which would be cool to see in Madden. Popped helmets should make a return when you get the right pop and hit stick on higher levels should have NO SUCTION assist. If players want to hit stick left right and center, they have to aim precisely and at right timing in order to make a hit stick attempt. Still too easy to get big hits on the run without whiffing or bouncing off the ball carrier because of the assist.

General CPU AI (And Teammates CPU AI)
While I was doing some tests on the effectiveness on flats against man coverage, I’ve notice that the AI generally gets fooled the same way majority of the time to always. It seems that the ratings don’t really vary in the actions the player has for his AI. Meaning if someone is average man coverage, there’s a chance he’ll get fooled the same way time after time. Adaptive AI needs to work in order to fix this, but also the AI has to be less predictable and work better on the fly. Just because I call a 2 man under for the first play of the game against a RB Flat, doesn’t mean that my linebacker is going to get tricked inside each and every game when that play is called whether it’s the first time, or another time.

Possibly the best work to AI in this series would be to have teamwork and situational AI be a major focus so the actions players take will depend on player positioning, their teammates and opposition player(s) positioning, and the situation of the game. There needs to be situational AI that will be more aggressive at going for the pick when they’re in great need of a turnover late in the game. AI that will have 3 players covering one work together to defend the player and get a pick if possible by having one defend the player inside, the other outside, and one that can look for the pick if he’s in position for the pick. AI that will have the player be more aggressive at making the catch when covered in the times the game is on the line.

Matchup AI should also be in place for coverage defense or run pursuit so that the players on both sides of the ball play accordingly to their player and opposition ability. So if it’s a fast receiver the defender may play more closely in bumping to stick to them. If a tall receiver is against a short defender, the receiver will be more aggressive in going after the ball in the air, and the quarterback will look to throw high. For run pursuit, ball carrier is slow so the AI takes a more aggressive angle to cut them off if they can outrun them from the angle they’re at. If it’s a fast ball carrier with a number a defenders in the chase, they can work together to contain the runner from multiple angles so they don’t have to be over conservative. Even implement AI that may be more conservative in making dangerous actions that could risk their body for starters in pre-season or late season games that don’t mean much for their playoff positioning.

Smart enough adaptive AI that recognizes where players are on the field, and the situation of the game, and its impact for the season if applicable. Players going out of bounce in the final minutes of the half/game are the sign of this. Continue to build on it.

On the play calling front, it needs adaptive AI working because when I can call the same play for the whole entire game passing into the flats only and the defense shows no adjustments in stopping it, that’s a problem. When the odd times it did call zone, it was successful in stopping it, but didn’t stick with it. The only times that it stuck with it was in the final minutes of the game when they were defending their small lead. (Interceptions occurred that help bring them back) Play calling AI needs to start on a gameplan in which calls plays it will initially like to make, but adjust on the fly as well if they’ve found a strength or weakness to adapt on. If they’ve had the ambition of blitzing but that isn’t working where passive zone is, pick more passive zone plays since that’s being more successful.

Timeouts also could use improvement. Seems to only use timeouts at certain times on the clock rather than where their field position is, the energy of the players, and the amounts they have left that they can use up in the final two minutes of the half/game.

Human Kicking Accuracy & Power Tweaks
Kicking needs to have perfect angle from pull back to push up on the right stick once we reach All-Pro levels. If you pull back off center from the angle, that will hurt your accuracy even if you have perfect angle on the push forward. Also if you aiming on a angle, it needs to be center of the angle to represent 100% accuracy user wise, because it’s still too easy to move the kick aim to the left or right, but just pull the R stick back and forth in the middle and get accurate kicks through the uprights.

Why I said 100% accuracy user wise is because it can still be simple for a user to get center kicks perfect on accuracy even if the kicker has low accuracy. Just because with a QB we press the button of the receiver doesn’t mean the accuracy is going to be 100% each time. The same concept has to be incorporated for the kickers. Just because user aimed perfectly, there is still that margin of error for the kicker himself to have his accuracy a bit off. Although that the user gets perfect accuracy straight down the middle, there is the stand of inconsistency with the kicker that the kick may move to the left or right a bit. The effect of how much they can move off target would depend on kicker accuracy. This mean if we have a below average accuracy kicker that kick should waive off to the right and don’t even have a chance. Maybe save those for the odd times on really terrible accuracy ratings.

