EA Conference Call With Sean Bailey, Lead Designer - Gamplay

[therizing02]

Quote: Originally Posted by Undefeated

Defense calling their plays based on down and distance isn't a bad strategy. I tend to do the same thing. What's the complaint, exactly? And if anything, I seem to remember countless times in which the CPU's defense was more appropriate than not. Does anyone truly remember seeing a 4-4 or something against your five-wide just because it was a 3rd and 1? I don't. No adaptive AI pretty much blows, but only because we're all hoping to see it. It's not like it was there before and now it's gone. All in all there's some disappointing stuff here, but is any of it really anything we didn't already know or at least suspect? It's much more of an "oh well" kind of thing than it is a "OMFG this sucks!" kind of thing.

Yeah. You're right. It seems like every time I go 4 or 5 wide they seem to have at least 5 dbs. When I go BIG, they stack the line. It does seem to match up.

The fact that they acknowledge that adaptive AI was on current gen and not next gen is frustrating.

[Dbrentonbuck]

Quote: Originally Posted by Undefeated

Oh that's right. Still, though, that's not what we're looking for either. Adaptive AI, to me, means that the CPU should be "searching" for ways to stop what you're trying to do, strategically, more generally. Getting a ratings boost isn't exactly "adaptive" either in the sense we mean.

I 100% agree with you. It is not the ideal AI, but the fact that it is better on XBOX and PS2 than it is on 360 and PS3 is beyond my ability to comprehend. Even the smart weapon used on Madden is better than nothing . . . it still tries to punish you for calling the same plays over and over by letting the D know your play. To come right out and say "Yeah you can call the same play all game long and our AI will not know it at all" is stunning.

[stewaat]

Quote: Originally Posted by rudyjuly2

I think you guys are focusing on the negative too much. Sure there are a lot of things that we would like to have in the game (myself included) but that doesn't mean it won't be improved or fun at the same time. Most guys that have played it really liked the game this year with some saying its the best title since '04. Just take a deep breath and in less than a week we will all see for ourselves. I was underwhelmed by the demo but really want to play the retail version where I can get rid of the lousy controller mapping, change the difficulty and sliders as well as play longer than 2 minutes a quarter.

I agree to a certain extent. I got the game last year and played the heck out of it, but hearing "Year of the kick return" makes me SMH. I have no doubt the game will play find this year and I'll be playing several dynasty seasons but I am disappointed in hearing some of these answers.

[edubbs]

Quote: Originally Posted by stewaat

but hearing "Year of the kick return" makes me SMH.

Did I miss something? Everyone is saying the returns are broken in the Final version but, the return game is fine in the Demo.

What did EA do programming wise to screw up the returns for the final build?

This is ridiculous, they should have just left the return game the way it was in the Demo.

SMH........

[fistofrage]

Quote: Originally Posted by stewaat

I agree to a certain extent. I got the game last year and played the heck out of it, but hearing "Year of the kick return" makes me SMH. I have no doubt the game will play find this year and I'll be playing several dynasty seasons but I am disappointed in hearing some of these answers.

Year of the Kick-off return just made me throw up a little bit. Get ready for the swarm of bees chasing your guy as you take it to the house. Throw in the Speed Boost turbo backpack 5000 for guys with 99 speed and I would imagine that you'll look like the road runner ***Meep Meep, Zip, Bang*** taking it to the house every time with your 99 speed return man.

The speed thing irks me because NCAA football treats speed like the gold standard. Its not the case, speed is great but without football sense, it doesn't do you a whole lot of good. There needs to be more to the game than just getting a speed guy around the corner and watch him take it to the house. There needs to be a cutting ability, football IQ, and other ratings as well.

[MacPlex]

To a point but every football coach in the nation will agree speed kills

[fistofrage]

Quote: Originally Posted by MacPlex

To a point but every football coach in the nation will agree speed kills

I know but if speed was the only factor like it can be in NCAA, then Carl Lewis would have the NFL rushing record. Its just too easy to get a speed guy to the corner in NCAA because the only factor is speed.

[MacPlex]

The kick-offs were changed for the worse. When a guy returned a bunch of kicks at community day(the build was closer to the demo) What happens in the demo is the coverage team converges too early leaving the out side open.( IMO this was the lesser evil as I have only returned 2 kicks out of like 40.) To fix this EA seemed to make the coverage team stay in their lanes too long Which opens up a plethora of lanes. Im hoping you can adjust the kickoff distance to make this perfect.
The problem on the punts comes from the gunners not getting down field and the coverage team not shedding their blocks to get down field. It would have been nice to see the new punt formations in the game to alleviate this.

[TarHeelPhenom]

In regards to the computer playcalling and playbook tendencies not changing despite personnel changes...we can always go in and give the team a new playbook to match their personnel. Of course we shouldn't have to do it ourselves.

[jfsolo]

Quote: Originally Posted by russell05

I disagree 150% Sean Bailey is about as hardcore as it gets. But cats like him don't get to make the last call. When we talked about the lack of pass rush in human vs. human games agaisnt spread offenses. He gave us those answers with a frown on his face. "Yeah its part of the wide open game play theme this year" You could tell he wasn't to happy about it at all just ask Rhombic or CDJ they where standing right next to me when we had that conversation. This was for NCAA though for Madden is was different if we found something wrong with the game he was more than willing to fix it. (Case in point they fixed the yellow zones in Madden )Had we been able to make that trip to Tiburon about two weeks earlier who things may be different. We continue to forget that guys like Sean, OMT, Ben, Phil and Ian have someone looking over their shoulder wearing a suit every year.

I hear what you're saying, and don't doubt it for a second. All of us here know that they have to listen to Vice President Profit Margin and such, but its a really tough pill to swallow realizing that its even worse than we imagined.

Being given a mandate to keep the A.I. dumb-downed or artificially inept is not something I will ever be able to get my head around.