The same thing should be done for kicker power. Users can fairly get the kicking power down to pat easily. If the CPU power isn’t that great, there can be inconsistency in how well he kicks the ball, which could also be effected by the pull back accuracy on the R stick. One final factor that could make kicking more difficult yet realistic for the user is the speed of the power charge up could vary. Normally it will go fairly quick and wouldn’t go any slower the norm. But sometimes the speed could go extremely fast.

The times that the kick power may go extremely fast most often may be in pressure situations. Game winning kick in their leg, but the kicker may not have great poise and may be a bit nervous about the situation. It would make those kicks all more difficult and rewarding for the user if they pull them off successfully. These faster charge ups on kicks should happen at random points (but lower average frequency) too keep the user honest.

The changes for the kicking game would cause the users to be more accurate on the stick movement, as well paying attention to how fast the power meter is going. Both of these factors will lead to users making errors in accuracy and power at times. If the meter is going fast, they may push the stick up at a off angle that could lead to a missed kicked. If they pull back off center, it will affect both accuracy and power. Even if they are perfect in their mechanic, they still have to trust the kicker to pull through for them because they may be off in there accuracy and power still. This will develop player trust with their kicker ability and may hold off on 50 yarders more often and truly giving definition between elite kickers and average kickers.

Penalties Frequency and Additions
There is not enough frequency in many of the penalty calls. While there is a fair amount of holding calls, and false starts do get called time to time, there is never any offside/encroachment, pass interference (this probably tied to lack of jostling downfield) along with the lack of penalty calls which do happen a fair bit in real life. Defensive holding, ineligible receiver when ball hits the linemen, and linemen downfield as well Illegal formation and others should be penalties in the game. Don’t hold back our freedom from making football mistakes. Users will learn quickly what makes a legal formation and make them pay attention more. After all, everything you see on Sunday, see it in Madden NFL right?

WR/DB Interactions & AI
One of the new features for the game this year was the receiver and defender jostling down the field. It included the positioning battles that the two players would do while running down the field and the ball is in the air. However it’s not really present in this game after the initial bump and run because the animations don’t trigger enough, especially for lob ups where the players are meant to go up there and get it.

The jostling animations need to more present during the routes and in cases where a ball is thrown to a spot and the two players fight for position on the ball. This will lead to pass interference getting called more often which happen pretty much never. Along with the jostling when the ball is in the air, the players need to be more aggressive at attacking the ball.

The receivers need to get there jump game going more often and outplay the defender on these throws. If the ball is coming and a defender is on him, there should be no reason that the defender played on the ball more aggressively then the receiver therefore leading to interceptions. This is extremely present on curl routes where the receiver will just stand there instead of run towards the ball since a man is right on top of him. This is what makes elite receivers like Moss and Fitzgerald so dangerous. They’ve got the height, and leaping ability to go attack the ball at a point the defender can’t touch it if throw good and high. In general the receiver AI could do a better job on knowing how to play a ball depending on how open or covered they are. There is quite the number of diving catches into the endzone when it wasn’t necessary.

While receiver should be more aggressive at getting to the balls, they have to be more oblivious to balls thrown too early and are off target. We need to see more balls just flying by receivers because they were thrown way to early before the receiver would look back to see the ball. Let’s see receivers continue to run the post when the ball may have been thrown like a corner route.

The receiver AI has to be more aggressive, but the defensive AI has to be more aware itself. There are times when the defender is in perfect position to make a play on the ball, and they actually do nothing but just stand and watch. The ball could even hit them, and they don’t even put their hands up. It needs to be more aware of where the ball is, get to those tipped balls rather then not even make much of an effort, and catch the easy picks more often as well. Too many times they may drop a very low velocity ball that they’ve had time to react to.

The pass defense AI is in great need of situational awareness mostly. Depending on the game situation (score, time left, need of turnover) and the players positioning, it need to have incorporated an aggressive/conservative AI and teamwork AI. AI that will go for picks more aggressively when they need the ball, or AI that will knock the ball down on a 4th down instead of taking the risk of the pick. AI that will work together that one defender will take on the receiver to prevent him from catching the ball, and the other that could be aware to catch the ball for an interception if possible. AI in man coverage that will break off their man to the target spot of the ball if they can make a break to it instead of running past the ball target spot when they’ve had plenty of time to react. Generally, it’s AI that thinks on the fly and acts accordingly to their teammates positioning, opposition players positioning, and the situation of the game.

Locomotion/Running Animations & Physics
Looking at the running animation, two things I notice that needs work on. One is that the animations need to feel a bit more relaxed and less robotic in run animations. Differences between smaller guys and bigger guys could show variety in how they run as well.

The second thing, which is extremely needed, is acceleration and declaration run animations from any running animation point. I notice that there are only two sets of running animations, light run speed, and full sprint speed. There is no transitional animation from light run speed to sprint speed. This shows a lack of running momentum for runners and makes them look so stiff since you don’t actually see the runner getting faster or slower. This is probably causing some issues in the game in terms of blitzing, players in control running around the place and then going headline to the ball carrier or avoiding blocks, missed blocks in general, and receiver cuts on normal game speed. There needs to be speed transition animations from any speed point whether that’s from player at stop point, from and to 20% percent run effort, 75%, and full sprint effort along with from and to cuts, jukes, spins, huddles, ect. Off balanced running should be incorporated into the running animations more as well.

The most important thing with the acceleration/declaration for running and jukes is that momentum matters in how sharp of a angle a player can cut or how effective the truck stick can be or how fast a player can gain acceleration or if a player can even stay balanced. Players can fight to stay balanced sometimes while running after making a cut, getting hit, on the sidelines (which need to have players go out of bounce sometimes still) and making the catch and running. I don’t think there is enough slip ups for the players on the field when they’re making too many cuts or trying to sprint to quickly.

Granted with all this work the linemen shouldn’t be forgotten and momentum needs to play a role in how players fire out of their stance. We need to see explosion out of their stance to where they want to go, and that they can’t stop on the flat dime anymore like it’s Super Mario World can on the SENS. I was actually looking at the linemen come out for the pulls and there is no lick of acceleration of the run out of the stance. He turned on the dime, and was gone right away like he’s on a surface with no friction. This will hopefully lead to offside calls by the users themselves because they would over commit and have a period of lost balance to have them offside for a bit or to explode into the linemen. For false starts same thing, lets actually see them hit the linemen sometimes instead of just being flinches only. Linemen need work on initial animations when the snap is done but the engagement battles need refinement as well...

OL/DL/Engagement Interaction
The OL/DL Interaction, or rather engagement battles in general is way to tame and lifeless. It doesn’t represent the hand and strength battle all that well and it looks like it’s a bunch of elementary school kids doing patty cake then 300 pound linemen going at it. Plain and simple, the battles need to feel much more organic and powerful in attacks. The initial impact need force put into them and the animations during the battle need more body movement put into them. We should see the helmets are being bashed into each other; players are working to get lower, arms battles ongoing, players are pushing, holding, and defenders trying to swim, true bulrushes occurring.

The truck stick animation in the broken tackle attempts actually look like it could be an engagement battle at initial contact down the field. It has the organic field that the players are truly battling and that some steer-ability could occur.

Animation of current need more going on in them, however there is a lack of blocking animation in some cases which may be leading to the weak blocking AI. If a player is attacking at an angle, it seems linemen aren’t able to connect blocks or block attempts on them. It seems like the linemen have to be completely square on the defender for a block animation to occur. Anything that is like a side angle will leave the defender free. No wonder linebackers or defensive linemen are getting tackles in the behind the line of scrimmage so easily because they aren’t even getting touched. This is why users love to run around in circles to avoid blocks because if they can get the right angle they’ll just run right pass the blockers.

This same issue could probably explain why double team blocks aren’t occurring enough because they aren’t connecting enough. You can tell the AI may have the intentions, but the animations don’t occur and then they head off elsewhere.

The engagement animations need two things done for them in Madden 11. Refinement on making the engagements look like battles and feel organic, and work on making side angles animations occur.

Blocking AI
The run blocking AI isn’t that great at getting to their intended target when they aren’t right on top of them. They show they may have the intentions of going to the defender, but then they decide to switch off to another target (which may not even be in the direction of where the ball carrier is going), or don’t actually go and attack the defender and seem hesitant in getting to them. This leads to the defender moving towards the ball carrier without much of a disturbance. And if the linemen does happen to miss the linebacker he’s going after because they ran towards the running back in an inside run, they actually try to go back to try and catch up to him to block him! If you’re going to miss your target, you’re better off heading off to the next one nearby going forward. This is what can make outside runs, in particular plays with guard pulling, stretch plays and pitches much more difficult against 3-4 defense because the linemen that is suppose to go and attacking them aren’t doing their job. I’ve notice on guard pulls that when they are trying to get the outside defender (notably, the OLB in a 3-4 set), they don’t take the right pursuit in getting to the man that may be in motion towards the ball carrier already. On very slow game speed, the guards are better at getting to this same player. Something is happening on these higher speeds that cause linemen to do odd actions during the play that prevents them from getting to their target properly. On very slow game speed, linemen are generally well at getting to their target.

The blocking AI has problems with dealing with players that are on an angle. Defenders that move at an angled rush and not head on to the linemen can actually avoid getting blocked because there don’t appear to be side angle blocking animations in play in this game. If they in effect, it may actually be a major fix for the blocking issues. It would make stretch plays and zone blocking be all that much more effective and trustworthy of using. Beyond the line of scrimmage, it would also cause user players that try to avoid getting blocked out in the open field to get driven off towards the side.

But the AI needs to be more aggressive with is double team blocking. If this was the case, quarters defense would not be able to handle stopping the run at the LOS with only the linemen doing the work. When you can still pull out a quarters defense with heavy pass defense play selected, but let the linemen handle stopping the run. Why aren’t these players being double team? Heck, that’s what makes the 3-4 effective. The linemen are suppose to demand double team so the linebackers will have more room and time.

Once we get away from the line of scrimmage, downfield blocking logic needs work. The overall idea should be to block the path the running back should be going to; unless they see the running back go off elsewhere on some cutback. But they shouldn’t have their blocking be tied to what moves the ball carrier is doing, but creating a protective path for the ball carrier. So if a player finds themselves way downfield with no one around, and the ball carrier is running for his life, the player should be asking himself what is he doing all the way down there? Blockers need to be around the ball carrier as escorts to be able to pick off players in pursuit. If they ever find themselves ahead of the ball carrier with no opponent ahead, come back to pick off players in pursuit. The only time they should be able to run freely with no one to hit is when they are gone for daylight and nobody is close.

[Hova57]

its going to sound a little arcady , but there should be a little bar or half circle under the qbs ,wr rbs and defense that would be your speed burst meter as the game goes on it goes down with your fatigue.

[Articula]

Absolutely enjoyed the read Jobo - I hope the devs take a look at this.

[TheCreep]

That was a good read man. Get to the devs with that. I'm surprised that Ian isn't here now ya know. Hasn't development on 11 already started?

These are exactly the types of post we need. Pointing out the deficiencies oh so tactfully. This board needs to be cleaned up in my opinion so that the devs dont have to sift through the haters/fanboys to get to the real feedback ya know.

As a matter a fact, you folks think it would be a good idea to have a certain section exclusive to the devs and ONLY OS members with certain criteria?

For the simple fact that haters/fanboys can drive the devs out of here, and we dont need that.

[likesbacon]

Agreed on all points. And to add to it:

Use of arms for defenders needs to be able to strech out of the animation and reach for objects. Like when a ball carrier is running by a defender who is locked up, this could end the suction tackles. Blocking could benefit to from this, like if a blocker is trying a last gasp attempt at a free defender, he can attempt to at least knock him off his run as he blows by.

[TheWatcher]

You've got some serious stuff here Joborule (I like that graphic heading you're starting off with, too).

About Locomotion... I heard something about FIFA's locomotion being used for '11. I can't wait to see how that turns out.

[JohnnyNutman]

another great post.

penalties do need to be tweaked. i know we have sliders, but those should only be needed when u want to get it perfectly suited to ur playing style. the default sliders should still be fairly accurate.

CPU AI needs alot of work as well. i think the thing that would help the most is if coaches styles play a bigger factor. the pats should go for it more on 4th for example. since its a video game we shouldnt expect people to run 50-60 unique plays a game, but u shouldnt be able to succeed with the same 5-10.

the biggest issue for OL is that u should be able to "spotlight" blitzers. they could expand this by letting u chose when to show blitz on defense etc. the overall blocking system this year - while not perfect - is still rpetty good imo.

i think the number of animations should continue to grow every year. the same goes with cutscenes & commentary lines. if they keep making additions to those areas it will help it keep fresh year after year.

custom packages should return as well